THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN. Jewish Blood in the Veins of the Spanish Nobility--The Marranos cling to Judaism and manifest Unconquerable Antipathy to Christianity--Ferdinand and Isabella--The Dominicans, Alfonso de Ojeda, Diego de Merlo, and Pedro de Solis--The Catechism of the Marranos--A Polemical Work against the Catholic Church and Despotism gives a Powerful Impulse to the Inquisition--The Tribunal is established in 1480--Miguel Morillo and Juan de San Martin are the first Inquisitors--The Inquisition in Seville--The "Edict of Grace"--The Procession and the Auto-da-fé--The Numbers of the Accused and Condemned--Pope Sixtus IV and his Vacillating Policy with Regard to the Inquisition--The Inquisition under the first Inquisitor General, Thomas de Torquemada; its Constitutions--The Marranos of Aragon--They are charged with the Death of the Inquisitor Arbues--Persecutions and Victims--Proceedings against two Bishops Favorable to the Jews, De Avila and De Aranda. 1474-1483 C.E. A Jewish poet called Spain the "hell of the Jews;" and, in very deed, those foul fiends in monks' cowls, the inventors of the Holy Inquisition, made that lovely land an Inferno. Every misery, every mortal pang, conceived only by the most extravagant imagination of poet; every horror that can thrill the heart of man to its lowest depths, these monsters in the garb of humility brought upon the Jews of the Hesperian Peninsula. These Calibans also said, "'Burn but their books;' for therein lies their power." The Dominicans wished to destroy not only the bodies, but the very soul and spirit of the Jews. Yet they were not able to quench the life of Judaism. They only succeeded in transforming the Spanish paradise into one vast dungeon, in which the king himself was not free. The Inquisition, created by the begging friars, wounded the Jew deeply, yet not mortally. His wounds are now almost healed; but Spain suffers still, perhaps beyond hope of cure, from the wounds dealt by the Inquisition. Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella the Bigot, who, through the union of Aragon and Castile, laid the foundation for the greatness of Spain, prepared the way, at the same time, by the establishment of the Inquisition, for her decay and final ruin.