Worshipped by the Indians and a wedge of Gold weighed above a thousand Ducats which doubtless had been an Idol to which they who tormenâ—ed the Indians paid their devotions At Sevil proposal was made for raising another Army to recover the honour lost by the defeat of the former some preparations were made but the affairs of Pope Julius the second put a stop to the proceedings This Prelate who troubled all Europe sent his Nuncio into Spain to desire Aide from Ferdinand against the Council of Pisa where the Cardials had chosen another Pope and to demand vengeance against Bernardine Cardinal Caruajale a Spaniard whom he had struck out of the Catalogue of Cardinals as Author of that Council and prayed the King to devest him of the Bishoprick of Siguenza which he held in Spain Ferdinand to please the Pope took the Bishoprick from Bernardine and gave it Frederick of Portugal But the storm being over Bernardine was afterwards restored to the Bishoprick that he might end his life with some kind of Dignity in the affair of Julius the second the generosity of the Cardinal in acknowledging the fauours of those who had obliged him was remarkable he writ to this Pope who had sent him the Cardinals Cap that he would return him to Rome four hundred thousand Crowns when he pleased that he would Levy an Army at his own Charge if the Pope needed it and would in person lead them into Italy against his Enemies The fruit of a good Office is never lost where it is sown in a generous spirit CAP. IX SOon after the affairs of Africk put on a better face the Kings of Tremesen and Tunis sent their Embassadours with presents to Ferdinand to treat of peace which was concluded and free Commerce established between the Moors and Spaniards of Oran This peace with Africk pleased the Cardinal exceedingly who having been the first Author of the Warr of Africk rejoyced beyond measure to see the fruits of his Labâ—urs in a happy peace The Affairs of Europe rann a course quite contrary Julius the second increased the trouble he makes a League with Ferdinand and the Venetian against the French And he who ought to have been the father of Christians laboured nothing more than to set his Children by the Eares Ferdinand to prepare himself for this League sent for the Cardinal to Burgos to advise with him the Cardinal came thither and for his Lodging they had marked the Count of Salines house where Prince Ferdinand brother of Charles afterwards sirnamed the fifth was Lodged The King his Grand father commanded him to Remove but the Cardinal would not by any means accept of that Lodging And when the King would have forced him by absolute and express commands to that purpose be excused himself saying the Countess of Salines with her Ladies were Lodged there and that by the institution of his order he was prohibited to Lodge with women which he Religiously observed both at Court and in his journeys The day following the Cardinal walked with Prince Ferdinand into the Palace Gardens the King spies them from his Window and Calling to the Prince bespeaks him aloud in these words Son You are in very good company and if you take my advice will never part from it Knowing he was with a man who could make Princes such as they ought to be Wise Religious and Generous from the Garden the Cardinal attended the young Prince to the Palace where he took leave of him to retyre to his Lodgings the Prince offered to bear him Company the King coming upon them in the Complement advised him to it but the Cardinal thanked for the honour and obtained permission to Go alone The resolutions taken in the Assembly at Burgos by the advice of the Cardinal were that the King should not hasten the Warr but choose any way rather than that of Armes to bring affairs to a solid peace but this advice was soon changed The Cardinal receives Advertisement of a secret League between the Kings of France and Navarr thereupon he prepares for Warr advises his Master to it And presseth him to hasten the raising of an Army The discovery of the League was thus The King of Navarr was passionately in Love with a Lady of the Court whose beauties had charmed his reason This Love by the prerogatives of the Crown which few Women know how to deny was come to enjoyment A Secretary of State and prime confident of this Prince took part in this affair of Love as if it had been a matter of State Visits the Lady declares his affection beggs her savour she who had as great need of this mans pen as the Liberality of the King grants his desire the King surprizes them together and stabbs the Secretary For Kings can no more admit partakers of their Loves than of their Scepters A Priest of Pampelune called to Confess the dying Secretary having cleared his Conscience ransacked his pockets there among other things he finds this secret Treaty which he gave or sold to the Spanish Embassadour resident in the Court of Navarr They sent it to the Cardinal The Tenour of the League was that the King of Navarr should refuse Ferdinand passage through his Countreys when he marched in the aide of Julius the second That he should enter Spain with an Army when required by France That for this restitution should be made him by France of his Patrimony than in the possâ—ssion of the Duke of Nemours father of Germain then Queen of Spain and of all the Rites and Possessions of the house of Albret detained by France That he should receive from France an Annual pension suitable to his Royal Dignity That France should by negotiation or Armes procure restitution to be made him of that part of the Estate of Queen Catherine his Wife about Burgos then detained from him The Cardinal having read those Conditions Levyed an Army and carryed things to that point that the Spaniards attribute to him the Warr of Navarr as the Author of it though in truth the Violence of Julius the second and Ferdinands Ambition caused that Warr memorable in History for the blood shed therein which hath afforded us this observation That Warr is a bloody burying place or Caemitere of Mankind The year 1513. being the next after the trouble of Navarr Carryed Julius the second out of the world to prevent his spreading of further mischiefs soon after Ferdinand fell sick of the malady whereof he dyed this affected him with extraordinary sadness To make him merry the whole Court turned Revellers the Ladies endeavoured to please him by their divertisements of Balls and Dances the Gentlemen by Justs and Turnaments Alfonso Mendoza Husband of the Cardinal Niece was of the party and expended seven thousand Crowns to fit himself for the solemnity a great expence in those times this was to be paid out of the Cardinals purse who used to reject and disallow all vain expences but paid this cheerfully telling those
received it at the beginning of his Administration All Spain went to meet their new King the Constable Velasio was attended with seven hundred horse the Council made haste to tender him their duty and thinking they had no more to do with the Cardinal now Charles was arrived in Spain they took their journey without advertising the Cardinal But he out went them by his Courriers whom he sent to the King desiring his Majesty not to suffer a disorder of so ill example in the State that the Council the principal body of it should thus separate from their head and intreating him to command them back to Aranda Charles did so commanding the Council to return the way they came and go to the Cardinal that it would be more acceptable to him to see them together with him This put them in great disorder for having with them their Wives and Children they could not return without much inconvenience They sent to the Cardinal entreated him he would be pleased to permit them to attend his Majesty in the place the Courrier found them The Cardinal impatient of Contempt and highly offended at the slight offered him made no shew of Resentment but resolved not to bate them a step of their return to Aranda answers them That he was glad they were all in health that they all knew how punctual he had alwayes been in causing the obedience due to the King to be exactly performed And since his Majesty had advised them to return to Aranda it was his advice They should obey him with all the diligence in their power They as they parted rashly returned shamefully The respect due to a Minister of State is to be preserved even to Jealousie as that that maintains his Authority which Slights and neglects destroy At this arrival of the King in Spain the people were much moved and hotly demanded an Assembly of the States of the Realm The Cardinal was of opinion it ought not to be granted so soon but that the King must be first Received and Affairs setled in a quiet Posture saying It was of great concernment that Kings at their coming to the Crown should be received of their people with extraordinary reverence as a matter of great importance to their Authority This advice was slighted but the neglect cost Spain dear All the Kingdom was in trouble and the State in danger by the contests that arose about the place where the Estates should convene at last it was agreed the King should come to Valladolid for holding the Assembly There the envy of the Cardinal's enemies mustered all its force to affront his Person and attacque his Authority The harbingers of this great Minister having taken up a house for him the Marshals of the Kings Lodgings being Flemmings set on by the Grandees took it from them and for reason told them This Lodging must be marked for Queen Germain The Cardinal Jealous of his Authority and impatient of Affronts having discovered the practises of the Flemmings disputed it with them and carryed the Lodgings But he must shortly dislodge from the Court and the world though with the same honour he had lived there the Flemmings enter into a Cabbal to outt him the Court. Mota Bishop of Badaos a dignity he owed wholly to the Cardinal's favour to please Xeures the Kings favourite as the Spaniards say and his own interest advised Charles to remove the Cardinal from Court into his Diocess of Toledo Charles who was no less obliged to the Cardinal than to him who gave him the Crown of Spain forgot the services of this Grand Minister followed Mota's advice and by his inconstancy confirmed the Proverb that Services of great ones are no inheritance having sent a letter to the Cardinal the tenour whereof was this My Lord Cardinal I hold on my journey by Jurdefillas whereof I thought fit to advertise you that you may come to Mâ—jados the Bishop of Segorges House where I desire to see you and to receive your good Counsels not only for the conduct of my Estate but the ordering of my Family which I will regulate according to your sage Advice This is the last help I can receive of you in my Affairs for your long Services deserve repose and your Age requires it and I grant it willingly and advise you to retire to your house to enjoy it with more pleasure God alone can give you a just recompence for your long travels in the conduct of this Kingdom as for me I shall never forget them and will ever pay you the respects due from a good natured Child to a careful and bounteous Father This Letter of dismission by the trouble it gave the Cardinal cast him into a Feaver which brought him to his Grave though some Spanish Historians say that the Courrier who carryed it finding the Cardinal desperately sick delivered it not but that the Feaver holding him eighteen hours after whereas the Physicians advertised him he could not live above six hours he brought back the Letter to the Council and delivered it to Adrian Others write that he received it on his death-bed and called for pen ink and paper to answer it but that having written three or four Lines his strength failed him the pen dropt out of his hand and he soon after breathed his last These Lines or piece of a Letter were never published as if fate had been unwilling to discover to the world any thing imperfect to which this man had put his hand Certain it is the Cardinal perceiving he must shortly dye made an End worthy his good life Mustering up the force of his Spirit in the weakness of his body and discoursing piously and learnedly of the mercy of God the inconstancy of the World and the Vanity of the Court imbracing the Crucifix bedewing his face with tears he begged pardon from God for his sins and having protested he had not laid out one Rial of the Revenues of his Benefices for the advancement of his Kindred he received the Christian Viaticum the Holy Eucharist repeating often those words of David My God in thee have I put my Trust and went to enjoy in Heaven those Crowns which God gives them who govern people with prudence integrity and piety This happened on Sunday the ninth of November 1517. in the 80th year of his Age having worn the Mytre of Toledo 22. years and governed Spain as many under Ferdinand Isabel Joan Philip and Charles His body was interred in the Colledge of St. Idelphons in Alcala D' Henares which he had built his Tomb of white Marble and his Effigies of the same are to be seen at this day with this Epitaph worthy his illustrious Actions which comprehends in short both what he did before his Glorious Administration and his Acts in the State Condideram Musis Franciscus Grande Lycaeum Condor in exiguo nunc ego Sarcophago Praetextam junxi Sacco Galeamque Galero Frater Dux Praesul Cardineusque Pater Quin virtute Mea
Francis Cardinal Ximenes great Minister of State in Spaine Cross sculpsit THE HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF CARDINAL XIMENES Great Minister of State IN SPAIN Written Originally in FRENCH BY The Sieur Michael Baudier of Languedoc Councellor and Historiographer to His Most Christian Majesty and Translated into English by W. Vaughan LONDON Printed for John Wilkins at the Sign of the Maiden-Head in New Cheap-side in Moor-fields 1671. To the Honourable Sr. Henry Herbert Knight Master of the REVELLS SIR TRUE Gratitude abhors the prostitute forms of Verbal thanks as a Vertuous Lady the dress of a Curtezan And since men practise the Art to make false Glosses on the Text of their thoughts to personate Gratitude and render these words meer Colours of ordinary Civility and Complements to fill up the vacuity of discourse which in the first use were faithful interpreters of the affections they represented since false tongues are as modeable as false Locks and Grateful language like excellent fruit grafted on a Crabstock usurped by those who take not any impression from the favours their speech pretends engraven in their hearts which remain unaltered from their innate ingratitude as the Crab-root retains his sowre nature though his boughs are adorned with Golden Apples Since men have learnt to give thanks by Rote as Parrots do Goodmorrows To reduce the expression of Gratitude to lip-labour is to offer Sacrifice on a polluted Altar to prophane that which is holy and to pay a debt in brass money which may have the stamp but not the value of currant Coyn. Large professions of thankfulness having by general abuse degenerated into pure impostures and vizzards of hypocrisie or at best empty sounds which naturally inferr the hollowness of the Vessell they proceed from My obligations to you are many and great Justice returns quid pro quo something equivolent to what is received but Gratitude obliges reddere cum foenore a Duty I am so far from being Capable to satisfie that I confess my self Bankrupt by your favours and for laying out kindnesses where they were not deserved nor can be requited you might have repented your self of ill husbandry equall to his who sowed Wheat on the sands But that bounty to an undeserving person resembles so nearly that Archetype of Goodness whereby Providence obliges the Universe without its merit that my want of desert and disability of retribution will intitle your beneficence the more Divine and be Arguments of your Prudence in doing good for Ends whereof you cannot be disappointed that is like Solomon's Good Man of being satisfied from your self a design not to be frustrated and carries in it the Comfort of being Conformable to his Precept who Commands to give without hope to receive again Licet exemplis in parvis Grandibus uti It was the saying of a great man Roan Iesuis Roy Ie ne puis Prince Ie desdayne To apply it to the present purpose Your Favours Sir I am heartily thankfull for actually to requite them is beyond my power And though I do not scorn verball acknowledgements yet I ever thought words which are but wind as unfit representatives of the deep Characters of Gratefull thoughts as ordinary Table-Books or Chartae deletiles to hold matters of record And conceived it proper to transcribe the impressions my heart hath taken from your favours into Monuments that may remain to perpetuity and not only proclaim to the present Age but transmit to posterity a publick testimony of your Goodness in my Gratitude And though herein I do no more than the insolvent person who by the writing he owns himself a debtor publishes only his obligation and disability to pay Yet the freeness of those favours whereby you have engaged me makes me confident of your acceptance of this address as my declaration in Print of the duties I owe you and particularly my obligations for the opportunities had for this Translation of the Life of Ximenes wherein if any Crudity appears you will wink at it as a thing incident to the first fruits of mens Labours This being such and humbly presented to you by him who is heartily as actually Your Servant Walt. Vaughan TO THE READER THIS Book contains Vertue in Effigie drawn to the life beyond the Artifice of Picture or Sculpture for what Appelles and Lysippus could not shadow the life of Ximenes presents conspicuous as the light the progress and Ascent of vertue from the obscurity of a private condition to the illustrious Dignity of a Governour of Kingdoms And in one piece hath exprest its infancy growth and maturity 'T is exposed to view in a Fryars Frock and the Pomp of a Cardinal in the solitary retirements of an Ermitage and attended with legions of armed men Praying in a Cloister and Judging on a Throne Begging Alms but withall bestowing Provinces and relieving Princes in distress Dead to the world to live in it with Content and buried in a Monastery to obtain a glorious resurrection into the Theatre of Action and the prime dignities of Church and State Fortune the Mistris of other mens vertues waited on Ximenes as a Page Errant through the desart solitudes of Covents and Cloysters into the glorious splendour of Palaces and Soveraign Courts like a wanton Lover she pursued him who fled from her and Courted him who slighted her His merit had preference to the prerogative of Royal Birth when Queen Isabell unasked promoted him to the Archiepiscopal Chair of Toledo which the Charms of Conjugal affection assisted with the powerfull influence of Majesty in the intercessions of Ferdinand her King and Husband laboured in vain to perswade her to grant to Don Alonzo his Son then Suitor for that Great dignity of prime Prelate and first Grandee of Spain who mist his mark though he was born a Prince and had a King for his Advocate to plead in his behalf the success justified the wisdom of Queen Isabels choice For the vertue of Ximenes was proof against the Charms of Romish Greatness and continued humble and pious in pontificalibus not Fortunes slave but Mistris gained vast revenews to appear prodigiously liberal and Soveraign Honors to Grace his Magnificence filled his soul with zeal for Conversion of Infidels and his Heart with Courage to conquer Oran Managed the Generals Staff and swayed the Scepter with the same dexterity he handled the Breviary the Head of an Army in a Cardinals Cap and Governour of Spain in the Purple of the Church a Courtier and Patriot in one person the darling of his Prince for fidelity and zeal to promote the interest of the Crown the favourite of the people for easing their grievances procuring immunities erecting and endowing Colledges Hospitals and Granaries wherein he expended the vast profits of his Benefices like the Ocean returning the Tribute of the lesser Waters he receives in showers of beneficence on those who paid it When he retired from the Presidents Chair in the Councel Royal he went to Assist at Conferences of
