The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 36

[33] "Die, and endow a college or a cat!"

The verse is somewhat stale, but expresses, better than a page of prose can, the credit due to such posthumous benefactions, when they set aside the dearest natural ties for the mere indulgence of a selfish vanity, which motives cannot be imputed to Ximenes. He had always conscientiously abstained from appropriating his archi-episcopal revenues, as we have seen, to himself or his family. His dying bequest, therefore, was only in keeping with his whole life.

[34] The good father Quintanilla vindicates his hero's chast.i.ty, somewhat at the expense of his breeding. "His purity was unexampled," says he. "He shunned the s.e.x, like so many evil spirits; _looking on every woman as a devil_, let her be never so holy. Had it not been in the way of his professional calling, it is not too much to say he would never have suffered his eyes to light on one of them!" Archetypo, p. 80.

[35] Flechier, Histoire de Ximenes, liv. 6, p. 634.

[36] Quintanilla has given the brief of his Holiness _in extenso_, with commentaries thereon, twice as long. See Archeotypo, lib. 4, cap. 10.

[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 219.--Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 2, cap. 4. The reader may find a pendant to this anecdote in a similar one recorded of Ximenes's predecessor, the grand cardinal Mendoza, in Part II.

Chapter 5, of this History. The conduct of the two primates on the occasion, was sufficiently characteristic.

[38] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, ubi supra.-- Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 2, cap. 5, 7, 8; who cites Dr. Vergara, the cardinal's friend. It is Baron Grimm, I think, who tells us of Fontenelle's habit of dropping his trumpet when the conversation did not pay him for the trouble of holding it up. The good- natured Reynolds, according to Goldsmith, could "s.h.i.+ft his trumpet" on such an emergency also.

[39] Ximenes's head was examined some forty years after his interment, and the skull was found to be without sutures. (Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol.

218.) Richelieu's was found to be perforated with little holes. The abbe Richard deduces a theory from this, which may startle the physiologist even more than the facts. "On ouvrit son Test, on y trouva 12 pet.i.ts trous par ou s'exhaloient les vapeurs de son cerveau, ce qui fit qu' il n'eut jamais aucun mal de tete; au lieu que le Test de Ximenes etoit sans suture, a quoi l'on attribua les effroyables douleurs de tete qu'il avoit presque toujours." Parallele, p. 177.

[40] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 218.

[41] A little treatise has been devoted to this very subject, ent.i.tled "Parallele du Card. Ximenes et du Card. Richelieu, par Mons. l'Abbe Richard; a Trevoux, 1705." 222 pp. 12mo. The author, with a candor rare indeed, where national vanity is interested, strikes the balance without hesitation in favor of the foreigner Ximenes.

[42] The catalogue of the various offices of Ximenes occupies near half a page of Quintanilla. At the time of his death, the chief ones that he filled were, those of archbishop of Toledo, and consequently primate of Spain, grand chancellor of Castile, cardinal of the Roman church, inquisitor-general of Castile, and regent.

CHAPTER XXVI.

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.

Policy of the Crown.--Towards the n.o.bles.--The Clergy.--Consideration of the Commons.--Advancement of Prerogative.--Legal Complications.--The Legal Profession.--Trade.--Manufactures.--Agriculture.--Restrictive Policy.-- Revenues.--Progress of Discovery.--Colonial Administration.--General Prosperity.--Increase of Population.--Chivalrous Spirit.--The Period of National Glory.

We have now traversed that important period of history, comprehending the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century; a period when the convulsions, which shook to the ground, the ancient political fabrics of Europe, roused the minds of its inhabitants from the lethargy in which they had been buried for ages. Spain, as we have seen, felt the general impulse. Under the glorious rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, we have beheld her, emerging from chaos into a new existence; unfolding, under the influence of inst.i.tutions adapted to her genius, energies of which she was before unconscious; enlarging her resources from all the springs of domestic industry and commercial enterprise; and insensibly losing the ferocious habits of a feudal age, in the refinements of an intellectual and moral culture.

