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privileges at the expense of the royal power. The
demands of the nobles increased in the reign of Al-
fonso III, who was forced to confirni to them the
famous Prwilegio de la Unidn. Jaime II became
reconciled with the Holy See, accepting Corsica and
Sardinia in heu of Sicily. Pedro IV, the Ceremoni-
ous, defeated the nobles at Epila (1348) and used his
dagger to cut in pieces the charter they had extorted
from his predecessors. In the meantime the Catalans
and Aragonese who were left in Sicily offered them-
selves to the Emperor Andronicus Pala?ologus to fight
the Turks. Having conquered these, they turned
their arms against the Greeks, who treacherously
slew their leaders; but for this treachery the S|)ani;irds,
under Bernard of Rooafort anfl Berenguer of Enten(;a,
exacted the terrible penalty celebrated in histor\- as
"The Catalan Vengeance" and moreover seized the
Duchies of Athens and Naupatria (1.313). The royal
line of Aragon became extinct with Martin the
Humane, and the Compromise of Caspe gave the
Crown to the dynasty of Castile, thus preparing the
final union. Alfonso V, the Magnanimous, once more
turned Aragonese pohcy in the direction of Italy,
where he possessed the Kingdom of Sicily and ac-
quired that of Naples by having himself made adopt-
ive son of Queen Joanna. With these events began
the Italian wars which were not to end until the
eighteenth century.
Meanwhile the Reconquest languished in Castile; at first, because of the candidacj' of Alfonso the Wise for the imperial Crown of German}-, in which can- didacy he had secured a majority of the electoral princes. This was followed by a disputed succession to the Throne, the rival claimants being the Cerda heirs (sons of Fernando, the eldest son of Alfonso X) and the second son of Sancho IV. Next came the minorities of Ferdinand IV, Alfonso XI, Henrj- III, and John II, and fresh civil strife in the reigns of Pedro the Cruel and of Henry IV. Ferdinand IV succeeded to the Throne at the age of nine, being under the tutelage of his mother Dona Maria de Molina. Alfonso XI was little more than one year old when his father died (1312); and though his reign was in many respects glorious, and he overcame the Beni-Merines in the battle of El Salado (1340), still his amours with Doiia Leonor de Guzman, by whom he had several children, resulted in the wars of the following reign, that of Pedro the Cruel, who was at last slain by his bastard brother, Henry of Trasta- mara, and succeeded on the Throne by him under the title of Henrj' II. John I, who married Beatriz of Portugal (1383), sought to unite the two kingdoms on the death of Ferdinand, the last King of Portugal of the Burgundian line. The Portuguese, however, de- feated John of Ca.stile at the battle of Aljubarota, and the Portuguese Crown went to the Master of Aviz, who became John I of Portugal (1385). Henrj- III, who married Catherine of Lancaster, was the first to take the title of Prince of Asturias as heir to the Crown, which he inherited during his minority, as did hb son, John II.
National unity was eventually attained by the most unexpected means: Isabel of Castile, who was not the heiress of Henry IV, married Fernando (Ferdinand) of Aragon. who was not the heir of John II, and the tragic death of the Prince of Viana, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the no less tragic fate of Juana la Beltraneja contributed to a result which no doubt entered into the designs of Providence (see Isabella THE Catholic). Portugal, which failed to be united with Ca.stile on the extinction of the House of Bur- gundy, was united with it when the Aviz dynasty ended, in the time of Philip II, to be again separated, however, under Philip IV, when the Houseof Braganza secured the Crown. But, before reviewing the civ-il history of united Spain, it will be well to glance at its ecclesiastical history during this period of transition.
G. Religions Development. — The great monarchs of
the Reconquest were distinguished by their zeal in
restoring and founding churches, or converting the
conquered mosques into Catholic churches. St.
Ferdinand re-established the ancient churches and
sees of Ja^n, Cordova (where the great mosque be-
came the cathedral), and Seville, and began the erec-
tion of the magnificent cathedrals of Burgos and
Toledo. His contemporary, Jaime the Conqueror, is
said to have consecrated to God no fewer than 2000
churches; he founded the Cathedral of Majorca (1229)
and restored the ancient See of Valencia, making
it suffragan to Tarragona, though it afterwards, in
the fifteenth centun,-, became metropolitan. Its
first bishop was Ferrer of San Martm. The thirteenth
centur\- was a verj- prosperous epoch for the Spanish
Church: it was then that the Carmelites, Dominicans,
and Franciscans were established in the Peninsula,
as well as the Order of the Most Holy Trinity for the
redemption of captives. For this same object, also,
Jaime the Conqueror, St. Peter Nolasco, and St. Ray-
mond of Penafort founded the Mercedarians (Orden
de la Merced), at first a military order, but afterwards
mona,stic (1228). When Philip the Fair brought
about the extinction of the Templars, Jaime II of
Aragon and the Councils of Salamanca and Tarragona
asserted their innocence and, when obliged to carry
out the decree of suppression, divided their possessions
between the Orders of .St. John of Jerusalem and
Montesa, the latter created to defend the frontiers of
Valencia previously defended by the Templars. The
Knights of Montesa took for their device the plain red
cross on a white mantle.
In the Great Schism of the West Spain played a great part, chiefly through the influence of the Aragon- ese, Pedro de Luna (antipope Benedict XIII). As a cardinal, his influence led Henr>- II of Castile and Pedro IV of Aragon to recognize Clement VII, and after his own election he ended by withdrawing to Spain, where he hved in the castle of Peiiiscola. In 1399 an assembly held at Alcald resolved to obey neither pope, as it was not known which of the two was legitimate. The antipope favoured the election of Ferdinand of Antequera in the Compromise of Caspe, in which St. Vincent Ferrer, an ardent partisan of P>rdinand, was arbitrator. In this way the anti- pope secured recognition from the Spaniards. At last, in 1416. St. \'incent Ferrer and the kings aban- doned the cause of Benedict XIII and gave their ad- herence to the Council of Constance. Gil .Sanchez Munoz, a native of Teruel, was, on the death of Benedict XIII, elected by the cardinals of Peniscola, who were supported by Alfonso V of Aragon; but he soon afterwards resigned his claims, in the Council of Tarragona, recognized Martin V, and was made Bishop of Majorca.
During this period the Jews in Spain became very numerous and acquired great power; the>' were not only the physicians, but also the treasurers of the kings. Don Jusaph de Ecija administered the revr enues of Alfonso XI, and Samuel Levi was chief favour- ite of Pedro the Cruel. The Jews of Toledo then set on foot their migration (Trnn.^-ito) in protest against the laws of Alfonso X {Las Parlidas), which prohibited the building of new synagogues. After the accession of Henrj- of Trastaniara to the Throne, the populace, exasperated by the preponderance of Jewish influence, perpetrated a massacre of Jews at Toledo; in 1391 another general massacre took place, beginning at Seville; a httlc later, the jewTies of Toledo, Burgos, Valencia, and Cordova were attacked, and the like scenes were enacted in ,-\ragon, especially at Barce- lona. St. \"incent Ferrer converted innumerable Jews, among them the Rabbi Josuah Halorqui, who took the name of Jeronimo de Santa Fe and in his town converted many of his former coreligionists in the famous Dispute of Tortosa (1413). Oppressed
