CURIOSITIES RESPECTING THE CUSTOMS OF MANKIND.—(Concluded.)

Religious Customs.

Romish Indulgences.—In the Romish church, indulgences are a remission of the punishment due to sins, granted by the church, and supposed to save the sinner from purgatory. According to the Romish doctrine, all the good works of the saints, over and above those which were necessary towards their own justification, are deposited, together with the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury. The keys of this were committed to St. Peter, and to his successors the popes, who may open it at pleasure, and by transferring a portion of this superabundant merit to any particular person, for a sum of money, may convey to him either the pardon of his own sins, or a release for any one in whom he is interested, from the pains of purgatory. Indulgences were first invented in the eleventh century, by Urban II. as a recompense for those who went in person upon the glorious enterprise of conquering the Holy Land. They were afterwards granted to those who hired a soldier for that purpose; and in process of time were bestowed on such as gave money for accomplishing any pious work enjoined by the pope. This power of granting indulgences was greatly abused.

Pope Leo X. in order to carry on the magnificent structure of St. Peter’s at Rome, published indulgences, and plenary remission, to all who should contribute money towards it. Finding the project take, he granted to Albert, elector of Mentz, and archbishop of Magdeburg, the benefit of the indulgences of Saxony and the neighbouring parts, and farmed out those of other countries to the highest bidders; who, to make the best of their bargain, procured the ablest preachers to cry up the value of the ware. The form of these indulgences was as follows: “May our Lord Jesus Christ have mercy upon thee, and absolve thee by the merits of his most holy passion. And I, by his authority, that of his blessed apostles Peter and Paul, and of the most holy Pope, granted and committed to me in these parts, do absolve thee, first from all ecclesiastical censures, in whatever manner they have been incurred, then from all thy sins, transgressions, and excesses, how enormous soever they may be, even for such as are reserved for the cognizance of the holy see, and as far as the keys of the holy church extend: I remit to you all punishment which you deserve in purgatory on their account; and I restore you to the holy sacraments of the church, to the unity of the faithful, and to that innocence and purity which you possessed at baptism; so that when you die, the gates of punishment shall be shut, and the gates of the paradise of delight shall be opened; and if you shall not die at present, this grace shall remain in full force when you are at the point of death. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.”

The terms in which the retailers of indulgences described their benefits, and the necessity of purchasing them, are so extravagant, that they appear almost incredible. They maintain, that if any man purchase letters of indulgence, his soul may rest secure with respect to its salvation. That the souls confined in purgatory, for whose redemption indulgences are purchased, as soon as the money tinkles in the chest, instantly escape from that place of torment, and ascend into heaven: That the efficacy of indulgences is so great, that the most heinous sins, even if one should violate (which was impossible) the Mother of God, would be remitted and expiated by them, and the person be freed both from punishment and guilt: That this was the unspeakable gift of God, in order to reconcile men to himself: That the cross erected by the preachers of indulgences was equally efficacious with the cross of Christ. “Lo! (say they) the heavens are open; if you enter not now, when will you enter? For twelve-pence you may redeem the soul of your father out of purgatory; and are you so ungrateful, that you will not rescue your parent from torment? If you had but one coat, you ought to strip yourself instantly, and sell it, in order to purchase such benefits, &c.”—This monstrous abuse of indulgences contributed greatly to the Reformation of religion in Germany, where Martin Luther first began to declaim against the preachers of indulgences, and afterwards against indulgences themselves. Since that period, the popes have been more sparing in the exercise of this power: however, they still carry on a great trade with them to the Indies, where they are purchased at two rials apiece, and sometimes more. The pope likewise grants indulgences to persons at the point of death; that is, he grants them, by a brief, power to choose what confessor they please, who is authorized thereby to absolve them from all their sins in general.

