Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/451

423 HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 423 th« latter particular, he was careful that no sus- chapter picion of the license which so often soiled the cler- '— gj of the period, should attach to him.^* On one occasion, while on a journey, he was invited to pass the night at the house of the duchess of Maqueda, being informed that she was absent. The duchess was at home, however, and entered the apartment before he retired to rest. " You have deceived me, lady," said Ximenes, rising in anger ; " if you have any business with me, you will find me to-morrow at the confessional." So saying, he abruptly left the palace.^ He carried his austerities and mortifications so Hismonas- ^ _ ^ tic austeri- far, as to endanger his health. There is a curious '■*"• brief extant of Pope Leo the Tenth, dated the last year of the cardinal's life, enjoining him to abate his severe penance, to eat meat and eggs on the ordinary fasts, to take off his Franciscan frock, and sleep in linen and on a bed. He would never consent, however, to divest himself of his monastic weeds. " Even laymen," said he, alluding to the custom of the Roman Catholics, " put these on when they are dying ; and shall I, who have worn them all my life, take them off at that time !"^® Another anecdote is told in relation to his dress. 34 The good father Quintanilla would never have suffered his eyes vindicates his hero's chastity, some- to light on one of them !" Arche- what at the expense of his breed- typo, p. 80. ing. "His purity was unexam- -^^ pjechier, Histoire de Ximends, pled," says he. " He shunned the liv. 6, p. 634. sex, like so many evil spirits ; look- 36 Quintanilla has given the brief ing- on every woman as a devil, let of his Holiness in extenso, with her be never so holy. Had it not commentaries thereon, twice as been in the way of his professional long. See Archetype, lib. 4, cap. calling, it is not too much to say he 10.