[442] Lafuente, Historia de España, tom. xiii. p. 261.—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, pp. 432, 433.
[443] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. xi. cap. 11; lib. xii. cap. 21.—Relazione Anon. 1588, MS.
[444] "Otras vezes presentaba para Obispos Canonigos tan particulares i presbiteros tan apartados no solo de tal esperança, mas pensamiento en si mismos, i en la comun opinion, que la cedula de su presentacion no admitia su rezelo de ser engañados ó burlados. Eligia á quien no pedia, i merecia."—Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, p. 891.
[445] Cabrera, Filipe Segundo, lib. xi. cap. 11.
[446] Relazione di Contarini, MS.—Ranke, Ottoman and Spanish Empires, p. 61.
[447] The document alluded to is a letter, without date or signature, but in the handwriting of the sixteenth century, and purporting to be written by a person entrusted with the task of drafting the necessary legal instruments or the foundation of the convent. He inquires whether in the preamble he shall make mention of his majesty's vow. "El voto que S. M. hijo, si S. M. no lo quiere poner ni declarar, bien puede, porque no hay para que; pero si S. M. quisiere que se declare en las escrituras, avisemelo v. m."—Documentos Inéditos, tom. xxviii. p. 567.
[448] Examples equally ancient, of both forms of spelling the name, may be found; though Escorial, now universal in the Castilian, seems to have been also the more common from the first. The word is derived from scoriæ, the dross of iron-mines, found near the spot.—See Ford, Handbook for Spain (3rd edition), p. 751.
[449] A letter of the royal founder, published by Siguença, enumerates the objects to which the new building was to be specially devoted.—Historia de la Orden de San Geronimo, tom. iii. p. 534.
[450] "The Escorial is placed by some geographers in Old Castile; but the division of the provinces is carried on the crest of the Sierra which rises behind it."—Ford, Handbook for Spain, p. 750.
[451] Siguença, Hist. de la Orden de San Geronimo, tom. iii. p. 549.—Memorias de Fray Juan de San Geronimo, Documentos Inéditos, tom. vii. p. 22.