The Irish standard., 1897-02-13

ands Jared so badly elsewhere that they
returned to swell the. considerable num-
Der of those who had already preferred
to receive baptism, and had thereby fur
nished fresh hordes Of Marranos and
| subjects for the Inquisitien. The Pope
protested anew, summoned to Rome
three times, but fruitlessly, the Grand
Inquisitor, Torquemada, and could only
| try to neutrahze his power and check
the. cruelties by assigning him four CO.
adjutors.
Meantime there had come on the scene
another class of persons OF suspected
loyalty and orthodoxy, the Moriscoes, or
converted Moors. From the year I'LL
when the Mohommedan Moors invaded
Spain, Selling its finest provinces, and
driving those of its people 1t did not re-
5duce to slavery into the mountains of
the :Asturias, the two races had kept up
an almost constant struggle, which en-
listed the strongest feelings of the hui
man heart. The Spaniartls fought for
their. own and their country's freedom,
/ and their religion, the. Moors sought to
ron the one. and to abolish the other.
The sad lot of the Moors': prisoners sold
into slavery in Morocco and the efforts
to redeem them or relieve their suffering
engrossed a great part Of the chivalry
and Christian charity of the middle ages.
!. Ferdinand and Isabella having after
10 years warfare won back Grenada
from the Moors, granted them the free
exercise Of their religion with all its
peculiar: rights and ceremonies. But
convinced that, as with the Jews, their
persistence in it was only ignorance of
!. The, claims Of Christianity, and wilful-
ness, they. sent missionaries to teach and
try to convert them certain temporal adj
vsntagcs being added to facilitate the
work. And after a time, in 1899,
great: numbers forsook .Islamisen. In
one dny 40Uv were admitted to baptism,
anil Grenada itself came to look like a
Christian city. Great piles of Korans
and other Mohommedan books, volun-
tarjly given up by the now Christians,
were publicly burnt, and the Elchi, that
is, children Of Aposlutes from Christian
ity were taken from their parents to be
brought up under Catholic direction.
The coercive measures adopted by XII
meres were disapproved by the best Of
his contemporaries, who referred to the
standard Catholic doctrine emphasized
i'll more than. one synod of Toledo, that
no one was. to be coerced into the
faith. They were as Intellectual as
means II extending the .church's faith
and sway MS they were alien to it's true
spirit. This spirit was we'll represented
on the spot by the gentle and wisely
jealous Archbishop Tavalera who had
already won great numbers of sincere
and genuine converts from Islamism.
The Mohommedan Moors were holly
incensed at these inroads and affronts
on their ancestral faith; they be gan an
noying the Moriscoes, and next they OPP
emily rebelled, first in Greneda and.in the
mountainous regions on it's western bor-
ders. But by March 1901 they were all
subdued and compelled to sue for par
don, which was granted on the condition
that they should either be baptized or
go into exile For the greater part they
feigned to become Christians From such
forced conversions naturally followed re-
lapses or apostasies, and another con-
siderable class of such disaffected and
dangerous subjects as were the Jews and
the Marranos. Indeed the two races now
became as if fused into one by their
common trouble. Still the Moriscoes
were never proceeded against as extern
sively or as severely as the Marranos.
Torquemada under whom 1000 are said
to have been burnt was the submissive
agent Of the king. His successor Dorza,
whilst personally, humane and good had
for assistant and adviser Lucero, a
harsh, furious fanatic, who imagined he
res everywhere. lie prosecuted men,
beers of the best Catholics, of every rank.
age, and sex, even children and veneer
able preiates. Persons themselves in
danger falsely denounced to him, whole
sale, the most virtuolls persons in the
hope of forcing the crown to grant
general amnesty. He was forced to re-
sign in 1867. The first action Of his sue
cessor, Cardinal Ximefes, was to instruct
the people hem to avoid mourning
the suspicious Of the Inquisitfon, and to
prosecute and punish severely Lucero
and other functioraries .or their cruel
ties. They retaliated by reporting him
to the Pope for. lulkewarmness against
heresy, but the Pope's reply was to COM
mend him warmly. He besought Fer
dinand to drop the lay Councillors, but
was refused. Indeed so set was the
king against any measure of moderation
that he made it death to procure from
the Pope or.h his legate any document ad-
verse to the Inquisition. When it did
not remove stubborn unruly subjects, it
helped to confscate to him their wealth.
Ximeres unfortunately died within a
year after Ferdinand, but the mild and