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Untitled Article
the supervision of the Government , instead of mere spiritual visitation from the heads of the order , subject to appeal to Rome , Were certain disorders among some nuns , whose absurdities make a great figure in the Memoirs , and occupy a space which decency and good taste would rather have abridged . The exposures , however , to which they gave rise , shewed the remissness of those who vindicated to themselves the sole authority over these matters , and the extent to which corruption , or a desire of concealing scandals , induced the authorities at Rome to screen offenders .
Ricci ' s next efforts were successively directed to co-operating in measures by which , sometimes with vigour on the part of the Government and some-, times much vacillation , the Inquisition was abolished , — the education of the clergy improved by ecclesiastical academies in which they could be educated at home , —the catechisms and other books of instructions reformed { of course , according to Ricci ' s peculiar views , by a plentiful admixture of Jansenism ) , —the abuse of the feasts of the Church remedied , —ecclesiastical
synods of the clergy of each state appointed to meet every two years for the regulation of all spiritual matters without reference to Rome , —the patrimony of the Church equally administered , for the adequate but moderate support of every department of the clergy , under the superintendence of the State , and independent of all controul or influence from the court of Rome , —provision made for the secularization of those whose vows had been improperly obtained , —matrimonial dispensations placed in the controul of the diocesans so as to prevent one heavy source of pecuniary tribute to the tribunals of Rome , —the authority and privileges of the clergy in temporals altogether abolished , and that of the state recognized to the full extent necessary to its effectual authority over every class of its subjects , — . and , in short , every measure adopted to counteract the authority and inter * ference of the Bishop of Rome , whose infallibility Ricci altogether denied , and whose encroachments on the free exercise of the power of the civil authorities over their subjects , and of the liberty of the latter , he stoutly re ~ sisted .
To most of Leopold ' s measures of reform , the Pope , finding no prospect of successful resistance , had been obliged to submit ; and , as a final blow at the allegiance attempted to be enforced by Rome over the subjects of other states , the oaths of allegiance to that court required of the bishops were under consideration , for the purpose of being remodelled , when circumstances occurred to defeat the whole scheme of reformation . It may well "be expected that the Grand Duke , situated so near the focus of power mid intrigue , and with a population long enslaved and easily excited to a ^ subserviency to the views of the Church , met with obstinate resistance ,
and it would appear that Ricci ' s peculiar and ascetic views were not the best calculated ( notwithstanding the zeal with which he united in most of the views of the head of the Government ) to ensure its cordiality , or to enlist on his side those whose views were more liberal . We can easily imagine that many were inclined to hesitate whether they should gain , by exchanging even the extortions , coupled with the practical laxities and indulgences , of the Roman system , for the severe internal discipline and Calvinistic dogmatism of the Reformer .
A Synod of the clergy of the diocese was held at Pistoia in 1786 , at which the Bishop ' s reforms were digested and established ; but a general meeting of the higher clergy , held soon , after , was indiscreetly dealt with and found unmanageable . Leopold followed up his work feebly ; his ministry fiad been found to cabal against the innovations , and he himself was called
Untitled Article
ftemeit . —Life of Scipio de meet . $ 09
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 509, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/37/
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