fistance, for the harvest is great, and the labourers are few."

Examples however were not wanting of Christian love that teaches men to hold their opinions with courage, yet with meeknefs, neither yielding on the one hand, nor reviling on the other. Of this number was Ken; and probably with a view to judge of the Papacy, in the very feat of its power, he refolved to vifit Rome. That he might give his nephew, young Isaac Walton, the advantages of foreign travel, under his own watchful guidance, he made him the companion of his journey.

Clement X. had proclaimed the Catholic Jubilee (held every 25th year) to be celebrated with great fplendour. Papal briefs were distributed to the prelates throughout all the provinces of Europe, enjoining them to more than ordinary zeal in training their flocks for the "happy effects" of the approaching folemnity. Independent of this great feftival, which drew thousands of pilgrims and devotees from every corner of Chriftendom, other motives than curiofity might reasonably prompt an earnest and reverent man to the voyage of Italy. None could behold without a stirring of heart the Church of Milan, to which St. Ambrose refused admiffion to the Emperor Theodofius, ftained with the blood of the Chriftians at Theffalonica; nor the Chapel where St. Auguftine, with his little Adeodatus, and his friend Alipius, received baptism, and from which St. Ambrofe and St. Auguftine, on their proceffion to the great Church, were supposed to have first sung the Te Deum by refponfes. Above all, Rome must ever present to us objects of great intereft: she had in earlier times been the centre of Catholic Communion, the

depofitory (as St. Irenæus calls her) of the holy apoftolical traditions and doctrines. Her foil, once bedewed with the blood of St. Peter and St. Paul, and countless other martyrs, treasured the bodies of those holy apoftles, and of St. Philip, St. James, St. Simon, St. Jude, Polycarp, Gregory Nazianzen, Chryfoftom, &c. She might still glory in the Bafilica of St. John of the Lateran gate, faid to be pre-eminent over all other churches" urbis et orbis ;" and the tomb of St. Peter within the unrivalled church that bears his name, the fucceffive work of Sangalla, Bramante, Baldaffar, Michel Angelo, Della Porta, and Fontana.*

The two great routes to Italy were either by Bruffels and Cologne, through Augsberg, Innfpruck, Trent, and fo by Treviso to Venice; or by Paris and the South of France. We have evidence as to which of these our travellers took. At that time the Netherlands were the feat of war, the whole country like an armed camp, and therefore impaffable for travellers. Befides, in the fecond part of the Complete Angler, in reference to young Master Isaac Walton," Pifcator fays "he has been in France, and at Rome, and at Venice, and I can't tell where," which seems clearly to indicate their route. In default of a Diary like that of Evelyn, who had made the fame journey 30 years before, we must be content to put the travellers on horseback, and leave them to their own reflections, until we give them the meeting at Rome. After Paris, their road lay through Avignon, Vaucleuse, Marseilles, and fo to the fhores of the Mediterranean.

• Lafcelles' Voyage of Italy, 12mo. 1670, Vol. ii. p. 47.

In all their journeyings they overtook crowds of pilgrims, haftening to the great Jubilee. Men and women of all claffes and ranks, left the peaceful round of their domestic life and duties, and preffed on from stage to stage towards the holy city. In every town and village, as they paffed, the Churches were filled with the travellers, offering up prayers for a fafe journey. The priests and other charitable perfons (invoked by the Pope to lend their aid) dispensed food, and afforded shelter. It was winter: the festival was to begin on Christmas eve and what can impede the zeal of earneft hearts, panting for reconciliation with God! In all their fufferings they animate one another with prayer and mutual charities; their patience unbroken, unwearied. Many faint by the way,-fome are gathered to their rest, and a lowly mound in the neighbouring church-yard is the only memorial of their hafty interment in a foreign land. The mournful furvivors receive the bleffing of the miniftering priest, and with tears again pursue their journey, till the brow of the last hill is gained, and the great Bafilica, the holy Zion of their intent longings, ftands out before them! A cry of joy bursts from one to the other;—all eyes are strained to catch a glimpse of the furmounting Crofs. Whatever ftraits or dangers have encompaffed them, hardships, loffes, fufferings,-all are forgotten in this one joyous burst of acclamation, "Roma la Santa." They defcend into the Campagna-enter by the Flaminian way, and are at reft. They await the appointed time when, at the opening of the Holy Gate of St. Peter, they shall enter in to receive from the Pope a plenary indulgence

in return for countless offerings to be poured into the treasury of the Church.*

This was promised to all who, being confeffed and penitent, should within the year of Jubilee vifit the Churches of St. Peter and St. Paul for fifteen days. Such numbers of people flocked from all countries to Rome that, during the greatest part of the year, there were reckoned no less than 200,000 ftrangers in fucceffion. The author of the chronicle of Parma declares that the travellers on the Claudian road had the appearance every day of the march of an army. At the time of Ken's vifit, indulgences had fallen in value, through the wider spread of the Reformation, and the exposure of their mercenary sale, so that the number of pilgrims was diminished. Still the concourfe was very great. In the previous Jubilee of 1650, Lafcellest faw 9000 pilgrims entertained in one day in the Hospital of the Holy Trinity, the Pope himself, and many of the Cardinals, being there to wash their feet, and serve them at table. As the purchased pardons had been depreciated, the time required for the refidence of pilgrims was shortened, and envoys were fent into the provinces to distribute indulgences. They who could not, or would not, travel, might give their alms at home, keeping Jubilee in the appointed Churches, which, by the authority of the Holy Father, should be of equal efficacy with gifts offered at the tomb of the Apostles. The travellers having feen the wonders of Rome,

again took horfe for England, through some of the faireft provinces of Italy. The road to Venice would bring them by Narni, Terni, Spoleto, Affifi, famous for the tomb of St. Francis, Tolentino, &c. "Venice the Rich" was at that time one of the most powerful cities of Europe, though now depreffed and crumbling in decay, a vast sepulchral monument of the instability of human grandeur. We would fain linger with them. amidst the palaces of the Venetian nobles, and the Church of St. Marc; and glide with them in their gondola beneath the Rialto and the Bridge of Sighs; -but it is time for Ken to be at home among his flock at Winchester. No doubt he had been with them in thought through all his journeyings, and longed to return, that he might once more feed them in the green pastures, and fold them beside the still

waters.

He little supposed that he was himself the subject of fufpicion at home, and looked upon as no faithful shepherd. But fo it was; "for he loft the favour of many of his former auditors, who fuppofed that by this journey he had been tinged with Popery." Wood declares that they were "altogether mistaken." We scarcely require this affurance: it was not likely his faith would stagger amid the corruptions he had witneffed. The effect of his travels was to ftrengthen him in his convictions of Rome's declenfion from Catholic truth. "He was often heard to say that he had great reason to give God thanks for his travels, fince (if it were poffible) he returned rather more confirmed of the purity of the

* Athan. Oxon. Vol. ii. p. 989.