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Islam in Historical Perspective

Islam in Historical Perspective provides readers with an introduction to Islam, Islamic history
and societies with carefully selected historical and scriptural evidence that enables them to form
a comprehensive and balanced vision of Islam’s rise and evolution across the centuries and up
to the present day. Combining historical and chronological approaches, the book examines
intellectual dialogues and socio-political struggles within the extraordinarily rich Islamic tradi-
tion. Treating Islam as a social and political force, the book also addresses Muslim devotional
practices, artistic creativity and the structures of everyday existence. Islam in Historical
Perspective is designed to help readers to develop personal empathy for the subject by relating
it to their own experiences and the burning issues of today. It contains a wealth of historical
anecdotes and quotations from original sources that are intended to emphasize its principal
points in a memorable way.
This new edition features a thoroughly revised and updated text, new illustrations, expanded
study questions and chapter summaries.

Alexander Knysh is Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at
the University of Michigan and Academic Project Director at St. Petersburg State University,
Russian Federation.
Islam in Historical Perspective

Second Edition

Alexander Knysh
First published 2017
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 Taylor & Francis
The right of author to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice : Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Knysh, Alexander D.
Title: Islam in historical perspective / by Alexander Knysh.
Description: 2nd. edition. | New York ; London : Routledge, 2017. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016015658 | ISBN 9781138193697 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Islam—Historiography. | Islam—History.
Classification: LCC BP49 .K69 2017 | DDC 297—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016015658
ISBN: 978-1-138-19369-7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-19370-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-63922-2 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To Snezhana with gratitude and affection
Contents

Preface xv
Acknowledgments xvi
Note on Transliteration and Dates xvii

Introduction 1
What Is Islam? 1
Multiplicity of Approaches to the Study of Islam 1
Islam as an Object of Interpretation and a Source of Meaning 3
Notes 6

1 Arabia: The Cradle of Islam 7

Geography 7
The Arabs 8
Bedouin Lifestyle 9
Social Structures 10
Raiding and Warfare 10
Mecca: A Trade Hub 11
Mecca: A Religious Center 11
Other Religious Communities of Arabia 15
Conclusions 16
Questions to Ponder 16
Summary 17
Notes 17

2 Muhammad and the Beginnings of Islam: The Making

of the Muslim Community 19
Muhammad’s Background and Early Life 19
The First Revelations 20
Muhammad’s Public Preaching and Opposition to It 22
Migration (Híjra) and the Formation of the Islamic Umma 26
Muhammad as Political and Religious Leader and Private Individual 29
The Battle of Úhud 31
The Battle of the Ditch 32
viii Contents

Muhammad and the Bedouin Tribes of Arabia 32

The Conquest of Mecca and Beyond 33
Conclusions 35
Question to Ponder 35
Summary 36
Notes 37

3 After Muhammad: The Rightly Guided Caliphs and the Conquests 40

The Muslim Conquests Under ‘Umar 42
The Conquest of Syria and Palestine 44
The Conquest of Iraq 46
The Conquest of Egypt 48
The Conquests Continue: The Fall of the Sasanid Empire 48
The Death of ‘Umar and the Succession of ‘Uthman 49
Conclusions 49
Question to Ponder 50
Summary 50
Notes 51

4 The Murder of ‘Uthman, the Fitna Wars, and the Rise and
Consolidation of the Umayyad Dynasty 53
Who’s “Right” and Who’s “Wrong”? 53
The Election of ‘Uthman 53
Grievances Against ‘Uthman 54
The Accession of ‘Ali and the Battle of the Camel 57
The Struggle Between ‘Ali and Mu‘awiya 60
The Battle of Siffín 61
The Kharijites 63
The Last Years of ‘Ali’s Caliphate 64
Mu‘awiya Becomes Caliph 64
The Death of Mu‘awiya, the Accession of Yazíd, and the Tragedy at Karbala’ 65
The Caliphate of ‘Abdallah b. al-Zubayr 66
The Rebellion of Mukhtár 67
The End of ‘Abdallah b. al-Zubayr’s Caliphate and the Triumph of the Marwánids 68
The Consolidation of Umayyad Power Under ‘Abd al-Malik and His Successors 69
Conclusions 70
Questions to Ponder 71
Summary 72
Notes 73

5 The Principal Source of Islam: The Qur’an 76

The Qur’an as Revelation and Sacred Book 76
The Name and Structure 77
The Language of the Qur’an 79
 Contents ix

The Mysterious Letters 80

The Collection of the Qur’an 81
The Central Theme of the Qur’an: God 83
The Prophets and Messengers 84
The Judgment Day, Paradise, and Hell 87
Conclusions 88
Questions to Ponder 89
Summary 89
Notes 90

6 The Prophetic Hadíth and Sunna and the Emergence of the Shari‘a 92
Hadíth as the Muslim Gospel? 92
The Importance of Hadíth 93
The Types of Hadíth 93
The Transmission and Collection of Hadíth 95
The Writing Down of Hadíth and the Elevation of the
Status of the Prophet’s Sunna 96
The Six Sunni Hadíth Collections 98
The Shi‘ite Hadíth 98
Sacred or Holy Hadíth (Hadíth Qúdsi) 100
The Emergence of the Shari‘a Law 101
Questions to Ponder 102
Summary 102
Notes 103

7 The Problem of the Just Ruler and the First Divisions

Within the Community 105
Opposition to the Umayyads 105
The Rise of the Mawáli 106
The Kharijites 106
‘Ali’s Party 109
The Uneasy Loyalists 111
Some Early Theological Concepts 112
Conclusions 114
Questions to Ponder 115
Summary 115
Notes 116

8 The ‘Abbásid Revolution and Beyond 118

The Theological Underpinnings 118
The Sources of Discontent 119
The Turn of the Wheel: ‘Abbásid Propaganda and
the Beginning of the Third Fitna 120
The Triumph of the ‘Abbásid Cause 123
x Contents

The Consolidation of ‘Abbásid Power 124

The Rearticulation of the Doctrine of the Imamate 125
Conclusion: The ‘Abbásid Empire at Its Prime 128
Questions to Ponder 128
Summary 129
Notes 129

