Note 1184 — Chapter VIII

‘The terrible laws against heresy, and the atrocious juridical persecutions of the Jews, already designate Spain as the throne and centre of merciless bigotry.’ Milman's History of Latin Christianity, vol. i. p. 381. ‘Tan luego como la religion católica se halló dominando en el trono y en el pueblo, comenzaron los concilianos toledanos á dictar disposiciones canónicas y á prescribir castigos contra los idolatras, contra los judios, y contra los hereges.’ Lafuente, Historia de España, vol. ix. pp. 199–200. See also p. 214, and vol. ii. pp. 406, 407, 451. Prescott's History of Ferdinand and Isabella, vol. i. pp. 235, 236. Johnston's Institutes of the Civil Law of Spain, p. 262. Circourt, Histoire des Arabes d'Espagne, vol. i. pp. 260, 261; and Southey's Chronicle of the Cid, p. 18. I particularly indicate these passages, on account of the extraordinary assertion of Dr. M'Crie, that ‘on a review of criminal proceedings in Spain anterior to the establishment of the court of Inquisition, it appears in general that heretics were more mildly treated there than in other countries.’ M'Crie's History of the Reformation in Spain, p. 83, the best book on the Spanish Protestants.