CATHOLIC ITALY.

ITS INSTITUTIONS AND SANCTUARIES

PART I.

ROME AND THE PAPAL STATES

BY CHARLES HEMANS.

FLORENCE

TIPOGRAFIA BARACCHI

1860

TO THE READER

The present volume, far from being a full accomplishment

of the plan or idea expressed in its title, is simply a first attempt on the subject of Italy considered under peculiar aspects to which my attention has mainly directed itself. Not yet an exhausted, however often and ably treated a theme, Italy, inregard to religious institutions and usages, might be yet more perfectly illustrated than hitherto; and Catholicism, whatever the changes in religious tendency that modern times have witnessed, remains not only interwoven with the history of her Past, but also with the manners of her Present. A fully carried out inquiry into the subject, with dispassionate appreciation and kindliness of spirit, might supply valuable addition to the many works. which the study of this interesting country, antiquarian, literary, and artistic, has brought forth. In the desire, with however insufficient abilities or chances of success, to accomplish a task so aimed, I entertain hope of continuing what is in fact but commenced in these pages, if permitted by circumstances on which my undertaking must be dependant.

I. C. H.