FALSE MIRACLES, RELICS, AND RELIGIOUS IMPOSITIONS--Veneration of
crucifixes and statues or images--Their power of healing--Picture at
Cadiz--_Lignum Crucis_--Veronica--Bodies of saints--How
procured--Inscriptions--Lives of saints--Maria de Agreda--St
Francis--Scandalous representation of the appearance of the Virgin to a
saint--Fray Diego de Cadiz--_Beata_ Clara--Her fame and downfall--The
nun, Sister Patrocinio--Her success, detection, confession, and
expulsion--She returns, and is protected by a high personage--She is
again expelled, but again returns and founds a convent--Its disgraceful
character and suppression--Her flight towards Rome--Occurrences on the
road--Her return to Spain.
It is easy to conceive the abuse that may be made by the clergy of the
credulity of a nation in which such ridiculous and absurd practices
prevail as those to which we have already alluded. The priest is
considered, in Roman Catholic countries, as the representative of Jesus
Christ, the only depositary of true doctrine, the only dispenser of
celestial favours, the agent of the supreme authority of the Pope,--in a
word, the infallible oracle, to whose teachings the faith cannot be
opposed, and whose mandates must not be resisted under penalty of
incurring a mortal sin. Thus all his words carry the stamp of
irresistible power. The Spanish clergy have always known the resources
they could draw from this position, and they have abused it in order to
establish numberless false miracles, which, at the same time that they
add to their prestige, greatly augment their treasure. There is scarcely
a cure of an infirmity which human flesh is heir to, that is not
attributed to some prodigy from heaven. There is scarcely a town in
Spain in which they do not venerate a crucifix which has perspired, or a
virgin's statue which has moved its eyes. In some places they pretend to
believe that bells are rung without being touched; in others, roses grow,
out of their proper season, to serve the festivals of the church. At the
time of the expedition of the Earl of Essex to Cadiz, the English took
their swords and cut asunder a certain painting of a religious subject in
one of the churches, whereupon the edges of the cut canvas began to
bleed, and the blood remains there to this day, and may be seen by the
curious in one of the parish churches of that city! They relate numerous
cases in which the host when profaned has, when broken, sent forth blood.
If a sacristan omits to light the lamp which burns at night before the
eucharist, the lamp lights itself. There are innumerable persons in
Spain who believe that he who is born on Good-Friday has a cross on the
roof of his mouth, and the faculty of curing diseases by mere contact
with his hands, or even a piece of his garment. The palms which are
blessed on Palm-Sunday, and the candles burnt on Good-Friday before the
sacrament, have power to preserve houses from thunderbolts. The same
faculty is attributed to a small bell blessed by the priest. In times of
drought, which are the greatest calamities that afflict the Spanish soil,
a favourite image is taken out and conducted in procession, in order to
implore genial showers of rain. Thanks to the invention of the
barometer, and a practical knowledge of the aspect of the weather, it
almost always happens that this ceremony is followed a few days
afterwards by a copious supply. But it would require an entire volume to
enumerate all the errors and superstitions of this description which have
been propagated by the clergy in Spain, and which form the chief props of
their power.
Relics have served as efficacious instruments to accomplish that end.
The _lignum crucis_, pieces of the cross on which the Saviour suffered,
are profusely distributed not only in the churches, but in the private
houses of many persons. In most of the cathedrals are preserved and
shown to the public, on certain occasions, some of the thorns which
composed our Saviour's crown; in others, fragments of the Virgin's veil;
and in the cathedral of Jaen, _the face of God_. A description of this
last-named wonder may not be unacceptable to some of our readers, and
therefore we give a description of it in the words of a living English
writer:--"According to the tradition of the Romish Church, a lady called
Veronica met our Saviour in the street of Amargura, in Jerusalem, bearing
his cross, on the way to Mount Calvary; and perceiving the perspiration
running down his face, she offered the use of her handkerchief, which our
Lord is said to have used, or to have permitted Veronica to use, in
wiping the sweat from his temples. In performing this operation, the
handkerchief happened to be folded into double, treble, or quadruple, and
it was found that an exact impress of the Saviour's visage was indelibly
stamped on every fold! These portraits, they say, have been preserved,
and are certainly venerated as sacred relics in different places. One is
exhibited in Rome, another in Padua, and a third in Jaen, in Andalusia.
A public exhibition of this _holy face_ is permitted, annually, on a
certain day appointed for the purpose, when a plenary indulgence is
granted to all who go to look upon it, to confess and to receive the holy
communion. It is only the most ignorant and superstitious who are found
to believe in this fable; indeed, it has now become proverbial with a
Spaniard, when told of any thing that seems impossible, to say, _Eso y la
cara de Dios estan en Jaen_,--That and the face of God are in Jaen."
