FEAST-DAYS--Processions and Novenas--Corpus Christi--How performed in
Seville, and the sacred dances of _los seises_--How in Madrid--Procession
of Holy Week--The _Santo Entierro_--Clerical processions--Procession of
the Rosary--Rites of Roman Catholicism--Jubilee of forty
hours--_Romerias_ or pilgrimages.
From the time at which the true spirit of Christianity, under the
dominion of the popes, began to be corrupted, and experience taught what
effects might be drawn from material worship, founded chiefly on pomp and
a complication of religious ceremonies, the Roman Catholic clergy,
especially those of Spain, have never ceased to multiply and vary the
means of occupying the imagination of men with exterior acts of an
apparently religious character. One of the principal abuses emanating
from this idea has been the invention of feast-days, which are ordered to
be observed as days of rest in the same manner as Sunday. So numerous
are the feast-days in the Spanish calendar, that there is scarcely a
month in the year which does not contain three or four of them. The
chief mysteries in the life of Jesus Christ, viz., the nativity, the
epiphany, the passion, the resurrection, ascension, and others,--the
celebrated epochs in the life of the Virgin Mary, and some of her
advocations, and the apostles, and a few favourite saints,--are the
objects to which those different feast-days are consecrated; and as on
these all kinds of labour are suspended, and as their number, including
Sundays, forms nearly a third part of the whole year, the vacuum they
leave in productive labour and in the exercise of professional avocations
is incalculable; so that feast-days may be enumerated among the various
causes tending to bring about the poverty of the nation. But besides
these days, there are others, called days of mass, on which it is
obligatory to attend that rite, although it is lawful to pursue secular
occupations.
Among the most popular exercises of worship, and from which the clergy
draw most profit, are worthy of note those of _processions_ and
_novenas_. In the most important among the former, that of _Corpus
Christi_ is the chief, and most observed. In that procession, it is the
practice to carry about the streets the _host_ and certain images of
saints. This rite was established in the twelfth century, in consequence
of a dream or vision had by a woman of Liege, in which it is pretended
this practice was commanded to be introduced to the church. At first,
almost the whole church opposed the innovation, but, by degrees, the
interests of the clergy prevailed, and the popes at length made this
procession of Corpus Christi obligatory. In Spain, it is celebrated with
all the pomp and ostentation imaginable. In the poor towns and villages,
the priest carries the consecrated _host_ in his hands; but in rich
cathedral towns, an expensive tabernacle or canopy of silver, generally a
master-work of art, is provided for the purpose. It is called _La
Custodia_. That of Seville is divided into three bodies or compartments,
and adorned with bas-relief, admirably executed, and having in the lower
part an urn of gold containing the host. This production is a gem, and
always attracts the wonder and amazement of foreigners. The structure,
when carried about, is adorned with flowers, lights, bunches of grapes,
and ears of wheat. The procession is composed of all the religious
communities, all the brotherhoods, the clergy of all the neighbouring
parishes, the municipal body, all public officers, and the most notable
persons of the city, all carrying lighted candles in their hands. It is
headed by detachments of cavalry, and surrounded by a numerous body of
infantry, with a military band. In some towns it is usual to have in
these processions immense giants, made up of pasteboard, similar to those
seen in pantomimes at English theatres, and, as may be supposed, the
laughter which these ridiculous exhibitions excite in the spectators
contrasts greatly with the august character wished to be given to the
ceremony. The cavalcade stops at various intervals during its progress,
and on these occasions the priests burn incense before the perambulating
temple; and thereupon an ecclesiastical choir chants, in succession, the
stanzas of the famous hymn, _Tantum ergo Sacramentum_,--a poetical
composition, attributed to Thomas de Aquinas, and which, although written
in rhyme, according to the practice adopted on the degeneration of the
pure Latinity, and although the verses have a species of jingling which
never met the approbation of the literati of the Augustan age,
nevertheless they contain lofty sentiments, and explain in an ingenious
manner the dogma of transubstantiation. The following may serve as an
example:--
"Tantum ergo sacramentum
Veneremus cernui,
Et antiquum documentum
Novo cedat ritui.
