334 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



The devotion of Phillip II to the Roman Catholic Church, the zeal 

 with which he persecuted all heretics, his virulent persecutions of the 

 Moriscoes, and his care to cultivate these traits in his young son, are 

 well known. Phillip II must, indeed, have regarded his youthful heir 

 as his only hope, and intrusted the latter with the prosecution of his 

 ardent desire, the extirpation of infidelity and heresy in his realm. The 

 banishment of the Moors, which had already been decreed by Charles 

 Y, was, indeed, carried into execution by Phillip III in 1609. In judg 

 ing of this cruel deed it should be realized that Phillip III only ful 

 filled thereby the long-cherished desire not only of his father but also 

 of his grandfather, and that the action was therefore the natural out 

 come of family traditions and influences. 



All facts considered incline to the belief that the motto refers directly 

 to the young infant, Phillip of Spain, and that it is he who figures on 

 the shield under the form of the smaller heron attacking the monster, 

 Infidelity. The larger bird, in a passive attitude, might readily repre 

 sent Phillip II, the hereditary defender of the Roman Catholic faith. 

 This inference is further corroborated by the fact that both birds wear 

 the same form of serrated royal crowns, which would scarcely be the 

 case if one of the herons typified the Church. Moreover, the motto 

 could not possibly have applied to Phillip II unless bestowed upon him 

 by his father, and the latter died in 1558, thirteen years earlier than the 

 battle of Lepanto which figures on the shield. 



The manufacture of this interesting relic must be assigned to the 

 period between the victory at Lepanto (1571) and the death of Phillip 

 II, in 1598. Its actual preservation is a matter of wonder and con 

 gratulation, more especially when it is realized how narrowly it escaped 

 destruction in 1844, when a disastrous fire broke out in the Royal 

 Armory. When rescued from this by Count de Valencia it was much 

 disfigured by smoke and soot, and the removal of these revealed that 

 the velvety surface had permanently lost the remainder of its former 

 luster. Scant traces of humming-bird feathers are left to testify to the 

 lost splendor of the rich border. Fortunately, the battle scenes are 

 comparatively uninjured, and are of such exquisite, minute, and perfect 

 mosaic work that even in its present condition the shield deserves to 

 be termed a marvel of human ingenuity and technical skill. 



It has a rival in the beautiful bishop s miter that belongs to the royal 

 treasury in the Pitti Palace at Florence, and is in a remarkable and 

 almost perfect state of preservation. Visitors to the United States 

 section of the exhibition were able to form an idea of the original from 

 the miniature copies partly executed in metallic colors that I exhibited 

 there. The front and back of the miter and its pendants are entirely 

 covered with an extremely rich design of a religious character, executed 

 in feather mosaic. The design is evidently the work of a Spaniard, for 

 the names of the apostles and patriarchs depicted around the border 

 are in the Spanish language. At a first glance it might be supposed 



