The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-07-09
Wealth of the Catholic Church in Mexico.

1t is a fact, frankly acknowledged,
that the Roman Catholic church in
Mexico is now surrounded by the
ruins only of its former greatness.
Fifty years ago this opulent insti
tuition owned over three fifths of the
City of Mexico. The income of the
archbishop was greater titan that
of the Queen of England. In 1927
there were $50 conYents and mon
asteries in Mexico. One-t tenth Of
the products of the country went
to the clergy as tithes. The esti
mated value of church property in
1850 was $30O,OOO,OOO, one third OF
the entire property of the nation.
In the City of Mexico thsre were
5000 houses, valued at $80,000,000
of which the church owned more
than one-half. Domes rose in every
block, the cross was lifted upon ev-
cry hand. The annual income of
the church in the city Of Mexico
was $20,000,000, while that of the
republic was only $4,000,
held mortgages on farms, in that
state alone, to the amount of $40
100000. Between Puebla and Apt
zaco, a distance of 80 miles, were
ia churches, and the valley of
PCebla numbered 365-one for
each day in the year. Vast sums
were wrung from the slender purses
of the poor; these churches were
built by the labor OF the wretched
and ignorant, who served with
blind devotion the power that
cursed them, knelt in pitiful faith
before the blessed cross, whose intro
duction was the beginning of their
entailment of misery.
The Grand Cathedral stands up
on the site of the Aztec Teocali;
it covers a space of 426 by 500
and its high altar, which is in the
centre of the edifice, is above the
spot once occupied by the sacrifi-
cial stone. The choir is one mass
of elaborate carvings; extending
around it, and leading to the high
altar, probably 200 feet, is a railing
of LuSbago, manufactured in China,
and weighing &c tons. II is a
brassy-looking metal, composed of
gold, silver and a small alloy of
copper, but containing so much
gold that an offer has been made to
replace it with pure silver and give
many thousand dollars in addition.
The altar itself, placed upon a mar
BILE platform, is of wrought and
polished silver, and the whole sur
mounted by a small temple, in
which formerly rested the figure of
the Virgin of Remedies, which was
dressed in three petticoats-one
embroidered with pearls, and a
third with diamonds, the value of
which was over 100000. This
was one part of one church in Mex
leo, and that said not to be the
richest L dropped into the sacris
ty one day, and found two or three
padres INDUCING, in a quiet chat
after mass. They politely volun
teered to show me the magnificent
set of vestments worked for the
cathedral by command of Isabella
of Spain. They are of cloth-of-
gold, lncrusted with gems, and
with passages OF holy, so exquisite
ly worked in silk that it required
the closest inspection for my wo
mans eye to discover traces of
the needle. These gorgeous vest
ments are useless for practical pur-
poses, being so heavy that no man
of ordinary dimensions could sus-
tain their immense weight during
mass, or even long enough to pro
nounce the benedict on.
The Cathedral of Puebla is the
best specimen of architecture l
have seen in Mexico. The materi-
al is blue basalt, and the massive
buttresses and lofty towers without,
and the noble arches and artistic
pillars within, give a dignity and
solidity often lacking. A favorite
legend tells US that, while in pro-
cess of building, this cathedral
gained mysteriously height during
the night exactly as much as the
masons had accomplished during
the day. This was said to be the
work of two angels who came down
from heaven and wrought with
golden trowels in their hands, and
hence the city acquired the name
of "Puebla de los Angeles" (the
city of the Angels). Here, the
great altar affords the finest dis
play of Mexican marbles in the re-
public, and beneath it is the sepul-
chre of the bishops. Before the
revolution, there suspended from
the centre OF the vast dome an enor-
nous chandeliers mass of gold
and silver weighing tons; one may
imagine its value, from the fact that
the cost of cleaning it alone
amounted to $4,000. Here the
candelabra were of gold, and so
ponderous that strong man could
not lift them; the value of the jew
els were of historic notoriety, and
an image of the virgin boosted a
zone of diamonds valued at one mil
lion dollars.
The Cathedral of Santa Guada-
lupe is the most famous in Mexico,
and was once the richest and most
venerated shrine; but the grand
old Indian president, Benito Juarez,
confscated most of its gold and sill
yer ornaments, and coined them in
to money, to carry on his war
against the church party. Even
the frame of solid gold which sur
rounds the patron saint was taken,
but this was afterward returned.
The alter railing, weighing tons, is
of solid silver. This alone, of all
the sumptuous church fixtures, was
spared by the Liberals.-E. Pierce.
uurifor m los tho %.