siting monks. We would expect that on
such occasions the gospel would be preached, but such is not the case.
They hear confessions in the morning. A special premium is placed upon
the celebration of marriages during the mission, because these visiting
monks will make a cheaper rate than the resident priests. For this
reason the majority of the priests do not like to have these monks come
in for special missions, and would not conduct them but for the fact
that the bishop compels them to do so. The addresses delivered by the
monks in these special missions are not sermons. They either upbraid
the Protestants, speak against civil marriage (the only legal marriage
in Brazil is that performed by a civil officer), inveigh against the
Republic, discourse upon the lives of the saints, assail Luther and
other reformers, or urge confession, penance and submission to the Pope.

Furthermore, the Bible is withheld from the people. The circulation of
no book is so bitterly opposed as that of the Bible. It is true that
the Franciscan monks are trying to introduce an edition of the New
Testament which contains special comments attacking Protestants. These
special editions are very expensive and difficult to secure. The person
who wishes to buy one of these Bibles must get permission from the
vicar of his parish, and if the would-be purchaser is inclined towards
Protestantism, the vicar will refuse to grant permission. The priests
are not very much in sympathy with the idea of circulating even this
annotated edition of the New Testament.

In Armagoza, near Bahia, the Franciscan monks held, three or four years
ago, a mission and sold about 1,000 of these Catholic Scriptures. It
seems that the Protestants had also been circulating a Testament which
had the same general appearance as that sold by the Franciscan monks.
When the monks had sold out their supplies, they heard of what the
Protestants had done and inasmuch as the people could not distinguish
between the true book and the false, they ordered the people to bring
back all of the books to the monks, under the promise that they would
examine them, eliminate the Protestant book and return to the owners
the authorized Bible. The people brought back their books in good
faith. The monks took them, but never returned them. Neither did they
return the money.

On the 22nd of February, 1903, there occurred a public burning of
Bibles in Pernambuco. This was done in defiance of the Protesta