Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/408

384 384 RISE OF XIMENES. PART lishments ; and, where fair means could not prc- n., • vail, he sometimes resorted to force. The monks of one of the convents in Toledo, being ejected from their dwelling, in consequence of their perti- nacious resistance, marched out in solemn proces- sion, with the crucifix before them, chanting, at the same time, the psalm De exitu Israel, in token of their persecution. Isabella resorted to milder meth- ods. She visited many of the nunneries in person, taking her needle or distaff with her, and endeav- ouring by her conversation and example to with- draw their inmates from the low and frivolous pleasures to which they were addicted. ^^ seeofToie- While thc rcformatiou was thus silently going do vacant. ^ a o 1495. forward, the vacancy in the archbishopric of Toledo already noticed, occurred by the death of the grand cardinal. Isabella deej)ly felt the responsibility of providing a suitable person to this dignity, the most considerable not merely in Spain, but probably in Christendom, after the papacy ; and which, more- over, raised its possessor to eminent political rank, as high chancellor of Castile. ^^ The right of nomi- nation to benefices was vested in the queen by the original settlement of the crown. She had uni- 23 n^chier, Hist, de Ximen^s, times, to have been a mere honor- p. 25. — Quintanilla, Archetype, ary title. (Mendoza, Dignidades, lib. 1, cap. 11. — Mem. de la Acad. lib. 2, cap. 8.) The revenues of de Hist., torn. vi. Ilust. 8. — Ro- the archbishopric at the beginning bles, Vida de Ximenez, ubi supra, of the sixteenth century amounted 24 Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., to 80,000 ducats, (Navagiero,Viag- bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1. — Ferdi- gio, fol. 9. — L. Marineo, Cosas nand and Isabella annexed the dig- Memorables, fol. 23.) equivalent nity of high chancellor in perpetui- to about 702,200 dollars at the ty to that of archbishop of Toledo, present day. See Introd., Sect. I, It seems, however, at least in later Note 63, of this History.