but that by this means I had the fairest Opportunity I could wish for to penetrate all the Secrets of Monkery for they kept nothing from me and tho' I was not one of them yet I liv'd and continually Convers'd with them neither was any thing hid from me Wherefore I may say without boasting That I can speak of the Monastick-way of Living upon good grounds which I intend to do in my next LETTER to you As for this I have now in hand as I have already begun it with giving you some account of the Manner of their Processions so I intend to prosecute the same Subject and the rather because I find here in this City Matter enough to Stuff it out and such as is very curious too and therefore hope that the Recital I shall make of it will not prove unacceptable or tedious to you I shall begin with the Processions which are celebrated during the Octave or Week of the Holy Sacrament in the City of Bononia The Feast of the Holy Sacrament having been instituted on purpose to make the Host to Triumph as the Papists say they omit nothing that may render that Day and the Week following the most pompous and solemn that may be They make many fine Processions and carry the Consecrated Host which they say is the Living Body of our Saviour Jesus Christ through their Streets with very Magnificent Shows and Ceremonies In France it is the Custom on this occasion to Adorn the Fronts of Houses with curious Tapestries and to strew the Streets with Flowers and sweet smelling Herbs They erect Oratories or Repositories as they call them at certain distances there to repose the Holy Sacrament as if it were very weary with the March it had taken They Dress up abundance of Little Children like Angels to strew Flowers in the Way before it and to Incense it And in a word they make a Thousand Idolatrous Prostrations and Adorations to it In Germany they Adorn all their Streets with the Branches of Trees on both sides of them by this means turning their Cities into Parks or Forests or rather into Fine Gardens whereof every Street represents a Long Walk as far as one could see all set with Trees and Verdure But Italy being the most ingenious of them all as well as the most Superstitious does by many degrees excel all other Nations that profess the Roman Catholick Religion and the City Bononia exceeds the rest of Italy in her Famous celebration of the Octave of the Holy Sacrament Besides the great General Procession which is made throughout that City the Thursday after Trinity Sunday which is the Day appointed for that Feast at which all the Clergy both Regular and Secular with all the Magistrates of the City do assist there are every Year Three Parishes appointed to furnish and make the Preparatives for the Octave and having discharged their Turn they are quit of that Expence for Twelve or Fourteen years after until all the rest have had theirs this being a very Chargeable Office About a Fortnight or Three Weeks before the Feast they Barricado all the Entries of the Streets of those Parishes to hinder Horses and Carts from passing that way that the Workmen may apply themselves to their Work without disturbance The Chief Work and that which is most painful and takes up most Time is to cover all the Streets and Walls with Veils of Silk which are the Manufactory of that City and to form them into Figures and Histories The several Parishes when their Turn comes strive to outvy one another in some New Invention or other Some with these Little Veils represent all manner of Birds others all Four-footed Beasts insomuch that a Man cannot so much as imagine any whole Figure is not to be found there Others endeavour to represent in the said Silken Figures Huntings Battels Triumphs and in a word an infinite Variety of things extreamly pleasing to the Eye Moreover they expose to publick View in the Streets all the most curious Pictures which the Inhabitants of those Parishes are Masters of not excepting the Profane ones themselves amongst which are to be seen many infamous Naked Pictures and Grotesques to cause Laughter The Bononians are extreamly curious in Pictures all their Closets Halls and Chambers are full hung with them and forasmuch as they expose them to publick View at this time Travellers meet with the satisfaction of seeing very Rare and Curious Pieces of Art Over and above all this Altars are erected almost in every Corner of the Streets set forth and adorn'd with Statues Images and Vessels of Gold and Silver and upon every Altar there is always a Representation to the Life of some Mystery of our Religion or of some Saint The Houses of the Great Lords of those Parishes that furnish the Ornament of the Feast are open to all As long as this Feast lasts they take Care to adorn their Chambers the most sumptuously they can and to expose all their Riches to view There be some of them so splendid and liberal to bestow Cooling Liquors called Sorbetti upon all Comers or at least upon all persons who appear never so little Considerable and in their Courts or Gardens they have Fountains Running with Wine in great abundance for the Common People All things being thus prepared the Procession begins This is a Work on which the Priests exhaust their Invention and rack their Brain to bring forth something New and Unlook'd for that may please the Spectators They dress up a great many Little Children like Angles with Wings at their Backs they make very lively Representations of all the Figures and Types mention'd in the Old Testament which they conceive did prefigure their Holy Sacrament as Abraham's Sacrificing of his Son Isaac the Offering of Melchisedeck the Shew-Bread the Paschal Lamb c. They represent all the Prophets and Sibyls that have Prophecied of our Saviour And last of all they make a Show of the Blessed Virgin the Twelve Apostles and our Saviour who follows them with a Loaf in his Hand as if he were about to break it as he did at the Celebration of his Holy Supper Besides these they also give us the Representations of many of their He and She Saints which were the most devoted to the Holy Sacrament as S. Thomas Aquinas S. Anthony of Padua S. Rose of Viterbo c. All these they represent not in Figures to the Life but Living Figures that is young Boys and Girls chusing the prettiest and handsomest they can meet with Above all I took notice of many Little S. John Baptists amongst them To represent these S. John Baptists they take Little Children of Four or Five years of Age strip them stark Naked and put nothing upon them besides a Colour'd Riband which like a Belt reacheth from their Right Shoulder to their Left Thigh so as it doth not hinder their Nakedness from being expos'd to publick View It is not now only that the Italians are
