[238] Voltaire says that these prurient questions were debated with a gusto and a minuteness of detail not found elsewhere. He instances a variety of these absurd theorems.
[239] It may be imagined, as was the case in Berlin, that this behest flowed from the irregular manner and conduct of the clergy; but some of the fathers of the Church entertained and avowed this opinion at a time when the morals of the clergy were not open to impeachment.
[240] Prescott’s History of Ferdinand and Isabella, ii. 502 (note). The learned historian argues the subject at some length.
[241] Byron commemorates the beauty of the women of Cadiz, and, in his description of the shipwreck, saves the mate from being eaten by his starved companions on account of
“A small present made to him at Cadiz,
By general subscription of the ladies.”
[242] Townsend: Travels in Spain in 1786 and 1787.
[243] Townsend.
[244] Attaché in Madrid: Appleton, 1856, p. 64.
[245] Duc de Chatelet’s Travels in Portugal.
[246] Kingston, Sketches in Lusitania, 1845.