THE MEXICAN CHURCH.
RELATIONS BETWEEN THE MEXICAN CHURCH AND THE POPE.--CLERGY, MONKS,
NUNS, MONASTERIES, CONVENTS.--WEALTH OF THE CHURCH.--RATIO OF
CLERGY AND PEOPLE.--HIGH AND LOW CLERGY--THEIR
HISTORY--VICES.--MONKS--RURAL CLERGY--THEIR CHARACTER.--CONDUCT OF
CLERGY, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE.--MISSIONS IN CALIFORNIA--MODE OF
CONVERSION.--MONKS IN MEXICO--ZAVALA'S STRICTURES.--PAZO'S
STRICTURES ON SOUTH AMERICAN CLERGY.--CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES
AND IN MEXICO.--CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTION OF CATHOLICISM.--DUTY OF
THE CHURCH--BULLS--PAPER MONEY.
The relations existing between the Mexican church and the Papal throne
were interrupted by the revolution. Spain and her monarchs had ever been
distinguished and faithful defenders of the Catholic church, and had
maintained its power carefully throughout all their American
possessions. The pope therefore regarded the revolution not only as
unfavorable to the interest of his allies, but as calculated in all
probability to introduce ecclesiastical as well as political liberty
into regions of which his ministers possessed the entire dominion. Hence
the famous encyclical letter of his Holiness of the 24th of September,
1824, directed to the Heads of the American church, in which he
anathematizes the doctrines and principles upon which the revolution was
founded. But, yielding in the end to circumstances, and probably
reassured by the article in the first constitution of Mexico--not yet
promulgated when his letter saw the light--by which the Catholic faith
was permanently confirmed as the national religion, to the exclusion of
all others, he received the rebellious nation once more into his flock,
as soon as the Mexican government sought readmission. This
reconciliation was negotiated upon the same terms that existed during
the Spanish dominion.
Even from the epoch of Iturbide's rule this delicate subject had engaged
the attention of the rulers, and in 1825 an envoy was sent to Rome. The
ecclesiastical Junto which met in Mexico, had striven to reinvest the
Metropolitan with the ancient right of instituting suffragan bishops;
but the canonical right has continued in the Pope, on the presentation
of the government. Nevertheless, efforts have been made to extend,
substantially the metropolitan powers of the Archbishop of Mexico, of
whom it was probably desired to make the true head of the national
church, dependent however upon the Roman Pontiff.
* * * * *
There were in Mexico, according to the best accessible official dates,
in 1826
1 Archbishop.
9 Bishops, in 9 Bishoprics.
1 Collegiate Chief at the Collegiate Church of Guadalupe.
185 Prebends, (79 vacancies thereof, in 1826.)
1194 Parishes, of one, two, or more churches.
9 Seminaries (_conciliares_.)
3677 Clergymen (1240 engaged in curacies) and the rest in seminaries,
ecclesiastical cures, vicarages, &c.
5 Religious orders, owning
155 Monasteries; in which there were
1918 Monks; of whom
40 Served curacies and
106 Missions.
In 47 of these monasteries there were more than twelve monks, and in
thirty-nine there were less than five.
6 Colleges de Propaganda Fidé, containing
307 Clergymen; of whom
61 Served in missions.
2 Congregaciones, with 60 presbyters.
58 Convents; with
1931 Nuns,
622 Girls,
1475 Servants.
SUMMARY OF ECCLESIASTICAL PERSONS.
7999 Clergymen, friars and nuns.
2097 Servants and girls in convents.
Since the epoch of independence the orders of Juaninos, Belemites, and
San Lazaro, have been extinguished.
In 1844, when the last accurate summary of the Mexican church, within
our reach, was made, the following was the condition:
SUMMARY OF MEXICAN CHURCH IN 1844.
