and escape--Murder of a lady by the
Agonizante of Madrid--His trial and execution--Scandalous
occurrences in the Convent of the Basilios of
Madrid--Forcible entry of the civil power--Murder of the
abbot--Suppression of inquiry--Shameful profligacy of the
Capuchines of Cascante and the nuns of a neighbouring
convent--Mode of its discovery--Imprisonment of inmates of
both convents--Removal of prisoners--Their mysterious
escape--Exemplary performance of vows in some
cases--Dangers of celibacy--Spanish women and their
influence on society

CHAPTER IV.

THE MASS--Its introduction but modern--The Spaniard Lainez 87
opposed it--On what grounds--Description of the
ceremony--Its religious and secular
peculiarities--Sacerdotal vestments worn while celebrating
it--High and Low Mass--Both performed in an unknown
tongue--Consequent indifference of the
congregation--Mercenary character of the mass--"_Masses
for the intention_"--Masses for the dead--The solemn mass
on Christmas eve, or _Noche buena_--Its profane
accompaniments--Passion week--Thursday--Good
Friday--Adoration of the Cross--Processions--Anecdotes of
Isabella II.--Brilliant rites and ceremonies on the day
after Good Friday--Uproarious conduct of the faithful on
that occasion--The mass as celebrated at Toledo--Judicial
combat, or judgment of God

CHAPTER V.

DEVOTION of Protestants scriptural and reasonable--That of 102
Roman Catholics poetical and affectionate--Religious
enthusiasm leads to insanity--Mental devotion as
distinguished from physical--Nature of Roman Catholic
devotion accounted for by the worship of
images--Intercession of saints--Saint Anthony--The
illiterate guided by bodily vision rather than spiritual
discernment--Horace confirms this--Illustrated by popular
errors--Sensual and poetical elements were introduced to
devotion by the Greeks--Destruction of images by the
Emperor Leo the Iconoclast--Opinion of Pope Leo the
Great--Images adorned like human beings perplex the mind
between truth and fiction--Familiar
examples--Money-contributions for adornment of
images--Belief that saints can cure certain
complaints--List of those--Saint Anthony of Padua's
miracles--The fete of _San Anton Abad_--Virgin Mary, and
her innumerable advocations--A list of several--The
Rosary--Statues of the Virgin--Immense value of their
wardrobes and trinkets--The most ugly of those statues
ex