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1
L
I
:
THE
PRACTICAL WORKING
OF
THE CHURCH OF SPAIN.
BY THE
REV. FREDERICK MEYRICK, M.Ą,
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.
1956
"Pleasant meadows, happy peasants, all holy monks, all holy priests, holy
every body. Such charity and such unity, when every man was a Catholic.
I once believed in this Utopia myself, but when tested by stern facts, it all
melts away like a dream." A. Welby Pugin.
OXFORD,
JOHN HENRY PARKER;
AND 377, STRAND, LONDON.
1851.
BR
1026
M62
BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.
TO
ALL WHO HAVE DREAMED
THAT THE PERFECTIONS OF THE
CHURCH TRIUMPHANT
BELONG TO THE
CHURCH MILITANT
AND THAT THEY ARE TO BE FOUND IN ANY OTHER PART
OF THE
CHURCH CATHOLIC
IN A GREATER DEGREE THAN IN THE
CHURCH OF ENGLAND
THESE PAGES ARE ADDRESSED
EARNESTLY, AFFECTIONATELY, SADLY.
PREFACE.
IN the year 1847, the Rev. James Meyrick,
Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford, was presented
by the Bishop of Salisbury to the Vicarage of
Westbury, in the county of Wiltshire. Before
two years were quite expired, broken health com-
pelled him to leave his parochial work, and to
seek a warmer climate than could be found in
England. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1849,
accompanied by some of his near relations, he
proceeded to the south of Spain, stayed at Malaga
during the winter and following spring, and after
a visit to Seville, returned to England. The fol-
lowing autumn, being again unable to face an English
winter, he went back to Malaga, together with
one of his companions of the last year, and instead
of living at the English Hotel, took lodgings at a
Spanish Casa de Pupilos, or boarding house. The
first four chapters of the present volume consist of
letters written during the first visit to Spain,
those in the seven following chapters were written
277194
vi
PREFACE.
during the second year. The Rev. J. Meyrick's
letters are marked by his initials J. M. Most of
the rest which have the initials F. M. were
written by his companion, who, it will be seen, is
a Lady. They went out from England, one with a
high respect, the other with a high admiration, for
the spirit of many of the practices of Rome, such
as Retreats, Sisterhoods, and the good work
wrought by such institutions, and they shared in
the distress and perplexity of mind caused by irre-
gularities in ecclesiastical affairs in England. This
respect and admiration was as yet untested by
experience. What effect experience of the prac-
tical working of the Roman Church had upon
their minds, the following letters will shew.
It cleared off the mist which imagination often
throws over the distance, and revealed the truth,
that abroad as well as at home, in foreign systems
as well as in our own, there were great scandals
and great evils, often the very same as those under
which we suffer, often far greater both in kind
and degree.
The conclusion is obvious, that from such
scandals and evils among ourselves, no proof
or presumption against our Catholicity can be
drawn, unless the same holds good in the same or
greater degree against those foreign Churches.
which are in like or worse condition. If we do
not recognise an event as a sign of any thing in
1
PREFACE.
vii
Spain, we are playing with ourselves, if we persist
in proclaiming the same event to be a sign in
England. Or again, if Italy and Spain have a
scandal A, which we have not, and we have a
scandal B, which they have not, we are acting the
part of children or self-deceivers if we turn all our
eyes upon B, and put A out of the range of our
vision. A few of the present letters, giving an ac-
count of the Home Mission at Malaga, have already
appeared in the form of a pamphlet; the larger
selection now made will give an opportunity, to
such as desire it, of following the progress of minds
which began with the presumption, that in "Catho-
lic Spain" most things would be right, to the cer-
tainty that very many things were wrong, more
contrary to God's revealed Truth, more irregular,
less reconcilable with God's glory and man's
salvation, than any thing that could be found in
the Church of England.
There are objections to every scheme and
system, religious and irreligious, the Christian
scheme itself included. When these objections
against Christianity are urged by unbelievers,
every one would acknowledge that it was the
part of reason and honesty, not on their account
to give up Christianity, but to balance them with
the objections which lie more strongly against the
infidel scheme. So when objections are urged
against the Anglican Church and theory, whether
viii
PREFACE.
drawn from the practice of her children, or from
more a priori grounds, how is it not in like manner
the part of reason and honesty not on that account
to give up the Anglican Church and theory, but to
balance such objections with those which, whether
drawn from practice, or from more a priori grounds,
lie more strongly against the Roman Church and
theory? "These" (want of fuller unity and agree-
ment)" are, it must be admitted, difficulties,"
says one whose words are priceless, "to which
there are counter-difficulties, which may well
make us not patient only, but grateful to God
for His goodness. Persons have been over-sensitive
to ills around them, so that if they judged of the
Gospel with the same measure with which they
have ventured to judge their Church, they would
have become infidels "."
Thus if a foreigner were to bring forward the
taciturnity of Englishmen as the result of their
domestic habits, he would be probably correct; if
he asserted that it was an evil, his words would
be quite true; but if he went on from this to argue
that we should give up our domestic habits, and
adopt the foreign mode of life, how should we meet
him? If we allowed ourselves to be tied down to
the one fact under discussion, we should have no
answer that we could make, but the line of argument
that we should adopt would clearly be to point out
> Letter to the Bishop of London, by the Rev. E. B. Pusey, D.D.
PREFACE.
ix
the far greater evils consequent on the want of a
domestic character in foreign nations, and then
our adversary's triumphant tone would soon be
exchanged for one of deprecation. Again, if
opponents of the present system in Oxford dwell
upon the objection to the Collegiate system, that
the teacher most learned in each department can-
not be had in every single College, we do not
meet them by denying this physically necessary
fact, but by pointing out the (in our judgment)
greater evils which would ensue from the unli-
mited use of the Professorial system.
19
The Fallacy of Objections is one to be found
in good manuals of Logic. "It is," says Whately,
"the Fallacy employed by those who are for
overthrowing whatever is established, as soon as
they can prove an objection against it; without
considering whether more and weightier objec-
tions may not lie against their own schemes.
"There are objections," says Johnson, "against a
plenum, and objections against a vacuum." Would
a philosopher, educated as a plenist, be likely to
come to a true conclusion, who should let his
mind dwell daily upon the objections to the
plenum theory, but count it a sort of nefas to
take into consideration the objections against a
vacuum?
None of the letters, either of my English cor-
b Whately's Elements of Logic, p. 250.
X
PREFACE.
respondents or of the Spanish Clergyman, whose
interesting, and to some minds startling, testimony
will be found at the end of the volume, were
written with a view to publication. This will
account for their unsystematic character. Those of
my English correspondents have been revised by
their authors since they have returned from Spain.
I need scarcely apologize for having made free
use of Ford's Handbook for Spain.
No one
could write on the subject of Spain without
having his book by them, any more than he would
write the history of England without reference to
Hume.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. I.
Malaga. Gibraltar to Malaga. Toleration of the English
Service. Funeral Service. Campo Santo. Andalusian charac-
ter. Abolition of Monasteries. English and Roman Churches.
Lent Sermons. Procession on Ash-Wednesday. Casa de Men-
dicidad. Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. Good Friday.
Good Friday. Monks.
The Blessed Virgin. Procession of the Nazarenes. Procession
of la Virgen de la Soledad. Hills of Malaga. Climate.
p. 1
CHAP. II.
Arrival at Malaga. Alameda. Fonda. Andalusian dress.
Church at Gibraltar. At Algeciras. Cathedral of Malaga.
Figures of St. Mary. Vespers. High Mass. Sunday. Pro-
cession de la Virgen de los Reyes. La Mendicidad. Desecration.
Books and Booksellers. Disappointment. Monks. The Ave
Maria. The Quarenta horas. Holy Week. Palm Sunday.
Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Good Friday.
Sabado Santo. Disuse of Confessions. El Calvario. The
Blessed Virgin.
23
CHAP. III.
Quarantine at Gibraltar. Algeciras. Malaga. Bell-ringing.
Smuggling sea-water. Priests' hats. Lola Montes. Recovery
of stolen goods. Spanish Fast Days. English Burial Ground.
Spanish Funeral. Noche buena. Soul release. Bargaining.
Laws relative to murder. Sale of Images in Churches. Dead
Body on the Alameda Easter Eve. Pocket-picking.
50
xii
CONTENTS.
CHAP. IV.
Seville. Cathedral. Chapel Royal. Murillo's San Antonio.
Roelas. St. Francis Borgia. High Mass. Holy Communion.
Personal Experience. Cadiz. Seville. Bull-fights. Alcazar
Gardens. The Alcazar. Houses. Una cosa de España.
Cadiz.
72
CHAP. V.
Gibraltar. The Cobbler's Garden. Malaga. Casa de
Pupilos. Cow-fight. Vigil of All Saints. All Souls Day.
Priestly character. Abuse of Confession. Tone of mind of the
Laity. State Education. Church Services. La Sagrada
Compania. The British Legion. Stabbing. University of
Salamanca. Catechising. Appointment of Clergy. Charac-
teristic Dialogue. Names. Nacimiento.
CHAP. VI.
88
Bay of Biscay. The Malagueños. Working of an intelligent
Spaniard's mind under present circumstances. The Hours.
Ridicule of Fasting. Stabbing. Treatment of the Priesthood.
Payment of the Clergy. Funeral customs. Epitaphs. The
Fandango. Parochial arrangement. Sisters of Charity. Cle-
rical Education. Esparteran Bishops. Vicars Capitular.
Ventura Gomez. Ortigosa. Royal recommendations to Chapters.
Jansenism. Dispensations. State interference in Ecclesiastical
Judgments. Uncanonical Elections. State intrusions in the
dioceses of Toledo Guadix and Osma. Parallel to the election
to the See of Hereford, and the Episcopal Confirmation
Question.
CHAP. VII.
106
Home Mission at Malaga. Archbishop of Santiago's Sermon
in the Cathedral. Maria Santisima. Doctrine of Indulgences.
Exhortation to Confession. Day of Judgment. Effect of the
Mission. Supply of Clergy. Hymns to the Blessed Virgin.
Novena to the Blessed Virgin. Legend of Sta. Rita. The Bible.
Forged Miracles. Contempt of the Priesthood. Fray Feliz.
The Divine Shepherdess. Masses for the Dead. Presentations.
Murders. Gipsy-widow. Legend of S. Demas. Intercession of
S. Mary. Rich convents in Malaga. Dominicans. Capuchins
at Carthagena. Country-people.
134
CONTENTS.
xiii
CHAP. VIII.
Spanish Customs. Ball of Tinaja on the First Sunday in
Lent. Burial of the Sardine or Anchovy on Ash-Wednesday. 182
CHAP. IX.
Excessive Power of the State. Disobedience to Church Laws.
Credulity or Infidelity. The Scriptures. Sunday. Friday.
Dispensations. Character of the Priesthood. Mission at
Malaga. Adoration of the Blessed Virgin. Doctrine of
Indulgences. Intermixture of Truth and Fable. Appoint-
ment of Clergy. Method of building a Church at Madrid.
Stabbing. Pocket-picking. Murders. Spanish conceptions of
England.
195
CHAP. X.
Balmes on
Danger of chess-playing. The Inquisition.
Catholicism compared with Protestantism in its effects on
Civilization. Popular Theory about the Blessed Virgin.
Seven Points. Anglican and Roman Branches of the Catholic
Church. Irreverence. Rending of the White Veil. Thursday
in Holy Week. Processions on Good Friday. Fracas. Illu-
sions about Seville dispelled. Revolution in Portugal. The
Cortes. Sermon on Viernes de Dolores. Mariolatry. Casa de
Espositos. The Concordat.
213
CHAP. XI.
Malaga to Seville. Ceremonies. Ill-behaviour. Processions
at Seville. La Feria. Maja dress. The Infanta. Burial of
Christ's Poor in Catholic Spain. Outrage on the dead body
of a child. Exhumation of the dead.
Intolerance.
234
CHAP. XII.
Gibraltar. Gibraltar Cathedral. Alameda.
Galleries and Batteries. S. Michael's Cave.
Arrival at
Cobbler's Garden.
Jews of Gibraltar.
245
xiv
CONTENTS.
CHAP. XIII.
Gibraltar to Granada. Spanish non-washing. Children in
Salamis. The Manta. San Roque. The Guadiaro. Similarity
between Greece and Spain. Unsophisticated character of some
of the poor. Burial of Protestants in Spain. Question of
Tolerance. Ronda. José Maria. His method of ingratiating
himself with the poor. Of bribing the soldiers. Terms made
by him with Government. His death. His amulets. Balberan
and present Banditti. Juéves de Dolores. Funeral. Posada
de Jesu Nazareno. Loja. Vega of Granada. Sierra Nevada.
Granada.
255
CHAP. XIV.
Murder of a Smuggler. Escape of his son. Spanish non-
chalance. Concealment of scandals. Cathedral of Granada.
Arrangement of Spanish Churches. Procession on Palm Sunday.
The Miserere. Thursday night. Morning of Good Friday.
Value of compulsory Conformity. Scepticism. State of Spain.
Sabado Santo. Scene in the Cathedral. General Dog-perse-
cution. Anticipation of Easter.
271
CHAP. XV.
The Alhambra. The Moors and the Christians. Kingdom of
Granada. District of the Alhambra. Horse-shoe arch. The
Palace. Its Legends. The Generalifé. The Torre de las
Infantas. La Cartuja. Archbishop's Palace. Way-side murder
Cross. Murder by two Guardias. Robber-dangers. Ride
between Salona and Thermopyla. Method of growing fat.
Blue, Red, White, and Black Blood. Alamedas and Cafés.
Whirlwind.
285
CHAP. XVI.
Easter Sunday at Granada. Banking. Monuments of the
Catholic Kings. Irreverence. Indulgences. Our Lady de las
Angustias. Bula de la Cruzada. Adieu to the Alhambra.
Heavy tidings. Granada to Cordova. Soto de Roma. Bridge
of Pinos. Alcalá. Cordova.
306
CONTENTS.
XV
CHAP. XVII.
Cordova. The Ommiad Caliphate. The Moors. The
Mosque. Almansur. Azzahrá and Azzahirá. Garden. Cor-
dova to Seville. Ecija. Carmona. Easter Confessions. Bula
de la Cruzada. Fasting. The Blessed Virgin. Real Prayers
of the people. Two systems-on paper and in practice. Pro-
stration. Orientalism. Fair of Mairena. Seville.
CHAP. XVIII.
318
Sunday at Seville. Murillo. The Bull-fight. The Giralda.
The Cathedral. The Chapel Royal. Blanco White. Gardens
of San Telmo. Impoverished state of some of the Clergy. The
Alcazar. Sisterhood at the Foundling Hospital. The Guadal-
quivir. Cadiz. The Cathedral. Murillo's death. Church.
CHAP. XIX.
331
Tracts at Seville. The Cross of Caravaca. Miracles wrought
by it. Sta. Philomena. Her History. Her Name. Her exist-
ence. Letter from a Spanish Priest to an English Clergyman.
Distress of mind among the Spanish Priesthood. Commu-
nication from a Spanish Priest. A cry for help and sympathy. 384
APPENDIX
No. I. Documents. Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba's Book
of Prayers. Novena of the Divine Shepherdess. Panegyric on
S. Mary. "New invention" of the title of Divine Shepherdess
in 1703. Progress of the devotion propagated by the Missionary
Capuchins. First office of the Divine Shepherdess: Knowing
her sheep. Second office: Leading her sheep to good pastures.
Third office: Driving away the wolves with her voice and crook.
Fourth office: Encouraging the feeble sheep. Fifth office:
Healing the sick sheep. Sixth office: Seeking for the lost
sheep. Seventh office: Bringing back the lost sheep to the
fold. Eighth office: Assisting the sheep at their death. Ninth
office: Being an example to the sheep. The Joys of the
divine and most loving Shepherdess of souls. The Seven Mys-
teries of Joy. The Seven Mysteries of Sorrow. The Seven
Mysteries of Glory.
No. II. Mr. Faber.
371
405
CHAP. I.
Malaga. Gibraltar to Malaga. Toleration of the English
Service. Funeral Service. Campo Santo. Andalusian charac-
ter. Abolition of Monasteries. English and Roman Churches.
Lent Sermons. Procession on Ash-Wednesday. Casa de Men-
dicidad. Sisters of St. Vincent de Paul. Good Friday. Monks.
The Blessed Virgin. Procession of the Nazarenes. Procession
of la Virgen de la Soledad. Hills of Malaga.
Climate.
B
CHAP. I.
MALAGA," says Mr. Ford in his Handbook
for Spain, "is the capital of its province, the
residence of the superior authorities, Gefe politico,
and Bishop, suffragan to Granada. Its population
is 80,000, and increasing. It has a cathedral, a
casa de espositos, hospitals, a naval college, a
decent theatre, a reading room, excellent bath, a
bull-ring constructed out of a convent, a fine
quay, pier, and Alameda." Situated at a bend of
the coast line, and being in possession of a good
harbour not yet filled up by the deposits of the
river which runs into it, Malaga has followed the
example of Barcelona in becoming to a great
extent, a commercial and manufacturing town.
We should therefore expect in the Malagueños
those characteristics which are generally found in
the inhabitants of a seaport town. Among these
characteristics, a habit of frankness of speech is a
prominent one. It is not unnatural therefore that
a spirit which is abroad throughout Andalusia
and the rest of Spain and Portugal should find its
most open expression in Malaga. The following
4
GIBRALTAR TO MALAGA.
series of letters will shew what that spirit is, and
serve to bring before the eyes of Englishmen the
system of the Roman Catholic Church, not in its
canons and books, but in its every-day effects; not
what it claims to be in theory, but what it is in
plain reality and in its actual working.
Letters of F. M. from Malaga during the winter
and spring of 1849-50.
Malaga, Jan. 8, 1850.
"We came from Gibraltar by a steamer that
runs between Cadiz and Malaga. If it had
touched at Gibraltar it would have been put in
quarantine, so we were obliged to cross the bay,
and embark at Algeciras. From Algeciras to
Malaga we had a night passage, and the weather
being very fine, I stayed on deck till eleven
o'clock, and watched Gibraltar, which looked
beautiful in the moonlight. We had to undergo
quarantine on our arrival at Gibraltar from
England, but it lasted only three days and
four nights; those who came out both before
and after us found it longer. Moreover, the
hulk in which it was performed had lately been
repaired and cleansed; and though I have still
marks on my hands from certain of its small
inhabitants, they were in very small numbers
compared to what they have been both before
and since. The very last passengers before us
ENGLISH CHAPEL.
5
had the rain come in on their beds; we had
cloudless weather.
We are very pleasantly situated here; the cli-
mate is as faultless as can well be imagined, the
scenery lovely, the town very cheerful and ani-
mated. The hotel, at which we are, very good,
kept by an Englishman. We have sunny rooms,
looking on the Alameda. Spanish law on church-
matters is so stringent, that if J. were to read the
Service in this hotel, and any of the other guests
came into our room to join in it, he would, we
are told, be liable to severe punishment; so we
have service in the Consul's house, under the pro-
tection of the British flag". Mr. Brereton, the Chap-
lain, came last week, and on Sunday the Consul's
a In order to know what this punishment would be, I made
application, through the kindness of a friend, to a late Canon of
Cordova Cathedral, now a member of the Anglican Church, and
received the following reply. According to the existing law of
Spain, any Spaniard departing from the Romish doctrine is liable
to capital punishment; but I think no Government of that
country would now attempt to enforce such a law. The foreigners
being Protestants are allowed to meet together for religious
purposes at the office or house of their respective Consuls. As
for the case you mention, both the reader and his hearers
would be either fined or imprisoned, or dismissed from Spain,
and perhaps subjected to endure these three penalties. Of
course, any Spaniard found among the congregation would be
prosecuted, and troubled with greater severity. Thus much
can I inform you on this subject. I enjoy great blessings in my
present position.". I was not before aware that the punish-
ment of converts was more severe than imprisonment for life.
6
FUNERAL PROCESSION.
up to
dining room was filled to overflowing. By next
Sunday, we are to have a large room fitted
be used only as a Chapel. There are many
English and Scotchmen in the cotton and iron
factories, who are now living a heathen life, and
a clergyman is wanted, who should have both
zeal and discretion. Our Sunday congregation is
satisfactory, for though it is smaller than it ought
to be, it is very orderly and attentive; every
body kneels, and every body gives the responses.
I have not been able as yet to attend the
Church Services here so much as I expected; for
they are generally early in the day, and we cannot
get our breakfast much before nine". By the time
that I get out, the Churches are many of them as
closely locked up as in England. There are one
Cathedral and fifty-six Churches in the town;
there are always some open, and Services going
on most of the day in one, which is different on
different days. The Cathedral is shut as early as
ten. I cannot tell you how striking, how solemn,
how real to me, a private Mass is. The High
Mass on great days in the Cathedral does not
produce half the effect on my mind. The crowds
of people, the varied dresses and ceremonies, to
me who do not understand them, are distracting,
and take off my mind from the great reality.
Yesterday there was a great funeral, a proces-
b This was only the case at first.
CAMPO SANTO.
sion first of boys, then men clothed by the family
of the deceased, then Priests, all bearing candles,
and chanting; then followed the hearse and
private carriages: it was an immense train. We
followed it to the Church, which we found at
first totally dark, except the candles by the high
Altar, and by the coffin, which was placed in front
of it, the Priests chanting solemnly. After a time
light was admitted through the clerestory windows,
and candles held by men on each side of the nave
were lighted, then mass was celebrated. All this
time the mourners, at least the women, remained
on their knees in the nave below the coffin. They
were however, if relations at all of the deceased,
but very distant, for it is not the custom for near
female relations to go to the Church. Then last of all
the boys' candles were lighted, and the procession
moved on to the Campo Santo, the burial-ground®.
The Bishop, with the two Priests who sat on his
right hand and on his left, was the last to leave
the Church, and as he passed, he gave us his bless-
ing. He looks, and I believe he is, a very good old
man. The Campo Santo is a dreadful place where
coffins are put for two years in a hole in the wall,
and at the end of that time if no rent is paid for the
hole, the remains are taken out, and thrown into a
pit. The rich build themselves hideous edifices
It is only the paid boys, the Priests, and the empty carriages,
that go to the burial ground; the rest return.
8
ANDALUSIAN CHARACTER.
of marble with urns and torches; the less rich and
poor put up inscriptions in worse taste than I have
seen in England, about the cruel fates, &c. The
English cemetery is very nice.
The character of the people here is very pleasing.
You must not confound a merry Andaluz with a
grave Castilian. They are just like children,
light-hearted, friendly, and civil; if they have two-
pence in their pockets, they will sing and dance:
what should they work for? and, as a hard-working
Scotchman said to me, 'they enjoy themselves ten
times as much as we do.' The dark side of their
character is, that they are very revengeful. If they
have received an injury, the law will not avenge
them. It is well known that money will purchase
impunity for any crime, so they avenge themselves.
They sing and dance as before till their oppor-
tunity comes, but they never forget, and every
man carries a knife. There is one now working
at the cotton-factory, who has killed three men, and
who will sometimes shew his scars as a soldier
might do. They never stab behind, like the Italians;
it is done in fair fight. As far as a stranger can
judge by their behaviour in Church, their saluta-
tions by the way, &c. there are remains of a very
religious character.
'Asrich as the Church once was,' said our Spanish
master one day, 'so poor is it now.' There were
eleven convents of Monks and Friars, and nine of
ABOLITION OF MONASTERIES.
g
Nuns in this place. The government has utterly
abolished the former, turning the Monks penniless
into the world, and seizing their convents for its
own use. The Nuns it allows to remain, promises
them 9d. a day for each, and never pays it regu-
larly. There are a great many Priests about the
streets; they are mostly very poor, and the people
pay them no respect. The Bishop is highly re-
spected; he is accessible to all, and every body
kisses his hand. One Priest whom I saw in the
Church yesterday had a most intensely devout
expression, and was very like a picture of a Saint",
but most of them are very fat. In all this town of
80,000 inhabitants, we cannot get a Missal; this
is a place of fruits and wine; the only other thing
to be obtained is black silk.
At one time I used in my own mind to compare
the English Church to a sickly tree, that was
throwing off all its healthy leaves. Those words
of Newman's seemed so true to me; 'How is it
that all that is warm and tender in feeling, or true
and noble in performance, thy flower and thy
promise, falls from thy bosom, and finds no home.
in thy arms? Now the Church has proved her
vitality. Though some whom we loved and
trusted are gone from us, others have sprung up
d The indevout behaviour which I afterwards witnessed in
the same Priest greatly disappointed me. F.M.
10
ENGLISH AND ROMAN CHURCHES.
I
to take their places. Still we have guides, still
friends, only we have learnt the lesson that we
must not idolize: and now the English Church
compared with the Roman reminds me of two
oaks in Marlborough forest, called the Queen and
the King. The King was a giant, covering a huge
space of ground when I remember him, but held
together with bands of iron, and now falling to
pieces: while the Queen in vigorous youth and
health, which in my childhood no one would com-
pare with him, is now almost as large, and will
soon be the largest of the two.
There is something pleasant in the gay careless
character of the people here. They do not seem
to suffer want as our poor do. The country-
people who come in to market wear silver tags on
their jackets, and silver clasps and buttons. They
are very friendly, and say, "Vaya Vmd. con Dios,"
which means, "May you go with GOD," when they
pass us. Sometimes my English dress makes them
laugh; but they will go out of the way to shew us
the road, and it is a friendly laugh.
I have not said a word of what I most dislike,
the worship of the Virgin. To me it ruins every
thing. The Churches are full of her images, ugly
dolls, absurdly dressed, with wax and artificial
flowers, and far more prominent than the Crucifix.
A Clergyman at Gibraltar told me, that it had
sadly grown of late years there.
LENT SERMONS.
11
Malaga, Vigil of S. Matthias, 1850.
Now that Lent is begun, there are Sermons
every Friday as well as Sunday, at four or five
Churches. At, I think, three of them they are on
the seven sorrows of the Blessed Virgin; at the
other two, on the seven last words of our Lord;
at the Cathedral, on various subjects suited to
Lent. I go there on Fridays; the Sermons are
very good and very profitable. A popular preacher
preached yesterday, and there was a large congre-
gation. The Sermon was one very well adapted
to move people by fear, recounting the awful
judgments of GOD upon sin in this world; and
when, near the end, he went on to speak of the
everlasting torments of hell, most of the women
who were sitting on the floor near me rose up on
their knees, and continued kneeling till he ended
with the words, "Come unto me, all ye that are
heavy laden." All the Sermons I have heard are
adapted to move the feelings. They are not
intended, like some of our English Sermons, "to
tell us what we knew of ourselves and what we
did not know," or to tell us how to serve GOD: I
suppose that instruction of that sort is reserved.
for the confessional. It strikes me as singular,
that though I have been in the Churches at
various hours when they are open, I have never
yet seen the confessional chairs occupied, and
only once have seen an old priest sitting and
12
ASH-WEDNESDAY PROCESSION.
reading in a little room attached to the Church,
as if he might possibly be waiting to receive the
confessions of any who came. Generally the
Church is under the care of some dirty little boys,
who have no hesitation in standing upon the
Altars, but are exceedingly proud of the
images, and delight in displaying them to a
stranger.
I am meditating a visit to some of the poor old
nuns. Their only way of earning their bread is by
making preserves and sweetmeats, in which they
excel, and I mean to go and order some, and try
to get in. It must be a very sad life, for no new
nuns are allowed to enter, and they have no
prospect but to go on diminishing in numbers till
they wear out. I can understand Castilian, which
is good Spanish, but the Andalusian which they
talk is very puzzling.
Just now there are great Church ceremonies
going on, on account of Queen Isabel's hope of a
child, processions, Te Deums, &c. but J. is not
able to go, and I do not like getting into a
crowd alone, with my English dress. The only
procession that I have seen was on Ash-Wed-
nesday, in the Cathedral, and that was spoilt
by the irreverence of the Choristers. They
walked in a long straggling double line, chanting
a Litany of invocation to the Saints. One voice
sang, "Sancte Luca," and the whole line re-
CLERICAL DRESS.
13
sponded, “Ora pro nobis." Then one voice again
"Sancte Thaddae," and the choir, "Ora pro nobis,”
and so on; but they were staring about them the
whole time in such a way, as I would not have
allowed in the lowest class of our national school.
Not one, whether boy or man, passed me, who
did not have a good look at me. The Bishop was
a great contrast; he walked with his hands to-
gether, and a countenance of the deepest devotion;
but he looked rather ridiculous, for his train was
seven or eight times as long as himself. It was
carried stretched out at full length by a Priest;
but occasionally, when the length became incon-
venient at the Altar, the Priest literally rolled
himself up in the end of it, and there they were
tied up together. I believe that some of the
Priests' dresses are very handsome when closely
examined, but most of them are very ungraceful.
The funeral cope reminds me very much of a
London footman, it is a dark blue, with gold lace,
and the surplice, worn alike by Preachers and
Choristers, is wonderful in its ugliness. I always
expect to see it torn to rags by a vehement
preacher, it ties down the arms so strangely. I
have a great respect for the old Bishop; I have
never seen him near, that he has not given me his
blessing. He walks about in a purple cloak and
a green hat nearly a yard in length, turned up at
+
14
CASA DE MENDICIDAD.
both sides, and always followed by two Priests in
black cloaks or hats.
Malaga, Easter Monday, 1850.
There is a sort of large workhouse in this place,
supported by voluntary contributions; it is called
the Casa de Mendicidad, de Socorro, y de Mater-
nidad. The Mendicidad department is for obstì-
nate and notorious beggars, who are taken there
by the police; the Socorro, for any poor who like
to enter it voluntarily; the Maternidad, for found-
lings or orphans, or for any children whose pa-
rents like to send them there. We got an order
to see it one day, and found the departments of
the poor and the boys much as one would expect,
the boys learning just as boys do in an English
Dame school; but when we got to the babies and
girls, the change was delightful. There are four
Sisters of Mercy, they belong to the Order of
S.Vincent de Paul; the head-quarters of the Sister-
hood are at Madrid, but on an application being
made for Sisters, these four were sent here. They
attend to the babies, teach the girls, and go out to
nurse the sick. The Mother is a very fine-looking
woman, she must have been beautiful. She told
me that they had as many as 400 babies brought
in in the course of the year: they come of course
from the very dregs of the people: generally
CASA DE MATERNIDAD.
15
speaking they have wretched constitutions, and
half of them die. I saw some of the very young
ones, poor little puny things, whose days seemed
numbered. We asked what became of the survivors,
and were surprised to hear that two-thirds of them
are adopted. The Sisters get nurses for them in
the house, and put some out to nurse in the
villages round, and the nurses get so attached to
them, that they cannot part with them. If they
wish to adopt them they are allowed, but told
that they may at any time send them back. I
have heard from other people, that the nurses say
it is a miracle of S. Joseph's, the patron of found-
lings and orphans, he makes them love these
children more than their own. It was quite de-
lightful to see the terms on which the Sisters and
the children were, the respect, entirely devoid of
fear, that the latter have. The Sisters hear
Mass in their oratory every morning, and the girls
are all allowed to be present. Unfortunately there
was but one lady in the party besides me, and she
knew no Spanish, so I could not learn half the
particulars that I wanted; but the difference
between this and that focus of corruption, an
English workhouse, struck me. I know an
English child of only six, who has learnt such evil
habits in a workhouse, and become so rooted in
them, that if she had remained there a year longer,
I should say she must have been ruined for life.
16
SISTERS OF S. VINCENT DE PAUL.
These Spanish children, when they grow up, go out
into service; the Sisters let them go to any respect-
able family, but on condition that they are not to
be sent on to other services, but if their mistresses
do not like them, they are to be sent back to
them. If any of them wish to remain and become
Sisters, and shew a fit disposition for it, they may
do so; but I believe the general end is, they go
into service, and marry.
The Sisters were very much puzzled about us,
they could not make out whether we were "Chris-
tians" or "Protestants." The general idea here
about the English is that they are unbelievers.
I told the Sisters that we were Christians, and
while I was thinking how to explain the difference,
one of our party strode into the oratory, walked
straight up to the Altar, and stood staring. The
question was sufficiently answered, and the Sisters
got us out of the oratory as soon as they con-
veniently could. These Sisters have all been
regularly trained in a hospital, and keep a stock of
bandages provided for every accident, and every
operation that could possibly occur. They teach
the children to work very nicely, and their stock
of baby-clothes excited the surprise of my lady-
companion, who had no idea of such very good
clothing being provided for foundlings. Two of
the girls were making some beautiful lace, and
my companion wanted to buy it, but it was only
IRREVERENCE. GOOD FRIDAY.
17
for the Churches. Altogether instead of being a
prison like our workhouses, it was a happy home.
Malaga, Easter Monday, 1850.
On Good Friday I was at the Cathedral, and
the behaviour of the people was so intolerable,
that I can hardly express the relief that it was to
find myself in our own quiet little congregation.
The Roman Catholic Services are beautiful, but
the people here pay not the smallest attention to
them: some few say their own prayers very de-
voutly, and these attend on ordinary days; but on
great Festivals, and days when there is any thing
to see, every body comes. The best part of the
Cathedral is always left for the ladies, who sit or
kneel on the floor, the men stand or kneel out-
side of them. On Good Friday, the Passion was
sung beautifully. It is simply the Gospel narrative
of our Lord's sufferings. The chapters from S. Mat-
thew, S. Mark, and S. Luke had been sung before
in the week, and the eighteenth and nineteenth of
S. John were sung that morning. Our Lord's
words were sung very solemnly by a fine bass
voice; those of S. Peter, Judas, Pilate, &c. by a
tenor; and the narrative by a barytone; the
mockery of the multitude, by all together. You
can hardly imagine from the description how
solemn and touching it is. I could not get a Latin
book, but I had one in Spanish, from which it was
C
18
STATE OF RELIGION.
easy to follow every word. All the ladies round
me had the same, and yet they talked and played
with their fans through the whole. They have the
art of shutting their fans with a tremendous crack,
and in the most solemn parts one fan after another
would go crack, crack, all round. I never saw
school-children behave worse any where. There
are notices all about the Cathedral, that any one
walking or talking during Divine Service will
incur the greater excommunication, and yet on
these grand days, the motion and buzz is like a
swarm of bees.
Malaga is indisputably an irreligious place. I
hope that other parts of Spain are better. I am
assured on good authority, that it is a rare thing
for a young or middle-aged man in the upper
classes to confess. Of course they are excluded
from the Communion, and then what signify
threats of excommunication to them? Their
wives and sisters persuade them to accompany
them to hear mass, or to listen to a popular
preacher, and that is all. The Clergy are much
looked down upon. One Spaniard told me that
there are some good men among them, perhaps
one out of twenty, but as his politics are very
liberal, and of course opposed to the Clergy, I do
not much listen to his opinion. As for the
Monks, I fear that they have fallen unregretted.
If it was so, it must have been their own fault,
REGARD FOR THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
19
for there were not the outward enemies to contend
against that we have in England. The Nuns
seem to be well thought of.
I believe that the poor still retain much of the
old religious Spanish character, great devotion to
the Virgin. People here who profess liberalism
will speak slightingly of the other Saints, but the
Virgin they seem to rank with our Lord. The
fashionable Church of the place is one dedicated
to her, which I seldom enter. Passion week was
devoted in many of the Churches to the consider-
ation of her sorrows, Holy week to our Lord's
sufferings, but in this Church the latter subject
was altogether omitted; it was closed during
Passion week, and in Holy week there was a
Sermon every day on the sorrows of the blessed
Virgin, the last of the whole was preached at five
o'clock in the evening of Good Friday. As they
begin the Services for Easter day at ten o'clock
on Saturday morning, there was actually no time
for the consideration of our Lord Himself. The
subject of this last Sermon was the Virgin re-
turning home in silence and solitude.
On Wednesday in Holy week I saw some pro-
ceedings that are strange to an English eye, the
figures of our Lord being set up and dressed in
the Churches. They are as large as life, and
represent His sufferings. In one Church, which
used to belong to the Brothers of the Merced, an
20
THE CRUCIFIX.
PROCESSION.
order for the redemption of captives, they were
bringing down a large crucifix from a high side
chapel. It was necessary to take the figure from the
Cross, and it employed about a dozen men to get
it down. It was so lifelike, that it was very awful
to see it lifted and handled, with the expression
of pain in the countenance; and I was glad to see
some Priests, the instant it was got down, come
and carry it into the sacristy, out of the sight of
idle spectators, till the Cross should be made ready
to put it up again.
By Thursday morning, the Churches were all
open with all the figures, which in the dim light
looked very awful, in spite of lace and velvet; all
the images of the Saints covered up, except of
course the Virgen de los Dolores, the "Virgin of
Sorrows." The custom is for every person to
visit as many Churches as possible in the course
of the day. Every Church is crammed, and
people kneeling in the streets at the doors of the
smaller ones. It is a perpetual restless swarm
and bustle all through the day. It ended on this
occasion with two processions, which were very
striking. One was from the Church of the Merced.
Just at dark it began. First, rode four horse-
soldiers to clear the crowded streets, then a military
band on foot, then four men with torches, then a
long irregular double line of men with candles,
then about twelve with torches, which threw a
PROCESSIONS OF THE NAZARENES.
21
brilliant light all round, then Priests singing, and
then an image which I had observed by day for its
solemnity, our Lord bearing His Cross; behind
followed soldiers with music. The effect of the
light of the torches on the pale face and weary-
looking figure of the image was very striking, and
every hat in the crowd was off directly. The pro-
cession was arranged by a brotherhood called the
Nazarenes. One Nazarene walked at the head of
the procession, and another immediately in front
of the image; they were robed in dark red velvet,
with gilt crowns of thorns and veiled faces, and by
ringing large bells which they carried, directed the
moving and stopping of the whole line; other
Nazarenes carried the image. They are not a
brotherhood for any other object than processions".
Every time that the bell rang, the torches were
lowered so as to make them burn dimly, and clouds
of incense went up before the image. When the
bell rang again, they were raised, and shone
brightly. I do not think that any one with the
feelings of the day could have looked at the image
without feelings of reverence and love. Going
home we met the other procession, which exactly
resembled this, except that the image was our
Lord praying in the garden. I noticed a boy of
five walking in the procession; with his left hand
d i.e. for any other religious purpose. It is a burial Club,
and has a Church-function twice a year.
22
PROCESSION OF LA VIRGEN DE LA SOLEDAD.
he held fast by his father's hand, in his right he
carried a candle; his earnest face and large sorrowful
eyes, looked as if he felt what he was doing.
On the evening of Good Friday, there was
another procession, far larger than the other two
together, but, alas! not in honour of our Lord. It
was the Virgen de la soledad: the Virgin returning
home alone. It passed our windows, 3000 people
walked in it with candles. I once saw a daylight
procession, and it was utterly devoid of all appear-
ance of religion, every body laughed and talked.
I am told that it is much the same with these night-
processions, but certainly from a little distance
their effect is solemn and beautiful. Balancing
good against evil, if they were always in honour of
our Lord, I should say that there was much more
of the first. All the dirty, all the idle, all the
ragged people of the place, come together to see.
If they were not there, they would be somewhere
else, far worse employed probably. Here they do
learn something, though little.
Malaga, April 15, 1850.
We go on the 25th to Cadiz, two days' voyage
by a steamer, the 27th to Seville by another, stay
there nearly a month, come down the river to
Cadiz for two or three days, and then embark on
board the steamer for England. Now that our going
draws near, we feel rather as if we were leaving a
MOUNTAINS NEAR MALAGA.
23
home. The people are so very pleasant, and
have such good points, notwithstanding their
faults. We get up every morning at six, and
walk on the mountains, and there we meet genuine
Andalusian peasants, every one of whom is a
gentleman by nature and feeling. Many an
Englishman of birth and education might learn
from them. You can hardly imagine how lovely
the scenery is in the morning sunshine.
The
mountains are very high, and cut by innumerable
ravines, in which torrents flow when there is rain;
the sides sometimes perpendicular. The tops are
covered with lilac, rose-coloured, white, and
yellow cistus, blue irisses on the sides, and all
sorts of lovely flowers, and the whole air scented
with lavender. All that is wanting is birds.
There is nothing alive but the goats, and long
trains of sagacious-looking loaded donkeys and
stubborn mules. It is amusing to watch the
caution with which a donkey, having on each
side a load of furze and cistus as large as himself,
will go down the narrow track; how he waits at
a steep part till his predecessor has got just a
sufficient start of him that he may not run against
him, and when he has passed a difficult point will
shake his long ears, and congratulate himself.
We found it so hot to-day, that we have deter-
mined to go out earlier. With closed persiani, and
an open window to the east, we cannot keep the
24
CLIMATE.
room.
thermometer below 70 in our stone-floored sitting-
This climate has a great advantage for an
invalid in being so equable; the thermometer
goes down very little in the night, so that there
is no danger of catching cold. Another great
advantage is, that while the town is thoroughly
screened by mountains, there is on one side a
vega, or plain stretching some miles, and on
the other a perfectly level walk by the sea, quite
as sheltered as the town itself, not a walk of a
few yards but many miles. All our invalids have
improved but one.
CHAP. II.
Arrival at Malaga. Alameda. Fonda. Andalusian dress.
Church at Gibraltar. At Algeciras. Cathedral of Malaga.
Figures of St. Mary. Vespers. High Mass. Sunday. Pro-
cession de la Virgen de los Reyes. La Mendicidad. Desecration.
Books and Booksellers. Disappointment. Monks. The Ave
Maria. The Quarenta horas. Holy Week. Palm Sunday.
Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday. Thursday. Good Friday.
Sabado Santo. Disuse of Confessions.
Blessed Virgin.
El Calvario. The
Letters of J. M. from Malaga during the Winter
and Spring of 1849-50.
Malaga, Dec. 12, 1849.
Ir was a fine Sunday morning, and the sun was
shining bright and warm, when we came on deck,
and found ourselves anchored in Malaga bay.
The city looks well from the sea. It lies low,
embosomed on every side amidst high hills and
mountains. The Cathedral rises grandly, and
looks well, though it is of a bad style, and unfinished.
The bells were sounding for Church, but it did
not look like an English Sunday: not only were
the shops open, but I saw shoemakers and tailors
at work. Our residence is the Fonda on the
26
HOUSES OF MALAGA.
Alameda or Promenade. All Spanish towns have
their Alameda, and this is a very fine one. It has
three broad walks formed by fine rows of trees
besides the paved streets next the houses. There
are seats under the trees and fountains. I should
think that the centre walk was nearly as wide
as the Broad Walk of Christ Church.
Our Fonda is a magnificent mansion. All the
fine houses here are built in the same fashion. You
enter at a portal like our College gates in Oxford:
this leads into a grand court open to the sky; and
round the sides of this court run two galleries or
corridors one above the other, from which the
different rooms are entered. These galleries may
be closed from the air on the open side towards
the court with windows and glass doors, so that they
form a sort of inclosed cloister, where one could
walk in bad weather. The galleries and all the
rooms are paved with square bricks laid diamond-
wise; the floors have no carpet, only a piece of
matting under and round the table; and there is
neither paper nor curtains. This will sound very
cold to you, as you give an additional stir to the
fire at the thought of it; but we are sitting here
on the 12th of December with open windows, and
the thermometer at 65 and 66. I could not have
believed in such a climate, had I not been living in
and enjoying it. At times we have a north wind,
which is rather cold. It is very hot in the sun,
ANDALUSIAN DRESS.
27
and cold in the shade and at the corner of the streets,
but the cold is like our cold of summer. With
the exception of the Alameda, the rest of the town
is built for shade: the best streets are so narrow,
that you can cross them in four or five paces; and
you must now and then step into the shops, or a
donkey with a wide burden will catch you on the
shoulder, and knock you down.
It is a thriving active town full of shops, but the
chief business done is in dried fruits. The people
live out of doors, and most of them seem to have
nothing to do. The peasant's dress is very pic-
turesque, and quite splendid on a festival day. He
has a short jacket, highly worked and embroidered.
on the collar and at the elbows and on the back:
his breeches are perhaps of a blue sort of plush,
fastened down the outside of the legs with bright
rows of buttons, handsome buskin gaiters below,
a red sash round his waist, and his hat with two
rosettes and a brim turned up. The women never
wear a bonnet. The poor women put a shawl over
their head: the better classes wear the black man-
tilla, or large veil not covering the face, but the
back of the head, and reaching to the waist behind.
The gardens round are full of orange trees loaded
with golden fruit.
We meet a Cambridge and a Trinity College
Dublin man every day at dinner, both of whom are
very clever and agreeable, the last an earnest
28
CHURCHES.
Roman Catholic, and vehement republican. I have
not attempted to enter into the question of reli-
gion yet, that must be reserved for another letter.
I am learning Spanish, and we have discovered an
old library at the Bishop's Palace, where there is
probably some old Divinity. Piles of books from
the suppressed convents are lying there, never even
sorted or catalogued.
Malaga, Dec. 19, 1849.
"I have now been in several Spanish Churches,
and will give you my first impressions. In
Gibraltar the English Church was shut, and we
could not get in; the Roman Church was open,
and for the first time I went into a Roman
Catholic Church in a Roman Catholic country.
It impressed me much at first. The people came
quietly in, (there was no service going on,) and
crossed themselves, and knelt down and said their
prayers, and went out again. I see great benefits
in this practice. I could not help feeling that I
was in a house of prayer, and not merely come for
a spectacle. However, when I have said this, I
have said almost all that impressed me favourably;
the style of the building, if there is any style, is
miserable Grecian; the gilding gaudy, poor, and
bad, and there was among other wretched daubs,
an offensive picture of the Holy Trinity, the
Father being represented as an old man.
IMAGES OF THE VIRGIN.
29
At Algeciras, where we were detained two
days, we went to the two Churches, and they
were much of the same character, only now being
really in Spain, we found the images of the
Virgin more painfully prominent. There were
between twenty and thirty people waiting
(mostly on their knees) for mass.
The Cathedral at Malaga is magnificent in
point of size and height; it rises nobly above the
city, with two lofty domes at the west façade,
but only one dome finished; the other, like most
things in Spain, is half done; in style it is every
thing that is bad, immense Corinthian pillars,
with ponderous cornices, and ugly windows. As
for the other Churches, they are mostly of brick
outside, ugly and dirty inside. Their want of
character is concealed by a profusion of bad
gilding, and by the scantiness of light, which is
let in through churchwardens' windows veiled
with red curtains, and their general effect when
lighted for a festival is religious. They will not
bear examining. On the high altar is a small
Crucifix, and in other parts of the Church it is to
be found on a larger scale, but the prominent
object is the Virgin. Her images are various,
and some of them, most contemptible dolls, but
the usual image represents her standing on the
moon with twelve stars round her head, her dress
of fair white lace, and over this, and covering
30
VESPERS. HIGH MASS.
also her head, a blue and silver cloak, open in
front. Another and very disagreeable image
represents her suffering intensely for the pains of
her Son, with a dagger in her breast, and her
head on one side, a fashionable lace pocket-hand-
kerchief in her hand. Her figures here in Spain
are far more prominent than even in Italy.
There is nothing externally in the city, no
pictures, crosses, or crucifixes to shew one that it
is "Catholic" Spain. I believe these things have
been greatly altered by the revolutions in the last
ten years. The padres, though very conspicuous
for their immense sombreros, yet appear to have
no respect paid them; I am told that their
influence over the people is greatly diminished
and diminishing. I have been often in the
Churches, especially at vespers in the Cathedral ;
again and again there was positively no one but the
choir, and this on Sunday, as well as other days; if
individuals came in, it was only to say their own
prayers. However, about ten days ago there was
a great festival, La purisima concepcion, the fa-
vorite doctrine of Spain. There was pontifical
high mass at ten o'clock at the Cathedral, and the
Bishop preached. The Cathedral was well filled
in the best parts; between the choir and high
altar the floor is matted, and there all the women
sit down on the floor; the men stand outside
them. The manner of the Bishop interested me,
POCKET-PICKING.
31
though I could not understand him. The Sermon
lasted nearly an hour, and then commenced a
number of to me most incomprehensible pro-
ceedings. There were six priests, and great
numbers in short white surplices, with candles
and censers; the people knew what to do, and at
times knelt down and beat their breasts, and
crossed themselves, but to me it was not imposing;
it was too much like a play.
The Cathedral, however, is not the fashionable
Church; for there are fashionable Churches in
Spain, as well as in England. The Church of
La Concepcion is the fashionable Church of
Malaga. I went there in the afternoon, and I
think I never saw a Church full before, there
being no pews, and few seats of any sort; it was
full in every part. I only just looked in, and
stood near the door for a few minutes, and on
returning home expressed my wonder at the good
behaviour of the people; "In England," I said,
66
we must have had policemen;" when I put
my hand into my pocket, and found that my hand-
kerchief was gone. A Mr.
and his servant,
who were with me, had their pockets picked at
the same time.
Sunday is very badly observed; carpenters and
masons do not work, except occasionally, or part
of the day; but you will see shoemakers and
tailors hard at work; most of the shops are open,
32
PROCESSION OF LA VIRGEN DE LOS REYES.
and the markets going on; mules and donkeys
about with loads.
Last night the Bishop of Gibraltar arrived in
the port, intending to visit Malaga, preach to-day,
and celebrate the Eucharist; but as they gave
him three days' quarantine, he could not stay.
I am the only Clergyman here. Mr. Mark reads.
the Service, (omitting the Communion Office,)
and a Sermon, and I give the Absolution and
Blessing.
Malaga, March 8, 1850.
We have just had a grand procession in thanks-
giving, for the expected heir of the Spanish
throne: as I had never yet seen any procession
with an image, I determined to go to see it, and at
four o'clock on Sunday went to the Cathedral.
The image of the Virgen de los Reyes, (i. e. the
image which was carried about by Ferdinand and
Isabel in their conquest of the province of Gre-
nada, and left by them at Malaga) had been
moved from its own Chapel to the side of the
high altar, the Chapter and Choir assembled, and
a very fine Litany was sung in the Cathedral, and
then the image was raised by four young men in
surplices, and the procession formed and moved.
Its progress was through Malaga to the Victoria
convent, which is just outside, where there is
another image of the Virgin, called de la Vic-
PROCESSION.
33
toria, which this image went to see. The pro-
cession consisted first of the foundling school
with their banner of S. Joseph, then of the chief
persons and authorities in Malaga, then of sing-
ing men and priests, the image of the Virgin, and
immediately behind, the Chapter in splendid robes;
the Bishop, who is a little man, in a train at least
six times as long as himself; then the hermandads,
or brotherhoods, and friendly societies, and,
lastly, a large body of troops, the whole a quarter
of a mile long, or thereabouts. It was a fine
day, and I got a good position to see it, but it
gave me no idea of a religious act at all; indeed
it looked quite out of place to see the good old
Bishop walking along with his hands together
and saying his prayers, while nothing else presented
a religious appearance. The helpless way too in
which the image shakes about as it is carried,
reminds one rather painfully of some of the chap-
ters in Isaiah. The grand amusement of the pro-
cession seemed to be, that it brought out all the
young ladies into the balconies, and all the young
men to look at them.
Another sight that we have seen is the foundling
schools and the Mendicidad, or poor house.
There are now about one hundred and twenty
boys, and ninety-six girls; the boys' school, which
we saw, seems just middling; the boys learn to
read, write, and cipher, besides which they have
D
34
CASA DE MENDICIDAD.
a separate book for good manners; as they grow
up they are taught separate trades, and then sent
out into the world. The most interesting were
the young girls and the infants, which are under
the charge of some Sisters of Charity; they are
nice, cheerful, courteous ladies, and pleased us
much with their unaffected goodness. First,
we went into the baby room, which in the
course of the year had received four hundred
babies; but such was the unhealthy disposition
of many, that two hundred of them had died.
After this we saw the school, which seemed very
good of its sort: the girls chiefly learn work, i. e.
household work and needle work; many of them
after going out to service return, and remain in
the house. We then saw the Mendicidad; there
are two classes of poor; those who go in volun-
tarily and can leave when they please; and deter-
mined beggars, who are sent there by the police,
and cannot leave till some inhabitant engages for
them that they will not beg. We saw this last to
great disadvantage, as they were altering the
building. There are a hundred and ten poor; it
belongs to Malaga alone, but Malaga has 80,000
inhabitants. The boys were at dinner; their fare
was a plentiful supply of soup with macaroni and
bread; three times a week they have bacon: when
there is a procession, the boys are let out at so much
a head to form a part of it.
DESECRATIONS. SERMONS.
35
All these institutions are held in one large
building, called S. Domingo, lately, of course, a
convent. Twenty years ago there were eighty-four
priests in it, besides those of minor orders. The
monasteries here are miserable spectacles. The
desecrations that time has healed in England are
here seen like fresh and bleeding wounds. All
round Malaga are fine old religious houses of the
different orders, and now they are barracks and
hospitals for the dirtiest shabbiest troops that ever
I saw.
The Churches are preserved and are open
on Sunday, and mass is said every morning in them.
The nuns were most cruelly used; they had paid
large entrance money on their admission; the
government seized the convent funds and lands,
and promised a pension to the nuns, but they have
never money to pay them; they would be verily
starved, but for the charity of good people.
There are frequent sermons on the Fridays in
Lent, and we are now able to understand them.
Those which I hear are mostly good and unob-
jectionable, but now and then they have strange
things in them. Friday week at S. Juan, the
preacher's text was on the good thief, and after
giving other reasons why he was vouchsafed the
grace of penitence, he gave as the chief reason,
the intercession of the Virgin; and added, as a well-
known thing, this little fact, "that she had become
acquainted with him on the occasion of her journey
36
SPANISH BOOKSELLERS.
into Egypt." However, good and evil, truth and
falsehood, are strangely mingled in the Roman
Church.
Malaga, March 22, 1850.
You speak of the convent-books in your letter,
and of the probability of meeting with some good
Divinity. There is little or nothing to be found
in Malaga. I have searched through all the old
book shops, and can meet with nothing except
lives and visions of the blessed Virgin, and lives
of abbots and unknown saints. I have bought
only Rodriguez' Path to Perfection, and one
of Luis of Granada's small works. Spanish
booksellers are very amusing: they dont care
whether you buy or not. The best chance of
getting a book is to go to the shelves, and look
over them for yourself, as they very few of them
know what they have.
e This will best be illustrated by an account of a visit paid by
my correspondent to the chief bookseller's shop in Seville. “It
was the afternoon, and there was no one in the shop but a boy.
I asked for the master; he said that he could tell me any thing
I wished to know; accordingly I asked if he had Cean Bermudez'
work on the Cathedral, the works of S. Juan de la Cruz, and
several others. And to each one I received an answer, No, no;
he had not one of them. "Now," I said, looking steadily at the
boy, "are you quite sure that you have not these books in the
shop? for I think you have." He looked rather abashed, and then
said he did not know, but would go, and call the master. He was
STATE OF RELIGIGN.
37
Now I must give you my notion of the reli-
gious state of the people, founded on externals,
for of internals I have not yet sufficient means of
judging. I may as well say then in one word,
that I am thoroughly disappointed. I had ex-
pected much in "Catholic Spain," which has not
been fulfilled. The Churches are in the worst
possible style and taste. A person accustomed
to our beautiful Gothic arches and windows, has
*
gone some time, during which I looked over the shelves, and
found one of the books denied me. At length the master himself
appeared, smoking a cigar; he seemed to know his books, but to
be very indifferent whether he sold them or not. He had not
Cean Bermudez, but would get it for me to-morrow.
"Call
again to-morrow, he said, and you shall have it." " "But, "I said,
"have you not S. Juan de la Cruz ?" "Yes, a very nice copy with
engravings." "Will you let me see it?" "Yes, when you come
to-morrow?" "At what hour shall I come ?" "In the course of
the morning." Good," I said, "adieu till to-morrow." The
next day before twelve I returned to my friend, and he appeared
as before smoking a cigarret, and apparently forgetful of all that
had passed yesterday. "Have you got me Cean Bermudez ?" I
said. "No, I have not. I have not seen my friend yet. Can
you come to-morrow ?" "No, indeed I cannot, for I leave by
the steamer at eight." "I am very sorry," he answered,
and subsided again into silent smoking. "But," I continued,
"the S. Juan with the engravings?" "Ah! 1 will fetch it:" accord-
ingly he retired to a back room, and in a few minutes returned
with a dusty old folio, the very thing I required. I made one
more attempt for Bermudez, but in vain, he would not stir that
day; I could not have it unless I would come again to-morrow;
and so we said, "Adios," and parted."
38
STATE OF RELIGION.
little pleasure in the heavy Greek architecture
and side chapels, with tawdry gilding, and more
tawdrily dressed images. The old religious
houses are turned into barracks, and no one cares
for it. It seems, from what I can learn, that the
friars had lost all respect, nay, much worse, had
done the greatest injury to religion. A Spanish
gentleman said to me the other day, when I spoke
of them, "They made vows of chastity, and they
were not chaste: vows of poverty, and they were
avaricious: of humility, and they were proud:
they have deeply injured the faith of a religious
people." Even now the character and tone of
the great body of the Priests is far from standing
high. I have been much disappointed in the
processions: there is far too much talking, joking,
and staring about, and that in the Cathedral, for
me to regard them as religious acts. Again, it was
the pious custom at the evening bell, the orationes,
for all to stop, take off their hats, and say an Ave
Maria: now you may hear the bell, and hardly three
old men in the crowded Alameda take any notice.
I cannot get over the strong shock to my feelings
that the honours to the blessed Virgin give me.
I am sure the appearance of the Churches would
make any unprejudiced person think they were
meant for her honour". To-day, the Friday before
d It is a pregnant fact, that in the district of Tinnevelly, while
the converts of the English Church are called Christians, those
QUARENTA HORAS.
39
Good Friday, is specially dedicated to meditation
on her dolores. But I will not go on with this
subject, it is painful to be much criticising. The
Quarenta horas is a very striking custom. Some
one Church is open throughout the day, the
Altar is lighted, and two persons kneel before
it with large candles in their hands below
the steps: the devout come in, and kneel down
quietly for a time, and then cross themselves, and
retire. It is a quiet solemn scene, and is for the
good of the soul of some one departed, who is by
it supposed to be freed from forty hours' penalty,
which is being paid in purgatory.
Malaga, Easter Eve, 1850.
I propose to send you a regular report of the
ceremonies of the Holy week that I have seen.
Though they will not be new to you, they may
not be uninteresting.
Palm Sunday. Went to the Cathedral at nine,
and found it very full, and service begun. The
Bishop at the high altar was blessing the palms.
of the Roman Missionaries are termed Mother-worshippers.
They of Antioch did not give themselves the name of Christians,
they called each other Brethren and Saints, but the title was
attached to them from without, because Christ was the object of
their worship. So they of Tinnevelly do not call themselves
Mother-worshippers, but whereas the great object of their worship
is the Mother of our Lord, the name has similarly been imposed
upon them.
40
PALM SUNDAY.
The canons, priests, clerics, and some dozen
laymen, advanced two by two to the altar, and
received each their palm from the Bishop, and the
procession formed. It went out by the north
door, and round outside to the west; the west door
was slightly opened, four clergy admitted, and the
door closed. Alternate verses were sung through
the closed doors, and then the subdeacon with the
Cross gave a loud knock, the doors opened wide,
and the whole procession came in with chanting
and incense, and advanced up the aisle to the Altar.
The palms are very beautiful, nearly quite white,
and about eight feet high. The procession was a
pretty spectacle, but as a religious act, any thing
but religious; the members of the procession and
even the priests talk and have little jokes as
they walk. Mass followed, and I left for our
own Service at eleven.
Monday was the Annunciation, and though the
Breviary rubrics postpone every festival in Holy
week, yet, I suppose by the Bishop's order, it was
observed here. I was unable to go out; but on
Tuesday I went to the Cathedral at nine, and heard
the Passion sung. To-day it was the history of
the Passion in S. Mark. Two priests occupy
one the north, and the other the south pulpit, and
a third occupies a temporary pulpit in the centre,
the priest to the north sings the narrative in
barytone, the centre priest sings our Lord's words
WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK.
41
in deep bass, and the other sings all the other
parts, e. g. the words of S. Peter, of Pilate, and
the priests, in tenor; in one or two parts, e. g.
the title of the Cross, they sing in harmony. The
tenor voice was middling; the whole, though very
irregular, to me was striking and religious. There
were very few in the Cathedral. Having a Latin
Semana Santa, I could follow every word.
Wednesday. Heard the Passion from St. Luke.
To-day the fast begins. I went round to many of
the Churches. The images of the Saints are
all veiled, and those of our Lord were being
moved out of their glass cases and niches, and
brought forward, and put on platforms to form
the stations on Good Friday; singular looking
figures they are; there is one at Santiago of the
Ecce Homo, with Pilate on one side and a Roman
soldier on the other. In the evening, to the Cathe-
dral to hear the Miserere; they anticipate all the
Services here; on Wednesday night about five
o'clock they sing Matins and Lauds for Thursday.
It is a long Service of nearly three hours, the
Psalms and Lessons from Jeremiah: the Church
was pretty full. Though I had the Psalms before
me, it was with great difficulty I could follow the
chant, and I was forced to get the verger to find
my place. Among the crowd of lay people there
were not six who could have known any thing at all
of the sense. The last Psalm sung is the fifty-
42
CEREMONIES OF HOLY WEEK.
first; one verse is chanted, and the next sung in a
minor key accompanied by instrumental music.
It is singularly beautiful and plaintive, and so are
some of the Lessons from Jeremiah. The con-
clusion is any thing but solemn. There are thirteen
candles on a high candlestick; these are extin-
guished one by one during the singing of the
Psalms; the last is not extinguished, but taken
to the altar, and hidden behind it. When the
Miserere concludes, the whole choir make a loud
stamping and rattling; the lighted candle is
brought out, and all depart. I believe the twelve
lights that are extinguished are supposed to re-
present the Apostles whose faith failed, the light
which is only hidden the Virgin who remained
constant. I forgot to mention a ceremony we saw
on Palm Sunday afternoon at three o'clock. Three
priests with their faces almost covered with black
hoods, in black silk cloaks with long trains, came
out from the choir to the altar; the chief took
down a black flag with a red cross on it from the
altar, and waved it along the ground gravely many
times; then they walked in procession, attended
by all the choir and some other priests in black
round the Cathedral, returning to the altar, and
waved the flag in the air many times again, replaced
it, and retired. What it may mean I have no idea,
nor can I discover yet.
Thursday. No work is done to-day, no cries are
THURSDAY IN HOLY WEEK.
