The Inquisition, not satisfied with burning heretics, judged and punished gangs of cattle-lifters.

Men of letters, terrified, took refuge in ornamental literature as the last refuge of thought, confining themselves to the production of witty novels or plays, in which a fantastic honour was exalted which only existed in poets' imagination, while the greatest corruption of morals reigned.

The great Spanish genius ignored or feigned to ignore what the religious revolution beyond the frontiers was saying.

Quevedo only, who was the most daring, ventured to say: 'With the Inquisition....
Hush! Silence!' the sad epitaph of Spanish thought which preferred to perish as it could not speak the truth.

In order to live quietly and support themselves in those days of ignorance, many poets sought the shadow of the Church and wore its vestments.