Divinity to demonstrate the Consistence of Piety to Canonize him a Saint with Policy which gained him the title of Great Minister of Spain And that the distractions of Government could not disorder the harmony of his soul into an incapacity to perform exercises of Devotion when tost with the Tempests of a turbulent State He was humble in his personal carriage and private concerns but haughty in his Conduct and heroically magnanimous in his publick capacity His Gratitude to his Benefactors was Generous and exemplary but usque ad Aras confined within the limits of Justice from which he was inflexible though tempted by the highest obligations which occasioned his contest with his Good Master Ferdinand and the Pope when the former denyed him what in Justice was due and the other would have usurped a power to unlock at pleasure the Treasuries of the Church of Spain with the Keyes of St. Peter But blind obedience was not an Article of the Cardinals Creed who reverenced the Pope as Pastor of the flock but would not admit him Lord of the heritage He slighted mean exercises of Vertue as born only for arduous attempts annulled Contracts made by the High Treasurer Don Manuel in deceit of the King and tore in pieces the fraudulent Lease drawn by Collusion with the Farmers of Granada Made Judges examples of his Justice and feel the severity of the Laws they had corruptly abused to colour their sale of the right of the poor to the purse of the rich Reformed the Exchequer and Counsel Royal as well as the Retinue of the Court laid prostrate three of the greatest Grandees of Spain who had vilified his Person and contemned his Authority forced the Councel Royal to pay him the respects they had neglected obliged Prince Ferdinand Brother to Charles the fifth then King of Spain to obey the Orders he threatned to break reduced the Rebell Cities of Spain to obedience by Arms and Mutineers by the sole Majesty of his looks and the silent Authority of his Great Conduct opened as Generall a passage to the Catholick King and as Archbishop and Cardinal to the Catholick Faith into Africk Was a president of Piety to Fryars of Charity Magnificence and Zeal to Prelates of Courage and Conduct to Commanders of Armies of Royal Justice Prudence and Magnanimity to Princes and shines a Constellation of publick and private Moral and Politick Civil and Theological Vertues that moved successively in the several Orbs of Religious Military and Politick Government was a glorious Luminary in each and made it appear that neither Religion Military Discipline nor Civil Government but a transcendent Eminency in every of them was his proper Sphere These are the Lineaments of that vertue the following Story presents in lively colours and renders as lovely as that in Plato's fancy whose Idea of vertue was more amiable than Venus But Plato's Idea's were held Paradox in former dayes and Platonick Love is a Chimaera in ours Sense is the Ascendant of the Age the sole in let of modern affection and Knowledge and Vertue so great a stranger that she will scarce be known by her Effigies her Natural form will be a Disguise when she appears amongst them who adore the Pourtrait of a Mistris but scorn Idolatry to the image of Vertue and prefer the Pictures of Aretine before the Tables of Cebes Yet to please the Reader whose wit lyes in his fingers ends who knows no pleasure but what is palpable and will rather deny the being than admit the Love of invisible things Cujus Migravit ab aure voluptas omnis ad incertes oculos Gaudia vana The Book invites him not to a dull Entertainment of dry precepts of Morality but a fine shew of the Vertue of Ximenes a new and strange sight come from Spain seen in France newly shifted into an English habit and more worthy admiration than Pusionelle and the Butterfly A Proteus in the several shapes of Lawyer Fryar Archbishop Cardinal General Minister of State and Governour of Spain retaining a Divinity in all forms If you slight it as vertue it may deserve your sight as a Monster a strange form whereof you cannot discover the least resemblance in your self And though vertue be a contemptible thing in your Judgement the dress and Pomp it appears in may satisfie your fancy as you visit the Theatres for the Scenes not the Playes the Painters Pencill not the Pen of the Poets But these are reflections on a French vanity and lightness of Spirit which the English Reader may think himself unconcerned in For Ximenes appears among us in confidence the sole Greatness of his vertues will effectually recommend him to a kind entertainment from the Gravity of the English who though they have excluded Cardinals from their Countrey retain respect for Cardinal Vertues The Book like the pack of Ulysses made up of toyes for Women and Arms for a Heroe though checquer'd with a pleasing variety of accidents to tickle the fancy of the lightest wits consists chiefly of Generous Examples of solid vertue to kindle emulation in the bravest Spirits and doubts not of a Candid reception the Genius of the English though the humour of the times may countenance the contrary assertion being really more inclined to imitate the heroick actions and sound Discourses than the trifling vanities and fantastick Capricchio's of forreigners as Achilles in Petty-coats was better at handling a sword than a Distaff and though drest like a Lady thought the Spear and the Target fitter for him than Ear-knots and Patches ERRATA Pag. 14. l. 10. Dele too p. 20. l. 30. r. Master p. 34. l. 30. r. nocturnal p. 35. l. 5. r. San p. 42. l. ult r. Cady or p. 54 l. 11. r. for Defraying p. 58. l. 26 27. r. formidable by p. 62. l. 11. r. Calumniate p. 73. l. 15. r. thanked them p. 74. l. 21. r. Rights p. 80. l. 31. r. Purple p. 93. l. 30. r. to p. 95. l. 7. r. Velasco p. 104. l. 11. r. Stranger p. 106. l. 4. r. Rid p. 114. l. 26. r. Triumvirat p. 128. l. 25. r. Diâ—â—o his p. 132. l. 8. r. Attaque p. 148. l. 28. r. I 'le Besides mis-pointings and other less material Faults which the Reader may easily discover and is desired to Correct THE Contents CHAP. I. THE Birth and Education of Ximenes His Journey to Rome He is Robbed by the way His return to Spain and Imprisonment by Order of the Archbishop of Toledo His Enlargement and Retirement into the Diocess of Siguenza He is made Vicar-General thereof and Administrator-General to the Earl of Cifuentes and takes on him the Order of St. Francis pag. 1. CHAP. II. Ximenes interrupted in his Devotions by Crowds of Visitants retires into the Monastery of Castanet is made Warden of the Convent of Salceda and in 1492. Confessor to Isabel Queen of Spain He is chosen Provincial of his Order for three years leaves the Court and visits the Religious Houses under his
of Spain seizes Arevale and fortifies it but upon the Cardinal's Summons opens the Gates and is pardoned pag. 91 CHAP. XII The exemplary Justice of the Cardinal in punishing Corrupt Judges and their Officers He regulates the Exchequer and Orders of Knighthood reforms the Councel Royal and the retinue of the Court His taking away the Pensions of Peter Martyr and Gonsales D' Oviedo censured He annulls a Gift of three Millions made by Ferdinand to three Grandees The King of Tunis expelled his Dominion is royally entertained by the Cardinal pag. 97. CHAP. XIII The Cardinal by Edict commands all the Genoese to depart Spain within 15 dayes the reason of the Edict Charles accepts of the Genoese submission by their Embassadors and revokes the Edict The Cardinal refuses to publish the Revocation till further satisfied His Advice to Charles in the affairs of Italy The Jews offer Charles eight hundred thousand Crowns for Liberty to Judaize or turn Christians at their pleasure the Councel of Flanders advises Charles to accept the offer the Cardinal disswades him His prudent Disposal of the Government of Provinces He promotes Dean Adrian and others His Constancy pag. 106. CHAP. XIV The Grandees procure Laxaus to be sent Joint-Commissioner for the Government with the Cardinal and Dean Adrian The Cardinal slights him He tears the Patents signed by Adrian and Laxaus in the more Honourable place and signs new Patents to the same effect alone and executes them The Great Chancellor Savage sent into Spain His Corrupt proceedings The Cardinals Generous and Discreet Complaint against him An Ordinance past at Rome to levy the Tenths of the Clergy of Spain They are in discontent The Cardinal defends and pacifies them pag. 114. CHAP. XV. The Duke Infantado's Contempt of Justice The Cardinal threatens him The Dukes extravagant Message to the Cardinal He repents and is reconciled the manner of it The Cardinal's severity against Peter Gironne for not obeying the Decree of the Court of Valladolid The Grandees procure a prohibition from Charles to stay the Cardinal's proceedings The Cardinal and Councel inform Charles of the truth of the fact have liberty to proceed The Judgement of the Court is executed Giron submits The Duke D' Alva fortifies Casabrona against the Cardinal the Cardinal besieges it the resolution of the besieged the Duke submits and surrenders the Cardinal 's great affection for the Monastery of Castanet his inclination to Religious solitude Charles embarkes for Spain the Cardinal advances to meet him is poisoned Advises the remove of two principal Domestiques of Prince Ferdinands his haughty Conduct in their remove though threatned by Ferdinand his resolute Answer to Ferdinands Threats and the Grandees demand of his Commission His Advice to Charles upon his arrival in Spain Charles by an Express thanks the Cardinal the Councel of Spain advance to meet Charles without the Cardinal's Leave and were commanded to return the Cardinal's Harbingers mark a Lodging for him the Marshalls of the Kings Lodgings mark the same for the Queen the Cardinal carries it Charles his Letter of Dismission to the Cardinal the Cardinal 's pious Death his Epitaph and Character pag. 122. TO HIS EMINENCE THE Cardinal Duke OF RICHLIEU My Lord AMONG the gifts of Nature God hath not imparted to Man a more admirable than that of Reason which is that to the soul that the soul is to the body And amongst those of Fortune he hath not given him a greater than the Crosses of life which render his vertues Eminent and Conspicuous in procuring him Palms of Victory and Crowns of immortal Glory The Present I make your Eminence of the crosses and oppositions Cardinal Ximenes encountred and surmounted in the Government of a Kingdom I dare affirm the greatest and most considerable the Treasures of past Ages can afford But I fear my Lord I may appear as ridiculous in offering it as he that carries water to the Sea Since the Esteem and Repute you have this day of the prime Person of our Age is no less grounded upon your incomparable Constancy in ore coming all obstacles that oppose your vertue then your admirable Conduct in Affairs of State The Painter certainly commits no Crime who figuring out the Battels of other men delineates the Combates of some Great Captain which were not designed the subject of his Pencill And if my Pen innocently mention any Action that may correspond and run parallel with yours I conceive it merits neither blame nor contempt on that accompt For my Lord what Minister of State is there who hath not resembled others in some Traverses of Fortune and cross occurrences in his Administration it being impossible to govern men without opposition from men The Platonick Philosophers held it an undoubted truth That the World is a Temple built by God who hath impressed his visible Image in the body of the Sun to act in his stead What the Sun is in the Universe that a Minister of State is in the Government under his care the great Representative of the Soveraign Authority The Sun is the Eye of the World and the Minister of State in the Persian phrase the Eye of the King Yet this glorious Luminary hath its Eclipses and aspiring mists and Clouds interposing between us and him to the obscuring of his Light The Ancient Fiction of the Suns rising out of the Sea and setting there without diminution of his Lustre presents to us in him the lively Picture of a Minister of State in the Government of the world and intimates those troublesome and disastrous occurrences that frequently infests the beginning and end of his Administration but cannot impair the Rayes of his Glory Cardinal Ximenes who by his good Conduct rendred Spain happy had notwithstanding a whole Order of Religion to decry his Politick Actions And besides them the Grandees the People Cities and intire Provinces banded against him and at last all that was powerful and considerable in the Court and Countrey he had so worthily served abandoned and forsook him But he who had a breast prepared amidst the Courtly smiles of prosperous fortunes to resist the Storms and Tempests of Adversity hath left us a grand Example and famous Instance to confirm the truth of that Assertion which holds Constancy one of the principal qualities requisite in a Minister of State that a stout Resistance against the ills that encounter him is the Buckler that secures his vertues And to turn his back to the Assaults of Fortune an Act misbecoming and altogether unworthy that Man who has the Conduct of others Behold him 〈◊〉 having surmounted all obstacles 〈◊〉 in his way to stop or disturb the â—â—urse of his vertue arrived in France where he may see practised the Rules of excellent Government and hopes to acquire a second Glory if my Lord you permit and allow his name to live with yours The Age wherein he Governed Spain and that which your Actions have filled with wonder and astonishment immediately succeed one
the other and may dispute with the Ages past and to come the honour and esteem of being the happiest of Ages as having produced two men who have been the Oracles of good Conduct and Politick administration If you grant him this favour my Lord I hope for my part that in recompence of my Studies and in consideration of my Joint Travel with him in this Commentary of his Administration I may with your consent obtain and carry the Title I desire of My Lord Your most humble and most obedient Servant Baudier THE PREFACE IT is a Custome received in all Ages and approved by the practice of the whole world to expose to publick view the Effigies and Statues of men who have surpassed others by the greatness of their Vertues lived the Glory of their times and rendered themselves Recommendable to the imitation of Posterity To these figures of their Corporal Lineaments and Resemblances of the external forms of their persons some have added Tables and Memorials as Monuments of their Heroick and Magnamimous Actions in presiding o're Councills and publick Assemblies appeasing popular Seditions and restoring quiet and tranquility to a disordered City Countrey or State or the like I have proposed to my imitation this latter way of representing illustrious Personages and here present to the publick the pourtraict of the greatest Minister of his time that Europe could then boast in all the States she contains I have drawn him Active in War a Counsellor in Peace extending the borders of Spain beyond the Seas advertising his Master of the disorders of the Court and giving him his Counsells and sage Advice I have described him appeasing the Tumults and factious disorders of Cities of Provinces of a whole Realm advancing Vertue rewarding Merit punishing Vice and establishing a general felicity in the whole body politick The work is composed with that Candor that Liberty and Truth which ought to Animate and are the principal Ornament of History that the end and design of it will easily appear to have been not the pleasing of any particular person but the profit of the publick and the good of the Common-wealth Which I have observed in that of the Administration of the Cardinal D' Amboyse already published and some others that may follow this wherein my only design is truth which alwayes tends to the publick good But the Actions of this great Minister being far above those of other men who have managed the Affais of Monarchs I thought it my Duty to consider some of them apart and to make particular reflections thereon for the delight of those that shall take the pains to read them The Crosses he met with in the Government of Spain were almost infinite and the power of the Enemies that attacqued him very remarkable but his constancy in the resistance admirable As a couragious Pilot forsakes not the helm in tempestuous weather but perishes gloriously with his hand upon it so hath he left us this instruction that a Minister should never endure disorders tending to the vilifying and contempt of the Supream Authority which his represents or to the oppression of Justice but choose rather to lye buried in the Ruines of the one and the other His Actions in the Armies when seventy years old demonstrate