367 



Zjurita, held an opposite faith, they did not think it worth while openly 

 to avow it. The current of opinion, in fact, ran strongly in favour of the 

 forgeries ; and they were generally regarded as true history till about 

 1656, or a little later, and therefore till long after the death of their 

 real author. Father Higuera, which happened in 1624. The discussion 

 about them, however, which is evident was going on during much of 

 this time, was useful. Doubts were multiplied ; the disbelief in their 

 genuineness, which had been expressed to Higuera himself, as early as 

 1595, by the modest and learned Juan Eautista Perez, Bishop of Se- 

 gorbe, gradually gained ground. W riters of history grew cautious ; 

 and at last, in 1652, jSTicolas Antonio began his ^ HistoriasFabulosas,' a 

 huge folio, which he left unfinished at his death, and which was not 

 printed till long afterwards, but which, with its cumbrous, though clear- 

 sighted learning, left no doubt as to the nature and extent of the fraud 

 of Father Higuera, and made his case a teaching to all future Spanish 

 historians, that does not seem to have been lost on them. See the 

 Chronicle of Dexter, at the end of Mcolo Antonio's 'Bibliotheca Yetus,' 

 the ' Historias Fabulosas' of Antonio, with the life of its author pre- 

 fixed by Mayans y Siscar (Madrid, 1742, folio), to show the grossness 

 of the whole imposture ; and the ' Chronica Universal' of Alonso Mal- 

 donado (Madrid, 1624, folio), to show how implicitly it was then be- 

 lieved and followed by learned men. The man of learning who was the 

 most clear-sighted about the 'Leaden Books' and the chronicones, and 

 who behaved with most courage in relation to them from the first, was, 

 I suppose, the Bishop of Segorbe, who is noticed in Yillanueva, ' Viage 

 Literario a los Iglesias de Espana.' (Madrid, 1804, 8vo, toni. iii., p. 

 166) ; together with the document (pp. 259, 278), in which he exposes 

 the whole fraud, but which was never before published."^' 



The Leaden Books of Grenada/' and the " Chronicones" of Father 

 Higuera, were deliberately fabricated with a view to the introduction of 

 false records of events in connexion with the early Spanish Church, 

 tending to flatter national pride and to exalt the character of the Spanish 

 hierarchy, into the ecclesiastical history of the kingdom. These pious 

 literary frauds and forgeries were at the height of their success from the 

 beginning of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century. 



The coming into Spain of St. James the Apostle, and his becoming 

 the founder and patron of the Spanish Church, crept from them into all 

 the cotemporary Spanish chronicles and ecclesiastical histories and an- 

 nals. 



FABULOSAS HISTOEIAS NOT SOLELY PEODTJCTS OP POKMEB. TIMES AND OF 



FORMER AGES. 



The alleged apostleship of St. James in Spain was of a much earlier 

 origin than the pious frauds of Higuera. "Whoever takes the trouble of 



* Ticknor, " Hist, of Span. Lit. Lond., 1849, vol. iii., 140, 141. 



