Russian, and Dutch ambassadors to whom I was introduced, recommended me likewise to Cardinal Litta, who is the most respectable and learned of all the Cardinals, and the prefect of the Propaganda. He promised me to speak to the Pope that I might enter into one of the colleges at Rome, as a member of the Propagauda, till the college of Propaganda, which had been destroyed by the French, should be re-opened. The first month after my arrival in Rome, before I entered the seminary called Seminario Pontifico, and before I attended the public lectures, was very pleasant. I formed an acquaintance with some Christian clergymen and prelates, and also with many pious painters and sculptors. I saw, before I entered the Seminario Romano, the chief works of Raphael and Michael Angelo; I considered the place in the amphitheatre, where Ignatius the martyr was the food of beasts, for Christ's sake; and where so many other Christians became, as Milner says, God's wheat ground by the teeth of wild beasts; and I gazed with much astonishment at the ruins of the ancient Rome. I saw Pius VII. before I was introduced to him, in the church of St. Maria Maggiori he appeared to be a man of deep piety, humility, and devotion. I read every evening the Prophets, with the before mentioned German artists.

The Prince of Gotha and Monsieur Testa, Secretary of the Pope, spoke of me to Pius VII., and on the 9th August, 1816, I was introduced to him; he received me not as a king his subject, but as a father receives his son, and he said to me, that he had given orders to the prefect of the German college to pay the Seminario Romano for my board, that I might stay there till the Propaganda was re-established.

I entered the Seminario Romano the 5th of September, 1816, being 20 years of age. I received a long violet blue garment, and a triangular hat like the other pupils of that college. At this time the vacations of the schools took place, which continued till the month of November and I found not so much edification in the Seminario Romano, as in the shops of the German art

ists. The Seminario has, besides the master and vice master, a prefect also, who was a priest like the former, but a man of no talent. He accompanies the pupils every day in their walks, and when they assist any Bishop or Cardinal, or the Pope, in any ceremony. He calls the pupils every day for the rosary prayer, and closes the door of the pupils' room in the evening, and calls them up in the morning. This is the whole duty; he receives for it two crowns per month, and his board. When the prefect opens the doors, and awakes the pupils, one of them is obliged to recite the Litany of the Virgin Mary, and they are all obliged to cry, "Ora pro nobis," which they do mechanically, and without devotion! After that, they go into the private chapel, and read a meditation taken from the book of the Jesuit Segneri, which contains some good things, together with Mohammedan notions and abominable superstitions. The description of hell and paradise here given, is the same I read once in a superstitious Rabbinical book, and in a surah of the Alcoran ! After meditation they go to hear mass in another private chapel, and then breakfast; and in the days when public lectures are given, they are obliged to walk eight or nine hours. In the first month of my stay in that seminary, I went with the others to see the canonization of Alfonsio Maria Ligori by Pius VII., and I considered the canonization not as a beatification and sanctification, but only as a representation, or a description of the grace of God working in the individual; but I found afterwards, that my idea was not according to the Romish system. In Rome, they divide the canonization into two acts, calling the first act Beatificazione, and the second Sanctificazione: both acts cost the family of the saint a great price. The words beatificazione and sanctificazione correspond entirely to the Latin words, beatum facere, and sanctum facere aliquem. But how can I believe that a Pope can make saints? since Rome herself confesses that Popes may burn in hell.

In November, the Exercitia Spiritualia (which always precede the public lectures, and every solemn festival)

began; a strange clergyman, or some monk, is invited at such a time to preach to the pupils about their duty. The pupils of the college are obliged to observe a strict silence two days, and are ordered to meditate and to go every day three times into the chapel, to hear the sermons or exhortations of the missionary. The act begins with holy song, "Veni Sancte Spiritus reple tuorum corda fidelium, et tui amoris ignem in eis accende, emitte spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terræ." I heard sometimes, but not often, sermons very fine, and according to the gospel, especially when Prince O. the Stolberg of Rome, preached to us in the seminary. He unites the zeal of Elias and true Christianity, with great worldly possessions; and adds to an unquestionable zeal and love for the gospel, the character of a man of learning and philosophy.