that men who wear a Robe as well as those who wear a Sword have their Vigour and Activity to encounter Enemies perils and difficulties And though their condition exempt them from corporall labours yet they remain subject to those of the mind whose cares are more weighty and pains more considerable and important All that fight have their share in the Victory but the General who conquers by his good conduct and prudence merits all the glory Therefore the Spartans for a Victory gain'd by force of Arms sacrificed only a Bird but a whole Oxe fell Victim for a Victory obtained by the prudence of their General Cardinal Ximenes in attacquing Oran in the face of the Sun contrary to the design of his Captains who would have expected the advantage of the night to carry on the Assault seems to have revived the Generosity of Alexander who refused to set upon Darius by night as scorning to steal a Victory but desiring the Sun might testifie he owed it to his valour Moreover his good Conduct in all the War of Africk where his Age and Quality forbad him the bearing of Arms justifies the opinion of the Great Roman Captain That Conquest by Counsel is not less honourable than that by the Sword 'T is a great instance of the excellency of his Conduct that he brought Learning and Military Valour to esteem and reputation in Spain that the State received thereby the means not only to defend but render it self illustrious Nor was he ever subject to the reproach of extinguishing the sparks of Vertue in the breasts of youth by depriving Gallant Actions of their due Recompence of just Rewards but exercising with courage and integrity both commutative and distributive Justice dispensing Rewards to the good and inflicting punishment on the bad He raised his condition to that pitch of highest perfection which induced the Sage Politician to affirm that nothing in the World is so like God as a just man The Government of Provinces and principal Charges of State were not given to those who were most in favour but to those who had most merit 'T is true he preferred Persons of Quality but such as were also men of Fortune and Estate least their necessities might incline them to peel and oppress the people Nor had he less regard to their integrity And in preferring Gentlemen of integrity and worth before other persons of equall vertues he seems to have imitated the order of the Heavens which are guided by intelligences whose Nature is more excellent and pure than those forms which derive their Grosser Essence from the Elements And as by the Ordinances of Nature we do not only receive Light immediately from the Sun the fountain of it but from the lesser Stars whose bodies nature hath disposed and adapted to a Capacity of receiving Light from the Sun and reverberating the same to us by Reflection So the Governours of Provinces and places of importance should keep up and maintain the Splendor of Majesty in the absence of their Prince as the Starrs by night which is the absence of the Sun shew us part of the brightness of that glorious Luminary And besides that the people honour and reverence men of eminent quality and are more propense and ready to yield them obedience than to men raised from a Mean Condition Gentlemen together with their blood derive from their Parents the seeds of Generosity and have commonly the advantage of better Education and the memory of the Illustrious Acts of their Ancestors is ordinarily a spurr to vertue a strong motive and powerful incitement to good Actions But Cardinal Ximenes though where he found equall vertue in two persons of unequall birth he did as
Reason would prefer the Noble yet was he far from abandoning or slighting vertue from which Nobility is derived and by which it is maintained The Gifts and Largesses he bestowed out of his proper stock on particular persons and the publick are worthy remarque His advancement of an infinite number of persons of integrity and merit to the Offices of Magistrature the Dignities of the Chureh and Charges of War preserve to this day in Spain the memory of the Grandeur of his Spirit and will remain an everlasting monument of Glory and Benediction to his name The Hospitals built at his Charge in Spain and endowed by him with Revenues the Religious Houses remaining there for durable works of his piety and bounty the publick Granaries stored with Corn for relif of the poor filled out of the Rents setled by him to that purpose the Seminaries and publick Nurseries of vertue for the Common-wealth where he provided for the education of youth of both Sexes left destitute of necessaries in that behalf declare and will record to perpetuity that the Grandeur of Ximenes consisted not so much in his Eminent and Great Employments as in his transcendent Liberality and extraordinary bounty The Temples of the Graces in the Cities of the Levant were by the Ancients built in publick places as in their Markets or near their Cirques and Amphitheaters to signifie that the Benefits and good Actions of great men ought to be not only open to private persons but communicated to the publick A Minister of State is a publick person constituted in the most eminent Dignity of a Kingdom next the Royal And if it be true that a good King is the Father of his people the Minister of State who is his Assistant ought to be a faithful Steward to dispence his favours and afford ready helps to the wants and necessities of the publick When Cinon the Athenian was grown Rich he caused the fences and inclosures of his Gardens to be laid open that the poor might have free ingress to gather the fruits he kept an open house and table for all that were in want and sent his servants loaded with Garments through the Streets of Athens to be distributed amongst them that were in want holding himself unworthy to possess a great Estate without imparting of it to others In like manner had Cardinal Ximenes when seised of that great Benefice whereby was vested in him the largest Revenue of that Kingdom filled his Coffers with Treasure and locked up there the Gold destined for other uses he had condemned himself as guilty of embezling and converting to his private benefit what ought to have been laid out in the Redemption of Slaves enlargement of Prisoners Cures of the sick comfort of the afflicted and sustenance of the poor But he made liberal destribution thereof suitable to the necessities of the several objects of his Bounty Certainly some good Kings are publick Springs whence the people have right to draw that is to have recourse to their Beneficence and good Ministers of State ought to be the pipes to those Royall Fountain to convey to the people the water of Relief The greatness of his vertues could not so exempt Ximines from Envy but that in his life time it attacqued both his Name and his Conduct though his death put a period to detraction and procured Reverence to his name honour to his memory and Elogies for his Government And 't is observable men never behold the Sun so earnestly as when he is Ecclipsed Innocence of all places of the world makes least Residence at Court where Ambition alwayes wars against eminent vertues This concludes it necessary for a Minister of State to fortifie himself with Constancy and Resolution to resist their malignity who would call him to account and charge him as answerable for all the sinister Accidents that fall out as if the Events of Affairs depended only on him Cardinal Ximenes had this vertue in the superlative alwayes like himself alwayes aquanimous alwayes firm stout and resolute in the beginning progress and end of his administration that he might have said of himself what the Roman Camillus once of himself in another sense That neither the Dictatorship had elevated nor Exile abated the height of his Spirit That neither the Archbishoprick of Toledo the Primacy of Spain the Cardinals Cap nor the Authority of Governour of a Kingdom had given him courage nor the crosses and misfortunes of Court taken it from him These great and heroick vertues have rendered him the compleat original and Architype of a perfect Minister of State which I propose to thir view who Govern the world under the Authority of Soveraign Princes that they may imitate his Zeal for the publick good his fidelity to his Prince his affection to persons of worth and wel-deserving his strong inclinations and vigorous actions for the good of the people and increasing the Glory and Grandeur of the State being the ends and principal marks aimed at in all Governments managed with wisdom and crowned with Success THE HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF Cardinal Ximenes Prime Minister of STATE IN SPAIN KINGS who are Masters of the Goods of this world advantage men in their fortunes and improvement of their estates but 't is the Sun that King of Starrs and first of all second Causes that enriches them with the Gifts of Nature so that those Regions which are blest with the more favourable aspect of this Eye of Heaven produce things of greater excellency than other Countreyes and give birth to men of more eminent parts and endowed with the rarest qualities in Natures gift Spain by the happy advantage of her scituation lyes so full and open in the Eye of that great Luminary that as enamoured of her beauty he vouchsafes her the light of his countenance and by the large measure of his irradiation afforded her contributes to her production of eminent persons In her was born Francis Cardinal Ximenes of the Noble Family of the Cisneres who deduce their original from the Suburbs of Villaizar in the Diocess of Toledo His Father was Alphonso Receiver of the Tenths of the Clergy granted by the Pope to the King of Spain who taken with the beauty of a young Maid of an honest family and the same place married her and had by her several Children whereof Ximenes was the eldest At the Font he received with the Graces of Heaven the name of his Father Alphonso which he after changed in the Cloister into that of Francis In his Infancy he had his Education in the Town of Areula D' Henares where he learnt the principles of the Latine Tongue and of good manners from thence he was removed to Salamanca to study those Laws which regulate the Estates and possessions of men where by the advantage of his pregnant Wit he became so great a Proficient that in a short time he was capable to instruct others His Family was reduced to so low an Ebb of Fortune
the Monastery being the Center A year was scarce elapsed but he was drawn out thence to take on him the charge of Warden of the Covent of Salceda where he kept the Fryars within the Rules of their Order more by the example of his good life than the commands of a Superiour But 't is the Priviledge of Courts to enter into Cloisters and take thence such men whom Fortune hath designed to partake of their Grandieurs Isabel Queen of Spain calles him to Court in the year 1492. and by the advice of Cardinal Mendoza Archbishop of Toledo makes him her Confessor In this eminent place he gave proofs of great vertues without any exception but that of intermedling with Matters of State wherein he exceeded his Call and strained beyond his Charge and his Frock This perhaps gave those of his Order occasion to draw him back from Court to a Religious imployment by choosing him their Provincial for three years And here he gave a most pregnant proof of the indifferency of his spirit for the affairs of Court and of the great love he bore his Order by going from Court more willingly than he had come into it and imploying his time in visiting the Religious Houses under his charge Coming to Gibraltar moved with a charitable zeal for the salvation of the Infidels he designed a Voyage into Africk at the peril of his life to instruct the Moors there in the Christian faith but a Fryar of his Order and in great esteem for Piety disswaded him assuring him God had prepared him a great imployment in Spain He travelled on foot and begged but was such a bungler at the Trade and begged so untowardly that he seldom carried any but an empty bagg which made Franeis Rouys his companion tell him he must give over begging for that no man was more certainly born to give to all and begg of none than he And had not the care of Rouys stood him in more stead than his begging Alms he had made more Fast-dayes than the Rules of his Order required So unfit to begg are Great Spirits being naturally disposed to Give not to Ask. CAP. III. FOrtune which had designed him for the prime Prelate of Spain took care soon after to furnish his strong inclinations for the Good of mankind with means competent to express his Good nature in acts of benificence answerable to the Greatness of his Soul Cardinal Mendoza Archbishop of Toledo laboured under two maladies the one incurable the other dangerous Age and a Feavour which induced him to go to Guadalfayre to take the benefit of that Ayre he drew at his birth Ferdinand and Isabel King and Queen of Spain went thither to visit him This honour had saved the Cardinals life if death had regarded the presence of Kings who are themselves his Homagers Mendoza now drawing near to his end gave his Master these three sage Counsels 1. To make peace with the King of France and keep it inviolable when made 2. To marry the Infant John Designed Successor of their Crowns to Joan since the wise of Alphonso King of Portugal pretendant to the Kingdom of Castile 3. To conferr the Archbishoprick of Toledo on a person of mean Condition but of great integrity and extraordinary Capacity That these qualities were apparently eminent in the person of Ximenes That the Grandees of Spain proud enough of the Titles they are born to become intolerably insolent by the addition of those of great Dignities These Princes slighted the first Advice to the prejudice and notorious damage of Christendom which smarted for their contempt of it as the Spanish histories ingenuously Confess The third they embraced which Coming to the Knowledge of Ximenes he remonstrates to them that the Dignity of the Archbishoprick of Toledo being the prime of the State as well spiritual as temporal which gave the person invested in it the priviledge of speaking next the King in the Council-Royal ought to be given to the most illustrious and Ancient Gentry of the Kingdom Cardinal Mendoza quitted his life and the Archbishoprick together in the year 1496. Ferdinand would have preferred his natural son Don Alphonso Archbishop of Saragosa to this great Benefice But Isabel who had right of Presentation to it as Queen of Castile preferred the vertue of Ximenes before the birth of Don Alphonso and the intreaties of the King her husband The year ensuing they presented Ximenes to succeed in this Grand Prelature no less in dignity than Revenue which amounts to two hundred thousand Ducats a year Ximenes forced by express Mandat from the Pope accepts it At his first nomination he left the Court and fled on foot to a Covent of his Order a great way from Madrid to avoid investiture in the Archbishoprick But returning in obedience to the Pope he declared to Ferdinand and Isabel that he would never consent that this Rich Benefice should be charged with one farthing pension as prejudicial to the dignity and liberty of the prime pastor of Spain Now hath he just cause to meddle in Affairs of the State as being one of the most considerable members thereof This sudden change of fortune shook not his Constancy nor altered his setled Resolutions of adhering to vertue Yet was he as free from mean and base Actions as from the Corruptions that usually attend great fortunes he made it appear that no dignity could be so great as to exceed his capacity no Grandure in the gift of fortune to which his soul was not commensurate though in his plenty of Fortune and Eminence of place he continued the plainness of a Religious life Piety hath brought plenty and abundance of Riches into the Church And by the disorders of the world the Daughter hath devoured the Mother so that there are more Ecclesiasticks Rich than Pious Ximenes was not of their number for amidst the Treasure of that Great Revenue he kept inviolable that poverty that exalts Great Personages above the height of fortune and consists in the contempt and sober use of these perishing enjoyments And as if he had been afraid to lose the least part of it he continued the practises of that Poverty which the Rules of Religion exact from its strictest votaries The Pomp of a Cardinal and Attendance of the Prime Prelate of Spain could not keep him from retyring into a private place from the eyes of his domestiques to mend with his own hands the frock he had wore among those of his Order so that after his death in a Box whereof in his Life-time he constantly kept the Key there were found needles thred and pieces of Gray Cloth of the Colour of his Frock which he laid up for that use He slept on a Friers pallet which he had hid in his Chamber where stood his Bed of state And that his family might not perceive it he made it his custom to go to bed and rise alone without attendants and his door shut When he was first made Archbishop he rid
