The worst condemnation, I think, was the attitude of President Cabrera and his ministers toward Mexico when that government wanted him to give up certain persons for trial on the charge of conspiracy in the murder of ex-President Barillas, which had occurred on Mexican soil. Cabrera absolutely declined to grant this request, and his refusal almost resulted in the breaking off of all diplomatic relations between the two countries, and a conflict between the two governments was for a time imminent. This condition has, however, passed away and cordial relations now exist between the two republics. Furthermore, Cabrera has consistently refrained from becoming involved in the various conflicts that have raged between Nicaragua and its neighbours, and has been an active supporter of the Central American peace conference which was brought about by the influence of the United States.
CHAPTER IX
RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES
The ruins still existing throughout Mexico and Central America teach us that the early races occupying that country prior to the coming of the Spaniards were a religious people. It is true that their ideas of religious truth were crude and not of a very high order, but the element of worship of and responsibility to a superior being existed and found expression in various ways. Their theology had not resulted in so many deities as the more imaginative Greeks and Romans had created for themselves, but they were polytheists and had different gods endowed with different attributes who claimed their devotion. They were originally worshippers of one god, called Taotl, but adopted other gods from those conquered and from surrounding tribes, until they had a fairly respectable number of divinities who claimed their homage.
Quetzalcoatl, one of the two principal gods of the Aztecs, was originally a Toltec god who was worshipped with offerings of fruits of the soil, and even flowers. And it is claimed that the Toltecs were never, until their intercourse with the Aztecs, given to human sacrifices. It is true, however, that afterwards they did indulge in those horrible practices of offering human beings to their gods, and even indulged in cannibalism. This is the condition that existed when the Spaniards came with the religion of the gentle Nazarene.
The craze of the Crusades led men to believe that the kingdom of Christ could be extended by the sword. Add to this religious motive the love of adventure and military glory, and the passion of avarice, and you have the elements which moved men, and often the vilest of men, to engage in such enterprises as conquering the New World. The pope bestowed the sanction of Heaven upon the Spanish expeditions and gave the King of Spain complete authority over all things temporal and spiritual in the newly-discovered lands; the bodies and souls, the property and services of the conquered nations were to be his inheritance and that of his successors for ever. Thus it was that the pope Alexander VI pretended to hand over to the Spanish dynasty vast continents and islands which he did not own, and in which he had no right to a foot of the territory or a single human being upon them.
The “Christianization” of the millions of human beings by a mere handful of military adventurers and their few clerical helpers, generally at the point of the sword, is a record such as the world had never before witnessed. A single clergyman baptized in one day five thousand natives and did not desist until he was so exhausted that he could not lift his hands. Another priest wrote that “an ordinary day’s work is from ten to twenty thousand souls.” In the course of a few years baptism had been administered to millions. It is not surprising that converts adopted with such undue haste, and who were neither instructed in the tenets of the new faith nor taught the absurdities of the old belief, mingled in hopeless confusion their veneration for the ancient superstition and their slender knowledge of the new Christianity. They might be able to make the sign of the cross and yet not know what that symbol meant to humanity. These vague and hazy sentiments were transmitted by the new converts to their posterity and they have not been thoroughly eradicated after four centuries of the work of Spanish ecclesiastics.
“Christianity, instead of fulfilling its mission of enlightening, converting, and sanctifying the natives, was itself converted. Paganism was baptized, Christianity paganized.” These are the words of a scholarly and conservative writer. Cruelty and avarice marked the policy of the military chiefs, and the priests, with a few exceptions, aided them. “The victors,” says a Jesuit historian, “in one year of merciless massacre, sacrificed more victims to avarice and ambition than the Indians, during the existence of their empire (Mexico), devoted in chaste worship to their native gods. The lands were parcelled out into immense estates, and titles given to their Spanish owners, while the millions of natives were reduced to the condition of serfs. Under such conditions the conquered races began their new life.”
The Church soon set itself to the task of acquiring wealth, and with wealth came arrogance and the greed for power which that gives. The sale of masses for the dead and indulgences for the living offered an unlimited opportunity to the unscrupulous clergyman to raise money. This phase has been well expressed as follows: “When there was high money, there was high mass; low money, low mass; and no money, no mass.” Certain masses, according to amount paid, would relieve the souls in purgatory of from one thousand up to thirty-two thousand years of torment. These practices have not entirely disappeared from Spanish-America to this day.
The clergy were “generally native Spaniards, devoted to the interests of the King, the Church, and the Inquisition, passing their lives in criminal indulgence or luxurious repose.” Hundreds of priests, monks, and nuns were imposed on Guatemala. The people were heavily taxed for their support and for every office of the Church excessive fees were demanded. Marriage fees were so high that the poor peons could not afford the ceremony and consequently the majority of children born were illegitimate. Some of the priests became very immoral and scandals in the convents were not infrequent. The clericals were not amenable to the civil courts but had a separate tribunal in which every question relating to their own character, their functions, and their property was pleaded and tried. This position immensely increased the power of the Church in the politics of the state.