FOOTNOTES
[1] Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1495.—Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 45, 46.—Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 61.—Pulgar, Claros Varones, tit. 4.
His disorder was an abscess on the kidneys, which confined him to the house nearly a year before his death. When this event happened, a white cross of extraordinary magnitude and splendor, shaped precisely like that on his arms, was seen in the heavens directly over his house, by a crowd of spectators, for more than two hours; a full account of which was duly transmitted to Rome by the Spanish court, and has obtained easy credit with the principal Spanish historians.
[2] Alvaro Gomez says of him, "Nam praeter clarissimum tum natalium, tum fortunae, tum dignitatis splendorem, quae in ilio ornamenta summa erant, incredibilem animi sublimitatem cum pari morum facilitate, elegantiâque conjunxerat; ut merito locum in republicâ summo proximum ad supremum usque diem tenuerit." (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 9.) Martyr, noticing the cardinal's death, bestows the following brief but comprehensive panegyric on him. "Periit Gonsalus Mendotiae, domûs splendor et lucida fax; periit quem universa colebat Hispania, quem exteri etiam principes venerabantur, quem ordo cardineus collegam sibi esse gloriabatur." Opus Epist., epist. 158.
[3] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, pp. 263-273, 381-410.
[4] "Gran varon, y muy experimentado y prudente en negocios," says Oviedo of the cardinal, "pero a vueltas de las negociaciones desta vida, tuvo trés hijos varones," etc. Then follows a full notice of this graceless progeny. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 8.
[5] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 66.
The doctor Pedro Salazar de Mendoza's biography of his illustrious relative is a very fair specimen of the Spanish style of book-making in ancient times. One event seems to suggest another with about as much cohesion as the rhymes of "The House that Jack built." There is scarcely a place or personage of note, that the grand cardinal was brought in contact with in the course of his life, whose history is not made the theme of profuse dissertation. Nearly fifty chapters are taken up, for example, with the distinguished men, who graduated at the college of Santa Cruz.
[6] "Non hoc," says Tacitus with truth, "praecipuum amicorum munus est, prosequi defunctum ignavo questu; sed quae voluerit meminisse, quae mandaverit exsequi." Annales, lib. 2, sect. 71.
[7] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 143.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1494.—Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 45.
A foundling hospital does not seem to have come amiss in Spain, where, according to Salazar, the wretched parents frequently destroyed their offspring by casting them into wells and pits, or exposing them in desert places to die of famine. "The more compassionate," he observes, "laid them at the doors of churches, where they were too often worried to death by dogs and other animals." The grand cardinal's nephew, who founded a similar institution, is said to have furnished an asylum in the course of his life to no less than 13,000 of these little victims! Ibid., cap. 61.
[8] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón, del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 46.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 8.
The dying cardinal is said to have recommended, among other things, that the queen should repair any wrong done to Joanna Beltraneja, by marrying her with the young prince of the Asturias; which suggestion was so little to Isabella's taste that she broke off the conversation, saying, "the good man wandered and talked nonsense."
[9] It is singular, that Fiddlier should have blundered some twenty years in the date of Ximenes's birth, which he makes 1457. (Hist. de Ximenés, liv. 1, p. 3.) It is not singular, that Marsollier should. Histoire du Ministère du Cardinal Ximenez, (Toulouse, 1694,) liv. 1, p. 3.
[10] The honorable extraction of Ximenes is intimated in Juan Vergara's verses at the end of the Complutensian Polyglot:
"Nomine Cisnerius clarâ de stirpe parentum,
Et meritis factus clarior ipse suis."
Fray Pedro de Quintanilla y Mendoza makes a goodly genealogical tree for his hero, of which King Pelayo, King Pepin, Charlemagne, and other royal worthies are the respectable roots. (Proemia Dedicatoria, pp. 5-35.) According to Gonzalo de Oviedo, his father was a poor hidalgo, who, having spent his little substance on the education of his children, was obliged to take up the profession of an advocate. Quincuagenas, MS.
[11] Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 6.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, Ximen., fol. 2.—Idem, Miscellanear., MS., ex Bibliothecâ, Regiâ Matritensi, tom. ii. fol. 189.
[12] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 2.—Idem, Miscellanear., MS., ubi supra.—Eugenio de Robles, Compendio de la Vida y Hazañas del Cardenal Don Fray Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, (Toledo, 1604,) cap. 11.
[13] Quintanilla, Archetype, pp. 8, 10.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 2.— Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, pp. 8-10.—Suma de la Vida del R. S. Cardenal Don Fr. Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, sacada de los Memoriales de Juan de Vallejo, Paje de CEamara, è de algunas Personas que en su Tiempo lo vieron: para la Ilustrisima Señora Doña Catalina de la Zerda, Condesa de Coruña, a quien Dios guarde, y de su Gracia, por un Criado de su Casa, MS.
[14] Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 3.— Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 11.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial, de Ximeni.
[15] Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. ll.—Gomez, Miscellanear., MS., ubi supra.—Idem, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 4.
This edifice, says Salazar de Mendoza, in respect to its sacristy, choir, cloisters, library, etc., was the most sumptuous and noted of its time. It was originally destined by the Catholic sovereigns for their place of sepulture; an honor afterwards reserved for Granada, on its recovery from the infidels. The great chapel was garnished with the fetters taken from the dungeons of Malaga, in which the Moors confined their Christian captives. Monarquía, tom. i. p. 410.
[16] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, p. 14.—Quintanilla, Archetype, pp. 13, 14.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 4.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.— Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
[17] Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 63.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 4.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 12.
