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                                ITALIAN
                               YESTERDAYS


                                   BY

                            MRS. HUGH FRASER

               Author of “A Diplomatist’s Wife in Japan,”
                 “A Diplomatist’s Wife in Many Lands,”
                   “Reminiscences of a Diplomatist’s
                              Wife,” etc.


                                VOL. II



                                NEW YORK
                         DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
                                  1913




                          COPYRIGHT, 1913, BY
                         DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
                        Published November, 1913




CONTENTS OF VOL. II


  CHAPTER I
                                                               PAGE

  SAINTS OF THE CHURCH                                            1

  A Friend in Rome—A Story of Two Ways of Loving—Aglaë
  and Boniface—Become Christians—A New Life—Boniface
  Endures Terrible Tortures—Martyrdom—Death of
  Aglaë—Church of St. Boniface—Alexis, the Pilgrim—His
  Travels—Return to Rome—A Ragged Beggar—His Death and
  Burial in St. Boniface’s Church—St. Alexis’
  Monastery—Trials of the Church After Constantine—Rome’s
  Lowest Ebb—Growth of the Spiritual City—Benedict the
  Blessed, and Scholastica.


  CHAPTER II

  FOUNDER OF MONASTICISM                                         15

  Norcia in the Sabines—A Matrona—The Twins, Benedict and
  Scholastica—Benedict Goes to Rome—Conversion of
  Placidus—Benedict’s Retirement to La Mentorella—Life in
  a Cave—Temptations—Visit of St. Francis—Benedict’s
  Ministering—Real Founder of Monastic Life—Growth of His
  Order—Placidus and Maurus—St. Benedict’s Personality and
  Conversions—His Ideal of the Religious Life—His Greatest
  Miracles—His Sister, Scholastica—The Last Day
  Together—His Ascension.


  CHAPTER III

  ST. GREGORY THE GREAT                                          37

  Birth and Lineage of St. Gregory—Path from the World to
  the Cloister—Prayer, Study, and Charity—His Cat—A
  Prophecy—A Cardinal Deacon—Mission to
  Constantinople—Eutyches’ Heresy—Rome in
  Pestilence—Gregory Elected Pope—His Unbelievable
  Accomplishments—His Life as Pope—Championship of
  the Oppressed—Bond with English-speaking People—The Great
  Procession During the Pestilence—Gregory’s Successors.


  CHAPTER IV

  MEMORIES OF THE PANTHEON                                       52

  The Pantheon—Hadrian’s Best Monument—Long Idle—Consecrated
  as St. Mary of the Martyrs—The Cathedral, the Symbol
  of the Soul—Its Purification—Continuity of the Church—A
  Priest’s Visit—The Alabaster Square—Procession of the
  Martyrs’ Relics—Giovanni Borgi, the Workman—Italian
  Guilds—Giovanni’s Selflessness—His Rescue of the Forsaken
  Children—Care of Them—Crusade in Behalf of All the Waifs
  of Rome—His Work of Love—Giovanni’s Successor,
  Later Pius IX.


  CHAPTER V

  EARLY LIFE OF FATHER MASTAI                                    70

  Birth in 1792—A Happy Family—His Youth—Epilepsy—The
  Church at the Time of Napoleon—Abduction of Pius to
  Avignon—Napoleon’s Downfall—Return of the Pope to
  Rome—His Reception—Prophecies Regarding Pius IX—His
  Journey to Chile—Ocean Trip—Across the Andes—Failure
  of Mission—Rounding Cape Horn—English Settlement on the
  Cape—“Love-of-the-Soil”—The Falkland Islands.


  CHAPTER VI

  POPE PIUS IX                                                   91

  Director of Ospizio di San Michele—A Splendid
  Record—Archbishop of Spoleto—A Turbulent
  Populace—Order Restored—Revolution in Europe—Spoleto
  Saved—The Earthquake in Umbria—New Post at Imola—Secret
  Societies—A Cardinal—Attack upon the Three Prelates—The
  Cardinal’s Bravery—How the Saints Forgive—Pope Pius
  IX—His Charity and Justice—Defenders of the Poor—Anecdotes
  of the Cardinal’s Generosity.


  CHAPTER VII

  CAPTIVITY OF POPE PIUS VII                                    108

  Lebzeltern, the Ambassador of the Austrian Emperor—Origin
  of His Mission—Napoleon’s Anger Against Pius VII—Ar