Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/728

708 orders were repeatedly issued from the throne that such characters as well as vagabond friars who had been unfrocked or expelled from their convents should be sent to Spain.

With regard to the private life of the friars it cannot truthfully be said that it was in keeping with the simplicity and abstinence which their vows required. The contrast between them and the earlier missionaries is striking. Many indulged not only in the pleasures and luxuries of the laity, but also in their vices. Instead of abstemiousness, feasting and carousal prevailed among them, as among the secular clergy; instead of humble garb and bearing, pompous display in embroidered doublets and silken hose of bright color; instead of study and devotional exercises, dice-throwing and card-playing, over which the pious gamblers cursed and swore and drank. Immorality too often usurped the place of celibacy, and murder that of martyrdom. It must not, however, be concluded