From a clipping service, Batman learns of two unusual crimes in a small town in Spain. Two priests were murdered, one being covered in bronze, the other frozen to death in a meat locker. Things being quiet in Gotham, he goes to Spain to check out the mystery. Bruce Wayne finds the aged Cardinal Ramirez haranguing his congregation to leave the sinful elements brought to them by the mass media. But the young Father Pinto opposes Ramirez, contending that the old ways are gone past recalling. That night, while watching over Pinto's residence, Batman encounters police lieutenant Hector Sanchez, who says that he is watching over Pinto since he is the same age as the two dead priests. Cardinal Ramirez appears and denounces the masked Batman as a "tool of the devil." Batman leaves, Sanchez warning