Transcriber’s Note: As a result of editorial shortcomings in the
original, some reference letters in the text don’t have matching entries
in the reference-lists, and vice versa.
THE HISTORIANS’ HISTORY OF THE WORLD
[Illustration: PRESCOTT]
THE HISTORIANS’
HISTORY
OF THE WORLD
A comprehensive narrative of the rise and development of nations
as recorded by over two thousand of the great writers of all ages:
edited, with the assistance of a distinguished board of advisers
and contributors, by
HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS, LL.D.
[Illustration]
IN TWENTY-FIVE VOLUMES
VOLUME X--SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
The Outlook Company
New York
The History Association
London
1905
COPYRIGHT, 1904,
BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS.
_All rights reserved._
Press of J. J. Little & Co.
New York, U. S. A.
Contributors, and Editorial Revisers.
Prof. Adolf Erman, University of Berlin.
Prof. Joseph Halévy, College of France.
Prof. Thomas K. Cheyne, Oxford University.
Prof. Andrew C. McLaughlin, University of Michigan.
Prof. David H. Müller, University of Vienna.
Prof. Alfred Rambaud, University of Paris.
Capt. F. Brinkley, Tokio.
Prof. Eduard Meyer, University of Berlin.
Dr. James T. Shotwell, Columbia University.
Prof. Theodor Nöldeke, University of Strasburg.
Prof. Albert B. Hart, Harvard University.
Dr. Paul Brönnle, Royal Asiatic Society.
Dr. James Gairdner, C.B., London.
Prof. Ulrich von Wilamowitz Möllendorff, University of Berlin.
Prof. H. Marczali, University of Budapest.
Dr. G. W. Botsford, Columbia University.
Prof. Julius Wellhausen, University of Göttingen.
Prof. Franz R. von Krones, University of Graz.
Prof. Wilhelm Soltau, Zabern University.
Prof. R. W. Rogers, Drew Theological Seminary.
Prof. A. Vambéry, University of Budapest.
Prof. Otto Hirschfeld, University of Berlin.
Dr. Frederick Robertson Jones, Bryn Mawr College.
Baron Bernardo di San Severino Quaranta, London.
Dr. John P. Peters, New York.
Prof. Adolph Harnack, University of Berlin.
Dr. S. Rappoport, School of Oriental Languages, Paris.
Prof. Hermann Diels, University of Berlin.
Prof. C. W. C. Oman, Oxford University.
Prof. W. L. Fleming, University of West Virginia.
Prof. I. Goldziher, University of Vienna.
Prof. R. Koser, University of Berlin.
PART XV
THE HISTORY OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
BASED CHIEFLY UPON THE FOLLOWING AUTHORITIES
LOPEZ DE AYALA, BAKHUYZEN VAN DEN BRINK, H. BAUMGARTEN, F. DE
FONSECA BENEVIDES, G. BERGENROTH, ANDRES BERNALDEZ, ULICK
R. BURKE, E. CASTELAR, NUÑEZ DE CASTRO, PINHEIRO CHAGAS,
J. A. CONDE, W. COXE, R. DOZY, S. A. DUNHAM, FLOREZ Y
LAFUENTE, V. DE LA FUENTE, L. P. GACHARD, DAMIÃO
DE GOEZ, A. HERCULANO, A. DE HERRERA, N.
ROSSEEUW ST. HILAIRE, M. A.
S. HUME, H. C. LEA, DIOGO DE LEMOS, JUAN A. LLORENTE, R. H. MAJOR,
JUAN DE MARIANA, W. F. P. NAPIER, JOÃO P. OLIVEIRA-MARTINS,
J. ORTIZ Y SANZ, W. H. PRESCOTT, P. DE SANDOVAL, M.
SURIANO, A. DE VERTOT, GERONIMO ZURITA
WITH ADDITIONAL CITATIONS FROM
PEDRO DE ABARCA, GIULIO ALBERONI, CRÓNICA GENERAL DE ALFONSO X,
ANNALES COMPLUTENSES, ANNALES TOLEDANOS, BARONIUS, IBN BASSAM,
M. BAUDIER, A. BAUMGARTNER, E. BÉGIN, A. BUCHOT, J. DE BURGOS,
M. M. BUSK, CESARE CANTÙ, L. G. DE CARBAJAL, F. S. CASADO,
BARTOLOMÉ DE LAS CASAS, BERMUDEZ DE CASTRO, PEDRO
CEVALLOS, F. A. DE CHÂTEAUBRIAND, V. CHERBULIEZ,
N. DE LA CLÈDE, DIEGO DE CLEMENCIN,
CABRERA DE CORDOBA,
FELIX DAHN, F. DENIS, JOHN DUNLOP, EL-LAGI, ANTONIO ENNES, E.
GARIBAY, MANUEL DE GODOY, A. GOMEZ, H. GRAETZ, F. PEREZ
DE GUZMAN, GUSTAVE HUBBARD, VICTOR A. HUBER, MODESTO
LAFUENTE, P. VAN LIMBORCH, WILLIAM LITHGOW, FERNÃO
LOPES, J. M. ORTO Y LARA, LUCIO MARINEO, M.
DE MARLIANI, J. F. DE MASDEU, J. M.
MAS-LA TRIE, LUIS DE MENEZES,
CHARLES DE MOÜY, W.
MÜLLER, JAMES C. MURPHY, CHR. G. NEUDECKE, ISIDORUS PACENSIS,
AMÉDÉE PICHOT, RUY DE PINA, ANTONIO DE PIRALA, HERNANDO
DEL PULGAR, G. T. RAYNAL, H. REYNALD, W. H. RULE,
SEBASTIANUS SALMANTICENSIS, HEINRICH SCHURTZ,
MONACHUS SILENSIS, E. SILVERCRUYS, ROBERT
SOUTHEY, H. MORSE STEPHENS, W. C. SYDNEY,
JEAN B. R. DE TESSÉ, RODERICUS XIMENES
TOLETANUS, J. M. DE TORENO, OVIEDO
Y VALDES, A. VARILLAS, H. E. WATTS,
N. W. WRAXALL, WULSA,
ZANETORNATO
COPYRIGHT, 1904
BY HENRY SMITH WILLIAMS
_All rights reserved_
CONTENTS
VOLUME X
SPAIN
PAGE
CHAPTER I
LAND AND PEOPLE; AND GOTHIC SWAY (TO 711 A.D.) 1
The Celts and Celtiberians, 3. The Phœnician invasions,
4. The Greek colonies; the Carthaginian conquest, 5. The
Romans in Spain, 7. Roman administration, 10. Introduction
of Christianity, 11. Barbarian invasions, 14. The Goths
arrive, 15. Progress of the Gothic conquest, 17. Leuvigild
and Ermenigild, 21. Recared I and Catholicism, 23. Petty
monarchs, 24. The reign of Wamba, 25. Ervigius and Ergica, 28.
Witiza, 29. The fable of Roderic and Florinda, 31. Visigothic
civilisation, 32. Hardships of the Jews, 34. Burke’s estimate
of Gothic rule, 35.
CHAPTER II
THE TIME OF MOSLEM DOMINATION (711-1214 A.D.) 36
The Asturias and Leon under Pelayo, 38. Sebastian’s account of
the battle of Covadonga, 39. Alfonso the Catholic, 40. Alfonso
the Chaste and Bernardo del Carpio, 42. Alfonso the Great,
43. Alfonso’s successors, 43. Origin of Castile, 46. Sancho
el Mayor, 47. The history of Castile, 48. Origin and earliest
history of the kingdom of Aragon, 50. Burke’s estimate of the
Cid, 52. The historical Cid, 53. Christian Spain in the twelfth
century, 58. Foundation of the Spanish orders of knighthood,
59. Overthrow of the Moslems, 62.
CHAPTER III
THE HISTORY OF CASTILE TO THE DEATH OF PEDRO THE CRUEL
(1214-1369 A.D.) 63
Ferdinand (III) el Santo, 65. Burke’s estimate of Queen
Berengaria, 65. Ferdinand’s conquests, 66. Alfonso the Learned
(el Sabio) and his successors, 68. Mariana’s account of the
Divine judgment on Ferdinand IV, 71. Alfonso XI, 72. Mariana’s
account of Pedro the Cruel, 73. Ayala’s account of the king’s
honeymoon, 76. Pedro’s false marriage, 78. Ayala’s account of
the murder of Fadrique, 80. Other royal murders, 83. The war
with Henry of Trastamara, 84. Battle of Najera or Navarrete,
87. Ayala’s account of the quarrel between Edward and Pedro,
88. A new revolt; the end of Pedro the Cruel, 89. A final
estimate of Pedro the Cruel, 91.
CHAPTER IV
ARAGON TO THE UNION WITH CASTILE (1162-1475 A.D.) 93
James the Conqueror, 94. Pedro III and his Sicilian wars, 95.
Political growth, 98. Interregnum in Aragon, 106. Aragon under
rulers of the royal house of Castile, 107. Rising in Catalonia,
111.
