Besides fasting, there are other acts of penance and mortification practised by the truly devout, and some of these have already been noticed in former chapters. The disciplina (whipping) was the most in use when Roman Catholicism flourished in Spain without a rival. It was very common, in the processions of Holy Week, to see penitents with their shoulders naked, whipping themselves in public with so much severity as to cause them to be literally covered with blood. We know a town in Andalusia in which this is encouraged by the clergy; but in that place the penitents receive money in exchange for the floggings which they inflict on themselves, and which sometimes have laid the foundation of bodily complaints that have terminated in the death of the victims.
Some penitents make a vow to go, with naked feet, and even on their knees, from their houses to a certain sanctuary; others wear cilicios (hair-shirts) or girdles around their bodies; these practices, however, are now almost entirely abolished, and are observed only in some of the few convents of the religious orders remaining in the present day.
In times of great calamities, such as earthquakes and
epidemics, this spirit of penance is resuscitated and exercised with great fervour; public prayers are offered up, and sermons are preached, which inspire terror and increase the natural fear and alarm attending the catastrophe. On these occasions the churches are filled, and nothing is heard in them but shrieks of grief and expressions of repentance. But the misfortune overpast, all those external signs of religious sentiment disappear, and society at large once more returns to the usual routine of business and pleasure.
CHAPTER X.
False Miracles, Relics, and Religious Impositions—Veneration of crucifixes and statues or images—Their power of healing—Picture at Cadiz—Lignum Crucis—Veronica—Bodies of saints—How procured—Inscriptions—Lives of saints—Maria de Agreda—St Francis—Scandalous representation of the appearance of the Virgin to a saint—Fray Diego de Cadiz—Beata Clara—Her fame and downfall—The nun, Sister Patrocinio—Her success, detection, confession, and expulsion—She returns, and is protected by a high personage—She is again expelled, but again returns and founds a convent—Its disgraceful character and suppression—Her flight towards Rome—Occurrences on the road—Her return to Spain.
It is easy to conceive the abuse that may be made by the clergy of the credulity of a nation in which such ridiculous and absurd practices prevail as those to which we have already alluded. The priest is considered, in Roman Catholic countries, as the representative of Jesus Christ, the only depositary of true doctrine, the only dispenser of celestial favours, the agent of the supreme authority of the Pope,—in a word, the infallible oracle, to whose teachings the faith cannot be opposed, and whose mandates must not be resisted under penalty of incurring a mortal sin. Thus all his words carry the stamp of irresistible power. The
Spanish clergy have always known the resources they could draw from this position, and they have abused it in order to establish numberless false miracles, which, at the same time that they add to their prestige, greatly augment their treasure. There is scarcely a cure of an infirmity which human flesh is heir to, that is not attributed to some prodigy from heaven. There is scarcely a town in Spain in which they do not venerate a crucifix which has perspired, or a virgin’s statue which has moved its eyes. In some places they pretend to believe that bells are rung without being touched; in others, roses grow, out of their proper season, to serve the festivals of the church. At the time of the expedition of the Earl of Essex to Cadiz, the English took their swords and cut asunder a certain painting of a religious subject in one of the churches, whereupon the edges of the cut canvas began to bleed, and the blood remains there to this day, and may be seen by the curious in one of the parish churches of that city! They relate numerous cases in which the host when profaned has, when broken, sent forth blood. If a sacristan omits to light the lamp which burns at night before the eucharist, the lamp lights itself. There are innumerable persons in Spain who believe that he who is born on Good-Friday has a cross on the roof of his mouth, and the faculty of curing diseases by mere contact with his hands, or even a piece of his garment. The palms which are blessed on Palm-Sunday, and the candles burnt on Good-Friday before the sacrament, have power to preserve houses from thunderbolts. The same faculty is attributed to a
small bell blessed by the priest. In times of drought, which are the greatest calamities that afflict the Spanish soil, a favourite image is taken out and conducted in procession, in order to implore genial showers of rain. Thanks to the invention of the barometer, and a practical knowledge of the aspect of the weather, it almost always happens that this ceremony is followed a few days afterwards by a copious supply. But it would require an entire volume to enumerate all the errors and superstitions of this description which have been propagated by the clergy in Spain, and which form the chief props of their power.
Relics have served as efficacious instruments to accomplish that end. The lignum crucis, pieces of the cross on which the Saviour suffered, are profusely distributed not only in the churches, but in the private houses of many persons. In most of the cathedrals are preserved and shown to the public, on certain occasions, some of the thorns which composed our Saviour’s crown; in others, fragments of the Virgin’s veil; and in the cathedral of Jaen, the face of God. A description of this last-named wonder may not be unacceptable to some of our readers, and therefore we give a description of it in the words of a living English writer:—“According to the tradition of the Romish Church, a lady called Veronica met our Saviour in the street of Amargura, in Jerusalem, bearing his cross, on the way to Mount Calvary; and perceiving the perspiration running down his face, she offered the use of her handkerchief, which our Lord is said to have used, or to have permitted Veronica to use, in wiping the sweat