into the Country upon an Asse attended by a troop of Monks of his Order his house his family and his table were so ordered as not to be inconsistent with his Vow of poverty The Great Revenue of the Primate of Spain was imployed in works of Piety the poor receiving a moity of it for their sustenance whom he called the Lords and Proprietors of his Revenues The Bishops of Spain instead of imitating the good Example of his simplicity were offended at it and complained of him to Pope Alexander the sixth who sent him a Brieve advising him to change that mean fashion of life into a more splendid and becoming his dignity telling him it was not only convenient but necessary to maintain with some external pomp and lustre the dignities founded in a holy simplicity Ximenes obeys the Pope his table is better covered his Beds more sumptuous his utensils of Earth are changed into Plate and all the ornaments of Prelature more splendid and magnificent But his Golden Cross made him not a woodden Bishop he continued his conferences in Divinity with the Priests and his sermons to the people and it is remarkable he admitted no man into his family but upon the commendations of honesty and vertue But can it be expected Ximenes should quietly enjoy a Dignity so Eminent a Benefice of so vast revenue since 't is the course of the world that as Roses have their prickles growing up with them so crosses are inseparable Companions of great fortunes The first that attacqued him were the Monks of his Order who were at Court with him and offended that he kept them in his house to the Austere Rules of their Order and forbad them to intermeddle with any thing but their Beads And that being lately made President of the Kings Council he procured not for them the Prelatures of Spain spread ill reports of his person and made their Sermons invectives against his conduct Turning the pulpit which ought to be the Oracle of truth into a Theatre of Envy They rested not there but sent for their General from Rome and armed him with Calumnies against Ximenes The General arrived in Spain and hurried with faction and insolence predominant in him goes to the Queen and addressing himself with little respect accused Ximenes of Ignorance of Pride and of Hypocrisie Blaming the Queen for permitting such a man to fit in her Council and in the prime Chair of Prelature in the Kingdom Isabel well assured of the integrity and merits of Ximenes and moved at the palpable rudeness and irregular passion of this General asked him if he were in his wits and knew whom he spoke to Yes Madam saith he I am so well in my wits as to know I speak to Queen Isabel who is but a heap of Dust as I am and suddenly withdrew from the presence of the Queen more like a Fury than a Rational Creature But the accusations of these Monks having no other foundation but Envy hatred and untruths were easily dissipated by the patience of Ximemes to their shame but his Glory Thus these Ambitious men who went out of the world upon design to return with greater advantage attacqued his reputation But Bernardine his brother attempted his life Ximenes when he took the habit of St. Francis resigned to him his Benefices and was soon after followed by this young man who too became of the same Orders and afterwards tracing the steps of his Brothers fortune went to Court in hope of a Bishoprick but the success not answering his designes he imputed the cause to Ximenes and resolved to be revenged of him for the refusal or delay of his preferment Ximenes lay sick at Arcula D'Henares in Latin Complutum Bernardine was in his house and finding his Brother one day in his chamber without any attendant threw himself on the bed where he lay and pressing the bolster hard on his neck endeavoured to choke him and thinking it done went out of the Chamber Ximenes not quite dead was helped by his servants who came in and having acquainted them with Bernardines villany commanded them to apprehend him They search and having found him hid in a Cave drag him out and bring him to Ximenes who took no other revenge than that he sent him bound to the Monastery of Torrice to learn more wiâ—t Having recovered his health he spent some time in reforming the Conventuals of the Order of St. Francis called Cordeliers whom he reduced under the Rules of the Observantins to live without Revenews as Children of Providence and upon the Alms they receive His pains and the Cordeliers oppositions and complaints in this Affair almost exceed expression But by the end of the year 1499. his Constancy surmounted all difficulties raised by them and afforded him opportunity to employ his thoughts towards redress of the peoples grievances It troubled him to see the Kingdoms of Castile and Leon oppressed by a heavy Tax called Alcabala which forced them to pay the King the tenth part of all they sold or exchanged This Imposition was first laid towards defraying the Charge of the Wars of Granada against the Moors but continued to the grievance of the people after the War though ended to the great advantage of Ferdinand and Isabel Ximenes remonstrates to them that God had made them Pastors not Tyrants over the people that by the favour of Heaven they had obtained Victory over the Moors that it was an ill Acknowledgement of the mercy to continue in time of Peace and Triumph that Subsidy which was intended only for the maintenance of the War His advice was taken and the people discharged of the Tax This gained him great reputation all over Spain so that he never entred the Palace Royal but the people attended him with joyful Acclamations saying publickly He never went to Council but for the good of the Commonalty A wise Minister of State designs no less the good of the publick than the Honour of his Prince The disorders of War had banished good Literature from the Territories of Spain Ximenes desires ardently to see it brought back and replanted causes a Colledge to be built at Arcala and the seventh of March 1498. 〈…〉 stone himself endowed iâ— with Revenuâ—◠〈◊〉 furnished it with Regents which renderâ— it one of the best Academies of Spain Certainly the happiness of a Kingdom consists in the observance of the Laws which is better effected through careful education than fear of punishment Vertuous actions are derived from good habits acquired by practice and exercise of the wholsome Rules of good Education where this is wanting the severities of Magistracy are too weak to contain men within the limits of obedience to Law there being nothing so difficult as to subdue our passions when by long Custom and Continuance in Vice they have got such head as to master our Reason Hence that Maxim of the Wise man that Prudent Education added to the Gifts of Nature renders men vertuous and obedient to the
Laws and that nothing is more necessary for the Common-weal than good institution and vertuous education of Youth CAP. IV. XImenes had not only a real Affection for Learning but a high esteem for its faithfull Attendants Honesty and Integrity though his affection to the one and esteem for the other terminated in Religion as the ultimate object of his best affections the Ascendant of his soul and Lady paramount of his passions To which he was so entirely devoted as to take the measure of his affection and esteem for Learning and Honesty from their usefulness to the advancement of Religion The zeal he had to propagate Christianity made him labour willingly and much for the Conversion of Infidels About the end of this year he attended the King and Queen in their Kingdom of Granada newly recovered from the Moors to give advice how this new Conquest might be best maintained and found time to preach so fervently to the Moors that in one day he converted three thousand of them to the faith of Christ And the multitude of the Converts making it impossible to baptize them all in the usual form within the compass of a day using aspersion instead immersion he sprinkled them all with baptismal water and so initiated them all the same day in the Christian Religion In memory whereof that day being the 16th of December was long kept Festival in Spain The Archbishop of Granada in his harangue to the Cardinal upon the Triumphs of that Kingdom amongst others hath this expression Sir I may say without incurring suspicion of flattery that your Victories surpass the King's for he gained Stones but you have gained Souls to God The greatest part of the unconverted Moors followed the example of a Prince of their Sect of the Royal Family of the Kings of Granada who became Christian and drew them with him to the knowledge of the true Religion These new Converts by the light of truth began to discover and detest their former errors and of their own accord laid at Ximenes feet five thousand Volumes of the Alcoran or Glosses and Explications of it all curiously bound neatly trimmed and exquisitely adorned with Claspes and Knots of Silver Gold and precious Stones which made out the Esteem that people had for the lying impostures of their Prophet Many Grandees of Spain became Suitors to Ximenes for one of those Books to adorn their Libraries but he refused and causing a great fire to be made exposed them all to the fury of the devouring flames except few that treated of Physick and had been found among the Alcorans Taking from these new Converts those objects which might renew the memory of the Errors in which they had lived most part of their time So frail and so fickle is our nature in good actions that our progress in the way of vertue is like that of Boats against the stream of a rapid Torrent which fall back in one hour more than they advance in a whole day This was not enough to contain them within the bounds of their duty some sighed for their lost liberty others relapsed into their old superstitions and taking up Arms resolved to force their way to both by fire and sword Ximenes who was yet in Granada stood the shock and bearing up bravely in a Sea of troubles that surrounded him sends an Express to the King And for better dispatch a Gentleman of Quality of the same City offered him an Ethiopian Slave so nimble and swift of foot that he would travell fifty Leagues a day But the brutish Sot having received the Pacquet instead of making haste overcharged himself so with Wine and Victuals at the second Inn he met with by the way that he slept there till the morrow after and he who should have been in two dayes at Sevil where the Court then was made it five ere he arrived there In the mean time the King had intelligence of the Revolt of the Moors of Granada from them who envying the greatness of Ximenes took care to send better Courriers than the Ethiopian and informed the King that Ximenes who through a rash and undiscreet zeal would have converted to Christianity in a moment men who were not only born and had lived but were for the most part grown old in the Profession of Mahometism had lost the Realm of Granada That he was utterly incapable to manage matters of State who proposed and made use of no other allurements to win over his Converts to submit their necks to the yoke of a new Government than the headstrong Capricchio's of his violent fancy and the rigorous Austerities he had practised in a Cloister Ferdinand believes them and remembring Ximenes had been introduced into Court and his Conduct extolled by the Queen his Wife goes to her Lodgings and all in a flame See now Madam sayes he the Triumphs of our Ancestors and our own purchased with the blood of the Nobles of Spain ruined in a moment by the humoursome follies of your Ximenes Ximenes by this time had intelligence from his friends of the negligence of the Ethiopian and the sense of the Court he acknowledges his fault to entrust the sottishness of such a Brute with an Affair of so great Importance And resolved for the future never to send Courriers on the like Occurrences but such as were persons of integrity and honest Repute which he observed making it his custom to honour and load with Presents such whom he imployed in dispatches of Consequence To retrive this miscarriage and remedy the present disorder of his Affairs he dispatched Roiiys his Companion of the Order to inform their Majesties of the Causes of the Revolt and the Remedies he had applyed The good estate of Granada quenched the fire of Ferdinands anger and displeasure against Ximenes and drew from him Letters of thanks to Ximenes for his great expence for the good of the publick in restoring peace to Granada and the dangers he exposed himself to to save his Cities from ruine and the Kingdom from destruction A Minister of State who labours with integrity to serve his Majesty ought by good Actions and patience to overcome the Envy and Calumnies of his Enemies which like thin mists are easily dissipated and being built on the sandy foundations of falseshood and lyes are soon shaken and moulder to nothing CAP. V. THE watchings and labours Ximenes underwent to suppress the Tumults of Granada had impaired his health into a Hectick Feavour so malignant that the Physitians could find no remedy for it A Moriseo-woman converted by him hears of this and sends him another woman of the same Nation to desire permission to cure his Feavour which being granted her within eight dayes by the use of Oyntments and some words she recited she restored him to perfect health This enabled him to go to Toledo to salute the Princess Joan Daughter and Heiress of Ferdinand and Isabel together with Philip of Austrich her Husband and Son to the Emperour
Maximilian who were lately come to Spain And thence to visit that glorious Temple of the Muses his Colledge of Arcala the love of Learning being inseparable from his soul insomuch that in the year 1502. in order to the Explication and Imprinting of the Holy Scriptures in Latine Greek Hebrew and Chaldee by persons of knowledge and skill in those Tongues at his charge in that City he bought up all the Manuscript Bibles he could hear of and caused most exact and correct Impressions to be made thereof in those Languages Seven Hebrew Copies cost him four thousand Crowns the Latine and Greek Manuscripts being eight hundred years old amounted to a greater summ besides a vast expence for maintenance and Salaries of Professors of those Languages and Correctors and Printers for fifteen years His design was to instruct the Priests in the Truths of the two Testaments and to leave the Church these Lights of the Holy Scriptures in their original purity As if he had foreseen that a few years after the perfection of this work Heresie would arise by false interpretation of Scripture to attacque the purity of Christian Doctrine And therefore he provided this Impression as a well furnished Armoury to defend the Church against the malice of her Enemies This great and painfull work being finished and the Printer presenting him with the first Copy of it with eyes and hands lift up for joy to Heaven My God said he I return thee immortal thanks for granting my desires of good success to this work Then turning to his Domestiques who were most familiar with him 'T is true said he my friends that God hath been pleased to crown my Labours with success in many important Affairs for the good of the State but there is not any thing in which ye ought to rejoyce with me more than for the happy accomplishment of this Impression and Explication of the Bible in the four Languages He had designed also a Translation of Aristotle's works and to adorn them suitable to the dignity of the subject And certainly since he thus revived good Literature 't is but just Learning should raise him to life again and that the Muses give immortality to his Name for he who labours for them ought in recompence of his Travels to receive from them the Auguste priviledge of never dying Much about this time Joan Heiress of Spain was delivered of her second Son at Arcala Ximenes layes hold of the opportunity for the glory of his Colledge and by the favour of this birth obtained for that City which he had made an habitation of the Muses exemption from Taxes and all manner of Impositions The inhabitants of Arcala in memory of the favour keep to this day the Cradle of that Prince and bless the name of Ximenes who procured it As he went out of his Lodgings the same day he met the Officers of Justice leading a Malefactor to the Gibbet he stops them and grants the wretched Criminal Pardon Telling them that though it was an Action beyond his Authority yet so much ought to be allowed his Dignity to hinder that day of general Joy to all Spain from being Capital to an Inhabitant of Arcala After this he built a Colledge for Maids of honest Families whom Poverty kept in ignorance and adjoyned to it a Nunnery for the entertainment of such who were inclined to bid farewell to the world with Provision that none should be taken into it but such as came voluntarily and as for those who desired to continue secular besides the vertuous breeding of the Colledge he gave them honourable portions and disposed of them in Marriage according to their conditions These works of Piety and the War against the Moors were the Treasury where he laid up those Riches Fortune cannot destroy CAP. VI. BEing at Medina Jerome Vianelli a Venetian â—ffered him a Jewell at 5000. Crowns and pressed him much to buy it though the price put upon it exceeded far the value of the Stone Ximenes liked well the neat glittering and sparkling brightness of the Jewel but I know sayes he to bestow the money better for in an urgent necessity I can relieve 5000. Souldiers with Crowns apiece his Levies for the Wars of Africk being then afoot The year 1505 Spain had great loss by the death of Queen Isabel the Most Illustious Princess of her Age no less Eminent for acquired habits of Goodness than Royal Extraction being as worthily adorned with the Crowns of Vertue as legally Crowned with the Diadem of Spain a Princess of Knowledge Piety and Generosity above the usual Capacity of her Sex She who had observed in Ximenes the Eminence of Rare Conduct attended with singular integrity made him Executor of her Last Will and Testament which was but a drop of that Ocean of honour those qualities procured him which rendered him so venerable in the State that never Minister was so much honoured in his life so much desired and missed after his death Every time he came to wait on his Master Ferdinand the King went out of his Chamber to meet him and at parting brought him to the Chamber-door nor would he siâ— till a Seat were given Ximenes So powerful are great Vertues as to obliege even the Scepters of the World to reverence them That Minister who is prudent and Generous whose designes tend only to the glory of his Master and good of the publick deserves the Surname of Guardian-Angel of the State and ought to be honoured as such by every one The death of Isabel gave Ximenes occasion to do Ferdinand good Service in Spain and to give new proofs of the greatness of his Conduct Isabel who was Queen of Castile had by her Testament made Ferdinand her Husband who was only King of Arragon Administrator general of the Kingdom of Castile Philip his Son in Law husband as was said of the sole Heiress of that Kingdom had other designes and by the instigation of some Grandees of Spain and presuming upon the amity of France intended to dethrone his Father in Law and take possession of Castile as the inheritance of his Wife He was at that time in Flanders with Joan about whom Ximenes had placed some persons of trust by whom she informed him of the designes of her Husband to trouble Spain and the ill usage she had from him for his Love to the Flemmish Ladies had divided the Husband and Wife and filled their Breasts with Jealousie and hatred of each other Joan writes to her Father the threats of Philip to drive him out of Castile contrary to the Testament of the Queen her Mother Philip surprizes Fernand's Embassadour with several Letters about him and without respect to his person caused him to be imprisoned Ximenes advertised of these threats and violences advises the Remedy for Ferdinand's service he knew Philip had Negotiations afoot in France to sollicite the Aid of that Court against his Father in Law Ximenes steps in and prevents it advises Ferdinand to a
