Chapter VI: Internal Administration of Castile (2)

In the following reign, the grand-masterships of these fraternities were annexed in perpetuity to the crown of Castile by a bull of Pope Adrian the Sixth; while their subordinate dignities, having survived the object of their original creation, the subjugation of the Moors, degenerated into the empty decorations, the stars and garters, of an order of nobility. [43]

IV. Vindication of ecclesiastical rights belonging to the crown from papal usurpation. In the earlier stages of the Castilian monarchy, the sovereigns appear to have held a supremacy in spiritual, very similar to that exercised by them in temporal matters. It was comparatively late that the nation submitted its neck to the papal yoke, so closely riveted at a subsequent period; and even the Romish ritual was not admitted into its churches till long after it had been adopted in the rest of Europe. [44] But, when the code of the Partidas was promulgated in the thirteenth century, the maxims of the canon law came to be permanently established. The ecclesiastical encroached on the lay tribunals. Appeals were perpetually carried up to the Roman court; and the popes, pretending to regulate the minutest details of church economy, not only disposed of inferior benefices, but gradually converted the right of confirming elections to the episcopal and higher ecclesiastical dignities, into that of appointment. [45]

These usurpations of the church had been repeatedly the subject of grave remonstrance in cortes. Several remedial enactments had passed that body, during the present reign, especially in relation to the papal provision of foreigners to benefices; an evil of much greater magnitude in Spain than in other countries of Europe, since the episcopal demesnes, frequently covering the Moorish frontier, became an important line of national defence, obviously improper to be intrusted to the keeping of foreigners and absentees. Notwithstanding the efforts of cortes, no effectual remedy was devised for this latter grievance, until it became the subject of actual collision between the crown and the pontiff, in reference to the see of Taraçona, and afterwards of Cuenca. [46]

Sixtus the Fourth had conferred the latter benefice, on its becoming vacant in 1482, on his nephew, Cardinal San Giorgio, a Genoese, in direct opposition to the wishes of the queen, who would have bestowed it on her chaplain, Alfonso de Burgos, in exchange for the bishopric of Cordova. An ambassador was accordingly despatched by the Castilian sovereigns to Rome, to remonstrate on the papal appointment; but without effect, as Sixtus replied, with a degree of presumption, which might better have become his predecessors of the twelfth century, that "he was head of the church, and, as such, possessed of unlimited power in the distribution of benefices, and that he was not bound to consult the inclination of any potentate on earth, any farther than might subserve the interests of religion."

The sovereigns, highly dissatisfied with this response, ordered their subjects, ecclesiastical as well as lay, to quit the papal dominions; an injunction, which the former, fearful of the sequestration of their temporalities in Castile, obeyed with as much promptness as the latter. At the same time, Ferdinand and Isabella proclaimed their intention of inviting the princes of Christendom to unite with them in convoking a general council for the reformation of the manifold abuses, which dishonored the church. No sound could have grated more unpleasantly on the pontifical ear, than the menace of a general council, particularly at this period, when ecclesiastical corruptions had reached a height which could but ill endure its scrutiny. The pope became convinced that he had ventured too far, and that Henry the Fourth was no longer monarch of Castile. He accordingly despatched a legate to Spain, fully empowered to arrange the matter en an amicable basis.

The legate, who was a layman, by name Domingo Centurion, no sooner arrived in Castile, than he caused the sovereigns to be informed of his presence there, and the purpose of his mission; but he received orders instantly to quit the kingdom, without attempting so much as to disclose the nature of his instructions, since they could not but be derogatory to the dignity of the crown. A safe-conduct was granted for himself and his suite; but, at the same time, great surprise was expressed that any one should venture to appear, as envoy from his Holiness, at the court of Castile, after it had been treated by him with such unmerited indignity.

