xts, of which
he availed himself in order to suggest false motives for his bitter
spirit in the war which he carried on against Henry IV. of France. And,
in truth, what sincerity could there be in the religion of a man who
lived in perpetual adultery; who seduced the wives of his most faithful
servants; who paid assassins to get rid of men he disliked, and
afterwards relentlessly persecuted these same persons hired by him to
commit such crimes? How could faith, devotion, hope, charity, and
self-consecration to God, exist in combination with vices the most
degrading to human nature, and a system of conduct diametrically opposed
to the letter and spirit of the gospel? But, without discussing those
questions which more properly pertain to the severe tribunal of history
and will be found fully examined in the works cited, it is sufficient,
for the present purpose, to indicate the reign of Philip II. as that
epoch in which an intolerant fanaticism extended its roots wide and deep
in the hearts of Spaniards,--a fanaticism which, until but a few years
previous to our own times, formed one of the most conspicuous elements of
the national character. The frequent repetition of the _autos de fe_, in
which the terrible spectacle of burning human victims alive was
countenanced by the presence of the court,--the furious harangues of the
friars,--the excommunications fulminated from the pulpit against all
those who did not prostrate themselves as slaves before the power of the
church,--and, above all, the example of the monarch, who was always ready
to exalt the clergy above other classes of the community, and whose
domestic and foreign policy was founded, invariably, on the principle of
the identity of the altar and the throne, were circumstances more than
sufficient to mould the genius, the habits, the affections, and even the
literary tastes and domestic intercourse, of any nation in the world.
Hence the entire existence of the nation was, so to speak, exclusively
religious. The mass, confession, processions, and _novenas_, {26} were
the occupations which consumed all the days and all the hours of life.
The priesthood was the grand social supremacy. All the riches of the
nation were in its hands. All consciences ceded to its voice, and were
directed by its influence. The king favoured all its pretensions,
enlarged its privileges, and put into its hands the highest dignities and
employments. The bishops occupied the principal