Dealings with the Inquisition by Giacinto Achilli

Author:Giacinto Achilli [Achilli, Giacinto]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Serapis Classics
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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CHAPTER XI.

NAPLES AND THE NEAPOLITANS.

On quitting Rome I no longer thought of its material objects, its churches, and its palaces; but of its unworthy government, and its degraded race of priests and friars. As yet I had never visited Naples; I fancied to myself that in most respects it was less objectionable than Rome. I passed over the Pontine Marshes, that famous Maremma, on which Pope Pius VI. expended so large a sum, in order to drain it, and render it free from the malaria that infested it, but which still continues the same. I arrived at Capua, which town I was soon to revisit, to preach the Lent sermons; a vast number of priests were here mixed up with a few townspeople and soldiers. At length I reached the city of Naples, where, as every one knows, the eye wandering among the busy throngs that are perpetually hurrying through the streets, discovers, on every side, innumerable hats of priests and cowls of monks; and, what at first sight excites so much surprise, friars of every colour, order, and denomination; who pursue each other through the crowd, as regardless of the tumult as if they were in the seclusion of their own cloisters. "Well!" thought I to myself, "Rome is not the only place that is overstocked with these gentry; Naples has its full share of them as well."

Naples is an exceedingly fine city, abundantly enriched by nature, and endowed with every gift calculated to ameliorate the condition of man, and to improve society. In casting our eyes over this delightful country, where variety and harmony, beyond the reach of art, prevail on every side; where nature, often in other countries sparing of her bounty, here lavishes her utmost to produce the beautiful, the lovely, and the enchanting, we are called upon to acknowledge that it is a land especially gifted by Providence. As I then saw and enjoyed it, I blamed myself for not having visited it sooner, and I made a resolution to remain in it, until some weighty reason should determine me to the contrary.

As it wanted but a few days to Lent, I chose to remain incognito during that time, busying myself in studying the genius of the people, and the manners and habits of the various classes. The tumult of the city, at all hours, and in all parts, was equally novel and strange to me; as was likewise the great contrast I observed between those who were in authority, and those whose duty it was to obey: the first, full of importance, and proud of their privileges, assumed not merely an air of superiority, but of disdain and contempt for the lower classes; who, in their turn, aware of their necessities, and humiliated by their lot, betrayed in their countenances a sense of their utter degradation, and seemed themselves to authorize the slavery that debased them.

This moral deformity presented a strange contrast to the physical beauty that reigned on every side: the one inspiring satisfaction and delight, the other abhorrence and disgust.

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