SOCIAL REFORMS, 1479-1517
[Sidenote: Leading elements in the social history of the era.]
The most important events in Spain of a social character during the
period of the Catholic Kings were the expulsion of the Jews and the
conversion of the Castilian Mudéjares, with the relations of the new
Inquisition to both of these elements of Spanish society. Other events
of more than ordinary note were the deprivation of the nobility of some
of their former prestige, the settlement of the dispute between the
serfs and lords of Catalonia, the purification of the Castilian clergy,
and the definitive triumph of the Roman principles in private law.
Greater than all of these were the problems which were to arise through
the Spanish subjection of new races in the colonies overseas.
[Sidenote: Prestige of the nobility, despite their reverses.]
Though with diminished prestige the nobility continued to be the leading
social class in Castile, sharing this honor with the higher officials of
the church. Much of the former economic preponderance of the nobles was
gone, due to the development of personalty as a form of wealth as
distinguished from land, the fruit of the commerce and industry of the
Jews, Mudéjares, and middle classes. They suffered still further through
Isabella’s revocation of the land grants they had received at times of
civil war and internal weakness in former reigns, especially in that of
Henry IV. Few nobles or great churchmen, for the decree applied equally
to the latter, escaped without loss of at least a portion of their
rents, and some forfeited all they had. Naturally, the measure caused
not a little discontent, but it was executed without any noteworthy
resistance. On the other hand, through the continuance of the
institution of primogeniture and through new acquisitions of land in
return for services in the war against Granada, the greater nobles
still possessed immense wealth. The Duke of Medina Sidonia, for example,
offered Philip the Handsome two thousand _caballeros_ and 50,000 ducats
($750,000) if he would disembark in Andalusia. Not only in political
authority but also in prestige the nobles were lowered by the measures
of the Catholic Kings. Such practices as the use of a royal crown on
their shields and the employment of royal insignia or ceremonial in any
form were forbidden. On the other hand, the ancient privileges of the
nobility, both high and low, were confirmed to them,--such, for example,
as exemption from taxation and from the application in certain cases of
the penalties of the law. At the same time, the Catholic Kings offered a
new kind of dignity, depending for its lustre on the favor of the crown.
Nobles were encouraged to appear at court and strive for the purely
ornamental honors of palace officialdom. Many came, for those who
remained on their estates consigned themselves to obscurity, being
without power to improve their fortunes by a revolt as their ancestors
had done. In Aragon and Catalonia they still displayed tendencies to
engage in private war and banditry, a condition of affairs which endured
throughout this period and into the next, though it was by no means so
serious a problem as it had been in earlier times.
[Sidenote: Grades of nobility.]
The grades of nobility remained much as before, but with a change in
nomenclature. The old term of _ricoshombres_ for the great nobles
disappeared (though not until 1520 officially), and was substituted by
that of _grandes_, or grandees. Among the grandees the title of duke
(_duque_) and marquis (_marqués_) now became of more frequent usage than
the formerly more general count (_conde_). In the epoch of the Catholic
Kings there were fifteen grandees in Castile, but eight of them had been
created, with the title of duke, by Isabella. For the nobility of the
second grade, the terms _hijosdalgo_ (modern _hidalgo_) and _caballero_,
used in a generic sense to denote noble lineage, were employed
indiscriminately. Nobles without fortune lived, as formerly, under the
protection of the grandees, or took service in the military orders or
even in the new royal army.
[Sidenote: Advance of the rural masses.]
