“This statue of St. Peter, as a work of art, is as execrable as possible.  Part of the toe and foot is worn away and polished, not by the kisses, but by the wiping of the foot after the kisses by the next comer preparatory to kissing it; sometimes with the coat-sleeve by a beggar; with the corner of the cloak by the gentlemen; the shawl by the females; and with a nice cambric handkerchief by the attendant at the ceremony, who wiped the toe after each cardinal’s performance.  This ceremony is variously performed.  Some give it a single kiss and go away; others kiss the toe and then touch the forehead to it and kiss the toe again, repeating the operation three times.”

The ceremonies and ritual of the Roman Catholic Church, while appealing to the eye of the artist, were repugnant to his Puritan upbringing, and we find many scornful remarks among his notes.  In fact he was, all his life, bitterly opposed to the doctrines of Rome, and in later years, as we shall see, he entered into a heated controversy with a prominent ecclesiastic of that faith in America.

“March 21. Chiesa Nuova at seven o’clock in the evening; a sacred opera called ‘The Death of Aaron.’  Church dark; women not admitted; bell rings and a priest before the altar chants a prayer, after which a boy, about twelve years old apparently, addresses the assembly from the pulpit.  I know not the drift of his discourse, but his utterance was like the same gurgling process which I noticed in the orator who addressed the Pope.  It was precisely like the fitful tone of the Oneida interpreter.

“Tuesday, March 23. At the Vatican all the morning.  While preparing my palette a monk, decently habited for a monk, who seemed to have come to the Vatican for the purpose of viewing the pictures, after a little time approached me and, with a very polite bow, offered me a pinch of snuff, which, of course, I took, bowing in return, when he instantly asked me alms.  I gave him a bajocco for which he seemed very grateful.  Truly this is a nation of beggars.

“Wednesday, March 24. Vatican all the morning.  Saw in returning a great number of priests with a white bag over the left shoulder and begging of the persons they met.  This is another instance of begging and robbing confined to one class.

“Thursday, March 25. Festa of the Annunciation; Vatican shut.  Doors open at eight of the Chiesa di Minerva; obtained a good place for seeing the ceremony.  At half-past nine the cardinals began to assemble; Cardinal Barberini officiated in robes, white embroidered with gold; singing; taking off and putting on mitres, etc.; jumping up and bowing; kissing the ring on the finger of the cardinal; putting incense into censers; monotonous reading, or rather whining, of a few lines of prayer in Latin; flirting censers at each cardinal in succession; cardinals bowing to one another; many attendants at the altar; cardinals embrace one another; after mass a contribution among the cardinals in rich silver plate.  Enter the virgins in white, with crowns, two and two, and candles; they kiss the hem of the garment of one of the cardinals; they are accompanied by three officers and exit.  Cardinals’ dresses exquisitely plaited; sixty-two cardinals in attendance....