Far from resenting this ungracious reception, the legate affected the deepest humility; professing himself willing to waive whatever immunities he might claim as papal ambassador, and to submit to the jurisdiction of the sovereigns as one of their own subjects, so that he might obtain an audience. Cardinal Mendoza, whose influence in the cabinet had gained him the title of "third king of Spain," apprehensive of the consequences of a protracted rupture with the church, interposed in behalf of the envoy, whose conciliatory deportment at length so far mitigated the resentment of the sovereigns, that they consented to open negotiations with the court of Rome. The result was the publication of a bull by Sixtus the Fourth, in which his Holiness engaged to provide such natives to the higher dignities of the church in Castile, as should be nominated by the monarchs of that kingdom; and Alfonso de Burgos was accordingly translated to the see of Cuenca. [47] Isabella, on whom the duties of ecclesiastical preferment devolved, by the act of settlement, availed herself of the rights, thus wrested from the grasp of Rome, to exalt to the vacant sees persons of exemplary piety and learning, holding light, in comparison with the faithful discharge of this duty, every minor consideration of interest, and even the solicitations of her husband, as we shall see hereafter. [48] And the chronicler of her reign dwells with complacency on those good old times, when churchmen were to be found of such singular modesty, as to require to be urged to accept the dignities to which their merits entitled them. [49]

V. The regulation of trade. It will be readily conceived that trade, agriculture, and every branch of industry must have languished under the misrule of preceding reigns. For what purpose, indeed, strive to accumulate wealth, when it would only serve to sharpen the appetite of the spoiler? For what purpose cultivate the earth, when the fruits were sure to be swept away, even before harvest time, in some ruthless foray? The frequent famines and pestilences, which occurred in the latter part of Henry's reign and the commencement of his successor's, show too plainly the squalid condition of the people, and their utter destitution of all useful arts. We are assured by the Curate of Los Palacios, that the plague broke out in the southern districts of the kingdom, carrying off eight, or nine, or even fifteen thousand inhabitants from the various cities; while the prices of the ordinary aliments of life rose to a height, which put them above the reach of the poorer classes of the community. In addition to these physical evils, a fatal shock was given to commercial credit by the adulteration of the coin. Under Henry the Fourth, it is computed that there were no less than one hundred and fifty mints openly licensed by the crown, in addition to many others erected by individuals without any legal authority. The abuse came to such a height, that people at length refused to receive in payment of their debts the debased coin, whose value depreciated more and more every day; and the little trade, which remained in Castile, was carried on by barter, as in the primitive stages of society. [50]

The magnitude of the evil was such as to claim the earliest attention of the cortes under the new monarchs. Acts were passed fixing the standard and legal value of the different denominations of coin. A new coinage was subsequently made. Five royal mints were alone authorized, afterwards augmented to seven, and severe penalties denounced against the fabrication of money elsewhere. The reform of the currency gradually infused new life into commerce, as the return of the circulations, which have been interrupted for a while, quickens the animal body. This was furthered by salutary laws for the encouragement of domestic industry. Internal communication was facilitated by the construction of roads and bridges. Absurd restrictions on change of residence, as well as the onerous duties which had been imposed on commercial intercourse between Castile and Aragon, were repealed. Several judicious laws were enacted for the protection of foreign trade; and the flourishing condition of the mercantile marine may be inferred from that of the military, which enabled the sovereigns to fit out an armament of seventy sail in 1482, from the ports of Biscay and Andalusia, for the defence of Naples against the Turks. Some of their regulations, indeed, as those prohibiting the exportation of the precious metals, savor too strongly of the ignorance of the true principles of commercial legislation, which has distinguished the Spaniards to the present day. But others, again, as that for relieving the importation of foreign books from all duties, "because," says the statute, "they bring both honor and profit to the kingdom, by the facilities which they afford for making men learned," are not only in advance of that age, but may sustain an advantageous comparison with provisions on corresponding subjects in Spain at the present time. Public credit was re- established by the punctuality with which the government redeemed the debt contracted during the Portuguese war; and, notwithstanding the repeal of various arbitrary imposts, which enriched the exchequer under Henry the Fourth, such was the advance of the country under the wise economy of the present reign, that the revenue was augmented nearly six fold between the years 1477 and 1482. [51]

Thus released from the heavy burdens imposed on it, the spring of enterprise recovered its former elasticity. The productive capital of the country was made to flow through the various channels of domestic industry. The hills and the valleys again rejoiced in the labor of the husbandman; and the cities were embellished with stately edifices, both public and private, which attracted the gaze and commendation of foreigners. [52] The writers of that day are unbounded in their plaudits of Isabella, to whom they principally ascribe this auspicious revolution in the condition of the country and its inhabitants, [53] which seems almost as magical as one of those transformations in romance wrought by the hands of some benevolent fairy. [54]

