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Writing Type: Diary
His account of the wedding of a widower.
Keywords: Mexican society, marriage, wedding ceremonies
Publisher: Edward Moxon, London
Archive: John Rylands Library
Location Details: From Captain Basil Hall, Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru, and Mexico, in the years 1820,1821, 1822, part 2, Edward Moxon, Dover Street, London, 1840, pp.40-41.
Text: pp.40 -41.
CHAPTER XLV.
A Case of Conscience adroitly managed. Penance and. Marriage
Some days after this dinner, I went to the Convent of La Cruz to visit a friend who was doing penance, not for a sin he had committed. but for one he was preparing to commit. The case was this: Don N. had recently lost his wife, and, not choosing to live in solitude, looked about for another helpmate ; and being of a disposition to take little trouble in such a research, or probably thinking that no labour could procure for him a companion more suitable than his own house afforded, he proposed the matter to his lately lamented wife's sister, who had lived in his house for several years before ; and who, as he told me himself, was not only a good sort of person, but one well acquainted with all the details of his household, known And esteemed by his children, and accustomed to his own society.
The church, however, looked exceedingly grave upon the occasion ; not, however, as I at first supposed, from the nearness of the connexion, or the shortness of the interval since the first wife death, but because the intended lady had stood go other to four of Don N.'s children. This, the church said, was a serious bar to the new alliance, which nothing could surmount but protracted penance and extensive charity.
Don N. was urgent, and a council was assembled to deliberate on the matter. The learned body declared, after some discussion, the case to be a very knotty one ; and that, as the lady had been four times godmother to Don N * 's children, it was impossible she could marry him.
Nevertheless, the good fathers wished to give the unhappy couple another chance; and agreed to refer the question to a learned doctor in the neighbourhood, skilled in all difficult questions of casuistry. This sage person decided that, according to the canons of the church, the marriage might fake place, on payment of a fine of four hundred dollars : two for the poor in pocket, and two for the poor in spirit, namely the priests. But to expiate the crime of marrying a quadruple godmother, a slight penance must also be submitted to in the following manner. Don N. was to place himself on his knees before the altar, with a long wax candle burning in his hand, while his intended lady stood by his side, holding another : this was to be repeated in the face of the congregation for one hour, during every Sunday and fast-day throughout a whole year ; after which purifying exposure, the parties were to be held eligible to proceed with the marriage.
Don N., who chose rather to put his conscience than his knees to such discipline, took his own measures on the occasion. What these were, the idle public took the liberty of guessing broadly enough, but lie one could say positively. At the end of a week, however, it was announced, that the case had undergone a careful re examination, and that it had been deemed proper to commute the penance into one week's retirement from the world; that is to say, Don N. was to shut himself up in the convent of La Cruz, there to fast and pray in solitude and silence for seven days. The manner in which this penance was performed is an appropriate commentary on the whole transaction. The penitent, assisted by two or three jovial friars of the convent, passed the evening in discussing some capital wine, sent out for the occasion by Don N. himself, after eating a dinner prepared by the cook of the convent, the best in New Galicia. As for silence and solitude, his romping boys and girls were with him during all the morning ; besides a score of visitors, who strolled daily out of town as far as the convent, to keep up the poor man's spirits, by relating all the gossip which was afloat about his marriage, his penitence, and the wonderful kindness of the church.
The interest I took in the question throughout induced Don N. to invite me to the wedding. The ceremony did not differ essentially from our own : but the prayers were read in so rapid and mumbling a style, that I could not for a long time discover whether they were in Spanish or in Latin. There was, as usual, abundance of wine and cakes ; and it was truly exhilarating to mark the relish with which the good fathers drained their glasses.
The Novios, as the bride and bridegroom are called, were silent and attentive, but I was the only other person in the room who was so during the whole ceremony ; every one else being employed in laughing or whispering to his neighbour. Even the officiating priest was scarcely serious ; and at the conclusion when he shut the book, and the ceremony was considered as over, he said some thing ludicrous and appropriate to the circumstances, but in the same tone he had used in reading the service. This, notwithstanding its scandalous impropriety, was almost irresistibly comic and I had the utmost difficulty to repress a laugh. I was restrained by an idea, that whatever liberties these people might themselves choose to take on such an occasion, they must have been displeased at a heretic’s presuming to join in the jest. This prudent gravity, which cost me a considerable effort, was the means of bringing me acquainted with an old gentleman I had not seen before. He came up to me, and begged to introduce himself, saying he wished to express how much pleased he was to observe that all English men did not ridicule the Roman Catholic sacraments ; and he hoped I would accept a copy of Don Quixote, of which he had an old and valuable edition, in testimony of his satisfaction, as well as to keep me in mind of his friend Don N.'s marriage.
In relating this anecdote, I trust it will not be supposed that I intend to ridicule the 'Catholic service generally ; but it seems quite allowable for a traveller, on such an occasion, to impart to his journal the same tone, which the whole society of the place, where it occurred, are disposed to give.
I have always, indeed, studiously avoided placing in a ridiculous point of view any customs or ceremonies which, however absurd they might appear to us. were held sacred by the inhabitants themselves. On this occasion, however, I have rather understated than exaggerated the degree of merriment which the events described excited in all classes of society on the spot ; and I feel well assured that should these pages ever meet their eye, they will be as much amused with the adventure as any foreign reader can be.
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