442 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 102 



Las Animas. The curates of all the parishes gather with their crosses, 

 and all the religious orders and nobility of the city, notably the 

 Confraternity of the Prisons, who unite with them on this occasion, 

 being a sister organization and distinguished also. In solemn pro- 

 cession the two Confraternities carry the coffins to the church of this 

 organization and hospital of La Caridad ; and there with music and 

 fine funeral services they give honorable burial to those who with 

 public infamy hung on the scaffold as an example to evildoers along 

 the highways, until charity exercised its mission. 



1270. And since I am discussing the Confraternity of the Prisons 

 and Charity, although it goes under the title of San Pedro y San 

 Pablo (Sts. Peter and Paul), let me say that it has two public chapels 

 and sanctuaries, extraordinarily well attended every day by the city's 

 faithful ; these have countless treasures and riches for the soul, 

 granted by the Supreme Pontiffs to this Confraternity of Sts. Peter 

 and Paul ; they have given it the privileges enjoyed in Rome by 

 Sts. Peter and Paul, St. John Lateran, Jerusalem, and Santiago, and 

 countless other indulgences and concessions, with a special pontifical 

 bull of exemption from secular and ecclesiastical judges, and the 

 faculty of appointing their own Judge Conservator over themselves, 

 and permission to their Prior who is their governor, and his Chapter, 

 to name chaplains, as is done on the day of the saints their guardians ; 

 on that day they elect Prior, Superintendent (Mayordomo), Attorney 

 (Procurador), and deputies, whose mission it is to give aid without 

 limitation of amount to all the poor Spaniards, Indians, Negroes, and 

 mulattoes in both prisons of this city and capital, with very ample 

 rations ; and that is not the least, for they inquire into their cases and 

 possible release, and cure those sick in body and soul, providing them 

 with preachers and persons to pray with them at night and teach them 

 Christian doctrine. 



They pay salaries to two lawyers and two chaplains, an attorney, 

 a solicitor, and a doctor, surgeon, and apothecary; and in court by 

 royal warrant the members of this Confraternity have the right of 

 sitting as knights to defend the cases of these poor fellows ; and so 

 the nobility of this city warmly support this Confraternity. 



127L Of no less importance for the education of girls is the retreat 

 and convent of the Carmelite Order, of the Glorious Virgin St. 

 Teresa, glory of our Spain, with the title of St. Joseph ; it was 

 founded by Domingo Gomez de Silva and Catalina Maria his wife. 

 They wear the Carmelite habit and keep the Carmelite rule, and this 

 sacred Order is much sought after in this devout city. The daughters 

 of leading persons are educated in this retreat in great virtue and 



