The discontent between Ferdinand and the Catholic party grew more acute from year to year. When, in 1823, the Holy See refused to receive the Jansenist, Villanueva, as ambassador, the Government at Madrid dismissed the Papal Nuncio, Guistiniani. Those of the clergy who would not accept the Constitution were imprisoned, banished, or put to death. Only a few took the oath imposed on them. In 1829, the King married Maria Christina of Naples, a woman who was destined to play a notorious part in Spanish history. Through her influence he abrogated the Salic law, which excluded females from the throne, and which had been forced upon Spain by the European powers in the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. By this act he hoped to shut out from the succession his brother Don Carlos and his heirs, in order to place upon the throne his daughter Isabella, who was born on October 10, 1830. By this act Ferdinand gave to his country a cause for disorders which remain even to the present day. [Illustration: FERNANDO VII. DE BOURBON, KING OF SPAIN.] _CARLIST WAR._ Ferdinand VII. died in 1833, and his daughter was proclaimed Queen of Spain, under the regency of her mother Christina. The country was at once plunged into the horrors of civil war. Don Carlos, the pretender to the throne, and his adherents were ordered to leave the country. Aragon and the Basque Provinces took up arms in his cause, while the Liberals gathered around the regent. In the conflict the followers of Don Carlos were called the Carlists or Apostolicals, while the opposing party received the name of Christinists. _HATRED OF THE JESUITS._ In 1834 the enemies of religion took occasion of the cholera, then raging in the Peninsular, to incite the populace against the religious orders whom they accused of having poisoned the wells. They began their hostilities with the Jesuits who were cut down even at the foot of the altars. The horrible cry was heard everywhere: "Away with Christ!" On July 17, a furious mob precipitated itself upon the Jesuit college with cries of rage, calling out: "Death to the Jesuits!" "Let not a Jesuit escape!" Fifteen fathers were massacred, and some of them with a refinement of cruelty that passes description. Similar horrors were carried out the same day in the various monasteries of Madrid, those of the Dominicans, the Fathers of the Redemption of Captives, and the Franciscans. Forty-four of the latter perished, seven Dominicans and nine of the Order of Mercy. The leader in these atrocities was that Espartero, who having imbibed in his boyhood a knowledge of the faith, had learned in South America the awful art of shedding blood for the sake of personal ambition. _ATROCITIES OF ESPARTERO._