KINGS, who are Masters of the Goods of this world, advantage men in their fortunes, and im­provement of their estates; but 'tis the Sun, that King of Starrs, and first of all second Causes, that enriches them with the Gifts of Nature; so that those Regions which are blest with the more favourable aspect of this Eye of Heaven, pro­duce [Page 2] things of greater excellency than other Countreyes, and give birth to men of more eminent parts, and endowed with the rarest qualities in Natures gift. Spain, by the happy ad­vantage of her scituation, lyes so full and open in the Eye of that great Luminary, that, as ena­moured of her beauty, he vouchsafes her the light of his countenance, and by the large mea­sure of his irradiation, afforded her, contributes to her production of eminent persons. In her was born Francis, Cardinal Ximenes, of the Noble Family of the Cisneres, who deduce their origi­nal from the Suburbs of Villaizar, in the Diocess of Toledo. His Father was Alphonso, Receiver of the Tenths of the Clergy granted by the Pope to the King of Spain; who, taken with the beauty of a young Maid of an honest family and the same place, married her, and had by her several Children, whereof Ximenes was the eldest. At the Font he received, with the Graces of Heaven, the name of his Father Alphonso, which he after changed, in the Cloister, into that of Francis. In his Infancy, he had his Education in the Town of Areula D' Henares, where he learnt the principles of the Latine Tongue, and of good manners: from thence he was removed to Salamanca, to study those Laws which regulate the Estates and pos­sessions of men: where, by the advantage of his pregnant Wit, he became so great a Proficient, that in a short time he was capable to instruct others.

His Family was reduced to so low an Ebb of Fortune, that his Father was put to his shifts to furnish him with necessaries requisite for his stu­dy; [Page 3] and could not well spare him sufficient to bear his charges. This obliged Ximenes to bestir himself, as having no means of livelihood, but what he could get by his wit and industry: therefore he read the Laws in his Chamber to several Students, who contributed to defray his Charges. But his Genius aspired higher; and the honest gains he made in his Chamber, he em­ployed in the study of Divinity. And having finished the course of that Study, returned to his Countrey, where his Father practised as an At­torney in the Court of Justice of that place. Some Moneths he spent at home, but finding no imployment there, worthy his Abilities, he ob­tained his Fathers leave, to go to Rome to seek a better fortune; But was unfortunately robbed by the way, and reduced to extream necessity. This disaster occasioned his stay at Aix in Provence, till Brunet, a young Gentleman of Spain bound for Rome, (who had been his School-fellow at Salamanca) passing that way, happily relieved him by taking him into his company, and bear­ing his Charges to Rome. Being arrived at Rome, he became Advocate for such of his Coun­trey, as had Suits depending in the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction; till the news of his Fathers death; and his good nature carried him back into Spain, to succour his Mother now a Widow, and afford his helping hand to the Orphan state of his younger Brothers. But before his departure from Rome, he obtained from the Pope (those they call) Spectative Bulls; whereby he was provided of the first Prebend should be void in his Native Countrey; which happened to be that of the [Page 4] Archpriest of the Borough of Ʋceda. The Re­venue of it was mean, but the conveniency of having it at his door, invited him to take pos­session. The granting of such Bulls, gives great offence to the Bishops of Spain, as retrenching their power in collating Benefices. Alphonso Carilla, Archbishop of Toledo, bestowed the same Prebend on his Almoner. Ximenes opposes it; the Archbishop resents the resistance, as a high contempt, and presumptuous obstruction of his Authority; resolves to suppress it by force, and claps up Ximenes in the Tower of Ʋceda, where he kept him close Prisoner under hard and rigo­rous usage, in a place which Ximenes after his promotion to the Archbishoprick of Toledo, made the Repository of his Riches; teaching us, that great Souls make the Disgraces of the world a Treasury of Vertue. The miserable entertain­ment and rude usage of this place afflicted his Spirit to so extream a degree, that it clearly ap­peared; There is nothing in the world more in­supportable, than trouble and slavery to men of Letters, whose Genius requires Liberty and Repose. The loss of both drew sighs and groans from the heart, and loud complaints from the tongue of Ximenes, which an old Priest his fellow prisoner, and companion in misery, endeavou­ring to allay, bespake him thus: A wise man, Ximenes, is alwayes free; and vertue which be­lieves no other slavery but that of vice, loses not her Liberty in Chains and Irons. Cease then to complain, and put an end to your Lamenta­tions; endure with patience the lot befallen you: Suffering is often the way to preferment. In the [Page 5] very place you are in, was heretofore locked up John Zerervella, Brother to that Great Constable of Castile Alvarez de Luna, with no other advantage than that of closer imprisonment and heavier irons than yours; yet he was afterwards Archbi­shop of Toledo. Great miseries usher in those persons into great prosperities, who by patience triumph over their calamities. Zerervella in the course of his felicities, drew the comfort of his life from the memory of his imprisonment. The innocence of your visage and majesty of your countenance, are, in my judgement, presages of the like fortune to you.

He was removed from the Tower to St. Jor­quats, a Prison for Priests lying under Accusations of crime. His innocence was so apparent and conspicuous, that his deteinure there, was so long only, as might serve for the execise of his vertue. The Countess of Bondiano, Sister to the Archbishop, obtained his liberty. Ximenes, fear­ing a second loss of it, resolves to enjoy it at distance from the violences of a Prelate, who so ill understood the vertues and merits of men. And therefore quitting the Diocess of Toledo, he retires into that of Siguenza, where he chang­ed his Prebend for a Chappelleny with a small pension.

Here that noble Affection of the best Spirits and most excellent temper, the love of Learning, made him withdraw from the conversation of the world, to follow his Studies; where he learnt the Hebrew and Chaldee Languages. But though his life was retired, his reputation increased. The rayes of vertue discover the owner at distance, [Page 6] though he seem to lye hid in obscurity. Peter Gonsalve, Cardinal Mendoza, Bishop of Siguenza named Ximenes his Vicar General, and in a man­ner forced him to take the Office, and with it, the care of his Diocess: the same time Alphonso De Sylva Earl of Cifuentes, taken prisoner by the Moors in the Wars of Granada, was induced, by the repute of his honesty and abilities, to con­stitute Ximenes Administrator General of all his Demeans, during his imprisonment. Thus For­tune began to follow him, when he fled from her, and sought an employment more agreeable to the tranquillity of his spirit, than was to be found in the troubles of secular affairs. He held the world a Sea, where some are wrecked, but all without exception are tossed with winds, and subject to the agitation of the waves: the object of his desires and end of his designs, being a Port to secure him from the one and the other; he made choice of a Cloister, as most suitable to his pur­pose; and took on him the Order of St. Francis, in order to the enjoyment of God and himself in prayer and contemplation.

Here he changed the name of Alphonso into that of Francis, and resigned his Benefices to Bernar­din his youngest Brother; lest necessity that ob­structs the vertues of the bravest spirits, and of­ten proves an ill Counsellor to them, should en­gage him in ill courses for gaining a livelihood.

WHen Ximenes had thus quitted the World for a Cloister, the world went in search of him into the Cloister; the gravity of his manners, and holiness of his life, invited those of best quality in Toledo to visit him, for receiv­ing his directions for guidance of their souls in the way to Heaven. Even the Ladies resorted to him for instructions to order their devotion; some with Resolution to practise them, others to satisfie their Curiosity, in seeing a man to famed for sanctity. The crowds of people that flocked daily to him, interrupting him in the perfor­mance of his Religious Exercises, and wearying him by importunity, obliged him to quit Tole­do, and seck out a more retired solitude in the Monastery of Castanet; so called, from a Grove of Chestnut-trees which in a large circumference en­compassed it round, the Monastery being the Center. A year was scarce elapsed, but he was drawn out thence, to take on him the charge of Warden of the Covent of Salceda, where he kept the Fryars within the Rules of their Order, more by the example of his good life, than the commands of a Superiour. But 'tis the Privi­ledge of Courts to enter into Cloisters, and take thence such men, whom Fortune hath designed to partake of their Grandieurs. Isabel Queen of Spain calles him to Court in the year 1492. and by the advice of Cardinal Mendoza, Archbi­shop of Toledo, makes him her Confessor. In this [Page 8] eminent place, he gave proofs of great vertues, without any exception, but that of intermedling with Matters of State, wherein he exceeded his Call, and strained beyond his Charge and his Frock.

