Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/178

154 154 EXPULSION OF THE JEWS. PAET I became the source of her errors. Unfortunately, she lived in an age and station, which attached to these errors the most momentous consequences.^^ — But we gladly turn from these dark prospects to a brighter page of her history. 22 Llorente sums up his account of the expulsion, by assigning the following motives to the principal agents in the business. " The measure," he says, " may be refer- red to the fanaticism of Torquema- da, to the avarice and superstition of Ferdinand, to the false ideas and inconsiderate zeal with which they had inspired Isabella, to whom his- tory cannot refuse the praise of great sweetness of disposition, and an enlightened mind." Hist, de I'Inquisition, torn. i. ch. 7, sec. 10.