direction of access to a reserved section of the chapel, into which none seemed to get admitted but British uniforms, ecclesiastics, and such favorites as they might introduce. Frequently some bustling favorite of this description would come elbowing and pressing his way, by mere physical force, into this place. Of course, as the space where we stood was entirely full, there was no introducing a foreign body without either crowding out or compressing some portions of the matter already there. As none of us chose to yield our position, we had to undergo the compression. This compression, when once made, was keyed up, by some individual or individuals following up the wake of the man who pressed his way through, and remaining after the other had passed out. In this way we had for some time been growing smaller and smaller, with a fair prospect of testing experimentally Sir Isaac Newton's doctrine of the indefinite compressibility of matter. As I felt myself, however, to be something more than inert matter, I thought a just regard to my own comfort, as well as a desire to retain my original. dimensions, required me to face a short, plump priest, who had been out two or three times to conduct persons in, and give him to understand he could not pass. He crowded forward, and commanded me to give place; my answer was non possibile: he threatened, but I kept my position; he crowded back to the Swiss guard, but the Swiss would not interfere: he came back with his eye flashing from apparent passion, and again threatened and raised his hand; non possibile,' was the only reply, until the eyes of the whole company around were fixed upon us, and I found myself sustained by the surrounding crowd, who pressed closer and closer, to stop the farther progress of the priest. At length, a good-natured Irish ecclesiastic leaned over and whispered in my ear that perhaps it might be better to let the gentleman pass, for he was the general of the Franciscans. I replied, that might be, but he had already incommoded us several times by passing and repassing, and it had become insufferable. Behind him were two other Irish ecclesiastics, whom the general was convoying in, and who said they had a place assigned them by his holiness, and they thought it a hard case they could not be permitted to enjoy it. But, to end this occurrence, after holding the Franciscan at bay until it was thought he would not undertake another excursion through the crowd, he was permitted to pass on with much difficulty, but was glad, doubtless, to return no more. We were now permitted to witness the entry of the pope, and the commencement of the functions of the day. First of all, however, (as is common on such occasions,) the cardinals, bishops, &c., must pay their respects to the pope; which was done by gazing up to his throne, bowing to him, and kissing his hand, by the cardinals, and his feet by the other Church dignitaries. This ceremony, together, in fact, with all that followed, seemed to me a clear indication that the pope was more an object of worship than any other being. All eyes were turned towards the pope-all ceremonies seemed to centre in the pope. When he entered, all knelt before him. His robes were of the richest character, inwrought with gold and silver; the one worn outside was of a purple color, with a silver plate finely gilt, embossed, and encircled with precious stones. On his head was a mitre of silver. On each side of his throne stood VOL. VII.-April, 1836.

18

By

a cardinal deacon, whose business it was to open and fold his robe -to wait upon him in rising up and sitting down: others held a box bound in gold, or silver, for him to read the service-another held up his train-another offered incense before him-and ever and anon cardinals, bishops, and other Church dignitaries, left their seats, came down into the centre, which was left vacant for the purpose, and bowed the knee. Such a scene of man-worship I never before witnessed. Often during the exercise was I reminded of 2 Thess. ii, 4: Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.' I accuse not the present pope personally of such feelings-I judge no individual-but the system itself has all the characteristics of the grossest creature-homage that I can conceive of. So the pope's title seems to imply-God's vicegerent upon earth'-and so the common people at least understand it. The pope,' said an intelligent servant, who was questioned upon the subject, is God almighty upon the earth.' But, to return from these reflections; the music, which was by the pope's choir, whose performances are admirable, commenced with the hosanna sung by the children on Christ's entering Jerusalem. The service was then read, which consists of Scripture lessons from the Old and New Testaments— reading the prayer of blessing-chanting by the choir, &c. this exercise and benediction certain palms and olives are blessed, and prepared for distribution. These palms are artificial branches, curiously wrought, from narrow strips of the palm-leaf. They are braided, festooned, and beautifully formed: they are about three feet in length, with a beautiful open work for the stem, a circle of festoons for the centre, and a still larger festooned top. The olives were mere branches in their natural state. After they were all blessed, the distribution commenced. They passed the palms, one by one, to the pope, and he distributed them, first to the cardinals, who came up in order and bowed, kissed the pope's hand, then the palm, then his knees; they thereupon received the palm and returned to their seat: after this the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops; then follow the lower orders of mitred abbots, the penitentiaries, the governor and prince assistant, the auditor of the apostolic chambers, the major-domo, the treasurer, the prothonotaries apostolic, &c., &c., &c., to the number of twenty-nine or thirty lower grades, all going through the same ceremony, except that all under the grade of bishops kissed the foot instead of the knee: last of all, such distinguished foreigners as may have previously entered their names on the list of the major-domo, go up and receive palms. During the distribution, the choir is chanting appropriate anthems. The pope then washes his hands, and prepares for the procession. This is commenced by the senior cardinal's chanting 'procedamus in pace-let us proceed in peace-to which is responded 'in nomine Christi, amen'—in the name of Christ, Amen. Then the procession moves forward, preceded by a cross veiled, to denote the mourning of the Church in the passion week. The pope is seated in his splendid chair, which is trimmed with rich crimson, gilt with gold, and elevated upon the shoulders of twelve porters, all richly clad, and over his head is a rich canopy, borne by eight referendaries, all

