these instructions to suit themselves, and Adrian's successor as inquisitor-general, Archbishop Manrique, was more explicit in a carta acordada, or general order of April 28, 1524. This recites the conversion of the Moriscos by Ferdinand and Isabella, who promised them graces and liberties, in pursuance of which Cardinal Adrian issued many provisions in their favor, ordering inquisitors not to prosecute them for trifling causes, and if any were so arrested they were to be discharged and their property be returned to them. Notwithstanding this inquisitors arrest them on trivial charges and on the evidence of single witnesses. As they are ignorant persons who cannot easily prove their innocence and have never been instructed in the faith, these arrests have greatly scandalized them and they have petitioned that they may not be worse treated, wherefore the Suprema instructs all inquisitors not to arrest any of them without evidence of their having committed some offence directly conclusive of heresy; if there is doubt on this point the testimony is first to be submitted to the Suprema. All persons held for matters not plainly heretical are to have speedy justice tempered with such clemency as conscience may permit.'

It is not to be imagined that these well-intentioned instructions were effective in removing the abuses of which the Moriscos complained. The inviolable secrecy

the property of the prisoner was at once seized and sequestrated and he was imprisoned incommunicado until his trial was ended, which usually occupied from one to three years, during which his family were in total ignorance of his fate and he could know nothing about them. The expenses of his maintenance in prison were paid out of his sequestrated estate which was apt to be consumed in the process.

1

1 Danvila y Collado, Expulsión de los Moriscos, p. 89.

which shrouded all the actions of the tribunals relieved the inquisitors of responsibility and their use of the power with which they were clothed depended almost wholly on individual temperament. Whether their power was well or ill employed they at least secured outward conformity. The Moriscos of Castile were gradually assimilating themselves to their Christian neighbors; they had long since abandoned their national language and dress and they now were assiduous in attendance at mass and vespers, the confessional and the sacrament of the altar; they took part in interments and processions and were commonly regarded as Christians, whatever might be the secrets of their hearts.1

When, in 1512, Ferdinand conquered Navarre he annexed it to the crown of Castile, where the royal power was more absolute than in Aragon. This brought the Mudejares there under the operation of the edict of 1502, giving them the alternative of emigration or of baptism. It cost them comparatively little to transfer themselves to the French portion of the dissevered kingdom and it would seem that, as a rule, they preferred this to baptism and subjection to the Inquisition, which Ferdinand had lost no time in introducing in his new dominions. early as 1516 we are told that from this cause there were two hundred uninhabited houses in the town of Tudela, and thenceforth we hear nothing of Moriscos in Navarre.2

1 Bleda, Cronica, p. 905.

As

2 Yanguas y Miranda, Diccionario de Antigüedades del Reino de Navarra, II. 434 (Pamplona, 1840).

Yanguas (p. 428) prints the very liberal charter accorded to the Moors of Tudela by Alonso el Batallador when he obtained possession of the city in 1114. It shows the same policy as that followed in the

The properties thus abandoned were confiscated, for in 1519 a letter of the Suprema required the titles of all lands of the expelled Moors to be submitted to the inquisitors there.1

But a new act of the tragedy was now about to open which requires a review of some antecedent events.

rest of Spain during the Reconquest. When the crown passed to the House of Capet, Louis Hutin confirmed all the fueros and franchises of the Mudejares in 1307, and in 1368 Charles le Mauvais granted to those of Tudela a remission of half their taxes for three years as a reward for their assistance in his wars, especially in fortification and engineering.—Ibid. p. 433.

1 Archivo de Simancas, Inquisicion, Libro 72, P. I. fol. 173.

CHAPTER III.

THE GERMANIA.

Thus far we have been dealing with the kingdoms of the crown of Castile, of which the policy with regard to the Moors was determined during the joint reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Outside of these lay the kingdoms of the crown of Aragon—Aragon, Valencia and the principality of Catalonia—which were ruled by Ferdinand alone. They had preserved much more of their ancient liberties than had their sister states; they were jealous of their fueros or laws and privileges and their cortes still were bodies with which their princes had to reckon, for their petitions of grievances had precedence over the votes of supplies long after the cortes of Castile were forced to invert the order of procedure. The ruling classes set a high value on their Moorish vassals who cultivated the land and paid heavy imposts, while loans to their aljamas were a favorite investment for prelates and ecclesiastical foundations. It had passed into a proverb that "Mientras mas Moros mas ganancia ""the more Moors the more profit." Strong influences were therefore at work to preserve the status in quo; any disturbance threatened loss, and if the Moors, on receiving baptism, should reach equality before the law with Old Christians, their lords dreaded a notable diminution of revenue. To the last this interested conservatism was

the object of ceaseless objurgation by the zealots who labored at first for forcible conversion and subsequently for expulsion.

This conservatism did not fail to manifest itself as soon as the alarm was given by the occurrences in Granada and Castile—indeed, it was somewhat premature for, as early as 1495, the cortes of Tortosa obtained from Ferdinand a fuero that he would never expel or consent to the expulsion of the Moors of Catalonia. After the edict of 1502 in Castile it was currently reported that Ferdinand would follow the example, leading the cortes of Barcelona in 1503 to exact from him a pledge to the same effect, and in 1510 at the cortes of Monzon he repeated this with the addition that he would make no attempt to convert them by force nor throw any impediment on their free intercourse with Christians to all of which he solemnly swore an oath the repetition of which was exacted of Charles V. on his accession in 1518.1

Ferdinand, in fact, had already interposed in his imperative fashion to check the indiscreet zeal of the inquisitors who were abusing their power to compel conversions

1 Danvila y Collado, La Expulsión, pp. 75, 76.-Fernandez y Gonzalez, p. 441.-Bleda, Crónica, p. 641.-The Latin version of this fuero, as given by Bleda (Defensio Fidei, p. 156) is-"Facimus forum sive legem novam ut Mauri vicini stantes et habitantes in villis Regiis et aliis civitatibus, villis et locis ac ruribus ecclesiasticorum, hominum divitum, nobilium, equitum, civium et aliarum quarumlibet personarum, non expellantur aut ejiciantur neque exterminentur a Regno Valentiæ neque a civitatibus aut villis Regiis illius, neque cogantur fieri Christiani; cum velimus sitque nostra voluntas ut neque per nos neque per successores nostros fiat ullum obstaculum prædictis Mauris dicti Regni in commerciis, in negotiis et contractibus inter Christianos et cum Christianis, sed potius ut libere possint haec agere in posterum sicut hactenus consueverunt."