Note 22 — Chapter XIV

In their zeal to educate the people, and to weaken their religious prejudices, theatres were established, in which the arts and objects of priestcraft were exposed to ridicule, contempt, and reprobation. A play called “La Inquisicion por dentro,” or “A Peep into the Inquisition,” had a great run, and brought that institution into effectual and lasting odium.

“In Guatemala,” says Mr. Crowe, “Papal bulls of indulgence, which used to be as much valued as paper currency in other countries, are now used by the shopkeepers as waste paper for wrapping their goods. In San Salvador, the Bishop, a few years since, offered first twenty and afterwards forty days of plenary indulgence, to be deducted from the period of purgatorial sufferings after death, to all who should aid in removing an unsightly mound of earth which disgraced one of the squares of the city, and injured the effect of the Cathedral; but the mound remained, although the Bishop again doubled the promised remission.”