The matins are recited, and all the offices are intoned in the midst of perfect solitude.

The people who still believe know nothing of the liturgy; they do not prize it and have forgotten all about it; they are only attracted by the novenas, the triduos and retreats, all that is termed tolerated and extra-liturgic worship.

The Jesuits, with their cunning, guessed that they must give their services a theatrical attraction, and for this reason their churches--gilt, carpeted, and decked with flowers like dressing-rooms--are always full, whereas the old cathedrals are as empty as tombs.

They have not proclaimed the necessity for this reform aloud, but they have put it into practice by abolishing the singing in Latin, and substituting all sorts of romances and songs.

In the churches, with the exception of the Tantum-ergo, nothing is sung in Latin, sermons and hymns are in the language of the country, just as in a Protestant church.