CHAPTER V
HENRY OF TRASTAMARA AND ISABELLA OF CASTILE (1369-1479 A.D.) 114
Juan I and the Portuguese wars, 116. John of Gaunt in Spain,
118. The Good King Henry III, 119. Guzman’s portrait of Juan
and his minister, 122. Chronicle of the constable Don Alvaro
de Luna, 124. Internal dissensions, 124. The fall of Alvaro,
126. Hume’s estimate of Juan II, 127. The disasters of Henry
IV, 128. Marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, 130. War of the
Succession, 132.
CHAPTER VI
FERDINAND AND ISABELLA (1474-1504 A.D.) 134
Resistance to papal encroachment, 139. The regulation of trade,
140. The pre-eminence of the royal authority, 141. Progress of
the war, 145. The siege of Malaga, 149. The capture of Granada,
151. End of Moslem sway in Spain, 154. Spanish explorers and
Christopher Columbus, 155. The expulsion of the Jews, 157.
Persecution and revolt of the Moors, 161. Spain in Italy;
the Great Captain, 163. Illness and death of Isabella, 166.
Prescott’s estimate of Isabella, 169. Burke’s estimate of
Isabella; Hume’s estimate, 176.
CHAPTER VII
THE REGENCIES OF FERDINAND (1504-1517 A.D.) 178
Philip enters Spain, 181, The reign of Philip I, 183. Death
of Philip; Juana’s madness, 185. The return of Ferdinand,
187. Was Queen Juana insane? 189. Ferdinand’s second regency,
192. Death and character of Ferdinand, 193. The regency of
Cardinal Ximenes, 196. Death and character of Ximenes, 198.
The two chief works of Ximenes, 200. Comparison of Ximenes and
Richelieu, 201. Review of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,
202. Discovery and colonisation, 205. The golden age of Spain,
207.
CHAPTER VIII
THE EMPEROR CHARLES V (1517-1556 A.D.) 211
King Charles becomes emperor, 213. Charles’ struggle with the
cortes, 216. Revolt of the germaneros and the comuneros, 218.
Queen Juana released, 219. The Moors under Charles V, 223.
Charles retires from the world, 226. De Marliani’s review of
the influence of Charles V on Spain, 230.
CHAPTER IX
THE REIGN OF PHILIP II (1556-1598 A.D.) 233
Philip’s marriage with Mary Tudor, 234. Philip’s character,
235. War with the Turks, 239. Wars with France, 239. The
Netherlands, 240. English affairs and the Armada, 244.
Acquisition of Portugal, 246. Moriscos revolt, 247. Moorish
atrocities, 248. Christian atrocities, 249. The misfortunes of
Don Carlos, 251. Fate of the king’s secretary, Perez, 253. De
Castro’s estimate of Antonio Perez, 255. The death of Philip,
256. Dunham’s estimate of Philip II, 259. Watson on Philip’s
imprudences, 259.
CHAPTER X
THE LAST OF THE SPANISH HABSBURGS (1598-1700 A.D.) 261
Causes of Spain’s rapid decline, 262. Philip IV, “the Great,”
266. The Catalan insurrection, 267. The Thirty Years’ War and
the Treaty of the Pyrenees, 268. Death of Philip IV, 271. King
Charles II and the French War, 271. The fate of the young
queen, 274. Last years of Charles II, 275. The distresses of
Spain, 277.
CHAPTER XI
REVIVAL OF SPAIN UNDER THE FIRST BOURBONS (1700-1788 A.D.) 279
French influence dominates, 280. The new queen and the
princess Orsini, 282. War of the Spanish Succession, 283. The
Catalan revolt, 290. A new European war, 292. Philip abdicates
and returns, 294. The adventures of Ripperdá, 295. Spanish
account of the war with England, 298. The war of the Austrian
Succession, 300. The Good King Ferdinand VI, 301. The singer
Farinelli, 301. Charles III, 303. Expulsion of the Jesuits, 306.
CHAPTER XII
SPAIN AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION (1788-1808 A.D.) 310
The rise of Godoy, 311. Godoy as minister, and the war with
France, 313. Spain in alliance with France against England,
317. The autocracy of Godoy, 320. Napoleon schemes for Spain,
325. Charles IV abdicates; the Bourbons at Bayonne, 327.
Lafuente’s account of the Dos de Mayo, 329. The royal family at
Bayonne, 333.
CHAPTER XIII
THE PENINSULA WAR (1808-1814 A.D.) 336
War declared on France, 337. Joseph Bonaparte chosen king of
Spain, 337. The English appear, 340. Moore’s famous retreat,
343. Napier’s story of Moore’s retreat, 345. A Spanish opinion
of the retreat, 348. French successes, 348. Wellington resumes
control, 350. The lines of Torres Vedras, 353. Failures in
Spain, 357. Napier’s account of the assault on Badajoz, 359.
British progress, 365. Napier’s account of the retreat,
367. Affairs of 1812-1813, 367. Return of the Bourbons,
370. England’s share in the war, 372. Napier’s estimate of
Wellington, 373.
CHAPTER XIV
THE RESTORATION OF THE BOURBONS (1814-1902 A.D.) 375
The reign of terror, 379. The tyrannies of Ferdinand “the
Desired,” 380. A serial revolution, 382. Châteaubriand’s
account of the chaos, 386. Civil war, 387. Intervention of the
Holy Alliance, 389. The French invasion, 390. The return of
Ferdinand, 392. Rise of Carlism, 395. War of the Christinos and
Carlists, 396. The stormy regency of Christina, 398. Espartero
regent, 399. The profligate queen Isabella II, 399. The
rebellion of 1868, 402. Pirala on the “Mild Anarchy” of 1869,
403. Estimate of Cherbuliez of General Prim, 404. The hunt for
a king, 406. Amadeo’s reign and the republic, 407. Republican
Spain under Castelar, 411. The Basques and Carlism, 412. The
dictatorship of Serrano, 414. The Bourbon Alfonso XII elected,
416. Alfonso XII and the European powers, 418. The regency of
Maria Christina, 418.
BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 422
BOOK II. THE HISTORY OF PORTUGAL FROM THE EARLIEST
TIMES TO THE PRESENT
CHAPTER I
EARLY HISTORY TO JOÃO I (TO 1383 A.D.) 425
Land and people, 425. The origin of Portugal, 427. Herculano’s
estimate of the first Portuguese king, 432. Reigns of Sancho I
and Alfonso II, 434. Sancho II called Capello (“the hooded”),
437. Sancho deposed, Alfonso III succeeds, 438. Political
importance of Alfonso’s reign, 440. Don Diniz, 441. The romance
of Iñes de Castro, 444. Pedro the Severe, 446.
CHAPTER II
THE PERIOD OF GLORY AND DISCOVERY (1383-1521 A.D.) 452
The taking of Ceuta, 455. Prince Henry the Navigator, 459.
The reign of Duarte, or Edward, 461. The regency of Pedro,
465. Alfonso V and La Beltraneja, 468. Reign of João (II) the
Perfect, 470. Character of João II, 472. Progress in discovery,
474. Martius’ account of Vasco and Cabral, 475. The conquest of
India, 479. Emmanuel the Fortunate, 484. The great voyage of
Magellan, 486.
CHAPTER III
THE FALL, THE CAPTIVITY, AND THE REVOLUTION (1521-1640 A.D.) 489
The Portuguese in Africa, India, and Brazil, 490. Ennes’
account of the decadence of Portugal, 492. The regencies and
the reign of Sebastian, 495. The débâcle at Kassr-el-Kebir,
496. The cardinal-king and the Portuguese succession, 498.
Philip II of Spain becomes Philip I of Portugal, 500. The
English in Portugal, 502. The false Sebastians, 503. Chagas’
account of the loss of the colonies, 504. Domestic disaster,
506. Philip II, 508. Philip III (Philip IV of Spain), 508.
Ennes’ account of the conspiracy, 510. Chagas’ account of the
1st of December, 511.
CHAPTER IV
JOÃO IV TO JOÃO VI (1640-1822 A.D.) 514
Alfonso VI, 516. Pedro II; João V, 519. The colonies decline,
521. The reign of José I, 522. The great minister Pombal, 523.
The earthquake at Lisbon (November 1st, 1755), 525. Pombal and
the Jesuits, 527. A plot to assassinate the king, 528. The
exile of the Jesuits, 529. War with Spain, 530. Schlosser’s
estimate of Pombal, 531. The new queen and reaction, 533. The
regency and the French Revolution, 536. The invasion of the
French, 537. The Throne moves to Brazil, 538. The Peninsula
War, 539. Portugal an English province, 541. The revolt and
recall of the king, 542. The loss of Brazil, 543.
CHAPTER V
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (1822-1900 A.D.) 544
Portugal receives a new ruler and a new constitution, 546.