on Earth of the sacred Colledge of Cardinals and of other Ecclesiasticks than they who are the Eye-witnesses of it neither are there any more concern'd than they to cast off a Yoke which upon other accounts is so insupportable to them One can scarcely call to mind the flourishing condition of those fair Provinces that constitute the Patrimony of S. Peter without shedding of Tears to see them miserably Groaning and Languishing at present under the oppressive Domineering of Priests wholly waste and desolate and deprived of their former Beauty and Ornament Those famous and ancient Cities of Ravenna Benevento Spoleto Perusa Orvietta and so many more which heretofore were the glory of Italy are hardly any thing else at present but heaps of Rubbish occasioned by the insatiable avarice and rapaciousness of Popes True it is that naturally this Country is the most pleasant and Fruitful Territory in the World but withal there is none more bare of Mony The immense Impositions the Pope lays on it have exhausted a great part of it and the Legates he sends thither every three Years strive by all manner of Extortions during their Triennial Government to squeeze out the rest and then return to Rome loaden with the Spoils of that miserable People where they are no sooner arrived but they consume it with as much Prodigality as they had hookt it in by Avarice and Extortion I will not here entertain you with the Grandeur and Luxury of the Roman Court I may have an occasion to give you some account of that more at large hereafter I shall only desire you to tell me whether indeed you do not believe that the Italions have great reason to endeavour to deliver themselves from so oppressive an Usurpation and Tyranny by withdrawing at the same time their Consciences from so intolerable a Slavery and their Estates from the Hands of such merciless Extortioners For my part Sir I cannot question but that if the Learned Writings of the Protestants of the Church of England could one day make their way into this Country and that they would only so far honour them as to give them the Reading I say I doubt not but that Popery whose Foundations they so evidently overturn would find it self at an end Or rather let us say that it shall be thus when it shall please our great God the Father of Lights to enlighten their Minds towards an acknowledgment of their Blindness and to warm their Hearts by his Holy Grace to embrace the Truth that then I say we shall see all Italy turn'd Protestants against their own Errors and composing one Sheepfold with those who so many years ago so courageously protested against them under the one and only Sheepherd of our Souls the Lord Jesus Christ I shall not trouble you Sir with the Relation of other particulars and Curiosities I observed at Genoua forasmuch as my design is not as I have hinted to you before to give you an entire Relation of my Travels but only to single out those Matters that more particularly have some reference to Religion This is that I intend to do from time to time in these my Letters if I find you continuing to give them the same reception wherewith you have favoured my first It being my great wish to Evidence to you with what zeal I am Sir Your c. The Third LETTER Of the Hospitals and Pilgrims of Italy c. TO continue the Account I have undertaken to give you of the Observations I made in my Voyage of Italy relating to Matters of Religion I shall tell you Sir That from Genoua we took our way along the Sea-Coast and in Three days arrived at Sestre an Episcopal See situate on the Sea of Liguria The Bishop of the place received us with a great deal of Civility We had waved going by Sea to Legorne because the Father my Companion could not bear that kind of passage and was besides very fearful of falling into the hands of Pirates None can be imagin'd more Stoical in their Discourses of Death than the Monks are neither are any more Cowardly and Frightful than they when they are in any likelyhood of facing it This made us resolve to pass the Apennine to Luca and from thence continue our Journy through Tuscany The Bishop advised us to take Guides along with us in passing the Mountain forasmuch as otherwise he assur'd us we should run great hazard of being Robb'd that we had a Three days Journy to pass through very Desert and Solitary Ways where we should meet with neither Houses nor Villages except only two or three sorry Inns at Twelve Leagues distance from each other There are always plenty of these Guides at Sestre in a readiness to accompany Travellers being provided with Carbines Blunderbusses Pistols and Bayonets The Custom is to take Two or Three of them or as many as one pleaseth to pass the Mountain paying them Two Crowns apiece Two Genoua Merchants intending the same Way joyn'd Company with us which made us only take Two Guides with us at the Charge of Four Crowns Our Benedictin whom one would have thought a former Journy he had made to Italy should have made more circumspect had a mind to make use of his Wits and to spare the Crown he was to pay for his share to the Guides we had taken saying That he would spare that Mony to make much of himself at the next Inn he should come at that there was no danger at all in passing the Mountain and that all those Guides were a Company of Knaves who made it their business to fright Passengers to get a piece of Mony out of them but that he for his part was resolved they should have none of his Thus