Suppleat fides complementum,
Sensuum defectui." {125}
In the procession of Corpus Christi in Seville, which is the most
celebrated one in all Spain, and which attracts an immense concourse of
people from all parts of the province, the moving temple is preceded by a
troop of chorister boys, called _los seises_. These boys are dressed up
with much elegance in the picturesque Spanish costume of the fifteenth
century, and, in the progress of the procession, they dance with large
castanets to the sound of an ancient kind of music, much admired by those
able to form a judgment on such matters. This custom had its origin in
the will of a devotee, who left a considerable sum of money to be so
employed, under a condition that the custom should terminate when the
dresses he had ordered for the boys should be worn out; but the canons
invented a very ingenious plan, by which the custom has been perpetuated.
When one of these dresses begins to fail at any particular part, they
order that part alone, the sleeve for example, to be replaced, so that
all these vestments have gone through innumerable transformations from
the foundation of the custom down to the present time. It is related
that a certain pope, having been informed of such a custom, and seeing in
it a profanation of the sacred ceremonies, attempted to suppress it, and
reprehended the canons for their want of discretion. These canons,
however, begged his holiness to suspend his judgment until he should
behold with his own eyes what had so much offended him; and with that
object one of the canons went to Rome, taking the boys with him. The
pope at first most positively refused the sought-for condescension; but
at last he yielded to the canon's entreaties, and the exhibition took
place in presence of the whole conclave of cardinals, presided over by
the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The sacred dance made so great an
impression on that respectable company, and so excited the admiration of
the august personages who witnessed it, that the pope changed his
opinion, and sanctioned the practice which before he had condemned. {127}
In the rear of this ambulant temple goes the archbishop, the bishop, or
principal ecclesiastical personage of the diocese, under an awning or
canopy, supported by silver rods, and carried by eight of the chief
citizens, and then come the civil authorities, with the functionaries of
the tribunals, and the head officials of the public service.
As this feast always falls in spring, the serenity of the atmosphere, the
perfumed air of Andalusia, the innumerable flowers thrown along the line
of the procession, the balconies splendidly adorned, and full of
beautiful women dressed in the highest state of luxury, the charms of
music, and the brilliant display of uniforms, embroidered vestments, and
other gay appearances which catch the eye of the spectator on every side,
form a spectacle eminently picturesque and romantic, which seldom fails
to make a lively impression on the exalted imaginations of the
inhabitants of those regions. On these occasions, more particularly, may
be observed the dexterity with which the Roman Catholic clergy avail
themselves of every opportunity of profiting by human weakness, and of
that imperium which the senses exercise over the mind, to augment the
number of their proselytes and consolidate their power over the
conscience.
In Madrid the parts of the streets through which the procession is to
pass is shaded by awnings, and the pavement is sprinkled with sand. The
ceremony over, all belonging to the elegant and fashionable class of
society go at once to the _Calle de Carretas_, which is one of the
streets in the line of the procession, and one which, on this occasion,
may certainly vie with the far-famed Long-champs of Paris; for there the
fair rulers of fashion display those tasteful changes in their personal
attire which are to be in vogue during the remainder of the spring.
The processions of Holy Week are of a character entirely different from
those of Corpus Christi. In the latter all is animation and joy, singing
and triumph; but in the former every thing is sadness, seriousness, and
grief. All the sculptured figures, called _pasos_, which are of the
natural size and colour, and are carried about in those doleful
processions, represent the principal scenes of our Saviour's
passion,--such as his prayer in the garden, the treachery of Judas, the
judgment of Pilate, and the crucifixion. In Seville, the processions of
Holy Week are of an extent and character renowned all over Christendom.
