Note 200 — Chapter V · THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (continued 2)

Voltairedd remarks (Essai sur les Mœurs, Chap. cxl) that “An Asiatic, arriving at Madrid on the day of an auto da fé, would doubt whether it were a festival, religious celebration, sacrifice, or massacre; it is all of them. They reproach Montezuma with sacrificing human captives to the gods. What would he have said had he witnessed an auto da fé?”