AN ECONOMIC STUDY OF MEXICO. 19 



secular purposes ; and the members of every religious society, from the 

 Jesuits to the Sisters of Charity, who served in the hospitals or taught 

 in the schools, were banished and summarily sent out of the country. 

 And so vigorously and severely is the policy of subjugating the eccle- 

 siastical to the civil authority, which Juarez inaugurated in 1857, still 

 carried out, that no convent or monastery now openly exists in Mex- 

 ico ; and no priest or sister, or any ecclesiastic, can walk the streets 

 in any distinctive costume, or take part in any religious parade or pro- 

 cession ; and this in towns and cities where, twenty years ago or less, 

 the life of a foreigner or skeptic who did not promptly kneel in the 

 streets at the " procession of the host," was imperiled. Again, while 

 Catholic worship is still permitted in the cathedrals and in a sufficient 

 number of other churches, it is clearly understood that all of these 

 structures, and the land upon which they stand, are absolutely the 

 property of the Government, liable to be sold and converted to other 

 uses at any time, and that the officiating clergy are only " tenants at 

 will." Even the ringing of the church-bells is regulated by law. 

 All those rites, furthermore, which the Catholic Church has always 

 "classed as among her holy sacraments and exclusive privileges, and 

 the possession of which has constituted the chief source of her power 

 over society, are also now regulated by civil law. The civil author- 

 ity registers births, performs the marriage ceremony, and provides for 

 the burial of the dead ; and while the Church marriage ceremonies 

 are not prohibited to those who desire them, they are legally super- 

 fluous, and alone have no validity whatever." (See " Report on Church 

 and State in Mexico to the State Department," by Consul-General 

 Strother, December, 1883.) 



Such an achievement as has been here briefly chronicled, was in 

 every respect analogous to, and was as momentous to Mexico as the 

 abolition of slavery was to the United States. Like slavery in the 

 latter country, the Catholic Church had become, as it were, incorpo- 

 rated into the fundamental institutions of Mexico since its first inva- 

 sion and conquest by the Spaniards. It had the sole management of 

 all the educational institutions and influences of the country ; it held, 

 in the opinion of a great majority of the people, the absolute control 

 of the keys of heaven and hell ; it had immense wealth, mainly in the 

 form of money ready to loan, buildings in the cities, and haciendas or 

 estates in the country, and all the influences which wealth brings. 

 And, even when Mexico achieved her independence, the influence of 

 the Church was so little impaired by the accompanying political and 

 social convulsions, that the national motto or inscription which the 

 new state placed upon its seal, its arms, and its banners, was " Re- 

 ligion, Union, and Liberty." 



Except, therefore, for the occurrence of a great civil war, which 

 convulsed the whole nation ; and in which the Church, after favoring 

 a foreign invasion, and placing itself in opposition to all the patriotic, 