having taken Directions of the Way in Writing he went his way Two hours before us For my part I remembred the Counsel the Bishop had given us who was a Venerable Old Man and consider'd that if it were only for the respect that is due to Old Age we ought never where it may be done reject the Advice of such persons For this Reason I joyn'd my self with the Genouese Merchants resolving to go with them attended by our Guides The Benedictin parted from us at Six of the Clock tho' with an intent not to make so much haste but that we might overtake him that so he might have an opportunity of falling again as it were by chance into our Company without being obliged to pay any thing towards the Guides we had taken on our own accounts But so it hapned that very unluckily for him we staid Three hours longer than was intended for we did not leave the City till Eleven of the Clock We were extreamly surprized when at the end of Seven Leagues upon the Mountain we found this poor Monk sitting on a Stone in his Boots Lamenting and all in Tears for the Mishap that had befallen him He had been set upon in the same place by Five Robbers who having
fine Thought of the Monk We need not wonder to find the Roman Catholicks boast of having the Fathers on their side for if at any time they are not so they soon make them come over to them by force and draw them in as we say by Head and Soulders In this case they do imitate another Italian Monk who not being able to make a Passage of S. Chrysostom favour a fine Thought was come into his Head he began to be in a Passion and having chang'd two or three Words in the Text which did in a manner spoil the whole sense of it he said in bad Latin but very expressive of what he would be at Faciam te bene venire and thus forc'd the Text to comply with his foolish Imaginations By this means it is these miserable Monks make those Venerable Ancient Fathers to assert that which they never thought of and can never be found in their Writings and all this is only to feed their Vain-glorious Humor and to obtrude their own Dreams for Authentick Truths own'd and believ'd by the purest Times of Christendom Moreover to set forth these their curious Thoughts with the greater lustre they do adorn them with many quaint Figures of Rhetorick all their Discourse being made up of Metaphors Allusions and Holy Allegories with a taking Elocution and curious select Words and all of them Antitheta or oppos'd to one another wherein the Italian Language is happy beyond others See here the fair and glittering Cup of Gold wherein the Whore mingles her Poyson Lyes and Errors to intoxicate the Souls of Men. This is the Wide Gate by which so many extravagant and dangerous Opinions are entred into the Church of Rome You may easily judge by the Nature of the Pasture of the Condition the Flock is in and by the Qualifications of their New Pastors I mean the Monks the wretched Estate of the Sheepfold committed to their charge These are those Pastors who shear the Wool and feed on the Fattest of the Flock but have little or no concern for the Salvation of their Souls so they may but glut and satisfie their Covetousness and Ambition Loredano a Noble Venetian so Famous in Italy for his witty and curious Compositions Writing to Almorò Grimani at Verona to recommend to him a Preacher of his Acquaintance exprest himself in his Letter to him in these Words Sene viene in cotesta Città il Padre Fra. Girolamo Olivi a far pompa d'Eloquenza nel corso Quadragesimale The Father Jerome Olivi goes to Verona to make a pompous Show of his Eloquence during Lent He saith not That this Monk goes to preach the Gospel or to strive to gain Souls to Jesus Christ but saith That he goes to make a Show of his Eloquence in which Words he very fully expresseth the Motive that puts these Monks upon Preaching I have no words Sir to express to you the Cabals Intriegues Sollicitations and Intercessions that are made to get into the best Pulpits that is to say those where the most Mony or Honour is to be got They interpose the Favour of Grandees and Princes to assure themselves of them and that Four or Five Years before they become Vacant There are some of these Pulpitsâ— that are worth to the Preacher for an Advent and Lent Four hundred Five hundred and Six hundred Crowns yea some of them a Thousand and more without reckoning their Share of the Alms given to the Poor As for those from whence there is no great profit to be expected the press is not so great and as for the poor Parishes in the Countrâ— where nothing at all is to be had there is not a Monk to be found that will bestow so much as one Sermon upon them They have ordinarily no Preaching in Italy save only during Advent and Lent On all other Feasts and Sundays of the Year they have no Sermons at the Parishes and instead thâ—reof they only Sing an High Mass in Musick but the Word of God is not preached at all in them Yet in some Convents of Monks they have Sermons in the Afternoon but these are Sermons peculiar to the Order of which the Monks are and always on the same Subject The Dominicans preach eternally on the Rosary the Carmelites on the Scapulary the Franciscans on the Rope of S. Francis and the Soccolanti have for their Subject S. Anthony of Padua True it is that these Matters are of themselves very dry and barren and I am astonish'd how they can continually make them yield something to Talk of One great Help indeed they have which is that the greatest part of their Sermons is made up of a Relation of Miracles which a Preacher of good Invention may almost with as much ease Coin as Utter The Jesuits also have erected in their Houses Congregations which they denominate from the Blessed Virgin where they preach all Sundays and Holy-days And to the end they may Have at all and draw to them all sorts of People they make a distinction of Persons they have one Congregation for Artizans and Handycraft-men another for Scholars a third for Merchants and a Fourth for Gentlemen and Noblemen They have also Set-days on which they Preach in their Churches to prepare People to