WHEN King Ferdinand's turbulent subjects had been reduced to proper order by a foreign force, that monarch, in his return towards his states in 1821, had business of an important nature to settle at the Vatican; favours were given and received; there was an harmonious reciprocation between the prince spiritual and the prince temporal; the pope absolved the king from the oath the Carbonari had extorted from him, and the king, among other returns, consented to receive the "Society of Jesus" into his states and favour, and was brought to acknowledge, that the falls of thrones, and the abridgments and convulsions royal authority has been subjected to in late years, all emanated from that most impolitic and unjust proceeding, the suppression of the Jesuits. The king was soon followed to his capital by about twenty members of this once redoubted society, who, after an absence of many years, once more took possession of their splendid church del Gesù: the spacious monasteries or rather palaces that belonged to their community were, however, turned into Austrian barracks or manufactories; these they could not have again, and indeed the smallness of their number would have told a melancholy tale in those oncethronged abodes of their wealth and influence. They were indifferently accommodated in a convent adjoining MARCH, 1824.

the church, and supported by a royal pension and the donations and countenance of certain devotees; they proceeded forthwith to their task with a great show of industry and energy. In a few days the confessionals of their church were announced as being accessible to the penitent sinner at any hour of the day whatever; an additional number of daily masses was instituted; preaching and vesper services, besides many others, neglected by the torpidity and carelessness of the other religious orders and of the regular priests, were undertaken with true jesuitical zeal and indefatigability; and a set of religious pamphlets, adapted to the meridian of vulgar minds, were printed and distributed, at the same time that a spirited Italian translation of the celebrated apology of their order, given in by the French Jesuits at their suppression, was published for the edification of the more intellectual, for the conviction of modern sceptics, and for establishing unanswerable evidence of the justice of their cause. The harvest of their labours was soon seen; other churches were deserted and theirs crowded from morning till night in passing by, we have frequently seen the devout issuing in streams like those which the chapels of some of our more gifted methodist preachers emit; and we have seldom entered in times between service with

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out seeing all their confessionals occupied by kneeling penitents, and their altars besieged by weeping suppliants. One of the most powerful engines in the complicated machine of their power, was their monopoly of a great part of the education of youth; this had formerly awakened apprehension, and was one of the strongest of the motives alleged for their suppression; but now things were changed, and the society was encouraged to attempt the regaining of that ascendancy-they opened a school, which, like their church, was presently thronged.

Thus far, every thing went on in a cool, didactic way, but a coup d'eclat was judged expedient, and was given without delay. The body of a certain Francesco di Girolamo, a Sacerdote professo of their order, who died at Naples somewhat more than a hundred years ago in the odour of sanctity, and who has since, after a due trial in the saint making court at Rome (council being heard for and against) received the honour of beatification, was brought back to Naples, whence his brethren had carried him, at their expulsion, as part of their moveable property, and reinstated, with full authority to continue his miracles in the church del Gesù. In a few days a splendid ceremony was announced, and a collection set on foot to defray its expenses; as the king gave liberally, the ministers did the same, and all their impiegati and dependants, who had any respect for their characters, contributed their mite-the Jesuits pocketed a total of 26,000 ducats. On the day fixed the city was in unusual bustle; the peasantry poured in on all sides, and their number may be imagined to have been great, when, as it was ascertained, more than 30,000 entered on one side, that is, by the Strada Foria. About five in the evening the ceremony was arranged, and the relics were carried in procession from the church, with a