In this year the _possessions_ in conventual establishments of the
REGULAR ORDERS, was estimated as follows:
Dominicans, 25 Conventual establishments
Franciscans, 68 " "
Agustines, 22 " "
Carmelites, 16 " "
Mercedarios, 19 " "
---
Total, 150 Conventual establishments
===
REGULAR ECCLESIASTICS:--Monks, 1,700
Nuns, 2,000
----
3,700
SECULAR CLERGY, 3,500
----
Total number in religious orders 7,200
====
The actual property of this establishment has been variously estimated
since the earliest period in which Mexican institutions have been
described by European writers. The church in Mexico is known to be
immensely rich, and that its real and personal property has been
carefully managed by the large body of intelligent men who control its
affairs. They prudently make no public or statistical expositions of
their interests.
In 1807, Abad y Quiepo, in a communication to Don Manuel Sexto Espinosa,
estimated the wealth of the church as follows:
REAL ESTATE, from $2,500,000 to $ 3,000,000
PERSONAL INVESTMENTS for secular clergy in 9 bishoprics, 26,000,000
OBRAS PIAS in the church, of ecclesiastics of both sexes, 2,500,000
TOTAL FUND of the churches and communities of ecclesiastics
of both sexes, 16,000,000
----------
Total $47,500,000
===========
In 1831, Don José Maria Mora, a Mexican writer, estimated the property
of the church at a valuation of at least $75,000,000.[27]
In 1844,--and we may consider it nearly the same in 1850,--the church
property was calculated as follows:
Real estate--urban and rural, $18,000,000
Churches, houses, convents, curates' dwellings, furniture,
jewels, sacred vessels and other personalities, 52,000,000
Floating capital, various funds in ecclesiastical treasuries,
and the capital required to produce the sum annually
received by the Mexican clergy in alms, _diezmos_,
dues, &c. &c., 20,000,000
-----------
Total, $90,000,000
The real estate of the church is estimated by Señor Otero,--from whose
work on the social and political condition of Mexico, this calculation
is taken,--to have been worth at least 25 per cent. more before the
revolution; and, to this increased value must be added about
$115,000,000 of capital founded on _contribuciones_, _derechos reales_,
and other imposts which were laid on the property of the country for the
benefit of the clergy.[28]
* * * * *
It is not to be supposed that the 2,000 _nuns_ are of ecclesiastical
importance except for charitable and educational purposes;--if we deduct
their number, therefore, from the 1,700 monks and 3,500 secular clergy,
we shall have only 3,200 men devoted to the spiritual wants of more than
seven and a half millions or, 2,383 individuals assigned to the
ecclesiastical charge of each priest, monk or curate. And yet, among
these men, chiefly, the avails of probably more than $90,000,000 of
property are to be annually distributed or consolidated in a country
from which they are constantly asking alms instead of bestowing them.
* * * * *
The value of their churches, the extent of their city property, the
power they possess as lenders and mortgagees in Mexico, where there are
no banks, and the enormous masses of church plate, golden ornaments and
jewels, will swell the above statements and estimates of the church's
wealth to nearer one hundred millions than ninety, or to about
$88,000,000 less than it was before the rebellion against Spain; at
which period the number of ecclesiastics was about 10,000; or 13,000, if
the lay brethren and subordinates are included in the ecclesiastical
census.[29]
The _higher clergy_ of Mexico which was once the depository of science
and general learning, is now only distinguished for its elegant manners
and aristocratic tendencies. Notwithstanding some members of the church,
in orders and belonging to this class, were engaged in the revolutionary
struggle, and essentially aided in making it effective, the spirit of
the remainder, as a body, was in reality, antagonistic to the movement.
The course of the _lower clergy_, however, was different. The members of
this grade threw themselves early into the rebellion, and sustained it
heroically in its most dangerous epochs, until it triumphed in
independence.