This perhaps, gave those of his Order occa­sion to draw him back from Court to a Religious imployment, by choosing him their Provincial for three years. And here he gave a most preg­nant proof of the indifferency of his spirit for the affairs of Court, and of the great love he bore his Order, by going from Court more wil­lingly, than he had come into it, and imploying his time in visiting the Religious Houses under his charge. Coming to Gibraltar, moved with a charitable zeal for the salvation of the Infidels, he designed a Voyage into Africk, at the peril of his life to instruct the Moors there in the Christi­an faith: but a Fryar of his Order, and in great esteem for Piety, disswaded him; assuring him, God had prepared him a great imployment in Spain. He travelled on foot, and begged, but was such a bungler at the Trade, and begged so untowardly, that he seldom carried any but an empty bagg; which made Franeis Rouys his companion tell him, he must give over begging; for that no man was more certainly born to give to all, and begg of none, than he. And had not the care of Rouys stood him in more stead than his begging Alms, he had made more Fast-dayes, than the Rules of his Order required. So unfit to begg are Great Spirits, being naturally disposed to Give, not to Ask.

FOrtune, which had designed him for the prime Prelate of Spain, took care soon after, to furnish his strong inclinations for the Good of mankind; with means competent to express his Good nature in acts of benificence, answera­ble to the Greatness of his Soul. Cardinal Men­doza, Archbishop of Toledo, laboured under two maladies, the one incurable, the other dange­rous, Age and a Feavour; which induced him to go to Guadalfayre, to take the benefit of that Ayre, he drew at his birth. Ferdinand and Isabel, King and Queen of Spain, went thither to visit him; This honour had saved the Cardinals life, if death had regarded the presence of Kings, who are themselves his Homagers. Mendoza now drawing near to his end, gave his Master these three sage Counsels. 1. To make peace with the King of France, and keep it inviolable when made. 2. To marry the Infant John, Designed Successor of their Crowns to Joan, since the wise of Alphon­so King of Portugal, pretendant to the Kingdom of Castile. 3. To conferr the Archbishoprick of Toledo, on a person of mean Condition, but of great inte­grity, and extraordinary Capacity: That these qualities were apparently eminent in the person of Ximenes; That the Grandees of Spain, proud enough of the Titles they are born to, become intolerably insolent, by the addition of those of great Dignities.

These Princes slighted the first Advice, to the [Page 10] prejudice and notorious damage of Christendom, which smarted for their contempt of it, as the Spanish histories ingenuously Confess. The third they embraced, which Coming to the Know­ledge of Ximenes, he remonstrates to them, that the Dignity of the Archbishoprick of Toledo being the prime of the State, as well spiritual as temporal; which gave the person invested in it, the priviledge of speaking next the King, in the Council-Royal; ought to be given to the most illustrious, and Ancient Gentry of the King­dom.

Cardinal Mendoza quitted his life, and the Archbishoprick together, in the year 1496. Fer­dinand would have preferred his natural son Don Alphonso, Archbishop of Saragosa, to this great Benefice: But Isabel, who had right of Presentati­on to it, as Queen of Castile, preferred the ver­tue of Ximenes, before the birth of Don Alphonso, and the intreaties of the King her husband: The year ensuing, they presented Ximenes to succeed in this Grand Prelature, no less in dignity than Re­venue; which amounts to two hundred thousand Ducats a year. Ximenes forced by express Man­dat from the Pope, accepts it: At his first no­mination he left the Court, and fled on foot to a Covent of his Order a great way from Madrid, to avoid investiture in the Archbishoprick: But returning in obedience to the Pope, he declared to Ferdinand and Isabel, that he would never consent that this Rich Benefice should be charged with one farthing pension, as prejudicial to the dignity and liberty, of the prime pastor of Spain.

Now hath he just cause to meddle in Affairs of [Page 11] the State, as being one of the most considerable members thereof: This sudden change of for­tune, shook not his Constancy, nor altered his setled Resolutions of adhering to vertue; Yet was he as free from mean, and base Actions, as from the Corruptions that usually attend great fortunes; he made it appear that no dignity could be so great, as to exceed his capacity, no Gran­dure in the gift of fortune, to which his soul was not commensurate; though in his plenty of For­tune, and Eminence of place, he continued the plainness of a Religious life: Piety hath brought plenty, and abundance of Riches into the Church; And by the disorders of the world, the Daughter hath devoured the Mother; so that there are more Ecclesiasticks Rich, than Pious: Ximenes was not of their number; for amidst the Trea­sure of that Great Revenue, he kept inviolable that poverty that exalts Great Personages above the height of fortune, and consists in the contempt, and sober use of these perishing enjoyments; And, as if he had been afraid to lose the least part of it, he continued the practises of that Poverty, which the Rules of Religion exact from its strictest votaries. The Pomp of a Cardinal, and Attendance of the Prime Prelate of Spain, could not keep him from retyring into a private place, from the eyes of his domestiques, to mend with his own hands, the frock he had wore among those of his Order; so that after his death, in a Box, whereof in his Life-time, he constant­ly kept the Key; there were found needles, thred, and pieces of Gray Cloth, of the Colour of his Frock, which he laid up for that use. He slept [Page 12] on a Friers pallet, which he had hid in his Chamber, where stood his Bed of state; And that his family might not perceive it, he made it his custom to go to bed, and rise alone, with­out attendants, and his door shut. When he was first made Archbishop, he rid into the Country upon an Asse attended by a troop of Monks of his Order; his house, his family and his table were so ordered, as not to be inconsistent with his Vow of poverty; The Great Revenue of the Pri­mate of Spain, was imployed in works of Piety, the poor receiving a moity of it for their suste­nance, whom he called, the Lords and Proprie­tors of his Revenues.

The Bishops of Spain, instead of imitating the good Example of his simplicity, were offended at it, and complained of him to Pope Alexander the sixth, who sent him a Brieve, advising him to change that mean fashion of life, into a more splendid, and becoming his dignity; tel­ling him, it was not only convenient, but ne­cessary to maintain with some external pomp and lustre, the dignities founded in a holy simpli­city: Ximenes obeys the Pope, his table is bet­ter covered, his Beds more sumptuous, his utensils of Earth are changed into Plate, and all the ornaments of Prelature more splendid and mag­nificent: But his Golden Cross made him not a woodden Bishop; he continued his conferences in Divinity with the Priests, and his sermons to the people: and it is remarkable, he admitted no man into his family, but upon the commenda­tions of honesty and vertue.

But can it be expected, Ximenes should quiet­ly [Page 13] enjoy a Dignity so Eminent, a Benefice of so vast revenue? since 'tis the course of the world, that, as Roses have their prickles grow­ing up with them; so crosses are inseparable Companions of great fortunes. The first that at­tacqued him, were the Monks of his Order, who were at Court with him, and offended that he kept them in his house to the Austere Rules of their Order, and forbad them to intermeddle with any thing but their Beads, And that being lately made President of the Kings Council, he procured not for them the Prelatures of Spain; spread ill reports of his person, and made their Sermons invectives against his conduct; Turn­ing the pulpit, which ought to be the Oracle of truth, into a Theatre of Envy; They rested not there, but sent for their General from Rome, and armed him with Calumnies against Ximenes. The General, arrived in Spain, and hurried with faction and insolence predominant in him; goes to the Queen, and addressing himself with little respect, accused Ximenes of Ignorance, of Pride, and of Hypocrisie: Blaming the Queen for permitting such a man, to fit in her Coun­cil, and in the prime Chair of Prelature in the Kingdom. Isabel well assured of the integrity, and merits of Ximenes, and moved at the pal­pable rudeness, and irregular passion of this Ge­neral; asked him if he were in his wits, and knew whom he spoke to. Yes Madam (saith he) I am so well in my wits, as to know I speak to Queen Isabel, who is but a heap of Dust as I am; and suddenly withdrew from the presence of the Queen, more like a Fury than a Rational Crea­ture. [Page 14] But the accusations of these Monks, ha­ving no other foundation, but Envy, hatred and untruths, were easily dissipated by the pa­tience of Ximemes, to their shame, but his Glory.

Thus these Ambitious men, who went out of the world upon design, to return with greater advantage, attacqued his reputation: But Ber­nardine his brother, attempted his life. Xime­nes when he took the habit of St. Francis, re­signed to him his Benefices, and was soon after followed by this young man; who too, became of the same Orders; and afterwards tracing the steps of his Brothers fortune, went to Court, in hope of a Bishoprick: but the success not answer­ing his designes, he imputed the cause to Xime­nes, and resolved to be revenged of him, for the refusal or delay of his preferment. Ximenes lay sick at Arcula D'Henares, in Latin Complutum; Bernar­dine was in his house, and finding his Brother one day in his chamber, without any attendant, threw himself on the bed where he lay, and pressing the bolster hard on his neck, endeavour­ed to choke him, and thinking it done, went out of the Chamber: Ximenes not quite dead, was helped by his servants who came in, and having acquainted them with Bernardines villa­ny, commanded them to apprehend him; They search, and having found him hid in a Cave, drag him out, and bring him to Ximenes, who took no other revenge, than that he sent him bound to the Monastery of Torrice to learn more wi [...]t.

