Chapter XIV

Papal revenues--Public opinion--Discontents--Cold of Rome--St. John
Lateran--St. Peter’s--St. Peter’s chair--Windows--Cardinal Weld--
English diplomacy--Neapolitan constitution--Austrian ascendancy--
British minister at Rome--The Sistine chapel--Spanish monk--
Vespers--The Roman hills.

It is agreed, I believe, on all hands, that Gregory XVI. is as much distinguished for his cheerful temper, his amiable disposition, his simplicity in his mode of living, as for his great learning and unaffected piety. He is, moreover, a munificent patron of the arts, as far as the limited means at his command enable him to be; anxiously attentive to the interests of his subjects; alive to every practicable enterprize that can be rendered conducive to their prosperity, and merciful, perhaps to an extreme, as a Christian prelate ought to be, in the administration of justice. Indeed, when I considered the very scanty revenues of the Roman sovereignty, and looked around at the magnificent churches, the unrivalled collections of works of art, the edifices in which these are preserved, and the noble institutions with which modern Rome abounds in all quarters, I felt bound to admit, that throughout my journey I had observed no other country in which the public money had been laid out so much to the public advantage.

♦ PAPAL REVENUES ♦

No tax has been levied on the community that is not still represented by some memorial of the uses to which it has been applied--a temple--a new gallery in the Vatican--an ancient arch saved from destruction--statues of the most perfect workmanship disinterred from oblivion--an aqueduct repaired--a Colosseum almost restored--marshes drained and cultivated--roads infinitely superior to the Flavian or Appian Ways constructed or renewed. So carefully have the remains of Imperial Rome been guarded by the same hands which have raised the finest Christian edifices in the world, that the stranger who goes to Rome for the first time is doubtful which he must the more admire--the Rome of the Cæsars, or the Rome of the Pontiffs. Of this I am perfectly convinced, that if the mistress of the ancient world had fallen into the hands of the common order of sovereigns, who had luxurious courts to pamper, and costly wars to sustain, and large families to establish, neither the Vatican, nor St. Peter’s, would have ever existed, Michael Angelo would have lived in vain, and the Raphaels and the Titians would have died like those “mute inglorious Miltons,” upon whose names the lights of immortality had never shone. Rome would have been at this day as fatal to health, as unsightly in its ruinous streets as Stamboul--probably as desolate as Athens or Palmyra. The Popes can give a good account, both individually and collectively, of their stewardship--“_Si monumenta quæris, circumspice._”

♦ PUBLIC OPINION ♦

Sooner or later, however, difficulties will arise with respect to the civil administration of the Roman states, of which I am not at all insensible. A tide of enlightened, steady, public opinion is undoubtedly arising throughout the whole of Italy, which is unfriendly--and, I must add, justly so--to a system of government, which is carried on chiefly through the agency of ecclesiastical persons. The substitution of spiritual legations for temporal delegations of authority, of a theocracy for that which ought to be a purely secular combination of functions, cannot long survive the day at which we are now arrived. The papal power is not, and ought not to be, strong enough to contend against the revolution which is approaching in this respect. Even as matters now stand, the Holy Father requires the constant assistance of Austria in order to maintain his ascendancy. And as France will not permit Austrian interference alone, the former seems resolved to garrison Ancona as long as the latter chooses to retain possession of Bologna. This state of things cannot be permanent.

♦ DISCONTENTS ♦

It is very well-understood, that the discontented of the Roman states do not desire to withdraw themselves from the temporal dominion of the Pope. If they did, they well know that they must immediately fall under the yoke either of France or Austria, for the idea of an Italian republic in the present state of Europe is the vision of a school-boy. What they really seek for, what it is most their interest to solicit in a peaceable manner, and to secure in a lasting form, is a constitutional system of government, carried on by lay functionaries, and presided over by the Pope, as prince of the Roman states, and not as bishop of the see of Rome. It is necessary for all parties that this question should be speedily settled, the more especially as the apparent tranquillity of Lombardy is but the repose of the volcano. The ingredients are gathering within the womb of time which must soon be ignited, and find relief in explosion, at a moment, perhaps, when such an event may be the least expected. Prince Metternich must be conscious that his imperial master holds northern Italy by a species of tenure which a war in any part of Europe might efface in a moment. History exhibits few instances of domination more unnatural than that of the Austrians in Italy; they hold it by no moral tie whatever; they retain it simply by the pressure of physical force, which must at no distant hour give way before the greater force of mind, already rendering itself manifest in that quarter.

♦ COLD OF ROME ♦

The cold of Rome during the fortnight I spent there was remarkably severe. During two or three of the hours after mid-day, wherever the influence of the sun was felt, it was as warm as our spring; but the rest of the day and night was a Siberian winter, rendered the less tolerable, inasmuch as the good folks who built most of the houses of the capital seem to have formed their plans universally in the summer, and to have totally forgotten that such a season as winter ever entered into the composition of a Roman year. In very few chambers is a fire-place to be met with; and where there is one, it happens to be so large that it admits currents of air sufficient to freeze the very soul.

