merely to listen for a few days to the sermons and exhortations of the teachers, sorely distorted as they were by perplexed interpreters, and to imitate the devotional ceremonies in order to become worthy of admission into the church. Frequently even this requirement was evaded by the native, who felt either indifferent or unable to master the intricacies of the new creed, and by merely joining the crowd which gathered to attend service at the convent or at the village square, or at the roadside, he could readily persuade the unsuspecting friar that he had been duly prepared for baptism. This was thereupon administered with all the zeal born of lofty enthusiasm and assumed victory. Father Gante himself writes without hesitation that he and a companion used to baptize "eight thousand, sometimes ten thousand, and even fourteen thousand persons in one day.[1]
With such numbers the formalities prescribed in the ritual could not be observed, and a readier method was adopted. Those who declared their willingness to be christened were assembled in formidable groups, the children being placed in the first ranks. The ritual was then performed with a few select, and the rest was merely sprinkled with the water. In applying names, all the males baptized on one day received the appellation of John, and the females Mary. The following day the names of Peter and Catalina were given, and so on through the list of saints. To each person was given a slip with name inscribed, and in case of forgetfulness he had merely to exhibit the slip to prove his baptism and identify himself.[2] The rite
- ↑ In all, during five years, they had baptized 'une telle multitude, que je n'ai pas pu les compter.' Lettre, 27 Juin, 1529, in Ternaux-Compans, Voy., série i. tom. ii. 197. Others admit large numbers, and even Torquemada, 1. 156, allows such instances, mentioning that one priest at Toluca baptized 3,600 in one day. 'On the eve of St John,' says Vetancurt, Chron., 5, 10, '40,000 were baptized in the chapel of St Joseph, Mexico.' Motolinia appears to attribute this lavish extension of the rite to impatience at the failure to produce any effect on the natives by catechising, and he scolds the missionaries for allowing such a weakness even for a moment to encroach upon their duty. Hist. Ind., 112-13.
- ↑ Id.; Torquemada, iii. 155; Vetancvrt, Chron., 5. Camargo assumes that
