more potent, were also at work, and that this stupendous crime could never have been perpetrated, except in a country which, being long accustomed to regard heresy as the most heinous of all offences, was ready, at any cost, to purge the land and to free itself from men whose mere presence was regarded as an insult to the Christian faith.

After the reduction, late in the fifteenth century, of the last Mohammedan kingdom in Spain, the great object of the Spaniards became to convert those whom they had conquered. 123 They believed that the future welfare of a whole people was at stake; and finding that the exhortations of their clergy had no effect, they had recourse to other means, and persecuted the men they were unable to persuade. By torturing some, by burning others, and by threatening all, they at length succeeded; and we are assured that, after the year 1526, there was no Mohammedan in Spain, who had not been converted to Christianity.124 Immense numbers of them were baptized by force; but being baptized, it was held that they belonged to the Church, and were amenable to her discipline.125 That dis

123 Porque los Reyes queriendo, que en todo el Reino fuesen Christianos, embiaron á Frai Francisco Ximenez, que fue Arzobispo de Toledo i Cardenal, para que los persuadiese. Mas ellos, gente dura, pertinaz, nuevamente conquistada, estuvieron recios." Mendoza, Guerra de Granada que hizo Felipe II. contra los Moriscos, Valencia, 1776, 4to, p. 10. The author of this book was born early in the sixteenth century, at Granada, where he lived for a considerable period.

66

124 L'année 1526 vit donc disparaître dans toutes les parties de l'Espagne les signes extérieurs de l'islamisme." Circourt, Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne, Paris, 1846, vol. ii. p. 220. M. Lafuente (Historia de España, vol. x. p. 132) says of 1502, that "desde entonces, por primera vez al cabo de ocho siglos, no quedó un solo habitante en España que esteriormente diera culto á Mahoma:" but in vol. xi. p. 447, he says that, in 1524, "volvieron inmediatamente á sus ritos y ceremonias muslímicas." As M. de Circourt was well acquainted with all the materials used by M. Lafuente, and is, moreover, a much more critical writer, it seems likely that his statement is the correct one.

123 Ces malheureux auraient tous été exterminés, s'ils n'avaient consenti à recevoir le baptême. Au milieu des décombres de leurs maisons, sur les cadavres fumans de leurs femmes, ils s'agenouillèrent. Les germanos, ivres de sang, firent l'office de prêtres; l'un d'eux prit un balai, aspergea la foule des musulmans, en prononçant les paroles sacramentelles, et crut avoir fait des chrétiens. L'armée des germanos se répandit ensuite dans le pays environnant, saccageant d'abord, baptisant après.' Circourt, Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne, vol. ii. p. 175. See also p. 202.

cipline was administered by the Inquisition, which, during the rest of the sixteenth century, subjected these new Christians, or Moriscoes, as they were now called, 126 to the most barbarous treatment. The genuineness of their forced conversion was doubted; it therefore became the business of the Church to inquire into their sincerity.127 The civil government lent its aid; and among other enactments, an edict was issued by Philip II. in 1566, ordering the Moriscoes to abandon every thing which by the slightest possibility could remind them of their former religion. They were commanded, under severe penalties, to learn Spanish, and to give up all their Arabic books. They were forbidden to read their native language, or to write it, or even to speak it in their own houses. Their ceremonies and their very games were strictly prohibited. They were to indulge in no amusements which had been practised by their fathers; neither were they to wear such clothes as they had been accustomed to. Their women were to go unveiled; and as bathing was a heathenish custom, all public baths were to be destroyed, and even all baths in private houses.128

126 That was their general name; but, in Aragon, they were termed "tornadizos,' en lenguage insultante." Janer, Condicion de los Moriscos de España, Madrid, 1857, p. 26.

127 Recibieron el Sacramento por comodidad, no de voluntad, y asi encubrian todo lo possible el viuir y morir en la secta de Mahoma, siendo infieles apostatas." Vanderhammen's Filipe Segundo, p. 12. "Porque la Inquisicion los comenzó a apretar mas de lo ordinario." Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 20. "Poner nuevo cuidado i diligencia en descubrir los motivos destos hombres." p. 26. And yet this very writer has the impudence to declaim against Mohammedanism as a cruel religion. "Cruel i abominable religion aplacar á Dios con vida i sangre inocente !" pp. 107, 108.

