of the inhabitants, and the Cortes were compelled to check what would have become a positive abuse. It is worthy of notice that several Popes expressly condemned the rigours of the Spanish Inquisition. As early as the year 1449, Nicolas V. had ordered that no difference whatever should be made between those who were Christians by birth and the recent converts to the faith of the Gospel. Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII., and Leo X. listened favourably to the numerous appeals which were made to their tribunal, and reminded the Spanish Inquisitors of the parable of the Good Shepherd.

66

After the conquest of Granada, however, the colleagues of Torquemada were no longer satisfied with individual conversions. All the Jews were ordered to embrace the Christian faith, or to leave Spain within the term of four months; they were especially prohibited, moreover, from carrying away with them either gold or silver. (1492.) One hundred and seventy thousand families, forming a population of eight hundred thousand souls, found themselves thus compelled to dispose hastily of all their property; they went to Portugal, to Italy, to Africa, and even as far as the Levant. "So deplorable," says Mr. Prescott, was the sacrifice of property, that a chronicler of the day mentions that he had seen a house exchanged for an ass, and a vineyard for a suit of clothes! In Aragon matters were still worse. The government there discovered that the Jews were largely indebted to individuals, and to certain corporations. It accordingly caused their property to be sequestrated for the benefit of their creditors, until their debts should be liquidated. Strange, indeed, that the balance should be found against a people who have been everywhere conspicuous for their commercial sagacity and resources, and who as factors of the grand nobility and farmers of the revenue, enjoyed at least equal advantages in Spain with those possessed in other countries for the accumulation of wealth."*

The Jews who retired into Portugal were received there only on condition of paying a capitation-fee of eight gold crowns; and even then it was stipulated by the Portuguese government that they should be obliged to leave the country by a certain time, under penalty of being reduced into slavery. The threat, let us add, was rigorously carried out.

Seven years after the expulsion of the Jews (1499–1501) the King of Spain undertook, in as insolent a manner, the conversion of the Moors of Granada, to whom, as we have already noticed, the terms of the capitulation had guaranteed the undisturbed exercise of their religion. The inhabitants of the Albayacin, the highest quarter of the city, rose immediately, and were imitated by the wild highlanders of the Alpuxarras. "This range of Maritime Alps, which stretches to the distance of seventeen leagues in a south-easterly direction from the Moorish capital, sending out its sierras like so many broad arms towards the Mediterranean, was thickly sprinkled with Moorish villages, cresting the bald summits of the mountains, or chequering the green slopes and valleys which lay between them. Its simple inhabitants, locked up within the lonely recesses of their hills, and accustomed to a life of penury and toil, had escaped the corruptions, as well as refinements, of civilization. In ancient times

* Prescott, vol. ii., p. 129.

they had afforded a hardy militia for the princes of Granada, and they now exhibited an unshaken attachment to their ancient institutions and religion, which had been somewhat effaced in the great cities by more intimate intercourse with the Europeans."*

Irritated at the news of the treacherous conduct pursued towards their countrymen in Granada by the Spaniards, they resolved to anticipate by a general insurrection any similar attempt upon themselves. This rising was of the severest character, and in the vicissitudes of success which marked its course, the tide of victory was far from constant to the Christian armies. The defeat of the heroic Alonzo de Aguila, however, and the complete rout of the Spaniards on the banks of the Rio Verde, instead of encouraging the Moors to prolong their resistance, had the effect of frightening them. They were overwhelmed by the sense of their triumph, and they knew full well that ultimately the whole might of the Castilian monarchy must be brought down to bear upon them. They therefore sent messengers to Ferdinand, suing for pardon in the humblest terms, and the King, plainly conscious of the impossibility of infusing in Mussulmans sentiments of loyalty towards a Christian ruler, granted to the petitioners conditions much easier than they had any right to expect. Those who would not accept baptism and embrace Christianity were allowed to leave the country; and on the payment of a certain sum, they were provided with conveyances to transport them into Africa. The insurrection of the Alpuxarras became the theme not only of chronicle but of song. "The note of sorrow," says Mr. Prescott, "was prolonged in many a plaintive romance, and the names of Aguila and his unfortunate companions were embalmed in that beautiful minstrelsy, scarcely less imperishable, and far more touching, than the stately and elaborate records of history." One of these ballads, translated by Mr. Lockhart, will supply us with a few stanzas.