VI. The pre-eminence of the royal authority. This, which, as we have seen, appears to have been the natural result of the policy of Ferdinand and Isabella, was derived quite as much from the influence of their private characters, as from their public measures. Their acknowledged talents were supported by a dignified demeanor, which formed a striking contrast with the meanness in mind and manners that had distinguished their predecessor. They both exhibited a practical wisdom in their own personal relations, which always commands respect, and which, however it may have savored of worldly policy in Ferdinand, was, in his consort, founded on the purest and most exalted principle. Under such a sovereign, the court, which had been little better than a brothel under the preceding reign, became the nursery of virtue and generous ambition. Isabella watched assiduously over the nurture of the high-born damsels of her court, whom she received into the royal palace, causing them to be educated under her own eye, and endowing them with liberal portions on their marriage. [55] By these and similar acts of affectionate solicitude, she endeared herself to the higher classes of her subjects, while the patriotic tendency of her public conduct established her in the hearts of the people. She possessed, in combination with the feminine qualities which beget love, a masculine energy of character, which struck terror into the guilty. She enforced the execution of her own plans, oftentimes even at great personal hazard, with a resolution surpassing that of her husband. Both were singularly temperate, indeed, frugal, in their dress, equipage, and general style of living; seeking to affect others less by external pomp, than by the silent though more potent influence of personal qualities. On all such occasions as demanded it, however, they displayed a princely magnificence, which dazzled the multitude, and is blazoned with great solemnity in the garrulous chronicles of the day. [56]

The tendencies of the present administration were undoubtedly to strengthen the power of the crown. This was the point to which most of the feudal governments of Europe at this epoch were tending. But Isabella was far from being actuated by the selfish aim or unscrupulous policy of many contemporary princes, who, like Louis the Eleventh, sought to govern by the arts of dissimulation, and to establish their own authority by fomenting the divisions of their powerful vassals. On the contrary, she endeavored to bind together the disjointed fragments of the state, to assign to each of its great divisions its constitutional limits, and, by depressing the aristocracy to its proper level and elevating the commons, to consolidate the whole under the lawful supremacy of the crown. At least, such was the tendency of her administration up to the present period of our history. These laudable objects were gradually achieved without fraud or violence, by a course of measures equally laudable; and the various orders of the monarchy, brought into harmonious action with each other, were enabled to turn the forces, which had before been wasted in civil conflict, to the glorious career of discovery and conquest, which it was destined to run during the remainder of the century.

* * * * *

The sixth volume of the Memoirs of the Royal Spanish Academy of History, published in 1821, is devoted altogether to the reign of Isabella, It is distributed into Illustrations, as they are termed, of the various branches of the administrative policy of the queen, of her personal character, and of the condition of science under her government. These essays exhibit much curious research, being derived from unquestionable contemporary documents, printed and manuscript, and from the public archives. They are compiled with much discernment; and, as they throw light on some of the most recondite transactions of this reign, are of inestimable service to the historian. The author of the volume is the late lamented secretary of the Academy, Don Diego Clemencin; one of the few who survived the wreck of scholarship in Spain, and who with the erudition, which has frequently distinguished his countrymen, combined the liberal and enlarged opinions, which would do honor to any country.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Among other examples, Pulgar mentions that of the alcayde of Castro- Nuño, Pedro de Mendana, who, from the strong-holds in his possession, committed such grievous devastations throughout the country, that the cities of Burgos, Avila, Salamanca, Segovia, Valladolid, Medina, and others in that quarter, were fain to pay him a tribute, (black mail,) to protect their territories from his rapacity. His successful example was imitated by many other knightly freebooters of the period. (Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 66.)--See also extracts cited by Saez from manuscript notices by contemporaries of Henry IV. Monedas de Enrique IV., pp. 1, 2.

[2] The _quaderno_ of the laws of the Hermandad has now become very rare. That in my possession was printed at Burgos, in 1527. It has since been incorporated with considerable extension into the Recopilacion of Philip II.

[3] Quaderno de las Leyes Nuevas de la Hermandad, (Burgos, 1527,) leyes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 16, 20, 36, 37.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 51.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 160, ed. 1539.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 4.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 76.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, fol. 36.--By one of the laws, the inhabitants of such seignorial towns as refused to pay the contributions of the Hermandad were excluded from its benefits, as well as from traffic with, and even the power of recovering their debts, from other natives of the kingdom. Ley 33.

