Aztec Temples and Human Sacrifices

William H. Prescott
13 pages (2007/1843); 147KB download
WOWIO Books; ISBN: WOWIO-00313

DESCRIPTION

American historian William H. Prescott describes the temples and religious festivals of the Aztecs of Mexico, including the practice of performing human sacrifices. While human sacrifice is a revolting practice, Prescott adds: "Yet the Mexicans had many claims to the character of a civilized community. One may, perhaps, better understand the anomaly, by reflecting on the condition of some of the most polished countries in Europe, in the sixteenth century, after the establishment of the modern Inquisition,--an institution which yearly destroyed its thousands, by a death more painful than the Aztec sacrifices; which armed the hand of brother against brother, and, setting its burning seal upon the lip, did more to stay the march of improvement than any other scheme ever devised by human cunning.

"Human sacrifice, however cruel, has nothing in it degrading to its victim. It may be rather said to ennoble him by devoting him to the gods. Although so terrible with the Aztecs, it was sometimes voluntarily embraced by them, as the most glorious death and one that opened a sure passage into paradise. The Inquisition, on the other hand, branded its victims with infamy in this world, and consigned them to everlasting perdition in the next."