History of Civilization in England, Vol. 2 of 3

1236

‘And Olivarez had been heard to censure very severely the duke's (Buckingham's) familiarity and want of respect towards the prince, a crime monstrous to the Spaniard.’ … ‘Their submissive reverence to their princes being a vital part of their religion.’ Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, ed. Oxford, 1843, p. 15. For the religion of loyalty, in an earlier period, see Florez, Reynas Catholicas, vol. i. p. 421: ‘La persona del Rey fue mirada de sus fieles vassallos con respeto tan sagrado,’ that resistance was ‘una especie de sacrilegio.’

1237

These impediments to intercourse were once deemed almost invincible. Fontenay-Mareuil, who visited Spain in 1612, and was not a little proud of the achievement, says, ‘Au reste, parcequ'on ne va pas aussy ordinairement en Espagne qu'en France, en Italie et ailleurs; et qu'estant comme en un coin, et séparée du reste du monde par la mer ou par les Pyrénées, on n'en a, ce me semble, guere de connoissance, j'ay pense que je devois faire icy une petite digression pour dire ce que j'en ay appris dans ce voyage et despuis.’ Mémoires de Fontenay-Mareuil, in Collection des Mémoires par Petitot, vol. i. p. 169, 1e Série, Paris, 1826. Seventy years later, another writer on Spain says of the Pyrenees, ‘Ces montagnes sont à nos voyageurs modernes, ce qu'étoit aux anciens mariniers le Non plus ultra et les colomnes du grand Hercule.’ L'Estat de l'Espagne, Geneve, 1681 Epistre, p. ii. This work, little known and not much worth knowing, forms the third volume of Le Prudent Voyageur.

1238

‘Con razon se miró la conquista de Granada, no como un acontecimiento puramente español, sino como un suceso que interesaba al mundo. Con razon tambien se regocijó toda la cristiandad. Hacia medio siglo que otros mahometanos se habian apoderado de Constantinopla; la caida de la capital y del imperio bizantino en poder de los turcos habia llenado de terror á la Europa; pero la Europa se consoló al saber que en España habia concluido la dominacion de los musulmanes.’ Lafuente, Historia de España, vol. xi. p. 15.

1239

‘L'Espagne, long-temps partagée en plusieurs états, et comme étrangère au reste de l'Europe, devint tout-à-coup une puissance redoutable, faisant pencher pour elle la balance de la politique.’ Koch, Tableau des Révolutions de l'Europe, Paris, 1823, vol. i. p. 362. On the relation between this and some changes in literature which corresponded to it, see Bouterwek's History of Spanish Literature, vol. i. pp. 148–152, where there are some ingenious, though perhaps scarcely tenable, speculations.

1240

‘The holy war with the infidels’ (Mohammedans) ‘perpetuated the unbecoming spectacle of militant ecclesiastics among the Spaniards, to a still later period, and long after it had disappeared from the rest of civilized Europe.’ Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. p. 162.