43
allowed, no carriages, and the Church bells are all
silent. At the Cathedral the Clergy all receive
the Communion, and the Host is carried from the
high altar to the sepulchre (which is a small chapel
beautifully lighted) for Good Friday, on which day
they do not consecrate. At three o'clock went to
see the washing of the feet. The Bishop came in,
and was seated to the south of the altar, and a
little below thirteen old men in blue cloaks were
seated. The Gospel was read from S. John xiii, 3.
and then a large gilt bason was brought in, and the
Bishop, taking off his mitre and outer robe, was
girt with a towel, and wetted, wiped, and kissed the
right foot of each one. There was a great crowd
of spectators, and it was difficult to see or follow
the service. I left as a sermon was beginning.
F. stayed, but found it inaudible, owing to the noise
made by the people. In the evening there were
two processions from two of the Spanish Churches.
No doubt they may tend to keep up a religious
impression in the minds of the multitude, and keep
them out of mischief, and give them amusement.
The Churches are all filled this evening: there
is no regular Service, but the people swarm in
and out, and some kneel down and pray, and
some stand and gaze: the high altar is covered in,
and a succession of candles rise in a sort of pyra-
mid over it. We met one of the two processions on
our return, having witnessed the other previously.
44
GOOD FRIDAY.
There were numbers of people kneeling in the
streets round the convents of the nuns.
Good Friday. The Passion from S. John was
sung this morning, then followed the adoration of
the Cross. A veiled Cross was taken down from
the altar, and given to the Bishop. He unveiled
it, and, standing with his back to the altar, said,
Ecce lignum Crucis, and the choir answered,
In quo mundi salus pependit. He then places
the Cross below the altar, and adores it; then
the canons and priests two by two adore, the
choir meanwhile singing. Here I left for our
own Service. I should have liked to remain to
hear the hymn, Vexilla regis, as they carry the Host
in procession from the sepulchre to the high altar.
In the evening, the procession of the Virgen de
la Soledad passed our windows. It was quite
dark, and the endless rows of candles had a very
beautiful effect in the distance.
Sabado Santo. We went to the Cathedral at
half past eight, to see the blessing of the lights;
they had just struck a new light, with which
three candles on the top of a wreathed pole were
lighted; these were blessed and then from them
an immense candle was lighted, (which, candle-
stick and all, is about twenty feet high, and as
thick as my waist,) standing by the side of the
a Sacerdos accedit ad adorandam Crucem. Deinde alii clerici
et laici bini et bini Crucem adorant. Off. Heb. San.
EASTER EVE.
+
45
altar: then the lamp before the high altar.
This is not to go out till Easter comes again, but
to burn continually. Then followed twelve long
Lessons from Holy Scripture, and twelve prayers
which precede the blessing of the font and holy
water. The Bishop then descends the steps of
the altar, and the procession forms, and proceeds
down the Church, and out of one of the doors to
a small Church, called the Sagrario, adjoining: at
the west end of this in a small recess is the font.
The procession was striking, coming in; the
women and mass of the people remained behind
in the Cathedral; after the blessing of the water,
the procession returned to the Cathedral, singing
the Litany, which is on the whole the most beau-
tiful thing that they sing. The Bishop and
officiating Priests then retired to the Sacristy, and
returned, mostly in white robes, and the Bishop
began the Gloria in excelsis; the choir took it
up-the organ pealed out-the acolytes conti-
nually rang their small bells-the bells of the
Cathedral, which had been silent for two days,
struck out, and the cannon fired from the fort.
Then followed the Easter Gospel, from S. Matt.
xxviii: the Alleluia and the preface to the Mass
is the same as our Easter preface. It would
have been very striking if it had been on Easter
Day, but this absurd system of anticipation spoils
it all. I cannot celebrate Easter Day at eleven
46
SHOW AND REALITY.
o'clock on Saturday morning.
The popular
notion I find is, that to-day, i. e. Saturday, is
the day of the Resurrection. The market is
filled with sheep and lambs, and every one buying
them for to-morrow.
I am glad to have seen all this, but I am
heartily tired with it, and persuaded that the
mass of even the Church-going people do not
understand the Services to which they go; it
is mere spectacle, and great as these things
are in theory and in books, in practice they
fail utterly. The whole system here is show
and outside, and decay within.
The young
wholly neglect the Confessional, which is the life
of Roman Catholic religion. I was walking with
on Sunday on the crowded Alameda, and
he said that he would affirm, that in all probability
not one young man, nor even middle aged man,
then on the Alameda, was in the habit of con-
fessing. It is well to know something of the
evils of other Churches, when we are too ready
to feel those of our own. I find nothing here to
attract.
Malaga, April 25, 1850.
It is time now to be leaving Malaga, as the
thermometer will rise to 74 or 75, with all pre-
cautions to keep out the sun; however the heat
is not oppressive, except when the wind is tierral
or north, and then it blows hot, and is unpleasant
EL CALVARIO.
47
and relaxing. It also affects the spirits, indeed
I am told that there are more cases of stabbing
during the prevalence of the tierral than at other
times. You have received my report of the cere-
monies of the Holy week, and the general impres-
sion that they left on my mind, which was, that the
religion here was a hollow unreality, mere outside
and spectacle, "dry bones." However, since that
I have been present at a Service which looks more
like life and reality at the little chapel of the
Calvario. Just outside the city there is a steep
hill so called, with a small chapel on the top, which
is approached by a steep rough path, by the side
of which are fourteen crosses for the fourteen
stations. We went to the Service there one Friday
afternoon, and found a number of women ascend-
ing the hill, some with their shoes off, and saying
prayers at the different stations; the chapel was
full, but we just got in at the door. In the midst
of the congregation a priest was kneeling with his
face to the Altar, at a small table, on which was
placed a cross and his book of prayers. These
were all in Spanish, consisting, as it seemed to me,
of Litanies well known to the people, Pater
Nosters and Ave Marias, which they all repeated
after the priest; the whole presented the appear-
ance of real devotion, instead of the idle gazing
which I had begun to think universal. Then
followed a sermon; the subject was our Lord's
48
THE MOST SACRED VIRGIN.
first speech from the Cross. It was far the best
I have heard, the most evangelical, enforcing on
the people that penances and outward religious
duties were serviceable to them only as tending to
conversion of heart. It was also the most popish,
e. g. the first example given of forgiveness was that
of the Blessed Virgin; when the centurion pierced
the side of our Lord, she came forward and bid
him (the words were given) not to maltreat her
Son; at the same time she so lovingly forgave him,
that he was converted on the spot, and afterwards
became a holy man: this is certain, for the
Blessed Virgin revealed it herself to one of her
servants. But still more, the sermon ended thus,
"Gloria al Padre, Gloria al Hijo (the Son), Gloria
al Espiritu Santo, Gloria á la Sacratisima Virgen."
This is to me very shocking, being a deliberate
addition to the doxologies of the Church, putting
the Blessed Virgin on an equality with the Holy
Trinity but these are daily words here". Again,
a The Sermon concluded with an extempore prayer, which the
people repeated after the preacher, which ended with a petition
that we might all be brought at last to Heaven, "where with
Angels and Archangels, and all blessed spirits, we shall join in
the everlasting hymn of praise, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of
hosts, all the whole heavens are full of Thy Glory. Glory be to
the Father, Glory be to the Son, Glory be to the Holy Ghost;
Glory be to the Most Sacred Virgin, Gloria al Padre, Gloria al
Hijo, Gloria al Espiritu Santo, Gloria á la Sacratisima Virgen
throughout all ages, for ever and ever. Amen."
ADDRESS TO THE VIRGIN.
49
we heard another sermon at the same place, where
in the concluding prayer the preacher addressed
the Virgin thus, "Command the clouds that they
give rain, lest the harvest perish, and thy people
come to misery, and the children ask for bread,
and there be none to give them." I am very glad
to know the practical working of the Church in
"Catholic" Spain, especially at a time when
minds are so unsettled at home.
E
CHAP. III.
Quarantine at Gibraltar. Algeciras. Malaga. Bell-ringing.
Smuggling sea-water. Priest's hats. Lola Montes. Recovery
of stolen goods. Spanish Fast Days. English Burial Ground.
Spanish Funeral. Noche buena. Soul release. Bargaining.
Laws relative to murder. Sale of Images in Churches. Dead
Body on the Alameda. Easter Eve. Pocket-picking.
Letters from M. M. during the winter of 1849-50.
Quarantine vessel, Gibraltar, Nov. 19, 1849.
THE heat is so great to-day, that it is impos-
sible to take our deck walk even with umbrellas,
for fear of a coup de soleil. Our quarantine
expires on the 23d, after which we think of
passing a few days at Gibraltar. We shall then
have to go across the bay to Algeciras, there take
another steamer, and proceed to Malaga. The
hulk has not been very uncomfortable, and I have
been much amused. We came on board on Fri-
day evening, having dropped anchor in the Jupiter
on Thursday. The contrast between the noises
of the ship and the hulk are so curious. There
all was business, and engines and sails and the
usual calls of sailors; here, from eight in the
QUARANTINE.
51
morning till nine at night are Spanish voices,
laughing as people never laugh in England, and
singing and dancing. The other evening there
was such a noise below, that the gentlemen of the
party looked for sticks, saying it was either a
mutiny or a fight; when in rushed two wild
looking Spanish women tumbling over each
other, and uttering faster and more frequently
than you could conceive, "Pulpo, Pulpo, Pulpo;"
then followed Antonio the servant, bringing a
hideous thing called a sea-cat, which they had
just caught, and which had caused all the uproar.
Our Spanish friend desired to have some of it
dressed, and accordingly he had some for dinner,
and again for breakfast, but he had it all to
himself.
To give you an idea of the occasional benefits of
quarantine, this Spaniard is a Queen's messenger,
and was bringing dispatches from Hong Kong.
He left his dispatches at Gibraltar, but was not
allowed to land or to enter into quarantine, because
they will not mix the quarantines from the east,
with those from the west. His native place was
Seville, so he wished to go to Cadiz. They
would not have him; he was obliged to go on to
England, stay there three days, come back here,
spend the quarantine time of three more days,
having passed his own home or the port leading
to it twice, and to-morrow he will be at liberty to
!
52
GIBRALTAR.
go to Cadiz in peace. The wife of a merchant at
Lisbon had been away some months; it was
most important that her husband should not be
taken from his country house, but he had leave to
see her at a distance, when she was in quarantine,
on her return. He came unexpectedly, and she
sprung forward, and threw her arms round him;
and from that moment he was of course placed in
quarantine for the whole time.
Gibraltar, Nov. 21, 1849.
We awoke this morning for the first time in
this wonderful place, where every thing is regu-
lated by laws of military discipline. Till the gun
is fired at sun-rise, you would think it was a
city of the dead; not a sound to be heard except
the cries of the sentinels one to another at certain
rounds. Then suddenly arise all the noises of a
populous place. The reveillée is beaten, donkeys
bray, dogs bark, Spanish voices, very high pitched,
chatter unceasingly; endless strings of mule carts
heavy laden, and jingling as they go, driven by
men in blue and red, with yellow slippers, stun
you, for we have the old sort of London pavement
in the streets. The principal street in Gibraltar is
about as wide as Chancery lane; the houses tall,
with every possible device to exclude the sun.
The thermometer is now at 62. The noise will
last till sun-set, when another gun is fired, the
GIBRALTAR.
53
recall beaten, and all sinks into silence, with the
above-mentioned exception. Then the people:
many with nothing on their heads, many with
nothing on their feet and legs; some with enough
to furnish a haberdasher's shop round their heads,
some with particoloured stockings, and most with
yellow slippers trodden down at the heels; some
with long white beards, more with their dark
Spanish faces covered with black hair-all ap-
pearing to be talking and gesticulating from half
past six in the morning till half past five in the
evening. I could not have imagined any thing
like the moving scene before my eyes. Jews,
Turks, Moors, Spanish sailors, English soldiers,
all jostling each other, to say nothing of men in
yellow slippers driving carts drawn by mules, and
women with shawls over their heads in place of
bonnets, and ladies with mantillas and fans instead
of parasols.
seven.
We embarked in our boat for Algeciras from
Gibraltar at four, but winds and waves being
adverse, (the ordinary boat, a small steamer, was
"frighten to go,") we did not arrive till half past
In the dusk we reached the quay, an
official chattered, and a mob of men and boys
chattered too. We got on shore, but then came
a higher dignitary-stopped to chatter again.
Another, Da Capo. At last, over wet and broken
pavement, we reached the custom house. They
54
ALGECIRAS.
made us unlock the two carpet bags we wanted
for the evening, looked at them, and then, leaving
the rest in their custody, we proceeded to our
inn; a clean little wayside public house, the
best in the place. Here we held a council, con-
sisting of ourselves, the boatmen, and Antonio, ast
to the arrangement of our bedrooms, in which
the latter took the deepest interest, and gave their
opinions freely. Though with no other way of
communicating our ideas than through Antonio,
we became remarkably friendly with our host's
family, having a joint drawing room.
lady thundered some duets from Attila with
wonderful execution, accompanied by one mous-
tached man on the flute, and two with concertinas.
Then the gentlemen lighted their cigars, and were
comfortable.
The young
On Saturday the steamer signalized. At five
we sent Antonio with half a crown in his hand to
the custom house, and he was told to take all the
things on board without farther trouble. The
steamer moved at eight in the evening, and we
arrived in the beautiful bay of Malaga at six the
next morning. Then came an hour of waiting
for the health boat. Another hour, and the
custom house people were on board, and we dis-
embarked. The Fonda is a splendid palace, but
I cannot yet be reconciled to brick floors. The
state rooms have a sort of coarse marble, and it
•
BELL-RINGING.
55
surprises people to be asked for a bit of the
wretched matting of the country to put by your
bedside. Before us is the Alameda, and just
opposite the house is a pole with a rope fixed to
the top, one end of which is on fire, and smoul-
ders slowly away, but from morning till night it
is never ten minutes without some one coming to
light his or her cigar at it; the purpose for which
it is placed there.
Malaga, December, 1849.
The absence of bell-ringing in Malaga is re-
markable, especially as the Cathedral bells are
amongst the finest I have ever heard. One of the
Festivals of S. Mary is approaching, and for the last
two evenings we have heard a noise resembling three
or four men repairing a copper boiler, not by
regular hammering, but just as it should happen.
This was ringingª.
There is a custom that
I like very much. Every servant in the house
a "When Spanish bells are rung, it is called a Repique,
which is totally unlike our sweet village bells or impressive
Cathedral peal. There is no attempt at melody, no chimes, no
triple-bob-majors. The music is devoid alike of ringer-science,
rural rustic melody, or the solemn association of sounds, 'the
nighest bordering on heaven.' The bells are headed with cross-
beams of wood,almost of the same weight as the bells themselves,
and are pulled at till they keep turning round and round, head
over heels, except when they are very large; then the clapper is
agitated by a rope." Ford.
56
COINAGE.
on seeing you first says, "Good morning," and in the
evening, "Good night." Most of the Spanish
voices that I have yet heard are harsher than
the setting of a saw, and they scream as loud as
they can. The noise that Spanish women make
in playing with children no English imagination
can conceive.... The tiled floors, having all the
interstices filled up with cement, save us from
insects. We have had a few mosquito bites, but
as to all other annoyances of the kind we are as
free from them as at home. If any ones dies of
consumption, they burn the furniture of the rooms
he lived in, scrape, whitewash, and paint the walls,
and take away and reforge the locks, the bolts, and
iron-work, counting it to be infectious.... There is
a reading room here containing a supply of English,
French, and Spanish Newspapers, such as the
Times, Illustrated London News, and Punch. The
Spanish gold coinage is the finest in the world;
an ounce 16 dollars; a half ounce = 8 dollars;
a 4 dollar piece, a 2 dollar piece, and one dollar,
all of gold. The silver and copper coins are innumera-
ble. And you pay nothing for gold, a convenience
which those who have travelled elsewhere can, I
believe, appreciate. The common silver coin is the.
French five franc piece, which is very often called
by Spaniards a Napoleon.
When the ower of the hotel first came here, he
sent a man to fetch some sea-water, and on his not
SMUGGLING SEA-WATER.
•
57
returning, went in wrath to hurry him. He was
met by an authority, who told him that the man was
in prison for smuggling! The sea-water was con-
traband, because salt could be made of it, and salt is
a Government monopoly. The Padres' hats are
nearly or quite a yard long, turned up closely at
the side, to accomplish which the brim is cut
through, and in a high wind, or when they walk
fast, flaps about, although it is fastened up. The
Bishop, whom we passed the other day, had a
robe of bright purple, and a hat of a brighter
light green. I believe he is a very good man,
and his people in their troubles go to him. The
police of Malaga are dressed and look like well-
trained soldiers, the soldiers themselves like any
thing else. Their dress is light blue, and gives
you the idea that every thing is in common, and
that they wear what first comes to hand, long or
short, wide or narrow. They have no fifes, and
their drumming sounds like carpenters at work.
There is a horrid custom here. On a day in
August the policemen go round the town with
poisoned sausage, and throw down a bit to every
dog they meet, so the streets are soon strewn with
dead dogs, which are then picked up, and carried
away. They are poor homeless beasts, so it may
be a mercy to them.
On Monday, on going down to dinner, we found
next to our reserved places a lady in black, and
58
RECOVERY OF LOST GOODS
wearing a bonnet, who had come as well as four
gentlemen by a steamer from Valencia. She
soon began to talk with them, in a not unpleasant,
but high pitched voice, and rather to lay down
the law. In the middle of dinner, Mr.
handed across the table a scrap of paper, which
we found to contain the words, "Your neighbour
is Lola Montes." She seemed to be very hand-
some, and her complexion something between
ivory and wax, colourless. Her hands were very
small and beautifully shaped, and she made them
useful, for before any one else had any fruit, she
had drawn to herself and demolished a plate of
olives, and gone far towards finishing a dish of
medlars. . . . Mr. -'s courier had his pocket
picked of a silver snuff box on the last festival.
He advertised a reward of two dollars for its re-
covery, and last night he knocked at our door,
apologized for his intrusion, and said, ' he felt he
must tell us of his good fortune in getting back
the box his poor wife had given him.' A man
came yesterday to the door, and told him that
some one in the house had lost a box, and that if
he would come in the evening to the Church of
the Conception, he might have it. "I say, Sir,
I will tell him. So in the evening, I borrow a
Spanish cloak and hat, and go. I look, with one
of the attendants of the Church, all about, I can-
not find it. I look even in the tabernacle where
FAST DAYS IN SPAIN.
59
the wafers are kept; then another man come in,
look at me, and walk to the Sacristy. I follow,
and there is my little box! The tears come in
my eyes, and I am faint! Moreover, I am told
that I must pay four dollars. I speak soft for
little box, and he take two dollars!" All this
and a great deal more said with much capping
and sliding, then a low bow, an assurance that he
will be happy to make himself useful to us, and a
graceful slide out of the room.
my
In Spain, the observance of fast-days is very
slight; there are but fourteen days in the whole
year, on which it is not allowed to eat meat. It is
eaten every Friday, except those in Lent. During
Lent they eat one full meal of meat each day, but
no fish except on Friday, when they eat fish, but
not meat; and besides that only a collation, con-
sisting of eight ounces of any thing except meat,
and drink is unlimited, as to quantity and
quality.
The English burial ground procured by the
late Consul in 1832, is quiet and nice looking. A
little garden being past, you come to the graves,
which, as the climate will not let them be green,
are each entirely covered with small scallop shells.
A funeral of a young girl passed the house some
days since on its way to the Spanish burial
ground; the irreverence displayed was painful.
Many boys and young men carried torches, and
60
FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
the open coffin was borne quite low, so that the
light fell on the white dress. There was no
priest with them, but much such a cortege of noisy
boys as would be found in a badly managed parish
in England, the torch-bearers seeming quite un-
concerned. Yesterday came a paper, asking the
prayers of the person addressed, Rev. Don Diego
Meyrick, for a young lady, and begging that he
would honour the family by attending the funeral.
The paper arrived but half an hour before the
appointed time, and 'Diego' was out, otherwise he
would have gone. The form, we understand, is,
that an immense concourse of people assemble at
the house of death; they follow the coffin to the
Cathedral, the mourners coming last; there the
mere acquaintance form two lines, through which
the mourners pass to the east end, acknowledging
the presence of the guests as they go. After the
service there, no one is expected to go to the
Campo Santo.
Malaga, Dec. 28, 1849.
On Monday (noche buena), the din of buying
and selling was quite stunning; the streets full of
eatables, oranges and sweet lemons piled up by
waggon loads, and the hundreds, I might say thou-
sands, of live turkeys in flocks all round the house,
became a real nuisance. This began on Saturday,
and Sunday was a day of more buying and selling
NOCHE BUENA.
61
than any other, because every one makes holiday
of the evening of the noche buena. Christmas
Day and Wednesday a few remained, and we could
not go out without having one thrust fluttering in
our faces, with an assurance that it was mucho
grueso. For some days past there has been no
fish to be had; the fishermen wont work..... There
was a procession on Sunday at the funeral of a
rich old merchant. Several hundred people, as
many as a hundred torches, not above twenty
lighted, and about forty priests chanting very
solemnly. After a death, or rather a burial which
takes place next day, the nearest relations sit in a
darkened room for three days, all their friends
come, sit down without speaking, and after about
five minutes go away again..... On the feast of the
Circumcision it was the etiquette for residents
to call on all the people they knew named
Manuel. . . The chants in the Cathedral are very
disappointing. . . The bull fights of Malaga have
not even the prestige of gallantry left, which used to
be their redeeming point. The poor old horses
are bought up when they can work no longer, and
the rider's sole object is to put his horse between
himself and danger. Sometimes seventeen horses
are killed in a day; at Seville the number is often
from 20 to 25... Extremes meet. Here the observ-
ance of Sunday consists to a great extent in attend-
ing theatres and such occupations, and some Prussian
62
SOUL-RELEASE.
Protestant visitors say that at Berlin it is con-
sidered that Sunday was given us for our amuse-
înent...In one of the Churches, and I suppose
in more, is a board, which is displayed on certain
occasions, on which is painted in large letters in
Spanish, "To-day a soul is released"." The Inno-
cents' Day is kept here by borrowing money of any
one who is oblivious, and promising to pay next
Innocents' Day, which means the Greek Calends.
Many ingenious plans are resorted to after the
fashion of our April 1st. . . . The other day there
was another Procession. First came boys looking
like a large school, then choristers in short
surplices with long sleeves, shewing the black
dress underneath, chanting hoarsely not musically;
still the sound was solemn. All these held candles,
as well as a few priests who came next. Some carried
them under their arms, some over their shoulders,
some pointed upwards, some downwards, some side-
ways, as they found convenient, no two alike. Then
came about ten men carrying things like gigantic
extinguishers with gilt shades, and surmounted by
small silver crosses on poles. Then the hearse,
(an unusual luxury here;) it is an open bier into
which the coffin fits, and it has curtains of black
"The especial days are marked in the Almanack, and known
to every waiter in the inn. Moreover, notice is put on the
Church door, Hoy se saca anima, 'This day you can get out a
soul.'" Ford.
BARGAINING.
63
crape. Then came the mourners, walking in groups
of from twenty to thirty, and talking and gesti-
culating. The Service in the Church was very
long. No further religious ceremony took place
at the Campo Santo, nor was any reverential feeling
apparent. J. having learnt wisdom by experience,
on entering the Church put his handkerchief into
his breast pocket, but on coming out, returned it
to its usual place, and in five minutes it was gone.
He must buy some; but he cannot persuade
himself to deal after the Spanish fashion, which is,
when told the price of a thing, to turn away and
say it is too dear; you are then asked what you
will give, and say about a third, knowing that the
shopkeeper means to take half; or if it is a shop
where you deal constantly, when the price is
told, you take no notice of the demand further
than requesting el ultimo precio, which proves to be
about half what you were asked.
The last Malaga paper gave a summary of the
committals for the month. There were eight for
assassinations, and fifteen for wounding without
causing death, and this is far below the average.
The laws are administered in such a way, that
if a man were found wounded in the street, it
would be dangerous to try to help him. Å
short time ago, a foreigner passing along saw
a beggar who seemed in the last stage of ex-
haustion: he went into a wine shop, bought
64
MURDER.
some wine, and made him drink it, gave him some
bread, and seeing him revived, the good Samaritan
went on his way. The next morning the beggar
was found dead. Enquiry was made as to who
had been last with him, his charitable friend de-
scribed, search was made, and in a neighbouring
town he was found, brought here, and sent to prison
on suspicion of having caused the beggar's death.
It was only on payment of money that he was set
at liberty. Murder is not thought much more of
here, than pocket picking in England. A young
lad committed a murder, was taken immediately,
and sent to gaol, where he was two years, and the
affair passed from people's minds. Meantime the
lad behaved so very well, that the governor of the
gaol gave him permission to go out every day to
his family, and return to the gaol at night. It was
supposed that his youth being considered, he
would soon be set at liberty. Meanwhile the
friends of the murdered man were making up a
purse, which they took to the chief authorities
living at Grenada, and an order came down for his
execution the following morning. The governor
was so shocked, that he could not see the boy, but
threw up his office: the boy on returning from
his mother's house in the evening was taken to the
condemned cell, and garotted the next morning.
Thus even justice becomes hateful.
The other day they were decking the Church
SALE OF IMAGES IN CHURCHES.
65
""
of Los Martires, for a funcion of the Confraternity
of the Sagrado Corazon de Maria. Did I tell you
how useful the word funcion is? It is used for a
bull-fight, masquerade, a performance at the
theatre, a concert, or a greater ceremony than
usual at one of the Churches. . . . If you ask how
far off a place is, you may be told dos cigaritos,
i. e. as far as you can go whilst smoking two
cigars. The proper time for boiling an egg is so
many credos, i. e. while you can repeat them. . .
Marriages of uncles with nieces are very common
here..... An advertisement of a funcion the
other day gave notice, "Assistera Nuestro Ilus-
trisimo Prelado y officiara una lucida Orquestra.
We went to the Church of the Merced, but did
not go beyond the entrance, that we might not
disturb a Service that was going on. It being
the feast of S. Pedro Nolasco, the image of the
Saint was dressed in white satin and ermine.
Yesterday in the Avisador Malagueño, the daily
Paper, there was the following advertisement :
"To be sold, the image of our Lord of Pardon,
who is venerated in the Parish Church of St. John
on the altar of our Lady de Dolores. Enquire
for particulars at the said Parish Church." J.
thought that we must have misunderstood the
Spanish, or at least that the purchaser could
only get a right to it, leaving it in its place; but
on enquiry we found that it was quite open to
F
66
DEAD BODY ON THE ALAMEDA.
him to buy it, and take it to England if he liked.
Such beautiful moonlight as we have, you never
see in your northern world. When we go down
to dinner, the Alameda is deserted, all the Spa-
niards having dined, and taking their Siesta: when
we return up stairs, it is full of groups enjoying a
moonlight stroll. . . . . The last day of the Car-
nival has been ushered in by the finding an old
woman dead on the Alameda, bleeding from the
head. It is now twelve o'clock, and she still lies
untouched, no one having claimed her. . . . It is
said that the old woman on the Alameda was not
murdered. She was attempting to prevent her
daughter from going to the masquerade with some
young men, and they say she died from a rush of
blood to the head; but she was bleeding, and
bruised, especially behind one ear. She must
have had a dutiful daughter, to leave her lying on
the public promenade. According to Spanish
custom, the owner of the house where they lived
is sent to gaol, not as being suspected in any way,
but that he may be forthcoming to give such
evidence as he can.
The Preacher several
times during the Sermon on Ash-Wednesday
took off his cap, and turned towards the Bishop,
addressing him as Ilustrisimo Señor, and then re-
sumed his cap, and the thread of his discourse.
At Seville the same sort of address is made to the
PROCESSION.
67
Royal Personages present. J. is just expressing
his dismay at finding in the paper advertisements
of performances at the theatre during Lent.
Malaga, Feb. 1850.
The rejoicings to celebrate Queen Isabel's hope
of an heir began last Sunday, when we heard
firing of artillery, and there was a very partial
illumination. The scene in the Alameda was
very pretty, the Governor gorgeously dressed,
with a long white plume, like a Spaniard in a
play, attended by military men covered with
orders, and a crowd of people dressed more than
usually gaily on foot, and a few carriages driving
round the outside. . . . The procession of Nuestra
Señora de la Soledad was a strange and striking
scene. It must have been half a mile long;
soldiers on horseback to clear the way, six or
eight enormous torches, two endless lines of can-
dles, then torches again, surrounding the Image of
the Virgins. There were thousands of spectators,
and the effect was much increased by its being a
dark night. . . . S. Joseph's day is the only one
which has been observed like an English Sunday
since we came. The shops were shut, and the
Alameda deserted. Except that the theatre was
open, it seemed a day wholly given to religion.....
e This would be a sign of Erastianism in England to some
minds.
68
SHEEP-FAIR.
The Hermandad de Jesus Nazareno wear in the
processions purple robes. A purple mask covers
the face, with holes made for the eyes, which shine
strangely in the candle light. They have an imi-
tation of the crown of thorns on their head.
There were boys with crowns of thorns on their
heads at the Church doors begging on Thursday
in Holy Week. . . . . On Easter Eve, as soon as
the bells at 10a.m. had given notice that the
Resurrection had taken place, a sheep fair began.
The children have almost all a lamb given them
by such of their parents as are rich enough to
afford it. It costs only two shillings: for, summer
or winter, the sheep are never fed, but pick up
what they can get on the mountains. Some of
the children adorn their lambs with ribbons, and
are very fond of them. Some drag and beat
them, and when they are tired of playing with
them, they are killed and eaten. The incessant
bleating that goes on would make you think that
you were at a sheep-shearing. .... At Christmas,
one of the practices is for children to tie fowls to
sticks, and shoot at them with popguns.
Some ladies of our acquaintance were with their
brothers in the crowd looking at a procession of
our Lady. They wore mantillas; but a respectable
looking woman, who heard them speak English
and Spanish by turns, said, pointing to the image,
"Ah! you do not believe in her." "Yes," said one
POCKET-PICKING IN CHURCHES.
69
of the ladies, "we believe that she was the mother
of our Lord, and worthy of all honour, but we do
not pray to her." "Then," said the good woman,
"you are no Christians."
At one of the crowded Churches last week,
Mr. M. and his servant each lost his pocket-
handkerchief. Mr. P. was quick enough to seize
a man's hand in his pocket. J. felt a man trying
his, but he had a great coat on, and his handkerchief
was safe in the under one. Mr. H. feeling his
touched, turned sharply, but no one was near,
except a man on his knees praying very devoutly.
At another part of the Church, (for nobody stays
in one place,) the same thing occurred, and the
same man was near. He made another attempt,
and the third time Mr. H. said in Spanish,
"Good man, there is nothing there." The actual
thief kept his countenance, but a confederate
could not help laughing".
d "There is a feeble old woman, who first genuflects before
the Blessed Sacrament, and then steals her neighbour's hand-
kerchief or prayer-book, who is intent on his devotion." This
is the fact now for the 'philosophical truth' involved in it.
"What does it prove? Faith is illuminative, not operative. It
does not force obedience, though it increases responsibility; it
heightens guilt, it does not prevent sin. The will is the source
of action, not an influence from without acting mechanically on
the feelings. She worships, and she sins. She kneels because
she believes, she steals because she does not love. She may be
out of God's grace, she is not altogether out of His sight. Pro-
70
SEPARATION OF FAITH AND LOVE.
The nothing to do air of the people here is very
striking. The seats on the Alameda are full of
testants do not think the inconsistency possible of really
believing without obeying, and where they see disobedience, they
cannot imagine the existence of true faith. Catholics on the
other hand hold, that faith and love, faith and obedience, faith and
works, are simply separable and ordinarily separated in fact; that
faith does not imply love, obedience, or works, that the firmest
faith so as to move mountains may exist without love, that is,
true faith, as truly faith in the strict sense of the word as the
faith of a martyr or a doctor." This defence of that faith by
which devils believe and tremble, this identification of the fides
informis of the Schoolmen with the Christian grace of Fides
Formata is put forth by that same John Henry Newman, who in
his Sermon on Faith and Love some years ago expressed himself
as follows: "Faith and Hope are not in themselves necessarily
graces, but only as grafted on and founded in Love. Balaam
had faith and hope, but not love; his conduct shewed that
neither faith nor hope were loving. The servant in the Parable
who fell down at his Lord's feet, and begged to be excused his
debt, had both faith and hope. He had neither love of God
because he was high minded, nor love of his brother because he
was hard-hearted. There are then two kinds of faith in God, a
good faith and a bad faith, and two kinds of hope, a good hope
and a bad hope. Faith and hope are not in themselves signs,
but only that faith which worketh by love. It is said, Though I
had all faith, yet without love I am nothing: it is no where said,
Though I have all love, without faith I am nothing... Faith is
the first element of religion, and love of holiness, and as religion
and holiness are distinct yet united, so are love and faith.
Religion cannot exist without holiness... Faith is to love as
religion to holiness... They are not distinct from each other
except in our way of viewing them, the loving faith and the
believing love... Love is the root of faith. We are Christ's
DOLCE FAR NIENTE.
71
people just above the poorest, except at the time
of the Siesta. If you go into any of the streets that
are wide enough, you see that the chairs are brought
out, and the men are sitting in the sun. Go
down to the sea-side, they are lying on their faces
fast asleep. They require for food only a piece of
bread, and either fruit, of which the common sorts
are very cheap, or fish, of which a good meal may
be bought fried for a halfpenny. They never
want a fire. At the vintage I believe they put
out all their strength, and work very hard. Sunday
is no day of rest to many people here. Counting-
house work, and buying and selling, go on in the
morning, and theatres, billiards, and gambling in
the afternoon.
not by faith merely nor by works merely, but by love." This
distinction between good faith, which is inseparable from love,
and bad faith, which is not only ordinarily, but always, 'sepa-
rated in fact,' Dr. Newman now sweeps away, and asserts that
the latter without love and obedience is as really true faith
as the former. Vide an able Article in T. K. Arnold's Theolo-
gical Critic, No. I.
悠
​CHAP. IV.
Seville. Cathedral. Chapel Royal. Murillo's San Antonio.
Roelas. St. Francis Borgia. High Mass. Holy Communion.
Personal Experience. Cadiz. Seville. Bull-fights. Alcazar
Gardens. The Alcazar. Houses. Una cosa de España.
Cadiz.
Letters of F. M. from Seville and Cadiz, during
the Spring of 1850.
Seville, Wednesday in Rogation Week, 1850.
I AM delighted with Seville. Of all Spain, I
believe that Malaga is the place where the R. C.
Church shews to the least, and Seville that where
it shews to the greatest, advantage. Notwith-
standing that it is frequented by crowds of visitors,
it has a peaceful, quiet, and religious aspect.
The Churches are always open, except from
twelve to two, and the congregations that I have
seen attentive. Of course I can judge only of
the outside as a stranger, but to a stranger the
effect is very different from that of Malaga. It
is a beautiful city. The Churches, though not
to be compared with those of England, are fine
SEVILLE CATHEDRAL.
73
buildings, the palaces and private houses mag-
nificent. The country is very flat, but the Gua-
dalquivir makes it green and fresh; and there
are beautiful walks by the river-side.
The glories of Seville are the Cathedral, Mu-
rillo, and Roelas. The Moorish Tower, called the
Giralda, is 350 feet in height; it is very beauti-
ful, and stands detached, or rather just touching
the Cathedral. It can be ascended for 300 feet
without a single step, and by an ascent so gradual,
that you might easily ride to the top. The
length of the Cathedral is 386 feet, its breadth
291; it consists of seven aisles, the transepts
being incomplete. In this measurement is not
included the Royal Chapel near the east end,
which is 81 feet more. In this is preserved the
body of San Fernando, the conqueror of Seville,
and one of the royal Saints of Spain. It is still
perfect after 600 years, and is displayed on his
day, when Mass is said there, and all the troops
are marched in, and present arms before him.
The Cathedral is very lofty and very solemn.
Like all in this country, it is very much injured by
the internal arrangement. The choir is put down
like an immense wooden box in the centre of the
• According to other calculations, the length is 431 feet, the
width 315, and the height 145. In this measurement the side
Chapels are included. It was begun in the year 1480, and
finished in 1793.
74
MURILLO'S S. ANTONIO.
nave, and the two outer aisles are entirely filled
with chapels, having bars of iron in front, so that
three of the seven aisles are lost, and with them
much of the beautiful effect of the forest of enor-
mous piers and columns. The pictures are some
of them beyond description.
Cadiz, May 16, 1850.
It was impossible to write at Seville; we were
out from morning till night. I was going to tell
you of the pictures. Many of the Murillos were
sent to Cadiz, which the French never took, and
so were saved, and returned to their original places.
The Cathedral contains the celebrated "Guardian
Angel" leading a Child, and a Virgin and Child by
Cano, which some people quite worship as a work of
art, but nothing to my mind is so beautiful as San
Antonio. The legend is, that when S. Anthony
of Padua was praying in his cell, our Lord
appeared to him in the form of a beautiful child,
and allowed him to embrace Him. The picture is
of an immense size, the lower part occupied by
the dim cell, and the monk in his dark robes, a
light comes in through the open door. He has
one knee on the ground, and his arms stretched
out to receive our Lord, Who is coming down in
a blaze of light surrounded by Angels. It is im-
possible to tell or to imagine the intense expression
oflove, adoration, and longing in the whole figure and
EL MUSEO.
75
face. When we went to the Cathedral, I used to make
an arrangement, that whenever I was missing I was
to be looked for in the Chapel of San Antonio. The
deep religiousness of Murillo's paintings would do
more to incline me to the faith in which he learned
it, than almost any thing which I have seen in
Spain.
There are two more San Antonios in the Museo
by the same hand, all brought from the Capuchin
convent. One is considered by some people even
better than that in the Cathedral. The Monk is
kneeling, with his left arm reverently embracing
the Child, who is seated on his open book, while in
his right hand he holds a lily that He has given him.
You might look at the face for hours and days,
and never penetrate its wonderful expression.
Another marvellous picture is S. Francis embracing
the crucified Saviour. The Museo is a convent,
which has been turned into a picture-gallery. The
Murillos have a large room to themselves, and are
hung at some distance from each other in a good
light, but they lose incalculably by their separation
from their original religious associations. Every
one was painted for its own place in a convent, and
was intended for a help and a comfort to men who
were living a holy life, not for an amusement to
connoisseurs. There are some splendid pictures of
Zurbaran in the Cathedral, in such a light that the
vergers light lucifers to shew you the faces. I
!
76
ST. FRANCIS BORGTA.
would a thousand times rather see them there
than in the picture-gallery. Roelas especially
painted Jesuits. One of his master-pieces is in
the Chapel of what was the Jesuits' College, now
the Universidad. It is a Holy Family, in which
S. Ignatius Loyola is introduced kneeling in the
fore-ground, a portrait. It is a remarkable face,
with an expression of deep devotion, and yet with
something in it which would make you feel, that
the deep strong feeling could be kept under entire
control: some think that there is a look of cunning;
but that I cannot allow. There is also a statue
of him by Montañes, and one of S. Francis of
Borgia. S. Francis is a noble face, such as you
would expect. I have studied the lives of the
Saints of late, and his life is very striking. He
was a Grandee of the highest rank, closely related
to the Emperor, and Viceroy of Catalonia. In
the midst of rank and honours he always lived
what would be called a religious and good life.
Charles the Fifth's Empress died, and he had
charge of the body to conduct it to the royal
burying-place. She had been very lovely. After
one day's journey he opened the coffin to deliver
the body, and found it in the last stage of cor-
ruption. At the horrible sight, a sense of the
nothingness of the world came vividly over his
mind, and his conversion is dated from that instant.
He could not immediately leave the Court and
ST. FRANCIS BORGIA.
77
his dignities; but with his wife's consent, he im-
mediately began to live a life of the most extreme
severity, and on her death he renounced all, and
became a Jesuit. The virtue for which he became
most remarkable was humility, carried to such an
excess, that to many persons it appears unreal and
incomprehensible, and the depth of his penitence
in after years was sometimes quite a difficulty to
his confessors, who, as it is said in his Life, in
some of his frequent confessions could find nothing
to absolve him of, so holy was the life that he
lived. He came to be General of the Jesuits; but
while all others thought him a Saint, and while his
great talents were employed in the service of the
Church, this entire and simple humility and self-
abasement continued.
On Ascension Day we went to the Cathedral
(at Seville) for High Mass. I never saw a service
of a more splendid and devotional appearance.
Such a contrast to that at Malaga. There was a
Sermon after the Gospel; and when that was ended,
the Nicene Creed was chanted by one of the finest
choirs with one of the finest organs in the world.
At the words, "And was Incarnate, &c." the
whole crowded congregation knelt as one man,
requiring no noisy vergers to make them do it,
and the long rows of officiating Ministers on the
top and on the bottom step of the Altar, laid
themselves prostrate, as if overcome with awe at
78
ASCENSION DAY AT SEVILLE.
the Mystery. After the consecration, as many as
sixty or seventy large candles were lighted,
making the whole one blaze of light. The Service
ended by half-past ten, and the Holy Sacrament
remained manifested for the adoration of the people
till ten minutes before twelve, without any
perceptible diminution in the number of wor-
shippers. Some went away, and others came,
but they behaved as you would expect people
to do, who really believed that our Lord was
actually there present before their eyes. The
whole time there were alternately voluntaries on
the organ, on the softest stops, more cheerful
than our usual idea of sacred music, but very
sweet, and solemn soft chanting from the choir.
At ten minutes before twelve the bell rang, some
of the attendants kneeling on the Altar, covered
the Sacrament, the blaze of lights were extin-
guished, leaving only the one lamp that burns
always before the Altar, and the large assembly
of worshippers dispersed.
The day before, I saw a very different scene,
but one also which shewed a favourable side of
the Spanish Church. In the Churches here there
is one Altar with rails before it, decked with white,
at which the Holy Communion is given to the
laity. After Mass, they have only to go and kneel
before that Altar, and whether there be many, or
whether there be but one, the Priest comes and
HOLY COMMUNION.
79
administers. We went into a Church just as Mass
was over. Two young ladies were kneeling before
the Altar, and a poor old woman was just finishing
her confession before a venerable-looking Priest;
when she had finished, he went with her towards
the Altar, and knelt at a little distance, while she
received with the others. She came back to him
presently, and kissed his hand, and he stood talk-
ing to her, apparently counselling her earnestly
and paternally. I saw him make the sign of the
Cross on her forehead. At Malaga, I never saw
any sign of the laity receiving the Communion,
though they could, I have understood, when they
wished it, and probably did at the early Services.
This same scene on Ascension Day is thus
described by my other correspondent: "Seville
Cathedral is the most religious and awful place I
ever entered, and instead of being watched and
gazed at, as in our Cathedrals, one can obey one's
religious impulses without being observed. On
Ascension Day I was present at High Mass.
When the whole space within the high gilt rails
was filled with lights, and amidst a cloud of in-
cense the Host was raised above the prostrate
people, and the mighty organ pealed out solemnly,
the impression on the mind was more than can be
described. After Mass, the people kneeled for an
hour and a half, the organ playing softly, and
occasionally the choir chanting. The whole was
80
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE.
an admirable assistance to meditation, aiding the
mind, without distracting it. I think that our
Churches might be used for something of this sort.
•
On the whole, the religious tone of Seville
seemed to me far higher than that of Malaga, and
the Churches better cared for.... Their burial
of the dead offends me much, and I much prefer
our Service of Holy Baptism.. I have learnt
many things which I could not have learnt from
books, and am most thankful to have seen Spain.
I have been too apt to attribute many things to
Protestantism and to England, which are in fact
faults of human nature and of bad taste: and
though I have seen many things that have in-
structed and delighted me, I feel myself further
removed from Rome than ever.
Letters of M. M. from Seville and Cadiz, during the
Spring of 1850.
May 1, 1850.
On Saturday, at five, we got on board the
steamer at Malaga, and at twelve on Sunday
arrived at Cadiz. Mr. M. kindly sent his man-
servant, an experienced courier, to the landing
place to meet us, but even with his efficient
help, J. was obliged to appeal to a policeman
to prevent people from seizing different ends of
the portmanteaus, and struggling for the posses-
sion of them.
We were soon, by the help of a
b For the dispelling of illusions about Seville, vide Letters on
the second visit to it.
CADIZ TO SEVILLE.
81
little silver, through the custom-house, and we
established ourselves at a casa de pupilos, looking
across a very pretty Alameda, full on the great
bay of Cadiz. Within some doors at one end of
the sitting room was a gilt shrine, containing an
image of our Lady, with a little figure exactly like
a naked Cupid on each side of her, and a framed
paper, setting forth, that whoever said a Salve before
the said figure should obtain an indulgence of forty
days.
Yesterday, at half-past ten, we got on board a
steamer, and reached Seville at seven. The land-
ing was an endless business, the steamer being
crowded, and the farce of a re-examination of
luggage having to take place on the mole. During
dinner we had a guitar player to sing, but the
inconceivable noise made by twenty-six Dutch,
Germans, French, Spaniards, and English at the
table, besides another table full in the adjoining
patio, or court, made his music a mere occasional
floating note. All the separate parties talk in
knots, and to make themselves heard, raise their
voices till there is a very Babel. One French
man or woman will make almost as much noise
as any three of another nation. The table here
very different from what we have seen. A salt
spoon is unknown, as well as any supererogatory
spoon for pastry. The behaviour of the guests
is a strange mixture of courtesy and selfishness.
is
G
82
CHARITY BULL-FIGHTS,
My next neighbour, before dessert, began to puff
away at an enormous cigar.
There were only eleven horses and eight bulls
killed at the bull-fight on Friday. It was given to
assist the funds of the Foundling School. Montes,
the Matador of Spain, is soon to give one at Madrid,
to raise a marriage-portion for a girl he has adopted.
He then takes leave of the ring. The bull-ring
here will hold 16,000 people, and it is thought that,
when all expenses are paid, they will realize 6000
dollars for the charity.
Seville, May 13, 1850.
I have been with all our party to the Alcazar,
the second best Moorish palace in Spain. It is
very beautiful and wonderful, and the gardens are
pretty.
You have just passed over a burning
hot pavement; the guide bids you stop, and in-
stantly before and behind you, through impercep-
tible holes, little streams of water rise, so abundant
and so fine, that it seems as if it were raining
upwards, and the effect in the bright sun-light is
b Since this time Montes, the Prince of Matadors, of whom his
countrymen are almost as proud as of Jose Maria the Prince of
Banditts, has taken leave not only of the amphitheatre, but of life.
A Spaniard can sacreely yet mention his name without a look of
tragic despair at the thought of the loss that Spain has sustained.
c"Every Fiesta de Toros aids the cause of Charity. The profits
form the chief income of the public hospitals, and thus furnish
both funds and patients." Ford's Gatherings, ch. 21.
ALCAZAR AND MUSEO.
83
very pretty. There are no choice flowers, but
abundance of common ones. The myrtles are
planted and cut, so as to form Royal initials,
crowns, arms, &c. more curious than beautiful.
A gallery of the Palace of the most delicate
Moorish work faces it. I am quite confirmed in
my belief, that the Moors were the more civilized
of the two contending races; no words can do
justice to the elegance and delicacy of the work
about their horseshoe arches, and such splendid
ceilings, some simply of deeply carved dark wood,
some of every imaginable colour and gorgeous gild-
ing. White-wash and yellow-wash have, as in every
thing here, done their worst to spoil and hide the
splendid and beautiful. This dry climate preserves
the brightness of gilding, and silver, and colour,
wonderfully. It is being repaired under the aus-
pices of the Infanta and the Duke de Montpensier.
The greatest treat I have had was in going to the
Museo. At first we went into a great room full of
paintings, where I became very tired, but in
due time we proceeded to the Murillo room.
Till I saw his Adoration of the Shepherds, an
Annunciation, and two Conceptions, I had never
known what painting was. In the first and in
one of the last, the face of the Virgin is of such
wonderful sweetness and innocence, that I could
never tire of them. To give you an idea of one of
the Cosas de España. The room, we hear, some
· 84
SEVILLE.
time ago wanted whitewashing; it was accord-
ingly done, but who would take the trouble
of moving or covering such large pictures? So the
man had an accident, and overturned some white-
wash, which fell on the face of the Virgin in one
of the Conceptions! Both the rooms were full of
copying artists.
There is a pretty Plaza a few yards from us,
full of trees, planted irregularly, and seats. Every
evening it is crowded, and a military band plays.
The soldiers here are rather like soldiers, which
was not the case at Malaga. There, none could
march; the best walked; the rest slouched, and
carried their bayonets as a ploughman carries the
stick on which is hung the bundle containing his
dinner and best clothes.
As the heat increases, people bring down their
furniture, pictures, pianos, &c. into the entrance
court or patio. As the outer wooden gates are
always open, and only the iron inner ones shut, as
you pass, you see the family engaged in their every-
day occupations amidst shrubs, and flowers, and
fountains. The patios are open at the top, but
there is no fear of rain, and when the sun is
high, they have awnings. Yesterday there was
a procession. First, a number boys walking
quite irregularly with candles, some lighted,
some not. Then a long platform, on which
to be seen Ntra Señora de Salud, with
was
SEVILLE.
85
the Infant. She was covered with tinsel, and
standing on a crescent, her long blue dress sup-
ported by four Archangels. Ten Archangels and
ten Sybils are recognised here, at least I have
seen their names given at length in the news-
papers. The procession was closed by a few
priests, and some soldiers with military music.
There was also a funcion at one of the Churches,
to receive some new members into a Brotherhood
for the Verification of the Immaculate Con-
ception.
!
Cadiz, May 17, 1851.
Two days before we came away from Seville,
in the night, Count, who was staying in the
house in which we were, beat the head waiter
severely, and drew his sword. The waiter said he
had his knife, and would have stabbed him, but being
brother to the master of the house, and knowing
that if the Count were killed, the house would be
shut up, he kept his ire down. In the morning
the man being seriously injured, they had recourse
to justice, but could get none, because the Count
was in office at Court, and well known. The
doctors say the man must keep his bed for a long
time. We had a dispute at dinner between a
Dutchman, a Pole, a Frenchman, and three
Spaniards, as to which was the most polished and
courteous nation. The Spaniards carried it by
86
ALBUERA.
dint of throat, though the Pole and Dutchman
were hard to vanquish. Knife and fork in hand,
they threw their arms over their heads, then
stretched them out, as if with some evil design.
against their adversaries across the table, and
vociferated, till we, as well as an unhappy solitary
German, deserted the table as soon as our hunger
was satisfied. They all agreed fully in one thing,
that the English were the least courteous and
polished. "They care for nothing but money.
If a man is rich, it does not signify what his
manners are, in England."
All here (at Cadiz) is fresh and quiet as an
English village. Yesterday was the anniversary
of Albuera, and it had a grand celebration. The
d Oh Albuera, glorious field of grief,
As o'er thy plain the pilgrim prick'd his steed,
Who could foresee thee, in a space so brief,
A scene where mingling foes should boast and bleed?
Peace to the perished! may the warriors' meed
And tears of triumph their reward prolong!
Till others fall where other chieftains lead,
Thy name shall circle round the gaping throng,
And shine in worthless lays, the theme of transient song!
Childe Harold, Canto I.
"The battle of Albuera was one of the most murderous of
modern times. The British loss consisted of nearly 900 killed,
2732 wounded, 544 missing. The Portugese lost about 400.
The Spaniards above 2000. The total loss of the French could
not have been less than 8000 men. Soult is said to have
acknowledged, that he had never before seen so desperate and
bloody a conflict." Southey's Pen. War, c. 38.
SYSTEM OF ESPIONAGE.
87
Alameda was filled with horse and foot, banners,
and band. They formed in deep column to march
to their place of festival. No two muskets were
held at the same degree of elevation; no one
line walked, not to say marched, straight. And
so we are disposed to undervalue them, but with
good officers they would fight bravely, though
the line of march is such, that if one man is in
danger of treading on the heels of the one before
him, he just leans forward, and gives him a push.
The same system of espionage goes on here as at
Malaga. A Spaniard would persuade you that it
is a proof of their attention to ladies. They make
it a boast that no unmarried lady in Cadiz is lost
sight of for a moment even in Church. This of
course nourishes a spirit of intrigue. It is not proper
for a gentleman to join a young lady walking with
her mother on the Alameda. The thermometer
at Cadiz continues at about 65, while at Seville
it was at 76.
CHAP. V.
Gibraltar. The Cobbler's Garden. Malaga. Casa de
Pupilos. Cow-fight. Vigil of All Saints. All Souls Day.
Priestly character. Abuse of Confession. Tone of mind of the
Laity. State Education. Church Services. La Sagrada
Compania. The British Legion. Stabbing. University of
Salamanca. Catechising. Appointment of Clergy. Charac-
teristic Dialogue. Names. Nacimiento.
Letters of J. M. from Malaga, from Oct. 1850, to
Christmas, 1850.
Oct. 9, 1850.
SUNDAY morning at day break we anchored in
Gibraltar bay. I got up at six, and got together
the luggage. The trouble of landing was made
easy by the kindness of Captain, who was a
fellow-passenger. As the host of porters stood
jabbering to one another, he took out his watch,
and said, "Now if this luggage is not gone in
five minutes, I'll order out a fatigue party, and
they shall take it." It vanished immediately.
Having obtained passports, and called on the
Archdeacon, we took a singular and beautiful
6
GIBRALTAR.
89
walk to the Cobbler's garden.' It is the garden
which a little Frenchman made and cultivated for
seven years, without its existence being even known.
It is now made over to him for his life, and his
delight is to stick up in it every extraordinary
thing he can get in the most incongruous way.
He has a little cottage or hut there, but was not
at home. It is on the side of the rock some way
above the Alameda.
The fortifications are far more wonderful than
I had supposed. They rise in three tiers, and
honeycomb the whole face of the rock, to the
height of seven hundred feet. There is not a yard
of the entrance on the Spanish side, which they do
not cover. Cornwallis and St. George's halls
are very fine. The galleries are from seven to
twelve feet high, wide enough for three abreast.
The evenings are very warm, as the rock gets
heated by the western sun. We had some of
the usual employment at night, in hunting mos-
quitos.
[Malaga, Oct. 14.] On Friday at four o'clock.
we left Gibraltar in a boat for Algeciras, but it
was the old story; the packet did not arrive, and
about half past six we landed. I left the luggage
in the boat for the night, and in the morning we
started for the pier, and joined it. The carabineros
were on board, and a party who preceded us had
every box opened. I entreated, but all in vain.
90
GIBRALTAR TO MALAGA.
No! it must be opened. I was in dismay, having
taken charge for some friends of nailed boxes with
unknown contents, when happily the captain de-
clared that he could wait no longer, and my things,
after an immense jabber, were hoisted on board,
and we started.
Now I had breathing time, and was able to look
round me, and a nice sight it was; the dirtiest
filthiest boat I ever was in, and yet under the
pretence of washing, wet all over. Then she
proved very slow, and it soon became clear that
we should not get pratique at Malaga that night.
The sea was not rough, but for some reason,
whether the uneasy motion of the vessel, or the
dirty unpleasant state in which it was, I found it.
the worst voyage I ever had. At eight o'clock,
too late to be permitted to land, we anchored in
Malaga harbour, and then it appeared that all the
ladies' berths were wet through; the vessel pitched
just enough to keep us very ill all night.
Malaga, Oct. 21, 1850.
We have established ourselves in a Spanish
Casa de Pupilos. I must give you an account
of our dinner, as it will serve as a specimen of
Spanish fare. We consider it superior in quality
to that of the Fonda, but it comes in a queer
scrambling way. First is a plain soup, or a dish
of rice; then the puchero; then commonly chops,
SPANISH CASA DE PUPILOS.
91
a fowl, a salad floating in oil and water, a pi-
miento, and then fish, perhaps some other odd
looking dish, and then postres, which are usually
rice milk, or a sort of plain custard and preserved
quince, with grapes, walnuts, and roasted chesnuts.
Our rooms are very quiet; none of the noise of the
Fonda: indeed we hear nothing at night but the
deep rush of the sea. We are seeing something
too of Spanish ways, and picking up more of the
language.
Our party at dinner changes from time to time.
Next to ourselves is a lively little native of Madrid,
who is very polite, but speaks faster even than an
Andalusian, so fast that his own countrymen
make him repeat. He is very friendly, and has
lent us a volume of the Semana Pintoresca, which
is the Spanish Illustrated News. Then we have
Don O. and then Don N. All these three are per-
fectly well-bred, and gentlemen in their manners;
but the two former generally prefer dining in smart
dressing gowns and little caps on their heads.
The next is Don Q. who suffers greatly from gout.
Then we have a Priest. He was a friar at the Merced,
but has been expelled, and has some duties at the
hospital of S. Juan de Dios. Don N. introduced me
to him as a brother Priest, and enquired why we do
not wear the corona; "porque no gastamos corona en
Inglaterra?" We have often also another Priest at
dinner; and lately has come a very stout man,
92
COW-FIGHT.
wearing a short jacket. Still the dinner is good
and quiet, and the people cheerful, but never noisy,
and we understand them so as to take part in the
conversation.
[Nov. 7.] There has been an exhibition which
was new to me, not a bull-fight, but a cow-fight.
It is a real fact, and that with women for Picadors..
A woman is mounted on a donkey, astride like a
man, with a lance, and then the cow is let into the
ring. The donkey immediately turns tail, pursued
by the cow. The horns being muffled, she cannot
gore, and accordingly donkey and rider get upset ;
and to make the matter more interesting, some of
the riders were black women. This is a refined
amusement for a Sunday afternoon! However, it
was not much frequented.
The Vigil of All Saints is one of the very few
Vigils observed here, and some of the party were
very sulky at having to eat vigil,' though I am
sure we had an excellent dinner of fish, vegetables,
sweets, and fruit. We shall have no such hardships
again, except noche buena, till Lent. On All Saints
day, as it is the Vigil of the Animas, it is the
custom to go to the Campo Santo to burn lights
before the niches of the dead. We went, and
found that it had degenerated into a crowded
promenade, where people meet and gossip, and look
at one another. There can be no holy and peace-
ful thoughts of the dead in such a scene. Little
CLERICAL STIPENDS.
93
stalls were got up all round the outside with
refreshments, and there were the old sounds of
Agua a!" "Castaña as!" "Pan de Biscocho o !”
66
There has been a funeral at the English burial
ground, at which I officiated. The Spaniards.
attended in great numbers, and have expressed
themselves much struck by the Service. There has
since appeared a public order from the Corregidor
for the better arrangement and greater propriety
of their own.
I have read all the unhappy distractions at home.
Whatever betides, we must cling to the ship, and
fight for her. There is no possibility of going to
Rome, and further acquaintance with her practice
makes me feel this more and more.
Malaga, Dec. 17, 1850.
We are living in a Spanish house, where we dine
every day with five or six laymen and a Priest,
and through them we learn the state of the middle
classes here. The Church was wholly plundered
of her property fourteen or fifteen years since,
and made dependent on the State; the Parish
Priests, Curas, between their salary and fees,
receive about £70 or £80 per annum, other
Priests called Beneficiados, who assist them, and
are like our Curates in some things, though not
appointed by the Curas, about £40. The income
of the Cura depends in part on fees, about which
they are said to be exacting, and therefore it is
94
STATE OF RELIGION.
irregular. They have lost their influence over
the people, chiefly I think by their past immorality.
The experiment of a celibate clergy here has
been attended with the worst results; there are
families in Malaga known to be the children of
Monks and Priests. Under the weight of this the
whole religious system seems to have broken down.
Confession, which is the mainspring of religious
life in the Roman Church, is gone, the people here
all tell me, that is, the men, "Yes, it is the rule of
the Church, but we do not observe it.”
"What,
do you never confess?"
(C
No, never." Some
years since it was necessary to have a certificate
of confession before holding any office under
government, and the certificates were bought and
sold for a peseta (tenpence).
We have had generally two priests at the table,
brothers, and both formerly Monks; the one is a
well-educated man, the other not so, but both
very good tempered; and they had need be so, for
the great entertainment of the laymen is to attack
them. One day it is the celibacy of the clergy,
another day some absurd miracles, another a ques-
tion why they say that Protestants cannot be
saved, &c. The Priests generally parry the ques-
tions with great good humour; but one of our
friends has taken to reading the Bible, and the
e These certificates are still required at Malta, or were till
very lately. One of the few Maltese with whom I became ac-
quainted had bought one.
STATE OF RELIGION.
95
result is, that he asks the Priests questions about
Lot's daughters, and the probability of the Flood;
and another, a merry hare-brained fellow, suggested,
that as the Chinese did not believe in the Deluge,
perhaps it was not true. I find myself on the
same side with the Priests, and suggesting that
it is better not to read the Bible, than to read it
without a good intention. A few days since,
Don R. told the Priests, that religion was a mat-
ter between himself and GOD, and no one else
had any thing to do with what he thought about
it. I told him that he was more Protestant than
I was, which amused and puzzled him very much,
for they think that a Protestant is one who be-
lieves nothing. They ask us many strange ques-
tions, e. g. why I wear whiskers, which you are
aware is not the custom with Priests here? whe-
ther or no we say Masses on the day of the
Animas in England? why the English are so fond
of distributing Bibles without notes? have we got
the Ave and Credo and Pater noster in England?
do we believe that 'GOD comes down' in the
Eucharist? do we believe in the Communion of
Saints, and in Purgatory? I always answer, that
we are Catholics, and hold the Catholic Faith,
but that there is much liberty in England, and
many Protestant sects who believe any thing or
nothing. "Ah!" they answer with one voice,
"there are many of those here, many who believe
.
96
SERMON ON ALL SOULS DAY.
nothing." And it plainly must be so. What
education there is, is wholly in the hands of
the Government, the whole being supported by
local taxes; and they never catechise in Church,
though it is strictly enjoined by the Canons
every Sunday and all through Lent.
The Services in the Churches are Mass in the
morning, and nothing else during the day, except
occasionally in Lent, and when they celebrate the
Novena or Septena of some Saint. Then there is an
afternoon Service, consisting of the recital of the
Rosary, with meditations selected by the Cura,
and read aloud by him from some approved book,
and a Sermon. On the day of the Animas, I went
to hear a celebrated preacher on Purgatory, a
powerful and painful doctrine as they teach it
here. The Church was crammed, and the latter
part was very exciting to the congregation, which
consisted almost wholly of women. It was a long
Prayer for those in the flames of Purgatory. First
for all Cardinals, Bishops, and Priests, and the
congregation answered with suppressed and una-
nimous voice, Requiescant in pace. Then he re-
minded them of fathers, brothers, wives, husbands,
children, suffering still, and partly through their
neglect, and you might hear suppressed sobs run
through the Church, joined with the often repeated
prayer, Requiescant inpace. And then it concluded,
and I went out, and watched the people leave the
DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY.
