a wallet over his shoulder;
and it was the duty of each to traverse the whole town, begging alms for
his respective convent. These pious beggars visited, one by one, the
shops of the trades-people, and places most frequented, calling at the
houses of the poor as well as at those of the rich. The alms which they
thus received were chiefly in bread, meat, eggs, and every description of
eatables, besides small copper coins generally contributed by the poor,
and which were not the least important parts of these gatherings. In
this way thousands of robust, able-bodied men, not only maintained
themselves, but were enabled to live in the lap of luxury, for many
years, without contributing, on their part, one farthing to the public
treasury, but on the contrary diminishing, immensely, the population and
the number of those engaged in cultivating the soil and in other useful
labour. Was not this alone sufficient to explain the deplorable state of
the economy of the Spanish Peninsula, the paucity of its inhabitants, the
backwardness of its agriculture, its want of capital, and the nakedness
and poverty of its fields and its towns? Indolence being, so to speak,
thus sanctified, what stimulus could there be for productive labour? Why
should men have fatigued themselves by arduous employments, when the
convent offered them not only food, raiment, and lodging, but even a
respectable position in society, without further trouble than that of
passing a few hours in the choir of the church, to confess penitents,
assist now and then at the bedside of a dying person, and to preach an
occasional sermon, for which they always received a decent payment?

In all the religious orders three vows were exacted, namely, those of
chastity, poverty, and obedience. Of the first we shall have some
remarks to make when we come to speak of celibacy in the ecclesiastical
state. That of poverty was eluded in a very simple manner; individuals
were held bound by that vow, but communities were entirely free to accept
and acquire property; and thus it was that the greater number of the
convents lived in opulence, and the friars enjoyed all the conveniences
of life. The friar delivered to the chief of his community all that came
to his hands, either as alms or by way of salary for the masses he had to
say and the sermons he preached.

Each order had, at its head, a superior chief, called the Vicar-general;
the chief functionary of each province was cal