FOOTNOTES
[1] "Hombre," says his son, the historian, of him, "de prudencia en negocios graves, de animo firme, asegurado con luenga experiencia de rencuentros i battallas ganadas." (Guerra de Granada, lib. 1, p. 9.) Oviedo dwells with sufficient amplification on the personal history and merits of this distinguished individual, in his garrulous reminiscences. Quincuagenas, MS., bat. 1, quinc. 1, dial. 28.
[2] Oviedo, at least, can find no better pedigree for him, than that of Adam. "Quanto á su linage él fué del linage de todos los humanos ó de aquel barro y subcesion de Adan." (Quincuagenas, MS. dial. de Talavera.) It is a very hard case, when a Castilian cannot make out a better genealogy for his hero.
[3] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 21. Talavera's correspondence with the queen, published in various works, but most correctly, probably, in the sixth volume of the Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., (Ilust. 13,) is not calculated to raise his reputation. His letters are little else than homilies on the love of company, dancing, and the like heinous offences. The whole savors more of the sharp twang of Puritanism than that of the Roman Catholic school. But bigotry is neutral ground, on which the most opposite sects may meet.
[4] Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.—Marmol, lib. 1, cap. 21.
Equivalent to 56,000 dollars of the present day; a sum which Pedraza makes do quite as hard duty, according to its magnitude, as the 500 pounds of Pope's Man of Ross.
[5] Pedraza, ubi supra.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Talavera.
The worthy archbishop's benefactions on some occasions were of rather an extraordinary character. "Pidiendole limosna," says Pedraza, "Una muger que no tenia camisa, se entró en una casa, y se desnudó la suya y se la dio; diziendo con san Pedro, No tengo oro ni plata que darte, doyte lo que tengo." Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.
[6] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 21.—Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, ubi supra.
[7] Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenes, p. 17.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 2, cap. 2.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.
These tracts were published at Granada, in 1505, in the European character, being the first books ever printed in the Arabic language, according to Dr. M'Crie, (Reformation in Spain, p. 70,) who cites Schnurrer, Bibl. Arabica, pp. 16-18.
[8] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.—Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 21.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 29.—"Hacia lo que predicaba, é predicó lo que hizo," says Oviedo of the archbishop, briefly, "é así fué mucho provechoso é util en aquella ciudad para la conversion de los Moros." Quincuagenas, MS.
[9] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 23.
[10] Ibid., ubi supra.
[11] In the pragmática dated Granada, October 30th, 1499, prohibiting silk apparel of any description, an exception was made in favor of the Moors, whose robes were usually of that material, among the wealthier classes. Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 120.
[12] Another law, October 31st, 1499, provided against the disinheritance of Moorish children who had embraced Christianity, and secured, moreover, to the female converts a portion of the property which had fallen to the state on the conquest of Granada. (Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 5.)— Llorente has reported this pragmatic with some inaccuracy. Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. p. 334.
[13] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 29.— Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 2, p. 54.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS. Ferdinand and Isabella, according to Ferreras, took counsel of sundry learned theologians and jurists, whether they could lawfully compel the Mahometans to become Christians, notwithstanding the treaty, which guaranteed to them the exercise of their religion. After repeated conferences of this erudite body, "il fut decidé," says the historian, "qu'on solliciteroit la conversion des Mahometans de la Ville et du Royaume de Grenade, en ordonnant à ceux qui ne voudroient pas embrasser la religion Chrétienne, de vendre leurs biens et de sortir du royaume." (Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 194.) Such was the idea of solicitation entertained by these reverend casuists! The story, however, wants a better voucher than Ferreras.
[14] The honest Robles appears to be of the latter opinion. "Alfin," says he, with naïveté, "con halagos, dadivas, y caricias, los truxo a conocimiento del verdadero Dios." Vida de Ximenez, p. 100.
[15] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 24.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 29.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.
[16] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, fol. 55.— The sound of bells, so unusual to Mahometan ears, pealing day and night from the newly consecrated mosques, gained Ximenes the appellation of alfaqui campanero from the Granadines. Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.
[17] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 25.
Take for example the following provisions in the treaty. "Que si algun Moro tuviere alguna renegada por muger, no será apremiada á ser Christiana contra su voluntad, sino que será interrogada, en presencia de Christianos y de Moros, y se siguirá su voluntad; y lo mesmo se entenderá con los niños y niñas nacidos de Christiana y Moro. Que ningun Moro ni Mora serán apremiados á ser Christianos contra su voluntad; y que si alguna doncella, ó casada, ó viuda, por razon de algunos amores se quisiere tornar Christiana, tampoco será recebida, hasta ser interrogada." The whole treaty is given in extenso by Marmol, and by no other author that I have seen.
[18] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 1, fol. 29.
[19] Robles, Rebelion de Moriscos, cap. 14.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 30.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 25.
Zegri assumed the baptismal name of the Great Captain, Gonzalo Hernandez,
whose prowess he had experienced in a personal rencontre in the vega of
Granada. Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, ubi supra.—Suma de la Vida de
Cisneros, MS.
[20] Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii. p. 195.