After the spiritual exercises, the school was opened, and the Professor of Scholastic Divinity began to dictate" de Tractatu Gratiæ," which we were obliged to write. In his preface to the subject, he uttered the following sentence, "The subject of grace being a difficult point, I exhort you at first not to think about it too much; but only to take the infallible authority of the Popes and of the Councils for the rule of faith; and we must believe St. Augustine's sentiments about that point, not more than when his sentiments accord with any bull of the Popes, because Pius V. did condemn every one in his bull, if he asserted that the authority of St. Augustin about the point of grace, is equal to the Pope's authority." After the first hour was passed. I said to the Professor in the presence of all the other priests, "You speak here about the authority of the Pope in such a manner, that I suppose you believe, and command to others to believe, the infallibility of the Popes!" He replied, "They believe in Rome indeed, that the Pope is infallible, but they don't believe it in France." I answered, "the Catholics in Germany do not believe it!" When I spoke thus, all the priests present arose against me, and said, "If you will stay longer in Rome, you must believe it: wretched wicked man! do not you

believe the infallibity of the Pope ?" I rejoined angrily, "I believe not the infallibility of the Pope." And when I had said this, I left the lecture-room, and went to the Cardinal Litta, and told him that I had had a dispute about the Pope's infallibility, and that I did not believe it. The Cardinal said to me with great kindness and softness, "You must not dispute about this subject until you have finished your studies. You will be persuaded of the Pope's infallibility when you have heard the reasons." For a long time I obeyed the Cardinal's injunction; but when I heard them one day call the Pope God, and heard this title defended by the most learned men of Rome, who told me that he merits such a title, because he has power not only upon the earth, but likewise over Purgatory, and in heaven, and because whatever the Pope absolves in the earth, is absolved in heaven, and that they call the Pope God upon earth on account of his power to sanctify and to beatify-when I heard such arguments as these, I understood Paul's words, "He as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God :" and I could no longer abstain from protesting against such an idolatrous opinion, and exclaimed: "The Pope is a man as I am, the Pope is dust of the earth as I am."

From this time I began to neglect scholastic divinity, and an ardent desire to read the holy scriptures took possession of my heart, to such a degree as I never felt before. I read them the whole day, and took the Bible with me into the lecture-room, where I read in it of the salvation of men, and the mercy, and the justice of our Lord, while the Professor was proving the doctrines of the Roman church, Ex damnatione Berengarii, Hussii et Lutheri a Summis Pontificibus! I used after this, contrary to the rules of the Seminary, to remain in my room, and read the scriptures, while the other pupils went to take exercise in walking, or to assist in the churches. When I had been about three months in the Pope's Seminary, Mr. Baille, with whom had travelled from Turin to Genoa, came to Rome, and called at the Seminary to see me; when he observed that I was

to me.

distressed at having no oriental books, nor any master for learning, and continuing the oriental languages, he bought me books, and gave me two guineas monthly, and I was thus enabled to take an oriental master. From that moment I was persecuted by the whole college: they said, "Of what use are the holy scriptures and the eastern languages to you, if you do not know the scholastic divinity, which alone can enable you to argue against, and to refute the abominable sophisms of the wretched Protestants, who believe neither in Popes nor in traditions." I began to weep when they spoke thus I received at the same time the four ordines minores with the title Alumnus Congregationis Propagandæ Fidei. I continued notwithstanding to read the scriptures; and neglected entirely the study of scholastic divinity. Cardinal Litta at length commanded me to study the letter, and I did so for a short time. But though I only employed half an hour at a time in reading the divinity of Tournely and Bellarmin, which is of this class, I constantly arose wearied, and I often walked about my room reciting verses of the holy scriptures a hundred times in a melancholy frame, and especially the following verse, in Hebrew: "Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it:" and when I had recited such a verse, I could not abstain from reading the whole chapter in which it was contained, and in this way I disobeyed the injunctions of the Cardinal.

The Professor of Church History was one of the most prudent and sensible men of the clergy at Rome. During the French government he was a follower of Napoleon, and an adversary to the Pope. He was a zealous Roman Catholic notwithstanding, and converted six or seven German Protestants to the Roman Catholic religion, and amongst them the facetions German poet F. L. Zacharias Werner; he taught them the principles of Bossuet, Fenelon, and Pascal, and knew how to accommodate himself to the character of the German.