We may here mention with unmixed praise one of the Archbishop’s charitable undertakings. It was an institution for the education of the daughters of indigent nobles, on such principles, according to the words of our authority, as should train them to the fit discharge of their duties towards their families and towards society. A fund, afterwards increased by the Spanish monarchs, was set apart to provide them with marriage portions. We may here trace the original of the celebrated establishment of St. Cyr.
His principal work was the establishment of a university at Alcala, where he himself received his early education. The foundation-stone was laid by himself in 1498; the buildings were completed, and the first course of lectures given, in 1508. For a model he took the university of Paris; he endowed it richly, and collected men distinguished for their learning from all parts of Europe, to fill the professorial chairs. Here he undertook the great work of publishing the first Polyglot Bible, the Complutensian, as it is called, from the Latin name of Alcala, where it was printed, which will exist for ages as a noble specimen of the Archbishop’s piety, munificence, and zeal for learning. The four first volumes contain the Old Testament in the Hebrew—the Septuagint version, with a Latin translation—the Vulgate, as corrected by St. Jerome—and the Chaldee Paraphrase, with a Latin translation. The fifth and sixth volumes contain the Greek Testament and the Vulgate. The printing of this great undertaking commenced in 1502, and was not completed till 1517, shortly before the death of Ximenes, who, when the last volume was brought to him, is reported by his earliest biographer, after an ejaculation of pious thanksgiving, to have addressed the bystanders in these words:—“Many high and difficult undertakings I have carried on in the service of the State, yet, my friends, there is nothing for which I more deserve congratulation than for this edition of the Scriptures, which lays open, in a time of much need, the fountain-head of our holy religion, whence may be drawn a far purer strain of theology than from the streams which have been turned off from it.” But owing to a hesitation at the Court of Rome, how far the criticism of the Scriptures should be encouraged, the Bible was not given to the world till 1522. Only about 600 copies were printed. The price fixed on it was six and a half ducats. The epistle dedicatory to Leo X. is by Ximenes himself: the preface, according to Dr. Dibdin, is by another hand. The most learned Hebrew and Greek scholars who could be procured were employed in the collation of manuscripts; and it may be noted that for seven Hebrew MSS. the sum of 4000 golden crowns was paid. These with other treasures of learning, which were deposited with the University of Alcala, about the middle of the last century were sold to a firework-maker as lumber. The whole cost of the work, which was defrayed by Ximenes, is said to have exceeded 50,000 gold crowns.
In 1498 the Archbishop was summoned to Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella, to deliberate on the means to be used for the conversion of the Moors. Inflamed by zeal, he had recourse to means which show the wisdom of the serpent more than the simplicity of the dove. He began with the priests and doctors of the law, and strove by kindness and attention, mixed with religious discussion, to dispose them to adopt the Christian faith. The priests led over the people in such flocks, that, in one day, the anniversary of which was observed as a festival, December 18, 1499, upwards of 3000 persons were baptized by aspersion in Granada. That the Archbishop should have believed in the sincerity of these wholesale conversions is not credible; he probably thought that a hypocritical worship of the true God was a less evil than sincere idolatry. The inquisition was charged with the superintendence of the souls of these nominal Christians, and the relapse from that faith which they never embraced was punished according to the mercy of that irresponsible tribunal. The dread and indignation produced by these measures led to a revolt, which was quelled, however, under the guidance of the Archbishop.
The same desire of making Christians any how appears in the measures adopted on this occasion. The inhabitants of the quarter in which the tumult broke out were declared guilty of high treason, and offered their choice of death or conversion. They embraced the latter; and the other Granadans, to the number of 150,000, followed their example. But these severities drove the most resolute spirits to that last insurrection, related with so much interest in Washington Irving’s ‘Chronicles of Granada;’ which terminated in the expatriation of the remnant who abided in their national creed. But however unapostolic the Archbishop’s mode of conversion may have been, his zeal and ability in instructing and rendering truly Christian those who submitted to the outward forms of the religion is said to have been admirable.
His conduct towards the unhappy natives of the West Indies was less exceptionable. He did his utmost not only for their conversion, but to protect them from the cruel exactions of the Spanish settlers.
The excellent Isabella of Castile died November 26, 1504. According to the tenor of his beloved mistress’s will, Ximenes steadily maintained the claim of Ferdinand, her husband, to the regency of the kingdom during the minority of Charles V. After the death of the Archduke Philip, September 25, 1506, he renewed his exertions to determine the Castilians in favour of Ferdinand’s claim to the regency, in preference to the Emperor Maximilian, Charles V.’s paternal grandfather; being satisfied that, notwithstanding the ancient jealousy between Castile and Arragon, the former would be better governed by a prince intimately acquainted with its circumstances and interests than by a stranger. Ferdinand, who was then engaged at Naples, owed his success in this matter to Ximenes; and showed his gratitude by procuring for him the rank of Cardinal, with the title of Cardinal of Spain, together with the office of Grand Inquisitor.