Dom Miguel seizes the power, 547. Maria II, 550. Cabral and
the Chartists in power, 553. The Septembrists overthrow Costa
Cabral, 554. The reign of Luiz, 557. Carlos I becomes king,
559. Portuguese literature, 560.
APPENDIX A
THE INQUISITION 562
The Cathari, 564. The Waldenses, 565. Crusade against the
Albigenses, 566. The Inquisition established, 567. Method of
procedure with a suspect, 570. John Fox on the evils of the
Inquisition, 572. How a penitent was treated, 573. The history
of torture, 574. A contemporary account of the preliminaries
to torture, 575. Limborch’s account of the fate of a Jew, 578.
The other forms of torture, 580. Tormento di Toca, 580. The
chafing-dish; the water-cure, 580. The proceedings against an
Englishwoman, 581. Inquisitorial documents, 582. How the record
was kept, 583. The proper form of torture for women, 583. Later
history of the Inquisition of Spain, 584. State of the Jews
in Spain, 585. “Conversion” of the Jews, 586. Queen Isabella
persuaded to persecution, 587. The Inquisition of 1481, 589.
The Spanish or “Modern” Inquisition established, 590. The Auto
da fé, 591. Torquemada and his successors, 592. Llorente’s
computation of the victims of the Inquisition, 595. Effects and
influences of the Inquisition, 598.
BRIEF REFERENCE-LIST OF AUTHORITIES BY CHAPTERS 599
A BRIEF RÉSUMÉ OF SPANISH HISTORY (711-1902 A.D.) 601
A BRIEF RÉSUMÉ OF PORTUGUESE HISTORY (997-1903 A.D.) 628
A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF SPANISH HISTORY 637
A GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PORTUGUESE HISTORY 650
BOOK I
THE HISTORY OF SPAIN FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY
CHAPTER I. LAND AND PEOPLE; AND GOTHIC SWAY
[Sidenote: [TO 711 A.D.]]
Few histories afford lessons of greater value than those of Spain and
Portugal. They teem with proofs that independence and liberty are not
less important to the wealth and political power of a country than to
its happiness; that neither natural advantages nor the character of
the inhabitants, neither increase of territory nor external peace and
domestic tranquillity can in any measure counterbalance the destructive
effects of a foreign yoke, or of a despotic government.
The Spanish peninsula, considered as a whole, combines most of the
advantages of an insular, with those of a continental, position. Almost
entirely surrounded by the sea, Spain is an island with regard to trade
and fisheries; whilst the neck of land that connects her with France
at once furnishes in the Pyrenees a mountainous barrier against that
country, and preserves her from entire dependence upon winds and waves in
her external relations.
In the climate, the genial warmth of the south of Europe is tempered
by sea-breezes, in nearly every direction, and the fertile soil yields
equally the necessaries and the luxuries of life--corn, fruit, wine, fine
merino wool, and olive oil. The mountains abound in mineral treasures,
and afforded in early times one of the principal supplies of gold and
silver. The natives of this favoured land are brave, sober, hardy, and
enterprising. Yet notwithstanding all these sources of prosperity, Spain,
which in the sixteenth century startled Europe with the first fears of
universal monarchy, was long the most enslaved, oppressed, ignorant, and
indigent, of civilised countries.[b]
In the earliest stage of its history we find Spain occupied by a
comparatively homogeneous people--the Iberians, who are related as
to language; but this is probably only the result of a long, already
complete development and does not at all represent the original state of
the country. Unfortunately, prehistoric investigation in Spain is too
far behind to offer much towards a solution of even the most pressing
problems. We may assume primarily that the Pyrenean peninsula, like
northern Africa, southern Europe, and western Asia, was originally
settled by that short-headed, dark-haired, and light-skinned race for
whom the name of Armenoids, or, from a philological standpoint, of
Alarodians, has been suggested.
But the people who afterwards were called Iberian are probably nothing
else than a mixture of this ancient population with the long-headed,
blond race of Cro-Magnon, which came from the north and appears in France
and northern Africa. For that reason alone they might be supposed to have
been in Spain, situated as it is between the two, even if certain remains
of their culture did not make this supposition almost a certainty. The
large number of blonds which, contrary to general opinion, are found in
Spain and Portugal may in the main go back to this earliest invasion
of northern hordes, which was followed by two more in the course of
history. Possibly the new race forced its language upon the original
inhabitants and perhaps the traditions of the Iberians, which tell of
the immigration of their forefathers from Gaul, refer to the invasion of
this blond population. The Sicanians and Siculians in southern Italy,
likewise inhabitants of territories neighbouring northern Africa, are
also supposed to be related to the Iberians.[c]
Whence the Iberians came has always been, and must remain, a matter
of dispute. That they, like the Celts, were a branch of the great
Indo-European family, and had spread along the south of Europe from
the slopes of the Caucasus, was long held as an article of faith
by scholars whose opinions were worthy of respect; but more recent
investigations tend somewhat to shake belief in this theory. That they
were a dolichocephalic (long-headed) race of short stature and very
dark complexion, with plentiful curly black hair, is certain, and they
probably inhabited the whole of Spain in the neolithic age, either
as successors of a still earlier race--of which it is possible that
the Basques, who still form a separate people in the north of Spain
and southwest of France, may be the survivors--or as the primitive
inhabitants dating from the prehistoric times when Africa and Europe,
and possibly also America, were joined by land. In any case, what is
known of their physique seems to negative the supposition that they were
of Indo-European or Aryan origin; and to find their counterpart at the
present time, it is only necessary to seek the Kabyle (Kabail) tribes of
the Atlas, the original inhabitants of the African coast opposite Spain,
who were driven back into the mountains by successive waves of invasion.
Not alone in physique do these tribes resemble what the early Iberian
must have been, but in the more unchanging peculiarities of character and
institutions the likeness is easily traceable to the Spaniard of to-day.
The organisation of the Iberians, like that of the Atlas peoples, was
clannish and tribal, and their chief characteristic was their indomitable
local independence.
From the earliest dawn of history the centre of Spanish life, the unit
of government, the birthplace of tradition, and the focus of patriotism
have been the town. A Spaniard’s _pueblo_ means infinitely more to him
than his town means to an Englishman or a Frenchman. No master race
has succeeded in welding the Kabyles, Tuaregs (Tuariks), and Berbers
into a state, as the Romans did with the mixed Iberians and Celts; and
in Spain, to the present day, with its numberless paper constitutions
and its feverish political experiments, the pueblo keeps its practical
independence of a centralised government, which has federated pueblos
into provinces, but has never absorbed or entirely destroyed the
primitive germ of local administration. The village granary (_posito_)
still stands in the Spanish village, as its counterpart does in the
Atlas regions; the town pasture and communal tillage land continue on
both sides of the straits to testify to the close relationship of the
early Iberians with the Afro-Semitic races, which included the Egyptian
or Copt, the Kabyle, the Tuareg, and the Berber. The language of the
Iberians has been lost, but enough of it remains on coins of the later
Celtiberian period to prove that it had a common root with the Egyptian
and the Saharan tongues, which extend from Senegal to Nubia on the
hither side of the negro zone. With all this evidence before us we may
be forgiven for doubting the correctness of the theory which ascribes a
Caucasian origin to the primitive Iberian people. Long before the dawn of
recorded history, while mankind was hardly emerging from the neolithic
stage, a vast incursion of Celts had come from the north and poured over
the western Pyrenees into Spain.[d]
THE CELTS AND CELTIBERIANS
The second invasion from the north, that of the Celts, falls in the first
period of recognised history, so that we know little of how it came about
or the conditions preceding it, and can only enumerate the results.
It cannot even be determined if the march of the Celts upon Spain was
contemporaneous with the violent incursion of Celtism into upper Italy
and southern Germany, which in its further advance carried single troops
as far as Asia Minor and Greece; at any rate it is probable.
The Celts introduced a new culture into the land south of the Pyrenees,
which lay off from the main track, since they represent the period
which as the advanced iron age followed the age of bronze. Before them
agriculture was yet in its beginning; the pure-blooded Iberians for
a long time afterwards held to the rough conditions of the preceding
era, lived from the products of their goat-herds, on the acorns from
the mountains and from the scanty grain they raised by their primitive
methods of agriculture. The Celts, indeed, like most conquering nations,
considered agriculture unworthy a free man, but compelled their
dependents to cultivate their territory regularly and to deliver up a
part of its products.
