"No, no, I cannot remit, the offence has been too public."
"All the better. Your Excellence will grant the more public and solemn forgiveness."
"It appears to me that you are come here to preach me a sermon, rather than to pay me a visit."
"Exactly; it is the visit of a Preacher. Ought I to waste my time in vain speeches or idle compliments? I avail myself of the present opportunity to discuss an affair of equal importance to your Excellence and to the priest; and I declare it is for the regard I entertain for both parties that I interest myself in it. If the priest, on his part, has need of your pardon, it cannot be denied that it would be equally advantageous for your Excellence to grant it him, to put a stop to all the idle talk of the neighbourhood, as well as to the imprecations of the numerous relatives and friends of the priest, who form a large party in Meta and Sorrento."
"What a capital advocate you are!"
"Have I then gained my cause?"
"Tell your client to do as I have said—let him go into a monastery, and then he may send to me again, and I may perhaps take his petition into consideration. Now let us talk of something else."
In this way it was that the Archbishop closed the door upon all hope of reconciliation: he refused his brother the forgiveness which he asked of him for the love of God. A year after, the cholera put an end to his life.... How fearful are thy judgments, Lord! Here was a man who willingly pardoned all sins committed against God, but who knew not how to pardon a single fault against himself. Such is the character of the higher Clergy in the Romish Church; indulgent in the extreme to all those who do not stand in the way of their interests or their ambition, they are implacable in their hatred, and cruel and fierce in their vengeance.
No sooner had I taken up my abode in Naples, after the termination of my preaching at Capua, than I was exceedingly courted by the Bishops and the Superiors of the Order. I had on every side the offer of a pulpit in their churches. I chose before all others the Lent discourses for 1836, in the principal Church of the Dominicans, as a testimony of my good will towards them. In 1837 I was again engaged by the Cardinal of Capua. In 1838 I officiated for the Cardinal of Naples; and in 1839 I preached for the Papal Nuncio, in his church of St. James.