54 



Contemporary Evolution. 



able mediaeval relic irreverently termed by the late Dr. 

 Wilberforce the " Squarson." 



If we turn to Spain we find there is a very interest- 

 ing and instructive example of the same process under 

 very different forms and with very different results. The 

 prolonged Moorish wars caused Christianity to entwine 

 itself so intimately with the Spanish social structure, that 

 the mediaeval theocracy remained in full force to the end 

 of the reign of the great Isabella. Nevertheless it was 

 taking a peculiar direction, not found in other countries 

 in Europe. 



As elsewhere, so also in Spain, the monarch came to 

 share in that exaggerated authority and dignity which 

 kings acquired, in the sixteenth century, as the patrons 

 or as the vanquishers of the Church within their borders. 

 But in Spain the monarch had to share his power with 

 another for a time co-ordinate, independent, and invin- 

 cible authority the frightful Spanish Inquisition. 



This institution, which originally, indeed, took its rise 

 in a development of the official Christian system, soon 

 became so powerful, owing to local conditions, as to be 

 able to defy and successfully resist that theocracy in 

 which it took its rise, and the singular spectacle presented 

 itself of a power professing to have for its one object the 

 complete and minute enforcement of Church authority 

 itself refusing to obey the supreme head of the very 

 Church it professed to serve. 