We proceed to another custom of the Romish church, called the Act of Faith.—Auto da FÉ, in the Romish church, is a solemn day observed by the Inquisition, for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of the innocent persons who have been accused. It is usually contrived to fall on some grand festival, that the execution may take place with the greater pomp and solemnity. At least, it is always on a Sunday. The auto da fÉ may be considered as the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy; it is a kind of gaol delivery, appointed as often as a sufficient number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the evidence of witnesses. The process is as follows:—In the morning they are brought into a great hall, where they are clothed in certain habits, which they are to wear in the procession, and by which they know their doom. The procession is led on by the Dominican friars, who enjoy this privilege, because St. Dominic, their founder, instituted the Inquisition. Before them is carried the standard of the holy office, in which the image of the founder is wrought in rich embroidery, holding a sword in one hand, and an olive branch in the other, with the inscription, “Justice and Mercy.” These friars are followed by the penitents, who have narrowly escaped burning, and who over their black coats have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the negative and relapsed who are intended to be burnt, and who have flames on their habits pointing upwards. After these follow such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, and who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their pictures painted on their breasts, and surrounded by dogs, serpents, and devils, all open-mouthed. Each prisoner is attended by a familiar of the Inquisition; and those intended to be burnt, have also on each side a Jesuit, who is continually advising them to abjure. After the prisoners, follow a troop of familiars on horseback; after them, the Inquisitors, and other officers, upon mules; and lastly, the inquisitor-general, upon a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hatbands. A scaffold is erected sufficiently large for containing two or three thousand people; at one end of the scaffold are the prisoners, at the other end the inquisitors. After a sermon, consisting of encomiums on the Inquisition, and of invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the scaffold, and, having received the abjuration of the penitents, recites the final sentence of those who are to be put to death, and delivers them to the secular power, at the same time earnestly beseeching that their blood be not touched, nor their lives put in danger!!!

The prisoners being thus in the hands of the civil magistrate, are immediately loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular gaol, and thence, in an hour or two, brought before the civil judge. After inquiring in what religion they intend to die, the civil judge pronounces sentence on such as declare they die in the communion of the church of Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes; on such as die in any other faith, that they be burnt alive. Both are immediately carried to the place of execution, where as many stakes are set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, and about each stake is laid a quantity of dry furze. The stakes of the professed, or of such as persist in their heresy, are about four yards in height, and towards the top have a small board, on which the prisoner is seated. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder; and the Jesuits, after repeatedly exhorting them to be reconciled to the church, part with them, and say that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and to carry them with him to the flames of hell. On hearing this, a great shout is raised by the people, who cry, ‘Let the dogs’ beards be made!’ This is performed by thrusting flaming furze, fastened to long poles, against their chins, till their faces are burned to a coal. This inhuman act is accompanied with the loudest acclamations of joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stakes, over which the professed are chained so high, that the top of the flame seldom reaches higher than the seat upon which they sit, and they seem rather roasted than burnt. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle: the sufferers continually cry out, while they are able, ‘Pity, for the love of God!’ Yet it is beheld by all ages, and by both sexes, with transports of joy and admiration!

Another curious custom in the same church, is, The Baptism of Bells.—“Being come to Veletre, the abbot took up his lodging with one of his friends, and I betook myself to an inn, near the Piazza. My host asked me if I had not a mind to see the ceremony which was to be celebrated the next day at the dome, (so they call the cathedral churches in Italy;) he told me there was a bell to be baptized, whereof a great lord was to be the godfather, and a lady of quality the godmother; and that there would be a great appearance of the nobility, who had been invited to the solemnity from all parts. I had before this seen bells baptized in France; but because I knew that the Italians surpass all other nations in the magnificence of their ceremonies, and that they commonly season them with a double portion of superstition, I resolved with myself to see it baptized, and with that design I staid all the next day at Veletre. I went to the church in the morning, to take a view of the preparatives that had taken up a whole week’s time, which I found to be great and sumptuous indeed. The bell was placed at the lower end of the body of the church, hanging upon two gudgeons, covered with rich hangings of velvet of a violet colour, and the bell itself was accoutred with a kind of robe of the same stuff. There were two theatres built on each side of it for the musicians, and an amphitheatre for the ladies who were to be present at the ceremony. The pillars and walls of the church were richly adorned with curious sheets of silk, and pictures. Near to the bell was erected an altar very neatly set forth, and on it lay a white satin robe, which was to be put upon the bell as soon as it should be baptized, with a great and choice garland of flowers: there was also upon the altar a Roman ritual, a censer, and a vessel with holy water, and round about the altar rich elbow chairs for the priests who were to perform the ceremony. Just over against it a throne was seen, most magnificently hung, for the godfather and godmother of the bell.

