FAMOUS IMPOSTER AS BISHOP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 215, 9 March 1912, Page 8

FAMOUS IMPOSTER AS BISHOP.

DEFRAUDS CONVENTS AND PRELATES. ' Rome, January 16. A sensational arrest of, a well-known offender who posed as a fashionable prelate lias been made here. The police were confidentially informed from Paris, Berlin and Vienna that this man, who described himself as "Monsignor de Cavigne," and is also known as/'Trinee di Belmonte," was at the present time in was suspected of being a notorious swindler named Giovaiti Battista Guidi, who has been convicted at Pisa and Paris of swindling religious institutions, and obtaining money under false pretences from the heads of religious orders.. The police arrested the man, and he was identified yesterday evening. At the same time the police confiscated his luggage at-the hotel. It included various documents and letters, vestments, jewellery, and photographs of the Pope and of several cardinals bearing autographs. Giudi lias confessed that he was not a priest, but as he was provided with the necessary certificates from the Bishop of Novara ho was enabled to successfully pose as a priest. He regularly celebrated Mass and pontificated at religious services at several convents, where he even "heard the confessions of the nuns.

I Giudi succeeded in swindling many < high ecclesiastics in Some. He persuaded them to cash cheques on his overdrawn account at the bank. His victims include several cardinals, and, it is suspected, the Pope also, as the police found a photograph in the man's possession representing him near the Pope, thus' showing that Giudi ha.d been admitted to the Vatican. The Pope is unlikely to prosecute, and hence t(ie accused's exploits at the Vatican will not leak. out. his first confession Giudi realised the necessity of silence and self-defence. Hence he told the police not to expeat his aid towards the discovery of his ' nunierous alleged swindles, both in Italy and abroad, including that -on the Franciscans, at Forest-gate, London. The police are now carefully examining Giudi's voluminous correspondence, including many letters from England, andare striving to discover his criminal antecedents. Already it has been ascertained that Giudi served two years at Pisa, where he swindled the Prior of the Carthusians out of £400; and also six months in Paris quite recently, where an official of the Republic admitted thai Giudi was the smartest swindler he ever saw. j The Vatican authorities are I significantly reticent.