splendidly habited: after him follow the palm-bearers, in the order of their rank. Adjoining the Sistine chapel is a large hall, called the sala negia, or royal saloon. Into this hall, which is lined with soldiery, the procession advances, chanting and singing as they go: after they have passed the gates of the chapel, they are closed, and the pope, with the procession, moves round the hall, returns to the door, and voices within and without alternately answer to each other; the sub-deacon strikes upon the door without, with the staff of the cross- -the gates are thrown open-and the vicegerent of God upon earth enters in triumph, with the anthem chanted by scores of voices, when the Lord entered into the holy city,' &c. The soldiers and people all dropping upon the knee, as his holiness passes, he is borne into the chapel, descends from the throne, and the whole ceremony closes by the celebration of high mass. As a splendid earthly princely pageant, this ceremony was certainly imposing; but as a religious ceremony, and especially as one founded upon Christ's entering into Jerusalem, it appeared to me the very contrast of the thing signified. Let the reader conceive, if he can, of the regal splendor and show of this entire ceremonylet him fix his eye upon the pope on his gilded throne-himself clothed in gold and purple, borne on high and canopied, by princely supporters, bowed to by his fellow worms, and followed by dignitaries, in purple and ermine-and when the image of the entire scene is passing vividly before his eyes, let him turn to Matt. xxi, 4-11, where this ceremony professes to have its origin―let him notice the condition of the Saviour, at this time, so inimitably expressed by the prophet, as recorded in the 4th and 5th verses,' all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, behold thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.' Who art thou, O worm of the dust, that personateth thy Saviour, in one of the humblest exhibitions of himself, by sitting upon thy throne of state in princely robes, and being borne on the shoulders of men clad like princes! Is this to be meek and lowly? How is it possible that the human mind can be brought to enact such contrasts with the word of God, and call them anniversaries of Scripture events? Call up one of those children that sung hosanna when Christ entered Jerusalem, and place him, without explanation, in the palace of the vatican, to witness a Roman Palm Sunday,-would he be able to identify it ?*

TENEBRE AND MISERERE.

6

On Monday and Tuesday of the 'holy week' there is nothing very special to call the attention of the public; but Wednesday P. M. there was the finest music by the pope's choir that I ever heard. The function is called the tenebræ,' or 'darkness.' The performance, it is said, belongs strictly to Thursday morning, in the regular reckoning of time; and seems to be designed to commemorate the darkness and gloom of the Church at the hour of be

For an explanation of the different orders, and different offices and caremonies of the Roman Church, I acknowledge myself much indebted to a little work by Bishop England, published in Rome, 1833.