“About ten o’clock the company came, and having taken their several places, the priests began their function. He who officiated was a bishop in partibus, whom the bishop of Veletre, being at that time very sick, had deputed for this purpose, and his chair was placed upon the steps of the high altar. He struck up the first Psalm, which was continued by the music. The psalms, by the way, which may be seen in the Roman ritual, have as much reference to the baptizing of the moon, as to the baptizing of a bell: for the prophet David very probably had not the least notion of the baptism of bells. After the psalms were ended, the bishop began the blessing of holy water, to sanctify it in the first place, to the end that afterwards it might sanctify the bell also. This benediction is very long, and no less ridiculous; which being finished, the bishop and priests dipped spunges in it, with which they rubbed over the bell, from the top to the bottom, within and without, being in this regard certainly much better baptized than children are, upon whose heads only they pour or sprinkle it. They repeated, in the mean time, abundance of prayers, which speak of nothing else but heavenly blessings, that are to purify, sanctify, and consecrate the bell. Ut hoc tintinnabulum (say they) coeleste benedictione perfundere, purificare, sanctificare, et consecrare digneris: ‘That thou wouldest be pleased to rinse, purify, sanctify, and consecrate this bell with thy heavenly benediction.’“The bell being thus washed, they dried it with clean napkins; and the bishop having taken the vial of holy oils, which are those they bless on Holy Thursday for the whole year following, he therewith anointed the cross of metal, which is on the top of the bell, in order to make the devils flee at the sound or ringing of it: Ut hoc audientes tintinnabulum, tremiscant et fugiant ante crucis in eo depictum vexillum: ‘That hearing this bell, they may tremble and flee before the banner of thy cross designed upon it.’ He afterwards made seven other crosses with the said oil upon the outside of the bell, and four on the inside. This done, he made the godfather and godmother draw near, and demanded of them in Italian, ‘Whether they were the persons that presented this bell to be consecrated?’ Who having answered that they did, he then asked them, ‘Whether the metal of the bell, and the workmanship of it, had been paid for to the artificers?’ To which they answered, ‘Yea.’—They make this demand, because it had sometimes happened, that for want of proper payment, the workmen have seized and fetched away their bells the same day, or the day after they had been baptized, and have melted them down to be employed to profane uses. The third question he asked of them was, ‘Whether they believed all that the Catholic apostolic churches believes concerning the holiness and virtue of bells?’ The answer to which was affirmative also. In the last place, he demanded of them, ‘What name they desired should be put upon the bell?’ To which the lady replied, ‘Mary.’ Then the bishop took two great silk ribands, which had been fastened to the gudgeons of the bell, and gave each of them one in their hands, and pronounced, with a loud intelligible voice, the words of consecration, which are these,—Consecretur et sanctificetur signum istud, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen. ‘Let this sign be consecrated and sanctified in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.’ Then turning himself to the people, he said, ‘The name of this bell is Mary.’ He then takes the censer, and censeth it on the outside round about, and afterwards puts the censer under the bell, filling it with sacred fumes, and repeating prayers and invocations, that it might be filled with the dew of the Holy Spirit, that at the sound of it the enemy of all good may take his flight.

“The office was carried on with a great number of psalms, which they repeated, the music all the while performing wonders; and then the bishop, to sum up the whole ceremony, arrayed the bell with the white robe of a proselyte, or convert, and with a loud voice read the gospel of ‘Mary and Martha.’ I supposed at that time that the reason of their reading this gospel was, because the bell was called Mary; but I have since seen, in the Roman ritual, that the same gospel is read at the consecration of all bells, whatever their names be. This is what I am astonished at, because that gospel hath no reference at all to the ceremony. The whole solemnity being thus ended, the bishop gave his benediction, and the priests received great presents from the godfather and godmother.”

A Curious Baptism, which took place at Dublin, in the year 1807.—A Moor, a native of Mogadore, in Africa, a strict observer of the religion of Mahomet, wearing always, of course, the costume of his country, resided a few months in the above city. A family, where he occasionally visited, being about to baptize their infant, solicited the stranger to stand godfather, which was immediately consented to; and on the appointed day, he appeared splendidly arrayed in his turban and robes, at the sacred font, where, with due solemnity, he answered to the accustomed interrogatives,—“All this I stedfastly believe.” To add still further to the oddity of the circumstance, the father was a member of the Roman Catholic church, and the mother of the Established one.

