第 65 页

the feast day, that is, of their patron saint. Some also subsisted on the

lucky possession of a fetish, an idol compassionate to human sufferings.

Santa Maria in Ara Coeli possessed the miraculous little Jesus, the

"Bambino," who healed sick children, and Sant' Agostino had the "Madonna

del Parto," who grants a happy delivery to mothers. Then others were

renowned for the holy water of their fonts, the oil of their lamps, the

power of some wooden saint or marble virgin. Others again seemed

forsaken, given up to tourists and the perquisites of beadles, like mere

museums peopled with dead gods: Finally others disturbed one's faith by

the suggestiveness of their aspects, as, for instance, that Santa Maria

Rotonda, which is located in the Pantheon, a circular hall recalling a

circus, where the Virgin remains the evident tenant of the Olympian

deities.

Pierre took no little interest in the churches of the poor districts, but

did not find there the keen faith and the throngs he had hoped for. One

afternoon, at Santa Maria in Trastevere, he heard the choir in full song,

but the church was quite empty, and the chant had a most lugubrious sound

in such a desert. Then, another day, on entering San Crisogono, he found

it draped, probably in readiness for some festival on the morrow. The

columns were cased with red damask, and between them were hangings and

curtains alternately yellow and blue, white and red; and the young man

fled from such a fearful decoration as gaudy as that of a fair booth. Ah!

how far he was from the cathedrals where in childhood he had believed and

prayed! On all sides he found the same type of church, the antique

basilica accommodated to the taste of eighteenth-century Rome. Though the

style of San Luigi dei Francesi is better, more soberly elegant, the only

thing that touched him even there was the thought of the heroic or

saintly Frenchmen, who sleep in foreign soil beneath the flags. And as he

sought for something Gothic, he ended by going to see Santa Maria sopra

Minerva,* which, he was told, was the only example of the Gothic style in

Rome. Here his stupefaction attained a climax at sight of the clustering

columns cased in stucco imitating marble, the ogives which dared not

soar, the rounded vaults condemned to the heavy majesty of the dome

style. No, no, thought he, the faith whose cooling cinders lingered there

was no longer that whose brazier had invaded and set all Christendom

aglow! However, Monsignor Fornaro whom he chanced to meet as he was

leaving the church, inveighed against the Gothic style as rank heresy.

The first Christian church, said the prelate, had been the basilica,

which had sprung from the temple, and it was blasphemy to assert that the

Gothic cathedral was the real Christian house of prayer, for Gothic

embodied the hateful Anglo-Saxon spirit, the rebellious genius of Luther.

At this a passionate reply rose to Pierre's lips, but he said nothing for

fear that he might say too much. However, he asked himself whether in all

this there was not a decisive proof that Catholicism was the very

vegetation of Rome, Paganism modified by Christianity. Elsewhere

Christianity has grown up in quite a different spirit, to such a point

that it has risen in rebellion and schismatically turned against the

mother-city. And the breach has ever gone on widening, the dissemblance

has become more and more marked; and amidst the evolution of new

societies, yet a fresh schism appears inevitable and proximate in spite

of all the despairing efforts to maintain union.

* So called because it occupies the site of a temple to

Minerva.--Trans.

