Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/423

399 MONASTIC REFORMS. 399 formation were thrown open to him. Pie obtained an intimate ac- quaintance with the private life of the cardinal, from three of his principal domestics, who furnished abundance of reminiscences from personal observation, while the ar- chives of the university supplied a mass of documents relating to the public services of its patron. From these and similar materials, Gomez prepared his biography, after many years of patient labor. The work fully answered public expectation ; and its merits are such as to lead the learned Nic. Antonio to ex- press a doubt, whether any thing more excellent or perfect in its way could be achieved ; " quo opere in 60 genere an praestantius quidquam aut perfectius, esse possit, non im- merito saepe dubitavi." (Biblio- theca Nova, tom. i. p. 59.) The encomium may be thought some- what excessive ; but it cannot be denied, that the narrative is written in an easy and natural manner, with fidelity and accuracy, with commendable liberality of opinion, though witb a judgment sometimes warped into an undue estimate of the qualities of his hero. It is distinguished, moreover, by such beauty and correctness of Latinity, as have made it a text-book in many of the schools and colleges of the Peninsula. The first edition , being that used in the present work, was published at Alcala, in 1569. It has since been reprinted twice in Germany, and perhaps elsewhere. Gomez was busily occipied with other literary lu- cubrations during the remainder of his life, and published several works in Latin prose and verse, both of which he wrote with ease and elegance. He died of a ca- tarrh, in 1580, in the sixty-sixth year of his age, leaving behind him a reputation for disinterested- ness and virtue, which is sufficient- ly commemorated in two lines of his epitaph ; " Nemini unquam sciens nocui, Prodesse quam pluribus curavi." The work of Gomez has fur- chapter nished the basis for all those biog- v. raphies of Ximenes which have since appeared in Spain. The most important of these, proba- bly, is Quintanilla's ; which, with little merit of selection or arrange- ment, presents a copious mass of details, drawn from every quarter whence his patient industry could glean them. Its author was a Franciscan, and employed in pro- curing the beatification of Cardinal Ximenes by the court of Rome ; a circumstance which probably dis- posed him to easier faith in the rtiarvellous of his story, than most of his readers will be ready to give. The work was published at Paler- mo in 1653. In addition to these authorities I have availed myself of a curious old manuscript, presented to me by Mr. 0. Rich, entitled " Suma de la Vida del R. S. Cardenal Don Fr. Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros." It was written within half a centu- ry after the cardinal's death, by " un criado de la casa de Coruila." The original, in "very ancient let- ter," was extant in the archives of that noble house in Quintanilla's time, and is often cited by him. (Archetypo. apend., p. 77.) Its author evidently had access to those contemporary notices, some of which furnished the basis of Castro's narrative, from which, indeed, it exhibits no material discrepancy. The extraordinary character of Ximenes has naturally attracted the attention of foreign writers, and especially the French, who have produced repeated biogra- phies of him. The most eminent of these is by Fiddlier, the elo- quent bishop of Nismes. It is written with the simple elegance and perspicuity, which characterize his other compositions ; and in the general tone of its sentiments, on all matters both of church and state, is quite as orthodox as the most bigoted admirer of the cardi- nal could desire. Another life, by