It is so, that, being in Mexico, at table, among many principal people at dinner, they began to inquire of me, being an Englishman, "Whether it were true that in England, they had overthrown all their Churches and Houses of Religion; and that all the images of the saints of heaven that were in them, were thrown down and broken, and burned, and [that they] in some places stoned highways with them; and [that they] denied their obedience to the Pope of Rome: as they had been certified out of Spain by their friends?" To whom, I made answer, "That it was so. That, in deed, they had in England, put down all the religious houses of friars and monks that were in England; and the images that were in their churches and other places were taken away, and used there no more. For that, as they say, the making of them, and the putting of them where they were adored, was clean contrary to the express commandment of Almighty GOD, _Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image &c._: and that, for that cause, they thought it not lawful that they should stand in the church, which is, the House of Adoration." One that was at the declaring of these words, who was my master, GONZALO SEREZO, answered and said, "If it were against the commandment of GOD, to have images in the churches; that then he had spent a great deal of money in vain; for that, two years past [_i.e., in 1555_] he had made in the Monastery of Santo Domingo in the said city of Mexico, an image of Our Lady, of pure silver and gold, with pearls and precious stones, which cost him 7,000 and odd _pesos_" (and every _peso_ is 6s. 8d. of our money) [= _about_ £2,400, or _about_ £24,000 _now_]: which indeed was true, for I have seen it many times myself where it stands.