In the fulness of time, when her divided powers had been concentrated under one head, and the system of internal economy completed, we have seen her descend into the arena with the other nations of Europe, and in a very few years achieve the most important acquisitions of territory, both in that quarter and in Africa; and finally crowning the whole by the discovery and occupation of a boundless empire beyond the waters. In the progress of the action, we may have been too much occupied with its details, to attend sufficiently to the principles which regulated them.

But now that we have reached the close, we may be permitted to cast a parting glance over the field that we have traversed, and briefly survey the princ.i.p.al steps by which the Spanish sovereigns, under Divine Providence, led their nation up to such a height of prosperity and glory.

Ferdinand and Isabella, on their accession, saw at once that the chief source of the distractions of the country lay in the overgrown powers, and factious spirit, of the n.o.bility. Their first efforts, therefore, were directed to abate these as far as possible. A similar movement was going forward, in the other European monarchies; but in none was it crowned with so speedy and complete success as in Castile, by means of those bold and decisive measures, which have been detailed in an early chapter of this work. [1] The same policy was steadily pursued during the remainder of their reign; less indeed by open a.s.sault than by indirect means. [2]

Among these, one of the most effectual was the omission, to summon the privileged orders to cortes, in several of the most important sessions of that body. This so far from being a new stretch of prerogative, was only an exercise of the anomalous powers already familiar to the crown, as elsewhere noticed. [3] Nor does it seem to have been viewed as a grievance by the other party, who regarded these meetings with the more indifference, since their aristocratic immunities exempted them from the taxation, which was generally the prominent object of them. But, from whatever cause proceeding, by this impolitic acquiescence they surrendered, undoubtedly, the most valuable of their rights,--one which has enabled the British aristocracy to maintain its political consideration unimpaired, while that of the Castilian has faded away into an empty pageant. [4]

Another practice steadily pursued by the sovereigns, was to raise men of humble station to offices of the highest trust; not, however, like their contemporary, Louis the Eleventh, because their station was humble, in order to mortify the higher orders, but because they courted merit, wherever it was to be found; [5]--a policy much and deservedly commended by the sagacious observers of the time. [6] The history of Spain does not probably afford another example of a person of the lowly condition of Ximenes, attaining, not merely the highest offices in the kingdom, but eventually its uncontrolled supremacy. [7] The multiplication of legal tribunals, and other civil offices, afforded the sovereigns ample scope for pursuing this policy, in the demand created for professional science.

The n.o.bles, intrusted hitherto with the chief direction of affairs, now saw it pa.s.s into the hands of persons, who had other qualifications than martial prowess or hereditary rank. Such as courted distinction, were compelled to seek it by the regular avenues of academic discipline. How extensively the spirit operated, and with what brilliant success, we have already seen. [8] But, whatever the aristocracy may have gained in refinement of character, it resigned much of its prescriptive power, when it condescended to enter the arena on terms of equal compet.i.tion with its inferiors for the prizes of talent and scholars.h.i.+p.

Ferdinand pursued a similar course in his own dominions of Aragon, where he uniformly supported the commons, or may more properly be said to have been supported by them, in the attempt to circ.u.mscribe the authority of the great feudatories. Although he accomplished this, to a considerable extent, their power was too firmly intrenched behind positive inst.i.tutions to be affected like that of the Castilian aristocracy, whose rights had been swelled beyond their legitimate limits by every species of usurpation. [9]

With all the privileges retrieved from this order, is still possessed a disproportionate weight in the political balance. The great lords still claimed some of the most considerable posts, both civil and military. [10]

