548 RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT -III 



functory fashion. At the close of the service, the Pope, 

 being borne on his throne by Roman nobles, surrounded 

 by cardinals and princes, and wearing the triple crown, 

 gave his blessing to the city and to the world. There 

 must have been over ten thousand of us in the piazza to 

 receive it, and no one could have performed his part more 

 perfectly. Arising from his throne, and stretching forth 

 his hands with a striking gesture, he chanted a benedic 

 tion heard by every one present, even to the remotest 

 corners of the square. Many years afterward, Lord Odo 

 Eussell, British ambassador at Berlin, on my mention 

 ing the splendor of this ceremony to him, said to me, 

 &quot;Yes, you are right; but it was on one of those occasions 

 that I discovered that the Pope was mortal.&quot; On my 

 asking him how it was, he said, &quot;I had occasion, as the 

 British diplomatic representative, to call on Pope Pius 

 IX on Easter Monday, and, after finishing my business 

 with him, told him that I had been present at the benedic 

 tion in front of St. Peter s on the day before, and had 

 been much impressed by the beauty of his voice; and I 

 added, Your Holiness must have been trained as a 

 singer. At this the Pope was evidently greatly pleased, 

 and answered, You are right, I was trained as a singer; 

 but you ought to have heard me two or three years ago. 



But while these great services at St. Peter s in those 

 halcyon days were perfect in their kind, the same could 

 not be said of many others. The worst that I ever saw- 

 one which especially dwells in my memory was at Pisa. 

 I had previously visited the place and knew it well, so 

 that when, one Sunday morning, a Canadian clergyman 

 at the hotel wished to go to the cathedral, I offered to 

 guide him. He was evidently a man of deep sincerity, 

 and, as was soon revealed by his conversation, of high- 

 church and even ritualistic tendencies; but, to my great 

 surprise, he remarked that he had never attended service 

 in a Roman Catholic church. Arriving at the cathedral 

 too late for the high celebration, we walked down the 

 nave until we came to a side altar where a priest was 