The Celtic flood inundated only a portion of the peninsula. One
tribe--later called the Celtics--settled in the region about the middle
Guadiana, the centre of which is the present Badajoz. The Artebrians
inhabited the northwestern coast without mixing much with the native
population. On the other hand a large mixed race, afterwards called the
Celtiberians, grew up in what is to-day Old Castile, and brought into
subjection the neighbouring Iberian tribes who were more cultured and
less warlike than the dwellers in the mountains. The domination of the
Celts over the whole Pyrenean peninsula is not to be thought of: not even
among the Celtic tribes themselves was there unity. The genuine mountain
peoples, such as the Lusitanians in the west, the Asturians, Cantabrians
and Vasconians in the north, preserved complete independence. Southern
Spain, where under a milder sky a certain culture had developed at an
early date, was also preserved from Celtic encroachment and saw indeed
more welcome strangers at its coasts--the Phœnicians, whose commercial
spirit found here a glorious field for its activity. Even before their
arrival the inhabitants of the country may have fashioned ornaments from
the precious metal which was so abundant in their land, without valuing
this treasure particularly, or expending much toil in procuring it; now
for the first time, when the marvels of a foreign culture were offered
them in exchange for these things, did they turn their attention to the
hidden treasures of their land. But the Phœnicians were hardly the first
to visit the western shores of the Mediterranean as traders and pirates;
the very fact that tribes of Iberian descent had pushed as far as lower
Italy points to the existence of intercourse by ships. In the same way
Etruscan commerce must have touched Spain. The _nurhags_--those curious
solid towers, which are especially frequent on the coasts of Sardinia
and which must once have served as places of refuge for the people when
in danger--are dumb but intelligible witnesses to the fact that the
Mediterranean must have been peopled with pirates even in prehistoric
times. Egypt, the only country in the world whose inhabitants at that
time already kept historical records, often saw robber hordes appear
on its coasts. But we know no further particulars of these ancient
conditions.[c]
THE PHŒNICIAN INVASIONS
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 1500-600 B.C.]]
The Phœnicians, as already observed, were among the first who, attracted
by the never-failing instinct of gain, directed their course to a country
which promised the highest advantages to their commerce. The precise
period of their entering into relations with the inhabitants is unknown.
For some time their settlements, of which Gades, now Cadiz, was the
first and most powerful, were confined to the coasts of Bætica, whence
they supplied the natives with the traffic of Asia Minor and the shores
of the Mediterranean, in exchange for the more valuable productions
of the peninsula, such as gold, silver, and iron.[1] Previously to
their arrival, the use of these metals was, it is said, unknown to the
Celts and Iberians. At first, for the convenience of their trade and
their worship the Phœnicians obtained permission to build magazines
and temples: these soon expanded into villages, and the villages into
fortified towns. Besides Cadiz, Malaga, Cordova, and other places of
minor note were monuments of their successful enterprise, and proofs
of their intention to fix their permanent abode in a country on which
nature had lavished her choicest gifts. In time they penetrated into the
interior, and arrived in the heart of the mountainous districts of the
north, probably to superintend the operations of the mines which they had
prevailed on the natives to open. Coins, medals, and ruins, attesting
their continued location, have been found in most provinces of Spain, and
even at Pamplona in Navarre. Almost everywhere have they left traces of
their existence, not only in medallic and lapidary inscriptions, but in
the religion, language, and manners of the people.
It is possible, however, that the residence of this people in Spain may
have been confounded with that of the Carthaginians. The similarity in
language, manners, and superstitions might naturally have diminished
the distinction between the two nations, and in time destroyed it. The
uncertainty which hangs over this period, and the apparent incongruity of
the few dates handed down to us, with the transactions which accompany
them, confirm the suspicion. The whole period, indeed, from the first
settlement of the Tyrians to the wars between the rival republics of
Rome and Carthage, is too conjectural to deserve the name of historical,
though some few facts are seen to glimmer through the profound darkness
which surrounds them.
THE GREEK COLONIES; THE CARTHAGINIAN CONQUEST
[Sidenote: [_ca._ 600-227 B.C.]]
The successful example of the Phœnicians stimulated the Greeks to pursue
the same advantages. The Rhodians arrived on the coast of Catalonia,
and founded a town, which they called Rhodia (Rosas) from the name of
their island. They were followed by the Phocians, who dispossessed
their countrymen of Rosas, and extended their settlements along the
shores of Catalonia and Valencia. Other expeditions departed from
the numerous ports of Greece, towards the same destination, but at
intervals considerably distant from one another, and gave names to new
establishments, some of which may be still recognised, notwithstanding
the changes that time has made. It does not appear that either the
Phœnicians or the Greeks aimed at domination; the towns which they
founded, and continued to inhabit, were but so many commercial
depots--populous indeed, but filled with peaceable citizens, whose
lucrative occupations afforded them neither time nor inclination for
hostilities. Not so with the Carthaginians, who joined all the avarice of
merchants to all the ambition of conquerors.
The African republic had long watched with jealousy the progressive
prosperity of the Tyrians, and waited for an opportunity of supplanting
them. That opportunity at length arrived (480 B.C.). The avarice
of these merchants had caused them to adopt measures which the
high-spirited natives considered as oppressive. A dispute arose: both
parties recurred to arms; and, after a short struggle, the lords of
the deep were forced to give way before their martial enemies. Several
of the Phœnician settlements fell into the hands of the victors, who
appeared bent on rescuing their soil from these all-grasping strangers.
Seeing Cadiz itself threatened, the latter implored the assistance of
the Carthaginians, who had already a settlement on the little island
of Iviza. The invitation was eagerly accepted; perhaps, as has been
asserted, the Carthaginians had fomented the misunderstanding, and urged
it to an open quarrel. However this be, they landed a considerable
force on the Bætican coast; and, after a few struggles, the details of
which we should vainly attempt to ascertain, they triumphed over both
Phœnicians and natives, and seized on the prize they had so long coveted.
Thenceforth Cadiz served as a stronghold whither they could retreat
whenever danger pressed too heavily, and as an arsenal where fetters
might be manufactured for the rest of Spain.
The progress of the Carthaginian arms, we are told, was irresistible; it
was not, however, rapid, if any reliance is to be placed on the dates of
ancient writers: the provinces of Andalusia, Granada, Murcia, Valencia,
and Catalonia did not acknowledge the supremacy of the republic until,
with some other provinces, they were overrun, rather than subdued, by
Hamilcar, father of the great Hannibal (235 B.C.), and most of the
warlike nations in the interior, especially in the mountainous districts,
never afterwards bent their necks to the yoke, though the veteran armies
of Africa were brought against them.
Eight years were spent by the Carthaginian general in extending and
consolidating his new conquests. He had need of all his valour--and few
captains had ever more--to quell the perpetual incursions of tribes
glorying in their independence, and strangers to fear. For this purpose
he built several fortresses (the important city of Barcelona is said to
have been among the number), in which he distributed a portion of his
troops to overawe the surrounding country; while, with another portion,
he moved from place to place, as occasion required his presence. Probably
his severity alienated the minds of the people from the domination he
laboured to establish. He was checked in the career of his conquests
by the Edetani and Saguntines, who openly revolted, and made vigorous
preparations for their defence. He fell upon them, but neither the number
of his forces nor his own bravery could succeed against men to whom
the hope of freedom and of revenge gave irresistible might. Two-thirds
of his army perished, and himself among the number. His son Hannibal
being too young to succeed him, the administration of the Carthaginian
provinces and the conduct of the war devolved, by a decree of the senate,
on his son-in-law Hasdrubal, who adopted towards the natives a line of
conciliation; he could be cruel when he chose; but as there is reason to
believe that he aimed at an independent sovereignty, he wished to secure
their support in the event of a struggle with Carthage. Punic loyalty,
like Punic faith, could subsist no longer than a regard to self-advantage
would permit.
[Sidenote: [227-219 B.C.]]
The city of Cartagena, which Hasdrubal founded on the modern gulf of that
name, and which he furnished with an admirable harbour, was the most
glorious monument of his administration. The success of his arms, the
nature of his designs, roused the fears both of the Greek colonies on
the coast of Catalonia and Valencia, and of several independent nations
in the interior. They resolved to call in a third power, which had long
regarded with jealousy the growing prosperity of Carthage. Rome eagerly
embraced the cause of the discontented states (227 B.C.), probably,
indeed, she had secretly fomented that discontent. She sent a deputation
to Carthage, which obtained from the senate two important concessions:
that the Carthaginians should not push their conquests beyond the Ebro;
that they should not disturb the Saguntines and other Greek colonies.
Though Hasdrubal promised to observe them, he silently collected
troops, resolved to make a final effort for the entire subjugation of
Spain before Rome could succour the confederates. In three years, his
formidable preparations being completed, he threw off the mask, and
marched against Saguntum. On his way, however, he was assassinated by the
slave of a man whose master, a native prince, he had put to death.[2] The
attachment of this slave to his master’s memory could be equalled only
by the unshaken firmness with which he supported the incredible torments
inflicted on him by the fierce Hannibal.
This famous Carthaginian was in his twenty-fifth year. He was more to
be dreaded than all his predecessors united. To military talents and
personal valour, perhaps unexampled in any age, he joined astonishing
coolness of judgment and inflexibility of purpose. While Hasdrubal was
actuated only by selfish considerations, Hannibal recognised, as the
great principle of his actions, revenge--revenge against the bitter enemy
of his country, and still more against the destroyers of his kindred.
There is a moral grandeur in this all-engrossing purpose of Hannibal,
which, notwithstanding its fell malignity, unaccountably rivets our
admiration.
