subjection. They were virtually taillables et corvéables à merci and their oppression was only tempered by the ever-present apprehension of rebellion and, in the maritime districts, by the facilities of escape to Africa.

As far as possible moreover in Valencia and Granada they were reduced to the condition of predial serfs. A pragmatics of Charles V., in 1541, recites that they only changed their residence for the purpose of escaping to Barbary and if no one would receive them they could not do this. They were therefore forbidden, under pain of death and confiscation, from changing either domicile or lord and any one accepting them as vassals without special royal licence was fined five hundred florins or stripes in default of it. The same penalty, with the addition of exile, was denounced for sheltering Granadan and Castilian Moriscos, who moreover were threatened with death and confiscation if they entered Valencia. This ferocious legislation was repeated, in 1545, with the inclusion of those of Aragon in the prohibition of entering Valencia, and similar edicts were issued in 1563 and 1586.2

As the muleteers and carriers were nearly all Moriscos these regulations exposed them to the most vexatious interference. In 1576, one of them named Miguel Fernandez, of Granada, complained to the king that, in his business of transporting goods to Cordova, Seville and other places, he was continually stopped and his freight seized,

1 Sandoval, Libro XII. xxviii.-Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Libro 922, fol. 15.-Concil. Tarraconens ann. 1591, Lib. III. Tit. xviii. cap. 2 (Aguirre, VI. 292).-Bleda, Crónica, p. 1030; Defensio Fidei, pp. 47, 51.-Ximenez, Vida de Ribera, pp. 362, 378.-Fonseca, p. 65.

2 Danvila, pp. 128, 133, 211.-Boletín de la Real Acad. de la Hist. Abril, 1887, p. 288.

although he carried a passport, and it is easy to conceive of the extortions thus practised by local officials, but the only result of his petition was the issue of a royal order reminding the authorities of the regulation forbidding Granadan Moriscos to absent themselves for a single night from their abodes without a special licence for a limited time after furnishing due security, the strict observance of which was enjoined. It may be added that this occupation of muleteering was regarded with a jealous eye; the muleteer was the carrier of news as well as of merchandise and the Moriscos were suspected of organizing in this way the treasonable conspiracies of which we hear so much and see so little.1

They were not even allowed the poor privilege of expatriation, especially to Barbary. We have seen (p. 41) with what stern penalties Ferdinand and Isabella forbade the emigration of their Granadan converts and this policy continued. Intercourse of every kind with Africa was subject to rigid limitations and seems to have been mixti fori—under jurisdiction both of the Inquisition and the secular authorities. In 1548 we find the Suprcma permitting communication with Barbary for the redemption of captives, while, in 1553, a royal pragmatica says that as emigration is increasing from all the coast districts it repeats the prohibition to go to Barbary without a licence from the Bayle general, the fees for which amounted to 100 sueldos, or five ducats." In 1558 the Suprema, in a letter of September 9th to Paul

1 Janer, p. 247.-Ximenez, Vida de Ribera, p. 378.-Guadalajara y Xavierr, fol. 74.

2 Archivo de Simancas, Inq" de Canarias, Expedtes de Visitas, Lib. III. fol. 15.-Danvila, pp. 142, 259.

IV., says that the Inquisition has been much occupied in checking this movement.1 How effectually it sought to accomplish this is seen in the great Seville auto de fe of September 24, 1559, where two Morisco apostates were burnt and among their crimes was enumerated that one had carried Moriscos to Barbary and the other had taken his wife and children there. It was not only to Barbary, however, that the Inquisition sought to prevent the escape of those whom it persecuted. In 1561 the Spanish ambassador at Venice repeated previous advices that many Moriscos of Valencia and Aragon were passing to the Levant; there were at that time more than thirty, some with their wives and children, awaiting passage and more were coming daily. They were expecting others from Granada, urged by a merchant known in Constantinople as Abraham and in Granada as Her

