# Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Spain

From volume 14 of the work.
This name properly signifies the whole peninsula which forms the south-western extremity of Europe. Since the political separation of Portugal, however, the name has gradually come to be restricted to the largest of the four political divisions of the Peninsula: (1) Spain; (2) Portugal; (3) the Republic of Andorra; (4) the British possession of Gibraltar, at the southern extremity.
The etymology of the name Spain (España) is uncertain. Some derive it from the Punic word tsepan, "rabbit", basing the opinion on the evidence of a coin of Galba, on which Spain is represented with a rabbit at her feet, and on Strabo, who calls Spain "the land of rabbits". It is said that the Phoenicians and Carthaginians found the country overrun with these rodents, and so named it after them. Another derivation is from sphan, "north", from the circumstance that the country was north of Carthage, just as the Greeks called Italy Hesperia, because it was their western boundary, or the land of sunset (Hespera). Again, some Bascophiles would assert a Basque origin for the name of Spain: Españia, "Land of the Shoulder", because it formed the western shoulder of ancient Europe. Padre Larramendi has remarked that, in the Basque language, ezpaña means "tongue", "lip", or "extremity", and might thus have been applied to the extreme southwestern region of Europe. The Spanish Peninsula has also been called the Iberian, from its original inhabitants, and (by synecdoche) the Pyrenean, from the mountains which bound it on the north. As the Spaniards named one part of America - Mexico - Nueva España (New Spain), we speak of "the Spains", in the plural, to signify the Spanish possessions.
I. PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND STATISTICS
The geographical boundaries of Spain are: on the north, the Pyrenees, the Republic of Andorra, and the Bay of Biscay (known in Spain as Mar Cantabrico, or "Cantabrian Sea"); on the east, the Mediterranean; on the south, the Mediterranean, the Straits of Gibraltar and the Atlantic; on the west, Portugal and the Atlantic. Its four extreme points are: on the north, the Estaca de Vares, in N. lat. 43° 47' 32"; on the south, the southern extremity of the Island of Tarifa, in S. lat. 35° 59' 49"; on the east, Cape Creus, in longitude 3 ° 20' 16" E. of Greenwich, on the west, Cape Tirinana, in longitude 9° 17' 33" W. of Greenwich. The total area of the Spanish territory in the Peninsula is 194,563 square miles, with a coast line of 2060 miles in length. The combined French and Portuguese frontiers measure 3094 miles.
The surface of Spain presents the most varied geological features. In the seas of the Cambrian epoch the first elements of the Peninsula appeared as a multitude of islands. The most important of these islands formed what is now Galicia and the North of Portugal, with parts of the Provinces of Cáceres, Salamanca, and Zamora. To the south-east of this was another island, where is now Bejar and Sierra de Gredos, comprising part of the Provinces of Avila, Segovia, and Toledo. To the north-east, the Pyrenees and the Catalonian coast took the form of islets, while in other directions other islets occupied the sites of Lisbon, Evora, Cáceres, Badajoz, Seville, Cordova, and Jaén. The upheaval of the land went on during the Devonian and Silurian epochs until it formed what is now the whole of Galicia, part of the Asturias, León, and Zamora, and as far down as Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cordova, Huelvas, and the Algarves, while, to the east and north, were formed the Catalonian coast and a great part of the Pyrenees. Large islands arose in the neighbourhoods of Burgos, Soria Daroca, Granada, Malaga, and Gibraltar. No Permian formation is to be found in Spain, nor does there appear any Triassic worth mentioning, the formations of these two periods having been submerged during later periods. During the Jurassic period long parallel tracts were formed along the present courses of the Ebro and the Turia, as well as a great mass between Jaén, Granada, Malaga, Osuna, and Montilla. The eastern portions of the Peninsula were built up during the Cretacean period, while, between these formations and the Granitic and Silurian, extensive lakes were left which have since disappeared but which may still be traced in the level steppes of Aragón and the two Castiles. What is now the Ebro was then a vast lake extending through the Eocene and Pliocene formations of Lérida, Saragossa, and Logroño, and joining in the regions of Sto. Domingo de la Calzada, Haro, and Briviesca, another lake which then covered the sites of Burgos, Valladolid, León, Zamora, and Salamanca. Another extension of the Eocene formation was from the region where Madrid now stands to that of Albacete and Murcia. The Quaternary formations are found chiefly on the east coast and the Provinces of Madrid (north-west), Segovia, Valladolid, Palencia, and Asturias, and the basins of the principal rivers. Down to this last period Spain does not seem to have been definitively separated from Africa, its formations - Eocene and Miocene, as well as Silurian - being continued in that region.
Owing to the diversity of formations described above, and the elevation of the central portions, the surface of the Peninsula is, in general, of an uneven character with a very unequally distributed irrigation, some regions enjoying a wonderful fertility, while others are nothing but steppes. In other parts, again, the abrupt slope of the ground is such that the rains produce torrential floods in the rivers and thus negative their beneficial action. The unevenness of the country at the same time results in great differences of climate. The arid prairies of certain parts of the Castiles and Estremadura are in as striking contrast with the fertile, though monotonous, plains of the Campos district and Lower Aragón, and the extremely rich arable lands and meadows of Andalusia and the eastern provinces, as are the perpetual snows of the Pyrenees, the Cantabrian Range, and the Sierra Nevada with the parched lowlands of Estremadura, Andalusia, Murcia, and Alicante. No less uneven is the distribution of rainfall - from the northern provinces, with their ever-clouded skies, to the almost invariably dry and transparent atmosphere of the south. The contrast extends even to the seas surrounding Spain - the tranquil Mediterranean, the stormy Bay of Biscay, and the Atlantic with a character midway between.
The general structural form of the Peninsula is somewhat that of a truncated pyramid, sloping abruptly towards the west, but gently towards the east. The elevated plains of the centre are intersected by mountain ranges. The mountain masses may be divided into six groups: (1) the northern, consisting of the Pyrenees on the east and the Cantabrian Range on the west, and terminated by Capes Creus and Finisterre; (2) the Iberic, or eastern, comprising the mountains which bound the basin of the Ebro and extend as far as Cape Gate; (3) the central system, the Carpetan, or Carpeto-Vetonic, Range, so called from the Carpetani and Vetones who inhabited its slopes in ancient times; (4) the Mountains of Toledo, or Cordillera Oretana; (5) the Betic system, or Cordillera Mariánica, forming the right-hand side of the basin of the Betis, or Guadalquivir, and the chief part of which is the Sierra Morena; (6) the Penibetic system, extending from the Sierra Nevada to Cape Tarifa. The highest elevations are: Maladeta (11,004 ft.) and Pico de Nethou (11,168 ft.), in the Pyrenees: Peña de Corredo (8784 ft.), and Moncayo (7593 ft), in the Cantabrian Range; Plaza del Moro Almanzor (8692 ft.), in the Carpetan Range; the plateau of Corocho de Rocigalgo (4750 ft.), in the Toledo Mountains; Estrella (4260 ft.), in the Betic Range; Mulhacen (11,417 ft.) and Veleta (11,382 ft.) in the Penibetic.
For hydrographic purposes the surface of Spain is divided by the Instituto Geográfico into the following ten basins: (1) the Eastern Pyrenees, basin of the Rivers Muga, Fluvía, Ter, Tordeva, Besós, Llobregat, Foix, and Francolí; (2) the basin of the Ebro, to the south and west of the preceding, containing the Nela, Zadorra, Ega, Arga, Aragón, Arba, Gallego, Cinea, and Segre, affuents of the Ebro, on its right side, and the Oca, Tiron, Oja, Najerilla, Iregua, Alhama, Jalon, Huerva, Aguas, Martin, Guadalope, Matarrana, and other smaller affuents on its left; the south-eastern region, watered by the Cenia, Migares, Palancia, Turia (or Guadalaviar), Jucar, Serpis, Vinalopó, Segura, and Almanzora; (4) the southern region, intersected by small streams, the most important rivers being the Almería, Adra, Guadalfeo, Guadalhorce, Guadiaro, and Guadalete; (5) the basin of the Guadlaquivir, the affluents of which are, on the right, the Rivers Borosa, Guadalimar, Rumblar, Jandula, Yeguas, Guadamellato, Guadiato, the Brook of Huesna, the River Viar, and the Brooks of Cala, Huelva, and Guadiamar, and on the left, the Guadiana Menor, Genil, Guadabullón, Guadojoz, Corbones, Guadaira, and Salado de Morón; (6) the basin of the Guadiana, with its tributaries, the Záncara, or Cigüela, Bullaque, and Gévora, on the right, and the Javalón, Zujar, Ardila, and Chanza, on the left; (7) the basin of the Tagus, which river rises in the Province of Teruel, in the Sierra de Molina, and receives, on the right, the Gallo, Jarama, Guadarrama, Alberche, Tiétar, Alagón, and Eljas, and, on the left, besides other streams of slight importance, the Guadiela and the Almonte. The Jarama, in its turn, receives the Lozoya, Guadalix, Manzanares (which flows by Madrid), Henares, and Tajuña; (8) the basin of the Douro, which rises in the Peña (Rock) Urbion, in the Province of Logroño, 7216 feet above the sea level. The chief affuents of the Douro are, on the right, the Pisuerga and the Esla, and on the left, the eresma and the Tormes. The Pisuerga, again, receives, on the right, the Burejo, Vallarna, Astudillo, and Carrión, and on the left, the Camesa, Odra, Arlanzon, Baltanas, and Esgueve. Affluents of the Esla, on the right are the Curueno, Bernesga, Orbigo, Tera, and Aliste, and on the left, the Cea. (9) The western region of Galicia, the chief rivers of which are the Mino, Oitaben, Lerez, Umia, Ulla, Tambre, Jallas, Castro, Rio del Puerto, Allones, Mero, Mandeo, Lume, Jubia, Rio de Porto do Cabo, Mera, and Sor. (10) The northern basin, containing the Eo, Navia Nalon, and Sella, in the Asturias; the Deba, Nansa, Besaya, Mas, and Miera, in Santander; the Nervion, Oria, and Bidasoa, in the Basque country. The only important lakes in Spain are the lagoons: those of Gallocanta, in Aragón; the Alfaques, in Catalonia; Janda, the scene of the battle which has been generally known as the battle of Guadalete, which put an end to the power of the Goths.
Silver, lead, and iron are abundant, the last especially in Biscay. Veins of quicksilver are found in Almaden, besides others of less importance elsewhere. There are also copper, tin, zinc, gold, cobalt, nickel, antimony, bismuth, and molybdenum. Spain is not rich in coal, which, however, is found in the Provinces of Gerona, Lérida, Santander, Asturias, León, Palencia, Burgos, Guadalajara, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cordova, and Seville. The most important carboniferous deposits are those of S. Juan de las Abadesas (Gerona), Mieres (Asturias), Barruelo and Orbó (Palencia), Puertollano (Ciudad Real), Bélmez and Espiel (Cordova), and Villanueva del Rio (Seville). There are also deposits of anthracite, lignite, asphalt, and turf, while springs of petroleum, though not of any importance, exist in Barcelona, Burgos, Cádiz, and Guadalajara. On the other hand, sulphur is abundant, as well as common salt, and waters impregnated with sulphates and with sulphur.
The botanical resources are abundant and various - the chestnut, the oak, the cork tree, the pine, and a number of other conifers. Castile produces a great quantity of cereals; Valencia, rice, oranges, lemons, chufas (the tuber of a variety of sedge), melons, and other fruits in immense variety; Catalonia, potatoes, oil, figs, filberts, carobs, pomegranates, alfalfa; Murcia, peppers, dates, saffron etc; Andalusia, oil; Estremadura, pasturage etc. Excellent wines are produced in nearly all the provinces, the most highly esteemed being those of Jerez, Malaga, Montilla (Andalusia), Cariñena (Aragón), Valdepenas, Rioja etc. The soil of Spain is apportioned agriculturally as follows:
The normal agricultural production is:
It is not easy to ascertain the number of head of stock bred in Spain; great pains are taken to conceal the statistics, owing to the increase of taxation. The following statement, may be taken as approximately correct: horses, 500,000; mules, 900,000; asses, 950,000; cattle, 2,500,000; sheep, 18,000,000; goats, 3,000,000; hogs, 3,000,000. At the end of the eighteenth century there were 19,000,000 head of sheep. One of the chief causes of the decline in this respect was the laicization of religious houses, which eventually resulted in the mountain slopes being denuded. It is estimated that 68,000,000 kilogrammes (66,830 English tons, or 74,849 American tons) of fish are caught annually on the sea coasts of Spain. Of this quantity 24,000,000 kilogrammes are salted, and 8,000,000 pickled. The quantity exported is 26,000,000 kilogrammes (25,590 English tons, or 28,660 American tons).
While Spain does not rank as a manufacturing nation, it has important manufactures of woollen, cotton, silk, linen, and hempen textiles; of paper, leather, porcelain, earthenware, and glass; of chocolate, soap, and chemicals. Weapons are manufactured at Toledo, Oviedo, Seville, Trubia (ordnance), Eibar, Plasencia, Saragossa, and Albacete (the famous Albacete navajas, or knives). There are also notablemanufactures of bricks, glazed tiles (azulejos), and other ceramic products. The principal articles of importation are cotton, wheat, coal, timber, sugar, salted codfish, woollen fabrics, and machinery; of exportation, wine, oil, metals, and other mineral products, cork, and fruit, both dried and fresh. The principal banks are the Bank of Spain; the Bank of Barcelone, the Banco Hipotecario, the Sociedad Tabacalera de Filipinas, etc. The first-class maritime custom-houses are those of Aguilas, Alicante, Almería, Barcelona, Bilbao, Cádiz, Carril, Cartagena, Corunna, Gijón, Grao de Valencia, Huelva, Mahón, Malaga, Palamós, Palma in Majorca, Pasajes, Ribadeo, San Sebastián, Santander, Seville, Tarragona, Vigo, and Vinaroz. The first-class inland custom-houses are those of Junquera, Portbou, Irún, Canfranc, Benasque, Palau, Sallent, Torla, Les, Alós Bosost, Farga de Moles, Dancharinea, and Valcarlos, on the French frontier, and, on the Portuguese frontier, those of Albuquerque, Badajo, Olivenza, San Vicente, Alcántara, Herrera de Alcántara, Valencia de Alcántara, Paimogo, Verín, Cadovos, Puente Barjas, La Guardia, Salvatierra, Tuy, Fregeneda, Alberguería, Aldea del Obispo, Barba del Puerco, Alcañices, Fermoselle and Pedralva.
According to the census for those years respectively, the population of Spain was: 15,464,340 in 1857; 15,673,481 in 1860; 16,634,345 in 1877; 17,565,632 in 1887; 18,132,475 in 1897; 18,618,086 in 1900. The last of these census shows a distribution according to sex of 9,087,821 males and 9,530,265 females, an excess of 442,444 females; there were 5,200,816 unmarried men, and 5,109,609 unmarried women; 7,021,512 married men and women; 391,452 widowers and 888,629 widows (excess of widows 497, 177); condition not ascertained, 3615 men and 2453 women. In regard to age the married persons were divided as follows:
Unmarried persons were divided as follows:
As to longevity, the figures were:
II. GOVERNMENT
A. Civil and Military Organization
Spain was formed by the coalition of various states, which for many centuries had kept their own names and boundaries, and had differed considerably in laws (the fueros), customs, characteristics, and methods of government. These states were: The Kingdoms of Galicia, León, Old and New Castile, Estremadura, Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia, the Balearic Isles, Aragón, and Navarre, the two principalities of Asturias and Catalonia, and the Basque Provinces.
