The people appear in general to have shaken off the old superstition and to feel no inclination to bend their necks to another yoke.Many of them have told me that the priests are the veriest knaves in the world,and that they have for many years subsisted by imposing upon them,and that they wished the whole body was destroyed from the face of the earth.I have enquired of many of the lower orders whether they ever confessed themselves,whereupon they laughed in my face and said that they had not done so for years,demanding what good would result to them for so doing,and whether I was fool enough to suppose that a priest could forgive sins for a sum of money.One day whilst speaking to a muleteer I pointed to a cross over the gate of a chapel opposite to us,and asked him if he reverenced it;he instantly flew into a rage,stamped violently,and spitting on the ground said it was a piece of stone,and that he should have no more objection to spit upon it than the stones on which he trod:'I believe that there is a God,'he added,'but as for the nonsense which the priests tell us I believe no part of it.'It has not yet been my fortune during my researches in Lisbon to meet one individual of the populace amongst the many I have addressed who had read the Scripture or knew anything of its contents;though many of them have assured me that they could read,which in many instances I have found to be the fact,having repeatedly taken from my pocket the New Testament in Portuguese which I constantly carry with me,and requested them to read a few verses,which they were able to do.Some of these individuals had read much in their own language,which indeed contains a store of amusing and instructive literature -for example,the chronicles of the various kings of Portugal and of the heroes who distinguished themselves in the various wars of India,after Vasco da Gama had opened the way into the vast regions of the East by doubling the Cape.
Amongst the many public places which I have visited at Lisbon is the Convent of San Geronymo,the church of which is the most beautiful specimen of Gothic architecture in the Peninsula,and is furnished with the richest shrines.Since the expulsion of the monks from the various religious houses in Portugal,this edifice has served as an asylum for orphans,and at present enjoys the particular patronage of the young [Queen].In this establishment upwards of five hundred children,some of them female,are educated upon the Lancastrian system,and when they have obtained a sufficient age are put out to the various trades and professions for which they are deemed most suited,the tallest and finest of the lads being drafted into the army.One of the boys of his own accord became my guide and introduced me to the various classes,where I found the children clean and neat and actively employed upon their tasks.I asked him if the Holy Scripture (SANTAESCRITURA)was placed in the hands of the scholars.He answered in the affirmative;but I much doubt the correctness of his answer,for upon my requesting him to show me a copy of the Holy Scripture,he did not appear to know what I meant by it.When he said that the scholars read the Holy Scripture he probably meant the vile papistical book called 'Christian Doctrine,'in which the office of the mass is expounded,which indeed I saw in the hands of the junior boys,and which,from what I have since seen,I believe to be a standard school-book in Portugal.I spent nearly two hours in examining the various parts of this institution,and it is my intention to revisit it in a short time,when I hope to obtain far better information as to the moral and religious education of its inmates.