Die well They have very happily possest themselves of this Post for it is exceeding gainful and profitable to them Upon this score it is that they are sent for to Exhort the Sick and such as lie at the point of Death which is the most proper time and fairest occasion for them to get themselves put into their Last Wills There is yet another sort of Preachers in Italy which I never saw in any other parts where the Popish Religion is profest These Preachers are call'd Preachers of the Place To give you a more distinct Idea hereof you must know Sir that in the Great Cities of Italy towards Evening when the great Heat of the Day is past the Italians of what Rank or Quality soever they be go and take a Walk in the Piazza Here it is they give Audience and discourse about their Business If any has a mind to meet with any person about that Time the first thing he does is to go and look for him at the Place Here you are sure always to meet with a great number of Ballad-Singers Juglers Mountebanks Fortune-Tellers and other such like who find their greatest profit amongst the greatest Crowds And the People do not fail to get about them for their Diversion and Recreation and amongst these you meet with more Priests and Monks than Lay-men for after they have discharg'd themselves of their Masses in the Morning there are none more Idle than they all the rest of the Day No sooner are the Mountebanks got up to their Stage but at the same time by what Motive or Zeal I know not a Monk with a great Crucifix carried before him with a little Bell they Ring to give Notice of his Coming mounts a
Converting them is totally to exterminate and root them out This is that therefore continued he for which our Fathers do incessantly labour and we hope within a short time to see that God has blest their Endeavours with an answerable Success Indeed when I arrived at London about a Year and half ago the Jesuits were become excessively Insolent Being once occasionally got into Dispute with them and finding themselves pinch'd without being able to answer they began to put it off with Raillery and telling me That all my fine Reasonings would not hinder me from being damn'd at last Another of them more cunning and very probably more Malicious too told me That he had at his Lodging some Invincible Arguments set down in Writing and if I would take the pains to come thither he would easily answer all the Objections I had made against him But I had a care of trusting so honest a Man and I contented my self with telling him That he would do well to go and fetch his Papers or to appoint another place for me to meet him than at his own Lodging But I found him Deaf of that Ear. Soon after I perceiv'd the Jesuits had form'd a Design to make me leave London and to this purpose because they could not do it openly by Force and for that they found me always upon my Guard they sent out a great number of Rogues and Cut-Throats to dog me who follow'd me every where to have an occasion to do me some Mischief but forasmuch as I never went abroad at Night these good Missionaries fail'd of executing their Design and the Happy Revolution that hapned soon after oblig'd them to cast their Thoughts another way One thing here is Remarkable which is That we do not find the Jesuits so zealous to go to other Protestant Countries as they are to come for England for we meet but with very few of them in Switzerland or Germany the Reason is Because England is furnish'd with a Charm that is irresistible for them 't is a Country well stor'd with Mony and could they but once wriggle in themselves to be the Confessors and Directors of all the English Ladies it would be a very pleasing Employment for them Besides it is well known what kind of Life they lead here and that it is nothing less than a Penitential way of Living as they would make others believe Wherefore I cannot see how their Mission can be an infallible Mark of the Truth of the Roman Religion as the Papists pretend But sure I am that this Mark if there must be any at this Time may with greater Justice be attributed to those Zealous Protestant Ministers who having already suffered Imprisonment and Banishment for the Defence of the Gospel are privately return'd to France in the greatest Heat of the Persecution and betaken themselves to those Provinces where they were altogether unknown for to strengthen and encourage their Brethren to persevere in the Profession of the Truth and to endeavour to Raise up those again who by their Frailty had Renounced it Here to be sure were no Temporal Advantages for them to hope for and they could easily be assur'd That in case they were taken in the Fact they would be sent to the Gallies or Condemn'd to Death as hath hapned to many of them But as for the Jesuits they are so well persuaded that they are never like to Suffer any thing here in England upon the account of their Religion that notwithstanding all the Acts of Parliament which are only level'd to prevent their Wicked Designs they still continue here very freely and openly and yet when they are got home they will not be wanting to publish every where as it is their Custom to do That they have been Persecuted Clapt up in Prison Tormented and had certainly been put to Death had not the Intercession of the Blessed Virgin or of some Saint to whom they have devoted themselves most miraculously deliver'd them But 't is time I return again to Italy where I find yet another sort of Missionaries which are not be employ'd in Forein Countries but in Italy it self These are all Monks sometimes of one and sometimes of another Order but mostly Capuchins and yet more ordinarily a certain sort of Fryers which are call'd The Fathers of the Mission These after they have furnish'd themselves with a good Stock of Sermons upon different Subjects they send to Rome and demand a Mission from the Pope that is Leave to go and preach their Sermons in certain Towns and Provinces with all the Indulgences and power to Absolve in reserved as is customarily granted on like occasions The first I ever saw of this sort was