Protestantism’s Movement Toward Rome
"REV. CAV. FERA, of Italy, mentions two events which are full of encouragement to Italian Protestants. The first is that the municipality of Rome has accepted the gift of a bust of the lamented Alexander Gavazzi, and has decided to place it on the Janiculan Hill, among the Defenders of Rome. That is to say, one of the Fathers of the Evangelical Church, five years after his death, is to have erected in his honor a public monument in the eternal city, still Roman Catholic and formerly belonging to the popes. The other event has taken place in Florence, where a committee of eminent citizens has been formed to erect a statue to Pietro Carnesecchi, one of the reformers of the sixteenth century, who was of a noble historic family in the town, and burned by the Inquisition." Because of such incidents many people imagine that Roman Catholicism is waning. They seem to be blind to the fact that in all so-called Protestant countries there is a general movement of Protestantism toward Rome. It is like the movement of a glacier toward the ocean,—imperceptible only to those who, knowing the destiny, note the trend, measure the progress, and watch the gradual engulfment. The weakening tendency recently manifested on the part of the Italian Government in its attitude of hostility toward the Vatican, tells more for the growing strength of the Papacy than many such instances as those above noted.