Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/450

424 424 XIMENES. PART 11. the invincible energy of the man, who, in the face of such mighty obstacles, had so speedily effected this momentous revolution in the faith of a people, bred from childhood in the deadliest hostility to Christianity ; ^* and the good archbishop Talavera was heard in the fulness of his heart to exclaim, that " Ximenes had achieved greater triumphs than even Ferdinand and Isabella ; since they had con- quered only the soil, while he had gained the souls of Granada ! " ^^ 41 " Magnas deinceps," says Go- mez, " apud omnes venerationi Ximenius esse cospit. — Porr6 plus mentis acie videre quam solent homines credebatur, quod re anci- piti, neque plane confirmata, bar- bara civitate adhuc suum Mahume- tum spirante, tanta animi conten- tione, ut Christi doctrinam amplec- terentur, laboraverat et effecerat." (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 33.) The panegyric of the Spaniard is en- dorsed by Flechier, (Histoire de Ximen6s, p. 119.) who, in the age of Louis XIV., displays all the bigotry of that of Ferdinand and Isabella. 42 Talavera, as I have already noticed, had caused the offices, catechisms, and other religious ex- ercises to be translated into Arabic for the use of the converts; pro- posing to extend the translation at some future time to the great body of the Scriptures. That time had now arrived, but Ximenes vehe- mently remonstrated against the measure. "It would be throwing pearls before swine," said he, " to open the Scriptures to persons in their low state of ignorance, who could not fail, as St. Paul says, to wrest them to their own destruc- tion. The word of God should be wrapped in discreet mystery from the vulgar, who feel little rever- ence for what is plain and obvious. It was for this reason, that our Saviour himself clothed his doc- trines in parables, when he ad- dressed the people. The Scrip- tures should be confined to the three ancient languages, which God with mystic import permitted to be inscribed over the head of his crucified Son ; and the vernacular should be reserved for such devo- tional and moral treatises, as holy men indite, in order to quicken the soul, and turn it from the pursuit of worldly vanities to heavenly con- templation." De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32, 33. The narrowest opinion, as usual, prevaOed, and Talavera abandoned his wise and benevolent purpose. The sagacious arguments of the pri- mate lead his biographer, Gomez, to conclude, that he had a prophetic knowledge of the coming heresy of Luther, which owed so much of its success to the vernacular ver- sions of the Scriptures ; in which probable opinion he is faithfully echoed, as usual, by the good bishop of Nismes. Flechier, Hist. de Ximen6s, pp. 117- 119.