39

But, though blemishes of the deepest dye on her administration, they are certainly not to be regarded as such on her moral character. It will be difficult to condemn her, indeed, without condemning the age; for these very acts are not only excused, but extolled by her contemporaries, as constituting her strongest claims to renown, and to the gratitude of her country. They proceeded from the principle, openly avowed by the court of Rome, that zeal for the purity of the faith could atone for every crime. This immoral maxim, flowing from the head of the church, was echoed in a thousand different forms by the subordinate clergy, and greedily received by a superstitious people. It was not to be expected that a solitary woman, filled with natural diffidence of her own capacity on such subjects, should array herself against those venerated counsellors whom she had been taught from her cradle to look to as the guides and guardians of her conscience.

However mischievous the operations of the Inquisition may have been in Spain, its establishment, in point of principle, was not worse than many other measures which have passed with far less censure,

39 Such encomiums become still more striking in writers of sound and expansive views like Zurita and Blancas, who, although flourishing in a better instructed age, do not scruple to pronounce the Inquisition the greatest evidence of her prudence and piety, whose uncommon utility not only Spain, but all Christendom, freely acknowledged"! Blancas, Commentarii, p. 263.-Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. I, cap. 6.

40 Sismondi displays the mischievous influence of these theological dogmas in Italy, as well as Spain, under the pontificate of Alexander VI. and his immediate predecessors, in the 90th chapter of his eloquent and philosophical "Histoire des Républiques Italiennes."

though in a much more advanced and civilized age." Where, indeed, during the sixteenth and the greater part of the seventeenth century, was the principle of persecution abandoned by the dominant party, whether Catholic or Protestant? And where that of toleration asserted, except by the weaker? It is true, to borrow Isabella's own expression in her letter to Talavera, the prevalence of a bad custom cannot constitute its apology. But it should serve much to mitigate our condemnation of the queen, that she fell into no greater error, in the imperfect light in which she lived, than was common to the greatest minds in a later and far riper period."

Isabella's actions, indeed, were habitually based on principle. Whatever errors of judgment be imputed to her, she most anxiously sought in all situations to

"I borrow almost the words of Mr. Hallam, who, noticing the penal statutes against Catholics under Elizabeth, says, "They established a persecution which fell not at all short in principle of that for which the Inquisition had become so odious." (Constitutional History of England (Paris, 1827), vol. i. chap. 3.) Even Lord Burleigh, commenting on the mode of examination adopted in certain cases by the High Commission court, does not hesitate to say, the interrogatories were "so curiously penned, so full of branches and circumstances, as he thought the inquisitors of Spain used not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their preys." Ibid., chap. 4.

42 Even Milton, in his essay on the "Liberty of Unlicensed Printing," the most splendid argument, perhaps, the world had then witnessed in behalf of intellectual liberty, would exclude Popery from the benefits of toleration, as a religion which the public good required at all events to be extirpated. ich were the crude views of the rights of conscience entertained, in the latter half of the seventeenth century by one of those gifted minds whose extraordinary elevation enabled it to catch and reflect back the coming light of knowledge, long before it had fallen on the rest of mankind.

discern and discharge her duty. Faithful in the dispensation of justice, no bribe was large enough to ward off the execution of the law.43 No motive, not even conjugal affection, could induce her to make an unsuitable appointment to public office." No reverence for the ministers of religion could lead her to wink at their misconduct; nor could the deference she entertained for the head of the church allow her to tolerate his encroachments on the rights of her crown. She seemed to consider herself especially bound to preserve entire the peculiar claims and privileges of Castile, after its union under the same sovereign with Aragon." And although, "while her own

46

43 The most remarkable example of this, perhaps, occurred in the case of the wealthy Galician knight, Yañez de Lugo, who endeavored to purchase a pardon of the queen by the enormous bribe of 40,000 doblas of gold. The attempt failed, though warmly supported by some of the royal counsellors. The story is well vouched. Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 97.-L. Marineo, Cosas memorables, fol. 180.

44 The reader may recollect a pertinent illustration of this, on the occasion of Ximenes's appointment to the primacy. See Part II. chapter 5. of this History.

45 See, among other instances, her exemplary chastisement of the ecclesiastics of Truxillo. Part I. chapter 12, of this History.

46 Ibid., Part I. chapter 6, Part II. chapter 10, et alibi. Indeed, this independent attitude was shown, as I have more than once had occasion to notice, not merely in shielding the rights of her own crown, but in the boldest remonstrances against the corrupt practices and personal immorality of those who filled the chair of St. Peter at this period.

47 The public acts of this reign afford repeated evidence of the pertinacity with which Isabella insisted on reserving the benefits of the Moorish conquests and the American discoveries for her own subjects of Castile, by whom and for whom they had been mainly achieved. The same thing is reiterated in the most emphatic manner in het testament.

will was law," says Peter Martyr, "she governed in such a manner that it might appear the joint action of both Ferdinand and herself," yet she was careful never to surrender into his hands one of those prerogatives which belonged to her as queen proprietor of the kingdom. 48

Isabella's measures were characterized by that practical good sense without which the most brilliant parts may work more to the woe than to the weal of mankind. Though engaged all her life in reforms, she had none of the failings so common in reformers. Her plans, though vast, were never visionary. The best proof of this is, that she lived to see most of them realized.

She was quick to discern objects of real utility. She saw the importance of the new discovery of printing, and liberally patronized it, from the first moment it appeared. She had none of the exclusive, local prejudices too common with her countrymen. She drew talent from the most remote quarters to her dominions, by munificent rewards. She imported foreign artisans for her manufactures, foreign engineers and officers for the discipline of her army, and foreign scholars to imbue her martial subjects with more cultivated tastes. She consulted the useful, in all her subordinate regulations; in her sumptuary laws, for instance, directed against the fashionable extravagances of dress, and the ruinous ostentation so much affected by the Castilians in their weddings and funerals. 50 Lastly, she showed

48 Opus Epist., epist. 31.

49 Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 49.

50 The preamble of one of her pragmáticas against this lavish

the same perspicacity in the selection of her agents; well knowing that the best measures become bad in incompetent hands.

But, although the skilful selection of her agents was an obvious cause of Isabella's success, yet another, even more important, is to be found in her own vigilance and untiring exertions. During the first busy and bustling years of her reign, these exertions were of incredible magnitude. She was almost always in the saddle, for she made all her journeys on horseback; and she travelled with a rapidity which made her always present on the spot where her presence was needed. She was never intimidated by the weather, or the state of her own health; and this reckless exposure undoubtedly contributed much to impair her excellent constitution."1

expenditure at funerals contains some reflections worth quoting for the evidence they afford of her practical good sense: "Nos deseando proveer e remediar al tal gasto sin provecho, e considerando que esto no redunda en sufragio e alivio de las animas de los defuntos," etc. "Pero los Católicos Christianos que creemos que hai otra vida despues desta, donde las animas esperan folganza e vida perdurable, desta habemos de curar e procurar de la ganar por obras meritorias, e no por cosas transitorias e vanas como son los lutos e gastos excesivos." Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 318.

51 Her exposure in this way on one occasion brought on a miscarriage. According to Gomez, indeed, she finally died of a painful internal disorder occasioned by her long and laborious journeys. (De Rebus gestis, fol. 47.) Giovio adopts the same account. (Vitæ Illust. Virorum, p. 275.) The authorities are good, certainly; but Martyr, who was in the palace, with every opportunity of correct information, and with no reason for concealment of the truth, in his private correspondence with Tendilla and Talavera, makes no allusion whatever to such a complaint, in his circumstantial account of the queen's illness.