DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0396
386
APPENDIX.
The pomp which environs the Pontiff in public,
and attracts the attention so forcibly, may per-
haps appear to many a glorious and enviable
distinction ; but there are few, I believe, who
would not, if accompanied by it in all the de-
tails of ordinary life, feel it an intolerable burthen.
Other sovereigns have their hours of relaxation :
they act their part in public, and then throw off
their robes, and mix in the domestic circle with
their family or their confidants. The Pope has
no hours of relaxation ; always encumbered with
the same robes, surrounded by the same attend-
ants, and confined within the magic circle of
riant of ancient manneis, a mode of conveyance (less lux-
urious indeed) copied from the lectica, so much in use among
the Romans. In the earlier ages, the custom of the Popes as of
other bishops was to pass from the sacristy through the church
on foot *, leaning on two priests, and thus advance to the altar;
a custom more conformable to Christian humility, and to the
simplicity not only of ancient but of modern times. In fact,
m all the ceremonial of the Roman Church and Court, the
only parts liable to misrepresentation or censure, are certain
additions of later times, when, in religious pomps and court
pageants, in dress and in style, all was inflated and cumber-
some. The rule of reform is easy and obvious; to prune off
the excrescences of barbarous ages, and to restore the simple
forms of antiquity.
* Ordo Rom. Primus et Secund. Muratori.
APPENDIX.
The pomp which environs the Pontiff in public,
and attracts the attention so forcibly, may per-
haps appear to many a glorious and enviable
distinction ; but there are few, I believe, who
would not, if accompanied by it in all the de-
tails of ordinary life, feel it an intolerable burthen.
Other sovereigns have their hours of relaxation :
they act their part in public, and then throw off
their robes, and mix in the domestic circle with
their family or their confidants. The Pope has
no hours of relaxation ; always encumbered with
the same robes, surrounded by the same attend-
ants, and confined within the magic circle of
riant of ancient manneis, a mode of conveyance (less lux-
urious indeed) copied from the lectica, so much in use among
the Romans. In the earlier ages, the custom of the Popes as of
other bishops was to pass from the sacristy through the church
on foot *, leaning on two priests, and thus advance to the altar;
a custom more conformable to Christian humility, and to the
simplicity not only of ancient but of modern times. In fact,
m all the ceremonial of the Roman Church and Court, the
only parts liable to misrepresentation or censure, are certain
additions of later times, when, in religious pomps and court
pageants, in dress and in style, all was inflated and cumber-
some. The rule of reform is easy and obvious; to prune off
the excrescences of barbarous ages, and to restore the simple
forms of antiquity.
* Ordo Rom. Primus et Secund. Muratori.