The Roman Republic, established by the unanimous and legitimate votes of
the people, elected General Garibaldi, on the 30th June, legal guardian
of the rights of the people, and conferred upon him the executive
power of the State, which the Triumvirate resigned into his hands. This
national government was overthrown by foreign bayonets, after a most
heroic struggle for freedom. The first act of General Oudinot was to
send a French colonel to lay the keys of the city at the feet of the
Pope.
Thus was the power of the priests restored, and they returned to all
their former tyranny and luxury.
These worthy teachers, when preaching to the Roman women about the glory
of Heaven, impress upon them that they, and they only, have power to
give free entrance into eternal bliss. To liberate these misguided
beings from superstition, and rescue them from the deceit of their
so-called "reverend fathers," is the question of life or death to Italy;
this, in fact, is the only way in which to work out the deliverance of
our country. Many will tell you there are good priests. But a priest, to
become really good, must discard that wicked livery which he wears.
Is it not the uniform of the promoters of brigandage over the half of
Italy? Has it not marched as a pioneer-garb before every stranger that
ever visited our country?
The priests, by their continual impostures and crafty abuse of the
ignorance and consequent superstition of the people, have acquired great
riches. Those who endeavor to retard our progress make a distinction
between the temporal power, which should be combated, and the spiritual
power, which should be respected; as if Antonelli, Schiatone, and
Crocco, were spiritual ushers, by whom the souls of men should hope
to be conducted into the presence of the Eternal. There are two chief
sources of their wealth. Firstly, they exact a revenue for repentance,
as the vicegerents of God upon earth, as such, claiming power to pardon
all sin. A rich but credulous man may thus commit any crime he chooses
with impunity, knowing that he has the means of securing absolution, and
believing implicitly that, by rendering up a portion of his treasure or
profit to the clergy, he will have no difficulty in escaping the wrath
to come.
The next source of wealth is the tax upon the agonies of death.. At the
bedside of the sick, by threats of purgatory and eternal perdition,
they frighten their unhappy victims into bequeathing to Mother Church
enormous legacies, if, indeed, they do not succeed in getting absolute
possession of the whole of their estates, to the detriment of the legal
heirs, who are not unfrequently in this manner reduced to beggary. Look,
for instance, at the island of Sicily: one-half of that country now
belongs to the priesthood, or various orders of monks.
But, to our tale. One evening, about nine o'clock, in the month of
December, a thing in black might have been seen traversing the Piazza
of the Rotunda--that magnificent monument of antiquity--every column
a perfect work, worth its weight in silver--which the priests have
perverted from sublime memories to their cunning uses. It was a figure
which would have made a man shudder involuntarily, though he were one of
the thousand of Calatifimi; enveloped in a black sottana--the
covering of a heart still blacker, the heart of a demon, and one that
contemplated the committal of a crime which only a priest would conceive
or execute. A priest it was, and he made his stealthy path to the
gateway of the house of Pompeo, where he paused a moment before knocking
to gain admittance, casting glances around, to assure himself no one was
in sight, as if he feared his guilty secret would betray itself, or as
if pausing to add even to ecclesiastical wickedness a sin so cruel as
he was meditating. He knocked at last. The door opened, and the porter,
recognizing the "Reverend Father Ignazio," saluted him respectfully, and
lighted him, as he entered, a few steps up the staircase of one of the
richest residences of the city.
"Where is Sister Flavia?" demanded the priest of the first servant who
came forward to meet him.
"At the bedside of my dying mistress," replied Siccio, in a constrained
voice, for, being a true Roman, he had little sympathy for "the birds of
ill-omen," as he profanely styled the reverend fathers.
Father Ignazio, knowing the house well, hurried on to the sick-room, at
the door of which he gently tapped, requesting admittance in a peculiar
tone. An elderly, sour-looking nun opened the door quickly, and with a
significant expression on her evil countenance as her eyes sought those
of the priest.
"Is all over?" whispered he, as he advanced towards the bed on which the
expiring patient lay.
"Not yet," was the equally low reply.
Ignazio thereupon, without another word, took a small vial from under
his sottana, and emptied the contents into a glass. With the assistance
of the nun he raised his victim, and poured the deadly fluid down her
throat, letting the head fall heavily back upon the pillows, whilst a
complacent smile spread itself over his diabolical features as, after
one gasp, the jaw fell. He then retired to a small table at the end of
the apartment, where he seated himself, followed by Sister Flavia, who
stealthily drew a paper from her dress and handed it to him.
Father Ignazio seized the paper with a trembling hand, and after
perusing it with an anxious air, as if to convince himself that it was
indeed the accomplishment of his desires, he thrust it into his breast,
muttering, with an emphatic nod, "You shall be rewarded, my good
Flavia."
That paper was the last will and testament of the Signora Virginia
Pompeo, the mother of the brave Emilio Pompeo, who perished fighting on
the walls of Rome, whence he fell, mortally wounded by a French bullet.
His inconsolable widow did not long survive him, and committed, with her
last breath, her infant son to the care of his doting grandmother, La
Signora Virginia Pompeo, who tenderly cherished the orphan Muzio, the
only remaining scion of the noble house of Pompeo. But, unhappily for
him, Father Ignazio was her confessor. When the signora's health began
to fail, and her mind to be weakened, the wily Father spared no means to
convince her that she ought to make her will, and, as a sacred duty, to
leave a large sum to be spent in masses for the release of souls from
purgatory. The signora lingering for some time, the covetous priest felt
his desires grow, and resolved to destroy this first will, and obtain
another, purporting to leave the whole of her immense estates to the
corporation of St. Francesco di Paola, and appoint himself as her sole
executor. This document he prepared and intrusted to Sister Flavia,
whom he had already recommended to the Signora Virginia as a suitable
attendant. One morning she dispatched a hurried message to the
confessor, reporting that the favorable time for signing the fraudulent
document had arrived. He came, attended by witnesses, whom he had had no
difficulty in procuring, and, after persuading the sinking and agonized
lady that she ought to add a codicil to her will (which he pretended
then and there to draw up) leaving a still larger sum to the Church, he
guided her feeble hand as she unconsciously signed away the whole of her
property, leaving her helpless grandson to beggary. As if to jeopardise
his scheme, the signora rallied towards the afternoon, whereupon,
fearing she might ask to see the will, and so discover his treachery,
Father Ignazio resolved to make such an undesirable occurrence
impossible, by administering an effective potion, which he set off to
procure, wisely deferring his return till nightfall.
The result has been already disclosed; and while the false priest
wrought this murder, the unconscious orphan, Muzio, slept peacefully in
his little bed, still adorned with hangings wrought by a loving mother's
hands, to awake on the morrow ignorant of his injury, but robbed of his
guardian and goods together--stripped of all, and forthwith dependent on
chance--a friendless and beggared boy.