Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/276

250 250 REIGN AND DEATH OF PHlLIi'. PART II. rerdinaiifi-s distrust of Gonsalvo. inquisitor, Deza, archbishop of Seville, the steady friend of Columbus, but whose name is unhappily registered on some of the darkest pages of the tri- bunal, was so intimidated as to resign his office.^ The whole affair was referred to the ro^'al council by Philip, whose Flemish education had not predis- posed him to any reverence for the institution ; a circumstance, which operated quite as much to his prejudice, with the more bigoted part of the nation, as his really exceptionable acts.'^ The minds of the wise and the good were filled with sadness, as they listened to the low murmurs of popular discontent, which seemed to be gradually swelling into strength for some terrible convulsion; and they looked back with fond regret to the hal- cyon days, which they had enjoyed under the tem- perate rule of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Catholic king, in the mean time, was pur- suing his voyage to Naples. He had been earnest- tom. i. chap. 10, art. 3, 4. — Ovie- do, Qiiincuagenas, MS., dial, de Deza. 6 Oviedo has given an ample no- tice of this prelate, Ferdinand's confessor, in one of his dialognes. He mentions a singular taste, in one respect, quite worthy of an in- quisitor. The archbishop kept a lame lion in his palace, which used to accompany him when he went abroad, and lie down at his feet when he said mass in the church. The monster had been stripped of his teeth and claws when young, but he was " espantable en su vista 6 aspeto," says Oviedo, who re- cords two or three of his gambols, lion's play, at best. Quincuage- nas, MS. ' Llorente, Hist, dc I'lnquisition, torn, i, chap. 10, art. 3,4. — Abar- ca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 16. — Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS. — Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 333, 334, et al. " Toda la gente," says Zurita, in reference to this affair, "noble y de limpia sangre se avia escan- dalizado dello " ; (Anales, torn. vi. lib. 7, cap. 11 ;) and he plainly in- timates his conviction, that Philip's profane interference brought Heav- en's vengeance on his head, in the shape of a premature death. Zu- rita was secretary of the Holy Of- fice in the early part of the six- teenth century. Had he lived in the nineteenth, he might have acted the part of a Llorente. He was certainly rot born for a bigot.