Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/290

300 wool, silver, and gold and many other things which serve for the purposes of the church, or for clerical garments, are blessed and consecrated in the same manner.

These symbolic transactions express the befitting thought; all existences and all things ought by religious intuition, to be consecrated to the service of God. But man stops short at the symbolical act. And the church or the hierarchy, which here sets itself in the place of the Holy One, is, besides, any thing but sacred and sanctifying. That which I heard of the belief, or rather the disbelief, and of the morality, or rather immorality, of the priests, especially of the higher priest- hood here, and in other places in Italy, is by no means edifying, and in certain cases their influence in families has been dreadful. But I will not repeat what I have been told; for I myself, have not seen any thing of the kind. Still I have seen, and I see every day, that these teachers and leaders of the people, who sprinkle men and things with holy water, do very little to make them better or more fitted in any way for the kingdom of God. They sprinkle holy water and make the sign of the cross also over sin and wickedness, and take care that the church itself, by outward splendor and pomp, may be, as far as possible, separated from the poor, sinful, human throng. She, the church, does not take heed for their education—but on the contrary labors against it—and looks after their daily life merely in so far as to render them submissive. I do not believe that this is saying too much as regards the general character of the Roman Catholic —the Italian