9 Islamic Scholarship Under the ‘Abbásids: The Rise and

Development of the Schools of Law 131
Introduction 131
The Major Stages of the Evolution of Islamic Legal Thought 131
The Qur’anic Roots of Islamic Law 134
Qur’anic Legislation Pertaining to Marriage, Divorce, and Inheritance 135
Qur’anic Punishments for Homicide 136
Fiqh, the Fuqahá’, the Muftis, and the Judges 136
The Abrogation Theory 138
The “Qur’anic Commands” That Are Not in the Qur’an 138
The Formation of the Regional Schools of Law 139
Muhammad al-Sháfi‘i (d. 820) and the Crystallization
of the Islamic Legal Theory 140
The Four Roots of Islamic Jurisprudence 141
Later Developments 143
Parallel Systems of Justice Under the ‘Abbásids 144
Conclusions 144
Questions to Ponder 145
Summary 145
Notes 146

10 Islamic Scholarship Under the ‘Abbásids: Theological

Debates and Schools of Thought 148
The Qur’an as the Foundation of Islamic Faith and Cult
and an Object of Disputation 148
The Beginnings of Theological Reasoning in Islam 148
Divine Predestination Versus Human Free Will 151
The Doctrine of Postponement and the Problem of Faith 153
The Emergence of Mu‘tazilism 154
The Supporters of Hadíth and Their Theological Creed 158
Ibn Hánbal and the Inquisition 160
The Theological “Middle Way”: Ash‘arism 161
Ash‘arism, Maturidism, and the Hadíth Party 163
Conclusions 164
Questions to Ponder 164
Summary 164
Notes 165
 Contents xi

11 Twelver Shi‘ism and Zaydism 167

The Crystallization of the Shi‘ite Creed in Opposition to Sunnism 167
The Divergence of the Shi‘ite and Sunni Visions of Islam 171
The Vicissitudes of the Shi‘ite Imamate Under the ‘Abbásids 172
The Shi‘ite Community in the Absence of the Divinely Ordained Guide 175
The Political and Social Aspects of the Doctrine of Occultation 177
“The Shi‘ite Century” (946–1055): Political and Social Aspects 178
The Blossoming of Shi‘ite Theology and Jurisprudence 180
Shi‘ite Views of the Qur’an 183
Zaydism 184
Conclusions 186
Questions to Ponder 187
Summary 187
Notes 188

12 Shi‘ism as a Revolutionary Movement: The Isma‘ilis 193

Who Are the Isma‘ilis? 193
The Rise and Spread of Revolutionary Isma‘ilism 195
The Teaching and the Mission 195
The Proclamation of ‘Abdallah (‘Ubaydallah) the Máhdi,
and the Qarmati–Fatimid Split 199
The Rise of the Fatimids 200
The Conquest of Egypt and the Consolidation of Fatimid Power 202
Another Split: Al-Hákim and the Druzes 204
The Crisis Over Al-Mustánsir’s Succession and the Rise of the Nizári Community 207
The Principal Articles of the Nizári Creed 209
The Collapse of the Fatimid Caliphate 211
The Háfizi-Táyyibi Split and Its Impact on the Fortunes of Later Isma‘ilism 211
The Qarmati Revolt and the Rise and Fall of the Qarmati State in Bahrain 212
Conclusions 214
Questions to Ponder 215
Summary 215
Notes 216

13 Ascetic and Mystical Movement in Islam: Sufism 220

Introduction 220
The Name and the Beginnings 221
Basic Ideas and Goals 221
The Archetypal “Sufi”: Al-Hásan al-Basri and His Followers 222
Regional Manifestations 223
The Formation of the Baghdadi School of Sufism 224
The Systematization of the Sufi Tradition 227
The Maturity of Sufi Science: Al-Ghazali the Conciliator 229
Sufism as Literature 229
xii Contents

Sufi Metaphysics: The Impact of Ibn ‘Arabi 232

Major Intellectual and Practical Trends in Later Sufism 233
The Rise and Spread of Sufi Brotherhoods (Tariqas) 234
Sufism and the Cult of “Friends of God” (Saints) 237
Sufism and Shi‘ism 238
Sufism Today 240
Conclusions 242
Questions to Ponder 243
Summary 243
Notes 245

14 Intellectual Struggles in Premodern Islam: Philosophy Versus Theology 248

Fálsafa as a Rational Discipline 248
Fálsafa and Kalám 249
Fálsafa as an Elaboration of Neoplatonic Doctrines 250
The Beginnings of Fálsafa 251
Al-Kindi, the Philosopher of the Arabs 251
Abu Bakr al-Razi, the Physician and Freethinker 253
Al-Farábi, the Second Teacher 254
Ibn Sina (Avicenna) 256
Al-Ghazali, the Proof of Islam 261
Ibn Rushd (Averroes), the Commentator 265
Conclusions 268
Questions to Ponder 269
Summary 270
Notes 271

15 Transmission and Conservation of Knowledge:

‘Ulamá’, Mádrasas, and Sufi Lodges 274
The Status, Venues, and Bearers of Learning in Muslim Societies 274
Elementary Education: The Kuttáb 275
The Muslim College: Mádrasa 277
The Economic Foundations of Mádrasa Education 278
Methods and Curricula of Mádrasa Education 279
Sufi Lodges 281
Conclusions 283
Questions to Ponder 284
Summary 284
Notes 284

16 The Basic Beliefs and Practices of Islam: Islamic Life Cycle 286
Islamic Ethos and the Five Pillars 286
Visiting the Prophet’s Tomb at Medina 301
How Religion Shapes the Lives of Individual Muslims 301
Conclusions 305
Questions to Ponder 305
 Contents xiii

Summary 305
Notes 306

17 Islamic Art and Religious Architecture (Mosque) 309

The Qur’an as the Focus of Devotion 309
Scriptural Evidence Against Figural Arts 310
How Did Artists Respond to the Restrictions? 311
The Mosque: Architectural and Devotional Aspects 316
Conclusions 320
Questions to Ponder 320
Summary 320
Notes 321

18 Women in Islamic Societies 323

The Controversial Topic 323
Women in the Qur’an 324
Women in Hadíth and Fiqh 329
Theorizing the Muslim Woman 332
Conclusions 336
Questions to Ponder 336
Summary 337
Notes 338

19 Islam and the West 341

The Arab Conquests of Christian Lands 341
The Beginnings of the Crusader Movement in Europe 343
God’s Wars: The First Crusades and the Muslim Response 344
The Muslims Strike Back 350
The Legacy of the Crusades 352
The Founder of Islam and His Message in the Eyes of
His Followers and Through the Christian Looking Glass 353
The Scandinavian Caricatures of Muhammad and
the Resurgence of Old Prejudices 359
Islamic Influences on European Culture 360
The Curious (and Inexplicable) Rise of the West 361
Questions to Ponder 362
Summary 363
Notes 364