There they bring out one of these _pasos_, in which are seen the twelve
apostles seated at table, with the slight anachronism that their chairs
are of the most elegant description that can be manufactured in London or
Paris. In the processions we are now describing, besides all those
persons we have named as taking a part in that of Corpus Christi, are
innumerable _penitentes_, who are men in masks, dressed in tunics of a
white, black, or brown colour, their heads covered with an enormous cone,
of the same colour and form used by the magicians or astrologers
represented in English theatres. In Granada those tunics, which are
called _chias_, are of black velvet, embroidered with gold or silver, and
having a train of six or eight yards in length. The diversity of colour
denotes the brotherhood to which the penitent belongs; and these
brotherhoods, among which are many of opulence, bear the expenses of the
procession.
In some small towns, instead of images of wood, living persons represent
the personages of sacred history, and, generally, the young people of
both sexes most distinguished for their fine personal endowments are
selected to figure on those occasions. Even in Seville, where these
ceremonies are performed with something more of decency, may be seen,
following a _paso_, a number of children dressed up so as to represent
angels, and each of them carrying an instrument connected with our Lord's
passion, viz., the nails, the spunge, the lance, and the crown of thorns.
There are also three persons to represent three of the principal doctors
of the church who have defended the dogma of transubstantiation. In the
midst is placed one young girl who plays the part of Veronica; and it is
but a few years ago that she who was performing this part, not being
adequate to the fatigue of the day, followed by a severe cold, was taken
ill, and in a few hours died from the effects of her exertions and
exposure. It is usual to reward the young woman who plays this part with
an ounce of gold.
In a certain country-town in Spain there are two _pasos_, one
representing our Saviour and the other the Virgin, and when the
procession turns to enter the church, scarcely has the former been
introduced when the second approaches, but before she can get within the
porch the door is shut, and thereupon the whole concourse of attendants
burst out into bitter sobs and crying, deploring that the mother of our
Lord is denied the favour of following her Son into the sacred edifice.
The most solemn and brilliant of all the processions of Holy Week in
Seville is that of the holy burial (_Santo Entierro_), the name of which
indicates its object; and the expenses which it occasions are so
considerable, that it is celebrated only once in four or five years,--an
interval of time necessary for the brotherhoods to accumulate the
required amount, which, according to assurances from persons likely to
know the fact, does not fall far short of four thousand pounds sterling.
The figure which on this occasion represents the dead body of our
Saviour, and which is a fair work of art, is placed in an urn made of
large squares of glass, in framework of silver, and adorned with
extraordinary magnificence. Behind this goes the image of the Virgin,
also the size of life, in a cloak of black velvet embroidered with
silver, on her head a crown of gold, and in her hand, as if to wipe away
her tears, an exceedingly rich cambric pocket-handkerchief, embroidered
and trimmed with the most costly Brussels lace. There is also in this
procession a figure emblematical of death, which is represented by a
human skeleton at the foot of a cross. Such is the importance given in
all Andalusia to the procession of the holy funeral, that the year in
which it is celebrated forms an epoch in the history of Seville, and for
many years, both before and afterwards, nothing else is spoken of. Many
persons from Madrid and other principal cities, and even the English
_employes_ of the garrison of Gibraltar, are present in the Andalusian
capital on these occasions.
As a proof that Spaniards themselves, and even the clergy, consider these
ceremonies as a mere mundane spectacle, it is related of a king of Spain
that, having gone to Seville at a time very far distant from the Holy
Week, he was favoured by the authorities and the chapter with all the
rites, feasts of the church, and processions, appropriate to that holy
occasion.
In all the towns of Spain the last week of Lent is celebrated by
processions. Where there are no _pasos_, or groups of statues, to
represent the scenes of the passion, these are substituted by real men
and women, among whom are distributed the parts of the Virgin, the
apostles, Pilate, and the Saviour himself;--and this profanation does not
excite the least scruple in a nation calling itself Christian.
It is certain that this abuse greatly prevailed in all the nations of
Europe during the middle ages, and that such was the origin of those
so-called _mysteries_, which, in reality, were but a species of sacred
dramatic representation that preceded the true comedy, and turned the
porch, and even the altar, of the sanctuary, into a theatre. But those
customs disappeared at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and have
not since been in use except in Spain.