♦ ST. JOHN LATERAN ♦

Nevertheless, my time passed away with amazing rapidity. After spending a day or two in roving over the Pincian and Quirinal hills, along the banks of the still “yellow” Tiber, and in the haunts of the great men of other days, I made the round of the churches, of which St. John Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore, are, I believe, after St. Peter’s, the most splendid. The embellishments of the former are indeed upon a most magnificent scale: its ancient ecclesiastical curiosities are preserved with great care, especially the table on which the “last supper” is said to have been celebrated. In the Corsini chapel, which is a very elegant structure, besides the monuments of the family, there is a most superb sarcophagus of porphyri, supposed to have been that of Agrippa, which was found in the Pantheon. Near St. John Lateran there are several objects well worth examination. Returning from that quarter, I visited the triumphal arch of Constantine, and the Colosseum, and the Forum of Trajan--and thus exhausted a day noted in my calendar as one of the most delightful I have ever known.

♦ ST. PETER’S ♦

I usually devoted my mornings either to the Colosseum or St. Peter’s, and remarked that I was enabled to appreciate the former the first moment I entered it; but that every time I passed the porch of the latter, it seemed to disclose new features of grandeur which I had not observed before. When I first entered that spacious area I was much dissatisfied, not with the edifice, but with myself. I saw plainly before me all the combinations of transcendant genius and skill and taste, which could possibly be brought together for the execution of the most perfect monument of art ever exhibited to human contemplation. But I had come almost fresh from the Parthenon, the beauty of which, like that of an antique medal, or of a sun-bright female countenance, I comprehended the instant I beheld it; whereas, when I found myself within St. Peter’s, all was so vast, and yet so harmonious, that my mind could fix no focus for itself within which the flood of light around me could be concentrated for the formation of a picture.

But I discovered that this defect became less sensible, when by frequent observation I made myself more conversant with the details of this majestic structure; that I attained in particular positions points of sight at which the individual features came out in all their designed effect, and that thus, step by step, I mounted the airy scale leading to the dome, upon which, like that of the traveller from Beersheba, the wrapt imagination might behold “the angels of God ascending and descending.” The perfect order in which every thing is kept throughout the temple, the delicate cleanliness of the altars and their ornaments, the beauty of the paintings, the colossal grandeur of the statues, the silence and decorum observed by those who attend the everyday services, are all parts of one great whole. All thoughts are hushed within that heavenly sanctuary, save those which belong to religion--to eternity!

♦ ST. PETER’S CHAIR ♦

The monument of Paul III. is perhaps the only object which a severe taste would wish to see removed from St. Peter’s. In any secular edifice it would be less liable to criticism. It is distinguished by those two celebrated statues to which I have already alluded, of Justice, represented as a girl of enchanting beauty, and of Prudence, personated by an old woman of the most repulsive ugliness. Such was the fascination excited in minds not accustomed to the contemplation of beauty as the perfection of ideal models, by the marvellous contrast between the two figures, that it was found absolutely necessary to conceal the form of Justice in a vest of bronze. In consequence of this alteration, the completeness of the contrast is injured, and the monument has now assumed a tendency towards caricature, or conceit, not fitting to be seen in such a place. But under any circumstances, a work that exhibits Prudence in the shape of deformity--one of the first of virtues under the least engaging aspect--seemed to me, I must confess, rather out of place in a christian cathedral.

Neither could I prevail upon myself to admire the figure of St. Peter seated in the chair which is said to have belonged originally to the Apostle himself. The scepticism of Lady Morgan on this point called forth a very ingenious _brochure_ from the pen of my friend Dr. Wiseman, the president of the English college at Rome, which certainly does present very plausible grounds for the belief of those persons who are anxious to cling to the traditions respecting that relic of the olden times. Even if my friend, whose learning may be said to be truly catholic, for it is universal, were right in all his conclusions, they would not prevent me from wishing to see that monument transferred as a curiosity to the Vatican, rather than presented amidst so many _altars_ to the veneration of the people.

♦ WINDOWS ♦

I hardly know what to set down as the result of my first feeling of disappointment in not having found any painted windows, or, indeed, any thing that could be deemed a window at all in St. Peter’s. I am aware that these are essentially Gothic ornaments, and that, therefore, I ought not to have expected to find them in an edifice from the plan of which the Gothic order has been entirely excluded. It must, I think, be admitted that the unchequered plainness of the glass, and the diminutive size of the windows, must be altogether overlooked by those who would wish to keep in their recollection impressions worthy of the sublime temple itself. This circumstance demonstrates that an imperfection lurks in that part of the design which still requires revision.