1241

A learned Spanish lawyer has made some remarks which are worth quoting, and which contain a curious mixture of truth and error: ‘Comment la monarchie espagnole fut-elle déchue de tant de grandeur et de gloire? Comment perdit-elle les Pays-Bas et le Portugal dans le dix-septième siècle, et s'y trouva-t-elle réduite à n'être qu'un squelette de ce qu'elle avait été auparavant? Comment vit-elle disparaître plus d'une moitié de sa population? Comment, possédant les mines inépuisables du Nouveau Monde, les revenus de l'état n'étaient à peine que de six millions de ducats sous le règne de Philippe III? Comment son agriculture et son industrie furent-elles ruinées? et comment presque tout son commerce passa-t-il dans les mains de ses plus grands ennemis? Ce n'est point ici le lieu d'examiner les véritables causes d'une métamorphose si triste; il suffira d'indiquer que tous les grands empires contiennent en euxmêmes le germe de leur dissolution,’ &c. ‘D'ailleurs les successeurs de ces deux monarques’ (Charles V. and Philip II.) ‘n'eurent point les mêmes talens, ni les ducs de Lerme et d'Olivarès, leurs ministres, ceux du cardinal Cisneros; et il est difficile de calculer l'influence de la bonne ou de la mauvaise direction des affaires sur la prospérité ou les malheurs des nations. Sous une même forme de gouvernement, quel qu'il puisse être, elles tombent ou se relèvent suivant la capacité des hommes qui les dirigent, et d'après les circonstances où ils agissent.’ Sempère, Histoire des Cortès, Bordeaux, 1815, pp. 265–267. Of the two passages which I have marked with italics, the first is a clumsy, though common, attempt to explain complicated phenomena by a metaphor which saves the trouble of generalizing their laws. The other passage, though perfectly true as regards Spain, does not admit of that universal application which M. Sempere supposes; inasmuch as in England, and in the United States of America, national prosperity has steadily advanced, even when the rulers have been very incapable men.

1242

‘With Philip II. ends the greatness of the kingdom, which from that period declined with fearful rapidity.’ Dunham's History of Spain, vol. v. p. 87. And Ortiz (Compendio, vol. vii., Prologo, p. 6) classes together ‘la muerte de Felipe II. y principios de nuestra decadencia.’ The same judicious historian elsewhere observes (vol. vi. p. 211), that if Philip III. had been equal to his father, Spain would have continued to flourish. Several of the more recent Spanish writers, looking at the heavy expenses caused by the policy of Philip II., and at the debts which he incurred, have supposed that the decline of the country began in the latter years of his reign. But the truth is, that no great nation ever was, or ever will be, ruined by the prodigality of its government. Such extravagance causes general discomfort, and therefore ought not to be tolerated; but if this were the place for so long an argument, I could easily show that its other and more permanent inconveniences are nothing like what they are commonly supposed to be.

1243

‘Abstraido Felipe III. en devociones, amante Felipe IV. deregocijos, mortificado Carlos II. por padecimientos, cuidáronse poco ó nada de la gobernacion del Estado, y confiaronla á validos altaneros, codiciosos, incapaces, y de muy funesta memoria.’ Rio, Historia del Reinado de Carlos III., Madrid, 1856, vol. i. p. 33.

1244

‘Sans espérance de postérité.’ Millot, Mémoires de Noailles, vol. i. p. 419. ‘Incapaz de tener hijos.’ Ortiz, Compendio, vol. vi. p. 560. See also Mémoires de Louville, vol. i. p. 82; and the allusions in Lettres de Madame de Villars, edit. Amsterdam, 1759, pp. 53, 120, 164. She was ambassadress in Spain in the reign of Charles II. M. Lafuente, who, if I rightly remember, never quotes these interesting letters, and who indeed, with very few exceptions, has used none but Spanish authorities, ventures nevertheless to observe that ‘La circunstancia de no haber tenido sucesion, falta que en general se achabaca mas al rey que á la reina,’ &c. Historia de España, vol. xvii. pp. 198, 199, Madrid, 1856. According to the biographer of the Spanish Queens, some persons imputed this to sorcery, ‘y aun se dijo si intervenia maleficio.’ Florez, Memorias de las Reynas Catholicas, vol. ii. p. 973, Madrid, 1761, 4to.

1245

In 1696, Stanhope, the English minister at Madrid, writes: ‘He has a ravenous stomach, and swallows all he eats whole, for his nether jaw stands so much out that his two rows of teeth cannot meet; to compensate which, he has a prodigious wide throat, so that a gizzard or liver of a hen passes down whole, and his weak stomach not being able to digest it, he voids it in the same manner.’ Mahon's Spain under Charles II., London, 1840, p. 79; a very valuable collection of original documents, utterly unknown to any Spanish historian I have met with. Some curious notices of the appearance of Charles II. in his childhood may be seen published for the first time in Mignet's Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne, Paris, 1835–1842, 4to. vol. i. pp. 294, 295, 310, 396, 404, 410, vol. ii. p. 130, vol. iii. pp. 418, 419, 423. See also vol. iv. p. 636, for an instance of his taciturnity, which was almost the only mark of sense he ever gave, ‘Le roi l'écouta, et ne lui répondit rien.’

