FOOTNOTES
[1] On his return from Cordova, he experienced a most loyal and enthusiastic reception from the ancient capital of Andalusia. The most interesting part of the pageant was the troops of children, gayly dressed, who came out to meet him, presenting the keys of the city and an imperial crown, after which the whole procession moved under thirteen triumphal arches, each inscribed with the name of one of his victories. For a description of these civic honors, see Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 216, and Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1508.
[2] He obtained this dignity at the king's solicitation, during his visit to Naples. See Ferdinand's letter, apud Quintanilla, copied from the archives of Alcalá. Archetypo, Apend. no. 15.
[3] "Ego tamen dum universas ejus actiones comparo," says Alvaro Gomez, "magis ad bellica exercitia a naturâ effictum esse judico. Erat enim vir animi invicti et sublimis, omniaque in melius asserere conantis." De Rebus Gestis, fol. 95.
[4] From a letter of King Emanuel of Portugal, it appears that Ximenes had endeavored to interest him, together with the kings of Aragon and England, in a crusade to the Holy Land. There was much method in his madness, if we may judge from the careful survey he had procured of the coast, as well as his plan of operations. The Portuguese monarch praises in round terms the edifying zeal of the primate, but wisely confined himself to his own crusades in India, which were likely to make better returns, at least in this world, than those to Palestine. The letter is still preserved in the archives of Alcalá; see a copy in Quintanilla, Archetype, Apend. no. 16.
[5] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 15.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 77.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1507.—Mariana, Hist. de España, tom. ii. lib. 28, cap. 15; lib. 29, cap. 9.
[6] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 418.
[7] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 96-100.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 413.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7.
[8] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 100-102.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, ubi supra.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 19.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.
[9] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., ubi supra.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 30.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 108.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximenez.
[10] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 108-110.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 19.—Zurita, Anales, lib. 8, cap. 30.
[11] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 418.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 110, 111.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 18.
[12] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, ubi supra.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., ubi supra.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 19.—Carbajal, Anales, MS., año 1509.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 15.
[13] "Sed tandem somnus ex labore et vino obortus eos oppressit, et cruentis hostium cadaveribus tantâ securitate et fiduciâ indormierunt, ut permulti in Oranis urbis plateis ad multam diem stertuerint." Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 111.
[14] To accommodate the Christians, as the day was far advanced when the action began, the sun was permitted to stand still several hours; there is some discrepancy as to the precise number; most authorities, however, make it four. There is no miracle in the whole Roman Catholic budget, better vouched than this. It is recorded by four eye-witnesses, men of learning and character. It is attested, moreover, by a cloud of witnesses, who depose to have received it, some from tradition, others from direct communication with their ancestors present in the action; and who all agree that it was matter of public notoriety and belief at the time. See the whole formidable array of evidence set forth by Quintanilla. (Archetypo, pp. 236 et seq. and Apend. p. 103.) It was scarcely to have been expected that so astounding a miracle should escape the notice of all Europe, where it must have been as apparent as at Oran. This universal silence may be thought, indeed, the greater miracle of the two.
[15] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 218.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 113.—Lanuza, Historias, tom. i. lib. 1, cap. 22.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 15.
[16] Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenes, pp. 308, 309.—Abarca, Reyes de Aragon, tom. ii. rey 30, cap. 18.
[17] Giovio, Vita Magni Gonsalvi, lib. 3, p. 107.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 117.—Sandoval, Hist. del Emp. Carlos V., tom. i. p. 16.—"The worthy brother," says Sandoval of the prelate, "thought his archbishopric worth more than the good graces of a covetous old monarch."
[18] Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 420.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 118.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.
[19] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 119, 120.—Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 8, cap. 30.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 22.
[20] Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 9, cap. 1, 2, 4, 13.—Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 435-437.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 20.— Mariana, Hist. de España, lib. 29, cap. 22.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 122-124.—Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 222.—Zurita gives at length the capitulation with Algiers, lib. 9, cap. 13.
