Page:Vol 4 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/177

Rh adding the usual anathemas; the inquisition cited Hidalgo to appear before it, charging him with heresy and apostasy, and raking up old accusations brought against him ten years previously. From the pulpit he was described as a demon of impiety, a monster of bane; and the royal university of Mexico gloried in the fact that he had never acquired the degree of doctor in that institution!

Every means, in fact, which would tend to prejudice the cause of independence was employed. The bishops and the higher clergy issued exhortations to loyalty, representing, in the darkest colors, the object of the insurgents as selfish, and their intentions as impious. The archbishop published edicts and pastorals; politicians and officials, barristers, learned doctors of theology, and scribblers, heaped execrations on the authors of the revolution, and the press teemed with loyal productions in prose and doggerel verse, heaping abuse upon Hidalgo, and printed by permission of the supreme government. The viceroy