ordered for the success of the attempt and, in a final consulta of January 30, 1588, Philip was advised that rectors should be provided for all the Morisco villages, that endowments for them should be had from the episcopal and capitular revenues and from the tithes of the villages, that the business of instruction should be pushed and in order that this might have a better chance, that a papal brief for an edict of grace be procured.1 We have seen that Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. made no difficulty in granting the amplest faculties of pardon, but when it came to action the customary paralysis benumbed the effort and nothing was accomplished.

In 1595, Philip convened another junta to continue the consideration of the eternal question as to the instruction of the Moriscos. It was doubtless for the enlightenment of this body that reports were called for from the Valencian bishops, of which that of the learned Juan Bautista Perez, Bishop of Segorbe, reviews the whole question thoroughly and says the more he thinks of it the more difficulties it presents, for all efforts thus far have been fruitless. He enumerates fifteen impediments to the conversion of the Moriscos-their ignorance, deceit and fanatic obstinacy, their living apart and by themselves, their ignorance of the vernacular, the tradition of the violent baptism of their forefathers, their fear of the Inquisition and its punishments which make them hate religion

1 Danvila, pp. 214-16.-Fonseca, p. 32.

Bishop Perez of Segorbe explains that Ribera sought to raise salaries of the rectors to 100 crowns by a pension on his table an tithes of the canonries and of the lords, but though this was con by the pope at the request of the king, it never took effect, the appeals interjected.-Archivo de Simancas, Inqn de Leg. 205, fol. 3.

59

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prelsent, ostly lowed,

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, Tortosa ndow the instruction -ent through

nce of which

little rational Moriscos since

whether the matter ne commissioner or ve its own, and what powers; also as to the

of the rectories and the be drawn, together with Everybody had a different lace of deciding, asked to be e opinions-a perfectly finished orate methods which human wit to do it. The wearied old mon

sons of consideration have issued from that of Valencia and they have preferred to live in the city on their benefices rather than to preach among their people; the rest return home to labor and presumably are as much Moors as before.1

Such was the condition of the Morisco question after seventy years of striving, in which the designs, more or less sagacious, of the rulers had been wrecked by the supineness, the greed and the corruption of those whose duty it was to save the hundreds of thousands of souls confided to their charge, to say nothing of the overwhelming political interests involved. Bishop Perez may be taken as an unexceptionable witness, for he was not only a remarkably intelligent prelate—as shown by his exposure of the forgeries of the plomos del Sacro Monte—but he was by no means inclined to favor the Moriscos and did not hesitate to recommend greater severity on the part of the Inquisition and to suggest expulsion if all other means failed.

Politically the question was becoming year by year more pressing as the alternative of real conversion or of expulsion presented itself ever more strongly to Spanish statesmen as inevitable. During the whole of 1595 and a great part of 1596 a junta sat, engaged in interminable. debates and submitting conflicting opinions to the king, according to the fashion in which Philip carried on his

1 Archivo de Simancas, Inqn de Valencia, Leg. 205, fol. 3.

A similar report was presented by Bishop Esteban of Orihuela. He recommends a reduction of the exactions of the lords, greater activity by the prelates and priests, the establishment of schools, greater restrictions and disabilities on the Moriscos and then, if within a given term they were not converted, they should all be reduced to slavery and be scattered throughout Spain. -Danvila, p. 229.

government. On December 20th petitions were discussed, presented by the aljamas, complaining that they were not instructed owing to the negligence of the prelates and rectors and asking that proper persons be sent, the existing ones being simple ignorant clerics, mostly foreigners and Frenchmen. This was promptly followed, December 24th, by a royal decree ordering Archbishop Ribera to fill the rectories at once with the best appointees he could find and that the Bishops of Segorbe, Tortosa and Orihuela should immediately erect and endow the rectories in their dioceses so that the work of instruction might commence promptly and preachers be sent through all the bishoprics—provisions the importance of which consists in the evidence they give of how little rational work had been done in christianizing the Moriscos since the edict of 1525.1

Interminable debates followed as to whether the matter should be entrusted to one supreme commissioner or whether each bishopric should have its own, and what should be their functions and powers; also as to the sources from which the dotations of the rectories and the pay of the preachers should be drawn, together with numerous other details. Everybody had a different. opinion and the king, in place of deciding, asked to be advised about the respective opinions-a perfectly finished example of the most elaborate methods which human wit has devised of how not to do it. The wearied old mon

1 Danvila, pp. 230-1.

2 This perpetual discussion and irresolution was not the least of the causes contributing to the decay of the Spanish monarchy. Introduced by Philip II., it continued to the last of the Hapsburgs; the diminishing resources of the nation were frittered away for lack of vigorous action at critical moments by a government combining the

arch was breaking down; he died, September 13, 1598, busy to the last with plans to pay for the rectories out of the palance of the funds which had been accumulating for twenty years and with endeavoring to persuade Clement VIII. to reconsider his refusal of a brief which should exempt the Moriscos from the obligation to denounce their accomplices, for without this there could be no hope of voluntary conversions. As we have seen, no priest could absolve for heresy and admit to reconciliation, while to the inquisitor a confession was fictitious and invalid which did not contain full information about all the heretics known to the convert. The rules of the Church demanded this, however impassable was the obstacle which it erected in the path of the returning sinner. It is true that, at the request of the king, Clement had granted, February 28, 1597, an edict of grace covering relapse, and had conceded that confession could be made to the episcopal Ordinaries, but he had insisted that the confession must include full denunciation of the apostasy of others.2

peculiar and seemingly irreconcilable vices of autocracy and bureaucracy. It is well described by a contemporary-"Con semejante lentitud se desatendió siempre en todo el gobierno de Phelipe segundo á las mayores urgencias, empleando el tiempo que debiera lograrse en prevenir los peligros para evitarles con providencia en consultas prolixas y en informes inutiles, no creyendo nunca á quien los prevenia, aumentando los gastos despues la morosidad de sus resoluciones."-Historia de la Casa de Mondéjar (Morel-Fatio, L'Espagne au XVI et au XVII® Siècle, p. 69).

These perpetual delays were the despair of the foreign diplomats at the Spanish court. See the despatch of the Nuncio Sega, March 1, 1578, in Hinojosa, Los Despachos de la Diplomacia Pontificia, I. 243 (Madrid, 1896).

1 Danvila, p. 232.

2 Bulario de la Orden de Santiago, Libro IV. fol. 128.—Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Libro 926, fol. 71. (See Appendix No. IX.)