On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
est order , or that of the priests , was mir th longer and irfore minute . "Aftef the prescribed change had been made in their dress , the Cardinal placed his two hands on the head of each successively , pronouncing in Latin ( as far as my friend and I could make them out ) words to this effect : * ' Receive the power of performing mass for the living and the dead . " , Each of the young men , as soon as he had received this commission , kneeled down oh the floor opposite the Cardinal , and all the other priests present came and placed their two hands on the head of each . A singularity in this part of the service was , that the Cardinal held both his hands stretched out while the clergy were imposing theirs , and the latter walked back to their seats with theirs in the
same position which they had occupied during the imposition . The Car- * dinal then read from a book a short account of the duties which the priests had to perform ; after which they advanced with their hands before them in the attitude of prayer , and had them anointed with holy oil . One of the attendants bound their wrists together with a white handkerchief , and after they had remained in this position for a short time , they were set at liberty , and water was brought them to wash . These multifarious ceremonies ,
together with the . prayers and chants which intervened , occupied so long a time , that I was glad to make my escape at last , without waiting to hear the newly-ordained priests join with the Cardinal in celebrating mass ; for this , I understood , was all that now remained to be done . I came away with the impression that the ceremonial which I had just witnessed might be a very good introduction to the official duties of a religion which consists in show and acting , but that it was miserably deficient if regarded as the entrance on a ministry which has for its object to speak to the consciences of moral being $ , and awaken them to a sense of their best and noblest interests .
In the afternoon I took a walk to the Capitol , or , as it is now called , the Caropidoglio . There is no one spot which is more intimately connected than this with the glory of ancient Rome , and there is none which more disappoints the expectation . The ascent to it from the westward is so gentle , and the hill itself is of such moderate elevation , that it is difficult to bring one ' s-self to believe that this was the mount to which the Romans fled , and on which they so long defended themselves against the Gauls . Such a hill as this , Pontius Cominius would have had but little difficulty in
climbing to tell his countrymen that Camillus was coming to their relief . The fact is , that the modem town is raised twenty , thirty , or even forty feet above the level of the old ; the summit of the hill , too , has probabl y been lowered , and the whole face and form of it changed in the course of time , so that its present appearance is altogether different from what it must have been in the earl y period of the Republic . The disappointment which I felt on arriving at the Capitoline hill was by no means diminished on reaching
the top , where , instead of the relics of ancient buildings which , however imperfect , might have served to recal the times gone by , I found nothing but three modem structures erected after the designs of ttuonarotti . These are not by any means in bad taste , but they are not what we look for on the Capitol . Thence I descended into the Forum Romanum ^ and traversed its whole extent , meditating on the many great and wonderful events which had there occurred . It was here that Cicero spoke , and that Pompey entered in
triumph ; it was here that the aged senators were murdered in cold blood b y the soldiers of Brennus , and that most of those contests took place which render the Roman history little more than a series of struggles between the power of the people and that of the patricians . But the bustle and activity which here prevailed are hushed for ever ; the Forum is turned into a mar-
Untitled Article
Journal of ? a Tour on the Continent . 745
Untitled Article
vol . ii . 3 g
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1828, page 745, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2566/page/17/
-