The bodies of saints exposed to public veneration in many churches are
almost innumerable. The authenticity of these holy remains is founded on
pontifical bulls invested with all necessary formalities. The way of
procuring these remains of corrupt mortality is very easy and simple. It
consists in gathering up, in the catacombs of Rome, some of the infinite
numbers of bones there deposited; there is never wanting some devout
antiquarian to discover that they are those of a saint or a martyr, and
the assertion is supported by old parchments of remote ages, made in
Rome, where the profession is of great use. Those testimonies are
presented to the Roman Datary, and by means of a fixed sum found in a
tariff comprising many other articles, the pontifical sanction is
obtained, and then the bones become converted into objects of general
devotion.
The inscriptions on Roman altars and sepulchres in the pagan ages are
used to support those inventions. All the world knows the history of the
celebrated saints Perpetua and Felicity, whose beatifications have no
other foundation than the words _perpetua felicitas_, so very common on
the monuments of that nation. The improbability of some of the fictions
has been such, that in Spain itself, in the face of that respect there
shown to the things pertaining to religion, there have not been wanting
pious men who have dared to doubt the authenticity of some of those
saints. In a certain city in Andalusia, in which are venerated the bones
of two Christian soldiers who were martyrs, and are the declared patrons
of that city, and as such to be worthy the devotion of the inhabitants,
it has been proved recently, from the examination of certain documents,
that those supposed martyrs were nothing more than two Roman soldiers who
had fallen in an action near the walls of that city.
But the lives of the saints are the great repositories of false miracles.
There is no extravagance which has not been resorted to by the authors of
those biographies. The miracles of their heroes occupy more space than
do their virtues. The Roman Church never canonises any human being, of
whatever eminence his piety may have been, if it is not proved _to its
satisfaction_ that he had the power of altering the laws of nature, and
availed himself of divine omnipotence in order to serve his friends, and
even to satisfy their caprice. For example: one saint has been able to
traverse the seas with no better vessel for his use than his own cloak;
another used to bring down rain from heaven in times of drought; almost
all of them cured the most dangerous maladies by merely their blessing;
and there are but few of them who have not even raised the dead with the
like facility. The famous _beata_ Maria de Agreda has written many
volumes, wherein she records the continuous revelations with which she
was favoured, and her familiar conversations with the Saviour, to whom
she always gives the title of spouse. On one occasion, when sweeping the
cloisters of her convent, she being unable through debility to take up
the dust, the infant Jesus came to perform that office for her. In the
work entitled, "_Conformidad de San Francisco con Dios_," it is said,
among other wonders, that the saint formed a statue of ice and breathed
life into it, in the same way that God did to Adam. That saint had his
hands and feet perforated like those of Jesus Christ on the cross, and
the Roman church consecrates a day in the calendar and a special festival
with its corresponding service to "the wounds or sores of St Francis"
(_Las Llagas de San Francisco_).
But all these extravagances of the imagination are exceeded by the
impiety and scandal of the appearance of the Virgin to a saint who
implored her favour. It is related of her, that on this occasion she
sent forth from her bosom a stream of milk, which the saint received in
his open mouth, in a kneeling position, at a few paces from her feet.
Paintings of this may be seen in the cloisters of many convents in Spain.
Hypocrisy, interest, and ambition, have found in this frightful credulity
an ample and open field for their labours, and in which they have
gathered abundant crops. It would, however, be an act of injustice, of
which we would desire not to be guilty, if we did not admit that some of
the most heroic virtues have flourished in the cloisters, and that the
annals of the religious orders have handed down to posterity names which
are worthy of admiration and respect. The name of the Capuchine Fray
Diego de Cadiz must be still fresh in the memory,--a man no less
remarkable for his poverty, self-denial, and humility, than for the
sublime eloquence with which he contended against the vices of his times,
and drew sinners into the paths of virtue. Such was the reputation of
this good man, that the churches were unable to hold the multitudes who
came to hear him preach. He therefore usually delivered his sermons in
the public squares, where he was eagerly and devoutly listened to by
people of every class and denomination, including Protestant reformers,
who came to hear his denunciations against the enemies of God and the
church. But by the side of this and some other models of religious
consistency, how many hypocrites are there who have abused the simplicity
of Spaniards, ostentatiously displaying, in public, self-denial and
penitence, whilst giving themselves up, in private life, to every kind of
iniquity! A convent lucky in having a man of this class possessed in him
an inexhaustible fountain of presents and money. Sometimes those
excesses arrive at such a point, that the attention of the bishops is
called to them; but when searching inquiries were set on foot, the friars
with all haste removed the delinquent to some distant place where he
would be out of the reach of the bishops. Two facts of this kind may
serve to illustrate this chapter.
Towards the beginning of the present century, there was in Madrid a
_beata_ {194} called Clara, of whom they relate such prodigies as filled
the capital from one end to the other with astonishment, and induced
society to believe that this _beata_, Clara, was a being highly favoured
by Providence. She lived in a private house, under the pretence that the
malady under which she laboured prevented her residence in the
_beaterio_. She was always prostrated on her bed, and never took any
kind of food except the consecrated host. The nobility and persons in
the upper ranks of society, including canons, bishops, and other learned
personages, came to consult her, not only on matters of conscience, but
of ecclesiastical discipline and state-government. She never permitted
her face to be seen, but kept it covered with a kind of veil which
entirely concealed her features. Gifts of every kind were showered upon
her, and when money was given to her, which was always in large amounts,
she declared that the article was of but little use to her, for she
always gave it away to the poor. In short, nothing was talked of in
Madrid but this most wonderful woman, whose presence it was believed was
sufficient to obtain blessings from heaven; and even the queen, Maria
Louisa, herself, wife of Charles IV., sent her frequent messages.