128 Vanderhammen (Filipe Segundo, p. 12, Madrid, 1632) merely tells us that "Por cedula el año sesenta y seis les mandó dexassen el habito, lengua y costumbres de Moros, y fuessen Christianos y lo pareciessen." But the exact provisions were, "Que dentro de tres años aprendiesen los moriscos á hablar la lengua castellana, y de allí adelante ninguno pudiese hablar, leer ni escribir arábigo en publico ni en secreto: que todos los contratos que se hiciesen en arábigo fuesen nulos: que todos los libros así escritos los llevasen en término de treinta dias al presidente de la audiencia de Granada para que los mandase examinar, devolviendoseles aquellos que no ofrecieran inconveniente para que los pudiesen guardar solo durante los tres años: que no se hicieran de nuevo marlotas, almalafas, calzas ni otra suerte de vestidos de los que se usaban en tiempos de moros; que durante este tiempo, las mujeres vestidas á la morisca Îlevarian la cara descubierta; que no usasen de las ceremonias ni de los regocijos moros en las bodas, sino conforme al uso de la

By these and similar measures, 129 these unhappy people were at length goaded into rebellion; and in 1568 they took the desperate step of measuring their force against that of the whole Spanish monarchy. The result could hardly be doubted; but the Moriscoes, maddened by their sufferings, and fighting for their all, protracted the contest till 1571, when the insurrection was finally put down.130 By this unsuccessful effort, they were greatly reduced in numbers and in strength; and, during the remaining twenty-seven years of the reign of Philip II. we hear comparatively little of them. Notwithstanding an occasional outbreak, the old animosities were subsiding, and in the course of time would probably have disappeared. At all events, there was no pretence for violence on the part of the Spaniards, since it was absurd to suppose that the Moriscoes, weakened in every way, humbled, broken, and scattered through the kingdom, could, even if they desired it, effect any thing against the resources of the executive government.

But, after the death of Philip II., that movement Santa Madre Iglesia, abriendo las puertas de sus casas en tales dias, y tambien en los de fiesta, no haciendo zambras ni leylas con instrumentos ni cantares moriscos, aunque no dijesen en ellos cosas contraria á la religion cristiana," &c. Janer, Condicion de los Moriscos, pp. 31, 32, where other particulars will be found, which should be compared with Circourt, Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne, vol. ii. pp. 278, 283, 459-463.

129 Some of the other steps which were taken, before 1566, to affront the Moriscoes are enumerated in Prescott's History of Philip II., vol. iii. p. 10, and elsewhere. In the reign of Charles V., there were many acts of local tyranny which escape the general historian. One of them, on the part of the Bishop of Guadix, is worth quoting. "On le vit pousser l'intolérance jusqu'à faire raser les femmes et les obliger à râcler leurs ongles pour en faire disparaître les traces du henné, cosmétique inoffensif dont il abhorrait l'usage, en raison de ce que les Arabes l'avaient introduit." Circourt, Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne, vol. ii. p. 226.

130 Its concluding scene, in March 1571, is skilfully depicted in Prescott's History of Philip III., vol. iii. pp. 148-151. The splendid courage of the Moriscoes is attested by Mendoza in his contemporary history of the war; but, in narrating the horrible outrages which they undoubtedly committed, he makes no allowance for the long-continued and insufferable provocations which they had received from the Spanish Christians. What he mentions of one of the battles is curious, and I do not remember to have seen it elsewhere recorded. "Fue porfiado por ambas partes el combate hasta venir á las espadas, de que los Moros se aprovechan menos que nosotros, por tener las suyas un filo i no herir ellos de punta." Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, edit. 4to, Valencia, 1776, p. 168.

began which I have just described, and which, contrary to the course of affairs in other nations, secured to the Spanish clergy in the seventeenth century, more power than they had possessed in the sixteenth. The consequences of this were immediately apparent. The clergy did not think that the steps taken by Philip II. against the Moriscoes were sufficiently decisive; and even during his lifetime they looked forward to a new reign, in which these Christians of doubtful sincerity should be either destroyed or driven from Spain.131 While he was on the throne, the prudence of the government restrained in some degree the eagerness of the Church; and the king, following the advice of his ablest ministers, refused to adopt the measures to which he was urged, and to which his own disposition prompted him.132 But, under his successor, the clergy, as

131 An instance of this was exhibited in 1578, on the very day in which Philip III. was born. "Predicando en un lugar de Aragon, todo de Moriscos, llamado Ricla, 6 Torrellas, un religioso, llamado Vargas, el mismo dia, que nació su Magestad, viendo el poco fruto, que hacia con sus sermones, dixo, como en Profecia, á aquella gente rebelde: Pues no quereis despedir de vuestros pechos esta infernal secta, sabed, que ha nacido en Castilla vn Principe que os ha de echar de España.” Porreño, Dichos y Hechos de Phelipe III., in Yañez, Memorias, Madrid, 1723, p. 224: and nearly the same words in Janer, Condición de los Moriscos, p. 60. Mr. Prescott, in his History of Philip 11., vol. iii. p. 139, quotes a Ms. letter from Don John of Austria to Philip II., written in 1570, and stating that the Spanish monks were openly preaching against the leniency with which the king treated the Moriscoes. "Predicando en los púlpitos publicamente contra la benignidad y clemencia que V. M. ha mandado usar con esta gente."

