led the Provincial, and
that of each convent the Guardian in the Franciscan orders, and the Prior
in all the rest. These personages were exempt from the vow of poverty;
they had, tacitly, a dispensation for the use of money, under the
supposition that all they received or possessed would be by them laid out
for the good of their community. Every three years the provincial
visited all the convents in his jurisdiction, and it was the universal
custom, that in the act of finishing his visit, the prior of the visited
convent put into his hands a purse of gold. This contribution was called
_la honesta_. The vicar-general of the Franciscan orders, generally a
Spaniard, received another species of tribute, which put him on a level
with the most opulent men in Europe. Each convent of the three Orders in
all parts of the globe sent to him, weekly, the largest amount it had
received for any one mass said during that week. These orders had no
less than two hundred and seventy provinces, and in them twelve thousand
convents, {59a} from which may be conceived the immense sums of money
that came into his power. This personage enjoyed the honours of a
grandee of Spain, and was always in great favour with its sovereigns, on
whom he lavished money. Father Campany, who occupied this post during
the reign of Charles IV., was accustomed to send to the queen, Mary
Louisa, yearly, large quantities of bricks made of fine chocolate, and
studded all over, within and without, with solid gold doubloons.

The last vicar-general of the order was the celebrated Father Fray Cirilo
de Alameda, now Archbishop of Burgos, well known for his attachment to
the cause of Don Carlos, during the civil war between that prince and
Queen Christina.

The vow of obedience was observed with the most rigorous exactness. The
chief of each convent was a despot to whose mandates it was not possible
to offer the least resistance. All his inferiors, except those ordained
to the priesthood, spoke to him only on their knees. The most tyrannical
precepts were obeyed with the greatest docility. It would often occur
that the guardian, or the prior, wishing to exercise influence in some
powerful family, commanded one of his friars to use all possible means of
gaining an introduction, so that the end might be accomplished. In this
way they became possessed of great power over the most important families
in the chief cities and towns of the kingdom; and from these fa