For as these servants became experts, and by reason of their prowess gained extra wages, so proportionately such skill became of pecuniary value. Mercenaries of this sort were, nevertheless, despised--to risk their lives in return for money was regarded as an infamous thing. But at least they had inaugurated the regime of the highly paid matador of to-day. During the first century after the Reconquest bull-fighting was opposed by several powerful influences, but each in turn it survived and set at naught. Isabel la Católica, horrified by the sight of bloodshed at a bull-fight which she personally attended, decided to prohibit all _corridas_; but that, she found, lay beyond even her great influence. Next, in 1567, the power of the Papacy was invoked in vain. Pope Pius V., by a _bula_ of November 20, forbade the spectacle under pain of excommunication, the denial of Christian burial, and similar ecclesiastical penalties; but he and his _bula_ had likewise to go under in face of the national sentiment of Spain. A noble bull fell to the lance of Isabel's grandson, H.M. the Emperor Charles V., in the Plaza Mayor of Valladolid amidst acclamation of countless admirers. This occurred during the festivals held to celebrate the birth of his eldest son, afterwards Phillip II. [Illustration: BULL-FIGHTING. From a Drawing by Joseph Crawhall] In 1612 bull-fighting first assumed a financial aspect. Phillip III. conceded to one Arcania Manduno the emoluments accruing during the term of three lives from the _corridas de toros_ in the city of Valencia. Charities and asylums benefited under this fund, but the bulk went in payment for professional services in the Plaza. During the reign of Phillip IV.--that king being skilled in the use of lance and javelin (_rejón_), and frequently himself taking a public part--the _fiesta_ advanced enormously in national estimation. English readers may recall the sumptuous _corrida_ which marked the arrival of Charles I., with the Duke of Buckingham, at Madrid. Later, during the reigns of the House of Austria, to face a bull with bravery and skill and to use a dexterous lance was the pride of every Spanish noble. Phillip V., however, would have none of the spectacle, and then the nobility held aloof from the _corridas_; but their example proved no deterrent. For the hold of the national pastime on the Moro-hispanic race was too firm-set to be swept aside by alien influence, however strong; and when thus abandoned by the patricians, the hidalgos and grandees of Spain, the sport of bull-fighting (hitherto confined exclusively to the aristocracy) was taken up by the Spanish people. A further impulse was generated later on under Ferdinand VII., who obtained a reversal of the anathema of the Church on condition that some of the pecuniary profits of the _corridas_ should swell the funds of the hospitals.