RELIGIOUS FORCES
The Aztecs, who originally believed in one supreme invisible creator,
Taotl, adopted the gods of conquered races, like the Romans of old, and
became polytheists. The Toltecs, one of the vanquished people, were
nature worshippers, and made offerings of fruits and flowers to their
deities. After their defeat, the peaceful gods of the Toltecs, who took
pleasure in the offerings of the fruits of the soil, soon took a place by
the side of the terrible god of war of the Aztecs, Huitzilopoxtli, and
shared with him the offerings of human sacrifices. This repulsive deity
is portrayed as a hideous idol with broad face, wide mouth and terrible
eyes, but was covered with jewels of gold and pearls and girt with golden
serpents. At the altars hung censers of incense and braziers filled with
the hearts of the victims offered in sacrifice. It is said that this god
was ministered to by more than five thousand priests.
When the Spanish conquerors came, the policy of Cortez left the Mexicans
no alternative but the adoption of the Christian religion. “Conversion”
and “Baptism” became interchangeable terms and the baptized pagan was
immediately considered a good Christian even though the conversion
only followed the judicious use of the fire and rack. One of the
priests boasted that his “ordinary day’s work was from ten to twenty
thousand souls.” Within a few years after the conquest baptism had been
administered to more than four million Indians. Dreams of avarice swayed
the minds of the conquering legions, for it was believed that from the
unknown, western world was to come the gold that was to make every man a
Crœsus. But first these ungodly people must be converted to Romanism. As
the unlettered Indians could not understand the real spirit and meaning
of this new religion, visible symbols and pictures were substituted for
the former idols. Humboldt, the traveller so often quoted because of his
careful research, says: “The introduction of the Romish religion had no
other effect upon the Mexicans than to substitute new ceremonies and
symbols for the rites of a sanguinary worship. Dogma has not succeeded
dogma, but only ceremony to ceremony. I have seen them marked and
adorned with tinkling bells, perform savage dances around the altar while
a monk of St. Francis elevated the Host.” It soon became a religious duty
for the Spaniard returning from Europe to bring paintings and statues of
saints to adorn the newly-erected churches, and holy relics of the saints
to place therein. In this way these cruel invaders no doubt sought to
satisfy their consciences for their outrages upon a mild and unresisting
people. It is little wonder that the Indians could not fully appreciate
the humanity of the lowly Nazarene when represented by such ferocious
invaders.
A few of the Aztec gods blossomed out as Christian saints soon after the
Conquest, through the ingenious schemes of the early priests who adopted
this method to make the new religion accepted. They brought with them
into the Roman Church the particular characteristics and powers which
they were credited with as gods. As for example, the goddess of the rains
who was much worshipped in the regions of little rain can be recognized
in Our Lady of the Mists, or Our Lady of the Rains of the Mexican church.
These saints are appealed to for the much-needed rain and are believed
to have the same power to bring it which they, as Aztec or Toltec gods,
were supposed to have had. In many places there are shrines erected to
these saints of the Church who are supposed to have power over the rain.
It has been proven that, in most instances, in Aztec times, a temple
existed on the same spot dedicated to the goddess of the rains or mists,
as the case might be.
These schemes of miraculous appearances upon scenes already sacred
made the transition from the native ceremonies to the ritual of the
Catholic Church easy to a people who were accustomed to outward show and
symbolism. The striking ceremonies of the Catholic Church, as practised
in Mexico, and its impressive services in an unknown tongue, seemed in
harmony with the rites of the Aztecs, and it was not hard for Cortez to
force his religion upon the simple and superstitious mind of the poor,
conquered Indian, who was more interested in form than sentiment. The
religion of the Roman Church in Mexico is not free from pagan features
even to this day. As one writer expresses it “paganism was baptized,
Christianity paganized.” Outward display means more than spirituality and
piety with the ignorant who constitute a very large proportion of the
population.