[4] Recopilacion de las Leyes, (Madrid, 1640,) lib. 8, tit. 13, ley 44.-- Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 379.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 51.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 6.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., fol. 37, 38.--Las Pragmáticas del Reyno, (Sevilla, 1520,) fol. 85.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 160.

[5] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 76.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 59.--Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 477.--Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decad., fol. 41, 42.--Gonzalo de Oviedo lavishes many encomiums on Cabrera, for "his generous qualities, his singular prudence in government, and his solicitude for his vassals, whom he inspired with the deepest attachment." (Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.) The best panegyric on his character, is the unshaken confidence, which his royal mistress reposed in him, to the day of her death.

[6] Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 381.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 65, 70, 71.--Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 29.--Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 77.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 162; who says, no less than 8,000 guilty fled from Seville and Cordova.

[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 29.-Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 283.-Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 382.-Lebrija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, lib. 7.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, ubi supra.-Garibay, Compendio, lib. 18, cap. 11.

[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 30.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 78.

[9] "Era muy inclinada," says Pulgar, "á facer justicia, tanto que le era imputado seguir mas la via de rigor que de la piedad; y esto facia por remediar á la gran corrupcion de crímines que falló en el Reyno quando subcedió en él." Reyes Católicos, p. 37.

[10] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 97, 98.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 162.

[11] Ordenanças Reales de Castilla, (Burgos, 1528,) lib. 2, tit. 3, ley 31.

This constitutional, though, as it would seem, impotent right of the nobility, is noticed by Sempere. (Hist. des Cortès, pp. 123, 129.) It should not have escaped Marina.

[12] Lib. 2, tit. 3, of the Ordenanças Reales is devoted to the royal council. The number of the members was limited to one prelate, as president, three knights, and eight or nine jurists. (Prólogo.) The sessions were to be held every day, in the palace. (Leyes 1, 2.) They were instructed to refer to the other tribunals all matters not strictly coming within their own jurisdiction. (Ley 4.) Their acts, in all cases except those specially reserved, were to have the force of law without the royal signature. (Leyes 23, 24.) See also Los Doctores Asso y Manuel, Instituciones del Derecho Civil de Castilla, (Madrid, 1792,) Introd. p. 111; and Santiago Agustin Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, (Madrid, 1788,) tom. iii. p. 114, who is mistaken in stating the number of jurists in the council, at this time, at sixteen; a change, which did not take place till Philip II.'s reign. (Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 2, tit. 4, ley 1.)

Marina denies that the council could constitutionally exercise any judicial authority, at least, in suits between private parties, and quotes a passage from Pulgar, showing that its usurpations in this way were restrained by Ferdinand and Isabella. (Teoría, part. 2, cap. 29.) Powers of this nature, however, to a considerable extent, appear to have been conceded to it by more than one statute under this reign. See Recop. de las Leyes, (lib. 2, tit. 4, leyes 20, 22, and tit. 5, ley 12,) and the unqualified testimony of Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, ubi supra.

[13] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 2, tit. 4.--Marina, Teoría de las Cortes, part. 2, cap. 25.

By one of the statutes, (ley 4,) the commission of the judges, which, before extended to life, or a long period, was abridged to one year. This important innovation was made at the earnest and repeated remonstrance of cortes, who traced the remissness and corruption, too frequent of late in the court, to the circumstance that its decisions were not liable to be reviewed during life. (Teoría, ubi supra.) The legislature probably mistook the true cause of the evil. Few will doubt, at any rate, that the remedy proposed must have been fraught with far greater.

[14] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 2, tit. 1, 3, 4, 15, 16, 17, 19; lib. 3, tit. 2.--Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 2, tit. 4, 5, 16.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 94.

[15] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.--By one of the statutes of the cortes of Toledo, in 1480, the king was required to take his seat in the council every Friday. (Ordenanças Reales, lib. 2, tit. 3, ley 32.) It was not so new for the Castilians to have good laws, as for their monarchs to observe them.

[16] Sempere, Hist. des Cortès, p. 263.

[17] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, p. 167.--See the strong language, also, of Peter Martyr, another contemporary witness of the beneficial changes in the government. Opus Epistolarum, (Amstelodami, 1670,) ep. 31.

