Note XXX-28 — Chapter XXX · INTELLECTUAL ADVANCEMENT. 1800-1887.

This was made evident in several acts. The clergy were daily abused; the liberal leaders constantly inveighing against their fanaticism and intolerance, and ridiculing many things which the populace looked upon as sacred. Friars were held up in a multitude of anecdotes, and otherwise, as so many destructive insects. El Liberal, nos. 28-30, 41, 45, 49. The arts and objects of priestcraft were exposed to ridicule, contempt, and reprobation. A play called 'La Inquisicion por dentro' had a great run, and brought that institution into effectual and lasting odium. Squier's Travels Cent. Am., i. 372. The inquisition of Mex. had had jurisdiction over Cent. Am. After its final abolishment, the king of Spain decreed, March 9, 1820, that all cases pending before its courts should be referred to the ordinaries for determination. The inquisitors failed to obey, and removed from the archives of Guat. all the cases pending there, alleging complicity on the part of the archbishop. The matter was laid before the córtes by Deputy Mendez of Salv. May 14, 1821. Dispos. Var., iii. 152; Fernando VII., Decretos, 285-6; Córtes, Diario, xviii. 1821, May 14, 6.