XIMENES DE CISNEROS, Francisco, a celebrated cardinal, was born at Torrelaguna, in Old Castille, in 1437, and studied at Alcala and Salamanca. He then went to Rome; and being robbed on the road, brought nothing back but a bull for obtaining the first vacant prebend; but the archbishop of Toledo refused to grant it, and threw him into prison. Being at length restored to liberty, he obtained a benefice in the diocese of Siguença, where Cardinal Gonzales de Mendoza, who was the bishop, made him his grand vicar. Ximenes some time after entered among the Franciscans of Toledo; but being there troubled with visits, he retired to a solitude named Castanei, and applied himself to the study of divinity and the oriental tongues. At his return to Toledo, Queen Isabella of Castille chose him for her confessor, and in 1495 nominated him archbishop of Toledo, which, next to the papacy, is the richest dignity in the church of Rome. “This honour,” says Dr Robertson, “he declined with a firmness which nothing but the authoritative injunction of the pope was able to overcome. Nor did this height of promotion change his manners. Though obliged to display in public that magnificence which became his station, he himself retained his monastic severity. Under his pontifical robes he constantly wore the coarse frock of St Francis, the rents of which he used to patch with his own hands. He at no time used linen, but was commonly clad in haircloth. He slept always in his habit, most frequently on the floor or on boards, and rarely in a bed. He did not taste any of the delicacies which appeared at his table, but satisfied himself with that simple diet which the rule of his order prescribed. Notwithstanding these peculiarities, so opposite to the manner of the world, he possessed a thorough knowledge of its affairs, and discovered talents for business which rendered the fame of his wisdom equal to that of his sanctity.”

His first care was to provide for the necessities of the poor; to visit the churches and hospitals; to purge his diocese of usurers and places of debauchery; to degrade corrupt judges, and place in their room persons whom he knew to be distinguished by their probity and disinterestedness. He erected a famous university at Alcala; and in 1499 founded the College of St Ildephonso. Three years afterwards he undertook the Polyglott Bible; and in order to carry on this great work, invited many learned men to Toledo, purchased seven copies of the Old Testament in Hebrew for 4000 crowns, and gave a great price for Latin [7:21:956]and Greek manuscripts. Biblia Sacra Polyglotta, &c. Compluti, 1514-7, 6 tom. fol. The edition was begun in 1502, and although completed in 1517, was not published till 1522; the court of Rome having during that interval remained in suspense whether it ought not to be entirely suppressed. The cardinal himself was but a doubtful friend of sacred literature; for when it was proposed to translate the Bible into Spanish, in order to convert the Saracens, he opposed it on the ground that men might become Christians without reading the Bible. The Complutensian or Alcala Polyglott contains in the first four volumes the Hebrew, Greek, and Vulgate texts of the Old Testament in parallel columns; and the Chaldee paraphrase at the bottom of the page, with a Latin translation. The fifth volume contains the Greek text of the New Testament, with the Vulgate version. The last contains a Hebrew and Chaldee vocabulary, a Hebrew grammar, and a Greek dictionary. In this Polyglott appeared the first edition of the New Testament in Greek.

In 1507, Pope Julius II. gave Ximenes a cardinal’s hat, and King Ferdinand the Catholic intrusted him with the administration of affairs. He was from this moment the soul of every thing that passed in Spain. He distinguished himself at the beginning of his ministry by discharging the people from the burdensome tax called acavale, which had been continued on account of the war against Granada; and laboured with such zeal and success in the conversion of the Mahommedans, that he made 3000 converts, among whom was a prince of the blood of the kings of Granada. In 1509 Cardinal Ximenes extended the dominions of Ferdinand, by taking the city of Oran, in the kingdom of Algiers. He undertook this conquest at his own expense, and marched in person at the head of the Spanish army, clothed in his pontifical ornaments, and accompanied by a great number of ecclesiastics and monks. Some time after, foreseeing an extraordinary scarcity, he erected public granaries at Toledo, Alcala, and Torrelaguna, and had them filled with corn at his own expense; which gained the people’s hearts to such a degree, that to preserve the memory of this noble action they had an eulogium upon it cut on marble, in the hall of the senate-house at Toledo, and in the market-place. King Ferdinand dying in 1516, left Cardinal Ximenes regent of his dominions; and the archduke Charles, who was afterwards the emperor Charles V., confirmed that nomination. The cardinal immediately made a reform of the officers of the supreme council and of the court, and put a stop to the oppression of the grandees. He vindicated the rights of the people against the nobility; and as by the feudal constitution the military power was lodged in the hands of the nobles, and men of inferior condition were called into the field only as their vassals, a king with scanty revenues depended on them in all his operations. From this state Ximenes resolved to deliver the crown, and issued a proclamation, commanding every city in Castille to inrol a certain number of its burgesses, and teach them military discipline; he himself engaging to provide officers to command them at the public expense. This was vigorously opposed by the nobles; but by his intrepidity and superior address he carried his point. He then endeavoured to diminish the possessions of the nobility, by reclaiming all the crown-lands, and putting a stop to the pensions granted by the late King Ferdinand. This addition made to the revenues enabled him to discharge all the debts of Ferdinand, and to establish magazines of warlike stores. The nobles, alarmed at these repeated attacks, uttered loud complaints; but before they proceeded to extremities, appointed some grandees of the first rank to examine the powers in consequence of which he exercised acts of such high authority. Ximenes received them with cold civility; produced the testament of Ferdinand, by which he was appointed regent, together with the ratification of that deed by Charles. To both these they objected; and he endeavoured to establish their validity. As the conversation grew warm, he led them insensibly to a balcony, from which they had a view of a large body of troops under arms, and of a formidable train of artillery. “Behold,” says he, pointing to these, and raising his voice, “the powers which I have received from his Catholic majesty: with these I govern Castille; and with these I will govern it, till the king, your master and mine, takes possession of his kingdom.” A declaration so bold and haughty silenced them, and astonished their associates. They saw that he was prepared for his defence, and laid aside all thoughts of a general confederacy against his administration. At length, from the repeated entreaties of Ximenes, and the impatient murmurs of the Spanish ministry, Charles V. embarked and landed in Spain, accompanied by his favourites. Ximenes was advancing to the coast to meet him, but at Bos Equillos was seized with a violent disorder, which his followers considered as the effects of poison. This accident obliging Ximenes to stop, he wrote to the king, and with his usual boldness advised him to dismiss all the strangers in his train, whose number and credit already gave offence to the Spaniards; and earnestly desired to have an interview with him, that he might inform him of the state of the nation, and the temper of his subjects. To prevent this, not only the Flemings, but the Spanish grandees, employed all their address to keep Charles at a distance from Aranda, the place to which the cardinal had removed. His advice was now slighted and despised. Ximenes, conscious of his own integrity and merit, expected a more grateful return from a prince to whom he delivered a kingdom more flourishing than it had been in any former age, and a more extensive authority than the most illustrious of his ancestors had ever possessed; and lamented the fate of his country, about to be ruined by the rapaciousness and insolence of foreign favourites. While his mind was agitated by these passions, he received a letter from the king, in which, after a few cold and formal expressions of regard, he was allowed to retire to his diocese; and he expired a few hours after reading it, on the 8th of November 1517, and in the 81st year of his age.