Some account of Kalmuck Praying Machines: from Travels in the Caucasus and Georgia.—“Among the most remarkable of the sacred utensils of the temples, is the KÜrdÄ, a cylindrical vessel of wood or metal, either very small, or of immense size. In its centre is fixed an iron axle; but the interior of the cylinder, which is quite hollow, is filled with sacred writings, the leaves of which are all stuck one to another at the edge, throughout the whole length. This paper is rolled tightly round the axis of the cylinder till the whole space is filled up. A close cover is fixed on at each end, and the whole kÜrdÄ is very neatly finished, painted on the outside with allegorical representations, or Indian prayers, and varnished. This cylinder is fastened upright in a frame by the axis; so that the latter, by means of a wheel attached to it below, may be set a-going with a string, and with a slight pull kept in a constant rotatory motion. When this cylinder is large, another, twice as small, and filled with writing, is fixed for ornament at the top of it. The inscription on such prayer-wheels commonly consists of masses for souls, psalms, and the six great general litanies, in which the most moving petitions are preferred for the welfare of all creatures. The text they sometimes repeat a hundred, or even a thousand times, attributing, from superstition, a proportionably augmented effect to this repetition, and believing that by these frequent copies, combined with their thousands of revolutions, they will prove so much the more efficacious. You frequently see, as well on the habitations of the priests, as on the whole roof of the temple, small kÜrdÄ placed close to each other, in rows, by way of ornament; and not only over the gates, but likewise in the fields, frames set up expressly for these praying-machines, which, instead of being moved by a string, are turned by the wind, by means of four sails, shaped and hollowed out like spoons.

“Other similar kÜrdÄ are fastened to sticks of moderate thickness; a leaden weight is then fastened to the cylinder by a string, which, when it is once set a-going, keeps it, with the help of the stick, in constant motion. Such like prayer-wheels, neatly wrought, are fastened upon short sticks to a small wooden pedestal, and stand upon the altars, for the use of pious persons. While the prayer-wheel is thus turned round with one hand, the devotee takes the rosary in the other, and at the same time repeats penitential psalms.

“A fourth kind of these kÜrdÄ is constructed on the same principle as those which are turned by wind, only it is somewhat smaller, and the frame is adapted to be hung up by a cord, in the chimneys of the habitations or huts of the Monguls. When there is a good fire, they are likewise set in motion by the smoke and the current of air, and continue to turn round as long as the fire is kept up.

“A fifth kind of kÜrdÄ is erected on a small stream of water, upon a foundation like that of a mill, over which a small house is built to protect it from the weather. By means of the wheel attached to it, and the current, the cylinder is in like manner kept in a constant circular motion. These water kÜrdÄ are commonly constructed on a large scale, and maintained at the joint expense of the inhabitants of a whole district. They have a reference to all aquatic animals, whether alive or dead, whose temporal and eternal happiness is the aim of the writings contained in them, in like manner as the object of the fire. KÜrdÄ is the salvation of the souls of all animals suffering by fire.”

Curious Account of an expiatory Penance at Calcutta.—About a mile from the town is a plain, where the natives annually undergo a very strange kind of penance on the 9th of April; some for the sins they have committed, others for those they may commit, and others in consequence of a vow made by their parents. This ceremony is performed in the following manner. Thirty bamboos, each about the height of twenty feet, are erected in the plain above-mentioned. On the top of these they contrive to fix a swivel, and another bamboo of thirty feet or more crosses it, at both ends of which hangs a rope. The people pull down one end of this rope, and the devotee, placing himself under it, the brahmin pinches up a large piece of skin under both the shoulder blades, sometimes in the breasts, and thrusts a strong iron hook through each. These hooks have lines of Indian grass hanging to them, which the priest makes fast to the rope at the end of the cross bamboo, and at the same time puts a sash round the body of the devotee, laying it loosely in the hollow of the hooks, lest, by the skin giving way, he should fall to the ground. The people then haul down the other end of the bamboo: by which the devotee is immediately lifted up thirty feet or more from the ground, and they run round as fast as their legs can carry them. Thus the devotee is thrown out the whole length of the rope, where, as he swings, he plays a thousand antic tricks; being painted and dressed in a very particular manner, on purpose to make him look more ridiculous. Some of them continue swinging half an hour, others less. The devotees undergo a preparation of four days for this ceremony. On the first and third, they abstain from all kinds of food; but eat fruit on the other two. During this time of preparation they walk about the streets in their fantastical dresses, dancing to the sound of drums and horns; and some, to express the greater ardour of devotion, run a wire of iron quite through their tongues, and sometimes through their cheeks.

Happy are Christians in being delivered from the darkness, absurdities, and horrors of superstition, by the bright effulgence of the Sun of righteousness!