Besides the processions of _Corpus Christi_, and those of Holy Week,
there are several others paid for by the clergy themselves, by the
brotherhoods, or by the public, according to the favourite devotions in
the respective localities. The city of Valencia is particularly noted
for its attachment to this class of exhibitions. There is scarcely a
week in the year in which two or three processions are not celebrated
there, in which a great majority of the people take a part. On these
occasions all useful labours are suspended, and the sums which are spent
in ornaments, music, and, above all, in wax, are beyond calculation.
Every individual in the procession carries a wax candle in the hand. The
images of the saints are adorned with great profusion. The balconies of
the houses make an ostentatious display of rich festoons and garlands;
while the presence of the authorities and of the troops, which serve as
an escort to the clergy, the flowers which cover the streets, and the
music, both military and religious, which never fails on these occasions,
form a whole more like a public amusement than any part of religious
worship.
In many of the towns in Spain, and particularly those of Andalusia, there
is a nocturnal procession called the Rosary (_el Rosario_), for those who
compose it go along either praying or singing those prayers of the rosary
to which we have already alluded, when describing this part of devotion.
The Rosary of the Aurora is another procession which goes forth at
daybreak, to the great nuisance of the more peaceable inhabitants, who
are then enjoying the sweets of sleep. In Toledo this nuisance has
reached such an extent as really to be one of the gravest character.
Before the procession sets out, there are certain heralds sent round the
town, each having a bell in his hand which he rings continually, and at
the same time calls out with all his might this doggrel couplet:--
"El Rosario de la Aurora!
Ya es hora! Ya es hora!"
In some places the nearest relatives of some person recently deceased
assemble together, and then all the full concourse are seen directing
their steps towards the cemetery, and there to collect round the grave of
the departed, whilst the relatives kneel at the tomb, and the clergy
recite a part of the office for the burial of the dead. It cannot be
denied that this part of the ceremony is extremely imposing and romantic.
The rites of Roman Catholicism may be divided into two classes, viz.,
those required by the liturgy, and for which it establishes fixed rules
approved by the councils, such as the mass and the administration of the
sacraments; and, secondly, those invented and practised by the devotions
of the faithful, which are without any fixed limits. Among these, the
most notable are the Jubilee of Forty Hours, and the Pilgrimages
(_romerias_).
The Jubilee of Forty Hours consists in the public exhibition of the
consecrated host during the whole day, enclosed in a _custodia_, which
has already been described. It lasts three days, and these are alternate
in all the churches of great cities; so that there is not a day in the
whole year, except the Thursday and Friday in the Holy Week, on which the
host does not receive this kind of worship. At night-fall the _custodia_
is covered with a curtain, which is generally made of rich gold and
silver lace. This act, at which an officiating priest presides, and
during which hymns are chanted and accompanied by music, usually attracts
a great concourse of the devout. In the mornings the eucharist is
uncovered with the same ceremonies.
The Pilgrimages or _romerias_ are devout expeditions made to certain
celebrated sanctuaries on the days of the saints to which they are
dedicated. Those sanctuaries are generally situated out of the towns.
Some of them are convents, others mere chapels; but in both one case and
the other, large sums of money are collected on those occasions. In
ancient times, in Spain, as also in all other Roman Catholic countries,
these pilgrimages were acts of sincere devotion, which imposed the
necessity of confession and communion. The devout passed all their time
in the church,--in the morning hearing mass, in the evening reciting
prayers dictated to them by a priest from the pulpit. On these occasions
it was usual for enemies to be reconciled, confessing their most grievous
sins, and celebrating other acts of true repentance and piety. But in
modern times these usages have been much relaxed; the greater part of
those who attend such pilgrimages give up the entire day to dinners,
dancing, and other amusements. Many serious disorders have generally
resulted from such customs, and the authorities have been under the
necessity of suppressing them. In olden times the two sanctuaries of
Santiago in Galicia, and of the Virgin del Pilar in Zaragoza, drew
together immense crowds of devotees, not only of the Peninsula and other
Spanish dominions, but from all parts of Europe; and the offerings which
were made to the images in those temples, in money, and in jewels, and
other precious things, amounted in value to sums which would, if named,
be considered fabulous. In the present day, however, that zeal has
considerably cooled, although the practice of attributing to those
images, and others called _Milagrosas_, the cure of all human disorders,
is not exploded, but still prevails. Whenever cases occur in which an
individual believes that he has been restored to health by means of the
_Milagro_, it is customary for him to deposit, in the chapel of the image
he venerates, a small model or representation of that member or part of
the body restored to health by the prodigy. These objects in great
abundance adorn the walls of such edifices, where may be seen innumerable
arms, legs, eyes, mouths, and so on, of silver or of wax, according to
the circumstances of the persons so favoured. People, who have been
cured of their lameness, leave in the chapel the crutches which they made
use of during the continuance of their infirmities.