The young hero lost no time in extending his conquests, and amassing
resources for the grand approaching struggle with the Romans. Having
subdued some warlike tribes of modern Castile and Leon, and brought into
full activity some rich silver mines at the foot of the Pyrenees, he
marched at the head of 150,000 men against Saguntum, which he invested in
due form. In vain did the Roman deputies whom the senate despatched for
the purpose intimate to him that an attack on the ally of the republic
would be regarded, as a declaration of war against the republic herself.
He had vowed the destruction of the city. Yet, though he pressed the
siege with the utmost vigour, such was the valour of the defenders
that neither his mighty genius for war nor his formidable forces could
reduce the place in less than nine months: it would not even then have
fallen, had not famine proved a deadlier enemy than the sword. The
citizens resolved that the last act of this fearful tragedy should be
a suitable consummation of the preceding horrors. Having amassed all
their valuable effects, and everything combustible, into one pile, and
placed their wives and children around it, they issued from the gates,
and plunged into the midst of the surprised enemy. The slaughter was
prodigious on both sides; but, in the end, numbers and strength prevailed
against weakness and desperation; the Saguntines were cut off almost to
a man. No sooner was their fate known in the city than their wives, who
were in expectation of the result, set fire to the pile, and cast both
themselves and children into the devouring element. The city in flames
soon discovered the catastrophe to the Carthaginians, who immediately
entered, and put what few stragglers they could find--chiefly the aged of
both sexes--to the sword.[3] Some, however, had previously secured their
safety by flight. Thus perished one of the most flourishing cities of
Spain, and one which will be forever memorable in the annals of mankind
(219 B.C.). Its destruction hastened, if it did not occasion, the Second
Punic War, as described in the history of Rome.
Hannibal mustered his forces for the invasion of Italy. The exploits
of the Carthaginian hero beyond the bounds of the peninsula have been
treated of in the history of Rome. While he is spreading destruction
around him, and the towers of “the eternal city” themselves are
tottering, our task must be to cast a hurried glance at the transactions
which, after the invasion of Scipio, happened in the country he had
left behind. The Carthaginian yoke is allowed on all hands to have been
intolerable. The avidity with which the local governors sought pretexts
for seizing on the substance of the natives; the rigour with which some
of the captive tribes were made to labour in the mines; the exactions of
a mercenary and haughty soldiery; the insolence of success on the one
hand, and the smart of wrongs endured on the other--prepared the way to
the commotions which shook all Spain to its centre, and ultimately ended
in the destruction of its oppressors.[g]
THE ROMANS IN SPAIN
[Sidenote: [219-206 B.C.]]
The Romans, either alarmed by the progress of Hannibal, or becoming aware
of the value of such allies as the Spaniards, now sent larger armies to
their assistance, headed by their ablest generals. Spain was the theatre
of the first exploits of Publius Cornelius Scipio, afterwards surnamed
Africanus from his victories over the Carthaginians in Africa. In Spain,
Scipio gained the hearts of the natives by his great and good qualities,
not the least of these being his self-command--one instance of which has
ever since been a favourite theme with painters, poets, and moralists.
The charms of a beautiful captive had touched his young heart, and the
laws of the age made her in every respect his slave. He respected her
undefended loveliness, and restored her, in unsullied purity, to her
betrothed bridegroom. In cordial co-operation with the Spaniards, Scipio
finally expelled the Carthaginians from Spain in 206 B.C.
[Sidenote: [206-45 B.C.]]
The object of the Romans, in assisting the Spaniards against Carthaginian
oppression, had not been the emancipation of their gallant allies. They
immediately proceeded to reduce the peninsula to the condition of a Roman
province, governed by their prætors. This was not easily or speedily
accomplished. The natives resisted their new, as they had done their
former invaders. Numantia, besieged by a second Scipio, emulated the
heroism of Saguntum.[b] In vain did the inhabitants send deputations to
the consul; he coolly replied that he was content to await the inevitable
effects of famine. But their impatience could not await the slow effects
of such a death; some took poison; some fell on their swords; some set
fire to their houses and perished in the devouring flames. Thus perished
all; not a living creature survived (133 B.C.).[g] The Cantabrians, who
inhabited the northwestern part of the peninsula, were not even nominally
subdued during the continuance of the Roman Republic. The other portions,
Celtiberia in the north, Bætica in the south, and Lusitania in the west,
were conquered after a long struggle, and constituted the Roman province,
but remained the scenes of constantly recurring warfare. The natives
revolted against the extortion and tyranny usually practised by the Roman
governors of subject states; and the leaders of republican factions, when
defeated everywhere else, often found in Spain abundant means of making
head against the masters of the world.
[Illustration: GALLO-ROMAN WEAPONS]
The most remarkable of the native insurrections was that organised in
Lusitania by Viriathus. This extraordinary man was bred a shepherd; he
turned robber, became the captain of a band of outlaws, and raising
a standard to which all the disaffected flocked, he defeated several
Roman armies. He was vanquished by treachery, the consul Servilius
having bribed three of his followers to assassinate him in his sleep.
After his murder, the rebellion, as the haughty conquerors termed every
insurrection for self-defence, was speedily quelled. Spain was soon
afterwards the theatre of the last struggle of the horrible civil wars
with which Marius and Sulla desolated the Roman world. When Sulla had
finally triumphed at Rome, Sertorius, a leader of the defeated party,
fled to Spain, and there long bade defiance to the dictator’s power.
He was at length vanquished by Cneius Pompeius Magnus, familiarly
called Pompey the Great, and, like Viriathus, was murdered by his own
treacherous partisans. Pompey, during his command in Spain, merited the
good-will of the nation, which subsequently espoused his cause in his
contest with Julius Cæsar. After Pompey’s death his party still held
out in Spain. But Cæsar repaired thither in person; his military skill
prevailed, and the province was shortly pacified.[b] As long as Rome
treated the provincials merely as a conquered people the provincials
remained unsubdued; but as soon as wiser and more friendly counsels
generally prevailed, the Roman Spaniard grasped the hand that was
extended to him, and became one of the proudest and most loyal citizens
of the empire. Left to themselves, the tribes were ever divided,
factious, disturbed. United under Lusitanian Viriathus or even under
Roman Sertorius, they long successfully withstood the power of the
republic. United under Julius and Augustus Cæsar, they became the most
Roman of the provincials of Rome.
[Sidenote: [229 B.C.-138 A.D.]]
[Illustration: A GALLO-ROMAN]
A great susceptibility to personal influence has ever been a striking
characteristic of the Spanish people. Under the sympathetic Hasdrubal
they accepted the dominion of Carthage; under the fiery Hannibal they
fought, the hardiest and most loyal of his soldiers, in the Punic armies
in Italy. In the early days after Saguntum, when Roman Scipio came, not
as a destroyer but as a deliverer, and displayed his greater qualities
of clemency and justice, the Spaniards would have compelled him to
be their king. But Scipio was not always clement. The successors of
Sempronius Gracchus were not always just. They were not even judicious.
“For great men,” says the Spanish proverb, “great deeds are reserved.”
And the coming of one of the greatest men the world has ever seen was the
beginning of the end of the dark days of early Spanish history. Cæsar,
indeed, marched sternly through the country at the head of his legions;
nor did he stay his hand until he had reached far off Corunna, where he
chastised and astonished the wild tribes of Brigantium or Finisterre; but
his policy in the more settled districts was ever genial and pacific.
Four times did Cæsar visit the peninsula; and the fourth time--his
legions well filled with loyal and admiring Spaniards--he fought, “not
for glory but for existence,” on the bloody field of Munda. And with the
final triumph of the great Julius begins the peace and prosperity of
Roman Spain.[j]
Disturbances, however, again broke out, and it was only under Cæsar’s
successor, Augustus, that it was finally and completely subjugated,
even the Cantabrians being then at last subdued. Once reduced to
submission, Spain appears to have slumbered for ages in the tranquillity
of servitude, under the despotic sway of the Roman emperors. It was
esteemed one of the most valuable and flourishing provinces of the
empire, containing, as we learn from Pliny,[h] not less than 360 cities.
During her subjection to a thraldom, shared with all the then known
world, Spain boasts of having given birth to the celebrated Roman poets
Lucan and Martial, to the philosopher Seneca, and to two of the very few
good Roman emperors, Trajan and Hadrian, as well as to many other men of
distinguished character, though of somewhat inferior note.[b]
ROMAN ADMINISTRATION
[Sidenote: [206 B.C.-161 A.D.]]
It must not be supposed that the authority of the Roman officers extended
at first over all the cities of the peninsula. Some cities were governed
even in the last resort by their own laws; some depended immediately on
the metropolis of the Roman world; some were free, and left to their
ancient laws and tribunals. They were colonial, municipal, Roman, allied,
tributary; and others there were which enjoyed the right of Latium.
Thus the province of Tarragona contained 179 cities, of which 12 were
colonial, 13 Roman, 18 enjoying the Latin law, 1 ally, and 135 tributary.
