In that decree the following articles occur:
"All young men and women are strictly forbidden, under any pretext
whatever, to give or receive presents from each other before marriage.
All persons who have received such presents before the publication of
this decree, are required to make restitution of them within three
months, or to become betrothed to the donor within the said period.
Any one who contravenes these regulations is to be punished by fifteen
days imprisonment, during which he is to support himself at his own
expense, and the presents will be devoted to some pious purpose to be
determined on hereafter."
I could multiply instances of this sort indefinitely, but I know of none
more striking than the last.
So much for the mode in which the system is worked, and now as to its
practical result. To judge fully, it is necessary to get behind the
scenes, a thing not easy for a stranger anywhere, least of all here.
There is too the further difficulty, that when you have got behind the
scenes, it is not very easy to narrate your esoteric experiences to the
public. Even if there were no other objection, it would be useless to
quote individual stories and facts which have come privately to my
knowledge, and which would show Rome, in spite of its external propriety,
to be one of the most corrupt, debauched, and demoralized of cities.
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