[18] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, pp. 18, 19.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 108.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, ubi supra.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
[19] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 108.
"Praeterea," says Martyr, in a letter to Don Fernando Alvarez, one of the royal secretaries, "nonne tu sanotissimum quendam virum à, solitudine abstrusisque silvis, macie ob abstinentiam confectum, relicti Granatensis loco fuisse suffactum, scriptitasti? In istius facie obdnctâ, nonne Hilarionis te imaginem aut primi Pauli vultum conspexisse fateris?" Opus Epist., epist. 105.
[20] "Todos hablaban," says Oviedo, "de la sanctimonia é vida de este religioso." The same writer says, that he saw him at Medina del Campo, in 1494, in a solemn procession, on the day of Corpus Christi, his body much emaciated, and walking barefooted in his coarse friar's dress. In the same procession was the magnificent cardinal of Spain, little dreaming how soon his proud honors were to descend on the head of his more humble companion. Quincuagenas, MS.
[21] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 201.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.—Mosheim, Ecclesiastical History, vol. iii. cent. 14, p. 2. —Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 163.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 165.—Oviedo, Epilogo Real, Imperial y Pontifical, MS., apud Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 8.—Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 15.
[22] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, pp. 25, 26.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, pp. 21, 22.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 6, 7.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 12.
[23] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenes, p. 25.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 1, cap. ll.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. Ilust. 8—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, ubi supra.
[24] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1.—Ferdinand and Isabella annexed the dignity of high chancellor in perpetuity to that of archbishop of Toledo. It seems, however, at least in later times, to have been a mere honorary title. (Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 2, cap. 8.) The revenues of the archbishopric at the beginning of the sixteenth century amounted to 80,000 ducats, (Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 9.—L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 23,) equivalent to about 702,200 dollars at the present day. See Introd., Sect. I. Note 63, of this History.
[25] "De mas desto," says Lucio Marineo, "tenia por costumbre que quando avia de dar alguna dignidad, o obispado, mas mirava en virtud, honestidad, y sciencia de las personas, que las riquezas, y generosidad, aun que fuessen sus deudos. Lo qual fue causa que muchos de los que hablavan poco, y tenian los cabellos mas cortos que las cejas; comenparon a traer los ojos baxos mirando la tierra, y andar con mas gravedad, y hazer mejor vida, zimulando por venture algunos mas la virtud, que exercitando la." (Cosas Memorables, fol. 182.) "L'hypocrisie est l'hommage que le vice rend à la vertu." The maxim is now somewhat stale, like most others of its profound author.
[26] Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 1, cap. 16.—Salazar de Mendoza, Crón. del Gran Cardenal, lib. 2, cap. 65. This prelate was at this time only twenty-four years of age. He had been raised to the see of Saragossa when only six. This strange abuse of preferring infants to the highest dignities of the church seems to have prevailed in Castile as well as Aragon; for the tombs of five archdeacons might be seen in the church of Madre de Dios at Toledo, in Salazar's time, whose united ages amounted only to thirty years. See Crón. del Gran Cardenal, ubi supra.
[27] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 4.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 26, cap. 7.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.— Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 1, cap. 16.—Gomez, De rebus Gestis, fol. 11.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1495.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13.— Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
[28] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 11.
[29] Ibid., ubi supra.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13, 14.
[30] "He kept five or six friars of his order," says Gonzalo de Oviedo, "in his palace with him, and as many asses in his stables; but the latter all grew sleek and fat, for the archbishop would not ride himself, nor allow his brethren to ride either." Quincuagenas, MS.
[31] Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.—Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 2, cap. 8, 9.—Gomez, de Rebus Gestis, fol. 12.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.— Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13.
[32] Gomez de Rebus Gestis, fol. 16. The Venetian minister Navagiero, noticing the condition of the canons of Toledo, some few years later, celebrates them, as "lording it above all others in their own city, being especial favorites with the ladies, dwelling in stately mansions, passing, in short, the most agreeable lives in the world, without any one to trouble them." Viaggio, fol. 9.
[33] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 17.
[34] Quintanilla, Archetype, pp. 22, 23.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 201.—Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 15.
[35] "Trataba las monjas," say Riol, "con un agrado y amor tan cariñoso, que las robaba los corazones, y hecha dueña de ellas, las persuadia non suavidad y eficacia á que votasen clausura. Y es cosa admirable, que raro fue el conventu donde entró esta celebre heroina, donde no lograse en el propio dia el efecto de su santo deseo." Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. p. 110.
[36] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenes, pp. 56, 58.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 14.—Zurita, Hist. del Rey Hernando, lib. 3, cap. 15.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13.
[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 23.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 1, cap. 11.
[38] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 1, cap. 13-14.—Riol discusses the various monastic reforms effected by Ximenes, in his Memorial to Philip V., apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 102-110.
[39] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 165.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 201.—et al.
[40] The practice of concubinage by the clergy was fully recognized, and the ancient fueros of Castile permitted their issue to inherit the estates of such parents as died intestate. (See Marina, Ensayo Histórico- Crítico sobre la Antigua Legislacion de Castilla, (Madrid, 1808,) p. 154.) The effrontery of these legalized strumpets, barraganas, as they were called, was at length so intolerable as to call for repeated laws, regulating their apparel, and prescribing a badge for distinguishing them from honest women. (Sempere, Hist. del Luxo, tom. i. pp. 165-169.) Spain is probably the only country in Christendom, where concubinage was ever sanctioned by law; a circumstance doubtless imputable, in some measure, to the influence of the Mahometans.
[41] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 23.