Clara's fame increased. The renown of her name reached Rome, and made a
profound impression in that city. The Pope granted her the unheard-of
privilege of having the holy eucharist kept in her room, a privilege
never conceded but to churches, cathedrals, and convents. In her room
was erected an altar on which the priests said mass. There the holy
communion was received with outbursts of devotion, and sometimes with
ecstasy. In short, the woman was considered as something more than
mortal; nor can that be surprising, when it was believed, on her own
assertions, that she existed without other sustenance than the body and
blood of Christ.
There was in the same quarter of the city a pastrycook called Ceferino.
It had been observed that this shop was the nightly resort of a female
attendant of Clara, who made purchases of the most delicate and savoury
articles of this good man's manufacture, nor could he imagine from whom
she came or where she went, for instead of going into the vicinity with
the precious load, she invariably made off in a direction for the heart
of the city, and was soon out of sight. One night, however, one of
Ceferino's workmen was determined to follow her closely. He did so, and
after many an artful dodge through streets, lanes, courts, and alleys,
she entered the house of _beata_ Clara. The fact was kept secret from
the public, but information was given privately to the police, who late
at night entered the suspected dwelling, and there surprised Clara and
her confessor, who were both elegantly dressed, and sitting at a table
profusely served up with viands and wines of the most _recherche_
descriptions. The inquisition at once seized their persons, and
proceeded to try them for their crimes. The confessor, who was a young
robust Franciscan friar, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in one
of the most severe convents of the order. The _beata_ Clara was paraded
through the streets of Madrid, _honeyed and feathered_, and mounted on a
jack-ass, and then sent to be imprisoned in a house of penance for the
remainder of her life.
The other fact which we have alluded to and promised some account of to
our readers, dates in more modern times; indeed, all the actors in that
far-famed farce are still living.
Under the regency of Espartero, it was currently reported in Madrid, that
in a certain convent of that city there existed one of the order whose
name was Sister Patrocinio (_Sor Patrocinio_), and who, like St Francis
before alluded to, had in her hands and feet the _stigmata_ or open sores
which correspond with those of our Saviour, made by the nails and spear
in his crucifixion. This rumour, and many acts of the nun, produced an
extraordinary sensation in Madrid, and especially when it began to be
believed there was some political legerdemain connected with the prodigy,
for the confessor of this woman, who now occupies one of the episcopal
chairs of Spain, and gave his testimony to the case, seemed to be upon
very intimate terms with the royal family, and had very lengthened
conversations with some of its members. As at that time the political
world was agitated by the question of the political pretensions of Don
Carlos to the throne of Spain, the government, which held, or at least
professed liberal opinions, thought that possibly the case of this
miraculous woman might have some connection with the absolute views of
the clergy, particularly as the miracle was everywhere spoken of.
Thirsting, therefore, to prove the truth of the alleged fact, which was
that the sores or wounds of this Saint Patrocinio were open and bleeding
in the same way as if they had been the results of nails lately driven
into her feet and hands and a spear thrust into her side, the government
ordered the lady to be examined by the most celebrated medical man of the
day, who instantly discovered that the wounds or sores were produced by
the mere application of lunar caustic. He applied to them the usual
remedies. Patrocinio was watched day and night to prevent a
re-application of the caustic, and the openings were soon healed.
On this discovery of the truth, the nun was banished to a convent in one
of the provinces; but a few years afterwards so many and such clever
intrigues were employed, and by such high personages, in her favour, that
she obtained permission to return to the capital, where in her convent
she became the point of attraction and assembly of all that portion of
the clergy most opposed to the constitutional system, and where she
received the constant visits of one of the most exalted personages of the
kingdom. She no longer, however, had recourse to the open sores to
deceive the people, whose eyes have been opened in the way already
described. The extraordinary beauty with which nature had endowed her
person was the means of which she availed herself to enslave the will of
her august protector. The government of General Narvaez, which was then
in power, thought it expedient to put an end to these scandalous scenes;
and the more especially as it was impossible not to see that their
influence was brought directly to bear on the gravest political
questions. Thus was that woman a second time expelled the capital; but a
second time was she permitted to return to it on the fall of Narvaez's
cabinet. Vain beyond all measure with her triumph, she abused this new
era of the victory she had obtained, and founded a convent in that city,
of which she declared herself the superior, and into which no other nuns
were admitted than such as were both young and pretty. This
establishment was the resort and rallying-point of the most elevated of
the clergy and nobility; and to the scandal of the nation, the high
personage already so often alluded to there passed his evenings with his
courtezans, giving rise to the free circulation, and without any
disguise, of anecdotes of the most immoral and yet ludicrous description.
