Rome in 1860 | Page 9

In the first place, the system requires for its working an amount of
constant clerical interference in all private affairs, which, to say the
least, is a great positive evil. Confession is the great weapon by means
of which morality is enforced. Servants are instructed to report about
their employers, wives about their husbands, children about their
parents, and girls about their lovers. Every act of your life is thus
known to, and interfered with, by the priests. I might quote a hundred
instances of petty interference: let me quote the first few that come to
my memory. No bookseller can have a sale of books without
submitting each volume to clerical supervision. An Italian gentleman,
resident here, had to my own knowledge to obtain a special permission
in order to retain a copy of Rousseau's works in his private library. The
Roman nobles are not allowed to hunt because the Pope considers the
amusement dangerous. Profane swearing is a criminal offence. Every
Lent all restaurateurs are warned by a solemn edict not to supply meat
on fast days, and then told that "whenever on the forbidden days they
are obliged to supply rich meats, they must do so in a separate room, in
order that scandal may be avoided, and that all may know they are in
the capital of the catholic world." Forced marriages are matters of
constant occurrence, and even strangers against whom a charge of
affiliation is brought are obliged either to marry their accuser, or make

provision for the illegitimate offspring. In the provinces the system of
interference is naturally carried to yet greater lengths. Nine years ago
certain Christians at Bologna, who had opened shops in the Jewish
quarter of the town, were ordered to leave at once, because such a
practice was in "open opposition to the Apostolic laws and
institutions." Again, Cardinal Cagiano, Bishop of Senigaglia, published
a decree in the year 1844, which has never been repealed, to promote
morality in his diocese. In that decree the following articles occur:
"All young men and women are strictly forbidden, under any pretext
whatever, to give or receive presents from each other before marriage.
All persons who have received such presents before the publication of
this decree, are required to make restitution of them within three
months, or to become betrothed to the donor within the said period.
Any one who contravenes these regulations is to be punished by fifteen
days imprisonment, during which he is to support himself at his own
expense, and the presents will be devoted to some pious purpose to be
determined on hereafter."
I could multiply instances of this sort indefinitely, but I know of none
more striking than the last.
So much for the mode in which the system is worked, and now as to its
practical result. To judge fully, it is necessary to get behind the scenes,
a thing not easy for a stranger anywhere, least of all here. There is too
the further difficulty, that when you have got behind the scenes, it is
not very easy to narrate your esoteric experiences to the public. Even if
there were no other objection, it would be useless to quote individual
stories and facts which have come privately to my knowledge, and
which would show Rome, in spite of its external propriety, to be one of
the most corrupt, debauched, and demoralized of cities. Each separate
story can be disputed or explained away, but the weight of the general
evidence is overpowering. In these matters it is best to keep to the old
Latin rule, "Experto crede." I have talked with many persons, Romans,
Italians, and foreign residents, on the subject, and from one and all I
have heard similar accounts. Every traveller I have ever met with, who
has made like inquiries, has come to a like conviction. In a country

where there is practically neither press nor public courts, nor
responsible government, where even no classified census is allowed to
be taken, statistics are hard to obtain, and of little value when obtained.
Personal evidence, unsatisfactory as it is, is after all the best you can
arrive at. With regard then to what, in its strictest sense, is termed the
"morality" of Rome, I must dismiss the subject with the remarks, that
the absence of recognized public resorts and agents of vice may be
dearly purchased when parents make a traffic in their own houses of
their children's shame, and that perhaps as far as the state is concerned
the debauchery of a few is a less evil than the dissoluteness of the
whole population. More I cannot and need not say. With respect to
other sins against the Decalogue, it is an easier task to speak. There is
very little drunkenness in Rome I freely