at Montefiascone Two days Journy and an half from Rome These were Capuchins who besides their Habit which was very odd and antick with their great Beards they had on their Heads great Red Calots or Close-Caps to signifie their Zeal and the Red-hot Ardour of their Charity for the Conversion of Souls For this if we will believe them is yet another Mark of the True Church For even as the Holy Ghost did visibly descend on the Heads of the Apostles in the form of Fiery Tongues so there are to this day found those Heads in the Church of Rome whom the Fire of Scarlet distinguisheth from others and that this also is the Reason why the Cardinals who are all Divine Love or to speak more truly who ought to be so wear Red Hats and the Pope a Cap of the same colour Well to return to my Red-Caps I had the Curiosity to go and hear them Preach I entred the Church where I saw one of them in the Pulpit with a great Rope or Cord about his Neck and a great Crucifix in his Arms who did his utmost endeavour to excite Sensible Affections in the Hearts of his Auditors The chief Aim of these Preachers is to make the People Weep if they can once effect this they are happy and this is all they desire for this procures them the Reputation of being Great Missionaries and Men of a true Apostolick Spirit To this end they make use of the most tender melting and affectionate Expressions they can think of to draw Tears from their Hearers The Preacher I heard at this time was Paraphrasing the History of the Passion of our Saviour and after he had employ'd his utmost Skill in setting forth our Saviour as the most Lovely and Beautiful of all Men He on the other hand represented those pityless Tormentors who with great Cords tied his Fair Hands white as the Driven-Snow and beat his Lovely Countenance where the Lally and the Rose did urge for Mastery He added to all these Expressions a most lamentable and affecting Tone with Gestures very proper and according to the Subject whereby I perceiv'd that this Father was an excellent Declaimer When on a sudden some good Women wholly melted into Tenderness and Compassion as were those Women of Jerusalem who Wept
this Saint who was a Religious of the Dominican Order had so great a Familiarity with the Child Jesus that that Divine Infant to ease her when she was weary frequently came and swept her Chamber and kindled her Fire After these good She Saints came all those whom they call Figures comprehending all those Holy Women who according to them did represent the Blessed Virgin in the Old Testament they were carried upon Frames on Mens Shoulders Amongst the rest there was Jael to be seen in her Tent with Sisera lying at her Feet who was a Beautiful young Youth drest in the Garb of a Warriour and she with a Great Nail and Hammer making shew as if she had been ready to pierce his Temples After this Figure came a Dalila sitting in an Elbow Chair with a comly young Youth between her knees she had a pair of Scissors in her Hand as if she had been about to cut off his Locks After these appeareth Judith This was a fine Figure indeed for on the Frame where she was there were above Twenty persons it being the Representation of Judiths Return to Bethuliah in Triumph with Holofernes his Head when the Priests and People came out to meet and sung a Song in praise of her This Judith was one of the most Beautiful young Women of Italy and very Lasciviously drest round about her upon the same Frame or Pageant they had placed several excellent Musicians who sung most Ravishing Stanza's in honour of her The following Pageant as if they had a mind to oppose Deformity to Beauty supported a good Old Woman without any Teeth in her Head and very deformed who mutter'd something within her Gums and represented Hannah the Mother of Samuel I was astonish'd to see a Woman of her Age would trust her self on a Pageant She was followed by many more Pageants which were in all Eighteen in number with their different Figures but I shall not insist upon a particular description of any more of them that I may not tire you out and shall only tell you that the last of them all was the Truth of all these Figures and the Person typified viz. the Blessed Virgin who was represented by a very comly and Beautiful Maid very Richly drest with a great Royal Robe she held a great Rosary or Beadrow in her left Hand and in her right Hand a Scepter She had a rich Crown upon her Head set thick with Pearls and Diamonds People of Quality in Italy take it to be a Meritorious piece of Service to accommodate the Saints of both Sexes with their richest Jewels at these Processions which is the Reason that very frequently on these Occasions great Riches are expos'd to view I observed that when this young Woman who represented the Blessed Virgin past by carried on a Pageant no Body stirr'd their Hats no Body bow'd themselves or fell down to Worship her or call upon her but a little while after when the Wooden Image of the Virgin came to pass by them which is the same that stands on the Altar of the Chappel of the Rosary of the Dominicans of Castello all the People fell down on their Knees and beating their Breasts called her the Mother of God and prayed to her They made her at certain distances to bestow her Salutations and Benedictions upon the People in the same manner I related to you speaking of our Lady of S. Luke of Bononia and which were received by them with a great deal of Acknowledgment as a very great Favour Having apply'd my Mind to find out the Reason why the Papists do not pay their Adorations to Living Figures tho' they indeed represent the Virgin more naturally than a piece of Stone or Wood can do and yet are so exact in bestowing them on their Inanimate Statues After having spent some Thoughts upon it I could not light upon any other Reason but this That Human Nature having a kind of Horrour imprest upon it of rendring to the Creature a Worship that is due to GOD only all Living Figures and especially those of Men and Women do more fully discover to the Sense their weak dependent Creatural Being than Inanimate