Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/177

153 EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. 153 act, as evincinff the most lively and laudable zeal chapter.sex is so nice XVII for the true faith. ^^ '— It cannot be denied, that Spain at this period Mistaken ' -i ■•■ piety of the surpassed most of the nations of Christendom in '^"''^°' religious enthusiasm, or, to speak more correctly, in bigotry. This is doubtless imputable to the long war with the Moslems, and its recent glorious issue, which swelled everything heart with exultation, dispos- ing it to consummate the triumphs of the Cross, by purging the land from a heresy, which, strange as it may seem, was scarcely less detested than that of Mahomet. Both the sovereigns partook largely of these feelings. With regard to Isabella, moreover, it must be borne constantly in mind, as has been repeatedly remarked in the course of this History, that she had been used to surrender her own judgment, in matters of conscience, to those spiritual guardians, who were supposed in that age to be its rightful depositaries, and the only casuists who could safely determine the doubtful line of duty. Isabella's pious disposition, and her trem- bling solicitude to discharge her duty, at whatever cost of personal inclination, greatly enforced the precepts of education. In this way, her very virtues 21 The accomplished and amiable primo conspectu laudabilis visa est, Florentine, Pico di Mirandola, in quia decus nostrse Religionis re- his treatise on Judicial Astrology, spiceret, sed aliquantulum in se remarks that, " the sufferings of crudelitatis continere, si eos non the Jews, in ivhich the glory of di- belluas, sed homines a Deo creatos, vine justice delighted, were so ex- consideravimus." De Rebus Ge- sex sex treme as to fill us Christians with nuensibus, apud Muratori, Rerum commiseration." The Genoese Ital. Script., torn. xxiv. — Illescas, historian, Senarega, indeed admits. Hist. Pontif, apud Paramo, De that the measure savoured of some Origine Inquisitionis, p. 167. slight degree of cruelty. ' ' Res heec VOL. II. 20