Their revenues were immense, and their broad lands covered unbroken leagues of extent in every quarter of the kingdom. [11] The queen, who reared many of their children in the royal palace, under her own eye, endeavored to draw her potent va.s.sals to the court; [12] but many, still cheris.h.i.+ng the ancient spirit of independence, preferred to live in feudal grandeur, surrounded by their retainers in their strong castles, and wait there, in grim repose, the hour when they might sally forth and rea.s.sert by arms their despoiled authority. Such a season occurred on Isabella's death. The warlike n.o.bles eagerly seized it; but the wily and resolute Ferdinand, and afterwards the iron hand of Ximenes, kept them in check, and prepared the way for the despotism of Charles the Fifth, round whom the haughty aristocracy of Castile, shorn of substantial power, were content to revolve as the satellites of a court, reflecting only the borrowed splendors of royalty.

The Queen's government was equally vigilant in resisting ecclesiastical encroachment. It may appear otherwise to one who casts a superficial glance at her reign, and beholds her surrounded always by a troop of ghostly advisers, and avowing religion as the great end of her princ.i.p.al operations at home and abroad. [13]

It is certain, however, that, while in all her acts she confessed the influence of religion, she took more effectual means than any of her predecessors, to circ.u.mscribe the temporal powers of the clergy. [14] The volume of her pragmaticas is filled with laws designed to limit their jurisdiction, and restrain their encroachments on the secular authorities.

[15] Towards the Roman See, she maintained, as we have often had occasion to notice, the same independent att.i.tude. By the celebrated concordat made with Sixtus the Fourth, in 1482, the pope conceded to the sovereigns the right of nominating to the higher dignities of the church. [16] The Holy See, however, still a.s.sumed the collation to inferior benefices, which were too often lavished on non-residents, and otherwise unsuitable persons. The queen sometimes extorted a papal indulgence granting the right of presentation, for a limited time; on which occasions she showed such alacrity, that she is known to have disposed, in a single day, of more than twenty prebends and inferior dignities. At other times, when the nomination made by his Holiness, as not unfrequently happened, was distasteful to her, she would take care to defeat it, by forbidding the bull to be published until laid before the privy council; at the same time sequestrating the revenues of the vacant benefice, till her own requisitions were complied with. [17]

She was equally solicitous in watching over the morals of the clergy, inculcating on the higher prelates to hold frequent pastoral communication with their suffragans, and to report to her such as were delinquent. [18]

By these vigilant measures, she succeeded in restoring the ancient discipline of the church, and weeding out the sensuality and indolence, which had so long defiled it; while she had the inexpressible satisfaction to see the princ.i.p.al places, long before her death, occupied by prelates, whose learning and religious principle gave the best a.s.surance of the stability of the reformation. [19] Few of the Castilian monarchs have been brought more frequently into collision, or pursued a bolder policy, with the court of Rome. Still fewer have extorted from it such important graces and concessions; a circ.u.mstance, which can only be imputed, says a Castilian writer, "to singular good fortune and consummate prudence;" [20]

to that deep conviction of the queen's integrity, we may also add, which disarmed resistance, even in her enemies.

The condition of the commons under this reign was probably, on the whole, more prosperous than in any other period of the Spanish history. New avenues to wealth and honors were opened to them; and persons and property were alike protected under the fearless and impartial administration of the law. "Such was the justice dispensed to every one under this auspicious reign," exclaims Marineo, "that n.o.bles and cavaliers, citizens and laborers, rich and poor, masters and servants, all equally partook of it." [21] We find no complaints of arbitrary imprisonment, and no attempts, so frequent both in earlier and later times, at illegal taxation. In this particular, indeed, Isabella manifested the greatest tenderness for her people. By her commutation of the capricious tax of the _alcavala_ for a determinate one, and still more by transferring its collection from the revenue officers to the citizens themselves, she greatly relieved her subjects. [22]

Finally, notwithstanding the perpetual call for troops for the military operations in which the government was constantly engaged, and notwithstanding the example of neighboring countries, there was no attempt to establish that iron bulwark of despotism, a standing army; at least, none nearer than that of the voluntary levies of the hermandad, raised and paid by the people. The queen never admitted the arbitrary maxims of Ximenes in regard to the foundation of government. Hers was essentially one of opinion, not force. [23] Had it rested on any other than the broad basis of public opinion, it could not have withstood a day the violent shocks, to which it was early exposed, nor have achieved the important revolution that it finally did, both in the domestic and foreign concerns of the country.

