Over his coarse woollen frock, he wore the costly apparel suited to his rank. An impertinent Franciscan preacher took occasion one day before him to launch out against the luxuries of the time, especially in dress, obviously alluding to the cardinal, who was attired in a superb suit of ermine, which had been presented to him. He heard the sermon patiently to the end, and after the services were concluded, took the preacher into the sacristy, and, having commended the general tenor of his discourse, showed under his furs and fine linen the coarse frock of his order, next his skin. Some accounts add, that the friar, on the other hand, wore fine linen under his monkish frock. After the cardinal's death, a little box was found in his apartment, containing the implements with which he used to mend the rents of his threadbare garment, with his own hands. 37

With so much to do, it may well be believed, that Ximenes was avaricious of time. He seldom slept more than four, or at most four hours and a half. He was shaved in the night, hearing at the same time some edifying reading. He followed the same practice at his meals, or varied it with listening to the arguments of some of his theological brethren, generally on some subtile question of school divinity. This was his only recreation. He had as

37 Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 219.- Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 2, cap. 4.

The reader may find a pendant to this anecdote in a similar one recorded of Ximenes's predeces

sor, the grand cardinal Mendoza, in Part II. Chapter 5, of this History. The conduct of the two primates on the occasion, was sufficiently characteristic.

XXV.

little taste as time for lighter and more elegant CHAPTER amusements. He spoke briefly, and always to the point. He was no friend of idle ceremonies, and useless visits; though his situation exposed him more or less to both. He frequently had a volume lying open on the table before him, and when his visiter stayed too long, or took up his time with light and frivolous conversation, he intimated his dissatisfaction by resuming his reading. The cardinal's book must have been as fatal to a reputation as Fontenelle's ear-trumpet. 38

I will close this sketch of Ximenez de Cisneros His person. with a brief outline of his person. His complexion was sallow; his countenance sharp and emaciated; his nose aquiline; his upper lip projected far over the lower. His eyes were small, deep set in his head, dark, vivid, and penetrating. His forehead ample, and, what was remarkable, without a wrinkle, though the expression of his features was somewhat severe.99 His voice was clear, but not agreeable; his enunciation measured and precise. His

without sutures. (Gomez, De Re-
bus Gestis, fol. 218.) Richelieu's
was found to be perforated with
little holes. The abbé Richard de-
duces a theory from this, which
may startle the physiologist even
more than the facts. "Ön ouvrit
son Test, on y trouva 12 petits
trous par où s'exhaloient les va-
peurs de son cerveau, ce qui fit qu'
il n'eût jamais aucun mal de tête;
au lieu que le Test de Ximenés
étoit sans suture, à quoi l'on attri-
bua les effroyables douleurs de
tête qu'il avoit presque toujours."
Parallèle, p. 177.

PART

II.

Parallel with
Richelieu.

demeanor was grave, his carriage firm and erect; he was tall in stature, and his whole presence commanding. His constitution, naturally robust, was impaired by his severe austerities and severer cares; and, in the latter years of his life, was so delicate as to be extremely sensible to the vicissitudes and inclemency of the weather. 40

I have noticed the resemblance which Ximenes bore to the great French minister, Cardinal Richelieu. It was, after all, however, more in the circumstances of situation, than in their characters; though the most prominent traits of these were not dissimilar. Both, though bred ecclesiastics, reached the highest honors of the state, and, indeed, may be said to have directed the destinies of their countries. 42 Richelieu's authority, however,

XXV.

was more absolute than that of Ximenes, for he was CHAPTER screened by the shadow of royalty; while the latter was exposed, by his insulated and unsheltered position, to the full blaze of envy, and, of course, opposition. Both were ambitious of military glory, and showed capacity for attaining it. Both achieved their great results by that rare union of high mental endowments and great efficiency in action, which is always irresistible.

The moral basis of their characters was entirely different. The French cardinal's was selfishness, pure and unmitigated. His religion, politics, his principles in short, in every sense, were subservient to this. Offences against the state he could forgive; those against himself he pursued with implacable rancor. His authority was literally cemented with blood. His immense powers and patronage were perverted to the aggrandizement of his family. Though bold to temerity in his plans,

nand after her death. The queen testified her respect for Carbajal, by appointing him one of the commissioners for preparing a digest of the Castilian law. He made considerable progress in this arduous work; but how great is uncertain, since, from whatever cause, (there appears to be a mystery about it,) the fruits of his labor were never made public; a circumstance deeply regretted by the Castilian jurists. (Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, Introd. p. 99.)

Carbajal left behind him several historical works, according to Nic. Antonio, whose catalogue, however, rests on very slender grounds. (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. p. 3.) The work by which he is best known to Spanish scholars, is his

"Anales del Rey Don Fernando
el Católico," which still remains in
manuscript. There is certainly no
Christian country, for which the
invention of printing, so liberally
patronized there at its birth, has
done so little as for Spain. Her
libraries teem at this day with
manuscripts of the greatest interest
for the illustration of every stage
of her history; but which, alas! in
the present gloomy condition of
affairs, have less chance of coming
to the light, than at the close of
the fifteenth century, when the art
of printing was in its infancy.

Carbajal's Annals cover the whole
ground of our narrative, from the
marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella,
to the coming of Charles V. into
Spain. They are plainly written,

PART

II.

he betrayed more than once a want of true courage in their execution. Though violent and impetuous, he could stoop to be a dissembler. Though arrogant in the extreme, he courted the soft incense of flattery. In his manners he had the advantage over the Spanish prelate. He could be a courtier in courts, and had a more refined and cultivated taste. In one respect, he had the advantage over Ximenes in morals. He was not, like him, a bigot. He had not the religious basis in his composition, which is the foundation of bigotry. -Their deaths were typical of their characters. Richelieu died, as he had lived, so deeply execrated, that the enraged populace would scarcely allow his remains to be laid quietly in the grave. Ximenes, on the contrary, was buried amid the tears and lamentations of the people; his memory was honored even by his enemies, and his name is reverenced by his countrymen, to this day, as that of a Saint.

without ambition of rhetorical show
or refinement. The early part is
little better than memoranda of the
principal events of the period, with
particular notice of all the migra-
tions of the court. In the concluding
portion of the work, however, com-
prehending Ferdinand's death, and
the regency of Ximenes, the author
is very full and circumstantial. As
he had a conspicuous place in the
government, and was always with
the court, his testimony in regard to
this important period is of the high-
est value as that of an eyewitness

and an actor, and it may be added, a man of sagacity and sound principles. No better commentary on the merit of his work need be required, than the brief tribute of Alvaro Gomez, the accomplished biographer of Cardinal Ximenes. "Porro Annales Laurentii Galendi Caravajali, quibus vir gravissimus rerumque illarum cum primis particeps quinquaginta fermè annorum memoriam complexus est, haud vulgariter meam operam juverunt." De Rebus Gestis, Præfatio.