The suppression of the Roman
Catholic religion in Italy, if possible, would be only to leave its
place vacant for unreason and anarchy, for the intellectual status of
the common people does not admit of a more abstract belief. For that
evil influence, however, which a recent writer has designated as
Curialism, which to-day has its seat at the Vatican, and whose aim
and end are the absolute antagonism of all pure religion, I have no
respect, and only the feeling due to unmitigated evil. It is a deadly
political malady, malefic in proportion to its influence on the
people; and, I fear, until Italy is freed from it, no progress or
healthy political life or morality is possible.
For myself, the study of the system and a comparison of its relations
with other religions completed that evolution of my religious ideal
which I regard as the principal outcome of my life. The Roman Catholic
religion is to me the _reductio ad absurdum_ of all anthropomorphic
religions, and such a study of it as was there possible drove me to a
logical conclusion on the whole matter, not by a sudden revulsion,
but as the gradual and normal growth of a rational evolution of
my conceptions of the spiritual life, starting from that stage of
emancipation which my residence at Cambridge and the intercourse with
the liberal thinkers there had brought me to; the influence of Norton,
Lowell, Agassiz, and Emerson especially.
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