One can still recognize in the rites of the Catholic Church, as practised
to-day in Mexico, a tinge of the Aztec worship. A noted French Catholic
prelate, Abbe Domenech, in 1867 wrote of that church as follows: “Mexican
faith is a dead faith. The abuse of external ceremonies, the facility
of reconciling the devil with God, the absence of internal exercise of
piety, have killed the faith in Mexico. The idolatrous character of
Mexican Catholicism is a fact well known to all travellers. The worship
of saints and madonnas so absorbs the devotion of the people that little
time is left to think about God. The Indians go to hear mass with their
poultry and vegetables, which they are carrying to market. The gobble
of the turkeys, the crowing of the cocks, the mewing of the cats, the
chirping of the birds in their nests in the ceiling, and the flea-bites
rendered meditation impossible to me, unaccustomed to live in such a
menagerie.”
[Illustration: WAYSIDE SHRINE WITH AN OFFERING OF FLOWERS]
In remote caves of mountain regions it is claimed, and, I believe,
truthfully, that the ancient deities are still worshipped. It is no
infrequent occurrence to see a bouquet of flowers before the image of the
virgin in the churches or wayside shrines. Sometimes even offerings of
wheat or fruits are found, the gift of some poor peon in whose mind the
conception of the Saviour and his mission on earth is very vague. Several
writers assert that they have personally seen Indians on their way to
the mountains to sacrifice lambs, chickens and flowers to their gods,
thus proving that the grosser forms of paganism have not been stamped
out entirely. The priests, of course, do not approve of this, and try in
every way to stop these practices, but without success.
The Catholic Church used to be all-powerful in Mexico. It held the wealth
and the learning, and the priests preyed upon the people as well as
prayed for them. They were taxed to the utmost, and “Pay or pray” was the
motto affixed to the cross by the priests. Rich men gave freely of their
substance. Poor peons—and they are vastly in the majority—went clothed in
rags that the Church might be benefited. The favourite method was by the
sale of indulgences. General Thompson, United States Minister to Mexico
in 1845, wrote as follows: “As a means of raising money, I would not give
the single institution of the Catholic religion (in Mexico) of masses and
indulgences for the benefit of the souls of the dead for the power of
taxation possessed by any government. I remember that my washerwoman once
asked me to lend her two dollars. I asked her what she wanted with it.
She told me that there was a particular mass to be said on that day which
relieved the souls in purgatory from ten thousand years’ torture and that
she wished to secure the benefit for her mother.” It is like the harangue
that so aroused Martin Luther: “The very moment the money clicks on the
bottom of this chest the soul escapes from purgatory and flies to Heaven!
Bring your money, bring money, bring money!”
Shrines and chapels were so numerous that the true believer passed
through the streets with head uncovered and hat in hand, for fear
that he might pass one unobserved and not remove his head covering as
piety demanded. During the latter years of Spanish rule in Mexico, the
Church became so enormously rich that it was reported to have in its
possession one-third of all the wealth in Mexico. In addition to the
power the Church naturally held, this immense wealth gave its leaders
great prestige in governmental affairs, for wealth everywhere commands
power and respect among those in authority. At one time the clergy held
property to the value of about $180,000,000, yielding an annual income of
$12,000,000, according to reliable authorities. Some have estimated the
wealth at more than $600,000,000.
It had secured control not only of the wealth, but also much of the best
agricultural land within the republic, owning eight hundred _haciendas_
and more than twenty-two thousand city lots. All this was tied up and
became useless and non-productive. The Church used its great influence to
oppose all progress. The opposition finally broke forth, and the immense
wealth of convents, shrines and monasteries was poured forth with lavish
hand in what the Church considered a holy war against heretical ideas
and persons. Reformers set envious eyes upon this property, and numerous
attempts were made to dispossess the Church of it. An edict aimed at the
power of the Church was issued by Commonfort in 1857, but the Indian
reformer and president, Juarez, was the first to actually accomplish the
separation of church and state several years later. The establishment
of the empire with Maximilian as Emperor was simply a reaction, and
an attempt to establish a government in which the interests of the
Church would again be paramount. It is not much wonder that the native
population yielded so readily to the overthrow of the priestly power. In
accomplishing the complete overthrow of church and state, Mexico only
did what Italy did a few years later, and what France is endeavouring
to do at the present time. Even in Spain, the handwriting on the walls
seems to point to the same ultimate result. And yet it is strange to see
a nation so rigidly and even unmercifully regulating a church to which
ninety-five per cent. of the people belong.
