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A Convent of Franciscans.
[Sept.
A CONVENT OF FRANCISCANS.
THE influence of priests and monks, and the bigotry and ignorance they promoted, may perhaps rank amongst the most conspicuous of the various causes which have reduced Spain from her former high place in the scale of nations, to her present hum- ble and degraded position. The de- cline of the power of the Church in the Peninsula was doomed, however, to commence with the present century ; and it is curious to trace its gradations, and to examine the conduct of the priesthood in the different revolutions of which Spain has been the theatre within the last forty years. At the time of Napoleon's invasion, we find the members of the Church uniting heart and hand with the whole nation to repel the intruders from the na- tive soil. It may be permitted to doubt, whether, in so doing, they were stimulated by a patriotic desire for the independence of their country, so much as by a fear of seeing esta- blished a more liberal order of things than had existed under Charles the Fourth, or would exist under his son Ferdinand the Seventh ; and which would have been fatal to the power that had been so long enjoyed by the ecclesiastical classes in Spain. In 1823, every shaven crown from the Portuguese frontier to the Mediter- ranean, from the Pyrenees to the Pil- lars of Hercules, hailed with delight the entry of their former foes, coming, as they did, to prop the falling cause of absolutism ; and finally, on the death of Ferdinand, a large number of Spanish churchmen left their snug cloisters and well-appointed refec- tories, their fat livings and bishop- rics, to accompany Don Carlos in his mountain warfare, expecting, doubt- less, to reap an ample harvest from their temporary sacrifices and priva- tions. But there they were disap- pointed ; and what must have been still more galling, they scarcely ob- tained from the lay adherents of Charles the Fifth the respect to which they had been accustomed and consi- dered themselves entitled. The par- tizans of Don Carlos, supporting his cause for various reasons, many from conviction of its justice, others from motives of ambition, and others again,
considering the enjoyment of the lo- cal rights of their provinces contin- gent on its success, showed little fa- vour or affection for the priests, whom they looked upon as the drones in the hive, ever ready with pretexts to seize the advantages procured by the labour of others.
The traveller in Spain cannot avoid being struck by the prodigious num- ber of churches and convents scatter- ed over the face of the country. Every paltry hamlet of thirty or for- ty houses has its church tower, rising like a giant amongst the pigmy cot- tages and barns by which it is sur- rounded. Every valley, however small, has its proportion of convents, solidly constructed, handsome edifices, well situated in some comfortable corner, sheltered from the northern blast by sunny slopes, and surround- ed by rich cornfields and vineyards. Many of these buildings have, dur- ing the wars of the present century, been appropriated to purposes far dif- ferent from those to which they were originally destined. The cells ot pious Benedictines and self-denying Carmelites, have been trespassed upon by the unholy steps of the guerilla; and the dragoon has stabled his horse in churches and chapels celebrated for the miracles of their patron saints. The heathen Mameluke and the here- tic Pole or German have passed un- seemly jests on the statues and paint- ings of the martyrs, a vast numoer of which testify, by their battered and damaged condition, to the infliction of reckless violence. The odour of incense has been replaced by the savoury fumes of the camp-kettle ; and the lay brother acting as porter has been ejected from his lodge, which, for the nonce, has been applied to the uses of a guard room. These and many others have been the vicis- situdes experienced by the numerous monasteries and religious retreats, whose inhabitants, alternately expel- led by some sacrilegious enemy, or reinstated by the successes of a friend-* ly army, not unfrequently, when dri- ven to extremity and demoralized by persecution, threw aside the cowl, and, girding on the sabre, proved that they were at least as well qualified for