20 Islam in the Gunpowder Empires: The World of Islam Faces

Modernity and European Colonialism 367
The Gunpowder Empires 367
What Is Modernity? 379
The Beginnings of European Colonial Expansion 380
Muslim Responses: Economic and Social 383
xiv Contents

Questions to Ponder 385

Summary 386
Notes 387

21 Renewal and Reform in Islam: The Emergence

of Islamic Modernism and Reformism 389
Different Reformers and Different Reforms 389
The Fundamentalist Reform of Muhammad b. ‘Abd al-Wahháb (d. 1792) 392
The Modernist Reforms of al-Afgháni and ‘Abdo 395
Muhammad Rashíd Ridá (d. 1935) and al-Manár 406
By Way of Conclusion: A Summary of the Major Precepts of Islamic Reform 409
Questions to Ponder 410
Summary 411
Notes 412

22 Islam as a Political Force and Vehicle of Opposition 415

Major Stages of the Movement for Reform and Renewal of Islam 415
The Complicated Issue of Terminology 415
The Latest Stages of the Evolution of Islamic Activism 417
Ayatollah Khomeini (d. 1989) and the Iranian Revolution 435
Conclusions 441
Questions to Ponder 442
Summary 442
Notes 444

23 Islam Reinterpreted: Major Trends in Islamic Thought Today 448

In Quest of Liberal Islam 448
The Principal Themes of Islamic Liberalism 449
The Geopolitical Roots of Liberal Islam 452
Conclusions 467
Questions to Ponder 468
Summary 468
Notes 470

24 The Ideology and Practice of Globalized Jihadism 475

The Afghan War, ‘Abdallah ‘Azzám, and the Rise of Transnational Jihadism 476
Changing the Target and Means: al-Qa‘ida, Usáma bin
Ládin, and Áyman al-Zawáhiri 481
Instead of a Conclusion: Does the Islamist Project Have a Future? 491
Conclusions 491
Questions to Ponder 493
Summary 493
Notes 495

Bibliography 500
Index 511
 Another Random Document on
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 The Project Gutenberg eBook of Observations
on the State of Religion and Literature in Spain
 This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United
States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with
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Title: Observations on the State of Religion and Literature in

Spain

Author: John Bowring

Release date: April 25, 2020 [eBook #61930]

Language: English

Credits: Transcribed from the 1819 George Smallfield edition by

David Price

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS

ON THE STATE OF RELIGION AND LITERATURE IN SPAIN ***
Transcribed from the 1819 George Smallfield edition by David Price,
email [email protected]

OBSERVATIONS
ON
THE STATE
OF
RELIGION AND LITERATURE
IN
SPAIN,

MADE DURING

A JOURNEY THROUGH THE PENINSULA

In 1819.

London:
Printed by George Smallfield Hackney.

1819.
 OBSERVATIONS, &c.

There are in Spain, according to Antillon’s [3a] calculations, two

hundred thousand ecclesiastics. They possess immense revenues
and an incalculable influence over the mass of the people; though it
is certain that influence is diminishing, notwithstanding the
countenance and co-operation of a government deeply interested in
preserving their authority.
It would be great injustice to the regular clergy of Spain to class
them with the immense hordes of monks and friars, scattered over
the face of the Peninsula, some possessing rich and well-stored
convents, large estates and accumulating wealth, and others (the
mendicant orders) who prey more directly on the labours of the
poor, and compel the industrious to administer to their holy,
uninterrupted laziness. The former, though, doubtless, by far too
numerous, are for the most part intelligent and humane: dispensing
benevolence and consolation in their respective parishes; friendly, in
many instances, to liberty and devoted to literature. The latter, with
few, but striking exceptions, [3b] are unmanageable masses of
ignorance and indolence. [3c] They live (as one of the Spanish poets
says) in a state of sensual enjoyment between the organ-loft and
the refectory, to which all other enjoyment is but purgatory; [3d] the
link which should connect them with the common weal for ever
broken; the ties of family and friend dissolved; their authority
founded on the barbarism and degradation of the people, they are
interested in stemming the torrent of improvement in knowledge
and liberty, which must in the end inevitably sweep away these
“cumberers of the soil.” No society in which the sound principles of
policy are at all understood, would consent to maintain a numerous
body of idle, unproductive, useless members in opulence and luxury,
(at the expense of the active and the laborious,) merely because
they had chosen to decorate themselves with peculiar insignia—to
let their beards grow, or to shave their heads; and though the
progress of civilization in Spain has been greatly retarded, or rather
it has been compelled to retrograde under the present system of
despotism, yet, that great advances have been made since the
beginning of the late Revolution, is happily too obvious to be denied.
[4a]