strict Alliance on that side and to take to Wife Germain de Foix Niece to Lewis the twelfth The Marriage was accomplished and Philip surprized to see himself abandoned by them from whom he promised himself the greatest succour was forced to a Treaty of Accommodation with Ferdinand and agree to him the Administration of the Kingdom of Castile reserving to himself the honour only of being named joyntly with Ferdinand in all Letters Patents This Agreement quieted the Affairs of Spain though not long Philip comes thither with Joan his Wife visits the Cities of the Kingdom and acts as sole Master of it without seeing Ferdinand or permitting his Wife to see him Ferdinand though his Father in Law longs to see Philip and follows him from place to place but Philip flees from him till Ximenes by his prudence procured an Interview Philip instigated by the great ones desirous of novelties and envying the Authority of Ximenes appeared at the enterview in the Equippage of Conquest and Triumph not like a Son to meet his Father but marching with six thousand Warriers at his heels Ferdinand had only two hundred men of his houshold and retinue and mounted on Mules But this Flemish Bravado lasted not long the sage Advice of Ximenes made it vanish he goes to Philip at Burges shews him the injury he did himself to sow division in a State belonging to him that to raise Warr in Spain was to Assault his own House that Ferdinand had only the Administration of Castile and served only to keep it and improve it for him that the Counsels given him tended to his ruine that Don John Manuel his great Confident and Prime man of his Council was a person interessed and for his own advantage fomented divisions between him and his Father in Law that it concerned him in point of interest and for his own good to remove Manuel by some honourable Employment that an Embassy to Rome would be very fit for the purpose To remove from a Prince a pernicious favourite is to rid a Sick man of his Disease And because this Enterview is a principal piece of our Story I thought fit to give you the most remarkable particulars Philip going to meet Ferdinand had on his right hand Ximenes who went to him at Burges and on his left Don Manuel his High Treasurer those of his Court were in Armour and marched in a posture of Warr Ferdinands followers ridd on Mules as men of peace with Cloaks and Swords only the Principal Courtiers having forsaken him to attend Philip verified the old observation that Courtiers adore the rising Sun Ferdinand meeting the Troops of his Son in Law made a halt on a little rising Ground to give them way this place he chose as fittest in his judgement one of the sagest of his time to view and contemplate the disloyalty of the Court having of purpose taken up his standing in a narrow place where all those who had abandoned him to go to Philip must of necessity pass close by him And of them the Duke of Najar first presented himself mounted in Armour on a Spanish Jennet as for a day of Battel his Page carryed his Lance and one of his Captains led a Troop of men at Arms behind him Duke sayes Ferdinand you are ready for a Combat you alwayes carry a spice of the Captain It is Answered the Duke to serve the King our Soveraign Lord and your Majesty The next that came up was Garcia de la Vega Lord of Cnerva who had been Embassadour from Ferdinand at Rome and graced with his favours in a large measure Ferdinand a perfect Master of the Art of Dissimulation commonly called the Art of Reigning perceived by the Bunching of his Cloaths that he wore close Armour underneath and Embracing him said Garcia you were not so Gross a few dayes ago you are grown fat on the sudden These Embraces and Courtesies were smart Reproofs and cutting Exprobrations of their ingratitude and Ferdinand experimented in them that if the good fortune of the Court hath few sure Friends the â—ll fortune of it hath much fewer Philip upon the fight of Ferdinand would have alighted but Ferdinand spurting his Male prayed him not to Dismount Philip with Hat in Hand desired Ferdinands Hand to Kiss Ferdinand spreads his Armes and Embraces him Spain is so stored with Castles and fair Countrey-houses that in all that Road there was not one fit for the Conference of the two Kings which forced them to entertain one another in an Ermitage Ximenes followed them in and so did Don Manuel Philips Favourite Ximenes seeing him enter sayes to him Don John their Majesties would be private Let 's withdraw I will be Porter and keep the door for this time Manuel goes out somewhat displeased Ximenes re-enters and having shut the Door sits down with the Kings Ferdinands Counsels to Philip were the only entertainment of the Princes which were to this effect My Son the weight of a Crown is so great that a good King cannot bear it without help and the Government of people requires such continual care and incessant travels that a Prince hath need of ease by persons of fidelity and capable to manage publick affairs and herein the unhappiness of Princes is remarkable that they find few who mind more the honour of the State than their own profit or study the interest of their Master more than their own private advantages Take heed therefore my Son that you grant not to them you honour with your good will commonly called Favourites any thing to the prejudice of the people over whom God hath invested you with Soverain Authority whereof you must make good use and render him one day an account and undergo the sentence of an exact impartial Justice and abide the severity of its Judgement Think not that such men are called without cause the Leeches of the Court who hanging still at the Eares of their Prince yet ungrateful to their Benefactour have by their insatiable avarice base flattery and monstrous ingratitude merited those names of infamy and reproach of the vices they are infected with I had designed to have assisted you in the discharge of your Office knowing your Youth unexperienced in the Government of Kingdoms but since the great ones of Castile have perswaded you to the contrary I will retire and confine my cares to the Governmens of the States subject to the Crowns God hath given me but shall make it my Prayer to God to give you the Graces and Forces necessary for great Kings and during my absence from you I leave you another Father who will be of no less use to you than if I were with you in person I mean my Lord Arch-bishop of Toledo here present the many proofs and evident testimonies I have had of his fidelity and experience give me cause to Assure you that a King cannot be wrecked in the Government of his State where he sits at the helm May you believe his sage
a Lump of dead flesh would by no means part with it till Ferdinand her Father returned from Italy caused it to be taken from her and buryed privately The journeys she made were Noctural by Torch-light which occasioned many inconveniences by sickness amongst her retinue Loss of her Baggage and falls of those on Horse-back Ximenes threw himself at her feet and begged on his Knees that since she was resolved to make the Court Errant and Itinerary she would at least Travel by day but she Wedded to her folly answered That a Woman having lost her Husband which is her Son ought to avoid the light of the Sun in the Firmament and make no journeys but by night The art of a skilful Pilot is often of no use amidst the fury of the Windes and Waves And the prudence and conduct of a Minister of State are thrown away upon such Soveraings as are incapable of good Advice During these extravagancies of Queen Joan Ferdinand returned from Italy with Germain de Foix his new Wife and tooke a voyage by Sea to Savona to see his Wives Uncle King Lewis the twelfth while he staid in Italy he obtained of Pope Julius the second a Cardinals Cap for Ximenes with the Tytle of Cardinal of Spain formerly given to Peter Cardinal Triasio under Henry the third and then to Peter Gonsalve Cardinal Mendoza under Ferdinand in token of the Popes especial favour So that in the sequel of our Story we shall call Ximenes by the name of Cardinal Together with this dignity he received that of Inquisitor General of Castile for the Inquisition had of long time got firm footing in Spain having been introduced by Ferdinand and Isabel in the year 1577. by reason of the mixture of Moors with Christians and the superstitions of the former deeply rooted in the heart of that Kingdom The Rigour of this Ecclesiastical Justice struck terrour into ill Christians but was so far from making them better that it rendred them only more subtle and refined Hypocrites Cardinal Mendoza was his immediate Predecessour in that Office and Thomas Torquemata superiour of the Covent of St. Dominick at Segovia the first that bore it These new honours altered not the manners of Ximenes the Love of Learning and Advancement of vertue had still the same place in his soul and were Continued in their former Station He finished his Colledge of Arcala constituted Laws and made Statutes for the regulation of it filled it with able Professours drawn from the famous Universities of Paris Salamanca Valadolid Bologina admitting none from meaner places endowing it with great Revenues adorned it with a rich Library and brought it to such perfection that Francis the first of France passing that way when the fortune of Warr made him experimentally know good luck doth not alwayes attend the valorous and seeing this admirable Colledge said that his University of Paris was the work of many Kings but Ximenes alone had Compleated a Royal work Charles the fifth King of Spain and Emperour being one day to hear Mass in the Colledge at Arcala quitted the Chair and Cloth of State provided for him at the high Altar and took his place in the Quire in the ordinary Seats of the Priests of the Colledge being for the most part publick Professours and all of them Learned men telling them he would not lose the glory of sitting that day among men of so great Learning and making one of the Quire with them Such are the fruits of great Ministers Labours for vertue and the publick good future Ages reverence their names the Greatest Kings of the world admire their glory and think themselves honoured to be sometimes of the number of those who possess the Offices of Learning they have founded Such is the Liberal Return of gratitude vertue makes to those who enlarge her Kingdome CAP. VI. THE Spirit of Ximenes was not only great and high but Comprehensive and Capable of all Affairs those of Warr as well as peace found it a proper receptacle to entertain them both together The same time that his thoughts were busily taken up with impression of Books founding Monasteries building Colledges endowing them with Revenues and furnishing them with Regents and Students he had in prospect the Warr of Africk formed designes and made preparations for it When the Kingdom enjoyed a Secure peace and flourished in a deep repose and undisturbed tranquility he Levied Soldiers issued Commissions and provided moneys for the better Assurance of the State It was his Maxime That the Spirits of men being naturally free cannot endure servitude and subjection but of force and compelled by necessity and he would often say That never Prince was feared abroad or honoured at home that had not levyed an Army and at least made all the preparatives requisite to carry on a Warr. The desire of extending Christianity into Africk and to free Spain from the incursions and Robberies of the Pyrats of that Countrey who were grown so bold as to Enter the Spanish Ports to Spoil and carry away the Vessels of Traffick engaged him in the enterprize of a Warr of such Consequence There was at that time in the Court of Ferdinand a Venetian named Jerome Vianelli well versed in the Voyages of Africk having often Sailed those Seas that he knew perfectly all the Ports and safe Landing places on the Coast This man had intelligence of Ximenes design goes to him informs him of all the Avenues of the Coast and particularly the great Port of Mersalcabir near Oran capable to receive a very great Fleet Ximenes hearkens to him and finding him serviceable for his designes prayed he would see him often and commanded his Porters to admit him at all times and give him Entrance as often as he desired it By the constant mode of Courts it hath been alwayes difficult to get entrance to great Ministers of State which Custome as it preserves them from an infinite trouble of importunate persons so it deprives them of the knowledge of many persons of merit and worth whose generosity will not permit them to begg admittance from Servants and leave to enter from Grooms and Porters And 't is seldome seen that the persons imployed in these Services either keep out the former or admit the latter to their Masters presence Vianelli having the priviledge of free access to Ximenes visits him often and acquaints him with what he had seen in Africk Ximenes the better to comprehend what he said commands him not only to make a draught in Paper but to imprint in Wax the figures of the places By this representation he saw a Castle scituate on a Rock almost inaccessible having a Lanthorn on one of the Towres not unlike the Grecian Phares to serve Marriners for a mark of direction how to steer their Course in dark nights to safe Harbour This Castle had on one side the Port of Mersalcabir and on the other the City Oran called by the Moors Guharran which in their Languge
that he was obliged to maintain and Consecrate it to the Dignity of the Arch-bishoprick in memory of the Warr of Africk not out of any covetous designs to draw profit thence to enhance his Revenues nor Ambition to joyn it to the Cross of the Arch-bishoprick Offers it to him with the Title of Abbot of Oran and a seat in the Quire of the great Church of Toledo with the dignity and Revenue of a Canon besides the Dignity and Revenue of Abbot of Oran Nothing but a Bishoprick could satisfie the Cordelier he refuses the offer the Cardinals Enemies bear him in hand he should overthrow the Cardinal and obtain sentence from the King against him he believes them and continues obstinate Ferdinand dying soon after the Cardinal receives the intire Government of Spain slights the Cordelier who continued as before a Monk and it may be an ill one Francis Rouys Bishop of Ciudad Roderigos the Cardinals Companion in the Order of St. Francis followed his fortune and had negotiated for him at Court in several Affairs of importance he not content with his Bishoprick his Cross seemed too small and his Revenue far short of his desires he presses the Cardinal to procure him the Bishoprick of Avilas then vacant The Cardinal answers If my advice might prevail with you you would value your repose above Dignity and Revenues You live happily in the condition you are in Let me perswade you to keep you so and not seek troubles and inquietudes elsewhere The time of our acquaintance cannot but have furnished you with clear experience by your knowledge of my affairs how many cares and troubles are hid under the fair appearances of great Offices and Eminent Dignities Nevertheless to satisfie the desires of his person who was knowing and Vertuous he made him Bishop of Avila though he was ever averse from bringing his friends into Offices which might break their repose or endanger their Consciences and very Loath to draw out of Monasteries to the great dignities of the Church those men who were consecrated to God in the tranquility of holy Solitude To draw a good Fryer from the Cloyster when he loves his profession is to take Fish out of water which is his proper Element The Cardinal had Laboured with great care and Vigilance in peace and Warr for the State of Spain and now pressed with Age which sliding away like the Current of a rapid stream brings a man to his end sooner than he is aware of casts his thoughts towards the advancement of his house Marries one of his Brothers to great advantage into one of the noble families of Spain where Vertue the Mother of Nobility was as Eminent as the blood illustrious he made it a condition in the Marriage his Brother should not come to Court where vanity and Luxury whose Vassals are the basest of Slaves bear a Soveraign sway introducing into their Dominions all sorts of Corruptions He enjoyned him to reside in the place of his nativity to live nobly there in a vertuous tranquility Some years after he marryed Joan Cisnere his Niece to Peter Gonsales Mendoza Nephew of Diego Mendoza Duke of Infantado a name and Family of the first Rank of the Nobility of Spain he gave him for portion the Marquisat of Val Suilian The marryed Couple were both in their Minority which soon after served the Cardinal for a pretence to annul the Marriage though really the true cause of the Rupture was the cheat and deceit of Mendoza's Kindred who thinking that having given the Cardinal a man of their name and Family they had sufficiently obliged him to provide him a fortune performed not the promises they had made in behalf of their Kinsman in point of Estate For his Mother in confidence the Cardinal would provide enough for Peter left by her Will her whole Estate to Roderick Gonsales her younger Son but the Cardinal who loved solid honour scorned to be baffled and broke the Marriage maugre all the opposition of the Duke of Infantado Yet afterwards he marryed her into the same Family to Alfonso Mendoza son and heir to Bernardo Mendoza Earl of Clung Such was the care he had of his Kindred Nor is it forbidden that a Minister of State should impart to this Kindred the fortune he possesses if done with moderation and that by his Alliance he cover not nor uphold the Violences of others This natural affection is an evidence of his goodness and sets of the Glory of his Actions with greater advantage The Naval Army soon after sent for the Conquest of Africk had not the good success of that Led by the Cardinal Don Garija son to the Duke of Alva Commanded it and had the misfortune to see it defeated by the Turks and Moors at Gerbes Ferdinand designes to set out another Fleet and the Rendezvous to be at Cadiz but would not resolve till advice with the Cardiin this as other matters a Courrier is dispatched to him at Toledo to command his attendance at Sevil The Cardinal set out and drawing neer to Guadalquana expresses a desire to Lodge in the Inn of Saja Vedra and sends his harbingers to take it up The harbingers find it marked for Gonsalve the great Captain and advise the Cardinal accordingly Take another sayes the Cardinal and leave that to him who deserves all manner of honour So propense was the Cardinal on all occasions to honour persons of Eminent Vertues great men naturally love those that resemble themselves when the Concurrence of Offices or Jealousie of dignities do not intetpose When the Cardinal drew neer to Sevil the King with all the Court went four Leagues to meet him the Cardinals Enemies being part of the Retinue and thus forced to honour him they envyed and hated The King at their meeting alighted and Reverenced that head whence issued those Counsels that gave happiness to Spain This honour wrought two different effects of humility in the Cardinal and Rage in his Enemies At Sevil a Vessel arrived from the Indies brought the King and Cardinal advice that the Spaniards in the West Indies abusing the advantages they had received from God above the people of that Countrey tyrannized over those new subjects of God and the King and Sacrificed the lives of the Indians to their avarice Murdering them first and then Robbing them of the Gold amassed in their Grounds and laying all desolate without piâ—ty without mercy without Justice The Cardinal advised his Master to send thither some men under the Rules of Religion who dead to the World and wholy dis-interessed from secular concerns might oppose their Charity to the violence of the Governours The advice was embraced many men of his Order Embarqued for the Voyage and among them three of the Cardinals companions whereof Francis Rouys was one but the Ayre of India not agreeing with his Constitution forced him to return to Madrid six moneths after his departure At his Arrival he presented King Ferdinand with a Box full of Idols
