SPAIN.

Between the ancient Spaniards and the Romans a most intimate connection subsisted from an early period of the Roman republic, and the laws and customs of the former bore the closest resemblance to those of the latter. This affinity continued so long as the Roman empire had a name, and after the establishment of Christianity as the state religion, the ties of kindred and dependence were drawn still closer, for the Spanish kingdom has ever been the favored heritage, and its rulers the most obedient sons of Rome. Thus the maxims of the Roman civil law were early incorporated into the political system, and they still remain the chief pillars of Spanish jurisprudence. Accordingly, we find, in their legislation on prostitution, that the Spaniards, together with the general theories, adopted the specific enactments of other Latin nations.

By the code of Alphonse IX., in the twelfth century, procurers were to be condemned to “civil death.” Such offenders were thus classified:

These latter were analogous to the pimp and bully of the present day, and, from the repeated and very severe laws against them, seem to have given great trouble to the authorities. They were banished, flogged, imprisoned; in short, got rid of on any terms. Girls who supported them were publicly whipped, and the general laws upon the matter were similar to those noted in the previous chapter on Italy.

In Spain, the profligacy of public morals attained a pitch beyond all precedent, possibly owing, in some measure, to Draconian legislation. Further laws were, from time to time, passed against the Ruffiani, as preceding edicts had fallen into desuetude, and their presence and traffic was encouraged by the prostitutes. These latter were forbidden to harbor the men, and on breach of this prohibition were to be branded, publicly whipped, and banished the kingdom. Procurers, procuresses, and adulteresses were punished by mutilation of the nose. Mothers who trafficked in their children’s virtue, except under pressure of extreme want, were also liable to this barbarous punishment.

In 1552 and 1566, edicts were again passed against the Ruffiani. They were styled a highly objectionable class, dangerous to public order. On the first conviction as a ruffiano, the offender was sentenced to ten years at the galleys; for a second conviction, he received two hundred blows or stripes, and was sent to the galleys for life.

Up to this time the court of Spain seems to have been almost as strongly tinctured with licentiousness as those of other nations. About the middle of the fifteenth century, Henry IV. divorced his wife, Blanche of Aragon, after a union of twelve years, the marriage being publicly declared void by the Bishop of Segovia, whose sentence was confirmed by the Archbishop of Toledo, “por impotencia respectiva, owing to some malign influence.” Henry subsequently espoused Joanna, sister of Alphonse V., King of Portugal. The bride was accompanied by a brilliant train of maidens, and her entrance into Castile was greeted by the festivities and military pageants which belonged to the age of chivalry. In her own country Joanna had been ardently beloved; in the land of her adoption her light and lively manners gave occasion to the grossest suspicions. Scandal named the Cavalier Beltran de la Cueva as her most favored lover. He was one of the handsomest men in the kingdom. At a tournament near Madrid he maintained the superior beauty of his mistress against all comers, and displayed so much prowess in the presence of the king as induced Henry to commemorate the event by the erection of a monastery dedicated to St. John.[234] It does not appear, however, whom Beltran de la Cueva indicated as the lady of his love on this occasion.

Two anecdotes may be mentioned as characteristic of the gallantry of the times. The Archbishop of Seville concluded a superb fÊte, given in honor of the royal nuptials, by introducing on the table two vases filled with rings garnished with precious stones, to be distributed among his female guests. At a ball given on another occasion, the young queen having condescended to dance with the French embassador, the latter made a solemn vow, in commemoration of so distinguished an honor, never to dance with any other woman.

While the queen’s levity laid her open to suspicion, the licentiousness of her husband was undisguised. One of Joanna’s maids of honor acquired an ascendency over Henry which he did not attempt to conceal, and after the exhibition of some disgraceful scenes, the palace became divided by the factions of the hostile fair ones. The Archbishop of Seville did not blush to espouse the cause of the paramour, who maintained a magnificence of state which rivaled royalty itself. The public were still more scandalized by Henry’s sacrilegious intrusion of another of his mistresses into the post of abbess of a convent in Toledo, after the expulsion of her predecessor, a lady of noble rank and irreproachable character.

