Observations on the State of Religion and Literature in Spain

Observations on the State of Religion and Literature in Spain

There are in Spain, according to Antillons [3a] calculations, two hundred thousand ecclesiastics. They possess immense revenues and an incalculable influence over the mass of the people; though it is certain that influence is diminishing, notwithstanding the countenance and co-operation of a government deeply interested in preserving their authority. It would be great injustice to the regular clergy of Spain to class them with the immense hordes of monks and friars, scattered over the face of the Peninsula, some possessing rich and well-stored convents, large estates and accumulating wealth, and others (the mendicant orders) who prey more directly on the labours of the poor, and compel the industrious to administer to their holy, uninterrupted laziness. The former, though, doubtless, by far too numerous, are for the most part intelligent and humane: dispensing benevolence and consolation in their respective parishes; friendly, in many instances, to liberty and devoted to literature. The latter, with few, but striking exceptions, [3b] are unmanageable masses of ignorance and indolence. [3c] They live (as one of the Spanish poets says) in a state of sensual enjoyment between the organ-loft and the refectory, to which all other enjoyment is but purgatory; [3d] the link which should p. 4connect them with the common weal for ever broken; the ties of family and friend dissolved; their authority founded on the barbarism and degradation of the people, they are interested in stemming the torrent of improvement in knowledge and liberty, which must in the end inevitably sweep away these cumberers of the soil. No society in which the sound principles of policy are at all understood, would consent to maintain a numerous body of idle, unproductive, useless members in opulence and luxury, (at the expense of the active and the laborious,) merely because they had chosen to decorate themselves with peculiar insigniato let their beards grow, or to shave their heads; and though the progress of civilization in Spain has been greatly retarded, or rather it has been compelled to retrograde under the present system of despotism, yet, that great advances have been made since the beginning of the late Revolution, is happily too obvious to be denied. [4a] ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 61930
Author: Bowring, John
Release Date: Apr 25, 2020
Format: eBook
Language: English