who spoke to him of it that these Turnaments were the remedy for recovery of the Kings health which he should buy very cheap since his Nephew had expended no more So willing was he to part with his estate for the good of his Prince or relief of the people 'T was at this time he made provision against that publick exigency to which Spain is often reduced for want of Corn At Toledo Arcala and Torrelaguce he built publick Granaries and filled them with Corn. The Senate of Toledo in acknowledgement of the benefit hath Consecrated the memory thereof to perpetuity by an Inscription engraven in the midst of the Palace and the people preserves the memory of it by a Marble Table which to this day shews the Character of his Liberality in the great Market of the City and yearly on the fifth of October they Celebrate their grateful acknowledgements in an Harangue made of the Vertues and merits of this great man Soon after he erected a magnificent Monastery and Church at Torrelagave for the perpetual Celebration of his praises whose bounty raised him to the height of his fortunes he adorned the Church with Sacred Vessels and Vestments and furnished it with all necessaries for the Service of God and Ornament of Religious Worship For the convenience of this holy place and the publick he clave Rocks and boared through Mountains to make Aqueducts for conveyance of water thither from a spring at great distance from the Church the Aqueducts were Arched and Wide and cost him by the computation of the Spaniards no less than a Million of Gold this place to this day testifies the Generosity of this Cardinal in his affections to the publick for great edifices without flattery report to posterity the Grandeur of the Builders But though he built of his own for the publick good yet would he not permit others to be Magnificent at the Spaniards charges Pope Leo the Tenth who succeeded Julius the second had a design at this time to build at Rome a Temple to St. Peter suitable to the dignity of the first Church of Christendome and because the charge of such a building amounted to vast summs of money he sent his Bulls into Spain to demand Contribution from the Spaniards King Ferdinand consented but the Cardinal being a severe man and inclined to ease the people though he commended the Popes design approved not his exacting Money by his Bulls but with all his power hindered the Execution thereof and with a generous liberty writ his thoughts thereupon to Rome and told them his mind Ferdinand approached the end of his Reign and his Life by the malady before mentioned which handled him so rudely at Burgos that he left that place imputing to the Ayre the cause of that distemper he carryed within him When he came to Arand he sent for the Cardinal who set out to attend him and drawing neer to the Court the King went in his Litter to meet him to the astonishment of all that were about him his disease having so weakened him that he could hardly stand and in a few dayes after was laid on his death-bed The Cardinal was very desirous to wait on his Master to the last moment of his dayes but thought fit to withdraw to avoid the suspicion his attendance might occasion if he were appointed governour of the Kingdom which would be attributed more to the Ambition of the Cardinal than the Judgement of the King or the advice of his Council This was the reason of his retiring to Arcala D' Henares while God disposed of this Prince according to the Decree of his will Ferdinand in the mean time felt himself dying yet could not believe he should dye of this sickness The holy women of Avila had deluded his reason by her pretended prediction that he should out-live the violence of his distemper he was so possest with conceit of the truth of her assertions that he rejected and put off Matreuse the Cordelier his Confessor who came to dispose his Conscience to part with this World and appear before him who Judges Kings without respect to their Crowns and said That Man came to see him not out of zeal of piety or devotion but ambition and in hopes to obtain some gift Prince Charles his young Son sent Dean Adrian of Vtretcht to Visit him in his Sickness but he could not get audience and when the Secretaries of State moved in his behalf and were urgent with the King to admit him to his presence he refused answering them in Spanish What comes he for it may be to see whether I am dead or not However he admitted him afterwards and received the complement of Charles The great ones of the world can hardly part with it nor is there any place men are more loath to leave than a Throne But Death is as inexorable as necessary She respects not Scepters nor fears Crowns The Physitians and principal Councellors of State advertise Ferdinand he was arrived at the last hour of his life that he had but a short time left to think of the Affairs of his Conscience and Kingdom this made him Resolved to admit his Confessor and believe the Saint of Avila had not received from Heaven the advice she gave in the Affairs of his Kingdom he told them that by his secret Testament made at Burgos he had ordered Ferdinand his younger son Brother of Charles to be Governour of Spain and appropriated to him as a peculiar Legacy the grand Master-shipps of the three principal orders of Spain those of St. James Calatrave and Alcantara The Councellors remonstrate to him the injury he did the Crown in the Alienation of those three orders which himself had judged necessary to be kept alwayes annexed to it That he gave them to a Prince who might when he pleased make use of them against the Crown that the best and surest inheritance he could leave Ferdinand was the love and good will of his brother Charles That it was dangerous to leave the Government of Spain in the hands of Ferdinand whose youth made him sussceptible of ill impressions from the great ones to the ruine of the State Upon these Remonstrances he altered his Resolutions and appointed Charles Governour during the life of the Queen his Mother sole Heiress of that Kingdom But in the absence of Charles there wanted an administrator to manage the publick affairs with prudence integrity and generosity Laurence Galinda Caravegal one of the Counsellors proposed the Cardinal as eminently endued with all these qualities Ferdinand turns his head and answers Know you not the severity of Ximenes his spirit no wayes fit to treat with men Thus did he Reject him whose conduct he admired whose person he honoured going to meet him every time he came to do him service such was the inconstancy of this great King But there was some though a very light cause for this disdain of Ferdinand against the Cardinal The King wanted a great summ of
to his honour He writes to the Cardinal to imploy his Credit to procure him the continuance of the name of King and to proclaim him King throughout Spain The Cardinal sitts about it and plyes it closely called an Assembly of the Notable persons of the Realm composed of Prelats Grandees of Spain and Counsellors of State and causes overtures to be made and the Affair proposed to them by Laurence Galiud Counsellor of State his Confident a man of great Learning and Eloquence Who declared to the Assembly the pittiful condition and miserable Estate of Queen Joan now besides her self and uncapable to Govern shews them the necessity of having a Prince who might at least in name fill up what she could not indeed possess That Authority was the soul of the Kingdom and since it could not be found in the person of Joan they must seek it in that of Charles That it was no new thing for the Infantes of Spain to bear the Title of Kings in their Parents life-time He cited Presidents in the Reign of the Goths and their Successours In the Close of his discourse he drew out of his bosome the Prince's Letters not demanding advice but commanding obedience and concluded it better By unanimous consent to gratifie him in his desires with Congratulation to him for the Title he had assumed than to refuse him That he had already taken and was resolved to keep The Bishops and Councellours of State were of his Opinion The Grandees of the Contrary Henry Almirante and Frederick D' Alva swore before the Assembly They would never endure such an Usurpation The Cardinal turns to them and with a face and voice full of severity sayes King Charles has no need of your Votes for the quality he Assumes nor did I assemble you to desire them but of my free inclinations for your good to give you this occasion by the freeness of your Suffrages and cheerful Consent to merit the good-will and favour of our Prince But since you conceive that to be due to you of Right which was done you of Courtesie I 'le make you know you are not so necessary in this business as you mistake your selves to be And going out of the Council he sent for the Governour of Madrid and commanded him to cause Charles of Austria to be proclaimed King of Castile by sound of Trumpet in every Street of the Town which was solemnly done the same day Toledo followed the Example of Madrid and joyfully made the like Proclamation Such was the fruit of the Cardinals Severity that the Grandees durst not attempt any thing to hinder it Where a Minister of State sees Discourse and Perswasions too feeble to prevail he must use severity and force to back his Authority The Kingdom of Arragon followed not the example of Castile Alfonso of Arragon Bishop of Saragosa was Governour there by the Testament of Ferdinand The Arragonois wonderful Jealous of the Laws of their State refused to give Charles the Title of King during his mothers life And to second the refusal with violence Peter Gironne eldest Son of the Earl of Vrenne takes up Armes attacques the Dutchy of Medina Sedonia pretending a right to 't and besieges Luzerre on the Sea side The Cardinal sends against him a light Army under the Conduct of Anthony Fonseca and with him a Minister of Justice to punish the Rebells with the Axe and Rope Fonseca goes directly to Luzerre raiseth the Siege and puts the Rebells to flight who not long after came from those parts to increase the troubles raised by the Duke of Infantade on his side Who keeping in mind the offence given by the Cardinal by breaking off as he said the Marriage between his Niece and the Duke's Nephew exclaimed against him in Words and Writing publishing in his Manifestoes that the Nobility of Spain were oppressed by the Cardinal whom he called an unfrock'd Monk That the grandees of Spain had ever defended the Crown that it was more reasonable the Cardinal should obey them as Protectors of the State than that they should submit to the Cardinal who had nothing worthy the taking notice of but the quality he owed to the gift of blind Fortune and knew no more than the severities and humoursome Vagaries the Monks practise in their Cloysters when they persecute one another The Cardinal who was excellently judicious slighted these Rodomantadoes knowing that Choler without Force is a Wind that makes a noise but cannâ—◠〈◊〉 That the Grandees of Spain spend their Revenues on their Vanity and Luxury to the last Farthing having nothing left but noise and exclamations the feeble support of their huffing and pride when he could pay an Army with the Revenue of his Benefices And leaving them thus to Champ on the bit he gave them leisure to acknowledge their fault and feebleness and by the Experience of his powerful Authority to come to themselves and return to their duty which most of them did and among others the Duke of Infantade who after so many sallies and freaks sent him Letters of Submission and testimonials of his Affection and Obedience For they saw this Man intirely fix'd and resolute in his designs when just then he had rendred himself capable to command Armies learning daily the Theory and practick of the Art of Warr entertaining himself with Discourses of all points thereof amongst the sagest and most Ancient Captains Besides he had a standing Army of thirty thousand men raised out of the Cities and Burroughs of Spain who had no other pay than Franchises and Immunities These Forces made him formidable to his personal Enemies and to the Disturbers of the publick peace As wings carry the Eagle to the glory of Combat so Armies the wings of Royal Authority carry it against the Enemies of the State to their ruine and confusion but to its own certain Victory and Triumph The next Year being 1516. the Cardinal sent to Charles in Flanders Diego Lopez Ajala a person in whom he reposed much confidence to procure Letters Patents to confirm Ferdinands Testament which gave him the Regency to approve his Conduct and to give him full Authority over the Council the Tribunals of Justice the Governours of Towns and the Receivers and Treasurers of the Finances Diego had in his Instructions To let the King know that the Grant of these things by Letters Missive to the Council was not sufficient This he did to take away all pretence from the Grandees for stirring the people against him on colour that his Actions were not approved of by the Prince For upon his setting a foot thirty thousand men of the Militia of the Towns and Cities which received Immunities only for pay the great Ones of Spain gave out that these violent Courses tended to the subversion of the State That he Armed the people against them and with design first to destroy them and then to ruine the People That his irregular Ambition and exorbitant Pride had transported him
into a fantastick extravagancy of Acting the Captain who had never handled any Arms but a Breviary nor worn any Armour but a Frock Insomuch that when he sent Japie of Segonia to make Levies of the Militia at Valladolid the inhabitants instigated by Henry Almirant and others ran to their Arms imprisoned Japie fortified the Town and rolling the Cannons to the Ramparts cryed openly in the Streets This is against Ximenes the Tyrant of the people The like fury was practised in the Towns neer Valladolid and passing forward like Fire in a Forest drew the Cities of Leon Burgos and many more into the like Revolt The Cardinal was of opinion that violent Remedies would heighten the disease and inflame the more and inclined to reduce the Mutineers to their duty by the wayes of Sweetness and Gentleness Hence it was that he writ to them of Valladolid that had begun the disorder That he never intended to infringe their priviledges or violate their immunities But that if they had any to exempt them from the Levies of the Militia they ought to make them known to the Council where he would protect them to the utmost of his power But Reason and Gentleness are sometimes encouragements to greater Insolences in the people They of Valladolid sent the Cardinal an arrogant Answer that they had nothing to do with him nor the Council for the preservation of their priviledges but knew well enough how to maintain them by their Armes against his manifest Tyranny and yet doubtless this was the Language of the great Ones in the mouth of the people They send into Flanders a solemn Embassy to Charles against the Cardinal to represent the peril he put the State of Spain in The Cardinal whose prudence and courage crowned all his enterprizes with good success sent also into Flanders and by the negotiation of his Diego Lopez a man of Judgement and Dexterity prepossessed Charles and made it appear to him that the Revolts in Spain were effects of the envy and malice of the great Ones Moreover he ordered him to press for the Confirmation he desired and to declare that if it were not sent him he would quit the management of Affairs and go to Toledo to enjoy there that Repose which is not to be found at Court The business of the Militia was for some time interrupted and laid aside till these Seditious were banished Spain But as the institution thereof by the Cardinal was upon grounds of prudence and very necessary to the Kingdom Philip the second a Judicious Prince Re-established it in the year 1565. long after the decease of Ximenes The Training of the People to Warr is the fortifying of the State And the prudent Counsels of a Minister of State who designs the good of the publick are durable and Time the Father of truth dissipating the Factions and Fictions of those that Envy him give them the glorious advantage to serve after his death for the rule of good Conduct CAP. XI THe Affairs of the Marine claimed no less share in the cares of the Cardinal than the other Affairs of Spain The death of Ferdinand the malady of Queen Joan the absence and immaturity of Charles had made way for disorders to creep in to their Ruine The Cardinal re-establishes at Sevil the ancient Methods for Regulating the Maritine Affairs re-fitts the number of Men of Warr necessary for defence of the Coast and Chasing Pyrats Manns and furnishes them with Cannon Powder Bullets and Victuals Diego Columbo the Admiral son of the great Christopher Columbo who filled the new World with the Reputation of Spain and Spain with the Treasures of the new World addresses himself to the Cardinal as Regent of the Kingdom beseeching him to extend his Compassion and Justice to the Isles of the Ocean depending on the Crown of Spain where the merciless Spaniards treated the Natives ill committing inhuman Cruelties and using them worse than Mules or Asses forcing them to carry burdens and to undergo Labours and Toyler intolerable That these poor Islanders were men and carryed in their faces the image of God as well as the Spaniards That if they were duller and more ignorant than the Spaniards they were also better and more innocent than they The Cardinal sent thither Judges of known integrity and sufficiency to end the differences which avarice and fury had sown in the Islands and in order to the relief of the Islanders of whom some were killed daily by the Spaniards in their Sugar-works sent dispatches to Charles on that Subject desiring him to do therein as he thought fit Charles by advice of the Flemings and without the privity of the Cardinal commanded 400 Moors brought from the Land of Negroes into Portugal to be sent into the Islands to labour in the Sugar-works and ease the Islanders who were naturally weak and feeble The Cardinal advertised of this Order dispatched a Courrier to Charles to put him in mind of the inconveniencies might ensue upon the introduction of these Negroes who were a strong and Warlike people and would questionless teach the Islanders the use of Armes and the Art of Warr which would one day cause a notable Revolt Charles communicates to his Council the Advices of the Cardinal the Flemings divert him from following them and perswade him This Advice proceeded from the Cardinals Ambition because he was not consulted with in the Affair But in 1522. 