The Church of Santa Maria in Vallicella was erected by Felipo Neri, afterward sainted by I know not what Pope, upon a design of Pietro da Cortona, who painted the Ceiling of the Nave, the Cupola, and the Tribune.

The rich little Chapel of San Felipo is on the left of the High Altar.—It is with difficulty the Curious can get within it, for the Crowd of Devotees with which it is always surrounded.—The

Altar

Christians. But their craftier Brethren, at home, contrived to sway the consciences, and direct the Councils, of all the Catholic Princes in Europe, without departing, in the least, from the rules of Canonical orthodoxy. Obedience was the Band of this imposing Order-Policy was its rule-and Courtesy no less a Badge of the modern Knights Errant of the Church than it had been of the antiquated Devotecs of Chivalry. But the morals of this insinuating Order became at last so infamous, and their principles so detestable, that they were banished from one State after another, and finally abrogated by the Apostolic See, when the Papal Chair was filled by the enlightened Ganganelli. The education of the Catholic Youth then devolved upon the Dominicans, and the Churches of the Jesuits were given to other Fraternities.

Altar-Piece represents the Saint, drawn by Guido; and its polished walls, and gilded Ceiling, reflect the lights that are always blazing below.

Santa Maria sopra Minerva belongs to a Convent of Dominicans, and here it is that the Tribunal of the Inquisition, happily no longer dreaded in Italy, long held its diabolical inquest.

The Church is a Gothic Structure, and its long and gloomy Aisles exhibit nothing more remarkable than the amazing number of Altars and Chapels, founded or endowed, in articulo mortis, by the trembling Sinners who in the lapse of Ages have been interred at their feet-trusting to escape the vengeance

of Heaven by presenting themselves to Peter in the weeds of St. Dominic.

Some of these have been specially privileged by favouring Popes, and either here or elsewhere I have been shocked with the blasphemous inscription of

INDULGENTIA PLENARIA QUOTIDIANA PERPETUA PRO VIVIS ET DEFUNCTIS.

and the insidious imposition of the Poor Box inscribed with

ELEMOSINA PER LA MADONNA.†

There is here however a Statue of the Saviour holding his Cross, by Michael

Angelo

* Plenary indulgence, every day, forever, for the Living and

the Dead.

† Alms for our Lady.

Angelo-but it owes its celebrity to the fame of the Sculptor; and the Tomb of a Pope, elegantly wrought by some later Artist.

In the Square before this Church is a small Egyptian Obelisk appositely elevated upon the back of a marble Elephant.

The Church of San Martino in Monte is erected over a Chamber of the Baths of Titus. In it Pope Silvester held a Council at which Constantine and his Mother, the Empress Helena, condescended to assist.

The present Edifice is as brilliant as a Ball Room-Marble Columns, with gilded Capitals, drawn from the Villa of Adrian, divide the Aisles-the Walls are

covered

covered with Landscapes by the joint efforts of the two Poussins, one of whom painted the Scenery and the other the Figures and the Tabernacle for the Host is a gilded Dome, supported by Pillars of African marble, and exhibited upon a lofty Altar, before a blaze of light.

On one side, a little Chapel, gay as the Church with glossy incrustations, presents an illuminated Altar, and a Picture of Purgatory-in which an Angel descending with his warrant in his hand [the consecrated Wafer] delivers one Soul at a time from the tormenting flames; which are heard to crackle in the candles burning on the Altar, to heighten the stage effect of this painted Tragedy-An unworthy misrepresentation of the doctrine of the atonement,