THEOPHOBIA: ITS CAUSE 41 



ment sent from heaven, as, indeed, it may be ; 

 but, " if anyone was ill it showed that ' the Lord's 

 hand was extended in chastisement,' and much 

 prayer was poured forth in order that it might 

 be explained to the sufferer, or to his relations, 

 in what he or they had sinned. People would, for 

 instance, go on living over a cesspool, working 

 themselves up into an agony to discover how they 

 had incurred the displeasure of the Lord, but 

 never moving away." One last instance, the most 

 remarkable of all, and we may leave this book. 

 It need hardly be said that a father of the kind 

 depicted in this book would have a holy horror of 

 the Catholic Church, and he had. He " wel- 

 comed any social disorder in any part of Italy, 

 as likely to be annoying to the Papacy." He 

 " celebrated the announcement in the newspapers 

 of a considerable emigration from the Papal 

 dominions, by rejoicing at this outcrowding of 

 many, throughout the harlot's domain, from her 

 sin and her plagues," and he even carried his 

 hatred so far as to denounce the keeping of Christ- 

 mas, which to him was nothing less than an act of 

 idolatry. 



On a certain Christmas Day, the servants, 

 greatly daring, disobeyed the order of their master 

 and actually had the audacity to make a small plum- 

 pudding for themselves. Actuated by pity, no 

 doubt, and by a feeling of kindness towards a 

 small boy deprived of all the joys of the season, 

 they pressed a slice of this pudding upon the son, 

 who succumbed very naturally to the tempta- 

 tion, Shortly after, however, being afflicted 



