ness. The reply to this was a royal order recapitulating a provision of the pragmatica of Granada forbidding any Morisco of that kingdom from carrying any weapon, offensive or defensive, save a pointless knife, under penalty, for a first offence, of confiscation, for a second of six years of galleys and for a third of galleys for life, all of which was ordered to be strictly enforced.'

The imputation of broken faith can scarce be cast on the disabilities as to holding office or benefices, which in the latter part of the sixteenth century weighed upon the Moriscos, but nevertheless it was deeply felt by the rich and educated among them, many of whom were Christians in heart as well as in externals. It was a matter not prominent at the time of the enforced baptisms and promises of equality with Old Christians, but was a later outgrowth of the increasing development of fanatic intolerance, attributable in part to the passions aroused by the Reformation. Space is lacking to treat here the portentous subject of limpieza, or purity of blood, which in time filled the land of Spain with envy, hatred and all uncharitableness. It must suffice to say that, towards the middle of the sixteenth century, the doors were closed on all descendants of Jews and Moors, or of heretics publicly penanced by the Inquisition, for admission to many of the colleges and universities, to benefices in many cathedral churches, to most of the religious and all the military Orders, to positions in the Inquisition and even in some places to municipal offices. The exact extent to which this prevailed it would be impossible now to define, for each body was a law unto itself in this respect.

1 Janer, p. 251.

Thus in Granada, we are told, the cathedral and collegiate churches did not require limpieza, while in Bilboa it was a condition for municipal office.1 In the great universities, such as Salamanca and Alcala, the condition of limpieza must have been confined to the faculties and officials, for it would have been impossible to require the crowds of students to go through the tedious and expensive process of presenting proofs of limpieza, but in the college of the Dominican house of Santa Maria of Toledo it was enforced on all students of arts and theology. In a land where a career in ecclesiastical or secular office was

1 Escobar de Puritate et Nobilitate probanda, P. I. Q. xiii. ? 3 No. 71.-Ordenanzas de la Noble Villa de Bilbao, Tit. I. cap. ii. (Bilbao, 1682).

The Basque Provinces seem to have been particularly antagonistic to Moors and Jews. As early as 1482 Guipuscoa had a statute forbidding conversos to reside or to marry there (Pulgar, Letra xxxi. p. 61). In 1511 Biscay procured a royal pragmatica expelling all conversos and Moors and their descendants. In 1561 it petitioned the Council of Castile for the enforcement of this, but the council decided that it had never been enforced and that its enforcement was inexpedient, so the procurators were told to depart and they would be summoned when the subject was to be considered. Not content with this rebuff they made another application in 1565, with the same result.—Autos y Acuerdos del Consejo, fol. 5, 8 (Madrid, 1649).-Autos Acordados, Lib. VIII. Tit. ii. Auto 1.-Novis. Recop. Lib. XII. Tit. i. ley. 4.

2 Ripoll, Bullar. Ord. FF. Prædic. IV. 163. -In the letter, June 19, 1547, of Archbishop Siliceo of Toledo and his chapter to the Royal Council, arguing in favor of the statute of limpieza which they had adopted, they say it is in force in all the Spanish colleges and even in that of Bologna, founded by Albornoz, none but Old Christians were received as collegians, chaplains or familiars and from these colleges were drawn, for the most part, the members of councils and chancelleries and other judicial officers, and all other members of councils and chancelleries, are Old Christians, except through ignorance.—Burriel, Vidas de los Arzobispos de Toledo, Vol. II. fol. 2, 3 (Biblioteca Nacional, Seccion de MSS. Ff. 194).

the ambition of almost every one who had even a smattering of education, the barrier thus erected was a severe infliction on the more intelligent and influential Moriscos and could scarcely fail to excite disaffection and discontent. Navarrete, indeed, thinks that the necessity for the expulsion could have been avoided but for this— that they could have been Christianized if they had been admitted to a share of the honors of public life and had not been driven to desperation and hatred of religion by the indelible mark of infamy which was imposed on them.'

Yet in the earlier period of this development there seems rather to have been a desire to shield the Moriscos from its blighting influence. The office of familiar of the Inquisition, although unsalaried, was one eagerly sought, both on account of a certain amount of social distinction which it conferred and of the exemption which it carried from the jurisdiction of the secular courts. The first application of limpieza to familiars occurs in an order by the Suprema, October 10, 1546, that none shall be admitted who is not an Old Christian, but when, in 1547, the cortes of Monzon complained that many Moriscos were appointed, the reply of the Suprema was that the Inquisition regards as capable of holding office all who are baptized and live as Christians, except heretics and apostates and their factors. It was not long before there was a change as to this, for, in a letter of 1552 to the inquisitors of Valencia, Inquisitor-general Valdes orders that they appoint as familiars none who are descended from Jews or Moors, and a royal cedula of March 10, 1553, prescribes as a universal rule that

1 Navarrete, Conservacion de Monarquias, pp. 51-3 (Ed. 1626).

familiars shall be Old Christians. Yet in 1565, when Philip II. was essaying conciliation, he ordered that leading and influential Moriscos shall be appointed. It was not long after this, however, in 1568, that we find the inquisitors of Barcelona reproved for inobservance of the rule and ordered to see that in future all familiars shall be limpios. Even more marked was the consideration shown with respect to clerical careers. When, in 1566, Archbishop Ayala introduced the rule of limpieza in the Valencian church, he prohibited any descendant of Jews or heretics to the fourth generation direct, or the second degree collateral, from obtaining any ecclesiastical dignity or preferment. In this the omission of Moriscos is significant. Paul IV. had forbidden admission to holy orders to the descendants of Jews to the fourth generation and, in 1573, Gregory XIII. extended this to Moors, but in 1564, at the cortes of Monzon, it was decreed that those trained in the Morisco college of Valencia should be allowed to hold benefices and the cure of souls among their people, and we are told that they graduated some good priests and preachers and doctors of theology.4 As time wore on, however, and as hatred and contempt were intensified, the exclusion became general; able and

3

1 Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Libro 4, fol. 208, 215; Libro 922, fol. 15; Libro 926, fol. 33; Visitas de Barcelona, Legajo 15, fol. 20.—Danvila, p. 169.

Fonseca, p. 377. Fonseca however tells us (p. 67) that Archbishop Ribera suspended from their functions all Morisco priests, though among them there were doctors and vicars of good life and reputation, who had been educated in the seminaries, owing to a probable doubt as to whether they had been baptized.

ambitious men, who might have done the state service and have been useful in winning over their fellows, were rendered hopeless and were reduced to expend their vigor in spreading disaffection and stimulating the spirit of revolt.

If the relations of the Moriscos to the state and to society were thus deplorable, those which they bore to the Church, even apart from persecution, were little better. It was only under the fiction that they were Christians that they were allowed to exist in the land of their ancestors; it was the duty of the Church to make them conform to its observances, externally at least, and they were therefore subjected to perpetual espionage and the enforced performance of practices at which they revolted. They were exposed to the extortions, legal and illegal, of alguaziles, appointed by the bishops, but with the privileges of familiars, whose duty it was to keep close watch over them and collect the fines for working On feastdays, absence from mass, or doing other things prohibited in the printed instructions issued for their guidance. In 1595 Bishop Perez of Segorbe describes these gentry as paid by a half or a third of their collections, and as this amounted to a bare pittance the position was only accepted by the very poor, who were bribed to conceal the offences committed and were afraid to do their duty, threatened as they were by the lords and also by the Moriscos in remote districts.4

To one practice the Moriscos were particularly attached —the treatment of their dead, arraying them in clean

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