[21] Chénier, Recherches sur les Manures, tom. ii. pp. 355, 356.—It is but just to state, that this disaster was imputable to Don Garcia de Toledo, who had charge of the expedition, and who expiated his temerity with his life. He was eldest son of the old duke of Alva, and father of that nobleman, who subsequently acquired such gloomy celebrity by his conquests and cruelties in the Netherlands. The tender poet, Garcilasso de la Vega, offers sweet incense to the house of Toledo, in one of his pastorals, in which he mourns over the disastrous day of Gelves;
"O patria lagrimosa, i como buelves los ojos a los Gelves sospirando!"
The death of the young nobleman is veiled under a beautiful simile, which challenges comparison with the great masters of Latin and Italian song, from whom the Castilian bard derived it.
"Puso en el duro suelo la hermosa cara, como la rosa matutina, cuando ya el sol declina 'l medio dia; que pierde su alegria, i marchitando va la color mudando; o en el campo cual queda el lirio blanco, qu' el arado crudamente cortado al passar dexa; del cual aun no s' alexa pressuroso aquel color hermoso, o se destierra; mas ya la madre tierra descuidada, no l' administra nada de su aliento, qu' era el sustentamiento i vigor suyo; tal esta el rostro tuyo en el arena, fresca rosa, acucena blanea i pura." Garcilasso de la Vega, Obras, ed. de Herrera, pp. 507, 508.
[22] The reader may feel some curiosity respecting the fate of count Pedro Navarro. He soon after this went to Italy, where he held a high command, and maintained his reputation in the wars of that country, until he was taken by the French in the great battle of Ravenna. Through the carelessness or coldness of Ferdinand he was permitted to languish in captivity, till he took his revenge by enlisting in the service of the French monarch. Before doing this, however, he resigned his Neapolitan estates, and formally renounced his allegiance to the Catholic king; of whom, being a Navarese by birth, he was not a native subject. He unfortunately fell into the hands of his own countrymen in one of the subsequent actions in Italy, and was imprisoned at Naples, in Castel Nuovo, which he had himself formerly gained from the French. Here he soon after died; if we are to believe Brantôme, being privately despatched by command of Charles V., or, as other writers intimate, by his own hand. His remains, first deposited in an obscure corner of the church of Santa Maria, were afterwards removed to the chapel of the great Gonsalvo, and a superb mausoleum was erected over them by the prince of Sessa, grandson of the hero. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 124.—Aleson, Annales de Navarra, tom. v. pp. 226, 289, 406.—Brantôme, Vies des Hommes Illustres, disc. 9. —Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, pp. 190-193.
[23] Ximenes continued to watch over the city which he had so valiantly won, long after his death. He never failed to be present in seasons of extraordinary peril. At least the gaunt, gigantic figure of a monk, dressed in the robes of his order, and wearing a cardinal's hat, was seen, sometimes stalking along the battlements at midnight, and, at others, mounted on a white charger and brandishing a naked sword in the thick of the fight. His last appearance was in 1643, when Oran was closely beleaguered by the Algerines. A sentinel on duty saw a figure moving along the parapet one clear, moonlight night, dressed in a Franciscan frock, with a general's baton in his hand. As soon as it was hailed by the terrified soldier, it called to him to "tell the garrison to be of good heart, for the enemy should not prevail against them." Having uttered these words, the apparition vanished without ceremony. It repeated its visit in the same manner on the following night, and, a few days after, its assurance was verified by the total discomfiture of the Algerines, in a bloody battle under the walls. See the evidence of these various apparitions, as collected, for the edification of the court of Rome, by that prince of miracle-mongers, Quintanilla. (Archetypo, pp. 317, 335, 338, 340.) Bishop Fléchier appears to have no misgivings as to the truth of these old wives' tales. (Histoire de Ximenés, liv. 6.)
Oran, after resisting repeated assaults by the Moors, was at length so much damaged by an earthquake, in 1790, that it was abandoned, and its Spanish garrison and population were transferred to the neighboring city of Mazarquivir.
[24] The custom, familiar at the present day, of depositing coins and other tokens, with inscriptions bearing the names of the architect and founder and date of the building, under the corner-stone was observed on this occasion, where it is noticed as of ancient usage, more prisco. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 28.
[25] Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenés, p. 597.
[26] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 16.— Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 178.—Colmenar, Délices de l'Espagne, tom. ii. pp. 308-310.—Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 7,—who notices particularly the library, "piena di molti libri et Latini et Greci et Hebraici."