That Revolution, in fact, has produced, and will continue to produce,

a very favourable influence on the ecclesiastical government of
Spain. Leaving out of consideration the immense number of priests
and friars who perished during the atrocious invasion of their
country, the destruction of convents, the alienation of church
property, and the not unfrequent abandonment of the religious vow,
unnoticed amidst the confusion and calamities of active war, more
silent, but more extensive changes have been going on. The Cortes,
when they decreed that no Noviciates should be allowed to enrol
themselves, [4b] gave a death-blow to the monastic influence, and
since the re-establishment of the ancient despotism, the chasm left
by this want of supply has not been filled up, nor is likely to be; for,
the greater part of the convents (except those very richly endowed)
complain that few candidates propose themselves, except from the
lower classes of society, who are not likely to maintain the credit or
add to the influence of the order. Examples are now extremely rare
of men of family and fortune presenting themselves to be received
within the cloisters, and offering all their wealth and power as the
price of their admission. Another circumstance, the consequence of
the Revolution, has tended greatly to lessen the influence of the
regular clergy, where it is most desirable it should be lessened,
among the lower classes. Driven from their cells by the bayonets of
enemies, or obliged to desert them that their convents might
become hospitals for their sick and wounded friends, they were
compelled to mingle with the mass of the people. To know them
better was to esteem them less, and the mist of veneration with
which popular prejudice had so long surrounded them, was
dispersed, when they became divested of every outward distinction,
and exhibited the same follies and frailties as their fellow-men. [4c]
He who, in the imposing procession, or at the illumined altar,
appeared a saint or a prophet, was little, was nothing, when
mingling in the common relations of life he stood unveiled before his
undazzled observers. For the first time it was discovered that the
monks were not absolutely necessary for the preservation even of
religion. Masses were celebrated as before: the host paraded the
streets with its accustomed pomp and solemnity: the interesting
ceremonials which accompany the entrance and the exit of a human
being in this valley of vicissitude, were all conducted with their
wonted regularity. Still less were they wanted to implore the
blessing of Heaven on the labours of the husbandman, whose fruits
grew and were gathered in with unvarying abundance. Without
them the country was freed from the ignoble and degrading yoke of
the usurper, while success and martial glory crowned the arms of
their military companions, (the British,) who cared little for “all the
trumpery” of “friars white, black, or grey;” and if the contagion of
their contempt did not reach their Catholic friends, they lessened, at
least, the respect with which the inmates of the convent had been
so long regarded.
But in anticipating a period in which the Spaniard shall be released
from monkish influence, it must not be forgotten how interwoven is
that influence with his most delightful recollections and associations.
His festivities, his romerias, [5a] his rural pastimes, are all connected
with, and dependent on the annual return of some saint’s-day, in
honour of which he gives himself up to the most unrestrained
enjoyment. A mass is with him the introductory scene to every
species of gaiety, and a procession of monks and friars forms a part
of every picture on which his memory most delights to dwell.—And a
similar, though, perhaps, a stronger impression is created on his
mind by the enthusiastic “love of song,” [5b] so universal in Spain. He
lives and breathes in a land of poetry and fiction: he listens with
ever-glowing rapture to the Romanceros, [5c] who celebrate the feats
of his heroes, and surround his monks and hermits with all the
glories of saints and angels: he hears of their mighty works, their
sufferings, their martyrdom; and the tale, decorated with the charms
of verse, is dearer to him than the best of holy writ. The peculiar
favourites of the spotless Virgin, their words fall on his ear like the
voice of an oracle, their deeds have the solemn sanction of
marvellous miracles. To them he owes that his country is the special
charge of the queen of angels, the mother of God; and in every
convent he sees the records of the wondrous interpositions of
heaven, which has so often availed itself of the agency of the
sainted inmates, while every altar is adorned with the grateful
offerings of devout worshipers, miraculously restored to health or
preserved from danger. He feels himself the most privileged among
the faithful. On him “our Lady of Protection” (del Amparo) smiles; to
him the Virgin of Carmen [6a] bows her gracious head. In his eye ten
thousand rays of glory encircle the brow of his patron-saint, the
fancied tones of whose voice support, assure and encourage him: he
believes that his scapulary [6b] (blessed by a Carmelite friar) secures
him from every evil: his house is adorned with the pope’s bull of
indulgences—a vessel of holy water is suspended over his bed, and
what more can he want, what danger can approach him? His mind
is one mass of undistinguishing, confiding, comforting faith. That
faith is his religion, his Christianity! How difficult will it be to
separate the evil from the good, if, indeed, they can be separated!
What a fortress must be overthrown before truth and reason can
advance a single step! What delightful visions must be forgotten,
what animating recollections, what transporting hopes! Have we a
right to rouse him from these blessed delusions? This is indeed the
ignorance that is bliss. Is it not folly to wish him wise?
But, alas! this is only one side of the picture! for, however soothing,
however charming the contemplation of contented ignorance may be
to the imagination, in the eye of reason the moral influence of such
a system is baneful in the extreme. All error is evil; and the error
which substitutes the external forms of worship for its internal
influence on the heart, is a colossal evil. Here we have a religion, if
such it may be called, that is purely ceremonial. Its duties are not
discharged in the daily walk of life, not by the cultivation of pure and
pious and benevolent affections, but by attending masses, by
reciting Paternosters and Ave Marias, by pecuniary offerings for souls
in purgatory, and by a thousand childish observances, which affect
remotely, if they affect at all, the conduct and the character. The
Spaniard attends his parish church to hear a service in an unknown
tongue; [6c] he bends his knees and beats his bosom at certain
sounds familiar to his ear, but not to his sense; he confesses and
communicates with undeviating regularity; [6d] and sometimes,
perhaps, he listens to a sermon in the eloquent style and beautiful
language of his country, not, indeed, instructing him in the moral
claims of his religion, but celebrating the virtues and recounting the
miracles of some saint or martyr to whom the day is dedicated. He
reads his religious duties, not in a Bible, but an Almanack; and his
Almanack is but a sort of Christian mythology. His saints are more
numerous than the deities of the pantheon; and, to say the truth,
there are many of them little better than these. [7a]
He is told, however, that his country exhibits the proudest triumphs
of orthodox Christianity. Schism and heresy have been scattered, or
at least silenced: and if in Spain the eye is constantly attracted, and
the heart distressed, by objects of unalleviated human misery; if the
hospitals are either wholly unprotected, or abandoned to the care of
the venal and the vile; if the prisons are crowded with a
promiscuous mass of innocence and guilt, in all its shades and
shapes of enormity [7b]—what does it matter? Spain, Catholic Spain,
has preserved her faith unadulterated and unchanged, and her
priests assure us that an error in creed is far more dangerous, (or to
use their own mild language,) far more damnable, than a multitude
of errors in conduct. A depraved heart may be forgiven, but not an
erring head. This is, in fact, the fatal principle, whose poison
spreads through this strongly-cemented system. To this we may
attribute its absurdities, its errors, its crimes. This has created
Dominicks and Torquemadas.
In a word, intolerance, in its widest and worst extent, is the
foundation on which the whole of the Spanish ecclesiastical edifice
rests. It has been called the main pillar of the constitution, and is so
inwrought with the habits and prejudices of the nation, that the
Cortes, with all their general liberality, dared not allow the profession
of any other religion than the “Catolica Apostolica Romana unica
Verdadera.” [7c] The cry of innovation there, as elsewhere, became a
dreadful weapon in the hands of those who profess to believe that
errors become sanctified by age. Too true it is, that if long usage
can sanction wrong, persecution might find its justification in every
page of Spanish history, from the time when Recaredo, the gothic
monarch, abandoned his Arian principles (with the almost solitary
exception of the tolerant and ill-treated Witiza). Long, long before
the Inquisition had erected its frightful pretensions into a system, or
armed itself with its bloody sword, its spirit was abroad and active.
Thousands and tens of thousands of Jews and Moors had been its
victims, and its founders did no more than obtain a regal or a papal
licence, for the murders which would otherwise have been probably
committed by a barbarous and frenzied mob, excited by incendiary
monks and friars.
The Inquisition has, no doubt, been greatly humanized by the
progress of time; as, in order to maintain its influence in these more
enlightened and inquiring days, it has availed itself of men of
superior talent, these have softened the asperity, or controlled the
malignity and petty tyranny of its inferior agents. Its vigilance and
its persecutions are, indeed, continually at work, yet, I believe its
flames will never again be lighted. Its greatest zeal is now directed
against Freemasons, of whom immense numbers occupy its prisons
and dungeons. I have conversed with many who have been
incarcerated by the Inquisition, and they agree in stating that torture
is no longer administered. [7d] But its influence on literature is
perhaps greater than ever; for though Spain possesses at the
present moment a great number of admirable writers, the press was
never so inactive. The despotism exercised over authors [8a] and
publishers is so intolerable, that few have courage voluntarily to
submit to it. Often after authorizing the publication of a work, they
order it to be suppressed, and every copy to be burnt, and never
think of reparation to those who are so cruelly injured. Their
presumption in condemning whatever they cannot understand, [8b]
their domiciliary visits, their arbitrary decrees, against which there is
no security and no appeal, make them fearful enemies and faithless
friends.
With the difficulty, delay, expense and frequent impossibility of
obtaining a licence for the publication of any valuable work, may be
well contrasted the ridiculous trash which daily issues from the
Spanish press. Accounts of miracles wrought by the different
virgins, [8c] lives of holy friars and sainted nuns, romances of
marvellous conversions, libels against Jews [8d] and heretics and
Freemasons, histories of apparitions, and so forth, are generally
introduced, not by a mere licence of the inquisitor, but by long and
laboured eulogiums.
It is no novel observation, that the most cruel and intolerant
persecutors have often been men wholly devoid of religious
principle; men, who consider the religion of the state only as a part
of its civil policy, and who treat the denial of a national creed with
the same severity as the infraction of an established law, or rather
as a species of treason against the supreme authority. No plea of
modest inquiry, of conscientious doubt, or honest difference of
opinion, is allowed to oppose for a moment their sanguinary and
despotic sway. There are no terms of safety but those of
unresisting, instant, absolute prostration. Such men are generally
the prime movers of the gagging engine of religious intolerance; and
such men are to be found too abundantly in Spain. Others there are
who imagine they see in the pomp and parade of the Romish ritual,
a system of delusion admirably adapted to beguile, or even to bless
the ignorant. They fancy themselves beings of a higher and nobler
order, and that, while they bask in the sunshine of intellect and
knowledge, they may be well content that the uninstructed mass
should trudge on in darkness below. Why should they throw their
pearls to senseless swine; or shower down truth and virtue on those
who fatten on vice and error?
But perhaps a larger class, which would include too the majority of
the learned clergy of Spain, are they whose honest opinions are
made up of heresy and infidelity; but their worldly interests are so
inwrought with the existing system, that the thought of sacrificing
those interests to the higher claims of right, has never occurred to
them; or, if it has occurred, has never obtained a moment’s
attention. To them it is a glorious and gold-giving superstition. If
they can persuade themselves that, on the whole, it is harmless,
they are satisfied. They do more—they say it is beneficial, and they
have repeated this so often, that they, perhaps, almost believe it is
true. Would they look round them they might see the melancholy
effects which superstition and intolerance have produced in their
hapless country. What is Seville—the once renowned Seville, with its
hundred and twenty-five churches and convents? The very shrine of
ignorance. It was there that the Spanish chart of liberty was
trampled under foot, amidst ten thousand shouts of “Live the King
and the Inquisition!” “Perish the Constitution!” Or Cordoba, so long
the cradle of the arts, the favourite seat of retiring wisdom? It is
become the chosen abode of vice and barbarism! The press, which
was established there in the short era of Spanish liberty, has been
torn in pieces by a frantic mob, who, excited by the monks, paraded
the streets of this unfortunate capital, threatening death to every
individual whose name had been connected with that of liberty.
How many a town and city, once illustrious, has sunk into
nothingness! [9a] “What remains of their ancient glory? The ruins of
palaces, of fabrics, of store-houses and dwellings; and undilapidated
churches and monasteries and hospitals, outliving the misery of
which they have been the cause.” [9b]
One might surely expect that in a country possessing eight
archbishops, more than fifty bishops, and more than a hundred
abbacies, with a jurisdiction almost episcopal; “in which,” to use the
language of a Spanish writer, “there are more churches than houses,
more altars than hearths, more priests than peasants;” in which
every dwelling has its saint, and every individual his scapulary;—one
might expect to see some benefits, some blessings resulting from
this gigantic mass of ecclesiastical influence. Let us, then, look upon
a picture drawn by the hand of an acknowledged master.