The Bourbons, with their French propensity to centralize, made the government uniform, converting the ancient states into so many intendencias, or departments. In 1809, Joseph Bonaparte, the intruded occupant of the Throne, divided Spain into 38 departments, and the present division, into 49 provinces, was legally enacted in 1834. The ancient Kingdom of Galicia makes four provinces: Corunna (or Coruña), Lugo, Orense, and Pontevedra. The Principality of Asturias is the Province of Oviedo. Old Castile forms the eight provinces of Avila, Segovia, Soria Valladolid, Palencia, Burgos, Logroño, and Santander; New Castile, those of Madrid, Toledo, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, and Guadalajara. The three Basque Provinces are: Alava, Guipuzcoa, and Vizcaya, their respective capitals being Vitoria, S. Sebastián, and Bilbao. Navarre forms a single province, with Pamplona for its capital. Aragón is divided into the three Provinces of Saragossa, Huesca, and Teruel; Catalonia forms those of Barcelona, Tarragona, Lérida, and Gerona; León, those of León, Zamora, and Salamanca; Estremadura, those of Cáceres and Badajoz; Valencia, those of Alicante and Castellón de la Plana; Murcia, those of Murcia and Albacete. Andalusia forms the eight Provinces of Cordova, Almería, Granada, Malaga, Jaén, Cádiz, Huelva and Seville. The Balearic Isles form one province, with Palma for its capital; the Canaries, another, with Las Palmas for its capital. This division has many inconveniences: it is ill-adapted to historical analysis; it is extremely unequal, some provinces being three times as large as others. Moreover, it does not fit in with the ecclesiastical organization of the country.
At the head of each province is a civil governor, the office being both administrative and political in character, and one of the few the incumbents of which change with the changes of political parties in power. Subject to the civil governor are all the departments of the provincial administration; the Exchequer, presided over by a delegate, the Police, etc. The civil governor also wields authority over the civil "facultative corps", as they are called - the engineers of highways, forests, and mines, and the agricultural experts - as well as over public instruction, charities, and so on. Each province is divided into municipalities, which are governed by municipal councils (ayuntamientos), with an alcalde, or mayor, at the head of each ayuntamiento. Each alcalde is dependent on the governor of the province, and in his turn controls the officials of his own municipal government. The total number of municipalities and ayuntamientos in Spain is 9290. Every village not large enough to form a municipality has a sub-mayor (alcalde pedaneo), governing the village in dependence upon the ayuntamiento of the municipality of which it form a part. The theories of Centralism have made the municipal ayuntamientos organs of the central political power; but in practice these bodies aspire to be really representative, each of its own community, in relation to the Government, and this forms the programme of the Municipal Autonomy movement.
The central Government is administered by the various ministerial offices and the bureaux dependent upon them. These ministerial offices are: the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, with its administrative corps; the Ministry of State, with the diplomatic and consular corps, the corps of interpreters, and the auxiliary administrative corps; the Ministry of Grace and Justice, which has charge of ecclesiastical relations, of the judges, notaries, registrars of property, clerks (escribanos), and relators, and the direction of prisons and penal establishments; the Ministry of Finance, or the Exchequer (Hacienda), which controls the administration of the customs, the advocates of the State, and the examiners of accounts, besides its own special administrative bureau. The Ministerio de Gobernación (equivalent to Home Office or Department of the Interior) has charge of public health and the Police, as well as the Postal and Telegraph Services, and public charities. The Ministry of Public Instruction and Fine Arts has charge of the archives, libraries, copyright (propiedad literaria), geographical, topographical, and astronomical workers, independent industrial enterprises, and state professors and teachers. The Ministry of Public Works controls the state engineers and exercises supervision over highways, mines, agriculture, manufactures and commerce, and forests, besides special administration. The Ministry of War has charge of all that relates to national defence; the Ministry of Marine, of the whole administration of the Navy, both as to material and men. The Ministerio de Ultramar (Ministry of the Colonies) has ceased to exist since the loss of the colonies.
The ordinary administration of justice in Spain is carried on by judges of first instance, territorial courts (audiencias) of second instance, and the Supreme Court, sitting at Madrid, to which causes of great importance are taken in the last instance. There are fifteen territorial courts, or jurisdictions (audiencias): (1) at Albacete; (2) Barcelona; (3) Burgos; (4) Cáceres; (5) Corunna; (6) Granada; (7) Madrid; (8) Oviedo; (9) Palma (Majorca); (10) Las Palmas (Canary Islands); (11) Pamplona; (12) Seville; (13) Valencia; (14) Valladolid; and (15) Saragossa. Of these jurisdictions (l) comprises the Provinces of Albacete (eight judicial districts, eighty-five ayuntamientos), Ciudad Real (ten judicial districts), Cuenca (eight districts), and Murcia (ten districts); (2) of Barcelona (seventeen districts), Gerona (six districts), Lérida (eight districts), and Tarragona (eight districts); (3) of Alava (three districts), Burgos (twelve districts), Logroño (nine districts), Santander (eleven districts), Soria (five districts), and Biscay (five districts); (4) of Badajoz (fifteen districts), and Cáceres (thirteen districts); (5) of Corunna (fourteen districts), Lugo (eleven districts), Orense (eleven districts), and Pontevedra (eleven districts); (6) of Almería (ten districts), Granada (fifteen districts), Jaén (thirteen districts), and Malaga (fifteen districts); (7) of Avila (six districts), Guadalajara (nine districts), Madrid (seventeen districts), Segovia (five districts), and Toledo (twelve districts); (8) comprises the single province of Oviedo, divided into fifteen districts; (9) comprises the Balearic Isles, with six districts; (10) the seven districts of the Canary Islands; (11) the Provinces of Guipuzcoa (four districts, and Navarre (five districts); (12) of Cádiz (fourteen districts), Cordova (seventeen districts), Huelva (six districts), and Seville (fourteen districts); (13) of Alicante (fourteen districts), Castellon (nine districts), and Valencia (twenty-one districts); (14) of León (ten districts), Palencia (seven districts), Salamanca (eight districts), Valladolid (eleven districts), and Zamora (eight districts); (15) of Huesca (eight districts), Teruel (ten districts), and Saragossa (thirteen districts).
The Peninsula and its adjacent islands are divided into fourteen military districts, or captaincies-general (capitanias generales): New Castile, Catalonia, Andalusia, Valencia, Galicia, Aragón, Granada, Old Castile, Estremadura, Navarre, Burgos, The Basque District, the Balearic, and the Canary Islands. Each district is commanded by a lieutenant-general, with the title of captain-general, to whom all the troops in the district, and all persons connected with the army, are subject. A general of division, called the segundo cabo (second chief), takes his place in case of absence or illness, and is also the military governor of the chief province of the district. There is also a commander-in-chief at Ceuta, who is not dependent upon any district commander. Each civil province also forms a military government, usually commanded by a general of brigade or, in the case of the principal ones, by a general of division. Every fortress or place of high strategic importance constitutes a special military government under a comandate de plaza.
Ecclesiastical Organization
Spain is divided into the following ecclesiastical provinces: I. Burgos; II. Granada; III. Santiago; IV. Saragossa; V. Seville; VI. Tarragona; VII. Toledo; VIII. Valencia; IX. Valladolid. By the Concordat of 1851 it was agreed that eight sees should be suppressed. These eight were: Albarracín, Barbastro, Ceuta, Ciudad Rodrigo, Iviza, Solsoña, Tenerife, and Tudela. (See map.)
I. (1) The Archdiocese of Burgos (Burgensis), erected in 988, made metropolitan by Alfonso VI, numbers 1220 parishes, 47 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Burgos, Santander, Palencia, and Soria. (2) The Diocese of Calahorra and La Calzada (Calagurritana) is of Apostolic origin. It has 266 parishes, 47 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Logroño and Navarre. By the provisions of the Concordat its capital should have been transferred to Logroño, but, owing to difficulties which arose, it is at present (1910) administered by the Archbishop of Burgos. (3) The Diocese of León (Legionensis), founded in the third century, has 345 parishes, 37 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of León, Valladolid, and Oviedo. (4) The Diocese of Osma (Oxomensis) is of Apostolic origin. It was suppressed on account of the Arab invasion, and restored in the ninth century. It numbers 349 parishes, 28 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Soria and Burgos. (5) The Diocese of Palencia (Palentina), founded in the third century, has 345 parishes, 24 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Palencia, Valladolid, and Burgos. (6) The Diocese of Santander (Santanderiensis), erected in the year 1354, has 425 parishes, 26 rural deaneries, nearly all in the same province. (7) The Diocese of Vitoria (Victoriensis), erected in 1862, pursuant to the Concordat of 1851, has 930 parishes, 36 rural deaneries, in the three Basque provinces.
II. (1) The Archdiocese of Granada (Gramatensis), of very ancient origin, was restored and made metropolitan by the Catholic sovereign in 1492. It numbers 182 parishes, 13 rural deaneries, nearly all in the Provinces of Granada and Almería. (2) The Diocese of Almería (Almeriensis), of very ancient origin, was restored by the Catholic sovereigns. It has 66 parishes, 7 rural deaneries, in the province of the same name. (3) The Diocese of Cartagena-Murcia (Cartaginiensis), is of unknown origin. Urban IV restored it and fixed its see in Murcia. It has 134 parishes, 17 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Murcia, Alicante, Almería, and Albacete. (4) The Diocese of Guadix (Accitana) founded by St. Torquatus in the first century, restored at the end of the fifteenth century, has 61 parishes, 5 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Almería and Granada. (5) The Diocese of Jaén (Gienensis), of very ancient origin, was restored by Innocent IV in 1249. It numbers 119 parishes, 12 rural deaneries, in its own province. (6) The Diocese of Malaga (Malacitana) dates from the Apostolic period and was restored by rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Malaga, Cádiz, and Seville, and the African possessions of Spain (Melilla).
III. (1) The Archdiocese of Santiago, or of Compostela (Compostellana) is of Apostolic origin. It has 788 parishes, 35 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Corunna and Pontevedra. (See COMPOSTELA.) (2) The Diocese of Lugo (Lucensis), founded in the third century and restored by Alfonso I in 739, numbers 647 parishes, 40 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Lugo and Pontevedra. (3) The Diocese of Mondoñedo (Mindonensis), of which nothing is known earlier than the sixth century, its see having been established at Mondoñedo by Doña Urraca, has 277 parishes, 18 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Lugo and Coruña. (4) The Diocese of Orense (Auriensis), of very ancient, some say Apostolic, origin, has 519 parishes, 30 rural deaneries, nearly all in its own province. (5) The Diocese of Oviedo (Ovetensis) appears to have had its origin in the ninth century, although some attribute to it a higher antiquity. It numbers 969 parishes, 78 rural deaneries, in its own province and a part of León. (6) The Diocese of Tuy (Tudensis) is of Apostolic origin. It has 276 parishes, 14 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Orense and Pontevedra.
IV. (1) The Archdiocese of Saragossa (Caesaraugustana), founded in the first century, restored in 1117, made metropolitan in 1138, has 370 parishes, 15 rural deaneries, in its own province and that of Teruel. (2) The Diocese of Barbastro (Barbastrensis), erected in the reign of Pedro I of Aragón (1094-1104), is to be reunited, in pursuance of the Concordat, with the Diocese of Huesca, from which it was separated in the time of Philip II. It numbers 154 parishes, 10 rural deaneries, in the Province of Huesca. (3) The Diocese of Huesca (Oscensis) dates from the first century and was restored in 1086. It has 167 parishes, 9 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Huesca and Saragossa. (4) The Diocese of Jaca (Jacensis), erected by Don Ramiro of Aragón (eleventh century) and separated in 1575, has 70 parishes, 8 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Huesca, Saragossa, and Navarre. (5) The Diocese of Pamplona (Pampilonensis) is of Apostolic origin, its first bishop having been St. Ferminus. It has 567 parishes, 21 rural deaneries, in the Province of Navarre. (6) The Diocese of Tarazona (Turiasonensis) dates from the Gothic period and was restored in 1115. It has 138 parishes, 9 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Logroño, Navarre, and Saragossa. (7) The Diocese of Teruel (Turulensis), founded in 1577 at the petition of Philip II, has 96 parishes, 5 rural deaneries, in the province of the same name. Its jurisdiction now includes that of Albarracin. (8) The Diocese of Tudela (Tutelensis) has had but four bishops, the last consecrated in 1819. It was suppressed by the Concordat, and its jurisdiction given to the Bishop of Tarazona. It has a collegiate church and 26 parishes in the Province of Navarre.
V. (1) The Archdiocese of Seville (Hispalensis) dates from the third century, and was restored by St. Ferdinand in 1248. It has 270 parishes, 21 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Seville, Huelva, Cádiz, and Malaga. (2) The Diocese of Badajoz (Pacensis) is supposed to be of Apostolic origin, although there is no documentary proof of its existence earlier than the seventh century. It has 136 parishes, 13 rural deaneries, in the province of the same name. (3) The Diocese of Cádiz-Ceuta (Gaditana) founded by Alfonso X in 1263, has 32 parishes, 6 rural deaneries, in its own province and Ceuta. (4) The Diocese of the Canaries (Canariensis) erected by Innocent VII in 1406, has 42 parishes, 5 rural deaneries, in the Canary Islands. (See CANARY ISLANDS.) (5) The Diocese of Cordova (Cordubensis), dating from the first century, has 124 parishes, 17 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Cordova and Badajoz. (6) The Diocese of Tenerife (Nivariensis), erected in 1819 by Pius VIII, is to be incorporated, according to the Concordat, with that of the Canaries. Its see is at La Laguna (Palma) and it numbers 62 parishes, 10 rural deaneries.
VI. (1) The Archdiocese of Tarragona (Tarraconensis) was erected in the first century, and disputes with Toledo the right of primacy. It was restored by Ramón Berenguer, Count of Barcelona, in 1088, and numbers 150 parishes, 6 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Tarragona and Lérida. (2) The Diocese of Barcelona (Barcinonensis) is believed to be of Apostolic origin, and was restored in the twelfth century by Ramón Berenguer, By a recent concession of the Holy See, its bishop wears the pallium, like a metropolitan. It has 231 parishes, 10 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Barcelona, Tarragona, Lérida, and Gerona. (3) The Diocese of Gerona (Gerundensis) dates from the third century, and was restored in the eighth. It has 363 parishes in the Provinces of Gerona and Barcelona. (4) The Duiocese of Lérida (Ilerdensis) is one of the most ancient in Spain. It numbers 249 parishes, 12 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Lérida and Huesca. (5) The Diocese of Solsona (Excelsonensis) was erected in 1593, suppressed by the Concordat, and again constituted as an Apostolic administration with a titular bishop. It has 152 parishes, 11 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Barcelona, Lérida, and Gerona. (6) The Diocese of Tortosa (Dertusensis), believed to be of Apostolic origin, restored in 1141, has 159 parishes, 12 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Tarragona, Teruel, and Castellon. The Concordat provides for the transfer of its capital to Castellon de la Plana. (7) The Diocese of Urgel (Urgellensis) is very ancient, and its bishop is the sovereign of the Valleys of Andorra. It has 395 parishes, 19 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Lérida and Gerona and in the Republic of Andorra. (8) The Diocese of Vich (Vicensis), in the ancient Ausona, was erected in 713, and restored by Ludovico Pio, and, later, by Vifredo the Hairy Count of Barcelona. It has 248 parishes, 11 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Barcelona, Gerona, and Tarragona.
