ROME--THE CATHOLIC CAPITAL.
The dominant feature of Rome is the religious feature, and it
is fitting that it should be so, for here the soil was stained
with the blood of those who first hearkened to the voice of the
Nazarene--here a cruel Nero lighted his garden with human torches,
little thinking that the religion of those whom he burned would in
time illumine the earth.
The fact that the city is the capital of the Catholic world is
apparent everywhere. All interest is centered in the Vatican and
St. Peter's. The civil government of Italy extends to the nation's
borders, but the papal authority of Rome reaches to the remotest
corners of the earth. I was anxious to see the man upon whom such
vast responsibility rests, and whose words so profoundly influence
millions of the human race. Lord Denbigh, of England, had given
me a letter of introduction to Cardinal Merry del Val, the papal
secretary of state, and armed with this I visited the Vatican.
Cardinal del Val is an exceedingly interesting man. He was born of
Spanish parents, but one of his grandparents was English, and he
is connected by ties of blood with several families of the English
nobility. He was educated in England, and speaks that language
fluently and without an accent, as he does French, German, Italian
and Spanish. His linguistic accomplishments are almost as great as
those of the famous Cardinal Mezzofanti. Cardinal del Val is an
unusually young man to occupy such an important post--he is not yet
forty. He impresses one as a man of rare ability and he possesses
extraordinary versatility and a diplomatic training that will make
him eminently useful to His Holiness. The papal secretary of state
is a tall, slender, distinguished-looking man. His intellectual face
is thin and oval; his eyes are large, dark and brilliant, showing
his Spanish birth. He received us in his private apartments in the
Vatican. They are among the most interesting of the 1,200 rooms
in that great building and were once occupied by that famous pope
who was a Borgia. The ceilings and walls down to the floor are
painted magnificently, the decoration having been done by the hand
of a master artist of Borgia's reign. For centuries the suite now
occupied by Cardinal del Val had been part of the Vatican library.
The beautiful walls were once hidden by a coat of rude whitewash,
but the paintings were discovered not long ago and restored once
more to view.
Before visiting the Vatican I called upon Monsignor Kennedy, the
rector of the American college. Monsignor Kennedy is a learned and
an exceedingly agreeable American and under his efficient management
the number of students in the college has been doubled within a few
years. He enabled me to meet Pope Pius' Maestro di Camera. By the
good offices of Cardinal del Val and the Maestro di Camera, it was
arranged that I should have a private audience with the Holy Father
the following day, Monsignor Kennedy acting as interpreter.
[Illustration: COLISEUM, ROME.]
Pope Pius received us in his private room adjoining the public
audience chamber, where distinguished Catholics from all over the
world were collected and ready to be presented and receive the papal
blessing. The private audience room is a rather small apartment,
simply, but beautifully furnished and decorated. A throne bearing
the papal crown occupied one side of the room. His Holiness greeted
us very courteously and cordially. He wore a long white cassock,
with a girdle at the waist; the fisherman's ring was on his finger
and he wore a small, closely fitting skull-cap of white. I had an
opportunity to study his face. It is a round, strong face, full of
kindliness and benevolence, but there are not lacking indications
that its possessor has a purpose and will of his own. The face is
ruddy and the nose rather long--it is straight and not arched. His
eyes are large, blue and friendly. The scant hair visible below the
skull-cap is white. In stature the Holy Father is about five feet
nine or ten inches and his figure is sturdy, but not too heavy. His
step is light and gives an impression of strength and good health.
[Illustration: POPE PIUS X.]
His Holiness has already gained a reputation as a democratic pontiff
and enjoys a large and growing popularity with the people. He is an
orator and often on Sunday goes into one of the many court yards of
the Vatican and preaches to the crowds that gather quite informally.
His gestures are said to be graceful and his voice melodious. His
manner is earnest and his thoughts are expressed in clear and
emphatic language. There is a feeling in Rome that Pius X. is going
to be known in history as a reformer--not as a reformer of doctrine,
but as one who will popularize the church's doctrine with a view to
increasing the heartiness and zeal of the masses in the application
of religious truth to everyday life.
