Volume III Part 36 (1/2)

[33] ”Die, and endow a college or a cat!”

The verse is somewhat stale, but expresses, better than a page of prose can, the credit due to such posthumous benefactions, when they set aside the dearest natural ties for the mere indulgence of a selfish vanity, which motives cannot be imputed to Ximenes. He had always conscientiously abstained from appropriating his archi-episcopal revenues, as we have seen, to himself or his family. His dying bequest, therefore, was only in keeping with his whole life.

[34] The good father Quintanilla vindicates his hero's chast.i.ty, somewhat at the expense of his breeding. ”His purity was unexampled,” says he. ”He shunned the s.e.x, like so many evil spirits; _looking on every woman as a devil_, let her be never so holy. Had it not been in the way of his professional calling, it is not too much to say he would never have suffered his eyes to light on one of them!” Archetypo, p. 80.

[35] Flechier, Histoire de Ximenes, liv. 6, p. 634.

[36] Quintanilla has given the brief of his Holiness _in extenso_, with commentaries thereon, twice as long. See Archeotypo, lib. 4, cap. 10.

[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 219.--Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 2, cap. 4. The reader may find a pendant to this anecdote in a similar one recorded of Ximenes's predecessor, the grand cardinal Mendoza, in Part II.

Chapter 5, of this History. The conduct of the two primates on the occasion, was sufficiently characteristic.

[38] Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, ubi supra.-- Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 13.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 2, cap. 5, 7, 8; who cites Dr. Vergara, the cardinal's friend. It is Baron Grimm, I think, who tells us of Fontenelle's habit of dropping his trumpet when the conversation did not pay him for the trouble of holding it up. The good- natured Reynolds, according to Goldsmith, could ”s.h.i.+ft his trumpet” on such an emergency also.

[39] Ximenes's head was examined some forty years after his interment, and the skull was found to be without sutures. (Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol.

218.) Richelieu's was found to be perforated with little holes. The abbe Richard deduces a theory from this, which may startle the physiologist even more than the facts. ”On ouvrit son Test, on y trouva 12 pet.i.ts trous par ou s'exhaloient les vapeurs de son cerveau, ce qui fit qu' il n'eut jamais aucun mal de tete; au lieu que le Test de Ximenes etoit sans suture, a quoi l'on attribua les effroyables douleurs de tete qu'il avoit presque toujours.” Parallele, p. 177.

[40] Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 18.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 218.

[41] A little treatise has been devoted to this very subject, ent.i.tled ”Parallele du Card. Ximenes et du Card. Richelieu, par Mons. l'Abbe Richard; a Trevoux, 1705.” 222 pp. 12mo. The author, with a candor rare indeed, where national vanity is interested, strikes the balance without hesitation in favor of the foreigner Ximenes.

[42] The catalogue of the various offices of Ximenes occupies near half a page of Quintanilla. At the time of his death, the chief ones that he filled were, those of archbishop of Toledo, and consequently primate of Spain, grand chancellor of Castile, cardinal of the Roman church, inquisitor-general of Castile, and regent.

CHAPTER XXVI.

GENERAL REVIEW OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.

Policy of the Crown.--Towards the n.o.bles.--The Clergy.--Consideration of the Commons.--Advancement of Prerogative.--Legal Complications.--The Legal Profession.--Trade.--Manufactures.--Agriculture.--Restrictive Policy.-- Revenues.--Progress of Discovery.--Colonial Administration.--General Prosperity.--Increase of Population.--Chivalrous Spirit.--The Period of National Glory.

We have now traversed that important period of history, comprehending the latter part of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century; a period when the convulsions, which shook to the ground, the ancient political fabrics of Europe, roused the minds of its inhabitants from the lethargy in which they had been buried for ages. Spain, as we have seen, felt the general impulse. Under the glorious rule of Ferdinand and Isabella, we have beheld her, emerging from chaos into a new existence; unfolding, under the influence of inst.i.tutions adapted to her genius, energies of which she was before unconscious; enlarging her resources from all the springs of domestic industry and commercial enterprise; and insensibly losing the ferocious habits of a feudal age, in the refinements of an intellectual and moral culture.

In the fulness of time, when her divided powers had been concentrated under one head, and the system of internal economy completed, we have seen her descend into the arena with the other nations of Europe, and in a very few years achieve the most important acquisitions of territory, both in that quarter and in Africa; and finally crowning the whole by the discovery and occupation of a boundless empire beyond the waters. In the progress of the action, we may have been too much occupied with its details, to attend sufficiently to the principles which regulated them.

