Such a remark could only add fuel to the Archbishop of Toledo’s already ardent belief in the efficacy of strong measures; and from this time the old toleration and confidence vanished for ever. The new spirit may be seen in Cisneros’s scornful criticism of Fra Fernando’s scheme for translating the scriptures completely into Arabic, as he had done with the liturgy and catechism. “Will you,” he asked, “cast pearls before swine? or can they in their ignorance fail to interpret the Word of God to their own destruction?”
Determined that at any rate the Moors should not continue their heretical studies, he began to make inquiries as to Arabic literature; and, as a result of this inquisition, instituted autos-de-fé of illuminated manuscripts, priceless because they were often unique. Out of the many thousand treasures of eastern lore that perished in the flames, a few hundred treatises on medicine were alone saved to grace the shelves of the Toledan library at Alcalá de Henares.
It was a sight to make cultured Moors weep with rage, but Cisneros was soon no less unpopular with the poorer and more ignorant citizens. These numbered in their ranks a fair proportion of Christian renegades, men who for various causes had passed into the service of the Moors, and with their allegiance changed their faith. It had been necessary to insert special clauses for their protection in the terms of capitulation; for the Christians regarded them with special loathing, as guilty of treachery in its vilest form; and Cisneros, quibbling between the spirit and the letter of the law, now asserted that the treaty did not hold good where their children were concerned. As descendants of persons who had once been baptized, these should be baptized also, and for the same reason come under the jurisdiction of the Holy Office.
One day he sent two of his officials to arrest the daughter of a renegade who lived in the Albaycin, a quarter of the city whose turbulence we have already noticed. The girl, screaming as they dragged her from the house, that she would be compelled to become a Christian against her will, attracted a large crowd from the surrounding streets; and in the scuffle that followed one of the officials was killed by a heavy stone thrown from a window above, while the other barely escaped with his life.
Having thus drawn blood, the mob, in a dangerous mood, clamoured for the death of the unpopular Archbishop, and seizing arms rushed to the fortress of the Alcazaba where he resided. The Count of Tendilla, who was in the Alhambra, came to his assistance and managed to disperse the rioters; but the disaffection increased, and the situation grew every hour more strained.
At this crisis, Fra Fernando de Talavera, unarmed and accompanied solely by a cross-bearer, made his way where the throng of rioters was densest. The effect was magical; for, almost in a moment, the prevailing anger and suspicion vanished, and many of the ring-leaders crowding round the old Archbishop humbly knelt to kiss his robe. The Count of Tendilla, seeing a hope of reconciliation, came forward also with a few of his men-at-arms, and throwing his scarlet cap upon the ground in sign of peace, induced them, by the surrender of his wife and children as hostages for his good faith, to lay down their arms and return to their homes.
Accounts of the riot and its causes were hastily dispatched to the King and Queen at Seville; and, Cisneros’s particular messenger being delayed, their anger was at first directed against him; and Isabel wrote, demanding an explanation of his provocative action. In response Cisneros himself soon appeared at Court, and, undaunted by the failure of his last efforts or the coldness with which he was received, justified his conduct with much the same reasoning that Torquemada upheld the righteousness of the Inquisition. The people of Granada, he declared in conclusion, had forfeited the terms of capitulation by their outburst of rebellion; and he urged that the sovereigns should not let them go unpunished, and that they should push forward the Faith with unswerving devotion by every means in their power.
His arguments, with their obvious flaw that he himself by an evasion of the terms was mainly responsible for the rebellion in question, yet carried conviction in an atmosphere, whose natural intolerance of heretics and infidels had been considerably stimulated by the persecution of the last twenty years—for it is a commonplace that fanaticism breeds fanatics. The milder counsels of Fra Fernando de Talavera and the Count of Tendilla were rejected; and a certain patriotic sanction seemed given to the rigorous proceedings taken against the rioters, when threatening letters were received from the Sultan of Egypt, showing that the Mahometans of Granada had dared to appeal to him for assistance.
Cisneros’s triumphant return to the southern capital was marked by the baptism of from fifty to seventy thousand Moors within the city and its environs. Outward peace reigned; but trouble was brewing in the mountains of the Alpujarras to the south-east, where many of those who were determined not to accept conversion had taken refuge to plan and plot.
The sovereigns, alarmed at this news, dictated a letter of conciliation to their secretary, and sent it to the disaffected area: