The State was completely in its power. Even Charles V and Phillip II, sovereigns not to be matched in any other country for a period of equal length, submitted cheerfully to the power of the Church, and thought it a blessed privilege to do so. It was Charles V's great boast that he always preferred his creed to his country, and proved his boast by slaying in cold blood, in the Netherlands, over 50,000 peaceful, industrious, good Christian citizens for their religious opinions. The cannibal appetite of the Church had to be appeased, when the stock of Jewish and Moorish victims was exhausted, truth and knowledge-seeking Christians had to supply their places upon the _quemaderos_, and in the torture-dungeons of the Inquisition. Even with his last breath he commanded his son, Philip, never to show favor to heretics, to kill them all, to uphold the Inquisition as the best means for the establishment of the true belief. Philip II. proved himself worthy of his sire. He has written his services to the Church upon history's records with flames of fire and letters of blood. With amazing swiftness Spain's once invincible power began to disappear, becoming weaker with every century, and to-day the population of more than 30,000,000 of people before the expulsion of the Jews and Moors has dwindled down to about one half of that number, while her neighboring countries have increased in numbers and prosperity. "So rapid was the fall of Spain," says Buckle in his "History of the Civilization of England," Vol. II, Chap. I, "that the most powerful monarchy existing in the world was depressed to the lowest point of debasement, was insulted with impunity by foreign nations, was reduced more than once to bankruptcy, was stripped of her fairest possessions, was held up to public opprobrium, was made a theme on which schoolboys and moralists loved to declaim, respecting the uncertainty of human affairs. Truly did she drink to the dregs the cup of her own shame. Her glory had departed from her, she was smitten down and humbled. The mistress of the world was gone; her power was gone, no more to return." The Church had proven itself a false prophet. "Once purge blessed Spain," it preached to its credulous followers, "of the presence of the accursed Jews and Moors, and yourselves and your families will be under the immediate protection of Heaven. The earth will bear more fruit. A new era will be inaugurated, Spain will be at ease. People will live in safety, and gather in peace and in abundance the fruits of their handiwork."