But now that we have reached the close, we may be permitted to cast a parting glance over the field that we have traversed, and briefly survey the princ.i.p.al steps by which the Spanish sovereigns, under Divine Providence, led their nation up to such a height of prosperity and glory.

Ferdinand and Isabella, on their accession, saw at once that the chief source of the distractions of the country lay in the overgrown powers, and factious spirit, of the n.o.bility. Their first efforts, therefore, were directed to abate these as far as possible. A similar movement was going forward, in the other European monarchies; but in none was it crowned with so speedy and complete success as in Castile, by means of those bold and decisive measures, which have been detailed in an early chapter of this work. [1] The same policy was steadily pursued during the remainder of their reign; less indeed by open a.s.sault than by indirect means. [2]

Among these, one of the most effectual was the omission, to summon the privileged orders to cortes, in several of the most important sessions of that body. This so far from being a new stretch of prerogative, was only an exercise of the anomalous powers already familiar to the crown, as elsewhere noticed. [3] Nor does it seem to have been viewed as a grievance by the other party, who regarded these meetings with the more indifference, since their aristocratic immunities exempted them from the taxation, which was generally the prominent object of them. But, from whatever cause proceeding, by this impolitic acquiescence they surrendered, undoubtedly, the most valuable of their rights,--one which has enabled the British aristocracy to maintain its political consideration unimpaired, while that of the Castilian has faded away into an empty pageant. [4]

Another practice steadily pursued by the sovereigns, was to raise men of humble station to offices of the highest trust; not, however, like their contemporary, Louis the Eleventh, because their station was humble, in order to mortify the higher orders, but because they courted merit, wherever it was to be found; [5]--a policy much and deservedly commended by the sagacious observers of the time. [6] The history of Spain does not probably afford another example of a person of the lowly condition of Ximenes, attaining, not merely the highest offices in the kingdom, but eventually its uncontrolled supremacy. [7] The multiplication of legal tribunals, and other civil offices, afforded the sovereigns ample scope for pursuing this policy, in the demand created for professional science.

The n.o.bles, intrusted hitherto with the chief direction of affairs, now saw it pa.s.s into the hands of persons, who had other qualifications than martial prowess or hereditary rank. Such as courted distinction, were compelled to seek it by the regular avenues of academic discipline. How extensively the spirit operated, and with what brilliant success, we have already seen. [8] But, whatever the aristocracy may have gained in refinement of character, it resigned much of its prescriptive power, when it condescended to enter the arena on terms of equal compet.i.tion with its inferiors for the prizes of talent and scholars.h.i.+p.

Ferdinand pursued a similar course in his own dominions of Aragon, where he uniformly supported the commons, or may more properly be said to have been supported by them, in the attempt to circ.u.mscribe the authority of the great feudatories. Although he accomplished this, to a considerable extent, their power was too firmly intrenched behind positive inst.i.tutions to be affected like that of the Castilian aristocracy, whose rights had been swelled beyond their legitimate limits by every species of usurpation. [9]

With all the privileges retrieved from this order, is still possessed a disproportionate weight in the political balance. The great lords still claimed some of the most considerable posts, both civil and military. [10]

Their revenues were immense, and their broad lands covered unbroken leagues of extent in every quarter of the kingdom. [11] The queen, who reared many of their children in the royal palace, under her own eye, endeavored to draw her potent va.s.sals to the court; [12] but many, still cheris.h.i.+ng the ancient spirit of independence, preferred to live in feudal grandeur, surrounded by their retainers in their strong castles, and wait there, in grim repose, the hour when they might sally forth and rea.s.sert by arms their despoiled authority. Such a season occurred on Isabella's death. The warlike n.o.bles eagerly seized it; but the wily and resolute Ferdinand, and afterwards the iron hand of Ximenes, kept them in check, and prepared the way for the despotism of Charles the Fifth, round whom the haughty aristocracy of Castile, shorn of substantial power, were content to revolve as the satellites of a court, reflecting only the borrowed splendors of royalty.

The Queen's government was equally vigilant in resisting ecclesiastical encroachment. It may appear otherwise to one who casts a superficial glance at her reign, and beholds her surrounded always by a troop of ghostly advisers, and avowing religion as the great end of her princ.i.p.al operations at home and abroad. [13]

It is certain, however, that, while in all her acts she confessed the influence of religion, she took more effectual means than any of her predecessors, to circ.u.mscribe the temporal powers of the clergy. [14] The volume of her pragmaticas is filled with laws designed to limit their jurisdiction, and restrain their encroachments on the secular authorities.