Church from the too sweeping reforms of
the Cortes of Spain. And there it now stands, with all the properties
and annuities which it enjoyed in the time of the idiot kings. The
Inquisition no longer enforces with fire the censures of the Church,
and men are no longer compelled by legal process to pay tithes. But for
these losses the Church has received a heavy compensation. The priests
and inquisitors who ruled the childish court of Spain would allow no
independence to the Mexican Church, but supplied, by royal appointment,
all the candidates for vacant bishoprics and chapters, while the
Vice-king was allowed to fill the inferior offices of the Church.

By the partial separation of Church and state which took place in
1833, the Church of Mexico became independent of the state. The
chapters acquired the right of electing their own bishops; the
bishops, by virtue of their spiritual authority, appointing the
priests and exercising control over all Church property as _quasi_
corporations-sole, at least over all property not vested in religious
communities, if practically there could be said to be any real
exception. What that newly-acquired power of the Mexican bishops
amounts to, we in the United States, from our own experience of the
same authority, can judge.

STATISTICS OF THE CHURCH.

That the reader may know how extensive is this money-power of the
bishops, I subjoin an extract from a statistical chart[63] published by
Senor _Lerdo de Tejado_, _First Official de Ministerio de Fomento_, the
following synopsis of the clergy and their incomes:

"There is one archbishop, the Archbishop of Mexico, and eleven bishops,
and one to be created at Vera Cruz. There are 184 prebends and 1229
parishes. The total number of ecclesiastics is 3223.[64] There are 146
convents of monks and 59 convents of nuns, and 8 colleges for
propagating the faith. The convents of monks are inhabited by 1139
persons, and there are 1541 nuns in convents, and with them 740 young
girls and 870 servants. There are 238 persons in the colleges for
propagating the faith." This is less than half the number of the
_religios_ under the vice-kings, while the riches of the Church have
immensely increased, as we shall presently see.

REVENUE OF THE CHURCH.

I translate from the same author, in a note, statistics upon the
much-agitated question of the wealth of the Church of Mexico,[65] from
which it will be seen that the total amount consumed in the ma