Having recovered his health, he spent some [Page 15] time in reforming the Conventuals of the Order of St. Francis, called Cordeliers; whom he reduced under the Rules of the Observantins, to live with­out Revenews, as Children of Providence, and upon the Alms they receive. His pains, and the Cordeliers oppositions and complaints in this Af­fair, almost exceed expression. But by the end of the year 1499. his Constancy surmounted all dif­ficulties raised by them, and afforded him oppor­tunity to employ his thoughts, towards redress of the peoples grievances. It troubled him to see the Kingdoms of Castile and Leon oppressed by a heavy Tax called Alcabala, which forced them to pay the King the tenth part of all they sold or exchanged. This Imposition was first laid, towards defraying the Charge of the Wars of Granada, against the Moors; but continued to the grievance of the people, after the War; though ended to the great advantage of Ferdinand and Isabel. Ximenes remonstrates to them, that God had made them Pastors, not Tyrants over the people; that by the favour of Heaven, they had obtained Victory over the Moors; that it was an ill Acknowledgement of the mercy, to con­tinue in time of Peace and Triumph, that Sub­sidy which was intended only for the mainte­nance of the War. His advice was taken, and the people discharged of the Tax. This gained him great reputation all over Spain; so that he never entred the Palace Royal, but the people attended him with joyful Acclamations, saying publickly, He never went to Council, but for the good of the Commonalty. A wise Mi­nister of State designs no less the good of the [Page 16] publick, than the Honour of his Prince.

The disorders of War had banished good Li­terature from the Territories of Spain; Ximenes desires ardently to see it brought back and re­planted: causes a Colledge to be built at Arcala, and the seventh of March 1498. [...] stone himself, endowed i [...] with Revenu [...] [...] furnished it with Regents; which render [...] it one of the best Academies of Spain. Certainly, the happiness of a Kingdom, consists in the observance of the Laws, which is better effected through careful education, than fear of punishment. Vertuous actions are de­rived from good habits, acquired by practice and exercise of the wholsome Rules of good Edu­cation: where this is wanting, the severities of Magistracy are too weak, to contain men within the limits of obedience to Law; there being no­thing so difficult, as to subdue our passions, when by long Custom and Continuance in Vice, they have got such head, as to master our Reason. Hence that Maxim of the Wise man, that Pru­dent Education added to the Gifts of Nature, renders men vertuous and obedient to the Laws; and that nothing is more necessary for the Com­mon-weal, than good institution and vertuous education of Youth.

XImenes had not only a real Affection for Learning, but a high esteem for its faith­full Attendants, Honesty and Integrity; though his affection to the one, and esteem for the other, terminated in Religion, as the ultimate object of his best affections; the Ascendant of his soul, and Lady paramount of his passions. To which he was so entirely devoted, as to take the measure of his affection and esteem for Learning and Ho­nesty, from their usefulness to the advancement of Religion. The zeal he had to propagate Christianity, made him labour willingly, and much for the Conversion of Infidels. About the end of this year he attended the King and Queen in their Kingdom of Granada, newly recovered from the Moors; to give advice, how this new Conquest might be best maintained: and found time to preach so fervently to the Moors, that in one day, he converted three thousand of them to the faith of Christ. And the multitude of the Converts, making it impossible to baptize them all in the usual form, within the compass of a day, using aspersion instead immersion, he sprinkled them all with baptismal water, and so initiated them all the same day in the Christian Religion. In memory whereof, that day being the 16th of December, was long kept Festival in Spain. The Archbishop of Granada in his harangue to the Cardinal, upon the Triumphs of that Kingdom, amongst others hath this expression; [Page 18] Sir, I may say without incurring suspicion of flattery, that your Victories surpass the King's; for he gained Stones, but you have gained Souls to God. The greatest part of the unconverted Moors followed the example of a Prince of their Sect, of the Royal Family of the Kings of Gra­nada, who became Christian; and drew them with him, to the knowledge of the true Reli­gion. These new Converts, by the light of truth began to discover and detest their former errors; and of their own accord, laid at Ximenes feet five thousand Volumes of the Alcoran, or Glosses and Explications of it; all curiously bound, neat­ly trimmed, and exquisitely adorned with Claspes and Knots of Silver, Gold, and precious Stones, which made out the Esteem that people had, for the lying impostures of their Prophet.

Many Grandees of Spain became Suitors to Xi­menes, for one of those Books to adorn their Li­braries: but he refused, and causing a great fire to be made, exposed them all to the fury of the devouring flames, except few that treated of Physick, and had been found among the Alco­rans. Taking from these new Converts those ob­jects which might renew the memory of the Errors in which they had lived most part of their time. So frail, and so fickle is our nature in good actions, that our progress in the way of vertue, is like that of Boats against the stream of a rapid Torrent, which fall back in one hour more than they advance in a whole day: This was not enough to contain them within the bounds of their duty, some sighed for their lost liberty, others relapsed into their old superstitions, and [Page 19] taking up Arms, resolved to force their way to both, by fire and sword. Ximenes who was yet in Granada, stood the shock, and bearing up bravely in a Sea of troubles that surrounded him, sends an Express to the King: And for better dispatch, a Gentleman of Quality of the same City offered him an Ethiopian Slave, so nimble and swift of foot, that he would travell fifty Leagues a day. But the brutish Sot having received the Pacquet, instead of making haste, overcharged himself so with Wine and Victuals at the second Inn he met with by the way, that he slept there till the morrow after: and he, who should have been in two dayes at Sevil, where the Court then was, made it five ere he arrived there. In the mean time, the King had intelligence of the Re­volt of the Moors of Granada from them, who envying the greatness of Ximenes, took care to send better Courriers than the Ethiopian: and informed the King, that Ximenes, who through a rash and undiscreet zeal, would have converted to Christianity in a moment, men who were not only born and had lived, but were for the most part grown old in the Profession of Mahometism, had lost the Realm of Granada: That he was utterly incapable to manage matters of State, who proposed and made use of no other al­lurements, to win over his Converts to submit their necks to the yoke of a new Government, than the headstrong Capricchio's of his violent fancy, and the rigorous Austerities he had pra­ctised in a Cloister.

Ferdinand believes them, and remembring Xi­menes had been introduced into Court, and his [Page 20] Conduct extolled by the Queen his Wife; goes to her Lodgings, and all in a flame. See now, Madam, (sayes he)! the Triumphs of our An­cestors, and our own, purchased with the blood of the Nobles of Spain, ruined in a moment, by the humoursome follies of your Ximenes! Xi­menes by this time, had intelligence from his friends of the negligence of the Ethiopian, and the sense of the Court; he acknowledges his fault to entrust the sottishness of such a Brute, with an Affair of so great Importance: And resolved for the future, never to send Courriers on the like Occurrences, but such as were persons of inte­grity and honest Repute; which he observed, making it his custom, to honour and load with Presents, such whom he imployed in dispatches of Consequence.

To retrive this miscarriage, and remedy the present disorder of his Affairs, he dispatched Roiiys his Companion of the Order, to inform their Majesties of the Causes of the Revolt, and the Remedies he had applyed. The good estate of Granada, quenched the fire of Ferdinands anger and displeasure against Ximenes, and drew from him Letters of thanks to Ximenes, for his great expence for the good of the publick, in restoring peace to Granada; and the dangers he exposed himself to, to save his Cities from ruine, and the Kingdom from destruction. A Minister of State who labours with integrity to serve his Majesty, ought by good Actions and patience, to over­come the Envy and Calumnies of his Enemies, which like thin mists are easily dissipated; and being built on the sandy foundations of false­shood, [Page 21] and lyes, are soon shaken and moulder to nothing.

