Chapter 2

MONACHISM--The superiority of the monastic over the 47 secular clergy--Reasons for it--Orders of Monks--The Carthusians--Their advancement in agriculture, and love of the fine arts--Their seclusion and mode of living--Only learned men admitted to their order--Their form of salutation--Curious adventure of a lady found in the cell of a Carthusian--The Hieronimites--The Mendicant orders--"Pious works"--The _Questacion_--Decline of Spain accounted for--Vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience--How vow of poverty eluded--_La honesta_--Vicar-general of the Franciscan orders--His immense income--Religious orders have produced many great and good men--Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros--His celebrated Bible--Corruption of monastic orders--Insubordination of friars to the bishops--The Jesuits--Deplorable reputation of their literature--Pascal, Escobar, Sanchez, and Mariana--Suppression of the Jesuits by Charles III.--Their subsequent expulsion by Espartero under Isabella II.--Nunneries, though spared on suppression of religious houses, utterly useless--The Pope's attempt to perpetuate them by _concordat_--The lives of the nuns described--Their means of subsistence is now precarious--Convent de las Huelgas.