Chapter II

MONACHISM--The superiority of the monastic over the 47 secular clergy--Reasons for it--Orders of Monks--The Carthusians--Their advancement in agriculture, and love of the fine arts--Their seclusion and mode of living--Only learned men admitted to their order--Their form of salutation--Curious adventure of a lady found in the cell of a Carthusian--The Hieronimites--The Mendicant orders--"Pious works"--The _Questacion_--Decline of Spain accounted for--Vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience--How vow of poverty eluded--_La honesta_--Vicar-general of the Franciscan orders--His immense income--Religious orders have produced many great and good men--Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros--His celebrated Bible--Corruption of monastic orders--Insubordination of friars to the bishops--The Jesuits--Deplorable reputation of their literature--Pascal, Escobar, Sanchez, and Mariana--Suppression of the Jesuits by Charles III.--Their subsequent expulsion by Espartero under Isabella II.--Nunneries, though spared on suppression of religious houses, utterly useless--The Pope's attempt to perpetuate them by _concordat_--The lives of the nuns described--Their means of subsistence is now precarious--Convent de las Huelgas.

CHAPTER III.

CELIBACY AND MORALS--Illicit relations formed by the 73 clergy--Shameless avowal of their fruits--Ferocious character of love in the cloisters--Three flagrant cases--Murder of a young lady by her confessor, the Carmelite of San Lucar--His trial and sentence--Murder by a wife of her husband under the direction of her confessor, the Capuchine of Cuenca--His trial, imprisonment, and escape--Murder of a lady by the Agonizante of Madrid--His trial and execution--Scandalous occurrences in the Convent of the Basilios of Madrid--Forcible entry of the civil power--Murder of the abbot--Suppression of inquiry--Shameful profligacy of the Capuchines of Cascante and the nuns of a neighbouring convent--Mode of its discovery--Imprisonment of inmates of both convents--Removal of prisoners--Their mysterious escape--Exemplary performance of vows in some cases--Dangers of celibacy--Spanish women and their influence on society

CHAPTER IV.

THE MASS--Its introduction but modern--The Spaniard Lainez 87 opposed it--On what grounds--Description of the ceremony--Its religious and secular peculiarities--Sacerdotal vestments worn while celebrating it--High and Low Mass--Both performed in an unknown tongue--Consequent indifference of the congregation--Mercenary character of the mass--"_Masses for the intention_"--Masses for the dead--The solemn mass on Christmas eve, or _Noche buena_--Its profane accompaniments--Passion week--Thursday--Good Friday--Adoration of the Cross--Processions--Anecdotes of Isabella II.--Brilliant rites and ceremonies on the day after Good Friday--Uproarious conduct of the faithful on that occasion--The mass as celebrated at Toledo--Judicial combat, or judgment of God