THE watchings and labours Ximenes under­went, to suppress the Tumults of Granada, had impaired his health into a Hectick Feavour; so malignant, that the Physitians could find no re­medy for it. A Moriseo-woman converted by him, hears of this, and sends him another wo­man of the same Nation, to desire permission to cure his Feavour; which being granted her, with­in eight dayes by the use of Oyntments, and some words she recited, she restored him to perfect health. This enabled him to go to Tole­do, to salute the Princess Joan, Daughter and Heiress of Ferdinand and Isabel, together with Philip of Austrich her Husband, and Son to the Emperour Maximilian, who were lately come to Spain. And thence to visit that glorious Temple of the Muses, his Colledge of Arcala, the love of Learning being inseparable from his soul: insomuch that in the year 1502. in order to the Explication and Imprinting of the Holy Scriptures in Latine, Greek, Hebrew and Chal­dee, by persons of knowledge and skill in those Tongues at his charge in that City; he bought up all the Manuscript Bibles he could hear of; and caused most exact and correct Impressions to be made thereof in those Languages. Seven Hebrew Copies cost him four thousand Crowns; the Latine and Greek Manuscripts, being eight [Page 22] hundred years old, amounted to a greater summ: besides a vast expence for maintenance and Sala­ries of Professors of those Languages, and Cor­rectors and Printers for fifteen years. His de­sign was to instruct the Priests in the Truths of the two Testaments, and to leave the Church these Lights of the Holy Scriptures in their ori­ginal purity. As if he had foreseen, that a few years after the perfection of this work, Heresie would arise, by false interpretation of Scripture; to attacque the purity of Christian Doctrine. And therefore he provided this Impression, as a well furnished Armoury, to defend the Church against the malice of her Enemies. This great and painfull work being finished; and the Prin­ter presenting him with the first Copy of it; with eyes and hands lift up for joy to Heaven, My God, said he, I return thee immortal thanks, for granting my desires of good success to this work. Then turning to his Domestiques who were most familiar with him; 'Tis true, said he, my friends, that God hath been pleased to crown my Labours with success, in many important Affairs for the good of the State; but there is not any thing, in which ye ought to rejoyce with me more, than for the happy accomplishment of this Impression and Explication of the Bible in the four Languages.

He had designed also a Translation of Aristotle's works, and to adorn them, suitable to the dig­nity of the subject. And certainly, since he thus revived good Literature; 'tis but just, Learning should raise him to life again; and that the Muses give immortality to his Name: for he [Page 23] who labours for them, ought in recompence of his Travels, to receive from them the Auguste priviledge of never dying.

Much about this time, Joan Heiress of Spain was delivered of her second Son at Arcala. Xi­menes layes hold of the opportunity, for the glory of his Colledge: and by the favour of this birth, obtained for that City (which he had made an habitation of the Muses) exemption from Taxes and all manner of Impositions. The inhabitants of Arcala in memory of the favour, keep to this day, the Cradle of that Prince; and bless the name of Ximenes, who procured it. As he went out of his Lodgings the same day, he met the Offi­cers of Justice leading a Malefactor to the Gib­bet; he stops them, and grants the wretched Criminal, Pardon. Telling them, that though it was an Action beyond his Authority, yet so much ought to be allowed his Dignity, to hinder that day of general Joy to all Spain, from being Ca­pital to an Inhabitant of Arcala.

After this, he built a Colledge for Maids of honest Families, whom Poverty kept in igno­rance: and adjoyned to it a Nunnery for the en­tertainment of such, who were inclined to bid farewell to the world; with Provision, that none should be taken into it, but such as came volun­tarily; and as for those who desired to continue secular, besides the vertuous breeding of the Colledge, he gave them honourable portions, and disposed of them in Marriage according to their conditions. These works of Piety, and the War against the Moors, were the Treasury, where he laid up those Riches Fortune cannot destroy.

BEing at Medina, Jerome Vianelli a Venetian, [...]ffered him a Jewell at 5000. Crowns, and pressed him much to buy it; though the price put upon it, exceeded far the value of the Stone. Ximenes liked well the neat glittering and sparkling brightness of the Jewel; but I know, sayes he, to bestow the money better: for in an urgent neces­sity I can relieve 5000. Souldiers with Crowns apiece; his Levies for the Wars of Africk being then afoot.

The year 1505 Spain had great loss by the death of Queen Isabel, the Most Illustious Princess of her Age; no less Eminent for acquired habits of Goodness, than Royal Extraction; being as worthily adorned with the Crowns of Vertue, as legally Crowned with the Diadem of Spain; a Princess of Knowledge, Piety and Generosity above the usual Capacity of her Sex. She who had observed in Ximenes the Eminence of Rare Conduct, attended with singular integrity, made him Executor of her Last Will and Testament: which was but a drop of that Ocean of honour those qualities procured him, which rendered him so venerable in the State, that never Mini­ster was so much honoured in his life, so much desired and missed after his death. Every time he came to wait on his Master Ferdinand, the King went out of his Chamber to meet him, and at parting, brought him to the Chamber-door: nor would he si [...], till a Seat were given Ximenes. [Page 25] So powerful are great Vertues, as to obliege even the Scepters of the World to reverence them. That Minister who is prudent and Generous, whose designes tend only to the glory of his Master, and good of the publick, deserves the Sur­name of Guardian-Angel of the State, and ought to be honoured as such by every one.

The death of Isabel gave Ximenes occasion to do Ferdinand good Service in Spain, and to give new proofs of the greatness of his Conduct: Isabel who was Queen of Castile, had by her Testament made Ferdinand her Husband, (who was only King of Arragon) Administrator general of the King­dom of Castile: Philip his Son in Law, husband, as was said, of the sole Heiress of that Kingdom, had other designes; and by the instigation of some Grandees of Spain, and presuming upon the amity of France, intended to dethrone his Father in Law, and take possession of Castile as the inheritance of his Wife. He was at that time in Flanders with Joan, about whom Ximenes had placed some persons of trust, by whom she informed him of the designes of her Husband to trouble Spain: and the ill usage she had from him; for his Love to the Flemmish Ladies had divided the Husband and Wife, and filled their Breasts with Jealousie and hatred of each other: Joan writes to her Father the threats of Philip, to drive him out of Castile, contrary to the Testament of the Queen her Mother; Philip surprizes Lopez Couitrilla, Fer­nand's Embassadour, with several Letters about him; and without respect to his person, caused him to be imprisoned. Ximenes advertised of these threats and violences, advises the Remedy, [Page 26] for Ferdinand's service; he knew Philip had Ne­gotiations afoot in France to sollicite the Aid of that Court against his Father in Law. Ximenes steps in, and prevents it, advises Ferdinand to a strict Alliance on that side, and to take to Wife Germain de Foix, Niece to Lewis the twelfth.

The Marriage was accomplished, and Philip surprized to see himself abandoned by them from whom he promised himself the greatest succour, was forced to a Treaty of Accommodation with Ferdinand, and agree to him the Administration of the Kingdom of Castile, reserving to himself the honour only of being named joyntly with Ferdinand in all Letters Patents. This Agreement quieted the Affairs of Spain, though not long. Philip comes thither with Joan his Wife, visits the Cities of the Kingdom, and acts as sole Master of it without seeing Ferdinand, or per­mitting his Wife to see him: Ferdinand though his Father in Law longs to see Philip, and follows him from place to place, but Philip flees from him, till Ximenes by his prudence procured an Interview. Philip instigated by the great ones, desirous of novelties, and envying the Authority of Ximenes, appeared at the enterview in the Equippage of Conquest and Triumph, not like a Son to meet his Father, but marching with six thousand Warriers at his heels; Ferdinand had only two hundred men of his houshold and re­tinue, and mounted on Mules. But this Flemish Bravado lasted not long; the sage Advice of Xi­menes made it vanish; he goes to Philip at Burges, shews him the injury he did himself to sow di­vision in a State belonging to him; that to raise [Page 27] Warr in Spain, was to Assault his own House; that Ferdinand had only the Administration of Castile, and served only to keep it, and improve it for him; that the Counsels given him, tended to his ruine; that Don John Manuel his great Con­fident and Prime man of his Council, was a per­son interessed, and for his own advantage foment­ed divisions between him and his Father in Law; that it concerned him in point of interest, and for his own good to remove Manuel by some honou­rable Employment; that an Embassy to Rome would be very fit for the purpose. To remove from a Prince a pernicious favourite, is to rid a Sick man of his Disease.

And because this Enterview is a principal piece of our Story, I thought fit to give you the most re­markable particulars. Philip going to meet Fer­dinand, had on his right hand Ximenes (who went to him at Burges) and on his left Don Manuel his High Treasurer; those of his Court were in Armour, and marched in a posture of Warr; Fer­dinands followers ridd on Mules, as men of peace, with Cloaks and Swords only; the Principal Courtiers having forsaken him to attend Philip, verified the old observation, that Courtiers adore the rising Sun. Ferdinand meeting the Troops of his Son in Law, made a halt on a lit­tle rising Ground to give them way: this place he chose as fittest in his judgement, (one of the sagest of his time) to view and contemplate the disloyalty of the Court, having of purpose taken up his standing in a narrow place, where all those who had abandoned him to go to Philip, must of necessity pass close by him: And of them the [Page 28] Duke of Najar first presented himself, mounted in Armour on a Spanish Jennet, as for a day of Battel; his Page carryed his Lance, and one of his Captains led a Troop of men at Arms be­hind him: Duke, sayes Ferdinand, you are ready for a Combat, you alwayes carry a spice of the Captain. It is, Answered the Duke, to serve the King our Soveraign Lord, and your Majesty.

