Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/455

427 HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER. 427 was more absolute than that of Ximenes, for he was chapter XXV screened by the shadow of royalty ; while the latter ^ was exposed, by his insulated and unsheltered po- sition, to the full blaze of envy, and, of course, op- position. Both were ambitious of military glory, and showed capacity for attaining it. Both achieved their great results by that rare union of h^gh men- tal endowments and great efficiency in action, which is always irresistible. The moral basis of their characters was entirely different. The French cardinal's was selfishness, pure and unmitigated. His religion, politics, his principles in short, in every sense, were subser- vient to this. Offences against the state he could forgive ; those against himself he pursued with implacable rancor. His authority was literally ce- mented with blood. His immense powers and patronage were perverted to the aggrandizement of his family. Though bold to temerity in his plans, nand after her death. The queen " Anales del Rey Don Fernando testified her respect for Carbajal, el Catolico," which still remains in by appointing him one of the com- manuscript. There is certainly no missioners for preparing a digest of Christian country, for which the the Castilian law. He made con- invention of printing, so liberally siderable progress in this arduous patronized there at its birth, has work; but how great is uncertain, done so little as for Spain. Her since, from whatever cause, (there libraries teem at this day with appears to be a mystery about it,) manuscripts of the greatest interest the fruits of his labor were never for the illustration of every stage made public ; a circumstance deep- of her history ; but which, alas ! in ly regretted by the Castilian jurists, the present gloomy condition of (Asso y Manuel, Instituciones, In- affairs, have less chance of coming trod. p. 99.) to the light, than at the close of Carbajal left behind him several the fifteenth century, when the art historical works, according to Nic. of printing was in its infancy. Antonio, whose catalogue, how- Carbajal's Annals cover the whole ever, rests on very slender grounds, ground of our narrative, from the (Bibliotheca Nova, tom. ii. p. 3.) marriageof Ferdinand and Isabella, The work by which he is best to the coming of Charles V. into known to Spanish scholars, is his Spain. They are plainly written,