The condition of the kingdom, on Isabella's accession, necessarily gave the commons unwonted consideration. In the tottering state of her affairs, she was obliged to rest on their strong arm for support. It did not fail her. Three sessions of the legislature, or rather the popular branch of it, were held during the two first years of her reign. It was in these early a.s.semblies, that the commons bore an active part in concocting the wholesome system of laws, which restored vitality and vigor to the exhausted republic. [24]

After this good work was achieved, the sessions of that body became more rare. There was less occasion for them, indeed, during the existence of the hermandad, which was, of itself, an ample representation of the Castilian commons, and which, by enforcing obedience to the law at home, and by liberal supplies for foreign war, superseded, in a great degree, the call for more regular meetings of cortes. [25] The habitual economy, too, not to say frugality, which regulated the public, as well as private expenditure of the sovereigns, enabled them, after this period, with occasional exceptions, to dispense with other aid than that drawn from the regular revenues of the crown.

There is every ground for believing that the political franchises of the people, as then understood, were uniformly respected. The number of cities summoned to cortes, which had so often varied according to the caprices of princes, never fell short of that prescribed by long usage. On the contrary, an addition was made by the conquest of Granada, and, in a cortes held soon after the queen's death, we find a most narrow and impolitic remonstrance of the legislature itself, against the alleged unauthorized extension of the privilege of representation. [26]

In one remarkable particular, which may be thought to form a material exception to the last observations, the conduct of the crown deserves to be noticed. This was, the promulgation of _pragmaticas_, or royal ordinances, and that to a greater extent, probably, than under any other reign, before or since. This important prerogative was claimed and exercised, more or less freely, by most European sovereigns in ancient times. Nothing could be more natural, than that the prince should a.s.sume such authority, or that the people, blind to the ultimate consequences, and impatient of long or frequent sessions of the legislature, should acquiesce in the temperate use of it. As far as these ordinances were of an executive character, or designed as supplementary to parliamentary enactments, or in obedience to previous suggestions of cortes, they appear to lie open to no const.i.tutional objections in Castile. [27] But it was not likely that limits, somewhat loosely defined, would be very nicely observed; and under preceding reigns this branch of prerogative had been most intolerably abused. [28]

A large proportion of these laws are of an economical character, designed to foster trade and manufactures, and to secure fairness in commercial dealings. [29] Many are directed against the growing spirit of luxury, and many more occupied with the organization of the public tribunals. Whatever be thought of their wisdom in some cases, it will not be easy to detect any attempt to innovate on the settled principles of criminal jurisprudence, or on those regulating the transfer of property. When these were to be discussed, the sovereigns were careful to call in the aid of the legislature; an example which found little favor with their successors. [30] It is good evidence of the public confidence in the government, and the generally beneficial scope of these laws, that, although of such unprecedented frequency, they should have escaped parliamentary animadversion. [31] But, however patriotic the intentions of the Catholic sovereigns, and however safe, or even salutary, the power intrusted to such hands, it was a fatal precedent, and under the Austrian dynasty became the most effectual lever for overturning the liberties of the nation.