97
Church, and saw them wipe away their tears, and
exchange salutations, as light-hearted and as quickly
moved either way as they ever are here. But
there must have been great and grave faults when
such a people are not a religious people". While
d Let us look into a Sicilian Church, and see what is the
doctrine preached there on the same anniversary. On the 2nd of
November, 1838," says Mr. Gladstone, "in the Church of the
Anime del Purgatorio at Messina, a discourse was preached by
the Padre Cavallari. The preacher alluded to the gloom with
which the day was invested by the Church, and said that he would
console his hearers by setting before them their great privilege
in being allowed to succour those souls of the just which, though
they had died in faith and merits, had not yet sufficiently expi-
ated their sins; so that while the love of God yearned towards
them, it could not take effect, inasmuch as his justice bore them
away to the awful pains which they were at that moment en-
during. To the faithful on earth it is given to procure their
release, which they are to do by means of prayers, of alms, and
of masses. Through these last there comes to the sufferers
great relief during the time which they are said: according (as
he stated) to S. Jerome, at the moment at which the Host is
elevated, there is even an entire suspension of the pains of those
on whose behalf the sacrifice is offered. Without any doubt or
scruple, therefore, he would affirm, that the zeal of the Apostles of
Christ, which was so much commended in the Church, and by
which they preached the Gospel to the world, was a zeal far in-
ferior to that of those who by such masses should procure the
release of souls from purgatory, For those to whom the Apostles
preached were men yet in their sins, of whom it was yet quite un-
certain whether they could ultimately profit by the grace tendered
them or not, or whether they were the objects of the effectual
and permanent love of God or not: but these are souls ever-
lastingly redeemed, and already holy, only waiting for the consum-
H
98
PURGATORY.
waiting in the crowded Church before the sermon,
I saw three Masses said, one after another, without
interval, at the same Altar, by the same Priest, and
a most irreverent spectacle it was. I have bought
a copy of S. Bernard, and have been studying him
in order to find his opinion on Purgatory; and
though there is much on the intermediate state, I
cannot find that even he has one word on Purgatory,
as it is taught and believed here. His sermons
contain five or six short passages referring to a
purifying fire after death, otherwise I believe no
allusion to Purgatory occurs throughout his works.
We have lately had an officer of carabineros in the
house, who has been through the Carlist wars,
and entertained us much. He gave me a strange
called La sagrada com-
.account of a Carlist troop
mation of their holiness: as they then are infinitely more dear to
God, so is it a far higher work to be concerned in their relief.
And they, when liberated from torture and received by Christ
into heaven, will retain especially their gratitude to those on earth,
who have been the means of their release, and will powerfully in-
tercede for them, as he instanced by a number of temporal
deliverances. For his own part, he would esteem the sharing in the
liberation of a soul from purgatory his best assurances of his
own eternal salvation. And he concluded with an invocation to
these departed spirits, to remember in their prayers the preacher
Cavallari, who had on that day feebly endeavoured to plead their
cause." A deep and half articulate Amen broke from many of the
auditory as he concluded. As he left the steps of the pulpit, one
of the congregation fell on his neck, and kissed him with
enthusiasm ” Gladstone's Church Principles, chap. vii. 31.
STABBING.
99
pania. It was formed of Monks who took up arms
for Don Carlos, and commanded by a very fat
friar. They were the most undisciplined corps
in the army, very bad to fight, but fond of col-
lecting contributions. He told me, that there
are two officers in the Spanish army, one a
Brigadier, and the other a Colonel, who cannot
marry because they have taken the vows.
I asked him about the British legion under
General Evans, and he said they were drunken and
undisciplined, but desperate fighters; and on one
occasion, when they were almost exterminated,
they died fighting, "murieron matando."
has left us now, and our party consists of three
laymen, two ladies, the Priest, and ourselves.
He
The Priest is Chaplain to the Hospital, and he
tells me that he has at least one man every day
brought in stabbed, sometimes six or seven, but
they seldom die, as the stabs are not given in
premeditated malice, but in drunken brawls.
He says, that the greater number happen on
fiestas, &c. but that on Noche buena, i. e. Christ-
mas Eve, when the whole population are out,
though he has been Chaplain fourteen years, he
never knew a single case.
Bishop of Malaga is just nominated Archbishop
of Granada. I asked who nominated him. “The
Government," he said, "subject to the approbation
of the Pope." This is almost worse than with
He tells me, that the
Uor M
100
STUDENTS OF SALAMANCA.
ourselves-the Government and a foreign Bishop.
We have at least a form of election, which may be
revived.
The Students of Salamanca, where the clergy
used chiefly to be educated, (but which is now
fallen into great decay,) have a curious custom.
They are mostly very poor, and during the
vacation they form parties, and wander about
the country asking alms. They have generally
one clever fellow with a guitar, who improvises
verses, and they are very popular, and collect
much. But it seems that one great reason of
their popularity is, that their verses, though clever,
are full of double entendres of the worst character,
and they live about at different inns and lodging
houses till term time comes round. A strange
education, is it not? I am glad to say, that those
who are to be priests do not join in these parties ª.
d Salamanca is now scarcely a shadow of its former self. "In
the fourteenth century, it could reckon 14,000 students; in the
sixteenth it had declined to 7000, and continued to languish till
the French invasion. Now it is a comparative desert. Oct. 1,
1846, there were only 30 Doctors and 400 Students.
'Among
other acts of violence and oppression,' writes the Duke, June 18,
1812,' the French have destroyed 13 out of 25 convents, and 20
of 25 Colleges which existed in this celebrated seat of learning.'
The western portion of the ill-fated city is now quite a heap of
ruins," continues Ford; "thus conceive Oxford, if M. Joinville,"
(truly times have changed since the last edition of the Hand-
book!) "should enter and écraser Ch. Ch., Corpus, Merton, Orie!,
MaU
ROBES.
CATECHISING.
101
Malaga, Nov. 18, 1850.
I am reading the Canons and Synodalia of the
Church of Malaga, made in 1681, and comparing
them with present practice. I find that Canons
are dead letters in other places as well as England.
This morning we wandered into the Parish Church
of San Felipe, and found three Priests who in-
vited us in, and shewed us the robes and sacred
vessels. Some of the Chasubles and Dalmatics
were very handsome, though tarnished with age.
There are different sets for the great festivals of
the year, and also for the martyrs' days, and for
funerals. One Chasuble cost £210. The vessels
were the same as our own, with the addition of
the Custodia and Crucifix. The Chalices and
Paten were silver gilt. I asked them respecting
catechising, as I had never heard of it. They
said that it was not now practised. I then asked
about the schools. It was evidently a sore sub-
ject, and they hesitated: however, they told me
that the schools were all under Government, some
All Souls, the Radcliffe, Bodleian, Brasenose, and S. Mary's.
The Colleges were divided into Mayores and Menores, the
Escuelas into Mayores, Menores, and Minimos. At the larger
Colleges were taught Divinity, Law, Medicine, and the Classics;
at the smaller, Grammar and Rhetoric. At the larger Schools,
Theology, Canon Law, Medicine, Mathematics, Philosophy
Natural and Moral, Languages, and Rhetoric: at the smaller,
Grammar and Music: at the smallest, Reading and Writing."
Spain, p. 292.
HorM
102
SCHOOLS. NAMES.
paid by Government directly, some by the corpo-
ration, and some by the merchants, who are rated
for the purpose. I asked if the Priests taught in
them? They said, that the masters were appointed
by Government, and the Clergy could only teach
en punto de religion.... The assistant Clergy
are not appointed by the Cura of the Parish. The
Bishop selects three, and presents them to the
Queen, who selects one. They say most of the
Masses, and attend to the choir, but the Cura has
the charge of souls in the parish, and occupies
the pulpit, except when the Bishop sends a
special preacher, as in Lent.
We have picked up a good copy of S. Bernard.
It was too large for us to carry home, so the book-
seller called a bare-footed ragamuffin out of the
streets, who put them on his head, and trotted off
with them. Anda con tus libros, "Get along
with your books," cried one man indignantly, when
our little friend got in his way. In the crowded
streets we became a great object of interest. As
we came in, I heard Dolores from the top of the
stairs, calling, "Trinidad, Trinidad, Trinidaita."
You must know, the little slip-shod girl in the
house is named Trinidad, nombre muy bonito, as
Dolores says. Another day I heard a characteristic
dialogue. Some one rang the bell, and Jose
pulled the string to open the latch from upstairs,
bawling out, “Quien es.” The answer was,
" Ave
FERTILITY OF OATHS.
103
Maria purisima;" to which Jose bawled again,
"Sin pecado concebida." It proved to be a
woman begging, so he supplicated his sister, "por
Dios," to pardon him, and depart, and so it con-
cluded. Several of the names here strike one
as being very strange. Salvador is by no means
an uncommon name for a man, nor Trinidad for a
I never met with any man named Jesus,
but I have seen the name in the list of marriages
and deaths in the newspapers. The way in which
the name Jesus is used, as a common exclama-
tion of surprise, strikes very painfully on an
English ear. Mrs.
remonstrated with her
woman.
cook for doing so, and was answered that it was
not an irreverence, because she did not mean our
Lord, or think of Him, when she said it.
It was
only an exclamation.
The polite way of doing things here is most
' Dr. Newman's way of accounting for the variety and fertility'
of oaths in Romanist countries is as follows: 'Listen to their
(Catholics') conversations; listen to the conversation of any
multitude or any private party; what strange oaths mingle with
it! God's heart, and God's eyes, and God's wounds, and God's
blood: you cry out,' How profane!' Doubtless: but do you not
see that the special profaneness above Protestant oaths lies not
in the words, but simply in the speaker, and is the necessary
result of that insight into the invisible world which you have
not? Your people would be as varied and fertile in their adju-
rations and invocations as a Catholic populace, if they believed
as we." Newman's Ninth Lecture.
104
NACIMIENTO.
amusing. The other day a friend dined with me,
and when the bill came in, there was no additional
charge. I sent down word to the landlady, 'La
Señora,' and the maid came back saying, " Dice que
nada." The next week I broke a basin: again it
did not appear in the bill: again I sent a message,
and received in answer, " Dice que nada."... There
is a new play come out, which is a good deal talked
about. It is called," El Mercado de Londres." Arich
London merchant becomes jealous of his wife,
whereupon, as is the fashion in England, he deter-
mines to sell her, which accordingly he does for
24,000 reals. They asked us gravely in the
comedor, whether it was the custom to sell wives
in England; and when we laugh and say no, they
evidently suspect us of preferring patriotism to
veracity. The market of London was represented
by a stall of dried fish, and another of old clothes.
...Our landlady has just put up (Dec. 23.) a
splendid nacimiento in the sala opposite ours.
There is San José on one side, and la Virgen on
the other, and el niño Jesus, four shepherds kneel-
ing in front, an ox and an ass, and the whole set
off with green shrubs and artificial flowers and
shells. This room goes by the name of the 'Sala
de la Virgen,' because there is a shrine of the
Virgin there, and always a light burning before it.
Some time since Xuareb had presented us with a
nosegay, and the flowers being withered, we de-
NACIMIENTO.
105
sired Dolores to take them away. "I shall take
them to the Virgin," she said; and so accordingly
our poor old withered nosegay was taken to her
shrine. It is one of those wretched dolls, with its
head on one side as if in sorrow, and a dagger in
the breast. Dolores says that is muy bonita. The
whole of the Calle nueva is filled, as last year, with
little nacimientos, and figures of angels, and shep-
herds, and saints. The market groans with fruit
and vegetables.
CHAP. VI.
Bay of Biscay. The Malagueños. Working of an intelligent
Spaniard's mind under present circumstances. The Hours.
Ridicule of Fasting. Stabbing. Treatment of the Priesthood.
Payment of the Clergy. Funeral customs. Epitaphs. The
Fandango. Parochial araangement. Sisters of Charity. Cle-
rical Education. Esparteran Bishops. Vicars Capitular.
Ventura Gomez. Ortigosa. Royal recommendation to Chapters.
Jansenism. Dispensations. State interference in Ecclesiastical
Judgments. Uncanonical Elections. State intrusions in the
dioceses of Toledo Gaudix and Osma. Parallel to the election
to the See of Hereford, and the Episcopal Confirmation
Question.
Letters of F. M. from Malaga, from Oct. 1850, to
Christmas 1850.
Lisbon, Oct. 3, 1850.
WE have had a bad passage. There was a
head wind all down the channel and through the
bay, and we were three days and nights in going
through the latter, instead of forty hours, the
ports closed all the way, the things danced off the
table; the only comfort we had was, that all in our
cabin were good tempered. One of them, a
EVERY-DAY SPANISH LIFE.
107
French lady, who could not speak English, was
nearly wild. She said she was too ill to eat any
thing but fruit and salad, and when a wave struck
the ship very violently, she would jump out of
bed, and run about the cabin, crying aloud.
[Malaga, Feb. 10, 1851.] We have established
ourselves in a thoroughly Spanish house, where
not an individual speaks any language except
Spanish, and between the other guests in the
house, our Spanish friends of last year, and our
good landlady, who is a most devout Roman
Catholic, we see the country under quite a dif-
ferent aspect. What that aspect is would surprise
some of our friends in England. Such light-
hearted, ready-witted, careless, immoral, and ir-
religious people, I never met with. Here and
there of course there is a specimen of real religion.
We have two here, our landlady, and a Priest who
was a member of the Order of the Merced. I
wish that people who get unsettled in England
would come to Spain, and live quietly in one
house as we are doing, not going to Rome or to
Seville just for the great Church ceremonies, but
seeing what is the tone of morals and religion
among the people.
[Nov. 27, 1850.] We saw a sight the other day
very unlike any thing English. A large body of
convicts in chains were employed in cleaning the
harbour. They had a sort of wooden dredge,
108
CONVICTS AT WORK.
which was put out in the water at some distance,
sunk by some of the men standing in the water
up to their knees, and then drawn slowly in,
scooping the sand before it, by means of a large
wheel. We saw the eight convicts who were
standing on it, with the utmost apparent merriment,
making a sort of hopping dance, by moving from
one foot to the other, while one played the cas-
tanets, and all sang. I dare say their merriment
covered heavy hearts, but I could not help think-
ing what an example it was for the crowd of boys
who were leaning over the seawall, laughing and
applauding. The boys here are notoriously rude
and mischievous; there are feuds between the
different quarters of the town, and they assemble,
and have regular fights with stones. The police
disperse them, and put them in gaol when they
find them about it.
There was a grand funcion here yesterday, all
the town went to see it. Two black slaves, be-
longing to a Señor Martinez, were baptized, con-
firmed, and received their first Communion. Their
master and his niece being sponsors, and the
Bishop performing the whole ceremony.
I learnt the other day a curious fact in Spanish
law. You know, perhaps, that a man has very little
power in leaving his property; almost the whole
is disposed of by the law, but any addition which
he has made to his wealth by economy since his
LAWS ON PROPERTY.
109
marriage, is not under the same rule as what he
had before. It is considered that he may do what
he likes with it, but that the probability is that
his wife had as much merit in saving it as he, so she
takes half, and the rest goes as he chooses. I
think the system here very bad. No father can
disinherit his child for any fault, and any girl
may marry any man she pleases against her father's
will, provided she is constant to her intention for
one month from the time of declaring it; that
month not being passed in her father's house, but in
that of some mutual friend. Such a system
appears to me a direct encouragement to fortune-
hunters. When a woman is married too, her
fortune is entirely her own, and if her husband
dies, she will receive it back, but as long as he
lives, he is her administrator, and has absolute
power to dispose of it in her name. There is a
rich man living in Malaga, whose whole property
came by marriage. He is separated from his
wife, and allows her barely the necessaries of life,
and yet all that he has is hers. He could not
pull down a house that belonged to her without
her consent, but he may spend the whole of the
rents.
Malaga, S. Stephen's Day, 1850.
To shew you that earnest minds find difficulties
here, I must tell you something of the state of
at
110
TRIALS OF AN INTELLIGENT MIND.
mind of a Spaniard of our acquaintance. His
history is a very simple one. He is a man of
naturally religious character. He was sent
abroad for his education, carefully taught in the
things of this world, left to take his chance about
those of the next, as many are in all countries.
He came home to find empty heartless forms and
ceremonies, beautiful in their original intention,
but now sometimes almost ridiculous from their
want of life. Monks with large families of chil-
dren, Priests the same, openly known to all. Con-
fession and Communion once a year compulsory,
(no man was eligible to any employment who
could not produce a certificate,) the certificates of
having confessed, commonly sold at the price of
tenpence apiece or less; he became thoroughly
disgusted, and advocated all liberal measures.
The destruction of convents, abolition of the law
about confession, &c. These measures were car-
ried. The result is, that instead of rich Clergy
there are poor; that instead of confessing under
compulsion, or bringing a ticket, he never confesses,
but he is more miserable than ever.
He says
that the Church orders confession, but he cannot
and will not confess to such Priests; he has be-
come acquainted with some good English people,
and studied the Prayer-Book, and New Testa-
ment. Finding no rest or peace in his own Church,
he longs to try ours. He wishes to come to the
TRIALS OF AN INTELLIGENT MIND.
111
English Chapel. Of course it will not be allowed.
I greatly fear that he has embarked in the downward
course that leads to infidelity, and yet he is a man
of a religious disposition. He sees his children
growing up. His wife is a good woman, who is con-
tented to believe as she was taught, but he fears
that the children are not religious, and how to
make them so he does not know. If there were a
Priest whom he could trust, a man of intelligence
and holiness, all might yet be right, but he knows
of none such. He says of himself that he is pro-
fane, for he cannot believe the miracles of the
saints. Surely we cannot find such instances of
want of guidance in the English Church. Of
course there is self-will in this; but what first
stirred him up to set himself against Priests and
Monks, but their own corruption? If he and his
should be lost at the Last Day, will they not have
reason to cry out against their branch of the
Church as much as any in England against theirs?
You ask about the Breviary and Missal. The
secret prayers are printed in the Missal as well as
the others, but the laity make little use of it.
Except quartos for the Churches, there is not a
Missal to be got in Malaga, and we tried most of
the shops of Seville and many in C'adiz in vain. At
three in the afternoon they sing Vespers, Compline,
and Matins; in the morning they sing Prime,
Terce, Sext, and None, which last ends about
112
CHURCH-SERVICES.
FASTING.
nine in the morning. We cannot follow them
with a book; J. finds it as impossible as I do, and
I suppose it is not intended that the people should
do so.
The attendance in the afternoon is on an
average three persons; one perhaps engaged in
private prayer, the others walking about, and
talking in a low tone. The only Service which it
is considered a duty to attend is the Mass, which
is in most Churches every day, in some only on
Sunday, in some more than once a day. If there
is an Evening Service, it generally consists of
Spiritual Exercises and a Sermon. The Spiritual
Exercises are in Spanish. Those which I have
generally heard are the Rosary of the Virgin; the
Priest begins, "Ave Maria," &c. and all repeat
after him.
I have not told you about our companions
here. Do you remember that I said that a
Priest dined with us, who, I thought, did not eat
meat on a Friday? That was a mistake. He does
on Fridays, but on certain Vigils and Ember-days
he does not, which the rest of the party think
very ridiculous, as ridiculous as any body in
England would. As he was a Friar, he chooses,
I suppose, to observe his rules. I like him very
much. He is not a man of any education or
quickness, but is very obliging and good-tem-
pered, and very contented, which few would
be in his place. He and his two brothers be-
EX-MONKS.
113
Our
longed to one of the richest Orders in Malaga.
Fifteen years ago they were plundered, and turned
out. The lay-monks earned their bread as they
could, as day-labourers, &c. We have dealt
sometimes at the shop of one who is married, and
has a family of children. I do not know of what
Order he was. The Priests were promised an
allowance, which was not paid them, but as fast as
it could be done, they were settled in cures.
friend in a year was appointed to the Chaplaincy
of his hospital: I never saw a man so attacked
and insulted as he is by his companions at dinner,
but they cannot ruffle his temper. Once only I
have seen him excited, when a woman had been
brought into the hospital with seventeen wounds,
given her by five or six men in a quarrel; then he
exclaimed indignantly that there was no justice in
the land. He lives all day at the hospital, where
he has a room, and comes here for his dinner. He
does not dress like a Priest, except that he wears
the blue neckcloth".
One of his brothers came to visit him for a
month, a man of far more intelligence and education
than himself, who evidently feels bitterly the de-
graded state of the Church, and we had very
stormy dinner-parties. The other people would
laugh at the authority of the Church, and at
d A dark blue neckcloth with a light stripe in it is always
worn by the Spanish Clergy.
I
114
LAYMEN'S TONE OF MIND.
confessions. The Priest seemed to me to have
the best of the argument, but he could never
convince them. One said one day, "I neither
kill, rob, nor steal, and as for my soul, and
whether it is saved or lost, that concerns none
but myself and GOD." The Priest reminded him
of the time when the law made him confess, and
was immediately attacked by stories of certificates
of confession bought for tenpence or fivepence.
He could only say, "It is your sin, not that of the
Church." Another day we had nothing all dinner-
time but questions about some nuns, to whom
evidently he is confessor. Padre, are the nuns
pretty?" "Padre, do tell me, are they pretty?"
"Padrecito, (little father,) I want so much to
know if they are pretty." One day one of the
others pointed to the hospital-chaplain, and said to
J. "The Padre is so rich, with the money he got
for the pictures out of his convent;" a cruel
mockery, I thought. This led to a history of how
the convents had been plundered, the pictures
sold, and the retablos, a sort of high gilt rere-dos,
taken out of the Churches in many places, and
broken up for the gold. J. asked if the retablos
in Malaga had been taken. "Not one," said the
elder Priest, speaking with a sort of forced calm-
ness, "and the reason was, that they were told
that if any touched them, the gold would turn to
steel, and the steel to blood." One of our laymen
PRACTICAL SCEPTICISM.
has a Bible, it is one with notes.
115
I had no idea
before of the evil of a Bible in the hands of one
who is not taught how to use it. He would
argue against the Flood, using the most infidel
arguments, and treating the Bible with about
as much respect as he would the last new
comedy. At last, the Priest found an unexpected
ally in J. who assured Don R. that he had better
not read the Bible at all, unless he did it in a
better spirit. One day we began dinner alone
with the younger Priest, and asked him some
questions about the Church which formerly be-
longed to his Order. His face quite brightened,
and he began telling us what I thought a very
beautiful story of a miracle attributed to an image
in that Church, which he implicitly believed.
While he was telling it, in came another person,
Don P. who listened to the end, and then ex-
claimed, “And do you believe all this nonsense,
Padre?" The Priest said, "It is not an Article of
faith, and I do not require you to believe it, but
it stands on good testimony.” Why dont such
things happen now?" said the other. "And how
do you know that they do not?" said the Priest.
'Because I never saw them." And he went on to
say, that he would not believe them on the testimony
of men, because "men tell lies." I tell you these
little dialogues, to give you an idea what we find
among the middle classes. When we ask about
66
116
PAYMENT OF CLERGY.
the religious state of the poor, the laymen say,
they go very little to Church; Sunday is for
singing, dancing, and drinking." The Priest, who
has evidently a great affection for the poor, can
only say, "There are some of all sorts. Even in
Malaga there are some very good, and more in the
villages. If it were not for the poor, there would
be no worship of GOD in the land."
Some of the evils against which we are struggling
in England exist here, and are unresisted. The very
form of electing a Bishop does not exist; he is named
by the Queen, and confirmed by the Pope, the Chap-
ter have no voice whatever. There are Govern-
ment-schools for all the poor; the expense is defrayed
by a tax on the town, the master appointed and
removable by the Government alone; the Cura has
the right of inspection as regards the religious in-
struction, but has no authority; so I suppose that
in another generation or two the poor will follow
the example of the rich, and there will be "no
worship of GOD in the land." Tithes are abolished,
the Clergy paid by an especial tax raised for the
purpose. At one time the greater part of the money
found its way into the hands of the Government,
and never went any further. Since Narvaez came
into power they have been paid, but the arrears are
not made up. One Priest, who was a Capuchin,
and as such used to beg, calls at certain intervals
on English residents, who always present him with
FUNERAL CUSTOMS.
117
a donation. They are accused of being very grasp-
ing about fees for attendance at funerals. Nobody
is contented here without a showy funeral, (that
is, no rich person,) and I think that they ought
to pay the poor Priests well. In a large parish
the Cura's income would amount to £80, and his
assistants to £40. I cannot bear the funeral
customs. Every acquaintance of the deceased is
invited to come, and if he has a carriage, to send it
empty. They follow the coffin to the Church, where
there is Mass, and then return to the house. The
feelings of the family do not allow them to go to
the Church, but do allow them to sit at home, and
receive the whole party on their return. Meantime,
the body is carried up alone to the Campo Santo,
followed by the empty carriages, and thrust into
a niche in the wall, where it remains as long as
any one pays a yearly rent for it. When the
family cease to pay, it is taken out at the next
general clearance that is made, and put, with
others in the same circumstances, into a hole in
the ground. On the first of November, when
* By the Concordat, the stipend of a Cura is fixed in city
parishes of from 3,000 to 10,000 reals, i.e. from £30 to £100; in
rural parishes, the minimum is to be 2,200 reals, i. e. £22. This is
besides the fees. Coadjutors and "economos," or temporary
Curas, from 2,000 to 4,000 reals, i. e. from £20 to £40. In addition
there is to be assigned to every Church for the expenses of the
service not less than £10 annually. People opposed to the Church
exclaim loudly against these measures.
118
CAMPO SANTO.
candles are lighted before the niches, and every
body goes to the Campo Santo, it is a very merry
scene. The young men apparently go, as one of
them said that he did, "para mirar á las mucha-
chas,” and “las muchachas," to be looked at. Some
of the foundling boys come up from the hospital
with a black cross, and people who wish to do
honour to their deceased relations, desire their
servants to stop the boys as they go by, and pay
them to sing before the niche. With epitaphs
about "inexorable destiny," "blighted hopes,"
"withered glories," skulls and cross-bones figure
in abundance. The richer families have frightful
mausoleums, with urns, and every thing bad that
can be imagined.
Malaga, Dec. 31, 1850.
The natives are suffering much from the unna-
tural dryness of the weather. The poor country-
people are driven into Malaga by actual starv-
ation. One can distinguish them from the pro-
fessional beggars by their brown faces and absence
of whining. Some of the Salamanca estudiantes
have been in the town begging".
"The poor Students of Spain who aspire only to be humble
Curates, have always been the subjects of witticism and satire :
indeed un estudiante has long been synonymous with an imper-
tinente. The inferior orders of them were permitted by law to
vagabondize, and finish their education by soliciting charity . .
•
THE FANDANGO.
119
Three days ago we walked on the Velez road,
and saw the people dancing on the beach. It is
a very pretty sight. The fandango is danced by
two only. A party go out with guitars and cas-
tanets, sit down on the ground, and begin playing,
which soon attracts other groups, and some young
man asks any girl he likes to dance, the rest stand-
ing round to see, and shouting their applause.
We saw one very handsome young man, in a
smart majo jacket, tire three partners. The bows
and ceremonies that he used in asking them,
and the refusals and hesitations of the girls who
were determined to dance the whole time, were
very amusing. After seeing his performance, we
went to another group, where a clumsy boy and
a clumsy girl were dancing. The disappointment
of the spectators was amusing. A poor woman,
with one of the common shawls over her head, said
to a man of the same class, " They have no grace
at all." "None at all," he answered, shaking
his head, between contempt and pity, and the
These Students are among the boldest and most impertinent of
the human race, full of tags and rags, fun, frolic, licence, and
guitars. Their peculiar compliment is the throwing their cloaks
of shreds and patches on the ground, for the well-dressed hand-
some women to walk over. Few of them have a superfluity of
any thing except impudence. They are gregarious, generally
hunting in packs, but one, the gracioso, or wag of the party, begs
in verse, accompanying his improvisation with a guitar." Ford,
p. 292.
120
MIRACULOUS IMAGE,
whole party broke up, and dispersed. The chil-
dren of labourers regularly learn of a master to
dance the fandango.
On the Noche Buena in one little Church;
people were found playing the zambomba and
tambourine, and dancing, to represent the joy of
the shepherds. In all the Churches they played,
except the Cathedral, which was illuminated, and
so full that it was almost impossible to get from
the west to the east end. We had a little music
here, a zambomba, a tambourine, and a brass
mortar with some singing. In the evening, Don P.
who plays beautifully on the guitar, and extempo-
rizes songs, came and sang, and told us Andalu-
sian stories. The tales of Andalusia far surpass
any Irish stories. The Andaluces do not make
bulls, but they exaggerate in the most marvellous
way.
To-morrow there is to be a great funcion at the
Merced, in honour of a very fine image of our
Lord bearing the Cross. Our friend, the Monk,
told us, that if we went, we should hear the whole
history of the image, which is miraculous. He
began telling it us himself, but unluckily some of
the other people came in, and he was obliged to
be silent, because they make such a mockery of
such things. Living in a Spanish house gives me
more idea of the extensive spread of infidelity
than I had before. Truth and fable have been
PRACTICAL PROTESTANTISM.
121
so mixed up in people's minds, that when they
cease to believe fables, the belief of the truth
goes too.
Malaga, Christmas, 1850.
My opinion of the state of the Church here
does not rise. We now live among Spaniards,
and I never heard more rampant "Protestantism"
than I have heard here. I do no harm, to any
one, they say, and give what I can to the poor, and
then it does not signify what I believe. I am a
good Christian, and as to what concerns my soul,
that is between myself and God, and no man,
Priest or not, has any right to interfere with it.
I am gradually coming to the same opinion
with an English Clergyman, who told me years
ago, much to my surprise at that time, that hẹ
regarded the English Church as the great deposi-
tary of the truth, and the hope of the world; and
therefore I do not wonder that fierce attacks
should be made upon her on every side. If she
should fall, where indeed would Faith be found
on the earth? Where in Europe at least are we
to look for any branch of the Church, which
shews such symptoms of life and truth as our
own?
One day we held a conversation with the Priest
about Spanish Sisters of Charity. They are of
the Order of St. Vincent de Paul. I should like
122
SISTERHOODS.
to see an Order like them established in England,
in addition to our Sisters of Mercy. The latter
give relief to the poor, and consequently must
have funds, and for the most part be of a certain
class of life. These Sisters do not give money,
for they have none to give. They live on £20 a
year each, they always have an oratory, and, I
believe, are provided with clothes, which of course
are plain and cheap. English residents in Malaga
say that the necessaries of life are as dear there
as in England, but of course in that climate
necessaries are fewer. They teach in the schools,
nurse the sick, and serve in hospitals.
In our
English parishes I should like to see the actual
Schoolmistresses and Nurses Sisters, and it might
well be done. There are many now who cannot be
Sisters, because they have not the pecuniary means.
You may be aware, that when Espartero was
in power, the Pope refused to approve his nomina-
tions to Bishoprics. He refused to name others,
and so in, I think, thirty dioceses they were
without Bishops. That was the state of Malaga for
some years. The Government nominee had the
Palace and income, and the Diocese did without
a Bishop. The Bishop of Malaga has just been
nominated to the Archbishopric of Granada.
The last Archbishop was, I believe, a very good
man. He was removed sorely against his will
from the small and poor Bishopric of the Canaries,
ESPARTERAN BISHOPS.
123
to go there two years ago, and died this spring of
pulmonia, caused by the sharp winds of Granada.
To remove from the Canaries or Malaga to
Granada, must be a most dangerous experiment
for old men.
There is an Ordination to-day. A
lawyer lost his wife rather more than a year ago,
and he resolved on taking Orders. The Ordination
takes place privately in the Bishop's Palace. Most
of the Clergy come from a very low class. Many
who have been Monks, were of the very poor.
The regular education in the Bishop's Seminary
costs £40 a year, but not nearly all who are or-
dained can afford that. At Salamanca a gratuitous
education is given. Young men of talent go there,
we are told, and hire themselves in service, with the
condition that they may attend the lectures. Some-
times they set up barbers' shops, or maintain
themselves in any way they can, and many have
thus risen to be Bishops.
In order to explain my correspondent's state-
ment concerning the Esparteran Bishops, it may
be of use to put together a few facts gathered from
no hostile witness, an article in the Dublin Review,
the writer of which, as he speaks of the early
impressions and recollections of childhood in Spain,
may be presumed to be Cardinal Wiseman. When
a See becomes vacant, "the Catholic Church has
most minutely provided for its wants, by vesting in
124
VENTURA GOMEZ.
was
the Dean and Chapter the power and duty of
naming a Vicar Capitular, with jurisdiction over
the diocese sede vacante." The Bishop of Malaga
died. "We will not enter into particulars respect-
ing the first intrusion by the Government of a
Vicar Capitular, further than to say, that he was
a Canon of the Cathedral, as the Canon Law
requires, and had at least that qualification more
than his successor, of whom principally we have
to speak, but that he was a man of suspicious
orthodoxy and lax principles. His name
Manual Ventura Gomez. He was educated in
the suppressed University of Baeza, into which
the works of Febronius and the doctrines of Pistoja
had too fatally penetrated, and he clearly had
brought away his share of them. He was after-
wards obliged to leave the kingdom for his revo-
lutionary doctrines, and came to England, where his
name will be found figuring in the Reports of the
Bible Society, of which he became an active
member." In the spring of 1837 he vacated his
office, having been nominated by the Government
to the vacant see of Jaen. Upon his resigna-
tion, the Chapter elected their Dean as Vicar
Capitular. "We believe we are not wrong in
stating, that, owing to his having acted according to
the laws of the Church relative to the Ordination
of a young ecclesiastic, he was banished beyond
the seas."
ROYAL RECOMMENDATIONS.
125
"To him succeeded the person whom the
Government had thought proper to name as
Bishop Elect of Malaga, Dr. Valentine Ortigosa,
Archdeacon of Carmona, and, as such, Dignitary
of the Cathedral of Seville. He seems in youth
to have had his orthodoxy tried, and found
wanting, for he was brought up for trial before
the Inquisition. He was an active partisan of
Government, and engaged under it when he was
named Bishop Elect of Malaga by the Ministry,
which he had served. Government, regardless of
the canon law, which forbids a Bishop Elect to
be Vicar Capitular, and enjoins that he should be
one of the Chapter, acted upon the plan of recom-
mending to Chapters (sede vacante) to choose for
Vicars the very persons whom it had named for
future Bishops over them. This was the case
with regard to Ortigosa. By a Royal Order, dated
October 7, 1836, the Chapter was recommended
to appoint him its Vicar." The Royal recommend-
ation was obeyed, "the Chapter unfortunately
yielding to the dictation of power," and nomi-
nating him their Vicar. "Here is indeed a good
specimen of the freedom left to the Church for
the discharge of her most important functions by
the pretended champions of that cause.'
Very soon after his arrival at Malaga, he put
forth an address to the Chapter, characterised by
c The italics are the writer's of the Review.
126
ORTIGOSA.
JANSENISM.
"the most extraordinary arrogance and the most
startling Jansenism. Papal enactments are to him
as so much waste paper; and he asserts the doc-
trine which pervades all his other writings, that
Bishops receive their authority in its fulness from
the Church, by mere election or presentation,
without confirmation from the Holy See. So that
presentation by a lay sovereign is enough to com-
municate the plenitude of Apostolic power and of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction! The Bishop Elect im-
mediately appealed" against a remonstrance of his
Chapter "to the civil authorities: the Chapter
were thus compelled to throw themselves under
the protection of the Crown." (This, I presume,
means, that both parties alike appealed to the
civil power.) "As usual, might triumphed over
right."
The next circumstance that brought out Or-
tigosa's character was the following. A Franciscan
Monk of the name of Fernandez had applied to
Ventura Gomez, when he was Vicar, for relief
from his vows of chastity, on the grounds that he
was not of sufficient age when he took the vows,
the certificate of Baptism produced at his profession
being not his, but that of a brother who had died, and
that he had not acted from free choice, but under
fear and compulsion of his brother already in the
Order. He therefore prayed Gomez to interfere in his
behalf, on the grounds, "that dispensation from vows
ORTIGOSA.
DISPENSATIONS.
127
belonged essentially to the Episcopal jurisdiction,
because it belonged originally to the Apostles, the
fulness of whose authority every Bishop inherited,
and that it was only through the false Decretals of
Isidore, and the dark ignorance of the Middle
Ages, that the power was reserved to the Apostolic
See." Gomez decided in his favour, and de-
clared his religious vows null. The Dean, who
next succeeded as Vicar, reversed his predecessor's
judgment. Then followed Ortigosa, and the
Franciscan renewed his petition to him. "The
result was a long decision from the Vicar, dated
Jan. 22, 1838, in which in a bold and open tone of
defiance he strips the Sovereign Pontiff of his ac-
knowledged rights, and out-Herods Herod, going
beyond even the worst disciples of the perfidious
school of Jansenius. The Bull Auctorem Fidei,
to whose censures he exposes himself in almost
every paragraph, he seems to treat with perfect
contempt: and riding over every barrier which
General Councils, Popes, or the very constitution of
Christ's Church, have placed against schismatical
independence of particular Bishops, and acting
further on the clearly false principle, that a Bishop
Elect has all the power of the Apostles themselves,
he pronounces the vows invalid, grants the required
dispensation, and orders the curate of Casarabonda
to marry the apostate. And not so content, he
commands this insulting and heretical document to
128
THEORY OF EPISCOPACY.
be read at the Offertory of the Public Mass in that
place."
His third offence, which "brought out the poison
of Ortigosa's evil principles still more palpably," was
an address to his Chapter, "as full of arrogance and
heresy as such a document could well be," which
arrogance and heresy seem to be contained in the
following sentences: "Penetrated with the thought
of what the Episcopacy is, and of the degradation to
which it has been brought down by the misfortune
of our times, and having made a profound study of
the authentic monuments of the Primitive Church,
monuments quite forgotten and unknown by the
majority of people, and possessed moreover by an
ardent desire to labour for the restoration of its
high privileges, now that important circumstances of
great future interest to the poor Church of Spain,
so critically situated, require it, I feel myself
impelled to enter into this discussion, that so we
may enlighten one another, not being swayed by
the spirit of either the Ultramontane or the
Cisalpine School, by impractical philosophical
Jansenism, by abominable gross and hypocritical
Jesuitism."
In the spring of 1838, "as Ortigosa in all these
matters had not sought concealment, but had made.
his uncatholic notions ostentatiously public, the
Chapter could no longer permit the scandal to
continue. Recourse to Rome was impossible, and
6
STATE-INTERVENTION.
129
therefore the canonical step of denouncing his
writings to the Metropolitan, the Archbishop of
Seville, as unorthodox, and putting him upon his
trial, was adopted. . . The Minister of Grace and
Justice directed him to proceed to Seville," which
accordingly, but not till the following spring of
1839, he did, "having in the preceding autumn
addressed a pastoral to the clergy and laity of the
Diocese, in which he pathetically told them, that
he was going in obedience to the order of Govern-
ment, which is paramount. On his arrival at
Seville, "he threw himself behind the shield of
the State, and appealed to the civil power to rescue
him from the ecclesiastical tribunal. The civil power,
anxious at once to serve and save its own child and
faithful partizan," interposed its authority, forbad
all proceedings, and added a severe reprimand.
"This order," continues the Dublin Review," which
was issued on the 24th of April 1839, excited the
astonishment and indignation of all sensible persons
in Spain, and led to the perplexing conclusion, that
in Catholic constitutional Spain there was no longer
any authority competent to examine into the ortho-
doxy of a public ecclesiastical teacher."..." By the
aid of the civil power he rode triumphant over the
necks of all."
On the first of March, 1841, Gregory XVI. " that
sovereign Pontiff, whose energetic voice had made
a Ferdinand and a Nicholas writhe on their royal
K
130
OPPOSITION TO THE POPE.
and imperial thrones," delivered an address to his
Cardinals in a private consistory, upon the conduct
of Ortigosa. To this Ortigosa replied in a
tone of insult, which we believe has never been
equalled since the days of Luther. He affects to
believe that it must be a forgery, pretends to dis-
tinguish what are the Pope's sentiments in it, from
what has been put into his mouth by treacherous
compilers, extorted, as he repeatedly says, from his
venerable old age, abusing the venerable name of the
Sovereign Pontiff: accuses him of oppression and
injustice against the humblest of Priests, and cites.
him to answer for his allocution before the Judg-
ment-seat of God. For this insolence he was well
chastised in many publications, several of which we
have had occasion to cite, as well as in loose sheets
and newspaper articles now before us."
Ortigosa seems to have retained his position as
Vicar Capitular and Bishop Elect till the over-
throw of Espartero's Government. With the new
Government there came in new principles of
dealing with the Church, and Espartero's nomi-
nees were no longer supported. Ortigosa retired
to Madrid, where in 1845 he was still living.
g A Climax. If such chastisement is sufficient, why do we
find such fault with the laissez faire system of dealing with un-
orthodox statements acted upon by the English Bishops? If it
is not, why should such shortcoming be a sign in England, and
not in Spain?
CASES OF STATE-INTRUSION.
131
"The course pursued by the present moderate
party," in 1845, says the Dublin Review, "presents
a gratifying contrast with that of their prede-
cessors. It has consisted in refraining from all
actual interference, but advising, or at least freely
permitting, the parties to follow the line of conduct
which duty and conscience suggested."
66
In
The case of Ortigosa is not singular.
several instances," continues the Review, "the
Government has thrust into vacant sees persons
wholly unfit by character, and has either extorted
the consent of the Chapter so as to render the
election doubtful, or forced upon them a choice
ipso facto null by common law." Thus Senor
Valleja and Señor Gonfalguer were uncanonically
elected by the Chapter at the instance of Govern-
ment to the post of Vicar Captiulars in the Me-
tropolitan See. "When the pressure of the
Regents' Government was removed.... Gonfalguer
resigned, and left the Chapter at liberty to make
new and canonical arrangements," after being
eight years uncanonically in office. In the dio-
cese of Guadix," the civil Governor of the Pro-
vince thought proper to order a protest or manifesto
against the Pope's Allocution of March 1, 1840,
to be read in all the Churches on three successive
festivals." On the Vicar's opposing it, he was
banished for four years, and, I presume, the protest
was read. In the diocese of Osma, Campuzano
132
PARALLEL TO THE HEREFORD ELECTION.
had been illegally promoted. On the overthrow
of Espartero, and a hint from the Minister of
Grace and Justice, "that it would be gratifying
"and
to her Majesty the Queen," he resigned,
thus the Chapter was left to the free and unbiassed
exercise of its rights in a new election."
Now in this whole affair the conduct of the
Government was clearly iniquitous, and Ortigosa
may have been a heretic; certainly in a Romanist's
acceptation of the term he was. I have no desire
to defend one or the other. But there is one
thing which forces itself very strongly on the
mind on the consideration of these facts, namely,
that there is a parallelism between them and some
events which have happened among ourselves,
which ought to have stopped the mouths of those
who were most loud-voiced on the subject of the
election to the See of Hereford, and the question
of Confirmation of Bishops. An heretical Arch-
deacon and Cathedral Dignitary is on the recom-
mendation of the civil power invested by the due
ecclesiastical instruments with Episcopal Juris-
diction, which Jurisdiction was to continue till
the See (to which he was himself nominated) was
filled up, and did last till his Patron the Prime
Minister went out of office. On the other side, a
Professor of Divinity who was not heretical, but
who had in the opinion of most sound members of
the Church put forth certain unorthodox state-
PARALLEL OF STATE-INTERFERENCE.
133
ments at one period of his life, is on the like
recommendation elected by the like body as their
Bishop, and consecrated by the Metropolitan.
Again, England has been ringing (and may it
continue to ring till the wrong is redressed) with
the injustice and absurdity of there being, ac-
cording to one interpretation put upon the law,
no means of testing the orthodoxy and fitness of
Priests recommended by the Crown to be elected
and consecrated Bishops. Yet in Catholic Spain
the tyrannous interference of the civil power led
alike to "the conclusion, that there was no longer
any authority competent to examine into the or-
thodoxy of a public ecclesiastical teacher." What
should we think of Spaniards who, owing to these
and like scandals, had taken to turning Greeks?
If we refuse to discern in these circumstances any
notes of uncatholicity in the Church of Spain,
how can we, as logical thinkers, or honest-hearted
men, make the shadow of their counterpart a note,
much more, as some have done, a damning proof,
against the Catholicity of the Church of England?
CHAP. VII.
Home Mission at Malaga. Archbishop of Santiago's Sermon
in the Cathedral. Maria Santisima. Doctrine of Indulgences.
Exhortation to Confession. Day of Judgment. Effect of the
Mission. Supply of Clergy. Hymns to the Blessed Virgin.
Novena to the Blessed Virgin. Legend of Sta. Rita. The Bible.
Forged Miracles. Contempt of the Priesthood. Fray Feliz.
The Divine Shepherdess. Masses for the Dead. Presentations.
Murders. Gipsy-widow. Legend of S. Demas. Intercession of
S. Mary. Rich convents in Malaga. Dominicans. Capuchins
at Carthagena. Country-people.
Letters of F. M. from Malaga during the Spring
of 1851.
Malaga, Jan. 29, 1851.
I HAVE to give you an account of a Mission that
has been carried on here lately, far the most satis-
factory thing that I have yet seen in the Spanish
Church. It has really been quite refreshing to see
at last something of zeal and energy. It was an-
nounced in the newspapers, that on Sunday, the
12th of January, a Mission was to be held by four
Ex-Capuchins, by order of the Bishop. The first
day there would be a Sermon at half past four in
HOME MISSION.
135
the Cathedral; for a fortnight after, two every day
at the same hour at two of the parish-churches; ·
and on Sunday the 26th, conclude with one at the
Cathedral. The object was to be preaching re-
pentance, and receiving confessions. The confessors
were to be empowered to absolve in reserved cases,
and there would be three Plenary Indulgences.
There was great need of something. The outward
appearance of Malaga is one of unbelief and in-
difference among the rich, and of immorality among
Confession seemed to be becoming a
dead letter, daily diminishing, and there was no
check upon them. The murders, stabbings, and
immoralities were frightful in number.
the poor.
These Capuchins are of the strictest order. Two
of the four who conducted the Mission are very
celebrated preachers. Fray Feliz Maria de Cadiz
has a wonderful power over his audience. He can
make them laugh or cry as he pleases, and he can
preach for hours: another is breaking down from
illness. His chest is affected, and it was a most
touching thing to see him striving beyond his
strength, and wearing himself out in his earnest
exhortations to the people. It was necessary to
arrange, that these two should preach on the same
day and at the same hour, or the others would
have been deserted for them. On the fifth day of
the Mission, Padre Cadiz reproved his hearers
bitterly. They thronged to hear, but nothing
136
ARCHBISHOP OF SANTIAGO.
more. Every morning he waited to receive con-
fessions, but no more than four or five would come.
That day there arrived by accident the Ilustrisimo
and Escelentisimo Señor Don Antonio Claret and
Clara, Archbishop of Santiago, in the isle of Cuba,
accompanied by six Missionaries and twenty Sisters
of Charity. He had been driven back by bad
weather, and obliged to stop here on his way to
take possession of his diocese. He is himself a
very celebrated preacher, and undertook to preach
the next day at the Cathedral. The Padres gave
notice to their congregations, and all Malaga went
mad on the spot. The religious people were wild
with delight at the number of Indulgences and
spiritual privileges he could give, and the others
would as soon have missed seeing a wild-beast
show as the Archbishop. He was to preach at
half past four, and by one o'clock every spot where
there was a reasonable hope of hearing was
filled, and still people continued flocking in un-
ceasingly. We went at three o'clock, and could
hardly get in at the great south door. The floor
was covered with sitting ladies, but I saw some
ladies making their way through the throng, as
none but a Spanish lady can do, and followed to a
place in sight of the pulpit. I never saw such a
scene. Every body was talking loud, a thing which
they do not seem to think irreverent, and the noise
echoing through the building was like the waves
ARCHBISHOP'S SERMON.
137
of the sea.
Some of my neighbours occupied
themselves in guessing who I was. Having settled
that I was English, they next debated whether or
not I understood them, and applied to me to decide
the question, and on my answering in the affirma-
tive, they entered into conversation with me, and
with Spanish courtesy several in succession gave
up their places. After a time people began to
make their appearance on the top of the Choir-
wall above the stalls: some sat behind it, with a
high wooden partition between them and the
pulpit. At last the north door opened, and in
came the procession struggling through the living
We all stood up to see, and sitting down
again was impossible. Directly there was a talking
through the Church, the tall people telling the
short ones, "He's in the pulpit," "Now he's
kneeling down," "Now he is standing up." "He
is short, but they say he has a good voice." "Can
you hear?" "Not a word."
mass.
"Can you?" "It is a
very pretty bird with fine feathers, but I have not
heard its voice." "Come along to the other side."
One man I heard behind me quote a passage from
the last new farce in ridicule of the English. The
Archbishop raised his voice in a shout which rang
through the whole building, and produced a momen-
tary silence; but no human voice could have been
audible in such a throng for a continuance, and the
noise rose up again like the waves of the sea. His
138
MARIA SANTISIMA.
Archiepiscopal dress was beautiful; dark purple
with silver lace, and a silver cross on the breast;
his action was unceasing and most graceful, though
too theatrical. He continued for one hour and a
half without once stopping to take breath, or to wipe
his face, as other preachers do; and when he chanted
the Blessing at the conclusion, his voice was as
clear, and sweet, and as fresh, as at the beginning.
He has been known to go on for seven hours.
All that I could catch of the Sermon, amidst the
noise, was a panegyric on 'Maria Santisima,' and
an exhortation to apply to her as the Giver of
Repentance, and all things. "All the gifts of
God pass through her hands. We may see this in
a simile in our own families. Through whom do
children receive all things? Through their mothers.
If God gives such honour to earthly mothers, is it
likely that he would give less to His own?" "The
Apostle said, that neither height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, could separate him from the
love of God; so we may say that neither height,
nor depth, nor any thing else, can separate us from
the love of Maria Santisima." When he had
finished, he blessed all the rosaries and medals that
had been brought, from the pulpit, and gave
several Indulgences. A Bishop can give forty
days, an Archbishop eighty days, an Apostolic
Missionary one hundred days; so he gave one
hundred and eighty, and we dispersed. I felt
very
INDULGENCES.
139
much as if I had been at the theatre. Next day
the Archbishop preached five more Sermons, one
of which was more than an hour long, visited all
the convents, the Seminario and the Sisters of
Charity, and by half past five on Sunday morning
was on board again.
The following day the consumptive Capuchin
preached, and such an effective Sermon I do not
think I ever heard. They always begin with a sort
of preface; then they desire the people to say the
Ave Maria with them; then give instruction on
some point of doctrine; and lastly, a vehement
exhortation, concluding by displaying the Crucifix.
The subject of instruction this time was In-
dulgences, which he professed to explain for the
benefit of the ignorant ¹.
h 'The Sacrament of
Penance, he said, takes away the punishment of
deadly sin, which is hell, but it does not free us
unconditionally: the eternal punishment is com-
muted for a temporal penalty, which must be paid
either on earth by Penance, or in Purgatory by
torments equal in all but duration to those of hell.
Some people think, that forty days' Indulgence
only diminishes forty days of our time in Purgatory:
but this is a mistake: it takes away the debt for
forty days of neglected earthly penance, the pay-
h On the subject of Indulgences, consult Jeremy Taylor's
Dissuasive, Part I. c. 1. §. 4. p. 138. and c. 2. §. 4, 5, 6. p. 235. ed.
Eden.
140
INDULGENCES.
ment of which in Purgatory may be many years
or many thousands of years. Every body who
confesses and communicates during this Mission
obtains a Plenary Indulgence. Every body
who attends the Sermon with sincere intention
obtains another, that is, all the arrears of Penance
are wiped off, so that a person dying immediately,
being in a state of grace, would go straight to
glory without Purgatory, but moreover at this
Mission an additional Plenary Indulgence is ob-
tained, which is reserved till the hour of death, so
that if you make the Priest understand that you
have it when you are dying, he will impart it in
the regular form, and then you are safe from
Purgatory. But you must remember, that no
one in Spain can get any Indulgence, unless he is
in possession of the Bula de la Cruzada,' which is
not only to allow you to eat meat on Friday;
that is the least of his merits: the Holy See
has been so gracious to Spain, that any man in
this country who has the Bull can get no less than
ninety Plenary Indulgences in the course of the
year; every day in Lent, for instance, by only going
to a Church and saying so many Aves or Salves,
one may be got.'
6
After this explanation, he went on to the
effective part of his Sermon, which consisted
of an exhortation to repentance and confession,
and a warning of the difficulty of a death-bed
CONFESSION.
141
repentance. He was extremely eloquent and
earnest, and appeared to be suffering much from
his exertions, and towards the end the people
began to sob a great deal. He told the story of
some Saint who saw in a vision a man trying to
carry a heavy burthen of wood, and because it
was too heavy, adding more and more. Next he
told the story of the Rich Fool in the Gospels,
to the great edification of my next neighbour,
who had apparently never heard it before; and
ended with a picture of the death-bed of Voltaire,
how at last he would have repented and confessed,
how he sent for a Priest, and his infidel friend,
D'Alembert, refused him admission, though re-
peatedly sought; and how at last he died de-
spairing, saying, 'I die abandoned by God and
man.' 'Three things,' he said, 'are needful for
confessions, the will, the time, and the grace.
Voltaire had the will and the time, but the
grace was denied him. I will not say that he
is condemned: none can say what God will do at
the last moment, but according to human ap-
pearance he was lost, and these were his last words,
"I die abandoned by God and man." At the
conclusion, he exhorted the people to confess
while they had time, to come to him that very
night, to let the Angels rejoice over them. Are
you,' he said, ashamed to confess, because you
are great sinners? How many of the Saints that
are venerated on our altars were greater sinners
·
142
EFFECT OF THE SERMON.
than you? Are you ashamed to tell your sins
to the Priest? Are not we sinners? Have
not we a corrupt and evil nature? If in any
thing we have been kept from the same sins
as some of you, is it not by grace only? We
are men, and shall be surprised at nothing. I
declare to you in the presence of God, that my
greatest joy and happiness and glory is when one
comes to me and says, 'I have not confessed for
twenty, thirty, or forty years.' It is my greatest
joy, because I am a shepherd of Christ's flock,
and I must rejoice when I rescue a sheep which
the wolf was carrying away.' Then as he took
down the Crucifix, and held it out, the sobs
which had been gradually increasing burst out
through the Church into loud crying like that of
children, while he poured out a fervent prayer,
crying bitterly, for himself and for the people. I
wish I could give you an idea of the effect of the
scene presented by the Church, crowded with
people crying violently, with their faces turned up
towards the pulpit. There was something very
striking in the words of the prayers with which he
concluded, the depth of its self-abasement, and the
entire confidence and even familiarity of some of
his expressions. He even used diminutives of
affection in addressing our Lord, while he covered
the Crucifix with kisses. At last he stopped, and
the choir sung a penitential hymn in Spanish, in
which by degrees the people joined. Then he
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
143
desired them all to say three Salves after him, to
gain some Indulgences, and we dispersed. The local
paper says, that on the following day one thousand
persons confessed, and communicated in one Church.
In another Sermon, the same preacher took for
his subject of instruction Satisfaction, which is the
fifth part of Penitence, and for his subject of
exhortation, the Last Judgment. He called upon
the Angels and the Spirits of the Righteous, upon
the lost Spirits and the Devils, to hear him, for they
were all concerned, and then described the Day
of Judgment, promising that he would say nothing
but what was stated in Holy Scripture, but making
the following additions to the Scriptural account.
The Angels will come forth from Heaven in
procession, bearing the True Cross, of which all
the parts will be miraculously gathered together,
the sight of which will fill the righteous who have
loved and embraced it with joy, and the wicked
with terror. This he said came from the Fathers.
A glorious throne will be set up, on which our
Lord Jesus Christ (on the mention of the name he
touched his cap) will sit, and on His right hand
upon His Throne will be seated His Mother,
Maria Santisima, our Lady, the Sovereign Queen
of Angels. On the mention of her name he
touched his cap again, and every head bowed,
and a murmur ran through the Church,
“Ave
Maria." Thrones will be placed for the Apostles
144
MARIA SANTISIMA.
after they have been judged, and the righteous
will come from Heaven, and take their bodies with
joy, and the wicked from hell, and take theirs with
grief. The most remarkable thing in this Sermon
was the constant mention of "Maria Santisima,"
with the titles above given each time repeated,
the great reverence shewn by the people to her
name, and their taking no notice of that of our
Lord. The farewell of the condemned soul was
striking: "Farewell Jesus Christ, whose blood I
have wasted, whose mercies I have scorned: fare-
well Maria Santisima, whose love I have despised,
whose kindness I have rejected: farewell Angels,
with whom I might have dwelt for ever." Then
followed the farewells to his own relations, to the
son, the mother, the wife, who are going into
everlasting happiness, while he is to be in torment
for ever. By this time the nerves of the people
were so worked up, that they were ready to cry
about any thing or nothing, and at this point one
woman by my side actually howled so as to make
it difficult for me to hear. What I felt to be
painful in this last Sermon was, that the affections
of the people and their hopes were directed as
largely to Mary as to Jesus. It was not so Ma-
riolatrous as some that I have heard, but it grieved
one to see the mixture of evil in so much good.
Mr. F. W. Faber, commenting on this sentence, speaks of
"the howls which offend the traveller's propriety so much," and
CONFESSION.
145
For the present, there is an evident effect
produced. In a Spanish house the servants take
part in the conversation at dinner, and the other
day José, who had refused to confess, volunteered
the information that the maid Dolores had con-
fessed that morning. Immediately there was a
burst of laughter, and questions were put to her,
'Why she confessed? To whom she confessed?
Why she went to another Padre when there was
one in the house? What she had said?" She
answered as well as she could for some time,
though much abashed; but at last she pressed her
hand upon her heart, and said to one of her tor-
again of "this snappish petulance of ill-tempered proprieties,
because the adulterer's or the murderer's sigh has broken out
into a vulgar sob, and his sob, spite of the reverence due, as we
are specially reminded, to a consecrated building, into a howl
of agony." Whether there is a greater amount of snappishness
petulance, and ill temper displayed by my correspondent or the
critic, I leave the reader to judge. As the possibility of miscon-
ception has been thus pointed out, I may say that it was not the
howl that was painful, but the misdirection of the people's
affections, which Mr. Faber passes over, while he continues to
declaim against "this intolerant sentimentality, because foreign
sinners will not mourn according to the tasteful moderation of
Anglican æsthetics." Mr. Faber must have been hard put to
it when he set up such a man of straw as this for the purpose
of knocking it down again. Who ever dreamt of there being
any vulgarity or impropriety, till Mr. Faber excogitated it for the
sake of representing Anglicans as men who "worship the gen-
tlemanly and canonize the respectable ?" Does Mr. Faber or
any one else believe those last words?
L
146
EFFECT OF THE MISSION.
mentors, 'I wish your soul was as pure as mine
to-day.' 'Quite right, Dolores,' said the Priest,
who had hitherto sat silent, and she escaped from
the room. Our Friday dinner has been changed
to a vigil dinner, with meat for those who
wish it, which has excited a little indignation
among the laymen, and made the good Padre look
happy".
Yesterday we had a most amusing scene. One
of the laymen came to dinner in a very gloomy
mood, and suddenly burst out in the course of the
dinner, "What sin is there in a ball? Padre, what
is the sin of dancing? There are balls all over
the world, and at Rome; and Bishops, and Car-
dinals, and the Pope, approve of them, and what
business have you to come here with your missions,
and preach against them?" The Padre said, "Did
you hear the Sermons?" "Not one, I never went
near them.” "Then if you go another time, you
will know what they say. O, I know very well.”
Then he turned to me, and said in an injured tone,
"I went last night to a party, a nice friendly
party that we have every Monday, where we just
have a raffle and a little dancing, and four mammas
had not let their daughters come because of the
mission.' He continued, lamenting the effects of
the Sermons on the balls, and I could not help
55. 66
e This only lasted three Fridays, after which, as was to be
expected, the guests insisted on the usual meat dinner.
EFFECT OF THE MISSION.
147
saying 'that I was glad of it.' He looked astonished,
and sat silent for a few minutes, and then began
solemnly. "Padre, are you a Christian? Are you
a Priest? Do you hold the Articles of the Faith ?”
'Yes," said the Priest quietly, "I would rather die
than renounce them." "Then why don't you
go and convert the savages, and teach them to read
and write. Then you would be doing some good,
instead of coming here with your missions to spoil
our balls. It is too bad, and the Government
ought to be informed of it." I suggested that per-
haps there might be a few still unconverted in
Malaga, for whom the Padre might stay; but he
said, “No, no, we are all good Christians, we do
not want him. Now, Padre, there are plenty of Turks
and Saracens, why wont you go and convert
them?" In this style he went on all dinner time,
and to-day did nothing but worry the Priest with
what is a favourite topic, the character of some of
the Priesthood. But after fifteen years of teasing,
in addition to the training of a monastery, he has
learnt to take every thing quietly. I used to think
that he was stupid when he sat eating his dinner
and saying nothing, but I see that he is very wise
in having recourse to silence. He is very friendly
to us when the laymen of his own Communion are
away, and he can speak without having his words
turned into ridicule. The frailes, of whom he
was one, all come from peasant-families. They
148
SUPPLY OF CLERGY.
were generally sent to the convents very young
by their parents. Many of them had not a vocation
for the life, and some have turned out badly, the
worse of course, from being bound to a holy life.
Since the destruction of the Monasteries, the
parochial cures have been filled by them in great
part, but now they are beginning to die out, as
fifteen years have thinned their numbers, and it
becomes a question, how are Priests to be supplied.
In the south of Spain, the upper classes never take
Holy Orders. The Bishop's seminary contains in
all eighty-one boys and young men, and this is
thought a great number, but the course of educa-
tion occupies twelve years, and though it is clerical,
all do not become Priests. So that this is nothing
for the wants of the Diocese. If educated Priests
cannot be had, they must have them uneducated;
and the only plan that can be thought of is, to
re-establish the Monasteries under certain regula-
tions, such as, that they shall be few, have no
property, live on alms, &c. What Government
Monasteries will turn out, I do not know. The
Government has schools for the poor; and the
Paper that we see, the Spanish Church-Paper, is
pleading very hard that the Schoolmasters ought
to have enough to live upon, that they might be
able to give their time to the schools, instead of
working in the fields. It goes so far as to say, that
their salary ought not to be under £20 a year.
