ed to specify bells made of that metal: for they were instruments well known to the ancients, and employed by them for many superstitious purposes; and certainly they would have been more convenient for those rites than brass in any other shape. The sistrum, shaken by the priests in the service of the goddess Isis, was, no doubt, intended to have the same effect. It consisted of a frame in the figure of a battle-door, through which passed transversely several loose bars, hooked at each end, to prevent them from slipping out through the sides of the frame. These bars, when rattled to and fro, were calculated to make nearly as much disturbance as the more orthodox bells, like which, they were of brass. Among the early Christian relics deposited in the Library of the Vatican is one of the following construction: A piece of metal, forming a handle, was beat out at the extremities into broad laminæ, and to each of these lamina were attached four small bells. A slight turn of the wrist would thus naturally and easily put the eight bells in motion. The discovery of such an instrument is a proof that the use of them in the church is not of modern date, and consequently comes in aid of the supposition that it owed its commencement to pagan times.

Again, the relative situation of the image and altar in the old temples and modern churches is the same. This is satisfactorily seen from a painting found at Pompeii, and now in the Museo Borbonico*. It exhibits a female.

*It was formerly in the Museum at Portici-(Chamber 8, No. DCCCXLVI.)

in the act of sacrificing to Bacchus. The altar is placed in front of the statue of the god, and so much below him, as to allow him to receive the full benefit of the odour of the offering. Here may be distinctly traced the practice now so common of fixing a figure of our Saviour, the Virgin, or a Saint, above the altar at which the priest performs mass, and during the celebration of which the incense from time to time is made to rise like an exhalation towards the object of reverence*.

The effigies of our Saviour and the Saints are often treated by the modern Italians with great familiarity. Frequently may they be seen expostulating with a favourite image with as much emphasis and expression, as if they really expected an answer. Here again they closely resemble their heathen ancestors; for, according to Suetonius, Caligula was wont to "converse in secret with Jupiter Capitolinus, sometimes whispering, and listening in his turn; sometimes audibly, and in terms of reproach; for he was overheard to threaten that he would send him about his business into Greece-sus yalav Aaναών περαω σε-until softened by the entreaties of the god, and invited, as he declared, to an intimacy with him, he built a bridge which connected his palace with the Capitol."-(Calig. 22). "When disappointed by his tutelary saints, an Italian will sometimes proceed so far as to heap reproaches, curses, and even blows on the wax, wood, or stone which represents them. The same turbulent gusts of passion displayed themselves in the

*Blunt.

same way amongst the Romans, who scrupled not to accuse their gods of injustice, and to express their indignation against their faithless protectors by the most unequivocal signs:

To him who smarts beneath the heavenly rod,
Some comfort is it to reproach the god.-BLUNT.

Upon the death of Germanicus stones were cast by the populace at the temples in Rome; the altars were overturned, and in some instances the Lares thrown into the streets.-(Suet. Calig. 5). And Augustus thought proper to take his revenge upon Neptune for the loss of one of his fleets, by not allowing his image to be carried in procession at the Circensian games which followed*."(Suet. Aug. 16).

*Blunt.

87

RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

Nos numerus sumus, et fruges consumere nati.-HOR.

CATHOLICS seem to have contrived to keep up as near a resemblance as possible between their own religious orders and those of pagan Rome; and the sovereign pontiff himself, instead of deriving his succession from St. Peter, may with more propriety style himself the successor of the Pontifex Maximus, who was looked upon as the "arbiter and judge of all things, civil as well as sacred, human as well as divine"-(Fest. in Ord. Sacerdotum); "whose power, established almost with the foundation of the city, was an omen and sure presage of that priestly majesty, by which Rome was once more to reign as universally as it had done before by the force of its arms.” —(Polyd. Virg. Inv. Ver. lib. iv. 14)*.

It is remarkable, that, of all the sovereign pontiffs of

* From the following passage of Cæsar, it appears that the privilege of excommunication, claimed by the Pope, is but a relic of heathenism:-" Si qui aut privatus aut publicus Druidum decreto non stetit, sacrificiis interdicunt. Hæc pœna est apud eos gravissima. Quibus ita est interdictum, ii numero impiorum et sceleratorum habentur, iis omnes decedunt, aditum eorum sermonemque defugiunt, ne quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant; neque iis petentibus jus redditur, neque honos ullus communicatur."-De bello Gallico, lib. iv. cap. 13.

Pagan Rome, Caligula should have been the first who offered his foot to be kissed by those who approached him. Those who endeavoured to excuse it said, that it was not done out of insolence but vanity; that he might, by this means, display his golden slipper, set with jewels. Seneca declaims upon it as the last affront to liberty, and the introduction of a Persian slavery into the manners of Rome*. Yet this servile act is now the standing ceremonial of Christian Rome, and a necessary condition of access to the reigning Popet.

The great variety of religious orders and societies of priests among the modern Italians, seems to have been formed upon the model of the old colleges or fraternities of the Augurs, Pontifices, Salii, Fratres arvales, &c. The Vestal Virgins might probably furnish the hint for the foundation of nunneries; and something very like the rules and austerities of the monastic life is discoverable in the character and habits of certain of the heathen priests, who used to live by themselves, retired from

* Absoluto et gratias agenti porrexit osculandum sinistrum pedem-qui excusant, negant id insolentiæ causâ factum; aiunt socculum auratum, imo aureum, margaritis distinctum ostendere eum voluisse-natus in hoc, ut mores civitatis Persicâ servitate mutaret, &c.-Senec. de Benef. L. ii. 12.

+ Eustace, like the friends of Caligula, endeavours to furnish at once a reason and an excuse for this strange ceremonial, by saying, that it is to the cross embroidered on the slipper that this homage is really paid; but we are naturally led to ask, what business has the cross in such a situation?