Bætica had 185 cities; _viz_., 9 colonial, 18 municipal, 29 of the Latin
law, 6 free, 3 allied, 120 tributary. Lusitania had 45; 5 colonial, 1
municipal, 3 Latin, 36 tributary.
The colonies were peopled by the citizens of Rome, chiefly by soldiers.
The inhabitants of these establishments forfeited not the slightest
of their privileges by their location in the provinces. The municipal
cities were those which were admitted to the honour of Roman citizenship;
which were in like manner exempted from the jurisdiction of the
provincial governors; and the inhabitants of which could aspire to the
highest dignities even in “the eternal city.” The right of Latium was
less valuable: in the cities possessing it, the magistrates only were
recognised as Roman citizens. The free cities (_immunes_) were such as
the conquerors left in the undisturbed possession of their native laws
and tribunals, and were not taxed towards the support of the rest of the
empire. This privilege was conferred with reluctance, or rather extorted
by necessity, and was always regarded with jealousy; to six Spanish
cities only was it granted. The allied cities (_confæderatæ_) were still
fewer in number, and were at first really independent, as the word
implies. The tributary cities (_stipendiariæ_) occupied the lowest grade
in the scale of civic society, and were those which chiefly supported the
cumbrous frame of Roman government.
[Illustration: A GALLO-ROMAN WOMAN]
But the distinctions between these various classes were not long
maintained. By Otho many Spaniards were admitted to the rights of
citizenship; by Vespasian, such of the cities as had not the privilege
already were presented with the right of Latium; and by Antoninus every
remaining barrier was removed, all his subjects throughout his vast
empire being declared citizens of Rome: from this moment the civil
constitution of that empire was of necessity uniform. The cities which
obeyed the constitution of Rome were governed in a manner similar to
those of Italy. Each had its municipal council or curia, the members
of which (_decuriones_) were chosen from the principal inhabitants of
the provinces. Their office, however, appears to have been unenviable,
because it was in all probability gratuitous and because they were
responsible for the payment of customs. Nothing need be said on its laws,
as they are the same as those which governed Rome under the republic and
the empire.
The military state of Spain under the Romans is a subject little
understood. That a considerable number of troops for foreign wars
was furnished by this important province is attested by numerous
inscriptions; but, except in cases of difficulty and danger, the Roman
troops in the peninsula seldom exceeded three legions--a force so
inconsiderable that either the natives must have lost all desire to
recover their ancient independence, or they must have become completely
reconciled to the domination of their proud masters. The policy, indeed,
which admitted them not only to the honour of citizenship, but to the
highest dignities, civil, military, and even religious, must have been
admirably adapted to insure not merely the obedience but the attachment
of the conquered.
So long as the empire continued prosperous, Spain, notwithstanding the
evils it was made to endure, could not but participate to a certain
extent in the general prosperity. The arts of life, the most elegant no
less than the useful, were taught to flourish: that architecture had
reached a high degree of perfection is evident from the numerous remains
of antiquity which time has spared; that agriculture was cultivated
with equal success, is no less apparent from the testimony of that most
excellent of judges, the naturalist Pliny. The riches of the soil, in
corn, in oil, and in fruits, were almost inexhaustible; and the sheep
were held even in higher estimation in those days than in the present.
The vine was cultivated with so much success that the juice of the grape
produced in the environs of Tarragona was pronounced equal to the best
wines of Italy. These productions, with those of the mines, and the
demand for native manufactures, gave rise to an extensive commerce; more
extensive, indeed, than that which had existed under the Carthaginians.
There was this important difference between the two conquering nations:
while the African, with the characteristic selfishness of a trader,
engrossed every advantage to himself, the noble-minded Roman admitted
others to a free participation in those advantages.
INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY
[Sidenote: [206 B.C.-305 A.D.]]
If tradition as an authority had not long ceased to be recognised on
this side the Pyrenees, the historian would have little difficulty in
fixing the period of the introduction of the Christian faith into Spain.
Its uninterrupted voice has named St. James the Elder as the first
herald of the Gospel to the idolatrous people of that country. That the
apostle traversed the peninsula, from Lusitania and Galicia to the heart
of Aragon; that while at Saragossa he was honoured by a visit from the
Virgin, and that by her express command he erected on the spot a church
in her honour; that after his martyrdom at Jerusalem his body was brought
by his disciples from Syria to Iria Flavia (now El Padron), in Galicia,
and thence transferred to Compostella, to be venerated by the faithful
as long as the world shall endure, no orthodox Spaniard ever doubted.
With equal assurance of faith it is believed that St. Paul, in person,
continued the work of his martyred fellow-disciple, and sowed the seeds
of the new doctrine in Catalonia, Aragon, Valencia, and, above all, in
Andalusia. Certain it is that Spain can adduce her martyrs as early as
the second century--perhaps even in the first.
It was during the reign of the fierce Diocletian that the fires of
persecution blazed with the greatest fury throughout the peninsula.
It must not, however, be concealed that the crown of martyrdom
was sometimes pursued with an eagerness that evidenced rather the
intemperance of a mistaken zeal, than the soberness of a rational
principle. The fury of persecution cooled after the death of Diocletian.
During the civil wars which ravaged the empire under Maximian and
Constantius Chlorus, the Christians began to breathe: Constantine
followed; and, after his conversion, the church had peace from without;
but within, the partisans of Athanasius and Arius clouded the horizon of
her tranquillity.
[Sidenote: [305-400 A.D.]]
Of the three national councils held during the first four centuries, the
first is that of Illiberis or Eliberis, a town once seated near modern
Granada. It may also be termed the most interesting, as it was probably
held before the conversion of Constantine, and, therefore, some years
anterior to that of Nicæa: if so, it is the most ancient council, not
merely of Spain, but of the Christian world, the acts of which have
descended to us. That of Cæsar-Augusta (Saragossa, 380 A.D.), which was
also national, consisted of only twelve bishops, and was convened for the
sole purpose of condemning the heresy of Priscillian. The third, which
was the first council of Toledo (400 A.D.), was attended by nineteen
bishops, with a corresponding number of inferior ecclesiastics. Its first
act was to admit the canons of Nicæa; especially those which relate to
the ordination of priests; but it is chiefly remarkable for its symbol of
faith, in which that great Catholic doctrine, the procession of the Holy
Ghost from the Father and the Son [_filioque_], is expressly asserted;
a doctrine, as is well known, not formally received by the universal
church before the fourth Lateran council in 1215. Its twenty canons
relate to holy orders, to the chastity of virgins devoted to God, and to
the continency of ecclesiastics and their widows. From these councils it
does not appear that the Spanish church had yet received the dignity of
primates, archbishops, or metropolitans. The bishops seem to have been
equal in power, and independent of one another, the only superiority
admitted arising from priority of consecration; neither is there any
reason for concluding that appeals were of necessity carried to Rome,
though the superior veneration attached to that see, and the superior
characters of those who filled it, rendered such appeals by no means
uncommon. The bishops and the clergy were elected by the people. Baptism
was administered by the bishop or the presbyter, or, in their absence, by
the deacon. In cases of urgent necessity, it could also be administered
by a layman, provided he had not contracted a second marriage.
Ceremonial penance was a public satisfaction given to the church where
the crime was more than usually scandalous; the penitent, in this case,
occupied a place separated from the rest during a period proportioned
to the heinousness of the offence. A penance of one year was inflicted
on the player of dice, because the heathen deities were necessarily
invoked in this ancient game; of two years on the subdeacon who married
a third time, and on the ecclesiastic who wore a crown in imitation
of the pagan priests; of three years on him who lent his apparel for
the use of pagan processions; on the deacon who confessed a mortal
sin before ordination, and on the parents who broke the betrothals of
their children; of five years on him who married his daughter-in-law or
sister-in-law, on the widow who sinned and married her accomplice; on
backbiters, in however trivial an affair, of husbands or wives guilty of
adultery, on single women guilty with different men, on deacons proved
guilty of any capital crime previous to ordination; and on housewives
who by stripes occasioned, involuntarily, the death of their slaves (if
voluntarily, the penance was seven years); of ten years on the apostate
or heretic on returning to the faith, on the Christian whom curiosity led
to the heathen sacrifices, on all prostitutes, and on all consecrated
virgins who broke their vow; of the whole life on the widow of a bishop,
presbyter, or deacon, who remarried, on those who frequently violated
their conjugal fidelity, and on the gentile priests who, after conversion
and baptism, sacrificed to idols. Besides these regulations, the bishop
had power to suspend from all intercourse with the faithful the man who
sat at the table of a Jew, him who distributed satirical or libellous
compositions, and him whose scandals deserved public censure.
