And he entered the rancho, the door of which he now left open, for day was breaking.
[CHAPTER XV.]
THE CONVENT OF THE BERNARDINES.
The history of colonies is the same everywhere, that is to say, that you find the old belief, the forgotten manners and customs of the mother country intact, and almost exaggerated.
Mexico was to Spain what Canada still is to France. In Mexico we, therefore, find the Spain of the monks, with all the abuses of a degenerate monastic life; for we are compelled to state that with few, very few exceptions, the monks of Mexico are far from leading an exemplary life. A few years ago a Papal legate arrived at Mexico, who had been sent to try and introduce into the monasteries reforms which had become urgent; but he soon recognized the impossibility of success, and returned as he came. This is the history of yesterday and today, and in the way things are going on, it will be the history of tomorrow.
In spite of the innumerable revolutions the Mexican monks are still very rich. Among other uses to which they put their money, the best is, perhaps, lending it out at six per cent., which, let us hasten to add, is a great blessing in a country where the ordinary interest on borrowed money is sixteen to eighteen per cent. Still, it appears to us, and we trust the remark will not be taken in bad part, but little in harmony with the vocation of the monks and the pure doctrines of religion, which is so opposed to lending money out at interest, for it has ever seen in it disguised usury.
We will add, at the risk of incurring the blame of some persons, and of appearing to emit a paradox, that in this collection of Christian religious buildings there seems to be kept up the tradition of the great Mexican Teocali, which contained within its walls seventy-eight buildings devoted to the Aztec worship.
In the first place, what is the religion professed in Spanish America? It certainly is not the Catholic faith; and this we can affirm with a safe conscience, and supply proof if necessary. The Americans of the south, like all southern peoples, are instinctively Pagans, fond of war and holidays, making a god of each saint, adoring the Virgin under a hundred different forms, digging up the old Aztec idols, placing them in all the Mexican churches, and offering them worship under the characteristic denomination of Santos antiguos, or ancient saints.
What can be said after this? Simply that the Hispano-Americans never understood the religion they were compelled to profess; that they care but very little for it, and in their hearts cling to their old worship in the terrific proportion of the native to the European population, that is to say two-thirds to one. Hence the demoralization of the masses, which is justly complained of, but is the fault of those persons who, at the outset, believed they could establish the religion of Christ in their countries by fire and sword—a system, we are bound to add, scrupulously followed by the Spanish clergy, up to the Proclamation of the Independence of the colonies.