THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN.
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•chair should be filled by a priest who was obedient to lawful authority and devoted to his religious duties, with no ambition for worldly honors. She thus made it impossible for any dignitary of the church to threaten her, as the Bishop of Toledo did when angered, that “ he would replace the distaff in the hands to which he had given the sceptre.”
Isabella also reorganized the legal code of Spain. Among the best reforms she introduced were a change in the government of prisons, the right given to every one to appeal for justice to the royal council, and the appointment of an officer called the advocate of the poor, who was paid from the public funds to plead the cause of those unable to pay for their own defense.
The Queen’s interest in all intellectual pursuits was very great, and her plans for the education of the young nobles of her kingdom showed a spirit far in advance of her age. She asked Peter Martyr, a learned Italian, to open a school in Toledo for the young men of her court, and paid him from her private purse a liberal salary for his services. To make his lectures fashionable she sent her son to attend them, and in six months the success of the school was assured. Another Italian scholar, Marineo, was encouraged to give lectures on classical learning, and the Queen saw with pleasure crowds of students filling the halls where the professors spoke. She carefully watched the young girls of noble families who lived in the palace, and, with her own daughters, gave them equal advantages of education with the young men. Loyal to her own sex, she helped women to larger opportunity whenever she saw them possess ability and ambition. She chose for her own teacher in Latin a lady who was called from her attainments “ La Latina,” and through her influence two women were appointed to professorships in Spanish universities; one filled the chair of rhetoric at Alcala, and the other taught the Latin classics at Salamanca.
Isabella encouraged the art of printing in Spain, granting to a German printer who came to Castile to pursue his calling freedom from taxation, and gave him several orders for books for herself. She also allowed foreign books of every description to enter Spain free of duty. By her own example she made purity of manners and morality the rule of conduct in her court, and her conversation was generally on serious subjects. She had no local prejudices, and could adapt herself with ease to the customs and habits of the people in whose province she might be, for Spain, even in her reign, was more like a union of provinces than a nation.
The three great events of Isabella’s reign were the establishment of the Inquisition in Spain, the conquest of Granada, and the protection of Christopher Columbus, which led to the discovery of America. The Inquisition had existed in Spain since the thirteenth century, but, with Ferdinand and Isabella’s consent, its power was increased until it became a terrible agent in the hands of men whose avarice or fanaticism made them merciless.
It is only just to the religion which permitted the atrocities of the Inquisition, to recall the brighter pages of its history, illumined by the deeds of men devoted to their church and humanity. One of the noblest among them was Talavera, whose charity, when bishop of Granada, was so universal and benignant that the Moors called him the holy priest of the Christians and declared that a halo surrounded his head when he spoke to them of eternal and spiritual truths. With all his humility Talavera had a profound sense of the dignity of his office. Appointed confessor to the Queen, he heard her first confession seated; when reminded by her that it was customary for her confessor to kneel with her, he replied: “This is God’s tribunal; I act as his minister, and it is right that I should remain seated while your majesty kneels before me.” And we must add to Isabella’s honor her reply: “This proves you to be the right confessor for me.”
We.must also recall Aimenes, the great cardinal, whose life of purity and charity gave him the name of Saint Augustine in devotion, a Saint Jerome in austerity and a Saint Ambrose in zeal and generosity. His great intellect made him supreme in council and in government, but he lived in his palace the simple, austere life of a monk,