HYMNS TO THE VIRGIN.
149
There have been missions also at Denia in the
province of Valencia, and in some towns of Cata-
lonia, but Malaga is considered 'to have set an
example not to Spain only, but to the whole
world.'
Malaga, Feb. 6, 1851.
I must now complete the history of the
Mission. Doña F. has got us the hymns and
prayers that were used. The latter consist of the
Rosary in Spanish, that is, of fifty Aves, five Paters,
and five Gloria Patris, with the Blessing, 'Blessed
be God, praised be God, exalted be God; Blessed
be Maria Santisima, praised be Maria Santisima,
exalted be Maria Santisima, &c.' applying the
same epithets to her as to God throughout. The
Hymns I have copied. One of them is addressed
to our Lord, and is a beautiful penitential Hymn,
reminding me of George Herbert. The others
are all to the Blessed Virgin, under the title of
the Divine Shepherdess. These hymns are not so
outrageous as some that I have met with, but I
send you a verse or two.
"A silly sheep wandering from Thy flock, I call
Thee anxiously. Confirm to me Thy holy pro-
mises, and turn my steps from the path of wicked-
ness. To Thee I commend my body and my soul,
my senses, my powers, and all that I say or do.
I hope, Lady, that in every storm Thy name
150
PRAYER TO THE VIRGIN.
Mary shall be my hope. Remember, Mother,
that if now I am evil, Thou didst once count me
among Thy sheep." The Archbishop gave the
Capuchins a short prayer, to which he had attached
a hundred and eighty days of Indulgence, that is,
as much remission of purgatory as would be
obtained by a hundred and eighty days of the
most rigorous penance. It is this, "O Virgin
Mother of God, I give myself to Thee as Thy child;
and in honour and glory of Thy purity, I offer to
Thee my body, my powers, and my senses; and
I beseech Thee to obtain for me the grace of never
committing any sin."
How many confessions there have been cannot
yet be told; for when once the people began to
₫ Compare the following Italian Prayer, posted for popular use
in the well-known and much-frequented Church of Sta. Maria
Sopra Minerva in Rome. "In voi, O Madre nostra, noi abbiamo
collocate tutte le nostre speranze. Siate voi la nostra via per an-
dare à Gesù e il mezzo per cui riceviamo tutte le grazie neces-
sarie per consequire la nostra eterna salute." "If,' says Mr.
Gladstone, the practical view which people are taught to regard
her is fairly represented by these terms, we may be less cre-
dulous of the threats that England shall once again substitute
such a form of religion for that which she now enjoys.' Church
Principles, p. 354.
с
Again, compare the following prayer with which an Office of
the Virgin for the use of Schools, published in Palermo in 1828,
ends: "O Mary, most Holy Mother, and my hope, do Thou
grant to me this grace which I need, and obtain for me Thyself,
that I may greatly love Thee, my Queen, and may always com-
mend myself to Thee in all my needs."
EFFECT OF THE MISSION.
151
confess, it was like an epidemic. The Bishop
seeing this has very wisely prolonged the time of
special Indulgences for another fortnight. One
cannot but most truly rejoice at such a result as
has been brought about; yet I doubt of its durable
effects. I told you, that in one Church a thousand
people confessed in one day. There were not
above six or seven Priests in any Church. If there
had been ten, it would have been a hundred con-
fessions in a day to each, and many of thein first
confessions of middle-aged and elderly people, who
had lived all their lives in the neglect of the
ordinances of religion, and these first confessions
made not deliberately and after careful prepara-
tion, but in the strong excitement produced
by the great eloquence of the preachers, and
the prospect of Plenary Indulgences. Surely
they must require more attention, more indivi-
dual attention, than could be given in such haste.
The Capuchins however have done their duty,
and done it well, but when they are gone, and
the people are left to the despised ministrations
of the ordinary confessors, there is much danger
that the majority will fall back again. For the
present, the improved behaviour in the Churches
is striking. These are such a very excitable
people, all feelings and no principles, and have a
marvellous way of combining religious feeling
with the practice of sin. The reason why Fray
152
CREDULITY OR INFIDELITY.
Feliz was the most popular preacher was, that he
was "so witty." "He made them all laugh or
cry as he pleased."
Doña F. has lent us her books of devotion.
She is a very good woman. People here must
believe every thing or nothing. The majority
take the latter alternative, she has chosen the for-
mer.
The history of Sta. Rita of Cassia stands
on the same ground to them with the history of
our Lord Himself. If they disbelieve one, they
disbelieve the other. She says, "I know that
Napoleon lived, for he was in my time, and I have
seen his brother; but how can my children know
it, unless they believe what they are told? They
believe that, and I believe in the histories of the
Saints." I do not quote this to find fault with
the principle, but with the application of it,
which is recklessly enforced by the system of the
Roman Church. One of her books is a Novena
to the Blessed Virgin, under the title of the Most
Holy Mary, Queen and Mother of Mercy. One
Archbishop and eight Bishops have so highly
approved of it, that they have attached to it all
"Wherever the Religion of Rome reigns absolute, there is
but one step between it and complete infidelity." White's
Evidence, Letter I. note A. For the infidelity existing among
the Spanish Clergy, see Doblado's Letters from Spain, Letter
III. p. 126.
For Sta. Rita's Legend, see below, p. 160.
NOVENA TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
153
the Indulgences that they can: that is, four
hundred days for each prayer, so that to say
one prayer from this book is better than to do a
year of rigorous penance. I will give you some
extracts.
"Of the Charity of Most Holy Mary.
"As the eternal Father delivered His only-
begotten Son to death in order to give life to
men, so this admirable Mother of love delivered
Her only Son Jesus to the rigours of death, that
all might be saved. She did not content Herself
with giving to the Divine Word flesh, wherein to
suffer for men: She Herself sacrificed Him.
Standing at the foot of the Cross, whilst Her
Beloved immolated Himself for the salvation of
mortals, She Herself offered the sacrifice of this
unspotted Victim, beseeching of the Eternal
Father that He would receive it as a payment
and satisfaction for all the sins of the world.
She gave to men all that She could give, and She
loved them more. She gave Herself, and if She
did not realize the sacrifice, it was because Her
offering had all the merit of which it was capable."
"Of the Righteousness of Most Holy Mary.
"It is well known, that Most Holy Mary,
instead of being a debtor, gave so abundantly,
that all remained and are Her debtors: men for
154
NOVENA TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
redemption: angels for their special joy: even
the most Holy Trinity are in a certain way a
debtor to Her for the accidental glory which has
resulted and does result to them from this their
Beloved."
Of the Patience of Most Holy Mary.
"She suffered in Jesus, and with Jesus, as
much as Jesus suffered."
Of the Obedience of Most Holy Mary.
"She obeyed more than all creatures united,
and by Her obedience, supplied the want of
obedience of all the evil angels in heaven, and of
all the ungrateful men on earth."
Of the Religion of Most Holy Mary.
"Blind and deceived should we all have been,
if Most Holy Mary, in Her great mercy, had not
given us in Jesus Christ the needful knowledge
of the only, sole, and true religion. Though
neither angels nor men had given, nor should
give, to God, the worship and veneration which
they ought; Most Holy Mary would have ful-
filled all the duties laid on every creature by
the necessity of the virtue of religion. . . . In-
structress of the Church, by whom, and of whom,
the Apostles learnt to celebrate the mysteries of
our redemption, to frequent the Sacrament of
3
NOVENA TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
155
the Eucharist, to venerate the Holy Cross, to
pray, and exercise themselves in all the acts of
religion, I adore thee!"
Of the Hope of Most Holy Mary.
"She Herself was the object of the hope of the
righteous, and scarcely did she shew Herself
in this world, when even as the shadows of the
night begin to flee away before the coming of
the dawn, so at the birth of Most Holy Mary,
the Queen and Mother of Mercy, fled from many
their doubts respecting the coming of the Messias.
She Herself was persuaded that He was at hand."
In these extracts, you will see, that the acts and
offices of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, in our Redemption are attributed to her.
She sacrificed her Son for our salvation: we are
redeemed by her sufferings: she was the teacher of
the Apostles. When it is added, that she is always
represented as more tender and pitying than our
Lord, the consequence must be that hearts must
be drawn to her more than to Him. Her altars
are those before which we see people praying". It is
h The following is Mr. Gladstone's evidence, drawn from ex-
perience of Italy and elsewhere: "The beautiful conception of
the Virgin, as affording the tenderness and intensity of feminine
sympathies to be our medium of communication with the transcen-
dent glory of the Son, disguises a reality of infinite danger. Poison
156
TENDERNESS OF S. MARY.
universally understood here, and affirmed in ser-
mons, that when our Lord went into Heaven, He
is carried to the lips under an exterior the most attractive. The
practical upshot of the whole is a tendency infinitely various in
degree, but sometimes direct and absolute to extrude our Saviour,
in the view of the believer, from many or even all of His redeem-
ing functions, and to leave Him only in the stern unapproachable
character of a Judge. To her will, by some strange process, the
effectuation of His coming is referred, as if it had been not an in-
strument merely, but a cause. The habitual communion with Him
into whose Body we have been incorporated by Baptism, and who
through the medium of that Body becomes the sustenance of our
daily life, is made to pass through the intervention of her person.
The constant application of His Blood and Merits, whereby alone
we can for a moment stand in the place of sons, and realise the
Spirit of adoption, is exhibited as dependent on her prayers, to
which we are to resort for habitual aid. In short, she is practically
exhibited as the Way, and He as the Truth and the Life, mainly
or even alone approachable by that way. Hence it is that com-
mon devotion seems to revert naturally to her in a thousand
secondary forms, where to us it would seem that the privileges
of the covenant as well as the necessities of our condition carry
us directly to our Redeemer. . . . Hence that extraordinary
passage at the close of the Encyclical of the reigning Pontiff,
(Gregory XVI.) Sed ut omnia hæc prospere ac feliciter eveniant
levemus oculos manusque ad sanctissimam Virginem Mariam
quæ sola universas hæreses interemit, nostraque maxima fiducia,
imo tota ratio est spei nostræ. As though all human sympathy
were not absolute deadness in comparison with the exquisite sensi-
bility of Him whom in all things it behoved to be made like unto
His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High-priest,
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. . . . As though all human love were
not shallowness itself in comparison with the unexplored pro-
foundness of those yearnings of affection, which clothed the
HYMN TO THE VIRGIN.
157
gave his Mother to be the Guide and Ruler of the
Church, and our Intercessor, and consequently, as
the Archbishop said, all the gifts of God pass
through her hands. The same book concludes
with a hymn called "the Joys." The following
verses occur in it.
"Life, salvation, and gladness, all was lost by
man, but in Thee he found all, O sweet Virgin
Mary! What would be our fate without so heavenly
a Mother! Mother of Mercy, deliver us from all
evil. God being angry would have punished man,
who refused to respect his dominion, with hell;
but Thou, Virgin Mary, didst faithfully succour
him. Mother of Mercy, deliver us from all evil.
All the world, buried in its wickedness, sighed and
found no remedy, save in Thy pity. Thou wert
the especial remedy of such great iniquities.
Mother of Mercy, deliver us from all evil. Thy
union with the immense God, infinite in power,
alone could merit the pardon of such excesses.
Hereby we were freed from such criminal acts,
Mother of Mercy, deliver us from all evil. He
denies Thee nothing who created Thee so beautiful,
and so favoured and privileged with graces, and
made Thee a Queen: for by Thee He gave all to
Very and Eternal Word with the form of a servant, with the
likeness of men, so that He humbled Himself, and became obedi-
ent unto death, even the death of the Cross," Gladstone's Church
Principles, vii. 34.
158
THEORY OF THE ATONEMENT MARRED.
unfaithful man. Mother of Mercy, deliver us from
all evil. He who is able made Thee arbiter of his
immense stores, that none in the most fatal cases
might fail to share the universal protection of Thy
abundant wealth. Mother of Mercy, deliver us
from all evil."
I remember, when I used to be pained at finding
English children learning Watts's Hymns, which
represent the Father as an angry Judge, appeased
by the Intercession of his Son, and entirely forget
that He so loved the world, that He sent Him to
redeem us; but what is that to this bold assertion,
that the angry Judge was appeased, not by the
Son, but by the Virgin! The assertion too, that
our redemption is due to the union of God with
man, not in the Person of our Lord, but of the
Virgin Mary, is startling! And all this comes on
the authority of the Church. For saying one verse
of this Hymn, Doña F. gets more Indulgence than
she would for a year of rigorous peuance.
The Novena is a series of prayers for nine days.
i Can we wonder at any amount of devotion to St. Mary, when
we know that the Court of Rome has placed the Spanish domi-
nions in Europe and America under the protecting influence of
her Immaculate Conception;' and that under Charles III. a law
was enacted, requiring a declaration upon oath of a firm belief in
the Immaculate Conception from every body taking his degree
at the University, or being admitted into any corporation, civil or
religious, or even into a Mechanics' Guild? See Doblado's
Letters from Spain.
INDULGENCES.
159
Each day there is an act of contrition, a consider-
ation on one of the virtues of the Virgin, two
prayers or three Aves. If you have time, it is
desirable to add also the Rosary and Litany of
the Virgin every day, and on the last day the
Hymn. I have calculated the Indulgences gained.
Without the Litany, Rosary, and Hymn, in the
nine days, you would gain 55 years and 125 days,
the prayers occupying about half an hour daily.
With the Rosary and Hymn there would be
gained 667 years and 345 days. I do not know
how many prayers there are in the Litany, and
have omitted it from the calculation. The notice.
at the end does not sum up what it comes to
altogether, but says, "it is an incalculable trea-
sure." With Litany, Rosary, and all, it could
not take much more than an hour a day. Doña
F. is a very devout woman. Her morning exercise
contains the words, "I resolve this day to gain all
the Indulgences I can, and apply them to the
souls in Purgatory." Would it not be absolutely
absurd in her to spend an hour in prayer and
meditation at home, when she has only to go into
any Church, and in five minutes gain more than
by two years of prayer and penance? The system
confines people to the use of those prayers which
have Indulgences attached to them.
People in England do not know these things.
What they think to be Roman doctrine, and what
160
STA. RITA.
they are allowed to hold as such in England con-
cerning the Blessed Virgin and Purgatory, would
not be permitted in Spain. Converts in England
do not know to what they have given their ad-
hesion, and are gradually led on, while they serve
at the same time as decoys for others.
I mentioned Sta. Rita above. I select
her only because Doña F. reverences her greatly.
She is the advocate of the 'Imposibles.' When
she wished for figs or roses in the winter, the trees
immediately brought forth both flowers and fruit.
When she wished to be admitted into a convent
and was refused, three Saints took her in by night.
The sisters thought that the porteress had admitted
her, but when she told them who had done it,
they accepted her as a sister. When she prayed
for suffering, she had a painful and loathsome
wound on the face. When she wished to go on a
pilgrimage, and the Abbess would not let her go
The Oratorians exhibit a truer representation of their co-
religionists, on one of these points, than the more moderate school.
Their "Gaude Maria Virgo, cunctas hæreses sola interemisti
in universo mundo, Antiph. Ecclesiæ," their Sigillum, their
series written "to satisfy a humble desire which they feel to
spread the honour and love of the ever-blessed Queen of Saints,
by shewing how greatly an intense devotion to her, aided in
forming prodigies of heroic virtue," speak unmistakeably and
honestly. Mr. J. B. Morris still more so, who, on the subject of
Mariolatry, "gaily dispenses with an uncongenial wariness," and
translates Muzzarelli's Month of Mary. Theol. Crit. II.
STA. RITA.
161
because of the wound, it healed instantly. One
thing in her history, which the writer does not
consider a miracle at all, has a greater moral
impossibility than the rest. She wished to go
into a convent, and as her parents would not
consent, she caused an oratory to be made in their
house, and painted with religious subjects, and
lived in it for a twelvemonth, without ever stirring
from it. Afterwards, seeing that they were infirm,
she came out, and served them as a dutiful child.
Some time after this, she arrived at the age of
twelve. Next she married a wicked and irre-
ligious man of good fortune, to please her parents;
but, as she did it on pure principles of obedience,
she was continually in tears during the wedding
festivities. Not many days had passed, when her
husband's violence of temper began to shew itself
to her. However, she converted him, and he died.
Now I am quite ready to believe things super-
natural and miraculous, if there are grounds; but
here there are none. Nevertheless, it comes to
Dona F. with as much evidence as any fact in
Holy Scripture. She believes both one and the
other. The same facts come before Don L. an
intelligent man, on the same evidence, and he
believes neither.
The Rector of the Seminary has lent us a very
nice book, called the "Manual of the Seminarista."
It is a book giving a general sketch of the office
M
162
USE OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.
and duties of Priests, and the studies necessary
for fulfilling them'. I like almost all of it, but in
the chapter on the Scriptures, the author says,
that people in general, boys, and in especial
women, whose natural simpleness is often mixed
with ignorance and presumption, and leads them
into heresies, must not have the Scriptures. They
are the meat of the strong, and must be given in
portions well spiced and seasoned. He quotes in
evidence, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by
the word of God." Where, he asks triumphantly,
will you find it written, that Faith cometh by
reading, and reading by the Holy Books"? Of
1 Some of the chief authors recommended at the Seminary
are Sta Teresa, S. Juan de la Cruz, Alphonso Maria de Liguori,
(author of the Glories of Mary,) Bellarmin, Bossuet, Maestre,
Perrone, Cobbett, Wiseman, Balmes. "That most popular and
talented writer, Cobbett," says Pugin, "was a fierce assailant of"
the Church of England, but his works are full of gross fallacies,
and they were certainly not intended for the advancement of
Catholic Truth: but inasmuch as they are calculated to ex-
asperate men against the present system, they have been
frequently circulated by Catholics, without considering that the
abuses which he denounces are for the most part derived from
the old ecclesiastical constitutions, and no reliance can possibly
be placed in a writer who attributes the origin of the Church of
England to Henry VIII.'s divorce!" Earnest Appeal.
in The following extracts from the same book relate to this
subject: "The famous P. Quesnell published a book of Moral
Reflections on the New Testament, which was immediately
prohibited, and being afterwards examined with extreme gravity
and consideration, 101 propositions were extracted from it.
USE OF THE BIBLE.
163
course, with Priests educated in these ideas, it will
not be often that permission is given to read the
Scriptures. And what a strange idea it gives one,
to think that all the Scriptures of the Old Testa-
ment should have no existence to one's mind:
that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua, Samson,
Ruth, all the pastoral scenes and all the scenes
in the desert that have been pictured before one's
which were condemned, receiving respectively such epithets as
the Church applies to those doctrines alone which are most per-
nicious to faith, to morals, and to civil society. Seven of thenr
relate to this subject, which are as follows. . . . . 2. Lectio sacræ
Scripturæ est pro omnibus. Est 80 inter 101 Quesnell.... 5. Est
illusio sibi persuadere quod noticia mysteriorum Religionis non
debeat communicari feminis lectione Sacrorum librorum. Non
ex feminarum simplicitate, sed ex superba virorum scientia
ortus est Scripturarum abusus, et natæ sunt hæreses. Est 83
inter 101 Quesnell."... "The Apostles divided the deposit of the
divine instructions, by means of the word of God which is not
bound, nor can be destroyed, burned, or stolen, as books might
have been destroyed, burned, stolen, or prohibited, if they had
used them to teach the world." As if any sensible man ever
doubted that the Apostles did use oral teaching and not books
which then had no existence: and as if that fact had any thing
to do with the question of the free use of Scripture in these
days. But these quotations are made, not for the purpose of
raising the question of the relative advantages of preaching
and reading Holy Scripture; but of shewing that the latter is
discouraged where Rome has full sway, a thing how consonant
with vehement assertions made in England and Ireland, we
know well. "Not only," says Gladstone on this subject, "is the
doctrine of different times, but of different places, at utter
variance upon cardinal principles of practice.”
164
EDUCATION.
mind from one's very earliest childhood, should
never have been presented to it; that the patri-
archs and saints of former days should be mixed
up with modern Spanish saints, without any clear
distinction of times or manners. Doña F. thinks,
that S. Paul the Apostle went sword in hand to
convert the Chinese and Indians. Yet she is a person
whose manners are as good as those of any person
I know in Malaga, though she has not received a
high education.
Good manners and ready conversation are
almost universal here. The only education which
the ladies of the upper classes receive more than
the rest is a little French, music and dancing
being learnt by labourers' daughters as well. I
believe they know nothing of the history of their
country; and as to modern Geography, they will
ask, how far England is from London. The
benefit would be incalculable if they had some
past things to think of, instead of having their
heads full of their " novios" or lovers. The
standard that people have here of woman's character
is miserably low". They laugh and shake their
D
Again, the same is sadly true of Italy. The sanctity of
the married life and the purity of home, in the degree that they
exist in England, are not known, or dreamt of, or believed in,
elsewhere. Byron says, "that the custom of the Cavalier Ser-
vente" was introduced into Spain from Italy. Beppo, xxxvi.
Why are not these things striven against, if the Roman Church
STANDARD ENTERTAINED OF WOMEN.
165
heads when I say, that in England a young lady
goes out alone to visit the poor; that a young
lady can travel, if necessary, alone; and that Eng-
lish girls in general do not listen to their lovers.
from their bed-room windows at night. They
say, that every girl here must have her "novio,"
and that it may occasionally happen that she
marries him, but not often. It is a way of passing
the time; and carefully as they are watched with
a mamma behind them, they will manage to ex-
change notes as they are walking on the Alameda.
I think a good deal of this is the consequence of
their not being allowed to talk to men, but walk-
ing in groups together every evening, gossiping
and talking together, and perfectly aware that
the young men of the place are engaged in the
same occupation of walking on the Alameda,
criticising and admiring them. Before I knew
something of the morals of the country, I was
rather surprised at finding, that in some of the
best devotional books, young women are advised
has that Discipline by means of the Confessional to which she
pretends? Have we ever heard of the mass of the upper classes
in Naples, Venice, &c. being excommunicated for their evil
lives? Is it not true, that her thunders have been reserved for
her political rebels, not wielded, as Dr. Moberly says, 'with the
single-minded zeal of those whose object is to win souls to God?'
Will she ever lay herself open to the charge, (thereby bringing
up an evil report against the whole Catholic Church,) that
'personal holiness is sacrificed to the maintenance of power?'
166
FALSE MIRACLES.
not to be very anxious about going to Church,
but to content themselves with praying at home;
but I see now that a Spanish young lady cannot
well go to Church without some responsible per-
son to take charge of her.
The attempts to forge miracles are another
great occasion of infidelity. I do not know whe-
ther the late attempt in France has reached the
English papers. Blood was said to flow from a
picture. It proved an entire forgery. Yet cer-
tainly the evidence at first was better than any
given for Sta. Rita's miracles. It is well known,
that in some of the disgraceful intrigues in the
Royal Family of Spain, a very important part
was played by a Nun, who pretended to have the
Stigmata". For a time she was venerated as a
Saint, and some of her visions and revelations.
were used to separate the King and Queen. The
Queen is bad enough, but if any thing could
excuse her conduct, it would be the heartless
。“Look up at those sacred windows: they belong to the con-
vent of the Perpetual Adoration. Where will you find such a
realized heaven upon earth? Yet that very sight has acted
otherwise on the mind of a weak sister, and the very keenness
of her faith and wild desire of approaching the object of it, has
led her to fancy or to feign that she has received that singular
favour vouchsafed only to a few elect souls; and she points to
God's wounds as imprinted on her hands, and feet, and side,
though she herself has been instrumental in their formation." New-
man in 1850. This is not a confession, but an apology.
WANT OF A STANDARD OF FAITH.
167
cruelty with which she was treated, and the way
in which the sanctions of Religion were used to
mislead her. The fraud was discovered, the
King and Queen reconciled, and the King's Con-
fessor sent away. What part the Confessor had
in it I do not know, for the newspapers were not
allowed to say any thing on the subject. He was
recalled some months ago. What effect must
these things have on the minds of people, who
are required to believe things as improbable
as those which are proved false, and have no
standard whereby to judge between the funda-
mental truths of the Gospel, and the wildest
fancies!
The bitter hatred against the friars and monks
is quite astonishing. None of them were mur-
dered here, because when they were turned out,
the Governor gave them warning, and allowed
them two days to escape in disguise, before the
people knew it. An Englishwoman saved one
by dressing him in her son's clothes" : but I have
P Almost the same thing occurred at Naples, and in many
places in Italy, during the year 1848. Indeed, the evils exhi-
bited in these Letters do not, for the most part, belong to Spain as
Spain, but to Roman Catholic countries as such. One who has
been in Italy would think that he was reading the account of it.—
The assertion contained in this note, when expressed more broadly,
having been objected to in a quarter which I respect, I have illus-
trated it as largely as my purpose would allow, by reference to
practices of Italy similar to those recounted. I will here add an
168
THE ONE FAITH.
no doubt, that now, if one made his appearance
in his monastic dress, he would be torn in pieces.
extract from a journal almost word for word as it was written
on leaving Italy, after a nearly six months visit to it. It
embodies the conclusion drawn by an Induction formed during
that time. "The natural character of he children is joyous,
single-heartedness, but this characteristic is fast perishing, and
is giving way to suspicion, distrust, hatred, bitterness, and
scepticism. And what of the spiritual system there prevalent?
I have tried to judge as fairly as I can, without blindly accept-
ing or rejecting any thing simply because it is Roman, and I
have come to the conclusion, that the system now practically
working in Italy and elsewhere, could alone be justified by a
Revelation, new, distinct from, other than, and in parts contra-
dictory to, that One Faith once for all delivered to the Saints,
to be guarded as a sacred treasure and deposit. In very many
cases the question is not, Could I believe this? Were there
sufficient testimony, there are many things that I could believe
and accept, as not being contradictory to my moral instincts, and
often not to my reason. But that is not the question. It is this.
Is or is not this a part of God's Truth, as actually revealed,
not as it might have been revealed, but as it actually and really
is, and was once for all, revealed? as it was held by the Apo-
stles? and the early Church? There is a whole class of doc-
trines which might or might not in themselves be true, like any
other assertion in matters of which we are ignorant, such as
that of Purgatory, but which do not rest on sufficient testimony,
i. e. concerning which we have no adequate grounds for being
persuaded that they are God's Truth, and no grounds at all,
putting aside the modern theory of Innovation misnamed
of Development, which has been worked up into a View in
England. There is another class of doctrines which are not
only other than, but I sincerely believe contradictory to, the
One Faith: such are the doctrine of Indulgences and the Wor-
1
THE PRIESTHOOD.
169
I fear that it was their vices which has led to this,
but at the moment of retribution the rage of the
people made no difference between good and bad.
Not even the courtesy of Spaniards can make them
behave decently to a Priest. The Priesthood in
general seems to be thoroughly despised". I wonder
every day more and more at the self-command of
the good Priest who lives with us.
The very
man-servant who waits, joins in the laugh against
him, and he is most inoffensive and obliging.
When he is alone with us, he will talk about his
hospital and the sufferings of the poor, and about
the Church. Before his own countrymen, his best
resource is silence.
I do not know whether I told you, that there is
an image of the Blessed Virgin in the house, which
has an Indulgence of forty days attached to it.
Five Aves said before it five times a day would
gain each day two hundred days Indulgence."
ship of S. Mary, whom I cannot but think in sober sadness to
be now the chief object of adoration, in countries attached to the
Roman See."
4 Are you going to be a Priest? said a Roman Gentleman last
year to the writer, in a tone which expressed, Can you, an honour-
able man, so degrade yourself? His words did not speak the
'lowly estimation' in which every follower of a crucified Lord must
be content to be held by a scoffing world, but rather the bitter
feeling engendered in a naturally generous breast by a sense of
wrong.
170
PADRE FELIZ.
Malaga, Feb. 27, 1851.
I have hopes that the Missions, which ended
last Saturday, will do some permanent good:
Padre Feliz the great preacher remains here. No
monks are allowed to hold benefices unless they
secularize themselves, which of course the best of
them refuse to do, so the Bishops to provide for
them keep the benefices vacant, and put them in
temporarily. This suits all parties; the Bishop,
because he has absolute power over them, putting
them in and turning them out as he pleases; the
Government, because they receive less than the
regular curas; and the monks, because it is their
only resource against starvation. Padre Feliz
will not take a benefice. His pension as an ex-
pelled monk is one shilling a day, and even this
is not paid him regularly, but of course his ad-
mirers take care that he does not starve, so he lives
with his father near one of the Churches, and
spends his time in receiving confessions and preach-
ing. He is very eloquent. I believe he has not
any great amount of learning, but great zeal,
pathos, and humour. His jokes in the pulpit seem
very poor, but they have the desired effect of
making the whole congregation laugh, and he has
great power of gaining the love of the poor. When
he goes into the Church of San Felipe, all the
little boys employed about it fly upon him, some
PADRE FELIZ.
171
seizing his hand, others dragging at his cloak.
He will make them play at some game, which
amuses them very much, and then distribute
religious pictures among them, with a few words of
warning and instruction. The last day to which
the Indulgences attached to the Missions were
prolonged; at nine o'clock at night, a poor ragged
man came into the Church without either cloak
or jacket, and made his way into the Vestry.
"Where is the Saint that receives confessions?"
Somebody said, "There is Padre Feliz." The
Padre went into the Church with him, and seeing
that he was shivering with cold, he took off his
own cloak, and put it on him during the time of
his confession. Little acts of this kind make the
people love him as much as all the real labour he
undergoes for them. He preached on Sunday for
three hours. Some people had brought pictures
to be blessed, and they were stolen. Padre Feliz
said in his Sermon, "Let the person who has
taken those pictures account that he is not taking
pictures home with him, but a thousand legions
of devils." When the Sermon was ended, they
were found laid in a corner.
During the Mission, he was going through a
Novena to the Blessed Virgin under the title of
the Divine Shepherdess. It has since been pub-
lished, and we have got it. Every thing is of
course attributed to her, guarding the fold, seek-
172
DEVOTION TO THE VIRGIN.
ing the lost sheep, laying it on her shoulders,
healing the sick. The Archbishop of Santiago de
Cuba left some little books of prayers and doctrine,
which are striking. There is so much ardent
zeal and love in them, with such entire devotion
to the Virgin, some parts so beautiful, some so
very painful. Even the Creed has two additions,
the epithet of "holy" applied to the Virgin, and
that of "Roman" to the Church. The daily
devotions in one of them begin with offering our-
selves entirely to the Virgin. If they were but
addressed to our Lord instead of to her, they
would be excellent. He directs that even the
hearing Mass and receiving the Eucharist shall be
done in honour of her. I had thought before, that
in the act of Communion one might be free from
her. I understand more now how utterly and
entirely the whole system here is built on her¹.
He gives as subjects of meditation, the five Mys-
teries of Sorrow, and the five Mysteries of Glory.
These last are, the Resurrection, the Ascension,
the Coming of the Holy Ghost, the Assumption,
r Mr. Hallam goes so far as to say, that "those who have
visited (Roman) Catholic temples, and attended to the current
language of devotion, must have perceived, what the writings of
Apologists or decrees of Councils will never enable them to dis-
cover, that the Saints, but more especially the Virgin, are almost
exclusively the popular deities of that religion." Const. Hist.
ch. 2. The expression I should not have used, but there is too
much truth contained under it,
THE MYSTERIES OF GLORY.
173
the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin as Queen
and Lady of Heaven and Earth. If, as they
assert, our Lord on the Cross gave her to us as
our Mother, and us to her as her children, and if
the Holy Trinity crowned her as Queen and Lady
of Heaven and Earth, then it follows, that, as they
say, "all the gifts of God pass through her hands,"
and "for every grace and mercy we can go to no
other than her." In the Novena of the Divine
Shepherdess, there are seven Mysteries instead of
five. Her coronation by the Father, by the Son,
and by the Holy Ghost, being regarded as three.
In addition to this, the third Mystery is the
descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Blessed
Virgin in the form of tongues of fire: the Apostles
are not mentioned. These Novenas are all in
Spanish, so that the people can understand them.
There was an attack made upon the Priest the
other day, in which the laymen had got hold
of one of the really weak points. When any one
dies in the hospital, he is buried, as they say,
like a dog. The body is put into a cart, and
taken off to the Campo Santo, where it is thrown
into a pit, without a word of prayer'. The lay-
• The same thing takes place at Naples. In the midst of the
private sepulchres of the rich there is a large square surface,
having in it 120 sealed openings leading into separate pits.
Each year, for three nights successively, these openings are
unsealed, and the bodies of the poor are thrown down under the
174
MASSES FOR THE Dead.
men asked him, "Where are the souls of those
who die in your hospital?" "Those who are not
in hell, are all in Purgatory." One of them turned
round to me, "These people tell us, that all are
equal before God, rich and poor, but it is false.
If a rich man dies, his friends will have one or
two hundred Masses said for him, and he goes to
heaven'; while these poor creatures are tormented
in Purgatory." I tried to turn it off by saying,
"As you feel so much for them, of course you
have Masses said for them." He laughed at the
suggestion, and said, "You do not believe all
these things, though you believe a great deal
more than we do." All that the good Padre was
able to say was, that once a year a Mass is said
for all who have died in the hospital. Conceive
the outcry there would be in England, if the
bodies of our poor were treated in such a way,
cover of the darkness, and without a prayer pronounced upon
the spot, without coffins, "like dogs," and quick lime is poured
in upon them, and then the opening is re-sealed till its turn
comes round next year. And the gay voluptuous profligate
capital is spared the pain of ever seeing the appearance of death.
It is all huddled over in the night.
t Philip IV. of Spain left money for one hundred thousand
Masses to be said for his royal soul; and thinking it well im-
possible that he could need so many himself, he willed that the
surplus should go to the benefit of the most solitary soul in
Purgatory. Ford, p. 170.
MASSES FOR THE DEAD.
175
though we do not believe that their souls are
suffering in consequence.
6
There are two advertisements of Funciones'
for to-day, Friday. One is a masked ball for
charity. The other, some Masses to be said for
the soul of a Lady lately deceased. Her family
have arranged for the late Masses, which are the
most expensive, and they advertise that they will
in addition the sum of fifteen pence to every
pay
Priest who will say one for her in a certain Church
before ten o'clock. The price generally advertised
in the Madrid Papers is two shillings before ten,
and two shillings and sixpence after".
The town is full of Priests. There are now 76
benefices vacant in the Diocese, being for the
most part filled temporarily by the ex-friars. All
the Parishes in Malaga are in this case, except
one*. The Bishop is going to fill them up, and
u The following is an advertisement taken from La Esperanza,
Madrid paper, Thursday, Jan. 16, 1851. "Those priests who
shall be pleased to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass on
the seventeenth day of the present month of January, in the
parish Church of S. Andrew in this court, applying it in behalf
of the soul of Señor Don Antonio Fernandez Pintado, who died
on the corresponding day of the year 1850, will receive the pay-
ment of ten reals (2s. 1d.) from seven in the morning until ten,
and from that hour afterwards the payment of twelve reals (2s. 6d.)
It is requested at the same time that all friends of the said Señor
will be pleased to attend and pray God for his soul."
The reason why they were not filled up was, that the Govern-
176
APPOINTMENT OF CLERGY.
there are 130 Priests come to try for them. They
have to go through an Examination, and dispute
in Latin before the Bishop and eight Clergy,
named by him and by the Chapter. The office of
the eight Clergy is to assist and advise the Bishop.
He selects those of whom he approves, and sends
their names up to Madrid. The old rule is, that
for a benefice he selects three, and the Queen
chooses one of the three. How they manage
with such an immense number of vacancies, I do
not know. One of the candidates was here the
other day. He told us, that he had no idea of
continuing to bury his talents in the little village
where he then lived, as he had preached before
the Queen, and passed a brilliant career.
There have been some peculiarly atrocious
murders here lately. Happily there is a new
Governor, who is so strict, as to be known by the
nick-name of the Executioner. The sympathies
of the people are much more with the criminal
than the murderer. That a man should be stabbed
is so common a case, that they think nothing of it:
that a murderer should be garotted, would fill them
ment did not allow it. As soon as permission was granted, the
Bishop filled them up.
y Conceive the triumphant scorn with which the Rambler and
Tablet would point the finger at Her Majesty's Rectors,' if such
a system existed in England. And are there not many of our-
selves who would look upon it as a sign? But why one measure
for Spain and another for England?
GIPSY-WIDOW.
177
For in-
with compassion. A band of robbers has been
committing great depredations near Ronda. It is
the business of the police to take them, and as they
would not, the military Governor ordered out a
troop of soldiers, who shot two of them.
terfering with the functions of the civil Governor,
he has been dismissed; and yesterday came news
of a most horrible case of murder and mutilation
committed on a woman and some children by the
same band. We heard a very striking story the
other day of a poor gipsy woman, whose husband
had been murdered by a man in a respectable class
of life. The murderer thought to get off by
money, he feed every Judge and person likely to
help him, and obtained delay after delay; but the
case was so clear, that they could not save him,
He offered the widow money enough to make her
rich. She came into the court, and knelt down with
all her children round her, and asked for justice,
"You tell me," she said, "to forgive that man,
because forgiveness is a Christian duty. I do for-
give him. I do not seek his blood for revenge,
but as a duty to my husband. You offer me
money: how can I touch it? Is not it stained with
my husband's blood? And my children, how could
they spend one dollar of it? Would it not be the
price of their father's blood? I tell that man, I tell
you, that I will have his life." She kept her word,
and he was executed; but again and again she had
N
178
S. DEMAS.
to leave her children, and walk to Granada, 54
miles off, to defeat some fresh attempt to save him.
I am not sure if I ever told you the story of
S. Demas. I will give it you as Padre Feliz told
it to his congregation, on the Archbishop's autho-
rity. When the Blessed Virgin fled into Egypt,
she fell in with a band of robbers, whose captain
was named Demas. He was a very wicked man, but
something in her appearance struck him, and though
he did not know that she was such "" a great lady,"
he not only did her no harm, but escorted her on
her way. After this he went on in his wickedness,
and at last, 33 years afterwards, was taken, im-
prisoned, and condemned to death. When our
Lord was crucified, to put Him to more shame,
Demas was chosen to be his companion. On the
Cross he prayed to our Lord to save him; the
Virgin remembered his kindness to her in past.
years, and asked our Lord to have mercy upon him;
and thereupon He said, "This day shalt thou be
with me in Paradise." From this the Padre drew
the lesson, that there is one Advocate able to save
even the most wicked, namely, the Blessed Virgin.
Doña F. fully believes the story of a man who
died in mortal sin, but because he had formerly
been a devotee of the Blessed Virgin, she inter-
ceded for him. In deadly sin he could not enter
either Purgatory or Heaven; but our Lord could
not reject His Mother's petition, so the man was
DIVERSIONS IN LENT.
179
sent back again to the earth to work out his salva-
tion, by earning some money to give to the person
he had injured'.
Some of the Clergy in Madrid are trying to put
a stop to masks and diversions on Ash-Wednesday
and the Sunday after. It seems to be thought
very unreasonable, as, for a long time, such things
have always been on those days.
Malaga, Feb. 1850.
We heard the other day the history of the rich
convents in Malaga. There were three where the
Nuns were called Ladies instead of Mothers, which
z And is it possible to say that she was not justified in this
belief by the indirect teaching of her Church? Alphonso Li-
guori was beatified in 1816. In his work on the Glories of Mary,
this writer, after having stated, "that it is a pious tradition that
Purgatory was emptied of all its inmates on the day of the Virgin's
glorious Assumption, exclaims, ' O how many would have continued
in their obstinacy, and be infallibly damned, if Mary had not in-
terposed her intercession with her Son! It is even the opinion
of several theologians, and of St. Thomas in particular, that the
Blessed Virgin has obtained for several persons, who died in a state
of mortal sin, the suspension of their sentence, and a gracious permis-
sion to return to the earth again to perform penance. Grave authorities
relate a multitude of such examples.' The author proceeds to
give instances of such resuscitations. A chapter of the work is
headed, “Marie délivre ses serviteurs de l'enfer." It begins
with a broad statement, that it is impossible that a true servant
of Mary can be damned," which is afterwards limited by some
clauses, the effect of which is destroyed by the nature of the ex
amples given. Arnold's Theological Critic, Nos. I. and II.
180
RICH CONVENTS OF MALAGA,
is the title in other convents. They each entered
with a dowry of from £120 to £400, which the
Abbess spent on lands. Each had her own room,
which she furnished at her own expense when she
entered. Each had her own servant to wait on
her, market for her, &c. and an allowance in money
to buy her own dinner, which she had in her own
apartment. In fact, they were societies of single
´´ladies, living very comfortably on their own means.
The Government took all, and told them to go
home. Many of them had no home to go to.
Their parents were dead, their brothers and sisters
married and settled in the world, and they had
received their portions when they entered. Some
had relations who interceded for them, and they
were allowed to keep two of the Convents, and
promised a scanty allowance, which was never paid.
A merchant gave them a little employment in
sewing coarse sacks, but it was not enough to earn
their living, and some, it is said, died of hunger.
Amongst their miseries was great fear, for in the
fury of the popular outbreak against monks and
nuns, they expected daily to be murdered. In
some places, where precautions were not taken by
the Governor as they were at Malaga, the monks
were murdered, Priests at the altar, and sick
in their beds. The Dominicans were especially
hated, and still are so, for the memory of the In-
quisition. A little while ago, five Italian Capu-
CAPUCHINS. COUNTRY-PEOPLE.
181
chins, going on a mission somewhere, were obliged
by stress of weather to stop at Carthagena. At
first they dared not land, thinking that they should
be murdered in the streets; but some of the chief
people of the place promised them protection,
and they came on shore. The feelings of the
fickle excitable people took an unexpected turn,
and they crowded round them, begging their bless-
sing, and making great rejoicing. The triumph of
the Esperanza is quite ludicrous, and shews how
little it has to triumph in.
The country-people are so much nicer than
those of the town. In walking last week, we
passed a small Hacienda, where the people were
just going to dinner. The master of the house
immediately invited us to dine, and on our declin-
ing, his daughter came out, took us round to all
her rose-bushes, which she stripped of every bud
for me, and on our admiring a lemon-tree, and
saying we had none in England, began stripping
that too, talking all the time with as much ease
and grace as any lady could do.
Yesterday was the coldest day that we have had.
The thermometer went down to 58 in the sitting-
Snow is lying thickly on the mountains.
room.
CHAP. VIII.
Spanish Customs. Ball of Tinaja on the First Sunday in
Lent. Burial of the Sardine or Anchovy on Ash-Wednesday.
THE reference in one of the letters of the last
chapter to the diversions of Ash-Wednesday, and
the first Sunday in Lent, seeming to require some
illustration, I have devoted the present chapter to
giving some account of the first of these customs.
The last requires little or no explanation. It con-
sists of a Ball given on the first Sunday in Lent,
in addition to the regular series of Carnival Balls,
and called the Ball of Tinaja, from a large earthen
pot suspended in the middle of the room, which is
broken at midnight, when the guests scramble for
the contents, generally consisting of sugar-plums,
bon-bons, and other things of the kind. It is only
within the last few years that it has been intro-
duced into Malaga. The other custom, which
will presently be described, is still confined to
Madrid. There, both one and the other are
cherished fondly; and so great was the discontent
raised among the population of Madrid at the
prospect of their being deprived of their festivities,
that the Prime Minister was induced to supersede
BURIAL OF THE SARDINE.
183
the orders, which the civil and military Governor
had been prevailed upon by the more earnest of
the clergy and laity to issue during the present
year, for the purpose of putting a stop to such
disorderly and offensive proceedings. It is said,
that in consequence of this interference with their
functions, the Governors resigned. The work from
which the following account of the "Burial of the
Sardine" is extracted, Escenas Mutritenses, por el
Curioso parlante, is a series of papers giving a
satirical but good-humoured account of the
customs of Madrid. It is said by Spaniards them-
selves to be the best picture of their country, and
is extremely popular. It will be remarked, that
some things are spoken of in plainer language than
we are accustomed to use in England, but not
more so than was customary in the days when the
Spectator, and other works of the kind, were our
fashionable Literature.
"The Burial of the Sardine.
"In one of the southern quarters of this court is
a street, whose scanty space contains within itself
more adventures than a modern drama, and more
law-suits than the archives of the Audiencia. This
street, but too well known to the civil police, and
but too much neglected by that of the city,
numbers amongst its inhabitants an abundant
a Madrid is called generally the Court.
184
ASH-WEDNESDAY DIVERSIONS.
proportion of light-fingered gentry. Modest
paladins, guitar players, singers in falsetto, bene-
ficent matrons, modest damsels, wandering Moors,
wide-awake youths, drowsy husbands, and boys of
the commonalty.
I cannot say to how many degrees of longitude
the dominion and influence of this street extends;
but we may well consider it as the centre and
emporium of south Madrid, which extends (ac-
cording to the most accredited geographers) from
the Vistillas de San Francisco to the Church of San
Lorenzo, comprehending within its extensive
dominion a multitude of little states more or less
independent and feudatory, wherein the laws, the
customs, and the manners of the respective inha-
bitants vary also.
It is not, however, our present business to fix
the statistics, or to mark out the boundaries, of
this important group of territories; and it will
suffice for our purpose to suppose ourselves to
have arrived at the chief centre, the street already
mentioned, in the morning of Ash-Wednesday, in
the year of grace 1839.
We may very safely declare, that at the present
hour, northern and central Madrid are sleeping,
and resting from the labours of the past night;
but south Madrid is awake, and twinkling with
full activity; like the giant of whom Homer tells
us, who whilst he slept with one eye, watched
THE PROGRAMME.
185
with the other. To this agitated and restless
Madrid, to this wakeful and animated eye of the
giant, we direct our course this day, braving the
tempests on board of a miserable and perilous
calesa.
It is a terrible thing that those abominable
politics, which rival every thing except my pen,
are impoverishing our dictionary more continually,
or, as Bartolo said, are sequestrating our faculty
of speaking. But for this, the word programme
would not have left its modest limits of a simple
announcement, or, as the Dictionary of the Aca-
demy defines it, "the theme given for a discourse
or for a picture."
But for this I might freely use this word with-
out risk of allusions of any sort; but seeing that
the power of contemporary customs have brought
us to such a pass, that these continual explana-
tions are necessary in ordinary speech, I must
unburden my conscience, by saying that I here
speak only of an announcement, which the driver
put into my hand as we set forth, and which on
a scanty piece of paper, disgusting and dirty,
contained these words.
'The programme of the solemn meeting and stu-
pendous tumult that is to be celebrated on Ash-
Wednesday in this court, as it is the use and
devout custom throughout all Christendom of
these quarters, the procession forming at the
186
OPENING OF THE PROCEEDINGS.
house of Tio Chispas, the tavern-keeper, elder
brother of the sardine, with the burial of this
beast, and all besides that has here been said.'
I leave it to the reader's imagination, how
pleasing it must have been for an attendant at
the festival to find an exact formula of the
spectacle itself, and without any further expla-
nations, to have in his hand the key of that cipher.
It would be satisfactory also to some of my readers,
if I contented myself with printing the said pro-
gramme with its original orthography, or rather
without any, for it had none; but to fulfil my
purpose and to edify my readers, I shall be com-
pelled to translate it from the language of slang to
ordinary Castilian, from the limits of a dead letter
to the animated spectacle of a scene in action.
Taking this for granted, and taking it for
granted also that the hearers are at the precise
spot that is necessary to enjoy so pleasing a sight,
we will proceed with the description in the follow-
ing order.
At the head of the procession, dancing back-
wards, and opening the way with sundry lumps
of wood and squibs aimed at the feet of old
women, appeared a dozen dozens of rogues in the
bud, and early and very hopeful fruit, on whom
the eloquence of the bar founds it future cause of
glory, and the roads and canals their immediate
prosperity.
THE PROCESSION.
187
After these followed one or two hundred stout
young men, with darker faces, and in different
disguises, some with pieces of matting in imi-
tation of choristers; some with fictitious sheep's
heads, which they imagined to be disguises; some
with caps like those condemned to the stake, or
like penitents; some like Moors and Roman
soldiers.
Some intoned an infernal canticle, whose words
belonged to no dictionary, nor its music to any
diapason; others wetted great brooms in caldrons
of wine, with which they sprinkled the devout
assemblage abundantly; others leapt about like
animals striking in the air with cudgels, hands,
and fists. This pleasant episode was improved
by four or five great black cats tied by the tail or
the paw to the end of poles, and lifted up like
standards; five dozen of bells of all sizes, moved
by robust hands and rivalled by as many collars
of little bells supported indifferently by poles,
and by the patient necks of the brethren of the
confraternity of S. Mark, which in union with
that of the Sardine celebrated this grand festival.
After these appeared a great company of un-
abashed virgins, with rosy cheeks, staring eyes, flat
noses, curled up lips, high plaits of hair, mantillas
thrown back, arms akimbo, and red petticoats.
These directed significant salutations to the as-
semblage on both sides with huge fans of rushes;
188
PRINCIPAL SCENE.
they chewed figs, or peeled oranges, and threw
the peel in the faces of their next neighbours ;
they danced, and pricked each other with pins,
or clattered their castanets, and sang, "ay, ay,
ay!"
Next followed the masters of the ceremonies;
furrowed and monumental countenances; eloquent
pages of human depravity: a series of pictures
of "the life of the wicked man:" fac similes of
the sketches of Alenza; originals, in short, of the
farces of Cruz.
Here was the nucleus of the drama, the subject
of the picture, the substance of the principal ques-
tion. Here Tio Chispas, the director of the scene,
displayed his great intelligence before the roguish
eyes of la Chusca, a tall young woman daring
and resolute, with more freedom of action than a
windmill, and with more salt in her than the
mountains of Cardona. There Juanillo, alias
Vinegar, with a handkerchief on his head, and a
manta hanging from his shoulder, looked on both
with threatening eyes, and his ferocious expression
and blackened face offered a faithful representation
of Desdemona's jealous lover. Other groups more
or less interesting pictured forth all the possible
degrees of carnal love, from the first exciting
glance to the last disdainful kick. There, in
conclusion, the husbands of those deities, the
background of the picture, formed a thick pha-
THE SARDINE.
189
lanx, and hurriedly followed the quick steps of
the foremost, all in confusion, meek and fierce, ast
in the road of Alronigal.
Borne on the shoulders of the most distinguished,
in a grotesque bier, appeared a burlesque figure
made of straw, and with a complete dress, which
was in its garments and even in its features a vera
effigies of Señor Marcos, the husband of la Chusca,
at whose window it had been displayed all the three
days of the carnival; an offering prepared by her
own hands in honour of the presiding genius of
the festival, her favourite and daring Chirlo, an
emblem very plain to him and to all around, and
silent only to the candid original of that ingenious
mystification.
In the mouth of the figure, and almost unseen
by all, was a wretched Sardine destined to the
fatal grave; for in this festival, as in many of
more importance, the multitude of accessaries.
concealed the chief object, and occasioned it to be
forgotten.
This royal train was preceded, followed, or
awaited at all points, by diverse Companies or
Stations, generally in front of the drinking booths,
or stables.
Company of Maidens.
Those who make cigars at the factory, by the
Portillo de Embajadores.
190
THE COMPANIES.
Those who walk in the twilight from la Red de
San Luis, to the Plazuela de Santa Ana, and
dedicate themselves to traffic.
Those who personate Mother Spain, the Theolo-
gical Virtues, and the Goddesses of Olympus in
the representations at la Jura.
Those who sell radishes in the summer, or nuts
at the fair, or oranges in the spring, or chestnuts
in the winter.
Those who came from their village to serve
one master, but have humbly ended by serving
many, frail clay of Alcorcon, subject to blows
and breakage.
Company of Youths.
All those who go to see the bulls brought in
on Sunday, all who carry burthens in the plaza,
all who exchange orange-water or coffee, for
wine.
Those who made the walk of Recoletos, or who
have done similar service to the State in bridges
and causeways.
Those who form the different light-fingured
commissions in this capital; the commission of
pocket handkerchiefs, the commission of watches,
the commission of Churches, the commission of
inns and strangers.
Those who play at quoits on the walls of
Chamberi, or sing of love to the nymphs of the
THE COMPANIES.
191
Marganares, or cheat at the Virgen del Puerto, or
sell horses at the Portillo de Lavapies.
All those who lack eyes or feet, yet can find
them to escape from San Bernardino, those who
make a noise with guitars at the Church doors, or
recover from epileptic attacks at the sight of an
Alguacil.
Company of Innocents.
All who sell matches and books of cigar paper,
in the Puerta del Sol and the adjacent regions.
Those who load sand on the heights of San
Isidro, or play at allelujas, in the fields of los
Guardias.
Those who throw squibs or lumps of pitch on
the petticoats of women, or take the fruit from
the posts, and run away.
Those who cry in the streets, "The paper that
is just out," or accompany heroes in their tri-
umphs, and criminals in their punishment: tune-
less organs of the public opinion, bellows of the
popular health,
b San Bernardino is an asylum for the destitute poor of
Madrid, established during the cholera in 1834. The system is
in some respects opposite to that of our workhouse, for it
is supported by voluntary contributions, and notorious beggars
are compelled to enter it, and to remain. A poor old woman at
Malaga complained grievously of her incarceration in a house
of the same description on a smaller scale.
•
192
BURLESQUE CEREMONY.
All these and many other classes, which it
would take long to enumerate, were mixed con-
fusedly with horses covered with trappings,
calesas with bells, howling dogs, frightful masks,
fire-arms, and petards exploded in the air.
In this pleasing disorder, and with such pro-
gress as might be expected from the continual
transference of liquor from wine-skins to sto-
machs, the imposing train descended towards
the gate of Toledo, following the leafy banks of
the canal, and turning away both from the ele-
gant capital that it left behind, and from the
funeral cemetery that appeared before it.
The burlesque and profane parody was com-
pleted with all solemnity. Neither burlesque
hymns nor religious ceremonies were spared: the
miserable fish was buried near the third mill, in a
deep grave, with a coffin of turron; the scarecrow
Tio Marcos burnt on a lofty figure; and as the
tumult and intoxication increased with the deepen-
ing shades of night, spirits became more and more
agitated, tongues more silent, cudgels spoke, and
that nothing suitable to those profane obsequies
might be lacking, diverse combatants met in the
most furious fight by the light of the flames.
The next morning the people crowded to look
at the grating under the steps of the hospital. . . . .
Two mutilated and unknown corpses, exposed
• A sweetmeat composed of honey and almonds.
PAGEANTS.
193
till some passer-by might declare their names, and
the cause of their death. Their names!.
the cause of their death!.... la Chusca knew them;
and all the suburb, except Tio Marcos, guessed
them."
Dr. Newman's pictures from Roman Catholic
countries will be the best commentary upon the
scene given above. "You go forward, and you find
preparations for a great pageant. The plumbers
and glaziers are to play the Creation: the
barbers, the Call of Abraham; and at night is to
be the grandest performance of all, the Resurrec-
tion and the Last Judgment, played by the carpen-
ters, masons, and blacksmiths. Heaven and Hell
are represented, saints, devils, and living men,
and the chef-d'œuvre of the exhibition is the display
of fireworks to be let off as the finale. • How
unutterably profane!' you cry. Yes, profane to you,
profane to a population which only half believes,
not profane to those who believe wholly, who, one
and all, have a vision within which corresponds
with what they see, which resolves itself into, or
rather takes up into itself, the external pageant,
whatever be the moral condition of each individual
composing the mass. They gaze, and in drinking
in the exhibition, with their eyes, they are making
one continuous and intense act of faith."
At least it will be seen, that a part of his general
0
194
CHARACTERISTICS.
description is true, when, among saints and peni-
tent sinners, he places "others again, a mixture of
pilgrim and beggar, or pilgrim and robber, or half-
gipsey or three-quarters boon companion, or at
least with nothing saintly and little religious about
them."
CHAP. IX.
Excessive Power of the State. Disobedience to Church Laws.
Credulity or Infidelity. The Scriptures. Sunday.
Sunday. Friday.
Dispensations. Character of the Priesthood. Mission at
Malaga. Adoration of the Blessed Virgin. Doctrine of
Indulgences. Intermixture of Truth and Fable. Appoint-
ment of Clergy. Method of building a Church at Madrid.
Stabbing. Pocket-picking. Murders. Spanish conceptions of
England.
Letters of J. M. from Malaga, during the Spring
of 1851.
Malaga, Jan. 28, 1851.
I CANNOT but be very grateful, since it
has been so ordered that I must leave home, that
I have come here, and learnt in daily life what
the Roman Church is. I have just been reading
an able letter in the Chronicle signed Gamaliel.
'The miseries of our own house almost drive us
forth, but we are deterred by finding that no per-
fect home awaits us.' While you are fighting
against evils at home, which seem intolerable
and deadly, I am constantly witnessing evils here
(mingled with good) which are so great, that I am
appalled at them. The rashness with which men
rush out of our Church into that which they do
9
196
EXCESSIVE POWER OF THE STATE.
not practically know, is like the state of mind of
a suicide, who, overwhelmed with present evils,
hurls himself out of life.
We are oppressed, enslaved, by the power of
the State at home. Well, here every Bishop is
nominated by the Government, subject only to
the approval of the Pope; the Clergy are paid by
the State, and as the Esperanza, the High-Church
paper, complains, they dare not oppose Govern-
ment, which would at once say, "Be silent, or
I'll starve you." The Churches are kept in
repair (such as it is) by the State: the education
is in the hands of the State; the schools are paid
for and the masters appointed by the State: the
Clergy can only give a little instruction in the
schools, and do not catechise in the Churches.
Even the seminaries where the priests are edu-
cated are supported by the State, and the books.
to be used and the course of instruction regulated
by the Minister of Instruction.
We complain that our people dishonour and
despise the rules of their own Church. It is
sadly, miserably true; but what do we see here?
For more than three months we have been con-
stantly associating with Spaniards. Well, I find
not one but all of my companions openly neg-
lecting and refusing confession, and professing to
do so.
I have said to them, "Why, the Church
commands you to confess." "Yes," they answer,
MIXTURE OF TRUTH AND FABLE,
197
"but we dont do it, that is, the men; many of
the women do." The most extreme Protestant
opinions are upon their lips, such as that the care
of their souls is a matter between themselves and
their God, and they do not see what any one else
has to do with it. The legends of the Roman
Saints and stories of miracles are wholly repudi-
ated. I got the Priest, with whom I am on very
good terms, to tell me a legend of an Image in
his Church, which, as the story ran, had reached
out its arm, and given absolution to a penitent.
As the story ended, one of the laymen came in,
and began to make a mock of it. It is a most
unhappy thing, that truth and falsehood have
been mingled together in their miracles and
legends, and many of them have been put
before the minds of the people as of equal
authority with Holy Scripture: e. g. devout
persons here hold it quite as certain, that the
thief on the Cross was called Demas, and that he
was forgiven at the intercession of the Blessed
Virgin, as that he was crucified at all. Now the
result of this is, that while among the uneducated
or little educated you may meet with much devo-
tion and faith, you find also the strangest mix-
ture of legend and holy truth intertwined in-
extricably together; while among the more edu-
cated there is a dangerous tendency to disbelieve
all. They find, that they have been deceived and
198
UNBELIEF. THE BIBLE.
imposed on in some things, and that throws a
doubt on all. There are very many who believe
nothing. Some of the merchants' sons would like
to come to our Service, but it is not permitted
by law. One of them said to last week,
"We could believe what your Church teaches, we
cannot believe what we are taught here." I know
one sad case myself. Don F. is a thoroughly
educated and refined gentleman, but he has not
faith in what is taught him in his own Church;
he knows the Priests have taught him some false-
hoods, and distrusts them wholly. I look upon
him as a good, honourable, religious-minded man,
but without religionª. And the people have not
the Bible here to fall back upon. Let people
say what they will of the abuse of that Holy
Book, and the wretched way men too often deal
with it, yet think what it would be to be robbed
of it, and to have such ashes as men have here
given them instead. Practically, people here are
without the Bible. I shall never forget the eager-
ness with which Don F. borrowed my Spanish
Testament, when he found that it was what he
called "puro." "We only get garbled scraps
given us here,” he said".
a Whoever has spent any time in Florence, Rome, and
Naples, can parallel this case with many instances.
b See above, p. 162, the principles in which the Clergy are
educated with regard to the use of Holy Scripture.
SUNDAY. FRIDAY.
199
Sunday is a regular day of toil. The poor man
has no day of rest. All the in-door trades are
carried on till the evening, or late afternoon, such
as those of shoemakers and tailors. Masons, car-
penters, and labourers may be seen commonly
engaged at work on Sunday. This is directly
contrary to the rules and canons of the Church,
but there is no public opinion against it. The
amusements of Sunday are the most objectionable,
and often shocking; such as the bull-fights. It is
the great day for the Theatre. I used to think,
that they made up for the laxity of the Sunday
by observing the fast of Friday. In Spain,
Friday is not a fast, in our acceptation of the
term: all may eat meat who have the "Bula de la
Cruzadad," which costs two reals, equal to about
five-pence, and now people take the dispensations
without even that expense; and though no Indul-
gence can be of any avail without the "Bula," vast
numbers never think of getting it.
Another great evil that we complain of and feel
cruelly in England, is the secularity of some of our
Clergy, but in truth that is a light evil to what
has been and does still continue here. There are in
Malaga numbers of families known to be the
children of friars. The friars no longer exist, but
there are still Priests, who notoriously have their
• For an account of the Bull of the Crusade, vide infra,
Chap. XVI.
200
IMMORALITY.
MISSION.
Amas. Nothing has given a greater blow to religion
than this. It is true that religious parents have
hardly dared to let their daughters confess. What
shall be done, "when the salt has lost its savour?"
I learn from the Chaplain to the Hospital, that the
cases which come before him shew that the immo-
rality which exhibits itself so sadly in the streets of
our towns is here just the same, though more con-
cealed.
There is a Mission going on, of which I will
send you an account. I wish heartily it may
prosper.
Malaga, Feb. 20, 1851.
We have just had the Mission for the conversion
of Malaga. Four Capuchin friars (i. e. formerly
Capuchins, for they are all expelled now, and it is
unlawful to wear the dress) came with the per-
mission of Government, (for that is necessary,) and
under the direction of the Bishop, and announced a
Mission to be held for fifteen days. Every day
two of them preached simultaneously in two of
the parish-churches at four o'clock, and every
morning there was mass, and they and the other
confessors were ready to receive confessions, ex-
traordinary powers being given them during the
time of the Mission to absolve in all reserved
cases. The Service before the Sermon was the
recitation of the Rosary, which was led by three
MISSIONARY SERMONS.
