The episcopal palace, near the cathedral, is a picturesque edifice, with
its red roof tiles faced with white. So late as 1869, the city
contained a dozen nunneries and nine or ten monasteries; but these
institutions are happily of the past, the buildings which they once
occupied having been occupied for various business purposes, as
hospitals, public schools, and libraries. When the confiscation of the
enormous wealth of the church was decreed and carried out by the
government some twenty years since, that organization actually held a
mortgage on two thirds of the real property of the entire country. The
priesthood was completely despoiled of even their churches, which they
now occupy only on sufferance, the legal fee in the same being vested in
the government. To emphasize this fact one sees the national flag waving
on special occasions over the cathedrals as well as other government
properties. Their other real estate has been sold and appropriated to
various uses, as we have shown. The indefatigable priesthood are and
have ever since been steadily at work accumulating from the poor,
overtaxed, and superstitious people money which we were told was hoarded
and so disposed of as not to be again liable to seizure under any
circumstances. It is the boast of the church party that their
confiscated millions shall all be gathered into their coffers again.
They may possibly get back the gold, but their lost power will never be
regained. Intelligence is becoming too broadcast in Mexico, and even the
common people begin to think for themselves.

In the church of San Francisco, erected in 1667, there was pointed out
to us an arch, supporting one of the galleries, so flat that no one
believed it would stand even until the church was dedicated. So
pertinaciously was the architect badgered and criticised at the time of
its construction, that he finally lost faith in his own design, and fled
in despair before the threatening arch was tested. It was therefore left
for the monks to remove the supporting framework at the proper time.
This they ingeniously did without any danger to themselves, by setting
the woodwork on fire and letting the supporting beams slowly burn away!
To the wonder of all, when they had been thus removed, the arch stood
firmly in its place, and there it stands to-day, sound and apparently
safe, after being in use for two hundred years, and having passed
through the severe test of more than one slight earthquak