IN THE EUROPEAN ATMOSPHERE -1853 -1856 547 



and here was the result. Experience of Bussian life is 

 hardly calculated to increase, in any thinking man, con 

 fidence in its divine origin or guidance. One bears in 

 mind at such times the words of the blessed Founder of 

 Christianity himself, &quot;By their fruits ye shall know 

 them.&quot; 



But the most unfavorable impression was made upon 

 me in Italy. It was the palmy period of reactionary 

 despotism. Hapsburgs in the north, Neapolitan Bour 

 bons in the south, petty tyrants scattered through the 

 country, all practically doing their worst; and, in their 

 midst, Pius IX, maintained in the temporal power by 

 French bayonets. It was the time when the little Jewish 

 child Mortara was taken from his parents, in spite of 

 their agonizing appeals to all Europe; when the Madiai 

 family were imprisoned for reading the Bible with their 

 friends in their own house ; when monks swarmed every 

 where, gross and dirty; when, at the centers of power, 

 the Jesuits had it all their own way, as they generally 

 do when the final exasperating impulse is needed to bring 

 on a revolution. All old abuses of the church were at 

 their highest flavor. So far as ceremonial was concerned, 

 nothing could be more gorgeous than the services at St. 

 Peter s as conducted by Pope Pius IX. For such duties 

 no one could be better fitted ; for he was handsome, kindly, 

 and dignified, with a beautiful, ringing voice. 



During Holy Week of 1856 I was present at various 

 services in which he took the main part, in the Sistine 

 Chapel and elsewhere ; but most striking of all were his 

 celebration of pontifical high mass beneath the dome of 

 St. Peter s on Easter morning, and his appearance on 

 the balcony in front of the cathedral afterward. The 

 effect of the first ceremony was somewhat injured by the 

 easy-going manners of some of the attendant cardinals. 

 It was difficult to imagine that they believed really in 

 the tremendous doctrine involved in the mass when one 

 saw them taking snuff in the midst of the most solemn 

 prayers, and going through the whole in the most per- 