things do in which they suppose there is some secret adherent Divine Virtue Tho' to speak the Truth this is no other than the highest pitch of Folly and the root and rise of all Idolatry But I return to our Procession This Image of Wood was carried in the midst of the Father Dominicans who were to the number of about an Hundred for they having many Convents in Venice they are ready to assist one another upon the like Occasions Nothing can be imagin'd more loose and lascivious than they appear'd in all their Deportment they had great Rosaries on their Arms but there was none of them that troubled himself to say them except it were some Old Father amongst them that was going out of the World and was no more fit to make any Figure in it but all the rest of them strutted and march'd in a most Wanton manner in their Fine white Habits All the way they went they Talk'd and Laugh'd together casting their Eyes this way and that way on the Ladies that look'd out of Windows or stood in the Streets to see the Procession march along I do not think Sir it will be necessary for me to desire you to make some Reflexion on these kind of Proceedings because you cannot but take notice from the Recital I give you what all these Processions aim at Certainly they are at the best no better than Entertainments for Children or rather ridiculous Farces to please Fools but which at the same time expose the Christian Religion to the reproach and derision of Atheists and Infidels Some Persons reported to me of a Truth that they had overheard some Turkish Merchants who were Spectators at this Procession saying to one another Have you ever seen the like Extravagant Fooleries And must not a Man be bereft of his Senses before he can ever be persuaded to embrace such a Religion The Papists boast themselves in this as an infallible Mark of the Truth of their Religion That there is no one Christian Society in the World that take more pains for the Conversion of Infidels and who are blest with greater Success in that Undertaking than themselves But supposing all they say to be True yet I am sure it may be said with much more Truth That there is no Christian Church in the World is a greater Obstacle to the Conversion of Infidels than theirs is and that for One whom they Convert they hinder a Million from being Converted who probably might come to the Light of the Gospel had they not been Eye-witnesses of the gross Folly and Idolatry of their pretended Religious Practices Yea they are even found in the use of those things which make their own Roman Catholicks of Forein Countries to Blush for them when they are told of it The English Papists look upon such
that being an Officer of the Monastery when he went to receive any Rents the Persons concern'd had the greater Respect for him and besides this That it was also very beneficial to fill his own Purse which he shewed me how For as our Monasteries said he are never without Suits at Law every one knows what is the set price of an Assignation a Warrant a Contract an Acquittance and an hundred other Formalities us'd in Law It is sufficient when I give in my Accounts that I have made use of so many Assignations Consultations Acquittances c. which do amount to such a Sum All or most of which is my Profit for sometimes I have disburs'd nothing at all for them I go to the Lawyers the Attorny and Notary with my great Slouching-Hat and in a pitiful Whining-tone I represent to the utmost of my power the extream Poverty of our Monastery and that so effectually as often to move them to compassion and so they either take no Mony at all of me or else content themselves with a very little So that the Mony of these Formalities of Law comes most into my Pocket neither am I oblig'd to give any account thereof to my Superiours as being the fruit and product of my own Industry Whereas said he should I present my self to these Men of the Law with a little Hat and a neat Habit they would presently twit me with a See here a Company of good Fat Monks who live at ease and pleasure and have wherewith to pay well and so they shall and accordingly would make me pay for all these Writings to the utmost Rigour And as for Women said he I am always assur'd That tho' my Person may not please them yet my Mony will and that as long as I am stor'd with that I shall never fail of being Welcom to them The Discourse made me conceive That all those great flapping Hats those old and Thred-bare Cowls the long Beards of the Capuchins and the high Collars of the Jesuits are no certain Proofs as some suppose that those who wear them are good and honest Men. The knowledge also I have had of their Disorders has powerfully convinced me that the Sin of Uncleanness is that which reigns most absolutely and without controul amongst them and that of all these Vowers of Chastity there are but a very few and may be none at all that observe it indeed and in truth for God will never afford his Blessing to foolish Confidences or Rash Vows From all that has been said it will not be difficult to conceive how the Roman Clergy can make away with those vast Revenues they are possessed of this Sin of the Flesh being one of those Vices that requires great Expences to maintain it True it is that Priests and Monks are not all of them equally Rich for there be some of them that have neither Benefices nor Pensions and who consequently are not in a condition to spend as high as others who yet spend proportionably to their Incoms I have known some of them who had nothing to live upon but the Mony they receiv'd for their Masses who did almost starve themselves with Hunger to spare something to enable them to Visit a Whore-House once a Fortnight or at the least once a Month. There are others of them who have such base and mean Souls that they learn Handicrafts and exercise them in private to gain some Mony Yea there be not wanting some of them who learn to make Womens Cloaths as Mantoe's Stays and Petticoats that by this means they may have an occasion of freer access to them some of them profess the Art of Fortune-Telling and some