1246

‘Le Roy demeuroit dans une profonde ignorance et de ses affaires et même des Etats de sa couronne; à peine connoissoit-il quelles étoient les places qui lui appartenoient hors du continent d'Espagne.’ … ‘La perte de Barcelone lui fut plus sensible qu'aucune autre, parce que cette ville, capitale de la Catalogne, et située dans le continent de l'Espagne, lui étoit plus connue que les villes de Flandre, dont il ignoroit l'importance au point de croire que Mons appartenoit au roi d'Angleterre, et de le plaindre lorsque le Roi fit la conquête de cette province.’ Mémoires du Marquis de Torcy, vol. i. pp. 19, 23, edit. Petitot, Paris, 1828.

1247

‘Fancying everything that is said or done to be a temptation of the devil, and never thinking himself safe but with his confessor, and two friars by his side, whom he makes lie in his chamber every night.’ Mahon's Spain under Charles II., p. 102. On account, no doubt, of this affection for monks, he is declared by a Spanish historian to have possessed a ‘corazon pio y religioso.’ Bacallar, Comentarios de la Guerra de España, vol. i. p. 20. The best notice of the exorcism will be found in Lafuente's Historia de España, vol. xvii. pp. 294–309, where there is an entire chapter, headed ‘Los Hechizos del Rey.’

1248

‘La foiblesse de l'Espagne ne permettoit pas à son roi de se ressentir du traitement dont il croyoit à propos de se plaindre.’ Mémoires de Torcy, vol. i. p. 81. Or, as an eminent native writer bitterly says, ‘Las naciones estrangeras disponiendo de la monarquia española como de bienes sin dueño.’ Tapia, Civilizacion Española, vol. iii. p. 187.

1249

‘This royal throne of kings, this scepter'd isle,

This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,

This other Eden, demi-paradise;

This fortress, built by nature for herself

Against infection and the hand of war;

This happy breed of men, this little world,

This precious stone set in the silver sea,

Which serves it in the office of a wall,

Or as a moat defensive to a house,

Against the envy of less happier lands;

This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,

Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth,

Renowned for their deeds as far from home,

For Christian service and true chivalry,

As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry

Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son:

This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,

Dear for her reputation through the world,

Is now leas'd out, I die pronouncing it,

Like to a tenement or pelting farm.’

1250

The Spanish theory of government is well stated in the following passage in Davila's Life of Philip III. The remarks apply to Philip II. ‘Que solo havia gobernado sin Validos ni Privados, tomando para sí solo, como primera causa de su gobierno, el mandar, prohibir, premiar, castigar, hacer mercedes, conocer sugetos, elegir Ministros, dar oficios, y tener como espiritu que andaba sobre las aguas, ciencia y providencia de todo, para que nada se hiciese sin su saber y querer: no serviendo los Ministros mas que de poner por obra (obedeciendo) lo que su Señor mandaba, velando sobre cada uno, como pastor de sus ovejas, para ver la verdad con que executan sus mandamientos y acuerdos.’ Davila, Historia de Felipe Tercero, lib. i. pp. 22, 23.

1251

Even Philip II. always retained a certain ascendency over the ecclesiastical hierarchy, though he was completely subjugated by ecclesiastical prejudices. ‘While Philip was thus willing to exalt the religious order, already far too powerful, he was careful that it should never gain such a height as would enable it to overtop the royal authority.’ Prescott's History of Philip II., vol. iii. p. 235. ‘Pero este monarca tan afecto á la Inquisicion mientras le servia para sus fines, sabia bien tener á raya al Santo Oficio cuando intentaba invadir ó usurpar las preeminencias de la autoridad real, ó arrogarse un poder desmedido.’ Lafuente, Historia de España, vol. xv. p. 114.

