[36] Alluding to the ceremony in the creation of a cardinal, in which the pope first shuts the cardinal's mouth and then opens it. [37] Teoli: Life of Vincenzo Perreri. Rome, 1825; Naples, 1837. [38] The translator of these pages was residing at Rome at the period of this man's apprehension, and was credibly informed that the statement of the cruelties; and atrocities he had practised towards a boy, an orphan nephew, were so appalling, as to draw tears from the eyes of Gregory XVI., then reigning Pontiff. CHAPTER IX. MY CONVERSION. THE aversion which from this time I conceived for everything savouring of Romanism,--pope, cardinals, bishops, priests, and friars,--proceeded, no doubt, from the change which for several years had been working in my mind. I already was no longer a papist, for I had long ceased to believe in many doctrines which are matters of faith in the Romish Church. I will now state how this was brought about. While holding the head professorship of theology, in the college of Santa Maria di Gradi, at Viterbo, and advocating and teaching, with great zeal, the Romish doctrine, a very nourishing school, not only of Dominican students, of which the college consisted, but likewise of other friars and priests, used daily to attend my lectures, and be present at our _circolo_, or "circle," as we call our meeting for scholastic exercise, when a theological proposition is given, and defended by a professor and a student, while other professors and students raise objections. The exercise is in Latin, and in the logical form of reasoning as held by Aristotle. I had ordered that this exercise should take place three times a-week; the theological lectures were five in number during that period, and it sometimes fell to my turn to defend, while the others objected. One day I was defending the doctrine of transubstantiation; one of the best disciples in the school, whose name I feel a pleasure in mentioning--Father Baldassare Conti, a Roman, who afterwards filled the professor's chair of theology in the Minerva, at Rome, with much honour, was on my side.