The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti [pp. 645-661]

The Life of Cardinal Mezzofanti.
initiated himself, in the celestial language, which a subsequent
transfer of some of the native Chinese to the Propaganda,
enabled him to complete; so that he actually preached in
Chinese, and spoke not only the Mandarin, but other dialects.
Besides the classes of the Propaganda, the various convents,
colleges, seminaries, communities and foreign embassies of the
Papal city, supplied the self-teaching scholar with living appliances for his special pursuit. At the great College, he mingled
freely and daily with the students, listening, talking, inquiring,
teaching, and correcting. One day the Pope (who called him
"a living Pentecost") amused himself with contriving to have a
select number of the young men of many countries come suddenly upon Mezzofanti during a private walk with the pontiff in
the gardens of the Vatican, and each to address the librarian
in his own dialect, and all at once. The subject of this ordeal
was not intimidated, but poured forth his multilingual replies
without delay or mistake.
In 1833, the priest who seemed most at home and best content as a plodding investigator of grammars, and as an oral
learner of new forms of speech, was promoted to be Chief
Keeper or Prefect of the Vatican Library, (in succession to
Angelo Mai,) and also to a canonry in St. Peter's. There was
no doubt now that the Pope was preparing him for the highest
rank below his own. The actual librarian of the Vatican is
always a Cardinal, and usually the Cardinal Secretary of State.
This office is honorary, and the work is done by two keepers
and seven secretaries. Mezzofanti stood on the next step to
the office that was considered fit for a Cardinal. He was also
made Rector of the College for the Education of Ecclesiastics attached to the Basilica of St. Peter's; Consulter of the
Sacred Congregation for the Correction of Oriental books, and
a Censor of the Academy. In 1838 he attained the purple and
the hat.
The business of the Roman Church, as administered by the
Pope, the College of Cardinals and Prelates, is distributed
among twenty congregations, or committees. The prefect of
each congregation (or chairman of the committee) is usually a
Cardinal. They all hold stated meetings, and submit their
minutes to the approval of the pontiff. Mezzofanti was put
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