1252

‘Por cuyo absoluto poderío se executaba todo.’ Yañez, Memorias para la Historia de Felipe III., Prologo, p. 150. ‘An absoluteness in power over king and kingdom.’ Letter from Sir Charles Cornwallis to the Lords of the Council in England, dated Valladolid, May 31, 1605, in Winwood's Memorials, vol. ii. p. 73, London, 1725, folio. ‘Porque no era fácil imaginar entónces, ni por fortuna se ha repetido el ejemplo después, que hubiera un monarca tan pródigo de autoridad, y al propio tiempo tan indolente, que por no tomarse siquiera el trabajo de firmar los documentos de Estado, quisiera dar á la firma de un vasalla suyo la misma autoridad que á la suya propia, y que advirtiera y ordenára, como ordenó Felipe III. á todos sus consejos, tribunales, y súbditos, que dieran á los despachos firmados por el duque de Lerma el mismo cumplimiento y obediencia, y los ejecutáran y guardáran con el mismo respeto que si fueran firmados por él.’ Lafuente, Historia de España, vol. xv. pp. 449, 450. ‘El duque de Lerma, su valído, era el que gobernaba el reino solo.’ vol. xvii. p. 332. His power lasted from 1598 to 1618. Ortiz, Compendio, vol. vi. pp. 290, 325.

1253

Davila (Historia de Felipe Tercero, lib. ii. p. 41), after eulogizing the personal qualities of Lerma, adds, ‘Y sin estas grandes partes tuvo demostraciones christianas, manifestandolo en los conventos, iglesias, colegiatas, hospitales, ermitas y catedras, que dejó fundadas, en que gastó, como me consta de los libros de su Contaduría, un millon ciento cincuenta y dos mil doscientos ochenta y tres ducados.’ After such monstrous prodigality, Watson might well say, in his rather superficial, but, on the whole, well-executed History, that Lerma showed ‘the most devoted attachment to the church,’ and ‘conciliated the favour of ecclesiastics.’ Watson's History of Philip III., London, 1839, pp. 4, 8, 46, 224.

1254

The only energy Philip III. ever displayed, was in seconding the efforts of his minister to extend the influence of the Church; and hence, according to a Spanish historian, he was ‘monarque le plus pieux parmi tous ceux qui out occupé le trône d'Espagne depuis saint Ferdinand.’ Sempère, Monarchie Espagnole, vol. i. p. 245. ‘El principal cuidado de nuestro Rey era tener á Dios por amigo, grangear y beneficiar su gracia, para que le asistiese propicio en quanto obrase y dixese. De aqui tuvieron principio tantos dones ofrecidos á Dios, tanta fundacion de Conventos, y favores hechos á Iglesias y Religiones.’ Davila, Historia de Felipe Tercero, lib. ii. p. 170. His wife, Margaret, was equally active. See Florez, Reynas Catholicas, vol. ii. pp. 915, 916. ‘Demas de los frutos que dió para el Cielo y para la tierra nuestra Reyna, tuvo otros de ambas lineas en fundaciones de Templos y obras de piedad para bien del Reyno y de la Iglesia. En Valladolid fundó el Convento de las Franciscas Descalzas. En Madrid trasladó á las Agustinas Recoletas de Santa Isabel desde la calle del Principe al sitio en que hoy estan. Protegió con sus limosnas la fundacion de la Iglesia de Carmelitas Descalzas de Santa Ana; y empezó á fundar el Real Convento de las Agustinas Recoletas con titulo de la Encarnacion en este misma Corte, cuya primera piedra se puso á 10 de Junio del 1611. En la parroquia de S. Gil junto al Palacio introdujo los Religiosos Franciscos, cuyo Convento persevera hoy con la misma advocacion.’ How the country fared, while all this was going on, we shall presently see.