The next that came up, was Garcia de la Vega Lord of Cnerva, who had been Embassadour from Ferdinand at Rome, and graced with his favours in a large measure; Ferdinand, a perfect Master of the Art of Dissimulation (commonly called the Art of Reigning) perceived by the Bunching of his Cloaths that he wore close Armour underneath, and Embracing him said, Garcia, you were not so Gross a few dayes ago, you are grown fat on the sudden.

These Embraces and Courtesies, were smart Reproofs, and cutting Exprobrations of their in­gratitude; and Ferdinand experimented in them, that if the good fortune of the Court hath few sure Friends, the [...]ll fortune of it hath much fewer. Philip upon the fight of Ferdinand, would have alighted, but Ferdinand spurting his Male, prayed him not to Dismount; Philip with Hat in Hand, desired Ferdinands Hand to Kiss; Ferdinand spreads his Armes and Embraces him. Spain is so stored with Castles and fair Countrey-houses, that in all that Road there was not one fit for the Con­ference of the two Kings which forced them to entertain one another in an Ermitage; Ximenes followed them in, and so did Don Manuel, Phi­lips Favourite. Ximenes seeing him enter, sayes [Page 29] to him; Don John, their Majesties would be pri­vate, Let's withdraw, I will be Porter, and keep the door for this time. Manuel goes out some­what displeased; Ximenes re-enters, and having shut the Door, sits down with the Kings: Ferdi­nands Counsels to Philip were the only entertain­ment of the Princes, which were to this effect.

My Son, the weight of a Crown is so great, that a good King cannot bear it without help; and the Government of people requires such con­tinual care and incessant travels, that a Prince hath need of ease by persons of fidelity, and capable to manage publick affairs; and herein the unhap­piness of Princes is remarkable, that they find few who mind more the honour of the State than their own profit, or study the interest of their Master, more than their own private advantages. Take heed therefore, my Son, that you grant not to them you honour with your good will, (com­monly called Favourites) any thing to the preju­dice of the people over whom God hath invested you with Soverain Authority, whereof you must make good use, and render him one day an ac­count, and undergo the sentence of an exact im­partial Justice, and abide the severity of its Judge­ment. Think not that such men are called without cause, the Leeches of the Court, who hanging still at the Eares of their Prince, yet un­grateful to their Benefactour, have by their insa­tiable avarice, base flattery, and monstrous ingra­titude merited those names of infamy and re­proach of the vices they are infected with. I had designed to have assisted you in the discharge of your Office, knowing your Youth unexperi­enced [Page 30] in the Government of Kingdoms; but since the great ones of Castile have perswaded you to the contrary, I will retire, and confine my cares to the Governmens of the States, subject to the Crowns God hath given me: but shall make it my Prayer to God to give you the Graces, and Forces necessary for great Kings; and during my ab­sence from you I leave you another Father, who will be of no less use to you, than if I were with you in person, I mean my Lord Arch-bishop of Toledo here present; the many proofs, and evident testimonies I have had of his fidelity and experience give me cause to Assure you that a King cannot be wrecked in the Government of his State, where he sits at the helm. May you believe his sage ad­vice, and gather the same fruits from his conduct as have given my name and that of Queen Isabel the reputation and glory of having happily go­verned Spain; and to the inhabitants of these Kingdoms the felicity they enjoy.

After this Enterview, the Kings parted. Philip went to dinner at Bimo, Ferdinand at Remefid, and Simenes at Requete, three little villages with­in half a league of the Ermitage; but the advan­tage of accommodation, was on Philip's part, as feasted before dinner with the Royal Collation of Ferdinands entertainment: For the Sage advice, for the Government of a Kingdom, is a true ali­ment of Prince's spirit.

The affairs of Castile, were at this time carried according to the passion of the high Treasurer Don John Manuel, Philips favorite; and the Re­venue of the Kingdom which is the blood of the people squandered away by him; which [Page 31] highly displeased Ximenes: It hapned one day that Bertrand de Salto one of the Kings Treasu­rers, who had formerly treated with Ximenes about several affairs, in respect to him came to let him know, that the King by advice of Don Mannel had farmed out the Revenue of the Silks of Granada for ten years at a price; and that he had the Charters in his hand ready drawn, to be delivered to the Seal; Ximenes reads them, and observing that they were much to the damage of the King, tore them in pieces; and gave the pieces to a page of his Chamber, who stood be­hind him, which are kept to this day among the records of Arcala, for a monument of the coura­gious liberty of this Minister: then turning to the Treasurer, Salto, said he, were you not one of my friends, the King should cause your head to be taken off: Dare you make Grants so preju­dicial to the State? Then going to the Palace, he informed Philip of this disorder, and forced him to confess, they had surprized him.

This Prince began to relish the excellency of Ximenes counsels and fully resolved to live for the future in better correspondence with Ferdinand, but was suddenly taken with a great sickness which with his life ended his troubles.

Ferdinand was then in his voyage for Naples his new Conquest; the Grandees of Spain assembled in Ximenes Chamber to consult about the Govern­ment of Castile: divers opinions were hotly pro­posed. The Constable, the Admiral, and the Duke of Alva, advised to send speedily after King Ferdinand then at Sea, and to desire his return into Spain to take the Government upon him. [Page 32] The Earl of Benevent, the Marquess of Villena, and the Dukes of Infantado, and Najar, contra­dicted this advice with so much passion, that they came to high words with those that proposed it. Ximenes who had been all this while silent the better to discover the intention of both parties, to prevent danger to the State by this Rupture, and Divorce of Opinions, and by Amusing the passion of the four last to divert and frustrate their designs of trouble, spake as followeth; My Lords, King Ferdinand hath ruled these Kingdoms above forty years, 'tis now high time he should govern his own; since God hath given Castile men capable to Govern it; and such as can give a good account of their Actions. The Assembly by common consent chose Ximenes, the Constable of Castile, and the Duke of Najar, as a Triumnivat to Govern the State, to be Guardians to the Queen, and Tutors to Prince Charles, af­terwards Charles the fift. Ximenes informs the King of these passages; and believing him to be then at Barcelona, beseeches him to return into Castile. But the Courrier sound him at the Isle of Isbice; and that having given Italy Advice of his voyage he held himself obliged to perform it. But in truth his vehement desires to see Gonsalves outed from Naples, being the main occasion of the voyage, would not permit him to return till he had seen it done. Therefore he writ to Ximenes to govern Spain in the mean time with the fidelity and integrity he alwayes found in him.

Now Ximenes resolves to sit alone at the Helm; and notwithstanding the resolutions of the afore­said Assembly is by the Council-Royal chosen sole [Page 33] Guardian of the State, the Queen and the Infant Charles: he puts himself immediately into the Posture of Governour of the Kingdom, Raises and Armes Regiments of Horse and Foot for the Guards of the Princes and his own: The Gran­dees of Spain astonished to see a man bred in a Cloyster use force, and have recourse to Armes for Authorising his Conduct, blamed him as a light spirited person; But he who knew of what impor­tance it was to Awe the factious, and have forces in readiness to suppress innovations gave them leave to talk, but prosecuted his design. Queen Joan by the Travails of Child-birth, or rather (as 'tis said) by the Charmes, and Inchantments with some poysonous druggs given her by a Flemish Lady, King Philips Mistress had a great weakness in her senses, and was much disordered in her rational faculty. This made her wander up and down the Countries, quitting B — Burgos; and great with Child taking a Journey to the Burrough of Benferriale where she was delivered of the Posthumous Princess Catharine afterwards marryed to the King of Portugal. While she lay In, the Citizens of Medina took up Armes, and being divided into two parties, had brought the City to the brink of destruction: the Province of Granada was up in Armes at the same time, and the Guards of the Sea-coste, from Guards to Defend were become Enemies to Assault the Countrey: Ximenes by his prudence opposed the one, contented the other, and made all quiet again. Yet he was not in quiet, for the Queen after Child-birth having recovered her strength, but not her senses, made him follow her through [Page 34] the Countrey to his great inconvenience by the incommodities he underwent, in an Age fitter for repose, than the Fatigues of the Court. This Princess could not be perswaded to Lodge any where but in the fields, with the whole Court in Tents or in the Countrey Villages. Ximenes put her in mind how incommodious this was for her, and and what disorder she put the whole Court in for want of Lodgings; She answered, a Widdow ought not to go into Towns, but wander in the Fields, and live in Villages. Thus she past from one Village to another, carrying with her the body of her dead Husband Philip embalmed, fan­cying she enjoyed his Person by the sight of his Carcase, and causing it to be laid in the Parish Church of every Village she Lodged in, with a Guard to keep constant Watch at the Coffin, un­der a strict charge not to permit a Woman to ap­proach it. So Jealous was she of a body without life, and incapable then to raise these passions in the beholders which he had caused in his life time, being possessed of those natural beauties, and en­dued with goodness so excellent, which charmed Ladies affections into a passionate Longing, and men into an intire Love for him. This Princess fool'd with the Love of a Lump of dead flesh, would by no means part with it till Ferdinand her Father returned from Italy, caused it to be taken from her, and buryed privately. The jour­neys she made were Noctural, by Torch­light; which occasioned many inconveniences by sickness amongst her retinue; Loss of her Baggage and falls of those on Horse-back. Ximenes threw himself at her feet and begged on his Knees that [Page 35] since she was resolved to make the Court Errant and Itinerary, she would at least Travel by day, but she Wedded to her folly, answered, That a Woman having lost her Husband, which is her Son, ought to avoid the light of the Sun in the Firmament, and make no journeys, but by night. The art of a skilful Pilot is often of no use amidst the fury of the Windes and Waves: And the prudence and conduct of a Minister of State are thrown away upon such Soveraings as are inca­pable of good Advice.