These examples of corruption influenced alike the people and the clergy. The middle class imitated their superiors, and indulged in an excess of luxury equally demoralizing and ruinous. The Archbishop of St. James was hunted from his see by the indignant populace in consequence of an outrage attempted on a youthful bride as she was returning from church after the performance of the nuptial ceremony.[235]

Under the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella a total change was effected. “They both exhibited a practical wisdom in their own personal relations which always commands respect, and which, however it may have savored of worldly policy in Ferdinand, was in his consort founded on the purest and most exalted principles. Under such a sovereign, the court, which had been little better than a brothel in the preceding reign, became the nursery of virtue and generous ambition. Isabella watched assiduously over the nurture of the high-born damsels of the court, whom she received into the royal palace, causing them to be educated under her own eye, and endowing them with liberal portions on their marriage.”[236]

Joanna, the second daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, was unfortunate in her marriage to Philip, son of the Archduke Maximilian, and sovereign—in right of his mother—of the Low Countries. The couple embarked for Flanders in the year 1504, and soon after their arrival the inconstancy of the husband and the ungovernable sensibility of the wife occasioned some scandalous scenes. Philip was openly enamored of one of the ladies in her suite, and his injured wife, in a paroxysm of jealousy, personally assaulted her rival, and caused the beautiful locks which had excited the admiration of her fickle husband to be shorn from her head. This outrage so affected Philip that he vented his indignation against Joanna in the coarsest and most unmanly terms, and finally refused to have any farther intercourse with her.[237]

Public brothels were established in Spain, as in other countries of Europe, one of great extent being in existence in Valencia in the fifteenth century. It constituted a complete suburb in itself, similar to the Ghetto, or Jews’ suburb of most capital cities. Indeed, from its description, it is doubtful if it was not a rogue’s sanctuary, similar to the well known Alsatia in London. It was surrounded by a wall with one gate only, at which a warder was stationed. He was a public city officer, and one of his duties was to warn all comers of the risk their property ran in visiting such a place. If they wished to leave valuables in his care they could do so, and receive them on their exit. There were some hundreds of girls resident in this vast den of iniquity. To add to the disgrace of the locality, the place of public execution was at its gate.

In 1486, the rents, profits and emoluments of the public brothels of Seville were assigned to Alonzo Fajardo, the master of the royal table.

In 1559, there is an enactment in Granada fixing the rents to be paid by the women for their rooms and accommodation in public brothels, and also detailing the furniture and food with which they were to be provided in return. This is similar to the minute legislation of the German cities. This public provision having been made, no person was allowed to lend these women bed-linen.

The authorities of various cities might not permit a prostitute to reside in the town without previous examination by a duly licensed physician, who was to declare, upon oath, whether the woman then was or had recently been diseased.

By some of the Spanish laws, varraganas (kept mistresses or concubines) seem to have been a legal institution, for men of rank were forbidden to take slave-dancers, tavern-servants, procuresses, or prostitutes as concubines. This breach of the ordinary institutions of Christianity may probably have been a compromise of Moorish and Christian usages and morals. Before the final deadly struggle which ended in the expulsion of the Moors, intermarriages were not uncommon among the two peoples. Interchange of friendship and close intimacy existed between the races, and a mutual tolerance of each other’s laws and customs was maintained, except by the enthusiasts of either religion.

The Spanish jurists distinctly recognized the woman’s right to recover the wages of her infamy. The scholiasts struck out various fine distinctions, for which the monkish dialecticians were so deservedly ridiculed by the free-thinkers of the eighteenth century, and these were debated and discussed with the utmost eagerness.[238] One question was whether, if the man paid beforehand, and the woman refused to complete the contract, he could compel her? The weight of opinion seemed to be that, as he contemplated an immorality, he could neither recover the money nor enforce the agreement. Another equally important point was the use to which the gains of prostitution might be lawfully applied. The legality of their gains would seem to have overridden the mode of their expenditure, but casuists thought otherwise, and, by a royal edict of Alphonse IX., it was decided that priests could not receive funds obtained from such impure sources.

By the old Spanish law prostitutes were subjected to various disabilities in matters of inheritance or testamentary disposition. As mentioned in the review of the old German customs, the Church considered it a meritorious act to marry a harlot, on the assumption that thereby a brand was saved from the burning.[239] It is related of a young man that, while being led to the scaffold, a courtesan, struck by his manly beauty and bearing, offered to marry him, whereby, in virtue of a law or usage, his life would be saved. He rejected her proposition, as existence was not worth redemption at such a price. It is added that his life was nevertheless spared, in consideration of his spirit and courage.