201
Priests kneeling before the altar, all in Spanish,
and joined in by the whole people. The first
Sermon I heard was on the danger of putting off
repentance, and was very able and powerful. At
the end the preacher took down the Crucifix that
hung at the 'back of the pulpit, and addressed the
latter part in the form of an impassioned prayer
to it. This was the signal for all to be on their
knees, and the women broke out throughout the
Church into sobs and cries. Then followed a
Hymn, the burden of which was known to the
people, and consisted of "Woe is me. It is I
that have sinned, and Thou that suffered, O my
God." The next Sermon I heard was on the
Great Judgment, but the subject was too great
for the preacher, and he rather failed under it.
However, the sobbing and crying followed as
before. Indeed Spanish women, on these occa-
sions, come to Church with the full determination
to have a good cry, and would not be satisfied
without it. The most moving part was when the
preacher described the sinner's parting from Maria
Santisima. This they all felt, for she is to them
all in all. At her name they make reverence ;
when her name is mentioned, they all say 'Ave
Maria.' I do not observe any reverence on the
part of the people at the Name of Jesus. The
Compare the scene at the execution of the robber Veneno.
"The criminal then exclaimed, Viva la religion! Viva el rey!
202
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
preacher declared that he should mention nothing
but what Holy Scripture, and then told us, (on
the authority of the Fathers!) how in that day
the true wood of the Cross would be gathered
from all parts of the world, and borne in procession
by the Angels, and that Maria Santisima would
sit on a Throne with Her Son. At another time
there was a striking scene in the Church. The
Padre wished to impress upon the congregation
that they must die, so he made them all slowly
repeat after him ten times, He de morir, I have
to die.' Many were brought to confession, a
sober morning reality, which may hinder the effects
of the exciting Sermons of the evening passing
away in mere feeling.
Now I must go on to tell you some of the evils
which I see attending on all that is good here.
First comes the intense adoration of the Blessed
Viva el nombre de Jesus! All of which met no echo from those
who heard him. His dying cry was, Viva la Virgen Santisima !
At these words the devotion to the goddess of Spain burst
forth in one general acclamation, Viva la Santisima! So strong
is their feeling towards the Virgin, and so lukewarm their com-
parative indifference towards their King, their Faith, and their
Saviour." Ford's Gatherings, p. 210.
e "Shall we long for the Day of Judgment, in which we must
undergo that ever-living fire, and those heavy punishments, for
cleansing the soul from its sins? Then will a sword pierce the
soul of Blessed Mary. If that Virgin which could compass God
is to come into the severity of the Judgment, who shall venture to
desire to be judged of God?" S. Hilary, Tract, in Ps. 118.
THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
DEVELOPMENT.
203
Virgin. It exceeds all that I could have believed,
and instead of speaking vaguely, I will give you
some definite extracts which could be indefinitely
multiplied. . . . They simply make her the great
object of our affections and hopes, not her Son.
In one place she is equalled with God the Father,
in the next with God the Son, in the next does
she not take the office of the Holy Ghost? The
book from which these extracts are made is in
popular use, and is authorized by an Archbishop
and eight Bishops, with vast Indulgences attached
to it. Now is this even asking her Intercession?
Is it not, as plainly as words can speak, attributing
to her the whole work of redemption? Is there
one word of authority for it in Holy Scripture?
or in the Fathers? And yet they all say here,
'The Faith cannot change: we hold and teach
what the Apostles held and taught.' I can find
no token of development here. They do not
understand it. The theory here is, Vincentius'
'Quod semper quod ubique, &c.' I am just
finishing St. Augustine's treatise De Civitate, and
one cannot but be deeply struck with the totally
different tone of his theology, from that current
here. I have reached the nineteenth Book, and
not once has the blessed Virgin been mentioned,
except as the Mother of our Lord, as in the
Creed.
f These extracts are the same as those given at p. 153.
204
DOCTRINE OF INDULGENCES.
Another great difficulty to me is the doctrine
of Indulgences. Bishops can give forty days,
Archbishops eighty, and, if misioneros apostolicos,
100 in addition, the Pope giving Plenary Indul-
gence. I had once thought that this Indulgence
of forty days, meant forty days taken off Pur-
gatory but it is not so. Suppose you have a
Penance imposed upon you, say for forty days,
and you neglect it or omit it, then the Indul-
gence obtained clears you from that penance, and
consequently from all the indefinite consequences
in Purgatory. And though a Bishop can give
only forty days, yet by giving that length of time
to each verse or prayer, he has a cumulative
power which has been exercised to an extent
quite ridiculous. Now mark what a wretched
system of bargaining and calculating with God
this system of Indulgence introduces, and how
foolish a person must be who ever goes into
Purgatory, or even spends a life in Penance, when
such much more effectual means are at hand!
A third great difficulty is the manner in which
Truth and Fable are inextricably mixed together
in the teaching here. Thus people are divided
into two classes, those who believe every thing,
and those who believe nothing. Don L. a respect-
able and sensible man, doubts the possibility of
the Flood: Doña F. believes, that in the winter
Sta. Rita wished for a rose, and the leafless tree
t
FALSE AND TRUE. FASTING.
205
shot forth, and gave her one immediately. She
comes in and sits with us often in the evening, and
tells us histories of the Saints, but there is not the
slightest distinction in her mind between the
miracles of Holy Scripture, and the most un-
founded fabulous legends of modern days. I
think she has a high opinion of us, because we
spend our time in reading, and 'eat vigil' on Fri-
days, which is not the rule of the Spanish Church,
except on the Fridays in Lent. People in general
do not really fast here. On the few fast days that
there are, they 'eat vigil,' as they call it, i. e. they
have a very good dinner of fish, vegetables, and
fruit, but no meat. In this climate I quite
prefer it for a change, and think it healthy, which
I am bound to consider first now.
Our Chapel goes on quietly and well: Holy
Communion once a month, and nearly sixty com-
municants. I am occupying myself with S. Ber-
nard and S. Augustine, and have found, from the
fifteenth Book onward of the De Civitate, a most
instructive comment on the Old Testament; at
the same time I am reading a Spanish book, which
is thought very highly of here, by Dr. Balmes,
called 'Protestantism compared with Catholicism,"
but, like all people here, he is totally ignorant of
what the English Church is, and combats what we
combat as well.
The Clergy are oppressed, and miserably used.
206
CHURCH-BUILDING AT MADRID.
"
Only last week I read a letter of a Cura' in the
Esperanza, shewing that the Government had
promised him at the rate of £44 per annum, but
there was such a constant deficit, that in six years
he had received only four year's stipend. Govern-
ment had collected the tax por el culto y clero,
and spent it on other purposes. The Churches
are falling into ruin, and the Altars and Images kept
in a decent state by the devotions of private indi-
viduals. A great want of Priests is likely to be
felt in a few years, as the old friars are dying out,
and in the present deplorable state of the Church
few parents like to dedicate their sons to poverty,
and perhaps contempt.
Malaga, March 1, 1851.
There is an amusing account of the method in
which a new Church at Madrid has been built.
A committee was formed for the purpose, con-
sisting of an Archbishop, several Bishops, several
noblemen and others. The land was given, and
they began, but soon money failed, so they had a
bull-fight, the proceeds of which helped them on.
Then they had a funcion at the theatre, which gave
It is possible that the late Concordat, made between the
Pope and the Spanish Government, may be of some use on this
point. As some misrepresentation has been made, I may say,
that any remarks upon the poverty and ill-treatment of the
Clergy are made not in a spirit of hostility, but of sympathy.
WAY OF BUILDING A CHURCH.
207
another help: besides which, they obtained from
the ayuntamento the assistance of several con-
victs. But all failed, and the Church was not half
finished. What was to be done? They tried
another bull-fight, but this time the owner of the
bull-ring was not agreeable. Then they tried
another funcion, but that failed also. Fortunately
at this juncture one of the Bishops on the com-
mittee was made Archbishop of Toledo, and some
funds came into his hands, which he was able to
apply to the Church, and then they got up to the
roof. But they could get no farther, and at last
the Government took it in hand, and it is now
roofed in, and they say it will be finished. All
this is reported in the Esperanza with the greatest
simplicity, as if greatly redounding to the honour
of the committee, who have continued thus pa-
tiently at work since 1839.
Whether the Ministry will stand here, seems a
great question; there is now no one with a strong
hand, whom people fear as they did Narvaez, but
they are all sick of revolutions, and will bear any
thing rather than another. No one seems to have
the slightest trust in the honour or probity of
any public man; a strange state, where all the
religion and virtue of the country is found in the
lower class. They call the whole system of Govern-
ment mentira,' i. e. a lie. . . . . There has been a
man stabbed on the sea shore. Two oilmen
208
SPANISH CHARACTER.
quarrelled, and went out to fight, with knives of
course, but while one was drawing his knife, the
other stabbed him to the heart, and left him dead.
This was at two o'clock in the day. If they had
any thing like justice here, these things would not
take place; but justice is so uncertain, and punish-
ment so tardy, that they take it into their own
hands. Generally they fight fairly, but this was
an assassination. . . . The more I know the people,
the less I esteem them, I mean as a moral and
religious people, but the lower class have excel-
lent qualities. An Englishman who knows them
well, and has had the direction of mining works, &c.
in different parts, tells me, that he would rather
have Spanish than English labourers. Many times.
he has had Englishmen sent out, but they prove
generally dissatisfied, whilst the Spaniards, with
good treatment and fair words, will work cheerfully.
We had a proof of what an excitable people they
are on Saturday night. Dolores, feeling ill, went to
bed, leaving something undone, and her mistress
went up and scolded her. Dolores had a sofocation
almost immediately; she fainted, and lay as if dead
for some time. It was simply the result of the
scolding. She is a merry good girl, and does not
require scolding generally, nor is our landlady
given to it. Pick-pockets abound here. It is
said, that the little boys who are employed to assist
at Mass, and to help clean the Church, are the
PURGATORY.
209
most adroit. It may be so, for constant familiarity
with holy things, if it does not do good, must do
harm, and the idea of reverence never seems to
enter their heads; they would just as soon stand
on the top of the altar as any where.
Whether the soul could exist separate from the
body, was the last theological question that we have
had raised. Whatever argument from reason
may be alleged for some sort of purification be-
tween earth and the glories of Heaven, the doctrine
of Indulgences cuts away the whole force of it. I
read yesterday in the Esperanza a relation of how
the Bishop of Jaen went to the public prison, and
invited the prisoners to confess, and receive the
Indulgences granted by the Pope. They all
assented, and he told them that if they died that
minute, they would go straight to glory, without
being delayed in Purgatory. Had then these
persons no evil dispositions unsubdued? Had they
nothing in them to unfit them for the society of
Angels and the presence of God"?....One thing one
does find here among religious persons, a reve-
rence for the Holy Sacrament, but there is some-
thing odd in people's ideas about that. When
Doña F. goes to Church, if it happens on
some great Festival that there are three Masses
h Vide Newman on Romanism, p. 212. for the origin and
growth of the dogma of Purgatory.
P
210
MURDERS.
said at the same time, she comes home quite
happy, and thinks that she has had a threefold be-
nefit... There is a long letter in the Tablet, which
is sent me now and then, from the Priest of San
Lucar-you may remember the town, it lies between
Cadiz and Seville-who has enlisted, he says, six
thousand persons to pray for the conversion of
England. It may sound very well at home, but
to me it appears simply ludicrous, when I know
the state of religion and of the Church in Anda-
lusia.
I am persuaded that there never was a
much worse governed nation than Spain. The
country is in a miserable state. The streets of
Malaga are not safe for a single person late at
night. Only last night a watchman was murdered.
Last week Mr. —was
was riding towards Ronda,
and as he passed a house in the hills, his guide
told him that there had been for a length of time
four robbers concealed there, who had plundered
the country, and shot one of the Guardias civiles.
The country people all knew it, but none would
give information. However, they have been now
caught, and two of them attempting to escape
were shot. This is what they say. The fact is,
that justice is uncertain and tardy, so they shoot
them, and say they tried to escape.
There has been another case of murder; a
STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
211
poor Italian harper stabbed in the street, just after
dark. The man who stabbed the watchman is
caught. The governor forbade any one to
embark without license from him, and declared
that he would suspend the police, if in eight days
the man was not found; and accordingly he is
taken. They say that the same people who beg
by day, very often rob by night.
an execution before long, which
There is to be
will be a good
thing. The new governor, is known by the
nickname of "El sargento del garrote," be-
cause when he was a governor before, he used
to execute murderers. Mrs. S. told us, that
some years ago, a governor of very determined
character was sent to Cadiz, where there had
been many murders. He had a notice posted at
the corner of the streets, that he would spare
none. The first should have so many hours for
repentance, the next an hour less, the next a few
minutes. All afterwards should be executed
instantly. He executed one, and there was not
another case of murder while he remained at Cadiz.
Being in this country, gives one a very high
opinion of the greatness and power of England;
i "Crime produces crime, bloodshed familiarizes men to mur-
der, until man's life becomes of no more value than the reptile's
which is crushed beneath the feet. Such was Spain, and is it
better now? The reality is in many cases worse than fiction."
Milman's Wayside Cross.
212
CONCEPTIONS OF ENGLAND.
"that Colossus," as they call it, in speeches and
newspapers. The irreligious party attribute the
greatness of England to its freedom from prejudice,
by which they mean freedom from religion, for
what ours is they do not know. They think that by
destroying the Church, they shall make Spain
great like England. That its greatness is owing
to its industry, honesty, and manliness, they by
no means comprehend. The religious party,
which is much smaller, answers by heaping toge-
ther all that it can get out of Lord Ashley's
speeches, about factory children, and colliers, and
says, "This is England! a country where the poor
are oppressed, ground down, and neglected ;'
little dreaming how much more our most neg-
lected poor are cared for than theirs. They have
no Lord Ashley to search out these things. . . . A
vast number of persons among the educated
classes are thoroughly dissatisfied with their own
religion, and, did the law allow it, would attach
themselves to our Communion, or to any other.
""
CHAP. X.
Danger of chess-playing. The Inquisition. Balmes on
Catholicism compared with Protestantism in its effects on
Civilization. Popular Theory about the Blessed Virgin.
Seven Points. Anglican and Roman Branches of the Catholic
Church. Standard entertained of women. Holy Week in
Seville. Irreverence. Rending of the White Veil. Thursday
in Holy Week. Processions on Good Friday. Fracas. Illu-
sions about Seville dispelled. Revolution in Portugal. The
Cortes. Sermon on Viernes de Dolores. Mariolatry. Casa de
Espositos. The Concordat.
Letters of F. M. from Malaga, Seville, and Cadiz,
during the Spring of 1851.
Malaga, March 24, 1851.
A Spanish Lady has been trying to persuade
Mrs. P. that the reason her daughter has the
small pox is her going to the English Chapel, and
that if she persists in going there, some other evil
will befall her. Mrs. P. who is a sensible person
and never disputes, answered, that she did not
think the Chapel had any thing to do with it, but
if it had, she should go exactly the same. Mrs. P.
remembers the days of the Inquisition: she knew a
man at Seville, who got into it for playing at chess.
He used to play with his daughter every evening.
214
THE INQUISITION.
Unluckily for him, he took a new maid servant,
who had never seen chess played, and she thought
he was conjuring. She laid an accusation against
him, that there never were prayers in the house,
but that they spent their evenings in making
mysterious movements with a great many strange
images, some like devils, and some like horses.
She said something about it to another maid, who
suspected what she had done, and told the eldest
daughter, who was foolish enough to throw the
chessmen away. That day the inquisitors' coach
came, a black coach, with the wheels and the
horses feet muffled, driven by a masked coach-
man, and containing two masked inquisitors.
They shut up all the members of the household
in separate rooms, and questioned them. The
chess-board was produced and the box, but the
box was empty. The girl said she had thrown
the chessmen away in a fright, but they would
not believe her, and the father was taken to the
prisons of the Inquisition, where he was tortured.
once, and afterwards kept a prisoner for five
months, at the end of which time he and fourteen
other prisoners were set free in a popular tumult.
One cannot wonder that the people hate the very
name of the Inquisition, and many of them the
name of a fraile for its sakeª.
That this story should seem to an Englishman too ludicrous
and wicked to be seriously worthy of credit, is natural. But
BALMES ON CATHOLICISM.
215
We are reading a very interesting book, "Catho-
licism compared with Protestantism, in its effects
on civilization," by Don Jaime Balmes. It is an
answer to Guizot, and is very clever. Balmes
was a great friend of the Pope, and was looked
upon as the man likely to make a reform in the
Spanish Church, but he died five years ago, not
without suspicions that his death was by unfair
means. If he addressed himself only to conti-
nental Protestantism, he would be unanswerable;
but unhappily for himself, he is obliged to include
England and Russia among Protestant countries,
and of the English Church he knows absolutely
nothing. Many of his arguments tell strongly in
favour of England, and against Spain. Two of
his great tokens of Catholicism, of the works
worked by it, are the value for human life, and
the exaltation of women. Here, where people
are daily stabbed, and buried like dogs, with-
out punishment to the murderer, and where
it is taken for granted that as a general rule a girl
tries to deceive her father and mother, and that
the way of making her do right is to watch
Mr. Gladstone's Revelations of Naples have opened our eyes to
what goes on inside prisons, and to the causes which are deemed
sufficient to throw a man into them in a country which breathes
the same spirit as Spain. Nor would any one who is acquainted
with the intellectual stature of the ordinary Spanish mind be
surprised at the maid-servant's pious horror.
216
STATE OF PARTIES IN SPAIN.
her constantly, it is strange to read such things,
and to find them followed by the assertion that
Spain is the most Catholic of all countries. He
has a strong suspicion that England is plotting to
protestantize Spain, hoping thereby to denationalize
it, and then make it "one of her colonies"."
Malaga, March 26, 1851.
Spanish franqueza is very pleasant to a stranger.
People who have dined with you for a few
days, do not hesitate to give you the history
of their lives. It is striking to see what they think
of England. I had no idea of her greatness till I
saw how she is looked up to here, any more than
I had of her morality and domestic virtues, till I
saw the comparative want of them here. Spain.
seems to be divided into two parties; the liberals,
who look up to England as their pattern, and the
devotos, who abhor us as Protestants and unbe-
lievers; the former party is in the ascendant, and
comprises all the intelligent laymen I have met
with; and indeed it is no wonder. The things that
are set before them to believe are some of them so
b It is this " distinguished author" whom Newman uses
as his witness for proving, "that the religion which forbids
private judgment (Romanism) is historically more tolerant than the
religions which uphold it."
c Answering to the English party and Russian party of
Greece.
POPULAR THEORY ABOUT THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
217
utterly incredible, and so entirely without evidence,
and they have no rule by which to distinguish
between what is necessary to believe and what is
unnecessary. The Bible practically is not allowed.
This year there has been a considerable religious
movement here: last year every thing seemed dead
and asleep. From what I heard in the Missionaries'
Sermons, and from some little books of devotion
left by the preachers who were all Apostolic
Missionaries, that is, persons invested with an
especial authority from the Pope, and by the
Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba, another Apo-
stolic Missionary, I have collected the popular
theory about the Blessed Virgin; and when I call
it popular, I do not mean that it is formed of indi-
vidual fancies like popular Protestantism, but that
it is what the Church teaches in Sermons and
authorized books of devotion, so that people must
receive that or nothing. They believe,
1. That the Blessed Virgin was conceived
without sin, and continued so.
2. That she suffered as much as our Lord, and
that she would have died for us, but her sufferings
already were as great as if she had died.
3. That her sufferings were meritorious, and
enough to make amends for all the sins of men and
Angels.
4. That standing at the foot of the Cross, she
offered her Son for the redemption of the world.
218
POPULAR THEORY ABOUT THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
5. That when our Lord said, Behold thy Son,
He gave not St. John only, but the whole human
race, to her for sons, and her to us for a Mother;
so that henceforth we can receive nothing good
but through her hands.
6. That when He went into heaven, He left her
to be the guide and director of His Church, and
the teacher of the Apostles.
7. That when He took her up into heaven, He
crowned her Queen and Lady of heaven and
earth.
In addition to this, they dwell very much on her
gentleness and kindness as our Mediator, and say
that sinners may well fear to approach our Lord,
but none can fear to come to so kind, so tender,
and so loving a Mother". Almost all the prayers
d "I seem indeed to myself to see Christ Jesus, the Son of
the Living God, provoked by so many injuries, already seizing
with his hand, and brandishing weapons with which to strike,
destroy, and exterminate this race, so dire and pestiferous.
But, on the other side, his most divine Mother, the Mother of
mercies, moved by a Mother's affections, by her beseeching sup-
plication restrains Him as He threatens punishment: and the
Parent full of grace throws herself upon her knees before her
Son, prays, supplicates, beseeches Him to suspend vengeance,
delay revenge, and wait for penitence. 'See,' she says, 'my
most beloved Son, the hands stretched out which handled Thee
as a little infant, recognise the breasts which Thou hast sucked.'
Interrupted with these words, He holds back the blow now
ready and aimed; and looking upon his most pure Mother, He
counts nothing too serious, or difficult for Him most freely to
ROMAN AND ANGLICAN CATHOLICISM.
219
and at the Mission were addressed to her. You
will see that the fourth, the second, the third, and
the sixth of the things that I have mentioned,
attribute to her what we are accustomed to con-
sider as the especial work of the Holy Trinity in
our redemption. In theory they seem to put her
more in the place of the Third Person; in practice
in that of the Second.
I am very glad to have seen and heard all these
things, for the state of England at present must be
a great trial, and though it is poor comfort to
think that others are worse, yet being sure of the
promise that the gates of Hell shall not prevail
against the Church, it is a comfort and encourage-
ment to be persuaded that our own branch is the
best. I remember the time when I had a secret
feeling, that the Roman Catholics were better off
than we: now I rejoice daily that my lot has been
appointed in the Anglican branch.
It would be trying too to live here in other
respects. No unmarried woman in this part of
Spain is allowed to go out either to Church or
elsewhere by herself, or even with her sisters.
forgive, most lovingly to remit, most mercifully to pardon, at her
intercession. For what can be conceived in that most lofty
majesty of God, which the sight of this Virgin will not beud and
move? What can be imagined in that most Holy Trinity, which
her prayers and intervention will not persuade ?" E. Campian's
Oratio de tutelâ et defensione B. V. M.
220
STANDARD OF WOMAN'S CHARACTER.
There must be some responsible person to watch
her; and when she walks with her father and
mother, she goes first, that they may see that she
does not exchange notes or make signs. To try
to baffle their parents' watchfulness is the great
amusement of some of them. One of the standard
religious writers, Luis de Leon, not contented with
exhorting women to keep in-doors, exhorts their
husbands to keep them there, and not to let them
have even female friends, because they will carry
messages, and “at best," he says,
at best," he says, "if women get
together they will talk, they can have nothing to
say that is worth talking of, and therefore they
will talk of what is bad." No doubt climate and
national character have a great deal to do with
this; but when a country has been Catholic for so
many centuries-and Spain really was so-when
for generation after generation there has been the
constant use of the Sacraments, and of confession,
the national character ought to be sufficiently
changed and ameliorated for all this to cease to
be necessary.
Seville, Wednesday in Easter-Week, 1851.
At Gibraltar I heard something which I did not
know about the state of the Spanish Church. Though
that place is far from presenting a favourable speci-
men of our own, very frequent applications are re-
ceived from Priests for Bibles and Prayer-books
MENTAL DISTRESS OF SOME OF THE PRIESTHOOn. 221
in Spanish and for counsel. Quite lately, one
wrote in distress of mind, willing to receive in-
struction from any English Clergyman, or even
from a Dissenting Minister. It is my belief, that
if our principles allowed it, and we chose to reta-
liate, we might make more conversions in Spain
than they in England. We came here in company
with some good Scotch Presbyterians. Two years
ago I should have felt towards them very differently
from the way I did now: one could not help
sympathizing with them, and feeling that it was
a comfort to meet with people who were in earnest.
In Spain there are but two alternatives, Mariol-
atry, opposed equally to Scripture and to the
Fathers, or Infidelity. I have heard things said
in Sermons as from the Scriptures, which I knew
not to be in them, and J. told me, that it was the
same with some quotations from the Fathers.
As we arrived here a little before Holy Week,
I wished to see it, but it is a grievous thing to
spend such a holy season in such a way.
I never
saw any thing like the behaviour of the people in
the Cathedral. On Palm Sunday, the Service was
much as it is at Malaga, beautiful in itself, but
utterly without reverence, people crowding and
pushing to get the best places that they could.
I had a very talkative neighbour at first, but all
the worst-behaved people went out to follow the
procession, and as it returned on the other side of
222
HOLY WEEK AT SEVILLE.
the Cathedral, they followed it, and established
themselves there. The Passion from S. Matthew
was beautifully sung, but through the most
solemn parts, the people talked continually,
apparently quite unaware of the meaning of the
words. Few had books. In the afternoon, there
was the displaying of the banner of the Cross, and
in the evening, a procession with three pasos, of
our Lord on the Ass, the Crucifixion, and the
Blessed Virgin.
On Tuesday there were very few people in the
Cathedral, and the Services were very solemn and
touching. The slow chanting gives so much
time to dwell upon the meaning of the words.
On Wednesday, unfortunately the white veil was
to be rent "with a great noise of thunder," as it
was advertised in the newspapers. The white
veil is a curtain drawn in front of the Altar,
which hides both it and the Priest on Monday
and Tuesday, except at the time of the Consecra-
tion and Elevation, and final Benediction. The
Cathedral was crowded, a continual talking going
on through" the Passion," which increased more
and more. At last came the words, "He cried
with a loud voice." The curtain was pulled down,
and a few crackers were fired off near the roof.
The Rubric says, that at the words, "He gave up
the Ghost," there shall be a silence, and all shall
kneel. There was instead a general titter, and
THE MISERERE AT SEVILLE.
223
every body began to talk loud, giving their opi-
nion of the effect; the remainder of the chapter
was inaudible, in the noise of voices and feet, as
the people crowded out.
The Miserere is one of the great Services of
the week; it occurs in the Lauds of Thursday,
Good Friday, and Saturday, and is sung by anti-
cipation the evening before, at nine on Wednes-
day, ten on Thursday, and about four on Good
Friday. This year the Canon, who has authority
in the Church, gave orders, that at the two first
the men and women should be separated I went
on Thursday evening. The singing was good,
but not at all solemn; the choir sitting within
the altar rails, with violins and other instruments;
The female side of the Church full of ladies,
some sitting on the floor, some walking about in
groups, talking. It would have been very plea-
sant to see people of all classes meeting to enjoy
themselves, if it had been in another place, and
in an unconsecrated building. The Monumento,
or Sepulchre, was at the west end, and con-
tained the Consecrated Host. Every body who
passed it knelt, or at least made a reverence, and
two or three ladies (one an Englishwoman, and a
member of the English Church) sat at a table
near the door, to receive alms for the foundlings.
In the morning the Services had been very long,
the oil and the chrisin being blessed, and the
224
GOOD FRIDAY AT SEVILLE.
Consecrated Host carried to the Monument. The
procession was very good, but it seemed strange to
me to see a man who walked in it shaking hands
with people whom he passed, and talking to them.
The pressure of the crowd was so great, that it
would have been quite dangerous to continue
kneeling after the Sacrament had passed. The
royal party all walked in it, except the Infanta,
to the great disappointment of an honest country-
man, who was holding up his little boy to see;
and who at first mistook her sister in law for her.
At all times the Infanta, who seems to be highly
and deservedly esteemed, appeared to be one of
the chief subjects of interest.
Good Friday presented the most festival appear-
ance of all. There were processions all day long.
The whole population was out in the streets to see
them, boys clambering every where that they
ought not, and being driven down by the police,
men and boys selling nuts, and gingerbread, and
water. There was no ill-temper and quarrelling, and
no drinking, except water: the people seemed to
have met to enjoy themselves, and they did it. There
was one unfortunate occurrence. One procession
bearing the images of our Lord falling with the Cross,
and of our Lady of Hope, fell in with another bearing
those of the Conversion of the Penitent Thief, and
of our Lady of Monserrat, and they fought for
the precedence. The former gained it, but the
FIGHT BETWEEN TWO BROTHERHOODS.
225
fight occasioned a panic in the great square, where
there were, it is supposed, 20,000 persons. The
brotherhood of the Conversion and of our Lady
of Monserrat, wearing high caps with flaps over the
face that blinded them, and long trains that
entangled their feet, were quite helpless in the
confusion, and went down, I was told by an
American, "like nine-pins."
"like nine-pins." When order was
restored, the Infanta and all the royal party took
candles, and walked with them, to console theme.
Our Lady of Monserrat had a splendid new robe
of blue velvet, and a great display of plate around
her. We had come down from the steps to try
to go home, when suddenly there rose up a tre-
mendous clatter of voices round us, chiefly caused
by the ecstatic delight of one old woman.
"It is
the best procession of all, and it has not been out
these 118 years." J. asked, "How many years did
you say, Señora?" "118 years. My father lived
to be seventy-six, and I am (how much I did not
hear), and he could remember it when he was a
boy, and it comes all the way from Santa Paula,
and it wont be back till eleven o'clock at night.
e At Alhaurin, there are usually two processions, commonly
called "JESUS arriba," (JESUS above,) and JESUS abajo,"
(JESUS below,) one for the upper and the other for the lower
part of the town. When they meet they generally fight, and if any
unfortunate woman, wearing the ribbons which are the badge of
one party, falls into the hands of the other party, they are torn
off by force.
4
226
GOOD-FRIDAY PROCESSION.
It's the best of all, it's the best of all!" So she
went on, till the image came near, when she abso-
lutely shrieked with delight, squeezing herself and
the man next to her one step higher, to make
room for us to take their places. "Look! look!
the princess! the princess! and that's the duke!
and that's the mayordomo! and that's the general!
and all the great people of Seville!" And there,
as she said, were the Infanta, the duke of Mont-
pensier, the Duke and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg,
and their two little boys, with several others. A
long train of soldiers with music followed; and
when all had passed, our old friend shook hands
with me affectionately, and the last words that
I heard from her were, "There never was such a
procession." The images of our Lord's sufferings
were strangely out of place, in such a merry tu-
multuous scene. One thing that struck me was
the quantity of eating. In our way home we met
one of the defeated brethren, consoling himself
with a cigar.
On Easter Eve there was, of course, the bless-
ing of the new light, from which all the lamps in
the Church were to be kindled; the blessing of
the water for Baptism, and High Mass. The
Gloria was at about half-past ten, and at that
hour the black veil was rent; the bells rang, the
cannons were fired, and the fair began. The
black veil is extended behind the high Altar, and
EASTER EVE. ILLUSIONS DISPELLED.
227
covers the beautiful retablo. It could not be
pulled down with a crash like the white veil, with-
out doing mischief, so a man in a surplice stood
upon the high Altar, and put it aside carefully
before the time came, and at the right instant, it
was drawn quite back, and the crackers exploded.
Seville fair is on 19th, 20th, and 21st, (Easter
Eve, Easter Day, and Easter Monday.) Of course it
never entered any body's head to dream of putting
it off for Easter Day; on the contrary, it is a very
fit day for it. The annual bull-fights were put
off for the fair, and were on Easter Monday,
Easter Tuesday, and the Sunday after. Some
Englishmen went on Monday: the poor bulls were
bad ones, that is, quiet, peaceful beasts, that would
not hurt any one unless in self-defence.
It was
necessary to stick crackers into one, and fire them,
to make him do any thing, but they contrived to get
sixteen horses killed. Easter-day was most un-
Sunday-like, all crowd and bustle, with shops
open. On Palm Sunday it was the same and
people were at work. Good Friday was the only
day that they were closed. I am quite sorry to
have seen Seville at such a time. My illusions of
it as a comparatively quiet and religious place are
dispersed; but I should think that the really
religious people would keep away from these
scenes, and go quietly to their own Churches.
The place is full of Spanish strangers, who come
228
TUMULT IN THE CORTES.
to see, and perhaps the worst of the ill-behaviour
is theirs.
There is a revolution going on in Portugal.
There has been a little disturbance too in Madrid
in the Cortes. The present Ministry came in on the
ground of economy, and found it to be impossible;
every useless placeman displaced would be an
enemy, and so would every follower who did not
get a place, so they proposed to "regulate the
debt," that is, as there are numbers of people with
money owing to them, to confiscate a little from
some, and a great deal from others. In the debates
as to the amount, one of the Ministers voted
against the rest. The Prime Minister left the
house, the opposition shouted for joy, the Deputies
clenched their fists, and brandished their sticks,
and the President sent them home without taking
the votes. Next day the Cortes were dissolved.
The Government is taking every possible means to
get favourable elections. Deputies of the opposi-
tion who are in the army are put in arrest, that they
may not canvass, governors of provinces turned out,
and more active ones sent to control the elections,
&c. The great security of Spain against a revo-
lution is, that there is no party which is trusted, or
deserves to be so. Narvaez is the only man. If
he had character, as well as talent and energy, he
might do something, and I suppose sooner or later
he will come back again.
SERMON ON S. MARY.
229
I
Seville, April 11, 1851.
The following are extracts from a Sermon
preached this morning in Seville Cathedral, on
Viernes de los Dolores.
"She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears
are on her cheeks." Lam. i. 2.
"Sad and greatly to be wept was the desolation
of Jerusalem, the queen of cities, &c. . . . But how
far more worthy of tears was that of which the
desolation of Jerusalem was but a faint type, that
to which the whole book of the Lamentations
refers, the sorrows of Mary, the Queen of Angels
and of the blessed spirits!...
Ave Maria!
The sorrows of Mary were the greatest in the
world. S. Jerome says, that in proportion to the
greatness of the love is the greatness of the sorrow.
Her love to her Son was the greatest that ever
was, therefore her sorrow was the greatest. Great
was the sorrow of Reuben for Joseph, and that of
David for Jonathan, but their love and their sorrow
were small compared with hers, &c. . . . She was
not like Deborah sitting under the palm-tree, and
sending Barak to the fight, but like the same
Deborah going down with him to the battle: not
like Hagar, going apart from her son that she
might not see him die: She looked with a stedfast
eye on all the sufferings of her Beloved. From
the time that He was born she knew all that
230 THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
SERMON AT SEVILLE.
would befall Him, all of His sufferings were ever
present to her mind. What must she have felt
when she looked upon those innocent Hands and
Feet, and knew that they were to be pierced upon
the Cross, when she beheld his fair hair which was to
be full of blood, &c. . . . And yet from her free.
love and charity for the human race, she willed to
offer Him up. The sufferings of Mary were so
great, that if they were divided among all the
creatures in the world, they would suffice to
destroy the existence of all. GOD, Who sent an
Angel to comfort His Son in His agony,
sustained her with His Arm, that she might
not perish through her sufferings. Her sufferings
differed from those of the Martyrs not only in
being more intense, but because they suffered for
the salvation of their own souls. She, who was
without spot or stain, purely through Charity,
that she might be the redeemer of the human
race. The Martyrs, in their torments, were often
supported by consolations from GOD, which some-
times made their bodily pains appear light to
them. She was utterly without it. . . . Under the
Law there were two altars near together, that of
burnt-offering and that of incense. From the one
were heard the groans of slaughtered victims,
from the other the voice of praise. The first
symbolized the Cross whereon JESUS was offered;
the second, the heart of Mary.... I will say with
THE BLESSED VIRGIN. SERMONS.
231
S. Bonaventure, that all that JESUS suffered in all
the various parts of His Body, all these sufferings
were gathered together in one in the heart of
Mary'.".
Cadiz, May 20, 1851.
The last thing which we went to see at Seville,
was the "Espositos." Mrs. — is one of the
ladies who manage it. Do you remember the
terrible account which Ford gives of the way in
f Again, compare a Sermon preached in San Ferdinando in
Naples, where Mr. Gladstone 'listened to sounds, accepted with
intense admiration, so appalling, that he does not dare to give
them the names which they seemed to him to deserve.'
"The
preacher, a man of ability and popularity, chose for his subject
the Divine Maternity of the Virgin. He described it as being
morally of a highly mysterious character, and appeared obliquely
to assimilate it to the Divine Paternity. This wonderful crea-
ture, he said, triumphed over the general laws of human nature
as an exception from the taint of original sin. She is regina dei
cieli, and imperatrice del mondo: her virtue and glory differ in
this essential respect from those of the Angels and Archangels,
that their gifts are restrained within the bounds of what is finite,
while hers toccano ai cancelli del infinito, so that there can pro-
perly be no relation or comparison between them. In her are
exhibited the several distinctive virtues of apostles, martyrs,
doctors, virgins: in her are also represented those which belong
to the heavenly circles of Cherubim and Seraphim, of Angels and
Archangels; nay, more and most of all, she is invested with the
extrinsic attributes of the Blessed Trinity, namely, Infinite
Power, Infinite Wisdom, and Infinite Love, &c." Church
Principles, p. 353.
232
THE ESPOSITOS. THE CONCORDAT.
which the unhappy babies used formerly to die
of starvation? Mrs.
says, that when she
distressing, that she
She was one of the
first went there, it was so
could neither eat nor sleep.
first ladies who took it in hand, and now it is the
perfection of order, and cleanliness, and such fine
children you would not easily find in Spain. We
saw only the junior department. At six years
old, they go to another house and other Sisters,
and the parting is heart-breaking.
The great subjects of conversation here are the
elections and the Concordat. The latter treats
the clergy with tolerable fairness, and allows com-
munities of the Orders of S. Vincent de Paul,
S. Philip Neri (the Oratorians), and one other,
also Sisterhoods of Charity, and any Sisterhoods
which dedicate themselves to teaching. It fixes
the incomes of the Clergy. The Archbishop of
Toledo to have £1600 a year, and the lowest
payment of a country priest to be £22. The
Bishopric of Malaga to be raised from £700 a
year to £1000. It abolishes some Bishoprics,
and creates others. Instead of eight Archbishops
and fifty-two Bishops, there will be nine Arch-
bishops, forty-six Bishops, and two auxiliary
Bishops, a diminution of only three. The progres-
sitas are very angry; they say that it is a return
to bigotry. Instead of the money passing through
the hands of Government, it is to be paid direct
THE CONCORDAT.
233
to the clergy, and the Bishops will have the
management of all the Church lands that remain
unsold, and all the funds raised by the Bula de la
Cruzada, which they are to apply to this purpose,
what is wanting being made up by a tax. It
remains to be seen how it will work. I do not
think that the people who refused to pay tithe,
which had been paid immemorially, will long con-
tinue to pay even a much smaller tax, which has
not the same sanctions.
g According to the Morning Chronicle of Oct. 30, the dis-
content seems to be beginning to shew itself strongly, owing in
a great degree to the prospect held out in the Allocution of
September, of the restoration of the Regular Orders to their
pristine dignity and splendour, a thing by no means acceptable
to Catholic Spain.
CHAP. XI.
Malaga to Seville. Ceremonies. Ill-behaviour. Processions
at Seville. La Feria. Maja dress. The Infanta. Burial of
Christ's Poor in Catholic Spain. Outrage on the dead body
of a child. Exhumation of the dead. Intolerance.
Letters of J. M. from Seville, during the Spring
of 1851.
Seville, April 10, 1851.
We had a very wearisome voyage from Malaga
to Gibraltar, owing to the miserable custom-house
regulations. We went on board at night, and
might have landed at Gibraltar at day-break, but
it was necessary to go on shore at Algeciras, in
order to give the custom-house people a few
pesetas. I do not believe that one box of the
whole party was opened, but as the landing is
bad, we had to be carried ashore by a multitude
of half-clad men, who fought for us and for our
boxes, and then to be carried out again to a
miserable little steamer, which professed to start
at eight, and make half an hour's voyage to
CUSTOM-HOUSE INFLICTION.
235
Gibraltar. She wasted a considerable time in
waiting: there was a little wind, and she would
not face it; and after being in some risk of being
taken back to Algeciras, we were landed at half
past eleven. The Iberia took us to Cadiz, and
on Monday morning we started for Seville.
When we landed, no cart would come out, and
I had to engage a host of porters, as I happened
to have twelve packages. The decks and ground
were soaked with wet. It was dark, and the
officers were examining the luggage on the wet
steps beneath some dripping trees. I wrapped
myself up, and waited patiently, until at last I
thought I could get through, and struggled up to
the steps; there I had to wait again, and trust to
good fortune and the honesty of the porters, that the
packages would come right. Before me were port-
manteaus opened, and the things pulled out in
the wet to the light of two dismal lanterns. What
would have become of me with all my packages,
I do not know, had it not been for half a dollar,
which I put into the hand of the carabinero,
whereupon he made a great fuss in unbuckling
my portmanteau, and an equally great fuss in
buckling it up again, and passed the whole of the
luggage".
a Receiving money for not doing their duty is a method of
making up their salary, practised almost universally throughout
Spain and Italy, and recognised under the rose by Govern
236
SEVILLE CATHEDRAL SERVICES.
April 16, Seville.
We have been to the Museo and to the Fabrica
de Tabacos; the rest of our time has been spent
in the Cathedral, and we have had one or two very
pretty walks in the neighbourhood of Seville.
This morning we had the Passion sung, and the
rending of the white veil, accompanied with thun-
ders, represented by some crackers, which were let
off in the triforium galleries. There were thou-
sands assembled, and it appeared to be a scene of
great amusement. The Cathedral is divided in
the evening, and the men have one side, and the
women the other; a new rule, and from what I hear
a most necessary one. We see the Infanta and the
Duke of Montpensier in the Cathedral almost
daily; they have a grand seat placed for them
within the altar rails, below the steps on the north
side".
[Easter Monday.] The Holy Week is now
ment. An official at Naples applied for an increase of salary,
and sent in an account of the length of his service and other
claims. His petition was listened to, till he was asked where he
had been on duty. 'At Naples.' 'Indeed! Naples There
were so many travellers who came to Naples, that there were
other means of raising his salary besides applying to the Govern-
ment,'—and his petition was dismissed. Under such a system,
all scruples about giving money necessarily vanish.
b Why is there nothing wrong in this in Spain, if it would be
Erastianism in England? Why would it be Erastianism in
England, if there is nothing wrong in it in Spain ?
HOLY WEEK IN SEVILLE.
237
past, and we are come to the fair and the bull-fights.
The whole week has been a most instructive lesson
on the evil of making religion a spectacle of this
kind. I have been heartily disappointed. The Cathe-
dral has been crowded, but not with worshippers.
The inns and private houses have been full to over-
flowing, and Holy Week has been the week of the
greatest amusement to one class, and of the hardest
work to another class, of the whole year.
Worse
behaviour in Church I never saw, and we have
quite unlearned any former opinion that we may
have formed on the superiority of Seville to Malaga.
The Processions are vey splendidly arranged, much
better than those in Malaga, but they are mere
shows, and the cloak of the Blessed Virgin
and the dress of the Nazarenes are discussed, just
as a gentleman's or lady's dress at a ball. The
Nazarene dress in which they walk in procession
is a long cap about a yard high, like the old San-
benito caps, a dress with a train about three yards
in length, and a veiled face. They carry not mere
single images, but pasos, which are generally
groups, or a figure under a superb canopy. Each
fraternity has commonly two pasos, representing
perhaps the Last Supper or our Lord upon the
Cross between the two thieves, the last and
most splendid being invariably the Blessed Virgin.
They come from their several parish-churches,
pass through the chief square, where the Infantas
238
SEVILLE FAIR ON EASTER EVE.
are placed under a canopy, and then proceed to
the Cathedral. On Thursday we saw four proces-
sions with nine pasos. On Good Friday there were
four more.
The crowd was tremendous, but
there was no pushing; the chief amusement
was buying and selling nuts, cakes, and agua-á-á,
as at a fair at home. The Miserere, on Wednesday
and Thursday nights, was to me most distasteful:
a host of fiddlers are placed within the altar rails,
where they perform, while the Cathedral is filled
with people walking up and down, talking, laughing,
listening, in short, doing every thing except wor-
shipping.
-
On Saturday, immediately after the Gloria in
Excelsis, at eleven o'clock began the fair, and I
walked down to see it. It is held just outside the
walls in a large meadow, and promised to be a gay
sight-cattle, horses, sheep, toys, eatables and drink-
ables, and booths of all sorts. However, it began to
rain on Saturday afternoon, and rained heavily
through Sunday, in consequence of which the time
of the fair has been prolonged two days more. In
itself it is nothing, but the people are very amusing.
They come out in the national costume; the men
in their majo jackets, with a profusion of silver
buttons, and better made and handsomer men I
never saw. This year the Infanta has revived the
maja dress, which has not been worn for thirty
years. It consists of a short mantle of bright
MAJA DRESS. THE INFANTA.
239
velvet, fastened at the comb of the hair, on the
head, and barely reaching the waist, crossing in
two narrow points before. The dress has tight
sleeves, and is a trifle shorter than that usually
worn, and of course, the hair, gloves, and fan, &c.
most elaborate. When worn with a proper air, it
is very pretty.
The Infanta seems to be very popular in Seville;
and, as far as one can judge, to deserve her popu-
larity. She encourages and patronises the dis-
trict visiting society, (a thing which I believe
does not exist any where else in Spain,) and the
religious fraternities, and lives quietly and re-
spectably, although she does belong to the Royal
Family of Spain.
The whole of the party in the hotel, except
ourselves, are going to the bull-fight. Though
I have been glad to see it once, I hope I may
never again be at Seville for the Holy Week.
Seville, May 1, 1851.
We
We have before given you some account of the
funerals of the rich, I will now describe to you a
burial that I witnessed of one of the poor.
had not been many days at Seville, and I
was wandering out in the evening towards
the old Alameda, when I heard the sound of a
voice in one of the Churches, and went in; it was a
funeral service; below the altar steps upon the
240
BURIAL OF THE POOR.
ground was placed an ordinary looking coffin, and
in the coro at the west end, a Priest with two
attendants was reciting the Psalms, there were
about eight persons present besides myself, and
I sat myself down on a bench, and tried to follow
the Service. Presently the Priest left the coro,
and advanced to the coffin, which was opened by
one of the attendants, for it did not nail down as
ours do, but opened like a box with a hinge; and
taking the aspersorium, sprinkled the corpse within
with holy water; it was the body of a woman of
middle age, of the lower class, and laid out, not as
our dead are, but in her ordinary daily dress; the
coffin was then closed, the Service ceased, and
the Priest and his attendants retired.
Two of the men then advanced, and lifted the
coffin on their shoulders, and carried it quickly
out of the Church, followed by five others and by
myself. They walked at a quick pace, without
any order or regularity, through the numerous
streets, sometimes on the pavement, and some-
times in the middle of the street; no one paying
any attention to them, or moving out of the way:
once the attendants stopped, it was to light their
cigarrets, and then they proceeded as before. At
last we reached the gate of the city, outside of
which is a large flat meadow, and at the further
end the Campo Santo. There was a review of
cavalry going on in the meadow, and while the
BURIAL OF THE POOR.
241
bearers of the corpse walked round by the road,
the followers made a short cut across the meadow,
and stopped awhile to see the review; at length,
seeing the corpse nearly arrived, they hurried on,
and joined it at the gate.
The Campo Santo here is rather more untidy
than that at Malaga, but in all material respects
much the same; a large square space surrounded
with four high walls, in the width of which are
the niches for the dead, rising in tiers one above
another; the centre space all coarse broken
ground, and over-grown with nettles'. We passed
through the first court into a second, and there
I expected to see the coffin placed in one of
the niches, and walled in: but no-there was a
wide shallow trench running all across this interior
square, which seemed to be filled up about half
way: a couple of men were beckoned to the spot,
who came with their hoes, and hooked out a little
place about a foot deep in the loose ground: the
coffin was then opened, and the body taken out,
and laid in the hole. The sexton took the pillow
The custom of burial in Spain is, to place the coffin in a
long niche or hole in the wall, and then to wall up the entrance,
and put up the inscription on it. The bodies remain for three
years, and then the bones are removed, and thrown into a com-
mon receptacle, except the relations choose to pay an annual
rent to retain the niche. Advertisements appear from time to
time in the papers, notifying that such and such parts of the
wall of the Campo Santo are to be cleared.
R
242
BURIAL OF CHRIST'S POOR.
that had laid under its head, and tore it into rags,
and spread it over the face of the corpse, while
his companion threw a few baskets-full of earth,
and then he jumped down himself, and trod it in.
I had stood close by, and watched the whole
proceeding up to this point with a kind of creep-
ing horror; but now I could bear it no more, it
was literally treading on the corpse's face. I
turned away and left, and the others followed me.
I had been present the whole time; I heard no
voice of prayer, and saw no sign of it, except
that for a moment, as the corpse was laid in the
ground, the attendants took off their hats. And
this, I said to myself, as I walked slowly home,
and watched the evening shadows coming over
the meadow, this is the burial of Christ's Poor in
Catholic Spain. Again and again in the night I
woke with the thought of the man ruthlessly
trampling upon that pale still face.
While I am speaking of funerals, I can give
you a singular instance of the intolerance which
did prevail some time since. The story runs back
into the last generation, but I had it from a lady
of sixty, who remembered it herself when she was
Mr. and Mrs. B. came out to Seville,
young..
lately married, in order to establish a factory. A
little girl, their first child, was born, and bled to
death, in consequence of a bandage badly tied by
the Spanish barber. The mother was in despair,
OUTRAGE ON A DEAD CHILD.
243
and chiefly at the thought that the child could not
have Christian burial. Mr. B. pacified her, saying,
I am known to the Bishop, and do not fear, I
will arrange it.' He saw the Archbishop, who kindly
felt for the mother, and said, that as it was an
infant, though he could not formally appear in
the matter, yet it might be permitted. At that
time all the burials took place in the vaults of the
Churches, and accordingly the child was taken,
and duly buried in the vaults of the Cathedral;
but exorbitant fees were charged for the favour,
they ran to as much as £60 in English money.
The next morning the servant got up early to
open the outer gates of the factory as usual, and
as he opened them he heard steps, and saw a man
run quickly round by the fabrica de tabacos. He
wondered what it could be, when on looking
down he saw laid at the door, without its coffin,
the body of the little child in its funeral dress.
Who it was that did it was never discovered, nor
was it possible to make any public complaint; but
it is clear that it could not have been done without
the consent of the Sacristans, the senior of whom
is in the Sacred Order. The poor child was laid
in a peaceful grave in the garden. The mother
went into fits, on discovering what had occurred,
which was concealed from her for some time, and
never to her dying day forgave the Spaniards for
their outrage on her dead child.
244
EXHUMATION OF THE DEAD.
Another occurrence, exemplifying the same
spirit, occurred about the same time. A German
protestant died at Seville of small pox, and his
brother, by paying heavy fees, arranged with the
Cura of S. Bartolomeo, that he should be buried
in the vaults of the Church. Accordingly he was
buried there by night; but the next morning, the
corpse, all loathsome with virulent small pox, was
found cast outside the gate of the city, called la
puerta de la carne, and there the brother dug a
grave, and buried it seven feet deep, and laid a
stone on the top to commemorate the intolerance
and bad faith of the Sevillaños.
CHAP. XII.
Arrival at Gibraltar. Gibraltar Cathedral. Alameda.
Cobbler's Garden. Galleries and Batteries. S. Michael's Cave.
Jews of Gibraltar.
It is a most disappointing thing to one who
has been accustomed to associate shadowy notions
of grandeur and majesty, with the names of the
Columns of Hercules, Calpe, and Gibraltar, to arrive
in the bay during the prevalence of an east wind.
The east wind is the great enemy of the inha-
bitants of the south of Spain, from the many
noxious effects produced by it; and on the day of
my arrival, it had wreathed the mighty Rock before
me with a blanket of vapour, shewing only here
and there a frowning piece of granite, while the
whole of the distant view, the hills of Spain to
the north, and the hills of Africa to the south,
with the blue Mediterranean flowing between me
and them, were totally obscured from view. Under
these conditions the rock of Gibraltar was of no
more imposing appearance than the cliffs of Fresh-
246
GIBRALTAR.
water enveloped in a sea-fog; for in either case the
imagination, it is true, had full range, but the
testimony of sight was wanting.
After a time, however, the envious fog cleared
away, and there stood the impregnable citadel, the
key of the Mediterranean, bursting boldly up from
the sea, except on the north side, where it is joined
to Spain by a little flat neck of land, across which
the English and Spanish lines stretch with a small
space of neutral ground lying between them.
Gibraltar runs due southwards in the direction of
Africa, dividing the Mediterranean proper to the
east from the bay of Algeciras to the west. On
a little hill to the north beyond the neutral
ground lies the white town of San Roque, and in
the distance in the same direction appear the hills
of Gaucin and Ronda. The town of Gibraltar
nestles on the shore of the harbour underneath
the cliff, flanked on the right by the green
Alameda, and on the left by an old Moorish
castle, now used as a prison. It is difficult to say
which look most threatening, the treacherous holes
with which the side of the rock is bored, or the
vicious guns which are seen peeping and peering
over the summits and open points.
A Sunday occurring a few days after our arrival,
I offered my services to the Archdeacon, with
whom I was, through a third person, already in a
manner acquainted, and at his request preached
GIBRALTAR CATHEDRAL.
247
in the morning at the Cathedral. A strange
building is this same Cathedral. The only style
to which it can be referred is Church-wardens-
Moorish style. Its arches are horse-shoed, but
without ornament, and the roof is a plain smooth
white plaistered ceiling. The sums spent upon
this hideous erection were I believe very large,
SO that it cannot be excused on grounds of
economy; and one is reduced to the conclusion,
that in the year 1830, there were people who
thought that such doors and windows as these had
something in common with the magnificent arches of
the Mosque of Cordova, or the Gate of Justice at
Granada. The echo is so bad, that the preacher feels
that he is, with but little metaphor, almost eating
his words; they come back upon him with such
violence from all parts of the Church. On return-
ing to the Vestry at the conclusion of the Com-
munion Service, we found an Italian waiting, who
was desirous of instruction, and of being admitted
into the Reformed Branch of the Church. Such
communications from Spaniards, and even from
Spanish Priests, as has been before mentioned, are
not unfrequent, so great a distrust of the doctrines
of their own Church has its reckless mixture of
unfounded legend and God's Truth produced.
Proselytism is not the vocation or the desire of
the authorities of the English Church at Gibraltar,
248
GIBRALTAR ALAMEDA.
but of course when souls crave instruction in her
doctrines, such instruction is not refused.
On Sunday afternoon, the bank of the Alameda
is the favourite walk for the towns-people. This
is a spot which did not at all square with my pre-
conceived ideas of stern grey threatening Gibraltar.
In the Alameda itself there are some very fine
trees, and above it rises the steep bank ending at the
summitin precipitous grey crags, which the monkeys
inhabit in an east wind. The lower part of this
bank is dressed with all sorts of tropical plants, in
a profusion of differently shaped leaves and bright
coloured blossoms. Masses of geranium blossoms,
with the prickly pear, the cork tree, the aloe, and
numberless other shrubs, among which almost
labyrinthine paths wind their way gradually up
the hill, make one of the most delightful gardens,
where but twenty-five years ago there was nothing
but barren grey rock and broken ground and
desert sand.
Through these green and shady delights we made
our way along the side of the Rock, mistaking
each prominent stone and every goat that made its
appearance at the summit, for one of the far-famed
monkeys, (which however refused in propriâ per-
sonâ to appear,) till we reached the Cobbler's
Garden, and looked with no little interest on the
curious ways in which the old man's idiosyncracy
COBBLER'S Garden.
249
had developed itself. We met him on his own
domain, and entered into conversation with him,
from which it appeared, that ever since the year
1827, this had been his chief abode. Twenty-four
years ago he retired from the town, which was at
the time afflicted with a contagious disease, and, as
he said, pitched his camp on this deserted spot.
With great labour he cleared himself a small space,
and made a little hut, where he lived undiscovered,
and that in Gibraltar, for a number of years. When
he was discovered, the maxim of possession being
nine points of the law, was acted upon, and he was
granted possession of the spot for his lifetime; and
here the half-crazed old man sets up broken pots,
kettles, and figure heads, as ornaments to his terri-
tories. And for twenty-four active, busy, scheming
years he has been thus employed.
No one leaves Gibraltar without having paid a
visit to the Galleries and Batteries. In spite of the
east wind, which had again rolled its wreath of fog
over the summits of the Rock, I procured an order,
and under the guidance of an intelligent English
soldier, visited the wonderful excavations. The
side toward the mainland is fully commanded,
but they must be but plunging balls from such a
height. More real work I should suppose would
be done by the less showy batteries below, which
rake the whole surface. The eastern side of
a Vide supra, Chap. V.
250
THE FORTIFICATIONS.
the Rock towards the Mediterranean is wholly
inacessible, and no amount of prize-money which
has been offered has induced any, even of the
sappers and miners, to mount the precipice,
although supplied with ropes and ladders, and not
expecting the welcome of musket, pike, and cutlass
above. The attempt has more than once been made,
but never with success. One man there was, so
at least the soldiers delight to report, who could
in some unknown manner find his way into the
impregnable fortress, without leave of governor or
guards. He had some secret ingress and egress
which he would reveal to no one, and tales are
told how at gun-fire he was left outside the forti-
fications by a sentinel, and how the latter proceeded
to his quarters, and presently there appeared among
his comrades the very man whom he had left
without, and the sentinel on guard vowed that
none had entered since gun-fire, and cajolement
and threats were in vain made use of; he kept his
mysterious knowledge to himself. "And I believe,
sir," said the corporal, "he was drowned in the Eiffy,
and so his secret perished with him." As long as
England is mistress of the seas, it is impossible that
she can lose Gibraltar, except by gross careless-
ness, by treachery, or by mutiny; three things
which look little likely at present, however much
the pride of the Spaniard, and the ambition of
the Frenchman, may desire them.
S. MICHAEL'S CAVE.
251
From the Galleries, a path leads across the
heights to S. Michael's Cave, a yawning arched
opening into the honeycombed interior of the
great Rock, wide enough to enter and walk about
in at the mouth, but sinking down very soon into
well-like abysses. It is of the same nature as
the famous grotto of Adelsberg, between Trieste
and Laybach, but unequal to it in the majestic
and imposing magnificence for which the latter is
renowned. Again and again, adventurers are let
down to find some resting-place for the sole of
their feet, but they never yet have found more
than a ledge, beyond which the abyss sinks away
perhaps to the level of the sea, or indeed, if
legends are to be believed, still lower. For, accord-
ing to tradition, this is the entrance to a secret
passage, which running through "the Domdaniel
Caverns under the roots of the Ocean," emerges
again to daylight amongst the hills of Ceuta, under
the sky of Africa: and it is by this passage
that the monkeys make their way backwards and
forwards between Europe and Africa: and this is
why they are found no where else in Spain, and
often are not to be seen here, for at any moment
they have the power of retiring to their kinsmen
on the opposite coast: and each monkey when he
dies is carried in procession by his mourning
relatives by this means to Apes' Hill; and that
252
LEGEND OF S. MICHAEL'S CAVE.
is the reason why no dead bodies or skeletons of
monkeys are found in Gibraltar. And the Moors
add, that some day, when the time fixed by Allah
shall have arrived, the African believers are to
discover the submarine pathway, and suddenly
they are to burst forth from the Cave of S. Mi-
chael, and in the might and name of Allah and
the Prophet, fall upon the infidel dogs who have
deprived them of their terrestial Paradise, the
Island of Andaluz, revenge all the wrongs and
indignities of their religion and their race, again
take possession of the sacred Cordova, the ravish-
ing Granada, and the sumptuous Seville, while
Mosque, Palace, and Giralda echo forth once more
the symbol of their faith, "There is no God
but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." But
this is not to be till the submarine passage is
found, and we may rest secure that it will not be
till then. Meantime, however, the Moors of
Tetuan still keep the keys of their houses in Gra-
nada, and hand them down as precious heir-
looms to their descendants, waiting with Oriental
patience till the fated time come.
On my way back, I noticed that my guide
stopped, and looked wistfully at a spot of ground;
and I asked him what it was that interested him.
"This is where the Jews were formerly buried,
Señor," he said. I had previously marked the way in
JEWS OF GIBRALTAR.
253
which the Israelites are fain to point out to strangers
the resting-place of their ancestors. In Constan-
tinople the same thing had occurred; and at Smyrna
my Jew guide had very naturally, but much to my
indignation when I discovered it, taken me to see
the sepulchres of his people, as an object of greater
interest than the remains of the old Amphitheatre
in which S. Polycarp's martyrdom took place.
So I at once concluded that my companion was a
Jew, and a glance at his physiognomy confirmed
my conjecture. He was, he said, of the family of
Cohen, of the Tribe of Levi, and his grandfather
had been the Chief Priest at Gibraltar. 'What other
Tribes,' I asked, ' were represented by the present
Jews?' 'Judah, Benjamin, and half the Tribe of
Levi, still existed.' And the other nine and a half
Tribes?' They were in existence somewhere, but
no one knew where, and on the appointed day they
would be revealed, and all would gather together
again at Jerusalem, and none would be allowed to
remain in the Holy City except Jews only.' 'And
when that occurs,' I said, 'we believe that you will
be no longer Jews, but Christians.' He shook his
head, and muttered, No, no. They read the Law, he
told me, in the synagogue on the Sabbath twice,
and on Mondays and Thursdays once, the Prophets
only once a week. I tried to see if he would ac-
knowledge the typical nature of his religion; 'why,
for example, was the Paschal lamb commanded to
254
JEWS OF GIBRALTAR.
be sacrificed?' 'Only as a sacrifice.'
'But was it
not typical and foreshadowing of something else?'
'No; the lamb was ordered to be killed, in order to
mark the difference between Jews and Egyptians:
the latter worshipped creatures, and consequently
the former were ordered to kill them, to shew how
little respect they had for them. Since their great
persecution, the Jews had almost wholly disappeared
from Spain.'
CHAP. XIII.
Gibraltar to Granada. Spanish non-washing. Children in
Salamis. The Manta. San Roque. The Guadiaro. Similarity
between Greece and Spain. Unsophisticated character of some
of the poor. Burial of Protestants in Spain. Question of
Tolerance. Ronda. José Maria. His method of ingratiating
himself with the poor. Of bribing the soldiers. Terms made
by him with Government. His death. His amulets. Balberan
and present Banditti. Juéves de Dolores. Funeral. Posada
de Jesu Nazareno. Loja. Vega of Granada. Sierra Nevada.
Granada.
As long as a traveller is still at Gibraltar, he
feels but on the threshold of his journey, and this
feeling alone is enough to produce a desire to get
off. Accordingly it was with feelings in which
pleasure predominated that we set off for Granada,
in spite of rain, wind, and dismal prognostications,
that the river between San Roque and Gaucin
would be too much swoln to cross.
