To a few, chiefly women with devout, sad faces--watchers, perchance,
beside beds over which the shadow of death is creeping--the padre tells
compassionately of consoling, helpful words that are preached daily in
the great deserted church of _I Gesuiti_; for in this parish, more than
others, there are difficulties, since it had been the centre of the
disaffection. But now its doors are ceaselessly open for a refuge; no
service is omitted, no sacrament denied; and daily, before vespers, the
people may listen to a few simple words from Fra Paolo. Thither, in
these early days of the struggle, the crowd flocks, drawn partly by
curiosity to hear a man of whom it is whispered that he has just been
individually put under the greater excommunication by the Holy
Inquisition, because of his attitude in this quarrel.
There is much talk of Fra Paolo sifting about the church and square,
where the gathering of the people shows a sprinkling of red-robed
senators; for the Padre Maestro Paolo, which is his title since he has
been Consultore to the Republic, is a great man now, with a greatness
that means something to the populace, to whom letters and sciences are
nothings.
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