The reactionary movement on the part of the Church under the guise of
French intervention failed. The reform anti-clerical movement prevailed
once more, even though opposed by the enormous wealth of the Church. The
greater portion of the property once owned by the Church has been lost.
The country abounds in ruined churches and convents. The law went so far
as to prohibit the Church from holding the title to property, and if it
wished to own property, it must be in the names of individuals. Priests
were forbidden, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, to appear in the
streets in their clerical dress. Religious processions outside the walls
of the church, or churchyard, were prohibited. Civil ceremonies were
made obligatory to render a marriage valid. Sisters of Charity and the
Jesuits were sent out of the country, and even the ringing of bells was
regulated by law. It has now lost not only its property but its prestige
as well.
The property was confiscated, or “denounced,” and sold for beggarly sums
in numerous instances. Many hotels are now located in former churches or
convents, and schools and barracks innumerable occupy former homes of
nuns. Even the famous prison of Belem in the City of Mexico, where more
than three thousand offenders (most of them justly no doubt) have been
incarcerated at times, was the old convent of that name; and the military
prison, Santiago de Tlalteloco, was one of the oldest churches in Mexico,
having been founded by the first viceroy. Protestant services are held
in a number of places that were former Catholic churches, the buildings
having been purchased by these organizations, or the use of them granted
by the authorities. The rich silver plate and the altar rails were looted
from the sacred edifices, or were sold for small sums by the officers.
For many years Mexico has thus gone along the line of reform. The
ambition of the Church has been held in check but not killed. They are
regaining some of their former power, and recovering much of their former
property, so it is claimed by good authority.[4] The average Mexican
is superstitious. He is boastful and bold in times of peace, but craven
when the time of trial comes. Consequently, when sick and about to die,
he will send for the priest, no matter how he may have fought the Church
when in health. The priests, or some of them at least, claiming that the
Catholic Church, as the chosen of the Lord, has a lien on all earthly
goods, refuse to administer the sacrament without some restitution. If
the dying man owns a confiscated church property, he must restore its
value before he can get a clear title to a home in Heaven. With the
persistence characteristic of the Mexican Catholic priests, they are
ferreting out their former property and again accumulating wealth for
their beloved Church. Their fees are utterly out of proportion to the
earning capacity of the people. Marriage costs $14.00, baptism $2.25
and plain mass $6.00. Many of the poor peons are obliged to forego the
services of the Church because of these high charges, for all services
must be paid in advance.
They are also openly disregarding the established laws in some of the
restrictions imposed. I travelled for two days on the railroad with the
Bishop of Tehuantepec who wore his purple robes of office all the time.
At nearly every station priests met him, and he was given a continuous
ovation. A few months ago, according to a Mexican periodical, a well
known priest, in defiance of the law which prohibits public religious
processions, authorized such a procession, and blessed at the altar
those who arrived with it. In many of the more remote districts the
law requiring marriage ceremonies to be made by civil authorities is
completely disregarded. The priests tell the people that the religious
ceremony is all that is necessary. Although the Church upholds such
marriages, in law they are absolutely null and void, and it is a deceit
upon the contracting parties. Some priests go so far as to tell their
people that the civil marriage is positively impious. And yet nothing
is done to punish the above violations of the established laws. The
government probably does not consider that these infractions of the
strict letter of the law have reached a serious phase.