VII. (1) The Archdiocese of Toledo (Toletana), erected in the first century, had for its first bishop St. Eugenius. In the fifth century the see was made metropolitan, and after the Reconquest it became the principal see of the Spains. The archdiocese contains 442 parishes divided into 20 rural deaneries, and covers the Province of Toledo and part of those of Jaén, Guadalajara, and Cáceres. (2) The Diocese of Coria (Cauriensis) existed as early as the year 589 and was restored in 1142 by Alfonso VIII. It comprises 124 parishes, divided into 11 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Cáceres, Salamanca, and Badajoz. (3) The Diocese of Cuenca (Conquensis) was erected in 1179 by Pope Lucius III. It has 326 parishes, in 12 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Cuenca and Guadalajara. (4) The Diocese of Madrid-Alcalá (Matritensis-Complutensis) was erected by the Bull of 7 March, 1885, in pursuance of the Concordat of 1851. It has 232 parishes, divided into 18 rural deaneries, in the Province of Madrid. (5) The Diocese of Plasencia (Placentina), erected in 1190 by Alfonso VIII, has 260 parishes, divided into 14 rural deaneries, in the Province of Cáceres, Salamanca, Badajoz, and Avila. (6) The Diocese of Sigüenza (Saguntina) existed in the time of the Goths, and was restored by Alfonso VIII. It has 350 parishes, 18 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Guadalajara, Saragossa, and Soria.
VIII. (1) The Archdiocese of Vanencia (Valentina) erected in the third century, and restored by Jaime I, the Conqueror, in 1238, has 313 parishes, 25 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Alicante, Valencia, and Castellon. (2) The Diocese of Iviza (Ebusensis) is to be merged in that of Majorca, pursuant to the concordat. It has 37 parishes. (3) The Diocese of Majorca (Majoricensis) was erected by Jaime, the Conqueror, in 1229. The see is at Palma, and its incorporation with the Diocese of Iviza is provided for by the Concordat. It has 59 parishes, 7 rural deaneries, in the Balearic Isles. (4) The Diocese of Minorca (Minoricensis), erected in 1795, has its see at Ciudadela and numbers 14 parishes. (5) The Diocese of Orihuela (Oriolensis) was erected in 1564. Its see should, by the terms of the Concordat, be transferred to Alicante. It has 60 parishes, 11 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Alicante, Valencia, and Almería. (6) The Diocese of Segorbe (Segobricensis) founded in the time of the Goths, restored in 1171, and again in 1245, has 65 parishes, 7 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Castellon, Valencia, and Teruel.
IX. (1) The Archdiocese of Valladolid (Vallisoletana) was founded in 1595 and became metropolitan in 1859. It has 93 parishes, 9 rural deaneries, in the province of the same name. (2) The Diocese of Astorga (Asturicensis) is of Apostolic origin, and was restored by Alfonso I in 747. It has 582 parishes and 18 rural deaneries in the Provinces of León, Zamora, and Orense. (3) The Diocese of Avila (Abulensis) was erected by St. Secundus in Apostolic times, and restored after the Arab invasion, by Alfonso VI. It has 339 parishes, divided into 20 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Avila, Toledo, and Valladolid. (4) The Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo (Civitatensis), founded by Alexander III, in 1175, is one of those suppressed under the Concordat, its territory having been added to that of Salamanca since 1884 under an Apostolic administrator with episcopal character. It has 150 parishes, 11 rural deaneries, in the Province of Salamanca. (5) The Diocese of Salamanca (Salmanticensis) dates from the first century, and was restored by Alfonso I, the Great, in 901. It numbers 286 parishes, 19 rural deaneries, in the province of the same name. (6) The Diocese of Segovia (Segoviensis) was erected in the time of the Goths and restored by Alfonso VI. It has 276 parishes, 15 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Segovia, Avila, and Valladolid. (7) The Diocese of Zamora (Zamorensis) was founded in the year 905. It has 265 parishes, 13 rural deaneries, in the Provinces of Zamora and Valladolid.
Besides these nine provinces, there is the Diocese-Priorate of the four military orders, or of Ciudad-Real (Cluniensis), which was erected as vere nullius by the Bull "Ad Apostolicum", put into execution by the Decree of August, 1876. It has 115 parishes, in 11 rural deaneries.
The privileged ecclesiastical jurisdictions are the Apostolic Nunciature and the Supreme Tribunal of the Rota, both at Madrid, and the Chapel Royal (Clero de la Real Capilla y Patrimonio), with a grand almoner (capellan mayor) to His Majesty, honorary chaplains, etc. The military chaplains are under the jurisdiction of a Vicar-General of the Army and Navy. There are four deputy vicars and a proportionate number of chaplains-general, and first-class and second-class chaplains.
Notwithstanding the measures of disamortization which have deprived them of their property, and the general expulsion effected a second time by the Revolution of 1868, the religious orders of both sexes prosper and possess many establishments in Spain. Owing, however, to their anomalous legal position, it is extremely difficult to obtain statistics of them, although an approximation may be made. The Liberals assert that, since the Concordat of 1851, only three religious orders of men have any right to be admitted to the country, while the Conservatives and Catholics in general understand that the Concordat places these three orders in a privileged position, but admits all the other orders in a privileged position, but admits all the other orders conformably with the provisions of the canon law to which its stipulations are subject. In 1903 the religious orders in Spain numbered 597 communities of men and 2463 communities of women. The number of male religious was 10,630; of female 40,030. These communities were divided, according to the chief object of their institutions, as follows:-
Of late years there has been a notable increase in these figures, but statistics are not obtainable. The most numerous orders are the Jesuits, Franciscans, Capuchins, Augustinians, Piarists, Missionaries of the Heart of Mary, Brothers of the Christian Schools, Marist Brothers, and Lazarists.
Education
Three educational grades are recognized: the higher, intermediate, and primary. Higher education is divided into academical (facultativa) and technical (special): the former of these divisions is taught in the universities, with their faculties of law, philosophy and letters, sciences, medicine, and pharmacy. Technical education is given in the special schools of engineering, architecture, veterinary surgery, and manual-training, and in the military schools. There are three schools of industrial engineering (mechanics, chemistry, and electricity), at Madrid, Barcelona, and Bilbao. At Madrid are also a school of civil engineering (Escuela de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos), a school of mines, and a school of agriculture, while at the Escorial is a school of forestry (Escuela de Ingenieros y de Montes). There are schools of architecture at Madrid and at Barcelona; veterinary schools at Madrid, Saragossa, León, Cordova, and Santiago (Corunna). There are fourteen Government schools of commerce, besides many independent ones under Brothers of the Christian Schools, Marists, Jesuits, etc. Manual-training schools (Escuelas de artes é industrias, or de artes y oficios) are of recent origin in Spain; the national government maintains thirteen of them and gives subventions to many others which are supported by the municipalities or provincial governments. There are also schools of the fine arts, conservatories of music, etc. The military schools are: at Guadalajara, for the Engineers; at Segovia, for the Artillery; at Valladolid, for the Cavalry; at Toledo, for the Infantry; at Avila, for the Army Service Corps (Administración Militar); at Madrid, for the Army Medical Corps; and again at Madrid, for the Staff (Estado Mayor). Other institutions for military education are the College of the Guardias Civiles, at Valdemoro, that of the Carabineros, at the Escorial, etc. The schools of naval engineering and of marine artillery are at S. Fernando (Cádiz). There are schools and nautical institutes for the merchant marine, the practical examinations being under the supervision of the naval authorities. Preparation for teaching in the upper branches of literature is given in the normal schools established in the provincial capitals; the degrees are Maestro Elemental, Maestro Superior, and Maestro Normal. A higher school of pedagogy has recently been opened at Madrid.
Ecclesiastical education, since the suppression of the theological faculties in the universities, has been given in the conciliar seminaries established in all the dioceses, as prescribed by the Council of Trent. In some dioceses there are also lesser seminaries, which prepare students for the greater. The universities now in existence are: Madrid (formerly Alcalá), Salamanca, Barcelona, Granada, Seville, Valladolid, Valencia, Saragossa, Santiago, and Oviedo. In the last-named the only faculty in operation is that of law. There are intermediate schools in all the provincial capitals, as well as others in certain other localities - Baeza, Cabra, Figueras, Gijón, Jerez, Mahón, and Reus. The number of Government primary schools is very inadequate; the deficiency, however, is compensated by the number of private and religious institutions. By the School Census of 1903, there were in Spain altogether 31,838 schools (20,324 for boys; 10,970 for girls; 544 for infants). The following statistics of pupils are taken from the Census of 1900:
making a total of 4,396,927 of both sexes. As it is estimated that two-thirds of the population of school age attend private or religious schools, it follows that the dearth of educational facilities in Spain is not so great as is commonly supposed. The number of absolutely illiterate as been much exaggerated, owing to the lack of proper statistics. That that number is as large as it really is may be explained by the ineffective enforcement of the legal school-attendance.
Although the Constitution of 1876, which is still in force, grants freedom of teaching, the right has been very much curtailed by legal enactments. There are but two independent universities, that of Deusto (Bilbao), directed by the Jesuits, and that of the Escorial, under the Augustinians. There are also, at Madrid, two independent institutions of university character, the Academia Universitaria Catolica, under the presidency of the Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá, and the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Free Institution of Education), directed by the Krausists. For intermediate, or gymnasium, education the religious orders have many colleges, some of which also take charge of interne pupils. The Jesuits, of whom there are three provinces in Spain, have colleges as follows: Province of Aragón. - With boarders at Sarriá (Barcelona), Saragossa, Valencia, and Orihuela (former Dominican university); half-boarding (medio-pensionado) school at Barcelona. Province of Castile. - For boarders at Gijón (Asturias), La Guardia (Pontevedra), Orduña (Vizcaya), Tudela (Navarre), and Valladolid; also day schools at Durango (Biscay), Carrión (Palencia), and Oña (Burgos). Province of Toledo. - Boarding schools at Charmarlín de la Rosa (Madrid), Seville, Malaga, Puerto de Sta. María (Cádiz), and Villafranca de los Barros (Badajoz); also a Catholic school of arts and crafts (escuela técnica), and a half-boarding school at Madrid. The Jesuits also conduct the following ecclesiastical colleges: For the formation of religious, houses of higher studies at Oña (Burgos), Tortosa (Tarragona), Granada, and S. Jerónimo; literary colleges at Loyola (Guipuzcoa), Veruela (Saragossa), Carrión (Palencia), Gandía (Valencia), and Burgos. The Province of Castile has a pontifical seminary at Comillas (Santander) and directs the episcopal seminary of Salamanca. It also has an Apostolic school at Xavier (Navarre).
The second religious institute in the work of teaching is that of the Piarists, or Fathers of the Pious Schools, which has been largely represented in Spain since the seventeenth century. As the Revolution has generally shown some respect for the Piarists, they have kept a larger number of their colleges than the Jesuits, who have been repeatedly expelled, and so obliged to establish their colleges over again. There are Piarist colleges at Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Saragossa, etc., besides others at less important centres of population. In recent times some of the older orders which are not primarily teaching orders, such as the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Lazarists, have established boarding schools. In technical, commercial, and primary teaching, the Brothers of the Christian Schools of St. John Baptist de La Salle and Pere Champagnat's Marist Brothrs have attained a position of great importance; their establishments in Spain are numerous and have become more so since their expulsion from France. The Christian Brothers now have 53 colleges in Spain; the Marists, 67. The education of girls to a great extent under the care of a number of congregations of religious women, who have boarding and half-boarding schools as well as day schools. The principal are: The Religious de la Enseñanza (Society of Our Lady) of Bl. Lestonac, who have 12 cloistered pensions. The Visitandines of St. Jeanne Francoise Frémoit de Chantal, established in Spain since 1758. The Religious of the Sacred Heart of Bl. Barat, with 15 houses, established in Spain since 1846. The Religious of Jesus and Mary, founded by M. Thévenet, entered Spain in 1850. The Ursulines have a college at Molina de Aragón (New Castile), and there are some colleges of the English Ladies and of Our Lady of Loreto. There are, in addition to these, numerous small schools for girls and many religious congregations for women - in particular, Carmelite Tertiaries, Franciscan Tertiaries, Augustinians, and Sisters of Charity.
III. HISTORY
The old historians say that Spain was populated by the children of Tubal and of Tarsis, son and grandson of Japhet. These were the Iberians, who were divided into Iberians proper and Tartesians; the latter, in the South; the former, in the North. Some have held that the Iberians were Basques, and consequently were of the Uralo-Altaic, or Mongoloid, race, as the similarity of the Basque with the Finnish languages would seem to indicate. However this may be, the Iberians and Tartesians appear to have formed the aboriginal population, and the Celts, who occupied a great part of France, Great Britain, and Ireland, would seem to have come in upon them by way of the Bay of Biscay. The collision of the two races produced the population which in the North and West, Iberians in the East and South, and in the centre (Aragón and part of Castile) Celtiberians, whose very name indicates a fusion of the two races - no doubt, after a great deal of conflict.
It is very remarkable that the differences of language in the Iberian Peninsula still, partially, correspond to this first distribution of the inhabiting races. In the regions of the pure Iberians, Catalan is spoken, with its dialects, the Valencian and Balearic; in the regions conquered by the Celts, the languages are Gallego, Portuguese, and the bable of Asturias; in the Celtiberian and Tartesian portions, Castilian. This fact seems to support the theory of Padre Lorenzo Hervas y Panduro, that races, even when they change their grammar, never entirely change their own way of pronouncing the language which they use. Upon these first strata of population, which may be considered aboriginal, were superimposed the colonists and conquerors. The colonists were Greeks and Phoenicians; the conquerors, Carthaginians, Romans, Goths, and Arabs. Taking this as a guide, Spanish history may be divided into periods as follows: A. Colonies in Celtiberian Spain; B. Carthaginian Spain (third century B.C.); C. Roman Spain (third century B.C., to fifth century of our era); D. Visigothic Monarchy (fifth to eighth century); E. Arab Spain and Kingdoms of the Reconquest (eighth to fifteenth century); F. The Unification of Spain (fifteenth century to the present time).
A. Colonies
The Phoenicians, who colonized all the Mediterranean coasts, established a great many colonies, or factories, in the South of Spain - Carteya, Calpe, Malaga, Sexi, and chief of all, Gades (Cádiz), the centre of their power in Spain and their cult of Hercules, which is symbolized on the Gaditanian coins. Soon after the Phoenicians, the Greeks began establishing their colonies, the chief colonizers being the Rhodians at Rosas, south of Cape Creus (910 B.C.), the Phocians, at Emporium (Ampurias, the present name, or Ampurdan, being derived from Emporitanum) and at Artemisium (Denia, from Diana, another name for Artemis), and the Zacynthians, who founded Saguntum and populated Iviza, giving it the name of Ophiusa.
B. Carthaginian Spain
The Carthaginians settled in the Balearic Isles in the seventh century B.C. In the sixth century, having aided the Phoenicians of Cádiz against the Tartesians, they took possession of that city and began trading in Baetica. After the First Punic War they sought to indemnify themselves for their losses in Sicily by conquering Spain. The conquest was begun by Hamilcar Barca, and extended as far as the Ebro; then, too, began that struggle of the Spaniards for independence which was to last until the nineteenth century of the Christian Era. Istolacius and Indortes, the former a Celtic chieftain, the latter chief of certain Celtiberian tribes of the Ebro, raised an army, according to Diodorus Siculus, of 50,000 men; but they were defeated and condemned to death. However, Orison, another Iberian chief, achieved the rout and death of Hamilcar at Elice, or Elche (230). Hasdrubal, the founder of Cartagena, (New Carthage), was assassinated by a slave, and Hannibal, to complete the conquest of Spain, laid siege to Saguntum, which city then immortalized itself by its heroic act of self-destruction. The issue of the Second Punic War caused the Carthaginians to lose Spain, and the Romans succeeded to their mastery of the country.
