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38 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
tries on the Rhine connected with it are, ‘it would yield three or four millions of florins
more. I have told you already, that it contains a {pace of feven hundred and twenty-
nine fquare miles. ‘The Palatinate and the dukedoms of Julich and Berg, all together,
hardly contain two hundred and forty fquare miles; but this fpace, which is not a third
as large as Bavaria, has half as many inhabitants in it, and yields more than half as
much revenue. Z
This difference arifes, in a great meafure, from the great attention paid to monks in
this country; an attention which muft neceflarily prevent any increafe of population,
any excefs of knowledge, any induftry, or a more improved cultivation to the country.
‘There are two hundred cloifters in this country, and at leaft five thoufand monks.
Many of thefe cloifters have incomes of 3000]. or 4oool. a year; that of Niederal-
teich has not lefs than 10,000]. per annum. Without exaggerating, one may rate
the revenue of the cloifters, and other religious foundations of this country, at about
two millions of florins, or 200,000l., which is a third part of the whole income of
the country. The damage which the monks do the country is moft notorious. This
appears with regard to the farmers called hermits, whofe children they are very affidu-
ous to make monks of, becaufe they receive with every one of them, one, two, three,
or more thoufand florins. The confequence to the country is, that by this diminution
of the laborious part of the community, the property remains in too few hands, and the
country is never above half cultivated. The country alfo lofes fomething by the fons
of the other farmers who are bred in convents; for the education given them unfits
them for every profeflion, but thofe of idle authors or cgmedians.—The propenfity to
idle life, to feafting, and beggary, which reigns over all Bavaria, is countenanced and
fanétioned by the example of the fat priefts. [he people envy them ftrongly their
bleffed idlenefs. The jugglery, the brotherhoods, church feafts, and corner devotions
of thefe holy quacks, employ the attention of the multitude fo much, that they fpend
the third part of their time amongft them.—Intereft prompts them to keep the people
in a ftate of {tupidity, and therefore they are conftantly in the field ready to oppofe, with
almoft inconceivable fury, every thing which tends to improve and enlighten the un-
derftanding. They alone are to be thanked for the fhocking wildnels of manners which
appears in Bavaria. Their cowls contain the eflence of chriftianity and all morality.
‘They preach nothing but maffles, which are very profitable to them, the rofary, the fca-
pulaire and ridiculous mortification to the body, by which means many a blockhead
has got the name of a faint. The deceived countryman believes, that confeffion and a
mafs, which cofts fifteen pence, will wipe away the fouleft fins, and confiders the telling
his beads as his moft effential duty. ‘The fecular priefts are as few in number as the
monks are many. Thefe ought naturally to form the manners of the country; but
they are held in much lefs veneration than the others, becaufe their drefs and appear-
ance is not fo extraordinary. In Bavaria, however, they do not deferve more refpec&
than the monks ; for the greater part of them differ from the peafants only by wearing
black, having a more expenfive table, and a handfomer and better dreffed houfe-keeper.
In other things they are equally lazy, untutored, and ignorant.—Their parifhes are four
miles in compafs, and produce from four to 600]. per annum, What an advantage it
would be to the country, if thefe livings were to be divided into five or fix fmaller ones,
and filled with a better race of holy fhepherds! At the fame time, the monks fhould
be prohibited from interpofing in the care of fouls, or what would be rather more ad-
vantageous, though not to be expected under this government, they fhould be extirpated
alrogether,
If
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