The good people accused the cardinal of too great a passion for building; and punningly said, "The church of Toledo had never had a bishop of greater edification, in every, sense than Ximenes." Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenés, p. 597.
[27] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 79.
[28] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 82-84.
[29] Navagiero says, it was prescribed the lectures should be in Latin. Viaggio, fol. 7.—Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 16.
Of these professorships, six were appropriated to theology; six to canon law; four to medicine; one to anatomy; one to surgery; eight to the arts, as they were called, embracing logic, physics, and metaphysics; one to ethics; one to mathematics; four to the ancient languages; four to rhetoric; and six to grammar. One is struck with the disproportion of the mathematical studies to the rest. Though an important part of general education, and consequently of the course embraced in most universities, it had too little reference to a religious one, to find much favor with the cardinal.
[30] Lampillas, in his usual patriotic vein, stoutly maintains that the chairs of the university were all supplied by native Spaniards. "Trovó in Spagna," he says of the cardinal, "tutta quella scelta copia di grandi uomini, quali richiedeva la grande impresa," etc. (Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. i, part. 2, p. 160.) Alvaro Gomez, who flourished two centuries earlier, and personally knew the professors, is the better authority. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 80-82.
[31] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 13.
Alvaro Gomez knew several of these savans whose scholarship (and he was a competent judge) he notices with liberal panegyric. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 80 et seq.
[32] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.
[33] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 86.
The reader will readily call to mind the familiar anecdote of King Charles and Dr. Busby.
[34] "Alcalá de Henares," says Martyr in one of his early letters, "quae dicitur esse Complutum. Sit, vel ne, nil mihi curae." (Opus Epist., epist. 254.) These irreverent doubts were uttered before it had gained its literary celebrity. L. Marineo derives the name Complutum from the abundant fruitfulness of the soil,—"cumplumiento que tiene de cada cosa." Cosas Memorables, fol. 13.
[35] Ximenes acknowledges his obligations to his Holiness, in particular for the Greek MSS. "Atque ex ipsis [exemplaribus] quidem Graeca Sanctitati tuae debemus; qui ex istâ Apostolicâ bibliothecâ antiquissimos tam Veteris quam Novi codices perquam humane ad nos misisti." Biblia Polyglotta, (Compluti, 1514-17,) Prólogo.
[36] "Maximam," says the cardinal in his Preface, "laboris nostri partem in eo praecipue fuisse versatam; ut et virorum in linguarum cognitione eminentissimorum operâ uteremur, et castigatissima omni ex parte vetustissimaque exemplaria pro archetypis haberemus; quorum quidem, tam Hebraeorum quam Graecorum ac Latinorum, multiplicem copiam, variis ex locis, non sine summo labore conquisivimus." Biblia Polyglotta, Compluti, Prólogo.
[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 39.—Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.
[38] Martyr speaks of Ximenes, in one of his epistles, as "doctrinâ singulari oppletum." (Opus Epist., epist. 108.) He speaks with more distrust in another; "Aiunt esse virum, si non literis, morum taraen sanctitate egregium." (Epist. 160.) This was written some years later, when he had better knowledge of him.
[39] Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 3, cap. lo.—Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 38.
The scholars employed in the compilation were the venerable Lebrija, the learned Nuñez, or Pinciano, of whom the reader has had some account, Lopez de Zuñiga, a controversialist of Erasmus, Bartholomeo de Castro, the famous Greek Demetrius Cretensis, and Juan de Vergara;—all thorough linguists, especially in the Greek and Latin. To these were joined Paulo Coronel, Alfonso a physician, and Alfonso Zamora, converted Jews, and familiar with the Oriental languages. Zamora has the merit of the philological compilations relative to the Hebrew and Chaldaic, in the last volume, lidem auct. ut supra; et Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.
[40] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.
[41] The work was originally put at the extremely low price of six ducats and a half a copy. (Biblia Polyglotta Compluti, Praefix.) As only 600 copies, however, were struck off, it has become exceedingly rare and valuable. According to Brunei, it has been sold as high as £63.
