has granted ten thousand years of Indulgence." at Milan, 1820."

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"I have often wished (says ADDISON) that some traveller would take the pains to gather all the modern inscriptions which are to be met with in Roman Catholic countries, as Gruter and others have copied out the ancient heathen monuments. Nothing would give a clearer idea of the Roman Catholic Religion; nor expose more the vanity, pride, and self-interest of convents, the abuse of indulgences, the folly and impertinence of votaries, and in short the superstition, credulity, and childishness of

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* As the meaning of this notice, though perfectly understood by those to whom it is addressed, may not be equally intelligible to the Protestant reader, a few words of explanation shall here be added. Indulgences are granted to "the Faithful," on certain conditions, such as penitently confessing their sins to, and receiving absolution from, a priest; and also paying their adoration at a particular cross, or a privileged altar. And the power thus obtained by these grants of the Pope, enables every true member of the Roman Catholic Church either to liberate a soul out of Purgatory at once by a plenary indulgence, or as in this case to send to it so many thousand years of relief from the pains of that burning place. On this subject, a modern writer, who was regularly bred and ordained a Catholic Priest, in Spain, but is now a Clergyman of the Church of England, furnishes us with the following information:-"The Popes teach that the indulgences which they grant are taken from the treasure of merits collected by the Saints; and that they, the successors of St. Peter, having the key of the store-house, may give to any one a property in them to supply the want of their own. A man for instance may have been guilty of all the most horrid crimes during a long life; but he repents on his death bed; the Priest gives him absolution and his soul goes to Purgatory: a place which the Romanists believe to be very like hell. There he might be for millions of years; but if you can procure him a full or plenary indulgence from the Pope, or if he obtained it before death, all the merits which he wanted are given him and he flies direct to heaven."-Preservative against Popery by the Rev. J. Blanco White; in corroboration of whose remarks see the Copy of a Papal Indulgence given in the Appendix to this volume.

Popery."-This observation made in 1703 applies with no less force in the “Jubilee year” of 1825, to the character of a Church, whose professors and advocates never perhaps evince a stricter regard for truth, than when they claim for its faith and practice the merit of being unchanged and unchangeable.

The central parts of Milan are so closely built as scarcely to leave an open space worthy of particular remark. But, on the north-west side of the city, where the ancient citadel or Ducal fortress formerly stood, and where two of its high and massive towers of stone and some of its interior walls are yet preserved, there is now an extensive Caserne (barracks) round which the ground has been cleared to a vast extent. On the south-east side is the Forum (Buonaparte). On the north-west is the Piazza d' Armi, spacious enough for 40,000 men to manœuvre in, and having at its extremity an unfinished Triumphal Arch, whence commences the great and admirable road that leads to the foot, and crosses the mountain, of the Simplon. This grand enclosure is lined and intersected with avenues of trees: and on the northern side Napoleon caused the magnificent amphitheatre, called the Arena, to be built after the designs of Canonica. It is in fact a mixture of the Circus and Arena of the Romans; having the Spina (or low broad wall running through the middle) and the Meta (or columns and pyramids round which the horses and chariots, in the ancient shews, turned) united to the Pulvinar, (or Pavillion for the Emperor) the Sedilia in eight rows, the Vomitoria, (or entrances to the seats) and the Popularia (or gallery for the people behind). It really is a noble and interesting and when filled with spectators, of which it is

structure;

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said to be capable of holding 36,000, must present a splendid and imposing scene. Some few chariots, fashioned after the ancient manner, were en remise, under the arcades at one extremity of the oval. We were informed that the foundations of the Arena are so constructed as to render it capable of being filled with water for a Naumachia or aquatic fête.

It would seem that Buonaparte wished to revive among the people of Milan that addiction to gymnastic sports, for which the inhabitants of Mediolanum are noted by Ausonius:

Populique voluptas

Circus, et inclusi moles cuneata theatri.

A circus and a theatre invites

Th' unruly mob to races and to fights.-ADDISON.

That there is no falling off from the antique love of theatrical amusements, the splendid establishment of La Scala sufficiently proves. But of this more recent work, rivalling in magnitude and equalling in elegance the Roman models after which it is designed, I have only further to remark that, to whatever cause ascribable, whether to the opposition of popular taste and habits, or (as is more likely) to Austrian jealousy of large native assemblages in the open air, the Arena has a forlorn, deserted aspect, that marks it as a place where great means of public diversion have long been left unemployed, and vast labour and cost been consequently expended in vain.

The Church of S. Celso presents a marble front, after the magnificent designs of Bramante, illustrated by the superb statuary of Fontana and Lorenzi. The archi

tecture of the inside is that of an earlier age. This building contains some fine pictures by Procaccini, Campi, and Gaudenzio di Ferrari; and an altar-piece of St. Jerome, by Paris Bordone. In the sacristy there are two pictures of the Virgin; one by Leonardo da Vinci, the other by Raphael. These are objects of no ordinary interest to a lover of the fine arts. But what attracts multitudes to this edifice is the work of a different craft; being neither more nor less than a miraculous image of the Madonna!

Pious frauds like these are first practised to profit “the Church," and then persisted in not more steadily on that account than for the honour of its infallibility. Yet they must indeed have "their understandings darkened" who can be deceived by such gross contrivances. In the sober judgment of an enlightened mind—a mind imbued with spiritual knowledge derived from its only true source-the miracles asserted to be performed by virtue of these idols, stand self-convicted of being false, in the incredible and ridiculous incidents with which they are found to be associated.* But the force of early habits

* Almost every Roman Catholic district has its miraculous image, which speaks, perspires, sheds tears, or does something equally well suited to keep up its own reputation. I could not learn the precise feat performed by our Lady of S. Celso; nor how she came there. It generally happens that an Angel from Heaven deposits such valuable treasures within the sacred walls. This image worship has occasionally been known to "do the State" as well as the Church "some service." When, for example, the Allies took Alicante in 1706, there was an Image of Notre Dame de Pitié in a garden-house near Murcia, which sweated. The Bishop of Carthagena, Don Louis de Belluga, communicated the fact to the inhabitants of his diocese, and so animated them by the recital of this pretended miracle, that they flew to arms and drove the Allies out of their provincee.-See the Pastoral Letter of the above mentioned Bishop, quoted in the Mem. de Trevoux, 1707. Febr. p. 278, and suiv.

and prepossessions, especially when kept free from counteracting influences, is very great even with the educated, and becomes all-powerful over the ignorant. The fault is in the system of, what is called, religious instruction, under which people are taught, nay commanded, to invoke a human being in language and with action due to the Supreme alone.

"Under thy protection (says the Romish Litany) we take refuge, Holy Mother of God, despise not our supplications in our necessities, but always deliver us from all dangers, Glorious and Blessed Virgin." What more can be asked at the hand of the Almighty Himself? Yet prayers like these do pious petitioners here repeat "not knowing the Scriptures." But if that fountain of living waters were rendered accessible to their research-if they were once freely permitted to "taste, and see how good the Lord is," thousands and tens of thousands I am persuaded would soon cease "burning candles" and offering up vain oblations before the image of an imaginary protectress. On the contrary, when next invited to join in such idle practices, they most probably would answer like Protestants and say—we acknowledge that the Virgin was "blessed among women;" but not that she is exalted above all men and all women. We reverence the memory of that holy personage, as a human instrument rendered miraculously subservient to the great purpose of the Messiah's advent: but believing as we do on the clearest warranty of Scripture, that Jesus Christ alone expiated by his death the sins of the world, that He is "the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father but by Him," we refuse to pay to the Virgin Mary, or any other Saint, honours that clash with and derogate from those which we