are down-right Negromancers Lastly there be others who are not only base and mean but also Sacrilegious for tho' according to their Principles to celebrate more Masses than one a day be one of the greatest Profanations a man can be guilty of yet these Priests and Monks who sacrifice all that is Sacred and Holy to their own Interest do easily get over this difficulty and say sometimes three or four Masses a day in several places Once on a Holiday I heard Mass said very early in the Morning in the Church of S. Mark at Venice by a poor Priest of my Acquaintance and having occasion the same Morning to go to Muran which is but a little League distant from Venice as I past through a Church I saw the same Priest celebrating another Mass About Two Hours after I was oblig'd to go to a place call'd la Judeka and there I again found the same Priest saying Mass in a Convent of Nuns This Priest turning himself to the People at Dominus vobiscum perceiv'd me and knowing he was discover'd he became seiz'd with such an excessive Fear and Restlesness during the rest of the Mass that he scarcely knew or minded what he said he left out some of the accustomed Collects and Benedictions and after he had consecrated the Cup he forgat to lift it up on high for the People to worship it according to Custom As soon as he had made an end of Saying Mass he put off his Habit with an extraordinary precipitancy and taking his Hat and Cloak ran away without ever demanding his Mony for the Mass he had said I could easily have caus'd him to be seiz'd but knowing it to be a matter belonging to the Inquisition and having never had any liking for that Tribunal I would not concern my self with it Besides I knew that he was not the only Man that was guilty of this Fault but that many others committed the same every day My Pen is weary of setting down all those infamous and scandalous Actions but yet because there is no Evil from whence some great Good may not be drawn I heartily wish Sir that from what I have here written as well as in all my other LETTERS you may at least derive this Benefit to be convinc'd That the first Argument which put me upon Writing these LETTERS and upon which you rely so much for your confirmation in the Romish Religion is a very poor weak and dangerous one viz. That it is not possible that such a great number of Monks and Priests who sit at the Helm of your Church should be all of them in an Error and consequently that they may be very safely rely'd upon This is one of those Arguments we call Circulus Vitiosus a Vicious or Faulty Circle The Seculars repose themselves in matters of Faith upon the Priests and Monks and if we divide the Priests and Monks as they divide them at Rome viz. into Priests on this side and on the other side the Alpes we find that the latter rely on the former who are Italians and these again repose themselves wholly on those at Rome that is upon that number of Ecclesiasticks that are about the Pope and who in their Opinion pass for very great Doctors Now these again on the other hand do not rely so
much upon their own Science or Learning which they know to be very mean as upon the great number of Priests and Seculars who believe them This made one of their great Preachers declare from the Pulpit That it was an invincible Argument to prove the Truth of Transubstantiation because there was such a vast number of those who believed in comparison of the inconsiderable Number that deny'd it That their Catholicks being twenty to one were to be accounted as the strongest so the truest I shall not employ my time here to shew how weak and frivolous those Arguments are that are drawn either from the Number or Dignity of the Persons that profess it It shall suffice me that I have exposed to your View the discovery I have made of the Unfaithfulness and Falsness of your Pastors and how much it is their outward Interest to abuse you and to deceive themselves whilst they impose upon you For as they are well-pleased to be made use of by the Multitude as an Argument to enforce their Belief so God suffers them to make the same Multitude an Argument to confirm their own Belief If one Blind-man leads another they must both of them fall into the Ditch and if one leads Twenty they must still undergo the same Fate 'T is a much surer way for us to rely upon something we know to be fixt and solid such as we know the Scriptures to be and to endeavour to penetrate the true Sense thereof than to repose ones Confidence upon Men who being blinded by their Interests or Passion may afterwards blind and deceive us also for Company I shall conclude this account of my Journy or rather the Remarks I have made during my stay in Italy with the recital of some small Circumstances which deserve to be taken notice of From Milan I took my Journy towards the Lake de Como where I Embarked to go to the Valtelline and from thence I again past over the Mountain Splug where in my way I gave a Visit to the Curate of Campodolcino my old Acquaintance who was a Doctor of Milan He was much surpriz'd to see me there again and especially when he understood by me That my intention was to take another Journy through the Country of the Grisons into Switzerland He advised me very seriously to beware of the Hereticks and to Converse with them as little and as cautiously as might be I told him it would be a very difficult Task to avoid their Conversation in a Country where they are every where mix'd with the Catholicks or so much as to know and discern them Whereupon he told me That I might easily discern them by their manner of Discourse For saith he you shall not be a quarter of an Hour in any of their Company but you shall hear some of these Words coming from them The Purity of the Gospel the Liberty of the Children of God the Written Truth the Testament of Jesus Christ and other like Expressions tending to exalt the Holy Scripture above the Authority of the See of Rome But this Notion the Doctor gave me of the Protestants was so far from giving me an undervaluing Conceit of them that on the contrary I took notice