The ritual of human sacrifice remains the Aztecs' most extreme divergence from western ideas of civilization. In Cortés' time it justified views of Indian barbarism.
José
de Acosta describes Aztec human sacrifice in the Natural and Moral History of the Indies, 1590:
"The
usual method of sacrifice was to open the victim's chest, pull
out his heart while he was still alive, and then knock the man
down, rolling him down the temple steps, which were awash with
blood.
To understand
this better, you must know that, at the place of sacrifice, six
sacrificers came and were installed in this high rank: four to
hold the victim's feet and hands, another for the throat, and
one to cut the chest and extract the victim's heart.... Once these
sacrificers were placed in order, they brought out all those who
had been taken prisoner in the wars who were to be sacrificed
at these festivals; accompanied closely by guards, they were made
to climb those long staircases, all in rows, and totally naked,
up to the place where one could see the ministers.
As they arrived
in order, they were each taken by the six sacrificers, one by
the foot, another by the other foot, one by the hand and another
by the other, and were thrown on their back against this pointed
stone, where the fifth minister threw the necklace round their
throat, and the sovereign priest opened their chest with his knife,
with a strange quickness, pulling out their heart with his hands
and showing it, still steaming, to the sun, and offering it this
heat and steam. Then
he turned to the idol, and threw it in his face; then they threw
the victim's body down the temple steps... ."