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Dwight's book is about the attempt in the middle of the nineteenth-century by the people of the Italian Papal Estates to throw off their civil government, a theocracy headed by the Pope.

1.       Regarding the death of Rossi: "Convenience has since dictated the accusing of the Republicans with the crime: but intelligent Americans will now be able to see how unfounded is the accusation. They will also be able to apply to this case a very good general rule, viz. when a Jesuit is seen at the end of an affair, diligently engaged in using it against some of his enemies, it is reasonable to look for his hand at the beginning, and see whether he did not first arrange the whole for this purpose." p. 65

2.       Quoting the Italian Magazine Italia del Popolo

         "Liberty is irreconcilable with papacy.

         We are not the disciples of Voltaire and the eighteenth century. They destroyed and denied; and, because they destroyed, we seek to build: because they denied we affirm. Humanity, now as ever, is profoundly and inevitably religious; and, because it is religious, it makes war against Popery, a form, a phantasm of religion -- not religion. Popery is dead, dead in blood, dead for having betrayed its duty of protecting from the strong oppressor; dead for having committed idolatry with princes for more than three centuries; dead for having a second time crucified Christ in the name of selfishness, * * dead for having published a faith in which it does not believe; dead for denying human liberty and the dignity of our immortal souls; dead for condemning science in Galileo, philosophy in Giordano Bruno, religious aspiration in John Huss and Jerome of Prague, political life with anathemas against the rights of people, civil life with Jesuitism, with the terrors of the Inquisition and with the example of corruption, family life by confession converted into espionage and by division sown between father and son, brother and brother, husband and wife." p. 74-75

         Here are some excerpts of Dwight's description of what was found when the Republicans gained access to the main building of the Holy Office, the arm of the Catholic church which was responsible for the Inquisition.

3.       "In order to obtain a place to stable the horses, a space was opened in the walls; when the workmen discovered an aperture. The ardent curiosity which had always, up to that time, surrounded every thing related to the Holy Office, and the hatred against the government of the priests, suspended their labors. The rubbish was removed, they descended into a small subterranean place, damp, without light or passage out, with no floor but a black oleaginous earth resembling that of a cemetery. Here and there were scattered about pieces of garments, of ancient fashions -- the clothes of unfortunate persons, who had been thrown from above, and died of wounds, fear or hunger. A baiocco (or penny) of Pius 7th, was picked up, which probably denotes the epoch when that abode of darkness and despair was walled up. The rich soil had hardly begun to be removed, before human bones were uncovered in some places, with some very long locks of hair, which had doubtless ornamented the heads of females. The hands trembled, as well as the hearts of those who went on to uncover and collect those funeral reliques. What temples had been shaded by those tresses? What opinions had been their crime? Who had sent spies to seize these victims? Who can answer the question? Who will ever be able? Poor martyrs of ignorance and fanaticism, torn perhaps from the mother's arms, to be thrown into a cloister, and from the cloister into such a dungeon, without light or door; still young and beautiful! These locks of hair were disheveled in their agonies of death, and there they expired, disconsolate, forgotten by the world, without a kiss from a friend, without receiving a sigh or a tear, or even a handful of dust upon their corpses.

         Many of the spectators carried away pieces of the earth and hair, as amulets against the tyranny of the Pope. It is certain that the "Trap-door" swallowed victims of whom it was important to the Holy Office to destroy all traces, because the Foro, or Judgment-hall is over it, in the second story of the first edifice, and it is exactly under the vestibule of the chamber of the "Second Father Companion," which adjoined the Hall of the Tribunal." p. 102 - 103

4.       "The walls of all the cells were covered with inscriptions, some of which expressed despairing grief, but most of them resignation, even in that abode, and under the sufferings inflicted there, so well fitted to becloud the mind, to terrify the boldest heart and to bend the most iron-will.

