Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/233

209 CLASSICAL LEARNING. — SCIENCE. 209 with authority respectively over their several dio- chapter ceses.^^ This authority was devolved in later 1— times, under Charles the Fifth and his successors, on the Council of the Supreme, over which the in- quisitor general presided ex officio. The immediate agents employed in the examination were also drawn from the Inquisition, who exercised this im- portant trust, as is well known, in a manner most fatal to the interests of letters and humanity. Thus a provision, destined in its origin for the advance- ment of science, by purifying it from the crudities and corruptions which naturally infect it in a primi- tive age, contributed more effectually to its discour- agement, than any other which could have been devised, by interdicting the freedom of expression, so indispensable to freedom of inquiry. ^^ While endeavouring to do justice to the progress Actual i„« gross ot SCI"" of civilization in this reign, I should regret to '^"'^^ present to the reader an over-colored picture of its results. Indeed, less emphasis should be laid on any actual results, than on the spirit of improve- ment, which they imply in the nation, and the lib- eral dispositions of the government. The fifteenth 42 Mendez, Typographia Espa- liberty sur la vente des productions, Hola, pp. 52, 53. — Pragmaticas qui s'etend m^me a celles de la del Reyno, fol. 138, 139. presse ; et que, pourvu que je ne 43 Llorente, Hist, de I'Inquisi- parle en mes ecrits ni de I'autorit^, tion, torn. i. chap. 13, art. 1. ni de culte, ni de la politique, ni " Adempto per inquisitiones,'' de la morale, ni des gens en place, says Tacitus of the gloomy times ni des corps en credit, ni de I'Ope- of Domitian, " et loquendi audien- ra, ni des autres spectacles, ni de dique commercio." (Vita Agri- personne qui tienne k quelque colas, sec. 2.) Beauroarchais, in chose, je puis tout imprjmer libre- a merrier vein, indeed, makes the ment, sous I'inspection de deux ou same bitter reflections. "II s'est trois censeurs." Mariage de Fi- etabli dans Madrid un syst^me de garo, acte 5, sc. 3. VOL. n. 27