These circumstances, and some other causes, during the reign of Philip V., prepared the way for the interesting revolution in Spanish literature, under Ferdinand VI. This change was followed by a great benefit to mankind; the Inquisitors, and even their inferior officers, began to perceive that zeal for the purity of the Catholic religion is exposed to the admission of erroneous opinions." The Inquisition remained in nearly a similar condition, during the reigns of Charles III. and Charles IV., the former supporting it because he hated freemasons, and the latter "because the French revolution seemed to justify a system of surveillance, and he found a firm support in the zeal of the Inquisitors-general, always attentive to the preservation and extension of their power, as if the sovereign authority could find no surer means of strengthening the throne than the terror inspired by the Inquisition." A great number of the works which were published in France, at the period of the revolution in that country, having been conveyed to Spain, and eagerly read by the people, the Inquisitors lost no time in prohibiting and seizing all books, pamphlets, and newspapers relating to French affairs, and gave peremptory orders to every person to denounce all who were friendly to the revolutionary principles. The consequence was, that informations were lodged against vast numbers, who were immediately apprehended, and thrown into prison. Among others, two booksellers in Valladolid were condemned in 1799 to two months' imprisonment, two years' suspension of their trade, and to banishment from the kingdom. The invasion of Spain by Bonaparte in 1808, and abdication of the throne by Charles IV. in favour of his son Ferdinand VII., gave a tremendous blow to the Inquisition. In that year Napoleon Bonaparte suppressed the holy office at Chamastin near Madrid; and, with the approbation of Joseph Bonaparte, Llorente burnt all the criminal processes in the Inquisition, excepting those which belonged to history. On the 22d of February, 1813, the Cortes-general of the kingdom assembled at Madrid, and having decreed that the existence of the Inquisition was incompatible with the political constitution which had been adopted by the nation, that assembly fully suppressed that odious tribunal, and restored to the bishops and secular judges, the jurisdiction which they had anciently enjoyed.