The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-05-02

no fewer than one hundred and twenty six Roman Catholic churches, besides @ round dozen monasteries and con- vents, all of them established by Span- ish yice-kings. Outwardly none of the buildings are particularly striking, ex- cept for their gaudy coloring and ex- cessive ugliness. Perhaps the most inn posing one, aside from the great catfe- dral, is the church and adjacent monas- tery of San Francisco, which was built in 1856, and is said to have cost upwards of fifteen million dollars-more than the capitol at Washington. It covers a large tract of ground, near the bank of the Rimac. Its gardens of which we caught a glimpse through the open door, (petticoats. of course, being not adn1itted,) are lovely beyond descrip-
 tion. The whole interior is covered
 with the most beautiful titles, many acres of them. which have stood the test of three hundred years, and still
 surpass the best that modern genius can produce. In this convent the
 monks preserve the bed on which St.
 Francis died, his well-worn sandals, TO-
 sary, sack-cloth robe. and the coffin in
 which his body was carried to Rome.
 Then there is the Church of Santo
 Domingo, remarkable chiefly because
 dedicated to Santa Rosa-"la Patrona
 de todas los Americanas"-and a mar
 ble statue representing her in reclin-
 ing attitude, beside the high altar. The
 tall, graceful tower of this church is a
 conspicuous object in Lima, and its
 aisles are notably. wide and lofty. The
 churches of San Augustin, and La Mer-
 ced, both with monasteries attached.
 are distinguished for their elaborate fa-
 cades, which are wonderful specimens
 of what may be called stucco-fretwork.
 The most fashionable sanctuary is that
 of San Pedro, with its twin towers and
 easements painted red and green. It
 was not long after the conquest before
 the Inquisition was established in cru that fearful engine of Spain's despotic
 power It is mistake to suppose that
 it was altogether Polish institution;
 for here it was essentially Spanish--in
 it's worst form, at least. A student of
 history knows that while the Spaniards
 were using it as a cloak to cover the
 most hideous enormities, popes were
 expostulating against the atrocities
 they perpetrated. Thus while Torque-
 made and Naurique were burning their
 heretics by the hundreds. Sextus ".
 was ordering the former to cease their
 prosecutions and counseling moderation.
 Pope Plus W interceded in favor of
 Carranza, the aged archbishop of Tole-
 do, who had closed the eyes of Charles
 V, but was afterwards. accused of
 holding Lutheran doctrine; and
 Gregory VIII erected, in Rome a monumene in praise Of this prelate.
 Certainly the Inquisition of Spain and
 Peru was not so much a religious as a
 political institution, employed by rulers
 to render themselves, absolute. In
 theory, the Indians were exempted from it's jurisdiction: but it, is extremely
 doubtful whether those persecuted
 people always escaped it's cruel
 clutches.
 The Peruvian senate now occupies the
 council chamber of the old Tnquisition
 building, whose famous ceiling was
 carved by monks in the mother country
 and sent over as a gift to Pizarro's s
 capital in the year 15so. In the old
 days the council chamber was presided
 over by three Inquisitors and many
 were the unfortunates whom they
 condemned to be burned, near the spot in the suburbs of San Lazaro where
 now stands the bull ring. Others were torn upon the rack, or partially broiled over live coals, or subjected to other diabolical torments long after the Inquisition had ceased to exist in
 Europe. It was only at the beginning of the nineteenth century and shortly before the Peruvian war for independence Gin 1872, I believe), that the fearful tribunal was abolished and an infuriated populace destroyed all the instruments of torture The room
 where the latter were employed adjoins the council chamber, and is now used as a retiring room for the senators, the dark pockets in the walls, in which heretics were sealed up and smothered, being utilized for closets and wardrobes.
 The presiding officer of the senate, an inoffensive looking little gentleman with claw hammer coat and hair parted in the middle, sits in the very place where the stern, blask gowned Inquisitors used to prononce their awful sentences upon tremblinhg victims The national congress holds it's session in the long, narrow and somewhat dim and dingy apartment that for three centuries was the chapel of St. Marks university. the very oldest temple of learning in the western world, which the 'Liberap' government confiscated from the church in 1869. Spectators are penned in very narrow gallery, high up above the heads of the , representatives, and the latter are ranged like so many tolerably we'll behaved school boys, all around three walls of the room, in two rows of chairs without desks Near the center of the fourth side is placed long table: at one end of it sits the presiding officer, and at the other a tall cross is fixed, upon which the congressman are required to swear that they will support the constitution. Between the crucifix and the "Senor Presidente' and a number of clerks and reporters, and ! among them a few are scribbling away | in shorthand, as industriously as do their far away cousins in Washington. l Whenever a formal speech is to be made the orator mounts 8 little 1 platform which has a sort of pulpit l desk upon it; but ordinary debates are ! A Hovr,e er Ss sras s~ h teuaH N.s