Although there is in Mexico great religious devotion to the church,
regular observance of its feasts, fasts and ceremonies, and obedience to
its commands, there prevails, nevertheless, considerable indifference
towards its ministers, who, in too many cases have justly forfeited
popular respect. The _curas_ have united themselves effectually with the
interests and affections of the people in the rural districts where they
pass the ordinary, regular life of country folks remote from the
dissipating influence of cities. They are amiable men, prudent
counsellors of all classes, and the hospitable hosts of every stranger
who visits their parishes. But, in many of the towns and cities large
numbers of the clergy, both secular and regular, have forfeited the
personal esteem of the high and low by their open participation in
common social vices. "These vices have augmented in proportion as the
bonds of discipline have been loosened by the distracted condition of
the country. Gambling and dissipation are rooted in the clergy as well
as in other classes of society; but we may specially declare that the
convents of friars, with few exceptions, are in Mexico, sewers of
corruption."[30] This frail condition of ecclesiastical discipline was
satisfactorily proved by the state in which the Catholic church of the
United States found the parishes of Texas at the period of annexation;
and, it is likely, that many more flagrant instances of laxity will be
unveiled in New Mexico and California, to whose distant regions our
enlightened and pure Catholic clergymen are already directing their
attention with honest and pious zeal.
The Spanish government cherished the church, for state as well as
religious reasons. The _mayorazos_ or rights of primogeniture, which
bestowed the great bulk of patrimonial estates upon the eldest son,
necessarily forced the younger offspring of distinguished houses either
into the army or into the church; and, hence the splendid eleemosynary
establishments which were erected and endowed all over Mexico, as much
for the comfort of these drones of the social hive, as for the worship
and glory of God. Most of the lucrative benefices came in this manner
into the hands of the Spaniards and their descendants; and by far the
greater portion of the higher ecclesiastics were, either influentially
allied, or were persons of elevated social rank. Thus it is that even at
the present day so many men of distinguished manners and monarchical
tendencies, are found among the "high clergy" of Mexico; for the epoch
of the revolution is not so distant that the old ecclesiastical stock
has entirely departed from earth.
But since the laws of primogeniture have been abolished,--and, with
them, the ecclesiastical privilege of enforcing the payment of tithes to
the clergy,--the church has been no longer regarded by the best classes
as a favorite resort or refuge for their children. The revolution, as we
have said, disorganized the establishment and infused inferior men into
the sacred ranks. The material of the several brotherhoods degenerated
in quality if not in quantity. The irregularities of the friars became
proverbial throughout the republic, and respectable families regarded it
as a calamity, or, even sometimes, as a degradation, to hear their
members pronounce a monastic vow. Thus, whilst the church became
unpopular among the upper classes as a means of subsistence,--its
numbers were gradually filled and maintained from the humbler ranks,
whose ignorance and disorderly habits tend more and more to widen the
difference between the secular and the regular clergy of the republic.
It is needless to dwell on the baleful influence which such debased and
pretended ministers of religion, must exercise among the common classes
of a society over which their ecclesiastical authority and the sanctity
of their profession gives them control in such a country as Mexico.
* * * * *
We deem it proper to sustain the allegations made especially against a
large number of the Mexican clergy by citations from American, English
and Spanish authors upon the country, in addition to the quotation
already given from Rivero's "Mexico in 1842."
