rohibited the public celebration of its
rites, they practised them in secret, with all the zeal and enthusiasm
which the rigours of intolerance invariably produce in the persecuted.
The clergy, who imagined they saw in the religion of Mahomet the worship
of Satan, nay even warriors themselves who had wrought prodigies of
valour and shed their blood in order to exterminate that religion, could
not regard its prevalence with indifference, nor endure the thought that
it should survive the ruin of the capital of the Saracenic empire.
Bitter complaints were made to the queen on account of the impunity with
which such excesses against her authority were committed. To her
indulgence the principal persons of the state attributed the obstinacy of
the Moors who persisted in their errors, and the perfidy of the converted
who were accused of continuing in them after having submitted to the
ordinance of baptism. Religious phrenzy had arrived at its climax; men's
only occupation seemed to be that of building churches, destroying
mosques, and ostentatiously displaying the triumphs of the new creed over
that which for many centuries had polluted the soil. It was impossible
that Isabella could long resist these continuous remonstrances. The
institution of the Inquisition was proposed to her as a last resource to
maintain the purity of the faith, and that woman, superior to the age in
which she lived, and naturally affectionate and charitable, had the
unpardonable weakness of ceding to the councils of the implacable
Torquemada.

Among the qualities for which Isabella was remarkable none were more
admired by contemporary writers than her humility. In proof of this we
have but to follow the line of conduct pursued by her during the whole
course of her existence. She humbled herself before the church, whose
voice she believed she heard through the lips of her confessor.

We have referred to the cruel character of Roman Catholicism in Spain: is
not the Inquisition a proof of it? Experience shows how easily habit
familiarises us with spectacles most revolting to those feelings of pity
and compassion which Nature has bestowed upon us. Habit always destroys
the essential qualities of our moral constitution, sometimes associating
ideas of pleasure and enjoyment with those of blood and destruction; as,
for example, it happened in the games of the circus under the Roman
emperors; nay, some have even looked upon homicide and torture as
rel