Part I., Chapter 19.--"No os parece á vos," says Oviedo, in one

of his Dialogues, "que es mejor ganado eso, que les dá su principe por sus servicios, é lo que llevan justamente de sus oficios, que lo que se adquiere robando capas agenas, é matando é vertiendo sangre de Cristianos?" (Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 3, dial. 9.) The sentiment would have been too enlightened for a Spanish cavalier of the fifteenth century.

[9] In the cortes of Calatayud, in 1515, the Aragonese nobles withheld the supplies, with the design of compelling the crown to relinquish certain rights of jurisdiction, which it assumed over their vassals. "Les parecio," said the archbishop of Saragossa, in a speech on the occasion, "que auian perdido mucho, en que el ceptro real cobrasse lo suyo, por su industria. ***** Esto los otros estados del reyno lo atribuyeron a gran virtud: y lo estimauan por beneficio inmortal." (Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 10, cap. 93.) The other estates, in fact, saw their interests too clearly, not to concur with the crown in this assertion of its ancient prerogative. Blancas, Modo de Proceder, fol. 100.

[10] Such, for example, were those of great chancellor, of admiral, and of constable of Castile. The first of these ancient offices was permanently united by Isabella with that of archbishop of Toledo. The office of admiral became hereditary, after Henry III., in the noble family of Enriquez, and that of constable in the house of Velasco. Although of great authority and importance in their origin, and, indeed, in the time of the Catholic sovereigns, these posts gradually, after becoming hereditary, declined into mere titular dignities. Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 2, cap. 8, 10; lib. 3, cap. 21.--L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 24.

[11] The duke of Infantado, head of the ancient house of Mendoza, whose estates lay in Castile, and, indeed, in most of the provinces of the kingdom, is described by Navagiero as living in great magnificence. He maintained a body guard of 200 foot, besides men-at-arms; and could muster more than 30,000 vassals. (Viaggio, fol. 6, 33.) Oviedo makes the same statement. (Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.) Lucio Marineo, among other things in his curious farrago, has given an estimate of the rents, "poco mas 6 menos," of the great nobility of Castile and Aragon, whose whole amount he computes at one-third of those of the whole kingdom. I will select a few of the names familiar to us in the present narrative.

Enriquez, admiral of Castile, 50,000 ducats income, equal to $440,000. Velasco, constable of Castile, 60,000 ducats income, estates in Old Castile. Toledo, duke of Alva, 50,000 ducats income, estates in Castile and Navarre. Mendoza, duke of Infantado, 50,000 ducats income, estates in Castile and other provinces. Guzman, duke of Medina Sidonia, 55,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia. Cerda, duke of Medina Celi, 30,000 ducats income, estates in Castile and Andalusia. Ponce de Leon, duke of Arcos, 25,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia. Pacheco, duke of Escalona (marquis of Villena), 60,000 ducats income, estates in Castile. Cordova, duke of Sessa, 60,000 ducats income, estates in Naples and Andalusia. Aguilar, marquis of Priego, 40,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia and Estremadura. Mendoza, count of Tendilla, 15,000 ducats income, estates in Castile. Pimentel, count of Benavente, 60,000 ducats income, estates in Castile. Giron, count of Ureña, 20,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia. Silva, count of Cifuentes, 10,000 ducats income, estates in Andalusia.

(Cosas Memorables, fol. 24, 25.) The estimate is confirmed, with some slight discrepancies, by Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 18, 33, et alibi. See also Salazar de Mendoza, Dignidades, discurso 2.

[12] "En casa de aquellos Principes estaban las hijas de los principales señores 6 cavalleros por damas de la Reyna 6 de las Infantas sus hijas, y en la corte andaban todos los mayorazgos y hijos de grandes 4 los mas heredados de sus reynos." Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 4, dial 44.

[13] "Como quier que oia el parecer de personal religiosas é de los otros letrados que cerca della eran, pero la mayor parte seguia las cosas por su arbitrio." Pulgar, Reyes Católicos, part 1, cap. 4.

[14] Lucio Marineo has collected many particulars respecting the great wealth of the Spanish clergy in his time. There were four metropolitan sees in Castile.

Toledo, income 80,000 ducats. St. James, " 24,000 " Seville, " 20,000 " Granada, " 10,000 "

There were twenty-nine bishoprics, whose aggregate revenues, very unequally apportioned, amounted to 251,000 ducats. The church livings in Aragon were much fewer and leaner than in Castile. (Cosas Memorables, fol. 23.) The Venetian Navagiero, speaks of the metropolitan church of Toledo, as "the wealthiest in Christendom;" its canons lived in stately palaces, and its revenues, with those of the archbishopric, equalled those of the whole city of Toledo. (Viaggio, fol. 9.) He notices also the great opulence of the churches of Seville, Guadalupe, etc., fol. 11, 13.

[15] See Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 11, 140, 141, 171, et loc. al.--From one of these ordinances, it appears the clergy were not backward in remonstrating against what they deemed an infringement of their rights. (Fol. 172.) The queen, however, while she guarded against their usurpations, interfered more than once, with her usual sense of justice, on their application, to shield them from the encroachments of the civil tribunals. Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 98, 99.

[16] See