nd
VII., that having exhausted all inventions in the culinary art, in the
splendid banquets given by them frequently to the chief persons of the
court, they have even placed upon their tables live sardines, brought
from a distance of three hundred miles through a country in which there
were no regular roads, swimming in sea water, in large glass bowls, and
after gratifying the guests with the amusement which such a spectacle
afforded, the little finned creatures were then sent to the kitchen, and
served up as a dish of the greatest delicacy.

It is a public thing in Madrid, and one which is spoken of without the
least disguise, that a large portion of those funds is set apart as
pensions of considerable amounts to the mistresses of grandees, and
persons in high offices of the state, and also in order to political and
other purposes, far alien to the objects of the institution. The Roman
Catholics of other countries are scarcely able to credit that so
monstrous an abuse of the pontifical authority really exists, it not
being possible to conceive that, for a paltry sum of money, Christians
can remain exempt from an obligation considered sacred by Catholicism.

We have alluded to the small sum paid to obtain that exemption; but the
tariff of the Holy Crusade exacts a larger sum from the nobility and
persons of high dignity. To those a bull is sold, which is called _Bula
de ilustres_, which costs from eight to twelve shillings; and in order to
leave the door open for the augmentation of those revenues, there is a
clause which says that every person purchasing them is bound, as a matter
of conscience, to contribute according to his ability.

In order that the reader may have a right idea of these bulls, we insert
a translation of one of them, which doubtless will be interesting:--

The Bull published and sold every year in Spain, and by which Spaniards,
and all Catholics resident in Spain, are authorised (provided they
purchase a copy of it) to eat meat on certain days of the week and
throughout Lent, when Catholics in all other parts of the world are bound
to abstain from eating meat.

M.DCCC.LII.

Summary of Faculties, Indulgences, and Graces, which our Most Holy
Father Pius IX. (who now governs the church), deigns to concede, by
the Bull of the Holy Crusade, to all the faithful who, being in the
kingdoms of Spain and other the dominions subjected to his Catholic
Majesty, or coming to them,