[26] The uniform tenderness with which the most liberal Spanish writers of the present comparatively enlightened age, as Marina, Llorente, Clemencin, etc., regard the memory of Isabella, affords an honorable testimony to the unsuspected integrity of her motives. Even in relation to the Inquisition, her countrymen would seem willing to draw a veil over her errors, or to excuse her by charging them on the age in which she lived.
[27] Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2. cap. 77.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 43.—Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. pp. 143-145.—Much discrepancy exists in the narratives of Pulgar, Bernaldez, and other contemporary writers, in reference to the era of the establishment of the modern Inquisition. I have followed Llorente, whose chronological accuracy, here and elsewhere, rests on the most authentic documents.
[28] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 77.—I find no contemporary authority for imputing to Cardinal Mendoza an active agency in the establishment of the Inquisition, as is claimed for him by later writers, and especially his kinsman and biographer, the canon Salazar de Mendoza. (Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 49.—Monarquía, tom. i. p. 336.) The conduct of this eminent minister in this affair seems, on the contrary, to have been equally politic and humane. The imputation of bigotry was not cast upon it, until the age when bigotry was esteemed a virtue.
[29] In the interim, a caustic publication by a Jew appeared, containing strictures on the conduct of the administration, and even on the Christian religion, which was controverted at length by Talavera, afterwards archbishop of Granada. The scandal occasioned by this ill-timed production undoubtedly contributed to exacerbate the popular odium against the Israelites.
[30] It is worthy of remark, that the famous cortes of Toledo, assembled but a short time previous to the above-mentioned ordinances, and which enacted several oppressive laws in relation to the Jews, made no allusion whatever to the proposed establishment of a tribunal, which was to be armed with such terrific powers.
[31] This ordinance, in which Llorente discerns the first regular encroachment of the new tribunal on the civil jurisdiction, was aimed partly at the Andalusian nobility, who afforded a shelter to the Jewish fugitives. Llorente has fallen into the error, more than once, of speaking of the count of Arcos, and marquis of Cadiz, as separate persons. The possessor of both titles was Rodrigo Ponce de Leon, who inherited the former of them from his father. The latter (which he afterwards made so illustrious in the Moorish wars) was conferred on him by Henry IV., being derived from the city of that name, which had been usurped from the crown.
[32] The historian of Seville quotes the Latin inscription on the portal of the edifice in which the sittings of the dread tribunal were held. Its concluding apostrophe to the Deity is one that the persecuted might join in, as heartily as their oppressors. "Exurge Domine; judica causam tuam; capite nobis vulpes." Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 389.
[33] Ordenanças Reales, lib. 8, tit. 3, ley 26.
[34] Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. pp. 153-159.
[35] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 44.—Llorente, Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. 1, p. 160.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 164.— The language of Bernaldez as applied to the four statues of the quemadero, "en que los quemavan," is so equivocal, that it has led to some doubts whether he meant to assert that the persons to be burnt were enclosed in the statues, or fastened to them. Llorente's subsequent examination has led him to discard the first horrible supposition, which realized the fabled cruelty of Phalaris.—This monument of fanaticism continued to disgrace Seville till 1810, when it was removed in order to make room for the construction of a battery against the French.