but if any such were needed, we might find it in the villainous lines which Lord Byron wrote in connection with a certain trip on board the _Lisbon_ packet. To the present hour, in Italy, the popular oaths are in close alliance with the Romanist faith. The ordinary exclamation "_Per l'ostia_" is the equivalent of "God's bread!" that so long did duty in England of the pre-Reformation era. A modern traveller has noticed how distinct an impress has been set upon Italian swearing by the particular notions of heavenly beings that are inculcated by the national creed. A workman in an art-studio was heard vociferating in such terms as "_Per Christo_," "_Per sangue di Christo_," "_Per maladetto sangue di Christo_," whereupon the following conversation occurred:-- "Do you forget who Christ is, that you thus blaspheme Him?" "Bah!" replied the man, "I am not afraid of Him." "Who, then, do you fear?" "I'm afraid of the Madonna, and not of Him." The fact was that the Mother of God was the sole being the mind was brought to esteem with feelings of veneration. Christ was only the _bambino_, or infant in arms, and nothing more.[23] The state of feeling that still prevails in Italy should go far to explain the presence in pre-Reformation England of this widely-spread body of irreverent swearing. With the Reformation, however, the contagion was shortly to abate. The severer authors at the close of the sixteenth century do not have to complain so bitterly of these jarring elements of vituperation. In the literature of the stage there is a marked improvement: in none but the earlier of the Elizabethan comedies do the characters accentuate their meaning by reference to the grossest description of blasphemy. When expletives occur they are generally in the spirit of derision and lampoon. As the writings of the stage grew more robust, the custom altogether wore away. It may, indeed, be held that the subversion of the Catholic religion was mainly, if not entirely, accountable for the change. There is certainly a marked distinction between the oaths of the outgoing and incoming creeds. But if we have been finally spared from the ravages of the infection, we may attribute our deliverance to that reserve of reverence of which we have spoken as possessed by English laymen, and to the pious devices that were practised upon it by the inferior orders of preachers.