Roman Catholicism in Spain

by Anonymous

from his temples. In performing this operation, the handkerchief happened to be folded into double, treble, or quadruple, and it was found that an exact impress of the Saviour’s visage was indelibly stamped on every fold! These portraits, they say, have been preserved, and are certainly venerated as sacred relics in different places. One is exhibited in Rome, another in Padua, and a third in Jaen, in Andalusia. A public exhibition of this holy face is permitted, annually, on a certain day appointed for the purpose, when a plenary indulgence is granted to all who go to look upon it, to confess and to receive the holy communion. It is only the most ignorant and superstitious who are found to believe in this fable; indeed, it has now become proverbial with a Spaniard, when told of any thing that seems impossible, to say, Eso y la cara de Dios estan en Jaen,—That and the face of God are in Jaen.”

The bodies of saints exposed to public veneration in many churches are almost innumerable. The authenticity of these holy remains is founded on pontifical bulls invested with all necessary formalities. The way of procuring these remains of corrupt mortality is very easy and simple. It consists in gathering up, in the catacombs of Rome, some of the infinite numbers of bones there deposited; there is never wanting some devout antiquarian to discover that they are those of a saint or a martyr, and the assertion is supported by old parchments of remote ages, made in Rome, where the profession is of great use. Those testimonies are presented to the Roman Datary, and by means of a fixed sum found in a tariff comprising many other articles,

the pontifical sanction is obtained, and then the bones become converted into objects of general devotion.

The inscriptions on Roman altars and sepulchres in the pagan ages are used to support those inventions. All the world knows the history of the celebrated saints Perpetua and Felicity, whose beatifications have no other foundation than the words perpetua felicitas, so very common on the monuments of that nation. The improbability of some of the fictions has been such, that in Spain itself, in the face of that respect there shown to the things pertaining to religion, there have not been wanting pious men who have dared to doubt the authenticity of some of those saints. In a certain city in Andalusia, in which are venerated the bones of two Christian soldiers who were martyrs, and are the declared patrons of that city, and as such to be worthy the devotion of the inhabitants, it has been proved recently, from the examination of certain documents, that those supposed martyrs were nothing more than two Roman soldiers who had fallen in an action near the walls of that city.

But the lives of the saints are the great repositories of false miracles. There is no extravagance which has not been resorted to by the authors of those biographies. The miracles of their heroes occupy more space than do their virtues. The Roman Church never canonises any human being, of whatever eminence his piety may have been, if it is not proved to its satisfaction that he had the power of altering the laws of nature, and availed himself of divine omnipotence in order to serve his friends, and even to satisfy their caprice. For example:

one saint has been able to traverse the seas with no better vessel for his use than his own cloak; another used to bring down rain from heaven in times of drought; almost all of them cured the most dangerous maladies by merely their blessing; and there are but few of them who have not even raised the dead with the like facility. The famous beata Maria de Agreda has written many volumes, wherein she records the continuous revelations with which she was favoured, and her familiar conversations with the Saviour, to whom she always gives the title of spouse. On one occasion, when sweeping the cloisters of her convent, she being unable through debility to take up the dust, the infant Jesus came to perform that office for her. In the work entitled, “Conformidad de San Francisco con Dios,” it is said, among other wonders, that the saint formed a statue of ice and breathed life into it, in the same way that God did to Adam. That saint had his hands and feet perforated like those of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the Roman church consecrates a day in the calendar and a special festival with its corresponding service to “the wounds or sores of St Francis” (Las Llagas de San Francisco).

But all these extravagances of the imagination are exceeded by the impiety and scandal of the appearance of the Virgin to a saint who implored her favour. It is related of her, that on this occasion she sent forth from her bosom a stream of milk, which the saint received in his open mouth, in a kneeling position, at a few paces from her feet. Paintings of this may be seen in the cloisters of many convents in Spain.

Hypocrisy, interest, and ambition, have found in this frightful credulity an ample and open field for their labours, and in which they have gathered abundant crops. It would, however, be an act of injustice, of which we would desire not to be guilty, if we did not admit that some of the most heroic virtues have flourished in the cloisters, and that the annals of the religious orders have handed down to posterity names which are worthy of admiration and respect. The name of the Capuchine Fray Diego de Cadiz must be still fresh in the memory,—a man no less remarkable for his poverty, self-denial, and humility, than for the sublime eloquence with which he contended against the vices of his times, and drew sinners into the paths of virtue. Such was the reputation of this good man, that the churches were unable to hold the multitudes who came to hear him preach. He therefore usually delivered his sermons in the public squares, where he was eagerly and devoutly listened to by people of every class and denomination, including Protestant reformers, who came to hear his denunciations against the enemies of God and the church. But by the side of this and some other models of religious consistency, how many hypocrites are there who have abused the simplicity of Spaniards, ostentatiously displaying, in public, self-denial and penitence, whilst giving themselves up, in private life, to every kind of iniquity! A convent lucky in having a man of this class possessed in him an inexhaustible fountain of presents and money. Sometimes those excesses arrive at such a point, that the attention of the bishops is

called to them; but when searching inquiries were set on foot, the friars with all haste removed the delinquent to some distant place where he would be out of the reach of the bishops. Two facts of this kind may serve to illustrate this chapter.

Towards the beginning of the present century, there was in Madrid a beata [194] called Clara, of whom they relate such prodigies as filled the capital from one end to the other with astonishment, and induced society to believe that this beata, Clara, was a being highly favoured by Providence. She lived in a private house, under the pretence that the malady under which she laboured prevented her residence in the beaterio. She was always prostrated on her bed, and never took any kind of food except the consecrated host. The nobility and persons in the upper ranks of society, including canons, bishops, and other learned personages, came to consult her, not only on matters of conscience, but of ecclesiastical discipline and state-government. She never permitted her face to be seen, but kept it covered with a kind of veil which entirely concealed her features. Gifts of every kind were showered upon her, and when money was given to her, which was always in large amounts, she declared that the article was of but little use to her, for she always gave it away to the poor. In short, nothing was talked of in Madrid but this most wonderful woman, whose presence it was believed was sufficient to obtain blessings from