We num-
bered five in party, S. and myself, H., Nicola our
guide, and Roque, whose business it was to look
after the baggage-horse. This same Roque con-
tinued with us for the space of three weeks, and
towards the end of that time, as we were drawing
256
SPANISH AND GRECIAN NON-WASHING.
near to Seville, having marked the same spots or
rather encrustments of mud upon his stockingless
legs and sallow face, day after day we asked
Nicola when it was that his companion had last
washed. "A day or two before we set off with
your worships," answered he, in a most grave tone.
"And not once since ?" No, Señor." " And
when will he apply water to himself again?”
"Perhaps when he gets home." The Spanish
abhorrence of baths, may possibly be referred to
their traditional abomination of the Moslems,
whose frequent ablutions are a part of their reli-
gion. The same cause may have had the same effect
in Greece. Certainly in both countries the
phenomenon is the same, nor shall I easily
forget the amazement produced in the minds of
a dozen children in Colouri, the chief town of
Salamis, when I promised them a certain fraction.
of a drachma each on condition of their washing
their faces. At first the proposal was met with
mute astonishment; but by and by a little coax-
ing made a merry saucy-looking little girl run off
to the water, and come back with a smiling and
clean countenance. Her example and consequent
reward soon made the rest think it great fụn to
do likewise, and I went away congratulating
myself, that I had been the cause of their learning
the detergent qualities of water as applied to the
human skin. On Roque, however, neither argu-
SPANISH MANTA.
257
ment, precept, nor ridicule could have any effect.
Never once were his clothes taken off, never once
was water applied to his person, unless possibly at
Granada, from this morning to the day when he
left us after our arrival in three weeks' time at
Seville. Nicola was dressed in the manta, a rude
but not unserviceable covering, in shape like a
blanket or rug, made of a rough cloth-like material,
in party-coloured stripes, having in the centre a
round hole, through which the head is passed,
while the two long ends stretch out towards the
horse's ears and tail. It will only serve for horse-
back-travelling, and often have we seen poor
Nicola struggling vainly with it, when he has un-
warily let himself down thus dressed to the
ground in a high wind. First one end, then the
other, was banged over his face, and the appearance
presented was that of a pair of arms struggling
desperately in the coils of a living and furious rug,
from within the folds of which proceeded volleys.
of good round mouth-filling oaths, such as only
Spaniards or Italians could emit.
Gibraltar has of course only one side on which
it can be left, and through the gate on this side we
passed, and crossed the English and Spanish lines.
Englishmen often dwell on the extreme contrast
observable between the English and Spanish
sentinels, in their equipment and soldier-like ap-
pearance. This however was not at present the
S
258
SAN ROQUE.
case, whether accidentally, or owing to an im-
provement in the Spanish lines, I know not.
The first part of our journey lay along the
sands of the bay of Algeciras, from which we
presently turned off and made for San Roque, a
favourite summer residence of Englishmen con-
nected with the Rock, but still retaining for the
most part its Spanish slipshod character. Its
position on a low hill is very good.
Now it so happened that Nicola was a native of
San Roque, and that Nicola's house and wife and
children were at San Roque. Consequently it
very naturally occurred to Nicola, that if he could
retain us for a day at San Roque, and receive his
hire for his services and horses just the same as
though he were travelling, it would be a most
desirable arrangement on his part. With a view
to this end, he had, previously to our starting from
Gibraltar, suggested, that there was a river between
San Roque and Gaucin, which the late rains might
have made impassable. Now that we were arrived
at San Roque, he opened his second battery,
declaring that from the state of the little brooks
that we had passed, he had little doubt that it was
quite useless to go on, and we should only have to
return. However, the lion in our way would, we
thought, disappear on our facing him, so vamos! let
us at least try: at all events, we should not become
better off by waiting there for it to swell still
THE GUADIARO SWOLN.
259
higher, and por la calle de despues se va a la casa
de nunca. "The street of By-and-by leads to the
house of Never." Accordingly we jogged on, but.
Nicola had not yet given up his purpose. It was
so much in accordance with the Spanish do-no-
thing, no se puede, character, that one more device
must be tried. When we had travelled about half
the distance between this bug-bear of a river
and San Roque, we met a man on foot, with whom
Nicola pulled up, and had a long jabber in Anda-
lusian. Presently he overtook me again; "Señor,
the gentleman with whom I have been talking
says, that it is impossible to pass the river."
Has he come from it?" "Yes, Señor."
"Yes, Señor." "Where
did he start from this morning?" "From Gaucin,
Señor." "Why he must have crossed it himself
then." "Yes, Señor, but it was swelling then, and
will have grown much larger now. "Vamos!"
"Bueno;" and then and there Nicola found out.
that if he was to succeed, his little private ends
must be covered somewhat more speciously, and
his appeal must be to difficulties less easy to
grapple with, than the apprehension of a swoln
river. To do him justice, he profited by the
lesson. His private ends were not given up, but
his plan of operations was henceforth more clever.
This same stream is a branch of the Guadiaro, a
river which rises not far from Ronda, and empties
itself into the Mediterranean some miles above
260 SIMILARITY BETWEEN GREECE AND SPAIN.
Gibraltar. As was to be expected, we found no
difficulty whatever in crossing it by a large ferry-
boat, which transported both us and our beasts;
according to the custom of countries where en-
gineering has not been employed, the path for the
greater part of the day was along the banks of the
river, in the valley through which the waters flow
down from the hills.
We were now fairly off for Granada, and our
two first days' ride was perhaps the most beautiful
of any that we enjoyed in Spain. The hills of
Gaucin and Ronda will compete with most ranges,
and Sierras for outline, if not height; and the
lights and shades gave them a new complexion
each moment, thus more than making up for the
frequent bursts of rain which came sweeping down
upon us. The similarity of the scenery, the
country, the ways of the country, and the method
of travelling, to what existed and was practised in
Greece, was most striking. Indeed, the two countries
seem on almost all points to be about on a level
of cultivation, physical and moral. There were the
same hills as those of Arcadia, the same trees, the
same rivers along which we ambled on the same
kind of horses: there were the same paths, with
the very same paving stones, which ought to be
laid flat, tossed up here into heaps, there leaving
holes in which an English horse would infallibly
hreak his leg before he had gone twenty yards:
GREECE AND SPAIN.
261
there was Roque singing the same songs at the top
of his voice, without a vestige of a tune in them,
which Athanasi' sang between Megalopolis and
Sparta: there was Nicola jogging on in front, at the
same excruciating half-trot pace, with which Andréa
Prindisi tortured us in the Peloponnesus: before
arriving at Gaucin, which we did just after dark,
we had to climb up a thoroughly Grecian stair-case-
like road, to which Astley's flights of steps are a
mere nothing, and then we came to the very
counterpart of a Grecian Khan, called in these
parts a Posada. Had it not been for the manta
and unmistakeable sombrero in place of the red fez
and white kilt-like fustianella of the Albanian
costume, I could have believed myself in Greece
again.
In the evening, our host of the Posada de la Paz
came in, lit his cigar, and made himself agreeable;
a fine unsophisticated honest-hearted man, one of
nature's gentlemen, such as one still finds lingering
in the corners of Spain and Italy. The species is
dying out, and necessarily both on account of the
spread of the spirit of questioning, and on account of
the increased demands constantly made by the
Roman Church on the faith of its members. Simple-
hearted trust and belief is a necessary element in
such a character, and consequently each dogma
added to the Faith, each "new invention decreed by
our Father" the Pope, as Mr. Faber terms it, di-
262
BURIAL OF PROTESTANTS.
"
minishes the numbers of these believing ones. In the
morning our friend took us to the Moorish tower,
which here, as in many parts of Andalusia, overhangs
the town. It is now occupied by a few Spanish soldiers,
who have desecrated the Chapel by using it for their
barrack-room. In one part of the grounds inclosed
by the wall was a small monument, erected to a
Mr. Smith in 1849. "He was not buried with us,'
said mine host as he pointed it out, "because he
was not a Christian.' "Cristiano si, Romano
Catolico no," I answered. He did not see any
difference: "Si Señor, Romano Catolico no,
Cristiano no." As has been shewn above, in the
letters from Seville, it has been only a very few
years since any but a Roman Catholic corpse has
been allowed to rest in Spain, in any ground,
whether consecrated or unconsecrated. At Malaga,
the dead were only allowed to be placed upright
in the sand below low water mark. "In 1662,"
says Ford, "Mr. Hole, secretary of the Ambassador
Lord Digby, having died at Santander, the body
was not allowed to be buried at all: it was put
into a shell, and sunk in the sea: but no sooner
was his lordship gone, than 'the fishermen,' we quote
from Somers' Tracts, fearing that they should
catch no fish as long as the coffin of a heretic
lay in their waters,' fished it up, and the corpse of
our countryman and brother was thrown above
ground, to be devoured by the fowls of the air.'"
(
'
QUESTION OF TOLERATION,
263
It was not till 1831 that permission was graciously
conceded by Ferdinand VII, for the setting apart
of "Protestant Burial Grounds"."
The path from Gaucin led us through fine
mountain scenery, winding round hill after hill,
a Whether tolerance is right or wrong, is an open question.
M. Veuillot, the Editor of the Univers, the avowed organ and
representative of the politico-religious views of the Ultramontane
party, thinks it wrong; and in the month of August, 1851, thus
expresses himself on this subject. "Pour-moi ce que je regrette,
je l'avoue.franchement, c'est qu'on n'ait pas brulé Jean Hus
plus tôt et qu'on n'ait pas egalement brulé Luther, c'est qu'il ne
soit pas trouvé quelque prince assez pieux et assez politique pour
mouvoir me croisade contre les Protestants."
Nor on repre-
sentations being made to him, can he find any fault with the
above sentence, except on philological grounds. This spirit legi-
timately developed itself in Spain in the measures of the Inqui-
sition, and naturally pursued its foes even beyond the grave.
A defence of the principles of persecution is intelligible; but
when Dr. Newman argues, that England is as intolerant as Spain,
Italy, and Sicily, nay more, that "the religion which forbids pri-
vate judgment in matters of Revelation, (a curious and adroit
periphrasis for Romanism,) is historically more tolerant than the
religion which upholds it," one is at a loss to know why he
should assert what all history, down to the Allocution of Pope
Pius on Spain, in September last, emphatically denies.
"The
Roman Church," says an Article in the Guardian of Aug. 1851,
"in the most authoritative way she can, by the voice of Cano-
nists, by the bulls of Popes, by uniform practice, does stand at
this moment, fairly, positively, directly, committed to the theory
of persecution. It would be the phrenzy of lying to deny it.
It is the system of Roman Catholic countries. Talk of the
theory of toleration! it is not understood there. They think it
infidelity."
264
RONDA. JOSE MARIA.
between which violent bursts of rain from time to
time descended upon our heads.
In the after-
noon we reached the more than picturesque, the
magnificently situated Ronda. Not a word of
far away.
superfluous praise or admiration has been bestowed
upon the mighty chasm through which the Gua-
dalvin makes its way, after it has encircled the
town with its girdle of waters, and the bridge.
which spans its 300 feet of width, and the arch
hanging 600 feet above the Moorish hills beneath,
and the cascade, and the glorious view from the
extremity of the Alameda, over the valley and hills
Ronda is the scene of Captain Mil-
man's Tale of the Wayside Cross; and has ever
been the head quarters of bandits and smugglers.
It was here that José Maria betook himself after
he had shot an officer who attempted to arrest
him, and with the money found in the officer's
saddle, formed his invincible band of associates.
From hence to Loja, which is at the entrance of
the Vega of Granada, we were travelling through
the heart of José's old dominions, and many stories
did we hear of him from his loving and admiring
subjects. He is still the hero of the peasantry,
and there is a charm about his name like that of
our own Robin Hood or Rob Roy. During his
lifetime José always took care to make the poor
his friends, and after his death they have not for-
gotten him. The following is an instance of the
JOSE MARIA AND THE POOR.
265
means he took of ingratiating himself with them.
He met a man trudging sadly along the road, who
had once been an arriero, and known for cheer-
fulness and merriment. José presented himself
before him in a threatening manner, and desired
him to stand and deliver. The arriero—cantabit
vacuus-replied, that he had nothing but his life,
and he was welcome to that. • What was he so
downcast about?' 'He had lost his beast, which
was to him his livelihood.' 'Well,' said José,
'do you know such and such a farm?' 'Si Señor.'
'Go there, and buy a mule which is there for
sale.' 'But, Señor, I have no money.' 'Here
is the amount: only bring me back the receipt.
Quick! Begone!' By-and-by the man returned
with his mule, gave José the receipt, and threw
himself on his knees before him in gratitude.
'Vaya vmd. con Dios,' said José, motioning him
off on his journey. The man departed, and our
hero quietly took his way to the farm house, and
sent in a message, that José Maria de Hinojosa
required so many dollars. The farmer protested
that he had scarcely a dollar in the house, upon
which José politely handed him the receipt, and the
farmer was glad silently to refund the price of his
mule, and give José a little over for his trouble.
José never harmed the poor, and consequently
as they had no notion of law, they were always
on his side, and gave him warning when danger
266
JOSE MARIA.
threatened. He bribed the police and soldiers
freely, and so there remained few who were
very eager for his capture. His method of
persuading the military was as follows. Ou
learning that a company was at a neighbouring
village in search of him, he would stay quietly
where he was for the night, and in the morning
make up a parcel of doubloons, and leave them in
his room with his rubrica, lock the door, and tell
the master of the house, that if any one went into
that room before the commander of the soldiers,
he, José Maria, would blow his, the master's, brains
out. He then rode off, and sent a confederate to
give information, that, last night, José Maria was
in such and such a house. No efforts of the
Government at capturing him succeeded, and at
last, as Lord of Andalusia, he made a treaty with
the King his brother. José bound himself to give
up his marauding habits, refuse assistance to all
rebels, and root out the brigands of Andalusia :
the King granted him full pardon of past offences,
a pension, and a command over his old associates,
now recognised as pillars of the Throne. One of
these companions, however, after a while bethought
him, that the old freebooting life was best, and
again took to the mountains and woods. José, who
had already begun most vigorous measures for
extirpating marauders, turned his arms against
him, pursued him to a lone house where he had
JOSE MARIA'S AMULETS.
267
taken refuge, and in the moment of his success
was shot dead by a bullet from his old companion's
musket. The Priests were an object of José's
great abomination. "One thing he did," said my
informant with a demure face, but eyes twinkling
with enjoyment, "which was very bad. He one
day stopped the Diligence, and there were inside
it four Priests rather stout in person: José made
them get out, unharnessed the horses, and put the
Priests in their place, mounted the box, and pre-
tended to be about to use the whip:" then followed
a description of the four fat Priests attempting to
move the Diligence, the graphic nature of which
an ungesticulating Englishman can scarcely con-
ceive. Yet José was not without a certain kind of
religion. He never went abroad without an Image
of La Virgen de Dolores de Cordova on his breast,
and to it, according to the testimony of Ford, who
knew him personally, he attributed his constant
escapes; just as the Italian Banditti, if Mr.
Mc Farlane is to be believed, wear ordinarily a
silver heart of the Madonna.
José's associates numbered from twelve to
twenty in force. There is at present upon the
same line of road another party, headed by two
daring chiefs, who follow the great hero's steps
on a smaller scale. Their names are Balberan
and Samarro, so at least their names sounded, for
I have no written documents to verify my ortho-
268
BANDITTI. JUEVES DE DOLORes.
graphy. They are well mounted, and will admit
only three comrades; the peasantry are their
friends; some of the Guardias Civiles are bribed,
and the others cannot capture them; and so they
rule as they will, seldom or never molesting
foreigners, and having some very fine points of
character about them-which in a country in the
condition of Spain is easily compatible with their
profession-but nevertheless stained with the com-
mission of some frightfully cruel deeds. The
cause of their leader's taking to the road was, that
in his native town he, like many another Spani-
ard, had stabbed a man in a passionate brawl; he
had not money enough to buy off justice, which
is the approved way of doing things in Spain, and
in consequence fled, and entered upon a José
Maria-like career.
It happened that it was Juèves de Dolores, i. e.
Thursday of the Griefs of our Lady, which is the
Thursday previous to Holy Week, and the Church
of Campillos, which was our resting-place for the
night, being open, I went into it. There was no
Service going on, but owing to the day, there was
placed in the nave a large Image of S. Mary, dressed
in gaudy attire, and standing upon a half moon.
Before it a number of women were kneeling in
adoration. The Church was quiet and darkened.
Presently afterwards, as I was walking through
the town, I saw a funeral procession approach the
CAMPILLOS TO LOJA.
269
Church, and returned in order to witness the
Service. The women were all gone; the only per-
sons present were a Priest, a Sub-Deacon, and two
Singing Boys, besides one or two other boys, who,
in the intervals of a game at hide-and-seek behind
the columns, came and joined in a Kyrie Eleison,
and then ran off again. No friends were present,
and not even the bearers remained in the Church
during the Service. We slept during the night
at the Posada de Jesu Nazareno, a name similar
to the Café au Père Eternel in Rouen, and number-
less others.
The next day brought us to Loja, situated at
the western opening of the Vega of Granada,
where the plain country is narrowed to a strip
by the Sierra Susana on the north, and an ad-
vancing spur of the long range of hills which runs
parallel to the sea above Malaga to the south.
Through this pass the Genil, which is fed by the
snows of Sierra Nevada, makes its way out of the
Vega, and flows on to the Guadalquivir, which it
joins about half way between Cordova and Seville.
From Loja we found a broad macadamized road,
along which carriages could pass with ease, and
some did pass us, lumbering noisy vehicles, whose
novel appearance drove our horses almost wild.
Every time that they came near we had a battle
to fight, which generally ended in a bolt past the
dreaded object in one steed, and a violent kicking
270
SIERRA NEVADA.
in the other. About twelve o'clock, travelling in
an easterly direction, we came in sight of the Sierra
Nevada, "crowned long ago" the Queen of Sierras,
by her dazzling "diadem of snow," the virgin
beauty of which was as yet unmarred by the
summer's heat, and was glistening under the bright
sun and the deep blue sky. Four hours' ride from
this point brought us, after passing through Santa
Fé, which, poor and wretched as it is, still seems
to speak of Ferdinand and Isabel, and the Triumph
of the Cross, to Granada, the city of the Alhambra,
the last stronghold of the Moorish kings in
Andalusia.
CHAP. XIV.
Murder of a Smuggler. Escape of his son. Spanish non-
chalance. Concealment of scandals. Cathedral of Granada.
Arrangement of Spanish Churches. Procession on Palm Sunday.
The Miserere. Thursday night. Morning of Good Friday.
Value of compulsory Conformity. Scepticism. State of Spain.
Sabado Santo. Scene in the Cathedral. General Dog perse-
cution. Anticipation of Easter.
THE first piece of news that greeted us at Gra-
nada was not encouraging in its nature. "Señor,
a man was killed yesterday." I knew enough of
Spanish ways of speaking to be aware, that a man
being killed did not mean by accidental death, as
it probably would in an Englishman's mouth, but
that a murder or homicide had been committed.
The latter phrase would be too unpolite, where
such little occurrences take place so commonly.
"How did it happen?" I asked. "Why, Señor,
there was a smuggler who came with his son to
Granada, and put up at one of the Posadas. In
the evening he drank rather too freely, and pre-
sently began to brag that smuggling was a good
272
MURDER OF A SMUGGLER.
trade, that no smugglers need be poor; and being
urged on by his companions, at last he avowed that
he had 200 dollars with him at that moment: his
suspicions, with which a Spaniard when travelling
is generally well armed, being lulled to sleep by
the potent influence of wine. The following day
he set off with his son, on his journey to Jaen, for-
getting the revelations of the previous evening.
The keeper of the Posada and his brother-in-law,
however, had not forgotten them, and took care to
set off in the same direction some hours before,
and station themselves at a convenient post, in an
unfrequented part of the road. The smuggler
arrived, they had disguised themselves, and at-
tempted to rob without killing;' however, re-
sistance was made, a scuffle ensued, and the smug-
gler was shot. The boy in the confusion made
his escape. The two men then began to rifle the
body of their victim, and found to their dismay
that he had no money whatever upon him, and
that their crime had been committed to no
end, for the boy had gone off with all the money.
The poor boy did not know the country, and
being left desolate by his father's death, he
fled back to Granada, returned to the same
Posada, and told his tale to the woman who was
alone there. The woman commiserated his mis-
fortune, bid him now feel secure, and desired
-him to remain in the room into which she shewed
ESCAPE OF THE SMUGGLER'S SON.
273
him, taking care to bolt it outside, while she repre-
sented the case to the Police. After a while the two
men came back, and began to lament their ill-luck
in having missed the 200 dollars. The woman bid
them not distress themselves, for they had the means
in their own hands of remedying their mistake; and
they then took counsel together how they should put
the boy out of the way as soon as it should be night,
and conceal his body by means of an oven that they
had in the house, and appropriate the coveted gold.
The boy overheard the plot as he sat trembling in his
room. Terror sharpened his intellects, and on trial
he found, that by taking off almost all his clothes
he could squeeze himself through the window.
Quickly and silently he took off his jacket, in the
lining of which the precious gold was concealed,
and laid it upon the floor, raised himself up to the
window, as it was already growing dark, and by
some efforts wormed himself through the aperture.
Quietly he dropped to the ground, and then at
full speed darted off along the street. In a short
time he fell in with some guardias, who demanded
`his tale. He told his story, described the house,
conducted them to it, and there they captured the
two men and the woman sitting at the fire, and in
the little room found the jacket and the gold.”
"And are they to be hung?""Quien sabe, Señor?
If they have money enough to bribe the Judge,
they will come out of prison almost when they like."
T
274
CONCEALMENT of SCANDALS.
I should add, that having heard the story from
one quarter only, I had serious doubts as to its
authenticity, thinking that its very atrocity must
have made all Granada ring with it. Accordingly
I made enquiries about it of one or two persons,
and the answer that I received was, that "it was
very likely, that it was not a thing at all out of
the way, no one thought much of such occurrences
in Spain, it was nd-a, Spaniards did not talk of
such things much." In short, it was thought no
more of than an ordinary burglary in London. So
true is the remark of Ford, that a murder is an
occurrence scarcely noticed in the newspapers,
so much is it a matter of course; but crimes
which call forth a second edition, and double
sheet in our papers, are slurred over on the conti-
nent, for foreigners conceal what we most display."
It should never be forgotten, that this is true with
regard to ecclesiastical scandals, as well as political
and social crimes.
66
The morning after our arrival was Palm Sunday,
and I therefore got up early in the morning, and
went to the Cathedral in order to see the pro-
cession of Palms. The Cathedral of Granada,
dedicated to S. Mary, is very large, and has some
a See what persecutions the reforming Bishop Scipio de Ricci
was made to undergo at the hands of Pius VI. and the
Dominicans, for taking measures which necessarily published to
the world the iniquities of the Tuscan Convents.
THE CHOIR IN SPANISH CHURCHES.
275
fine features about it, such as height and mas-
siveness, which produce a majestic appearance;
but beyond this there is nothing. It is in a sort
of Renaissance style. All Spanish Churches pre-
sent one great peculiarity to the eye of an Eccle-
siologian, to which allusion has been already made.
This is the position of the Choir. In large Cathe-
drals, the Choir is as it were dropped down into the
centre of the nave: its shape is oblong, its sides
consist of high heavy wooden walls. Inside this
huge enclosure sit the Priest, the Choristers, and
ecclesiastical persons, while performing the ordi-
nary services. Between the eastern wall of the
Choir (which is generally low) and the Sacrarium
intervenes a large space, which is allotted to the
laity for their position. But it is of course
necessary that the Priests should have the power
of passing from the Choir to the Altar, and for
this purpose there is a passage guarded by low
rails leading from one to the other. Either side
of this passage is laid with matting, and is occu-
pied by women, who sit closely packed together
on the floor, in a sort of female-Turkish fashion:
outside of the women stand the men. The Sa-
crarium is generally guarded by altar rails. In
smaller Churches the Choir is quite at the west
end; then the place for the laity, and then the
Sacrarium, the first and last being as usual united
by the passage. This seems to shew, that the
276
PALM SUNDAY AT GRANADA.
position of the Clergy nearest to the Altar was
never universal, and that it is but a positive not a
moral law that stations them there. Valeat quan-
tum in favour of the Oratorians versus Pugin, and
in favour of our admission of the laity into our
Choirs.
The Benediction of the Palm Branches had
taken place when I drew near the Altar, and their
distribution was about to take place. The See
being vacant, there was no Bishop present, but the
Dean officiated in his stead. He took the Branches
in his hand, and presented them one by one to
such as came up the passage for them. First
came the Clergy and Ecclesiastial Personages, and
then some representatives of the laity. Each as
he received the palm kissed it and the hand of
the dispenser. The procession then formed, the
ecclesiastics preceding the Dean; and the laymen
following, and marched down the nave, and made
The doors were
its exit by one of the west doors.
then closed, the head of the procession made a circuit,
and reached the outside of the other west door.
Here they stopped, and those within and those with-
out responded to each other with several chanted -
versicles, after which the Subdeacon struck the
doors with the bottom of his cross, on which they
were immediately thrown open, and the procession
returned to the Altar.
On Wednesday night I returned to the Cathe-
THE MISERERE AT GRANADA.
277
dral at the time of the singing of the Miserere.
It was not sweetly or solemnly sung, not nearly
so pleasantly as at Malta, where I listened to it
last year. The recollection of last year's plain-
tive strains remained in my mind, and the present
performance was disappointing. I have no great
love for fiddles and violoncellos in Churches, and
if there must be fiddles and violoncellos, I still less
like to see the fiddlers and violoncello-players
fiddling and playing inside the Altar rails, with a
man standing in a very conspicuous position, with
his back to the Altar, beating time with violent
gesticulations. The performance was more noisy
than touching, and loud without being majestic.
The audience behaved as people ordinarily do
behave at a concert. Some were sitting down
and listening, some sitting down and talking, the
majority were walking about in parties of twos
and threes and fours, conversing in a repressed
but not low- tone. The appearance was very like
that displayed by the Volksgarthen at Vienna,
when Straus's band plays. Meantime a number
of boards fixed along the walls announced, that
whoever thus walked about and conversed incurred
thereby excommunication.
Perhaps the most striking appearance was pre-
sented on Thursday night. Cathedral, Chapel
Royal, and Sagrario were lighted magnificently
from top to bottom. At the conclusion of the
278
THURSDAY. GOOD FRIDAY.'
Miserere no general ceremony took place, but
still the Church continued crowded with people.
Some were occupied in prayer and meditation,
some in walking and talking, most in visiting
Altars and Chapels, thereby laying up for them-
selves a store of Indulgences. In Spain it is not
unusual for a person in authority to send invi-
tations to his friends to join him in a round of
such visits. Thus, as we were in the Cathedral
in the afternoon, we saw the Captain-General of
Granada, accompanied by a number of his officers,
to whom he had sent invitations, enter on one
side, pay visits to several Altars, and then go out
on the other in his way to more Churches.
(6
On the next morning, which was Good Friday,
I went out by myself between seven and eight,
and falling in with A. made my way to the
Chapel of a convent, where a few nuns still linger
on. Before going into the Church, A. said to me,
Señor, you will not object to go through the
superstitious ceremony of crossing yourself? Do
as I do." He went in, he knelt down, he crossed
himself, he appeared sunk in devotion, he rose, he
seated himself. We waited three quarters of an
hour, and then as there was no service, owing to
one of the three required Priests being not forth-
coming, we went out. As A. passed the Altar, he
made a low genuflexion, again went down on his
knees, crossed himself devoutly, and retired. Im-
COMPULSORY CONFORMITY.
279
mediately that we were outside, "Did you go
through the foolish superstitious ceremony, Señor?"
he asked with a bitter Mephistophiles-like look
upon his face, which shewed that his heart had
been nearer cursing than praying. I indignantly
told him, that the most ignorant believer there
was in a better frame of mind than he was, and
asked him how he could dare go through such a
mockery? "Ah Senor," he answered, shrugging
his shoulders, "what would you have? every
body in Spain must be a puro Cristiano, i. e.
Catolico Romano, so many keep their thoughts to
themselves, and lay their fingers on their lips.
Spaniards dare not express themselves freely.
Formerly, had they done so, they would have been
thrown into the dungeons of the Inquisition. I
myself was brought up before the Bishop, because
two Englishmen with me did not kneel at the Ele-
vation; but the Bishop was a good man, and did
nothing but rebuke me. And now," dropping his
voice, “no one knows for what he may find him-
self in the prisons of the State. Only let Espar-
tero come into power once more, and then we
shall see a change, and we shall have him, Señor,
in time"."
He then burst into a torrent of
"On the Continent, the State prohibits the very choice of a
religion altogether. At this moment it is the law of Spain, that
he who shall publicly apostatize from the Catholic Religion,
shall be perpetually banished. Throughout Italy it is a matter
280
COMPULSORY CELIBACY.
abuse against the Spanish Clergy, narrated several
shocking facts, for the correctness of which he
declared he could vouch on personal knowledge;
'that very priest to whom I had yesterday given
a peseta was leading an immoral life, &c.' 'Had
not,' I asked him, 'spoliation and consequent
poverty had a good effect on the morals of the
Priesthood?' 'Yes, they did not make such a show
now, but the evil still remained.'
As I walked home pondering over the scene
above described, three or four propositions formed
themselves into shape in my mind. The first
was, that if A. was a specimen of the effects of
compulsory conformity, the value of compul-
sory conformity was not great. The second,
that there might be greater abuses connected with
a celibate clergy than I had desired to believed.
of imprisonment, and penalties of all sorts, for a man to leave
the Roman Church. Do they not prop up their established
system by force, and the arm of law? And what folly to suppose
that they can conceal facts one way, by words another." Guard.
Aug. 51.
"The Catholic Religion is so singly to flourish and be
dominant in that kingdom, that every other worship is altogether
removed and interdicted." Allocution of Sept. 5.
d "I am very sceptical of the perfect correctness of Protestant
Ministers, whether in the Establishment or in Dissent... But if
matrimony does not prevent cases of immorality among Protestant
Ministers, it is not celibacy which causes them among Catholic
Priests Till then you can prove that celibacy causes what
matrimony certainly does not prevent, you do nothing at all.
It is the world, the flesh, and the Devil, not celibacy, which is the
TENDENCY OF THE ROMAN SYSTEM.
281
The third was, that A, sceptical as he now had
clearly become on many points, was more sinned
against than sinning. He was not a scoffer by
nature, for he had a warm heart, and he might
have been a religious man. What was it that had
driven him into being a sceptic, and a bitter enemy
of the Church, of which he calls himself a member,
but demands made upon his belief which Scripture
has not sanctioned, and immoral life in the pro-
fessors of Religion? The fourth was not a propo-
sition but a perplexity; with what party is one to
sympathize in this unhappy country? One extreme
has produced the other. There is credulity and
unbelief, but not Faith. Must it be that the
ruin of those who fall." Lectures on Catholicism. Newman's
readers know the difference between cause and occasion.
• "Where we find the peculiar influences of the Roman Church
on the wane, we do not, I fear, discover others of a less objec-
tionable character ready to replace them. It seems as though
the evils in their unchecked operations eat away the moral vi-
gour of humanity, and left it exhausted, and incapable of giving
birth to any reorganizing principle. When the system loses hold
on the educated and the noble, and on the active and influential
portion of the population, it throws them into that alienation from
Christianity, whose truths they have only seen in inseparable
mixture with fiction and with servitude, and abandons them to
licentiousness and unbelief, perhaps under the miserable com-
promise, rarely even under this, of an occasional conformity with
the exterior observances of religion." Gladstone's Church Prin-
ciples, p. 358. "Thus it seems to be the tendency of the Roman
system, where it has unchecked dominion, to exclude and sup-
press reformation, until neither the evils nor their remedies
can be endured." Id. p. 388.
282
EASTER EVE AT GRANADA.
whole land must be baptized with blood like
France, before any thing healthy can spring up?
And yet in France the blood has been poured forth
freely enough, but there are few signs that it has
served as a baptism. Perhaps there is a party,
who will be referred to presently, which may yet
save their country and their Church.
On Easter Eve, I again went out at half past eight
a. m. and took my way by myself to the Cathedral.
By nine o'clock, the whole of the immense building
was crammed, so that to pass from one end of it
to the other appeared a work of impossibility. A
few minutes after nine o'clock a Priest began to
read, and then followed the rending or rather
sudden drawing aside of the curtain. Immediately
there arose a deafening uproar through the Church.
It seemed as though half the children of Granada
had been brought there, and numbers of them.
armed with little bells or rattles, which were at
once set going wildly, squibs were let off in every
direction among people's legs, guns were fired
off at the doors, bells were clattered, doors were
slammed, shouts were raised, and in the midst of
this din and tumult the doors were thrown open,
and the people, having had their amusement,
poured out in crowds.
Meantime outside the Cathedral for half an
hour after the bells struck up, there was going
on a general dog-persecution. This last funcion may
DOG-PERSECUTION.
283
be, for aught I know, peculiar to Granada. It
seems that worrying Jews is no longer either pos-
sible or allowable. Accordingly, for this half hour
the unfortunate dogs have to stand in the place of
and suffer for the Jews. The dogs are very
numerous, being often, as in the east, homeless
creatures, who serve as scavengers. Before the
expected hour arrives, the boys of the city prepare
heaps of enormous stones, and station themselves
at corners where the sport is likely to be good;
and the more knowing ones among them stretch
cords across the lanes, one end of which they make
fast, and the other they hold in their hands.
Having thus made their preparations, they await
the expected moment. Presently the bells ring
out lustily. Immediately the poor dogs, who are
probably lying asleep and all unconscious of what
is going to happen to them, are saluted by volleys
of stones from all quarters. They jump up in
consternation, and begin to yelp, but finding no
cessation of the storm of stones, they soon take to
their legs, and run off where they can. Then is
the height of the fun, then the stones and sticks
fly thickest, then the crafty ones hold their cords
ready, and when the dog, flying from the shower
of missiles, runs across them, they suddenly pull up
their ends, catch the dog between his fore and hind
legs under the belly, and throw him up cleverly into
the air, from which he probably descends upon his
284
ANTICIPATION OF EASTER.
back'. On reaching the hotel I found S. boiling with
indignation. "Have you seen the way in which
they have been treating the dogs? Have you seen
the stones they have been throwing at them?
Have you seen them tossing them up into the air
with cords?" There was something so quaint and
ludicrous mixed up with the iniquity of this dog-
persecution, that I could not help being half-
amused, but it is a cruel and hard-hearted practice.
Several dogs were killed, and when we left Granada
the following Monday, we found a wretched creature
limping along the road with a broken leg.
It is curious, that in the countries of both the
Roman and Grecian Obedience, Easter should be
anticipated by a day. They have no day of rest
and peace when “ now the worst is o'er." They
immediately go from Good Friday to uproarious
excitement, though in both countries the bodily
fasting is supposed to continue till the Sunday.
Every one to whom I happened to speak at
Granada supposed the Saturday to be the Day of
the Resurrection. If I asked, for example, why
the bells were ringing between nine and ten on the
morning of Easter-Eve, I was answered, Because
JESUS CHRIST has come out of the Tomb. It was
vain to suggest that it might have been Sunday
morning on which the Resurrection took place:
No, Señor, hoi," was the reply.
CC
f That these cords are always thus used on Easter Eve, I cannot
be sure. The scene described took place in the present year.
CHAP. XV.
The Alhambra. The Moors and the Christians. Kingdom of
Granada. District of the Alhambra. Horse-shoe arch. The
Palace. Its Legends. The Generalifé. The Torre de las
Infantas. La Cartuja. Archbishop's Palace. Way-side murder Cross.
Murder by two Guardias.
Salona and Thermopyla.
White, and Black Blood.
Robber-dangers. Ride between
Method of growing fat. Blue, Red,
Alamedas and Cafés. Whirlwind.
THE Alhambra-all honour to the magnificent
old Moslem kings who raised it, and to Owen
Jones and Murphy who have delineated it, and
above all to Washington Irving who has saved
from an untimely death its wondrous legends and
stories in his inimitable Tales of the Alhambra.
There is a charm about the name that few have
not felt. And what thoughts is it not capable of
awakening, of the mighty power of civilization of
the Royal Dynasty that raised it. It is better to
visit it now in the days of its decay, when ruin has
laid its hand upon it, than when it shone in all its
barbaric beauty; better to wander about its old
286
MOORS AND CHRISTIANS.
forsaken halls and patios, and call up scenes once
enacted in them, than actually to have witnessed
the splendours of the Mohammeds and the
Yusufs, and the pride of the haughty Muley
Aben Hasan and the lion-hearted El Zagal.
Now we can afford to feel compassion and sym-
pathy for the once glorious rulers of this en-
chanted palace, but when they were flaunting it
in the pride of power, there would have been some-
thing else to do. Then every feeling, every
thought, would have been on the side of the Cross
struggling against the aggressive Crescent. In
spite of the Moslem grandeur, does not all the
poetry as well as the Christianity of the land go
and dwell with Pelayo in his stern Asturian
Mountains, where he and his made their stand
against the insolent African in the hour of his tri-
umph? Does it not follow his successors and the
Christian Princes, as they wrested back their
patrimony from the unbeliever? And who would
not have added the weight of his right arm
to drive back the infidels from a land, which
so long had formed so goodly a heritage of the
Cross? Very differently must the fortress
of the Alhambra, inside which the Palace is
situated, have shewn, when it was "capable of con-
taining 40,000 within its walls and towers," and
when "the city was surrounded by high walls
three leagues in circuit, with twelve gates, and
THE MOORS IN SPAIN.
287
fortified by a thousand and thirty towers." Now
there remain here and there a few of the towers, to
shew what it once was. Fuit Ilium et ingens gloria.
There is something in a vanquished cause which
always enlists our sympathies. Who has not
taken part with Hector and the Trojans against the
Greeks, with Turnus against Eneas, with the
Persians against Alexander, with Pompey against
Cæsar? But in the case of the kingdom of
Granada, there is something more than this general
creative of sympathy. Granada was the last
stronghold of the Moors, and owing to the length
of time that they had been established in Spain,
it becomes natural to overlook their true character,
and put them rather in the place of the injured
than the aggressors. It was not till 782 years
after Taric's invasion that Granada fell before
Ferdinand. But nevertheless, although the Moors
thus kept their hold on Spain as long a time,
within a few years, as has elapsed since the Norman
Conquest of England, still throughout that time
they kept up the character of foreigners and
assailants. The Normans and the Saxons could
coalesce, and absorb themselves one into the other.
Religion, manners, race, pride, every thing, pre-
vented this in the case of the Moors, and therefore
they fell, and fell justly.
The district of the Alhambra is very much
a Irving's Conquest of Granada.
288
THE HORSE-SHOE ARCH.
larger than the Palace which stands in it. It is
entered by an arch which leads into a very
beautiful Alameda, where three walks run off
divergently like the three streets from the Piazza
del Popolo in Rome. The left hand walk soon
brought us up to the Gate of Justice, La torre
de Justicia, built by Yusuf I. in 1308. It is a
fine double gate-way, with the horse-shoe arch,
a shape, which, however critics at home may cry out
against it for transgressing constructive principles,
is most beautiful in brick and stone.
Take a
certain figure upon paper, and analyze it, and you
may perhaps come to the same conclusions with
regard to it as Mr. Freeman has published in his
History of Architecture.
Stand in the fairy
courts of Alhambra, or before the Gate of Jus-
tice, and the appeal is at once carried to a higher
court. You cannot help embracing the beauties
that are before your eyes, and if your preconceived
notions of what ought and ought not to be beauti-
ful do not square with what you see, you will have
little regard for the notions; nor will you have in-
clination to enter into the question, whether it is
a fault of taste in yourself, or whether it is that
the laws of Esthetic refuse to be bound by a
Mezentian union to the laws of Mechanic.
Going through the Gate of Justice, and passing
the Torre del Vino, now belonging to an English-
man, we found ourselves in the Plaza de los Algibes,
THE ALIIAMBRA.
289
under which lie the great cisterns, which hold
the water of the Alhambra, sold throughout
Granada by the busy water-carriers for its ex-
cellence. The Alcazaba, the Torre del Homenage,
the Torre de la Vela, and the unfinished heavy
Palace of Charles V. were now all around us, but
where was the Palace? An insignificant looking
mud wall was pointed out to me, almost swallowed
up by Charles Vth's massy structure. It required
a great act of faith to believe my guide's word
that that was the Palace, but when once inside,
there was no longer room for complaint. There
it stands, gorgeous and elegant as the Arabs left it,
when the Crescent fell back before the Cross. It
surpassed all my dreams, which the magical name
had ever called up. The patio de la Alberca-the
Sala de los Embajadors-the Court of Lions-the
Sala de las dos Hermanas-the Sala de los Abencer-
rages-the Baths-the Mosque-the Tocador de la
Reina-there is nothing like the Alhambra. Its
gracefulness, richness, and elegance are unrivalled.
There it stands, with its geometrical patterns and
Arabic texts stamped upon the plaister, with its
arches, and fountains, and white marble pillars,
the most gorgeous and dreamily enchanting edifice
that the hands of man ever raised. True, grace,
richness, elegance, and gorgeousness are not all that
is required to make up Architectural perfection :
the qualities of majesty, solemnity, and grandeur
U
290
THE ALHAMBRA.
were what the sunny children of the south were
ever unable to express, and the want of them is
not made up for by all their luxuriant and
exuberant fancy, all their gorgeous luscious sen-
suality, all their fairy-like persuasive elegance.
But their beauties, such as they are, are not to be
despised. Because we admire the excellence of
the sword, and the coat of mail, we need not deny
the merits of the scymetar and the flowing robe.
Seville Cathedral is the production of a mightier
and more manly race than the Mosque of Cordova,
and the Palace of the Alhambra. They embody
respectively the spirit of strength and sweetness
of the north and south, of man and woman".
"Alhambram! proh Dii Immortales! qualem
Regiam, unicam in orbe terrarum crede," cried
Peter Martyr. No description will give a notion
of it in its dreamy beauties. It is necessary to
wander day by day and during the moonlit nights.
throughout its noiseless walls, to call up the old
b No one who has been to the Alhambra, but will enter an
indignant protest against Ruskin's reckless judgment of what he
has not seen, when he speaks of the Alhambra as "the work of
the Spanish Dynasty in its decline," and denounces its "detest-
able ornamentation as fit for nothing but to be transferred to
patterns of carpets, or binding of books, together with their
marbling and mottling, and other mechanical recommendations."
Mr. Ruskin's writings seem to be of two classes. Sometimes he
deals with what he does know, and then he is often beyond praise,
sometimes with what he does not know. He has never seen the
Alhambra.
LEGENDS OF THE ALHAMBRA.
291
legends of the Moorish Court, its tales of blood and
tales of love-the murder of the Abencerrages, and
the flight of Zaida and Zoraida, and the lingering
footsteps of the timid Zorahaida, and the mournful
ghostlike damsel who waits wearily year after year
for some charitable Christian, whose hands are all
clean and breast all pure from guile, to pour the
waters of cleansing upon her Moslem brow-to be
shewn the door from which Boabdil took his last
departure, and trace him along his mournful path
till he crossed the Hill of Tears, and looked back
heart-broken upon all that he was losing, from the
rising mound which still bears the poetical name
of the "Last sigh of the Moor," while his
mother's words of indignation rang bitterly in his
ears. These and a hundred more tales it is neces-
sary to call up, before you fully feel that you are
straying in the enchanted ground of the wondrous
Palace of the Alhambra.
W
Besides the Palace itself, the Generalife and the
Torre de las Infantas contain some beautiful
specimens of Moorish work. The first of these is
a Villa, to which the Lord of the Alhambra could
retire from pomp and ceremony when in an ROÛTE
xaì Túgavu vein, or inclined to moralize like Shake-
spear's Henry Vth before the day of Agincourt.
The portraits of Boabdil, Ferdinand and Isa-
bel, and the Great Captain, which are there
"And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?" &c.
292
TORRE DE LAS INFANTAS.
preserved, are interesting.
The Torre de las
Infantas, is now mouldering away piece by piece,
but still is an exquisite specimen of taste and art.
Washington Irving too has added a never-dying
charm to it by his story of Zaida, Zoraida, and
Zorahaida, who though here closely immured by
the precaution of their Sire, did yet by help of
the discreet Kadiga find means of falling in love
with the Christian captive Princes. It is at this
fountain that traditions generally relate, that the
gentle Zorahaida still wanders round and round,
vainly seeking for the gift of Christian Baptism,
the opportunity of which she lost by not flying
with her sister, rather than at the fountain of the
Court of Lions, which Trench has made the scene
in his touching poem".
Christian works of Art in Granada are few.
Pictures there are none, and Churches only one
or two with any pretensions to beauty. It is
d It surely is a fearful doom,
That one so beautiful should have
No present quiet in the tomb,
No hope beyond the grave.
But so it is, that till this hour,
That mournful child beneath the moon,
Still rises from her watery bower,
To urge this simple boon:
To beg, as all have need of grace,
That they would speak the words divine,
And sprinkling water in her face,
Would make the sacred sign.
THE CARTUJA.
293
true that a learned Judge did point out to us
several Raffaelles, Peruginos, Titians, Spagno-
lettos, and Guidos, in his drawing-room, and
offered them to us for sale, but there was a strange
difference between the productions of these
painters here, and those which are to be found
in Italy and elsewhere. The only Church much
worth visiting is the Cartuja, which bears wit-
ness by its costly materials to the once palmy
days of the Carthusians. The doors and the
drawers in the Sacristy are beautifully inlaid
with tortoiseshell and ivory. The rest was rich,
but the idea that it gave was, that masses of
plaister ornament had been thrown on the walls, and
there become fastened, without being of the least.
use to the building. The once abundant staff Clergy
is now reduced to one individual, a man of a coarse
uninviting appearance, who was glad to receive a
peseta for opening the doors, and shewing us the
robes. Round the Cloisters of the now unfrequented
Monastery are paintings, exhibiting the tortures of
the Carthusians in England during the reign of
Henry VIII. Here a meek-looking Monk is
having his head hacked off; another is being tied
to a tree, while a ferocious-looking monster is
deliberately and calmly carving out part of his
entrails; another, if I recollect right, is being
flayed; and another burnt®.
e They may be quite as true as Mr. Newman's pathetic ex-
hibition of the bloody tortures of poor suffering Catholics, with
294
THE INQUISITION.
The Vega or Plain is one of the great glories of
Granada, and a ride in one direction to the gold
mines, as a few fields, in which the soil is impreg-
nated with grains of gold in small proportions, are
called, and to the Palace of the Archbishop on the
other, serves to impress it upon the eye. The Arch-
bishop's Palace is about six miles from his
Cathedral City, a good house, in no way remarkable
more than other gentlemen's houses. Two prints
in one of the rooms struck me as curious: they
represented Nuestro Señor, and Nuestra Señora,
according to their "true likeness," with a "true"
the hands of Protestant torturers in their bowels. The untruth is
nearly as great, whether the actual circumstance took place or
no, if they are put forth as the specimens and exponents of a
system, when they are not specimens of it, but exceptions. "The
catalogue," we are told, "reaches to some 100 names.
One was
killed in this manner in 1577, two in 1578, four in 1581, eleven
in 1582, thirteen in 1583 and 1584, nineteen in 1585 and 1586,
thirty-nine in 1587 and 1588, and so on at intervals to the end
of the 17th century, besides the imprisonments and transporta-
tions which can hardly be numbered. What will Protestants
bring against the Holy See, comparable to atrocities such as
these?" The Spanish Inquisition burnt 34,612 persons alive,
18,048 in effigy, and imprisoned 288,109 with confiscation of
goods. This however was of course "a political not an ecclesias-
tical institution." It is an easy rule. Was any thing good done or
suffered? It was the Pope and the Church. Any thing bad? It
was the State, in spite of the Pope and the Church. Thus "the
burnings in Queen Mary's reign were the acts of an English
party opposed by the Pope's Legate, as well as the eoclesiastics of
Spain." But will so simple a rule satisfy those who are really
looking for the truth?
ARCHBISHOP'S PALACE.
295
description (so they affirmed) of their eyes, nose,
hair, faces, &c. It is to this Archbishopric that
the present Bishop of Malaga is advanced. All
the neighbouring territory once belonged to the
See. This has now been appropriated by Govern-
ment, and a fixed payment is made to the Arch-
bishop by the State'.
After a detour of a few miles for the purpose
of visiting a most beautiful spring, whose waters
well out of the white ground, and bubble up like
the clearest soda-water, we rode back from the
Palace to Granada. The road was for the most
part of the way very open, There was not a tree
near it, and every thing that occurred upon the
greater part of it could be seen far and near.
But there was one spot where a little engineering
had been employed, and a cutting had been made
through a hillock, in consequence of which there
were high banks on either side, and the road was
more or less unseen. As we passed between these
banks on our way home, I marked a little black
f Owing to this act of plunder, and half-recompense on the
part of the State, I presume no one would think the worse of the
Church, but rather the better, because suffering under persecution.
But supposing that the same thing had taken place in England,
God forbid that it ever should! would not many have made the
State payment of our Bishops and Clergy another sign of our
being a state-creation, without applying the same reasoning to
the Spanish Church? "A false balance is abomination to the
Lord, but a just weight is His delight." Prov. xi. 1.
296
WAYSIDE MURDER-CROSS.
Cross on one of them, which appeared to have been
lately erected. "Is that a Murder-Cross?" I said.
"Yes, Señor, some one has been killed here," was
the quiet answer. I got off my horse, climbed up
the bank, and read the rude inscription, which an-
nounced, that on the 24th of March, 1851, such an
one was robbed and murdered on that spot. Prox-
imus ardet; this was the 19th of April, 1851, and on
this very spot on the 24th of March, 1851, the man
had been murdered. I thought that his name must
have been Ucalegon. Many another such memento
did we meet with, and every Spaniard with whom
we spoke of it answered, Nada, nada! Es una cosa
de España.
"But why are not the guardias civiles more on
the alert?" I asked. "They have done a great
deal, Señor," was the answer. "Foreigners are
seldom molested, and a Diligence being attacked is
a very rare occurrence now." "Are the guardias
always to be trusted themselves?" "Generally,
Señor, but not always, for a man was killed near
Alcaudete by two of them." "How was that?" "A
man had come to market at Granada, and sold a
number of skins full of wine, and was returning
with his empty skins in his cart, when a deserter
ran up to him, and begged him to allow him to
conceal himself in his cart, for he was being pursued
by two guardias. The driver gave permission,
and covered him over so as not to be seen. By-
MURDER BY TWO GUARDIAS.
297
and-by up came the two guardias, and having
missed their object of pursuit, and learning that
the man was coming from market, they thought it
a good opportunity for them to enrich themselves,
so (cosa de España) they 'killed' the driver, and
divided his dollars between themselves." "And
were they discovered?" "Yes, Señor, the deserter
laid information, and they were seized." It should
be said, that these two men are far from being a
specimen of their class. As a rule, the guardias
are trustworthy men, and it is not to be expected
that in a country where all officials from the
Queen Mother downwards are corrupt, the whole
of the class should without exception escape so
universal a malady.
If foreigners are robbed, it is generally their
own fault for making too much ostentation, and
for using their tongues in an English manner, i. e.
to declare what they are going to do, instead of a
Spanish and Oriental manner to conceal it. No
thorough-bred Spaniard ever tells where he is
going when on a journey, or when he is about to
start from his halting place. My two attendants
were the only Spaniards, to whom I had yet
announced my intention of leaving Granada on
Easter Monday, and they hinted that it was as
well to keep the fact to ourselves as long as
possible, silence being according to the proverb to
speech as gold to silver. Robber-dangers gene-
298
ROBBER DANGERS IN GREECE.
rally sink into nothing before our countrymen.
Each Englishman seems to be persuaded, that a
gang of bandits will not choose him out of all the
world to molest. And this feeling of confidence,
whether fatalist, philosophical, physical, or re-
ligious, carries the mad Inglesi in the east safely
through dangers, which no native will face without
interminable precautions. Well do we recollect
the worthy Andréa Prindisi, as we were wending
our way between Delphi and Thermopyla in
the spring of 1850, coming to us and telling us
with a long face, that the ladri had the day before
plundered a little village on our road, and were
probably hanging about the hills that run out
from Parnassus. "I suppose, Signori, we are to
proceed?" "Si si," "Andiamo dunque," "but if we
get safely to Kravia," a little place on the edge of
the beautiful plain of Doris, "I and my muleteers
will have such a good dinner." We wound on over
the magnificent spurs of Father Parnassus, amidst
the pines which sometimes overshadowed our way,
keenly enjoying the glorious scenery. Presently
Andrea said in rather a low voice, "Signori questo
é un posto molto cattivo: if you have any valuables,
give them to me." We handed him a couple of
pencil cases, preserving our purses and watches
for a complimento to the bandits if necessary.
Andrea received them, and gravely took out his
knife, and proceeded to cut a crafty hole in his
ROBBER DANGERS IN GREECE.
299
Mean-
pack-saddle, into which he stowed them.
time the muleteer's never ceasing tuneless songs,
had been gradually sinking into silence, and even
the oaths, and shouts, and grunts directed at the
baggage horses ceased. Just in the posto catti-
vissimo, as we were leading our horses down a very
steep declivity, we looked up, and saw on an over-
hanging bank a party of six or seven men, dressed
in very dirty Albanian fustianelle, and with long
formidable guns. "Are these the ladri, Andrea ?"
"Where, Signor? No! thanks to heaven! they
are the road-police, and now we shall soon reach
the place where we will have the good dinner."
It is strange how at every turn Spain calls up the
recollections of Greece.
"Is he not fat? I
As we were drawing nigh to Granada, we met
an unwieldy carriage jolting along over the road,
in which there was a very fat man. "Look at
that man," cried our guide.
recollect when he was thin and poor, thinner than
I am." "But does becoming rich make men
grow fat?" "Si Señor! they eat, they drink,
they do not work-se come, se bibe, y no se tra-
baja." This necessary connexion between cor-
pulency and wealth is a common notion seriously
entertained; and hence when Ford surprised his
friend the official laying up in a drawer the
ounces which he had received as a bribe, his
naive remark was, no quiero comer mas patatas,
300
WEALTH AND CORPULENCY.
I do not intend to dine any more on potatoes.'
To return to our fat friend in the carriage. "How
did he get the means to become so muy grueso?"
"Why, Señor, he was a friend of one of the Monks
before their dissolution, who had a great deal
of property of his own, which he kept concealed.
When the dissolution was expected, he was afraid
that all his private wealth would be seized as well
as all that belonged to the corporation, so he went
to his friend, who was then thin and lean, and
asked him to take charge of it, and to return it to
him when the hour of danger was past, on con-
dition of receiving a certain per centage. The
man promised to do as he wished, swore faithfully
to restore all that was committed to him, and
received the valuables. The blow fell upon the
Monastery; the Monk had nothing-he was a poor
religious, and how should he have more than his
dress? To avoid the universal hatred felt towards
the Monks, he fled from Granada, but after a time
returned, and required his friend to fulfil their
bargain. His friend had already grown fatter, and
had "given up his potatoes" for something better,
and had no notion of going back to them; accord-
ingly he ignored the whole proceeding, denied the
deposit, and bid the other go about his business;
how should he a poor religious have so much
money
? And so, Señor, he has grown fat, and
travels in a carriage."
BLUE, RED, WHITE, AND BLACK BLOOD.
301
The caste-like distinctions of classes is still,
though in a far less degree than formerly, to a
great extent kept up at Granada. A disquisition
of great interest to the physical philosopher might
be written upon the different nature of the blood
which flows in the veins of the several classes of
natives of the Peninsula, and visitors to it. I be-
lieve the following will be a correct and exhaustive
metaphysical division of it.
Blood
Blue Red White Black
Not-Stinking
Stinking
Blue Blood, or Sangre azul, is that of the old
families who can trace up their pedigrees beyond
the time of the Moorish conquest, and can prove,
on paper, that their ancestors during the whole
time have never married out of the order of their
Peers, and have never departed from la fé Cato-
lica. Red Blood, Sangre colorado, is that of the
enriched but unpedigreed families, bankers, mer-
chants, and such like, who have raised themselves
to importance like the leading Plebeians at Rome,
who yet could not be incorporated into the
Houses, or of those which, however old, have had
a flaw introduced into them by 'heretical' tenets,
held by any of their forefathers. White Blood is
that of the poor who have to work with their
}
302
BLUE, RED, AND WHITE ALAMEDAS.
hands for their daily livelihood. The accession of
wealth will raise them to the class of the Red
Blood, but nothing can lift them to the level of
the Blue. Black blood is that of all who are not
Christians, i. e. Roman Catholics, such as Eng-
lishmen, Lutherans, Calvinists, Turks, Infidels,
and Jews, and that species of Black Blood which
flows in the veins of the Jews is also stinking.
The Black-Blooded are of course ignored, and
have no accommodations made peculiarly for
them. The other three have each at Granada
their walk and their Café. Thus there is an Ala-
meda of the Blue Blood, an Alameda of the
Red Blood, and an Alameda of the White Blood.
The Blues do not walk on the Alameda of the
Reds, nor the Reds on the Alameda of the
Whites. There are three Cafés all in a row; one
is the Café of the Blue Blood, another the Café
of the Red Blood, the other the Café of the White
Blood. The Blue do not go to the Café of the
Reds, nor the Reds to the Café of the Whites.
The Alameda and the Café together fill up a very
large portion of a Spaniard's day. The Alameda
of the Blues is most beautiful, and a stroll in its
moonlit walks when all the noises of the city were
hushed, and a southern moon was lighting up the
partial gloom produced by the long rows of tall
silent trees, is a thing not to be forgotten. No
sound broke upon the ear, save the ripple of the
BLUE, RED, AND WHITE CAFES.
S03
fountains, and the melodious cry of the watchmen
as they sang the hour of the night and the cha-
racter of the weather, prefaced each time by a
chanted Ave Maria Purisima. The pleasure had
a little piquancy added to it, by the possibility of
a cloaked figure gliding noiselessly from behind
one of the large trunks, with knife in hand, and a
polite request por la bolsa in the mouth. A year
or two ago an Englishman was despoiled at the
extreme end of the Alameda in open day. The
Alameda of the Reds is within the district of the
Alhambra. The Whites have two Alamedas, one
outside the gates, the other along the valley of the
Darro, both very poor.
The costume of those within, at once tells the
stranger which of the three Cafés he has entered.
The Blues have given up the national costume,
except when on a journey, and always appear in
towns in the French and English dress. The
Reds wear cloaks, those everlasting cloaks in
which Spaniards and Italians delight to wrap
themselves, while an Englishman is ready to take
off his coat for the heat. For a long time they
were to me a source of great marvel, but I suppose
the natives have judged right. The cutting winds
which now and then come rushing down a street,
and the bitter cold of the late evening, may re-
quire such protection. The Whites also aim at
the cloak, and however shabby, are proud to
304
DISTINCTION OF RANK.
exhibit it when they can get it; but, as in the days
of Juvenal, there is pars magna not only Italiæ in
quá nemo togam sumit nisi mortuus, or indeed dead
or alive for want of means of purchasing it. Their
ordinary dress in Andalusia is the majo jacket
and sombrero. These caste-like distinctions have
not been felt painful till lately. There was a spirit
of content abroad among the poor, and of Patriarchal
kindliness among the rich. As long as the Blues
were really an aristocracy, the Reds were satisfied
with being proximi longo intervallo, and the
Whites had no aspirations beyond rising to the
status of the Reds.
The Blues are poor, proud, corrupt, and hastening
to decay, and the "when Adam delved and Eve
span" principle is beginning to work even in old
Spain as elsewhere, and there are not a few who
meet together to talk over their "rights" in the
spirit of "A man's a man for a' that."
But now times are changed.
About sunset on Easter Eve, a strange little
whirlwind occurred, which came tearing through
the streets of Granada, knocking down children
and fat women, breaking windows, slamming
doors, frightening horses, carrying about dust and
little stones, and making people wonder what was
happening, and about to happen. Such a thing had
not been known before, and it called up in the
minds of the Granadinos anticipations of a coming
earthquake. I left Granada on Easter Monday,
PALACE OF CHARLES V.
305
and did not hear if any such result followed, but
it is not likely that it should in any violence, as
no shocks have now been felt for a length of time,
though they were once frequent and violent
enough to prevent Charles V. from finishing the
massive edifice which he has built in the Alham-
bra, to make room for which, proh pudor! he
destroyed much of the work of the Moorish
Kings. No grandeur of form and material, in
which it is not deficient, would make up for the
incongruity of its position, and the loss that it has
entailed.
X
CHAP. XVI.
Easter Sunday at Granada. Banking. Monuments of the
Catholic Kings. Irreverence. Indulgences. Our Lady de las
Angustias. Bula de la Cruzada. Adieu to the Alhambra.
Heavy tidings. Granada to Cordova. Soto de Roma. Bridge
of Pinos. Alcalá. Cordova.
EASTER Sunday to an Englishman at Granada,
is very different from Easter Sunday in England.
My Easter Sunday began with a piece of business
natural enough here, but strange to one of "An-
glican prejudices." I had on Sabado Santo called
at Messrs. Rodriguez the bankers, for the sake of
changing the necessary number of circular notes
into Spanish gold before leaving Granada. For
some reason, whether owing to its being Easter
Eve, or to the absence of a clerk, they could not
then transact the business that I required, but I
might come on Sunday morning between eight
and nine;' and accordingly my Easter Day began
with an enquiry into the rate of exchange, and
getting money from the bankers.
TOMBS OF THE CATHOLIC KINGS.
307
In the middle of the day we paid a final visit
to the Cathedral. Among other things, we wished
to see the monuments of Los Reyes Catolicos,
Ferdinand and Isabel, which lie within a railed
space of the Capilla Real, together with those of
their daughter Juana la Loca, and her husband
Philip I. The monuments are richly carved and
highly ornamented, but the plain stone coffins
which lie in the vault underneath serve as a
mocking contrast to the Sepulchres which show
so bravely to the eye above, and vividly call
back the remembrance of Juvenal's sneer at the
restless Alexander being satisfied with a sarco-
phagus, for whom a world had been too narrow.