If the Roman Church of Mexico to-day, with its wealth confiscated, its
public voice muzzled, its political powers annulled, has still power so
that it can openly violate some of the fundamental laws of the country,
we can have some faint idea of its power when it ruled the country with
an iron hand. Those who see trouble ahead because of the avariciousness
of some of the clergy, are fond of quoting the old Spanish proverb “The
devil lurks behind the cross.” Nevertheless, I believe that the clergy
in Mexico to-day are superior to those who served prior to the change in
status. Many of them are noble men striving to uplift the people and aid
the government in its campaign for the enlightenment of the masses. The
strife has purified them and they think less of the perquisites than the
duties of their office. The well meaning priest no doubt suffers for the
sins of his predecessors as well as those of his contemporaries who are
blinded by the past glory of the Church. The Church as an institution is
probably to some extent the victim of the ignorance and fanatical zeal
of its early founders in Mexico. The Church will thrive far more when
placed on the same footing as all churches are in the United States, and
people and priest accept that condition. As one prominent American priest
has recently said in commenting on the struggle in France: “Everywhere
that church and state are united, the church is in bondage. Nowhere is
the church so free and untrammelled, or so progressive, as in the United
States.”
The churches in all the cities are numerous and their capacity far
greater than the number of those attending. Puebla, the City of the
Angels, so called because of the many miraculous visits of the angels
who even, on their first visit, measured off the city and fixed the site
of some churches, is called the city of churches as it has the greatest
number in proportion to the population of any city in the republic, many
of them being erected in honour of the various angelic visitations. The
City of Mexico contains the largest and most pretentious church building
in the new world—the cathedral. It is also one of the largest church
edifices in the world. This grand cathedral begun in 1573 was ready for
service about three-quarters of a century later but the towers were not
completed until 1791. It is four hundred and twenty-six feet long and
almost two hundred feet wide with walls of great thickness, and reaches a
height of one hundred and seventy-five feet in the dome. The towers are a
little more than two hundred feet high. Then adjoining this building is
another church, the Sagrario Metropolitano, which, to all appearances, is
a part of the main structure, although of an entirely different and less
beautiful style of architecture.
Within these two edifices were concentrated for centuries the pomp and
ceremony of the Church of Rome and within their walls much of Mexico’s
history was made. It is still the headquarters of the church party
while across the plaza is the National Palace, the official home of the
government which conquered in the long struggle between the two forces.
The estimated cost of the cathedral is $2,000,000, but that represents
only a fraction of the actual cost if the labour is figured at a fair
rate and the material had all been purchased at market value. There are
some paintings by famous artists on the walls and dome. A balustrade
surrounds the choir which is made of composite metal of gold, silver and
copper and is so valuable that an offer of a speculative American to
replace it with one of equal weight in solid silver was refused. Within
the walls there are fourteen chapels dedicated to the various saints,
and candles are kept constantly burning before the images, and in these
chapels are kept many gruesome relics of these same saints. The remains
of many of the former viceroys and some of the other noted men in Mexican
history lie buried here. This, the greatest church in the western world,
is also built on the foundations of the greatest pagan temple of the
continent—the imposing _Teocalli_ of the Aztecs. From the top of the
towers we can look upon the same valley that Cortez viewed when Montezuma
took him by the hand after ascending the great altar, and pointed out
the various places of interest. The lakes have receded, the architecture
is different, but our admiring eyes see the same majestic hills on every
side.
Listening to the bells in the towers of this cathedral, once so powerful,
one, who is a “dreamer of dreams,” can almost imagine them lamenting
the changed times in the words of the last poem written by the poet
Longfellow:
“Is then the old faith dead,”
They say, “and in its stead
Is some new faith proclaimed,
That we are forced to remain
Naked to sun and rain,
Unsheltered and ashamed?
“Oh bring us back once more
The vanished days of yore,
When the world with faith was filled;
Bring back the fervid zeal,
The hearts of fire and steel,
The hands that believe and build.