The streets of Rome wore an ascetic appearance, notwithstanding the gay crowds which are to be seen every afternoon in the Corso. This, perhaps, is, in some measure to be attributed to the great number of ecclesiastics, who may be seen passing and repassing everywhere at all hours of the day. But in addition to the effect arising from the presence of so many clerical habits, there is a severity of feature about Rome itself which is very striking. I did not at all object to it, rather the reverse; it looks the more Roman on that account; and I even thought, though perhaps it may be deemed a fancy, that the same austere Tacitus or Sallust style of expression appertained to the Sabine and other hills in the neighbourhood of the “eternal city.”

♦ CARDINAL WELD ♦

The real minister of England at the court of Rome is Cardinal Weld, so far as all the departments of a British legation are concerned, which are in any way connected with the convenience and protection of our sojourners in that capital. We have, indeed, a Consul-general at that station--a very respectable and obliging person, who is uniformly prepared to shew every attention in his power to his countrymen. But it is obvious that a gentleman, to whom fees are to be paid for his services, and whose business, as a banker and general merchant, necessarily occupies much of his time, is not exactly the kind of officer to whom an English traveller should be obliged to apply, if he required aid against any act of the Roman authorities, or wished to be presented to the sovereign.

♦ ENGLISH DIPLOMACY ♦

One of the gentlemen attached to the British legation at Florence, usually resides at Rome, and conducts the correspondence which semi-officially passes between the Papal court and the government of Great Britain. Occasions are constantly arising for such correspondence. For instance, when the French Government determined on occupying Ancona, in order to prevent Austria from interfering exclusively with the view of suppressing the insurrectionary spirit, that had broken out at Bologna and elsewhere, it became unavoidable that our government also should take its part in the discussions that arose out of those transactions. Our advice was earnestly solicited on the occasion by the Holy Father, and unless we chose to abdicate the influence which we have derived from our station in the world, we could not have avoided returning a decorous reply to his application. Accordingly our ministers did give his Holiness at that period, the best advice which the circumstances of the times seemed to them to demand. It was in substance, that the complaints of the insurgents ought to be listened to, and their real grievances redressed. The discontent was manifestly produced by the system of local government, which prevailed throughout the States, administered entirely by ecclesiastics and upon ecclesiastical principles; whereas the taxes were chiefly paid by the lay portion of the community, who had no control over the appropriation of the funds so constituted. It was not to be doubted that this system was wrong in principle: that laymen ought to be admitted to the temporal offices of the government, and the clergy restrained within the sphere of functions strictly spiritual. Now the British Government had no accredited officer at Rome, through whose hands this advice could be conveyed. It was transmitted in a latent sort of channel, as if we were ashamed or afraid of having any thing to do with the Court of Rome!

♦ NEAPOLITAN CONSTITUTION ♦

Again, the concession of a constitution by the king of the Sicilies to his people was not long since openly spoken of at the Court of Naples, as an affair already arranged. The young king, soon after his accession to the throne, was really anxious to establish free institutions, to form a United Parliament for the two Sovereignties, to introduce extensive reforms into the whole system of his jurisprudence, and to construct a cabinet composed of enlightened men of the day, to the utter exclusion of those antiquated courtiers, who have witnessed the revolutions of the last half-century, without changing a single idea in their minds, and without comprehending the possibility of improvement without destruction.

♦ AUSTRIAN ASCENDANCY ♦

These resolutions on the part of the king alarmed the court of Vienna; for if a parliament were sitting at Naples, the people in Northern Italy would soon demand a similar constitution. Troops were actually prepared to march to Naples, with the view of preventing the establishment of a liberal form of government in that country; and for this purpose it became necessary to negociate with the Roman court for the passage of the Austrian cohorts through the states. A single word from England, addressed to the Pope, would have disconcerted that project against the liberties of the Neapolitan and Sicilian people; but we had no representative at Rome through whom that word could be officially spoken!

Unfortunately, the menace produced the desired result. Prince Leopold, the king’s uncle, a most subservient Austrian in politics, and the Austrian minister at Naples, again recovered their usual ascendancy: the king had nothing to do but to turn devotee, and submit himself to the control of three priests: Capriolo, who was the secretary of the council; Cocle, his own confessor; and Scotti, the preceptor of his brother the prince Luigi. Thus Austria rules the whole of Italy, and this, in a very great measure, because we have no resident minister at Rome!