Mr. Norman, in his Rambles in Yucatan, whilst graphically describing
certain festivals, and among them those of Christmas and the
Purification of the Blessed Virgin, says:--"The people testify their
respect for those festal days,--for so they are denominated,--by
processions and such amusements as are suited. Notwithstanding the
acknowledged debasing effects of their sports and pastimes, which
consist wholly of bull baiting, cock fighting and gambling, they are not
disgraced by either riotousness or drunkenness. * * * The priests give
countenance to these recreations, if they may be so called, both by
their presence and participation.[31] * * * The men, women, and
children, as soon as they had concluded their ceremonies, started, in a
body, with revolting precipitation, to the gaming tables, which had been
set forth in the ruins of an old convent adjoining the sanctuary where
the procession had just been dissolved. Here we found all classes of
society, male and female. The highest ecclesiastical and civil
dignitaries were there, hob and nob with the most common of the
multitude."[32] * * * Such is the testimony of Mr. Norman as to some of
the disgraceful habits of the clergy in Yucatan. Mr. Stephens in his
travels in the same Mexican state, remarks that "except at Merda and
Campeché, where they are more immediately under the eyes of the bishop,
the _padres_, throughout Yucatan, to relieve the tedium of convent life,
have _compagneras_, or, as they are sometimes called, _hermanas
politicas_, or, sisters in law. * * * * *
"Some look on this arrangement as a little irregular, but, in general,
it is regarded only as an amiable weakness, and I am safe in saying that
it is considered a recommendation to a village _padre_, as it is
supposed to give him settled habits, as marriage does with laymen; and,
to give my own honest opinion, which I did not intend to do, it is less
injurious to good morals than the by no means uncommon consequences of
celibacy which are found in some other Catholic countries. The _padre_
in Yucatan stands in the position of a married man, and performs all the
duties pertaining to the head of a family. Persons of what is considered
a respectable standing in a village, do not shun left hand marriages
with a _padre_. Still it was to us always a matter of regret to meet
with individuals of worth, and whom we could not help esteeming,
standing in what could not but be considered a false position. To return
to the case with which I set out;--the padre in question was universally
spoken of as a man of good conduct, a sort of _pattern padre_ for
correct, steady habits; sedate, grave and middle aged, and apparently
the last man to have an eye for such a pretty _compagnera_."[33]
As the United States is now interested in the history of California, it
may not be uninteresting or unprofitable, in illustrating this subject,
to exhibit the mode of ecclesiastical operations in regard to proselytes
in that region, at a recent period.
"At a particular time of the year," we are told by Captain Beechey and
Mr. Forbes, "when the Indians can be spared from the agricultural
concerns of the establishment, many of them are permitted to take the
launch of the mission and make excursions to the Indian territory. On
these occasions the padres desire them to induce as many of their
unconverted brethren as possible to accompany them back to the mission,
of course implying that this is to be done only by persuasion; but the
boat being furnished with a cannon and musketry, and in every respect
equipped for war, it too often happens that the neophytes and the _gente
de razon_, who superintend the direction of the boat, avail themselves
of their superiority, with the desire of ingratiating themselves with
their masters and of receiving a reward. There are, besides, repeated
acts of aggression which it is necessary to punish, but all of which
furnish proselytes. Women and children are generally the first objects
of capture, as their husbands and parents sometimes voluntarily follow
them into captivity.
"One of these proselyting expeditions into their Indian territory
occurred during the period of Captain Beechey's visit in 1826, which
ended in a battle, with the loss, in the first instance, of thirty-four
of the converted, and eventually in the gain, by a second expedition
sent to avenge the losses of the first, of forty women and children of
the invaded tribes. These were immediately enrolled in the list of the
mission, and were nearly as immediately converted into Christians. The
process by which this was effected is so graphically described by
Captain Beechey that it would be doing him injustice to use any words
but his own.
"I happened, he says, to visit the mission about this time and saw these
unfortunate beings under tuition. They were clothed in blankets, and
arranged in a row before a blind Indian, who understood their dialect,
and was assisted by an alcalde to keep order. Their tutor began by
desiring them to kneel, informing them that he was going to teach them
the names of the persons composing the Trinity, and that they were to
repeat in Spanish what he dictated. The neophytes being thus arranged,
the speaker began: "Santissama Trinidad,--Dios, Jesu Christo, Espiritu
Santo"--pausing between each name, to listen if the simple Indians, who
had never spoken a Spanish word before, pronounced it correctly or any
thing near the mark. After they had repeated these names satisfactorily,
their blind tutor, after a pause, added "Santos"--and recapitulated the
names of a great many saints, which finished the morning's tuition.