In 1570, by order of Philip II., the regulations in force in the principal towns of Andalusia were extended to those of Castile. By these it was enacted that a woman became a prostitute of her own free will, and that no one could compel her to continue such, even though she had incurred debts. A surgeon was directed to pay her a weekly visit at her house, and report to the deputies of the Consistory those who were diseased, in order that they might be removed to hospital. The keeper of a brothel could not receive into his house any one who had not been previously examined, nor allow any one who was diseased to remain there, under a fine of a thousand maravedis, with thirty days’ imprisonment. Each room was to contain certain furniture, and the house was to be closed on holidays, during Lent, Ember Week, and on all fast days, under a punishment of a hundred stripes to each woman who received visitors, as well as to the keeper of the house. These and other orders were to be hung upon different parts of the house, under a fine (about six dollars) and eight days’ imprisonment.

The subject of venereal disease in Spain has acquired some interest from a generally received opinion that its appearance was made in that country, whence it was disseminated throughout Europe. Columbus and his crew were reported to have introduced it from America, but later investigations have proved that syphilis was not known on this side of the Atlantic until imported by Europeans. Facts have been advanced in preceding pages showing its almost simultaneous appearance in Italy and Spain, and we recur to the subject now merely with reference to the theory of its American origin. A late work, Lettere sulla Storia de Mali Venerei, di Domenice Thiene, Venezia, 1823, enumerates some proofs on the question. The main points are: 1. That neither Columbus nor his son allude, in any way, to such a disease in the New World. 2. Among frequent notices of the disease in the twenty-five years following the discovery of America, there is no mention of its originating there, but, on the contrary, a uniform derivation of it from some other source is assigned. 3. That the disorder was known and described before the siege of Naples, and therefore could not be introduced by the Spaniards at that time. 4. That it was known in a variety of countries in 1493 and the early part of 1494; a rapidity of diffusion irreconcilable with its importation by Columbus in 1493. 5. That the first work professing to trace its origin in America was not published till 1517, and was the production, not of a Spaniard, but a foreigner. The question of its origin is more definitely settled by a letter of Peter Martyr, noticing the symptoms in the most unequivocal manner, and dated April 5, 1488, about five years before the return of Columbus. Some doubts have been thrown upon the accuracy of this letter, but they do not invalidate it.[240]

In Madrid, in 1522, a special hospital for venereal patients was founded by Antoine Martin, of the order of St. Jean de Dieu. In 1575 the Spaniards passed an ordinance that no female domestics under forty years of age should be taken to service by unmarried men. The tenor of this law bespeaks the evil intended to be remedied.In the present day, little is done in Spain in reference to prostitution by legislation on the subject. In his memoir on the subject to the Brussels Congress, Ramon de la Segra tells us that the old edicts have gradually become obsolete, and that neither the municipal authorities or general government take any farther interest in the question than an occasional enforcement of the catholic laws against immorality and women of ill fame. It is said that in Seville first-class houses of prostitution have a custom of retaining the services of a physician at their own expense, whose office is to attend and make examinations of the women. Cadiz is notorious for its attractive climate and its dissipations.[241]

In the last century a tone of manners prevailed in the Spanish peninsula which was materially changed by the French occupation sweeping away many of the laxities of the age. In 1780 the Italian system of an attendant upon married ladies was adopted in Spain. These were termed Cortejos, and it is stated that in the cities they were principally military men, but in the country the monks performed the duty. The fidelity and affection of the women were directed to their gallants, and it even was thought discreditable, without very sufficient reason, to be guilty of fickleness in this particular. Married men were even the cortejos of other men’s wives, neglecting their own, or leaving them to follow the bent of their private inclinations. No husband was jealous, but it was etiquette for Spanish ladies to keep up an external decorum, and to abstain from marked attentions to a cortejo in the husband’s presence, although he might be perfectly aware of his wife’s infidelity, and of her lover’s presence in the house.[242] A curious illustration of this extraordinary state of public manners is given in an incident that occurred in Carthagena. A gentleman one morning remarked to a friend, “Before I go to rest this night the whole city will be thrown into confusion.” He occasioned this public disorder by going home an hour sooner than his usual time, whereby his wife’s cortejo was compelled to beat a precipitate retreat. The cortejo’s arrival at his own house produced a similar effect, which was multiplied through polite society all round the town.By the Spanish laws, which were in many provinces especially favorable to women, they could make ex parte cases against their husbands of ill treatment, and if they had beaten them the punishment might be made very severe. These laws were, as may be supposed, the frequent means of flagrant injustice.