         Under the two courts subterranean apartments abounded, communicating with each other. A few only were solitary; and to those there was only one way of access, viz. a trap-door, which denoted death! Some of them were prisons at first, and afterwards converted into store-rooms. To their ceilings were still fastened iron rings, which formerly served to give to the Question, (torture!) and afterwards to suspend provisions. In one cell on the ground floor, in the second building, a square piece of marble was observed in the floor, which looked like the cover of a hole. It was raised, and beneath was a vault, which proved to be a Vade in pace, (go in peace, that is, a place of silent death.) Not a ray of light ever could have entered, except when that funeral marble was lifted for a moment, and then it was soon again fell, over the head of the condemned person, who was left to die of hunger, in the cold and darkness, and amidst a stillness unbroken unless by his own cries or prayers.

         A portion of those subterraneous apartments were closed in the present century, or near the close of the last, as was plainly discovered by a careful examination of the walls, that had shut them in, which had been artificially colored with a grayish hue, to make them look old. This artifice was accidentally discovered.

         The rubbish having been removed in one place, indications of a stone staircase were observed, which was cleared, and persons went down thirty steps. At the bottom was found a small chamber, filled up with a mixture of earth and lime, and which proved to be but the first of many others like it. The prisons of Pope Pius V were now at last discovered. Along the walls were recesses, hollowed out, so formed and arranged as to bring to mind the ancient Columbari, or dovecotes. There, it appeared, from what was observed, the condemned were buried alive, being immersed in a kind of mortar up to their shoulders. In some instances it was evident, they had died slowly and of hunger. This was inferred from the position of the bodies, which people, in great numbers that most horrible abode: and marks were seen in the earth of movements made, in the convulsive agonies of the last moments, to free themselves from the tenacious mortar, while it was closing round their limbs. The bodies were placed in lines, opposite each other. The skulls were all gone; but these were afterwards found in another place.

         Of these victims of religious fury we know nothing.

         The rest of the edifice has nothing remarkable. The hall of the dreaded tribunal, over which presided the Dominican Commissary of the Holy Inquisition, was in the interior of the first fabric. This was very simple, adorned only with a colossal figure of Pius V at the end. Above the seat of the Father Inquisitor was a crucifix, with the image of the church beneath it, trampling upon heresy; and near by was the terrible Dominican Gusman. On the sides opened two doors. That on the right led to into the room of the first Father Companion, and that on the left to the room of the second Father Companion. These two magistrates of ancient times assisted the High Procurator of the Inquisition, in discovering offenses, and in converting the condemned offenders; to which latter office they devoted themselves in the following manner. When a trial was finished, and it was important to the Holy Office, to dispose of a condemned person without giving a public spectacle, he came in, conducted by the first Father Companion, who exhorted him to repent, to consign everything to the hands of divine compassion, which punished him on earth to glorify, and purify him in heaven; he pressed him with insidious interrogations, in order to discover more of his offenses, and to find traces of other offenders; and, finally, blessing him, if he confessed and was contrite, he pretended to send him to the second Father Companion. The guard, who awaited him on the occasion, well knowing the arrangements, conducted him towards the apartment on the other side, opened the door, and stopped short without passing it. As soon as the miserable prisoner touched the spot near the threshold, the floor gave way, and he fell through the trap-door into his tomb.

         These words are still written over that door: "Chamber of the second Father Companion." " pp. 104-107

5.       "The Inquisition tries heresy, suspicion of heresy, protection given to heresy, every kind of evil doing, sacrilege and enchantment, blasphemy, both heretical and non-heretical, insults offered to the Inquisition, whether by resisting its orders, offending its members or officers, either in person, character or property, or in any thing whatever belonging to them. The jurisdiction of the Inquisition extends over Jews, Mahomedans and all infidels, of whatever kind, comprehending all who teach anything contrary to the sentiments of the Court of Rome, concerning the Sovereign and unlimited power of the Popes, their superiority to councils, even general councils, and the divine arbitriment which they may exercise over the acts of governments and princes of all countries. Aside from all this, it is sufficient, to fall under the jurisdiction of the Holy Office, that one refrains from confessing for a year, eats meats on prohibited days, or breaks any one of the precepts of the Church. The words guilty and accused are synonymous in the dictionary of the Inquisition, because the Church cannot be mistaken: therefore, whoever is accused must be guilty. And it is not permitted to save any person who falls under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition: but he must be accused, even though a father or a brother." p. 109

