[34] Conde gives the following account of these chivalric associations among the Spanish Arabs, which, as far as I know, have hitherto escaped the notice of European historians. "The Moslem fronteros professed great austerity in their lives, which they consecrated to perpetual war, and bound themselves by a solemn vow to defend the frontier against the incursions of the Christians. They were choice cavaliers, possessed of consummate patience, and enduring fatigue, and always prepared to die rather than desert their posts. It appears highly probable that the Moorish fraternities suggested the idea of those military orders so renowned for their valor in Spain and in Palestine, which rendered such essential services to Christendom; for both the institutions were established on similar principles." Conde, Historia de la Dominacion de los Arabes en España, (Madrid, 1820,) tom. i. p. 619, not.
[35] See the details, given by Mariana, of the overgrown possessions of the Templars in Castile at the period of their extinction, in the beginning of the fourteenth century. (Hist. de España, lib. 15, cap. 10.) The knights of the Temple and the Hospitallers seem to have acquired still greater power in Aragon, where one of the monarchs was so infatuated as to bequeath them his whole dominions,—a bequest which, it may well be believed, was set aside by his high-spirited subjects. Zurita, Anales, lib. 1, cap. 52.
[36] The apparition of certain preternatural lights in a forest, discovered to a Galician peasant, in the beginning of the ninth century, the spot, in which was deposited a marble sepulchre containing the ashes of St. James. The miracle is reported with sufficient circumstantiality by Florez, (Historia Compostellana, lib. 1, cap. 2, apud España Sagrada, tom. xx.) and Ambrosio de Morales, (Corónica General de España, (Obras, Madrid, 1791-3,) lib. 9, cap. 7,) who establishes, to his own satisfaction, the advent of St. James into Spain. Mariana, with more skepticism than his brethren, doubts the genuineness of the body, as well as the visit of the Apostle, but like a good Jesuit concludes, "It is not expedient to disturb with such disputes the devotion of the people, so firmly settled as it is." (Lib. 7, cap. 10.) The tutelar saint of Spain continued to support his people by taking part with them in battle against the infidel down to a very late period. Caro de Torres mentions two engagements in which he cheered on the squadrons of Cortes and Pizarro, "with his sword flashing lightning in the eyes of the Indians." Ordenes Militares, fol. 5.
[37] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, fol. 3-15.—Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 2-8.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. pp. 116-118.
[38] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 2, fol. 3-9, 49.—Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 49, 50.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. pp. 100-104.
[39] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 3, fol. 1-6.—The knights of Alcantara wore a white mantle, embroidered with a green cross.
[40] Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 1, fol. 12-15, 43, 54, 61, 64, 66, 67; part. 2, fol. 11, 51; part. 3, fol. 42, 49, 50.—Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, passim.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 33.—Garibay, Compendio, lib. 11, cap. 13.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. lib. 1, cap. 19.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.
[41] Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 46, 74, 83.—Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part. 2, cap. 64.—Rades y Andrada, Las Tres Ordenes, part. 1, fol. 69, 70; part. 2, fol. 82, 83; part. 3, fol. 54.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.—The sovereigns gave great offence to the jealous grandees who were competitors for the mastership of St. James, by conferring that dignity on Alonso de Cardenas, with their usual policy of making merit rather than birth the standard of preferment.
[42] Caro de Torres, Ordenes Militares, fol. 84.—Riol has given a full account of the constitution of this council, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 164 et seq.
[43] The reader will find a view of the condition and general resources of the military orders as existing in the present century in Spain, in Laborde, Itinéraire Descriptif de l'Espagne, (2d edition, Paris, 1827-30,) tom. v. pp. 102-117.