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.