Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/114

xcvi INTRODUCTION. iNTROD. shall see hereafter, resisted the introduction of the Inquisition, that last stretch of ecclesiastical usurpa- tion, even to blood. ^* The commons enjoyed higher consideration and civil privileges than in Castile. For this they were perhaps somewhat indebted to the example of their Catalan neighbours, the influence of whose demo- cratic institutions naturally extended to other parts of the Aragonese monarchy. The charters of cer- tain cities accorded to the inhabitants privileges of nobility, particularly that of immunity from tax- ation ; while the magistrates of others were per- mitted to take their seats in the order of hidalgos.^^ From a very early period we find them employed in offices of public trust, and on important missions. ^^ The epoch of their admission into the national as- sembly is traced as far back as 1133, several years earlier than the commencement of popular represen- tation in Castile.^^ Each city had the right of sending two or more deputies selected from persons eligible to its magistracy ; but with the privilege of only 32 One of the monarchs of Ara- ^3 Martel, Forma de Celebrar gon, Alfonso the Warrior, accord- Cortes, cap. 22. — Asso y Manuel, ing to Mariana, bequeathed all Institucioncs, p. 44. his dominions to the Templars and ^4 Zurita, Anales, torn. i. fol. Hospitallers. Another, Peter II., 163, A. D. 1250. agreed to hold his kingdom as a 3* Ibid., torn. i. fol. 51. — The fief of the see of Rome, and to pay earliest appearance of popular rep- it an annual tribute. (Hist, de rcscntation in Catalonia is fixed by Espana, tom. i. pp. 596, 664.) Ripoll at 1283, (apud Capmany, This so much disgusted the people, Practica y Estilo, p. 135.) What that they compelled his successors can Capmany mean by postponing to make a public protest against the introduction of the commons the claims of the church, before into the cortcs of Aragon to 1300? their coronation. — See Blancas, (See p. 56.) Their presence and Coronaciones de los Serenisimos names are commemorated by the Reyes de Aragon, (Zaragoza, exact Zurita, several times before 1641,) cap. 2. the close of the twelfth century.