C. Roman Spain
But the Spaniards showed no more docility to the Romans than to the Carthaginians. Indibil and Mandonium commenced that course of resistance which ended only when Spain had been romanized - vanquished not so much by the arms as by the superior civilization of Rome, a culture which Spain assimilated to such a degree as to produce rhetoricians like Quintilian, poets like Lucan, Martial, and Silius Italicus, philosophers like Seneca, and emperors like Trajan, Hadrian, and Theodosius. Noteworthy among the wars of the Spaniards against Roman domination are those of Viriathus (150-140 B.C.), a lusitanian chieftain; the struggle of Numantia (133), which imitated the example set by Saguntum; that of Sertorius, a partisan of Marius, who was proscribed by Sulla, fled to Spain, and there put himself at the head of the Spaniards. Sertorius did more than anyone else to romanize the country; he gave it Roman institutions, and founded at Huesca a high school with Greek and Latin teachers. After this, although the Spaniards took the side of Pompey against Caesar, resistance to the Roman power as such was confined to the Cantabri and the Asturias, who were conquered, though not subdued, in the time of Augustus. The Romans at first divided their Spanish territories into Hither and Further Spain (Hispania Citerior, Ulterior), taking the Ebro as dividing line, but Augustus divided the country into Tarraconensis, Lusitania, and Boetica. Spain is covered with Roman remains, particularly aqueducts and bridges, but the most penetrating Roman influence was linguistic, giving to the inhabitants a neo-Latin tongue, which has survived in great perfection in Castile and with greater modifications, owing to the aspirated utterance, in the East.
Under the Roman domination Spain received Christianity. There is a venerable tradition that the Apostles Paul and James came to the country, as well as the Seven Apostolic Men (Torquatus, Ctesiphon, Secundus, Indalecius, Caecilius, Hesychius, and Euphrasius) to whom the foundation of various churches is attributed. Connected with the coming of St. James is the very ancient tradition of Our Lady of the Pillar (la Virgen del Pilar) of Saragossa. Prudentius says that there were martyrs in Spain in every one of the persecutions. Of uncertain date are the martyrdoms of Sts. Facundus and Primitius in Galicia; of St. Firminus and Sts Marcellus and Nonia, with their twelve children, in León; of Sts Acisclus and Victoria at Cordova. Sts Hemererius and Celedonius suffered in the Decian persecution, as did Sts. Justa and Rufina, St. Laurence, St. Fructuosus, St. Augurius, and St. Eulogius. The most famous of Spanish martyrs, however, are those who suffered in the persecution of Diocletian, when Dacian was prefect; among them were Sts. Cucufatis, Eulalia, and Severus, Bishop of Barcelona, Sts. Félix, Poncius, and Victor, Narcissus, Bishop of Gerona, Engratia, Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa, and his deacon, Vincentius, Justus and Pastor of Alcalá, Leocadia of Toledo, Eulalia of Mérida, Cyricus and Paula of Malaga, Vincentius, Sabina, and Cristeta of Talavera. During this period, too, many councils were held in Spain, the most important being those of Elvira (or Illiberis) and of Saragossa, and the First Council of Toledo. At that of Elvira (300) the Acts, which are still extant, were signed by nineteen bishops, and, among other things, the celibacy of the clergy was insisted upon. At the Council of Saragossa (380) Priscillianism was condemned. The Priscillianists abjured their heresy at the Council of Toledo (400), where, also, the symbol was pronounced with the Filioque. Among illustrious Spaniards of the period may be mentioned Pope St. Damasus, the great Hosius, St. Pacianus, Bishop of Barcelona, and his son, Flavius Dexter, Juvencus and Prudentius.
D. Visigothic Spain
When the Germanic peoples invaded the provinces of the Roman Empire, the hordes, urged forward by the pressure of the Huns in their rear, hurled themselves for the first time upon the Pyrenean Peninsula - the Alani, a people of Scythian, or Tatar, race; the Vandals and Suevians, Germanic races. The Alani were, for the most part, quickly brought into subjection. The Vandals, after establishing themselves in Baetica, to which they gave the name of Vandalusia (Andalusia), passed on into Africa, while the Visigoths hemmed in the Suevi in Galicia until the latter were completely brought under control. These Visigoths, or Western Goths, after sacking Rome under the leadership of Alaric (410), turned towards the Iberian Peninsula, with Ataulf for their leader, and occupied the north-eastern portion, which thereafter received the name of Gotha-landia (Catalaunia, later Catalonia). Valia extended his rule over most of the Peninsula, keeping the Suevians shut up in Galicia. Theodoret took part, with the Riomans and Franks, in the battle of Châlons, where Attila was routed. Euric (466), who put an end to the last remnants of Roman power in the Peninsula, may be considered the first monarch of Spain, though the Suevians still maintained their independence in Galicia. Euric was also the first king to give written laws to the Visigoths.
In the following reigns the Catholic kings of France assumed the rôle of protectors of the Hispano-Roman Catholics against the Arianism of the Visigoths, and in the wars which ensued Alaric II and Amalric lost their lives. Atanagild, having risen against King Agilas, called in the Byzantine Greeks and, in payment for the succour they gave him, ceded to them the maritime places of the South-East (554). Leovigild restored the political unity of the Peninsula, subduing the Suevians, but the religious divisions of the country, reaching even the royal family, brought on a civil war. St. Hermengild, the king's son, putting himself at the head of the Catholics, was defeated and taken prisoner, and suffered martyrdom for rejecting communion with the Arians. Recared, son of Leovigild and brother of St. Hermengild, added religious unity to the political unity achieved by his father, accepting the Catholic Faith in the Third Council of Toledo (589). The religious unity established by this council was the basis of that fusion of Goths with Hispano-Romans which produced the Spanish Nation. Sisebut and Suintila completed the expulsion of the Byzantines from Spain. Chindasvint and Recesvint laboured for legislative unity, and legalized marriages, hitherto prohibited, between Goths and Latins. After Wamba, famous for his opposition to his own election, an unmistakable decline of the Gothic monarchy set in. Manners were relaxed, immorality increased, and Witiza has stood in Spanish history for the type of that decay which, in the next reign, that of Roderic (710-14), ended in the ruin of the kingdom.
During this period many very important councils were held in Spain. Among the most memorable were: that of Tarragona (516), at which ten bishops assisted, the First Council of Barcelona (540), and those of Lérida and Valencia (546). But most important of all, and of a special character, were the councils of Toledo and of Braga (Bracara). Eminent among the saints of the same period are the two holy brothers Leander, who presided at the Third Council of Toledo, and Isidore, who presided at the Fourth, and who wrote a celebrated encyclopedia (The Etymologies) and contributed to the upbuilding of Mozarabic literature, St. Saturius, the solitary, St. Emilian (Millán), the father of monks, St. Victorian, abbot of the monastery of Asana, St. Gaudiosus, Bishop of Tarazona, St. Toribius, St. Martin of Dumio, St. Ildefonsus, St. Braulius, St. Eugenius, and St. Tajón, Bishop of Saragossa. To this period, also, belong the poets Orentius and Dracontius, the chroniclers Idacius and John of Biclara, and the historian Paulus Orosius.
E. Arab Spain
(1) The Moslem Domination
While the Gothic kingdom was decaying through effeminacy and the discord produced by the elective system of monarchy, the fanatical sectaries of the Koran were advancing through North Africa. Legend has it that Count Julian, the governor of Ceuta, in revenge for the violation of his daughter, Florinda (Also called La Cara), by King Roderic, invited the Moslems and opened to them the gates of the Peninsula. The first expedition of the Arabs was led by Tarif, who gave his name to Tarifa; the second, by Tarik, who gave his name to Gibraltar (Gebal-Tarik, "Mountain of Tarik"). Roderic went forth to meet the invaders, and, in July, 711, the terrific battle was fought which is generally called the battle of Guadalete, but which really took place near the River Barbate. This river flows into the Lagoon of Janda and was known to the Arabs as Wadi Becca. The battle appears to have been lost through the treachery of partisans of Witiza, the last king. Roderic disappeared; it is not known whether he perished in the fight. The Arabs spread rapidly through Andalusia, soon reaching Toledo, the Gothic capital, while the Jews, who were numerous in the cities, facilitated their entrance. Musa, governor of Barbary, came to share the triumphs of Tarik. In 714 he captured Saragossa and followed up his conquests as far as Lugo and Gijón, while Tarik reached León and Astorga. Some of the Spaniards settled down to live under Arab rule, calling themselves Mozarabs; the rest fled to the mountains to the North, where they formed the four chief rallying-points for the Reconquest: Astorias, Navarre, Aragón, and Catalonia.
Arab Spain was at first governed by emirs whose authority was derived from the Omayyad Caliphs of Damascus. The most noted of those emirs were Abdelaziz, son of Musa, who recognized the independence of the little state, defended by Todmir, with its capital at Orihuela, and Abderraman el Gafequi, who, having penetrated into Aquitaine, was vanquished by Charles Martel at Poitiers (732). Before long, divisions arose among the Spanish Mussulmans, out of the antagonisms of Arabs and Berbers, Quelvites and Mahadites. At length Abderraman I, a scion of the Omayyad stock, who had escaped the slaughter of his family by the Abassids, when the latter founded the Caliphate of Bagdad, himself became the founder of the independent Emirate of Cordova. Here the culture of the Spanish Arabs reached its greatest splendour, influenced, in great measure, by the Mozarabs, who were more advanced in the sciences and arts. In 786 Abderraman began the famous mosque of Cordova (now the Cathedral), one of the largest and most magnificent edifices of the Arab style. The first caliphs treated the Mozarabic Christians with comparative leniency; Abderraman II, however, initiated a policy of persecution, and his son Mohammed I continued it. In the city of Cordova there were seven Catholic churches and a monastery connected with Church of S. Ginés, while in the neighbourhood were the monasteries of S. Cristóbal, S. Félix, S. Martin, Stos. Justo y Pastor, S. Salvador, S. Zoilo, Cuteclara, and Los Tábanos. In 839 a council of three archbishops and five bishops was held at Cordova. The epoch of the Martyrs here began with the decollation of the priest Perfecto, in 850. In the following year the monk Isaac spontaneously offered himself for martyrdom, and six monks and several laymen, among them the celebrated Paulo Cordobés, died for the Faith. In 852 Gumersindo and Servideo, with eight other monks and seculars, were martyred. The readiness with which martyrs offered themselves to the tribunals incensed the Caliph Abderraman II, and he caused the Council of Cordova of 852 to assemble under the presidency of Recafredo, Archbishop of Seville. In this council it was proposed to deny the credit of martyrdom to those who provoked persecution. But persecution recommenced in 853, under Mohammad I, and the monks Fandila and Félix, the virgin Digna, Benildis, Columba, and Pomposa shed their blood for the Faith, as did the presbyters Abundio and Elias, the monks Pedro, Paulo, Isidoro, and Argimiro, the youth Amador, Luis of Cordova, Witesindo, Rodrigo, Solomon, and the virgin Aurea in the following year. St. Eulogius, who had encouraged the martyrs, himself suffered on 11 March, 859, and the virgin Leocridia followed him. Distinguished as writers among the Mozarabs were St. Eulogius and Alvar Cordobés, and their master, the Abbot Speraindeo; also the Abbot Samson, who combated the anthropomorphism of the perverse Bishop Hostegesis and others. But the Mozarabs gradually dies out in their Mohammedan environment, so that St. Ferdinand found hardly any traces of them in the cities he conquered.
After stifling an insurrection of the national party, the Arab aristocracy, and the Berbers, and reducing Toledo to obedience, Abderraman III established an absolute monarchy, the Caliphate of Cordova (929). His son, Al Haken II, distinguished himself by fostering the arts of peace; he collected a vast number of books, and founded schools and academies. In the reign of Hixem II, both the home government and the armies were directed by his haschib Almanzor (the Victorious), who, by dint of almost annual incursions into the Christian kingdoms, well-nigh reduced them to the condition of the first days of the Reconquest, and indeed threatened them with total destruction. He took and burned Barcelona, mastered León, Zamora, and Pamplona, and razed Santiago de Compostela (997). At last the Christians, united, crushed him at Calatanazor (1002), and he went to Medina Celi to die. After its fleeting day of glory, the Caliphate fell into a rapid decay, until it was broken up into more than twenty states known as the Kingdom of Taifas. Thus was the progress of the Reconquest favoured by circumstances; it would have been completed in the thirteenth century, had not divisions and discords among the Christians impeded it. The Spanish Mussulmans then sought aid from the Moors of Africa. This they received chiefly on three occasions; from the Almoravids, after the taking of Toledo by Alfonso VI (1085); from the Almohads, in the time of Alfonso VIII, who was defeated by them at Alarcos and defeated them at Las Navas de Tolosa (1212); from the Beni Merines, in the reign of Alfonso XI, who vanquished them in the battle of Salado. From that time the Spanish Mussulmans were confined to the Kingdom of Granada, which had been founded by Mohammed Alhamar in 1238, and lasted until 1492, when Boabdil was conquered by Ferdinand and Isabella.
(2) The Reconquest
All the elements of the Spanish People already existed in the Kingdom of the Catholic Goths; the Latinized Celtibarian race, or Hispano-Romans, the Gothic element, and the Catholic faith. These elements, however, were as yet uncombined, and still lacked that thorough fusion which was to make one people out of them, with a character and historical destiny of its own. The agency employed by Divine Providence to effect this fusion was the terrible force of the Mussulman invasion. Under its immense pressure the Goths and Hispano-Romans, in the mountains of the North, became one people with one religion and one national aspiration, to reconquer their Spanish fatherland and make the Cross triumph over the Crescent. Though already morally a unit, the Spanish people were still eight centuries away from political unity, and the Reconquest was begun from four distinct centres. Chief among these four centres was Asturias. The fugitive Goths found a retreat in those mountains where the Romans had never been able to effectively establish their authority; only a few years after the rout of Guadalete, they gained a victory over Alkama, the lieutenant of El Horr, in the portentour battle of Covadonga, where popular faith saw Divine aid fighting for the Christians. Here was erected a sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin which afterwards became a collegiate church and still exists. Don Pelayo, or Pelagius, the Gothic chieftain who was victor at Covadonga, was acclaimed king, and took up his residence at Cangas. His son Favila was killed while hunting, torn to pieces by a bear, and was succeeded by Alfonso I, son-in-law of Don Pelayo, who set about pushing the Reconquest as far as Galicia and Tierra de Campos (the "Gothic Fields" or Campos Góticos). Fruela I (727-728) founded Oviedo. He was assassinated, and was succeeded by several insignificant kings (Aurelio, Silio, Mauregato, and Bermudo I, the Deacon) and at last Alonso I, the Chaste, who set up his Court at Oviedo, recommenced the great expeditions against the Arabs, and seems to have invited Chrlemagne to come to Asturias, thus occasioning the Frankish monarch's expedition which ended in the disaster of Roncesvalles.
In this region occurred the discovery of the body of St. James (Santiago) at Compostela. Ramiro I repelled the Northmen who tried to effect a landing in Asturias. To him legend attributes the victory of Clavijo. According to this legend Mauregato had promised the Moors a tribute of one hundred maidens which Ramiro refused to pay. In the battle that ensued, the Apostle St. James, Patron of the Spaniards, was seen fighting, mounted on a white charger- "Es visus in Praelio, equoque et ense acerrimus, mauros furentes sternere" as the Spanish Breviary has it. This king is said to have made the "Vow of Santiago", by which he bound himself to pay a certain tribute to the Church of Compostela. Modern critics pronounce the document apocryphal, but the national tradition loses none of its force thereby. Ordono I emulated the exploits of Ramiro, driving back the Northmen and defeating the Moors at Albelda; he also rebuilt León, Tuy, Astorga, and other cities. Alfonso III, the Great, continued the forays as far as the Sierra Morena, and founded Burgos, the future capital of Castile. His sons rebelled against him, and he abdicated the crown, dividing his dominions among them. With him ended the Kingdom of Asturias, the territory of which soon became subject to León.
