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THE COURT OF ROME-ITS PARTIES AND ITS MEN.

frightened schoolboy, who cries to undo become affected with visionary ideas. what he did, and implores to kiss those The belief in the indestructibility of St. At that mo- Peter's bark-in the extension of a dito whom he was naughty. ment the figure of Cardinal Antonelli vine protection which would manifest itWith self by miraculous intervention, lay too was a source of comfort to him. that impulsive feeling which is natural to near at hand in the order of Romish For the Pope, views of this Pius IX., he was instinctively drawn in thought not to present itself widely at that the season of recantation towards that moment. Cardinal who had calmly stood close to nature had an irresistible attraction, and him during exciting times, and who nev- he lent a ready ear to the assurances of er had himself exhibited that enthusiasm enthusiasts who dwelt on the certain which the Pope now deplored as a crime. confusion that must overtake his enemies Such suggestions fell dead We can understand how, under the cir- if only he would give the signal for a cumstances, a mystic mind could apply crusade. to this particular Cardinal the affection against the sober shrewdness of Cardinal which, under an impulse to expiate er- Antonelli. Not that the Cardinal exhibrors, it then embraced for absolute reac- ited any statesmanlike instincts, except tion. For Cardinal Antonelli appeared that he has always been sufficiently asat that moment before the Pope's eye tute to retain a common-sense indisposias the consistent representative of those tion to trust in the advent of miraculous principles which now had been found aid for the defeat of palpable forces, and true; and he appeared so, thanks to the to be anything but zealous in the advocharm of his respectful manners, without cacy of active measures that rely on no But it was precisely in such his wounding the Pope's susceptibility. better material resources than high-flown The art of the Cardinal has been great enthusiasm. indeed in dealing successfully with the excited counsels that Pius IX. felt dishumors and weaknesses of the Pope's posed to take pleasure; and he listened uncertain character. Therefore, as the with delight to the sympathetic effusion representative of reaction was it that the of zealots whose rapturous assurances Cardinal captivated the Pope's affections; contrasted with the Cardinal's tepid temand so long as a craving for mere reac-perature of mind and merely temporizing tion contributed the sum of all that was inclinations. desired, Cardinal Antonelli continued to retain unimpaired ascendancy. That period lasted from 1850 to 1859. During those nine precious years of protected restriction, the Pontificial Government did nothing whatever for its recoverythe Cardinal, with arms akimbo, marked his absolute administration by good-humored rejections of every suggestion for Reform, and the spell-bound Pius IX. hugged the heaven-sent minister to his breast, and contented the prickings of his mystic longings by indulging in the innocent labor of decreeing the dogma of Immaculate Conception. But with the year 1859 there began a new epoch, marked by events directly calculated to influence the mystic fibres in the Pope's

nature.

As he saw himself the victim of spoliation-as he beheld great powers leagued together for the practical destruction of institutions which, in his mind, were identified with the existence of the Church and religion, it is intelligible how the Pope's excitable mind should have

It is from this time that two currents of influence have begun to run in rivalry to each other in the Vatican: the one moderating and essentially temporizing, whose representative is Cardinal Antonelli; and the other headlong and selfconfident, represented by a cosmopolite combination of fanatics, among whom the most prominent, although not always the most influential figure, is Monsignore Merode. It is this fact which led to the creation of Lamoricière's army, and to all the rash acts which have marked the Pope's policy-acts which Cardinal Antonelli disapproved, but gave his countenance to because he is not in the mood to resign his office. There have been moments when the ascendency of the adverse party was attended with circumstances which must have been so wounding to the Cardinal, that his voluntary retention of office proves an absolute determination never to give his enemies the pleasure of seeing him divest himself spontaneously of the post he holds. On

the other hand, the Pope, although he had repeatedly slighted his minister, can evidently not bring himself to dismiss him, partly from a want of resolution to go through the final act, and partly from an impression that he has, after all, no one more capable than the Cardinal to transact diplomatic business. Thus a curious and anomalous state of things has sprung up, attended by a running contest between a hot-headed party, which, though not allowed to stand publicly forward in the first row of installed rank, holds in its hand, to a large degree, actual power, and a minister clothed in all the semblance of absolute grandeur, but who perpetually consents to sanction and defend what in his heart he does not ap

prove.

