punished for their impiety. The education of youth belongs to the priests, yet they do not take so much care of instructing them in letters, as in forming their minds and manners aright; they use all possible methods to infuse, very early, into the tender and flexible minds of children, such opinions as are both good in themselves and will be useful to their country, for when deep impressions of these things are made at that age, they follow men through the whole course of their lives, and conduce much to preserve the peace of the government, which suffers by nothing more than by vices that rise out of ill opinions. The wives of their priests are the most extraordinary women of the whole country; sometimes the women themselves are made priests, though that falls out but seldom, nor are any but ancient widows chosen into that order.
“Ninguno de los magistrados recibe mayor honor que el que se tributa a los sacerdotes; y si llegaran a cometer algún delito, no se les exigirían responsabilidades; su castigo se deja a Dios y a su propia conciencia, pues no consideran lícito poner la mano sobre ningún hombre, por muy malvado que sea, que haya sido consagrado de manera especial