The courtesans sell their wares at a high price, for they stroll about attired in velvet, damasks, silks, and resplendent in gold. They cannot sell their favours cheaply, inasmuch as they pay a heavy tax, which, together with the proceeds of masses, constitutes the revenues of the priests with which Rome swarms. If one wishes to ascertain the revenues of an ecclesiastic, he asks: "How many harlots?" and the figures show whether he, the ecclesiastic, is more or less favoured. No wonder, then, that, privileged in that manner, magnificently dressed and kept in splendour, prostitutes come to Rome from all parts. It is worthy of notice that the young girls of Rome emulate the others with zest. (Dr. Hoyer's cook, a native of Nuremburg, must have been once a beautiful creature. Her master always called her madonna Margarita.) At thirty or thirty-five, when they find their admirers desert them, these persons become cooks, laundresses, serving wenches, without, however, disdaining a good windfall. The result was this: they smothered, they flung into the cloaca, they drowned in the Tiber more new-born than there were massacred at Bethlehem. Herod after all was an impious and barbaric tyrant, and resorted to this butchery in order to defend his crown. Yet by whom were the poor innocents in Rome deprived of baptism and life? By their mothers, by those to whom they owed their birth, by the saints of this world, the vicars of Christ.
To cure the evil by means established by God Himself was not to be thought of, marriage having been declared incompatible with the sacerdotal office. Pope Sixtus IV, however, having set his heart upon stopping those horrible murders, restored from roof to cellar the Asylum of the Holy Spirit, tumbling to ruin, and enlarged it by several handsome structures; he established an important brotherhood there, at the head of which he inscribed his own name, an example followed by many cardinals. Each member of the fraternity has the privilege of choosing for himself a confessor; and power was given to said confessor to give plenary absolution once when the penitent was in a state of good health; when dying, an unlimited number of times, even for the cases usually reserved for the Apostolic See.
The wards of the hospital are handsome and roomy, the beds and appurtenances leave nothing to desire. The sick of every country are treated with unremitting care; when they are cured they pay, if they are able and willing; but the very poor are sent away dressed in new clothes from head to foot, and provided with some money. The staff is composed of sick-nurses of both sexes, physicians and surgeons; the establishment has, moreover, an excellent dispensary abundantly stocked with everything, and recourse to which was often had from outside. The institution--apart from the hospital--brings up foundlings and orphans; the governors have the boys taught this or that trade, according to their aptitude or taste, nor are the girls allowed to remain idle. While still very young they begin to knit, to spin, to sew and to weave; in fact, under the direct supervision of the mistresses attached to the establishment, they are taught all the occupations of their sex. If one of the inmates wishes to get married, he or she must inform the administrators either directly or through an intermediary. Inquiries are made about the suitors, about their means of maintaining a family, etc. The girls get a modest marriage-portion, an outfit, household goods and utensils, and at Whitsuntide six or seven unions are celebrated at the institution on the same day.
Truly, it is a great institution, which seems to defy all criticism. In spite of enormous expenses, the existence of the establishment is assured by its resources. Of course Sixtus IV. has contributed largely from his private purse, but those contributions were as nothing to the practically incredible sums collected by the courtesans throughout Christendom in aid of the hospital, Germany included, and even Pomerania, if I may trust to the recollections of my young days. One day, while taking a stroll with Dr. Hoyer, I ventured to ask him if he had no wish to come back to his native country, where he had friends, relatives, property and livings. He said he had not such a wish, in consequence of the difference of religion, adding: "May my countrymen amend their ways and become converted, like all those who have turned away from the true and primitive Catholic doctrine." "But," replied I, "it's we who have the true and primitive Catholic doctrine in its purity." Dr. Hoyer retorted: "It is written, 'Ye shall know them by their fruits.' Well, let them show me anywhere in Germany an institution to be compared to the hospital and the Asylum of the Holy Spirit." "I know this saying of Christ," I remarked, "and I turn it against the papists. Good fruits, indeed; a life of abomination, the murder of innocent creatures, a premium on debauch by picking up the new-born. The pope, the cardinals, bishops, prelates, canons, their servants, monks, assessors and other hangers-on of the priesthood, would not all these be better off in taking to themselves wives? for as much as the Almighty condemns fornication, as much does he recommend to the priest, as well as to the layman, the holy state of marriage, the antidote to the Roman horrors of a certain kind. Do not we read in the Epistles of Paul: 'Marriage is honourable among all things'? And if so, there would be no more murdering of innocents, mothers and fathers would themselves look after their offspring, the Asylum of the Holy Spirit would become useless, an immense saving would be effected, and everybody would have a clear conscience with regard to that kind of thing." Dr. Hoyer did not answer me, but what a wry face he pulled!