132 In a recent work of considerable authority, it is denied that Philip II. entertained the desire of expelling the Moriscoes. "El carácter austero y la severidad de Felipe II. redundaban en favor de los moriscos, porque no daba oidos á las instigaciones de algunos personajes que señalaban la expulsion general como único remedio eficaz para los males que ofrecia al pais aquella desventurada raza. Acababa el monarca de tocar los tristes resultados de una emigracion por las funestas consecuencias de la despoblacion del reino granadino, y preferia continuar en la senda de la conciliacion, procurando de nuevo la enseñanza de los conversos.' Janer, Condicion de los Moriscos, Madrid, 1857, p. 59. But, to say nothing of the fact that this is contrary to all we know of the character of Philip, we have, on the other side of the question, the testimony of Archbishop Ribera, who had often communicated with the king on the subject, and who distinctly states that Philip desired the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. "El hechar los Moros deste Reyno, ha sido cosa muy desseada, y procurada por los Reyes Predecessores del Rey nuestro Señor, aunque no executada." "El Rey Don Felipe

Segundo, nuestro Señor, despues de suceder en estos Reynos, tuvo el mismo desseo; y assi mandó, que se juntassen los Prelados deste Reyno para buscar remedio el año de 1568; siendo Arçobispo desta Metropoli el Reverendissimo

we have already seen, gained fresh strength, and they soon felt themselves sufficiently powerful to begin another and final crusade against the miserable remains of the Moorish nation. 133

The Archbishop of Valencia was the first to take the field. In 1602, this eminent prelate presented a memorial to Philip III. against the Moriscoes; and finding that his views were cordially supported by the clergy, and not discouraged by the crown, he followed up the blow by another memorial having the same object.184 The Archbishop, who spoke as one having authority, and who from his rank and position was a natural representative of the

Don Hernando de Lloazes. Hizieronse en aquella Junta algunas Constituciones de consideracion. Visto que no aprovechaban, mandó el año 1587 que se hiziesse otra Junta, en la qual me hallé yo : añadimos tambien algunas nuevas Constituciones. Y constando á su Magestad que no eran bastantes las diligencias passadas, y que siempre perseveraban en su heregia, se resolvio de mandarlos hechar del Reyno, ó por lo menos meterlos dentro de la tierra." Ximenez, Vida de Ribera, Roma, 1734, 4to, pp. 419, 420. This important passage is decisive as to the real feelings of Philip, unless we assume that Ribera has stated a deliberate falsehood. But, strange to say, even the book in which so remarkable a passage is contained, appears to be unknown either to M. Janer or to M. Lafuente.

133 66 El rey Felipe III., hombre de rudo ingenio, se dejaba gobernar con facilidad por aquellos que sabiendo los temores de su conciencia, se aprovechaban de su imbecilidad para conseguir cuanto querian. Muchos eclesiásticos, recordando las espulsiones de judios y moros ejecutadas de órden de Fernando é Isabel, y conociendo que a Felipe III. seria agradable imitar á estos monarcas, le aconsejaron que condenase al destierro á todos los moriscos que vivian en sus reynos; pues no solo se obstinaban en seguir la ley mahometana, sino que tenian tratos con los turcos y entre sí para buscar sus libertades por medio del rigor de las armas." Castro, Decadencia de España, Cadiz, 1852, pp. 101, 102.

134 These memorials are printed in the Appendix to his Life by Ximenez. See the very curious book, entitled Vida y Virtudes del Venerable Siervo de Dios D. Juan de Ribera, por el R. P. Fr. Juan Ximenez, Roma, 1734, 4to, pp. 367-374, 376-393. This work is, I believe, extremely rare; at all events, I endeavoured, in vain, to obtain a copy from Spain or Italy, and, after some years' unsuccessful search, I met with the one I now have, on a London book-stall. M. de Circourt, in his learned History of the Spanish Arabs, does not appear to have been aware of its existence, and he complains that he could not procure the works of Ribera, whose Memorials he consequently quotes second-hand. Circourt, Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne, Paris, 1846, vol. iii. pp. 168, 351. Nor does Watson seem to have known it; though both he and M. de Circourt refer to Escriva's Life of Ribera. Watson's Philip III., London, 1839, pp. 214-221. An abstract of these Memorials is given by Geddes, who, though a learned and accurate writer, had the mischievous habit of not indicating the sources of his information. Geddes' Tracts, London, 1730, vol, i. pp. 60-71.