[42] "Industriâ et solertiâ honorabilis viri Arnaldi Guillelmi de Brocario, artis impressoris Magistri. Anno Domini 1517. Julii die decimo." Biblia Polyglotta Compluti. Postscript to 4th and last part of Vetus Test.
[43] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 38. The part devoted to the Old Testament contains the Hebrew original with the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint version, and the Chaldaic paraphrase, with Latin translations by the Spanish scholars. The New Testament was printed in the original Greek, with the Vulgate of Jerome. After the completion of this work, the cardinal projected an edition of Aristotle on the same scale, which was unfortunately defeated by his death. Ibid., fol. 39.
[44] The principal controversy on this subject was carried on in Germany between Wetstein and Goeze; the former impugning, the latter defending the Complutensian Bible. The cautious and candid Michaelis, whose prepossessions appear to have been on the side of Goeze, decides ultimately, after his own examination, in favor of Wetstein, as regards the value of the MSS. employed; not however as relates to the grave charge of wilfully accommodating the Greek text to the Vulgate. See the grounds and merits of the controversy, apud Michaelis, Introduction to the New Testament, translated by Marsh, vol. ii. part 1, chap. 12, sec. 1; part 2, notes.
[45] Professor Moldenhauer, of Germany, visited Alcalá in 1784, for the interesting purpose of examining the MSS. used in the Complutensian Polyglot. He there learned that they had all been disposed of, as so much waste paper, (membranas inutiles) by the librarian of that time to a rocket-maker of the town, who soon worked them up in the regular way of his vocation! He assigns no reason for doubting the truth of the story. The name of the librarian, unfortunately, is not recorded. It would have been as imperishable as that of Omar. Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. part l, chap. 12, sec. 1, note.
[46] The celebrated text of "the three witnesses," formerly cited in the Trinitarian controversy, and which Porson so completely overturned, rests in part on what Gibbon calls "the honest bigotry of the Complutensian editors." One of the three Greek manuscripts, in which that text is found, is a forgery from the Polyglot of Alcalá, according to Mr. Norton, in his recent work, "The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels," (Boston, 1837, vol. i. Additional Notes, p. xxxix.),—a work which few can be fully competent to criticize, but which no person can peruse without confessing the acuteness and strength of its reasoning, the nice discrimination of its criticism, and the precision and purity of its diction. Whatever difference of opinion may be formed as to some of its conclusions, no one will deny that the originality and importance of its views make it a substantial accession to theological science; and that, within the range permitted by the subject, it presents, on the whole, one of the noblest specimens of scholarship, and elegance of composition, to be found in our youthful literature.
[47] "Accedit," says the editors of the Polyglot, adverting to the blunders of early transcribers, "ubicunque Latinorum codicum varietas est, aut depravatae lectionis suspitio (id quod librariorum imperitiâ simul et negligentiâ frequentissimè accidere videmus), ad primam Scriptunae originem recurrendum est." Biblia Polyglotta, Compluti, Prólogo.
[48] Tiraboschi adduces a Psalter, published in four of the ancient tongues, at Genoa, in 1516, as the first essay of a polyglot version. (Letteratura Italiana, tom. viii. p. 191.) Lampillas does not fail to add this enormity to the black catalogue which he has mustered against the librarian of Modena. (Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. part. 2, p. 290.) The first three volumes of the Complutensian Bible were printed before 1516, although the whole work did not pass the press till the following year.
[49] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximeni.
Ferdinand and Isabella conceded liberal grants and immunities to Alcalá on more than one occasion. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 43, 45.
[50] Erasmus, in a letter to his friend Vergara, in 1527, perpetrates a Greek pun on the classic name of Alcalá, intimating the highest opinion of the state of science there. "Gratulor tibi, ornatissime adolescens, gratulor vestrae Hispaniae ad pristinam eruditionis laudem veluti postliminio reflorescenti. Gratulor Compluto, quod duorum praesulum Francisci et Alfonsi felicibus auspiciis sic efflorescit omni genere studiorum, ut jure optimo pamplouton appellare possimus." Epistolae, p. 771.
[51] Quintanilla is for passing the sum total of the good works of these worthies of Alcalá to the credit of its founder. They might serve as a makeweight to turn the scale in favor of his beatification. Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.