But such unbridled turpitude could not last long without provoking the
activity of the civil authority. The convent was suddenly suppressed,
and Sister Patrocinio was put on the road to Rome, accompanied by her
favourite novice and two of the clergy. The extreme slowness with which
she proceeded on her journey was attributed to a certain delicate state
of health, the gravity of which had become so urgent, that on reaching a
town in the south of France she was obliged to suspend her march, and
having been detained there for some months until the expiration of the
time necessary for cure and convalescence after such infirmities, which
was in short the sole object of her journey, instead of pursuing her tour
to the capital of the Roman Catholic world, she was permitted a third
time to return to Spain, where she now lives in obscurity and contempt.
Since the foregoing was written, the following account of her own
confession has appeared before the public, and may very properly conclude
this chapter:--
"But we have one word more yet to say on the subject of these wounds,
to convince our readers of the ridiculous farce that was enacted at
the convent. The medical men were not singular in denying their
supernatural origin. The _saint_ herself, when she found she was in
the power of justice, and out of the hands of nuns and friars, made
the following most curious and decisive statement. Our readers will
imagine that they are perusing a romance of the middle ages.
"'On the 7th of February, the further declaration of Sister
Patrocinio was taken, who, after having made an avowal of _being
truly penitent_, and that she cast herself upon the mercy of her
Majesty the Queen Protectress, declared that from the time of her
taking the veil, down to the 7th July when the convents were
suppressed, her confessor was friar Benito Carrera.--That she
afterwards had for confessor the vicar of the convent; for although
friar Joseph de la Cruz wished to be her confessor, and spoke to her
once or twice to that effect, she did not consent, because from the
first she knew that he was not of very strong understanding, for he
had proposed to her to leave the convent, in order to go to Rome, and
ask permission to found and establish a convent, with many other
extravagant propositions; showing her at the same time a very rare
print, which contained many allegorical devices.--That no doubt her
confessor, friar Benito Carrera, knew what were the ideas of friar
Joseph de la Cruz; and he had told the abbess that she ought not to
permit declarant to go to confess to him; and for that reason she did
not see him again.--That one of the nuns being taken ill during her
(declarant's) noviciate, Father Alcaraz, a capuchin of the padro,
came to attend her; and then she saw him, and had a conversation with
him upon different matters.--That a few days afterwards, she was
called into the visitor's parlour, and found that said father Alcaraz
was there alone; that he addressed her in a solemn tone, as if he was
preaching, and said that St Paul was very urgent on the subject of
penance; {200} and then he took out a little purse which he carried
in his hood, and told her that it contained _a small relic that would
produce a wound if applied to any part of the body_; that this wound
ought to be kept open, so as to occasion suffering and mortification,
that so, by offering to God our pain by way of penance, we might
obtain pardon for sins already committed or future.--That after this
he gave her a most solemn injunction, commanding her to apply the
relic to the palms and the back of her hands, to the soles of her
feet, to the left side, and _all round her head in the manner of a
crown_; and charged her most strictly upon her obedience, and upon
peril of the most terrible punishments in the next world, _not to
disclose to anybody how the wounds had been caused_; and if she was
asked, she must say that _she had found them upon her
supernaturally_.--That being terrified by the threats of eternal
punishment and the divine anger, she obeyed his command, and never
disclosed the matter either to the abbess or to her confessor, or to
any other person whatever.--That it was believed by the community in
all good faith, that it was a miracle; that she never attempted to
apply ordinary medicines for the healing of the wounds, which, though
they closed apparently, broke out again, always being attended with
pain, until she _left the convent and had them cured_."
CONCLUSION.
The picture which we have sketched of the religious state of Spain,
explains all the history, all the peculiarities, and all the vicissitudes
of that great nation, from its conversion to Christianity down to our own
times. It was the religious principle which inspired Spaniards in all
the great actions by which their name has been immortalised during their
sanguinary struggles of six centuries against the Saracenic power; but in
that magnificent epoch of their national existence, there were many
circumstances which concurred in drawing forth the great failings of the
Roman Catholicism of the present day. In the first place, all
Christendom was Catholic, but that creed was not stained with the abuses
and errors which, many ages afterwards, provoked the grand work of
reformation. In the second place, society in general was wanting in
those energetic attractions which led, in our age, to the cultivation of
the arts and of the sciences, to the exercise of lucrative professions,
and to speculations in credit, commerce, and industry. Finally, the time
of the popes' aggrandizement had not yet arrived; as yet, Rome had not
begun to exercise over the Western nations that pernicious influence
which afterwards degraded her religious doctrine, nor that proud
preponderance which threw back kings and governments to the class of
humble subjects of the Vatican. In Spain, at least, religion was not so
material nor so dramatic as it became in subsequent ages; the mendicant
orders, which contributed so much in later epochs to the corruption of
religious doctrine, had not been founded, nor had the multitude of new
devotions, which afterwards complicated the simplicity of worship and
converted it into a code of forms and ceremonies, been invented.
