Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber : $b or, The influence of Romanism on trade, justice, and knowledgeWylie, J. A. (James Aitken)
History
Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber : $b or, The influence of Romanism on trade, justice, and knowledge
Wylie, J. A. (James Aitken)
Catholic Church -- Italy; Italy -- Description and travel
But emphatically _the_ order at Rome is the Jesuits. They are the prime
movers in all that is done there, as well as the keenest supporters of
the Papacy in all parts of the world. They are the most indefatigable
confessors, as well as the most eloquent preachers. Their regularity is
like that of nature itself. Every hour of the day has its duty; and
their motions are as punctual as that of the heavenly bodies. Duly every
morning as the clock strikes five, they are at the altar or in the
confessional. Their head-quarters are at the Gesu. I shall suppose that
the reader is passing through the long corridor of that magnificent
church. Every three or four paces is a door, leading to a small
apartment, which is occupied by a father. Outside each door hangs a
sheet of paper, on which the father puts a list of the employments for
the day. When he goes out, he sticks a pin opposite the piece of
business which has called him away, so that, should any one call and
find him not within, he can know at once, by consulting the card, how
the father is occupied, and whether he is accessible at that particular
time. Among the items of business which usually appear on the card,
"conference" is now one of very frequent occurrence, which indicates no
inconsiderable amount of business, having reference to foreign parts, at
present on the hands of the order.
I shall suppose that the reader is passing along the Corso. Has he
marked that tall thin man who has just passed him,
"Walking in beauty like the night?"
There is an air of tidiness in his dress, and of comparative cleanliness
on his person. He wears a small round cap, with three corners; or, if a
hat, one of large brim. Neither cowl nor scapular fetters his motions; a
plain black gown, not unlike a frock-coat, envelopes his person. How
softly his footsteps fall! You scarce hear their sound as he glides past
you. His face, how unruffled! As the lake, when the winds are asleep,
hides under a moveless surface, resplendent as a sheet of gold, the dark
caverns at its bottom, so does this calm, impassable face the workings
of the heart beneath. This man holds in his hands the threads of a
conspiracy which is exploding at that moment, mayhap in China, or in the
Pacific, or in Peru, or in London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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