5 years after the Cardinals death Charles felt to his cost the peril the Islands were in occasioned by the flighting of that Counsel for the Moors taking up Arms at the Isle of St. Domingo Attacqued the Town of that name and had put all to Fire and Sword if not prevented by the valour of Melchior Castre and Francis D' Avila who forced them to retreat and flee to the Mountains and being beaten thence by the Admirals Army they had the deserts of their Rebellion in the punishment of the Axe and the Rope inflicted on them The Warr of Navarr which happened in the time that the Cardinal ordered the Affairs of the Marine was an Evidence of his Courage and the haughtiness of his Conduct He sent an Army which stopped the Progress of the French more by the advantage of narrow and difficult wayes than their Valour and Arms and to deprive the Navarrois of occasion to take up Armes again and recalling home their Ancient and Lawful Lords he pulled down the Walls of all their places of strength except Pampelun and demolished all their Castles and Forts which was afterwards of great advantage to Spain which possessing Navarr without just Title kept it by the force of the Garrisons placed there and the weakness of the inhabitants Great States are subject to Revolts as gross bodies to Feavers Malaga a Martine Town of Spain takes up Arms and cryes Liberty on this occasion Complaint was made that no punishment was inflicted on Robbers taken in the City though Justice had been demanded for the Criminal by appeal
of Zoritan like a Tyrant in the Countrey he Usurpes The Maids and Women whom Nature had made most Beautiful and Vertue most Amiable he Sacrificed to his extravagancies And what Love could not obtain Force ravished from them Those were taken from their Parents and these from their Husbands to serve the pleasure of this Beast The Cardinal sent a power Competent to Attaque him but by flight to Flanders he changed his place but escaped not his punishment The Cardinal by Letters signifies to Charles the Exorbitances and Enormities of this Ruffian and the punishment due to his Crimes and prayed him to make him an Example of his Justice by severity answerable to the heinousness of his Actions The Treasurers of the Finances who had embezelled the publick Moneys which are the blood of the people were strictly Examined and Narrowly sisted nor were these Spunges squeezed only but punished for their Rapines These Actions of Justice drew an universal Love to the Cardinal from the people of Spain who reverenced his Name and most of the Grandees sought his Friendship with Oaths and protestations to defend his Authority as their Lives and not without reason For Justice the Mother of other Vertues being the Daughter of Heaven and Queen of the Earth gains them that Exercise it the savour of God and good will of men The happiness of the Kingdom was this great mans Aim and in order to attaining a compleat felicity he continued the Exercise of his Justice in Reducing every part of the State into their proper bounds The military Orders of Knights in Spain are divers and of great Latitude the greatness of their power made them usurp on others within their Jurisdiction and abusively assume Priviledges not due to them But the Cardinal forced them to make restitution of what was not theirs Regulated their Jurisdictions and Abrogated the Priviledges they had arrogated to themselves The favour of Court having introduced more Members into the Council of State than Merit or Vertue had filled it with Persons unworthy that place But he who knew that the Ministers who serve in this Sacred Temple of Policy ought to be persons of the greatest experience and singular integrity purged it of all those who were unfit for that dignity and filled their places with better men Having reformed the Council he turned to the Train and Attendants of the Court where the importunity and impudence of the Mean and the Recommendations of the great Ones had introduced a multitude of men who had no other Vertue to boast of than a confident Miene a proud Gate and vain Discourse He resolved to Cashiere these dronish Lurdanes and stop those unprofitable Mouths that ate the Kings Bread but did him no Service which he did with one dash of his Penn Crossing out the Allowances made them who were so leight in their Vanities that they were blown away with a Feather That Monarch wants a Guardian to order his Affairs who by the Pensions he bestows feeds with the Bowels of his People such men as are neither necessary for him nor serviceable to the publick This Retrenchment was Just but his taking from two famous Historians of that time the Pensions given them as due to their Labours is marked as unjust in the History of his Administration Peter Martyr and Gonsales D' Oviedo were crossed out amongst the Retainers but revenged with their Penns the Loss of their Pensione staining his name with spots of so black a dye as the whole series of the past Age hath not been able to wash out But it may be he was forced to this By their example to take from others all cause of Complaint But what an example is this to robb them of their Reward who deserve it and take away the Pensions of two Learned men who served the publick Or if he thought this necessary to be done he should have made up their Pensions out of his own fortunes and paid them out of that estate which was sufficient to pay an Army Peradventure 't was Charls his pleasure it should be so Had he so little credit with Charles whose 〈◊〉 he preserved for him as not to prevail with him to continue the Pensions of two Historians who could have given Charles and his name immortal Glory This seems sufficient to condemn his Severity and call it Inconsiderate But the greatness of his Conduct in other matters his excellent Justice and singular favour and propensity to oblige men of Vertue make it hardly credible that so great a person who had done so much for Learning should commit so gross a sault but give cause to impute it to some other Minister whose enmity against these Historians might have engaged him in so foul a fact Thus Alvarez Gomez in the History of his life excuses him and observes that he lamented several times that occasion was often given him to exercise just Severities in taking from men what they unjustly possessed and not to express his Liberality in giving unto them those Largesses he esteemed due from him to Vertue To do good to men of merit is to pour Oyle into Lamps which proves no less usefull to others in the light they receive from them than beneficial to them in enabling them to impart it That the Exchequer be full and the Treasury of the Prince abound in Cash is certainly one of the things most necessary for the State this defends it this augments its Grandeur and renders it formidable to its Enemies The Cardinal who harboured in his heart as one common Center an extraordinary zeal for the Service of his Master and no less affection for the good of the people designed to fill the Treasuries of Spain to serve the glory of his Master but without any intention to inrich his King by the impoverishment of his people saying Thrift and Frugality Parsimony and good Husbandry were great Revenues to a monyed King as the King of Spain And that Gifts made without reason and against Justice are the Moths that eat through his Baggs and the Thieves that empty his Coffers Charles in four moneths of his Reign gave away to his Courtiers or rather Leeches of his Court two Millions of Gold This he said with grief to see so prodigious an excess of Profuseness and Lavishment Not but that he allowed Liberality place among the Vertues of a Prince but that he would have it exercised with Moderation and Justice Henry the Admiral Pacieco D' Ascalone and Henry Fortune had obtained of Ferdinand a million a piece of Lievres of Gold charged on the Revenue of Peru and should have received it at the return of the Plate-Fleet The Cardinal made void and annulled these Gifts And though Fortune was of Kin to his good Master Ferdinand he took from him his Million as well as from the others Kings said he ought to dispense the effects of their Justice indifferently to persons of all sorts but those of their Liberality to them only who serve their
Persons or the Publick advantage others by their Labours and excell them in the fidelity of their Services and the Dignity of their Vertues The Revenue of Princes though great in it self is alwayes too little for the necessities of State and passing through many hands is much diminished ere it arrive at their Coffers The Cardinal to provide against this inconvenience gave the Offices of the Finances to men fit for them persons under no necessity to tempt them to Rapine And chose for Surintendant of the Kings moneys a Lord by Birth one of the Noblest of Spain and in Estate the Richest in the Kingdom Spunges full of water take in no more though steeped in it Great Buildings without good Foundations swagg and come to Ruine The Cardinal laid three Foundations necessary for Royalty whereon as on firm pillars the Authority thereof relies The first is Justice when the King dispenses it to his Subjects impartially and without respect of persons when the Scepter affords relief to the poor and the weak against the injuries of the Rich and the Powerful The second when the King hath a respect and good value for the Men of Warr that give proofs of their Experience and Valour in the Service of his Warrs The third when the King doth not squander away his Revenue but by thrift and parsimony keeps a good stock in Reserve for Royal Enterprizes which ought to be his ordinary Exercises who that he may be great must do great things Experience had taught the Cardinal the truth of this sage Maxim for in four months of his Regency under Charles by help of his Treasure he had compassed his designs ended a Warr of great importance calmed the Commotions of Spain made sure of Navarr reduced Malaga to Obedience maintained strong Garrisons on the Frontiers assured the Sea-coast made incursions into Africk sent a Naval Army against Algiers and delivered Bugie Pignon and Melillo from the Siege of Barbarosse great Admiral of the Turks If I said he have done all these things notwithstanding the oppositions of my Enemies what cannot a King do by his absolute power if he leave in his Treasure a stock for Royal Undertakings Money being the sinews of Warr and the object of mens Affections the Monarch who is Rich becomes puissant in the one and absolute Master of the other The glory the Cardinal had acquired by his prudent management of the State and his good Actions to private persons was greatly augmented by the Violences of the Turks and misfortunes of Africk which brought a stronger King at his feet to implore his Assistance The King of Tunis Son and Heir of Jabet Albuzen was guilty of the Crime of being Neighbour to a Monarch more powerful than he and possessing a Crown convenient for the Ottoman This brought a Warr upon him Barbarosse who had command from the Turk his Master to oute him from his Throne was the more willing to attacque him in that he had obtained from the Ottoman Poste a promise to succeed in the Throne and Title of the King of Tunis in case he Conquered him on Condition nevertheless to hold it of the Crown Imperial of the Turks The Corsayre undertakes it and over-powering Tunis enters the City and drives out the King who dispoiled of his Estate embarks for Spain to seek relief in Christendome for his disasters in his passage he was set upon with Tempests and Storms which though less than those he met with at Land put his Vessel in danger but he escaped a wreck at Sea being reserved for a greater at Land which had already deprived him of his Crown his estate his repose and reputation and had more miseries in store for him during the rest of his life which the Sea might have swallowed up and therein all his Losses and Calamities He Arrived in Spain and threw himself into the Cardinals Arms who received him gave him Retinue befitting a King comforted his miseries with kind entertainment and promises of Re-establishment in his Throne The Minister that represents a King and holds his Scepter in his absence ought to do Royal Actions and to reach forth a helping hand to distressed Princes is one of the greatest of these for if the Man that helps a Man is a God to that Man the King who is a God on Earth and his Minister in his stead succouring a persecuted King is a God to a God CAP. XIII THE same Year John Rio a Spanish Pyrate returned from his Course having taken many Genoa-Vessels and Rich in Booty and Prizes and at Anchor in the Port of Carthagena Nueva where he enjoyed other mens goods by the Laws of Pyracy when some Ships of Warr arrived from Genes attacqued him in the Harbour and being well Armed and fighting for the interest of their Republick they took this Sea-robber and carryed away his person and Vessels But this Action done within a Port of Spain was an offence against the Majesty of the King the Cardinal resents it as such and publisheth an Edict commanding all the Genoese in Spain to depart the Kingdom within fifteen dayes upon pain of Confiscation of their goods and of their Lives and in the mean time caused seizure to be made of their Goods wherever they could be found This Alarum'd the Republike seeing their Commerce to which they owe their Maintenance and Grandeur broken on that side and their Allyance much altered They betake themselves to their remedy and send Ambassadours to Charles in Flanders to disavow the boldness of those Ships which in the Port of Carthagene had violated the respect due to his Crown which had met by the way the punishment they should have received from the Republick had they arrived at Genes which the Tempest prevented in taking from them both their Ships and their Lives Therefore they implored his Majesty not to impute that to their State which was the Act of two or three private persons Charles was satisfied with this submission and revoked the Edict published by the Cardinal But he being Jealous for the honour of his Master which had a greater share in his thoughts than the care of his own life holding the Genoese to be very Cautelous people and desirous to penetrate the depth of their intentions upon information received that they held intelligence with the French about the Kingdom of Naples deferred the publishing of the Revocation and Restitution of the Genoese goods till he had sent Ambassadours to Genes to clear the doubt but the Ambassadours finding the Genoese sincerely inclined to keep good Correspondence with Spain he made restitution to the Genoese of their Goods and their liberty of Commerce The Honour of Kings is their true Patrimony preferrable to their estates Their Ministers ought carefully to preserve and couragiously defend it for as bodies without souls which give them life are easily corrupted so Monarchies without Honour and Reputation decline and come to Ruine Spain had long since laid the Foundations of Dominion over
