Page:Guatimala or the United Provinces of Central America in 1827-8.pdf/121

Rh female convents do not contain more than 150 nuns. Of the secular clergy no census has been published. Although considerably more numerous than the regular they bear no proportion to the clerical body of Mexico, nor does there exist amongst them that enormous disparity of revenue which Humboldt describes as disgracing the church in New Spain. The peculiar privileges of the ecclesiastical courts remain untouched. The archbishop still has the power of punishing his clergy by confinement, and although for crimes against society or the state, a priest may be judged by the civil courts, no punishment can be inflicted without the consent of the archbishop, to whom he is delivered.

In political matters the body is at the present moment somewhat divided. The disputes with the state of St. Salvador are intimately connected with the claim of a Dr. Delgado to a bishopric, and although by far the greater majority cleave to the archbishop, and the decisions of the court of Rome, still there are a few stubborn dissentients who have placed themselves out of the reach of ecclesiastical discipline.

The friars as a body still live in hope of the re-conquest of the country by Spain, and the consequent re-establishment of their influence. I was much amused to observe the earnestness and mysterious shrug with which one of the old