A VOICE FROM ROME. Romana ecclesia. A.D. 1842. Charity rejoiceth not in inquity, but rejoiceth in the Truth." 1 COR. xiii. 6. LONDON: PORTMAN SQUARE. 1843. Section I.—Concerning the Office of the Mass A VOICE FROM ROME. INTRODUCTION. THE difficulty of forming a sound judgment in human affairs is commonly proportioned to the importance of doing so, and to the influence exercised by those concerning whom it is required. This is what makes it so rare a thing, and almost impossible, to speak or think dispassionately of Rome. All men are so deeply interested in her affairs, and conscious of her past and present influence, all men are so far prepossessed, either in favour of her, or in her disparagement,— that, however inclined, they find it difficult to estimate aright the details of her religious system,-to separate the precious from the vile of its component parts,to give due weight and colouring to the diverse qualities inherent in it. It may, perhaps, serve the purposes of truth to throw together, in the compass of a few pages, the result of a personal observation, during two years passed in Italy, by one who, while he would honestly denounce whatever disgraces any system of religion, would, also, with equal faithfulness, commend whatever seems to indicate a more catholic and healthy state of feeling. A 2 PART THE FIRST. And first, he would set forth in order a few facts and documents illustrating the unhealthier features of the religion of modern Rome. It is indeed impossible for a faithful member of the English Church to walk through the streets and piazzas of this fated city, without deep emotions of mingled shame, pity, and indignation, at the extent to which she has fallen from primitive simplicity and truth. And such, he feels, would likewise be the emotions of the blessed apostles themselves, and other martyrs of the first three centuries, were their spirits once more permitted to animate the ashes which consecrate this soil. Could St. Peter and St. Paul behold, as we do, the whole city given to the worship of the mother of our Lord, -could the blessed Virgin herself be witness to it, -and not feel as the apostle of the Gentiles felt at Athens? Nay, would not their spirits be stirred in them with still more violent emotion, the more they knew it to be practised against a clearer revelation, against the most express commands, and against the plain experience of divine wrath as manifest in the whole course of the elder dispensation? Could they be supposed to contemplate the doctrine of purgatory, and the practice of indulgences, with the superstition and licentiousness attendant on them, and not revolt at so gross an instance of "intruding into things which eye hath not seen?" Col. ii. 18. Or could they witness the studious withholding of the Liturgy and of the sacred Scriptures from common use, and see these words of inspiration and primitive devotion wrapped up in the veil of an unknown tongue, as now they have been upwards of a thousand years, and not be astounded at such a defiance of common sense as well as of apostolic teaching? Rom. xv. 4; 1 Cor. xiv. 14. Or, again, could they be supposed present at the office of the Mass, as it is now commonly celebrated, whether in public or in private, at low or high mass, how little would they recognise the Holy Supper, as instituted by our Lord and celebrated by His disciples, in the laboured ceremony as acted and gesticulated by Roman Bishops and Priests? how strange would it not be to them to see all idea of Communion lost in that of a Sacrifice! How would they not grieve to see the consecrated Host made the occasion of what, to say the least, has all the appearance of idol worship, by being carried in solemn procession through the streets, and daily exposed for adoration upon the altars! * Such is the sort of reflection which an English Churchman naturally makes, on first becoming acquainted with the state of things at Rome. And the more he reflects upon it, the more profound will be his sorrow, and the more earnest his desire to see them all restored to something of their first wholesomeness and integrity. It may be well to enlarge a little on some of these propositions. In the Ordines Romani, or Rubrics for the Churches of the city of Rome, found in MSS. of the ninth century, there is not the slightest trace of any elevation of the Host. And Muratori owns that processions and expositions, and illuminations and benedictions, attendant on the host, were quite unknown until the end of the eleventh, or beginning of the twelfth century. See his Dissertatio de Rebus Liturgicis, cap. xix. et xxiv. "Hæc, non negamus, nova sunt in Ecclesia Dei; neque enim per priora duodecim sæcula ullum eorum vestigium nobis se offert in veterum libris." 9 to bog |