While Pierre thus visited the Roman churches, he also continued his

efforts to gain support in the matter of his book, his irritation tending

to such stubbornness, that if in the first instance he failed to obtain

an interview, he went back again and again to secure one, steadfastly

keeping his promise to call in turn upon each cardinal of the

Congregation of the Index. And as a cardinal may belong to several

Congregations, it resulted that he gradually found himself roaming

through those former ministries of the old pontifical government which,

if less numerous than formerly, are still very intricate institutions,

each with its cardinal-prefect, its cardinal-members, its consultative

prelates, and its numerous employees. Pierre repeatedly had to return to

the Cancelleria, where the Congregation of the Index meets, and lost

himself in its world of staircases, corridors, and halls. From the moment

he passed under the porticus he was overcome by the icy shiver which fell

from the old walls, and was quite unable to appreciate the bare, frigid

beauty of the palace, Bramante's masterpiece though it be, so purely

typical of the Roman Renascence. He also knew the Propaganda where he had

seen Cardinal Sarno; and, sent as he was hither and thither, in his

efforts to gain over influential prelates, chance made him acquainted

with the other Congregations, that of the Bishops and Regulars, that of

the Rites and that of the Council. He even obtained a glimpse of the

Consistorial, the Dataria,* and the sacred Penitentiary. All these formed

part of the administrative mechanism of the Church under its several

aspects--the government of the Catholic world, the enlargement of the

Church's conquests, the administration of its affairs in conquered

countries, the decision of all questions touching faith, morals, and

individuals, the investigation and punishment of offences, the grant of

dispensations and the sale of favours. One can scarcely imagine what a

fearful number of affairs are each morning submitted to the Vatican,

questions of the greatest gravity, delicacy, and intricacy, the solution

of which gives rise to endless study and research. It is necessary to

reply to the innumerable visitors who flock to Rome from all parts, and

to the letters, the petitions, and the batches of documents which are

submitted and require to be distributed among the various offices. And

Pierre was struck by the deep and discreet silence in which all this

colossal labour was accomplished; not a sound reaching the streets from

the tribunals, parliaments, and factories for the manufacture of saints

and nobles, whose mechanism was so well greased, that in spite of the

rust of centuries and the deep and irremediable wear and tear, the whole

continued working without clank or creak to denote its presence behind

the walls. And did not that silence embody the whole policy of the

Church, which is to remain mute and await developments? Nevertheless what

a prodigious mechanism it was, antiquated no doubt, but still so

powerful! And amidst those Congregations how keenly Pierre felt himself

to be in the grip of the most absolute power ever devised for the

domination of mankind. However much he might notice signs of decay and

coming ruin he was none the less seized, crushed, and carried off by that

huge engine made up of vanity and venality, corruption and ambition,

meanness and greatness. And how far, too, he now was from the Rome that

he had dreamt of, and what anger at times filled him amidst his

weariness, as he persevered in his resolve to defend himself!

* It is from the Dataria that bulls, rescripts, letters of

appointment to benefices, and dispensations of marriage,

are issued, after the affixture of the date and formula

_Datum Romae_, "Given at Rome."--Trans.