Before the conquest of the Moors, as has already been observed in the
body of this work, Spaniards were truly Catholics, and nothing more than
Catholics. At that period, they had no other knowledge than that
acquired from the study of Christian truth; excepting the military, there
was no profession but that of the ecclesiastic; the arts, still rude, and
almost denuded of invention and of ideality, were limited in their
application to religious objects; and even architecture itself was not
ostentatious of its grandeur and its beauties, nor were its plans and
resources developed in great dimensions, except in the erection of those
proud cathedrals, which, like those of Burgos, Seville, Palma, and
Toledo, still excite the admiration of foreigners, and continue to be
objects of study to the artist. {202}
Animated by so vigorous a principle of action, the only one which was
capable of exciting the enthusiasm of their energetic but simple minds,
Spaniards became the admiration of the world for their prowess, for the
elevation of their sentiments, for their conquests in the East, where the
Arragonese humilitated even the throne of the Caesars, and, above all,
for the innumerable series of exploits and sublime feats of valour and
patriotism with which they succeeded in expelling from Europe the
Saracenic dominion, then about to extend itself from the shores of the
Garonne to those of the Tiber.
What a difference do we perceive between the Spaniard of those times and
the abject and degraded vassal of the princes of the Austrian dynasty!
Religious sentiment was not less energetic, it was not less profound, in
the second epoch than in the first; but it was a sentiment perverted by
superstition, envenomed by fanaticism, and which, far from associating
itself, as before, with the propensity to illustrious deeds and grand
enterprises, consecrated itself exclusively, moved by the former, to the
most puerile rites and ridiculous exterior practices, and, influenced by
the latter, to the most abominable excesses of persecution and
intolerance. Thus it is, that from the time of Philip II. down to that
of Charles II., the history of Spain presents nothing but an
uninterrupted series of blunders in the government, of intrigues and
disorders in the court, and of crosses and misfortunes in the national
affairs. In a word, it sets before us a treasury without credit and
without money, an army without discipline and without organization,
tribunals sold to power:--and everywhere we perceive recklessness,
ignorance, poverty, and immorality, which are the inseparable
accompaniments of mal-administration.
It was not possible that a nation forming part of the great European
family could long continue in such a condition. At the present time we
distinctly discern that the progress of civilization keeps pace with the
perfection of religious ideas. The most cultivated nations, the richest
and most nourishing, are those which have most purified their
creeds,--those which have put farthest from them the material element
introduced to worship by superstition and fanaticism,--those who come
nearest to the spirit and letter of the gospel in the relations of man
with the Divinity. Spaniards have begun to penetrate these truths; they
have compared their actual condition with that of other nations which
have embraced the doctrines of the Reformation, and, above all, have felt
that great void left in their religious and moral condition by the want
of true Christianity, of the pure dogma taught by its Founder, and of the
truth to be discovered only in those inspired pages containing the
treasures of revelation.
This exchange of ideas is one of the most striking facts of the present
age, and more especially when it is considered that it is taking place at
this instant by a spontaneous movement, which installs itself in
different parts of the Peninsula; not, as in other ages and nations, in
consequence of a proselytism headed by an apostle or a reformer, but of
_a necessity strongly felt_, and which imperiously demands the object
that alone can satisfy it. In Spain,--yes, in Spain,--the Bible is read,
and people write and speak freely against the errors of the Church of
Rome; nay, the Cortes denounce the vices of the clergy, and defend
liberty of conscience; they propose means which, a few years ago, would
have been visited with the most cruel persecution, and with the _brutum
fulmen_ of anathema. The government expatriate reactionary bishops
without so much as a murmur from the people against these strokes of
severity; many priests, enlisted under the banner of Carlism, have been
taken by the troops, and shot as common culprits, without a single voice
having been raised in their defence. The new doctrine on the immaculate
conception of the Virgin Mary has been attacked with irresistible
arguments in a pamphlet published in Madrid, without either the
authorities or the clergy having offered the least obstacle to its
circulation. The law authorising the sale of the church property is
executed with the general consent and approbation of the nation.
Finally, the efforts made by certain well-intentioned Englishmen to
propagate sound doctrine in the Peninsula have been generally received,
not only with a becoming appreciation and gratitude, but with an
eagerness and relish approaching to enthusiasm; and the persons who have
set on foot this pious undertaking receive, almost daily, letters from
Spaniards of all classes, urging them to persist in a work which,
manifestly, has a direct bearing on the minds and manners of the people.
The beneficent designs of Providence cannot be manifested more clearly.
A movement in favour of the ideas of reform, and a prevailing disposition
to read the Bible, are showing themselves simultaneously in many Roman
Catholic countries, without any concert between themselves, and without
any reciprocal intimation or knowledge of what is going on in each of
those countries. The recent occurrences in Florence are notorious, so
are those in Genoa, and even in Rome itself, where, to the political
exasperation against the pontifical government,--whose existence is owing
simply to the presence of three thousand French soldiers,--is united the
contempt which the lax habits of the clergy and the puerile ceremonies of
worship inspire in the minds of all men who have received the least
education. This is precisely what is now taking place in all the
ramifications of the great Spanish family.
