summits, and dedicated it to John the Baptist. Four other Monks joined him: the fame of their piety was bruited abroad, and their chapel became the chosen spot for the devotion of the Christians round about. When Juan died a great multitude assembled at his funeral; six hundred hidalgos were among them; they saw their numbers and the strength of the country; the feeling which had brought them together excited them, they elected a leader, and founded the kingdom of Na

varre.

The local deities whom their Pagan ancestors had worshipped were less numerous than the Saints who patronized the churches of the Spanish Christians. Every town, almost every village, had been hallowed by the death or burial of Martyrs, to whose wonder-working bodies the faithful were led sometimes by the song of Angels, more frequently by lights hovering over their holy graves. Above all, the Virgin Mother was lavish in her favours to Spain. Once, she descended in person upon a stone pillar, which she left behind her, and which is held at this day in as high veneration by thousands and tens of thousands of Catholicks, as the black stone at Mecca is by the Mahommedans. Sometimes she sent her image down from Heaven. Sometimes a dove guided the chosen discoverer to the cavern where she had been hidden; or the hunted beast who ran to her ruined altar was protected by her pity, or struck dead for his intrusion. In the number of her titles the deified Mary exceeded the many-named Diana, as well as in the extent and effect of her worship. In perusing the attested history of any one of her images, the reader might think she had imparted to it all her power, did not the Goddess of the next great shrine afford a catalogue of wonders, equally splendid, equally attested, and equally authentic. These miracles were easily managed in darkness, and amid the wilds and ruins of a desolated country. The clergy sometimes, in the confidence

e

Mariana.

1. 8. c. 1.

of talent, ventured upon a more public and general exhibition. A.D.1063. Fernando the Great sent to Benabet King of Seville, requesting that he would let him have the body of St. Justa to remove to Leon. Three Counts and two Bishops were the ambassadors to beg this boon. Benabet said he knew nothing about it, he had never heard of St. Justa, but they were very welcome to her body if they could find it. Upon this Alvito the Bishop of Leon said they would pray three days for a revelation. At the close of the third day Alvito fell asleep at his prayers, and there appeared to him in a dream an old man, who told him that St. Justa must not be removed. Seville was not to be deprived of a treasure reserved for its glory when it should again become a Christian city,.. but they might have his body instead. . . And who was he?.. He was St. Isidore. Alvito humbly intreated him to be dreamt of twice more, that he might be sure this was not merely a dream; and the dead Bishop gave the desired proof. At his last appearance he struck the ground thrice with his crosier, saying, You will find me here, here, here. In the morning three holes were seen in the ground, and upon digging there they discovered his body in full odour. The court and clergy went out from Leon in procession to meet the relicks; the King and his three sons bore the body barefooted; all the Monks and Clergy of the city were feasted upon the occasion, and Fernando and the Queen served them at the Acta Sanct- board.

Sandoval. ff.

9.

orum.

Apr. 4.

The zeal with which these patron Saints were worshipped was proportionate to the beneficial power which they possessed. They could preserve their own district from pestilence, and if for the sins of the people they sometimes suffered the Infidels to violate their sanctuaries, they never failed to punish the violation. In their beatitude they were still influenced by human feelings, by gratitude, and by national and local affec

tion. A Saint was the representative of his townsmen in Heaven, where he was supposed to receive their prayers, and exert all his influence in their behalf.

The religious fervour of the Moors meanwhile was abating. Fanaticism in a few generations becomes bigotry. The belief which the first Mahommedans had chosen was inherited by their children; in the fathers it had the life and ardour of a new passion; in the sons it was become habit, inveterate indeed, but cold. This process has been exemplified in every age, and by every sect. The Dominicans and Franciscans of the present day profess the same tenets which their predecessors practised at the massacre and the auto da fe. There are analogies in nature; the wolf has been tamed into the dog: and swine were once formidable in the forest.