♦ BRITISH MINISTER ♦

The attaché of the British legation at Florence, who lives in Rome, holds no character at the latter court. He is not accredited to it in any way. He cannot present an Englishman to the Pope. He cannot do a single public act. Whatever business he performs of a diplomatic nature, is done “under the rose;” “winked at” by both the governments, as if they were both conscious of being engaged in some criminal proceedings in the character of accomplices, apprehensive every moment of discovery, capture, public exposure, and ignominious punishment! While this absurd and injurious system prevails, every Englishman who goes to Rome must feel that he is personally degraded by it; for unless he happen to have the good fortune of knowing Cardinal Weld, or can venture to solicit a favour from an English gentleman, invested with a foreign dignity, to whom he is an entire stranger he has no advantageous mode of obtaining a presentation at court.

♦ AT ROME ♦

I need not observe that his Eminence is always accessible to his countrymen, and seems never so happy as when he can oblige them in any way. But this is not the footing upon which the relations between the two countries should be permitted to remain. Cardinal Weld is, I believe, the only Englishman who has been admitted into the sacred college since the “Reformation,” with the exception of one of the members of the Stuart family. A similar event may not again occur for a century. Are our affairs, then, to be confided to a merchant who has no station in the diplomatic circle, and to a fugitive attaché from Florence, who is almost afraid to be seen at the Vatican?

I may speak the more freely on this subject, as having long enjoyed the pleasure of being known to the Cardinal and to Lord Clifford, his near relative and my esteemed friend, who usually resides with his Eminence at the Odeschalchi palace, I enjoyed every facility of presentation at court, and of obtaining admission to all the circles and institutions which I felt any desire to visit. But I saw at Rome numbers of my countrymen who were placed in a very different position; a position, too, of which they loudly and justly complained, as a very mortifying one, feeling that all other foreigners had accredited ministers to look up to, and that the want of similar protection seriously affected their means of procuring introduction to the higher ranks of society.

♦ THE SISTINE CHAPEL ♦

♦ SPANISH MONK ♦

On the first day of the new year, I attended high mass at the Sistine Chapel, which was celebrated by Cardinal Franzini, prefect of the Propaganda. The Pope was present, attended by twenty-five cardinals, and about twenty bishops. Among the former, I noticed with peculiar interest, Cardinal Fesch, in whose countenance I perceived a striking resemblance to the best portraits I had seen of Napoleon. The mass was sung by the Pope’s choir in the most admirable style. There was a remarkably slender, delicate, and sweetly-modulated voice in the choir on that occasion, which I supposed to be the voice of a boy or of a eunuch. But to my surprise, I learned afterwards from Cardinald Weld, that it belonged to the father of a large family, a rubicund, Boniface-looking sort of a chorister, who, by some peculiar good fortune has never lost the tones of his youth. The chapel was crowded. I happened to sit in the tribune near the altar by the side of a monk whom I had known in Spain, and who, before the service began, entertained me with an account of the prospects of Don Carlos in one part of the Peninsula, and of Don Miguel in the other. He was perfectly convinced that both the princes were _saints_, and that _therefore_ they would recover their thrones to a certainty. Don Miguel, by having recalled the act of abdication, which he signed in Portugal, had forfeited his title to the handsome income which had been secured to him under the provisions of the quadruple treaty; he was in consequence living at that moment upon the bounty either of the Pope, or of some of the powers who subscribed to the Roman treasury a sum of £300 per month, for his subsistence. As this revenue was a very precarious one, and did not allow the prince the means of fitting out a very splendid armament, I suggested to my friend that his prophecy on that point at least had no great chance of being realised. As to Don Carlos, matters looked more doubtful; but I thought that the one prince had about the same chance of a throne as the other. However, my monk had made up his mind on the subject, and kings they assuredly would be!

♦ VESPERS ♦

Vespers were celebrated on the same day in the church of the Jesuits, with a degree of splendour which I never saw equalled. The altar and the whole sanctuary were illuminated to the very roof; the choir was assisted by the best organ in Rome; and the edifice, capacious as it is, was crowded in all directions. A sermon was preached by a member of the order, whose spare figure seemed wasted by intense study. His countenance was pale from habitual intellectual occupation; but when he gradually grew warm with his subject, which he treated in a masterly style of sacred eloquence, a light flashed from his eye that seemed to electrify his audience. He kept their attention suspended on his lips for a full hour, during which a breath was scarcely heard through the dense assemblage. Then came the benediction, with its accompanying prayer--the “O salutaris hostia,” and that fine old anthem--the “Tantum ergo,” which, when sung in the Gregorian note, I never hear without emotion.

♦ THE ROMAN HILLS ♦

Whoever wishes to obtain a good bird’s-eye view of Rome and its vicinity, should ascend the tower of the capitol. Thence, as from almost a central point, he may behold the distant hills of Albano, Frescati, Preneste, Terracina, Tivoli, the Sabines, Soracte, Mario, and Janiculum; the seven eminences upon which Rome was antiently constructed, the Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, Celian, Palatine, Aventine, and Capitoline hills, and all the monuments now remaining of the pride of antiquity, as well as the splendid new edifices which rival or even excel them in costliness and grandeur.