stock of materials much more limited, or at least more difficult of access, than at the present day." After every deduction, however, the cardinal's Bible has the merit of being the first successful attempt at a polyglot version of the Scriptures, and consequently of facilitating, even by its errors, the execution of more perfect and later works of the kind. Nor can we look at it in connection with the age, and the auspices under which it was accomplished, without regarding it as a noble monument of piety, learning, and munificence, which entitles its author to the gratitude of the whole Christian world.

Such were the gigantic projects which amused the leisure hours of this great prelate. Though gigantic, they were neither beyond his strength to execute, nor beyond the demands of his age and country. They were not like those works which, forced into being by whim or transitory impulse, perish with the breath that made them; but, taking deep root, were cherished and invigorated by the national sentiment, so as

47 "Accedit," say the editors of the Polyglot, adverting to the blunders of early transcribers, "ubicunque Latinorum codicum varietas est, aut depravatæ lectionis suspitio (id quod librariorum imperitia simul et negligentiâ frequentissimè accidere videmus), ad primam Scripturæ originem recurrendum est." Biblia Polyglotta Compluti, Prólogo.

48 Tiraboschi adduces a Psalter, published in four of the ancient tongues, at Genoa, in 1516, as the first essay of a polyglot version. (Letteratura Italiana, tom. viii. p. 191.) Lampillas does not fail to add this enormity to the black catalogue which he has mustered against the librarian of Modena. (Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. part. 2, p. 290.) The first three volumes of the Complutensian Bible were printed before 1516, although the whole work did not pass the press till the following year.

to bear rich fruit for posterity. This was particularly the case with the institution at Alcalá. It soon became the subject of royal and private benefaction. Its founder bequeathed it, at his death, a clear revenue of fourteen thousand ducats. By the middle of the seventeenth century, this had increased to forty-two thousand, and the colleges had multiplied from ten to thirty-five."9

The rising reputation of the new academy, which attracted students from every quarter of the Peninsula to its halls, threatened to eclipse the glories of the ancient seminary at Salamanca, and occasioned bitter jealousies between them. The field of letters, however, was wide enough for both, especially as the one was more immediately devoted to theological preparation, to the entire exclusion of civil jurisprudence, which formed a prominent branch of instruction at the other. In this state of things, their rivalry, far from being productive of mischief, might be regarded as salutary, by quickening literary ardor, too prone to languish without the spur of competition. Side by side the sister universities went forward, dividing the public patronage and estimation. As long as the good era of letters lasted in Spain, the academy of Ximenes, under the influence of its admirable discipline, maintained a reputation inferior to none other in the Peninsula, and continued to send forth its sons to occupy

50

49 Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.—Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximeni.-Ferdinand and Isabella conceded liberal grants and immunities to Alcalá on more than one occasion. Gomez, De Rebus gestis, fol. 43, 45.

50 Erasmus, in a letter to his friend Vergara, in 1527, perpetrates a Greek pun on the classic name of Alcalá, intimating the highest

the most exalted posts in church and state, and shed the light of genius and science over their own and future ages. 51

opinion of the state of science there: "Gratulor tibi, ornatissime adolescens, gratulor vestræ Hispaniæ ad pristinam eruditionis laudem veluti postliminio reflorescenti. Gratulor Compluto, quod duorum præsulum Francisci et Alfonsi felicibus auspiciis sic efflorescit omni genere studiorum, ut jure optimо паμяλоνтоv appellare possimus." Epistolæ, p. 771.

51 Quintanilla is for passing the sum total of the good works of these worthies of Alcalá to the credit of its founder. They might serve as a makeweight to turn the scale in favor of his beatification. Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.

CHAPTER XXII.

WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY.

1508-1513.

League of Cambray.-Alarm of Ferdinand.-Holy League.-Battle of Ravenna.-Death of Gaston de Foix.-Retreat of the French.The Spaniards victorious.

THE domestic history of Spain, after Ferdinand's resumption of the regency, contains few remarkable events. Its foreign relations were more important. Those with Africa have been already noticed, and we must now turn to Italy and Navarre.

The possession of Naples necessarily brought Ferdinand within the sphere of Italian politics. He showed little disposition, however, to avail himself of it for the further extension of his conquests. Gonsalvo, indeed, during his administration, meditated various schemes for the overthrow of the French power in Italy, but with a view rather to the preservation than enlargement of his present acquisitions. After the treaty with Louis the Twelfth, even these designs were abandoned, and the Catholic monarch seemed wholly occupied with the internal affairs of his kingdom, and the establishment of his rising empire in Africa.'

* Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iii. lib. 5, p. 257, ed. Milano, 1803.Zurita, Anales, tom. vi. lib. 6, cap. 7, 9, et alibi.

The craving appetite of Louis the Twelfth, on the other hand, sharpened by the loss of Naples, sought to indemnify itself by more ample acquisitions in the north. As far back as 1504, he had arranged a plan with the emperor for the partition of the continental possessions of Venice, introducing it into one of those abortive treaties at Blois for the marriage of his daughter. The scheme is said to have been communicated to Ferdinand in the royal interview at Savona. No immediate action followed, and it seems probable that the latter monarch, with his usual circumspection, reserved his decision until he should be more clearly satisfied of the advantages to himself.3

At length the projected partition was definitely settled by the celebrated treaty of Cambray, December 10th, 1508, between Louis the Twelfth and the emperor Maximilian, in which the pope, King Ferdinand, and all princes who had any claims for spoliations by the Venetians, were invited to take part. The share of the spoil assigned to the Catholic monarch was the five Neapolitan cities, Trani, Brindisi, Gallipoli, Pulignano, and Otranto, pledged to Venice for considerable sums advanced by her during the late war.^ The Spanish court, and, not long after, Julius the Second, ratified the treaty, although it was in direct contravention of the avowed purpose of the pontiff, to chase the barbarians from Italy. It was his bold

• Dumont, Corps diplomatique, tom. iv. part. 1, no. 30.—Flassan, Diplomatie Française, tom. i. pp. 282, 283.

3 Guicciardini, Istoria, tom. iv. p. 78.

♦ Flassan, Diplomatie Française, tom. i. lib. 2, p. 283.—Dumont, Corps diplomatique, tom iv. part. 1, no. 52.

P*