In Barcelona there was a Magdalen institution, having the double object of reforming prostitutes and of correcting women who failed in the marriage vow, or who neglected or disgraced their families. The former department was called the Casa de Galera; the latter, the Casa de Correccion. The prostitutes were partially supported at the public cost, their extra food, beyond bread and meat, being provided by their own labor, to which they were obliged to devote themselves all day. The lady culprits were supported by their relations. They were imprisoned by the sentence of a particular court, on the complaint of a member of their family, and they, as well as the prostitutes, were required to work. When deemed necessary, these offenders received personal correction. Drunkenness was one of the grounds of incarceration. The precise offenses are not mentioned by our author,[243] but the fashions and customs of nations are so distinct, that indiscretion, or even familiarity in one, might be immorality in another. A leading principle in Spanish manners is not to give offense. People may be as vicious as they please; it may be even notorious that they are so, but their manners must be outwardly correct. There is little doubt the violation of this maxim was the principal cause of imprisonment.

In Barcelona there was also, in 1780, a foundling hospital liberally supported. A curious custom was observed in reference to the girls. They were led in procession when of marriageable age, and any one who took a fancy to a young woman might ask her hand, indicating his choice by throwing a handkerchief on her in public.

In the Asturias certain forms of disease appeared with excessive virulence, and were very common. Syphilis was prevalent. There was a hospital at Oviedo for its cure, but patients had considerable reluctance to apply to it. Whether incident to this prevalence of syphilis or not, we have no means of ascertaining, but leprosy was very general, and there were twenty or more large houses for its cure in the Asturias. The common itch in a highly aggravated form was also general, and often productive of parasitical vermin.The present state of Spanish society is the subject of the usual discrepancies between travelers, owing to their different prejudices, means of information, or opportunities of making observations. No country of Europe retains more of its original peculiarities and national habits than Spain. Under the fervid sun of Andalusia, the same rigorous observance of proprieties is hardly to be found as in the northern climate of Biscay, whose hardy sons have ever been the defenders of their rights and political privileges. Madrid, as the capital, might be thought a fair illustration of the habits and manners of the great bulk of the city populations, whose peculiarities of race have not been smoothed away by intercommunication, the traveling facilities of Spain being yet among the worst in Europe. The descendants of the Goth and the Moor are still distinct in character. A general prejudice exists as to the morality of Southern nations in Europe, and the Spanish women are by no means exempt from a full share of this unfortunate opinion. Nevertheless, a recent writer says:

This opinion is confined solely to the higher classes of the city of Madrid. It expresses nothing as to the great bulk of the population, and, however gratifying the record of worth may be, we fear the eulogy must be taken cum grano salis.

Of the education of Spanish women, Mrs. Donn Piatt states that, by reason of the small fortunes of the nobility, the daughters of an ancient house must be made useful before they are accomplished; that the first consideration, however, is their religious education, to which, and to the preparation for confirmation—the great juvenile rite of Catholic countries—the utmost care and attention are devoted. Next after their religious tuition, the greatest pains are taken to make them accomplished housekeepers. They are taught to make their own clothes, to keep accounts, to regulate their expenditure, and to attend to the most minute details of the family economy. The advantages of a good solid education are not neglected; their natural capacity and innate taste for the arts, especially as musicians and painters, rapidly develop themselves, under very moderate tuition, to acquirements of a superior character, and the productions of young women of high station are spoken of with much admiration. One trait of Spanish character that speaks loudly in favor of the women is the devotion, respect, and obedience paid by sons to their mothers long after age has relieved them from maternal tutelage.

In Madrid there is a hospital for foundlings, which are said to amount to about four thousand annually. These are actual foundlings, exposed publicly to the compassion of the charitable. It is principally served by the Sisters of Charity. The infants are intrusted to nurses, and at the age of seven they are transferred to the Desamparados (unprotected) college, where they receive instruction in the simpler rudiments of education, and their religious and moral training is cared for. There is also an asylum to which others are drafted to learn some practical handicraft, such as glove-making, straw-hat making, embroidery, etc., and which seems, in a great measure, a self-supporting institution.

There are three Magdalen Hospitals: St. Nicholas de Barr, founded in 1691 for women of the better class, who are banished for misconduct from the homes of their husbands and fathers; that of the Arrepentidos, for penitents; and that of the Recogidos, founded in 1637, for the correction of women sent there by their families, in order that they may be induced to return to the paths of virtue.