"After a few days, no doubt these promising pupils were christened, and
admitted to all the benefits and privileges of Christians and _gente de
razon_. Indeed, I believe that the act of making the cross and kneeling
at proper times, and other such like mechanical rites, constitute no
small part of the religion of these poor people. The rapidity of the
conversion is, however, frequently stimulated by practices much in
accordance with the primary kidnapping of the subjects. If, as not
unfrequently happens, any of the captured Indians show a repugnance to
conversion, it is the practice to imprison them for a few days, and then
allow them to breathe a little fresh air in a walk round the mission, to
observe the happy mode of life of their converted countrymen; after
which they are again shut up, and thus continue incarcerated until they
declare their readiness to renounce the religion of their forefathers.'
As might be believed, the ceremonial exercises of the Roman Catholic
religion, occupy a considerable share of the time of these people. Mass
is performed twice daily, besides high-days and holydays, when the
ceremonies are much grander and of longer duration; and at all the
performances every Indian is obliged to attend under the penalty of a
whipping; and the same method of enforcing proper discipline as in
kneeling at proper times, keeping silence, &c., is not excluded from the
church service itself. In the aisles and passages of the church, zealous
beadles of the converted race are stationed, armed with sundry weapons
of potent influence in effecting silence and attention, and which are
not sparingly used on the refractory or inattentive. These consist of
sticks and whips, long goads, &c., and they are not idle in the hands of
the officials that sway them. * * *
"The unmarried of both sexes, as well adults as children, are carefully
locked up at night in separate houses, the keys being left in the
keeping of the Fathers; and when any breach of this rule is detected,
the culprits of both sexes are severely punished by whipping,--the men
in public, the women privately.
"It is obvious from all this, that these poor people are in fact slaves
under another name; and it is no wonder that La Perouse found the
resemblance painfully striking between their condition and that of the
negro slaves of the West Indies. Sometimes, although rarely, they
attempt to break their bonds and escape into their original haunts. But
this is of rare occurrence, as, independently of the difficulty of
escaping, they are so simple as to believe that they have hardly the
power to do so after being baptised, regarding the ceremony of baptism
as a sort of spell which could not be broken. Occasionally, however,
they overcome all imaginary and real obstacles and effect their escape.
In such cases, the runaway is immediately pursued, and as it is always
known to which tribe he belongs, and as, owing to the enmity subsisting
among the tribes, he will not be received by another, he is almost
always found and surrendered to the pursuers by his pusillanimous
countrymen. When brought back to the mission he is always first flogged
and then has an iron clog attached to his legs, which has the effect of
preventing his running away and marking him out, _in terrorem_, to
others."[34]
Additional testimony in regard to the evil practices of the Mexican
padres may be found in the delightful volumes of Madame Calderon de la
Barca, entitled "Life in Mexico," and published in 1842.
"Alas!"--exclaims this sprightly lady,--speaking of the wholesome
reforms introduced by the viceroy Revilla-Gigedo among the Mexican
monks,--"alas! could his excellency have lived to these our degenerate
days, and beheld certain monks, of a certain order, drinking _pulque_
and otherwise disporting themselves;--nay, seen one, as we but just now
did from our window, strolling along the street by lamp-light, with an
Indian girl tucked under his arm!"
The author of this slight but significant passage--an American lady of
the highest character and wife of the first minister sent by Spain to
Mexico,--cannot be flippantly contradicted by critics who would impute
to her either prejudice or ignorance.
