I Do Not Call It
Catholic, For It Is Absurd To Call That Catholic Which Is Not
Universally Acknowledged." "But, Signior Donatio, Does Not The
Matter Speak For Itself?
What can a set of ignorant Greek
barbarians know about religion?
If they set aside the authority of
Rome, whence should they derive any rational ideas of religion?
whence should they get the gospel?" "The Gospel, gentlemen? Allow
me to show you a book, here it is, what is your opinion of it?"
"Signior Donatio, what does this mean? What characters of the
devil are these, are they Moorish? Who is able to understand
them?" "I suppose your worships, being Roman priests, know
something of Latin; if you inspect the title-page to the bottom,
you will find, in the language of your own church, the Gospel of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' in the original Greek, of which
your vulgate is merely a translation, and not a very correct one.
With respect to the barbarism of Greece, it appears that you are
not aware that Athens was a city, and a famed one, centuries before
the first mud cabin of Rome was thatched, and the Gypsy vagabonds
who first peopled it, had escaped from the hands of justice."
"Signior Donatio, you are an ignorant heretic, and insolent withal,
WHAT NONSENSE IS THIS! . . . ." But I will not weary your ears,
Kyrie, with all the absurdities which the poor Latin Papas poured
into mine; the burden of their song being invariably, WHAT NONSENSE
IS THIS! which was certainly applicable enough to what they
themselves were saying. Seeing, however, that I was more than
their match in religious controversy, they fell foul of my country.
"Spain is a better country than Greece," said one. "You never
tasted bread before you came to Spain," cried another. "And little
enough since," thought I. "You never before saw such a city as
Seville," said the third. But then ensued the best part of the
comedy: my visitors chanced to be natives of three different
places; one was of Seville, another of Utrera, and the third of
Miguel Turra, a miserable village in La Mancha. At the mention of
Seville, the other two instantly began to sing the praises of their
respective places of birth; this brought on comparisons, and a
violent dispute was the consequence. Much abuse passed between
them, whilst I stood by, shrugged my shoulders, and said tipotas.
{21} At last, as they were leaving the house, I said, "Who would
have thought, gentlemen, that the polemics of the Greek and Latin
churches were so closely connected with the comparative merits of
Seville, Utrera, and Miguel Turra?"
Myself. - Is the spirit of proselytism very prevalent here? Of what
description of people do their converts generally consist?
Dionysius. - I will tell you, Kyrie: the generality of their
converts consist of German or English Protestant adventurers, who
come here to settle, and in course of time take to themselves wives
from among the Spanish, prior to which it is necessary to become
members of the Latin church.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 360 of 424
Words from 188717 to 189229
of 222596
