'Is there,' said Beaumont to Ampere, 'still an Inquisition at Rome?'
'There is,' said Ampere, 'but it is torpid. It punishes bad priests, but
does little else.'
'If a Roman,' I asked, 'were an avowed infidel, would it take notice of
him?'
'Probably not,' said Ampere, 'but his _cure_ might--not for his
infidelity, but for his avowing it. The _cure_ who has always the powers
of a _commissaire de police,_ might put him in prison if he went into a
_cafe_ and publicly denied the Immaculate Conception, or if he neglected
going to church or to confession: but the Inquisition no longer cares
about opinions.'
'Is there much infidelity,' I asked, 'in Rome?'
'Much,' said Ampere, 'among the laity. The clergy do not actively
disbelieve. They go through their functions without ever seriously
inquiring whether what they have to teach be true or false. No persons
were more annoyed by the Mortara[1] business than the clergy, with the
exception of Antonelli. He hates and fears the man who set it on foot,
the Archbishop of Bologna, and therefore was glad to see him expose
himself, and lose all hope of the Secretaryship, but he took care to
prevent the recurrence of such a scandal.
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