“Then from our tower again
We will send over land and main
Our voices of command,
Like exiled kings who return
To their thrones, and the people learn
That the Priest is lord of the land!”
The very first movement on the part of Protestant organizations to
evangelize Mexico was made by the American Bible Society when they sent
out one of their representative with the American army in 1846. This man
distributed several thousand copies of the scriptures between Vera Cruz
and the capital which afterwards bore fruit. A few years later a woman,
Miss Matilda Rankin, who had been engaged in missionary work in Texas,
crossed over the border and held services in Monterey. In 1862 a Baptist
missionary, Rev. James Hickey, also began work in Monterey. However, no
organized effort was made by Protestant bodies until the years from 1869
to 1880, when missionaries were sent by the following denominations:
Protestant Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal South,
Presbyterian, Baptist, Christian and Congregational. Bishop H. C. Riley
obtained an old church for the use of the Protestant Episcopal Church and
Rev. William Butler purchased a part of the convent of San Francisco, in
the heart of the city, for the Methodist Episcopal Church.
_Dios y libertad_ had been the watchword of the reform movement, but it
had not been put into practice until the time of President Juarez, who
encouraged mission work, and exerted himself to protect the missionaries
from fanatics. However frequent attacks upon these workers were made
in provincial towns and one foreign missionary, Rev. J. L. Stephens,
of the Congregational Church, was slain at Ahualuco in 1874. A number
of native converts and preachers have met with serious, and even fatal
injuries, but no other Americans have been killed. President Diaz has
also encouraged these ministers when they were downhearted. Rev. William
Butler quotes an interview which several missionaries had with him in
which the President expressed himself as follows: “I have seen this land
as none of you ever saw it, in degradation, with everything in the line
of toleration and freedom to learn. I have watched its rise and progress
to a better condition. We are not yet all we ought to be and hope to be;
but we are not what we once were; we have risen as a people, and are now
rising faster than ever. My advice is, do not be discouraged. Keep on
with your work, avoiding topics of irritation and preaching your gospel
in its own spirit.” The president has no warmer supporters than the
Protestant missionaries and their little bands of adherents.
Their numbers to-day after thirty years of aggressive work seem small,
as the ten Protestant denominations who maintain missions in Mexico
only claim about twenty-five thousand members, or about one hundred
thousand adherents including those who attend the Sunday-school and
other services. The Presbyterians are working in fourteen different
states. They have fifty organized churches and two hundred and twenty-two
outstations which are served by twenty-one foreign missionaries and
one hundred and one native workers. The Methodist Episcopal Church has
twenty-nine missionaries in the field and one hundred and twenty-two
native workers, and is holding services at more than a hundred different
places. The various denominations have divided up the field and are
working together in harmony. The Methodists, for instance, are working in
Guanajuato, Leon, Pachuca, Puebla, Silao, and Oaxaca. The Presbyterians
have centred their efforts in Aguas Calientes, Zacatecas, Saltillo, San
Luis Potosi and Jalapa. All denominations have missions in the City of
Mexico. The Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists
have their own publishing houses and issue periodicals and a great
deal of printed matter in Spanish. There are in all about two hundred
and fifty foreign missionaries in Mexico serving about seven hundred
congregations. Many of these workers are medical missionaries who are
doing a vast amount of good, and others are teachers who are instructing
the youth. The Protestant bodies own property in Mexico valued at nearly
two million dollars.
An era of at least tolerance toward Protestants is dawning in this land,
and religious liberty is an actual fact. The Young Men’s Christian
Association has a strong organization in the capital. A fund has recently
been raised to erect a splendid new building for the association. The
President and his cabinet have also attended some special memorial
services in the Protestant churches. This may seem a small thing, but
a quarter of a century ago it would have been incredible. Some of the
broad-minded Catholic clergy are even displaying a kindlier feeling
toward the Protestant workers. It may not be many years before Catholic
clergy and Protestant ministers may unite together in working for a
common cause—the betterment of the morals and conditions of the people.