Floating capital, various funds in ecclesiastical treasuries, and the capital required to produce the sum annually received by the Mexican clergy in alms, _diezmos_, dues, &c. &c., 20,000,000 ----------- Total, $90,000,000 The real estate of the church is estimated by Señor Otero,--from whose work on the social and political condition of Mexico, this calculation is taken,--to have been worth at least 25 per cent. more before the revolution; and, to this increased value must be added about $115,000,000 of capital founded on _contribuciones_, _derechos reales_, and other imposts which were laid on the property of the country for the benefit of the clergy.[28] * * * * * It is not to be supposed that the 2,000 _nuns_ are of ecclesiastical importance except for charitable and educational purposes;--if we deduct their number, therefore, from the 1,700 monks and 3,500 secular clergy, we shall have only 3,200 men devoted to the spiritual wants of more than seven and a half millions or, 2,383 individuals assigned to the ecclesiastical charge of each priest, monk or curate. And yet, among these men, chiefly, the avails of probably more than $90,000,000 of property are to be annually distributed or consolidated in a country from which they are constantly asking alms instead of bestowing them. * * * * * The value of their churches, the extent of their city property, the power they possess as lenders and mortgagees in Mexico, where there are no banks, and the enormous masses of church plate, golden ornaments and jewels, will swell the above statements and estimates of the church's wealth to nearer one hundred millions than ninety, or to about $88,000,000 less than it was before the rebellion against Spain; at which period the number of ecclesiastics was about 10,000; or 13,000, if the lay brethren and subordinates are included in the ecclesiastical census.[29] The _higher clergy_ of Mexico which was once the depository of science and general learning, is now only distinguished for its elegant manners and aristocratic tendencies. Notwithstanding some members of the church, in orders and belonging to this class, were engaged in the revolutionary struggle, and essentially aided in making it effective, the spirit of the remainder, as a body, was in reality, antagonistic to the movement. The course of the _lower clergy_, however, was different. The members of this grade threw themselves early into the rebellion, and sustained it heroically in its most dangerous epochs, until it triumphed in independence.