Note 397 — Chapter X · SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE GREAT MORTALITY.

The Annali della fabbrica, published by the Cathedral administration, show in the minutest detail the organisation by which the necessary funds were raised, and enable us to see how it was popular enterprise by which so noble an undertaking was achieved. We can now realise the weekly collections made by willing citizens from door to door, the collections in the churches, the monthly sales of offerings in kind of the most varied nature, jewels, dresses, linen, pots and pans, divers articles of dress and domestic use. Every one, rich and poor alike, felt impelled to join in some way in the work which, as the words of the originators express it, "was begun by Divine inspiration to the honour of Jesus Christ and His most Spotless Mother." Cf. an article by Mr. Edmund Bishop on the subject in the Downside Review, July, 1893.