Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/439

413 PERSECUTIONS IN GRANADA. 413 " Thus," exclaims the devout Ferreras, " did Prov- chapter idence avail itself of the darkness of the dungeon '■ — to pour on the benighted minds of the infidel the light of the true faith ! " ^° The work of proselytism now^ went on apace ; ^^^^j" for terror was added to the other stimulants. The *'"'''* zealous propagandist, in the mean while, flushed with success, resolved not only to exterminate infi- delity, but the very characters in which its teach- ings were recorded. He accordingly caused all the Arabic manuscripts which he could procure, to be heaped together in a common pile in one of the great squares of the city. The largest part were copies of the Koran, or works in some way or other connected with theology ; with many others, how- ever, on various scientific subjects. They were beautifully executed, for the most part, as to their chirography, and sumptuously bound and decorat- ed ; for, in all relating to the mechanical finishing, the Spanish Arabs excelled every people in Europe. But neither splendor of outward garniture, nor in- trinsic merit of composition, could atone for the taint of heresy in the eye of the stern inquisitor ; he reserved for his university of Alcala three hun- dred works, indeed, relating to medical science, in which the Moors were as preeminent in that day as the Europeans were deficient ; but all the rest, Cisneros, MS. — Gomez, De Re- had experienced in a personal ren- bus Gestis, fol. 30. — Marmol, contre in the vega of Granada. Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. I, cap. Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, ubi 25, supra. — Suma de la Vida de Cis- Zegri assumed the baptismal neros, MS. name of the Great Captain, Gonza- 20 jjist. d'Espagne, torn. viii. p. lo Hernandez, whose prowess he 195.