There was one means by which the offenders just mentioned could
obtain their restoration to the privileges of communion, even before
the expiration of the time of penance decreed by the canons. This
was, by soliciting peace from the confessors; that is, from such as
had sustained persecutions and torments for the faith of Christ. The
confessor gave his peace to the penitent in an instrument which he called
_literæ confessoriæ_ or _pacificæ_. This the penitent presented to the
bishop, who immediately absolved him; and in token of his readmission
to the rights of communion, gave him another instrument, _literæ
communicatoriæ_, which secured him access to the sacramental table in
whatever church he appeared. This superstitious custom was founded on the
opinion that, from the abundance of their merits, the confessors could
well afford a portion to such penitents as had none of their own. What
a fruitful train of abuses indulgences occasioned at a much subsequent
period, and how repugnant they appeared to the common sense and common
justice of mankind, is well known.
[Illustration: GALLO-ROMAN SWORD AND HORN]
On the matrimony and continency of the Spanish clergy, there has been
much acrimonious disputation: one party contending that strict celibacy
was obligatory on them from the apostolic times; the other, that marriage
was permitted to them, under certain restrictions, no less than to
laymen. One of the most singular characteristics of the early councils
of Spain is the permission granted to bishops and other ecclesiastics to
follow any honourable branch of commerce, but in their own districts.
Persons consecrated to God were acknowledged and protected by the early
church; but monasteries were not introduced into Spain during the
first four centuries. The women who took, in the hands of the bishop
and before the altar, the vows of virginity; and the men who, in the
same manner, subjected themselves to the obligations of continence and
religious contemplation, passed their lives sometimes in their own
houses, but generally in communities of two or three in the abodes
of aged ecclesiastics. The former assumed the veil from their first
profession, as a public sign of their calling. But lest war should
be sworn before the strength of the enemy was known, the council of
Saragossa decreed that no woman should utter the irrevocable vow, or
assume the veil, before the age of forty years, though previous to that
period chastity was strongly recommended, and its observance consecrated.
Some of the provisions, especially of the first council, will appear
unreasonably severe. We must, however, take into consideration the
prevalence of idolatry at the beginning of the fourth century, and the
anxiety of the fathers of Illiberis to preserve their flocks from the
infection of paganism. The canons which regard the remarriage of the
widows of ecclesiastics are sufficiently absurd. The sixty-seventh, which
prohibited Christian women from keeping long-haired slaves, requires
explanation. These slaves were males, generally of Gaul or Germany, and
their ostensible business was to dress the hair of the rich ladies; their
real one--such was the depravation of manners produced by paganism--was
to gratify the licentious desires of their mistresses. But the gradual
decline of heathenism, no less than the increasing influence of
Christianity, purified the female mind.
[Sidenote: [380-395 A.D.]]
Like the other Christian provinces of the empire, Spain had its heresies.
Omitting that of Arius--which, during the reign of Constantine and his
sons, so much distracted the Christian world, and against which Osius,
the bishop of Cordova, signalised himself with a zeal only inferior
to that of Athanasius himself--the most remarkable was the heresy of
the Priscillianists. One Mark, an Egyptian heretic, having sown the
seeds of gnosticism in Gaul, passed into Spain, where the fluency of
his speech, no less than the nature of his doctrine, procured him some
disciples, among whom Priscillian was the most eminent. This Spaniard
was rich, eloquent, subtle, enterprising, and consequently well adapted
both to extend and to multiply the errors of Mark, of which he soon
became the acknowledged head. He taught that marriage was an unnatural
and tyrannical restraint; that pleasure was one of the great privileges
of our nature; that to live according to the impulses of nature was the
part no less of virtue than of wisdom. He held the Manichæan doctrine of
the two great principles; and, with Sabellius, confounded the persons
of the Trinity. To all this he joined the Chaldean superstition of
starry influences, and the metaphysical subtleties of the Egyptians
and Greeks. A multitude of women soon embraced the sensual system of
this arch-heretic; their example constrained the other sex: even the
clergy were at length infected by the pleasing errors; and, to crown
all, two bishops of Bætica openly professed themselves the followers of
Priscillian. The orthodox party beheld with alarm the progress of this
detestable heresy. Finally the vindictive fury of his enemies prevailed,
even more than the justice of their cause. Priscillian and his partisans
were beheaded (384 A.D.).
So long as Maximus lived, the numerous adherents of Priscillian were
pursued with unrelenting severity by Idatius; but soon after the death of
that emperor, this turbulent prelate, whose cruelties had long revolted
his episcopal brethren, was banished, and the heat of persecution began
to abate. Yet Priscillianism was not extirpated; notwithstanding its
renewed condemnation by the first council of Toledo, it continued to
distract the church of Spain long after the accession of the Gothic
dynasty.
BARBARIAN INVASIONS
From the accession of Honorius the Roman Empire existed only by
sufferance. The fierce hordes of northern Europe now prepared to inundate
the fertile provinces of the south, and the more powerful local governors
to secure themselves an independent sovereignty. Spain was soon agitated
by the spirit which spontaneously burst forth from Britain to Thrace.
While Constantine, who had assumed the purple, raised England and the
Gauls against the feeble successor of the Cæsars, his son Constans passed
the Pyrenees to gain over the natives of the peninsula. The youth found
or made adherents, and was for a time successful; but in the sequel he
was compelled to return to Gaul for reinforcements. The appearance of
another candidate for empire (Jovinus) distracted the attention and
weakened the efforts of the kindred adventurers; and ultimately all these
became successively the victims of imperial vengeance, chiefly by means
of the warlike tribes whom the minister of Honorius had marched from the
shores of the Baltic, to crush the new insurrections. But the policy of
that minister was, if not perfidious, at least short-sighted.
[Sidenote: [395-415 A.D.]]
The barbarians whom he had thus introduced into the heart, and to whom
he thus betrayed the weakness of the empire, from allies soon became
masters. They looked with longing eyes on the rich plains of southern
France and of Spain. At length, finding the Pyrenean barrier but
negligently guarded, the Suevi, under their king Hermeric, the Alans
under Atace, and the Vandals or Silingi, under Gunderic, burst through
it, and poured the tide of destruction over the peninsula (409 A.D.). The
ravages of these barbarians, we are told, were dreadful. Towns pillaged
and burned, the country laid waste, the inhabitants massacred without
distinction of age and sex, were but the beginning of evils. Famine and
pestilence made awful havoc; the wild beasts, finding nothing to subsist
on in their usual haunts, made war on the human species; and the latter
consumed the very corpses of the dead. Nay, mothers are said to have
killed their children to feed on their flesh.[4] The conquerors at length
ceased from their wantonness of desolation. They found that to turn the
country into a wilderness was not the best policy in men who designed
it for a permanent abode. They divided it by lot: Bætica fell to the
Vandals, Lusitania to the Alans, and Galicia, with a great portion of
Leon and Castile, to the Suevi.
_The Goths Arrive (411 A.D.)_
A fourth people, more formidable than the rest combined, came to
trouble the new settlers in their possessions. These were the Goths
under Atawulf, (Ataulphus) whom Honorius had the address to remove from
Italy, by ceding to them the fertile provinces of southern Gaul, and the
peninsula. Having established the seat of his kingdom at Narbonne, where
he married his imperial captive Placidia, he passed the Pyrenees, made
a triumphant entry into Barcelona, and from thence undertook several
expeditions against the Vandals. A conspiracy was formed against his
life; and the sword of a dwarf pierced his body, as he was conspicuously
watching the evolutions of his cavalry, in the courtyard of his palace at
Barcelona.
Sigeric succeeded, whose ruffianly conduct instantly drew on him the
detestation of the Goths. Scarcely had he put to death the six surviving
children of Atawulf, and compelled the widowed Placidia to adorn his
triumph by walking barefoot through the streets of Barcelona, than
another conspiracy deprived him of his throne and his life. The election
of the Goths now fell on Wallia, a chief every way worthy of their choice
(415). His first expedition, however, against the Roman possessions
in Africa was disastrous. A violent tempest destroyed his fleet, and
forced him to relinquish his design. The news of this disaster soon
reached Gaul, and brought Constantius, the general of Honorius, at the
head of a numerous army, towards the Pyrenees. Wallia collected the
remnant of his troops, and hastened to receive him. Fortunately for the
Gothic king, love rather than ambition occasioned the hostile approach
of Constantius. That general was more anxious to gain possession of
Placidia, whose hand had been promised him by the emperor, than to effect
the destruction of the king. No sooner did the two armies encamp in sight
of each other, than he proposed peace on conditions too advantageous to
be rejected. Wallia had only to surrender the royal widow, and promise
to march against the Suevi and the other nations who held possession of
the peninsula, to secure not merely the neutrality but the favour of the
Romans. Placidia was restored, and peace made with the Romans.
[Sidenote: [415-429 A.D.]]
Hostilities were now vigorously commenced against the kindred barbarians.