Ferdinand's little son lies by his father's side. A
crown, sceptre, and sword, said once to have been
worn and grasped by the hand of the Catholic
King, and a handsomely illuminated Missal of
Queen Isabel's, are also exhibited. A chasuble
too is shewn, which is of the date of Isabel, and
was perhaps in part enriched by the work of her
hands. The irreverence of the Sacristan, who with
a grinning face put on the chasuble in order at
once to display it, and himself to the best advan-
tage, while he talked at the top of his voice in a
coarse and harsh manner, made us glad to leave the
Cathedral, in order to get away from him.
While waiting for this Sacristan, I had occupied
myself by observing what was the character of the
notices fixed upon the walls of the Cathedral and
308
INDULGENCES.
Capilla Real. They were most of them grants of
Indulgences for such a number of days for certain
acts and observances. Thus there was one which
gave eighty days' Indulgence for reciting an Ave
Maria before the glorious Image of Our Lady de
las Angustias. Another which granted eighty
days, for attendance in the morning at the funcion
which annually takes place a nuestra Señora de
las Angustias; eighty days for attendance at the
exercises of the afternoon; eighty days for each
Salve; eighty days for each Ave Maria; eighty days
for each verse of the Litany; eighty days each for
visit; eighty days for invoking her sweet name;
eighty days for imploring the propagation of the
Faith. Each notice ended with a warning, that
a The following inscription is taken from a little Chapel near
San Roque.
El Emmo sr Cardinal D. Cienenegos
Arzobispo de Sevilla
Benedixo en su oratorio esta effigie de
San Roque
Concediendo 100 dias de Indulgencias
a todas las personas que devotamente
se rezaren un Padre Nuestro y Ave Maria
y el yllmo sr Dn Vicente Roman y Lenares
Obispo de Danzara
Auxiliar de dicho sr Emmo
Concedo 40 dias a las personas que
Dixeren la misma oracion ante la effigie
y otras 40 a
Los Sacerdotes que dican misa
Al altar en que se venera.
STA. MARIA DE LAS ANGUSTIAS.
309
no Indulgences were of avail to any one in Spain,
unless they were in possession of the Bula de la
Cruzada. The Image of our Lady de las An-
gustias, mentioned in the above notices, is one that
is much reverenced, kept in a Church dedicated
to the Blessed Virgin under the same title. "Can
you not stay till after Easter Tuesday, Señor ?"
"No, I can not; but what reason is there for my
staying?" "Oh, it is a great pity, Señor. It is
the day, this year, on which Nuestra Señora de las
Angustias is to go in procession from her own
Church to visit the Cathedral." "Is this Image
of our Lady thought very highly of?" "Si, Señor.
I was told by and that some years ago, when
the Carlists were in the ascendant, as it was being
carried to the Cathedral, some of the more extreme
cried out frequently, Viva la Santisima Maria y
muerte á todos los Dios!" "Did you hear that
yourself?" "No, Señor, I was not present, but
many repeated it, and I have no doubt of it.”
"And what did the exclamation really mean? It
could not bear the signification that at first sight
it seems to bear." "Ah! not so much muerte
death, as, Give us the most Holy Mary de las
Angustias, and we want neither thing nor person
more." There is a fine Pietá at the west end of
the Choir, which appeared to attract a considerable
amount of devotion.
And what is this Bula de la Cruzada, the pos-
310
BULA DE LA CRUZADA.
session of which is a necessary antecedent to
receiving any advantage from the numberless
Indulgences which are granted with so lavish a
hand? Its nature is as follows.
It was the custom, as is well known, of several
of the Popes to grant certain privileges to the
soldiers, who took the Cross in order to give
them an additional inducement for undertaking
the Holy Wars, besides that of religious enthu-
siasm, and very often to protect their interests at
home, while they were fighting for the faith
abroad. Innocent III. extended these privileges
at the beginning of the thirteenth century, to all
who fought against the Spanish Saracens, and by
his spiritual authority contributed to a certain de-
gree to the victory of Las Navas de Tolosa, 110,000
foreign crusaders having come from England,
France, and elsewhere, to the assistance of the
Spanish Christians. By degrees these privileges
became different in nature from what they had
originally been, and came to be a sort of compact, so
much remission of bodily self-denial for so much
The Saracens were driven from the
money.
b According to Ford, "It was calculated that a man might
obtain in an hour, by visiting different privileged Altars during
the Holy Week, upwards of 29,639 years diminution of purga
torial punishment. For a single Mass at the San Francisco in
Mexico, the Pope and Prelates granted 32,310 years, ten days,
and six hours Indulgence." It is the same system in Italy;
witness the Scala Santa in Rome.
BULA DE LA CRUZADA.
311
country, but still the Indulgence of the Bull of
the Crusade continued,
Crusade was at an end.
be
though all notion of a
Spain had become as it
were the darling of the Roman Pontiff, and the
fasts which were required of all other nations
obedient to the Roman See were, in the case of
Spain, dispensed with, not according to the needs
of the individual, but for all alike, at the charge of
5d. a year. Bulls bearing on the subject may
found put forth by Innocent III., Pius V., Urban
VIII., Innocent X., and others, the two last of
whom extended to ecclesiastics the privileges
which Pius granted only to the laity. At the
present time the Church doors are constantly
decorated with a long printed notice, that the
Pope has been pleased to extend for a certain time
the Indulgence granted by the Holy See to Spain
and Spanish America. The following is taken
from the beginning of the Almanac for 1851.
"By Apostolic concession given at Rome on
the 13th of September, 1848, by our Most Holy
Father Pius IX, who at this time rules the
Church; His Holiness has designed to extend for
the term of two years, which shall be counted
from the publication of that of 1851, the privilege
formerly granted, that all the faithful dwelling
and abiding in the Spanish territories, including
the American dominions, may eat carnes saluda-
312
BULA DE LA CRUZADA.
bles, (observing the form of the fast,) on the days
of Lent, and on those of Vigil or Abstinence which
occur in the course of the year; except Ash-Wednes-
day, Fridays in Lent, Wednesday, Thursday, Fri-
day, and Saturday in Holy or greater Week, (the
whole of the said week except Palm-Sunday as
regards ecclesiastics;) and, lastly, the Vigils of
the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Pente-
cost, of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Vir-
gin Mary, and of the Blessed Apostles S. Peter
and S. Paul"."
The only method whereby an individual can apply
to his own case the benefits and privileges of the
Bull, is that of buying a copy of it, and having his
name inserted in it, and his copy does not stand
him in any stead for longer than one year. The
price to ordinary persons is two reals, or 5d.2; to
c Literally, salutary flesh-meat.
d In Portugal matters are even more lax. There the afternoons
of even Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Whit Sunday, are not
Holy days of obligation. The Bull of Gregory XVI. issued in
June 1844, has dispensed with their observance. On the subject
of the state of religion among the Portugese in Africa, I have
been favoured with a letter from the Rev. Meredith Brown, com-
plaining of the way in which pagan belief and ceremonies are
confusedly mixed in the minds of the natives with the Christian
faith, and declaring, that "as to attendance on the Services of the
Church, nothing could be more lax, and that, with the exception of
a very few principal Feasts, no one thought of going to them,
considering it a weakness to do so, and a thing to be ashamed of.”
COPIES OF THE BULL.
313
persons of high station and dignity, it is somewhat
higher. In Spanish America it costs, I believe,
almost a shilling. The office at which they were
printed was formerly in Seville, at the Dominican
Convent, and used to be the most busily employed
in Spain, but it was burnt down by the French.
Of course, at the end of the year, when the new
Bulls arrive, which they do just before Lent,
ushered in by joyous peals of bell ringing, the copies
of the old Bulls are useless, and, according to
Blanco White, on Midlent day they are put to a
very curious use. "Children," he says, "of all ranks,
those of the poor in the street, and such as belong
to the better classes in their houses, appear fantas-
tically decorated, not unlike the English chimney-
sweepers on May-day, with caps of gilt and
coloured paper, and coats made of the Crusade
Bulls of the preceding year. In this attire they
keep up an incessant din the whole day, crying as
they sound their drums and rattles, Aserrar la vieja
la picara pelleja, Saw down the old woman, the
scoundrel hound." About midnight, parties of the
common people parade the streets, knocking at
every door, and repeating the same words. I
understand that they end this revel, by sawing in
two the figure of an old woman, which is meant as
the emblem of Lent."
The effect of this Bull is, curiously enough, to
compel every religious person in Spain to take out
314
NECESSITY OF THE BULL.
a dispensation from fasting. Desire to be reprieved
from the pains of Purgatory in Spain takes the
place of fear of Hell with us, but no relaxation of
these pains can be had without the Bull. The
Love of our neighbour, which rouses us to exertion
in behalf of the souls of others, finds its natural
vent in Spain in Masses for the Dead, and appli-
cation of Indulgences to the spirits of the deceased;
but no such Indulgences can be gained and applied
by any one who is without the Bull. Again,
Confession, Absolution, reception of the Host, and
Extreme Unction, are the last soothing rites of reli-
gion to the Spaniard on his death-bed, as Confession,
Absolution, and Holy Communion are with us; but
if the dying man is without the Bull, his Confession
is not received, Absolution is not given, the Host is
not brought, Extreme Unction is not administered.
Clearly therefore no devout person could be with-
out the Bull, and its consequent dispensation from
fasting. That many Spaniards are nevertheless
without it, and the plea by which they justify
their neglect, will be shewn presently.
In the course of the evening we walked up to
the Gennalifé and the Alhambra to take our last
leave of them, and lingered with footsteps un-
willing to depart in the Sala de las dos Hermanas,
which is perhaps even more exquisite than the
Hall of the Abencerrages or the Embajadores. A
little previous to going there I received letters
THE VEGA OF GRANADA.
315
from England, bringing tidings too long looked
forward to by many an English Churchman with
anxious forebodings. Manning, Hope, the S. Sa-
viour's Clergy, and some of the Laity, were gone
from us. The position of the S. Saviour's Church-
men alone made their loss to be felt deeply after
so many sufferings of like kind, but Manning and
Hope were more than ordinary losses. One of
them at least deserved to be ranked next to
Newman, in the list of those who have gone forth
from the shadow of their Mother, in whom they
have been born and fed all their life long, and
attached themselves to the Communion of Rome.
Heavy tidings for Easter Day.
On Easter Monday we were on the saddle again at
six o'clock in the morning, and took a N.W. direc-
tion through the Vega of Granada for Cordova.
Two days and a half ride brought us into the old city
of the Caliphs. The first day was spent in traversing
the glorious Vega, and at the end of it we arrived
at Alcala la Real, situated high up on the Sierra
Susana. From hence we could see what was the
real height of the Sierra Nevada, whose grandeur
one learns to underrate when living close beneath
it each day, and watching the gradual victory of
the summer's sun over the white mantle of snow
which shrouds its summit. The Duke of Welling-
ton's estate of Soto de Roma, given him by the
316
ALCALA LA REAL.
Spanish nation in return for his services, lay to
our left, and we crossed the famous Bridge of
Pinos, where Columbus, now feeling old age to be
creeping over him, while he wore out his life in
vainly looking for 'that smile he would aspire to,
the sweet aspect of princes,' rejected by Portugal,
by his native Genoa, and by Spain, was musing
over the failure of all his speculations and hopes,
when Queen Isabel's messenger overtook him,
and commanded his return.
Alcala, like most of the old towns of Tuscany,
stands upon the side of a steep conical hill, the
point of which is crowned by an old castle now
mouldering away, whose horse-shoed arches tell
who were its builders. It stands on the borders
of the Provinces of Granada and Jaen, and within
a few miles of that of Cordova. Our next halting
place, Castro del Rio, was not remarkable for any
thing except a pompous claim, hung up for view
in the public hall, that "it received its name from
Tubale, that it was the treasury of the Cartha-
ginians, that it was renamed by Julius Cæsar,
and that it had its towers built by the Moors," be-
sides more modern glories. A few hours' ride
along the banks of the Guadajoz, enlivened by the
e Mariana begins his history by a grave assertion, that
Tubal, son of Japheth, was the first man who came to Spain.
WATER-WHEELS.
317
groaning music of the water-wheels', brought us
into the once famous city of Cordova.
f These water-wheels are simple, but clever contrivances for
raising the water of the river to a sufficient height to disperse it
over the fields. A horizontal wheel made to revolve by an ox,
turns a vertical wheel, to which are fixed jars. These jars fill
themselves with water in the revolution of the wheel, and empty
their contents into a trough, which pours off what it receives by
different channels through the fields.
CHAP. XVII.
Cordova. The Ommiad Caliphate. The Moors. The
Mosque. Almansur. Azzahra and Azzahira. Garden. Cor-
dova to Seville. Ecija. Carmona. Easter Confessions. Bula
de la Cruzada. Fasting. The Blessed Virgin. Real Prayers
of the people. Two systems-on paper and in practice. Pro-
stration. Orientalism. Fair of Mairena. Seville.
CORDOVA lies on the Guadalquivir, and the dark
mountain ridge of the Sierra Morena makes a
most noble background to its white cluster of
buildings. The Sierra Morena is, however, it must
be confessed, disappointing to one who looks for
a realization of Southey's description in his Don
Roderick. There is not sufficient character about
the "dark Sierra," and the "height above height,"
to satisfy the eyeª. The city has little to tell the
a Before them Betis rolled his glittering stream,
In many a silvery winding traced afar
Amidst the ample plain. Behind the walls
And stately piles which crowned its margin, rich
THE OMMIAD DYNASTY.
819
tale of its ancient glories except its Name, its
Mosque, and its Bridge. But these are quite
sufficient to throw back the mind 1000 years, to
the time when the Ommiad Caliphs ruled over a
million subjects within its walls. The period of
this Caliphate represents the Moors' energetic
vigour of youth, just as the kingdom of Granada
exhibits the characteristics of a yet green old age.
Abderrahman its founder, having alone escaped from
the Abbassidæ, fixed his seat here in the middle
of the eighth century, and under his successors
Hixem I., Alhakem I., Abderrahman II., Mo-
hammed, Almondhir, Abdallah, Abderrahman
III., Alhakem II., and Hixem II., the Caliphate
of the West shone forth in all the magnificence of
Oriental civilization.
The Island of Andaluz, as the conquerors
generally termed their Spanish possessions, was
to the natives of the dry parched east and south
the very joy of their hearts. Meeting with in-
credible success in their first attempts, trampling
down their enemy in one long hard-fought battle
peace,
With olives and with sunny slope of vines,
And many a lovely hamlet interspersed,
Whose citron bowers were once th' abode of
Height above height, receding hills were seen
Imbued with evening hues: and over all
The summits of the dark Sierra rose,
Lifting their heads amid the silent sky.
Canto V.
320
THE MOORS OF CORDOVA.
on the banks of the Guadalete, and, as it were in
a moment, pushing on their impetuous arms from
the Rock of Gibraltar, which still bears the name
of the victorious Tarik, to the mountain range of
the Pyrenees; and being beaten back from France
and the rest of Europe by the battle of Tours, the
stern enthusiasts may well have thought that
Andaluz was the land which Allah meant for his
faithful children, and beyond whose mountain
barrier it was not his will that they should push
their arms.
Certain it is, that as soon as Abder-
rahman had made Cordova the home in exile to
the adherents of the line of the Ommiads, the
chief energies of the Moors, as they are generally
called, were turned from the fiery pursuit of
conquest, so congenial to their nation and their
faith, and directed to the establishment of a
peaceful empire by the cultivation of the arts and
sciences, the furtherance of agriculture and com-
merce, and the introduction of oriental luxury
and splendour. Their dominion has now passed
away
like a dream, but the broken aqueducts still
shew the travellers their skill in agriculture;
the names of Abdel Malek Ibn Zohr and of Abu
Abdallah Ibn Roshd, commonly spelt Avenzoar and
Averroes, prove their proficiency in science; and
in the way of art there still remain the Mosque
of Cordova, the Alhambra, the Alcazar, and the
Giralda, to shew how great they once have been.
MOSQUE OF CORDOVA.
321
The one object of interest, when we had dis-
mounted from our horses at the Fonda, was the
Mosque; and accordingly, after a short siesta, which
under Spain's burning sun neither the attractions
of the Mosque nor the torture of the mosquitoes
could make us forego, we sallied forth, and after a
few minutes walk hid ourselves from the glare of
the streets in the cool and darkened Cathedral.
To give a notion of it by description is impossible.
Murphy and Prangey give as faithful a represent-
ation of it as can be had without personal inspec-
tion. The whole space enclosed by the walls of the
building is 620 feet north and south, by 440 feet
east and west. Of this 620 feet, 210 go to form the
Court of the House, supplied with fountains for
ablution, and planted with trees. Thus the actual
space occupied by the Mosque itself is a parallelo-
gram, measuring from north to south 410 feet, from
east and west 440. Above this superficies stretches
the roof, only 35 feet from the ground, once flat,
but now studded with a number of little cupolas.
This roof is supported by rows of pillars, which
divide the 440 feet into 19 aisles, running from
north to south, while the narrower aisles from
east to west are no less than 31. The pillars are
all of marble, and, like those of Santa Sophia,
have been gathered from a number of ancient
temples, and made to do duty a second time. Small
as is the space between the roof and the floor,
Y
322
MOSQUE OF CORDOVA.
each aisle is crowned by two horse-shoed arches
thrown across from one row of pillars to another,
the lower arch being a few feet beneath the upper.
As you stand in the centre, and let your eye
range down the innumerable interminable vistas,
perhaps at first every other feeling is swallowed up,
as has been truly said, in pure wonder". By-and-
by you begin to try to make out your bearings, as
though you were lost in a wood, and this is no
easy task, owing partly to the size of the building,
partly to our ignorance of the arrangements of a
Moslem temple, and chiefly to a pile of building
introduced into the old Mosque, by way of Choir,
by the architects of the time of Charles V.
All Mohammedan places of worship have a
sacred point, which answers in a way to our East
End. It represents the direction of Mecca, and
therefore in Spain we should have expected it to
have been towards the east; but whereas most of
the Moslem conquests lay to the north of Mecca,
it had become customary to fix this sacred point
towards the south, and therefore it came to be a
question of grave debate among the Imaums
and Architects, whether in Cordova it should be
eastward or southward. At last it was settled it
should be to the south. In S. Sophia, on the
b Vide Freeman's Hist. of Architecture, chap. xv.
"While the Architects, Mathematicians, and Astronomers,
were disputing among themselves, the Faquih Abri Ibráhím
MOSLEM PRAYERS.
323
contrary, it is very little to the south of east, and
a very curious effect is produced by the rows of
mats being turned, almost but not quite, towards
the spot where the Altar once stood: the
Cathedral has the appearance of being awry.
During the time of Prayer, the Moslems stand
in long rows facing in this direction, at certain
intervals one from another, and stand, sit, or
prostrate themselves with the utmost precision,
according to the posture and intonation of the
Imaum, who leads them from a raised platform.
This sacred point at Cordova is formed by an
octagon Chapel, the roof of which consists of
one block of marble, wrought into the shape
of a shell. Its stone floor is still worn with the
feet of pilgrims, who compassed it seven times,
walking backwards with bare feet. It is entered
by a horse-shoe arch, round which are specimens of
:
came up to Alhakem, and said, "O Prince of the Believers! all
the people of this nation have constantly turned their faces to
the south while making their prayers: it was to the south that
the Imams, the Doctors, the Kadís, and all the Moslems directed
their looks and it was to the south that the Tabis (may
God shew them mercy!) inclined the Kiblahs of all their
Mosques. Remember the proverb, which says, ' It is preferable
to follow the example of others and be saved, than to perish by
separating from the track."" Upon which the Caliph exclaimed,
"By Allah, thou sayest right! I am for following the example
of the Tabis, whose opinion is of great weight." Al-Makkari,
Book III. c. 2.
324
MOSQUE OF CORDOVA.
flashing, glistering, Mosaic, more brilliant than
that of Constantinople, Venice, Rome, or Sicily.
Cordova is a specimen of the early period of
Arabian architecture, just as the Alhambra repre-
sents the later period. The Mosaic and the Pillars
bear something of a Byzantine stamp upon them, and
the low roof of Alerce wood is totally different from
the hanging honey-combed roofs of the Alhambra,
and Alcazar. It was begun in the eighth century
by the first Caliph Abderrahman. Previous to
his time, half of the space was occupied by an
earlier Mosque, and half by the Church of S.
Vincent, the only place of worship which the con-
querors allowed for the vanquished Christians, the
descendants of the flock, which the saintly Presi-
dent of the Council of Nice, Bishop Hosius, once
governed. Abderrahman's successors continued en-
a The description by the Mohammedan poet Ibn Shoheyd, of
Santa Maria, which in his time he calls the principal Christian
Church of Cordova, is curious: "The noise of the thundering bells
resounded in my ears, the glare of innumerable lamps dazzled
my eyes the priests decked in rich silken robes of gay and
fanciful colours, girt by girdle cords, advanced. Every one of
those present had banished mirth from their countenances, and
expelled from their minds all agreeable ideas; and if they directed
their steps towards the marble font, it was merely to take sips of
water in the hollow of the hand. By the Lord of Mercy it was
to a Girl that their prayers were addressed, it was for her they put
on the gay tunics, instead of humiliating themselves before the
Almighty! The priests, wishing us to stay long among them,
began to sing round us with their books in their hands: offering
AZZAHRA.
325
larging the work, and the most magnificent parts
were finally added to it in the eleventh century by
Almansur, the Vizir of Hixem II. This was the
most magnificent moment of a magnificent dynasty's
rule, but it bore marks of the coming fall of the
Ommiads. Almansur it is true reigned gloriously,
till near his death, in peace and war, but while he
was holding his more than Imperial court at his
palace of Azzahirá, his effeminate sovereign was,
Sardanapalus-like, kept immured in a willing
slavery in the neighbouring Azzahrá. Of these two
palaces not a vestige now remains to verify or falsify
the almost incredible reports of Mohammedan his-
torians concerning their magnificence and grandeur.
"The cause of the building of Azzahrá," says
Al-Makkari, was as follows. The Sultan de-
termined to spend some money in the redemption
of captives. A search was accordingly made in
the country of the Franks, but not one Moslem
captive could be found; upon which An-nassir was
greatly delighted, and gave thanks to God. His
mistress Azzahrá then said, Build with that
money a city that may take my name,' and in
compliance with her wish he built the city. The
favourite, however, being dissatisfied with the ap-
pearance of the mountains behind, said to her
royal spouse, 'See, O master, how beautiful this
us every attraction that their drinking of new wine or their eating
of swine's flesh can afford." Al-Makkari, Book III. c. 4.
1
326
AZZAHIRA.
girl looks in the arms of yonder Ethiopian.' On
hearing which, An-nassir gave immediate orders
for the removal of the mountain, (the Sierra
Morena;) but one of his counsellors, happening to
be present when the order was issued, said to him,
'O Prince of the Believers! God forbid that thou
shouldest undertake a task, the mere idea of which
is sufficient to make a man lose his wit.' An-nassir
was convinced."
The historian goes on to describe its "running
streams, limpid waters, luxuriant gardens, stately
buildings, magnificent palaces, throngs of soldiers,
pages, eunuchs, and slaves of all nations and re-
ligions, sumptuously attired in robes of silk and
brocade, moving to and fro through its broad
streets; crowds of Judges, Kátibs, theologians,
and poets, walking with becoming gravity through
the magnificent halls, spacious ante-rooms, and
ample courts of the palace;" and ends by an
account how "this abode of contentment and
mirth was converted by the Berbers into a place
of desolation! There is no God, but God! the
great! the Almighty!"
Azzahirá is described as even more like a
palace of the Arabian Nights than Azzahrá, and
its founder is represented as foreseeing that one
day a Nemesis must fall upon it; for "he was one
day sitting regaling his eyes, his whole soul ab-
sorbed by the contemplation of the beauties sur-
GARDEN OF THE CALIPHS.
327
rounding him, when suddenly tears rolled down his
cheeks, and he exclaimed in deep sorrow, '0
Azzahirá, may the Almighty Lord save you!' And
Almansur wept bitterly, and hid his face with both
his hands. Then one of his favourites said, 'What
ails thee, O Almansur? What is the meaning of
words which thy lips never uttered before?' 'God
grant,' said Almansur, that my presentiments do
not come true"."
A shadow of the once proud garden of the
Caliphs still remains, calling back the gardens of
eastern tales with their flowers, and shrubs, and
fountains, and nurseries, and fish. The last of
these were barbel, large and ravenous enough to
swallow whole oranges with voracity. We went
away loaded with flowers, with which, as we
started for Seville the same afternoon, we decorated
our horses' heads, till they withered under the in-
fluence of the fierce sun of Andalusia. The same
evening brought us to La Carlota, which lies to
the south of the Guadalquivir, and the Sierra
Morena, and to the south-west of Cordova. Our
direction was now towards Seville, and the fol-
lowing day we skirted Ecija, situated, with its
beautiful Alameda, on our old friend the Genil,
which on leaving Granada creeps round the Sierra
Susana, and taking a turn to the north, runs by
e Al-Makkari, p. 224. This is not the only case in which
Almansur took a hint from Herodotus.
328
SPANISH COMPANIONS.
At sunset we
Ecija into the Guadalquivir.
climbed the steep hill of picturesque Carmona,
after having traversed a long uninteresting plain,
the weariness of which I beguiled by conversation
with my Spanish companions. Two of these,
Nicola and Roque, had accompanied me through-
out my journey. Another, named José, I had
picked up in Granada. He accompanied us on
foot the whole way from Granada to Seville,
partly for the sake of security, partly from a hope
of a cumplimiento, well earned by his civility and
attention, from the two Inglés, with one of whom
he was before acquainted. He was the best spe-
cimen of a Spaniard that I met with. Simple-
hearted and religious-minded, he did what he was
commanded, and believed what he was told, without
question or denial. And I was therefore the
more glad to see what his notions were¹.
I have already given an account of the Bula de
La Cruzada, from which it will have appeared,
that its possession is an absolute necessary to a
Spanish Churchman, who has any faith in the
dogmas of his Church, any regard for its disci-
pline, or any spirit of obedience to his ecclesiastical
teachers.
"Have you confessed this Easter, Roque?" "No,
Señor." "Why not?" No answer, but a long face,
f I do not desire that the following conversations should be
taken at more than they are worth. Valeant quantum.
BULA DE LA CRUZADA.
329
"Have
which shewed a consciousness of neglect.
you the Bula de la Cruzada?" "No, Señor."
"Do you then keep the Friday fast?" "No,
Señor." There was not much to be got from
Roque, so I turned to José: "Have you con-
fessed at Easter, José ?" "Yes, Señor." "Bueno!
And you have the Bula de la Cruzada ?" "Yes,
Señor; I bought it in such a Church for two reals."
"Bueno! And have you confessed, Nicola?"
"No, Señor." "Why not?" "There are a good
many of us who do not do that now."
"Have
you the Bula de la Cruzada ?" "No, Señor: that
is bought by the women more than by the men.”
"But you can have no benefit from Indulgences
without it." "No, Señor," (with the most per-
fect indifference.) "Do you eat Vigil on Friday?"
"No, Señor." "But are you not bound to do so
by the laws of your Church, if you have not the
Bula?" Why, Señor, we say, If these Indulg-
ences are of any avail when we have
reals, they will be of avail without it.
paid two
If I may
eat meat without sin, when I have paid two reals
for a piece of paper, it can be no great sin to eat
it, whether I have paid the two reals or not."
So those who have the Bula do not fast because
they have it, and those who have not because they
could get a dispensation by paying two reals.
Nicola and José served as specimens of the
practically unbelieving and believing school of
330
THE BLESSED VIRGIN.
Spaniards; so I presently took an opportunity of
trying separately what each held on the subject
of S. Mary the Blessed Virgin. "José, to which
do Spaniards pray most, our Lord, or our Lady?"
"Quite equal, Señor." 'Is there no difference
in the way in which you address them?" "None;
she is the Queen of Angels in Heaven." "Nicola,
do Spaniards pray most to our Lord, or to our
Lady?" "Some to one, some to the other, Señor."
"But which is the most common object of adora-
tion?" "One quite as much as the other. It is
impossible to say." So far the two testimonies
agreed together; but I found that José still con-
sidered her no more than woman, while Nicola
said she was generally considered far above the
nature of woman. Which is worst, the error in
the major premiss, that worship may be paid to
the creature as well as the Creator; or in the
minor, that the Blessed Virgin was not a partaker
of Adam's nature, in the same way that human
beings are? The first contradicts a prime instinct
of our nature, the second mars the theory of the
Incarnation.
Carmona is an interesting town, and its position
often made it the scene of contending parties,
who one after another made themselves masters of
it. In the evening I took a walk through the
streets, in order to examine the fine Moorish Gate-
way with its horse-shoe arches, which stands within
REAL PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE.
331
it. As I returned I found two Churches open,
and went into them. At San Pedro, the Litany
of the Blessed Virgin was going on. This Litany
is of very frequent use, and, together with Exercises
and Prayers in the Spanish tongue, selected often
at the will of the Priest, forms the real wor-
ship of the common people. Till I had visited
countries where the Roman Religion was dominant,
I did not know how little one can judge of the
prayers of the people, and doctrines taught from
the pulpit by the Breviary and Missal. The
latter are exponents of the system which is con-
tained in the heads of the learned and on paper,
but they are not the exponents of the system
which is working in the hearts of the poor.
They are often not to be had at any price, seldom
except at such a price as would hinder all but the
wealthy from purchasing them. There is indeed,
however, but very little demand for them. They
are not what the Book of Common Prayer is to
us, but, like Holy Scripture, have practically been
shelved to make way for Semana Santas, Litanies,
Rosaries of the Blessed Virgin, Books of devotion,
to which so many Prelates have attached so many
days of Indulgence, Meditations, and such other
works as the people are not precluded by the
language from understanding. That the inha-
bitants of Roman Catholic countries have deviated
without rebuke, and have been encouraged to
332
ORIENTALISM.
deviate from the authoritative standard of their
Faith, in one direction, farther than the people of
England from the teaching of the Prayer-book in
another, is a patent fact.
The other Church into which I went at Carmona,
presented a curious example of Orientalism of
manner, which I had not elsewhere witnessed. A
party of seven or eight persons, accompanied by
two torch-bearers, were going the round of the
Stations, and performing their devotions at each
picture. Great earnestness and sincerity appeared
in their manner, and at some of the prayers they
stooped to the earth, and beat the ground with their
foreheads. This practice is by many mistakenly
considered a Mahometan usage. It does not belong
so much to creed as to character. It is natural to
the Orientals, whether Christian or Mohammedan;
e3 "An acquaintance of some years with Roman Catholic coun-
tries has impressed me with the conviction, that our English
notions about them are very crude and imperfect. I have felt also
most strongly, that we have in the Roman Catholic Church two sys-
tems, the one contained in books and in the heads of the learned,
the other as practically working in the hearts and habits of the
people. And there cannot be a doubt, that the theory of
Romanism, which has lately tempted so many from our Com-
munion, is not that which is actually carried out in the Roman
Catholic countries of Europe....In the various national branches
of the Church of Rome with which I have had any acquaintance,
this coexistence of a theoretical and practical system has been
to me most marked." Veritas. Guardian, June 25, 1851.
MAIRENA.
SEVILLE.
333
it is opposed to the spirit of the western nations.
Its retention in Spain is probably owing to the
oriental spirit which pervades the Peninsula partly
caused by the Mohammedan conquest, partly pro-
duced by the quasi-eastern climate. Half a day's
ride from Carmona brought us to Seville through
Mairena, where the once famous fair, the delight
of the dandies of Andalusia, was going on. Its
ancient glories have now sadly faded, and its once
goodly shew has dwindled into a congregation of
horses, cows, pigs, and goats. The Duke de Mont-
pensier was present, having driven over from
Seville for the spectacle. The gate near Los
Caños de Carmona admitted us into Seville.
CHAP. XVIII.
Sunday at Seville. Murillo. The Bull-fight. The Giralda.
The Cathedral. The Chapel Royal. Blanco White. Gardens
of San Telmo. Impoverished state of some of the Clergy. The
Alcazar. Sisterhood at the Foundling Hospital. The Guadal-
quivir. Cadiz. The Cathedral. Murillo's death. Church.
OUR first day in Seville was a Sunday; and if
banking had seemed a strange occupation for Easter
Sunday at Granada, Low Sunday would have
been spent in a manner still less accordant with
'Anglican' notions, had I acted on the principles
of doing at Rome as Rome does. The Fair of
Seville having this year fallen on Easter Day, the
Bull-fight, which usually graces that festival, was
deferred to the following Suaday, and Seville was
alive with the expectation of its Circenses.
The great attraction to us after the Morning
Service, in which some English residents were
glad to join, was the Museum, which is only
opened to the public on Sundays. Murillo's
MURILLO.
335
Paintings, which are here preserved, have been
already referred toª. Zurbaran's Apotheosis of
S. Thomas was to me of little interest. The
quantity of trash, not worth arresting the eye for
a moment, is even larger than in most other Gal-
leries, but Murillo's room will make up for all
deficiencies. Each visitor chooses his own favourite
from among the paintings, but every one finds
something with which to be charmed. One se-
lects the Adoration of the Shepherds, another
S. Anthony, another one of the two exquisite
Conceptions. My favourite was the face of our
Lord as He bends down from the Cross to embrace
S. Francis. The subject was over bold for my
feelings, but the face was almost perfect. S. Felix
restoring the Infant to the Blessed Virgin, and
the Infant Saviour piercing the heart of S. Au-
gustine, are noble paintings. One I would fain
have dismissed ignominiously from its place of
honour. The Madonna de la Servilleta gives me
no pleasure to look at. It may be that there are
hidden beauties in it; but I must acknowledge,
that I could recognise nothing holy or pure in the
bold face before me. Never was face more dif-
ferent from the embodiments of simplicity, purity,
grace, and holiness, which the two Conceptions in
the same room display. But after all, Murillo
will not compare with Raffaelle. Simple, pure,
• Vide supra, Chap. IV.
336
THE GIRALDA.
innocent, child-like faces he can paint as none
other, but the majesty and dignity of Raffaelle,
which when combined with the other qualities
produces the heavenly expressions of the Del
Cardellino, the Della Seggiola, the Staffa Madonna,
and Madonna of the Neapolitan Museum, are
wanting in Murillo. The S John, and the Holy
Family of the National Gallery, are equal to any
of the Murillos of Seville.
As the day proceeded, the excitement caused by
the prospect of the Bull-fight visibly increased ;
and by the afternoon all Seville was pouring itself
through the streets towards the Plaza de Toros,
a vile and poor mock imitation of a Roman
Amphitheatre, just as the bull-fight is a sham
aping of the old Roman sports. After dinner,
which in this climate of course takes place in
the middle of the day, we walked to the neigh-
bouring Giralda, and mounted to the top of it.
It is a beautiful tower, very similar in character
to San Marco's Campanile in the Piazza of Venice,
and recalling vividly that most exquisite of build-
ings, the Campanile of Florence. It has probably
borrowed something from Italian art, although
of Moorish construction. Exterior ornament
with which it is diapered over is not to be found
in the severe and forbidding towers of the
Alhambra. From the Giralda the Bull-ring
presented a most animated and attractive ap-
BULL-FIGHT.
337
pearance.
We could command a distant view
of half of the area, and of the seats, the last of
which were filled to the full with a variegated
mass of bright colours. Sometimes the bull re-
mained on the side of the area nearest to us, and
then we could see nothing that was going on, and
causing such shouts of applause from the spectators,
except sometimes when the smoke rose up from
the fire-darts which were thrown into the flesh of
the poor beasts that would not fight. Sometimes
the bull came bounding into our vision in pursuit
of a picador, or chasing an audacious chulo to the
side. One I saw fall as if by magic under the
sword of the matador, which was at that distance.
invisible, and then the gay team of mules ap-
peared for a moment, and whisked his body from
the area. The usual complement of eight bulls
were slain, and from twenty to twenty-five horses
were gored to death. The next morning the
local papers gave a detailed account of the deaths
of the bulls and horses, but as usual omitted to
mention that two men had been carried out,
whether alive or dead none knew, and few cared.
There was staying at the Reina a German, who,
like many of his countrymen was characterized
rather by bluntness of sensibility than by fastidi-
ousness and delicacy of nerves: he however ex-
pressed himself quite sickened by the sight of the
gored horses. The entrails of one he saw fall out
Z
338
ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE BULL-RING.
15
in a mass, after many wounds, to the ground.
Another was sinking with the weakness of ap-
proaching death, and the picador in consequence
got off his back; but he was at once assailed by
the cries of the spectators, who made him remount,
and push on the poor animal to be gored once more.
"It is in truth a piteous sight to see the poor
mangled horses treading out their entrails, and
yet gallantly carrying off their riders unhurt'.'
The Infanta and the Duke de Montpensier, as
well as all the chief people of Seville, were of
course present. Indeed, no Royal personages could
be popular in Spain who discouraged bull-fighting.
Mr. Ford states, "that a choice box in the shade,
and to the right of the President, is allotted as the
seat of honour to the Canons of the Cathedral,
who attend in clerical costume, and such days are
fixed upon for the Bull-fight as will not by a long
Church-service prevent their coming. The Clergy
of Spain have always been the most uncompromising
enemies of the stage, where they never go, yet
neither the cruelty nor profligacy of the amphi-
theatre has ever roused their zeal. They dislike
being touched on the subject." If this is the case, it
is encouraged alike by Church and State, and the
proceeds, as has been before mentioned, go towards
charitable purposes of all sorts, such as building
Churches, and supporting Hospitals. A Bazaar for
↳ Gatherings, p. 304.
SUNDAY AT SEVILLE.
339
such an object, bad as it is, is at least not so bad
as a Bull-fight. At the conclusion of the sport, we
walked to the amphitheatre to see the matadors,
picadors, and chulos come out in their variegated
dresses. There was a great crowd covering the
space near the doors. Men were crying crayfish-
claws, water, and other eatables and drinkables,
and the merits of the bulls were being eagerly dis-
cussed in loud and excited tones. This was Sunday
at Seville. In the morning, many of the shops had
been open, and every-day work had been going on.
In the afternoon, every thought and every feeling
had been swallowed up in the interest of the Bull-
fight; and the evening appeared given up to cards,
billiards, and dominoes in the casinos and cafés.
At Cadiz I found the same games being played
by numbers at the casino, as the ordinary occupa-
tion of Sunday evening.
Grand, solemn, and impressive beyond descrip-
tion, is the majestic Cathedral of Seville. It was
built at the end of the fifteenth century, and,
together with its Sagrario, Court of oranges, and
walls, retains the shape of the old Mosque, which
once stood upon the same site. Of itself it is
enough to shew, that the Goths must in the end
have beaten back the Africans. It is the product
of a mightier spirit, and a more unbending race,
than that which luxuriated in the Alhambra, or
delighted to add vista after vista to Cordova.
340
SEVILLE CATHEDRAL.
One column of Seville Cathedral would block up
a whole aisle of the Mosque, and for height, four
Mosques one upon the other would not reach the
soaring roof of the Cathedral. When you have
entered at the western door as the obscurity of
partial twilight is coming on, and walk up the
seemingly never-ending aisle, and mark the mighty
columns, and the lofty roof, and brilliant windows,
you have a sense of greatness which Arabian
buildings do not produce. The effect is much
marred by the position of the Choir, which here.
as elsewhere is like a large pew surrounded with
high walls, dropped down near the western part of
the nave. The great Monumento at the west end
interfered even more materially with the view.
Its use was now over, and men were employed in
taking it down by degrees. The great heavy
statues were swung down by a pulley, shaking from
side to side unsteadily till they reached the floor.
"Feet have they, but they walk not, neither is there
any breath in their mouths." The Monumento hap-
pened to stand over the grave of Columbus' son.
The Sagrario, or parish-church attached to the
Cathedral, is every thing that is bad in taste.
Opening into the Cathedral is the Capilla Real,
where S. Ferdinand, the conqueror of Seville, lies
with his son Alonso the Wise. S. Ferdinand's
body is declared by authority to be still uncor-
rupted; but Blanco White, "in whose word" Dr.
BLANCO WHITE.
341
Newman has "the fullest confidence, when he wit-
nesses to facts, and facts that he knew," denies
the fact, upon the evidence of his own sight. It
was here that poor Blanco White was Chaplain,
till his overtaxed faith having given way to scep-
ticism, he fled from his now loathed ministrations,
to embrace for a while a faith which, as was
natural, after the shock that his mind had received,
was only to give way once more to unbelief.
On Monday afternoon, the Duke de Montpensier
and the Infanta threw open the gardens of San
Telmo to the citizens of Seville. This was a
favour exactly adapted to the wants and wishes of
the Sevillaños. It gave them an occupation,
something to look at, and engage their minds,
without requiring any amount of thought to dis-
turb their serenity; and all Seville accordingly
flowed in an unbroken stream to the Palace and
Grounds, just as on the great festivals they go to
the funciones. There is something curious to an
Englishman in the determined manner in which
amusement-seekers in the south and east make
up their mind to be amused. One accustomed
to the business-like ways and chilly climate of
the north, does not understand making the most of
a fine holyday, and seems always anxious to get
to the end of what he is about. Not so the Sevil-
laños. There was no hurry and bustle. Every
one followed contentedly in the general line that
342
GARDENS OF SAN TELMO.
quietly moved onwards, looking at every thing as
they passed with great but quiet curiosity. None
seemed to have a thought which could disturb
the tranquillity of their souls, and like children
they were ready to be interested in every thing
that the person who walked before them thought
interesting. A green-house was a great marvel,
but the attraction par excellence was a small field
containing several kangaroos. These unknown
creatures were great objects of curiosity when
sitting still, but when they became excited at
the presence of the crowd, and hopped from side
to side of their paddock, there arose an inextin-
guishable laughter,' mixed with cries of Mira!
Jesus! Maria! Santisima! What one looked at,
all looked at: and accordingly when we turned
off the path along which the quiet stream was
flowing, to look at the tomb of an Englishman
who was buried at a short distance from it, there
was a general peaceful murmur of Donde se va?
and all who were behind us turned likewise down
the side path, and were followed by the rest of the
train all day long. The Englishman whose tomb
we visited was once owner of the spot, and his
relations were defrauded of it by a process fami-
liar to the Courts of Justice of Spain and Naples.
It was then sold to the Duke de Montpensier,
and application was made to him for leave to
remove the bones. The Duke, however, (to his
IMPOVERISHED STATE OF THE CLERGY.
343
praise be it spoken) returned answer, that he had
enquired into the circumstances, and learnt how
much benefit Mr. W. had done to the Sevillaños,
and he should count it an honour if the tomb
were allowed to remain in his garden; and there
accordingly it stands, with a slight fence round
it.
As we were walking a few days afterwards to the
Alcazar, a curious thing occurred, shewing the im-
poverished state of the clerical order, and the effect
that it has had upon some of them. A man came up
to us dressed in a very rusty brown cloak, such as all
Spaniards, who can possibly afford it, wear, with
an ordinary sombrero, and an unshaven unwashen
appearance, and asked to be allowed to shew us
over the Alcazar. We assented to his desire,
and with Spanish readiness he presently entered
into conversation. "You are an ecclesiastic from
England, Señor?" "Yes," "Yo tambien," he con-
tinued. "Indeed? To which order do you
belong?" "To the Priesthood, Señor."
"Do you
officiate now ?" No, Señor, I have no cure now,
and as it is necessary to eat, I shew strangers over
Seville." He was glad when we left the Alcazar
to receive a peseta, and went away with many
expressions of gratitude. The following day, as
we were crossing the Plaza, we heard a voice ex-
claiming, "Padre Inglés! Padre Inglés !" and on
turning round, we found our friend, who shook
344
THE ALCAZAR.
hands, and wished to know if he could shew ust
any think else. We never heard any thing more of
him. Possibly he had been deprived, but he gave
references to some dignitaries for his respectability,
together with his name.
The Alcazar ought not to be seen after the
Alhambra. It is in fact a milk-and-water edition
of the Alhambra. Its arches are not so elegant in
their shape, its rooms and patios are not so large,
its arabesqued stucco not so varied, and it is more
marred by white-wash and neglect, and modern-
ization. Yet its Sala de los Embajadors and the
neighbouring patios are most beautiful, and perhaps
its Azulejo work is superior to that of the Alham-
bra. The restorations which the Duke and the
Infanta are making are in as good taste as the
nature of the case admits. The quaint and formal
gardens are pretty. In this sunny climate there
is something not unpleasing, though childish, in
spouting walks, labyrinths, carved myrtle-beds, and
fountains.
The other buildings of Seville, the House of
Pilate, said to be an exact copy, in imitation-
Moorish architecture, of the House in which our
Lord was brought before Pilate-the Caridad with
its four Murillos; the Loaves and Fishes; the
Moses striking the Rock; the Infant Saviour; and
the S. John-the Universidad, with its Roelas and its
Ribera Brass, formerly the College of the Jesuits,
CASA DE ESPOSITOS.
315
till they were expelled by Charles III. in 1767—
the Cartuja, now a Pottery under the direction of
an Englishman, on the other bank of the river,
with its delightful garden of orange trees-the
River itself, skirted by the Las Delicias shady
walks-each has its own attraction and beauty.
The two most flourishing charitable institutions
are the District Visiting Society and Foundling
Hospital. The first of these is seldom found in
countries devoted to the Roman Faith; here it
seems to work well. The second, from having
been a recognised House for Infanticide, has come
to be most excellently managed by some good Sisters
of Mercy, who tend the children under the direction
of a Committee of Ladies of Seville, The duties
of this Sisterhood are active rather than contem-
plative, and consequently (unless indeed the
Sister to whom we spoke misunderstood our
question) they have no stated hours of prayer or
meditation except in the morning and evening, the
whole of the middle of the day is occupied with
practical duties. The number of abandoned
children taken in by them is something beyond
belief.
When the time for going to Cadiz was come,
we embarked in the San Telmo, and steamed off
slowly down the Guadalquivir. The view of
Seville from San Juan de Alfarache is magnificent;
but after passing that point, the river becomes very
346
CADIZ.
uninteresting, and flows muddily along through
great plains, or round islands formed by itself,
enlivened only by the herds of cows and bulls,
some of the last of which are destined for the
Seville Bull-fights. They are active and wiry,
but small, and not to be compared for strength with
an English bull. Presently we passed San Lucar,
and by-and-by came out into the glorious Bay of
Cadiz, and began to draw near to the town. A
white cluster of buildings rising up out of the dark
blue sea, it looked in the distance like Venice,
but on coming closer it took more the features of
Valletta. The roofs are flat, but the line of the
horizon is very picturesquely broken by little
turrets attached to every house.
The glory of Cadiz is its Bay: the town itself
has little in it to interest the visitor, being regularly
built with streets running at right angles to each
other, each one of which is the counterpart of the
others. The Cathedral, the Franciscan Convent,
and one or two Churches, are its only sights, and
the first of these takes its chief interest from the
zeal and piety of the Good Bishop, who has with great
difficulty contrived to complete the long unfinished
building. It has the good qualities of massive-
ness and grandeur, if no more can be said for it.
There are two Murillos in the Church of the old
Franciscan Convent; S. Francis receiving the
Stigmata, and the Marriage of S. Catherine. The
MURILLO'S DEATH.
347
last of these has little to recommend it artistically,
but yet it is a spot interesting perhaps above all
others in Cadiz; for here it was that the great
Painter of Spain was engaged upon his work in
the position in which it is now placed, when he
fell from the scaffolding, and died of the injury he
received. He was buried in Seville, and his ashes
have been scattered by the French to the winds.
Before leaving Cadiz, I went into one of its
Churches, and as I walked round it, I marked
fourteen or fifteen images or pictures of Nuestra
Señora, four or five of Nuestro Señor, a very con-
spicuous one of Sta. Philomena, and several of
some other Saints. It was the last Church that I
saw in Spain, and I thought that it harmonized
well with the religion of the country.
CHAP. XIX.
Tracts at Seville. The Cross of Caravaca. Miracles wrought
by it. Sta. Philomena. Her History. Her Name. Her exist-
ence. Letter from a Spanish Priest to an English Clergyman,
Distress of mind among the Spanish Priesthood. Commu-
nication from a Spanish Priest. A cry for help.
BEFORE leaving Seville, as I was walking towards
the Cartuja, I stopped at one of the book stalls,
which are to be found at the corners of many of
the streets, and bought two of the Tracts which
they have on sale. These Tracts for the most
part consist of tales and legends of Saints, together
with numerous lives and miracles of La Santisima
Maria. I bought two Tracts. The first was on
the Cross of Caravaca, a Cross of the ordinary
shape, except that it has two arms instead of one;
and the second was on Santa Philomena, of whom
I at that time knew nothing, but was induced to
buy it, owing to the great reverence that I had
observed paid to her. I read neither the one nor
the other of them at the time I bought them, and
therefore they may be considered as fair and
ordinary specimens of the stock in hand. The
Tract on the Cross of Caravaca, literally translated,
runs as follows:
CROSS OF CARAVACA.
349
"The most holy Cross of Caravaca, which is
venerated in its Royal Church in the Castle of
the said town of Caravaca, and which was depo-
sited there, through the Divine Mercy, by the
ministry of Angels, for the proof and exaltation
of our Holy Catholic Faith, and the protection and
comfort of the Faithful, against the crafts and
snares of Hell, against tempests, inundations,
fires, and all kinds of danger, both spiritual and
temporal. Every person who shall recite a Padre
Nuestro, or a Credo, or perform any other act of
Faith before any Cross, or devoutly carry it
about him, and pray for the exaltation of our
Holy Faith, and the necessities of the Church, gains
three thousand six hundred days of Indulgence,
conceded by various very Eminent, very Excellent,
and very Illustrious Lord Cardinals, Archbishops,
and Bishops of Spain and America. This devo-
tion is earnestly recommended by Fr. Diego Josef,
of Cadiz, an Apostolic Missionary.
Holy Divine Wood', chosen by Christ for our
good, to deliver us from the captivity in which
Lucifer had bound us; losing his life on thy arms,
he gained for us the glory for which we hope.
In the Cross is our healing, our protection, and
defence, and all our good; let us then be devout
lovers, for it is a strong shield against Lucifer; but
it is to be believed that he who carries it about
him, can suffer neither fright nor terror.
• What follows is in verse.
350
CROSS OF CARAVACA.
How happy art thou, Caravaca, who hast re-
ceived so great a favour, that the Cross came down
from Heaven, entered thy Sanctuary, and placed
itself there: and there beauteously working marvels
and miracles, healeth the sinner of his disease.
By the counsel of the Padre Fray Diego, which
he gave to a maiden, she so loved the Cross, that
when a youth desiring to enjoy her entered her
chamber, the Cross delivered her; and the way
was, that it placed itself on the bed, giving light,
and the traitor fled.
What Christian will not have great devotion to
the Holy Cross, adoring, and contemplating also
that Christ worked thereon our Redemption; and
that He suffered till He gave up his life in its arms
with great torments, because He loved us.
There was a man who was devout to the Holy
Cross, and wore it, because he loved it much; they
fired a shot at him with balls and bullets to rob
him, and it did not hurt him: and it is a marvel-
lous thing, that the balls and the charge left a
mark on the Cross that he wore on his heart.
A poor woman had been in labour five days,
and could not bring forth; with the Cross they
signed her over the body, and she brought forth a
boy that was able to live: and it is to be noted,
that a relation of hers brought her this Cross, and
said with faith, Thou shalt not die.
There were three men at work in a field, a
storm burst forth, and a thunderbolt fell; it con-
CROSS OF CARAVACA.
351
sumed two of the three, and the middle one was
unhurt; and the miracle was worked by a Cross,
which he wore on his breast, and which remained
impressed on it.
If the Cross is the ensign and signal of a
Christian, and we are bound to love it, because it
delivers us from our adversary, the common
enemy, and from tribulation, let us love this
Sacred and Divine wood, in somewhat imitating
our Redeemer.
And Felipe Cantabria beseeches you to ask
God the Father to give him wisdom and light,
that he may be able to speak of the grandeurs,
and the great excellences of the Holy Cross: for he
cannot find light, nor any thing wherewith to com-
pare it, save the sweet and Holy name of Jesus.
With Licence of the Ordinary. Published at Seville by
D. Manuel Nicolas, Vazquez, and Company."
Now it is very easy to say that there is little
harm in these tales; that even if these very things
did not take place, yet something else of a similar
nature may have occurred, and therefore that it is
justifiable to place them before the people as
worthy of belief. But if we realize it to ourselves,
this Tract on the Cross of Caravaca must be either
one thing or the other. Either it is true, and
then it is a record of instances, awful instances,
of God's interfering with the laws of material
352
CROSS OF CARAVACA.
nature, and the constituted order of things; or it
is false, and then, with however good motives put
forth, what else is it than a fable, a falsehood, and
an imposture? Are we then to imagine that the
Ordinary, who gave this licence, really believed,
that he who carried a model of the Cross could
suffer neither fright nor terror? Did he really
believe, that the Cross came down from Heaven,
entered the Sanctuary of Caravaca, and placed
itself there; that it there beauteously worked
miracles, and healed sinners of diseases? Did he
really believe, that it placed itself upon the
maiden's bed? Did he really believe, that the man
in the field was saved from the thunderbolt, when
his two companions perished by a miracle worked
by the Cross which he wore on his heart? If he
did not, he was clearly acting upon the principle
of Populus vult decipi et decipiatur. But if it is
the system of the Church that such statements
are to be accepted, we can scarely wonder at their
still being Blanco Whites, whose minds rise up
and ask for evidence. And with regard to the
simple ones of the flock whom it is the special office
of Christ's Church to tend and cherish, can we
conceive any thing more reckless than their au-
thoritatively sanctioning the belief that 3,600 days
of Indulgence may be gained in such a way?
The second Tract was an account of Santa
Philomena, of whom I wished to know more, owing
STA. PHILOMENA.
353
to the great reverence which appeared to be so
generally paid to her. She seemed to me to
stand higher than any other of the Saints, of
course putting the Blessed Virgin out of con-
sideration, in the estimation of the people. That
this is actually the case I will not undertake to
say; but at least her name and image had so far
impressed themselves above others upon my notice,
that I selected her life from among the rest. Who
she was I learnt on my return to England.
following is a translation of the Tract
The
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE GLORIOUS VIRGIN AND
MARTYR S. PHILOMENA.
"Attend, dearest reader, to the greatest marvel
that thou couldest imagine in the years of thy life:
the most terrible occurrence, the most unheard of
history, that was the most strange and rare that
was ever heard of in this world; it is the life of
that Saint who is called Philomena, of that magna-
nimous Saint, that divine Saint: in whom, reader,
so many virtues shone, who with so much patience
tranquilly suffered a thousand tortures; who by
her sufferings merited glory; who breathed her
last sigh with a sweet smile, of that fair woman of
angelic beauty, who fearless before her wicked
lover, overcame with intrepid firmness. Attend,
for I have begun the amazing history; learn it by
heart, for it is an unheard of history.
A a
354
HISTORY OF STA. PHILOMÉNA.
This fair virgin was born in the capital of Greece,
the daughter of a Christian king, and heiress of the
throne. She was born so lovely, and her beauty
was so great, that the whole world admired the
divine Philomena: and there was no human love-
liness that could be compared with hers, for none
existed that was not very inferior. The Princess
grew in years, and became more beautiful, and her
breast nourished the idea of virtue in its Christian
inspiration. Led by her purity, the damsel conse-
crated herself as the bride of Jesus Christ; and gladly
gave up her whole soul to her God, forsaking the
miserable enjoyment of the earth. This was the
oath of this fair lily, this the Spouse that this
tender creature loved. The virtuous Philomena
lived happily in this manner, when her father, oh
misfortune! took her to Rome, where Diocletian
held the reins of that empire; and so severe was this
man, that the earth trembled before him. Scarcely
had the tiger seen the timid Philomena, when
he felt in his breast a flame that burnt him; when
he felt himself convulsed, and could not hinder it;
when he felt his accustomed firmness forsake him ;
when he felt not affection, but the blindest passion,
annihilating, consuming, and destroying his whole
soul: and frantic, he desired Philomena in marriage,
because he would yield up his sceptre and his life
to such beauty. The pure virgin heard this, and was
covered with shame, and with a stammering voice
STA. PHILOMENA AND DIOCLETIAN.
355
thus replied: 'I cannot, no, Diocletian, I cannot
be your wife, because I have sworn to love no
man upon earth; for I have long since consecrated
myself altogether to JESUS, and it is impossible
that I should perjure myself.' Then her father
pressed her, and told her to yield, for otherwise,
Diocletian would make cruel war upon them, and
by his terrible vengeance and unconquered pride
they would both be expatriated, and covered with
shame. In vain, in vain, were all attempts to
persuade Philomena, for they could not overcome
her approved firmness, and when her lover saw
this, his breast burnt with rage, he insulted her,
and warned her to lay aside her resistance: and the
beautiful woman, with suffering printed on her
countenance, kneeling to Christ, began this sup-
plication.
'O God, that art in Heaven! look upon me from
Thy high place, and mitigate my bitterness with
Thy heavenly comfort: pour out Thy divine inspi-
ration, Lord, and animate my heart, O my God; and
looking with merciful eyes, Lord, upon my anguish,
make me to bear this suffering with resigned
patience, and cause this cruel tyrant, who now so
torments me, to repent of his insane frenzy.'
Scarcely had the afflicted maiden spoken these
words, when the wicked Diocletian seized her
violently by the arm, and with eyes sparkling
with anger, terrified her with a thousand insults;
356
STA. PHILOMENA AND DIOCLETIAN.
and nothing in the world was able to calm his
rage, no words could soften the heart of the
savage, and no hope remained for the sad maiden.
The senseless man immediately commanded his
executioners to come, and the torturers speedily
presented themselves around: by the tyrant's
order the barbarians bound Philomena, and bore
her to a loathsome dungeon, and inhumanly
loaded her with chains and fetters, and threw
upon her reptiles, toads, lizards, and vipers, and
gave her no food, however much she desired to
eat, that the beautiful victim might yield to such
torments; but she would not give up her faith for
pains and sufferings, nor for the vile threats of
those perverse people, nor for the seductive
entreaties, nor the lewd speeches, that the tyrant
used to make her yield. Nothing availed, and
Diocletian became like a wild beast, and com-
manded his executioners to scourge the maiden.
They seized her by her golden hair, and dragged
her away full of pain and bitterness, and the vile tor-
mentors furiously attacked that lovely body, whiter
than the lily: they struck cruel blows with such force
and vigour, that a thousand wounds were formed in
that tender flesh. But neither the great pain, nor
the seeing herself covered with blood, diminished
the courage of the virtuous maiden; for an angel
inspired her, and comforted her in her pains,
strengthening her body; therefore the tormentors
STA, PHILOMENA'S MARTYRDOM.
357
took her again to her prison, and again did those
monsters load her with chains. When the tyrant
perceived her tried firmness, he thought of the new
torment of darts and arrows. The divine woman
serenely endured the torment, and the multitude
beheld such innocent virtue with amazement. But
the cruel Diocletian ordered other barbarities; he
commanded her to be plunged in the Tiber with
a weight round her neck. The vile slaves executed
this barbarous sentence, and threw the unfortunate
Princess into the river; but the Almighty, who pro-
tected her innocence, saved the fair rose unhurt
from this martyrdom: and the people related the
surprising event as a miracle, and venerated the
innocent victim as a saint. The emperor then, as
if he was mad, ordered her head to be instantly
cut off; and, oh heavens! they executed this tre-
mendous order: oh heavens! they deprived this
world of Philomena. The cruel executioners
seized the beauty, and in their barbarous incle-
mency cut off her head. When the innocent one
died, two angels were seen carrying her pure and
serene soul to Heaven in a cloud. Learn, reader,
learn from the history of Philomena, that if thou
imitatest her virtues, thou wilt enjoy everlasting
glory."
Now of the existence of this beautiful and
saintly princess, what evidence have we?
358
LUMENA PAX TECUM FI.
The following".
In the year 1802, an inscription, with the first
and last letters destroyed, was found upon a stone
in the Catacombs at Rome, which began with
lumena, and ended with Fi, the words between
lumena and fi being pax tecum.
Thus it stood
LUMENA PAX TECUM FI.
This was the foundation of the history. "The
learned Jesuit, Mariano Partenio," began the
building upon it by suggesting, "that the two
last letters Fi, ought to be prefixed to the first
word of the inscription, according to the ancient
usage of the Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Arabs, and
Hebrews, some traces of which are found even
among the Greeks." This is an argument such
as one does not often meet with. Clearly the
learned Jesuit had in his mind the fact, that in the
Oriental languages which he has mentioned, the
direction of writing is from right to left, instead
of left to right. If then the inscriptions were in
Chaldaic, Phoenician, Arabic, or Hebrew, he
would have a shadow of ground for reading it, IF
MUCET XAP ANEMUL. But IF MUCET XAP ANEMUL
is not FILUMENA, and if it were, it would have
nothing to do with the case in hand, inasmuch as
the present inscription is neither Chaldaic, Phoe-
• The substance of the whole of what follows on this subject,
is taken from the Rev. R. Scott's Twelve Sermons, Appendix.
LUMENA.
FILUMENA.
359
nician, Arabic, Hebrew, nor Greek, but Latin, in
which language not even the learned Jesuit ven-
tures to assert that such conjuring tricks are
possible.
However, the learned Jesuit's suggestion makes
the first step the second is "miraculous pheno-
mena, which exhibited themselves" in the Cata-
combs: the third is formed by three visions, which
appeared to three different persons. These visions
confirmed the truth of the sagacious Jesuit's
guess, by declaring that her name was originally
Lumena, which (in what language is not expressed)
means light; and that she took the name of
Filumena, which by some curious law of com-
position is the same as Filia luminis, Daughter
of light, at her Baptism'; that she was the
object of Diocletian's love and rage, and was by
him put to death in torture. The last step was
Leo XII. pronouncing her a great saint; and
Gregory XVI. solemnly blessing one of her
images at Rome, after which she became "sur-
named the Thaumaturge of the nineteenth
century." Thus Lumena pax tecum fi became con-
verted into Sta. Philomena. "It is not wished,"
says Mr. R. Scott, "to disparage the Christian
b"We are left in this dilemma: Philomena (pıλovµévŋ) is a
possible name, but confessedly is without authority. Filumena
(filia luminis) is impossible, but claims the authority of a direct
revelation." Mr. Scott's note.
360
LUMENA-PAX-FI-SYSTÉM.
graces of any departed believer either in the
Church of Rome or our own. But there is a
previous question. Must we not believe that
they ARE, before we can go further?" "Now we
know," says S. Paul, "that an idol is nothing in
the world:" can more be said for Santa Philomena?
Yet she is one of the most popular objects of
worship in the south of Spain.
