[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.