I assured his Holiness that I appreciated the opportunity that
was his to give impetus to the moral forces of the world, and he
replied: "I hope my efforts in that direction will be such as
to merit commendation." Answering my statement that I called to
present the good will of many Catholic friends as well as to pay my
respects, His Holiness asked me to carry his benediction back to
them.
If I may venture an opinion upon such brief observation, it is that
heart characteristics will dominate the present pontiff's course. He
is not so renowned a scholar and diplomat as was his predecessor,
nor is he so skilled in statecraft, but he is a virile, energetic,
practical religious teacher, charitable, abounding in good works
and full of brotherly love. I am confident that he will play an
important part in the world-wide conflict between man and mammon.
The world has made and is making great progress in education and
in industry. The percentage of illiteracy is everywhere steadily
decreasing. The standards of art and taste are rising and the
forces of nature are being harnessed to do the work of man. Steam,
madly escaping from its prison walls, turns myriad wheels and drags
our commerce over land and sea, while electricity, more fleet of
foot than Mercury, has become the message-bearer of millions.
Even the waves of the air are now obedient to the command of man
and intelligence is flashed across the ocean without the aid
of wires. With this dominion over nature man has been able to
advance his physical well-being, as well as to enlarge his mental
horizon, but has the moral development of the people kept pace
with material prosperity? The growing antagonism between capital
and labor, the lack of sympathy often manifest between those of
the same race and even of the same religion, when enjoying incomes
quite unequal--these things would seem to indicate that the heart
has lagged behind the head and the purse. The restoration of the
equilibrium and the infusing of a feeling of brotherhood that
will establish justice and good will must be the aim of those who
are sincerely interested in the progress of the race. This is
pre-eminently the work of our religious teachers, although it is a
work in which the laity as well as the clergy must take part.
[Illustration: NAPLES]
After meeting Pius X., late the beloved patriarch of Venice, I feel
assured that he is peculiarly fitted to lead his portion of the
Christian church in this great endeavor.
The Vatican, which serves as the home and executive offices of the
supreme pontiff of the Catholic church, is an enormous building, or
rather collection of buildings, for it bears evidence of additions
and annexes. One might be easily lost in its maze of corridors.
The ceilings of the chief apartments are high and, like the walls
of the spacious rooms and halls, are covered with frescoes of
priceless value. The Vatican adjoins St. Peter's cathedral--or
basilica as it is called--a description of whose beauties would
fill a volume. The basilica is so harmoniously proportioned that
one does not appreciate its vastness from a distance, but once
within its walls it is easy to credit the statement that fifty
thousand persons can be crowded into it. In a crypt just beneath
the great dome is the tomb of St. Peter, about which myriad lamps
are kept constantly burning. Near the tomb is a crucifix suspended
under a canopy supported by four spiral columns that are replicas
of a column elsewhere in the cathedral that is said to have been
part of Solomon's temple. Not far from the crucifix is the famous
bronze statue of St. Peter, made from a pagan statue of Jupiter. It
is mounted upon a pedestal about five feet high and the large toe
of the right foot, which projects over the pedestal has been worn
smooth by the lips of devout visitors to the basilica.
To me the most remarkable of the splendors of the cathedral were
the mosaic pictures, of which there are many of heroic size. These
mosaics depict Bible scenes and characters and are done with such
marvelous skill that a little way off one can hardly doubt that they
are the product of the brush of some great master. The colors, tints
and shades are so perfect that it is difficult to believe that the
pictures are formed by the piecing together of tiny bits of colored
marbles and other stones. The Vatican maintains a staff of artists
in mosaic, some of whose work may be purchased by the public. I was
shown the masterpiece of Michael Angelo in the cathedral of St.
Peter in Vinculo--a statue of Moses, seated. In the right knee there
is a slight crack visible and it is tradition that, when the great
sculptor had finished his work, he struck the knee with his mallet
in a burst of enthusiasm and exclaimed, "Now, speak." St. Paul's
cathedral, which stands outside the ancient wall of the city, is of
modern construction and is therefore less interesting to the visitor
than the great basilica of St. Peter's.
