will not be prevailed with to go into a Court where he cannot
rise without baseness.

_Wolsey_.--The inflexibility of your mind had like to have ruined you in
some of your measures; and the bigotry which you had derived from your
long abode in a cloister, and retained when a Minister, was very near
depriving the Crown of Castile of the new-conquered kingdom of Granada by
the revolt of the Moors in that city, whom you had prematurely forced to
change their religion. Do you not remember how angry King Ferdinand was
with you on that account?

_Ximenes_.--I do, and must acknowledge that my zeal was too intemperate
in all that proceeding.

_Wolsey_.--My worst complaisances to King Henry VIII. were far less
hurtful to England than the unjust and inhuman Court of Inquisition,
which you established in Granada to watch over the faith of your
unwilling converts, has been to Spain.

_Ximenes_.--I only revived and settled in Granada an ancient tribunal,
instituted first by one of our saints against the Albigenses, and gave it
greater powers. The mischiefs which have attended it cannot be denied;
but if any force may be used for the maintenance of religion (and the
Church of Rome has, you know, declared authoritatively that it may) none
could be so effectual to answer the purpose.

_Wolsey_.--This is an argument rather against the opinion of the Church
than for the Inquisition. I will only say I think myself very happy that
my administration was stained with no action of cruelty, not even cruelty
sanctified by the name of religion. My temper indeed, which influenced
my conduct more than my principles, was much milder than yours. To the
proud I was proud, but to my friends and inferiors benevolent and humane.
Had I succeeded in the great object of my ambition, had I acquired the
Popedom, I should have governed the Church with more moderation and
better sense than probably you would have done if you had exchanged the
See of Toledo for that of Rome. My good-nature, my policy, my taste for
magnificence, my love of the fine arts, of wit, and of learning, would
have made me the delight of all the Italians, and have given me a rank
among the greatest princes. Whereas in you the sour bigot and rigid monk
would too much have prevailed over the prince and the statesman.

_Ximenes_.--What either of us would have been in that situation does not
appear; but, if you are compared to me as a Minister, you are vastly
inferior. The only