officer of the kingdom of Piemont, who understood a little German, and talked French very well. The sea-officer asked me where I intended to go! I answered, To Rome, to enter the Propaganda, for the improvement of my understanding, and to become a Missionary. He asked, why I did not agree with the coachman to convey me to Rome, as he would pay the landlord for my dinner and bring me to Rome for four guineas. I replied, Because I have only three guineas and a half. The sea-officer offered to lend me two guineas, if I would promise to return him the money when we arrived at Rome. I promised him to do it, having confidence in God's fatherly providence, that on my arrival at Rome, he would supply me with the means to satisfy this generous sea-officer. I continued my journey to Rome, and when I passed Siena, a town of Tuscany, I went to see a house which was once the habitation of a Christian lady called Catharine of Siena, whose spiritual works I had read in the German translations; she spoke with great freedom against the pomp of the Pope, and his Cardinals and Bishops. At length I arrived at the gates of Rome, where I saw the cross of Christ, upon which is painted the key of St. Peter with the inscription Pax, the arms of the pope, placed near the town gates. I was much surprised. I found by accident, Mess. T. and I. H. two truly converted Jews, painters from Germany, on my arrival in Rome; we knew each other by report, and they paid for me to the sea-officer the two guineas I had borrowed. They

introduced me to a respectable Roman priest, who conducted me to Cardinal Litta. The Prussian, Bavarian, Russian, and Dutch ambassadors to whom I was introduced, recommended me likewise to Cardinal Litta, who is the most respectable and learned of all the Cardinals, and the prefect of the Propaganda, He promised me to speak to the Pope that I might enter into one of the colleges at Rome, as a member of the Propaganda, till the college of Propaganda, which had been destroyed by the French, should be re-opened. The first month after my arrival in Rome, before I entered the seminary called Seminario Pontifico, and before I attended the public lectures, was very pleasant. I formed an acquaintance with some Christian clergymen and prelates, and also with many pious painters and sculptors. I saw, before I entered the Seminario Romano, the chief works of Raphael and Michael Angelo; I considered the place in the amphitheatre, where Ignatius the martyr was the food of beasts, for Christ's sake; and where so many other Christians became, as Milner says, God's wheat ground by the teeth of wild beasts; and I gazed with much astonishment at the ruins of the ancient Rome. I saw Pius VII. before I was introduced to him, in the church of St. Maria Maggiori: he appeared to be a man of deep piety, humility, and devotion, I read every evening the Prophets, with the before-mentioned German artists.

The Prince of Gotha and Monsieur Testa, Secretary of the Pope, spoke of me to Pius VII., and on

the 9th August, 1816, I was introduced to him; he received me not as a king his subject, but as a father receives his son, and he said to me, that he had given orders to the prefect of the German college to pay the Seminario Romano for my board, that I might stay there till the Propaganda was re-established.

I entered the Seminario Romano the 5th of September, 1816, being twenty years of age. I received a long violet blue garment, and a triangular hat like the other pupils of that college. At this time the vacations of the schools took place, which continued till the month of November: and I found not so much edification in the Seminario Romano, as in the shops of the German artists. The Seminario has, besides the master and vicemaster, a prefect also, who was a priest like the former, but a man of no talent. He accompanies the pupils every day in their walks, and when they assist any Bishop or Cardinal, or the Pope, in any ceremony. He calls the pupils every day for the rosary prayer, and closes the door of the pupils' room in the evening, and calls them up in the morning. This is his whole duty; he receives for it two crowns per month, and his board. When the prefect opens the doors, and awakes the pupils, one of them is obliged to recite the Litany of the Virgin Mary, and they are all obliged to cry, "Ora pro nobis," which they do mechanically, and without devotion! After that, they go into the private chapel, and read a meditation taken from the book of the Jesuit Segneri, which

contains some good things, together with Mohammedan notions and abominable superstitions. The description of hell and paradise here given, is the same I read once, in a superstitious Rabbinical book, and in a surah of the Alcoran! After meditation they go to hear mass in another private chapel, and then breakfast; and in the days when public lectures are given, they are obliged to walk eight or nine hours. In the first month of my stay in that seminary, I went with the others to see the canonization of Alfonsio Maria Ligori by Pius VII., and I considered the canonization not as a beatification and sanctification, but only as a representation, or a description of the grace of God working in the individual; but I found afterwards, that my idea was not according to the Romish system. In Rome, they divide the canonization into two acts, calling the first act Beatificazione, and the second Sanctificazione: both acts cost the family of the saint a great price. The words beatificazione and sanctificazione correspond entirely to the Latin words, beatum facere, and sanctum facere aliquem. But how can I believe that a Pope can make saints? since Rome herself confesses that Popes may burn in hell.

In November, the Exercitia Spiritualia (which always precede the public lectures, and every solemn festival) began; a strange clergyman, or some monk, is invited at such a time to preach to the pupils about their duty. The pupils of the college are obliged to observe a strict silence two days, and are ordered to meditate and to go every

day three times into the chapel, to hear the sermons or exhortations of the missionary. The act begins with holy song, "Veni Sancte Spiritus reple tuorum corda fidelium, et tui amoris ignem in eis accende, emitte spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terræ." I heard sometimes, but not often, sermons very fine, and according to the gospel, especially when Prince O. the Stolberg of Rome, preached to us in the seminary. He unites the zeal of Elias and true Christianity, with great worldly possessions; and adds to an unquestionable zeal and love for the gospel, the character of a man of learning and philosophy.

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After the spiritual exercises, the school was opened, and the Professor of Scholastic Divinity began to dictate" de Tractatu Gratiæ," which we were obliged to write. In his preface to the subject, he uttered the following sentence, "The subject of grace being a difficult point, I exhort you at first not to think about it too much; but only to take the infallible authority of the Popes and of the Councils for the rule of faith; and we must believe St. Augustine's sentiments about that point, not more than when his sentiments accord with any bull of the Popes, because Pius V. did condemn every one in his bull, if he asserted that the authority of St. Augustin about the point of grace, is equal to the Pope's authority." After the first hour was passed, I said to the Professor in the presence of all the other priests, "You speak here about the authority of the Pope in such a manner that I suppose you believe,