decorum and solemnity Neapolitan processions had long been strangers to. We saw them enter the street of Toledo, which was occupied by an undulating mass of plebeians, while the balconies and roof tops of the houses were crowded with people of all classes; the relics, protected by the Neapolitan Royal Guards, and accompanied by the devout murmurs, or the enthusiastic exclamations of the mob, moved on with sedate pomp; the sneer of the caviller, the disgust of the liberal, were of course suppressed or whispered, and every thing seemed to smile, like the setting sun of that fine summer evening, on the glory of the Jesuits. But alas! the whole length of Toledo was yet be fore them, and we all know how much may happen during a slow walk of half a mile: on a sudden the panicspreading "fuyi, fuyi,” (fly, fly) was heard; how it originated, whether from the nefarious designs of a set of pickpockets, or from the malice of the Carbonari (it was said in both ways), or from what other cause, we know not, but in a minute the word of terror was vociferated by the voices of thousands, and an alarming rush ensued.† The Austrians who were placed at regular distances to preserve order, fearing that a revolt had broken out, put themselves in a position of defence; bayonets were lowered, and the clatter of arms and the unintelligible words of command were heard by the Neapolitans, who imagining that they were all going to be massacred, set up the most hideous yells and rushed more violently than ever. The weak were thrown down and trampled under foot, and a certain number of the curious who had elevated themselves on stools and chairs were swept from their pedestals, and carried down the stream: the children, and the priests in the procession, still more cowardly than they, were with difficulty kept from running away; the troop wavered about the

street, the relics, the cross were hurled on this side and that, and were more than once near being relinquished altogether by the hirelings that bore them; the Jesuits were bawling and beating their breasts-in short, all decorum, all the spettacoloso, all the maestoso of the procession were annihilated. At length the multitude had partly disembogued through the numerous streets and lanes that diverge from the Strada Toledo, and the remainder had the satisfaction of disco

vering it was a false alarm! By slow degrees the flustered spirits were calmed, the procession formed again in tolerable order, music of instruments and voices again resounded, and the whole began to pass on decorously and solemnly as before. But the half of Toledo was not passed when the magic words "fuyi, fuyi," were again bellowed out, and the same scene of panic and confusion followed: this finished as the former, but not quite so soon. The procession then continued with fear and trembling, and with hastened steps: no other interruption occurred, but we believe the reverend fathers, and all personally interested in the business, were exceedingly happy when the Beato Francesco di Girolamo was again deposited in his coffin in the church. The mortification of the brethren and their party at this vistosissima mala riuscita may be conceived; the police of the city took sides with them, and that night and the following day a vast number of poor devils, who were supposed to look like pickpockets or malcontents, were thrown into prison, and three very respectable men were arrested for having laughed (for which we think there was great excuse) at the extraordinary scene, as they witnessed it from their balconies. The anti-jesuit and anti-miracle party, which amounted to all the people of sense in the capital, enjoyed this chute d'orgueil, and among the warmer of them, several pasquinades were written and circulated. The Jesuits, however, were consoled in their afflictions by an opportune miracle; as the body of the Beato was being carried into the church, a rickety child in the arms of

a devout mother was carried to touch the case in which it was enclosed, and immediately on the contact the child was perfectly cured of all its infirmities. Of this fact an instrument, consolidated by oaths, was drawn up the day after by a public notary, and put in circulation forthwith.

Shortly after the society published a compendium of the life of the said Beato Francesco di Girolamo, with an appendix, containing two of his miracles, approved by the Holy See, in the process of his beatification at Rome, and a Novena, or vigil, to be held in his honour. The darkest ages of superstition have spawned few documents more insulting to the Divinity, and to the greatest of his giftsthe human intellect few more dangerous in their tendency, more degrading, more monstrous than this abortion of the nineteenth century. It begins by relating that he was born at Grottaglie, a village near the ancient Tarentum, in 1642, that he gave evidences of sanctity as soon as he was born, and that he enlisted into the service of the church as soon as he was ten years old. He studied in the Jesuit College at Taranto, where he was promoted to holy orders: he then came to Naples, and entered as prefet in the Jesuit College de 'Nobili; in that establishment he continued his studies, obeyed the scriptural injunc tions of obedience to the very letter, obtained the title of Sacerdote Santo, and went with honour through the difficult ordeal to which the society subjects those who aspire to be its members. In 1670 he was admitted as a novice, and the following year he was sent as a missionary into the province of Otranto, where he laboured apostolically for more than three years; he then returned to the head house in the capital, finished his course of theology, and made profession of the four vows. Francesco was desirous of being sent missionary to India, and for a while it was reported he was destined for Japan, but Providence, that intended him for the good of his native country, induced the superiors to appoint him missionary of the city of Naples. One of

his first labours was to instruct a thousand youth eight days previous to their first communion; this he performed with great unction, and on the ninth day, the youths being dressed as angels, he conducted them with the music of sacred songs to the cathedral, to eat the angelic bread. His great duty was to preach on holidays in the public places of the city; in his discharge of this duty he was superhumanly fervent, and his preaching offered an uninterrupted course of eloquence and holiness on his part, and of conversion and miracles on that of his auditors. All the instances

of divine interposition that are cited are very characteristic. What can reasonable beings think of the following?

