Note 1302 — Chapter VIII

‘The most powerful promoter of their expulsion was Don Bernardo de Roias y Sandoval, Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, and Inquisitor-General and Chancellor of Spain. This great prelate, who was brother to the Duke of Lerma, by whom the king for some years before, and for some years after the expulsion was absolutely governed, was so zealous to have the whole race of the Moriscoes extinguished, that he opposed the detaining of their children who were under seven years of age, affirming that of the two he judged it more advisable to cut the throats of all the Moriscoes, men, women, and children, than to have any of their children left in Spain, to defile the true Spanish blood with a mixture of the Moorish.’ Geddes' Tracts, vol. i. pp. 85, 86. Navarrete has pronounced a glowing eulogy upon the piety and other noble qualities of this prelate; and says that ‘llenando de esplendor con su virtud tres sillas episcopales, mereció que Clemente VIII. le honrase con el capelo, y fué elevado á la primada de Toledo y al empleo de inquisidor general.’ Vida de Cervantes, pp. xcvii., xcviii., Barcelona, 1839.