Zavala, in his History of the Revolutions of Mexico from 1808 to 1830,
sketches briefly and forcibly some of the earlier features of
ecclesiastical control in his country. As he was a native and a
Catholic, he will not be accused of injustice to a church which he
endeavored to fasten on the nation by his adherence to the constitution
which made the Catholic faith the exclusive religion of the land. "They
created missionaries," says he, "who, by the aid of the soldiery, made
prodigious proselytes. * * * * * * * They prepared catechisms and small
formularies in the language of the natives, not for the perusal of the
Indians, who could not read, but in order to repeat them in their
pulpits and teach them by rote. There was not a single translation of
the sacred volume in any idiom of the country, and there was not an
elementary work containing the principles of their faith. But how could
such works exist for the Indians when their conquerors were unable to
read them? What I desire to prove by this is that religion was neither
taught the natives nor were they persuaded of its divine origin by proof
and argument; the whole foundation of their faith was the word of their
missionaries, and the reason of their belief was the bayonet of their
conquerors. * * * * * The dependence of the people was a sort of
slavery, a necessary consequence of the ignorance in which they were
brought up, of the terror with which the troops and authorities inspired
them, of their despotism and pride, and more than all, of an inquisition
sustained both by the military and by the religious superstitions of
monks and clergymen whose fanaticism was equal to their ignorance. * * *
* * The catechism of Padre Ripalda, which contains the maxims of a blind
obedience to the king and pope was the ground work of their religion;
and their priests, parents and masters inculcated these doctrines
incessantly."[35]
Don Vincente Pazos, in his celebrated Letters on the United Provinces of
South America, does not even stop at the clergy, in charging a large
share of the miseries of his countrymen upon the ecclesiastical
establishment, but confounds the creed with its unworthy ministers, and
strikes even at the religion itself:
"Among the evils suffered by the Indians which have been a source of
unhappiness to them, as well as to all South America, is the Roman
Catholic religion, which was introduced among them by the Spaniards.
This religion, in countries where it predominates or is connected with
the government, is widely different from the same religion as it appears
in the United States of North America. Instead of being employed as all
religions ought to be, in directing the morals, purifying the hearts and
restraining the vices of the people,--it is so prostituted in Spanish
countries, that it has become nothing but a mass of superstitious
ceremonies, and the instrument of avarice and oppression."
The error of the patriotic writer is so evident that it does not need
exposure. The faith and the friar are different things. Yet how deep
must be the corruption of a class whose vices force an intelligent man,
born and educated in the bosom of the church, to denounce his religion
for the sake of its worthless teachers.
We have dwelt upon this subject because the religion--and especially the
protected state religion of a country--is always of deep interest when
we estimate the resources and character of a nation. Priests of all
creeds obtain a sacred character in the opinion of the multitude the
moment their vow is pronounced at the altar. The world believes that
they part with human nature in assuming the gown, and become in reality,
the _divines_ they are called in the fashionable nomenclature of the
age.
The priest, whether Protestant, Catholic, Mahomedan or Chinese, is ever
an important, and often an omnipotent, member of the social world. And
it behooves society in the nineteenth century to cherish Christianity
instead of Flamens and Soothsayers.
It has been our principle through life to cultivate a genial feeling of
toleration towards all the various sects into which the great Christian
church is divided. We have resisted bigotry in all its shapes, and in
all its manifestations, from whatever source. Trusting in the essential
faith and discarding the external form, we have regarded all men who
knelt at the altar which was cemented with the blood of the Nazarine, as
a great brotherhood devoted to the religious regeneration and consequent
civilization of the world. In writing, therefore, of the Catholic church
in Mexico we have been pained to speak disparagingly of a part of the
priesthood, whose members, in our own country, we had early in life
learned to reverence for their virtuous piety, and admire for their
profound learning. We know that the great theoretical dogma of that
powerful church is its _unity_, and that its tenets, principles and
practices are universally the same throughout the world. For opinions
given and examples cited, in another work, we have been severely
rebuked, by one of the most learned theologians in the Roman church, who
argues our wilful error, upon this assumption of theoretical identity.