The situation of the former servile classes of Castile, aside from the
slaves, had been rendered very nearly satisfactory from a juridical
point of view in the previous era, but their new liberty was insecure
and was not freely accorded in practice. The Catholic Kings
energetically cut short the greater part of the abuses, and definitely
decided that a man adscripted to the land (a _solariego_) could sell or
carry away his personalty, and go wherever he willed. In Aragon proper
the problem was more serious, because of the social backwardness of that
region. The first step toward freedom from serfdom was taken at this
time, consisting in the frequent uprisings of the serfs. Ferdinand made
some attempts to modify the _malos usos_, or evil customs, of the
relation of lord and serf, but found the institutions too deeply rooted
in his day for remedy. In Catalonia, Ferdinand inherited the problem of
the warfare of the serfs with the nobles and the high churchmen, against
the latter of whom, particularly the bishop of Gerona, the wrath of the
rural classes was especially directed. At the outset he attempted, as
had Alfonso V and Juan II before him, to utilize the quarrel to serve
his own political and financial ends, accepting bribes from both sides.
Finally, an agreement was reached whereby the king was to serve as
arbitrator, without appeal, between the warring elements. The Sentence
of Guadalupe, so-called because the evidence was taken and the decision
rendered at Guadalupe in Extremadura, in 1486, was the judgment
pronounced by Ferdinand. It went to the root of the matter by abolishing
the _malos usos_ and declaring the freedom of the rural serfs.
Furthermore, the lords were deprived of criminal jurisdiction over their
vassals, this right passing to the crown, and the same privileges as
that just recorded in the case of the _solariegos_ of Castile was
granted to the rural masses of Catalonia. On the other hand, the now
freed serfs were obliged to pay a heavy ransom to their lords. The
decision satisfied neither party to the issue, but was accepted, and
proved in fact the solution of the evil. A rural class of small
proprietors soon grew up, while many other persons occupied lands for
which they paid rent instead of the former irksome services.
[Sidenote: Policy of the Catholic Kings toward the Mudéjares.]
If a policy of benevolent assimilation had been followed by the
Christians of Spain with regard to the other great elements of the
population, the Mudéjar and the Jewish, it is possible that the two
latter might have been made use of to the advantage of the peninsula,
for they were Spanish in most of their habits, and had intermarried with
Christians, even those of high rank. For centuries, however, a different
practice, based primarily on religious intolerance, had tended to
promote the adoption of an opposite course, and it was in the reign of
the Catholic Kings that the first steps were taken to bring the matter
to an issue. The measures by which the Mudéjares were compelled to
emigrate from Castile or become converted as Moriscos have already been
chronicled, and the same procedure was taken with regard to Navarre and
the Basque provinces. Ferdinand, who was less zealous in this
undertaking than his pious consort, did not go to the same lengths in
Aragon. On the petition of the lords, who had many Moslem vassals and
feared to lose them, he confirmed the privileges of the Mudéjares,
though forbidding the erection of new mosques, and permitted of
preaching to bring about their voluntary conversion.
[Sidenote: Expulsion of the Jews.]
The hatred of the Christians for the Jews was so great that the time was
ripe for the final step in the measures taken against them, and early in
the reign of the Catholic Kings it was decided to expel them from the
peninsula. While the religious motive was the principal one, Ferdinand
and Isabella were also actuated, as indeed also in the case of the
Mudéjares, by their ideal of a centralized absolutism, wherefore an
element which was not in sympathy with the religion of the state seemed
to them to constitute a political danger. Their action was hastened, no
doubt, by popular fanaticism, which expressed itself in numerous acts of
violence against the hated race. With Granada conquered the Catholic
Kings lost no time in promulgating a decree, dated March 31, 1492,
requiring conversion or expulsion, and applicable to both Castile and
Aragon. The Jews were granted four months to dispose of their affairs
and leave Spain. The blow to them financially was ruinous. Forced
sales, especially when there was so much to be sold, could not be
expected to yield a fair return, and this was aggravated by prohibitions
against carrying away any gold, silver, coin, or other kinds of
personalty, except what the laws ordinarily permitted to be exported.
