DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61894#0209
Ch. V.
THROUGH ITALY.
179
but in a side chapel, and that the pope should
prefer the secrecy of his own oratory to the grand
and majestic scenery of such noble temples. The
pious Christian, as he ranges over these glorious
fabrics, longs to see the genuine forms of the
primitive church revived, and the spacious area,
filled with a crowded but orderly congregation ;
the men on the right, the women on the left, the
youth drawn up on each side of the altar ; the
choir in double rows before it, with a pulpit for
the readers on each side: behind it, the pontiff
surrounded by his clergy, performing himself
every Sunday the solemn duties of his station,
presiding in person over the assembly, instructing
his flock, like the Leos and the Gregorys of an-
cient times, with his own voice, and with his own
hands administering to them the bread of life and
the cup of salvation. Such was a Christian con-
gregation during the early ages, and such the re-
gularity of ancient times. How grand would such
an assembly now be in a temple like the Vatican !
How awful and how affecting such a spectacle!
How like an assembly of the blessed, and how
conformable to the sublime description of the
Revelations !—Barbarism, ignorance, and indif-
ference have long since disturbed this admirable
order, and in most places nearly erased its re-
collection ; but the Roman pontiff, and he only,
possesses influence sufficient to restore it, and to
N 2
THROUGH ITALY.
179
but in a side chapel, and that the pope should
prefer the secrecy of his own oratory to the grand
and majestic scenery of such noble temples. The
pious Christian, as he ranges over these glorious
fabrics, longs to see the genuine forms of the
primitive church revived, and the spacious area,
filled with a crowded but orderly congregation ;
the men on the right, the women on the left, the
youth drawn up on each side of the altar ; the
choir in double rows before it, with a pulpit for
the readers on each side: behind it, the pontiff
surrounded by his clergy, performing himself
every Sunday the solemn duties of his station,
presiding in person over the assembly, instructing
his flock, like the Leos and the Gregorys of an-
cient times, with his own voice, and with his own
hands administering to them the bread of life and
the cup of salvation. Such was a Christian con-
gregation during the early ages, and such the re-
gularity of ancient times. How grand would such
an assembly now be in a temple like the Vatican !
How awful and how affecting such a spectacle!
How like an assembly of the blessed, and how
conformable to the sublime description of the
Revelations !—Barbarism, ignorance, and indif-
ference have long since disturbed this admirable
order, and in most places nearly erased its re-
collection ; but the Roman pontiff, and he only,
possesses influence sufficient to restore it, and to
N 2