Let us notice, in the first place, that the expedition of Don Alonzo of Aguila is represented as being the result of a piece of senseless rodomontade:

"Then spake Fernando,-' Hear, grandees! which of ye all will go,
And give my banner in the breeze of Alpuxa to blow?

Those heights along the Moors are strong; now who by dawn of day,
Will plant the cross their cliffs among, and drive the dogs away?'"

The position of the Christian hero, in the midst of the mountain-pass,
from the summit of which huge rocks are hurled upon him by the
Saracens, reminds us exactly of Charlemagne's nephew, Roland, at
Roncevaux:-

"Not knightly valour there avails, nor skill of horse and spear;

For rock on rock comes tumbling down from cliff and cavern drear;
Down-down like driving hail they come, and horse and horsemen die
Like cattle, whose despair is dumb, when the fierce lightnings fly.
"Alonzo, with a handful more, escapes into the field,

Then, like a lion, stands at bay, in vain besought to yield;

A thousand foes around are seen, but none draws near to fight;
Afar, with bolt and javelin, they pierce the steadfast knight."

At last the Spaniard chieftain dies, and Moorish maidens bury him near the waters of the Alpuxarras.

The well-known poem entitled "Rio Verde, Rio Verde," and translated by Bishop Percy in his "Reliques," under the name of "Gentle River," is another monument of the same tragic episode.

(To be continued.)

SELECT LITERARY NOTICES.

[The insertion of the title of any publication in this list is not to be considered as pledging us to the approbation of its contents, unless it be accompanied by some express intimation of our favour. able opinion. Nor is the omission of any such intimation to be regarded as indicating a contrary opinion. Our limits, and other reasons, impose on us the necessity of selection and brevity.]

he certainly does not fulfil that one, "Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not." And as the reader follows Mr. Arthur through these fascinating chapters, he will learn, or be reminded of, what is not so generally known as it ought to be, that the Sovereign Pontiff made awful use of the sword when he had the power. The few pages devoted to the Pope's cruelties, 108-112, epitomize a truly terrible history of oppression and bloodshed.

Were we to attempt to quote all the interesting and admonitory passages contained in the volume before us, a large portion of it would have to be transferred bodily to these columns. We must content ourselves with recommending our readers to procure it for themselves, and to give it a careful reading; and this we do most earnestly. We also take the opportunity to tender to the author our warmest thanks for so valuable an addition to the literature of the great anti-papal controversy. Not that "The Modern Jove" is by any means merely controversial, as the word is commonly used. It does not deal with doctrines alone, but with the weighty political questions which inevitably arise out of the new claims of Rome. On these Mr. Arthur has various pithy and suggestive paragraphs, which the reader will not overlook. We trust that this book may deal a heavy blow at the gigantic system of mingled superstition and tyranny whose late encroachments in this country ought to fill the minds of all true Englishmen with profound grief, and with a spirit of resolute resist

ance.

Church. By Dr. Stowell, of Rotherham. Enlarged by E. Storrow. London: Snow and Co.-The late Dr. Stowell's work well deserved republication. The writer thought and wrote under the inspiration of his high theme. The truths and motives presented are among the essentials of missionary work, and therefore can never become stale. The wide circulation of the book among mission candidates and in the Church at large could not fail to do good. Both the selection of topics and style of treatment are every way worthy of the subject.

Dr. Stowell dwells with strong and repeated emphasis on the essentially missionary character of the Church, and is not unreasonably afraid that the circumstance of missions being worked as a separate department may cause this to be overlooked. "The spread of the Gospel is the proper business of the Church as the Church. The existence of any institution for this end which is not the Church, not composed of its members, ruled by its officers, governed by its laws, and acknowledging the authority of its head, is itself an implied condemnation of the Church. That was confessedly the best state of the Church in all time past, when there were no separate institutions. And surely if we follow out our cherished principles, and reason from the simplest analogies, that will be the best state of the Church in time to come, when such institutions shall not exist. Happy the day for the Church of Christ herself, when she finds in her own appointed organization the true Missionary Society, all her officers and all her members entering as a matter of course and of duty into this great work; when the urging of it shall form an inte

The Missionary Work of the gral part of pastoral instruction,

mutual counsel, and fraternal dis- air. His heart throbs with a holier cipline!"