During these extravagancies of Queen Joan, Ferdinand returned from Italy with Germain de Foix his new Wife; and tooke a voyage by Sea, to Savona, to see his Wives Uncle King Lewis the twelfth; while he staid in Italy he obtained of Pope Julius the second a Cardinals Cap for Xi­menes, with the Tytle of Cardinal of Spain; for­merly given to Peter, Cardinal Triasio, under Henry the third, and then to Peter Gonsalve Cardi­nal Mendoza, under Ferdinand, in token of the Popes especial favour. So that in the sequel of our Story we shall call Ximenes by the name of Cardinal. Together with this dignity he receiv­ed that of Inquisitor General of Castile: for the Inquisition had of long time got firm footing in Spain, having been introduced by Ferdinand and Isabel, in the year 1577. by reason of the mix­ture of Moors with Christians, and the supersti­tions of the former, deeply rooted in the heart of that Kingdom. The Rigour of this Ecclesiastical Justice struck terrour into ill Christians, but was so far from making them better, that it rendred them only more subtle and refined Hypocrites. [Page 36] Cardinal Mendoza was his immediate Predeces­sour in that Office, and Thomas Torquemata supe­riour of the Covent of St. Dominick at Segovia the first that bore it. These new honours alter­ed not the manners of Ximenes; the Love of Learning and Advancement of vertue had still the same place in his soul, and were Continued in their former Station. He finished his Colledge of Arcala, constituted Laws and made Statutes for the regulation of it, filled it with able Profes­sours drawn from the famous Universities of Paris, Salamanca, Valadolid, Bologina, admitting none from meaner places; endowing it with great Revenues, adorned it with a rich Library, and brought it to such perfection that Francis the first of France passing that way (when the for­tune of Warr made him experimentally know good luck doth not alwayes attend the valorous) and seeing this admirable Colledge, said, that his University of Paris was the work of many Kings; but Ximenes alone had Compleated a Royal work: Charles the fifth King of Spain, and Emperour being one day to hear Mass in the Colledge at Arcala, quitted the Chair, and Cloth of State pro­vided for him at the high Altar, and took his place in the Quire, in the ordinary Seats of the Priests of the Colledge being for the most part publick Pro­fessours; and all of them Learned men, telling them; he would not lose the glory of sitting that day among men of so great Learning, and making one of the Quire with them. Such are the fruits of great Ministers, Labours for vertue and the publick good; future Ages reverence their names; the Greatest Kings of the world [Page 37] admire their glory, and think themselves ho­noured to be sometimes of the number of those who possess the Offices of Learning, they have founded. Such is the Liberal Return of gratitude vertue makes to those who enlarge her King­dome.

THE Spirit of Ximenes was not only great and high, but Comprehensive and Capable of all Affairs, those of Warr as well as peace found it a proper receptacle to entertain them both toge­ther: The same time that his thoughts were busily taken up with impression of Books founding Monasteries building Colledges, endowing them with Revenues, and furnishing them with Re­gents and Students he had in prospect the Warr of Africk, formed designes and made preparati­ons for it. When the Kingdom enjoyed a Secure peace, and flourished in a deep repose, and un­disturbed tranquility, he Levied Soldiers, issued Commissions, and provided moneys for the bet­ter Assurance of the State. It was his Maxime That the Spirits of men being naturally free, cannot endure servitude and subjection; but of force, and compelled by necessity; and he would often say, That never Prince was feared abroad, or honoured at home that had not levyed an Army, and at least made all the preparatives requisite to carry on a Warr.

The desire of extending Christianity into Africk, and to free Spain from the incursions and [Page 38] Robberies of the Pyrats of that Countrey who were grown so bold as to Enter the Spanish Ports to Spoil and carry away the Vessels of Traffick engaged him in the enterprize of a Warr of such Consequence. There was at that time in the Court of Ferdinand a Venetian named Jerome Vianelli well versed in the Voyages of Africk, having often Sailed those Seas, that he knew per­fectly all the Ports, and safe Landing places on the Coast; This man had intelligence of Ximenes design, goes to him, informs him of all the Avenues of the Coast, and particularly the great Port of Mersalcabir near Oran, capable to receive a very great Fleet: Ximenes hearkens to him, and finding him serviceable for his designes, pray­ed he would see him often, and commanded his Porters to admit him at all times, and give him Entrance as often as he desired it. By the con­stant mode of Courts, it hath been alwayes diffi­cult to get entrance to great Ministers of State; which Custome, as it preserves them from an in­finite trouble of importunate persons; so it de­prives them of the knowledge of many persons of merit and worth, whose generosity will not permit them to begg admittance from Servants, and leave to enter from Grooms and Porters: And 'tis seldome seen that the persons imployed in these Services either keep out the former, or admit the latter to their Masters presence. Via­nelli having the priviledge of free access to Xime­nes, visits him often, and acquaints him with what he had seen in Africk: Ximenes the better to comprehend what he said, commands him not only to make a draught in Paper, but to [Page 39] imprint in Wax the figures of the places. By this representation he saw a Castle scituate on a Rock almost inaccessible, having a Lanthorn on one of the Towres, not unlike the Grecian Phares to serve Marriners for a mark of direction how to steer their Course in dark nights, to safe Harbour. This Castle had on one side the Port of Mersalcabir, and on the other, the City Oran; called by the Moors Guharran, which in their Languge signifies a high place, and exposed to the Windes. The Etymology may be derived from the Greek Verb Oran, which in that Lan­guage signifies to see: the height of the scitua­tion gives an excellent prospect. It was in An­cient time a little Burrough, but by frequency of Commerce and Traffick of Merchants, was now grown to the greatness of a City, enclosing within the Walls, six thousand Houses, several Mosques and Colledges, some Hospitals, and a great num­ber of publick baths. The Sea washes it on one side, the other side affords an excellent prospect over delicate Gardens, and pleasant Fountains, so plentifully embellishing the Countrey therea­bouts, that it Courts the spectators to taste of its pleasures.

By the draught and representations of Vianelli, Ximenes found it necessary in order to an Attempt on Africk to make himself master of Mersalcabir, as the safest Port for entrance. Having thus pro­jected a design for the good of Religion, and Li­berty of Spain, he proposed the Execution to Ferdinand, advising him to undertake the Warr, as an enterprize he made appear no less profitable then Glorious. Ferdinand answered, that the [Page 40] interest of Religion was so inseparable from that of his Crown, that if there had been no Consi­deration to incline him to ingage in this Warr, but the sole advantage to accrew to Religion, the piety of the design was Motive enough to prevail with him to undertake it; but that the vast Charges he had been at, in the Warrs of Granada, and his great expences in Italy, had emptyed his Coffers, and exhausted his Treasures, which are the Sinnews of War; and without which it can­not be maintained. Ximenes offers him money, and Promises to Pay the Soldiers, and Victual the Army for six Moneths; so great a Mass of Trea­sure had this generous Prelate by frugal parsimony heaped up together from the Revenues of his Bishoprick: Upon this Offer, the Warr against Africk was resolved on; a Naval Army prepa­red, and Diego Fernand de Cordova, made Captain General, who took with him several old, experi­enced Commanders; particularly Raymond Cor­don Vice-Admiral of the Fleet, and Diego de Vera, Master of the Artillery; Vianelli was a principal person amongst them, as a guide to the Rest. The Fleet set sail from Malaga the fifth of Sep­tember, and about the fifteenth arrived at Mersalca­bir; the Moors Advertised by their Spyes, were upon their Guard, attending the appearance of the Fleet: they discover it, and repair to the Port to hinder their Landing; the Conflict was sharp, and disputed hotly on both sides; but maugre all the Resistance the Africans could make, the Spani­ards Landed, and went to besiege the Castle, which a [...]nds the Port, (being that we spake of before in [...] draughts) with a little Town, [Page 41] well peopled, environed with the Sea on all sides, except the South. The King of Tremesen sent them a Succour of Moors and Numidians to raise the Siege, but they were defeated by the valour of the Spaniards: Those of the Castle made stout defence, till an unlucky accident quailed their Courage: The Captain of the Garrison, a man of Valour and Repute among his Souldiers, going round the Works to give Orders where necessary, was struck dead upon the place, with a Musquet shot out of a Spanish Ship. The Loss of this man astonished the Garrison, and brought them to a Parley, and promise of Surrender, if they received not a more powerful Succour from Tremesen in three dayes: three dayes passed, but no Succour came; they desired three dayes more, which was granted, but no Succour appearing, they yielded upon Terms of safety for the Lives of Men, Women and Children; and liberty to enjoy what they could carry on their backs; which being agreed to by the Spaniards, they opened their Gates.

