Chapter XV: 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."