=6. The Inquisition.=――In 1469, Isabella, sister of Henry IV. of Castile, married Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Arragon. This marriage made a united and Catholic Spain; for Granada, the last of the Mahomedan cities, fell before the end of their reign. The young sovereigns were very anxious that their beautiful kingdom should be quite and altogether Catholic, free from any touch or taint of alien faith. They both agreed that, for the air to be entirely pure, no Jews or Mahomedans ought to breathe in it. Isabella really thought this, for she was sincere in her bigoted belief, and good according to her dim lights. Ferdinand, it is to be feared, had a second thought for his treasury. He liked to convert Jews, but he also very much liked the confiscated possessions of unconverted Jews. The first official act of the royal pair was to ask from the ruling Pope, Sixtus IV., permission to set up a tribunal which might make searching inquiry into the religion of any suspected subjects. The request was granted, and in 1480 the Inquisition was started, with the Pope’s blessing, at Seville. =7. Objects and Functions of the Inquisition.=――The inquiry was aimed not at the Mahomedans, who were open and nearly vanquished enemies, nor even at those Jews who were living honest and unheeded if poor and degraded lives in their Jewries, but in reality at the converted Marannos. The Marannos were rich and prosperous, and by this date so numerous that it is said quite a third of the whole population of Spain were New Christians. Many of them were nobles in the state, and for a century past they had been marrying and intermarrying amongst the best Catholic families. These were the people who were suspected, and truly, of being still Jews in their hearts, and in secret observance. The chief object of the Inquisition was to hunt out this hidden Judaism, and to make it an excuse for despoiling the ‘New Christians’ of the evident wealth and state which were so envied. Under penalty of being himself excommunicated, every loyal Spaniard was invited to become a spy. No one was safe from this terrible tribunal. A child might denounce his parent, a wife her husband, a brother his sister, or even a criminal his judge. The accused was not allowed to know the name of his accuser. He was not permitted to have any legal adviser. Torture was resorted to on mere suspicion. There was no possibility of appeal. The punishments of the Inquisition, which were wholly capricious, varied from penance, scourging, and imprisonment, to death. All degrees of punishment were accompanied by confiscation of goods to the State. The executions were solemn ceremonials, and were called _autos-da-fé_, or acts of faith. The accused was clothed in a long flame-coloured garment (the _san benito_), a cross was placed in his hand, and then, with a crowd of victims similarly robed, he was led to the _Quemadero_ (place of burning). A pause was made whilst a sermon was preached to