Diego Fernand a Religious observer of his Word and Promises, to see the Articles of the Ca­pitulation performed, stands at the Gates where the Moors passed out of the Castle. A Soldier casting his eye on an African Woman in the Crowd laden with the Riches of Fortune and Nature being extreamly handsome and Carrying with her the most precious of her Goods, was violently hurryed by the blind passions of Ava­rice and Love to Rob and Ravish her; Diego forth­with seized him, and caused him immediately to be killed with push of Pike.

[Page 42]Thus the Spaniards became Masters of the Fort within fifty dayes after their leaving Malaga, and sent a Gally to Spain, to carry Ferdinand and Ximenes the joyful news of their Victory which was gladly received by the whole Court, especi­ally by Ximenes who caused publick thanks giving to God to be continued for the Victory eight dayes together. The designes of Warr and of Armies, depends on Kings, but 'tis God alone who gives the Victory.

The taking of the Castle of Mersalcabir strook such terrour into the inhabitants of Oran, that many left the City and retyred to Tremesen: But Oran continuing for some time free from the As­saults of Spain they took the resolution to return; and being on their way near the Town, they met a Moor of the best quality and State in Oran, on his way from thence to Tremisen, with a Camel laden with Gold upon sight whereof they were seized with such a panique fear, that they turned again for Tremisen; So powerful are Riches to Attract men to the place of their residence. The Spaniards wanting money to carry on the Warr, had other designs; for Diego Fernando having picked out the best of the Soldiers for the garrison of Mersalcabir sent the rest back into Spain, hold­ing it vain to attack Oran without greater forces. The Town being almost impregnable by the strength of its scituation, Arms and Men.

At the return of the Army into Spain, Peter Lopez H [...]rosio, a man of Valour, and one of the Captains in the Warr, presented Ximenes with a staff of Ebony accurately turned, and curiously Polished which the Cadyor, Judge of the Fortress, [Page 43] used to carry as the mark of his Soveraignty. Ximenes for some time carryed it in his hand, but afterwards dedicated it to his Academy of Arcala, in memory of so important a Victory, and with good reason; for if Letters give Life to the brave Actions of men, 'tis Just the Trophies and Monuments of those Actions be Consecrated to them. Diego Fernando was recalled into Spain, Received graciously by the King, and praised openly by Ximenes in his Ma­sters presence from whom he had a grant by Pa­tent of the Government of Mersalcabir, as Con­quered by his Valour and good Conduct: The Lieutenancy was given to Driasio a person of great Courage, whom the King sent into Africk, retaining Diego at Court.

No sooner was this Lieutenant arrived at Mer­salcabir, but he made the Moors sensible of his Va­lour, making daily inrodes upon them, and carry­ing rich booties of Horses, Cattle, and Corn from the Countrey thereabouts; so that provoked by these incursions and the miseries he reduced them to; they resolved to destroy him, or perish them­selves in the Attempt; and to that purpose laid an Ambuscade for him; Driasio seeing himself in the midst of his Enemies, and over-powred, his passage to the Garrison stopped, resolves to dye as he had Lived, a valiant man: exhorts his Soldiers to sell their Lives dearly to their Ene­mies, and not Cowardly give them away. They obey and follow him; and Roderich Driasio with his men hewes his way through the Moors, beats, defeats and Routes them, Leaving a notable ex­ample of his Courage and strength remaining fresh [Page 44] in memory with the Moors to this day, for pursuing with Javelin in hand, a Moor on Horse­back who fled from him, he violently darted the Javelin with such force and vehemence, that at one blow it pierced through and through the bo­dy of the Horse-man, the Bow of the Saddle, and the Neck of the Horse; which hath begot a Proverb among the Moors, who when they Curse one another in the Warrs, to express their Cholar in a Phrase of superlative bitterness, pray The Blow of the Captain of Mersalcabir light on them. All this was done before Philips Arrival into Spain, and is transposed hither to preserve the past pieces of this Story intire without mangling it by interruption by the recital of this.

THE same Year that Ferdinand returned into Spain, and Ximenes received the Cardinals Cap, the Moors not tamed by the Loss of Mer­salcabir came a Cruising on the Coasts of Spain, took a strong Town, put to the Sword men Wo­men and Children; and elevated with this Suc­cess at their return into Africk, threatned to be­siege Roderich, and hew him pieces in his Castle. Cardinal Ximenes fully resolved to Continue the Warr, and to expedite the prosecution, designed to go in person if Ferdinand refused it, and made overtures and proposals in Council to that effect. This awakened the envy of his Enemies, and afforded all Spain matter of Discourse as various [Page 45] the passions of men. The great ones in Council were of Contrary Opinions; and said abroad that the Ambition of the Cardinal was immense and extravagant; that his condition suited not with Armes, but peace; that nothing could be more abominable then for a Priest, a Monk, an Arch-bishop, a Cardinal, to breath nothing but War and Blood-shed, and desire to embrew his hands in the blood of slaughtered men. That the Exchange would be no less ridiculous than strange for him instead of lifting his Cross, to Trayle a Pyke; and laying aside his Mitre to put on a Helmet; Gonsalve who had gained the name of Great, in the Conquest of Naples, was then in Spain, brought thither by Ferdinand, by rea­son of the Authority his Actions had acquired him, which was so great that it Created Jealousies and Suspicions in the Breast of the King against Gonsalve for his Valour and Victories. So Dan­gerous is the nature of the Affairs of Fortune, and of Court; ill Service deserves punishment, and good Service by the envy of the great Ones, and Jealousie of the Master. Gonsalves was then at Valladolid, under an Ostracism in his ow [...] Coun­trey. But the name of great men cannot dye, and his hath gotten immortal glory abroad, and a singular Reverence in the Territories of Spain. The Histories of Spain afford frequent instances of respect to Gonsalve's from the Spaniards in Gene­ral, and the particular honours done him by the Cardinal. But amongst others, 'tis remarkable that after the Warrs of Granada, a Prince of the Blood-Royal of the Moors named Zegri, neer Kinsman to the famous King Abenamar having [Page 46] forsaken the Errours of Mahomet, and by the pains of the Cardinal, embraced the faith of Christ; when he came to the Font, prayed his God-fathers to give him the Name of Gonsalve Fernando Zegri, telling them he desired with the Spiritual Grace of Baptism to receive that of the name of the great Captain Gonsalve, whose valour he had so frequent experience of in the Warrs of Granada against this Nation.

To resume our Discourse of the Cardinals Enemies, they were very Comical in the expres­sions of their Envy, saying at Court that the great Captain was busie turning over his Beads at Valladolid, while the Cardinal was commanding Armies. That Gonsalves did the Cardinals bu­siness, and the Cardinal Gonsalves. The more moderate said, that in Warrs for Religion the Arch bishops of Toledo had alwayes taken care of the Armies imployed against the Enemies of the faith. And that 'twas no new thing to see Priests on Horse-back in the head of an Army: Others who pretended to a clearer insight into th' Affairs of Court, and used to Comment upon the News of the time, said, it was the Cardinals design to send away all the Nobles of Spain, into the Warrs of Africk, that he might Govern at home without Contradiction. That he could not be better fitted for punishment than to grant him his desire of being General of the Army, and sending him over into Africk, and so remove him from Court, For then out of sight out of mind. The business of Government is very painful and difficult, that great Ministers besides prudence in Conduct have need of a Generous patience [Page 47] to resist the Envy and Calumnies of the Court.

Ferdinand who knew the integrity of the Car­dinal (better than all the world beside) judged more equitably, heard his Advice, weighed, re­ceived and embraced it, gave him thanks that for the good of Religion, and Service of his Kingdoms, he would expose himself to the toyles and hazards of Warr in an Age that re­quired nothing more than the repose and quiet of peace; the Cardinal being then seventy years old: Ferdinand commands the Captain of the Gallies, and the Admiral, to fit up the Gallies and Vessels of the Kingdom, to be ready at Malaga, or Nova Carthagena ▪ as the Cardinal should direct. The Captains of the Ships, the Officers of the Marine, the Commissaries of Victuals, and of the Army betake themselves every man to the duty of his charge, with great diligence and expedition to fit and make ready the Vessels, Men, Victuals and Ammunition.

