THEIR ARRIVAL LN EUROPE BANISHED. 



245 



cans, they poured forth their last, and fervent vows, for the 

 happiness of a people, who idolized them. Their entrance into 

 Jalapa was a triumph. Windows, balconies, streets, and house 

 tops were filled with people, whose demeanor manifested what was 

 passing in their hearts, but who were restrained by massive ranks 

 of surrounding soldiery from all demonstration in behalf of the 

 banished priests. In Vera Cruz some silent but respectful tokens 

 of veneration were bestowed upon the fathers, several of whom 

 died in that pestilential city before the vessels were ready to 

 transport them beyond the sea. Nor did their sufferings cease with 

 their departure from New Spain. Their voyage was long, tem- 

 pestuous and disastrous, and after their arrival in Spain, under strict 

 guardianship, they were again embarked for Italy, where they 

 were finally settled with a slender support in Rome, Bologna, 

 Ferrara and other cities, in which they honored the country whence 

 they had been driven by literary labors and charitable works. 

 The names of Abade, Alegre, Clavigero, Landibares, Maneyro, 

 Cavo, Lacunza and Marques, sufficiently attest the historical merit 

 of these Mexican Jesuits, who were victims of the suspicious 

 Charles. For a long time the Mexican mind was sorely vexed by 

 the oppressive act against this favorite order. But the Visitador 

 Galvez imposed absolute silence upon the people, — telling them 

 in insulting language that it was their " sole duty to obey, " and 

 that they must " speak neither for nor against the royal order, 

 which had been passed for motives reserved alone for the sove- 

 reign's conscience ! " 



Thus, all expression of public sentiment, as well as of amiable 

 feeling, at this daring act against the worthiest and most benevolent 

 clergymen of Mexico was effectually stifled. It had been well for 

 New Spain if Charles had banished the Friars, and spared the 

 Jesuits. The church of Mexico, in our age, would then have 

 resembled the church of the United States, whose foundation and 

 renown are owing chiefly to the labors of enlightened Sulpicians 

 and Jesuits, as well as to the exclusion of monks and of all the 

 orders that dwell in the idle seclusion of cloisters instead of passing 

 useful lives amid secular occupations and temporal interests. If 

 the act of Henry VIII. in England was unjust and cruel, it was 

 matched both in boldness and wickedness by the despotic decree 

 of the unrelenting Charles of Spain. Nor can the latter sovereign 

 claim the merit of having substituted virtue for vice as the British 

 king pretended he had done in the suppression of the monasteries. 

 Henry swept priest and friar from his kingdom with the same 



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