“Our universities [10a] are the faithful depositaries of the

prejudices of the middle age; our teachers, doctors of the tenth
century. Beardless noviciates instruct us in the sublime
mysteries of our faith; mendicant friars in the profound secrets
of philosophy; while barbarous monks explain the nice
distinctions of metaphysics.
“Who goes into our streets without meeting cofradias, [10b]
processions or rosaries; without hearing the shrill voice of
eunuchs, [10c] the braying of sacristans, the confused sound of
sacred music, entertaining and instructing the devout with
compositions so exalted, and imagery so romantic, that
devotion itself is forced into a smile? In the corners of our
squares, at the doors of our houses, the mysterious truths of
our religion are commented on by blind beggars to the
discordant accompaniment of an untuned guitar. Our walls are
papered with records of ‘authentic miracles,’ compared to which,
the metamorphoses of Ovid are natural and credible.
“And ignorance has been the parent, not of superstition alone,
but of incredulity and infidelity. The Bible, the argument and
evidence of our Christian faith, has been shamefully abandoned,
or cautiously buried beneath piles of decretals, formularies,
puerile meditations, and fabulous histories.
“Monkish influence has given to the dreams and deliriums of
foolish women, or crafty men, the authority of revealed truth.
Our friars have pretended to repair with their rotten and
barbarous scaffolding, the eternal edifice of the gospel. They
have twisted and tortured the moral law into a thousand
monstrous forms, to suit their passions and their interests. Now
they describe the path to heaven as plain and easy,—now it is
difficult,—to morrow they will call it impassable. They have
dared to obscure with their artful commentaries the beautiful
simplicity of the Word of God. They have darkened the plainest
truths of revelation, and on the hallowed charter of Christian
liberty, they have even erected the altar of civil despotism!
“In the fictions and falsehoods they have invented to deceive
their followers, in their pretended visions and spurious miracles,
they have even ventured to compromise the terrible majesty of
heaven. They shew us our Saviour lighting one nun to put
cakes into an oven; throwing oranges at another from the
sagrario; tasting different dishes in the convent-kitchens, and
tormenting friars with childish and ridiculous playfulness. They
represent a monk gathering together the fragments of a broken
bottle, and depositing in it the spilt wine, to console a child who
had let it fall at the door of the wine-shop. Another, repeating
the miracle of Cana to satisfy the brotherhood, and a third
restoring a still-born chicken to life that some inmate of the
convent might not be disappointed.
“They represent to us a man preserving his speech many years
after death, in order to confess his sins; another throwing
himself from a high balcony without danger, that he might go to
mass. A dreadful fire instantly extinguished by a scapulary of
Estamene. They shew us the Virgin feeding a monk from her
own bosom; angels habited like friars, chanting the matins of
the convent, because the friars were asleep. They paint the
meekest and holiest of men torturing and murdering the best
and the wisest for professing a different religious creed.
“We have indeed much religion, but no Christian charity. We
hurry with our pecuniary offerings to advance any pious work,
but we do not scruple to defraud our fellow-men. We confess
every month, but our vices last us our lives. We insist (almost
exclusively) on the name of Christians, while our conduct is
worse than that of infidels. In one concluding word, we fear the
 dark dungeon of the inquisition, but not the awful—the
tremendous tribunal of God!” [11a]