Another rallying-point of the Reconquest was Aragón; the other two, Navarre and Catalonia, were placed by the circumstances of their origin in peculiar relations with France. The Basques on either side of the Western Pyrenees dissatisfied with Frankish rule, rebelled on several occasions. At Roncesvalles they annihilated the forces of Charlemagne, and in 824 another victory secured the independence of the Basques of Pamplona. The names and dates of their kings, or chieftains, are very uncertain until we come to Sancho II, Abarca. He abdicated in favour of his son, García III, the Trembler, in whose time the Leónese and Navarrese together were routed at Valdejunquera. Sancho III, the Great, was one of the monarchs who most influenced Spanish history; he was eventually King of Navarre, Castile, Aragón, and Sobrarbe. At his death (1035) he divided his kingdoms, giving Navarre to his eldest son García, Castile, with the title of King, to Fernando, Aragón to Ramiro, and Sobrarbe to Gonzálo. This fashion of regarding the various states as patrimonial possessions - an idea borrowed from French feudalism, and previously unknown in the Spanish kingdoms - was introduced at this time; it resulted in the numerous divisions which led to so many wars and which long formed an obstacle to the unity of the Reconquest in the West. (On the origin of the Countship of Barcelona, the fourth century of the Reconquest, see CATALONIA).
As the Reconquest advanced, the churches destroyed by the Mohammedan invasion were restored. The Reconquest went forward in the name of the Holy Faith. Alfonso I of Asturias, surnamed the Catholic, restored a great many churches; Alfonso II, the Chaste, founded the Diocese of Oviedo and built its first cathedral and the royal burial-place. The Dioceses of Pamplona and Sasave corresponded to the nascent Kingdoms of Navarre and Aragón, while in Catalonia the Diocese of Urgel seems never to have ceased to exist, and that of Gerona was soon restored. Unhappily distinguished among the bishops of Urgel is Félix, who, with Elipando of Toledo, embraced the Adoptionist heresy, asserting that Christ is the adoptive son of God. This heresy was combated by Theodulus, Bishop of Seville, by Etherius of Osma, and by St. Beatus of Liebana, and was condemned by the Council of Ratisbon. In the same period lived el Pacense, Isidore, Bishop of Beja, whose Chronicle, a continuation of St. Isidore's, begins at the year 610 and ends with 754.
As the year 1000 approached, it seemed that the Kingdom of Christ in Spain was about to be annihilated by the terrible and victorious expeditions of Almanzor. A second restoration began gloriously with Ferdinand (Fernando) I, who assembled the Council of Coyanza (Valencia de Don Juan), obtained from the King of Seville the relics of St. Isidore, which were translated to León, and fostered the Churches of Coimbra, León, Santiago, and Oviedo, and the monasteries of Oña, Arlanza and Sahagún. Fernando González, Count of Castile, restored the monastery of Silos, which has now been reoccupied by French Benedictines. Sancho the Elder restored and reformed many monasteries, and brought the Cluniac monks into Spain. Alfonso VI transferred to Burgos the ancient See of Valpuesta. During the same period the Dioceses of Osma, Sigüenza (1102), Segovia (1120), Salamanca, and Zamora were restored. Ferdinand II of León erected the Diocese of Ciudad Rodrigo, restoring the old Diocese of Caliabria (1171), Alfonso VII re-established that of Coria, and Alfonso VIII of Castile founded that of Plasencia. St. Olegario prepared the way for the restoration of the metropolitan See of Tarragona, which had his successor, Gregorio, for its first archbishop (1137). But eminent above all the other churches of Spain was that of Santiago de Compostela, to which was united the ancient Bishopric of Iria. The famous Don Diego Gelmirez, having been elected bishop (1100), raised the number of canons, and at last made Compostela the archiepiscopal see of the Province of Mérida, or Emérita.
As early as the eighth century there existed the monasteries of San Millán (or S. Emiliano), Sahagún (S. Facundo), S. Vicente de Oviedo, and Sta. María de Obona, and in Catalonia that of Sta. María de Lavax. In the ninth century two hundred monks of the Monastery of Cardeña, near Burgos, suffered martyrdom. From the monastery of Moreruela, on the banks of the River Esla, its two founders, St. Froilan and St. Atilanus, went to occupy the Sees of León and Zamora. St. Eulogius has left us an account of the monasteries which he visited in the ninth century - S. Salvador of Leire, S. Zacarías, Urdax, S. Martín de Cillas, and S. Vicente de Igal. That of S. Cugat, in Catalonia, seems to date from Gothic times, while the first ibndependent count founded those of Ripoll and Montserrat. In the eleventh century the Cluniac Reform was introduced into Spain. Bernard, formerly a monk of Saint-Orence at Aux, planted it at Sahagún, making the monastery there the mother-house of the reformed branch in Spain, as Cluny was in France. The migration of French monks into Spain made its influence felt in the famous reform of the Mozarabic Rite, for which the Roman was substituted. Known also as the Isidorean, or Spanish, Rite, the former was abolished in Aragón in 1071, through the exertions of the Cluniacs and the queen, who was a Frenchwoman, and the Roman Rite was first introduced in the Cluniac monastery of S. Juan de la Peña. The same innovation was made a little later in Catalonia, and in 1076 in Navarre. The Castilians offered a strong resistance to the supplanting of their ancient rite, and Pope John X, having sent the Legate Zanelo to examine and report on it, approved it. Fifty years later, Alexander II sent Cardinal Hugo Cándido, but neither would he undertake to make any change. Gregory VII sent Cardinal Ricardo, who, together with Alfonso VI, the conqueror of Toledo, decreed the abolition of the ancient rite, although, according to the chronicle, appeal was made to the trial by combat, and Don Juan Ruiz, the champion of the Mozarabic Rite, was victorious. It was, nevertheless, permitted in certain chruches, and is even yet preserved at Toledo as an historical monument of the ancient Spanish Church.
The Cistercian Reform, too, was introduced into Spain, during the lifetime of St. Bernard, and the cathedral chapters lived by the Rule of St. Augustine. The most characteristic development of this period, however, was that of the military orders. The oldest of them seems to have been that of the Knights of La Terraza, founded by Don García de Najera, in the eleventh century; but this order, as well as those of the Palms, of the Redeemer, and of the Crusaders, established by Alfonso I of Aragón in the twelfth century, disappeared, becoming merged with the orders which came from Palestine. The Order of Calatrava was founded by St. Raymond, Abbot of Fitero, in La Rioja, who, in 1158, undertook to defend the stronghold of Calatrava, abandoned by the Templars. Its havit is white with a red cross. The Order of Alcántara was at first known as that of St. Julian of the Peartree (del Pereiro), but it soon took the name of the town of Alcántara, which was ceded to it by the Knights of Calatrava. Its habit is white with a green cross. The order of Santiago was founded to protect pilgrims to Compostela, to which service thirteen knights vowed themselves. With these knights the Augustinian Canons of S. Eloy of León joined to form the famous order whose badge is an elongated red cross (1170). These three orders were all approved by Alexander III. The importance to which the Spanish military orders attained may be gathered from the fact that King Alfonso the Fighter (El Batallador) wished to hand over the Kingdom of Aragón to them, believing that there was no better way of securing the speedy completion of the Reconquest. The Aragónese, however, would not consent to their king's testamentary disposition of them, and had recourse to Ramiro, a monk of S. Ponce de Tomeras, who wore the crown until a successor was forthcoming.
F. The Unification of Spain
Several difficulties stood in the way of the union of the various states formed in Spain by the Reconquest; the diversity of its points of departure was the principal. Navarre and Catalonia were in particularly close contact with France, and the marriage of Ramón Berenguer the Great with Dulcia, heiress of Provence, made the relations between the peoples of the langue d'oc so close that the subsequent development of Catalonia was connected rather with that of the South of France. In Navarre, again, when the dynasty of Sancho the Elder became extinct, the Crown passed in succession to the houses of Champagne (1234), of France, and of Evreux (1349-1441), with the result that Navarre, until the fifteenth century, lived in much closer relations with the French monarchy than with the Spanish states. On the other hand, the feudal usages introduced in the Western Kingdoms by the House of Navarre brought about repeated partitions of states. Ferdinand I divided his kingdom into five parts, Castile, León, Galicia, Zamora, and Toro, though, in the event his son Sancho the Strong despoiled his brothers and restored the kingdom to unity. But Alonso VII, the Emperor, again separated Castile and León, leaving the former to his son Sancho, and the latter to Ferdinand.
Another result of feudal customs introduced by the Burgundian princes was the separation of Portugal. For Alfonso VI gave his daughters Urraca and Teresa in marriage to Raymond and Henry of Burgundy, who founded two dynasties: that of Portugal, and that of Castile and León, which began with Alfonso VII. The Kingdoms of Asturias, Galicia, León, and Castile were definitively united under St. Ferdinand, heir of León through his father Alfonso IX, and of Castile through his mother Berenguela. In the same way Catalonia and Aragón were definitively united by the marriage of Ramón Berenguer, the Saint, with Doña Petronila, daughter of Ramiro, the Monk, of Aragón, of whom legend says that he made the famous "Bell of Huesca" out of the heads of rebellious nobles. These three rebellious states, to which the divisions of the peninsula had been reduced, completed the Reconquest; they were not united, to form Iberian national unity, until three centuries later.
The kingdom formed by the union of Aragón and Catalonia was the first to complete that portion of the Reconquest which the geographical conditions assigned to it; then it directed its strength eastward. Pedro II, the Catholic, sovereign of Aragón and Catalonia, went to Rome to seek the annulment of his marriage with Marie of Montpelier, and to have himself crowned by the pope. The former purpose he failed to accomplish; the latter occasioned him a great deal of trouble, as the Aragónese nobles refused to recognize the position of vassalage to the Holy See in which Pedro had placed his kingdom. These nobles then forced for the first time that union, or confederation, which was the cause of such serious disturbances until Pedro IV with his dagger cut in pieces the document which recorded it. Pedro II, the Catholic, fell in the battle of Muret (1213), defending his Albigensian kinsmen against Simon de Montfort, whom Innocent III had sent against them. His son, Jaime I, the Conqueror, completed the Catalan-Aragónese Reconquest, winning Majorca (1228) and Valencia (1238) besides helping his son-in-law, Alfonso X, the Wise, to complete the conquest of Murcia. His son and successor gave a new direction to Catalan-Aragónese policy by enforcing the rights of his wife, Doña Costanza of Suabia, to the kingdoms of Sicily and Naples. Profiting by the rising of the Sicilian Vespers against the Angevins (1282), he possessed himself of Sicily and attacked Naples.
This conquest, however, placed the kings of Aragón in a position of antagonism with the popes, who defended the rights of the House of Anjou. Martin IV having excommunicated Pedro III, the Aragónese nobles took advantage of the fact to extend their privileges at the expense of the royal power. The demands of the nobles increased in the reign of Alfonso III, who was forced to confirm to them the famous Privilegio de la Union. Jaime II became reconciled with the Holy See, accepting Corsica and Sardinia in lieu of Sicily. Pedro IV, the Ceremonious, defeated the nobles at Epila (1348) and used his dagger to cut in pieces the charter they had extorted from his predecessors. In the meantime the Catalans and Aragónese who were left in Sicily offered themselves to the Emperor Andronicus Palaeologus to fight the Turks. Having conquered these, they turned their arms against the Greeks, who treacherously slew their leaders; but for this treachery the Spaniards, under Bernard of Rocafort and Berenguer of Entenca, exacted the terrible penalty celebrated in history as "The Catalan Vengeance" and moreover seized the Duchies of Athens and Naupatria (1313). The royal line of Aragón became extinct with Martin the Humane, and the Compromise of Caspe gave the Crown to the dynasty of Castile, thus preparing the final union. Alfonso V, the Magnanimous, once more turned Aragónese policy in the direction of Italy, where he possessed the Kingdom of Sicily and acquired that of Naples by having himself made adoptive son of Queen Joanna. With these events began the Italian wars which were not to end until the eighteenth century.
Meanwhile the Reconquest languished in Castile; at first, because of the candidacy of Alfonso the Wise for the imperial Crown of Germany, in which candidacy he had secured a majority of the electoral princes. This was followed by a disputed succession to the Throne, the rival claimants being the Cerda heirs (sons of Fernando, the eldest son of Alfonso X) and the second son of Sancho IV. Next came the minorities of Ferdinand IV, Alfonso XI, Henry III, and John II, and fresh civil strife in the reigns of Pedro the Cruel and of Henry IV. Ferdinand IV succeeded to the Throne at the age of nine, being under the tutelage of his mother Doña María de Molina. Alfonso XI was little more than one year old when his father died (1312); and though his reign was in many respects glorious, and he overcame the Beni-Merines in the battle of El Salado (1340), still his amours with Doña Leónor de Guzmán, by whom he had several children, resulted in the wars of the following reign, that of Pedro the Cruel, who was at last slain by his bastard brother, Henry of Trastamara, and succeeded on the Throne by him under the title of Henry II. John I, who married Beatriz of Portugal (1383), sought to unite the two kingdoms on the death of Ferdinand, the last King of Portugal of the Burgundian line. The Portuguese, however, defeated John of Castile at the battle of Aljubarota, and the Portuguese Crown went to the Master of Aviz, who became John I of Portugal (1385). Henry III, who married Catherine of Lancaster, was the first to take the title of Prince of Asturias as heir to the Crown, which he inherited during his minority, as did his son, John II.
National unity was eventually attained by the most unexpected means: Isabel of Castile, who was not the heiress of Henry IV, married Fernando (Ferdinand) of Aragón, who was not the heir of John II, and the tragic death of the Prince of Viana, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the no less tragic fate of Juana la Beltraneja contributed to a result which no doubt entered into the designs of Providence (see ISABELLA THE CATHOLIC). Portugal, which failed to be united with Castile on the extinction of the House of Burgundy, was united with it when the Aviz dynasty ended, in the time of Philip II, to be again separated, however, under Philip IV, when the House of Braganza secured the Crown. But, before reviewing the civil history of united Spain, it will be well to glance at its ecclesiastical history during this period of transition.
G. Religious Development
The great monarchs of the Reconquest were distinguished by their zeal in restoring and founding churches, or converting the conquered mosques into Catholic churches. St. Ferdinand re-established the ancient churches and sees of Jaén, Cordova (where the great mosque became the cathedral), and Seville, and began the erection of the magnificent cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo. His contemporary, Jaime the Conqueror, is said to have consecrated to God no fewer than 2000 churches; he founded the Cathedral of Majorca (1229) and restored the ancient See of Valencia, making it suffragan to Tarragona, though it afterwards, in the fifteenth century, became metropolitan. Its first bishop was Ferrer of San Martin. The thirteenth century was a very prosperous epoch for the Spanish Church: it was then that the Carmelites, Dominicans and Franciscans were established in the Peninsula, as well as the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the redemption of captives. For this same object, also, Jaime the Conqueror, St. Peter Nolasco, and St. Raymond of Peñafort founded the Mercedarians (Orden de la Merced), at first a military order, but afterwards monastic (1228). When Philip the Fair brought about the extinction of the Templars, Jaime II of Aragón and the Councils of Salamanca and Tarragona asserted their innocence and, when obliged to carry out the decree of suppression, divided their possessions between the Orders of St. John of Jerusalem and Montesa, the latter created to defend the frontiers of Valena previously defended by the Templars. The Knights of Montesa took for their device the plain red cross on a white mantle.
In the Great Schism of the West Spain played a great part, chiefly through the influence of the Aragónese, Pedro de Luna (antipope Benedict XIII). As a cardinal, his influence led Henry II of Castile and Pedro IV of Aragón to recognize Clement VII, and after his own election he ended by withdrawing to Spain, where he lived in the castle of Peñíiscola. In 1399 an assembly held at Alcalá resolved to obey neither pope, as it was not known which of the two was legitimate. The antipope favoured the election of Ferdinand of Antequera in the Compromise of Caspe, in which St. Vincent Ferrer, an ardent partisan of Ferdinand, was arbitrator. In this way the antipope secured recognition from the Spaniards. At last, in 1416, St. Vincent Ferrer and the kings abandoned the case of Bndeict XIII and gave their adherence to the Council of Constance. Gil Sánchez Muñoz, a native of Teruel, was, on the death of who were supported by Alfonso V of Aragón; but he soon afterwards resigned his claims, in the Council of Tarragona, recognized Martin V, and was made Bishop of Majorca.