We have already alluded to the state of abasement and degradation in
which the clergy of the Peninsula now find themselves,--clergy who, for
many centuries swimming in opulence and surrounded by a splendour which
almost eclipsed the throne, have been the true regulators of the public
spirit of the nation, the keepers of all consciences, and who formerly
composed the most influential and powerful among all her social
categories,--these clergy who, to-day, barely maintained by the public
treasury, have been reduced to impotence, and become, as it were, a
nullity,--they are excluded from all social intercourse with the elevated
classes, and are deprived of all means of recovering their ancient
predominance. With this decay of the depositories and agents of the
papal authority and of the ultramontane ideas, other circumstances, which
it was impossible to foresee, co-operate, in order to destroy those two
scourges of humanity,--circumstances which promise better days for
evangelical truth in that nation so long enslaved by superstition and
fanaticism. Not only does the actual government harbour ideas of
religious liberty, and endeavour, by all possible means, to curb the
pride and reactionary spirit of the bishops, but many of the most
elevated public functionaries abandon the Popish creed, and openly favour
the propagation of the Bible and of the different writings which have
been recently published in London in the Castillian language, and in
which the doctrines and practices of the Roman Church are attacked with
the arms of logic and erudition. One of these publications, entitled
"_El Alba_," which is issued in numbers at indeterminate periods, finds
so much favour in all classes of Spanish society, that its editors are
constantly receiving letters of encouragement to persevere, such as those
already alluded to, from many cities in the Peninsula, as well as
reiterated demands for supplies of the work. "_El Alba_" is read
publicly in the guard-house of the national militia of Madrid, and has,
it is said, been reprinted at the common expense of the journeymen
printers of that capital, without the least obstacle.
Whilst these things are happening in the very cradle of the Spanish
nation, the republics of South America, formed out of the fragments of
the ancient colonial power founded by Charles V., enter simultaneously
into the religious movement, without any previous concert with the
ancient metropolis. These dispositions manifested themselves in Buenos
Ayres from the earliest days of its independence. The Protestants,
without the least difficulty, obtained permission to have a cemetery for
the burial of their dead, wherein are publicly performed the funeral
rites of the Anglican Church, at which ceremony may be seen assisting,
very often, not only the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the city, but even
the clergy and friars of the dominant church. Under the government of
the illustrious Don Bernardino Rivadavia, these good tendencies towards
religious liberty acquired greater force and development, and Protestants
are able to meet together on Sundays to celebrate their worship without
that circumstance causing the least surprise, or even exciting the
curiosity of the people. Rivadavia, in 1828, founded, in the vicinity of
the capital, a colony composed entirely of Scotch families, who were
permitted to erect a chapel in a building expressly set apart for the
purpose, and there was not so much as a murmur against the project. The
iron despotism of Rosas could do nothing against this bias given to the
public opinion; and although the colony dissolved itself in one of those
political convulsions so frequent in that country, the Protestants of the
city still preserved their privileges. Rosas did not show himself much
disposed to tolerate the abuses of the power of the Roman Catholic
clergy, and he banished the Jesuits, in whose hands was placed the
education of youth. The Bishop of Buenos Ayres has been, during the
dominion of that extraordinary man, entirely subservient to his power.
In Chili religious fanaticism has always predominated, sustained by an
archbishop, by a numerous clergy, and by many convents of friars and
nuns; yet still, in Valparaiso, the principal seaport of the republic,
there exists a Protestant congregation, composed of many hundreds of
English, German, and American citizens. They have a chapel, as also a
chaplain, whose stipend is borne, in equal moieties, by the congregation
and the government of her Brittanic Majesty. Many Spaniards attend the
divine services performed therein, and we have good grounds for believing
that some of those attendants, particularly that portion of them composed
of the fair sex, have abjured the errors of the Roman Catholic communion.
The rising generation is impregnated with ideas of religious reform, and
we have seen works of some of the young writers of that country in which
the prejudices of former times are openly attacked, and principles of
independence and religious liberty proclaimed,--a course of action which,
in other epochs, would have provoked the scandal and indignation of the
authorities and of the nation at large.
In Lima, the capital of Peru, a city abounding with convents, and
celebrated for the wealth and power of its secular clergy, Dr Vigil, a
priest of irreproachable conduct and profound learning, has published a
voluminous work, in which he attacks and pulverises the pretensions of
the Roman Court, defends the independence of the bishops, and
demonstrates, in the most luminous manner, the necessity of an
ecclesiastical reformation, differing but very little from that which was
most dexterously and successfully headed by Luther. That work of Dr
Vigil was condemned, and its author excommunicated by a pontifical bull;
and yet, despite this circumstance, the book circulates from hand to hand
freely throughout Peru, and the doctor himself lives in perfect
tranquillity in the midst of his fellow-countrymen, respected by all, and
employed by the government in the distinguished post of director of the
national library.
In New Granada this reformation has proceeded from the government itself.
The archbishop and the Jesuits have been banished from the territory of
the republic, the legislative power has sanctioned the liberty of
worship, and the public writers employ themselves in enlightening the
people upon the falsity of the Roman doctrines, and the necessity of
undoing the work, which, ever since the discovery of the new world, has
been set up and perfected in it by the enemies of the true faith of Jesus
Christ.
