Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/387

361 XXIII. CONQUEST OF NAVARRE. 361 of February 18th, 1512, by which he excommuni- chapter Gated the sovereigns of Navarre, as heretics, schis- matics, and enemies of the church, releasing their subjects from their allegiance, laying their domin- ions under an interdict, and delivering them over to any who should take, or had already taken, pos- session of them.^^ Most, indeed, are content to rest on this, as the true basis and original ground of the conquest. The total silence of the Catholic king respecting this document, before the invasion, and the omission of the national historians since to produce it, have caused much skepticism as to its existence. And, although its recent publication puts this beyond doubt, the instrument contains, in ray judgment, strong internal evidence for distrust- ing the accuracy of the date affixed to it, which should have been posterior to the invasion ; a cir- cumstance materially affecting the argument ; and which makes the papal sentence, not the original basis of the war, but only a sanction subsequently obtained to cover its injustice, and authorize retain- ing the fruits of it.^* 27 See the original bull of Julius did Yalencian edition of Mariana, II. apud Mariana, Hist, de Espana, contains in the Appendix the fa- tom. ix. Apend. no. 2, ed. Valen- mous bull of Julius II. of Feb. I3th, cia, 1796. — "Joannem et Cathari- 1512, the original of which is to be nam," says the bull, in the usual found in the royal archives of Bar- conciliatory style of the Vatican, celona. The editor, Don Francis- " perditionis filios, — excommuni- co Ortiz y Sanz, has accompanied catos, anathemizatos, maledictos, it with an elaborate disquisition, in aeterni supplicii reos," &c. &c. which he makes the apostolic sen- " Our armies swore terribly in tence the great authority for the Flanders, cried my uncle Toby, — conquest. It was a great triumph, but nothing to this. For my own undoubtedly, to be able to produce part I could not have a heart to the document, to which the Span- curse my dog so." ish historians had been so long ^ The ninth volume of the splen- challenged in vain by foreign wri- VOL. III. 46