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PICTURES OF LIFE IN MEXICO.
CHAPTER VIII.
RELIGION.
Religion in Mexico.— System of Priestcraft.— Ignorance and recklessness of the people.—Immorality of the clergy.—Trafficking in crime.— Priestly extortion.—Sale of indulgences.—A rake's penitence.—A coquette at the confessional.—A tradesman's restitution. —A lépero's devotion.
The religion of this country appears to an observer, little else than a kind of excuse for questionable and nefarious transactions—a species of set-off against continual frivolity and sin—a convenient medium through which, by paying a certain amount of money, and a due portion of outward respect to the priests, the people may pursue a course of vice and dissipation with an easy conscience.
No system of priestcraft could be better calculated than that prevailing in Mexico, to pamper arrogance and love of domination in the ecclesiastics, at the expense of the com-
