No merely fabled El Dorado lay in the broad lands and costly merchandise of these imperfect converts to the faith.

It sufficed to insist upon the peril to the State if an element so ill-assimilated to the nation were allowed to increase unchecked.

At the same time, the Papacy was nothing loth to help them in their undertaking.

Sixtus V., one of the worst of Pontiffs, sat then on S.Peter's chair.

He readily discerned that a considerable portion of the booty might be indirectly drawn into his exchequer; and he knew that any establishment of the Inquisition on an energetic basis would strengthen the Papacy in its combat with national and episcopal prerogatives.