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    but to attend the mass and confession is our duty . If you wanted to hear preaching you should have been here during LeiiU " Shortly after my arrival I witnessed the grand procession of the last of tha Octave , or eight days' Festival of Corpus Domini , or Corpus Christi , as the Church of England calls it * It would require a greater familiarity with the technical terms of ecclesiastical millinery and jewellery to be able to describe

    the splendid scene in appropriate terms , and probably a greater degree of patience in your readers to peruse the description * than either of us possess * Suffice it to say , that on this occasion , both the mother and the infant appeared in their costliest attire . An interest was , however , given to the gaudy scene which such exhibitions do not possess in Rome , nor in any Catholic country I have been in , except the Pays Bas , from the appearance of sincere contrition and devotion in the multitude who were present , and even in the

    court and royal family who took part in it . The whole concluded with the elevation of the cross in the hands of the archbishop and the trine benedio * tion of the spectators in the name of the Three Persons of the Trinity . At the instant of the elevation the whole multitude ( who it must be owned had been chattering and laughing the moment before ) fell on their knees , and with all the outward signs of the utmost anguish , and many of them with tears actually rolling down their faces , muttered prayers as fast as it was pos- *

    sible for lips to move , and then starting up , the whole pageant being over , scrambled home as fast as their legs could carry them . If there be a strange mixture of the grave and the ludicrous in the description , this is not the faull of the describer . The same strange combination is there in all the popish observances as witnessed in the kingdom of Naples . I have repeatedly stood by while a large company of devotees were performing a vow of singing a certain number of hymns at a particular shrine of the Virgin , ( probably

    composed for the occasion , ) and while I have observed some whose hearts , one would suppose , were ready to break with the strength of their emotions , I have seen others who , with roguish eyes , were tipping one another the wink to sing a little louder and more extravagantly then before , and as soon as it was done , the whole party rattled away laughing , joking , and pushing one another . In France , religion and its votaries are turned into ridicule . At Naples its votaries save the infidel the trouble , by directing the ridicule

    against themselves , and joining heartily in the laugh they excite . That some are from the first sincere , and that the hearts of others become touched by the mere putting on the semblance of so much feeling , I do not doubt ; yet , from all I have seen , I am persuaded that by the mass of the people , as well as by the philosophic few , Popery is considered as an amusement , which serves to keep them from ennui the whole year round . In the early part of the year there are the street-preachers , of whose performances , although I

    have had no opportunity of hearing them , I have received accounts on which I could depend . A gentleman who resides in the principal p lace or square informed me , that last winter , while Pulcinella was exhibiting under his window , a monk set up the signal of the huge wooden cross and erected his little wooden pulpit opposite to his rival candidate for public attention . " My friends / ' he began , " you are all fond of Pulcinella , I will shew you

    1 •* • A « , /» . * " ** AVI 11 the true one , " producing an image of the infant Christ . And he proceeded to deliver an allegorical or typical discourse on the actions of punch , which greatly diverted his audience . On another occasion an English traveller informed me , that a monk , whom he heard , proposed that his black skull-cap should represent an infidel , with whom he would hold an argument . The infidel was not only triumphantly replied to , but violently shaken for his ob-

    Untitled Article

    Narrative of a Residence - of Four Months at Naples . 25

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1828, page 25, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2556/page/25/