See Pignotti, Storia della Toscana, (Pisa, 1813,) tom. ix. p. 155.
[38] Quintana, Españoles Célebres, tom. i. pp. 322-334.—Giovio, Vitae Illust. Virorum, p. 286.—Chrónica del Gran Capitan, lib. 3, cap. 7-9.— Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 560.—Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. pp. 77, 78.
CHAPTER XXI.
XIMENES.—CONQUESTS IN AFRICA—UNIVERSITY OF ALCALÁ.—POLYGLOT BIBLE.
1508-1510.
Enthusiasm of Ximenes.—His Warlike Preparations.—He Sends an Army to
Africa.—Storms Oran.—His Triumphant Entry.—The King's Distrust of Him.
—He Returns to Spain.—Navarro's African Conquests.—Magnificent
Endowments of Ximenes.—University of Alcalá.—Complutensian Polyglot.
The high-handed measures of Ferdinand, in regard to the marquis of Priego and some other nobles, excited general disgust among the jealous aristocracy of Castile. But they appear to have found more favor with the commons, who were probably not unwilling to see that haughty body humbled, which had so often trampled on the rights of its inferiors. [1] As a matter of policy, however, even with the nobles, this course does not seem to have been miscalculated; since it showed, that the king, whose talents they had always respected, was now possessed of power to enforce obedience, and was fully resolved to exert it.
Indeed, notwithstanding a few deviations, it must be allowed that Ferdinand's conduct on his return was extremely lenient and liberal; more especially, considering the subjects of provocation he had sustained, in the personal insults and desertion of those, on whom he had heaped so many favors. History affords few examples of similar moderation on the restoration of a banished prince, or party. In fact, a violent and tyrannical course would not have been agreeable to his character, in which passion, however strong by nature, was habitually subjected to reason. The present, as it would seem, excessive acts of severity are to be regarded, therefore, not as the sallies of personal resentment, but as the dictates of a calculating policy, intended to strike terror into the turbulent spirits, whom fear only could hold in check.
To this energetic course he was stimulated, as was said, by the counsels of Ximenes. This eminent prelate had now reached the highest ecclesiastical honors short of the papacy. Soon after Ferdinand's restoration, he received a cardinal's hat from Pope Julius the Second; [2] and this was followed by his appointment to the office of inquisitor general of Castile, in the place of Deza, archbishop of Seville. The important functions devolved on him by these offices, in conjunction with the primacy of Spain, might be supposed to furnish abundant subject and scope for his aspiring spirit. But his views, on the contrary, expanded with every step of his elevation, and now fell little short of those of an independent monarch. His zeal glowed fiercer than ever for the propagation of the Catholic faith. Had he lived in the age of the crusades, he would indubitably have headed one of those expeditions himself; for the spirit of the soldier burned strong and bright under his monastic weeds. [3] Indeed, like Columbus, he had formed plans for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre, even at this late day. [4] But his zeal found a better direction in a crusade against the neighboring Moslems of Africa, who had retaliated the wrongs of Granada by repeated descents on the southern coasts of the Peninsula, calling in vain for the interference of government. At the instigation and with the aid of Ximenes, an expedition had been fitted out soon after Isabella's death, which resulted in the capture of Mazarquivir, an important port, and formidable nest of pirates, on the Barbary coast, nearly opposite Carthagena. He now meditated a more difficult enterprise, the conquest of Oran. [5]
This place, situated about a league from the former, was one of the most considerable of the Moslem possessions in the Mediterranean, being a principal mart for the trade of the Levant. It contained about twenty thousand inhabitants, was strongly fortified, and had acquired a degree of opulence by its extensive commerce, which enabled it to maintain a swarm of cruisers, that swept this inland sea, and made fearful depredations on its populous borders. [6]