A certain monk of another order, who in discharge of his office also preached in the public places, conceived a great jealousy against Francesco di Girolamo, who always commanded greater audiences than he; one day this monk found some Jesuit students, headed by Francesco, preaching at a spot that, from long occupation, he considered exclusively his own; enraged at this intrusion, he first obliged the young men to silence, and then commanded Padre Francesco to follow their example; this the Jesuit immediately did, and moreover pros⚫trated himself before the envious monk to kiss his feet. His rival, with furious gesture, threw him from him, and, accusing him of hypocrisy, turned his back on him spitefully. The ensuing night divine vengeance fell upon the monk, he was struck with apoplexy: knowing from what hand the blow came, he sent to supplicate that Padre Francesco would repair to him. The Beatified went instantly, and consoled the monk by the grief he showed for his late transgression.

A beautiful and celebrated courtesan, on hearing Padre Francesco, who was preaching beneath her window, recommend charity for a poor convert, threw him a piece of silver; the Father, invested with celestial light, looked at her and exclaimed, "Sister, this charity will soon be of use to you." At these words alone, the obscene woman, touched with the spirit of repentance, resolved to change her way of life. She repaired to church, to the feet of Padre Francesco, and begged him to receive her confession. "Oh, not so," said he, "I require a surer pledge of your conversion; go into the conservatory of the Penitents; when you are entered there I will confess and absolve you." The woman did as she was bid. But when she thought herself duly disposed, and had confessed, and was expecting the Father

would give her absolution, and that she might be admitted to the communion-he left her in suspense, and went to say mass. When he returned to her he said, "Well! so you have not disclosed that sin ;" and he named the sin, and it was true she had been guilty of it; and the woman replied, it through forgetfulness." She was abYes, it is even so, but I failed to mention solved, and she approached the holy altar; and God then favoured her by sending her a cancer in the face, and so purified her from the faults she had committed through the incentives of her meretricious beauty.

In one of the streets where he was accustomed to preach to bad women, there was one so lost in sin, that she not only hindered his being heard, but mocked him and laughed at him: one day, surprised by divine justice, she died suddenly. That same day Padre Francesco, passing by, followed by a great multitude of people, asked what had become of Caterina, and he was answered that the unhappy wretch diately he ascends the stairs, the crowd folhad died of an apoplectic stroke. Immelowing him; and seeing her extended on her bed, he lifts his voice imperiously, and once, and twice, interrogates her, saying, "Caterina, where art thou ?" The defunct, however, answering nothing, with third time, "Caterina, tell me where art still greater faith he interrogates her the thou?" Then the miserable creature, drawing a deep sigh from her bosom, with a hoarse and horrid voice answered, "I am in hell!"

On the 11th of May, 1716, Father Francesco di Girolamo, in the 74th year of his natural, and the 46th of his Jesuit existence, seceded from his mortal labours in an excess of spiritual enthusiasm. One of the brethren who had attended him in his illness, wished, from motives of devotion, to cut off in secret a corn that the deceased had under one of his feet; but in making the incision the blood gushed out alive, and in such quantity that, besides drenching several cloths, it filled a good sized bottle, in which for several months it remained liquid and of a ruby colour. This circumstance had a powerful effect on the Beatification Court at Rome, and no doubt the blood and blood-stained towels were valuable and productive property to the Jesuits. The body was carried into the common sacristy, and his death was ru moured through the city; such multitudes rushed to the church and to the vestibule of the sacristy, that it was necessary to close the doors and