During this period the Jews in Spain became very numerous and acquired great power; they were not only the physicians, but also the treasurers of the kings. Don Jusaph de Ecija administered the revenues of Alfonso XI, and Samuel Leví was chief favourite of Pedro the Cruel. The Jews of Toledo then set on foot their migration (Transito) in protest against the laws of Alfonso X (Las Partidas), which prohibited the building of new synagogues. After the accession of Henry of Trastamara to the Throne, the populace, exasperated by the preponderance of Jewish influence, perpetrated a massacre of Jews at Toledo; in 1391 another general massacre took place, beginning at Seville; a little later, the jewries of Toledo, Burgos, Valencia, and Cordova were attacked, and the like scenes were enacted in Aragón, especially at Barcelona. St. Vincent Ferrer converted innumerable Jews, among them the Rabbi Josuah Halorqui, who took the name of Jerónimo de Santa Fe and in his town converted many of his former coreligionists in the famous Dispute of Tortosa (1413). Oppressed by vexatious laws, and abhorred by the people, whom they ruined with their usury, perverted, and scandalized with their sacrileges, they were finally expelled from Spain by the Catholic Sovereigns, who regarded them as dangerous to the religious unity and the security of the country on account of the relations which they maintained with the Moors.
Connected with the persecutions of the Jews is the institution of the Inquisition. It was introduced into Spain by Jaime I the Conqueror, King of Aragón, to stop the invasion of the same Albigensian heretics against whom it had been established by Innocent III. The Count of Foix and the Viscount of Castellbo, with many of their subjects, embraced the Beghards of Aragón were punished by the Inquisition. There were also in Catalonia Fraticelli and other heretics, like Raimundo of Tarrega, as the Holy Office was informed. In 1376 Padre Nicolas Eymerich published the "Directorium Inquisitorum". But the Spanish Inquisition did not acquire its true character and importance until the Catholic Sovereigns established it in Castile under authority obtained from Pope Sixtus IV (1478). It was a mixed tribunal, in the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of doctrines and, consequently, of offences against Catholic faith or morals; after sentence was pronounced, the culprit was handed over to the secular arm to be punished according to the laws of the realm. Such a law was that of title 26 of the seven Partidas, which provided the punishment of death by fire for heretics who refused to be converted, and, again, those of book IV, title 1, of the Fuero Real, which imposed the same penalty for heresy and apostasy. The laws regulating the processes of the Inquisition, indeed, were Spanish, and not laws of the Roman Church. The Spanish Inquisition, although established by virtue of a pontifical Bull, became to some extent independent of Rome, as appeals lay to the Archbishop of Seville, who passed sentence in the pope's name. The Tribunal of the Holy Office, as it was called, was made up of thirteen - afterwards fifteen - provincial tribunals, with territorial jurisdiction, and a supreme council, which supervised them and pronounced on appeals. The procedure was minutely regulated and was far superior to the procedure of other tribunals of its time. It is not certain that anonymous accusations were considered, although the names of the accusers and witnesses were concealed from the accused. Torture was not arbitrarily employed, but only when sufficient proof already existed, and even then it was applied less barbarously than in the contemporary civil tribunals. The prisons were of the most humane kind. The sentences pronounced were: abandonment to the temporal arm (relajacion) for the impenitent heretic; reconciliation for the repentant; abjuration, when there was a suspicion of heresy; and absolution. Only the impenitent were condemned to the stake, and the number of condemnations has been much exaggerated.
H. Modern Period
The political and religious development which we have outlined above resulted in Spanish national unity, and explains the character of Spain as a Catholic nation. The struggle of eight centuries to recover the territory wrested from them by the Mussulmans, who were enemies at once of their land and of their faith, effected in the Spanish people that intimate fusion of patriotic and religious feeling which distinguished them during many centuries. Non sine numine, it may be said, did a Spanish pope (Alexander VI) give the title of Catholic, by eminence, to the sovereigns who first united reconquered Spain under their sceptre, for they and their successors deemed it the first duty of the Crown to maintain the purity of the Catholic Faith in their realms, to propagate it in the vast countries which they colonized, and defend it in Europe against the assaults of heretics. The same pope, Alexander VI, issued in 1493 a Bull, in which to prevent the disputes that might arise between Spaniards and Portuguese in regard to their discoveries in the East Indies and (as America was then called) the West Indies, he established as a line of demarcation between them the meridian running 100 leagues west of the Azores, decreeing that the newly discovered lands west of that line should belong to the Spaniards, and those east of it to the Portuguese. Afterwards, in the Treaty of Tordesillas, another line, 360 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, was substituted - an arrangement which gave Brazil to Portugal.
The Catholic Sovereigns, by reuniting the Crowns of Castile and Aragón, annexing Navarre, and completing the Reconquest with the reduction of Granada (1492), established the political unity of Spain; with the Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews they achieved its religious unity; the marriages of their children with the Kings of Portugal and of England and the son of the Emperor Maximilian, secured to Spain the friendship of the leading states; by the discovery of American and the conquests in Africa a broad road was opened for Spain's colonial expansion. But the death of their son Prince John caused the Crown to pass to Charles I (the Emperor Charles V), son of Juana la Loca, and entirely changed the course which the magnanimous Isabella had traced for Spanish policy. Charles V, attracted to Italy by the ancient strife with France for the possession of the Italian states, and to Germany by his inheritance of the imperial Throne from his grandfather Maximilian, was more the Emperor of Germany than the King of Spain, and completely diverted Spanish policy from America and Africa. Philip II, though he did not succeed his father in the empire, could not extricate himself from his father's European policy, and Spain was exhausted by the wars in Flanders against France and England. Nevertheless, unlike his father, Philip II was a thoroughly Spanish king, and united the whole Iberian Peninsula under his sway by the incorporation of Portugal.
With the death of Philip II the decay of Spanish power began. The monarchy, which needed the shoulders of a giant to support it, fell upon those of the pious but feeble Philip III (1598-1621), who left the task of government to a favourite of minister - first, the Duque de Lerma and then his son the Duque de Uceda. In the Low Countries he arranged the Twelve Years' Peace. He brought aid to the Catholics of Ireland, sending an expedition under Aguilar (1602), and intervened in behalf of the German Catholics in the first period of the Thirty Years' War. While thus aiding Catholics abroad, he resolved to guard against the danger that threatened religious unity at home in the presence of the Moriscoes, or subjugated Moors, who were suspected of conspiring with the Moors of Africa; these he expelled from Spain. In this reign and the next, Castilian literature and art attained their finest flower. Philip IV (1621-65), less pious than his father, was nevertheless a better ruler. For his prime ministers and favourites he had, first, the Conde-Duque de Olivares and then Don Luis de Haro. In this reign the colossal monarchy of Philip II began to crumble. The Duke of Braganza was proclaimed King of Portugal as John IV; Catalonia rose and maintained a war lasting twelve years; Naples and Sicily also rebelled, the famous Spanish infantry regiments (tercios españoles) were beaton at Rocroy, and Spain, by the Peace of the Pyrenees with France, lost Roussillon and, by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), a great part of her importance in Europe.
The weakening of Spain continued under the sickly Charles II (1665-1700), who succeeded his father at the age of four. The regency fell to the queen, Doña Mariana, who shifted the burden of government on her confessor, Padre Nithard, and, after him, on her favourite Valenzuela, the husband of one of her ladies-in-waiting. Spain, after intervening on the side of Catholicism in all the conflicts of the European states, now saw herself an object of ambition to foreigners. The failure of the king's health obliged him to leave the duties of government to ambitious ministers, while France reached her apogee in the reign of Louis XIV, and Spanish power abroad continued to decline. The king being without issue, the rivalries of France and Austria for the succession began even in his lifetime and led up to the project for the dismemberment of the Spanish monarchy. Following the advice of Cardinal Portocarrero, Charles disinherited his Austrian kindred and designated as his heir the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Philip V,. Upon the death of Charles II, the reign of the House of Austria ended in Spain, and that of the House of Bourbon commenced, bringing French centralism into Spanish administration, and helping to change the national character by linking the nation more closely with France.
Philip V (1700-46) had to sustain the War of the Succession with French assistance. By the Peace of Utrecht, which terminated that war, Gibraltar and Minorca fell to the share of England; the Italian possessions and the Low Countries, to Austria. Catalonia, having vigorously defended the rights of the Archduke Charles, was despoiled of a part of her constitutional rights (Fueros). Philip V, who had been under French influence during the lifetime of his first wife, María Luisa of Savoy, gave himself up to Italian influence after his marriage with Isabel Farnese, being directed by Alberoni. To find possessions for the children of Isabel Farnese, the Italian claims of Spain were revived; Alberoni, however, fell before he succeeded in obtaining anything more than the cardinalate for himself and the Duchies of Parma and Tuscany for the Infante Don Carlos. In 1724 Philip abdicated in favour of his son Luis, but the death of the latter in the same year obliged his father to resume the Crown. By the treaty of Vienna (1735) Naples and Sicily were given to the Infante Don Carlos. Unquestionably the most glorious reign of the Spanish Bourbons was that of Ferdinand VI, thanks to the care with which he maintained neutrality between France and England. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) ended the wars undertaken to find crowns for the children of Isabel Farnese: the Duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla were given to Don Felipe (Philip). The king thenceforward left the task of government to his ministers, Carvajal and the Marqués de la Ensenada, while he surrendered himself to the enchantment of Farinelli's music. By the concordat which he made with Benedict XIV, the Real Patronato (royal patronage) over all the Churches within the monarchy was recognized, as it had already been in force in the foreign possessions and the Kingdom of Granada. Although the English party, led by the ambassador, Keene, and the minister, Wall (successor to Carvajal), succeeded in overthrowing Ensenada, and although the French offered the restoration of Minorca, and the English of Gibraltar, the king persevered in his neutrality, with the result that the nation prospered, and the coffers of the treasury were filled almost to bursting.
Ferdinand died of a broken heart occasioned by the loss of his wife, Doña Barbara (1759). He was succeeded by his brother Charles III, who was already King of Naples, and whose greatest mistake was the abandonment of his predecessor's policy of neutrality by that fatal "Family Compact" (1761) which united the fortunes of Spain with those of the degenerate French Bourbons. With this began a war with England, issuing in the loss of Havana and Manila (1763). Meanwhile Spain was governed by two foreigners, Grimaldi and Esquilacce, and the people rose in the famous "Hat-and-Cloak Riots" (motin de las capas y sombreros), which led to the Madrileños being prohibited the use of the national dress. Pombal and Choiseul had driven the Jesuits out of Portugal and France, and their enemies in Spain exploited this tumult to persuade the king that the Society was a menace to public order. Adding other calumnies (such as the story that the Jesuits denied the king's being the legitimate son of Philip V), they succeeded in inducing Charles III to order the Jesuits out of his dominions without stating any reason, reserving "in his royal breast" the motive of their banishment. Under the ministry of Floridablanca Spain intervened in support of the independence of the United States. During this reign many public buildings were constructed - the Fine Arts Academy, the Botanical Gardens of Madrid, etc. - with money saved during the preceding reign. But the king's shortsightedness admitted to his counsels men imbued with Voltairean ideas, who, however little they may have been aware of it, were the allies of the Revolution that was to ruin the Bourbons.
Charles IV (1788-1808), even more deficient in ability and character than Charles III, had to suffer the consequences of political errors committed in the preceding reign. In his time the French Revolution broke out, and the Spanish Bourbons went so far as to ally themselves eventually with that Revolutionary France which had beheaded Louis XVI. The Aranda ministry, having overthrown that of Floridablanca, was in turn overthrown by Don Manuel Godoy, the queen's favourite no less than the king's, who made the Treaty of S. Ildefonso, allying Spain with France against England, and leading up to the disaster of Trafalgar (1805). This reign ended in a most disgraceful manner: Prince Ferdinand having rebelled against his father and the inept Godoy, the Aranjuez rising resulted in the abdication of Charles IV, when the French had already treacherously gained a footing in Spain. The king and queen having sought refuge at Bayonne, Napoleon made them surrender the Crown of Spain to him, intending it for his brother Joseph Bonaparte. But this humiliation the Spanish people would not brook; rising, after the terrible Second of May, 1808, they fought the glorious War of Independence, in which Napoleon suffered his first reverses. The most celebrated battles of this war were those of Bruch, in the highlands of Montserrat, in which the Catalan sometanes (peasant soldiers) routed a French army; Bailén, where Castanes, at the head of the army of Andalusia, defeated Dupont; and the sieges of Saragossa and Gerona, which were worthy of the ancient Spaniards of Saguntum and Numantia. The British general, Wellington, gained the battles of Salamanca (1812) and Vittoria (1813), and helped to drive the French out of the Peninsula. But while the Spanish people were shedding their blood for their faith, their country, and their king, the Liberals, assembles in the Cortés of Cádiz (1812), were drafting a Constitution modelled on the French. Ferdinand VII, however, liberated by Napoleon, regurned to Spain, refused to recognize this Constitution, and restored the old regime, thus initiating that struggle between Absolutists and Liberals which lasted throughout the nineteenth century. The old colonies of Spain in Mexico and South America took advantage of this conflict to make themselves independent.
That moral unity which the Catholic Sovereigns had restored in Spain by the expulsion of the Jews, the subjection of the Moors, and the establishment of Catholic unity, was broken by the influx of ideas from the French Revolution and English Liberalism. Face to face with the Spanish people, so strongly attached to their ancient traditions and forms of government, there arose the Constitutional Party, which at first proclaimed no further aim than the establishment of representative government, saving the principle of religious unity. But the Liberals, persecuted in 1812, pushed their ideas to extremes and, profiting by a military insurrection in 1820 (Don Rafael de Riego), finally proclaimed the Constitution and forced Ferdinand VII to swear to it. The Constitutionalists then split into the two parties - Extremes and Moderates (Exaltados and Moderados) - which have continued to the present time. The intervention of the Holy Alliance, however, which sent to Spain the "hundred thousand sons of St. Louis", restored the old order of things. The French soldiers, who had met with s desperate resistance at the hands of the Spaniards in the time of Napoleon, were then received as brothers ad liberators, and the Constitution was abolished. But the Liberals took advantage of the dynastic question, which arose on the death of Ferdinand VII, to revive their party. The king had no male issue and only two daughters, who by the Salic Law (brought into Spain by the Bourbons), were incapable of succeeding to the Throne. The king accordingly proposed to set aside the Salic Law and re-establish the ancient Spanish law of succession, which admitted females, failing male issues. The question, whether the Salic Law was or was not legitimately abrogated, formed the legal basis of the dynastic quarrel between Don Carlos (Charles) V, brother of Ferdinand VII, and his daughter Doña Isabel II.
The true animus of the conflict, however, arose from the division of Spaniards into Traditionalists who supported the cause of Don Carlos, and Liberals, who sided with Doña Isabel and her mother, Doña Cristina. This division - the origin of all the ills which Spain suffered in the nineteenth century - led to the Seven Years' War, from 1833, when Ferdinand VII died, to 1839, when the Convention of Vergara was signed. In the meantime the Liberals ruled, except in the provinces occupied by the Carlists, and the Moderate ministry of Martínez de la Rosa, during which the horrible massacre of friars took place at Madrid (17 July, 1834), was succeeded by those of Toreno and of Mendizábal, who put up the possessions of the Church for sale (1836). The predominance of the Exaltados culminated with the regency of Espartero (1841), who closed the Nunciature and broke off all relations with Rome. The queen having been declared of age, the Moderate Narvaez ministry came into power, exiled Espartero, and suspended the sale of church property. Relations with Rome were resumed, and Spain intervened in behalf of Pius IX, who had been driven to take refuge at Gaeta. In 1851 the Concordat, regulating the new conditions of the Spanish Church, was signed. From 1854 to 1856 (the Bienio Liberal) the Liberals, with Espartero and O'Donnell, were again in power, and O'Donnell acquired prestige in the African war of 1859. This ministry also re-established the Constitution of 1845 and stopped the sale of church property (1856).
