by AN OLD RESIDENT. EDINBURGH: JOHNSTONE & HUNTER. london : r. groombridge & sons . m.dccc.lv . edinburgh : printed by johnstone and hunter , high street ....

Variableness of outward practice of Christianity—The like as to that of Mahometanism—Roman Catholicism most subject to that modification—Excesses of Roman Catholicism in Spain accounted for by Spanish history—The Goths and Moors of Africa—Their conversion to Christianity—The aborigines of America—Traditional coincidences with scriptural truth—National character of the religion of Spaniards—Religion of the affections—Santa Teresa—Amatory propensities in connection with religion—Knight-errantry—Mo

The Spanish Clergy —Their primitive state—Their subsequent organization— Barraganas —Immoral practices of the clergy—Their wealth, and its sources—Their territorial possessions—Their influence and incomes—Their opposition to the sciences—Their ultramontane principles—The “pass” of the Spanish sovereign necessary to the validity of the Pope’s bulls—Doctrine of the Jansenists favoured by the ministers of Charles III.—Port-Royal and San Isidro—Parish priests—Sources of their income—Many of them goo

Monachism —The superiority of the monastic over the secular clergy—Reasons for it—Orders of monks—The Carthusians—Their advancement in agriculture and love of the fine arts—Their seclusion and mode of living—Only learned men admitted to their order—Their form of salutation—Curious adventure of a lady found in the cell of a Carthusian—The Hieronimites—The Mendicant orders—“Pious works”—The Questacion —Decline of Spain accounted for—Vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience—How vow of poverty elude

Celibacy and Morals .—Illicit relations formed by the clergy—Shameless avowal of their fruits—Ferocious character of love in the cloisters—Three flagrant cases—Murder of a young lady by her confessor, the Carmelite of San Lucar—His trial and sentence—Murder by a wife of her husband under the direction of her confessor, the Capuchine of Cuenca—His trial, imprisonment, and escape—Murder of a lady by the Agonizante of Madrid—His trial and execution—Scandalous occurrences in the Convent of the Basil

The Mass —Its introduction but modern—The Spaniard Lainez opposed it—On what grounds—Description of the ceremony—Its religious and secular peculiarities—Sacerdotal vestments worn while celebrating it—High and Low Mass—Both performed in an unknown tongue—Consequent indifference of the congregation—Mercenary character of the mass—“ Masses for the intention ”—Masses for the dead—The solemn mass on Christmas eve, or Noche buena —Its profane accompaniments—Passion week—Thursday—Good Friday—Adoration

Devotion of Protestants scriptural and reasonable—That of Roman Catholics poetical and affectionate—Religious enthusiasm leads to insanity—Mental devotion as distinguished from physical—Nature of Roman Catholic devotion accounted for by the worship of images—Intercession of saints—Saint Anthony—The illiterate guided by bodily vision rather than spiritual discernment—Horace confirms this—Illustrated by popular errors—Sensual and poetical elements were introduced to devotion by the Greeks—Destruct

Feast-days —Processions and Novenas—Corpus Christi—How performed in Seville, and the sacred dances of los seises —How in Madrid—Procession of Holy Week—The Santo Entierro —Clerical processions—Procession of the Rosary—Rites of Roman Catholicism—Jubilee of forty hours— Romerías or pilgrimages. From the time at which the true spirit of Christianity, under the dominion of the popes, began to be corrupted, and experience taught what effects might be drawn from material worship, founded chiefly on po

Purgatory —Deliverance from by devotions of survivors—Those devotions described—Difference between dogma of purgatory and other dogmas—Modes of drawing out souls—Masses for the dead—Legacies to pay for them—External representations of images and pictures—Day of All Souls and its practices—The Andalusian Confraternity of Souls— Mandas piadosas —Debtor and creditor account between the church and purgatory—How balanced—Bull of Composition—Soul-days— Responsos — Cepillo , or alms-box—Financial opera

Auricular Confession, a sacrament inseparable from that of communion—Obligatory on all once a-year—Plan of discovering defaulters—How punished—Evils of confession—Power of the priest—Four evils pointed out—Discoveries in the Inquisition in 1820—Facility of obtaining absolution—Louis XIV.—Robbers and assassins—The confessional—Practice, how conducted—Expiatory acts—Refusal of absolution—A husband disguised as his wife’s confessor—The injunction of secrecy on part of confessor—Advantages of the kn

On each of the four Sundays in Advent. On the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, of the four Temporas in the year (the beginning of each of the four seasons of the year). On the three Rogation days in May. On the eve of the Nativity of our Lord, and at each of its three masses. On the days of St Stephen, St John the Evangelist, and the Holy Innocents. On the day of our Lord’s Circumcision, and on that of the Epiphany. On the Sundays of Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima. On all the day

+ On Septuagesima Sunday. + On the Tuesday after the first Sunday in Lent. + On the Saturday after the second Sunday in Lent. + On the third and fourth Sundays in Lent. + On the Friday and Saturday before the fifth Sunday in Lent. + On the Wednesday of the octave of the Resurrection. + On the Tuesday and Saturday of the octave of Pentecost. (Signed)  * D. Manuel Lopez Santaella .  [ Seal .]  Madrid: Press of the Holy Crusade. In numerous families the tax of those bulls is very heavy, for the mas

False Miracles , Relics , and Religious Impositions —Veneration of crucifixes and statues or images—Their power of healing—Picture at Cadiz— Lignum Crucis —Veronica—Bodies of saints—How procured—Inscriptions—Lives of saints—Maria de Agreda—St Francis—Scandalous representation of the appearance of the Virgin to a saint—Fray Diego de Cadiz— Beata Clara—Her fame and downfall—The nun, Sister Patrocinio—Her success, detection, confession, and expulsion—She returns, and is protected by a high personag

The picture which we have sketched of the religious state of Spain, explains all the history, all the peculiarities, and all the vicissitudes of that great nation, from its conversion to Christianity down to our own times.  It was the religious principle which inspired Spaniards in all the great actions by which their name has been immortalised during their sanguinary struggles of six centuries against the Saracenic power; but in that magnificent epoch of their national existence, there were man