[18] Prieto y Sotelo, Historia del Derecho Real de España, (Madrid, 1738,) lib. 3, cap. 16-21.--Marina has made an elaborate commentary on Alfonso's celebrated code, in his Ensayo Histórico-Crítico sobre la Antigua Legislacion de Castilla, (Madrid, 1808,) pp. 269 et seq. The English reader will find a more succinct analysis in Dr. Dunham's History of Spain and Portugal, (London, 1832,) in Lardner's Cyclopaedia, vol. iv. pp. 121- 150.--The latter has given a more exact, and, at the same time, extended view of the early Castilian legislation, probably, than is to be found, in the same compass, in any of the Peninsular writers.

[19] Marina (in his Ensayo Histórico-Crítico, p. 388) quotes a popular satire of the fifteenth century, directed, with considerable humor, against these abuses, which lead the writer in the last stanza to envy even the summary style of Mahometan justice.

"En tierra de Moros un solo alcalde
Libra lo cevil e lo criminal,
E todo el dia se esta de valde
For la justicia andar muy igual:
Alli non es Azo, nin es Decretal,
Nin es Roberto, nin la Clementina,
Salvo discrecion e buena doctrina,
La qual muestra a todos vevir communal." p. 389.

[20] Mendez enumerates no less than five editions of this code, by 1500; a sufficient evidence of its authority, and general reception throughout Castile. Typographia Española, pp. 203, 261, 270.

[21] Ordenanças Reales, Prólogo.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 9.--Marina, Ensayo Histórico-Crítico, pp. 390 et seq.--Mendez, Typographia Española, p. 261.--The authors of the three last-mentioned works abundantly disprove Asso y Manuel's insinuation, that Montalavo's code was the fruit of his private study, without any commission for it, and that it gradually usurped an authority which it had not in its origin. (Discurso Preliminar al Ord. de Alcalá.) The injustice of the last remark, indeed, is apparent from the positive declaration of Bernaldez. "Los Reyes mandaron tener en todas las ciudades, villas é lugares el libro de Montalvo, _é por él determinar todas las cosas de justícia para cortar los pléitos_." Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 42.

[22] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 7, tit. 2, ley 13.

[23] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 44.--Sempere notices this feature of the royal policy. Hist. des Cortès, chap. 24.

[24] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 80.

[25] See the emphatic language, on this and other grievances, of the Castilian commons, in their memorial to the sovereigns, Apendice, No. 10, of Clemencin's valuable compilation. The commons had pressed the measure, as one of the last necessity to the crown, as early as the cortes of Madrigal, in 1476. The reader will find the whole petition extracted by Marina, Teoría, tom. ii. cap. 5.

[26] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, cap. 51.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 5.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 95.--Ordenanças Reales, lib. 6, tit. 4, ley 26;--incorporated also into the Recopilacion of Philip II., lib. 5, tit. 10, cap. 17. See also leyes 3 and 15.

[27] Admiral Enriquez, for instance, resigned 240,000 maravedies of his annual income;--the Duke of Alva, 575,000;--the Duke of Medina Sidonia, 180,000.--The loyal family of the Mendozas were also great losers, but none forfeited so much as the overgrown favorite of Henry IV., Beltran de la Cueva, duke of Albuquerque, who had uniformly supported the royal cause, and whose retrenchment amounted to 1,400,000 maravedies of yearly rent. See the scale of reduction given at length by Señor Clemencin, in Mem. de la Acad., tom. vi. loc. cit.

[28] "No monarch," said the high-minded queen, "should consent to alienate his demesnes; since the loss of revenue necessarily deprives him of the best means of rewarding the attachment of his friends, and of making himself feared by his enemies." Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 1, cap. 4.

[29] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, ubi supra.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. loc. cit.

[30] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 2, tit. 1, ley 2; lib. 4, tit. 9, ley 11.-- Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 96, 101.--Recop. de las Leyes, lib. 8, tit. 8, ley 10 et al.--These affairs were conducted in the true spirit of knight-errantry. Oviedo mentions one, in which two young men of the noble houses of Velasco and Ponce de Leon agreed to fight on horseback, with sharp spears (_puntas de diamantes_), in doublet and hose, without defensive armor of any kind. The place appointed for the combat was a narrow bridge across the Xarama, three leagues from Madrid. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 23.

[31] Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. vii. pp. 487, 488.

[32] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 80.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 100.

