Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/228

204 204 CASTILIAN LITERATURE. PART higher advantages for ecclesiastical with civil edu- " cation, and which, under the splendid patronage of Cardinal Ximenes, executed the famous Polyglot version of the Scriptures, the most stupendous lite- rary enterprise of that age.^^ sacioii This active cultivation was not confined to the Einuies. dead languages, but spread more or less over every department of knowledge. Theological science, in particular, received a large share of attention. It had always formed a principal object of academic instruction, though suffered to languish under the universal corruption of the preceding reign. It was so common for the clergy to be ignorant of the most elementary knowledge, that the council of Aranda found it necessary to pass an ordinance, the year before Isabella's accession, that no person should be admitted to orders who was ignorant of Latin. The queen took the most effectual means for correcting this abuse, by raising only competent persons to ecclesiastical dignities. The highest stations in the church were reserved for those, who combined the highest intellectual endowments with unblemished piety. Cardinal Mcndoza, whose acute and comprehensive mind entered with interest into every scheme for the promotion of science, was 31 Cosas Memorables, ubi supra, he was saluted with it before fin- — Peter Martyr, Opus Epist.,epist. ishiug his discourse by oue or two 57. — Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, lib. idle youths, dissatisfied with its 4. — ChacoH, Universidad de Sala- leugth. The lecturer, however, manca, ubi supra. seems to have given general satis- It appears that the practice of fiction, for he was escorted back in scraping with the feet as an cxpres- triumph to his lodgings, to use his sion of disapprobation, familirir in own language, " like a victor in the our universities, is of venerable an- Olympic games," after the conclu- tiquity ; for Martyr mentions, that sion of the exercise.