Page:Early Reminiscences.djvu/340

 z8o EARLY REMINISCENCES the Propaganda to be trained as a missionary. But there was much that he could not stomach in Romanism, as the cock-and-bull stories of miracles that were propounded in religious books and from the pulpit; and he was greatly shaken by the lack of truthfulness he noticed among the really pious and earnest Papists. He instanced the case of a noble lady named Rosalia, whom the Redemptorists smuggled away from her parents and family in order to establish her as head of a religious community in Hungary. The police and the Court made inquiries, and her family instituted a search, but all in vain. Hoffbauer, the Confessor to the Emperor, was questioned, but he swore he did not know where Rosalia was ; and the Redemptorists and the clergy in general were equally insistent on their ignorance as to her whereabouts. The fact was that Hoffbauer had made her change her name from Rosalia to Philippina ; and thus they were able to elude discovery. This equivocation was, and is, entirely according to the rules of the Moral Theology of Alfonso Liguori, who has been proclaimed a doctor of the Church. Further, Wolff was unable to accept the doctrine of Papal Infallibility. He had an amusing story of his discussion on this topic with Cardinal della Somaglia, relative to the Hebrew Bible. His Eminence told him that it was the Church which interpreted it. Thus, there was a passage in Isaiah, " A virgin shall conceive and bear a son." There was much dispute as to whether the word should be rendered Virgin or Young Woman. The question was referred to the Pope, who decided that the word meant Virgin. " But how could he know that, when he was ignorant of Hebrew ? " asked Wolff. The Cardinal shook his head and said, " I fear that you will become a heresiarch." Wolff found among the Roman clergy great zeal and enthusiasm, whereas among the Calvinists and Lutherans there was coldness and indifference. He spoke in the highest terms of the morality and piety of the students in the Collegio Romano, and the Propaganda. In all the time he was in both he never heard a foul word spoken. But the ignorance of teachers and pupils of all save what formed the curriculum of study was astounding. The professor of Ecclesiastical History gave lectures down to the period of the appearance of Luther, but never of the Reformation.