XXV. the sweetest perfume of Arabia!" 26 In every sit- CHAPTER uation, however, he exhibited the stamp of his peculiar calling; and the stern lineaments of the monk were never wholly concealed under the mask of the statesman, or the visor of the warrior. He had a full measure of the religious bigotry which belonged to the age; and he had melancholy scope for displaying it, as chief of that dread tribunal, over which he presided during the last ten years of his life. 27 government. He carried the arbitrary ideas of his profession His despotic into political life. His regency was conducted on the principles of a military despotism. It was his maxim, that "a prince must rely mainly on his army for securing the respect and obedience of his subjects." 28 It is true he had to deal with a martial and factious nobility, and the end which he proposed was to curb their licentiousness, and enforce the equitable administration of justice; but, in accomplishing this, he showed little regard to 26 Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 160.-Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 17. "And who can doubt," exclaims Gonzalo de Oviedo, "that powder, against the infidel, is incense to the Lord?" Quincuagenas, MS. 27 During this period, Ximenes "permit la condamnation," to use the mild language of Llorente, of more than 2500 individuals to the stake, and nearly 50,000 to other punishments! (Hist. de l'Inquisition, tom. i. chap. 10, art. 5; tom. iv. chap. 46.) În order to do justice to what is really good in the characters of this age, one must absolutely close his eyes against that odious fanaticism, which enters more or less into all, and into the 28" Persuasum haberet, non aliâ "Prætulit arma toge; sed pacem armatus PART II. His moral principle. the constitution, or to private rights. His first act, the proclaiming of Charles king, was in open contempt of the usages and rights of the nation. He evaded the urgent demands of the Castilians for a convocation of cortes; for it was his opinion, "that freedom of speech, especially in regard to their own grievances, made the people insolent and irreverent to their rulers." 29 The people, of course, had no voice in the measures which involved their most important interests. His whole policy, indeed, was to exalt the royal prerogative, at the expense of the inferior orders of the state. 30 And his regency, short as it was, and highly beneficial to the country in many respects, must be considered as opening the way to that career of despotism, which the Austrian family followed up with such hard-hearted constancy. But, while we condemn the politics, we cannot but respect the principles, of the man. However erroneous his conduct in our eyes, he was guided by his sense of duty. It was this, and the conviction of it in the minds of others, which constituted the secret of his great power. It made him reck 29"Nullâ enim re magis populos insolescere, et irreverentiam omnem exhibere, quam cum libertatem loquendi nacti sunt, et pro libidine suas vulgo jactant querimonias." Gomez quotes the language of Ximenes in his correspondence with Charles. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 194. 30 Oviedo makes a reflection, showing that he conceived the cardinal's policy better than most of his biographers. He states, that the various immunities, and the military organization, which he gave to the towns enabled them to raise the insurrection, known as the war of the "comunidades," at the beginning of Charles's reign. But he rightly considers this as only an indirect consequence of his policy, which made use of the popular arm only to break down the power of the nobles, and establish the supremacy of the crown. Quincuagenas, MS. dial. de Xim. XXV. less of difficulties, and fearless of all personal con- CHAPTER sequences. The consciousness of the integrity of his purposes rendered him, indeed, too unscrupulous as to the means of attaining them. He held his own life cheap, in comparison with the great reforms that he had at heart. Was it surprising, that he should hold as lightly the convenience and interests of others, when they thwarted their execution? estedness. His views were raised far above considerations His disinterof self. As a statesman, he identified himself with the state; as a churchman, with the interests of his religion. He severely punished every offence against these. He as freely forgave every personal injury. He had many remarkable opportunities of showing this. His administration provoked numerous lampoons and libels. He despised them, as the miserable solace of spleen and discontent, and never persecuted their authors. 31 In this he formed an honorable contrast to Cardinal Richelieu, whose character and condition suggest many points of resemblance with his own. His disinterestedness was further shown by his mode of dispensing his large revenues. It was among the poor, and on great public objects. He built up no family. He had brothers and nephews; but he contented himself with making their condition comfortable, without diverting to their benefit 31 Quincuagenas, MS., ubi supra. Mr. Burke notices this noble trait, in a splendid panegyric which he poured forth on the character of Ximenes, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's table, as related by Madame d'Ar- PART II. 32 the great trusts confided to him for the public. The greater part of the funds which he left at his death was settled on the university of Alcalá. 55 He had, however, none of that pride, which would make him ashamed of his poor and humble relatives. He had, indeed, a confidence in his own powers, approaching to arrogance, which led him to undervalue the abilities of others, and to look on them as his instruments rather than his equals. But he had none of the vulgar pride founded on wealth or station. He frequently alluded to his lowly condition in early life, with great humility, thanking Heaven, with tears in his eyes, for its extraordinary goodness to him. He not only remembered, but did many acts of kindness to his early friends, of which more than one touching anecdote is related. Such traits of sensibility, gleaming through the natural austerity and sternness of a disposition like his, like light breaking through a dark cloud, affect us the more sensibly by contrast. He was irreproachable in his morals, and conformed literally to all the rigid exactions of his severe order, in the court as faithfully as in the cloister. He was sober, abstemious, chaste. In ports him right, notices, as two of the 32 Their connexion with so dis- 33 "Die, and endow a college or a cat!" The verse is somewhat stale, but expresses, better than a page of prose can, the questionable merit of such posthumous benefactions, when they set aside the dearest natural ties for the mere indulgence of a selfish vanity. Such motives cannot be imputed to Ximenes. He had always conscientiously abstained from appropriating his archiepiscopal revenues, as we have seen, to himself or his family. His dying bequest, therefore, was only in keeping with his whole life. the latter particular, he was careful that no suspicion of the license which so often soiled the clergy of the period, should attach to him. On one occasion, while on a journey, he was invited to pass the night at the house of the duchess of Maqueda, being informed that she was absent. The duchess was at home, however, and entered the apartment before he retired to rest. "You have deceived me, lady," said Ximenes, rising in anger; "if you have any business with me, you will find me to-morrow at the confessional." So saying, he abruptly left the palace.95 CHAPTER XXV. tic austeri ties. He carried his austerities and mortifications so His monasfar, as to endanger his health. There is a curious brief extant of Pope Leo the Tenth, dated the last year of the cardinal's life, enjoining him to abate his severe penance, to eat meat and eggs on the ordinary fasts, to take off his Franciscan frock, and sleep in linen and on a bed. He would never consent, however, to divest himself of his monastic weeds. "Even laymen," said he, alluding to the custom of the Roman Catholics, "put these on when they are dying; and shall I, who have worn them all my life, take them off at that time!" 36 Another anecdote is told in relation to his dress. 34 The good father Quintanilla vindicates his hero's chastity, somewhat at the expense of his breeding. "His purity was unexampled," says he. "He shunned the sex, 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 35 Fléchier, Histoire de Ximenés, 36 Quintanilla has given the brief of his Holiness in extenso, with commentaries thereon, twice as long. See Archetypo, lib. 4, cap. 10. |