The Vandals were expelled from their habitations, and forced to seek an
asylum among the Suevi of Galicia. The Alans of Lusitania were almost
entirely cut off, with their king Atace: the remnant incorporated with
the Vandals, and their name forever disappeared from the peninsula. The
Suevi would doubtless have shared the fate of one or other of these
people, had they not hastened to acknowledge themselves tributaries
of Rome; they were left in undisputed possession of the country they
inhabited. The pride of Honorius caused him to regard these signal
successes as for his own benefit. The victor was rewarded with a portion
of Languedoc and Gascony, from Toulouse to the ocean. That city he made
the seat of his kingdom, where he died, two years after his glorious
triumphs. From this time to the reign of Euric, the Goths remained
chiefly in their new possessions, and were seldom in Spain. Though
they considered themselves the rightful lords of the country, the real
sovereignty rested with the Suevi and Vandals.
Under the reign of Theodoric I, Wallia’s successor, the Vandals made war
on the Suevi. The latter retreated to the fastnesses of the Asturias.
The Vandals forsook Galicia, and fought their way to their former
settlements in Bætica, whence Wallia had expelled them. To that province
they communicated their name--Vandalusia; which was subsequently changed
into Andalusia.[5] There they maintained themselves, in opposition to
the imperial generals. The ports of Andalusia and Granada presented them
with facilities for pushing their successes on the deep. They constructed
a fleet; infested the Balearic Isles; pillaged the coast of Valencia;
sacked the city of Cartagena; laid waste the shores of Mauretania;
and returned to Seville, where the last act of their king, Gunderic,
was to despoil the opulent church of St. Vincent.[6] A new and higher
career was now opened before them. The offer made them by Boniface, the
African prefect, of two-thirds of that country, if they would assist him
against his enemies, they joyfully accepted. Before embarking, however,
they inflicted a terrible blow on their enemies, the Suevi, whom they
overthrew near Merida--whom they precipitated, with their king, into the
waters of the Guadiana. They then tranquilly returned to the sea coast;
and, to the number of eighty thousand, passed over to Africa, in March,
429, eighteen years after their arrival in Spain.
PROGRESS OF THE GOTHIC CONQUEST
[Sidenote: [429-469 A.D.]]
The retreat of these restless barbarians did not insure tranquillity to
Spain. The Suevi, under their new king, Hermeric, issued from their dark
mountains, and bore down on the peaceable inhabitants of Galicia. But
it was reserved for his son Richilan, to whom, in 438, he resigned his
sceptre, to raise the fame of the nation to the highest pitch. He routed
the Romans on the banks of the Venil, and seized on Merida and Seville.
In the meantime, Theodoric was no less occupied in humbling the Roman
power in southern Gaul. While meditating hostilities against the
triumphant Suevi, he was summoned to encounter the renowned Attila,
king of the Huns. His well-known valour placed him at the head of the
right wing of the Franks, Romans, and Goths, who combined to arrest the
progress of the tremendous torrent. His death on the plains of Châlons
(451) where the pride of the barbaric king was humbled, endeared him
still more to his subjects, who gratefully elevated his son Torismond to
the vacant throne. But the reign of the new king was brief, and his end
tragic. In one year, by the hands of his two brothers, he was deprived
of empire and of life, in his capital of Toulouse; and Theodoric II,
the elder of the fratricides, was elected in his place.[7] The reign
of this prince was diversified by alternate success and disaster. He
first turned his arms against the Suevi, whom he vanquished, and made
their king, Richiarius, prisoner; but being recalled to France, the army
which he left in the peninsula was routed by the natives of Leon, who
were indignant at the excess it committed. The whole country was now in
the most miserable condition. Goths and Romans and Suevi traversed it
in every direction, and everywhere left melancholy vestiges of their
barbarous fury. Another fierce tribe, the Herulians, landed on the coast
of Catalonia, and zealously prosecuted the same work of desolation. Then
the Suevi split into two parties, which pursued each other with the most
vindictive feelings, but which were always ready to combine when the
natives were to be plundered, or when Goths and Romans were to be opposed.
The Spaniard was the prey of all: his labour was doomed to support the
innumerable swarms which spread from the Pyrenees to the rock of Calpe,
and which, like so many locusts, destroyed wherever they settled. The
scourge was more than galling--it was intolerable. Native bands were
at length formed in most parts of the peninsula, not merely to take
vengeance on the rapacious invaders--for in that case they would have
been a blessing to their country--but to plunder all who came in their
way. Many of these horrors would have been averted, had Theodoric been
at liberty to return in person to Spain, and finish its subjugation; but
his wars with the Romans, the Burgundians, and the Franks found him for
some years employment enough. At length he was assassinated, it is said,
by his brother Euric, in his capital of Toulouse. One of the first acts
of Euric was to despatch an army to humble the pride of the Suevi. His
arms were eminently successful. The Suevi sued for and obtained peace,
and were allowed to remain in undisturbed possession of Galicia, with a
portion of modern Leon and Portugal, and to retain their kingly form of
government. So completely were they become the vassals of the victors
that during a whole century they remained in quiet subjection. We hear
no more of them until the time of Leuvigild, who dealt the last blow to
their national existence, and, as we shall hereafter see, incorporated
them with his Gothic subjects.
[Sidenote: [469-522 A.D.]]
The Romans were less fortunate; their domination in the country was ended
forever by the fall of Tarragona. They continued, indeed, to hold a few
unimportant places on the coast; not because they had valour to defend
them, but because Euric had no naval force to assail them from the sea.
The conqueror, though master of all Spain, disdained to be confined
within limits which his ambition deemed much too narrow. Rome was now
tottering to her fall; and he resolved to pluck some of the most fertile
provinces of Gaul from her feeble grasp. Odoacer the Mercenary, king of
Italy, renounced in his favour all the Roman provinces beyond the Alps,
as far as the Rhine and the ocean: and thenceforward the Goths regarded
Gaul and Spain as their lawful inheritance. The victor established
the seat of his empire at Arles, where he passed in tranquillity the
remainder of his days. He died in that capital, (484 A.D.) after engaging
his subjects to elect for their king his son Alaric. Euric was the
founder of the Gothic kingdom of Spain. The extinction of the Roman
sway, and the subjection of the Suevi, rendered him absolute lord of the
country. The six kings, his predecessors, were rulers in Gaul, not of
Spain; however they might regard its provinces as rightfully their own,
they could obtain possession only by force of arms. Their conquests,
however, had been partial and temporary; before Euric, the peninsula was
overrun, not subdued. He was also the first legislator of his nation. The
laws which he collected and committed to writing served as the foundation
of the famous Gothic code, known by the name of the _Forum Judicum_,
or _Fuero Juzgo_. He was a great prince; but the fratricide which is
believed to have opened him the way to the crown, and the cruelty with
which he persecuted the orthodox (like his predecessors, he was an
Arian), are dreadful stains on his memory.
But Alaric was unable to tread in the steps of so great a prince as his
father. In vain did his father-in-law Theodoric, who had just founded
the kingdom of the Ostrogoths in Italy, interpose in his behalf: the
fierce Clovis marched towards Poitiers, where Alaric then lay, resolved,
as he said, to expel the heretical Arians from the soil of Gaul.[8] The
Visigoths, after a sharp conflict, were routed with great loss, and their
king was left dead on the field. Clovis pursued his successes, and soon
reduced the greater part of their possessions in the south of France, and
entered victorious into their capital of Toulouse.[9] Alaric left a son;
but as he was too young to be intrusted with the government, his bastard
brother, Gesalric (Gensaleic) had the address to procure the elective
crown. But the king of the Ostrogoths invested Gaul, overthrew the
Franks, who were pressing the siege of Carcassonne, and forced Gesalric
to seek for safety in Barcelona. The humbled Clovis was glad to sue for
peace from the formidable Theodoric, who united the two kingdoms of the
Ostrogoths and Visigoths under his own sceptre. To Theudes, one of his
ablest generals, he intrusted the administration of the country and the
guardianship of his grandson. Theodoric resigned the sceptre of Spain to
his grandson, on that prince’s arriving at a suitable age. Theudes now
retired into private life.
[Sidenote: [522-554 A.D.]]
Amalaric was the first Gothic king who established his court in Spain, in
the city of Seville. To Athalaric, the successor of Theodoric, he ceded
that portion of France which lies between the Rhone and the Alps, and
received in return his father’s treasures, which Theodoric had removed
from Carcassonne to Ravenna: in the rest of Gothic Gaul, with all Spain,
he was solemnly confirmed by Athalaric. To secure his possessions in
Gaul against the formidable Franks, Amalaric demanded and obtained the
hand of Clotilda, the sister of the royal sons of Clovis. But the union
was unfortunate. The king was a violent partisan of Arius; the queen as
obstinate a professor of orthodoxy: at first each attempted to convert
the other; but finding their efforts ineffectual, the one was filled
with rage, the other with contempt. Childebert marched against his
brother-in-law; the result was fatal to Amalaric, who fell by the swords
of the Franks, whether on the field of battle, as Procopius[o] asserts,
or afterwards as he was seeking sanctuary in a church, must forever
remain undecided. The battle in question appears to have been fought,
not in Gothic Gaul, but in Catalonia. Childebert returned to France with
his sister and the immense treasures which he had seized in the Arian
churches.