Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/89

CASTILE. Ixxi gious war, was controlled by public opinion, which section accorded a high degree of respect to the intellectual, 1_ . as well as political superiority of the Arabs. But the time was now coming when these ancient bar- riers were to be broken down ; when a difference of religious sentiment was to dissolve all the ties of human brotherhood ; when uniformity of faith was to be purchased by the sacrifice of any rights, even those of intellectual freedom ; when, in fine, the Christian and the Mussulman, the oppressor and the oppressed, were to be alike bowed down under the strong arm of ecclesiastical tyranny. The means, by which a revolution so disastrous to Spain was effected, as well as the incipient stages of its progress, are topics that fall within the scope of the present history. From the preceding; survey of the constitutional Limited e^- ^ n J ,e,it of llie. privileges enjoyed by the different orders of the ativl"°^' Castilian monarchy, previous to the fifteenth cen- tury, it is evident that the royal authority must have been circumscribed within very narrow limits. The numerous states, into which the great Gothic em- pire was broken after the Conquest, were individu- ally too insignificant to confer on their respective sovereigns the possession of extensive power, or even to authorize their assumption of that state, by which it is supported in the eyes of the vulgar. When some more fortunate prince, by conquest or alliance, had enlarged the circle of his dominions, and thus in some measure rcRiedied the evil, it was sure to recur upon his death, by the subdivision of his estates among his children. This mischievous