All at once certain things which he had never understood were explained

to him. One day, when he returned to the Propaganda, Cardinal Sarno spoke

to him of Freemasonry with such icy rage that he was abruptly

enlightened. Freemasonry had hitherto made him smile; he had believed in

it no more than he had believed in the Jesuits. Indeed, he had looked

upon the ridiculous stories which were current--the stories of

mysterious, shadowy men who governed the world with secret incalculable

power--as mere childish legends. In particular he had been amazed by the

blind hatred which maddened certain people as soon as Freemasonry was

mentioned. However, a very distinguished and intelligent prelate had

declared to him, with an air of profound conviction, that at least on one

occasion every year each masonic Lodge was presided over by the Devil in

person, incarnate in a visible shape! And now, by Cardinal Sarno's

remarks, he understood the rivalry, the furious struggle of the Roman

Catholic Church against that other Church, the Church of over the way.*

Although the former counted on her own triumph, she none the less felt

that the other, the Church of Freemasonry, was a competitor, a very

ancient enemy, who indeed claimed to be more ancient than herself, and

whose victory always remained a possibility. And the friction between

them was largely due to the circumstance that they both aimed at

universal sovereignty, and had a similar international organisation, a

similar net thrown over the nations, and in a like way mysteries, dogmas,

and rites. It was deity against deity, faith against faith, conquest

against conquest: and so, like competing tradesmen in the same street,

they were a source of mutual embarrassment, and one of them was bound to

kill the other. But if Roman Catholicism seemed to Pierre to be worn out

and threatened with ruin, he remained quite as sceptical with regard to

the power of Freemasonry. He had made inquiries as to the reality of that

power in Rome, where both Grand Master and Pope were enthroned, one in

front of the other. He was certainly told that the last Roman princes had

thought themselves compelled to become Freemasons in order to render

their own difficult position somewhat easier and facilitate the future of

their sons. But was this true? had they not simply yielded to the force

of the present social evolution? And would not Freemasonry eventually be

submerged by its own triumph--that of the ideas of justice, reason, and

truth, which it had defended through the dark and violent ages of

history? It is a thing which constantly happens; the victory of an idea

kills the sect which has propagated it, and renders the apparatus with

which the members of the sect surrounded themselves, in order to fire

imaginations, both useless and somewhat ridiculous. Carbonarism did not

survive the conquest of the political liberties which it demanded; and on

the day when the Catholic Church crumbles, having accomplished its work

of civilisation, the other Church, the Freemasons' Church of across the

road, will in a like way disappear, its task of liberation ended.

Nowadays the famous power of the Lodges, hampered by traditions, weakened

by a ceremonial which provokes laughter, and reduced to a simple bond of

brotherly agreement and mutual assistance, would be but a sorry weapon of

conquest for humanity, were it not that the vigorous breath of science

impels the nations onwards and helps to destroy the old religions.

* Some readers may think the above passages an exaggeration, but

such is not the case. The hatred with which the Catholic

priesthood, especially in Italy, Spain, and France, regards

Freemasonry is remarkable. At the moment of writing these lines

I have before me several French clerical newspapers, which

contain the most abusive articles levelled against President

Faure solely because he is a Freemason. One of these prints, a

leading journal of Lyons, tells the French President that he

cannot serve both God and the Devil; and that if he cannot give

up Freemasonry he would do well to cease desecrating the abode

of the Deity by his attendance at divine service.--Trans.

However, all Pierre's journeyings and applications brought him no

certainty; and, while stubbornly clinging to Rome, intent on fighting to

the very end, like a soldier who will not believe in the possibility of

defeat, he remained as anxious as ever. He had seen all the cardinals

whose influence could be of use to him. He had seen the Cardinal Vicar,

entrusted with the diocese of Rome, who, like the man of letters he was,

had spoken to him of Horace, and, like a somewhat blundering politician,

had questioned him about France, the Republic, the Army, and the Navy

Estimates, without dealing in the slightest degree with the incriminated

book. He had also seen the Grand Penitentiary, that tall old man, with

fleshless, ascetic face, of whom he had previously caught a glimpse at

the Boccanera mansion, and from whom he now only drew a long and severe

sermon on the wickedness of young priests, whom the century had perverted

and who wrote most abominable books. Finally, at the Vatican, he had seen

the Cardinal Secretary, in some wise his Holiness's Minister of Foreign

Affairs, the great power of the Holy See, whom he had hitherto been

prevented from approaching by terrifying warnings as to the possible

result of an unfavourable reception. However, whilst apologising for

calling at such a late stage, he had found himself in presence of a most

amiable man, whose somewhat rough appearance was softened by diplomatic

affability, and who, after making him sit down, questioned him with an

air of interest, listened to him, and even spoke some words of comfort.

Nevertheless, on again reaching the Piazza of St. Peter's, Pierre well

understood that his affair had not made the slightest progress, and that

if he ever managed to force the Pope's door, it would not be by way of

the Secretariate of State. And that evening he returned home quite

exhausted by so many visits, in such distraction at feeling that little

by little he had been wholly caught in that huge mechanism with its

hundred wheels, that he asked himself in terror what he should do on the

morrow now that there remained nothing for him to do--unless, indeed, it

were to go mad.

However, meeting Don Vigilio in a passage of the house, he again wished

to ask him for some good advice. But the secretary, who had a gleam of

terror in his eyes, silenced him, he knew not why, with an anxious

gesture. And then in a whisper, in Pierre's ear, he said: "Have you seen