ABSTRACT
The ceremonies of the Church of Rome, revived in the present period in all their original splendour, startle the English Protestant spectator, by their resemblance to the rites of his own more sober church. The view of the high and splendid ceremonies of the Roman church began with the Christmas festivities of 1819. These were announced ten days before, by such symptoms as recall the same season of religious observance and sensual enjoyment in England. It is eminently difficult for the passing traveller to obtain positive information concerning the internal economy of the southern states of Italy. The Church was still the same, whether Greek, or Roman, or English—gorgeous in its forms, exclusive in its principles, and arrogant in its pretensions,—first grasping at universal power, afterwards contented to share a domination it could not exclusively possess.
