Page:About Mexico - Past and Present.djvu/327

Rh Inquisition blazed in this spot, and here, in the sight of assembled thousands who came as for a summer holiday, fifty victims were burned in a grand auto da fé. In the square on which stands the convent of San Domingo were the Inquisition buildings, under the care of Dominican friars; this is now occupied by the Methodist mission. In this square not long ago was an iron post, known as "the burning-post" where heretics were dealt with by the Holy Office. The latest public execution was in 1815, when General José Morelos was put to death here. The old Jesuit church in this square is now used as a custom-house.

One hundred years ago Mexico was a city of monasteries and churches. Full one-half the space enclosed within its walls was covered with these various buildings, some of them occupying from five to twenty acres of ground. They were magnificent structures, the abodes of luxury and ease. As the Church increased in wealth and influence the monasteries and the convents are said to have been hotbeds of vice and sedition. When Comonfort was in power, it was found that many of these buildings were interfering with public improvement, and he began the work of demolition by ordering a street to be cut through the convent of San Francisco, one of the most elegant in the city. In a part of the monastery thus divided we find another Protestant church worshiping. Some of the exquisitely-polished stones of this edifice are said to have been preserved from the wreck of Montezuma's house, and many of the pillars are known to have been the work of Aztec hands. This vast monastery was one of the finest buildings of its kind in America. It was more honored than any other, as the place where the body of Cortez lay in state.