Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/393

THE INQUISITION. 249 resorts to milder ' measures. to appoint two or three ecclesiastics, inquisitors for chapter t VII the detection and suppression of heresy throughout L— their dominions. ^^ The queen, however, still averse to violent mea- isabeiia ■I ' ' resorts sures, suspended the operation of the ordinance until a more lenient policy had been first tried. By her command, accordingly, the archbishop of Se- ville, cardinal Mendoza, drew up a catechism ex- hibiting the different points of the Catholic faith, and instructed the clergy throughout his diocese to spare no pains in illuminating the benighted Israel- ites, by means of friendly exhortation and a candid exposition of the true principles of Christianity. ^^ How far the spirit of these injunctions was complied with, amid the excitement then prevailing, may be reasonably doubted. There could be little doubt, however, that a report, made two years later, by a commission of ecclesiastics with Alfonso de Ojeda at its head, respecting the progress of the reforma- tion, would be necessarily unfavorable to the Jews. -^ 27 Pulgar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 2, cap. 77. — Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., cap. 43. — Llo- rente, Hist, de I'lnquisition, torn, i. pp. 143 - 145. — Much discrep- ancy exists in the narratives of Pulgar, Bernaldez, and other con- temporary writers, in reference to the era of the establishment of the modern Inquisition. I have fol- lowed Llorente, whose chronologi- cal accuracy, here and elsewhere, rests on the most authentic docu- ments. 28 Bernaldez, Reyes Catolicos, MS., ubi supra. — Pulgar, Reyes Catohcos, part. 2, cap. 77. — I find no contemporary authority for im- puting to cardinal Mendoza an ac- tive agency in the establishment of the Inquisition, as is claimed for him by later writers, and especially his kinsman and biographer, the canon Salazar de Mendoza. (Cr6n. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 1, cap. 49. — Monarquia, torn. i. p. 336.) The conduct of this eminent minister in this affair seems, on the contrary, to have been equally politic and humane. The imputation of bigot- ry was not cast upon it, until the age when bigotry was esteemed a virtue. 29 In the interim, a caustic pub- lication by a Jew appeared, con- taining strictures on the conduct of the administration, and even on the Christian religion, which was con- VOL. I. 32