This is the representation of a Spaniard. Though the colouring is

high, it is a copy from nature, and the shades might have been
heightened had he witnessed the conduct of numbers of the
monastic orders during the late convulsions of Spain. There are,
indeed, few examples of such infamous want of principle as was
exhibited by many of them on the king’s return. Those who had
gone about preaching the rights of man, proclaiming the wisdom
and exalting the blessings of the new constitution; exhorting their
hearers, often with a vehemence little becoming their situation, to
live and die for its preservation, and hurling their bitterest
anathemas against those who dared to question the wisdom of a
single article,—when the king refused to sign that constitution,
became the eulogists of every act of tyranny, the persecutors of the
liberales, and the chosen friends of Ferdinand. [11b] They have had
their reward: and though a few of them have occupied the vacant
sees, and have been caressed and recompensed with no sparing
hand, the finger of hatred and of scorn points them out to the
execration of betrayed and suffering millions, while their names will
go down to posterity, accompanied with reproaches, curses and
infamy. If those be forgiven who have gone on in one consistent
career of servitude and degradation; who have betrayed no cause of
liberty—for they are by habit and by election slaves; who have
sacrificed no manly principles—for manly principles they had none;—
still no charity can wash away the stains of those traitors to freedom,
to humanity, to Spain, who so atrociously deserted the banners of
their country’s welfare, to range themselves around the standards of
a profligate and unexampled tyranny.
The most notorious of those, however, who co-operated to establish
that fatal and ferocious despotism which now degrades and
oppresses Spain, have already become its victims. In their sorrow
and suffering and exile, let the unshaken friends of constitutional
liberty, who are scattered over Europe, console themselves with
remembering that their personal fate is no more severe than that of
the base tools of a wretched monarch, who have nothing to
accompany their wanderings but sadness, shame and self-reproach,
dark and barren prospects, and desolate remembrances; while those
shall receive from all around them, the smiles and the praises of the
wise and good. They may look back on the “bread” of virtue which
they have “cast on the waters,” and forward in the confident hope
that they “shall find it again after many days:” but they who
sacrificed their country to their cold-hearted and selfish avarice,
have wholly erred in their calculations. Their country is fallen
indeed, but they, too, have been buried in its ruins. Ferdinand, who
has just as much of gratitude as of any other virtue, [12] has already
trampled on the miserable tools of his early tyranny. It were well if
those who “put their trust in princes,” would study the many
impressive lessons which the reign of the Spanish tyrant affords.
It is consolatory to turn from the profligacy and vice so often
prominent amidst extraordinary political revolutions, to the spirit of
truth and liberty which they always elicit; and Spain has had a most
triumphant list of patriots. Their names must not be recorded: for,
to receive the tribute of affection and gratitude from any hater of a
tyrant, would be sufficient to subject them to his merciless ferocity.
How wretched that country where no meed of applause may follow
the track of talent or of virtue—where knowledge and the love of
freedom are pursued and persecuted as if they were curses and
crimes! Otherwise, with what delight should I speak of some who,
buried in the obscurity of the cloister, or retiring into solitude from
the noisy crowd, sigh in secret and silence over the wretched fate of
the land of their birth, their admirable powers of body and mind
fettered and frozen by the hand of despotism! All around them is
slavery and ignorance; to them remain alone the joy of holding
converse with the wise and the good of departed time, and the
ecstatic hope that their country will one day burst from its death-like
slumbers, and spring forth “into liberty and life and light.”
And let those illustrious exiles, the martyrs of truth and freedom,
who have been driven by an ungrateful and cruel tyrant from their
homes and their country, and doomed “to wander through this
miserable world,” take heart; for a brighter and better day is about
to dawn upon Spain. I have expressed a hope, it should rather be a
conviction, that this period cannot linger long. If the extreme of evil
brings with it its own remedy; if human endurance will only support
a certain weight of despotism; if “there is a spirit in man;” if there is
a strength in virtue or in liberty—the intolerable fetters must be
broken.

¿Que es esto, Autor eterno

Del triste mundo? tu sublime nombre
Que en el se ultraja á moderar no alcanzas?
—¿ á infelices venganzas
Y sangre y muerte has destinado el hombre?
¿A tantas desventuras
Ningnu termino pones? ¿ó el odioso
Monstruo por siempre triunfará orgulloso?
Melendez.

The object, for which the foregoing observations were written, made
it necessary to exclude some particulars, which perhaps deserve
record.
A correct idea of the state of learning in Spain might be formed from
the general decline of the public colegios and universities, and the
almost universal ignorance of those to whom the important business
of education is intrusted. At Alcalá de Henares, where there were
formerly four or five thousand students, there are now less than
three hundred, and the number is yearly declining. A similar decay
may be observed elsewhere. I found every thing in a melancholy
state of derangement and dilapidation at Bergara, though this, I
believe, is now the only public school which has been able to
maintain itself. The philosophical and mathematical instruments had
been destroyed by rust, or rendered useless by violence, and every
thing connected with instruction appeared conducted as if the
dreadful apprehension that too much wisdom might be
communicated, were constantly present to the enlightened directors.
There are few objects more touching, more humiliating, than those
scenes sacred once to liberty and to literature, and associated with
the names of the noblest and “the wisest of our race;” but now
become the fortresses of ignorance, profligacy and despotism. Who
would not sigh over Cordoba?