of something very pleasing and excellent in it and which rendred them the more amiable in my Eyes And as I was passing over the Alpes meditating on the description the Doctor had given me of the Protestants I conceiv'd That what was objected to them as a Crime might very well be look'd upon as an Apology for them Whilst my Mind was taken up with those Thoughts I perceiv'd afar off a Company of Little Children who came Running towards me from a little Hamlet upon the Mountain to Beg an Alms of me I observ'd that these Children beg'd only in the Name of God and for the Love of Jesus Christ by which I knew them to be Protestants And tho' I was not then so well stor'd with Mony to be liberal to them yet they were very thankful for the Little I gave them and return'd peacably to the Village having first bestow'd a Thousand Blessings upon me As I Travell'd forwards and was coming down the Mountain I met with another small Hamlet from whence also came forth a Company of Children upon the same design as the former but their Form of Begging was very different for they entreated my Charity for the Love of the Blessed Virgin of S. Anthony of Padua and the Souls of Purgatory Neither were they contented with the small Gift I had bestow'd upon the other Children but followed me with great Importunity above a quarter of a League repeating a great Number of Ave Maries and Prayers for the Dead and after all seeing they could get no more of me they chang'd their Prayers into a Thousand Curses and took up Stones which they flung at me I perceiv'd by this Action that these Little Catholicks were not so well Taught and Educated as the Children of Protestants and that the Doctrin instill'd into them did not produce so good Fruit as the Purity of the Gospel did in the others In this manner I continued my Journy through the Country of the Grisons and of the Swisses and without tying my self to observe the Advice of the Curate of Campodolcino I indifferently Convers'd with the Protestants and Catholicks I know it is a difficult thing for People of a different Religion tho' living under the same Laws and Government as the Swisses are perfectly to love one another However I observ'd That the Papists spake with a great deal more of Bitterness against the Protestants than the Protestants did against them tho' indeed these latter had much more Reason so to do for it was at the time when the Persecution was carried on against the Protestants with a great deal of Fury I was very much edified with the Example of several French Protestants fled into Switzerland who were so far from complaining of the Miseries they had suffer'd that they exhorted one another with Words of Holy Scripture to bear patiently those further Sufferings their Exile might expose them to Neither could they endure to hear others speak ill of their Persecutors and testified themselves to desire nothing more than that it would please God to Pardon and Convert them There was an old Gentleman who in my hearing with a great deal of Charity reprov'd a young French Souldier for being transported in Passion against the French King asking him Whether the Reading of the Holy Bible had taught him so to do The Young man was dash'd with this Check and desired him to excuse a Fault he had committed by the Regret he had to see himself reduc'd to the condition of a Souldiers Life for a poor Subsistence after having lost all his Estate in France When I was in Switzerland and so near to Geneva I resolv'd to spend Three or Four Days there I was Lodg'd at the House of a good Widow who was a very Zealous Protestant and by this occasion found my self many times engag'd to dispute about Matters of Religion And forasmuch as I was then maintaining a Weak Cause I found the Arguments put to me to be very strong and tho' I did not immediately give up the Cudgels yet those I discours'd with took notice of the Moderation wherewith I gave in my Answers which made one of the Ministers who was then present say That it were greatly to be wish'd that all the Priests of Rome had the same command of their Spirits because by this means Truth would have the better Opportunity of discovering her self unto them but that commonly by their Passionateness and their scornful and injurious Expressions they broke off all Disputes as soon as they found themselves pinch'd with the Evidence of Truth The Truth is they behaved themselves towards me with a great deal of Kindness and Civility and after the Dispute was over a Fine Collation was Drest up to which they Invited me desiring only of me by a kind of secret Reproach which did not displease me because I knew it to be Just that I would be pleas'd to make this Reflection upon their Carriage That their Spirit was not like that of the Papists For said they Sir you know very well that if we had Disputed as much either in France or Italy to maintain our Faith as you have done here to defend yours we should have been abus'd Clapt up into Prison yea and Burnt alive but as for us we are so far from having any recourse to such barbarous and horrid Means that we do not so much as upon that account think the worse of you neither shall you perceive any thing from us but the kindest Entertainment we are able to afford you I cannot but own that I found in this their Behaviour something of that Spirit of Beneficence and Sweetness wherewith Jesus Christ and his first Preachers of the Faith did Convert such Crowds of Infidels and Sinners The Idea whereof has been ever since imprest on my Mind and put me upon applying my self to the Reading of the Writings of Protestants and to weigh their Reasons with a more unbiass'd Temper and having found them Solid and founded on the Word of God and the Practice of the Reformed Churches conform to those of the First Ages of the Church God had been pleas'd to give me his Grace to dispose my Will to embrace it by abjuring all the Errors of the Church of Rome which I have and utterly do renounce from all my heart and wish you in Christian Charity the same Happiness as being SIR Your most Affectionate c. FINIS