It was succeeded by the Narvaez ministry (1866), and after these two generals, Prim and Serrano, who had been exiled, obtained the aid of the Navy, commanded by Topete, and effected the Revolution of September, 1868, which dethroned the Bourbons and summoned to the Throne Amadeus I ( Duke of Aosta), of the House of Savoy. Prim having been assassinated just as Amadeus landed in the Peninsula, the new king was left without any solid support and, in February, 1873, was obliged to abdicate. On 8 June of the same year the Cortés proclaimed the republic, which lasted but two years and had four presidents: Figueras, Pi y Margall, Salmerón, and Castelar. In the meantime the Spanish Catholics, exasperated by the excesses of the Liberals, rallied round the Duke of Madrid, Don Carlos de Borbón, in whom the Traditionalists saw the legitimate heir of Ferdinand VII and Charles V, and the Third Carlist War began - the second having been nothing more than General Ortega's attempt in behalf of the Count of Montemolin. In the existing condition of political disorganization, the Carlists were enabled to gain substantial advantages, and were on the point of making themselves masters of the Government. But the aristocracy and the financial interests, making General Martínez Campos their instrument, effected the restoration of the female branch of the Bourbons, proclaiming Alfonso XII, in whose favour Isabel II had abdicated. Don Alfonso landed at Cádiz, 9 January, 1875, and in a short time the Carlist rising was suppressed, as well as that of Cuba (October, 1877). As a result of the Bourbon Restoration, and of an agreement between Antonia Cánovas, leader of the Conservatives (successors of the Moderates), and Práxedes Mateo Sagasta, leader of the Liberals, who had inherited the aspirations of the Revolution, there was created in Spain the political situation which has lasted until now (1910), establishing the legal alternation (turno legal) of the Alphonsist-Monarchical parties in power. Alfonso XII died 25 November, 1885, leaving the regency to Doña María Cristina of Habsburg, as mother of his posthumous son, Alfonso XIII (b. 17 May, 1886). During the regency the Cuban Insurrection, and that of the Philippines, gave rise to the war with the United States, which led to the loss of the last remnants of Spain's colonial empire.
IV. ACTUAL CONDITIONS
A. Legislation
The Spanish nationality being formed out of two elements, the Gothic and the Hispano-Roman, had at the outset two different legislative systems. Euric, in the code which bears his name, collected the laws of the Goths, while the "Breviarium" of Anianus (in the time of Alaric II) sums up the provisions of the Roman law for the government of the Hispano-Latins. But when the two races had become fused, there was also a fusion of the two systems of legislation in the "Forum Judicum", or "Fuero Juzgo" (completed in the Sixteenth Council of Toledo), which is the first of the Spanish Codes, and in which the Gothic element predominates in the law of persons, the Roman in that of contracts. During the Reconquest there arose the Fueros, special laws, or privileges, granted by the kings to certain particular cities or provinces and which were also known (as in England and France) as cartas, or cartas pueblas, i.e., charters granted to those who populated a new city. Another general code for Castile was the "Fuero Viejo" (Old Privilege), of uncertain origin, but probably commenced in the time of Alfonso VIII and completed in that of Pedro I. Alfonso IX published the "Fueros Real", which included the declarations called the "Leyes del Estilo" - rules of style, or of procedure. The legislative work undertaken in the time of St. Ferdinand ended with Alfonso X, the Wise, author of the "Siete Partidas", or "Seven Parts". This king, however being a man of theory rather than a practical man, modified the national laws and customs to excess, allowing himself to be carried away by his admiration for the Roman Law. Hence the "Siete Partidas" have never been in legal force, except as a supplementary code and as bearing on certain particular points - the succession of the Crown, for instance, until the Bourbons grafted upon the Spanish code the Salic Law which they brought from France.
The fact that the "Siete Partidas" had not acquired legal force was the reason why Castilian legislation remained entangled with a mass of fueros, ordinances, and special provisions. One of these, the Ordinance of Alcalá, passed by the Cortés of Alcalá in the time of Alfonso XI, established, among other matters, the order of precedence of the Spanish codes. Others were the Laws of Toro and the Ordinances of Montalvo, made in the time of the Catholic Sovereigns. The other kingdoms of Spain continued to elaborate their own several legislations - Catalonia, with its very ancient "Usatges" and its "Consulat de Mar" (the oldest commercial code in Europe); Aragón, Navarre, and the rest, with their respective special fueros. Wishing to give the united monarchy a civil code, Philip II published the "Nueva Recopilación" (New Digest) of the Spanish laws, though, indeed the charter laws of the various provinces were at the same time left in full vigour. In the reign of Charles IV (1805), a "Novísima Recopilación" (Latest Digest) was published, also leaving untouched the charter laws of the provinces. Finally, in the nineteenth century, there arose the division of laws into political, civil, penal, and laws of procedure.
The Cortés of Cádiz, in 1812, formulated the first Liberal Constitution, which, however, showed some regard for Catholic unity. This Constitution was not accepted by the king, when he was released from his captivity by Napoleon, but Riego's military insurrection at Las Cabezas de S. Juan, in 1820, forced it upon him. It was overthrown by the French intervention in 1823. In 1834 the queen-regent authorized the Estatuto Real, a sort of moderate constitution. Next came the Liberal Constitution of 1837, in which Catholic unity is not stipulated for, although it is stated that the Catholic Religion is that professed by Spaniards. Again, in the Constitution of 1845 it is declared that the religion of Spain is the Catholic Apostolic, Roman. In the Constitution of 1856 toleration of other creeds is established much as it now exists. The Revolution of 1868 produced the Liberal Constitution of 1869, which established freedom of worship (art. xxi), maintaining, however, the Catholic Religion and its ministers. Finally, the Constitution of 1876, published under the Restoration, admitted religious toleration, but declared the Catholic Religion that of the State. In practice, there is in Spain a great deal of religious liberty, the only conditions being that dissenting places of worship must comply with certain outward forms - such as not having signs placed on their exteriors. This last Constitution places the legislative power in the Cortés with the king. The Cortés are composed of two chambers: the Senate and the Congress. Some of the senators sit of their own right (grandees, archbishops, etc.), others for life, others by election. The members of Congress (diputados) are all elected. The king can convoke or prorogue the Cortés. The executive power belongs to the king and his ministers, who are responsible for the conduct of the government. In the succession to the Throne the ancient order, superseded by the Sac Law, is followed. The heir to the king attains his majority at the age of sixteen and in minority is under the regency of his nearest relative: Alfonso XIII, posthumous son of Alfonso XII, was under the regency of his mother, Doña Cristina of Habsburg; on attaining h majority he was sworn king, but was not solemnly crowned. The judicial power is entrusted to tribunals which administer justice in the king's name. The latter has the prerogative of pardon.
The relations of Church and State in Spain have been regulated by various concordats. By law 13, title 1, Book I, of the "Novísima Recopilación", the Council of Trent is the law of the realm. The chief concordats with Spain are: that of 1737 (Clement XII and Philip V); 1752 (Benedict XIV and Ferdinand VI); 1851 (Pius IX and Isabel II). The last-named is still in force, although Liberal Governments violate it in various ways and pretend to modify it, invoking it, nevertheless, whenever convenient for their purposes. According to this concordat, which was intended to regulate the grave disorders consequent upon the confiscation of church property (disamortization), the Catholic is the only religion of the Spanish people. Public instruction is under the inspection of the bishops and other diocesan prelates. The number of dioceses is diminished (see above: Ecclesiastical Organization); the form of provision for bishoprics and other benefices is determined (Patronato Real), as also the remuneration of the clergy, maintenance of church buildings, etc. The Archbishop of Toledo receives 40,000 pesetas ($8,000 or 1600 pounds); other archbishops, from 37,500 to 32,500 pesetas ($7,500 to $6,500); bishops, 25,000 to 20,000 pesetas ($5,000 to $4,000).
In the civil law of Spain the predominant tendency is to suppress the individualities of the charter law (derecho foral) in the various parts of the country. These local peculiarities are found especially in the law of family relations. In Catalonia the Roman Law prevailed, the father enjoyed freedom of testamentary disposition, and right of the children was limited to the legal one-fourth; in Castile the right of testamentary disposition was limited to one-third and one-fifth of what could be disposed of for the individual advantage of one favoured child. Castile followed the Gothic custom by which the bridegroom paid arras to the bride at the wedding, while in Catalonia the Roman dowry system was in force. In other parts of the country other laws limited the power of testamentary disposition even more than in Castile. The unifying tendency was especially prevalent in the "Codigo Civil" published in 1888 by the minister, Alonso Martínez, and which came into force on l May, 1889. Although the charter law is preserved to some extent, modifications are introduced such as that bearing on the bienes gananciales of Castile, providing that the ganancias, or property acquired after marriage, must, when the estate is liquidated, be divided between husband and wife. Moreover, the fact that the magistrates belong to different provinces has its influence upon the process of unification, as also the spirit of the Supreme Tribunal, the decisions of which have the force of jurisprudence, and serve as norms for the adjudication of parallel cases. In criminal law the Penal Code, published in 1870 by the minister, Laureano Figuerola, is in force. In many respects it betrays the spirit of the Revolution, during which it originated, and for this reason the Catholic and Conservative elements are demanding its reform in many points. The commercial code now in force is that of 1885, published by the minister, Fr. Silvela. Judicial procedure is governed by the Law of Civil Suits (Enjuiciamiento Civil) published by the minister, Alvarez Bugallal, in 1881.
Although the old privileged jurisdictions have been abolished, and all Spaniards are equal before the law, there is still the military jurisdiction (fuero militar), certain specified cases being reserved for the military tribunals, and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction (fuero eclesíastico), by which the rights of the Church to take cognizance of certain cases are safeguarded. Canonical marriage has legal force for all Spanish Catholics, without the necessity of any civil marriage, provided the civil authorities are notified that Christian marriage has been contracted, such marriage being subject in Spain to the Decrees of the Council of Trent. Civil marriage exists only for non-Catholics, and Spaniards who wish to contract it must first make a declaration of having abandoned the Catholic Religion and Church. The Church also has jurisdiction over cemeteries, which are blessed canonically. For unbelievers, apostates, and other persons by law excluded from ecclesiastical sepulture, a separate cemetery is provided, usually near the Catholic cemetery, and under the control of the civil authority. In Spain, where feudalism took little root, the aristocracy has lost its exemptions and privileges, civil and political, but as a social distinction it still exists, together with certain titles of modern creation. The royal family consists of the king, the queen consort, and the queen-mother (collectively spoken of in Spanish as los reyes, literally, "the kings"), the Prince of Asturias (heir apparent), and the "infantes of Spain" - such relations of the king as may be granted that dignity. At the head of the nobility are the grandees of Spain of the first and the second class. The dukes, marquesses, counts, viscounts, and barons follow in order. The civil decorations most used are the Amerian Order of Isabella the Catholic, and the Order of Charles III. There are grand crosses, commanderies (encomiendas), and simple crosses; those who wear the grand cross are given the title of Excelentisimos Señores. Of recent foundation is the Civil Order of Alfonso XII. The ancient military orders of Santiago, Alcántara, Montesa, and Calatrava also continue to exist as honorary distinctions.
B. The Political Situation
The elements which go to make up the existing political situation in Spain are (besides the foreign influences, chiefly English Liberalism and French Jacobinism) the dynastic question, the turno legal, or alternation, of the two Restoration parties (see above), and the growth of Republicanism. The political parties form three groups: Dissidents of the Right, legal parties, and Dissidents of the Left. The Dissidents of the Right consist of the old Carlist party, dormant during the last years of the reign of Isabel II, but which developed extraordinary vigour under the Republic and the period of extreme Liberalism, maintaining a civil war. It is still ready and willing to defend the ideal of traditional Spain whenever the excesses of Liberalism destroy the equilibrium of Spanish society. By the death of Don Carlos de Borbón, whom the Carlists regarded as the lawful King of Spain, Don Jaime de Borbón has inherited his rights. In the summer of 1888 another division arose within the Traditionalist party, its Extreme Right being formed, owing to the approximation of Don Carlos to constitutionalist ideas. This division, not yet entirely healed, resulted in the Integrist Party, directed by Don Ramón de Nocedal and, after his death, by a junta, or committee.
Although all the political parties are recognized as Parliamentary minorities, only those are called legal which recognize the reigning dynasty and take turns in office. They are, at present, the Union Liberal-Conservatives, whose undisputed leader is Don Antonio Maura, and the Liberal Democratic Party, the leadership of which is disputed between Moret, Canalejas, and Montero Rios. The former of these two parties endeavours to find Catholic and Conservative solutions for political problems within the bounds of actually existing conditions; it is commonly charged with excessive tenderness for the accomplished facts with excessive tenderness for the accomplished facts left by the Liberals as the result of their period of supremacy. The Liberal Democratic Party, on the contrary, though unwilling to call itself anti-Catholic, calls itself anti-Clerical, and tends towards French Jacobinism. Its aims are the secularization of marriage and of burial, the laicization of education, and the repression of the natural growth of religious orders by legislative interference.
The Dissidents of the Left are the Republicans, whose numbers are increasing among the less educated, and who are divided into numberless factions, each more radical than the other. The Vandal proceedings of Barcelona, in July, 1909 - when churches and sepulchres were burned and profaned, and persons consecrated to God were murdered and violated - exhibited the aspirations of these extremists. And yet their chief, Ferrer, who was shot for these crimes, has found sympathizers and defenders in Europe and America. In their general anarchy and lack of influential leaders, the Republicans are divided into Federals, Socialists, Anarchists, Acratists, etc. Besides these political parties there are the Regionalists of Catalonia and the Basque Provinces, whose aim is administrative decentralization.
Divisions among Catholics and the indifference of a great portion of the people have resulted in a feeble Catholic Press, particularly in the department of daily papers. There are three Catholic dailies at Madrid: "El Correo Español" (Carlist), "El Siglo Futuro" (Integrist), "El Universo" (Alfonsist Catholic). In such as "El Correo Catalan" of Barcelona, "La Gaceta del Norte" of Bilbao, "El Noticiero" of Saragossa, "La Voz" of Valencia. Among the weeklies mention should be made of "La Lectura Dominical" (Madrid), and among scientific reviews "Razó y Fé" (Jesuit), "La Ciudad de Dios", and "España y America" (both Augustinian), "Los Estudios Franciscanos", "La Ilustración de Clero". The Moderate Liberals have good periodicals, such as "La Correspondencia de España", the "A. B. C.", "La Epoca", "El Diario de Barcelona"; weeklies such as "Blanco y Negro", "La Ilustración Española y Americana"; but their reviews are inferior to the Catholic, with the exception of their professional periodicals - for medicine, engineering, bulletins of scientific societies, etc. The periodicals of the Extreme Liberal Press are widely read - "El Heraldo" of Madrid (forming a newspaper trust), and many others in the provinces, "El Pais" is notable for its Atheistical impiety, and it is followed by "El Pueblo" of Valencia, "España Nueva", etc. The official organ is "La Gaceta de Madrid", while in each province there is the "Boletín Oficial", and a "Boletín" in each diocese.
