In Italy the progress in the erection of conductors was accompanied by some very curious incidents. The priests here, as in other Roman Catholic countries, actively opposed their introduction, and to do so more effectively, they craftily attached to them a stinging name, calling them ‘heretical rods.’ As a consequence, the mob fiercely opposed the putting-up of any such accursed pieces of metal, and whenever the attempt was made to fasten them to houses, it met with forcible opposition. However, some of the highly accomplished professors of the universities of Italy, enthusiastic in their reception of Franklin’s discovery, proved themselves victorious over both priests and mob. They got the Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany--subsequently German Emperor, under the title of Leopold I.--a man of high scientific acquirements, to place lightning conductors over his own palace, as well as over all the powder magazines in his dominions. Here the mob and priest rule ceased, and only silent curses could be levelled against the ‘heretical rods.’ Another still more important step in advance was made by the influence of the Abbé Giuseppe Toaldo, a warm admirer of Franklin, in correspondence with him, and author of various scientific works, among them one on lightning conductors. He had some influence with the ecclesiastical authorities at Siena, in Tuscany, and brought it to bear upon them by getting them to consent to make trial, in a manner so as not to excite public attention, of one of the ‘heretical rods,’ over the cathedral. This was only permitted on account of the extreme danger in which the edifice stood, having been struck several times by lightning, and greatly damaged. Placed on the summit of the highest of the three hills on which stands the ancient city of Siena, the cathedral was opposed to the dangers brought in the womb of every passing thunderstorm, and they were all the greater as the building, erected by Pisano in the thirteenth century, was deemed to be priceless, being one of the most magnificent structures of the kind in Italy, of red and white marble, filled with the choicest specimens of art, statues, pictures, gold and jewelry. It seemed well worth risking a little heresy to guard such treasures.