[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.