C. Educational and Social Improvement
Beside the educational institutions, there are various academies for the cultivation of the sciences, which are at the same time consultative adjuncts of the State. The principal of these is the Spanish Academy, or "Academia de la Lengua", founded in 1713 under the patronage of Philip V. The statutes which now govern it were approved by decree of 20 August, 1859. It is composed of 36 active academicians, who must reside at Madrid, 24 Spanish correspondents, who are honorary members, and an undetermined number of foreign correspondents. Its chief concern is the Castilian language, in which it is regarded as authoritative. It has published twelve editions of the Castilian Grammar and Dictionary, and many other important works, among the more recent being the complete Works of Lope de Vega, under the direction of Menéndez Pelayo. The Academy of History was created in 1735 and approved by royal decree of 17 June, 1738, the former functions of the official chronicler of Spain and the Indies being vested in it. Its present statutes were approved by decree of May 1856. It is charged with the preservation of national antiquities and monuments. The Academy of Fine Arts of St. Ferdinand was founded in 1752 under the name of "Real Academia de las tres nobles Artes de S. Fernando". Its present statutes were approved by the Decree of 3 December, 1873. Its function is the encouragement and direction of the study of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music, for which, at the same time, special conservatories exist. The Academy of Exact Sciences, Physical and Natural, created in 1847, has 36 academicians resident at Madrid and 36 corresponding members in Spain and abroad. The Academy of Moral and Political Sciences was established in 1857 by the Law of Public Instruction of same year. It has 36 academicians resident at Madrid, 30 corresponding members in Spain and abroad, and 10 foreign honorary members. There are also Academies of Medicine at Madrid, Barcelona, and other leading cities, as well as Academies of Jurisprudence and Legislation, of the Fine Arts, etc. Notable among those of the provinces are the Literary Academy (Academia de Buenos Lettras) of Barcelona, dating from the end of the seventeenth century; the Literary Academy of Seville, the Academia Juridica Aragónesa, of Saragossa (1733), The Real Academia de las nobles y bellas Artes de S. Carlos, of Valencia, etc. The members of numerous American Academies are correspondents of the Spanish Academy - those of Colombia, Ecuador (Quito), Mexico, Salvador, Venezuela, Chile, Peru (Lima), Argentina, Guatemala, and the Public of Honduras. For the study of astronomy there are several observatories, the principal being the two State observatories of S. Fernando, founded at Cádiz in 1754, by Don Jorge Juan, and transferred in 1779, and of Madrid, the project of which had already been formed in the reign of Charles III, though it was not realized until the reform of public education in 1845. Among the private observatories should be mentioned that of Tibidabo (Barcelona), that of the Ebro, and the Jesuit Observatory at Tortosa, where the various branches of astro-physics, terrestrial magnetism, etc., are studied.
It is very difficult to obtain correct statistics of the works of social improvement existing in Spain, owing to the persistent tendency of officials to suppress all mention of Catholic institutions. The Institute of Social Reforms, managed chiefly by the Krausist Free-Teaching Institution, published in 1907 the following account of workingmen's associations existing in the year 1904:-
In 1908 the following figures are given:-
The following statistics published by "La Paz Social" (a social review of Saragossa and Madrid) give a better idea of Catholic social enterprise:-
From this it appears that the number of Catholic social enterprises is rapidly increasing, which is due to the appreciation by the clergy of the importance of combining social work with the pastoral ministry, so as to meet both the spiritual and temporal needs of the people. For the general direction of these works there has been formed at Madrid a Central Committee (Junta) of Catholic Action. The duties of this committee are to co-operate with the prelates of the respective dioceses in the preparation of Catholic congresses in such dioceses, to carry out the resolutions of the congresses approved by the prelates, and to direct the Catholic propaganda in all its branches. It is made up of a president [at present (1910) the Bishop of Madrid-Alcalá] and 18 members, nine of whom represent the nine ecclesiastical provinces. Up to the present (1910) six Catholic congresses have been held: at Madrid (1887), Seville, Saragossa, Tarragona, Burgos, and Santiago (1902). Eucharistic congresses have also been held at Valencia, Lugo, and Madrid, and "congresses of the good Press" at Seville and Saragossa (1908). But political dissensions among Catholics have hindered the practical results which might have been expected. The "social weeks" are also held among some communities, to bring together those who are engaged in works of this kind and to spread the knowledge of them in the various provinces. In 1907 the "Social Popular Movement" was inaugurated at Barcelona, in imitation of the Volksverein at Munich-Gladbach, in Germany.
D. Charity
Though the charity of Catholic Spain has flourished in all ages and been manifested by the foundation of numerous benevolent institutions, it is undeniable that the second half of the nineteenth century saw a greater number of such foundations than did many of the centuries preceeding it. The cause of this was partly the reaction of religious feelings after the Revolution and partly the necessity for works resulting from the destruction, by disamortization, of those which had previously existed. Under the administration of Señor La Cierva as Director-General, there was published in folio (cii-704 pages) "Memoranda for the Study and Organization of Benevolent and Provident Institutions" (Apuntes para el estudio . . . de las Instituciónes de Beneficencia) from which the following date are extracted. The benevolent institutions may be classified as general, provincial, municipal, and private. The general institutions, supported by the State, are nine in number, and may be divided into hospitals, asylums, and schools, according to the objects for which they exist. The hospitals are those of La Princesa, with 300 beds, for acute cases in medicine and surge; the Ophthalmic Institute, with 100 beds; the insane asylum of Santa Isabel, at Leganés, with 130 beds for poor patients, 30 beds for paying patients of the first, and 40 for those of the second, class. The objects of these last to establishments are indicated by their names. The asylums are the Hospitals of Jesus Nazareno, the Carmen, the King's Hospital at Toledo, and that for superannuated workingmen, the first and second of these being for men and for women respectively, each with 250 beds; the third, mixed, 60 beds for either sex; the last, for men only, to the number of 80. The schools for the blind are: Santa Catalina (29 pupils); La Union, for 106 orphan girls.
The number of persons benefited in all these establishments was 30,606 during the five years from 1904 to 1908. Moreover, in the single year 1908, the public consulting-room of the Princesa Hospital prescribed for more than 8,000 persons; that of the Ophthalmic Institute for more than 4,000. The appropriation for charitable purposes in the general estimate of the Government amounted to 2,665,775 pesetas ($499,208), not including subventions to certain private establishments. The annual expenditure on the general establishments is 775,818 pesetas.
Besides these charitable institutions, the dispensaries, consulting stations and clinics, noted in the "Memoranda" above referred to as a single group, must be taken into consideration. They are 113 in number and exist in all the provinces except Cáceres, Cuenca, Gerona, Guadalajara, Huesca, Lérida, Logroño, Lugo, Orense, and Toledo. Through these institutions 1,261,361 persons have received assistance, 420,397 medical prescriptions have been given, 45,893 food rations, and 4762 articles of clothing distributed, 10,565 allowances provided for nursing mothers, amounting to 37, 829 pesetas ($7,500), and 608,686 quarts of milk distributed. In the statistics of provincial and municipal charities may also be included gratuitous medical attendance and attention to sanitary precautions. The first is supplied by 7,769 physicians who visit 813,815 families, approximately 3,257,260 individuals, that is to say that each physician has 419 persons under his care; the second is carried on by means of establishments in 23 of the provinces. The expenditure of the provinces on charities amounts to 26,436,273 pesetas (about $5,270,000.), 44.72% of their budget; and of the municipalities, 18,206,329 pesetas ($3,600,000), 6.23% of their budget. The average for each individual is 2.26 pesetas (about 42 2/3 cents). The provincial and municipal revenues for charitable purposes are respectively 5,961, 794 pesetas ($l,190,000), and 2,387,347 pesetas ($470,000), a total of 8,349,141 ($1,660,000), a rate of 0.44 pesetas (about 8 1/3 cents) per capita. These totals do not include Navarre and the Basque provinces.
In striking contrast with the insufficiency and scarcity of funds and resources which characterizes the official charities, is the enormous amount expended and the variety of institutions founded by private munificence in the endeavour to meet this need in Spain. Without counting the important donations with which it has contributed to more efficient service in the department of public charities, the alms given directly for the maintenance of many charitable associations, to the needy on the public highways, or privately to succour those who are ashamed to beg, it may be said that the capital expended by private charity in Spain for the relief of the physically and morally indigent is enormous. Indeed, were it not for the rapacity of many, the egoism of some, and the carelessness of all, this alone would suffice to counteract in great part the ravages of extreme poverty and to solve many of the problems of pauperism. The number of charitable institutions founded and sustained in Spain by private means is 9,107. Large as this number is, it represents less than one-half the number of those that have existed and those that still exist without being known. Their capital amounts to 400,652,370.36 pesetas ($2,081,000). Of this capital 152,417,413 pesetas ($30,480,000) are invested in registered bonds; 80,095,269 ($16,019,000) in certificates payable to bearer; 28,048,888 ($5,609,000) in city property; 31,951,114 ($6,390,000) in mortgages and country property; 17,753,815 ($3,550,000) in loans; and 27,694,432 ($5,538,000) in shares of the Bank of Spain. All this capital, however, does not produce the results intended by the donors. In Señor La Cierva's "Memoranda" the number of the institutions which are inoperative, with their properties, are summarized under one heading (No. 4). Fortunately, they are not many - 4,631 - with a capital of 6,862,380 pesetas ($1,372,000) and an income of 378,832 pesetas ($75,700).
It is to be noted, also, that the capital for charitable purposes increases continually and in no insignificant proportion. The reports of the registrars and notaries, and the data published by the "Dirección General de lo Contencioso", show that the acquisitions to charitable institutio, official and private, from 1899 to 1908 have netted 161,330,354.38 pesetas ($32,266,000) for the State, from taxes on inheritances and transfers of real estate, which gives a total annual average of 17,925,596.04 pesetas ($3,585,000), an annual average of .96 pesetas (nearly 18 cents) for each inhabitant.
Those charitable works of a distincly pious nature reached the maximum point from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries and decreased rapidly in the following centuries; with those dealing with social-economic problems exactly the contrary was the case. This is a natural consequence of the politico-social character of the respective periods. Similar is the development of the foundations for the benefit of women and similar causes serve to explain it. On the other hand, charities having for their object the relief of the sick and poor are not subject to decided variations, doubtless because this special form of need is constant.
Ninety-five per cent of the beneficent foundations in Spain have had their mainspring in charity, have been sustained by Christian sentiments, and have suffered from the animosity of Radicals of all stamps. The four hundred and forty-two official charitable institutions (provincial or municipal) are attended by religious communities or by associations of women. In one hundred and eleven of these institutions these services are rendered gratuitously; and in two hundred and eighty-eight they receive a peseta (about 19 cents) daily for food and ten pesetas a month for clothing. All the private institutions are attended by religious communities and many of them supported by them as well. The organizations through which charities are operated are a Protectorate and Provincial and Municipal Committees. To the Protectorate, directed by the minister of the Interior and the president of the Council, pertain the functions of classifying, creating, enlarging, or modifying the various charitable institutions, the distribution of surplus funds, the authorization of representatives of the institutions to have recourse to courts of justice and to sell property, the appointment and suspension, dissolution and reorganization of committees (juntas), authorization of transfers of scrip in the public debt, approval of statements and accounts, etc. The juntas, as subordinate organs, have only to co-operate with the protectorate, acting as agents and distributors of the property of the various institutions.
Radical and sweeping reforms were introduced and carried through by Señor La Cierva. He began by reorganizing the protectorate, giving it a more numerous and better qualified personnel, creating the "Junta Superior de Beneficencia" to assist the Protectorate, and constituting a special bureau for the management of expenditures, liquidations, and savings effected by it in favour of the charitable institutions. Another measure was the formation of archives, provincial and municipal, with corresponding indexes, giving a great deal of correct, though incomplete, statistics, to serve as a basis for the knowledge of the work done in behalf of charity, the number, capital, and patronage of the various charitable institutions. In this way the Protectorate is ably assisted in the performance of its important duties. Further measures were also prescribed which completed the reform.
Religion, Morality, Customs
The greatest diversity in all respects exists in Spain between the inhabitants of the various regions; but certain zones may be marked off in which some characteristics in common may be observed. Some similarity may be noted between the regions which were longest under the sway of Arab influences - Valencia, Murcia, and Andalusia - and also between those which in more recent times have come more directly in contact with foreigners, especially the maritime regions of Galicia and Andalusia, and the centres of commerce.
The Spanish people are as a rule religious, and naturally inclined to the practices of Catholic worship. In their popular festivals secular diversions hold an equal place with religious observances. The morning is devoted to magnificent church functions, and the afternoon to balls, bull-fights, and other amusements, which are carried on into the night. A great variety may be noted in the character of the popular diversions in the different sections, while the religious features are uniform and universal. In Andalusia and Murcia the bull-fight still holds first place; in Valencia the enthusiasm for it is not so great, and still less in Catalonia, Aragón, and other regions. In the Basque provinces the favourite sports are pelota, barra, and others. Catalonia is much addicted to dancing, and its popular dances are very various; here the ancient and extremely artificial dance of the Sardanas, in which a great number of persons take part, dancing in the form of a great circle, is still the fashion. The name is connected with that of Sardos or Cerdanes of Sardinia. In Aragón the jota, where the partners, man and woman, dance facing each other, but without taking hands, is still popular. In Andalusia and other provinces they have similar dances where the partners do not take hands. But as a rule more modern dances - the waltz, etc. - are more common. There are many regions, however, where the people scarcely dance at all.
There is also great difference in the popular songs of various sections. In the sections where Arabic influences have prevailed , singing is very general, but without chorus, sometimes accompanied by the castanets, sometimes by the guitar. Another instrument very much used is the gaita (bagpipe), a goatskin bag filled with air by means of which a kind of pipe is made to produce a continuous, monotonous sound. The inhabitants of the Basque provinces are noted for their good ear and the tunefulness of their songs, and of all the Spanish peoples they practice choral singing most. In Andalusia the seguidillas, malagueñas, etc. are very popular, some of them, as the saetas of Seville, being sung in religious processions. Religious feasts are celebrated with long church functions, solemn Mass, music, and sermons, besides processions and pilgrimages. There are processions which have become widely celebrated, to which the people of all the surrounding district flock, such as the festivities of Holy Week at Seville and of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa. The most popular devotion of the Spaniards is to the Blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, particularly under her titles of the Immaculate Conception, of the Seven Dolours, of Mount Carmel, and of the Rosary. Innumerable Spanish women bear the name of Mary to which is added some distinguishing title, de la Concepción, del Rosario, del Carmen, de los Dolores. Commonly, however, they are addressed only by the particular invocation, hence the Carmens, Dolores, Rosarios, Conchas (Concepcion), Mercedes, etc. There is scarcely a town which does not possess a chapel or sanctuary dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, to which pilgrimages are made once or more frequently during the year. Many of these images are considered miraculous and are the centres of poetic legends.
The sacraments are much frequented in Spain, especially in the more cultured sections - Catalonia, Valencia, Navarre, the Basque provinces, Old Castile, so that the Decree of Pius X with regard to daily communion was well received and the practice taken up. All kinds of pious congregations and confraternities, both ancient and modern, - such as those of Mount Carmel, the Rosary, the Third Orders, especially that of St. Francis - are very widely spread in Spain. Certain idiosyncracies noticeable in the character of the people in some sections may easily be traced to the influence exercised by these pious practices. Nevertheless, impiety, incredulity, and indifferentism are making appreciable progress, mainly owing to the effects of pernicious journals, which are published and circulated with incredible freedom. It is difficult to determine to just what degree this propaganda has altered the traditional character of the Spanish people, and the Catholics of Spain seem not to agree in estimating the extent to which this damage has extended, some believing that it is deep and irremediable, others that it is superficial and could easily be arrested by repressive measures enacted against the agents of public immorality.
RAMÓN RUIZ AMADO