I have heard the librarian of the Cathedral and other people of great learning say this.

But this really means nothing.
These are the designs of God, by which He puts His people to the proof, just as He does with individuals, bringing them down to low estate, to raise them again to great honour, so that they may continue in the right way.

But we will not speak of this; if there has been a decadence we do not want to know anything about it.

We want the glorious past, the brilliant times of the Catholic kings, of Don Carlos and the two Philips, and it is on them that we fix our eyes when we talk of Spain returning to her good old times." "But those centuries, Don Antolin," said Gabriel calmly, "were those of Spanish decadence; in them was begun our ruin.

I am not surprised at your anger; you repeat what you have been taught.