The anarchy of the tribe persists; the clergy are all-powerful, as are the African marabouts. To the feudal nobility and the European parliament the Peninsula opposes the Councils; to the struggles between Pope and Emperor, the Oriental fusion of religion and the monarchy, the Inquisition, and the omnipotence of the clergy; to the Reformation, the coalition of Catholics with Protestants, and the league of the princes of Christendom with the Sultan, a fanatical Christianity which realises the ideal of national unity by expelling Jews and Moors, and burning sorcerers and heretics in the crackling flames of _autodafés_. When Spain enters upon her decadence her ancient characteristics--individualism, the municipal spirit, and the democratic fervour--disappear, and the African and Semitic influences predominate. Under the theocracy the nation of conquerors degenerates; at Villalar the monarchy conquers the free cities and the arrogant nobility. { 43} The clergy reign in school and palace; as in the East, they form a superior caste. Rogues and ruffians--the _picaros_--succeed to the heroes and adventurers of the days of old; an Oriental parasitism invades the Peninsula, and legions of arrogant beggars people the highways of Castile. It is the final crisis of heroic Quixotism. The Moors are revenged for their defeat, imposing their African fanaticism on an impoverished Peninsula. New Spains across the ocean rise against the decadent mother-country. Exhausted with creating new nations, the conquering race sinks into repose, and a score of democracies prepare to enjoy its moral heritage.
[1] Of the Portuguese conquerors we may say that in their individualism and their love of adventure they resembled the Spaniards. Their fanaticism was certainly less bitter, perhaps because they had not been forced to struggle against the enemies of their faith.
[2] See Joaquín Costa, _Concepto del Derecho en la Poesia española_ (_Estudios jurídicos y politicos_, Madrid 1884)
[3] Altamira, _Historia de España y de la Civilizatión española_, vol. i. p. 229 _et seq_.
[4] _En torno al Casticismo_, Madrid, 1902, p. 115.
The conquerors--The conquered races--The influence of religion in the new societies--Colonial life.