Italy and the house of Austria now entred into Spain carryed on the building Maximilian Grand-father of Charles passed the Mountains on that design Charles dispatched a Courrier to the Cardinal to demand his Advice in the Affairs of Italy the Cardinal sent it him and advised to divert Maximilian from the Siege of Breseia then in design and to turn his Forces against Milan for that City being once taken the other would be easily Conquered that to render himself yet more considerable in Italy he must gain the Popes affection and make use of him upon occasion to quiet the troubles of the Countrey and to serve himself of his Authority as a new Peru to furnish moneys for the Warr by obtaining Crusadaes for Spain which as usual would bring a Cross on Gold and Silver and raise him a Considerable Revenue He advised Maximilian to threaten the Pope into fear to force his Condescension to what he would not willingly grant and counselled Charles to make choice of a person Generous Vigilant and of great Authority to be Ambassadour at Rome and to gain from the Pope a person of innocent Manners and of a gentle and tractable disposition to be Nuncio in Spain For on this depends the good of all great Affairs and the peace of the Nation These Counsels the Princes of the house of Austria did then make use of to their great advantage and pursue the same to this day For the sage Answers of a great Minister consulted with in affairs whose like do often fall out in a State are the voice of an Oracle which foresees things to come and guides the designs of Posterity The Kingdom of Spain had been long infected with the falsity of Religions contrary to the Christian The Moors Preached there the Errours of the Alcoran and the Jews the sopperies of their Talmud and though they had woon the one and the other to the faith of Christ yet the Jews whose Religion is Obstinacy relapsed often to their former Worship Apostatizing from the faith they came to profess This exposed them to the rigours of the Inquisition being daily dragged before that severe Tribunal To deliver themselves from the pains they deserved they Deputed the principal amongst them to attend Charles in Flanders and beseech him to permit them to enjoy that which God gave man when he sent him into the World the Liberty of Choice in a Free will That Religion could not be imposed by force but instilled by Discourse And that he would grant them who were born in Judaism liberty to Judaise as their Fathers had done or become Christians at their pleasure In acknowledgement of this favour they offered him eight hundred thousand Crowns of Gold Charles assembles his Council to advise on this proposal they give their opinions in favour of the Jews and that in the necessity he was reduced to he should accept the eight hundred thousand Crowns The Cardinal Advertised by his Agent in his Masters Court of the Counsels of the Flemmings sent a Courrier to Charles advising him not to meddle with Gods right that Religion was above Crowns that Heaven knew to maintain its interest against his incroachments that he ought rather to imitate the Piety of King Ferdinand his Grand-father who in the necessities of the Warrs of Navarr had refused six hundred thousand Crowns of Gold offered by the Jews for the like indulgence Charles followed the Cardinals Advice That King is unworthy the Assistance of Heaven for preserving his estate who despises the Estate of God which is Religion and God who expelled out of the Temple the Tradesmen who made it a place of Merchandise outes those Monarchs from the Throne who sell for money the respect due to Divine Worship The interest whereof a good King and his Ministers preferr before the reason and interest of State Ill Customes never dye or grow old at Court though good ones presently make their Exit The Government of Provinces and Towns in Spain was heretofore committed to the persons best qualified and of greatest integrity in the Kingdom Time which carries away the best of things abolished this custome and made it absolete Favour brought in such men whose faults and defects the blindness of Court discovers not The Cardinal resolved to re-estabish what he found Just in the ancient Customes of Spain bestowed the same Governments on men whose nobleness of blood and integrity of life rendred them the most Considerable in the Kingdom But that the puissance of their Families and support of their Kindred being persons of quality might not debauch their integrity and encourage them to violence he Removed them to places distant imploying them in Governments of Towns and Provinces where they could expect no support but from their Vertue He who adds greatness of dignity to that of birth and quality tempts vertue and needs a Bridle to retain it within the bounds of Justice These eares of the Cardinal tended to the Glory of Vertue the aime and mark of his designs being the advancement of vertuous persons whose fortunes he raised in his Administration by his own beneficence or the Kings by his procurement He gave Adrian Florent of Vtricht Dean of Lovayn and his companion in the Government of Spain the Bishoprick of Tortosa with the Office of Inquisitor General of Spain which was an advantagious step for him to a Cardinalship and to mount him thence to the Papal Chair He preferred Alfonso Manriquez to the Bishoprick of Cordova And the Sieur Motta of Burgos a person well verst in Theology and Secretary to Charles to that of Badacos The advancement of Motta was great in appearance but in effect mean his Vertue and Learning had rendered him considerable in the Court of Charles and that of Rome After the death of Ximenes the King gave him the Archbishoprick of Toledo and the Pope a Cardinals Cap. But these Gifts were made him when he could not enjoy them and Fortune gave him only a View but no Livery and Seizen of the Grandeurs of the World The Letters of the King and those of the Pope which conveyed to him those eminent dignities sound him on his death-bed So that seeing himself on the brink of the Grave he took the Letters out of a Box and gave them one of his principal Domesticks to Read Having heard them he discoursed of the vain pretensions of Court and the cheating hopes of the World that the sutest course for a vertuous man to steer is to conform to the will of God and condoled their misfortune to see their expectations fall with him into the Dust But this care of the Cardinal to advance persons of merit evinces he was not guilty of retrenching the Pensions of the two Historians afore mentioned But rather that of Learned men the most knowing and Laborious for the publick are not the greatest favourites of Fortune whether it be for want of importunity in pursuing it or of Friends to introduce them into the Theatre of
in respect of the great weight of the Government God allowed them to call Assistants for their ease and support in the Management of great Estates That their Justice and Vigilance ought to be as Conspicuous in the choice of their Assistants as in the Government of their Subjects That a Prince is Responsible for his Ministers and Chargeable with the Crimes they commit in the State if he knows and suffers them He prayed him in all humility that he would come into Spain to establish there by his presence that order which the Strangers he had sent thither had destroyed and to keep the people within the bounds of their duty who were now apparently raised to a boldness that tended to the subversion of the State being so licentious that every one not only said but Printed what he pleased and attacqued his Authority by publishing and Justifying their complaints against him This couragious Liberty of Advertising Charles of the disorders and misdemeanours of the Flemmings in Spain drew on the Cardinal the hatred of many to such a degree as obliged him to provide for the safety of his life his guard was more strictly and constantly kept his meat watched to prevent poison and this care extended to his bed and tryal made of the water that was sprinkled in his Chamber But all this caution could not save him from that Lingering Poyson which the Spaniards write destroyed his health and at last his life whereof you shall hear in due time The Court of Spain was at this time full of infamous Libells against the Flemmish-Ministers and against Xeures of the House of Croy favourite to Charles whom Lewis the 12. of France having the Gard-noble of his person gave Charles for his conduct The Libellers spared not the Cardinal nor his Confident Francis Rouys the Flemmings were highly incensed at the Libels and Obloquy of the people This obliged the Cardinal to make search for the Authors but so lightly that neither Author nor Seller was punished for writing or publishing For as for him though he writ of this matter to Flanders yet he was sayes Gomez of opinion that Inferiours should have the Liberty to avenge their grievances by words and writings which endure no longer than while you are offended at them that to slight them was the only way to suppress them and to be angry at them was to acknowledge them true Alphonso Castilla Governour of Madrid brought Adrian and Laxaus some Copies he had recovered of the Libells against them They not used to such Satyrs as things not accustomed in Flanders resented them highly and specially Adrian to whom injuries of this kind were like Fleas in his Ears or Snuff in the Nose to discompose and inflame the Levity of his Temper insomuch that being afterwards advanced to St. Peters Chair under the name of Adrian the 6. the Satyrical reflections and tart Animadversions published by the Roman Witts on the Statues of Pasquin and Morphorio were so offensive to him that he commanded the Statues which had stood there many Ages to be digged up and thrown into Tyber The Count De Sessa being present when this Order was given told him Holy Father if you cause these Libel-Carryers to be cast into Tyber the Froggs will Croke out their Verses and what two Stones whispered to men many mouths will proclaim to the River 'T is a hard matter to take from men that liberty of their spirit which God hath allowed them which they will find means to make known to the World Adrian followed his Advice and left Pasquin and Morphorio standing in the place they possess at Rome to this day Certainly they are much deceived who think by power to bury in Oblivion the ill actions they are guilty of or to keep from Posterity the knowledge of their vices The severities they exercise against the writers thereof give Credit and Authority to the relation and procure as much glory to the Historian as shame to the Criminal 'T is a good Rule for great Ones to live so as they would be represented to posterity in the stories of their Lives that by their good actions they may obtain the glory of an immortal name The Troubles which before had disquieted the Court and raised the people to Armes were now entred the Churches and got up to the very Altars The Priests of Spain had taken the Alarm and published grievous Complaints and loud Threats in defence of their Revenues and the liberty of their Dignities For Selim Emperour of the Turks having carryed his Arms into Aegypt taken from Tomombey his Crown and his Life and Triumphed over the whole Nation resolved after this notable Conquest to turn his victorious Arms against Italy to add that Countrey to the rest of his Triumphs to enter Rome by a breach and feed his Horse on the Altar of St. Peter These barbarous Threats obliged the Princes of Italy to provide for the security of their Estates Pope Leo the tenth then in the Chair imployed his care to preserve the Patrimony of the Church and for the Guard of the Sea-Coast an Ordinance was past in the Lateran-Council to Levy the tenths upon the Clergy of Spain This put them in an uproar the Cardinal used his best endeavours to appease them and to restore peace to the Church the house of God as he had done to Cities the habitations of men he dispatched a Courrier to Rome and ordered Arteagua his Agent in that Court in his name to make the Pope an offer not only of the tenths of the Arch-bishoprick of Toledo but of all its Revenues his money his moveables all that he had of rich or precious in the Treasure of his Church if the necessity of a holy Warr required it for the defence of the Altars of God in Italy But to declare that without such a necessity he would never be the Author of those new Impositions nor consent that the Priests of Spain should be made Tributary to Strangers with a strict charge to send him the Resolutions of the Lateran Council hereupon Arteagua understood by the Pope's Nephew the Cardinal De Medicis that the Council had not ordained the Levying of these Dismes but in case of extream necessity and that the Enemies were within the State of the Church or upon the Borders of Italy and it appeared the Source of this trouble about the Benefices of Spain arose from the Pope's Nuncio in that Kingdom engaged therein by his desires to finger the moneys or his imprudence in management of Affairs Thus the Cardinal protected the interest of the Church and calmed the Commotion Priests have in their persons a kind of Spiritual Royalty whereof their Miters are marks To protect and defend them is to pass to Glory by the way of Piety CAP. XV. THough the Cardinal had surmounted the opposition of the Flemmings against his Authority triumphed over the Envy of the Court and the Threats of the greatest part of the Grandees of Spain there remained an
a man whom he knew intire and immoveable in his resolutions The example of Villas Hermanos was fresh in memory and the image of it in his thoughts troubled him representing him as miserable as his friend Giron He resolved to bow rather than break goes to Madrid humbles himself makes means of Reconcilement to the Cardinal causes his Son to obey renders the place and obtains of Charles the moiety of the Priory for his Son the other moiety being left for Astuniga and enough for both Another difficulty arises in the enjoyment of the Benefice The great Master of Rhodes who had unjustly outed Astuniga to invest Diego in the place would not acknowledge any Prior but Diego gave him all the Authority of Grand Prior and sent him Orders for a general Assembly of all the Knights of the Order in Spain Diego summons them and would have had them assembled without other Authority than his the Cardinal hinders it sends for him and tells him If you were in the Isle of Rhodes you might do your pleasure but in Spain where I command know you must come to me and have my permission Thus he reduced to reason the three Grandees of Spain who had most opposed his Authority who having made a great noise had experience to their shame of the greatness of his Judgement the height of his Courage and his marvellous Address being compelled to throw themselves at his feet whose head they slighted and had in contempt The Fable of the Giants destroyed by Thunderbolts and buried under the Mountains they had accumulated instructs a Minister of State sometimes to use force and severity against potent men who to trouble the publick peace would by destroying his Authority attain the King 's These Crosses and the unwillingness of the great Ones to acknowledge the honour he had acquired in Spain with the ingratitude of the people whose ease he affected and procured the happiness they enjoyed gave him sensible displeasures and made him call to mind the tranquillity and sweetness of his Religious life in the Monastery of Castanet Neer which there was in view a little hill covered with Trees where he often went to search under their shadows the light of truth in Holy-Writt and after some hours reading kneeled and with hands and heart lift up to Heaven conversed with God in Prayer and Meditation then retiring immediately into a little Cabbin made with his own hands in imitation of those Angels of the Desart the ancient Hermits he fed his body with Bread and Water but his Soul with plentiful repasts of spiritual delicacies The holy pleasures of this solitude he panted after amidst the Crosses and oppositions he encountered in the State saying often to his greatest Confidents If I might obtain leave how willingly would I change this Palace for my Cabin at Castanet the Authority of Governour of Spain for the silence of that solitude and my Mitre of Toledo and Cardinals Cap for the habit of that poor place A Minister of State hath not in the troubles of Affairs a more solid comfort than that of Piety which is the Policy of Heaven if any be exercised there as well as part of the Politicks of this World Charles often advised by the Cardinal to come into Spain to enjoy his Crown and dissipate by his presence the Troubles that daily grew up at last leaves Flanders and by an Express to the Cardinal gives him notice he was Embarqued The Cardinal goes from Madrid and advances with the whole Court to meet his Master making choice of the Burrough of Alcande scituate on the Banks of the River Guadalayer to attend his coming and taking with him Prince Ferdinand under a strong Guard on which depended the peace and safety of Spain in his journey he passed through Bâ—zeguillas a Village on a Hill and Dined there but the worst Dinner he ever made for there the Spaniards generally believe he had that venomous Dose of Lingering Poison which destroyed his life which is the more probable for that the Provincial of the Observantines of St. Francis being on his way with some of his Order to go to the Cardinal a man on Hors-back came to them with his face muffled up in a Hand-kerchief to prevent their discovery and said Fathers if your business be to the Cardinal make haste to him before he Dines and advise him not to eat of a Pigeon that shall be served in to him for 't is poysoned Marquine the Provincial arrives at Bozeguillas and recounts to the Cardinal what the strange Gentleman told him The Cardinal having thanked him for his Care of him made him this Answer Father if I have been poysoned it was not this day but a while ago reading at Madrid a Letter from Flanders when me-thought I drew in poyson by my Eyes since which I protest I feel my self dye every day Nevertheless I am not so well assured of this as to exclude all doubt of the truth thereof We are all under the Conduct of Gods Providence which takes away and restores our health as he judges most necessary for our Salvation Let 's obey then those holy Decrees that are irreversible But when his malady came on him he returned to his former opinion telling his Physitians that he should perish by the Treason of those Wretches that attempted his life The Spaniards write that after Dinner at Bozeguillas his malady heightned so apparently that putrified matter broke out under his Nails yet this could not hinder him from imploying the small portion of life that remained in the service of the State He had written to Charles that it concerned him to command from his brother Ferdinand Alvarez Osorio the Dominican Bishop of Astozia the Prince's Tutor and Peter Gusman Grand Prior of the Order of Calatrave his Governour who apprehending the Arrival of Charles in Spain might give the young Prince Counsel to the disservice of the King it being long reported that these men would never brook the Flemings whom they hated and to avoid a meeting would retire to Arragon with Ferdinand and cause him to be Crowned King of that Kingdom But he was designed by Heaven for greater Fortunes and was Emperour after his Brother Charles the fifth and had the Royal Crowns of Hungary and Bohemia in right of Queen Anne his Wife Heiress to Ladislaus and Lewis her Father and Brother Kings of those Kingdoms he had four Sons and eleven Daughters of whom Joan d' Austria was marryed to Francis de Medicis great Duke of Tuscany of which Marriage was born Mary de Medicis Queen of France and Navarr Wife of Henry the Great and Mother of Lewis the thirteenth late Regnant a Princess of eminent Vertue singular goodness and incomparable magnanimity maternally descended from the Houses of France and Austria as well as those of Hungary and Bohemia for the Emperour Ferdinand her Grand-father was younger Son to Mary of Burgundy only Daughter of Duke Charles and Isabel of Bâ—urbon Charles judging the