[33] For example, at the great cortes of Toledo, in 1480, it does not appear that any of the nobility were summoned, except those in immediate attendance on the court, until the measure for the resumption of the grants, which so nearly affected that body, was brought before the legislature.

[34] Conde gives the following account of these chivalric associations among the Spanish Arabs, which, as far as I know, have hitherto escaped the notice of European historians. "The Moslem _fronteros_ professed great austerity in their lives, which they consecrated to perpetual war, and bound themselves by a solemn vow to defend the frontier against the incursions of the Christians. They were choice cavaliers, possessed of consummate patience, and enduring fatigue, and always prepared to die rather than desert their posts. It appears highly probable that the Moorish fraternities suggested the idea of those military orders so renowned for their valor in Spain and in Palestine, which rendered such essential services to Christendom; for both the institutions were established on similar principles." Conde, Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en España, (Madrid, 1820,) tom. i. p. 619, not.

[35] See the details, given by Mariana, of the overgrown possessions of the Templars in Castile at the period of their extinction, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. (Hist. de España, lib. 15, cap. 10.) The knights of the Temple and the Hospitallers seem to have acquired still greater power in Aragon, where one of the monarchs was so infatuated as to bequeath them his whole dominions,--a bequest which, it may well be believed, was set aside by his high-spirited subjects. Zurita, Anales, lib. 1, cap. 52.

[36] The apparition of certain preternatural lights in a forest, discovered to a Galician peasant, in the beginning of the ninth century, the spot, in which was deposited a marble sepulchre containing the ashes of St. James. The miracle is reported with sufficient circumstantiality by Florez, (Historia Compostellana, lib. 1, cap. 2, apud España Sagrada, tom. xx.) and Ambrosio de Morales, (Corónica General de España, (Obras, Madrid, 1791-3,) lib. 9, cap. 7,) who establishes, to his own satisfaction, the advent of St. James into Spain. Mariana, with more skepticism than his brethren, doubts the genuineness of the body, as well as the visit of the Apostle, but like a good Jesuit concludes, "It is not expedient to disturb with such disputes the devotion of the people, so firmly settled as it is." (Lib. 7, cap. 10.) The tutelar saint of Spain continued to support his people by taking part with them in battle against the infidel down to a very late period. Caro de Torres mentions two engagements in which he cheered on the squadrons of Cortes and Pizarro, "with his sword flashing lightning in the eyes of the Indians." Ordenes Militares, fol. 5.

[37] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 3-15.--Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 2-8.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. pp. 116-118.

[38] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 2, fol. 3-9, 49.--Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 49, 50.--Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. pp. 100-104.

[39] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 3, fol. 1-6.--The knights of Alcantara wore a white mantle, embroidered with a green cross.

[40] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 1, fol. 12-15, 43, 54, 61, 64, 66, 67; part. 2, fol. 11, 51; part. 3, fol. 42, 49, 50.--Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, passim.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 33.--Garibay, Compendio, lib. 11, cap. 13.--Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 1, cap. 19.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.

[41] Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 46, 74, 83.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 64.--Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 1, fol. 69, 70; part. 2, fol. 82, 83; part. 3, fol. 54.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.--The sovereigns gave great offence to the jealous grandees who were competitors for the mastership of St. James, by conferring that dignity on Alonso de Cardenas, with their usual policy of making merit rather than birth the standard of preferment.

[42] Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 84.--Riol has given a full account of the constitution of this council, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 164 et seq.

[43] The reader will find a view of the condition and general resources of the military orders as existing in the present century in Spain, in Laborde, Itinéraire Descriptif de l'Espagne, (2d edition, Paris, 1827-30,) tom. v. pp. 102-117.

[44] Most readers are acquainted with the curious story, related by Robertson, of the ordeal to which the Romish and Muzarabic rituals were subjected, in the reign of Alfonso VI., and the ascendency which the combination of king-craft and priest-craft succeeded in securing to the former in opposition to the will of the nation. Cardinal Ximenes afterwards established a magnificent chapel in the cathedral church of Toledo for the performance of the Muzarabic services, which have continued to be retained there to the present time. Fléchier, Histoire du Cardinal Ximinès, (Paris, 1693,) p. 142.--Bourgoanne, Travels in Spain, Eng. trans., vol. iii. chap. 1.