If the publication of this present work shall contribute, in any manner,
to the intellectual emancipation of those favoured portions of the human
race, its author will have received the only recompence which he desires.
* * * * *
THE END.
Footnotes:
{15} Cover me with flowers,
For I am dying of love.
{16} The Virgin of Anguish,
She it is who knows my grief,
Because I go to her chapel
And am never tired of crying.
{22} Isabella foresaw the advantages of free trade at a time when all
Europe groaned under the yoke of the most severe prohibitions. Not only
did she abolish all those which the fiscal legislation of Spain prior to
her times had sanctioned, but she had the merit of being the founder of
the first tribunal of commerce, and of expressly ordering that in all
matters of mercantile contract, shipwrecks, &c., submitted to her
judgment, barristers should take no part, so that the course of justice
might not be obscured with pedantic arguments and formal technicalities.
{25} The Spanish Protestants and their Persecution by Philip II. By Don
Adolfo de Castro. Translated from the original Spanish, by Tho. Parker.
Gilpin, London, 1851.
{26} _Novena_. A devotional practice applicable to the worship of all
saints, and consisting of music, prayer, mass, &c., and of _nine_ days'
duration.
{52a} "We must die."
{52b} "We already know it."
{57} Importunate and unwearied begging.
{59a} On the portico of the Franciscan convent, in Granada, is to be
seen a large marble slab, on which a sonnet is engraved, the first two
lines of which are:--
"En provincias doscientas y setenta,
Tiene Francisco doce mil conventos." {59b}
{59b} "In 270 provinces,
Francis has 12,000 convents."
{67} A kind of chick-pea, much used in Spain, especially in the _olla
podrida_.
{71a} A kind of talisman hung round the neck of devout persons, which
sometimes is supposed to contain relics of saints, pious prayers, or
images of the Virgin.
{71b} "Here lies Sister Belen,
Who made sweetmeats very well,
And passed her whole life
In dressing wax figures" [_of the infant Christ_].
{72} The great feudal lords who had jurisdiction over their own lands
were so called, because on the limits of those lands they fixed a gallows
(_horca_), with a large knife (_cuchillo_), as a symbol of their
privilege.
{75} Loved one, or sweetheart.
{77} The vestibules of the convents are called the _porteria_. They
lead to the cells of the friars, and are distinct from the entrances to
the church. All women are prohibited from entering these portions of the
cloisters.
{78} This name is given to a female who confesses to one ecclesiastic
exclusively, making him also the spiritual director of her conscience.
Some persons who profess to be extremely religious divide these functions
between two distinct persons, one of them being the confessor, and the
other the director.
{81} Agonizante was the name of a religious community. The principal
duty of its members was that of administering to the wants and last
religious consolations of the faithful at the hour of death.
{98} There are numerous other anecdotes of her Majesty, which tend to
show she is possessed of some of the best qualities which can adorn the
mind of a queen, and tend to make her popular. Some of these will appear
in the following pages. We shall at present but give one. Passing one
day, when quite a child, along the Prado in Madrid, the eyes of a poor
little girl, without shoes or stockings, were directed to the royal
carriage and caught those of her Majesty. Perceiving the queen's eyes
were fixed on her, the little urchin dropt a courtesy, and held out her
hand in the attitude of supplication. Her Majesty halted, beckoned the
child forward, saw her naked feet, and having no money, in a moment took
off her own shoes and threw them out of the carriage-window to the girl,
desiring her to try them on, which she did, made another genuflection,
and walked off with them, to the great delight of her royal benefactor.
{107} An anecdote referred to by Gibbon, in the part of his history
relative to the sect of the _iconoclast_, confirms all that is advanced
in the text on the powerful influence of worship to images, as it regards
the character of devotion. When the soldiers of Leo broke in pieces the
image of a saint before whom daily prayers were wont to be offered up, a
pious individual gave vent to this bitter lamentation, "Now I can no
longer address my prayers to heaven; now I have no one to hear them!"
{110} Santa Rita is called by Spaniards "The advocate of
impossibilities,"--(_La abogada de los imposibles_.)
Thus, it is not uncommon for a young lady to say to a suitor whom she
refuses, and who imploringly asks her what he shall do to gain her
favour, "Go and invoke Santa Rita."
{113} Spaniards have not waited for Pius IX. to come and acknowledge the
immaculate conception as a dogma of the faith. This belief has existed
in Spain from time immemorial. Murillo has immortalised it in his
master-works, and Charles III. declared her to be the patroness of Spain,
commanding her image to be placed in the badges of the order which he
founded under the title of "The Royal and Distinguished Order of Charles
III."
{115} The Virgin of Atocha is the patron of the sovereigns of Spain.
Her image, which is small and of a colour as dark as a mulatto, appeared,
as tradition asserts, at the spot on which the chapel was afterwards
erected, and in which, in the present day, it is deposited. This chapel
is situated near the magnificent promenade called the Prado, in Madrid,
and was formerly part of a convent of Dominican Friars, converted, after
the suppression of the religious orders, into barracks for sick soldiers.
