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Untitled Article
now the pleasing task of following him step by step through the whole twelve years of his episcopal functions , by his own authority , or through his influence with the prince , signalizing every year by the removal of some ancient abuse or modem corruption , and by the diffusion of new rays of light upon the most important subjects which can occupy the attention of the human race . Having resolved on his plan of life , be thought that reform should begin with its proposeis ; and considering the union of the two sees of Pistoia and
PTato to be injurious to the interests of religion , he proposed to the Grand Duke to disunite them by erecting Prato into a separate diocese , for the maintenance of which he generously offered the half of his own revenues . This generous offer was accepted by Leopold ; but the arrangements with the tardy Court of Rome could not be completed in his life-time , and the design was abandoned . As , although of a distinguished family , his private property was very inconsiderable , this trait in his character places Ricci at once in a higher scale of beings from the avaricious , intriguing , trafficking ecclesiastics by whom he was surrounded .
The first object which engaged the attention of the reforming bishop , was that of monastic institutions . One of the most crying abuses of the church , one of the most flagrant perversions of the doctrine of Christ , and one of the worst pests of society , is the maintenance of a countless host of ignorant and therefore fanatical , of idle and therefore licentious , monks . The amiable Bishop of Pistoia had no power , nor would his principles have allowed him ,
to strike at the root of the evil ; this cancer in the bosom of society being reserved for the extirpating knife of the French Revolution . But he did all that the times allowed him , to assuage the worst symptoms of the disorder . What had formerly been the general character of the Tuscan monks , and we may add those of all other countries , we learn from accredited authors , whose pages ( where their pens were not tied down by the fear of provoking their power ) are filled with complaints of their vices , Boccaccio , who wrote in
the fourteenth century , thus expresses himself : " The friars were in former times most holy and worthy men , but those of this day have nothing remaining to them of their predecessors , except it be the cowl ; and whereas the ancient friars desired , above all other things , the salvation of men , those of our days desire nothing so much as riches and wantonness . All their occupation consists in frightening silly people by means of pictures and idle discourse , and overpersuading them to be for ever purifying their own sins and
those of their ancestors by alms and masses , in order that those who have betaken themselves to the monasteries , because they were too idle to work , may receive their bread from one , their wine from another , and from a third a good present in money . Considering that the more self-denying other men are , the more the friars may live at their ease , they are continually railing against men ' s luxuries , in order that of the forsaken pleasures of the reproved , tlie reprovers may take possession . They loudly condemn usury and unjust gains , in order that , restitution being made , " ( not to the injured
party , but to the friars themselves , ) " they may enlarge their own cloaks , and purchase bishoprics and other preferments with that money which , according to them , must cause the damnation of the souls of those who possess it . Dost thou not see , that if thou squanderest all thy money in pleafcures , the friar cannot fatten in his cloister ? That if thou be not a patient man , and a forgiver of wrongs , the friar cannot contaminate thy family with impunity ? Yet , not like those who have paradise to gain like ourselves , but as lords and possessors of it , do they apportion to every man that dies a better or a worse place , according to the sum of money he has left . "
Untitled Article
444 Memoir o / Scipio de Rice ) .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1828, page 444, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2562/page/12/
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