The full effect of this harsh legislation was avoided by some through a
resort to the international banking agencies which the Jews had
established. A number preferred to become Christians rather than go into
exile, but thousands took the latter course. Some computations hold that
as many as 2,000,000 left the country, but a more careful estimate by a
Jewish historian gives the following figures: emigrants, 165,000;
baptized, 50,000; those who lost their lives in course of the execution
of the decree, 20,000. The exiles went to Portugal, North Africa, Italy,
and France, but were so harshly treated, especially in the two
first-named lands, that a great many preferred to return to Spain and
accept baptism. Portugal and Navarre soon followed the action of Castile
and Aragon, thus completing the cycle of anti-Jewish legislation in the
peninsula. In law there were no more Jews; they had become Marranos.
[Sidenote: Activities of the Inquisition in Castile.]
Not a few of the converts, both Mudéjar and Jewish, became sincere
Christians, and some of them attained to high rank in the church.
Hernando de Talavera, for example, at one time confessor of the queen
and one of the most influential men in the kingdom, had Jewish blood in
his veins. A great many, very likely the majority, remained faithful at
heart to the religion of their fathers, due partly to the lack of
Christian instruction, and even when they did not, they were suspected
of so doing, or maliciously accused of it by those who were envious of
their wealth or social position. This had led the Catholic Kings to
procure a papal bull, as early as 1478, granting the monarchs a right to
name certain men, whom they should choose, as inquisitors, with power to
exercise the usual authority of ecclesiastical judges. This was the
beginning of the modern Spanish Inquisition. Leaving aside, for the
present, its formal constitution and procedure, its activities against
converts may here be traced. The Inquisition began its work in Seville
in 1480, with the object of uprooting heresy, especially among the
Marranos. Afraid of being accused many fled, but enough remained for
scores to be apprehended. In 1481 the first _auto de fe_ (decision of
the faith) was held, and sixteen persons were burned to death. From
Seville the institution spread to other cities, and the terror became
general. There is no doubt that the inquisitors displayed an excess of
zeal, of which various papal documents themselves furnish ample proof. A
great many were put to death, especially while Juan de Torquemada was at
the head of the institution, 1485 to 1494. Some charge his inquisitorial
reign with the death of 8000 persons, but more dispassionate estimates
reduce the figures greatly, calculating the number to be 2000 for the
reign of Isabella, ending in 1504. Very many more were either burned in
effigy or put in prison, while confiscation of goods was one of the
usual concomitants of a sentence involving loss of life or liberty.
Books were also examined and burned or their publication or circulation
forbidden, and in every way efforts were made to prevent heresy as well
as to stamp it out. By far the greatest number of sufferers were the
Judaizantes, or those Marranos who practised the Jewish faith in secret.
It must be said that public opinion was not by any means on the side of
the Inquisition; in course of time it became universally hated, as also
feared, for nobody was entirely safe from accusation before the dread
tribunal.
[Sidenote: The Inquisition in Aragon.]
The Inquisition had existed in the kingdom of Aragon since the
thirteenth century, but Ferdinand now introduced the Castilian body. In
1485 the Inquisition became a single institution for all Spain, although
it was not until 1518 that this became definitive. The new organization
had not been welcomed in Castile, but it found even less favor in
Aragon, not only because of its excessive pretensions and rigors, but
also because it superseded the traditional Aragonese Inquisition, was in
the hands of Castilian “foreigners,” and interfered with business. The
city of Barcelona was especially resentful on this last account, because
its prosperity depended not a little on the trade in the hands of Jewish
converts, whom fear was driving away. On the first occasion of their
appearance, in 1486, the inquisitors were obliged to leave Barcelona,
and no less a personage than the bishop joined in the act of ejecting
them, but in 1487 they returned to stay. The fear of the Inquisition and
certain social and political disadvantages of being regarded as of
Jewish or Moslem descent occasioned the introduction of documents of
_limpieza de sangre_ (purity of blood), attesting the Catholic ancestry
of the possessors, although the development of this custom was more
marked in the reign of Charles I.
[Sidenote: Reform of the Castilian church.]
