The Manzoni Family Read Online Free PDF

bridle to restrain him. . . In Wittenberg 31st July: we were at the Temple of the Court and University, where they never observe communion or baptism. We saw, among other things, two hollows in which the bodies of Luther and Melanchthon had rotted, and behind them their portraits. Luther in a sort of cassock and yellow boots, Melanchthon (to whom I said Anathema Melanctoni) a black robe with fur at the edge like a Professor of Greek. There is a table with two inscriptions in bronze; the first which I traced contemptuously with my foot was as follows [the inscription followed]. I went up into the pulpit and from there I said: Anathema Lutero, and repeated it in the hollow, where I had already said: Maledictus qui posuit carnem. . . Berlin. Conversation with Ancillon, Calvinist minister; he agreed that religion there is declining rapidly as regards worship and faith. Tolerance, he said, was the Jin mot to neutralize religious opinions and lead to universal indifference. — He agreed that the demands of the reformers en voulant emporter la broderie, ils ont déchiré la robe. As for literature, he said they were accustoming the young to légèreté, and making them voltiger.
    At Strasbourg Degola parted from Grégoire and prepared to turn homeward. The next day, still at Strasbourg, he met a boy, one Teofilo Geymúller, whose mother had been converted to Catholicism. She wanted her two young sons to be converted too.
    I spoke of conversion to Teofilo, who said at once, speaking of Calvinism: J’y ti ens, oui, et je ne changerai pas. I exhorted him to seek instruction, I spoke to him openly and affectionately: I talked about his mother’s conversion and excellent conduct, I gave him the note which I had copied. The next day, at seven in the evening, he began to tell me he felt moved to do as his mother had done. I encouraged him.
    The day after that, at Buchten (Switzerland), he and Teofilo attended a Catholic wedding.
    The parish priest, to whom I spoke, but who did not say much to me, held by the breviary; he told me there were five thousand inhabitants there, all Catholics, he said the prayers in Latin: I did not hear the act of consent; I thought he asked it very quietly. I blessed the couple, the priest sprinkled holy water on the congregation. On the way out Teofilo said to me: A present faut que je conserve cette bénédiction pour toujours.
    When he got back to Genoa in 1805, Abbé Degola stayed there. He had the two sons of Signora Geymúller with him. Teofilo was converted in 1806; Luca, the younger son, two years later. Their mother was living in Paris. Enrichetta met her, and from her too heard of Abbé Degola; she asked to meet him if he should come to France.
    Alessandro and Enrichetta had come to a joint decision to regularize their marriage in the eyes of the Church. After the baby’s christening, this seemed right and proper to both of them. The Catholic wedding ceremony took place in the private chapel of a friend of theirs, Count Marescalchi, on 15 February 1810.
    Enrichetta had seen Abbé Degola for the first time in the autumn of 1809; he had come to Paris because he had been invited to Port-Royal. In the spring of 1810 her discussions with the Abbé began. Manzoni chose to be present, though remaining silent.
    When she got home after every discussion, Enrichetta, at Degola’s request, was to write a brief summary of the chief points discussed; this is what Signora Geymúller had been required to do; then Degola read and corrected the summaries. Signora Geymuller’s summaries, with Degola’s corrections, have been preserved, but Enrichetta’s have been lost. At Man-zoni’s death his son Enrico found among his papers a few summaries in Manzoni’s own hand; so he too wrote summaries, without being required to do so, when he attended these discussions. We have Enrico’s word for this, but the summaries later disappeared, and nobody knows