The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1918-11-23

had placed on such buildings A clas-
steal sentence met the eyes OF the
boys and girls confined in the
reformatory which formed part of
the great Hospital S. Michele in
Rome. 1t read: 1T is of little advan-
tage to restrain the bad by punish
ment. unless you render them good
by discipline" The British prison
reformer John Howard, who quotes
this sentence in his famous work on
The State of Prisons in England and
Wales" ETC., 0770 calls it admir-
able" and says that it expresses the
grand purpose of all civil policy rela-
tive to criminals n. H. julius, a
noted criminologist, terms this maxim
one of the most remarkable he has
seen anywhere.
Equally appropriate and significant
is the inscription, which Pope Clement
vi, the founder of this institution
G704). had craven over the entrance
and which read: Pope Clement XI
Supreme Pontiff; For the correction
Of prof1igate youth; that they, who
when idle, We're injurious, when in
structed, might be useful to the State .
Pope Innocent X, who built the
Great Prison" in Rome in 1866, also
had suitable legend inscribed over
it's entrance, saying: To Justice
and Clemency For the more secure
| and better custody of criminals, Pope
| Innocent X erected this new prison"
Thus the purpose of these institu-
| tons was clearly stated in these in
| scriptions Pope Clement XII like
wise stated the character of an addi-
| ton which he had built, in 1875, to
! the Hospital S. Michele in Rome, in
these words: For restraining the
| Righteousness and furnishing the
| crimes of women" But besides the
purpose, such inscriptions frequently
also voiced a prayer, an admonition
| or a warning. In Rome, near San An
gelo, the cemetery for executed
| criminals was kept by the members
| of the Confraternita della Misericor-
| dia, to which only mobiles belonged,
| who devoted themselves to the care
! of men, condemned to death, accom-
| panied them to the gallowS and
buried their bodies. On one of the
slabs under which the bodies were in
! tered one could read the prayer: 80
Lord, when thou shalt come to Judge,
| do not condemn us" In Florence,
over the entrance to the prison Della
| Stinche,' the words were engraVen:
1 $40 hoh r.,
| be merciful" In Naples, in the Hos.
| pital of the Benfratelli, or Brothers
| of st. John OF God, the following quo
| tation could be seen on one of the
| walls of the patients dining-room
Il was hungry, and we gave me meat,
etc. (Math. XIV, 1886. And in
| Genoa the boys and girls confined
| for correction in the Albergo Hos
| pital, had constantly before their eyes
| the words: SILENCE and Obedience,
certainly a helpful admonition.
Such was the language Of inscrip
tons in that country at that time
clear, precise, appropriate. But the
inscriptions do not only convey their
own message; some of them tell us
today that the idea of punishment OF
eviI-doing for the sake of reform, the
principle of correction rather than OF
mere punishment, and the tempering
of justice with mercy,-that this ides
is by no means a modern innovation
as some leaders of the philanthropic
movement would have US believe. II
is to be hoped that the Catholic view
on corrective punishment be more
generally understood; it would like
wise be desirable that the forgotten
art of epigrammatic inscription writ
ing be revived. But both these devel
opments presuppose return from
the superficial thought of the age to {
more serious attitude of mind. AnC
such a reversion seems scarcely prob
able at this time.