as the introduction of the Inquisition induced religious
bigotry, and withered mental independence and intellectual cultivation.
Nor is Mrs. George disposed to allow weight to the excuse, urged in
favor of Isabella upon such facts as undeniably tell against her. The
Spaniards of the age, she says, were not so bigoted; the Kings of
Aragon, supported by their subjects, had set the Popes at defiance; the
Cortes of Aragon and of Valencia resisted the introduction of the
Inquisition; some of the clergy, with Fray Francisco de Talavera
Archbishop of Granada at their head, were opposed to all persecution;
even the Pope remonstrated against some wholesale slaughter; and when
persecution had provoked an insurrection, Ferdinand himself was wroth.
Nor does the biographer even see an excuse in the Queen's conscience.
When religion or churchmen stood in the way of her power or interests,
they were blown aside. There is in these conclusions, something of the
woman and of the Spaniard, anxious to excuse in any way the historical
degradation and present weakness of Spain. If the Spaniards were really
enterprising and industrious, there seems no reason why they might not
have engaged in commerce, agriculture, and the useful arts, although the
Jews and Moors were expelled: the Jews were ousted from England long
before they were driven from Spain, yet the English got on in the
absence of the house of Israel. The destruction of the enormous power of
the nobility was absolutely necessary, not only to the establishment of
order, but almost to the existence of society itself. It could only be
brought about by throwing the power of the common people into the scale
of the crown; and so far as Ferdinand and Isabella were concerned, it
seems to have been a wise and politic measure. The real despotism of the
crown was established by Charles the Fifth, and he might not have been
able to effect it, had he been only King of Spain. For the religious
tyranny, cruelty, and want of faith of Isabella in violating
stipulations, Mrs. George is sparing in the quotation of authorities,
and she often rather asserts than narrates in the account of facts that
would prove the case. A strict analysis might also show that temporal
power was the object aimed at, and religion a disguise for ambition. We
think, however, that the case of relentless and cruel persecution is
established against Isabella the Catholic; and that it was aggravated by
the power which the priest