In the first years of the Moorish conquest the Christians carried on a perpetual war against their invaders. There was no alternative between hostilities and submission; but during the anarchy which soon weakened the conquerors, their little kingdom acquired a respectable strength, and they could venture to rest from war when peace was convenient. A righteous national hatred was encouraged by their leaders, and this hatred was increased by religious contempt and abhorrence. Yet even these feelings readily gave way whenever either public or individual interest required their sacrifice. A frequent intercourse necessarily subsisted between the two people; discontented chiefs fled to a Moorish Court for protection, and the Christian princes, when at war with each other, scrupled not to invite Moorish assistance. It has even been said, that when the kingdom of Aragon was founded, and that compact established between the sovereign and the people which the Aragoneze have struggled so nobly, but unsuccessfully to maintain, one of the privileges proposed to them was, that they might chuse either a Christian,

Zurita l. 1.

c. 5.

or a Mahommedan King, at pleasure; but they rejected it as a thing which ought not to be thought of.

Still the war between the two nations was a war of extermination. Peace was never named, never thought of as a thing possible; but because perpetual hostilities would have destroyed both by famine, they made occasional truces by common consent, to recover strength for renewing the contest: or the weaker power purchased a respite by paying tribute, till he believed himself strong enough to revolt. These intervals were short; the Spaniards could never long endure to be idle; they had to recover the country of their fathers, an honourable and a holy object and war also was the business, the amusement, the passion of the age. It was in war that the chiefs found their sport and their spoil; that the King at once employed and gratified a turbulent nobility; that the people indulged their worst passions, and believed that they were at the same time atoning for their sins. And what a warfare! it was to burn the standing corn, to root up the vine and the olive, to hang the heads of their enemies from the saddle-bow, and drive mothers and children before them with the lance; to massacre the men of a town in the fury of assault; to select the chiefs that they might be murdered in cold blood; to reserve the women for violation, and the children for slavery; . . and this warfare year after year, till they rested froin mere exhaustion.. The soldiers of Ferran Gonzalez complained that they led a life like Devils, like those in Hell, who rested neither day nor night: Our Lord, said they, is like Satan, and we are like his servants, whose whole 4. delight is in separating soul from body. The Spaniards on their part suffered retaliated cruelties, and the perpetual sense of danger. At one time Knights, Nobles, and Kings, never slept Do. ff. 93. without having the war-horse ready-saddled in the chamber.

Cor. Gen.

In the beginning of the eleventh century, Navarre, Aragon,

and Castille, were united under Sancho the Great. But experience had not taught the Christian Kings good policy, and when accident had joined the separate states, the possessor divided them at his death, desirous that his sons should all be Kings, though thereby they inevitably became enemies. Sancho left Navarre to his eldest son Garcia, Aragon to his bastard son Ramiro, and Castille to Fernando; and these latter states, which had long been independant, now first received the appellation of kingdom.

Sancho had compelled Bermudo the King of Leon to give his sister in marriage to Fernando; the King of Leon had no children, his sister was his heir, and the kingdom therefore would fall to her husband. Leon had long been declining; but when the territories of Sancho were divided at his death, Bermudo hoped to recover its old ascendency, and declared war against his brother-in-law. Fernando called Garcia to his aid, and an obstinate battle was fought. Bermudo, who was a brave man, confident in his own strength, and in that of his horse Pelayuelo, rode into the Castilian army, meaning to engage Fernando man to man; he was slain in the attempt, and Fernando possessed himself of Leon by the double right of conquest and inheritance.

The elder brother regarded with impatience the division of his father's kingdoms. Fernando had excited some dispute respecting their boundary, and though no enmity was yet avowed, no fraternal affection existed. It happened that Garcia fell sick ; the Castilian went to visit him at Najara; he discovered that his brother designed to imprison him, and extort a cession of territory for his ransom, and he hastily departed, and then sent to excuse his departure on the plea of urgent business. He soon feigned sickness and requested Garcia to come and see him; the King of Navarre came, and was immediately made prisoner:

Zurita. l. 1.

C. 13.