One of the most signal reforms of the period, to which the pious
Isabella, aided by Ximénez, gave her attention, was the purification of
the Castilian clergy. The church, like the great nobles, had suffered
from the revocation of land grants it had gained in times of stress, and
was obliged, furthermore, to restore the financial rights, such as the
_alcabala_ and certain rents, it had usurped from the crown.
Nevertheless, its wealth was enormous. The rents of the secular church
in all Spain are said to have amounted to some 4,000,000 ducats
($60,000,000), of which the archbishop of Toledo alone received 80,000
($1,200,000). The regular clergy were equally wealthy. Vast as these
sums appear, even today, their real value should be considered from the
standpoint of the far greater purchasing power of money in that age than
now. Whether or not the members of the clergy were softened by this
wealth and by the favors they received as representatives of the church
at a time of great religious zeal on the part of the Spanish people, it
is certain that ignorance and immorality were prevalent among them.
Despite the centuries of conflict against it, the institution of
_barraganía_ still had its followers, among others, Alfonso de Aragón,
archbishop of Saragossa, and Cardinal Pedro de Mendoza. Laws were passed
imposing fines, banishment, and the lash,--without avail. Church
councils met to discuss the various evils within the church. Ximénez at
length applied to the church of Castile the methods Isabella had used in
suppressing seigniorial anarchy. A Franciscan himself, he proceeded to
visit the convents of the order and to administer correction with a
heavy hand, expelling the more recalcitrant. It is said that some four
hundred friars emigrated to Africa, and became Mohammedans, rather than
submit to his rulings. From the Franciscan order the reforms passed on
to others. Isabella intervened more particularly in the case of the
secular clergy, exercising great care in the choice of candidates for
the higher dignities, selecting them from the lower nobility or the
middle class instead of from the families of great nobles as had
formerly been the practice. At the same time, she took steps with
considerable success to prevent the appointment of foreigners by the
popes to Castilian benefices. In Aragon the same evils existed as in
Castile, but the reforms did not come at this time to modify them.
[Sidenote: Triumph of Roman principles in Castilian private law.]
In private law, especially as regards the family, the long struggle of
the Roman principles to gain a predominant place in Castilian
jurisprudence ended in triumph. The victory came with the legislation of
the _Cortes_ of Toledo in 1502, but as it was not published until the
time of the _Cortes_ of Toro in 1505 it became known as the _Leyes de
Toro_ (Laws of Toro). For example, the complete emancipation of children
after marriage, the prohibition of the gift of all one’s possessions to
other than the heirs, the increase in the formalities required in the
case of wills, and the lengthening of terms of years on which to base
claims by prescription were all recognized in the new laws.
[Sidenote: General social customs.]
[Sidenote: Dress.]
In immorality and luxury the reign of the Catholic Kings differed little
from the preceding era; abundant evidence thereof appears in the
literary works of this period and the opening years of the next. The
most extravagant taste was exhibited both by men and women in matters of
dress. Clothing was made up of ruffs and puffs, ribbons and rings,
many-materialed and many-colored component parts, clothes which dragged
behind and clothes which were immodestly short, open-work waists and
cloaks which were not infrequently used to cover adventures, fancy
laces, daggers, purses, pouches, and a host of other accessories which
must have been considered ornamental, since they were only slightly
useful. Isabella herself, serious-minded and religious though she was,
liked to appear in public richly gowned and bejewelled. This lavish
magnificence seems only to have been on display for gala occasions; at
other times Spaniards lived and dressed soberly and modestly. As an
Italian traveller expressed it, the Spaniard was prodigal on holidays,
and lived sadly the rest of the year, for his occasional extravagances
demanded more protracted economies. This was true, even in the palace,
for, numerous as were the employes there, the annual expenditure was the
equivalent of only about $100,000. Other social customs, such as sports,
including bull-fighting, did not undergo any changes sufficient to
require comment.