feet. If I were then to tell him, that in that city of some hundred and
seventy thousand souls, there were ten thousand persons in holy orders,
and between three and four hundred churches, of which nearly half had
convents and schools attached; if I were to add, that taking in novices,
scholars, choristers, servitors, beadles, and whole tribes of clerical
attendants, there were probably not far short of forty thousand persons,
who in some form or other lived upon and by the church, that is, in
plainer words, doing no labour themselves, lived on the labour of others,
he, I think, would answer then, that a city so priest-infested, priest-
ruled and priest-ridden, would be much such a city as he had seen with
me; such a city as Rome is now.




CHAPTER II. THE COST OF THE PAPACY.


In foreign discussions on the Papal question it is always assumed, as an
undisputed fact, that the maintenance of the Papal court at Rome is, in a
material point of view, an immense advantage to the city, whatever it may
be in a moral one. Now my own observations have led me to doubt the
correctness of this assumption, which, if true, forms an important item
in the whole matter under consideration. It is no good saying, as my
"Papalini" friends are wont to do, Rome gains everything and indeed only
exists by the Papacy. The real questions are, What class at Rome gain by
it, and what is it that they gain? There are four classes at Rome: the
priests, the nobles, the bourgeoisie, and the poor. Of course if anybody
gains it is the priesthood. If the Pope were removed from Rome, or if a
lay government were established (the two hypotheses are practically