He had further maintained that since Peter was the Rock, the City of Peter was the Capital of the world, and should set an example to its dependency: this could not be done unless Peter ruled his City, and therefore he had sacrificed every church and ecclesiastical building in the country for that one end.

Then he had set about ruling his city: he had said that on the whole the latter-day discoveries of man tended to distract immortal souls from a contemplation of eternal verities--not that these discoveries could be anything but good in themselves, since after all they gave insight into the wonderful laws of God--but that at present they were too exciting to the imagination.

So he had removed the trams, the volors, the laboratories, the manufactories--saying that there was plenty of room for them outside Rome--and had allowed them to be planted in the suburbs: in their place he had raised shrines, religious houses and Calvaries.

Then he had attended further to the souls of his subjects.
Since Rome was of limited area, and, still more because the world corrupted without its proper salt, he allowed no man under the age of fifty to live within its walls for more than one month in each year, except those who received his permit.

They might live, of course, immediately outside the city (and they did, by tens of thousands), but they were to understand that by doing so they sinned against the spirit, though not the letter, of their Father's wishes.