The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-17
SPANlARDS IN HISTORY
NATIONAL CHARACTER FASHIONED
BY THE INQUIsITIoN.
Policy of Cruel Oppression Mt Home
and in Colonies That Was Des-
tined to BE Her humiliation.
New York Herald

is briefly but succinctly to rehearse the part
which the native of the Iberian peninsul
has played in the evolution OF the modern
world. OF this native Mr.. Fernald is, frank
~ no adnlirer. Yet he attempts to DO JUS
tice to his better qualities, which, under
more favorable conditions, might have de-
veioped him into an important factor max
ing for progress Mr.. Fernald believes that
the rift in the lutte which has vitiated all
harmonious possibilities was the Spanish
Inquisiton. Intellectually and morally, he
tells US, the Inqusition stopped Spain in the
middle ages. 1.-The only safe opinion was an
opinion which had proved it's orthodoxy by
the fact that no one had ever been burnt for
1t. Thus march Of modern thought went
by, and left Spain. as she stands to-day, a
medieval power amid the advance of mod
ern civilization
The Inquisiton was officially organized at
Seville on Jan. 2, 1881. But it's roots trail
back to eight centuries previous, when King
Recared (5S6-5S9), the first Catholic King of
Spain, succeeded by force of arms in re-
deemipg his country from the Arian heresy
which had overspread it. I'm this period
we thus find the beginning of that theolog-
ical intolerance which has ever since been
the especial characteristic of SPAIN"
The arrival of the Moors and their con-
quest of the lower half of the Iberian pen
insula tended to mitigate the earlier as
perities. For the Moors were a gentle and
comparatively civilized race, tolerant alike
of Christian and Jew Their tolerance bred
an answering tolerance in their neighbors.
Even the war which ended in the conquest
Of Moorish Spain by the Christians was
characterized by acts of chivalrous consid-
f11a ~ of he Rllf
the tendency to intolerance which time
might have softened was crystallzed by the
establishment of the Inquisiton and deeply
ingrained in the Spanish character. Within
half a century afterward all chivalrous
feeling toward aliens in faith or race had
totally disappeared Spain has never re-
covered from the far-reaching and wasting
effects of the system fastened upon her by
her own monarchs in the early days so ful
of glory and promise. The expulsion hrst
of the Jews and next of the MoorS was a
death blow to her own trade and agricll-
ture
1t was Torquemada, the head of the Inqui-
sition, who was responsible for both dis
asters. When the edict against the Jews
was under consideration by Ferdinand ana
Isabella they offered to the sovereigns
ransom of thirty thousand ducats, which
had almost availed when the fierce Torque-
mazda burst into the royal apartment with
a crucifix exclaiming, Judas Iscariot sold
his Master for thirty pieces of silver. Your
Majesties would sell Him anew for thirty
thousand. There He is. Take Him and bar
ter Him away" Flinging down the crucifix
upon the table, the fanatical prosecutor
rushed from the room. From that hour all
hesitation was at an end. The edict for the
expulsion of the Jews was signed at Gran
ada, March 80, 1892. By it's terms all Jews
were required to depart from the kingdom
by the end of July of the same year, and
never to return on any preteXt whatever,
under penalty of DEATH
EXPULSION OF JEWS.
The lowest estimate places the number of
the eXiles at 100000 The economic loss in
CURED by the sudden expulsion of such
number of skilled tradesmen and artisans
and industrious citizens has been generally
conceded. ut must be remembered that
these hundred and sixty thousand people
were not only producers, but also consum-
ers, and we have learned that prosperity
depends as absolutely on the consumption
as on the production of the results of labor.
The market for all goods produced in or
brought to the peninsula was at once re-
duced by the loss of this vast number of
consumers
.. But it was the moral effect upon the
Spanish character of such wholesale ex-
pulsion of peaceful citizens which evidently
proved the most disastrous. BY the terms
OF the edict, every subject was forbidden
cessities of any Jew after the expiration of
the time fixed for his departure"-a pro-
hibition enforced with unsparing vigor.
Along all the roads of Spain the residents
must see the crowds of harmless people
toiling YEARLY on, the old, the sick, moth
ers with little babes in their arms, all GO
ing forth to hopeless exile, and none might
give them so much as cup of water or an
hour of rest under a hospitable roof To
witness misery with no attempt to alleviate
is fearfully Merchandising process
The same work was done, but more grad
ually and with some mitigating circum-
stances Through the protection and inter-
VQntiOn q IL S1llto Of Vtrr
KEY, in the expulsion of the Moors, or
Moriscoes. as they had come to be known.
After various prosecutions goading them to
rebellion and political seventies that drove
great numbers to voluntary exile. the last
of the race that retained their distinctive
nationality were banished in 1909, under the
reign of Philip III. The expulsion of this
people was a fatal blow to the agriculture
of Spain, for the Moors were pre-emnent
as cultivatorS Of the SOIL Districts once
fertile and flourishing under their culture
are now barren and desert, and Spain has
long been dependent upon her colonies or
upon foreign nations for crops which the
despsed and banished Moors produced so
aburdantly that they could export them to
all marts of the world
Meanwhile America had been discovered
and a new world opened up to the nation
which was gradually losing its foothold in
the old. In that new world similar methods
eventually produced similar results. An i'm
mense temporary accession of wealth and
influence was brought in through the colo
MES Spain established in the two Americas.
But the trail of blood which inquisitorial
methods and the inquisitorial temperament
established in this virgin soil led up at last
to dark battle grounds, wherein the op-
pressed triumphed over their oppressors.
This. did not happen, however, until the
numbers of the oppressed had been in
creased to Overwhelming odds by the chill
dren of Spain herself.
A CRUEL MOTHERLAND
For Spain was a cruel motherland. After
she had exterminated or enslaved the orig
inal owners of the soil she turned to rend
the coionists whom she had sent over to re-
place them. The Spanish system has ever
held dominion to consist in mere armed oc-
cupation without regard to the resources
of the earth or the welfare and happiness
of it's inhabitants, whether of her own or
of alien blood
Indeed, her own blood has ever been con-
sidered alien if it ran in the veins of her
children born on any soil save that of Spain
itself. In the American continents, in the
West Indies and in the Philippines she has
looked with scant favor upon the colorists
of colonial birth. The purest Spanish blood
might flow in their veins, nevertheless they
were classed as creoleS or half-castes
1t is the history of Spanish rule over
the West Indian islands and the Philippines
that Mr.. Fernald touches upon imminent is
sues. The conquest and settlement OF both
dependencies were attended with the Same
where characterized the Inauguration OF
Spanish rule. With the torch of TprQue-
mada in one hand and the sword Of Alva in
the other. Spain sought to extend the light
of the gospel and OF civilization as she her
self understood them. Looking only TO her
AZ t1gNTfa rYc to