Mexican authority, “I would not give this simple institution of masses
for the benefit of souls, for the power of taxation possessed by any
government; since no tax-gatherer is required; the payments are enforced
by the best feelings, for who would not pay to get a parent’s or
friend’s soul from the fire?” Purgatory has thus been a Golconda mine of
gold to his Holiness, as even the poorest have a chance, since
charitable persons can deliver blank souls by taking out a _habeas
animam_ writ, that is, by paying the priest for a mass. The especial
days are marked in the almanac, and known to every waiter at the inn;
moreover, notice is put on the church door, _Hoy se saca anima_, “this
day you can get out a soul.” They are generally left in their warm
quarters in winter, and taken out in the spring.
Alas for poor Protestants, who, by non-payment of St. Peter’s pence,
have added an additional act of heresy, and the worst of all, the one
which Rome never pardons. These defaulters can only hope to be saved by
faith, and its fruits, good works; they must repent, must quit their
long-cherished sins, and lead a new life; for them there is no rope of
St. Francis to pull them out, if once in the pit; no rosary of St.
Domenick to remove them, quick, presto, begone, from torment to
happiness. Outside the pale of the Vatican, their souls have no chance,
and inside the frontiers of Spain their bodies have scarcely a better
prospect, should they die in that orthodox land. There the greatest
liberal barely tolerates any burial at all of their black-blooded
heretical carcasses, as no corn will grow near them. Until within a very
few years at seaport towns, their bodies used to be put in a hole in the
sands, and beyond low water mark; nay, even this concession to the
infidel offended the semi-Moro fishermen, who true believers and
persecutors feared that their soles might be poisoned: not that either
sailor or priest ever exhibited any fear of taking British current coin,
all cash that comes into their nets being most Catholic, so says the
proverb, _El dinero es muy Catolico_.
[Sidenote: LUTHERAN BURIAL.]
[Sidenote: CEMETERY AT MALAGA.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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