The preceding remarks on the policy observed towards the commons in this reign must be further understood as applying with far less qualification to the queen, than to her husband. The latter, owing perhaps to the lessons which he had derived from his own subjects of Aragon, "who never abated one jot of their const.i.tutional rights," says Martyr, "at the command of a king," [32] and whose meetings generally brought fewer supplies to the royal coffers, than grievances to redress, seems to have had little relish for popular a.s.semblies. He convened them as rarely as possible in Aragon, [33] and when he did, omitted no effort to influence their deliberations. [34] He antic.i.p.ated, perhaps, similar difficulties in Castile, after his second marriage had lost him the affections of the people. At any rate, he evaded calling them together on more than one occasion imperiously demanded by the const.i.tution; [35] and, when he did so, he invaded their privileges, [36] and announced principles of government, [37] which formed a discreditable, and, it must be admitted, rare exception to the usual tenor of his administration. Indeed, the most honorable testimony is borne to its general equity and patriotism, by a cortes convened soon after the queen's death, when the tribute, as far as she was concerned, still more unequivocally, must have been sincere. [38]

A similar testimony is afforded by the panegyrics and the practice of the more liberal Castilian writers, who freely resort to this reign, as the great fountain of const.i.tutional precedent. [39]

The commons gained political consideration, no doubt, by the depression of the n.o.bles; but their chief gain lay in the inestimable blessings of domestic tranquillity, and the security of private rights. The crown absorbed the power, in whatever form, retrieved from the privileged orders; the pensions and large domains, the numerous fortified places, the rights of seigniorial jurisdiction, the command of the military orders, and the like. Other circ.u.mstances conspired to raise the regal authority still higher; as, for example, the international relations then opened with the rest of Europe, which, whether friendly or hostile, were conducted by the monarch alone, who, unless to obtain supplies, rarely condescended to seek the intervention of the other estates; the concentration of the dismembered provinces of the Peninsula under one government; the immense acquisitions abroad, whether from discovery or conquest, regarded in that day as the property of the crown, rather than of the nation; and, finally, the consideration flowing from the personal character, and long successful rule, of the Catholic sovereigns. Such were the manifold causes, which, without the imputation of a criminal ambition, or indifference to the rights of their subjects, in Ferdinand and Isabella, all combined to swell the prerogative to an unprecedented height under their reign.

This, indeed, was the direction in which all the governments of Europe, at this period, were tending. The people, wisely preferring a single master to a mult.i.tude, sustained the crown in its efforts to recover from the aristocracy the enormous powers it so grossly abused. This was the revolution of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The power thus deposited in a single hand, was found in time equally incompatible with the great ends of civil government; while it gradually acc.u.mulated to an extent, which threatened to crush the monarchy by its own weight. But the inst.i.tutions derived from a Teutonic origin have been found to possess a conservative principle, unknown to the fragile despotisms of the east. The seeds of liberty, though dormant, lay deep in the heart of the nation, waiting only the good time to germinate. That time has at length arrived.

Larger experience, and a wider moral culture, have taught men not only the extent of their political rights, but the best way to secure them. And it is the rea.s.sertion of these by the great body of the people, which now const.i.tutes the revolution going forward in most of the old communities of Europe. The progress of liberal principles must be controlled, of course, by the peculiar circ.u.mstances and character of the nation; but their ultimate triumph, in every quarter, none can reasonably distrust. May it not be abused.

The prosperity of the country, under Ferdinand and Isabella, its growing trade and new internal relations, demanded new regulations, which, as before noticed, were attempted to be supplied by the _pragmaticas_.

This was adding, however, to the embarra.s.sments of a jurisprudence already far too c.u.mbrous. The Castilian lawyer might despair of a critical acquaintance with the voluminous ma.s.s of legislation, which, in the form of munic.i.p.al charters, Roman codes, parliamentary statutes, and royal ordinances, were received as authority in the courts. [40] The manifold evils resulting from this unsettled and conflicting jurisprudence, had led the legislature repeatedly to urge its digest into a more simple and uniform system. Some approach was made towards this in the code of the "Ordenancas Reales," compiled in the early part of the queen's reign. [41]

The great body of _Pragmaticas_, subsequently, issued, were also collected into a separate volume by her command, [42] and printed the year before her death. These two codes may therefore be regarded as embracing the ordinary legislation of her reign. [43]