1255

The burden of the petition was, ‘Que se tratasse con mas veras de poner limite á los bienes, que se sacauan cada dia del braço Seglar al Eclesiastico, enflaqueciendo no tan solo el patrimonio Real, mas el comun, pues siendo aquel libre de pechos, contribuciones, y gauelas, alojamientos, huespedes, y otros grauamenes mayores, presidios, guerras, y soldados.’ … ‘Que las Religiones eran muchas, las Mendicantes en excesso, y el Clero en grande multitud. Que auia en España 9088 monasterios, aun no cõtando los de Monjas. Que yuan metiẽdo poco á poco, con dotaciones, cofradias, capellanias, o con cõpras, á todo el Reyno en su poder. Que se atajasse tanto mal. Que huuiesse numero en los frayles, moderacion en los Cõuentos, y aun en los Clerigos seglares.’ Cespedes, Historia de Don Felipe IV., Barcelona, 1634, fol. lib. vii. cap. 9, p. 272 rev. This is the only noticeable passage in an unusually dull chronicle, which, though professing to be a history of Philip IV., is confined to the first few years of his reign.

1256

‘En este año, que iba escribiendo esta Historia, tenian las Ordenes de Santo Domingo, y S. Francisco en España, treinta y dos mil Religiosos, y los Obispados de Calahorra y Pamplona veinte y quatro mil clerigos; pues qué tendran las demas Religiones, y los demas Obispados?’ Davila, Historia de Felipe Tercere, lib. ii. p. 215. See also cap. xcvii. pp. 248, 249; and, on the increase of convents, see Yañez, Memorias para la Historia de Felipe III., pp. 240, 268, 304, 305.

1257

‘The reign of Philip III., surnamed from his piety the Good, was the golden age of Churchmen. Though religious foundations were already too numerous, great additions were made to them; and in those which already existed, new altars or chancels were erected. Thus, the duke of Lerma founded seven monasteries and two collegiate churches; thus, also, the diocese of Calahorra numbered 18,000 chaplains, Seville 14,000. How uselessly the ministers of religion were multiplied, will appear still more clearly from the fact that the cathedral of Seville alone had a hundred, when half-a-dozen would assuredly have been sufficient for the public offices of devotion.’ Dunham's History of Spain, vol. v. p. 274. According to the passage quoted in note 93, from Davila, there were twenty-four thousand ‘clerigos’ in the two dioceses of Calahorra and Pamplona.

1258

‘Entre tanto crecia por instantes y se aumentaba prodigiosamente el poder y la autoridad de la Iglesia. Sus pingües riquezas desmembraban de una manera considerable las rentas de la corona; y el estado eclesiástico, que muchos abrazaron en un principio á consecuencia de las desgracias y calamidades de la época, fué despues el mas solicitado por las inmensas ventajas que ofrecia su condicion comparada con la de las clases restantes.’ Antequera, Historia de la Legislacion, pp. 223, 224. See also in Campomanes, Apendice á la Educacion, Madrid, 1775–1777, vol. i. p. 465, and vol. iv. p. 219, a statement made by the University of Toledo in 1619, or 1620, that ‘hay doblados religiosos, clerigos y estudiantes; porque ya no hallan otro modo de vivir, ni de poder sustentarse.’ If the eye of M. Lafuente had lighted upon this and other passages, which I shall shortly quote from contemporary observers, he would, I think, have expressed himself much more strongly than he has done respecting this period, in his recent brilliant, but unsatisfactory, History of Spain. On the great wealth of the convents in 1679, when the rest of the country was steeped in poverty, see a letter dated Madrid, July 25, 1679, in D'Aulnoy, Relation du Voyage d'Espagne, Lyon, 1693, vol. ii. p. 251. But the earliest evidence I have met with is in a letter, written in 1609, to Prince Henry of England, by Sir Charles Cornwallis, the English ambassador at Madrid. ‘The furniture of their churches here, and the riches and lustre of their sepulchres made in every monasterie (the general povertye of this kingdome considered), are almost incredible. The laity of this nation may say with Davyde (though in another sense), “Zelus domus tuæ comedit me:” for, assuredly, the riches of the Temporall hath in a manner all fallen into the mouthes and devouring throates of the Spiritual.’ Winwood's Memorials of Affairs of State, vol. iii. p. 10, London, 1725, folio.