The processions _del Viatico_ are worthy of note in this chapter. These
are of two classes, and may be thus described. When a sick person is
threatened with approaching death, the priest of the parish carries to
his house, in his hands, the consecrated host. This he does with the
greatest solemnity, preceded by a procession of great numbers of devout
people, bearing in their hands large wax candles; and when the patient
happens to be a person of distinction and rich, the procession is
accompanied by a band of music. Before this group goes a number of
people who are constantly ringing a bell. All persons who meet this
concourse kneel down and take off their hats as it passes; and if a
body-guard happen to be in the route, the troop immediately forms and
goes through certain evolutions peculiar to such occasions, which consist
in every soldier bending his knee and inclining his arms to the ground,
whilst the drums beat the royal march. A piquette is then detached from
the troop and follows the priest and escorts him to the church. If the
procession in its route meets a carriage, no matter how high a personage
may be in it, he cedes his place at once to the priest, who goes in it to
the sick person, and returns in it to his parsonage. The monarch himself
forms no exception to this rule. Ferdinand VII., after his return from
France, subject entirely to the clergy, and desiring to give them his
support, performed this customary duty on several occasions. But as the
clergy abused this courtesy and the facility with which the sovereign was
made to lend himself to their wishes, and as it became a fixed plan to
set out at such a time and in such a direction as to make these
processions fall in his way as he was returning from the Prado, the
custom was at last found insupportable; and, therefore, it frequently
happened that, on seeing the lights preceding the _Viatico_, the king
ordered his coachman to turn back and take another direction, so as to
avoid the inconvenience of coming in contact with the procession. Queen
Isabella II. has been frequently obliged to discharge this act of
devotion. On those occasions she not only placed her carriage at the
disposition of the officiating priest, but, with a wax candle in her
hand, formed part of the procession, entered the house of the patient,
however humble, assisted in the ceremony, kneeling on her knees, and if
the sick person was poor, defrayed the expenses attendant on the illness,
and, if death ensued, on the burial of the sufferer. To those who
believe in the doctrine of the bodily presence of Jesus Christ in the
eucharist this act contains a sublime lesson of humiliation and
reverence; for to see the pomp and power of an earthly potentate
resigned, so to speak, before the presence of God, must certainly be to
them a spectacle both moving and edifying.
Those persons who are prevented by acute, although not dangerous,
diseases, from attending the churches in compliance with the paschal
precept, are also privileged to have the _viatico_ in a splendid
procession once a-year. This ceremony is attended by all the
brotherhoods and principal people of the parish. The grandees of Spain,
and the richest inhabitants of the neighbourhood, send the best of all
their carriages on those occasions. The balconies are covered with
ornaments, and the fair occupants scatter abroad a profusion of flowers,
and copies of rude engravings of devout subjects, which are called
_aleluyas_, towards the coach in which the priest is conveyed. Numerous
bands of music accompany the cavalcade, which is escorted by a strong
detachment of troops. Every time that the priest descends from the
carriage to enter the house of some infirm person, the soldiers perform
those military honours which already have been described, and during the
performance the band plays the royal march. In some parishes, the
proprietor of the carriage, or one of his principal people, assumes, _pro
hac vice_, the office of coachman.
