ecorated on the outside with frescoes--was in the immediate vicinity.
From the windows of my rooms, I could see at the foot of the street
the fantastic cupola and bell-turret of the church of St. Andrea delle
Fratte, which belonged to the Scottish Catholics before the
Reformation, and is now frequented by our Catholic countrymen during
Lent, when sermons are preached to them in English. It is the parish
church of the Piazza di Spagna, and the so-called English quarter. The
present edifice was only built at the end of the sixteenth century,
and, strange to say, with the proceeds of the sale of Cardinal
Gonsalvi's valuable collection of snuff-boxes; but its name, derived
from the Italian word _Fratta_, "thorn-bush," would seem to imply that
the church is of much greater antiquity, going back to a far-off time
when the ground on which it stands was an uncultivated waste. A
miracle is said to have happened in one of the side chapels in 1842,
which received the sanction of the Pope. A young French Jew of the
name of Alfonse Ratisbonne was discovered in an ecstasy before the
altar; which he accounted for by saying, when he revived, that the
Virgin Mary had actually appeared to him, and saluted him in this
place, while he was wandering aimlessly, and with a smile of
incredulity, through the church. This supernatural vision led to his
conversion, and he was publicly baptized and presented to the Pope by
his godfather, the general of the Jesuits; receiving on the occasion,
in commemoration of the miracle, a crucifix, to which special
indulgences were attached.

At the foot of the Capo le Case is the College of the Propaganda,
whose vast size and plain massive architecture, as well as its
historical associations, powerfully impress the imagination. It was
begun by Gregory XV., in 1622, and completed by his successor, Urban
VIII., and his brother, Cardinal Antonio Barberini, from the plans
partly of Bernini and Borromini. On the most prominent parts of the
edifice are sculptured bees, which are the well-known armorial
bearings of the Barberini family. The Propaganda used to divide with
the Vatican the administration of the whole Roman Catholic world. It
was compared by the Abbe Raynal to a sword, of which the handle
remains in Rome, and the point reaches everywhere. The Vatican takes
cognisance of what may be called the domestic affairs of the Church
throughout Europe; the College of the Propaganda superintends the
foreign policy