"_A._ A theft that does not exceed in value a day's labor is not a grave offense; some theologians contend that a theft that does not exceed six francs is not a grave offense."
[56] I again quote the Catechism from recollection.
"_A._ A lie that does not destroy charity among neighbors is a venial sin."
The Plaza of the Inquisition.--The two Modes of human Sacrifice, the Aztec and the Spanish.--Threefold Power of the Inquisition.--Visit to the House of the Inquisition.--The Prison and Place of Torture.--The Story of William Lamport.--The little and the big _Auto da Fe_.--The Inquisition the real Government--Ruin of Spanish Nationality.--The political Uses of the Inquisition.--Political Causes of the Bigotry of Philip II.--His eldest Son dies mysteriously.--The Dominion of Priests continues till the French Invasion.
The _Plazuelo_ or _Plazuelito_, the "Little Plaza" of the Inquisition, is now, as it ever has been, a market-place--the Smithfield of Mexico. On Sundays and all other market-days, there is here an abundant supply of flowers, meats, and vegetables. On great holidays, in the times of the vice-kings, the scene was changed. Fruits and vegetables were, for the time, placed in the background, and an act of "faith" (_auto da fe_), or burning of heretics, was offered as a public spectacle. The grandest of all the bull-fights of Mexico was nothing in comparison with this vice-regal exhibition. As among the Aztecs and the pagan Romans, the sacrificial victims were kept in reserve for important occasions, and for occasions when a bull-fight would have been a most inadequate exhibition. The consecration of a new archbishop, or the arrival of a new Vice-king from Spain, or the marriage of a member of the royal family, or some similar important political or religious event, could only call forth this extraordinary show of roasting men alive.
If we are to believe the statements of Cortéz and Bernal Diaz,[57] the Aztecs were accustomed to offer human sacrifices on festival days upon a large circular stone still preserved. With an obsidian knife, life was instantly extinguished by opening the heart-case and taking out the heart, which was offered to their god of war. This horrid worship, if indeed it ever existed, was suppressed, and one more horrid and cold-blooded in its atrocities substituted. There was seldom wanting a victim on those great occasions, for prisoners who would otherwise have been let off with confiscation of estates and a long imprisonment were now doomed to the flames, to accomplish the double purpose of a spectacle and strike terror into the ranks of the higher classes, who too often furnished the victims. But the higher classes were all present. Suspicion might attach to their absence. And he that dared not breathe aloud in his own bed-chamber, or tell the whole truth at the confessional, from apprehension of an inquisitorial spy, took good heed that no act or look of his on the day of the great fiesta should betray him to this secret, but every where present tribunal, lest he himself should be the sacrificial victim at the next entertainment.