1 Archivo de Simancas, Inquisition, Libro 4, fol. 232.

2

A case illustrating the jealousy between the competing jurisdictions of the anomalous Spanish government occurred in 1562. Moriscos of Granada, endeavoring to escape to Barbary, were put to death by the captain-general, but if the Inquisition chanced to have anything against them it was first to try them and, after it was done with them, return them to him for execution. A certain Luis Alboacen, on his way to Africa, was taken at Almunecar, condemned to death by Tendilla and delivered to the Inquisition which sentenced him to relaxation as a negativo. Tendilla claimed him, but the tribunal refused to surrender him and appealed to the Suprema. Philip II. decided in its favor, because it was better for the people to see him burnt for heresy, and ordered this course to be followed in future. Bulario de la Orden de Santiago, Libro III. fol. 97.—Archivo de Simancas, Inquisition, Libro 926, fol. 249.

--

In 1093, however, the Suprema seems disposed to call upon the secular arm when it asks why the royal officials do not punish Moriscos who after reconciliation pay a visit to Algiers.—Archivo Hist. National, Inqn de Valencia, Leg. 5 No. 2, fol. 372.

nando de Talavera. May 19, 1561, the Suprema forwarded this to the inquisitors of Saragossa and Valencia with orders to be vigilant and to put a stop to such evil business.' It was doubtless under this impulsion that the tribunal of Saragossa published edicts prohibiting Moriscos from leaving Aragon and Christians from guiding them over the Pyrenees, and in the auto de fe of June 6, 1585, it had the satisfaction of punishing four culprits— two who had served as guides and two who were seeking to emigrate with scourging and the galleys for three men and scourging with imprisonment and sanbenito for a woman. In time, however, when expulsion was drawing near this vigilance was relaxed; the Junta proposed, June 24, 1608, to instruct the viceroy of Catalonia to watch the Moriscos who were going to France, to arrest those who were rich and influential in order to learn their intentions, but to allow the rest to pass, for the fewer there were of them the better, as it was proposed to carry them all to Barbary.3

One of the sorest disabilities inflicted on the Moriscos was the deprivation of arms, for it was not only a humiliation but it left them defenceless at a time when violence was constant and to an Old Christian the blood of the despised race was little more than that of a dog. We have seen (p. 41) that in the pacification of Granada, in 1501, the population was disarmed and the possession of weapons was forbidden under the severest penalties. The Moriscos were skilful armorers and, like

1 Archivo de Simancas, Libro 4, fol. 263.

2 Biblioteca Nacional, Seccion de MSS. PV. 3 No. 20.

3 Danvila, p. 269.

most other handicrafts, this was largely in their hands. Under these circumstances the continued enforcement of such a law was difficult, and the repetition of the edict, in 1511 and again in 1515, shows how it was eluded or disregarded. The royal cedula, however, in 1511, in consequence of the inconvenience to which they were exposed by the strict construction of the law, permits the use of round-pointed knives, but forbids sharp-pointed ones. Licences to bear arms were issued, however, under greater or less authority and were doubtless lucrative to those who assumed to grant them. The attention of Charles V. was called to this and, in his Edict of Granada, in 1526, he ordered that all such licences should be presented to the corregidores, after which he would determine what action to take respecting them, and at the same time he prohibited the nobles from issuing them to their vassals—regulations which in 1528 he extended to all the kingdoms. These licences became recognized and abused; those who had them were said to procure more arms than they needed, which they sold to the monfies or outlaws of the sierras, to remedy which they were ordered, in 1552, to present them to the captain-general together with their arms and have them sealed under pain of five years of galleys —an order which was repeated in 1563 and which in both cases was slackly obeyed.2

In Valencia, as a prudent preliminary to baptism, the Moors were all disarmed in November, 1525. In the negotiations for the concordia of 1528 they asked for the

1 Nueva Recop. Lib. VIII. Tit. ii. ley 13.-Coleccion de Doc. inéd. XXXVI. 569.

2 Janer, p. 52.-Marmól Carvajal, p. 159.-Danvila, p. 172.