In his zeal for spreading the true faith, Ximenes had conceived a scheme for the conquest of the Holy Land, and indeed had nearly succeeded in effecting a league for that purpose between Ferdinand, Manuel of Portugal, and Henry VII. of England. But this hope being defeated, he was still anxious to employ the power of Spain against Mahometanism, and used his best endeavours to persuade Ferdinand to invade the coast of Barbary. The king’s parsimony was not to be overcome, until Ximenes offered a loan sufficient to equip the proposed armament, and defray its expenses for two months; and the capture of the town of Marsarquiver, in the autumn of 1505, was the immediate result. Here the Spanish arms remained stationary till 1509, when the Cardinal obtained permission to attempt the siege of Oran at his own expense, on the sole condition, that if he succeeded, either the patrimony of the church expended in this secular undertaking was to be repaid, or the domain conquered was to be annexed to the see of Toledo. He assumed himself the supreme direction of the expedition, entrusting the command of the army to Peter Navarre, an able, turbulent, and ambitious soldier. Everything was unfavourable to the Cardinal. The king was jealous of him; Navarre impatient of the subjection of the sword to the crozier; and other officers, corrupt or hostile, and encouraged by the example of their superiors, stirred the soldiers to mutiny. But the decision of Ximenes compelled obedience, and the wisdom of his measures ensured success; so that the surrender of Oran was the almost immediate result of his descent upon Africa. He would willingly have remained there to pursue his successes. But finding the disobedience of his lieutenant to be secretly encouraged by Ferdinand, he determined to return while he could do so with honour, leaving Navarre in the command of the troops. For himself or his see he reserved no part of the spoil. That which was not bestowed upon the soldiers, or consumed in the service, he set apart for the crown. Yet a fresh disagreement arose when the Cardinal, according to the compact, demanded payment of the advances made by the see; and when Ferdinand at last was compelled to acquiesce, it was in the most ungracious and unbecoming manner.
Ferdinand died January 23, 1516. On his death-bed he appointed Ximenes Regent of Castile during the minority of Charles V., with expressions indicative of no personal regard, but bearing strong testimony to his unbending justice, disinterestedness, and zeal for the public welfare. The Cardinal’s conduct in this exalted station was consistent with the tenor of his past life; he was a just ruler, but his authority was feared and respected rather than loved. If he had one passion unmortified, it was ambition: he ruled with a single eye to his young sovereign’s interests; but he evaded that sovereign’s attempts to circumscribe his powers with as much success as he bore down the opposition of those turbulent nobles, who hoped, in the weakness of a minority, to find a fit opportunity for prosecuting their own aggrandizement, and committing with impunity acts of illegal violence. For when Charles V. sent some of his confidential Flemish ministers to be associates in the commission of regency, the Cardinal received them with respect, and granted them the external distinctions of office; for the rest they were mere puppets in his hands. Of his internal policy, the chief scope was to elevate the regal power, and to depress that of the nobles, even by throwing a greater weight into the hands of the unprivileged classes: the same policy as had been pursued by the wisest princes of the age, Ferdinand and Isabella, Henry VII. of England, and Louis XI. of France. The crown had been reduced to great poverty by lavish grants, extorted, in disturbed times, by the necessity of conciliating powerful noblemen, rather than granted by free-will, or out of real gratitude for services; and it was one of Ximenes’ first objects to remedy this evil, even by means which showed none of that regard to vested interests, which belongs to times in which the course of law is regular and supreme, and consequently the rights of property are rigidly respected. Such pensions as had been granted in Ferdinand’s reign he cut off at once, on the plea that the grantor could only have bestowed them for his own life. The crown lands alienated during the same period were resumed: even the Cardinal’s boldness did not venture to carry the inquiry farther back, from the apprehension of driving the whole body of the nobility into revolt.
These changes, and other important measures, were not carried into effect without great discontent and considerable open resistance. But the Cardinal was strong, in the resources of his own powerful mind, in the general reverence of the people for the sanctity of his character, in his exalted rank as head of the Spanish church, and in the immense revenues of his see, which gave him a command of money not enjoyed by the crown, and enabled him to keep in his own pay a considerable body of troops. With these he maintained order, and repressed feuds, which the barons, trusting to the common weakness of a regency, hastened to decide by the sword; and set at defiance the enmity of the nobility at a later period, when more decided encroachments on the privileges of the order had produced a general spirit of discontent. On one occasion a deputation of the chief grandees of Castile required to be informed, under what title he presumed to exercise such high authority. The Cardinal showed the will of Ferdinand, and its confirmation by Charles V., and finding them still unsatisfied, led them to a window, from which he pointed out a strong military force under arms. “These,” he said, “are the powers which I have received from the king. With these I govern Castile; and with these I will govern it, until the king, your master and mine, takes possession of his kingdom.”
One of his schemes for strengthening the crown was the erection of a species of militia, composed of burghers of cities; but that class was not sufficiently advanced in knowledge to appreciate the immense accession of importance which would accrue from this measure, which they regarded solely as a burden. It was therefore unpopular among them, as well as unpalatable to the barons; and was entirely dropped soon after the regent’s death.