[53] That of a Catholic Clergyman.
[54] See [Letter X].
[55] This was actually the case at the creation of the Central Junta.
[56] The account in [Letter VII]. of the anxiety manifested by Charles III. on the occasion of sending to Rome a manuscript in the hand of a Spanish simpleton, whom the superstition of that country wished to invest with the honours of Saintship, was compiled from local tradition, and the recollections preserved from a former perusal of the present Appendix. Its noble author, whose love of the literature of Spain, and great acquaintance with that country, would be enough to designate him, were he not best known by a peculiar benevolence of heart, which no man ever expressed so faithfully in the affability of his manners; has subsequently favoured the writer of the preceding Letters with his permission to publish this sketch. The attentive reader will observe some slight variations between my story of Brother Sebastian and that given in this Appendix. But as they all relate to circumstances connected with the city of Seville, I am unwilling to omit or to alter what I have heard from my townsmen and the contemporaries of Sebastian himself.
[57] There is a Life of Palafox, published at Paris, in 1767. The design of the unknown author is evidently to mortify and prejudice the Jesuits by exalting the character of one of their earliest and fiercest opponents. The author is, however, either an ardent fanatic of the Jansenist party, and as superstitious as those he wishes to expose; or he promotes the cause of the Philosophers of France and Spain by affecting devotion, and conciliating many true believers to the measure of suppressing the Jesuits.—Palafox was the illegitimate child of Don Jayme de Palafox y Mendoza, by a lady of rank, who, to conceal her pregnancy, retired to the waters of Fitero in Navarre, and being delivered on the 24th June, 1600, to avoid the scandal, took the wicked resolution of drowning her child in the neighbouring river. The woman employed to perpetrate this murder was detected before she effected her purpose, the child saved, and brought up by an old dependant of the house of Ariza till he was ten years old, when his father returned from Rome, acknowledged, relieved, and educated him at Alcalá and Salamanca. His mother became a nun of the barefooted Carmelite order. Palafox was introduced at Court, and to the Count Duke de Olivares in 1626, and was soon after named to the council of India. An illness of his paternal sister, the funeral of two remarkable men, and the piety of his mother, made such impression upon him, that he gave himself up to the most fervent devotion, and soon after took orders. He became chaplain to the Queen of Hungary, Philip IVth’s sister, and travelled through Italy, Germany, Flanders, and France. In 1639, he was consecrated Bishop of Angelopolis, or Puebla de los Angeles, in America. His first quarrel with the Jesuits was on the subject of tithes. Lands on which tithes were payable had been alienated in favour of the Company, and they pretended, that when once the property of their body, they were exempt from that tax. The second ground was a pretended privilege of the Jesuits to preach without the permission of the Diocesan, against which Palafox contended. The Jesuits, having the Viceroy of New Spain on their side, obliged Palafox to fly; on which occasion he wrote his celebrated letters against his enemies. A brief of the Pope in his favour did not prevent his being recalled in civil terms, by the King. At the petition of the Jesuits, who dreaded his return to America, the King named him to the bishopric of Osma. Of the austerity and extravagance of his principles, the following resolutions of the pious bishop are specimens: Not to admit any woman to his presence, and never to speak to one but with his eyes on the ground, and the door open. Never to pay a woman a compliment, but when the not doing so would appear singular or scandalous; and never to look a female in the face. Whenever compelled to visit a woman, to wear a cross with sharp points next the skin.
[58] He was not a lay-brother, but a Donado, a species of religious drudges, who, without taking vows, wear the habit of the order; and may leave it when they please. The Donados are never called Fray, but Hermano.—[See Doblado’s Letter IX].
[60] Sigillum or annulus Piscatoris, the great seal of the Popes.
[61] Gentlemen of the first rank, who are members of the associations called Maestranzas, perform at these games on the King’s birth-day, and other public festivals. Horsemanship was formerly in great estimation among the Andalusian gentry, who joined in a variety of amusements connected with that art. Such was the Parejas de Hachas, a game performed by night, at which the riders bore lighted torches. When Philip the Fourth visited Seville, in 1624, one hundred gentlemen, each attended by two grooms, all with torches in their hands, ran races before the king. This was the only amusement which, according to the established notions, could be permitted in Lent.