[45] Marina, Ensayo Histórico-Crítico, nos. 322, 334, 341.--Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, pp. 92 et seq.

[46] Marina, Ensayo Histórico-Crítico, nos. 335-337.--Ordenanças Reales, lib. 1, tit. 3, leyes 19, 20; lib. 2, tit. 7, ley 2; lib. 3, tit. 1, ley 6.--Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, loc. cit.--In the latter part of Henry IV.'s reign, a papal bull had been granted against the provision of foreigners to benefices. Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. vii. p. 196, ed Valencia.

[47] Riol, in his account of this celebrated concordat, refers to the original instrument, as existing in his time in the archives of Simancas, Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. p. 95.

[48] "Lo que es público hoy en España é notorio," says Gonzalo de Oviedo, "nunca los Reyes Cathólicos desearon ni procuraron sino que proveer é presentar para las dignidades de la Iglesia hombres capazes é idoneos para la buena administracion del servicio del culto divino, é á la buena enseñanza é utilidad de los Christianos sus vasallos; y entre todos los varones de sus Reynos así por largo conoscimiento como per larga é secreta informacion acordaron encojer é elegir," etc. Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Talavera.

[49] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 52.--Idem, Dignidades de Castilla, p. 374.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 104.--See also the similar independent conduct pursued by Ferdinand, three years previous, with reference to the see of Taraçona, related by Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 304.

[50] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 44.--See a letter from one of Henry's subjects, cited by Saez, Monedas de Enrique IV., p. 3.--Also the coarse satire (composed in Henry's reign) of Mingo Revulgo, especially coplas 24-27.

[51] Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 64.--Ordenanças Reales, lib. 4, tit. 4, ley 22; lib. 5, tit. 8, ley 2; lib. 6, tit. 9, ley 49; lib. 6, tit. 10, ley 13.--See also other wholesome laws for the encouragement of commerce and general security of property, as that respecting contracts, (lib. 5, tit. 8, ley 5,)--fraudulent tradesmen, (lib. 5, tit. 8, ley 5,)-- purveyance, (lib. 6, tit. 11, ley 2 et al.--Recopilacion de las Leyes, lib. 5, tit. 20, 21, 22; lib. 6, tit. 18, ley 1.--Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 99.--Zurita, Anales, tom. iv. fol. 312.--Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 11.)--The revenue, it appears, in 1477, amounted to 27,415,228 maravedies; and in the year 1482, we find it increased to 150,695,288 maravedies. (Ibid., Ilust. 5.)--A survey of the kingdom was made between the years 1477 and 1479, for the purpose of ascertaining the value of the royal rents, which formed the basis of the economical regulations adopted by the cortes of Toledo. Although this survey was conducted on no uniform plan, yet, according to Señor Clemencin, it exhibits such a variety of important details respecting the resources and population of the country, that it must materially contribute towards an exact history of this period. The compilation, which consists of twelve folio volumes in manuscript, is deposited in the archives of Simancas.

[52] One of the statutes passed at Toledo expressly provides for the erection of spacious and handsome edifices (_casas grandes y bien fechas_) for the transaction of municipal affairs, in all the principal towns and cities in the kingdom. Ordenanças Reales, lib. 7, tit. 1, ley 1.--See also L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, passim,--et al. auct.

[53] "Cosa fue por cierto maravillosa," exclaims Pulgar, in his Glosa on the Mingo Revulgo, "que lo que muchos hombres, y grandes senores no se acordaron á hacer en muchos años, _sola una muger_, con su trabajo, y gobernacion lo hizo en poco tiempo." Copla 21.

[54] The beautiful lines of Virgil, so often misapplied,

"Jam redit et Virgo; redeunt Saturnia regna;
Jam nova progenies," etc.

seem to admit here of a pertinent application.

[55] Carro de las Doñas, apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 21.--As one example of the moral discipline introduced by Isabella in her court, we may cite the enactments against gaming, which had been carried to great excess under the preceding reigns. (See Ordenanças Reales, lib. 2, tit. 14, ley 31; lib. 8, tit. 10, ley 7.) L. Marineo, according to whom "hell is full of gamblers," highly commends the sovereigns for their efforts to discountenance this vice. Cosas Memorables, fol. 165.

[56] See, for example, the splendid ceremony of Prince John's baptism, to which the gossipping Curate of Los Palacios devotes the 32d and 33d chapters of his History.