Church, Santa Maria Maggiore, was full of country people, in all sorts of dresses and attitudes, some kneeling, some standing, some sitting, some walking, others lying stretched on the pavement, many sleeping, and even snoring aloud, several talking and laughing; in short, it was much more like a market scene, than a religious assembly solemnity. The only moments when the deportment of the whole congregation accorded with the sanctity of the place, were those when our Saviour's cradle was carried about in a magnificent casket of crystal, silver, and gold, on which is a small golden statue of the newborn infant. The chapel of Sixtus V. was, however, an exception to the rest; several of the Cardinals who had been officiating were there at their prayers the whole night; and seven or eight of them, at least, were in the chapel when I left it.”

During the latter part of December, there is a Presepio, or representation of the manger in which our Saviour was laid, to be seen in many of the churches. That of the Ara Cœli is best worth seeing. The church occupies the site of the Temple of Jupiter, and is adorned with some of its beautiful pillars. On entering, we found daylight completely excluded from the church; and, until we advanced, we did not perceive the artificial light, which was so well managed, as to stream in fluctuating rays from intervening silvery clouds, and shed a radiance over the lovely babe, and bending mother, who, in the most graceful attitude, lightly holds up the drapery, which half conceals her sleeping infant from the bystanders. He lies in richly embroidered swaddling clothes, and his person, as well as that of his Virgin Mother, is ornamented with diamonds and other precious stones; for which purpose, we were informed, the Princesses, and Ladies of the highest rank lend their jewels. Groups of cattle grazing, peasantry engaged in different occupations, and other objects, enliven the pic

turesque scenery; every living creature in the group, with eyes directed towards the Presepio, falls prostrate in adoration. In the front of this theatrical representation, a little girl, about six or eight years old, stood on a bench, preaching extempore, as it appeared, to the persons who filled the church, with all the gesticulations of a little actress, probably, in commemoration of those words of the Psalmist, quoted by our blessed Lord, "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, thou hast perfected praise." In this manner the Scriptures are acted, not "read, marked, and inwardly digested." The whole scene, however, had a striking effect, well calculated to work upon the minds of a people, whose religion consists too largely of outward show.

All these ceremonies of the Roman Church are set off by every concomitant circumstance that can contribute to their splendor or magnificence. As, indeed, no people are better acquainted with the mode of conducting and managing public exhibitions than the Romans, they are performed with the utmost precision and dignity, with every attention to the effects of perspective, and to all the graces of drapery. Every person knows his place, and the part he has to act in the solemnity; the dresses are adapted to the situation as well as to the rank of the wearers, who, whether they be sitting, standing, or moving, contrive that they should fall into easy and majestic folds. The persons themselves are, the Pope, the Cardinals, the chief Magistrates of the city, the principal Officers of State, and various Prelates, Presidents, and Judges of the principal tribunals; all men either of high birth or great talents, and venerable for their age, their virtues, or their great dignity. The theatres, moreover, (if such an expression may be applied to such an object,) in which these sacred pomps are exhibited, are either the vast and lofty halls of the Vatican

palace, adorned with all the wonders of painting; or else the church of St. Peter, whose immense area, while it affords ample room for the ceremony itself, can contain countless multitudes without press or disorder. If, therefore, as Warburton observes," it be difficult to attend at a High Mass performed by a good choir in any great church, without sentiments of awe, if not of devotion," it is not surprising that the same sacred service, performed by such persons, with such accompaniments, and amid such scenes of grandeur and splendor, should impress the same sentiments with double force and effect.

These pompous offices at the Vatican only take place on the great festivals of Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas, to which we may add St. Peter's Day, and perhaps one or two more occasional solemnities. On the other Sundays, and during the far greater part of the year, the altar stands a grand but neglected object, and the dome rises in silent majesty, unaccustomed to re-echo with the voice of exultation, and with the notes of praise. The service of the cathedral is performed in a distant chapel, and private Masses, it is true, are said at the different altars around; but the great body of the church seems deserted by its ministers, and, like Sion of old, to complain that none cometh to the solemnity.

CHAPTER IX.

OF THE CARDINALS, &c.

As all Roman Catholic churches had always their Senate composed of Priests and Deacons, whose counsel and assistance the Bishop used in the government of his diocese; so the Pope had always his, composed of Cardinals, who assisted him in the government of the Universal Church. The Cardinals are ecclesiastical Princes in this Church, or the principal Ecclesiastics next to the Pope, by whom they are created, and whose Council and Senate they compose. They are divided into three classes, or orders, consisting of six Bishops, fifty Priests, and fourteen Deacons, making in all seventy persons, which constitute what they call the Sacred College, of whom, three make a Consistory. In 1417, the Pope enacted that they should not exceed twenty-four, unless one or two should, with consent of the others, be once made for the honor of the nations which had no Cardinals. This order was soon disregarded, and we may infer the reason, when we find that Leo X. made thirty Cardinals, from whom he obtained for their promotion fifty thousand gold ducats. They had become fifty-one in the time of Matthew Paris; or fifty two, as Mart. Polenus mentions them. From that period they were greatly multiplied, and in 1562, the Emperor Ferdinand desired them to be reduced to twenty-six, or, if possible, to twelve, in the capita delivered by his ambassador to the Council of Trent. The number of Cardinal Bishops is always complete, those of Cardinal Priests and Deacons, seldom. The six Cardinal Bishops are those of Ostia, Porto, Sabina, Præneste, or Palestine, Tusculum, or Frascati, and Albano.

"The Cardinals," says an old author, "before Innocent IV.,

went in the ordinary habit of a Priest, like to that of the Monks. Innocent IV. first of all added to it the red hat; afterwards, in the time of Boniface IX., they had the red and violet habit, in the same manner and form as it is used at this day. Pope Paul II. gave the mitre of silk, the red cap, the red cloth for the mule, and guilt stirrups. Gregory XIV. gave the red cap to the regular Cardinalls, going otherwaies apparelled in that color, which those of the order whereof they were, then used, but of the same fashion and stuffe as the other Cardinalls went in. Howbeit, they wore no rochets, nor cassock of cloth; and when they adorne themselves, instead of a rochet, they put on a coate with wide sleeves, and adorne themselves over that; the other Cardinalls, which are not regulars, put on the ammius over the rochet, which they weare ordinarily, and then their ornaments; in like manner, the regular Cardinall ought to put on the ammit over the coat. The shaven crown is the common badge of all the Clergymen; the manipule is the badge of the Subdeacon; the cross-stole of the Deacon; the planeta of the Priest; the myter of the Bishop; the pall of the Archbishop, of the Primate, and of the Patriarch; and the diadem of the Pope, which, for sixe hundred yeares together, was adorned with onely one crown, but at the return of the Apostolick See from Avignon to Rome, the Popes began to weare the triple crowne.

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Of the creation of the Cardinalls. The Pope doth use to make Cardinalls two severall waies; the first is this: those persons which are abiding in Rome, whom his Holiness purposeth to promote, have notice given them thereof over night, by the Cardinall Nephewes, whereupon, the next morning, they repaire to the palace at the usual houre.

"The Pope, when as the secret consistory is shut up, pronounceth the Cardinalls whom he intends to make; and in the