, 1913-11-15

The present generation of the West has
SO long been accustomed to regard the
States of Islam rs backward and undevelop-
ID thai it is at first difficult to realize what
manner of Spain it was over which the
Catholic Kings ruled. The Castilian and
the AragOnese in their conquest of tie
Moorish Empire during the preceding cen
turtles had typified the advance of q virile
barbarism at the expense of the decadent
and divided civilization. The Spanish con-
quest lacked that justification which is now
held to cover the aggressions of European
States upon the territories Of Islam. 1t was
40 mission of civilization; it's sole saving
grace was the strength of arm which made
it possible and the Christianity which it
introduced. The conquerors lorded il over
81 subject population of Moors and Jews
Infinitely more p~ractised in all the arts of
peace than they were and when the con-
quest was followed by pacjfcation the
Christian Spaniards felt the compo. ition of
the conquered, and began to grid against
those who were more than Their match
except upon the battlefield. Anti-Semitism
began to flourish, and it was hardly checked
by the nominal conversion of multitu0es of
Jews to Christianity. These people We're
called New Christians, but retained many
practices from the Old LNw-thihgs harm
less, or even from o sanitary point of view
lnudable in themselves, but uncatholic and
50 quite heinous in the eyes OF a bigot.
The new Christians, however, being freed
from any of the legal disabilities which at
tached to the Jews, prospered greatly, be-
came wealthy and aspired to the highest
offices and the most noble alliances, while
their disappointed competitors, who lacked
ol;I,o ,;,;,, ,,,1 oN,,,,.roin1 nI1itv oOY,lJ
fall back only upon their unimpeachable
orthodoxy. The South Of Europe had for
worry many years been o forcing-house for
heterodox and heretical opinions; devastating
wars of religion had been waged from time
to time from the Tiber to the Ebro, and
more than one temporal Prince had drawn
territorial and financial profit from his at
tachment to the Church in such campaigns.
Consequently it was not surprising that
when the opportunity came the Catholic
Kings should have consented to the estab-
lishment of an ecclesiastical organization
which made the profession Of heresy, or of
unorthOdox opinions, on the part of a
wealthy and unpopular section of their sub
iects financially profitable to their treasury.
SO it came about that the Holy Office re-
ceiyed the full assistance of the civil arm in
its task Of purging Spain Of heresy and of
filing the Royal Golfers with confiscated
gold. That the Inquisition went to ex-
tremes and purged not only heresy but
every sort of enterprise and all seeds of
progress and national development in indus
try, thought, or is due only in
directly to the misguided Monarchs, and
almost entirely to Frey Thomas de Torque-
mazda, Prior of the Convent of Holy Cross
of Segovia.
This man at the earlier stage of his official
career was inspired by a virulent auti-Semi-
tism, and as time went on appears to have
become q religious homicidal maniac. In
these circumstances that he should have had
at his absolute disposal so formidable an
engine of destruction as the Holy Office III
Spain is more than lamentable. In the
words of Prescott
His history may be thought to prove that
of all human infrmities there is none pro-
ductive of more extensive mischief to socie-
ty than fanaticism.
At no time. however, did Torquemada
make personal profit or crafty his personal
pride or any human weakness in the execu-
ton of the office which he made SO terrible.
An ascetic from first to last, it is more than
probable that the austerities to which he