Under the title of processions may conveniently be placed those of the
funerals of such persons as have left sufficient funds to defray the
expenses exacted by the church on such occasions. Until within a very
few years ago, it was the custom to convey the body to the dead-house of
the church, with the face uncovered, in some religious habit, which was
called the shroud (_la mortaja_), and the body was borne on the shoulders
of the brotherhood of some society. Now-a-days, however, it is usual to
convey it in a closed coffin, and on a funeral car. In Madrid, some of
these cars are on such a scale of luxury and sculpture as but ill accords
with the character and nature of the ceremony. The body is preceded by
the poor of the charitable institutions, with lighted candles or tapers
in their hands; and the clergy follow it, chanting the office for the
dead. The undertaker is a personage entirely unknown in Spain. The
church takes possession of the body, and keeps it until the time of
interment, and the bill of expenses for the offices which the church
performs frequently amounts to a sum absolutely ruinous. There is a
Spanish city of which it is recorded that no sooner has a person breathed
his last sigh, than the surviving family are importuned by deputations
from the different religious communities, offering their respective
services to conduct the interment on the cheapest scale of prices.
We have several times had occasion to allude to the strange contrast
formed in Spain between the superstitious character of Roman Catholicism
there professed, and the mockery which, at the same time, is made of the
most sacred objects and venerated practices. The most notable example
which we have of this moral phenomenon is _The funeral of the sprat_, or,
as called in Spain, _El entierro de la sardina_, which is performed
yearly in Madrid. On Ash-Wednesday, the day on which the follies of the
carnival cease, and on which the people proceed, at once, from dancing
and revelling, to the church, to receive the ashes which the priest rubs
in form of a cross on the forehead of every believer, and in the evening
of the same day, the population of Madrid meet on the shores of the
Manzanares, where they witness the caricature of a solemn funeral, the
body interred being that of a dead sprat. This absurd feast is truly one
of bacchanalian character; in it are committed a thousand excesses of
many kinds, among which that of drunkenness, especially among the lower
classes, greatly prevails. There is not in any modern society a more
faithful copy of Pagan festivities than that we are now describing, as
witnessed every year in Madrid. The clergy have often protested against
this stupid ceremony; but all their efforts to procure its abolition have
been fruitless, and the authorities have retroceded before a practice so
deeply rooted in the public habits, and so analogous to the gay
temperament of the people of the Spanish capital. In the year 1851, it
having been reported that the government was going to prohibit this
horrible profanation and mockery of one of the most solemn ceremonies of
the church, all the periodicals of Madrid, except those under the
influence of the clergy, put forth the most energetic remonstrances. In
the Cortes the most violent debates took place on the same subject, and
appeals were made to the cabinet; nay, there were symptoms of an
approaching vote of censure on the ministers, in case they should have
the temerity to think of abolishing the obnoxious practice. Senor Madoz,
who afterwards became minister of _Hacienda_, put himself at the head of
this opposition, and displayed great ardour; and in spite of the
religious periodicals accusing him of inconsistency, and quoting a
passage from his own writings, in which he advocated the suppression of
the feast as a blot on Spanish civilization, the question was too popular
to be easily given up. Warm debates followed, and the subject took an
aspect so serious, that the government, seeing itself exposed to a
_crisis_, was obliged, to save its own existence, to come to the Cortes
and declare solemnly that it would not offer the least opposition to the
_Entierro de la sardina_, the funeral of the sprat. After this triumph,
the interment of the sprat was performed with a splendour never witnessed
before. The whole city attended the procession; there were thousands of
coaches and vehicles of every description, besides an incredible variety
of masked characters; guitars and castanets resounded for more than
twelve hours on the _pradera_ adjoining the Manzanares. The burlesque of
the religious ceremonies was greater than ever; and the history of Madrid
never recorded a day on which was consumed so great a quantity of wine
and _escabeche_ (a kind of pickle of different sorts of fish), being the
classical refreshments with which the people of Madrid honour that
ceremony in taking leave of the carnival, and furnish themselves with
strength to bear up against the fastings of Lent.