Next to the Vatican and the cathedrals in interest are the ruins
of ancient Rome. In England and France I had seen buildings many
centuries old; in Rome one walks at the foot of walls that for
nearly two thousand years have defied the ravages of time. The best
preserved and most stupendous of the relics of "The Eternal City"
is the Colosseum. It is built upon a scale that gives some idea
of the largeness of Roman conceptions and of the prodigality with
which the emperors expended the money and labor of the people. The
arena in which the gladiators fought with their fellows and with
wild beasts--the arena in which many of the Christian martyrs met
their death--is slightly oval in form, the longest diameter being
about 250 feet. The arena was so arranged that it could be flooded
with water and used for aquatic tournaments. The spectators looked
down upon the contests from galleries that rose in four tiers to a
height of 150 feet. At one end of the arena was the tribune occupied
by the emperor and his suite; at the other end the vestal virgins
occupied another tribune and it was their privilege to confer either
life or death upon the vanquished gladiators by turning the thumb
up or down--turned up it meant life, turned down, death. The Roman
populace gained access to the galleries by 160 doors and stairways.
The seating capacity of the Colosseum is estimated to have been
fifty thousand.
[Illustration: GRAND CANAL--VENICE]
The Forum is even richer than the Colosseum in historic interest
and recent excavations have brought to light what are supposed
to be the tomb of Cæsar and the tomb of Romulus. The tribune is
pointed out from which the Roman orators addressed the multitude.
Here Cicero hurled his invectives at Cataline and Mark Antony is
by Shakespeare made to plead here for fallen Cæsar. The triumphal
arch of Constantine stands at one end of the Forum and is in an
excellent state of preservation. Among the carvings lately exhumed
are some (especially attractive to an agriculturist) showing the
forms of the bull, the sheep and the hog. They are so like the best
breeds of these animals to-day that one can scarcely believe they
were chiseled from stone nearly twenty centuries ago. In Rome,
as in Paris, there is a Pantheon in the familiar style of Greek
architecture. In the Roman Pantheon is the tomb of Raphael. Cardinal
Bembo, in recognition of Raphael's genius, caused to be placed upon
his tomb a Latin epitaph which Hope has translated:
"Living, great nature feared he might outvie
Her works, and dying fears herself to die."
To those who are familiar with Roman history the river Tiber is
an object of interest, but here, as is often the case, one feels
disappointed in finding that the thing pictured was larger than
the reality. The Tiber, yellow as the Missouri, flows through the
very heart of Rome and is kept within its channel by a high stone
embankment. In and near Rome are many ancient palaces, some of
them falling into decay, and some well preserved. One of the most
modern of the palaces of the Italian nobles was built by American
money, the wife being a member of a wealthy New York family. Part
of this palace is now occupied by the American ambassador, Mr.
Myer, to whom I am indebted for courtesies extended in Rome. Art
galleries and museums are numerous in Rome and in the other cities
of Italy, and contain many of the works of the great Italian artists
like Raphael, Angelo, Titian and others. The palace of King Victor
Emmanuel and the public buildings of Rome are imposing, but do not
compare in size or magnificence with the ancient palaces of England
and France. The journey from Rome to Venice carried us through a
very fertile part of Italy. The land is carefully cultivated; the
thrifty farmers in some places have set out mulberry trees for the
cultivation of the silk worm and have trained grape vines upon the
trees.
[Illustration: ST. PETER'S AT ROME]
We passed through the edge of Venice and saw the gondoliers on
the Grand Canal waiting to carry passengers into the city. A very
intelligent Italian newspaper correspondent whom I met in Rome
informed me that the northern provinces of Italy were much further
advanced in education than the southern provinces, but that the
people of the south were mentally very alert and with the addition
of instruction would soon reach the intellectual level of the north.
[Illustration: MADONNA.]
My stay in Italy was all too brief and I left with much reluctance
this nursery of early civilization--this seat of government of the
world's greatest religious organization.