When the court is in Madrid, the sovereign goes every Saturday evening to
this sanctuary with a great procession of grandees and guards. The
Virgin of Atocha has an immense fortune, consisting of jewels and
trinkets which have been presented to her by the monarchs. Among these
presents, one is the distinguished velvet dress, embroidered with gold,
worn by Isabella II. at the time she was wounded by the Priest Merino.
When her Majesty felt she was wounded by the poniard of this assassin,
and saw him seized by her guards, her first words were, "Pray, spare the
life of that man!" This is another proof of Isabella's kind and
forgiving disposition, especially when it is considered that she uttered
the words spontaneously, without prompting or premeditation, but on the
spur of the moment.
{116} Spaniards have greatly excelled in the sculpture of wood,--a
branch of the fine arts which does not deserve the disdain with which
modern writers have treated it. In many churches in Spain there are
admirable productions of this kind, of a perfect execution, expression,
and design. The statue of the Virgin of the Conception, placed in the
choir of the cathedral of Seville, a work of the celebrated Montanes,
will rival the most celebrated masterpieces of modern sculpture.
{125} The Roman Catholic Church has adopted, for its hymns, the poetry
of the low Latinity of the middle ages. Among these is distinguished for
its originality that which is generally sung in the office for the dead.
The two principal verses are these:--
"Dies irae, dies ilia,
Solvens sec'lum in favilla,
Teste David, cum Sybilla.
. . . . .
Tuba mirum spargens sonum,
Per sepulchra regionum,
Venient omnes ante thronum."
We cannot resist the opportunity of giving the late Sir Walter Scott's
metrical translation of this sublime ode, a translation which, as a hymn,
is generally sung in Protestant churches:--
I.
"The day of wrath: that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away!
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
Whom shall he trust that dreadful day?
II.
"When, shriv'lling, like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll,
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead,--
III.
"Oh, on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be thou, O Christ! the sinner's stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away!"
We also find in this collection the hymn which is sung to the Virgin of
Griefs in the Holy Week, and which begins thus:--
"Stabat mater dolorosa
Juxta crucem lachrymosa,
Dum pendebat filius."
{127} This game dance is repeated in the cathedral of Seville on the 8th
of December, the day of the immaculate conception of the Virgin, and
during eight days afterwards, which are called an _octave_. In the
present day this cathedral, as we have said elsewhere, has also the
singular privilege of using ornaments of a sky-blue colour, which is not
permitted by the church on other feast-days. These ornaments are of an
incomparable value, and the chief one of them, called _capa pluvial_, is
richly embroidered with pearls and precious stones.
{148a} "Digo un responso por una peseta."
{148b} "Yo lo digo por media peseta."
{174} The word _alms_ in this case does not mean alms given away to the
poor, but the money invested in the purchase of a copy of this bull,
published and sold by the commissary-general, or by the different
archbishops and bishops.
If we consider that the bull is printed on a small piece of very inferior
paper, and that it is sold for 7.5d., and that every Spaniard in the
Peninsula and its colonies is bound to purchase it, at the risk of
incurring a mortal sin every Friday in the year that he eats meat without
this authorization, we may form some idea of the enormous revenue derived
from this source by the Spanish Church, and by the Roman See, which has a
profit in the speculation. The Spanish Peninsula contains at the present
moment, on a very low calculation, fifteen millions of inhabitants, the
Philippine Islands four millions, and Cuba and Porto Rico together
something more than one million. In Spanish America, from Mexico to Cape
Horn, there are nearly sixteen millions of inhabitants subject to the
Catholic Church, and his holiness grants to them likewise the privilege
of the _Holy Crusade_ bull, with the further advantage of being allowed
to cook their fish or vegetables with hog's lard or beef and mutton fat,
on those days too on which not even Spanish Catholics are allowed to eat
meat.
{176} The name given to the administration of episcopal property in the
interval between the death of a bishop and the consecration of his
successor. A part of the revenues of such sees during the vacancy went
to the public treasury, and the other to the church treasury.
{194} They so call certain women, who without being in the cloisters use
the habit of nuns, and live in common together, in establishments called
_beaterios_.
{200} What Roman Catholics generally understand by repentance.
{202} This spirit was preserved down to the time of Isabella of
Castille. After the conquest of Granada, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordova,
known by the name of "the great captain," and to whose valour and
military foresight was owing, in a great degree, that glorious conquest,
erected in the precinct of the same city a proud palace which was
destined for his own use. The queen wished to see it ere it was scarcely
finished, and after having examined it minutely, turning to Gonzalo she
said,--"Gonzalo, this house is too good for a man; God only ought to live
in it." The hero, yielding to the suggestion, delivered up the edifice
to the Hieronimite monks, in order that they might found a convent
therein. The monks, grateful for so generous a gift, resolved, on the
death of Gonzalo, to inter his body in the church of the establishment;
and on the exterior of its tower they wrote in enormous letters the
epitaph of its founder in these words:--
"Gonzalvo Ferdinandez de Cordova,
Hispanorum duci,
Gallorum et Turcarum terrori."