their minds. Monsignore Merode alone of these domestic prelates could lay claim to some powers of invention and practical enterprise. Neither Monsignore Talbot, nor Monsignore Hohenlohe, nor Monsig nore Pacca, have ever been credited with the guilt of originating any portion of that furious policy which they have always been unanimous in approving. These men have simply been used as channels for instilling into the Pope, in virtue of the advantages they have from their position as his daily associates, views and passions which other minds have been converting into a system. That system rests on the principle of uncompromising hostility to all modern civilization, to every idea popularly identified with progress, with civil liberty, with the advance of It may be said of this party that it has science and thought. According to this succeeded in usurping the very positive, system, all that modern society prizes is although not easily-defined, position of of devilish origin; and it is the duty of influence, which formerly used to be as- Christ's Vicar on earth to wage a war of sumed by the Pope's nephews. That extermination against it. These extreme nepotism of the flesh, which was once views proceed from a highflown concepsuch an essential feature of the Roman tion of the universal prerogatives of the Court, has now made room for the nepot- Church; and among prelates they have ism of a faction which is conspicuously found their particular champions in bishrepresented by the Papal household. ops and cardinals of Germany and France. That body is composed of individuals It is especially on the non-Italian side of from all nations. Every Roman Catho- the Alps that these exaggerated ideas have lic community may be considered, as far been most unreservedly broached; and as tongue goes, to have contributed its in the Sacred College it is the two Gershare to the Catholic character of the Su- man cardinals, Reisach and Rauscher, preme Pontiff's Court. As regards, how- who are considered to be their keenest ever, any capacity for properly reflecting advocates. Thus there has come to be a knowledge of their respective countries, formed a school of cosmopolite composifeelings, and tempers, this look of Catho- tion, consisting of divines and prelates lic composition in the Pope's household of various nations, represented in Rome is a sham. The individuals who figure by members in various ranks of the hierthere are without exception men of nar- archy, but which, as distinguished by the row mind-types of contracted fanati- numerical preponderance of non-Italian cism, who are incapable of serving as the elements among its memberhood, has acmedium for a ray of wholesome light. quired, in addition to its other marks of Nor must they be rated as more than distinction, a certain political and nationmere puppets. The quality (if this term al color which imparts to its actions a can be applied to so poor a matter) which character of special significance. For on forms the all-in-all of their intellectual na- the one hand there are in Rome these ture is an impervious coating of bigotry. excited Catho.ics of foreign origin, men The action of such men on the Pope has who are bent on an immediate crusade, been disastrous; for his own morbid pre- and on the other hand there is the bulk dispositions could not fail to become dan- of the Italian and especially Roman pregerously stimulated by exclusive contact lates, who have small liking for desperate with their inflammatory breathings. If moves, and think that under present cirleft to their own genius, their fanaticism cumstances to gain time, and particularly would have been, indeed, comparatively ly to abstain from envenoming matters, harmless, from the general dullness of ought to be the policy for the Holy See

to pursue. An antagonism is thus tacitly produced (in Rome antagonisms hardly ever cease to be tacit) which takes the form of a struggle between prelates who inwardly consider themselves the only legitimate administrators of the political functions of the Roman Court, and a set of excited enthusiasts from the northern side of the Alps, who have been largely invading that province which the former think themselves entitled to own exclusively. It is a strange phenomenon to see the temporal power practically productive of an influence which would rather mitigate than stimulate the fury of the struggle now waged in its behalf. But a habit of practically governing human conditions always imparts some degree of prudence; and this lesson has also not been quite lost on those in whose hands has long resided the government of the States of the Church. Since centuries those hands have been purely Italian; for although a universal principle is sought to be set up at present in behalf of these States as the domain of all Catholics, in reality they have been an endowment for Italian prelates alone ever since Hadrian VI. These Italian prelates administered these same States in troubled times not without success: they have acquired not indeed a very elevated order of statesmanship, but yet a tradition of diplomatic skill and governmental adroitness that have been practically evidenced, and the knowledge whereof has not been quite blotted out in the minds of those who in virtue of their birth are the representatives of an Italian element in the ecclesiastical world of Rome. With an ill-suppressed jealousy do these prelates look on the sudden influx from abroad of wild zealots, promoting with mad impetuosity the adoption of measures whose rashness it is shrewdly felt must imperil terribly the safety of that estate which it is the merit of Italian skill to have preserved so long. It is a common remark in certain circles of Rome, that unfortunately the old and approved traditions of policy have been discarded for the wild inspirations of foreign adventurers, who personally have nothing to lose if their counsels were really to ruin the States of the Church. Within the range of a common antagonism to the suggestions of a vehemently fantastic and foreign party, these Roman prelates of the