6.       "We have mentioned these facts, because they assist in comprehending the importance of the Archives of the Holy Office. These are the registers of all the trials and sufferings incurred by men of intellect, for efforts made against every kind of tyranny, established in the name of men or in the name of God: the history of that contest which has been carried on for three centuries. We believe that the documents anterior to the sixteenth century exist somewhere else. The archives existing are very extensive indeed, and every page contains some malediction against freedom of thought, or a record of sufferings and tortures. Every one is impregnated with tears or blood.

         They are divided into three parts.

         The first consists of the Library: the most precious and unique of its kind. This contains all works relating to the Inquisition, written in the Catholic spirit; with the jurisprudence and apologies for the Holy Office, published in every part of Europe. It is thus a complete collection of works presented and registered in the Index: that is, the documents relating to all the crimes committed by Catholic intolerance against the highest displays of the human intellect. There is seen a collection of the original editions of all works written by Italian reformers, the greater part of whom died either in exile, in prison, under torture or in the flames. Numbers of those works are unknown to bibliophilists themselves, even the most diligent and the most devoted collectors of rare books; and are the only, or almost the only copies in existence of some of the works. We need but reflect upon the history of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, to have an idea of this insatiable bitterness with which the Inquisition not only hunted and tortured the authors, but devoted itself to destroying the books, even to buying up whole editions and committing them to the flames, at the same time notifying every person possessing a copy to resign it immediately. The typographic art, although in the former half of the sixteenth century, was in a most flourishing state, must have been destroyed by the laws of Paul IV and Pius V and the Council of Trent. Consequently, in the second half of the century the great printing offices disappeared, and the printers either failed or ceased their labors and went into exile." pp. 111-112

         "The second section (of the library of the Inquisition) contains summary records of all the trials which have been held and decided by the supreme tribunal of the Minverva; all the resolutions by the Holy Office of cases of conscience, and all the objects taken from prisoners and delinquents: such as letters, books, manuscripts, pictures, ornaments, amulets, etc., a curious and very strange collection.

         The third part (of the library,) formed under the chancellery, is the most important in our times, and reveals the vast organization of the Inquisition, and what kind of life and how much life it still possesses. Here, more than any where else, politics and religion take each other by the hand, and are confounded in one; here is perceived the usefulness of confession and of the concentrated absolutism in the church; here politics control religious heresy, and the assiduous care of the priest is seen, who wishes to maintain himself as a prince; here are all the trials, all the revelations, all the design, all the secret intrigue of modern times.

         The Roman Church, after the German Reformation, endeavored to purify ecclesiastical practices; and if they did not succeed in this, it was owing to the essential defects of the internal constitution. To this department of the Inquisition belongs the "Summary of Solicitations," a record, of women who had been solicited to criminality by their own confessors in the pontifical state; and the summary is not brief." p. 115

7.       "Such is the immense family of the Inquisition: touching every place, having its eye upon everything, from the confessional of the humble female, to the palace of great men and the royal residence of princes, it examines everything, studies and records everything. Liberty, in its estimation, is not only heresy, but reason itself is a kind of heresy; therefore the world is heretical, and therefore the Inquisition believed it to be its duty to observe everything, in its secret jurisdiction, the actions and thoughts of all men, and secretly utters its anathemas even against the governments which have lent them a musket. To it nothing is sacred, nothing respected: neither the sanctity of the domestic hearth, nor the religion of the oath sworn to governments, nor the silence of the confessional." pp. 116-117

8.       "It may be well to notice two or three things here:

         1st. The Pope claims the power and right of forbidding everybody, in every part of the world, from reading whatever book he chooses.

         2nd. His bishops, in this part of the system, do the work of Inquisitors, where the latter are not to be found.

         3rd. The Pope claims the authority to punish persons in any part of the world where he can, with cruel punishments, if they read books which he prohibits." p. 214

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   last updated Feb 21, 2001