с
These words are written in no scoffing spirit. The
whole of the Santa-Philomena-system is a thing,
which raises deeper feelings than the sense of the
ludicrous, or contempt, or even indignation. Does
it not invite to infidelity? is it not provocative of
Blanco Whiteism, more than all the scoffs and blas-
phemies of Voltaire and his crew? Has not the
Church of Rome a heavy account to pay, for, with
one hand, discouraging the free use of the authori-
tative standard of the Christian Faith, and with the
other scattering abroad such groundless fictions as
these? The Tract giving account of this gradual
formation of Sta. Philomena was published with
Episcopal approbation at Geneva, and her image
is allowed to stand conspicuous in the Churches of
e It seems now needless to apologise for this use of the word
worship. It is the only word that is honest, and is now com-
monly used by Roman Catholics. Thus Mr. Faber, addressing
S. Joseph, says naturally,
"There is no Saint in heaven I worship like Thee,
Sweet spouse of our Lady, O deign to love me!"
REFORMING PARTY IN SPAIN.
361
Andalusia, and the people are in the habit of
offering their prayers to a nonentity.
That there are some high minds in Spain,
patient, discerning, truth-loving men, who do not
for the sake of the evil reject the good, nor for
the sake of the good swallow the evil, who shall
doubt? In these men lies the hope of Spain.
There is the same class strong in intelligence,
if not in numbers, throughout Italy and Sicily
also. And if there are spirits among them,
which, writhing under the weight of the evils of
the system in which they find themselves, are
inclined to throw themselves into phases of belief
and thought, which abstractedly we should
hesitate in approving, let us not be too willing to
judge harshly of them; let us remember their pro-
vocations and sympathize with their sufferings and
assist their struggles. I would earnestly call the
attention of those who have allowed their minds
to dwell upon the evils of the Church of England
to the following letters, written by a Spanish
Priest now ministering in Spain to a Priest of the
Church of England. They will there see, that there
are other standards than their own of the respec-
tive merits of England and Rome, and other
judgments entertained by those who are practically
acquainted with one side as well as we are with
the other. Let us not shut our ears to the
an earnest soul, which yearns for the purity of
cry
of
362 MENTAL DISTRESS OF SPANISH CLERGYMEN.
God's Holy Truth as taught in Christ's Catholic
Church in the ages of Primitive Christianity, a cry
uttered from amidst a system where that Truth
has been overloaded and defiled by the accretions
of later ages.
Letters from a Spanish Priest.
Dear Sir, and my Brother,
May 9, 1851.
The letter which you had the kindness to
direct to me, dated on the third of this month, has
given me much pleasure and satisfaction. I give
you the most abundant thanks for your kindness,
and for the lively interest which you take in my
concerns. I waited with some impatience for an
answer to my former letter, and although after
some delay, I have had the pleasure and consolation
of receiving it.
My sentiments in religious matters are the
same that I expressed before. I desire to be in-
corporated into that holy Church, in which the
practices of Primitive Christianity are observed,
and which is a faithful copy of that which was
founded by Christ, and propagated by the Apostles.
But in order to abandon one's country, and to
establish one's self in a foreign land, you know well
• The first of these letters was written in Spanish, the second
in Latin,
LETTER FROM A SPANISH PRIEST.
363
I would
that there is need of more than desires.
not have indigence and hunger drive me one day
to repent of my resolution, however noble and
holy. I know that being unable to speak English,
I cannot be of use in your Church, because it is
not possible for me to exercise the priestly ministry.
I could be useful only by editing some compo-
sitions in my native language, and making trans-
lations from Latin and French into Spanish. But
I believe that there is no propaganda in the Anglican
Church, and that there is little anxiety to lead other
Christian nations, which groan under the errors of
Popery, to abjure them, and to breathe the pure air
of Evangelic Truths, and of Primitive Christianity.
There are not wanting persons full of virtue and
of zeal, who are animated with the noblest and
most pious sentiments on this point, but these are
only individuals, and not corporations, with a
fixed plan, and with that ardent zeal which is
inspired by the desire of the propagation of the
truth. Notwithstanding this, the Catholic Review
of last month contained the intelligence, that a
society had been established in London, at the
head of which was an Anglican Bishop, for the
purpose of propagating and diffusing evangelical
truth amongst the Italian Clergy. I do not know
whether the Spanish Clergy may be comprehended
under this name.
My chief object was to make myself well ac-
361
LETTER FROM A SPANISH PRIEST.
quainted with the doctrines of your Church, in order
to be one day useful to my country. Up to the
present time we have encountered nothing but
obstacles. Your desires are very good, but means
and resources are wanting to you. I was moved
by the desire of fitting myself to serve my country-
men some day, by teaching them the truth as it
proceeded from the lips of Christ, and not as the
Popes and the Inquisition have disfigured it by
means of fires and tortures.
d
Amongst other services which you might do me,
I should be extremely obliged to you, if you
would obtain for me some books in Latin or in
French. I have translated the 4, which I will
send to you as soon as you write to me on the
subject. Unless it is for publication, it can be of
no use to you in Spanish, as you have it in
English. I have begun other literary undertakings
of the same character, but I confess, with some
discouragement, because, whilst there is no thought
of propaganda with the necessary resources, they
can neither be printed, nor made use of.
I beg you to make me acquainted with all pious.
and prudent men, who comprehend the full extent
e The work of one of the great English Reformed Divines.
It is necessary to omit the name, lest in a country where the
same system of espionage is carried on as that which has crushed
the spirit of the Neapolitans, the name should lead to the dis-
covery and consequent persecution of my Spanish correspondent.
SECOND LETTER FROM A SPANISH PRIEST. 365
of the charity of Christ, and who have a true zeal
for the propagation of his truth, I desire to
enter into correspondence with them, and to interest
them in my projects.
Your judgment and discretion will supply what
I leave unsaid for want of room. Do whatever
you think fit for me, and account me your most
humble and affectionate brother.
My most dear Brother in Christ,
Oct. 15, 1851.
I have gratefully received your welcome letter,
written in England on the 24th of August last,
together with that of the Rev. Doctor
2
of
the date of Sept. 18, in which you ask me for
some account of the state of things here, and
desire me to explain in Latin what it is that I
want, and how it is we are bound to one another
by our new and brotherly friendship.
If I must begin by a profession of faith, in
order that the conformity of our ideas and unity
of religion may be the more plain and clear between
us, that which I can offer, you will find, to the
letter, in the Apostles' and the Constantinopolitan
Creed, and it is expounded in the same sense in
which I make it by John Jewel, formerly Bishop
of Salisbury, in his excellent defence of the Angli-
can Church.
366
DISTRESS OF A SPANISH PRIEST.
Being anxious to communicate with those who
hold this faith, whom I looked upon as brethren
most beloved and specially blest, I diligently
made search for a good and learned Minister,
whom I might implore for help, wise instruction,
and counsel, and after a long search, by the in-
spiration of God speaking by the mouth of the
people, I have found one whose evangelical virtues
are every where spoken of. I therefore wrote to him,
that I might be received by his means into commu-
nion with the Anglican Church, and having a place
among the Ministers of the true Gospel of Christ,
might be enabled to exercise some office, which
should provide for my subsistence in a strange
land. For I was thinking of coming to you, and
relinquishing and giving up all I have, satisfied
with your fellowship and communion, but at the
same time I did not wish to be burdensome to
you. I wished, in short, to say with S. Paul,
These hands have ministered unto my necessities,
and to them that are with me, for so labouring it
is right to support the weak. For otherwise, an
exile from my country, with no office, nothing to
do, and no income, there was nothing left for me
but to die of hunger and want.
This was ever my thought, from the time that
I once recognised the true faith of Christ, to place
it under the powerful shadow and protection of
the Anglican Church, that, strengthened by so
PICTURE OF CATHOLIC SPAIN BY A CATHOLIC.
367
great a support, and led by so great a light, it
might be propagated through the Spanish terri-
tory, and bring forth fruit most abundantly.
As you well know, the true and genuine Gos-
pel of Christ can not be preached in Spain, but
the Gospel of the Pope, which is a very different
thing indeed from that. Here there is not the
Spirit, for where the Spirit is, there is liberty.
Our very Bishops have nothing in common with
the Apostles; they do not preach the Word, they
do not instruct the people. All they do is for
hire: they accommodate every thing to their
sensual conceptions and earthly desires. They
are not shepherds but robbers, they are not
successors but usurpers, they are not leaders
but misleaders, they are not masters of the Truth
but watchmen of a lie. They are Pharisees
who sit on Moses' seat, and hold up to the people
traditions, errors, and superstitions. They take
away the bread of understanding and the water
of life: they have removed the keys of know-
ledge, and the kingdom of heaven have they
shut before men.
The Bishop of has never preached the
word of God; and so ignorant is he, that he knows
nothing except the ceremonies, and this is all that
he requires in a Priest. At the last synod for
providing Curas, he forbad the theologians, as is the
368
SCEPTICISM IN SPAIN.
old custom, to test the candidates' sufficiency by
theological questions and dissertations.
C
The Spaniards, having all these things before
their eyes, laugh at the mission of the Christian
Priesthood, are losing their faith and morals, and
sinking into Atheism. Will you then keep them in
the way of perdition, in the very mouth of the pit?
There is no other way but preaching the true
Gospel. Here then is a difficult work, to which
all my efforts are directed, and I implore your aid.
It is a difficult work, and very dangerous; but the
Apostle says in the seventh and following verses of
the first chapter to the Galatians, There be
some that trouble you, and would pervert the
Gospel of Christ: but though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than
(beside) that which we have preached unto you, let
him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now
again, If any man preach any other Gospel unto
you than (beside) that ye have received, let him
be accursed.' And our Lord, the Saviour of the
human race, says, in the 30th verse of the 12th
chapter of S. Matthew, 'He that is not with me
is against me, and he that gathers not with me.
scatters.'
It cannot be denied, that Spaniards of the present
day are generally opposed to Roman practices, and
rather agree with you and me in thinking and
A CRY FOR HELP AND SYMPATHY.
369
doing, than with them: such is the force of
Reason and Truth. However, while they are giving
up the errors of Romanism, they have no rule of
faith and morality to embrace, and led as by a
blind impulse, each has prescribed a liberal and
irregular belief for himself, which sometimes he
follows, and sometimes relinquishes.
For unity then and stability of faith to be
established among us, for the restoration of Evan-
gelical morals, and specially for delivering them
from Atheism, into which they are running head-
long, the light of the Gospel must, as in old times,
shine among them. But how shall they believe
without a preacher, and how shall we preach
unless we are sent? Let there be raised the voice
that cries aloud, and the word of God will not
return empty. But as the charity of Christ con-
straineth us, and His cause here suffers violence,
and groans at being surrounded with great dangers,
I have determined not to go hence, but to remain,
and to implore your help for the Spanish nation.
Will you then associate yourselves together for
the work of the Gospel in these regions? Will
you in your charity lead this people to the true
faith of Christ? Will you recal them from Atheism,
or Indifferentism to the Church of God? Esta-
blish Evangelical Missions, and support them
with your pious alms. The Romanists labour
night and day to propagate their errors, they send
B b
370
A CRY FOR HELP AND SYMPATHY.
their fanatical Missionaries to go round the world,
and all sorts of sectaries run eagerly to the
work. But ye who profess the true faith of
Christ, will ye leave a thirsty people to perish,
and give them nought out of your abundance
when they ask? Nay, my most beloved brethren,
for if the Lord hath given you five talents, ye
will gain five other talents, to be good and faithful
servants.
If the present supplication seem to you worthy,
religious, and Christian, if it has any influence
over you, send me the chief works ofa
and
and after I have translated them, I will send
them back to you to be printed in England. So
the light of the Gospel may be spread through
these regions, and prepare the soil for receiving
the seed of Truth and Life.
Wherefore, my most beloved brethren, I com-
mend me and mine to your prayers, and Christian
charity; and remember, that whatever you do for
the least of your brethren, you do it unto the
Lord, according to S. Matthew xxv. 40.
Your brethren in captivity salute you, and the
Holy Anglican Church of God. Peace, grace, and
mercy from our Lord JESUS CHRIST be with your
spirit. Amen."
d These names are omitted for the reasons given above.
They are the strong Reformers.
APPENDIX. No. I.
Documents. Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba's Book of
Prayers. Novena of the Divine Shepherdess. Panegyric on
S. Mary.
"New invention" of the title of Divine Shepherdess
in 1703. Progress of the devotion propagated by the Missionary
Capuchins. First office of the Divine Shepherdess: Knowing
her sheep. Second office: Leading her sheep to good pastures.
Third office: Driving away the wolves with her voice and crook.
Fourth office: Encouraging the feeble sheep. Fifth office:
Healing the sick sheep. Sixth office: Seeking for the lost
sheep. Seventh office: Bringing back the lost sheep to the
fold. Eighth office: Assisting the sheep at their death. Ninth
office: Being an example to the sheep. The Joys of the
divine and most loving Shepherdess of souls. The Seven Mys-
teries of Joy. The Seven Mysteries of Sorrow. The Seven
Mysteries of Glory.
As my desire throughout has been to give a fair
picture of the Church of Rome, I have thought it
well to append in extenso the little Book of Prayers
given by the Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba,
and the Novena of the Most Holy Mary, from
which quotations have been made in the letters at
the early part of the volume. They will shew
the mixture of truth and error, which is contained
372
MIXTURE OF TRUTH AND ERROR.
in the system prevalent in Spain. "In fact, the
formidable character of Romanism," says Mr. R.
Scott, "arises from this very possession of much
truth: for with this it juggles, offering the primi-
tive verity to the eye, and giving the modern
corruption to the hand. Thus the Romish cultus
of Saints differs from the Catholic doctrine of the
Communion of Saints, as sense differs from faith."
How much the "parasitic overgrowth of error"
has practically smothered the Truth, a calm perusal
of the following documents, and an examination.
of their spirit, will unmistakeably shew. They are
exactly and literally translated, Capital letters,
Italics, and Roman letters being used in the trans-
lation only where they are used in the original.
The Novena consists of nine supposed offices of
the Blessed Virgin in the character of Divine
Shepherdess, with a consideration upon each in
her honour, and a prayer. In the prayers of the
first and third day, it will be observed, that we tell
God that we are praying to the Virgin: in that of
the second day we pray to God the Father by the
merits of JESUS and of Mary: in that of the sixth,
seventh, and ninth, we pray to God the Father by
the merits of Mary: in that of the fourth and
eighth day, we pray to our Lord by the merits of
Mary. The Prayer to the Blessed Trinity is
rather a Hymn of Praise to the Virgin. This,
together with the "Joys of the Divine and most
ARCHBISHOP OF SANTIAGO'S PRAYER BOOK.
378
loving Shepherdess of Souls, Most Holy Mary,
our Lady," is to be used daily during the Novena.
The Seven Mysteries of Joy, Sorrow, and Glory,
are appended. These are subjects of Meditation.
BOOK OF PRAYERS GIVEN BY THE ARCHBISHOP OF
SANTIAGO DE CUBA.
PRAYER TO THE MOST HOLY VIRGIN.
O Virgin and Mother of God, I give myself to
thee as thy child; and for the honour and glory of thy
purity I offer thee my soul, my body, my powers,
and my senses, and I beseech thee to obtain for me
the grace of never committing any deadly sin. Amen
Jesus. Three Ave Marias.
My Mother, behold thy child.
My Mother, behold thy child.
My Mother, behold thy child.
In thee, my sweetest Mother, I have put my trust;
I shall never be confounded.
CHRISTIAN PRACTICES.
PRACTICES FOR EVERY DAY.
1. As soon as thou risest say; Virgin and Mother of
God, as in the first page.
thy holy guardian Angel.
Saint.
gatory.
Say the Lord's Prayer to
Another to thy patron
Another for the benefit of the souls in Pur-
2. Hear Mass every day if thou canst.
3. Every night repeat a part of the most holy
Rosary, with attention and devotion.
374 ARCHBISHOP OF SANTIAGO'S BOOK OF PRAYERS.
4. Receive at least once a week, the holy Sacra-
ments of Confession and the Eucharist.
5. When thou hearest the hours, say an Ave
Maria, and make a spiritual communion.
METHOD OF SALUTING MOST HOLY MARY,
And of communicating spiritually at the hours, and on
all other occasions.
When thou hearest the hours, say: Hail most pure
Mary, conceived without sin, One Ave Maria, and one
Gloria Patri. And directing thy heart towards the
most holy Sacrament, turning thy face also, if thou
easily canst, towards a church in which it is reserved,
say with great desire of receiving it, Alas, my God, that
I had ever loved thee! that I had never offended or
displeased thee! Ah that I were so happy as now to
receive thee sacramentally! ... But since I am not
worthy of this, be pleased to accept my desire, and to
communicate to me thy holy love. So be it.
STAIRCASE TO ASCEND TO HEAVEN.
In all that thou doest, and in every word that thou
sayest, remember death, judgment, hell, and glory;
and I assure thee that thou wilt never sin, and that
thou wilt be saved.
Steps of this precious staircase, divided according to the
days of the week.
MONDAY. Say one Lord's Prayer, and one Ave
a (
horas," when the bells are rung at the beginning of dark,
and when darkness comes on.
ARCHBISHOP OF SANTIAGO'S BOOK OF PRAYERS. 375
Maria, and then slowly and with reflection, repeat
ten times: I must die.
TUESDAY. Say one Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria,
and then slowly and with reflection, repeat ten times:
I must be judged.
WEDNESDAY. Say one Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria,
and then slowly and with reflection, repeat ten times:
Woe is me if I am condemned! what will all the world
have profited me?
THURSDAY. Say one Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria,
and then slowly and with reflection, repeat ten times:
Short joy, eternal suffering.
FRIDAY. Say one Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria,
and then slowly and with reflection, repeat ten times:
Jesus toiled and died to save me, it is just that I should
toil and suffer to be saved.
SATURDAY. Say one Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria,
and then slowly and with reflection, repeat ten times:
Oh blessed country of heaven! who knows if I shall be
able to obtain thee?
SUNDAY. Say one Lord's Prayer and Ave Maria, and
then slowly and with reflection, repeat ten times:
Cost what it may, I will be saved.
Repeat five Lord's Prayers and as many Ave
Marias, in memory of the five wounds of Jesus: and
seven in reverence of the seven sorrows of most holy
Mary.
MAXIMS WHICH EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD HAVE ALWAYS
PRESENT TO HIM.
1. Love the Lord our God with all thy heart, with
376
NOVENA OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
all thy soul, with all thine understanding, and with
all thy strength. 2. Love thy neighbour as thyself
for the love of God, and help him. 3. Always return
good for evil, and never avenge thyself. 4. Do unto
others as thou wouldest have them do to thee.
By repeating the prayer given above, and practising
what is recommended in this book, thou mayest gain 1160
days of indulgence, granted by various Spanish Prelates
to this and all the publications of the religious Library".
Malaga, Printed by Martinez de Aquilar 1851.
NOVENA OF MOST HOLY MARY, UNDER THE TITLE OF THE
DIVINE SHEPHERDESS OF SOULS, PROTECTRESS OF THE
MISSIONS OF THE CAPUCHIN ORDER.
REPRINTED WITH LICENCE.
MALAGA, 1851.
Malaga, 30 of January 1851.
We give permission to Don Santiago Casilari, an in-
habitant of this city, to reprint the Novena of the DIVINE
SHEPHERDESS, which has been practised this month, during
the Holy Mission in the parish-church of Saint Philip
Neri, by father Felix of Cadiz; and grant 40 days
indulgence to all the faithful for each day on which they
joined in it, praying to the Lord our God for the exalta-
b A Prospectus of a Universal Library of Catholic Authors has
been issued, to be published by a Religious Society, with the
previous censure of Ecclesiastical Authority, "to serve as an
antidote against the poisonous invasion of prejudicial books,
which for some years have been pouring over our eminently
Catholic country to the detriment of tranquillity and social
perfection."
ร
PANEGYRIC ON S. MARY.
377
tion of our holy catholic Faith, and the other objects of
the Church.-SALVADOR JOSEF, bishop of Malaga.-By
command of H. I. L. the bishop, my lord.-Francisco de
Paula Raya, Secretary.
ADVERTISEMENT.
As the arm of the Almighty did great things in
Most Holy Mary, and the glory of his holy name.
has been manifested, in dispensing by means of this
Lady his graces and his mercies, it is no wonder that
all generations should call her Blessed, and that all
men should desire to employ themselves in her
worship, and desire to propagate it throughout the
Universe. Men of God, illumined by the Holy Ghost,
have paid her the tribute of glorious praises, and after
exhausting the precious treasures of their wisdom, have
lamented that they could find no phrases, could meet
with no terms or words worthy of the greatness of
Mary. S. Isidore calls her Lady; S. Thomas Aquinas
names her Star of the sea; S. Augustine, the only
Hope of sinners; S. Bernard says that she is the
• This passage will serve to illustrate the real ignorance as
to Primitive doctrine in which, owing to the use of garbled com-
pendiums and false quotations, many who are even learned Roman
Catholics are enveloped, and will shew how much the spirit of
the Decretals of Isidore is still acted upon. This assertion is
simply untrue. S. Augustine never used such an expression as
this, and yet the Breviary in two different passages quotes it as
a saying of S. Augustine. The explanation is as follows.
"Quia tu es spes unica peccatorum, per te speramus veniam
delictorum: et in te, beatissima nostrorum est expectatio præ-
miorum." Pseudo-S. Aug. Serm. cxcv. Op. tom. v. Append. p.
323. This passage is found in the printed copies of the Sermon
378 NEW INVENTION OF THE TITLE IN 1703.
Discoverer of grace, the Mother of salvation, a
heavenly plant, more precious than all, more Holy
than all; and all lift up their voices to repeat with
S. Antoninus: What shall I say of thee, Blessed
Virgin? All is less than thou deservest; all is little
for thy eminent dignity.
All catholic Authors following this holy and re-
spectable doctrine, which the Holy Fathers taught
with their words, and left to posterity in their writings,
have attributed to Most Holy Mary, our Lady, various
glorious names and titles, to signify the perfection of
her holiness, the extent of her power, or her clemency,
her goodness, her purity, and her mercy.
This solid and pious way of thinking was not un-
known to Fray Isidro of Seville, a Capuchin Preacher,
when in the year 1703 he began publicly to invoke
Most Holy Mary under the most sweet title of Divine
Shepherdess of souls: that righteous man who em-
b
above cited, but is not in the Mss. and the Sermon itself in which
it has been inserted is certainly later than S. Augustine. The
Sermon is put among the spurious by the Benedictine editors,
and the passage cited, within parentheses. Yet the Sermon with
these words is read in the Lections in the Breviary on the Feast
of the Nativity B. M. V. and the second day inf. Oct. on which
latter, the portion including the passage in question is the sixth
Lection. The words are not found any where in S. Augustine.
Perhaps one of the clearest evidences of the late introduction,
of this and of other distinctive doctrines, is the marked contrast
between the genuine works of Fathers, and the more recent ones
which were attributed to them.
b This would be an instance of the new inventions of which
Mr. Faber so highly approves. Of course the office was invented
RISE AND PROGRESS OF THE DEVOTION.
379
ployed himself to the most extreme old age with
indefatigable zeal in the holy exercise of Missions,
reflecting that our kind Redeemer Jesus Christ is the
good Shepherd who knows his sheep, the righteous.
souls, and is known by them, and that he has other
sheep who wander in the thorny thickets of sin,
whom he desires to bring back to the fold of
grace that all may be one flock; and that Most Holy
Mary as the true Mother of the good Shepherd Jesus,
and the Mediatrix of human redemption, employs
herself in the same occupation as the good Shep-
herdess, he set her before his hearers in this humble
but appropriate vesture, and began to experience
the mercies of the Most High towards souls by the
intercession of this Lady.
This holy devotion has been propagated with rapid
progress from that time by all the Capuchins who
are employed in Missions, and are filled with joy at
seeing that the praises of their kind Mother, the
divine Shepherdess of souls, are heard, not only in
Spain, but in France, in Germany, in Italy, and in
the most remote and distant part of America. And
with the title. Mr. Faber expressly states, that not only the
titles of honours, but the honours themselves bestowed upon
S. Mary, are new.
So age of the age in the Church hath gone round,
And the Saints new inventions of homage have found,
New titles of honour, new honours for thee,
New love for thy shining, sweet Star of the sea!
God's Religious Truth is old and handed down. Man's additions
to it are new and invented.
380
NOVENA OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
as in the happy reign of Carlos 3. who is with God,
when the arts had attained a perfection to be envied
by the most advanced of foreign nations, a gentle-
man of Havanna, full of religion and piety, caused
an excellent and beautiful print of the divine Shep-
herdess to be engraved, in order to promote devotion
to her amongst those noble Islanders, that appeared
a fit occasion for bringing forth this Novena, that it
might accompany the prints which were distributed
in their Missions by the Capuchins newly established
in the island of Cuba, that so the faithful devotees of
Most Holy Mary might know, that although we ought
to ask and to hope for all good things by the in-
tercession of this Lady, our chief end in this Novena
must be to ask God by the merits of Jesus Christ,
and the prayers of his Mother, to forgive us our sins,
give us a good death, and lead us to eternal blessed-
Amen.
ness.
FIRST DAY.
Kneeling in the Church before this Most Holy Image,
or at home with thy family, or alone, as the case may be,
sign thyself with the sign of the Cross, and say the
following Act of contrition.
My Lord Jesus Christ, very God and man, my
Creator, my Father, and my Redeemer, because thou
art what thou art, and because I love thee above all
things, I grieve, Lord, that I have offended thee, and
I firmly purpose never more to sin. Amen.
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
381
THE FIRST OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Knowing her sheep.
Consider, my soul, that from the first instant that
God created thee, this most watchful Shepherdess has
never for one single instant lost sight of thee. With
joy of spirit did she see thee wearing for some years
thy baptismal innocence, when with simplicity of
spirit, and gladness of heart thou didst run in the
way of God's Commandments. But as soon as thy
passions awakened, and the perils of the world,
together with the craft of the devils, robbed thee of
that first grace, and precipitated thee into crime,
what did not this kind Mother do to succour thee?
To her prayers, oh my soul, thou owest those profit-
able gnawings of conscience, those illuminations
from the holy Angels, those lively callings of divine
grace, and all the other gifts with which her Son
very God, Jesus Christ, has favoured thee. But alas,
my soul, misusing thy liberty thou hast closed thine
ears against her callings, thou hast misused the holy
sacraments, thou hast disregarded the divine mercies,
and falling again into fresh crimes, thou hast
forged the heavy chain of thy bad life, which will
draw thee, unless thou breakest it, into everlasting
burnings! Consider seriously the regret which thou
wilt occasion to this loving Shepherdess of souls, and
begin without any delay to give her pleasure, by
reforming thy customs.
Here reflect on this most important truth, and then let
all say the following prayer.
382
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Almighty God and Lord, who of thy infinite
goodness and for the prayers of Most Holy Mary,
the most watchful Shepherdess of souls, hast so often
brought us out of darkness into light, and raised us
from the death of sin to the life of grace; humbly
prostrate at the feet of thy Mother, we devoutly
beseech her to intercede for us, that we may in such
wise abhor sin, that we may never again commit it,
that for the crimes we have committed we may
bring forth worthy fruits of Penitence, and by means
thereof may obtain a good death, and attain to eternal
Blessedness. By our Lord Jesus Christ, who with
the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth,
God for ever and ever. Amen.
Now repeat five Ave Marias for the purpose of obtaining
what is asked in this Novena, then conclude with the
following prayer of praise to the Most Blessed Trinity,
which is to be said every day.
Blessed eternally be the Eternal Father, because
he created Most Holy Mary to be his daughter, and
because he gave her so much power. Amen. Blessed
eternally be the Eternal Son, because he created Most
Holy Mary to be his Mother, and because he gave
her so much wisdom. Amen. Blessed eternally be
the eternal Holy Ghost, because he created Most
Holy Mary to be his Bride, and because he gave
her so much love. Amen. Blessed eternally be the
Most Blessed Trinity, because they created Most
Holy Mary to be their Temple and habitation, and
because they gave her to us adorned with so much
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
383
power, wisdom, and love to be the divine Shepherdess
of souls. Amen. Let all creatures bless thee.eter-
nally, eternal God, Three and One, and give thee
honour, glory, and praise, for all the graces, prero-
gatives, and privileges which thou didst grant to
Most Holy Mary our kind Shepherdess. Amen. Blessed
be the most pure Womb of the Sovereign Empress
of Heaven, which bare for nine months the Lamb of
God, who taketh away the sins of the world. Amen.
And blessed be her most chaste, most pure, and
virgin breasts, which nourished the Son of God made
man. Amen.
Then say, Blessed and praised be the Most Holy,
&c. and sing the joys, which will be found at the end of
this Novena.
SECOND DAY.
Make the sign of the cross, and the Act of contrition, as
on the first.
THE SECOND OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Leading her sheep to good pastures.
Consider, my soul, that since it is impossible for
the life of the sheep to be maintained unless they
turn away from harmful good, and make use of
that which is salutary, our most kind Shepherdess
Most Holy Mary efficaciously seeks to turn souls
away from sin and from its occasions, and to bring
them near to virtue and to its practices. How watch-
fully does she lead them to hearken to the divine
384
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
word, move the tongues of the preachers that they
may announce it duly, and stir up holy affections in
the hearts of all that they may obey it! With what
pleasure does she accompany them to the feet of the
Confessors, and bring them near to the Altar, that
they may be partakers of the bread of Angels, which
came down from Heaven, and giveth life to the world!
With what gladness does she caress them when she
sees their docility! But alas, my soul! Art thou one
of these docile sheep of Mary, or art thou one of those
which run astray over the mountains of pride, of those
which feed in the meadows of lewdness, of those
which grow old in the woods of avarice, of those
which pine away with the evil plants of envy, or fall
from the cliffs with the transports of anger? Consider
it well, my soul, and thou wilt perceive that not only
thou hast wasted thy life, feeding on poisonous food,
but by thine evil dispositions has turned into poison
the most salutary pastures of the Church.
sorrow for thy Shepherdess, so loving to souls.
What
Here reflect on these great truths, and then let all say
the following prayer.
Most mighty and everlasting God, who didst so
love men, that thou gavest for their healing thy
Sovereign son, Christ Jesus, who by founding his
Church, by instituting Sacraments, and by ordaining
-worthy ministers, most perfectly fulfilled thy adorable
will; prostrate in thy presence we humbly beseech
thee by the merits of that most sweet Jesus and of his
Most Blessed Mother, our divine Shepherdess, that we
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
385
may always draw near to receive the holy Sacraments
with such profound humility, with such edifying
modesty, with such living faith, and with such true
love, that we may obtain the divine grace, may attain
to a happy death, and may see thee eternally in glory,
where thou livest and reignest for ever and ever.
Amen.
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, then say the prayer
of praises to the Most Blessed Trinity, which begins,
Blessed eternally, &c. and conclude with the joys, as on
the first day.
THIRD DAY.
Make the sign of the cross and the Act of contrition, as
on the first day.
THE THIRD OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Driving away the wolves with her voice and crook.
Consider, my soul, that Satan, that ancient enemy
of man, who sought in his pride to be made like the
Almighty, having been cast down from his seat, and
converted into a most hideous devil, now that he
cannot lift up himself anew against the Creator,
seeks to avenge himself on his creatures, and coming
forth with hellish fury from the eternal fires, seeks
like a voracious wolf to make a prey of the sheep of the
good Shepherd Jesus, attacking them by every means
which his craft suggests, in order to devour them. He
seeks to discover their passions, to search out the in-
clinations of each, to study their weaknesses; and at-
tacks on the side where he finds resistance most feeble,
C C
386 THE SHEPHERDESS THE DEVIL'S OPPONent.
inclination most inclined, and passion most pre-
dominant: some he attacks by pride, others by
avarice, these by sloth, those by lasciviousness, and
he would devour all, if our most kind Shepherdess
Mary did not drive him away by her power, and did
not warn us by her voice, to flee from his terrible
assaults. This most mighty Shepherdess from that
happy instant in which she broke the head of the
serpent of the abyss, of the wolf of hell, has never
ceased to display her power for the benefit of souls.
Hell trembles at the holy name of Mary. The
devils tremble, and perceive full of fury, that the
sheep which Mary guards are far away from their
rage. Excessively unhappy wouldest thou be, oh
my soul, if thy own feet should carry thee to the
mouth of those voracious wolves, if in spite of the
great power of thy kind Shepherdess, thou shouldest
perish by the claws of thy deadly enemies. Consider
how thou art living, little sheep, for if thou dost not
obey Mary, thou wilt infallibly perish.
Here reflect on these great truths, and afterwards say
the following prayer.
O God, the Lord of Hosts, who didst grant to thy
Most Pure Mother, our sweetest Shepherdess, mar-
vellous power to defend the souls that call upon her,
against the attacks of the devil. humbly prostrate at
the feet of that mighty Lady, we devoutly pray her
to defend us from the perils of the world, from the
attacks of passions, and from the assaults of the
wolves of hell; that journeying under the protection
of her mighty arm through this vale of tears, we may
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
387
keep the divine Commandments, and in the last
strife of our death may triumph over all our enemies,
and obtain eternal salvation. Through the same
Lord Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the
Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, God for ever and
ever. Amen.
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, say the prayer of
praises to the Most Blessed Trinity, and conclude with
the joys, as on the former days.
FOURTH DAY.
Make the sign of the cross and the Act of contrition, as
on the first day.
THE FOURTH OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Encouraging the feeble sheep.
Consider, my soul, that as all the sheep in a flock
have not equal strength, but some die weak, feeble,
and puny, so in the Holy Church all souls do not
fervently follow the good Shepherd Jesus, who goes
before them with his example. Many, weakened by
a prejudicial coldness, stop in the way of the divine
precepts, or journey with slow, lazy, and fainting
footsteps; they stumble and fall frequently in im-
perfections and slight voluntary defects: they fulfil
these obligations negligently: they are discouraged
at the smallest hindrance which they meet with in
the spiritual life; and although they will not commit
grave offences, they do not take proper care to avoid
lighter ones, and thus they do not experience the
gladness of spirit, the peace of heart, or the tran-
388
THE SHEPHERDESS THE ENCOURAGER.
quillity of conscience which accompany fervent souls
in their inward life. Greatly does our most kind
Shepherdess Mary lament the state of these souls, a
state more fatal than it is commonly thought; for
perchance it would be less prejudicial that they
should fall into some grave fault, because then
the just and lively remorse of their conscience
would make them forsake it, perhaps even gain
by it, through the new fervour that they would
conceive after their fall; but in this state of lan-
guor they slumber and never awaken: they are on
the edge of the precipice, and know it not: they are
almost dying, and think themselves healthy and
strong. A truly lamentable state! But a state from
which our kind Shepherdess desires to free thee,
encouraging thee by the examples of persons who
are now the edification of the town, as they were
once its scandal and stumbling-block: offering thee
the same help which she gave to them, and setting
before thee the same rewards. Is it not so, my soul?
How often hast thou experienced these good offices
of Most Holy Mary? But say, in what state art thou
now? Consider it well, and seriously strive to
amend.
Here reflect on this important truth, and then let all
say the following prayer :
Most Gracious and Everlasting God, who by an
incomprehensible excess of charity towards men
didst descend from heaven to earth, that our hearts
might be kindled with the fire of thy holy Love, and
we might burn with pure charity towards Thee and
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
389
towards our neighbours; humbly prostrate at thy
feet, we beseech Thee by the merits and intercession
of thy Most Pure Mother our most kind Shepherdess,
to banish lukewarmness from our hearts, that walking
fervently in the paths of thy Law up to the terrible
moment of our death, we may afterwards obtain
eternal life, where with the Father and the Holy
Ghost thou livest and reignest, God through endless
ages. Amen.
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, say the prayer to the
Most Blessed Trinity, and conclude with the joys, as on
the first day.
FIFTH DAY.
Make the sign of the cross and the Act of contrition, as
on the preceding days.
THE FIFTH OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Healing the sick sheep.
Consider, my soul, that though by the sacred
Sacrament of Baptism all is pardoned that truly
bears the name of sin, yet there remains for thy
exercise and warfare that concupiscence which pro-
ceeds from sin, and leads towards it. This is the
reason why we are so slow and lazy in good, and so
ready and inclined to evil. Hence arise many infir-
mities of human nature, and the malignant fevers of
vices, which so often afflict us in this life. Yes, my
soul, avarice is a dropsied fever which consumes
thee; sloth a fever which stupifies thee; pride a fever
390
THE SHEPHERDESS THE HEALER.
which chokes thee; heat a fire which burns thee; and
envy a slow fever which makes thee waste away.
Miserably wouldest thou perish by the violence of so
many sicknesses, if Most Holy Mary, the loving Shep-
herdess of souls, did not apply salutary medicines to
those deadly diseases. With what pleasure does she
set forth the greatness of a liberal and magnanimous
heart, before the littleness and meanness of a miser!
the beauty of humility, to cast down the haughti-
ness of pride! the purity of chastity, to banish the
impurity of lust! the sweet fruits of labour, to con-
found indolence and sloth, and the merciful bowels
of charity to wean the hearts that are gnawed by
envy! But how often, oh my soul, has thy obstinate
resistance frustrated the exertions of this sweet
Mother and the efficacy of these active and profitable
medicines! The disorders of thy past life, and the
defects of the present, bear witness to this important
truth! Suffer thy spiritual sicknesses to be healed,
unless thou desirest to complete thy wickedness by
an evil death.
Here reflect on this most important truth, and then say the
following prayer.
Most sweet Jesus, Redeemer of the world, very
God and man, who didst take upon thyself our pains
and sicknesses, and give us life by thy death; deeply
inclined at thy most holy feet, we beseech thee by
the merits of thy Most Pure Mother, our most kind
Shepherdess Mary, that thou wilt heal the wounds of
our souls, and cure our spiritual diseases, that strong
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
391
in spirit, clean in heart, and pure in conscience, we
may keep the promises of Baptism, observe the pre-
cepts of the Gospel, and by means of an unblameable
life may attain to a happy death, and to thy eternal
companionship. Where with the Father and the
Holy Ghost thou livest and reignest, God throughout
all ages. Amen.
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, say the prayer to the
Most Blessed Trinity, and conclude with the joys, as on
the first day.
SIXTH DAY.
Make the sign of the cross and the Act of contrition, as
on the former days.
THE SIXTH OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Seeking for the lost sheep.
Consider, my soul, that the good Shepherd would
not fulfil the obligation of his office, if he cared only
for the sheep that are docile to his voice, who leave
not his presence, nor depart from his fold; and did
not try to seek those which wander and flee through
thickets and mountains. Therefore our most kind
Shepherdess Most Holy Mary, not only watches over
the righteous souls that hear the word of God, and
keep it, but goes out in search of those who wander
through the thorny thickets of sin. O with what
charitable anxiety does she run in pursuit of them!
With what sweet and penetrating whistles does she
call them! At one time by temporal misfortunes, by
392
THE SHEPHERDESS THE RECALLER.
the death of a father, a mother, a child, or a protector,
by a furious tempest, by a thunderbolt, an earthquake,
a shipwreck, or a fire; at another by the lively repre-
sentation of everlasting torments, by the inextinguish-
able fire, by the insatiable worm, by the horrible dark-
ness, by the dreadful devils. At times also she calls,
inviting us to those eternal joys which God has
reserved for those who fear and love him. That great
glory, that desirable company of Angels and Saints,
that incomprehensible sight of the essence of God.
himself, that.... But who, oh my soul, can explain
the wonderful ways in which our kind Shepherdess
has sought thee? But alas, closing thy ears against
her tender callings, thou continuest wandering and
in danger of perishing by the claws of the wild beasts
of hell! Hearken, listen, soul, to the voice of thy
Shepherdess, if thou desirest eternal salvation.
Here reflect on this great truth, and then say the
following prayer.
Most pitying Lord and most high God, who
shewest the way and the light of truth to them that
wander like lost sheep through the paths of life;
humbly prostrate at thy feet, we beseech thee by the
merits and intercession of the most Holy Mary, our
most pitying Shepherdess, to lead us by thy grace out
of the dark paths of sin, that walking as children of
light in this valley of tears, we may see and enjoy
thee eternally in the happy Land of the living.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with thee liveth
and reigneth God throughout all ages. Amen.
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
393
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, say the prayer to the
Most Blessed Trinity, and conclude with the joys, as on
the first day.
SEVENTH Day.
Make the sign of the cross and the Act of contrition, as on
the preceding days.
THE SEVENTH OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Bringing back the lost sheep to the fold.
Consider, my soul, that the loving charity of our
most sweet Shepherdess Mary, not content with seeking
after the wandering sheep, efficaciously seeks also to
bring back to the fold of grace, and to the friendship
of their God, the unhappy lost sheep. What a
spectacle worthy of the admiration of Heaven! In
imitation of her son the good Shepherd Jesus, she lays
the lost sheep upon the shoulders of her care and
loving diligence, and gladly returns with it to the
sheepfold, calling upon heaven and earth, upon
Angels and men, to be partakers of her joy. I have
found, she says, this sheep which I had lost. What
sorrow did its misfortune cause me! I found it
wearied in the ways of wickedness. a slave to sin,
carried away by the impetuous torrent of its passions,
and cruelly bitten by the wolf of hell. But now it
has rested from its weariness on my compassionate
shoulders, it has been delivered from the captivity
which oppressed it, and the devil flees vanquished
seeing it protected by my power. Rejoice with me at
394
THE SHEPHERDESS THE CONVERTER.
this triumph of divine grace which my Son the eternal
God has mercifully granted. Blessed be thou a
thousand times, loving Shepherdess of souls. How
many indeed are there now, who are mirrors of purity
by the prayers of Most Holy Mary, having been
formerly slaves of lust! How many share their own
property with the poor, who formerly stole that of
their brethren! How many who a little while ago were
proud, are now humble: how many once passionate,
are patient: how many now modest and edifying, who
a few days since displayed as in triumph vanity and
immodesty! O powerful grace of the Almighty, how
admirable are the transformations of the souls where-
in thou dwellest! But thou, my soul, knowest thou
these things? Wilt thou deny that thou owest it to thy
loving Shepherdess that thou art not at this instant in
hell? If the Virgin had not protected thee, what would
now have been thy destiny after so many sins? Woe
unto thee if thou amendest not!
Here reflect on this great truth, and then let all say the
following prayer.
Most Gracious and Most Holy God, who of thy
infinite goodness willest not the death of a sinner,
but rather that he should be converted and live, for
which reason thou givest him grace, bearest him on
the shoulders of thy adorable Providence, and offerest
him glory deeply prostrate in thy presence, we
beseech thee by the intercession and merits of Most
Holy Mary, our most sweet Shepherdess, thou wilt
lead us in obedience to thy most holy will, that per-
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
395
fectly fulfilling it in life, we may experience thy pro-
tection in the terrible moment of death, and after
that obtain thy desirable company through all eter-
nity. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who with
thee liveth and reigneth, God throughout all ages.
Amen.
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, say the prayer to the
Most Blessed Trinity, and conclude with the joys, as on
the preceding days.
EIGHTH DAY.
Make the sign of the cross and the Act of contrition, as
on the first day.
THE EIGHTH OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Assisting the sheep at their death.
Consider, my soul, that if our most watchful Shep-
herdess Most Holy Mary is careful of her beloved
sheep in their life, far more does she help and defend
them in the terrible moment of death. Then when
she saw them afflicted with the temptations of the
devil, with the fearful prospect of eternity, with the
terrible torment of their own conscience, with the
pain and anguish of their sickness, then does she
manifest herself a Mother full of pity and clemency
to console, to help, and to defend them. How by her
power does she drive away the wolves of hell! How
does she defend them with the protection and com-
panionship of the holy Angels! How does she make
396 THE SHEPHERDESS THE SAVIOUR ON THE DEATH-BED.
the Ministers of Jesus Christ run to their assistance!
How does she call upon her Son, the eternal God,
that they may worthily receive the Sacraments! What
thoughts full of tenderness, sorrow, and confidence
towards their God does she infuse into them! How
does she gather up their tears and sighs in her most
sacred hands to present them at the Tribunal of the
Almighty, and plead in their favour till she obtains a
favourable sentence! How does she accompany the
soul in its separation from the body till she has
placed it in the everlasting abode! But alas! my
soul, if thou rashly continuest in sin, thou wilt frus-
trate this charitable anxiety of thy Mother! If thou
leavest thy real conversion till death, thou wilt die
in thy sin in spite of all the desire of the Virgin for
thy salvation! Now then, while it is the acceptable.
day, and the day of salvation, even now must thou
leave thy vices, and amend thy life, if thou desirest
that thy most loving Shepherdess shall assist thee at
the hour of thy death.
Here reflect on this most important truth, and then
let all say the following prayer:
Most mighty and everlasting God, without whose
help there is nothing healthy, nothing strong, nothing
holy, humbly prostrate at thy most holy feet, we
beseech thee by the merits and intercession of thy
most pure Mother, our most kind Shepherdess, that
thou wilt cause the plenteous aid of thy divine grace
to descend upon us, that weeping for our crimes in
our life, we may experience the protection of that
Virgin at our death, and may accompany her in
THE SHEPHERDESS' PERFECTION.
397
eternal glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who
with thee liveth and reigneth, God throughout all
ages. Amen.
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, say the prayer to the
Most Blessed Trinity, and conclude with the joys, as on
the other days.
NINTH DAY.
Make the sign of the cross and the Act of contrition, as
on the first day.
THE NINTH OFFICE OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
Being an example to her sheep.
Consider, my soul, the eminent and heroic per-
fection with which Most Holy Mary is made a model
of all virtues to souls, which are the sheep of the
good Shepherd Jesus, her beloved Son. Look upon
her as much as thou wilt, and thou wilt always find
her perfect in the highest degree. In her humility,
most profound; in her virginity, most pure; in her
modesty, most exact; in her faith, most lively; in
her hope, most certain; in her charity, most perfect.
She is the model of purity to virgins, the pattern of
faithfulness to the married, and the example of
devotion to the widows. In knowledge she surpasses
the Doctors, in fortitude the Martyrs, in zeal the
Apostles, in all virtues united all the Saints. The
Angels praise her, the Seraphim bless her, all the
supreme Spirits prostrate reverence her. In her
presence hell trembles, earth is glad, and heaven
398
THE SHEPHERDESS THE EXAMPLE.
rejoices. The devils regard her as their enemy, men
as their advocate, the Saints as their Queen, and
God as his Mother. Oh how wonderfully glorious a
Creature! She knows all her sheep, she seeks their
true happiness, she leads them to healthful pastures,
and removes them from such as are prejudicial and
noxious, with her voice and her power she scares
away the wolves of hell that they make not prey of
the sheep: she encourages the weak, she heals the
sick, she seeks the wandering, she brings back the
lost to the fold, and she helps the dying. Oh how
exquisitively perfect a Shepherdess. Let all generations
bless thee, for the arm of the Almighty hath done in
thee great things! But unhappy art thou, my soul,
if thou dost not make use in time of the goodness
and power of thy kind Mother and thy precious.
Shepherdess. Alas, with what inconsolate tears wilt
thou weep for not having imitated this heroic model
of all virtues! But happy and blessed, if from this
moment thou efficaciously resolvest to imitate her!
Here reflect on this most important truth, and after-
wards let all say the following prayer :
Almighty and eternal God, who from Heaven
beholdest our miseries with benignant eyes, and
desirest to relieve them, that the sons of men may
know and seek thee the only true God, despising all
the vain occupations of the world: humbly prostrate
at thy feet, we beseech thee by the intercession of
Most Holy Mary, the divine Shepherdess of our souls,
to grant that we may not turn away from the rectitude
of justice and from the way of truth, nor be corrupted
JOYS O
JOYS OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
399
and made abominable before thee by our crimes,
but free and quickened by the power of thy mighty
grace, we may run in the paths of thy divine Com-
mandments, and rejoice eternally in thy company,
and in that of thy Son Jesus, who with thee liveth
and reigneth, God with the Holy Ghost through
endless ages. Amen.
Here repeat the five Ave Marias, say the prayer to the
Most Blessed Trinity, and conclude with the joys to the
DIVINE SHEPHERDESS, as on all the other days.
JOYS OF THE DIVINE AND MOST LOVING SHEPHERDESS OF
SOULS MOST HOLY MARY OUR LADY.
Very humbly at thy feet,
Thy tender flock implores thee,
Pity, divine SHEPHERDESS,
For I am a lost sheep.
When Jesus died, that his flock might not remain
deserted, he appointed thee Shepherdess: on Calvary
he left this chosen Herdswoman :
Pity, &c.
In the green and beautiful flowery Meadow of
Jericho, where the Rose budded, thou feedest thy
flock with this delicate food the flock flourishes:
Pity, &c.
The pretty sheep marked with thy name joyfully
come out of the fold following thy footsteps: ani-
mated by thy example they find the ascent easy.
Pity, dc.
When some lamb cannot follow thy steps, that
it may not be left behind thou takest it in thine
400 · THE JOYS OF THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
arms; and that it may not lag, thou givest it new
breath and life.
Pity, dc.
If thou perceivest the contagion of vice in thy flock,
before the evil can extend thou appliest a speedy
remedy thou appliest the oil of charity to every
wound :
Pity, &c.
If any lost sheep leaves the path, thou like the
divine Shepherd callest it when it goes away: thou
complainest lovingly, and receivest it in thy arms:
Pity, &c.
The most savage beast flees from thy Flock, if thou
raisest thy crook when he expects his prey: the wolf
himself venerates this chosen Herdswoman. Pity, dc.
Michael, brandishing his thunderbolt against the
bloodthirsty wolf defends the meek lamb that wanders;
the protected sheep goes bleating, AVE MARIA:
Pity, &c.
Whilst thou hearest the human sheep feeding.
among flowers, thou seekest in solitude the Shepherd
of shepherds. There thou singest a thousand loves
to the life-giving Lamb:
Pity, &c.
In the day of strife in the valley of Jehoshaphat,
Shepherdess, let me not be raised among the reprobate;
place me among the blessed, as a chosen sheep:
Pity, &c.
In Valencia and Arragon, Catalonia and Castile,
in the Indies and Seville, devotion to thee shines: it
is the Capuchin Fathers who make thee known:
Pity, &c.
Since thou art the Queen and Lady of the chosen
flock: Pity, Divine Shepherdess, for I am the lost sheep.
THE DIVINE SHEPHERDESS.
401
V. Permit, Lady, and sacred Virgin, that we may
praise thee.
R. Grant us valour, Lady, against thine enemies.
PRAYER.
We beseech thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, good
Shepherd, who gavest thy sacred Life for thy sheep;
and didst commend us who are thy People, and the
sheep of thy Passover, to thy Virgin Mother when
thou wert hanging on the tree of the cross; grant to
us by her intercession that following thee on the earth
as our Shepherd, we may be led to the Passover of
eternal life in heaven. Who livest and reignest with
God the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God
throughout all ages. Amen.
The above is the translation of the whole of the
Novena, as it was used in the Church of San Felipe
Neri. Appended to it are directions and subjects
for meditation to be used with the Rosary. They
are in verse, and consist of the Seven Joyful Myste-
ries, the Seven Sorrowful Mysteries, and the Seven
Glorious Mysteries.
Compare the following Italian Prayer.-Santissima Madre
del Verbo Incarnato, Tesorio della Grazie e refugio di noi
miseri peccatori, pieni da fiducia ricorriamo al vostro materno
amore e vi domandiamo la grazia di far sempre la volonta di
Dio e di voi. Consegnamo il nostro cuore nelle vostre santissime
mani: vi cediamo la salute dell' anima e del corpo, e speriamo
di certo che voi nostra madre amorosissima ci esaudirete inter-
cedendo per noi: e pero con viva fede diciamo tre Ave Marie.
Ducenti giorni d' indulgenza,
D d
402
THE MYSTERIES OF JOY AND SORROW.
Of the Mysteries of Joy,
The first is the Incarnation of the Word.
The second, the Visitation of the Virgin to
S. Elizabeth.
The third, the Birth of our Lord.
The fourth, the Adoration of the Wise Men.
The fifth, the Circumcision.
The sixth, the Purification.
The seventh, the finding of the Child JESUS in
the temple.
Of the Mysteries of Sorrow,
The first is the Agony in the garden.
The second, the Taking of our Lord.
The third, the Scourging.
The fourth, the Crowning with Thorns.
The fifth, the Bearing the Cross.
The sixth, the Crucifixion.
The seventh, the Burial of our Lord.
In the fifth Mystery of Joy, and the three first of
Sorrow, our Lord only is spoken of, and the Virgin
mentioned only in the response, "Since thou art
my Shepherdess, I am thy sheep. Ave Maria." In
the others, as might be expected, her part in the
Mystery is dwelt upon as much as our Lord's.
The Mysteries of Glory are as follows.
MYSTERIES OF GLORY.
The first is the resurrection of Christ.
The Lamb who lovingly gave his life into the
power of savage beasts rises glorious and trium-
THE MYSTERIES OF GLORY.
403
phantly, and invites us to behold him: what joy must
the Shepherdess have felt when she saw her Lamb
born anew!
R. Since thou art my Shepherdess I am thy sheep.
Ave Maria.
The second is the Ascension of the Lord.
With joy and gladness Jesus ascends glorified to
heaven; he leaves Mary as Shepherdess to watch.
over the flock: for none can supply the want of him
better than our Shepherdess Mary.
R. Since thou art my Shepherdess, &c.
The third is the coming of the Holy Ghost.
The Holy Ghost transformed into tongues of fire
descends upon Mary, and confirms her as Shepherdess
of the flock: he infuses into her strength, spirit,
and courage, to make vain the audacity of the wolf.
R. Since thou art my Shepherdess, &c.
The fourth is the Assumption of Mary.
Fairer than the dawn in chariot of light the
divine Shepherdess ascends to heaven; her sheep
are mournful: there would be cause to weep and
lament her absence, if she did not give us succour
from thence. R. Since thou art my Shepherdess, &c.
The fifth is when the Father crowned Mary,
The supreme majesty of the Father who is the
fount of eternal life puts the diadem on thy head, and
adopts thee for his Daughter eternally great happi-
ness! but Thou, Lady, adornest it with the dress of a
Shepherdess. R. Since thou art my Shepherdess, dc.
404
THE MYSTERIES OF GLORY.
The sixth is when the Son crowned Mary.
The Son, who had been a Lamb in thy great flock
glad and pleased presents thee with the crown that
he owed thee: the torrents of blood that he shed are
rubies set in it. R. Since thou art my Shepherdess, dc.
The seventh is when the Holy Ghost crowned Mary.
The Holy Ghost enamoured shews himself a
faithful lover; burning with the flames of love, he
crowns thee as his Bride: it is assuredly a garland
due to thee, for thou wert the most brilliant Shep-
herdess.
R. Since thou art my Shepherdess, I am thy sheep.
Ave Maria.
d blasona, rather "boasts himself."
APPENDIX. No. II.
MR. FABER.
THE greater parts of the seventh and ninth chap-
ters of the present volume having already appeared
in the form of a Tract, which I published some
months ago, they have undergone a severe critique
at the hands of the Rev. W. F. Faber, Priest of the
Oratory. There is such a curious mixture of kindli-
ness almost amounting to affection, and of violence of
language quite sinking to vituperation, in Mr. Faber's
remarks, that it is difficult to know in what spirit to
meet them. For the former, I thank him in all
sincerity; for the latter, I can make allowance, and
will not follow his example. Statements are all
a Mr. Faber gives it as his opinion, that " the Author seems
very much out of humour with something, or somebody, or
every thing, or every body;" that I and my correspondents profess
a "mock compassion;" that we" mourn as Pharisees;" that we
and all like us "are helplessly engulfed in a system of peevish
unreality," of a "Pelagian habit of mind," "unable to appreciate
grace, and as little able to appreciate sin;" that we are "self-
satisfied, pungent, frivolous, little;" that the pamphlet is one
"of bitterest virulence;" that "the account of the Mission is in
some respects absurd," that "it refutes itself," that it contains
disrespectful ebullitions;" that "there are beings, they are
not inmates of heaven nor dwellers upon earth, who share to the
letter the feelings, hopes, fears, and sympathies," expressed in
the pamphlet, &c.
406
MR. FABER.
that can be dealt with argumentatively; and to the
few statements scattered here and there through the
pages, whose contents when analyzed come to be,
Well, I don't think so, and I think it is very bad of
you to say so"-not a very convincing, however
natural, way of meeting facts—I desire to say a few
words.
"The pamphlet is simply a libel on the Spanish
Church." This is an assertion, and a strong one.
With what proof is it supported? None, except dark
reference to "a Gentleman of great piety, of whose
veracity and means of information as a Spanish Catholic
we are quite confident." To put aside the insinuation
contained in these words, strangely borne out by
Neapolitan theories of lying, and the disregard of
truthfulness prevalent (whatever be the cause of the
phenomenon) wherever Rome has full sway, Mr.
Faber must bring his shadowy Catholic somewhat more
into the foreground, out of the region of shapes and
forms, if he is to make use of him as a witness. As
however he is quite confident of his veracity, and
means of information as a Spanish Catholic, he must
surely be most entirely convinced by the testimony
of one who is not only a Spanish Catholic, but in
addition, a Spanish Catholic Priest now officiating in
Spain. This testimony he will find in the nine-
teenth chapter of the present volume.
The Author says in a note, The men of Italy do
not pray. . . . It is shamefully untrue." And then
Mr. Faber goes on to descant on the grievance that
truth is no longer to be found in such quarters. Now
MR. FABER.
407
for the love of truth shewn by Mr. Faber, in this
extract. The note, after having spoken of the devo-
tion of the women to the Blessed Virgin Mary, ends
thus: “The men in Italy do not pray. Their faith
has been overtaxed, and they have in the middle
classes in numberless cases cast away belief." Thus
I had introduced two limitations. First, I had
limited my assertion to that portion of the men of
Italy which forms the middle classes, and then con-
fined it to numberless cases of that class. Mr. Faber
has omitted both limitations, and made as though the
assertion was of all the men of Italy. Truly, to use his
own words, in this way of interpretation, as Bp. Butler
says, any thing may be made out of any thing.
"What will the Catholic reader think of Father
Newman's subscribing himself to his correspondent,
'Yours in S. Mary and S. Philip,' being considered
as a proof of 'excess of adoration?" The passage
stands thus, "The excess to which this adoration
has been carried by the new School of the Orato-
rians is well known. It was hinted in Mr. Newman's
letter. It is brought out clearly in Mr. Faber's
writings." Mr. Faber's implied proposition, that the
signature, Yours in S. Mary and S. Philip,' does
not prove excessive adoration of the Blessed Virgin, is
true. My assertion, that such a signature is a hint
of it otherwise known, is likewise true. Thus Mr.
Faber is left in this dilemma: either he knew the two
propositions were compatible, or he did not. If he
did, he has attempted to pass off a fallacy. The
less probable alternative need not be stated.
408
MR. FABER.
I
In the next sentence, Mr. Faber accuses me of
inaccuracy and error, for quoting his "translation of
Muzzarelli's Mese di Maria, as an illustration of the
length to which adoration of our Blessed Lady has
been carried by the new school of the Oratorians,
whereas Muzzarelli has been in his grave these
thirty-eight years." My assertion would be per-
fectly accurate, had Muzzarelli been dead 380
years.
first asserted the excess of adoration as a thing known.
I then brought forward, as a slight sign of it, Mr.
Newman's words; as a clear sign of it, I referred to
"Mr. Faber's writings," whether prose or poetry, and
from his hymns I selected a few passages which were
translated from the Italian. The translation and
republication makes the sentiments his own just as
much as though they were original.
Again, Mr. Faber denies that there was any
"ludicrous misconception of the religion of the
English implied by the Neapolitans saying they were
'infidels,'because they were 'English and Protestants."
For himself and eight millions of our fellow-subjects,
he declares the belief that "the good Neapolitans were
talking very sound theology." To this no reply is
needed. That so monstrous a statement should
have been made is enough.
Once more, he cannot refrain from putting in a word
for the truth of the old woman's assertion, that the only
thing that the poor English had by way of Baptism
was, that some rose-water was poured over them. He
then continues, "For this (some articles in the
English Churchman) and other reasons we wonder the
MR. FABER.
409
author should put forth Baptism as a strong point of
his protestant Establishment, and be horrified that an
old woman at Rome misconceived of Anglican Bap-
tism, when the Privy Council and a divided Bench of
Bishops, the mettlesome Suffragan no less than hist
excommunicated Primate, found in it, to say the least,
as much difficulty as the poverina vecchia did, and
have managed to leave a great deal more."
This is
either an argument or a sneer. If it is an argument,
the Premiss is as follows: The Privy Council and
Bishops have found the question of Baptism a diffi-
cult one: The Conclusion is, Therefore the belief that
the only Baptism that the English have is a sprin-
kling with rose water, is not a misconception of the
religion of the English. If this is not the argument,
Mr. Faber has condescended to go out of his way for
the sake of a sneer, and made, to say the least, a
most inaccurate assertion, "that the author put forth
Baptism as a strong point of his protestant Establish-
ment,” whereas, be it strong or be it weak, he did no
such thing, as it did not come within his scope to do
so in the place referred to.
Mr. Faber has accounted for much of my pamphlet
on the grounds that it was required of me by my system:
"like the helpless intoxicated Greeks, he speaks only
what the fumes of his system inspire into him." I
would apply the same charitable hypothesis to him-
self. It could have been nothing but a system which
could have induced Mr. Faber to commit himself to
so reckless an assertion for himself and his co-re-
ligionists, that it is a point of sound theology to hold
410
MR. FABER.
all Englishmen not in communion with Rome to be
Infidels. It could have been nothing but a system
which has made him take under his patronage such a
story as that English Baptism consists of nothing
but a sprinkling with Rose-water. It could have
been nothing but a system which could have made
him in the same Essay term Mr. Gladstone's Letters,
a party slander, which has taken so well with the
Protestant public." But it must be a strange system
which has reduced Frederick William Faber and
others of once cherished and still honoured name
to making such reckless assertions as those to which
they now commit themselves.
THE END.
APR 15 1915
BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD.
ERRATA.
Page line
67.
19. for Virgins read Virgin
75. 8. dele all
106. 10. for Gaudix read Guadix
119. 28. for gracoso read gracioso
131. 14. for Senor read Señor
174. 26. after well insert nigh
190. 22. for fingured read fingered
1. dele and
219.
227. 12. for were read are
263. 24. for religion which upholds read religions which uphold
277. 22. for Straus's read Strauss'
313. 20. insert “
314. 24. for Gennalifé read Generalifé
352. 25. for their read thus
370. last line dele the

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