trayal, or perhaps the scene in the garden. The origin and design of this performance, however, seem not to be fully settled by the Catholics themselves, nor is it of any great consequence to determine it. It is enough for me that it was, on the whole, one of the most interesting occasions that I have witnessed in Rome. The pope attended, in the Sistine chapel; and thither, of course, the multitude resorted; but as there was the same music in St. Peter's, we proposed hearing it there, rather than endure the crowd of the chapel. The exercise was long, and consisted in the fore part of lessons chanted and sung from the Psalms, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and from that part of the Epistle to the Corinthians describing the institution of the sacrament, &c. The whole was interspersed with antiphanies, and all performed with admirable skill. Indeed, it is said that none but those trained in this school can perform this music. The French, when they were in power here, carried this music to France, but it availed them nothing; for none of their performers, it is said, could sing it. But this choir perform it to universal admiration. The great concentration of excellence, however, and of course of interest, is in the closing piece, called the miserere, which is the 51st Psalm set to music by Allegri. It has its name from the first word in the Psalm, which commences in Latin, Miserere, mei, deus,' &c. All who have read this Psalm have noticed what humble confession, what deep contrition, run through the whole of this beautiful composition. But what the psalmist has expressed so inimitably in words, seems, if possible, to be still more forcibly expressed in sounds-at least, putting the two together, they were overwhelming. Such wailing, lamentation, and wo!-such tender, melting, agonizing strains of penitential grief and contrition!-They came over my soul like a dissolving charm, melting my heart, and opening the very fountains of grief. Every emotion of my heart chimed in with the sentiments and the music, and I felt myself entirely carried away and overpowered by the inspirations of the occasion. It is worthy of notice that there are no females in the choir, and yet there were some of the finest treble voices that I ever heard. I have heard before a counterfeit treble voice from a man, but it was not natural; here, however, it was the most perfect, and the strains fell in, one after another, from the finest treble to the gravest bass, and all so skilfully arranged and modified as to produce but one effect: it was like a multitude of old men and maidens, young men and children, pouring forth their united, concordant strains of chastened grief, in all the bitterness and reverence of supplication and adoring penitence.

As is usual, in all cases of Catholic worship, numerous candles were at first burning; but they were extinguished, one after another, until only one was left, and that was partially concealed behind the altar. Of the meaning of this there is not an agreement; some say it is the gradual extinction of the prophetic lights before the coming of Christ; others say, it is designed to represent the fact, that, when Christ was apprehended, all his disciples forsook him and fled. The concealing of the only remaining lamp represents Christ in the tomb; whose light was suspended, but not extin guished. At the close is a short prayer; and then a loud clapping noise representing the earthquake, &c., closed the exercises.

MAUNDY THURSDAY.

This day was so called from the maudatum, or command, of the Saviour to his disciples to wash each others' feet. On this day there are several important functions, viz: high mass, in the presence of the pope,-the procession into the pauline chapel, with the host, the benediction from the balcony of St. Peter's church, -the washing of feet-and the waiting upon the pilgrims at dinner, by the pope. All these, with much difficulty, through the pressure of the crowd, I succeeded in personally witnessing. I will take them up in their order.

High Mass.

This was celebrated in the Sistine chapel. Early in the gathering, I approached the door of the reserved section, and, informing the door keeper that I was an ecclesiastic from America, he very politely admitted me into the interior, which at once relieved me from the crowd and gave me a more favorable opportunity to witness the ceremony. The cardinals came in, dressed in purple robes, each attended by his chaplain. The robes had a train, several yards in length, which the chaplain, as soon as he entered the door, very adroitly unrolled and spread out in full length and breadth, and supported it till they arrived to the seat: after placing it properly on the seat behind his eminence, he unrolled the cape and arranged the front in flowing style. The chaplain then placed himself on a seat, at the foot of the cardinal. The bishops and other dignitaries entered; each, as he came in, paid a reverence to the place and the occasion, by kneeling, not only at the altar, as he passed, but also by his seat before he sat down. I was struck, however, on this occasion, as on many others, how much these external acts of reverence were a mere form. One man, a bishop, as I judged, came in and knelt by his seat-another, who seemed pleased to see him, took out his snuff-box, and offered him a pinch of snuff; this he took, making some passing remark, while yet on his knees, accompanied also with a smile; and after a little he crossed himself and arose. This talking when on their knees, and when some of the most important functions are performed, is very common. In most cases, I will not say always, the whole appears to be attended to as a task; and a tedious one it must be, considering the tiresome length, and monotonous repetition of the Catholic forms. Never, in any forms of worship, have I seen more yawning and apparent inattention, especially among ecclesiastics, as I witnessed frequently among the Catholic clergy. Snuff-taking also seems to be an almost universal practice among the ecclesiastics of Italy, and especially of Rome.

High mass is distinguished from common mass merely in respect to the number of the celebrants and the attendant ceremonies. Common mass is by a single priest, and an attendant-that attendant being sometimes a mere boy-as also without any music, either vocal or instrumental. The mass is the ordinance of the communion, or the Lord's Supper. The nature and design of the ordinance, however, are viewed very differently by Catholics and Protestants. The latter consider it a mere remembrancer, and a help to faith, agreeable to the command, This do in remembrance of