[17] See examples of this in Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 95-102.--Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 14.
[18] Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudite, tom. iii. p. 94.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.
[19] Oviedo bears emphatic testimony to this. "En nuestros tiempos há habido en España de nuestra Nacion grandes varones Letrados, excelentes Perlados y Religiosos y personas que por suos habilidades y sciencias hán subido á las mas altas dignidades de Capelos é de Arzobispados y todo lo que mas se puede alcanzar, en la Iglesia de Dios." Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Talavera.--Col. de Cédulas, tom. i. p. 400.
[20] "Lo qne debe admirar es, que en el tiempo mismo que se contendia con tanto ardor, obtuvieron los Reyes de la Santa Sede mas gracias y privilegios que ninguno de sus sucesores; prueba de su felicidad y de su prudentísima conducta." Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. in. p. 95.
[21] "Porque la igualidad de la justicia que los bienauenturados Principes hazian era tal, que todos los hombres de qualquier condicion que fuessen: aora nobles, y caualleros: aora plebeyos, y labradores, y riejos, o pobres, flacos, o fuertes, señores, o sieruos en lo que a la justicia tocaua todos fuessen iguales." Cosas Memorables, fol. 180.
[22] These beneficial changes were made with the advice, and through the agency of Ximenes. (Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 24.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 181.) The alcavala, a tax of one-tenth on all transfers of property, produced more than any other branch of the revenue. As it was originally designed, more than a century before, to furnish funds for the Moorish war, Isabella, as we have seen in her testament, entertained great scruples as to the right to continue it, without the confirmation of the people, after that was terminated. Ximenes recommended its abolition, without any qualification, to Charles V., but in vain. (Idem auct., ubi supra.) Whatever be thought of its legality, there can be no doubt it was one of the most successful means ever devised by a government for shackling the industry and enterprise of its subjects.
[23] A pragmatic was issued, September 18th, 1495, prescribing the weapons and the seasons for a regular training of the militia. The preamble declares, that it was made at the instance of the representatives of the cities and the nobles, who complained, that, in consequence of the tranquillity, which the kingdom, through the divine mercy had for some years enjoyed, the people were very generally unprovided with arms, offensive or defensive, having sold or suffered them to fall into decay, insomuch that, in their present condition, they would be found wholly unprepared to meet either domestic disturbance, or foreign invasion. (Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 83.) What a tribute does this afford, in this age of violence, to the mild, paternal character of the administration?
[24] The most important were those of Madrigal, in 1476, and of Toledo, in 1480, to which I have often had occasion to refer. "Las mas notables," say Asso and Mannel, in reference to the latter, "y famosas de este Reynado, en el qual podemos asegurar, que tuvo principio el mayor aumento, y arreglo de nuestra Jurisprudencia." (Instituciones, Introd., p. 91.) Marina notices this cortes with equal panegyric. (Teoría, tom. i. p. 75.) See also Sempere, Hist. des Cortés, p. 197.