“Letter XV (I. from the Influence of the Holy Office to Literary Men as Ministers and Consuls)”

Autor del texto editado: Blaquière, Edward 1779-1832
Título de la obra: An Historical Review of the Spanish Revolution
Autor de la obra: Blaquière, Edward 1779-1832
Edición: London: G. & W. B. Whittaker, 1822
Paginación: pp. 487-496

Fuentes

Transcripción realizada sobre el ejemplar de la Biblioteca Nacional de Austria. (texto completo)

Información técnica

Encoding: Noelia Santiago López
Transcriptor: Carmen Calzada Borrallo
Editor: Mercedes Comellas Aguirrezábal

Edición preparada para el Proyecto I+D "BIOGRAFÍAS Y POLÉMICAS: HACIA LA INSTITUCIONALIZACIÓN DE LA LITERATURA Y EL AUTOR" (SILEM II) RTI2018-095664-B-C21 y C22 http://www.uco.es/investigacion/proyectos/silem/index.php

Este documento sigue los criterios y lenguaje cifrado de TEI http://www.tei-c.org/About/website.xml

Sevilla, 4 octubre 2020

LETTER XV.

LITERATURE and LEARNED MEN.— Influence of the Holy Office on Letters and Sciences.—System of Exclusion and Persecution: its effect on Literature.—Change under Louis XIV. and Philip V.—FEIJOO and Mayans. —Ferdinand VI.—Charles III. —Progress of Letters in his Reign.—Poets and Prose Writers.—Literary Men employed as Ministers and Consuls.—Isla; Campomanes; Jovellanos: his Biography: Florida Blanca: Count de Cabarrus.—Living Writers of Spain: Lardizabal: Toribo Nunez: Cambronero: Herreros: Salas: Cabrera: Hermosilla: Reinoso: Vascons: O'Farril: Andujar: Moratin: Gorostiza: Conde: Bowring: Quintana: Cienfuegos: Martinez de la Rosa: Savinon: Minamo: Florez Estrada: Puigblanch, &c.— Marina and Llorente: some account of the latter.— Praiseworthy Conduct of the Spanish Poets.-Present tendency of Literature.—Taste for French Literature.—Severity of the Inquisition towards English Writers.—Bacon and Locke.—The Study and Cultivation of British Literature recommended. English Writers known only to a few in Spain.—Milton: Escoquiz: Pope: Trigueros, and Mr. Bentham.—Works of Fiction.— Precautions recommended.—Periodical Literature.— El Censor: La Miscellanea. — M. Cabronero.— M. de Mora.— El Constitutional, and La Minerva Naçional. —Irreproachable Conduct of Public Writers.—An Exception.—State of the Fine Arts: Raphael Mengs.—Barbarous Taste of Former Times.— Innovations Suggested.—Alvarez.—Madrazo.—Advantage to the Patriotic Government of Encouraging the Fine Arts.

Madrid, October, 1820.

The gigantic arm of the Holy Office was not confined to striking at the root of religion and morals; its uniform persecution of literature and learned men, was but too successful in checking the flame of genius which burst forth in the fifteenth century, under the auspices of Ferdinand and Isabella; and which, had it not been for this fatal influence, must have given Spain the same pre-eminence in arts and science, which she attained in war and conquest.

With so much native talent, and inheriting the richest stores of Roman and Arabic learning, those treasures, consequent to the discovery of America, opened a field for the display of knowledge and developement of civilization, that would have known no bounds, were it not for the interposition of a tribunal, whose first establishment was signalized by declaring an implacable warfare against all those who made the slightest movement in favour of truth and liberty. As there was no rule of the Inquisition so rigidly adhered to, as the above, it ceases to be matter of surprise, that every writer, whether laic or churchman, however exalted in rank, or pre-eminent in virtue, who attempted to infringe its arbitrary dicta, during the domination of the Austrian dynasty, became an object of hatred and persecution.

While occupied in suppresing every gleam of light at home, the Inquisitors were not less active in excluding it from without; and to such an extent were the prohibitions on foreign literature carried, that whatever related to discoveries in physical science, astronomy or mathematics, experienced the same opposition as the works of Toland, Hobbes, and Locke, or of Voltaire, D'Alembert and Rousseau in more recent times. 1

A Spanish writer, alluding to the effect produced by the Holy Office, says, literature, taste and science had degenerated to such a degree, at the commencement of last century, that nothing more than a confused recollection of what they had once been, remained. It is by comparing the state of Spain, in the above-named epoch, when it boasted a much larger share of genius and refinement than either England or France, with those two countries, on the accession of Philip V. that some notion may be formed of what Spain has lost in the scale of intellect and improvement, through the tyranny of the Inquisition. 2