Rome contains a great number of handsome mansions, for the popes, in order to perpetuate their memory, erect three-storied and four-fronted palaces; whole streets of houses are demolished if in any way they obstruct the view. The material employed is a magnificently hard stone; there is a popular saying to that effect: "In Rome, great blocks of marble, great personages, great scoundrels." Nor are the cardinals and bishops satisfied with modest buildings, least of all with humble huts; as a consequence, the stone masons always have their hands full. Buffaloes, a species of very strong oxen, convey the stones, which are hoisted up in the easiest possible manner, by means of curious engines.
On Corpus Christi day there is a grand procession, in which the pope takes part. The streets through which he passes are bestrewn with green, the houses are ornamented with rich hangings, there is the firing of cannon, and clever pieces of fireworks are let off from the various palaces; naturally there is an immense crowd, and people could walk on each other's heads; the smallest window has a number of spectators. At the Castle of St. Angelo there was an admirable piece of fireworks in the shape of a sun; the whole structure seemed to be ablaze. At St. Peter's there was a discharge of heavy artillery, and the cannons of St. Angelo and of the cardinals replied to the salute. There was so much smoke and so much noise that one could neither hear nor see anything. At last both subsided, and then the pope appeared on the balcony, where they presented a book bound in gold to him, from which he read, but I could not catch a word he said. All at once the whole of the enormous throng, thousands of people, fall on their knees, I alone remain standing; those around me stare at me with stupefaction, thinking, no doubt, that I have taken leave of my senses. When the reading was over (it was a short one) the pope blessed the people, who cried: "Vivat papa Paulus, vivat."
Close to the Church of Maria de Pace stands the huge statue of Pasquin, which every morning denounces, without ceremony and with impunity, as it were, the mistakes and crimes of the great ones of the land, the cardinals and the Pope Paul III were often taken to task; numberless were the allusions with reference to his acquisition of the cardinal's hat. A German, who had come to Rome for absolution, confessed, among other things, to having spoken ill of the pope. The confessor was greatly perplexed. It was difficult to account this as a sin to the penitent, when at any minute the latter might hear the pope insulted openly; on the other hand, to refrain from condemnation on the ground that the case was a common one at Rome was virtually discrediting the papacy in the estimation of the Germans. Clever man that he was, the confessor asked: "Ubi maledixisti Pontifici, in patriâ vel hic Romae?" "In patriâ." was the answer. "O!" exclaimed the priest, "commisisti grande peccatum; Romae licet Pontifici maledicere, in patriâ vero non."
At that time the pope was recruiting, to the sound of the drum, troops to aid the emperor against the Lutherans. About 10,000 foot soldiers and 500 light horse, both exceedingly well-equipped, enlisted. They mustered at Bologna; the pope's grandson Octavius, Governor of St. Angelo,[[35]] received the command of the contingent. The Spanish Inquisition grew more and more energetic in order to arouse the religious ardour of the horse and foot soldiers. A Spaniard, convicted of Lutheranism, was paraded seated on a horse, covered to its hoofs with placards representing the devil; the gallows were erected close to the pyre in front of Sancta Maria super Minervam. The poor wretch was hanged and his body burnt; after which a chattering monk demonstrated at length the temporal and spiritual dangers of the Lutheran heresy.
The cardinals gave a grand banquet in honour of Duke Philip of Brunswick. A well-born Spaniard slipped in among the servants of the prelate where the entertainment took place. That nation is greatly addicted to pilfering. Most people know the answer of Emperor Charles V to the Spaniards, who wished to induce him to suppress the habitual drunkenness of the Germans: "It would practically remove the opportunity of Spaniards to do a bit of robbery now and again," said Charles. Fancying that such an opportunity had come, the Spaniard got hold of some bread and a flagon of wine, hid himself under the table, the cloths of which reached to the floor. In the event of his being caught, he was ready with the plea of a practical joke, knowing that the host was himself very fond of them. Two of his servants were posted near the great mansion. The banquet was not over before midnight, and the stewards of his Eminence, worn out with fatigue, considered that the silver would not take wing when the doors were shut. They therefore left it where it was, merely shutting the doors behind them. Emerging from his hiding-place, the Spaniard introduces his confederates, and they all carry away as much as they can. The spoil is sold to the Jews, with the exception of the least cumbersome pieces, which the scoundrel intends to keep for making a show of his own; and then the three depart in the direction of Naples as fast as their horses will carry them.
His Eminence's retainers having gone to bed late, were not up betimes, and their astonishment on entering the banquetting hall may easily be imagined. Their flesh crept. How were they going to avoid being sent to prison? Were they to preserve silence about the affair, or inform the cardinal? They decided upon the latter course. They were locked up, and couriers were dispatched in hot haste to warn the innkeepers; the express order of the pope was to bring back to Rome any person in whose possession the stolen objects were found.