CATHOLICISM IN SPAIN 215 



44f per cent. Tlie suicide-rate has thus remained practically 

 stationary ; and one may be tempted to iafer from this that our 

 statement as to the unfavourable influence of Protestantism 

 on the suicide-rate of the community is not justified. We may 

 reply that the influence exercised by the Anghcan Church in 

 the social sphere is far greater than the influence exercised by 

 the Protestant Churches on the Continent, whether in Germany 

 or in Switzerland. The reason for this phenomenon is to be 

 foimd partly in the nature of the constitution of the Anglican 

 Church, which has retained the ecclesiastical hierarchy of the 

 CathoUc Church ; and chiefly in the fact that, for the majority 

 of EngHshmen, the Established Church is one of the emblems 

 of the national greatness. Eeligion according to the tenets of 

 the National Church thus forms an integral part of the behever's 

 patriotic creed. Even as in Spain seven centuries of warfare 

 against the Moors and the followers of the Prophet brought about 

 the closest alliance between reHgious belief and patriotic feeling ; 

 so also in England, whether rightly or wrongly, the greatness 

 of the British nation is associated with the virtues of the 

 National Church. Between the time when the Moorish tribes- 

 men conquered Spain for the disciples of Islam and the memorable 

 day when Ferdinand and Isabella entered Granada in triumph, 

 the Spaniards had been engaged in one long, continous fight 

 for their national independence. The national feeling was 

 developed from this uninterrupted struggle against a common 

 foe. The struggle to free Spain from the invader became 

 identified with the struggle of the Cross against the Crescent. 

 The religion of the Spaniard formed an integral part of his 

 patriotic duty ; and all the great traditions of Spain are asso- 

 ciated with the national religion, for the national cause in Spain 

 was inseparably linked with the cause of Catholic Christianity. 

 It was in the name of the Church that Ferdinand and Isabella 

 undertook the conquest of Granada and the fijial liberation of 

 Spanish soil ; it was with the sanction of the Church that 

 Columbus sailed in search of the New World ; it was with the 