The suspension of the sacred tribunal, during the war of succession, and change of Dynasty, produced a most salutary effect; for, although the despotism of Louis XIV. was fully equal to that of the Austrian race of Spanish Kings, there had been no Inquisition to extinguish knowledge in France while Louis fed his own vanity, and imposed on the credulous admiration of surrounding sovereigns and their subjects, by appearing to conceal the vices of his government in the encouragement of science, and subsidizing the mercenary adulation of literature. 3 The establishment of various academies and literary societies was, therefore, an object of great solicitude during Philip's reign. As mentioned in a former page, the single exertions of Feijoo 4 and Mayans, did more towards producing a new era of knowledge here than the whole of their cotemporaries. The first Volume of El Teatro Critico, a periodical work, in which the former combatted the errors of his age, with the double weapon of ridicule and reason, appeared in 1726. The influence of this celebrated work, and his erudite letters, of which thirteen volumes were published between the above year, and 1760, was such, that Feijoo is considered as the restorer of Spanish literature and Science in the eighteenth century.

The peaceful reign of Ferdinand VI. was also favourable to the progress of learning; and this prince is said to have done his utmost in aiding the impulse given in the preceding reign. It was not, however, till the accession of Charles III. that the sun of Spanish literature re-appeared, illumined with its former glory. Charles, who deserves to be ranked amongst the Nervas and Trajans of other times, did more to promote letters and the arts in Spain, than all his predecessors together: surely it is not too much to say that the sovereign who is entitled to this panegyric, deserves an apotheosis!

The catalogue of Spanish writers, whose works are noticed by Sampere, de Castro and others, will bear an advantageous comparison with those of France and our own country, of the same period; a circumstance the more to be wondered at, since the Inquisition which had renewed a system of proscription immediately after the treaty of Utrecht, did not suffer a single individual of liberal opinion, either in religion, politics, or literature, to escape persecution. The treatment of Floridablanca, Almodavar, Campomanes, Azara, Chumacero, Palafox, Jovellanos, de Roda, the amiable Countess de Montijo, 5 and many others in this reign, proves that if Emperors and Kings were not to be found, neither Bishops, Ministers nor Magistrates were spared by the Holy Office. But the spirit of the age was too powerful for the sacred tribunal, and destined ere many years, to suppress it altogether.

Even a circumscribed account of those who have graced the literary annals of Spain, from the reign of Charles III. to the present moment, would occupy a very voluminous work, and amply repay the labours of the biographer and critic: the rapid, and I may add talismanic progress, made as it were by enchantment, though opposed at every step, on the arrival of the above monarch, is the best proof of what Spain would have been, had learning and science experienced no check in preceding reigns.

The same remarkable distinction which prevails between the national character of the Spanish people, and that of other nations, is no less strikingly manifested in the writings of those authors who sprung up on the accession of Charles. The whole seem to have been animated with a desire of restoring the literature of their country; as if they felt how much it had been degraded in former reigns. Although pens were not wanting to sing the praises of the modern Augustus, it is highly creditable to the Spanish muse to add, that there are few instance on record of her poets having prostituted their pens to power, or turned poetry aside from its original intention, that of promoting the interests of freedom and humanity. A slight reference to the works of Trigueros, 6 the elder Moratin, Melendez, 7 Yriarte, and a host of other poets, amply prove the truth of this assertion. The works of these writers are replete with sentiments in favour of liberty and reform, at a time when the poets of other countries were chiefly occupied in illustrating the heathen mythology, or seeking the patronage of some great man. 8 Amongst the prose writers of that reign, Campomanes, Acevedo, de Roda, Floridablanca, Salas, Lardizabal, Olavide, Campilla, La Isla, Jovellanos and Cabarrus, not to mention a hundred other names, present a phalanx of practical reformers and practical philosophers, for which it would be idle to look for equals in the rest of Europe.

Not confining his efforts to the mere encouragement of literary men, Charles III. gave them a decided preference in all offices of trust, from that of Prime Minister, down to the post of Ambassadors and commercial Consuls. The reforms effected in his reign, and the degree of prosperity acquired by Spain, amidst the unceasing hostility of priests and inquisitors, is a triumphant and unanswerable proof, how well such men knew how to merit the confidence of their sovereign, and the benedictions of posterity; while the sudden relapse into former corruption, which followed the accession of Charles IV. is the most striking proof ever furnished, of the consequences to a nation, of placing power in the hands of needy adventurers and ignorant court favourites.

Should any future writer undertake to do justice to the reformers of the Peninsula, he will but ill perform his task, without recapitulating the benefits of every kind conferred on Spain by Charles III. and those to whom his confidence was given: amongst these, the names I have mentioned are pre-eminently conspicuous, not only as incorruptible and unbought statesmen and ministers, but as writers and patrons of learning. It would, indeed, be extremely difficult to point out any set of men in the modern history of Europe, whose names are more deserving of being handed down to posterity.

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