The aristocracy and the upper classes of the _bourgeoisie_ lived in a perpetual state of mutual mistrust, ready upon the slightest occasion of fancied affront to blaze forth into murder.

Much of this savagery was due to the false ideas of honor and punctilio which the Spaniards introduced.

Quarrels arose concerning a salute, a title, a question of precedence, a seat in church, a place in the prince's ante-chamber, a meeting in the public streets.

Noblemen were ushered on their way by servants, who measured distances, and took the height of dais or of bench, before their master committed his dignity by advancing a step beyond the minimum that was due.
Love-affairs and the code of honor with regard to women opened endless sources of implacable jealousies, irreconcilable hatreds, and offenses that could only be wiped out with blood.

On each and all of these occasions, the sword was ready to the right hand; and where this generous weapon would not reach, the harquebuss and knife of paid assassins were employed without compunction.[183] We must not, however, ascribe this condition of society wholly or chiefly to Spanish influences.
[Footnote 183: The lax indulgence accorded by the Jesuit casuists to every kind of homicide appears in the extracts from those writers collected in _Artes Jesuiticae_ (Salisburgi, 1703, pp.