[6a] The Carmelites will have it that Elias (whom Thomas Waldenses calls the first virgin among men, as Mary is among women), dedicated a temple to “the mother of God” on Mount Carmel, nine hundred years before her birth. Those who wish to be acquainted with the wonderful miracles wrought by the “Virgen del Carmen,” may consult an immense list published by Friar Juan Serrer, most of which are certified by notaries, priests, magistrates and friars.
[6b] El bendito Escapulario
Que al infierno lo amedrenta.Romance.
[6c] It may, however, be noticed, that great numbers are drawn away from the religious services of the regular clergy, by the greater parade with which the friars attract their devotees to the convent chapel.
[6d] Spain is a striking example of the influence of the habit of confession on public morals. It has there, no doubt, given the full reins to licentiousness.
[7a] Feijoo, a Benedictine monk, says that his order has fifteen thousand canonized saints.
[7b] Of the numerous banditti, for which Spain has been always distinguished, there is, perhaps, not an individual who neglects any of those ceremonies which are considered binding on all faithful Catholics.
— These murderous bands
In holy water wash their hands;
They never miss a mass—they wear
A rosary and scapulaire:
They damn all heretics, and say
Their pious Aves twice-a-day;
They bend at every virgin’s altar;
And can such saints deserve a halter?
[7c] The absurdity of introducing such an expression into a constitutional code could not be unnoticed by the illustrious body of deputies, to whom the Cortes had confided its arrangement. It is believed their object was to remove any suspicion as to their thorough orthodoxy, in order that they might effect hereafter some plans of ecclesiastical reformation.
[7d] Torture has been abolished in Spain for many years. However, that monster in the form of man, Elio, the captain-general of Valencia, has dared to employ it; and when I was in that capital I was informed, (and the fact has had abundant confirmation,) that it had been applied a few days before to no less than 147 individuals, whose cries and shrieks were heard by all the inhabitants of Murviedro, where they were confined. This tiger might allege, indeed, the example of his royal master, who caused numbers to be tortured in Madrid, after the last conspiracy there.
[8a] Don Gonzalez Carbajal, a poet of no common merit, whose verses have been well compared with those of Fr. Luis de Leon, is now publishing a metrical version of the Psalms. The MS. was sent to the inquisitorial censors, who replied, that, though they saw nothing absolutely objectionable in the work, they deemed it very extraordinary and very suspicious that no allusion was made in it to the Sumo Pontifice!