1259

‘Deux millions de ducats, que le clergé possédait sous le règne de Charles V, étaient réputés comme un revenu exorbitant; et, un demi-siècle plus tard, lorsque ces revenus s'élevaient à huit millions, on qualifiat d'hérétique, toute proposition tendant à opérer quelque modification dans leur accroissement.’ Sempère, Monarchie Espagnole, vol. ii. p. 16.

1260

In a work on Spanish literature which was published about seventy years ago, and which, at the time of its appearance, made considerable noise, this peculiarity is frankly admitted, but is deemed rather an honour to Spain than otherwise, inasmuch as that country, we are told, has produced philosophers who have gone much deeper into things than Bacon, Descartes, and Newton, who, no doubt, were clever men, but were nowise comparable to the great thinkers of the Peninsula. Such assertions, proceeding, not from some ignorant despiser of physical science, who contemns what he has never been at the pains to study, but from a really able and, in some respects, competent judge, are important for the history of opinion; and as the book is not very common, I will give two or three extracts. ‘Confiesan los Franceses con ingenuidad que Descartes fué un novelista: y con todo eso quieren hacerle pasar por el promotor de la filosofía en Europa, como si su filosofía se desemejase mucho de la que dominaba en las sectas de la antigüedad. Su tratádo “Del Metodo” es nada en comparacion de los libros “De la Corrupcion de las Artes” de Juan Luis Vives, que le antecedió buen número de años.’ Oracion Apologética por la España y su Mérito Literario por D. J. P. Forner, Madrid, 1786, p. xi. ‘No hemos tenido en los efectos un Cartesio, no un Neuton: démoslo de barato: pero hemos tenido justísimos legisladores y excelentes filósofos prácticos, que han preferido el inefable gusto de trabajar en beneficio de la humanidad á la ociosa ocupacion de edificar mundos imaginarios en la soledad y silencio de un gabinete.’ p. 12. ‘Nada se disputaba en España.’ p. 61. At p. 143 a comparison between Bacon and Vives; and the final decision, p. 146, that Vives enjoys ‘una gloriosa superioridad sobre todos los sabios de todos los siglos.’

1261

The final profession was not made till 1616; but he began to wear the clothes in 1613. ‘Tal era su situacion el sábado santo 2 de abril’ [1616] ‘que por no poder salir de su casa hubieron de darle en ella la profesion de la venerable órden tercera de San Francisco, cuyo hábito habia tomado en Alcalá, el dia 2 de julio de 1613.’ Navarrete, Vida de Cervantes, p. cii. prefixed to Don Quijote, Barcelona, 1839. Even in 1609, says Navarrete, (p. lxii.), ‘Se ha creido que entónces se incorporó tambien Cervantes, como lo hizo Lope de Vega, en la congregacion del oratorio del Caballero de Gracia, mientras que su muger y su hermana doña Andrea se dedicaban á semejantes ejercicios de piedad en la venerable órden tercera de San Francisco, cuyo hábito recibieron en 8 de junio del mismo año.’

1262

Ticknor's History of Spanish Literature, vol. ii. pp. 125, 126, 137, 147, 148.

1263

Ibid. vol. ii. p. 374. Biographie Universelle, vol. xxx. pp. 149, 150.