But, while the native ecclesiastics obtained such complete ascendency over
the popular mind, the Roman See could boast of less influence in Spain
than in any other country in Europe. The Gothic liturgy was alone
received, as canonical until the eleventh century; [75] and, until the
twelfth, the sovereign held the right of jurisdiction over all
ecclesiastical causes, of collating to benefices, or at least of
confirming or annulling the election of the chapters. The code of Alfonso
the Tenth, however, which borrowed its principles of jurisprudence from
the civil and canon law, completed a revolution already begun, and
transferred these important prerogatives to the pope, who now succeeded in
establishing a usurpation over ecclesiastical rights in Castile, similar
to that which had been before effected in other parts of Christendom. Some
of these abuses, as that of the nomination of foreigners to benefices,
were carried to such an impudent height, as repeatedly provoked the
indignant remonstrances of the cortes. The ecclesiastics, eager to
indemnify themselves for what they had sacrificed to Rome, were more than
ever solicitous to assert their independence of the royal jurisdiction.
They particularly insisted on their immunity from taxation, and were even
reluctant to divide with the laity the necessary burdens of a war, which,
from its sacred character, would seem to have imperative claims on them.
[76]

Notwithstanding the immediate dependence thus established on the head of
the church by the legislation of Alfonso the Tenth, the general immunities
secured by it to the ecclesiastics operated as a powerful bounty on their
increase; and the mendicant orders in particular, that spiritual militia
of the popes, were multiplied over the country to an alarming extent. Many
of their members were not only incompetent to the duties of their
profession, being without the least tincture of liberal culture, but fixed
a deep stain on it by the careless laxity of their morals. Open