old school concur in Cardinal Antonelli's temporizing spirit in so far as it is directed merely to break the force of this particular influence; although it would be a great mistake to infer that they are disposed to devote themselves cordially to his support as minister, or express admiration for the measures of his administration. On the contrary, Cardinal Antonelli is probably the object of as much criticism and jealousy and personal hostility on the part of these same prelates as ever any minister was. This, however, is only the ordinary fate of all Cardinal Secretaries of State in Rome, who always reside in the centre of a world alive with personal passion, the action of which they never escape feeling in the end. A point of real importance, however, is the spread in ecclesiastical circles, that are specifically Roman, of a feeling of inward hostility, not individual and spasmodic, but compact and corporative, although at present still suppressed, and flowing in underground channels, against the set of socalled interlopers who are charged with overthrowing the sound maxims of the Roman Court, with impelling it to ruin by their foolhardiness, with recklessly staking by their mad course the interests of the Church and of churchmen: a feeling of prospective, not of immediate influence, but which contains within it elements for a marked division, that apparently wants but a safe occasion for bursting into staring prominence.

The ill-feeling which we believe thus to pervade a numerous and distinct section in the ecclesiastical world of Rome, is stimulated by the decided dislike against a particular corporation with which the champions of an ecstatic policy have allied themselves closely. Beneath the ever smooth surface which is presented by the decorously deferential deportment of clerical Rome, there lurks as much compressed passion and anger and envy as ever have distracted the most secular court. Especially keen is the jealous sensitiveness on the score of what is due in rank and position and influence-a sensitiveness rather pointedly in contrast with the professions of humility forever on the lip. The quarter where this feeling has ever been particularly strong is that of monastic congregations.

These brotherhoods

impelled by the nature of their narrow constitutions to an exaggerated estimation of their specific foundation-of the especial merit of their particular founder -have ever been intensely jealous of any marked preference shown to one brotherhood over the other. The bitterest party passions have often burned hotly on the ground of such supposed preference within the seemingly so loving atmosphere of societies, where all alike profess to have turned away their minds from all thought of the world and its interests; and all alike profess to find their delight in being steeped in peaceful contemplation of heavenly objects. From the intensity which has been thrown into contests of this nature, one would be tempted to surmise that the sense of personal pride, so strictly repudiated by those who profess monkish vows, was here viewed by the members of all sides in the light of a religious duty of homage to the specific divinity of their founder. At all events it is an historical fact that repeatedly the Court of Rome has witnessed vehement, although not necessarily clamorous, opposition to any particular confraternity that might have acquired especial influence for the time.

There is, indeed, not one of the great and leading orders that at some time or other, in a period of exceptional success, has not had a run of this kind against it. But all these oppositions were as ephemeral as the casual ascendancy which kindled them, with the exception of one. That exception is justly furnished by the order which has taken up a position essentially differing in the scope of its importance from that which others have ever been able to assume the Society of the Jesuits. This is not the place to enter into any exposition of the points which must always constitute an essential distinction between the organization of the Jesuit order and every other that has hitherto existed. It is enough for the purpose that engages our attention to note the fact that the instinct of all confraternities has systematically concurred in deep feeling of jealous hostility against the exceptional constitution and superior pretensions of this singular body; and above all that at the present moment this feeling has been intensified by pro

found irritation at the asserted extension of late to almost absolute ascendancy of the influence of this Society over the minds of those who are in possession of authority. It is no easy matter with the guarded nature of Romish ecclesiastics to arrive at the conviction that one has been able to see the feelings that really lie near their hearts. Yet we will venture upon the confident assertion, that bitter resentment at the extraordinary influence which the Jesuits have succeeded in usurping over those whose voice is now absolute in the government of the Church, is the feeling which most pointedly possesses those who can lay a claim to any degree of independence among the ecclesiastics living within the actual precincts of Rome. We venture to affirm that wherever access can be obtained to the confidential outpourings, be it of monks that languish in neglected cells, or of secular priests who for some cause have not succumbed to the reigning influences, their burden will be angry complaint at the excessive power to which in recent years the mysterious Society of Jesuits has attained.