When I remember what thou wert of old,

Birth-place of Senecas;—nurse of arms and arts;
When to thy schools from earth’s remotest parts
The nations crowded—while thy sons unroll’d
Thy chronicles of wisdom;—when I see
The spot Averröes lov’d, and tread the sod
Maimonides and Abenezra trod;
Or seek the umbrage of some rev’rend tree,
Beneath whose shade Mena or Cespedes
At noon-tide mus’d:—when I remember these
Or other hallow’d names, and see thee now
Shrouded in ignorance and slavery:—
O Cordoba! my spirit weeps o’er thee,
And burning blushes kindle on my brow. [13]

While the majority of the most distinguished writers of Spain have

been expatriated, it may be supposed literature is at a very low ebb
there. Melendez and Estála have died in exile,—while Moratin and
Llorente will probably never again revisit their native land. Marina,
Quintana, Argüelles, Gallego, and other estimable men, occupy the
hopeless dungeons to which tyranny has consigned them; while this
island, in particular, has had the honour of welcoming and of
sheltering many a generous patriot and many an enlightened
scholar, whose virtues and talents are lost to a country which has so
much reason to deplore their removal.
I trust, however, that a work which has been so long a desideratum,
viz. a History of Spain under the dominion of the Moors, compiled
from Arabic documents, will, ere long, be published, by Don José
Antonio Conde, the learned Orientalist, whose erudition and diligent
research promise a most valuable and interesting narration.
The Spanish Academy are now printing, at Madrid, a new edition of
Don Quixote, in five volumes, which will be prefaced by a Life of
Cervantes, by Navarrete. This piece of biography will be peculiarly
gratifying, as many documents connected with the history of
Cervantes have lately been discovered, especially the records of the
proceedings against him, before his imprisonment. [14a]
Herrera’s celebrated work on Agriculture is also being printed by the
Academy. The biographical notices are written by Don Mariano
Lagasca, whose name is a sufficient pledge for their excellence.
The Spanish Drama had been in a progressive state of decay from
the death of Candamo, till Moratin’s [14b] attempts to introduce the
regularity and unity of the Parisian theatre were crowned with
complete success. It is a different, and will be considered as a lower
order of merit, by all who place Nature and Shakespeare above Art
and the French Drama. If, however, Calderon and Lope, Moreto and
Montalvan, Solis and Candamo, seldom occupy the Spanish stage, it
is because the national taste, or the national indifference, has
chosen to sanction or permit the puerile trifles imported from the
other side of the Pyrenees, to occupy the seats which might be so
much more honourably filled by native genius. An active controversy
is going on as to the respective merits of the French and Spanish
theatres; but it does not seem to excite much interest beyond the
immediate circle of combatants. A new dramatic writer (Gorostiza
[15]
) has lately appeared, and his first effort, “Indulgencia para
todos,” in spite of some improbabilities in the story, and some
vulgarisms in the style, gives fair hopes for the future.
By way of conclusion, I would remark, that ultra-royalism and
bigotry may receive from the present wretchedness of Spain a
salutary and corrective lesson. They may there see the unalloyed
triumph of their principles, and study the consequences in the
degradation, the disquietude and the wretchedness of a once
renowned and illustrious nation. They have there a king reigning in
“all the glory” of uncontrolled majesty, and a state-religion
undisturbed by heretics or schismatics;—there is the dull death-like
silence of abhorred submission, unbroken by any hated shouts of
liberty—“the prostration of the understanding and the will,” that
neither dares nor wishes to inquire.
As to the character of Ferdinand, it has been greatly misunderstood
or greatly misrepresented. It has been well said of him, that he has
all the crimes and none of the merits of his ancestors. He appears
to care little about the church or the clergy, except inasmuch as he
can make them the instruments of civil despotism. [16] His habits are
gross and licentious; yet he is inaccessible to any sentiment of
benevolence or generosity.—He never forgave a fancied enemy, and
perhaps he never possessed a real friend.—From his very childhood
his untameable and barbarous propensities made him the object of
fear and dread; and adversity (that touchstone of character) has
served only to excite and heighten the dark ferocity of his
disposition. What, indeed, could be expected from an ingrate, who
rewarded those that replaced in his worthless hand the sceptre he
had cast away, with persecution and exile, imprisonment and death?

Was it for this through seven long years of war

We bore the miserable wants of woes
Pour’d on our naked heads by barb’rous foes,
While thou a patient captive—absent far,
Nor heard’st our cries, nor saw’st the bloody star
That o’er our helpless, hapless country rose?
Did we not break the intolerable bar
Forged by the master-tyrant? Interpose
To rescue—not our country—but mankind?
Did we not break thy prison-doors, unbind
Thy fetters, and with shouts of joy that rent
The very arches of the firmament
Receive thee?—And is this our destiny?
Insults and slavery, and a wretch like thee!

G. Smallfield, Printer, Hackney.

 FOOTNOTES.

[3a] Antillon—I cannot mention this illustrious name without a

tribute of admiration and gratitude. A life devoted to virtue and
literature, an unwearied struggle in the cause of civil and religious
liberty, rewarded by the fatal blow of a hired assassin, leaves behind
it an impress on the hearts of the generous and the good which will
not and cannot be erased.
[3b] It cannot be denied that the seclusion of the convent is so
friendly to contemplation and research, that, literature has been, and
still is, greatly indebted to it. A glance at the columns of Nich.
Antonio’s Biographical Dictionary will give striking proof of this.
[3c] There are many convents in which no book could be found but
the service of mass or the rules of the order. In others, there are
excellent libraries, of whose value friars have no idea whatever. In
the convent of San Miguel de los Reyes, near Valencia, I examined
some of the most interesting MSS. in existence, which are in charge
of a brotherhood of unlearned Geronomites. The librarian refused to
shew me a celebrated MS. of the Roman de la Rose, “because” (he
said) “it was the work of a heretic;” though he added, he had
written some verses in it to frighten any inquirer who might
accidentally open it. He had been recommending the burning a
noble illuminated MS. of the “Divina Commedia,” apparently
contemporary with Dante, as “the wretch had dared to send even
Popes to hell.” Ancient copies of Virgil, Livy and others, are in some
danger, should our zealous friar stumble on their history, and learn
that they never went to mass.
[3d] Montalvan.

Es Purgatorio—
Toda dicha, comparada
Con la de un frayle, cifrada
Desde el coro al refectorio.

The whole description is admirable, and I am tempted to introduce it

here.

