The church and the state, the prince and the
priest, became as one, and loyalty and religion, devotion to the
standard and to the cross, were but different names for the same
principles and actions. Hence Spain emerged to greatness without the
least dream of liberty of either person, conscience or thought. Her
rallying cry was: For the Prince and the Church; not, For God and
Liberty. She went up to greatness the most loyal and the most
religious of nations; but Liberty, Justice and Truth were not upon her
banners.
Look over the territory settled and conquered by her, and what do we
see? Columbus, sailing under Spain, names the first land he discovers
San Salvador; the first settlement made in this country is St.
Augustine; the second, Sante Fe. Look down over the southern half of
our continent and such names as Espirito Santo, Corpus Christi, San
Diego, San Juan, San Jose, San Domingo attest the religious zeal of
the conquerors. They were missionaries of the Cross, robbing the
people of their gold and paying them off with religion.
Steadfast in the faith and sturdy in her loyalty, Spain resisted all
innovations with respect to her religious beliefs, and all
insurrections against her government. Her Alva and her Torquemada but
illustrated how strong was her conservatism, while her Isabella and
her Philip II show how grand and comprehensive and how persistent was
her aggressiveness, under the idea of spreading and upholding the true
faith.
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