To drag to light in a distinct shape the influence so universally testified to in a whisper is a matter of difficulty. That noiseless stealthiness of gait, which is so marked a feature in the carriage of the individual Jesuit, extends also to the manner in which the Society works as a body. While it is felt how the minds of those who rule and govern the Church have been completely secured within a net, inquiry is baffled to detect the hands that spun and threw this net-the precise season when it was flung, or even the arms that at this moment keep it in position. It is in accordance with the principles of the Society not to make a needless exhibition of its personal existence, to seek for essential power with as little display as possible, and to volatilize as far as can be the influence which is so indefatigably striven for. Real possession, and not show, is the object the Society cares for. The conspicuous high places of office are not, therefore, what the Jesuits seek to compass; but rather the unobtrusive and seemingly humble posts of those intimate attendants upon great dignitaries, who acquire full confidence and obtain

action of the Society's influence has attained the proportions of an overgrown upas-tree, casting the unwholesome blot of its outspread and dank shadow over the whole brain of the Church's government.

the means for insensibly instilling views and feelings into fascinated hearts. It is here that are displayed the capabilities of that mysterious organization which makes the Society so formidable. While the eye of a stranger will probably fail to detect one professed member of the It is not, however, within the compass Society among the prelates who figure of any human stealth to pick its course with the emblems of rank, the Society so lightly as to avoid leaving behind has made good its hold on those with some trace that can bring home convicwhom those prelates consort, and espe- tion. With all this mastery in self-recially on the confessionals to which they straint, and all the severity of their resort. It is through this mystic func- discipline in unostentation, the Jesuits tion of inward confidence that the have yet been unable to repress some Jesuits particularly operate. At the burst of self-betraying triumph, and to present moment the Jesuits have succeed- avoid employing some modes of proceed in becoming the spiritual advisers of dure that necessarily have brought them almost every member of the Papal Court, before the public. On the 20th Novemand of all those sections of the lay so- ber last, the mighty fane of St. Peter's ciety in Rome that, from their rank, gathered within its vast walls a throng stand necessarily in relation more or less of human beings eager to look upon a close to the Sovereign and his Court. gorgeous and rare rite that day to be The most fashionable confessors, the celebrated in the great temple. It was inmost popular preachers in Rome are deed a scene of gorgeous splendor—a now all Jesuits; and immense is the scene admirably rich in all those points tacit influence which they command in of pomp calculated to attract a mind virtue of these positions, while insensibly prone to ecstatic awe; to inflame a sense they have made their own the university for mysterious and mystic worship which and the schools in the Papal States. It flashed upon the spectator as that mornis an influence of too subtle a nature ing he stepped inside that grandest builto analyize, but it is one whose positive ding raised by man-the work of his action is most formdiable. Even Car- hand which nearest arrives to being the dinal Antonelli, who is not naturally expression in stone of a creation and of predisposed in this sense, has been un- space. On that day this noblest of able to keep himself clear from the mys- shrines was decked out with a profusion terious influence of a body he looks on of bright hangings, and a blaze of tawith dislike and fear, and his confessor pers which quite killed the sun's rays is a member of the Society. In addition by its flood of light, while the beauty to these favored posts for operating di- and taste of the designs in which these rectly upon individual hearts, the Jesu- countless candles were architecturally its have contrived to introduce them- disposed imparted to the decorations a selves largely among the working mem- singular effectiveness. All the doors bers of the congregations upon whom devolves the real business of elaborating the decisions and proclamations of the Roman Court. The cardinals and prelates who figure as the official representatives of these bodies, are content to receive their inspirations thus from Jesuit assistants who are indifferent to public recognition of their essential labors. It is in this noiseless and underground method that, true to its traditions and to its mysterious organization, the Society has proceeded until, according to the testimony of those best able to look into the anatomy of the Roman Court, the

leading into the atrium were thrown wide open, and yet black streams of pushing spectators flowed through them on and on without break, until even the vastness of St. Peter's wore the look of a peopled building. Among the crowd that flocked in so bigly, many were the curious strangers from over the sea and the Alps, hurrying to see the great sight of the day. Few of these, however, had an understanding of what the scene really meant upon whose gorgeous show they gazed intently. Perhaps, indeed, some might have gleaned an inkling if they caught up broken words which

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