Friend, thou art right! A world like this

Hath nothing equal to the bliss
Enjoyed by yonder lazy friar,
Between refectory and choir!
The morning pass’d in sacred song,
(The task is short—the triumph long!)
Why should our portly friar repine?
Enough for him—good man! to see
His cellar stor’d with rosy wine,
His table pil’d with luxury.
Come now, come with me, and partake
Our friar’s poor and modest board:
Meek sufferer—for Jesus’ sake!
Self-sacrific’d—to please the Lord!!
And is this rich and gay domain
His place of penury and pain?
That table his, where rang’d in state
I see so many jovial brothers,
Each with his fingers in his plate,
And his eyes fix’d upon another’s?
O ’tis indeed a lovely sight
To see thus earth and heav’n unite;
And what an enviable union
Of church and kitchen in communion!
While, hark! a voice at intervals,
The pious grace devoutly bawls
 Gratias tibi, Domine!
While up and down their arms are moving
Like engines in a factory:
Thus most indisputably proving
How calm and meek and patiently
These pious souls submit to all
The sorrow, suff’ring and privation
Which may an earthly saint befal:
O unexampled resignation!!
Principe Perseguido.

[4a] Much was apprehended from the recalled Jesuits: they came—
not the learned, the illustrious fathers of former days, but a handful
of ignorant, helpless old men, incapable of good, and, I trust,
incapable of evil. Father Juan Andres died in Rome in 1817.
[4b] They enacted this under the pretence that all young men were
wanted for the defence of the country. Even the friars were obliged
to be silent against such a plea.
[4c] Nor are there wanting instances of friars atoning on the
scaffold for crimes of the deepest dye; and I could mention
examples of fraud, violence and murder committed since the king’s
return by individuals among them, whose monstrous atrocity it
would be difficult to parallel.
[5a] Romerias. That these acts of devotion are always attended
with shameful profligacy is sufficiently known. Even Calderon bears
testimony to their danger:

— Todos los concursos

De varias romerias,
Tal vez en zelo empiezan
Y acaban en delicia;
El verse unos con otros
Conmuevese á la alegria,
 La alegria al banquete
El banquete á la risa,
La risa al bayle, al juego
A la vaya, á la grita
Escollos en que siempre
La devocion peligra.
A Maria el Corazon.

So, indeed, says the old proverb, “Quien muchos romerias anda
tarde ó nunca se santifica.”
[5b] The Roman Catholic Church has made a glorious league with
the fine arts, each of which has been made subservient to its
purposes, and has maintained its mighty influence. Poetry, painting
and music can never pay the immense debt they owe to the
gorgeous machinery of the Romish ritual.
[5c] Perhaps I may be allowed to introduce a few specimens of the
style of the Romanceros. For instance, their praises of the Virgin:

La reyna de los cielos

Emperatriz soberana
Fuente de amor y dulzura
Rio de bondad y de gracia
Pielago de perfecciones
Tranquilo mar de gracias
Iris de serenidades
Lucero de la mañana
Del cielo norte seguro.
San Onofre.
Sagrada Virgen Maria
Antorcha del cielo empireo
Hixa del eterno Padre,
Madre del supremo bixo
Del sacro espiritu esposa.
 Jayme del Castillo.
Hermosisima Maria
Preciosisima açucena
Que con tu divina gracia
Nos libertais de la pena,
Florida y hermosa rosa
Palma, cipres, virgen bella
Lirio, olivo, torre hermosa
De encumbrada fortaleza
Cielos, sol y luna hermosa
Fuente llena de clemencia
Que con tu divina gracia
Triunfos y lauros aumentas:
Gran Señora del Carmelo
Suplicote, sacra reyna
Que abogada y protectira
Con el rey de gracias seas.
Judio de Toledo.

Great, however, as is their devotion, it is less than their bombast.

Paren en sus movimientos

Ayre, fuego, tierra y ondas
Sol, luna, estrellas, luceros
Los planetas y la Aurora
Mientras mi pluma remonta
Su vuelo al mas sacro asunto
De la estacion dichosa
Quando vino la Cruz de Grao.
Cruz de Grao.
Remonte el vuelo mi pluma
Hasta la region mas alta
Del viento donde lucida
 Brille, dando á aquesta plana
Y principio al suceso
Mas admirable de que narra
En sus anales el tiempo
Y las historias pasadas.
Jayme de Aragon.

[6a] The Carmelites will have it that Elias (whom Thomas

Waldenses calls the first virgin among men, as Mary is among
women), dedicated a temple to “the mother of God” on Mount
Carmel, nine hundred years before her birth. Those who wish to be
acquainted with the wonderful miracles wrought by the “Virgen del
Carmen,” may consult an immense list published by Friar Juan
Serrer, most of which are certified by notaries, priests, magistrates
and friars.

[6b] El bendito Escapulario

Que al infierno lo amedrenta.
Romance.

[6c] It may, however, be noticed, that great numbers are drawn

away from the religious services of the regular clergy, by the greater
parade with which the friars attract their devotees to the convent
chapel.
[6d] Spain is a striking example of the influence of the habit of
confession on public morals. It has there, no doubt, given the full
reins to licentiousness.
[7a] Feijoo, a Benedictine monk, says that his order has fifteen
thousand canonized saints.
[7b] Of the numerous banditti, for which Spain has been always
distinguished, there is, perhaps, not an individual who neglects any
of those ceremonies which are considered binding on all faithful
Catholics.
 — These murderous bands
In holy water wash their hands;
They never miss a mass—they wear
A rosary and scapulaire:
They damn all heretics, and say
Their pious Aves twice-a-day;
They bend at every virgin’s altar;
And can such saints deserve a halter?

[7c] The absurdity of introducing such an expression into a

constitutional code could not be unnoticed by the illustrious body of
deputies, to whom the Cortes had confided its arrangement. It is
believed their object was to remove any suspicion as to their
thorough orthodoxy, in order that they might effect hereafter some
plans of ecclesiastical reformation.
[7d] Torture has been abolished in Spain for many years. However,
that monster in the form of man, Elio, the captain-general of
Valencia, has dared to employ it; and when I was in that capital I
was informed, (and the fact has had abundant confirmation,) that it
had been applied a few days before to no less than 147 individuals,
whose cries and shrieks were heard by all the inhabitants of
Murviedro, where they were confined. This tiger might allege,
indeed, the example of his royal master, who caused numbers to be
tortured in Madrid, after the last conspiracy there.
[8a] Don Gonzalez Carbajal, a poet of no common merit, whose
verses have been well compared with those of Fr. Luis de Leon, is
now publishing a metrical version of the Psalms. The MS. was sent
to the inquisitorial censors, who replied, that, though they saw
nothing absolutely objectionable in the work, they deemed it very
extraordinary and very suspicious that no allusion was made in it to
the Sumo Pontifice!
[8b] I will mention one of a thousand instances of ignorance which
I have individually witnessed. As I did not choose to expose myself
to be annoyed by inquisitors, I travelled without any English books,
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