[21] According to Robles, (Rebelion de Moriscos, p. 104,) and the Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, 1,005,000; to Conde, (El Nubiense, Descripcion d'España, p. 4, note,) 80,000; to Gomez and others, 5000. There are scarcely any data for arriving at probability in this monstrous discrepancy. The famous library of the Ommeyades at Cordova was said to contain 600,000 volumes. It had long since been dissipated; and no similar collection had been attempted in Granada, where learning was never in that palmy state which it reached under the Cordovan dynasty. Still, however, learned men were to be found there, and the Moorish metropolis would naturally be the depository of such literary treasures as had escaped the general shipwreck of time and accident. On the whole, the estimate of Gomez would appear much too small, and that of Robles as disproportionately exaggerated. Conde, better instructed in Arabic lore than any of his predecessors, may be found, perhaps, here, as elsewhere, the best authority.
[22] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 2, fol. 30.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 25.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 58.
[23] Yet the archbishop might find some countenance for his fanaticism in the most polite capital of Europe. The faculty of Theology in Paris, some few years later, declared "que c'en était fait de la religion, si on permettait l'etude du Grec et de l'Hebreu!" Villers, Essai sur l'Esprit et l'Influence de la Réformation de Luther, (Paris, 1820,) p. 64, note.
[24] Gibbon's argument, if it does not shake the foundations of the whole story of the Alexandrian conflagration, may at least raise a natural skepticism as to the pretended amount and value of the works destroyed.
[25] The learned Granadine, Leo Africanus, who emigrated to Fez after the fall of the capital, notices a single collection of 3000 manuscripts belonging to an individual, which he saw in Algiers, whither they had been secretly brought by the Moriscoes from Spain.—Conde, Dominacion de los Arabes, prólogo.—Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. i. p. 172.
[26] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 30.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, rey 30, cap. 10.
[27] Casiri, Bibliotheca Escurialensis, tom. ii. p. 281.—Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.
[28] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 31. There are some discrepancies, not important, however, between the narrative of Gomez and the other authorities. Gomez, considering his uncommon opportunities of information, is worth them all.
[29] Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 2, fol. 31.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 26.
[30] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 5.—Quintanilla, Archetype, p. 56.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 212.
[31] Mariana, Hist. de España, ubi supra.—Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.—Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, p. 11.
[32] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 25.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 212.—Quintanilla, Archetype, p. 56.—Bleda, Corónica, ubi supra.
[33] Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, loc cit.—Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, lib. 1, p. 11. That such confidence was justified, may be inferred from a common saying of Archbishop Talavera, "That Moorish works and Spanish faith were all that were wanting to make a good Christian." A bitter sarcasm this on his own countrymen! Pedraza, Antiguedad de Granada, lib. 3, cap. 10.
[34] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 212.—Bleda, Corónica, loc. cit.— Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, ubi supra.
[35] Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 5.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, 14.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.
[36] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 14.
[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, ubi supra.
[38] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 33.—Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.
[39] Bleda, Corónica, lib. 5, cap. 23.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 27, cap. 5.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 215.—Marmol, Rebelion de Moriscos, lib. 1, cap. 27.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. 2, fol. 32.— Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 11.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1500.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 159.—The last author carries the number of converts in Granada and its environs to 70,000.
[40] "Tu vero inquies," he says, in a letter to the cardinal of Santa Cruz, "hisdem in snum Mahometem vivent animis, atque id jure merito suspicandum est. Durum namque majorum institute relinquere; attamen ego existimo, consultum optime fuisse ipsorum admittere postulata: paulatim namque nova superveniente disciplina, juvenun saltem et infantum atque eo tutius nepotum, inanibus illis superstitionibus abrasis, novis imbuentur ritibus. De senescentibus, qui callosis animis induruerunt, haud ego quidem id futurum inficior." Opus Epist., epist. 215.—Also, Carta de Gonzalo, MS.
[41] "Magnae deinceps," says Gomez, "apud omnes veneration! Ximenius esse cospit.—Porro plus mentis acie videre quam solent homines credebatur, qufid re ancipiti, neque plane confirmata, barbara civitate adhoc suum Mahumetum spirante, tanza animi contentione, ut Christi doctrinam amplecterentur, laboraverat et effecerat." (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 33.) The panegyric of the Spaniard is endorsed by Fléchier, (Histoire de Ximenes, p. 119,) who, in the age of Louis XIV., displays all the bigotry of that of Ferdinand and Isabella.
[42] Talavera, as I have already noticed, had caused the offices, catechisms, and other religious exercises to be translated into Arabic for the use of the converts; proposing to extend the translation at some future time to the great body of the Scriptures. That time had now arrived, but Ximenes vehemently remonstrated against the measure. "It would be throwing pearls before swine," said he, "to open the Scriptures to persons in their low state of ignorance, who could not fail, as St. Paul says, to wrest them to their own destruction. The word of God should be wrapped in discreet mystery from the vulgar, who feel little reverence for what is plain and obvious. It was for this reason, that our Saviour himself clothed his doctrines in parables, when he addressed the people. The Scriptures should be confined to the three ancient languages, which God with mystic import permitted to be inscribed over the head of his crucified Son; and the vernacular should be reserved for such devotional and moral treatises, as holy men indite, in order to quicken the soul, and turn it from the pursuit of worldly vanities to heavenly contemplation." De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32, 33.
The narrowest opinion, as usual, prevailed, and Talavera abandoned his wise and benevolent purpose. The sagacious arguments of the primate lead his biographer, Gomez, to conclude, that he had a prophetic knowledge of the coming heresy of Luther, which owed so much of its success to the vernacular versions of the Scriptures; in which probable opinion he is faithfully echoed, as usual, by the good bishop of Nismes. Fléchier, Hist. de Ximenés, pp. 117-119.