Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/398

254 254 THE INQUISITION. PART The Jews were astounded by the bolt, which ^' had fallen so unexpectedly upon them. Some suc- court. ceeded in making their escape to Granada, others to France, Germany, or Italy, where they appealed from the decisions of the Holy Office to the sove- conductof reign pontiff." Sixtus the Fourth appears for a the papal o l a i ^ moment to have been touched with something like compunction ; for he rebuked the intemperate zeal of the inquisitors, and even menaced them with deprivation. But these feelings, it would seem, were but transient ; for, in 1483, we find the same pontiff quieting the scruples of Isabella respecting the appropriation of the confiscated property, and encouraging both sovereigns to proceed in the great work of purification, by an audacious reference to the example of Jesus Christ, who, saj^s he, consoli- dated his kingdom on earth by the destruction of idolatry ; and he concludes with imputing their successes in the Moorish war, upon which they had then entered, to their zeal for the faith, and prom- ising them the like in future. In the course of the sums up the various severities of again, who sincerely repent, she, the Holy Office in the following notwithstanding the heinousness gentle terms. " The church, who of their transgressions, mcrchj sen- is the mother of mercy and the fences to ferpelual imprisonment ! ''^ fountain of charity, content with Such were the tender mercies of the imposition of penances, gen- the Spanish Inquisition, erously accords life to many who ^7 Bernaldez states, that guards do not deserve it. While those were posted at the gates of the who persist obstinately in their er- city of Seville in order to prevent rors, after being imprisoned on the the emigration of the Jewish in- testimony of trust-worthy witness- habitants, which indeed was forbid- es, she causes to be put to the den under pain of death. The tri- torture, and condemned to the bunal, however, had greater ter- flames; some miserably i)erish, be- rors for them, and many succeeded wailing their errors, and invoking in effectino their escape. Reves the name of Christ, while others Catolicos, MS., cap. 44. call upon that of Moses. Many