In 1505, the celebrated little code, called "Leyes de Tore," from the place where the cortes was held, received the sanction of that body. [44]

Its laws, eighty-four in number, and designed as supplementary to those already existing, are chiefly occupied with the rights of inheritance and marriage. It is here that the ominous term "mayorazgo" may be said to have been naturalized in Castilian jurisprudence. [45] The peculiar feature of these laws, aggravated in no slight degree by the glosses of the civilians, [46] is the facility which they give to entails; a fatal facility, which, chiming in with the pride and indolence natural to the Spanish character, ranks them among the most efficient agents of the decay of husbandry and the general impoverishment of the country.

Besides these codes, there were the "Leyes de la Hermandad," [47] the "Quaderno de Alcavalas," with others of less note for the regulation of trade, made in this reign. [48] But still the great scheme of a uniform digest of the munic.i.p.al law of Castile, although it occupied the most distinguished jurisconsults of the time, was unattained at the queen's death. [49] How deeply it engaged her mind in that hour, is evinced by the clause in her codicil, in which she bequeaths the consummation of the work, as an imperative duty, to her successors. [50] It was not completed till the reign of Philip the Second; and the large proportion of Ferdinand and Isabella's laws, admitted into that famous compilation, shows the prospective character of their legislation, and the uncommon discernment with which it was accommodated to the peculiar genius and wants of the nation. [51]

The immense increase of empire, and the corresponding development of the national resources, not only demanded new laws, but a thorough reorganization of every department of the administration. Laws may be received as indicating the dispositions of the ruler, whether for good or for evil; but it is in the conduct of the tribunals that we are to read the true character of his government. It was the upright and vigilant administration of these, which const.i.tuted the best claim of Ferdinand and Isabella to the grat.i.tude of their country. To facilitate the despatch of business, it was distributed among a number of bureaus or councils, at the head of which stood the "royal council," whose authority and functions I have already noticed. [52] In order to leave this body more leisure for its executive duties, a new audience, or chancery, as it was called, was established at Valladolid, in 1480, whose judges were drawn from the members of the king's council. A similar tribunal was inst.i.tuted, after the Moorish conquests, in the southern division of the monarchy; and both had supreme jurisdiction over all civil causes, which were carried up to them from the inferior audiences throughout the kingdom. [53]

The "council of the supreme" was placed over the Inquisition with a special view to the interests of the crown; an end, however, which it very imperfectly answered, as appears from its frequent collision with the royal and secular jurisdictions. [54] The "council of the orders" had charge, as the name imports, of the great military fraternities. [55] The "council of Aragon" was intrusted with the general administration of that kingdom and its dependencies, including Naples; and had besides extensive jurisdiction as a court of appeal. [56] Lastly, the "council of the Indies" was inst.i.tuted by Ferdinand, in 1511, for the control of the American department. Its powers, comprehensive as they were in its origin, were so much enlarged under Charles the Fifth and his successors, that it became the depository of all law, the fountain of all nominations, both ecclesiastical and temporal, and the supreme tribunal, where all questions, whether of government or trade in the colonies, were finally adjudicated. [57]

Such were the forms, which the government a.s.sumed under the hands of Ferdinand and Isabella. The great concerns of the empire were brought under the control of a few departments, which looked to the crown as their common head. The chief stations were occupied by lawyers, who were alone competent to the duties; and the precincts of the court swarmed with a loyal militia, who, as they owed their elevation to its patronage, were not likely to interpret the law to the disparagement of prerogative. [58]

The greater portion of the laws of this reign are directed, in some form or other, as might be expected, to commerce and domestic industry. Their very large number, however, implies an extraordinary expansion of the national energy and resources, as well as a most earnest disposition in the government to foster them. The wisdom of these efforts, at all times, is not equally certain. I will briefly enumerate a few of the most characteristic and important provisions.