[216] For an illustration of the above remark the reader is referred to the closing pages of chap. 7, Part II., of the “History of Ferdinand and Isabella,” where I have taken some pains to show how deep-settled were these convictions in Spain at the period with which we are now occupied. The world has gained little in liberality since the age of Dante, who could coolly dispose of the great and good of antiquity in one of the circles of Hell because--no fault of theirs, certainly--they had come into the world too soon. The memorable verses, like many others of the immortal bard, are a proof at once of the strength and weakness of the human understanding. They may be cited as a fair exponent of the popular feeling at the beginning of the sixteenth century: “Ch’ ei non peccaro, e, s’egli hanno mercedi, Non basta, perchè _non ebber battesmo_, Ch’ è parte della fede che tu credi. E, se furon dinanzi al Cristianesmo, Non adorar debitamente Dio; E di questi cotai son io medesmo Per tai difetti, e non per altro rio, Semo perduti, e sol di tanto offesi Che sanza speme vivemo in disio.” INFERNO, canto 4. [217] It is in the same spirit that the laws of Oleron, the maritime code of so high authority in the Middle Ages, abandon the property of the infidel, in common with that of pirates, as fair spoil to the true believer! “S’ilz sont pyrates, pilleurs, ou escumeurs de mer, ou Tures, _et autres contraires et ennemis de nostredicte foy catholicque_, chascun peut prendre sur telles manieres de gens, _comme sur chiens, si peut l’on les desrobber et spoiler de leurs biens sans pugnition_. C’est le jugement.” Jugemens d’Oleron, Art. 45, ap. Collection de Lois maritimes, par J. M. Pardessus (ed. Paris, 1828), tom. i. p. 351. [218] The famous bull of partition became the basis of the treaty of Tordesillas, by which the Castilian and Portuguese governments determined the boundary line of their respective discoveries; a line that secured the vast empire of Brazil to the latter, which from priority of occupation should have belonged to their rivals. See the “History of Ferdinand and Isabella,” Part I. chap. 18; Part II. chap. 9,--the closing pages of each. [219] It is the condition, unequivocally expressed and reiterated, on which Alexander VI., in his famous bulls of May 3d and 4th, 1493, conveys to Ferdinand and Isabella full and absolute right over all such territories in the Western World as may not have been previously occupied by Christian princes. See these precious documents _in extenso_, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos (Madrid, 1825), tom. ii. Nos. 17, 18.