But we have the satisfaction to know, not only from Mexicans themselves,
but from American Catholics who visited the country since that criticism
was issued, that our descriptions, in no instance, surpassed the
reality, and that if the _tenets_, be in fact, the same as those
entertained by the church at Rome and in the United States, the
principles, and, especially, the _practices_ of many of its ministers,
vary extraordinarily from the principles and practices of its ministers
here. In another portion of this work we may, probably, notice some of
those practices more fully.[36]
The facts we have been obliged to state in regard to some of the
_materiel_ of the present Mexican ecclesiastical establishment do not
touch the dogmas of the Catholic church though they certainly indicate
so great a degree of laxity in the administration of a powerful moral,
civil and religious engine endowed with immense resources, that they
should attract the reforming notice of those pure branches of the Roman
fraternity whose proximity will best afford them the occasion to counsel
their brethren in an age of progress and competition not only in trade
but in religion. Texas has already improved under the auspices of a new
ecclesiastical administration since her union with the North American
states and her religious alliance with their Roman Catholic
Archbishopric. Nor is the importance of these ameliorations less
demanded at the hands of republican ecclesiastics when we recollect that
the federal constitution adopted in 1847, now the fundamental law of the
land, declares in its first title, that the "religion of the Mexican
nation is, and will be perpetually, the Catholic, apostolic, Roman. The
nation protects it by wise and just laws, and _prohibits the exercise of
any other_!" Men, in Mexico, must not only not _pray_ as they please,
but, constitutionally, they must not _believe_ as they please. A
priesthood which is thus indissolubly and exclusively welded to the
state in a republic, should be, indeed, peculiarly sacred and pure.
Sole, despotic ecclesiastical power, based upon numerical
strength,--intolerant of all other modes of worship or modifications of
Christianity,--is an anomaly in the nineteenth century, nor is it likely
that the civil liberty of a nation can ever become secure or worthy,
until religious liberty is, at least, permitted if not enjoined by its
paramount law. These two elements of human right and progress have ever
moved hand in hand. It is a mockery to separate them and tell the people
they are free. The indefeisible rights of _reason_ and judgment are
sapped and stifled. When conscience, even, must struggle with legal
shackles in its intercourse with God, what must be the conflict of the
soul in its intercourse with man!
"We speak not of mens' _creeds_--they rest between
Man and his Maker;"--
but we have confined our observations in this work, exclusively to those
painful exhibitions which cannot fail to strike a stranger as
disadvantageous both to intellectual progress and the pure and spiritual
adoration of God. The mixture of antique barbaric show and Indian rites,
may have served to attract the native population at the first settlement
of the country; but their continuance is in keeping neither with the
spirit of the age nor the necessities of a republic. While the
priesthood has contrived, in the course of centuries, to attract the
wealth of multitudes, and to make itself, in various ways, the richest
proprietor of the nation, the people have been impoverished and
continued ignorant. Not content with the natural influence possessed by
a church whose members are spread all over the republic, the hierarchy
of Mexico, has exacted a constitutional recognition not only of its
permanence, but of its right to exclude all other faiths, and all other
religious reunions for worship. It appears, therefore, just that in such
a republic it was the duty of the Roman church voluntarily to unfetter
its wealth, to reform its priesthood, to sweep into the public coffers
the useless jewels that adorn the altars and statues, yet do not glorify
the Almighty; and to imitate the virtues, resolution and self-denial of
its ministers in our country, who, while blending themselves in politics
and public spirit most effectually with the masses, have devoted their
lives to the education of people of all creeds and classes for support
and independence.
"Far from the goods of the church being exempted because they are
consecrated to God," says Vattel in his immortal work, "it is for that
very reason that they should be the first taken for the welfare of the
state. There is nothing more agreeable to the common Father of men than
to preserve a nation from destruction. As God has no need of property,
the consecration of goods to him, is their devotion to such purposes as
are pleasant to him. Besides,--the property of the church, by the
confession of the clergy themselves, is chiefly destined for the poor;
and when the state is in want, it is, doubtless, the first pauper, and
the worthiest of succor."[37]