Pictures of life in Mexico/Volume 1/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
RELIGION.
The religion of this country appears to an observer, little else than a kind of excuse for questionable and nefarious transactions—a species of set-off against continual frivolity and sin—a convenient medium through which, by paying a certain amount of money, and a due portion of outward respect to the priests, the people may pursue a course of vice and dissipation with an easy conscience.
No system of priestcraft could be better calculated than that prevailing in Mexico, to pamper arrogance and love of domination in the ecclesiastics, at the expense of the community The many forms of oppression employed by the "padres" throughout the republic; the cunning with which they wind themselves into private affairs, whether political or domestic; and the degrading espionage maintained by them over the actions of individuals are alike surprising and revolting, to the unprejudiced.
Ignorance and dependence are the prominent results of the system. Converse with a Mexican on the subject of religion, and he will tell you it is the priest's affair, and not his; that the Holy Father So-and-so will do all that is right for him in the particular, for the padre is acquainted with his spiritual state, and he himself is at no trouble about the matter. Mention education and learning, and he will at once assure you that those also belong of right to the priests; and that no one else should presume to interfere in such concerns. Remonstrate with him on the probable issue of a career of debauchery and excess, and he will reply that, so long as he and his confessor understand each other, nobody else has the smallest right to be offended. And thus, all responsibility is thrust upon the willing shoulders of the ecclesiastics.Nothing could tend more effectually towards the moral deterioration, not only of the people, but of the clergy themselves: wholly uneducated, and initiated from youth into the crooked arts of intrigue, it cannot be expected that they should prove other than they are. The vices of the priests, here, are glozed over and winked at; but such manifold and glaring indications of their iniquities are so constantly evident, that no impartial mind can be unconscious of the actual tenor of their lives.
Sensuality, arrogance, tyranny, and avarice are their prevailing characteristics; and so lost are they, for the most part, to all better feelings, that they do not care to assume in private the possession of any nobler and holier qualities.
Religious offices and observances are degraded into mere matters of bargain and sale. Licences to commit crimes are paid for in dollars and rials; and the chaffering and indecorum consequent upon such transactions are disgustingly obtrusive. The extortions and intimidations practised at the bedsides of the sick and dying, and in bargains with those who have friends in purgatory, are still more nefarious. No wonder, then, that the people have little respect for a religion taught by such men: who, however, make it a powerful instrument of terror to the timid, the weak, and the credulous. Penance and other physical terrors are threatened on fitting occasions; while the bugbears of excommunication and purgatory are held forth in all their horrors besides. The priest does not scruple to represent himself as the absolute arbiter of eternal bliss or endless punishment; and the unfortunate victim quails and falls prostrate in the ecclesiastical presence, eagerly consenting to any terms of accommodation which the unbounded stomach of the priest—conscience he has none—prompts him to propose.
By the systematic sale of indulgences, however, vice stalks abroad clothed in a mantle of impunity. The commission of an enormous crime is but a small matter, providing you possess wherewithal to bribe the church for the same: how heinous soever may be the sin, the priest will wipe it clearly away for a consideration. To smooth the path of vice, indulgences are to be had ready to hand, before the crime is committed; and the indulgence once paid for, the sinner has a balance in his favour till the offence is consummated: and then all is square again until the next occasion. Vices thus pampered, flourish and luxuriate, unrestrained of man, bribed by the church, and sanctioned—as the poor, ignorant victims are taught to believe—by the approval of God himself!
I have seen a rakish cavallero, dressed in all the extravagance of fashionable finery, hurrying thoughtlessly to the confessional, with a flushed face and an unsteady gait, fresh from the debaucheries of a life upon the town, and closet himself with a holy padre, professedly to disburden himself of his little peccadillos. The priest received him graciously, despite his half intoxicated state; for he was wealthy, and well able to discharge his running account with the church. In a little while he came forth, lighter-hearted than ever; having made some lip protestations of amendment, promising to perform a few easy penances, and offering a contribution to the church, which was thankfully accepted. Then he would plunge deeper in riot and dissipation than before; exulting in the convenience of an institution which could relieve him from all the responsibilities of his crimes, upon such moderate terms.Soon after, perhaps, a lady, belaced, befringed, and bejewelled, whose life was a career of vanity and frivolity, would proceed to the confessional. The pious father would doubtless receive her simpered professions of repentance at least as kindly as in the former case; and soon she would return, on the most complacent terms with the world, with herself, and with the priest who had so sympathetically listened to her, and granted her absolution in full for her interesting follies and dissipations.
I have noted a tradesman issuing from his store, with the fruits of his extortion and dishonesty in his hand, to offer a commission to the priest upon a portion of his knavish dealings, on condition of being absolved from the consequences of the whole. He has afterwards rushed eagerly to the gaming-table and the spirit-shop, and compensated himself in his own way for his religious offering; qualifying himself to require new penances and mortifications for sin, at a very early opportunity.
Filthy léperos, the vilest of the vile, will often kneel down before their brass crucifixes in seemingly deep adoration; their devotion becoming more fervent on the approach of a benevolent stranger, when presently thrusting the image into the pouch of their ragged pantaloons, they will pick the benevolent stranger's pockets, if they have an opportunity. Then they will again produce their crucifixes and address themselves to prayer, with a greater appearance of devotion than before.
Such instances might be multiplied to any extent; but these may suffice for the present. That true spirit of religion, without which all creeds are worthless and all professions vain, has scarcely a recognisable existence in the Mexican nation.