The great Gonsalve advised the Cardinal to im­ploy in this Warr Peter of Navarr Earl of Olivarez a person of quality, valour and experience, and to make him his Lieutenant General of the Ar­my: The Cardinal upon his Recommendation calls Navarr to him; and makes him Lieutenant General. On the other side the Commissaries for Victuals, and those of the Navy, the Trea­surers and Paymasters of the Soldiers, either guided by the Cardinals Enemies, or loving Spain more than Voyages into Africk, slacken their former diligence, and to their utmost power re­tard the fitting of the Fleet, by diverting the [Page 48] Soldiers pay to other uses and consuming the Bisket provided for the Ships: The Counsellors of state opposed the Cardinal in his Discourses of the Warr, and advice for setting out the fleet, alledging the Winter season was too rigorous and not yet over; when Winter was past, they said the heat of Summer drew on, and would be more insupportable to the Soldiers, than the As­saults of the Moors: The Army this while moul­dred away, and was like in short time to come to nothing. The Cardinal had beat his Drumms throughout Spain, and made Europe and Africk ring of his design. The preparations he had made were great, and if not attended with ef­fects suitable, would have proved the travels of the Mountains that brought forth a Mouse. All the World was against him, only the King had not declared himself upon the advices given him. He Addressed himself to the King by a Letter from Carthagene, intreated him by the many travels and great Labours he had endured in the administration of the Affairs wherewith he had honoured him, for the interest of Religion and the Love of God, that he would not suffer so compleat an Army, and so great preparations for Warr to perish unprofitably; that the designes of those who envyed him, tended to the diminuti­on of his Royal Glory, only to make him incurr the blame of Temerity; he declared to him the facility of the enterprize, and the treasure he had provided for it, that he had of his own suffici­ent to pay the Army three moneths: And if it should be his ill fortune to see his designes shame­fully frustrated, and the Army disbanded, that [Page 49] his Majesty would be pleased to grant him leave to retire to his house at Toledo, where he would endeavour by Exhortations and Sermons to make Warr against Vice in his Diocess. The King who had a value for his person, and Judged him necessary for Spain, gave him the satisfa­ction he desired, slighted the Counsels of his Enemies, gave him order to set Sail, and com­manded the whole Army to attend him the next Spring, being the year 1508. But though these obstacles were overcome by the Courage of the Cardinal, and Authority of the King, there sprung up new to retard his designes and stay him at Carthagene. For just as he was to put his men on Board, the Soldiers mutinyed, fled from their Colours, and drew to the hills neer the Sea: The occasion was this: The Car­dinal had ordered that the Muster of the Army should be in Africk at their first Landing: And to prevent the Pilleries practised by the Captains on their Companies that every Soldier should re­ceive his pay immediately from the Treasurers. Peter of Navar accustomed to the rapines of the Warrs in Italy, liked not this order, and gave notice thereof under hand to the Captains, who disguising the matter, and setting it out to dis­advantage before the Soldiers, caused them to disband. Vianelli who was of Authority in the Army, instead of appeasing the sedition, in­flamed it; holding close intelligence with Navarr, and having resolved with him to drive on the Mutiny to the last point of de­spair.

In order to this he caused all the Mutineers he [Page 50] he could Light on to be presently hanged up; and by colour of doing Justice put those on the hills in a desperate fury: The Cardinal seeing the remedy worse than the Disease sends Villaroel Governour of Castocle to command Vianelli to proceed with more gentleness, and not destroy those men who were necessary for the Warr they were to make. Vianelli's pride made him take this in ill part, and Answer, he knew better than the Cardinal or him how the mutinies of Soldi­ers were to be appeased. Villaroel layes his hand on his Sword, strikes, and wounds him in the head; and retires into the Citadel of Carthagene, under the command of his Kinsman. This de­lay'd the setting out of the Fleet; for Vianelli being the principal guide of the Voyage, it was necessary to attend his Cure, as to appease the mutiny of the Soldiers. To effect this the Cardinal employes Captain Salazar Campmaster of the Regiment of Toledo, a great Warrier, Emi­nent in Soldierly Eloquence and powerful in Mi­litary perswasion. He goes to the Soldiers, tells them the Muster was to be taken Aboard the Gally-Royal, perswades them to come to it, shews them baggs of Money, crowned with green Boughes carryed in their fight on the Shore at some distance from the hill towards the Gally: the Mutineers at sight of the money haste down as Hawkes to the Lure. By this Artifice they were imbarqued, and set Sail from Carthagene the 15th. of May with 24 Ships, ten Gallyes, and a great number of smaller Vessels. The Army was composed of ten thousand foot, and four thousand horse. On Ascension Eve they came [Page 51] happily to Anchor on the Coast of Africk. At their Landing the Cardinal was Cloathed in a long Vest of the Habit of his Order, with a Cross of Silver carryed before him by a Cordelier of a monstrous stature, mounted on a white beast, his Sword by his side, girt upon his Robe. Others of the Older who accompanied the Car­dinal, were habited alike with long Robes and Swords. With this Retinue he retires into the Castle of Mersalcabir, to Rest and Refresh himself. News was brought him that Navarr had Landed the Foot, but left the Horse on Board as useless on this Coast being full of Hills and Rocks. The Cardinal goes to the Port, and commands all the Cavalry ashore: To this Act the whole Army owed their safety in several Engagements with the Moors wherein the Cavalry sheltered the Foot from Ruine and Defeat. The Army was drawn no in four Batallions, and the Soldiers commanded by the Cardinal to fit themselves for fight, by taking their Repast before they Engaged: Their provision of Victuals consisted most of Bread, Bacon and salt Meats, and the Cardinal dispensing with the abstinence of the day, being Friday, gave them liberty to eat thereof; and after their repast ex­horted them to fight Couragiously for the service of God and their King. This done, the Princi­pal Officers intreated him to withdraw into the Fortress, the feebleness of his Age inclined him to consent, and being Conducted into the Castle he retyred into St. Michaels Chappel to fight against the Moors by Prayers to God being disa­bled by Age for manual Combats.

The Infidels discovering the Approach of the [Page 52] Army were ready for battle, and for better ad­vantage had possessed themselves of a little hill where the Army must of necessity have passed to attaque Oran; Peter of Navarr seeing this Post taken by the Enemy was in doubt what to do, and goes to the Cardinal for Advice, who having heard him, answered in short, Fight, God will be your Leader; with this Answer he returns, and sets upon the hill, where in effect he made no progress but in the Loss of his men, and those, the flowre of his Troops, whom the Moors slew in great numbers; Cut of their heads, and sent them to Oran to be carryed in Triumph through the Streets; where Women, and Children, who seldome fight but with the dead, exprest their joy over them by Songs and Dances. Lewis Con­treras Captain of the slain, had but one Eye, and partaking the fate of his fellow Soldiers, had his head cut off, and dragg'd in the streets of Oran; some of those many old Women that pretend to Divination, among the Moors, saw it; and having attentively viewed its Physiogmony, suddenly cryed out, An ill Omen, our Town is near Destruction. The people insolent and senseless in such occur­rences, cease not to dragg it along the Streets, saying it was the head of the Alfaqui of the Chri­stians, meaning the Cardinal whom they knew to be General of the Army, and dragged it on to the Prison of the Christians, made slaves at the taking of Mersalcabir by Diego Fernandez. The fight in the mean time continued at the Hill where at last the Spaniards beat off the Moors, and having enclosed them in the midst between the body of the Army, and some Troops Navarr [Page 53] had commanded to advance, they put them al­most every man to the Sword, as they fled to­wards the City. The Christians advance to the Walls of Oran; Sosa Captain of the Cardinals Company, first mounts the Wall; and having planted there his Masters Colours, cryes out, Victory; the rest followed his Example, and some of the Soldiers getting into the Town open the Gates and give the Army entrance, who put all to the sword. The Mosques were filled with the blood of the Moors, who retyred thither in great numbers, and the Streets paved with dead bo­dies, ran down with the blood of the slain; the Victors killing all, without pitty of Age or Sex, till the miserable spectacle of a sucking Child, play­ing with the Breasts, and Labouring with fingers and mouth, to get the Teat of his dead Mother to suck, staid their fury, and melted their relent­ing hearts into Compassion to a Creature senseless of his misery; the poor Infant smiling at the Massacre of his Mother. Two dayes after he was sold among the Captives to George Baracald the Cardinals Secretary, and happy in the ignorance of his misfortunes was carryed into Spain, where he continued without trouble for the Ruine of his Countrey, or grief for the Massacre of his kindred. 'Tis some kind of happiness to the miserable, that they have been so in their Cradles.

The Spaniards having made themselves Masters of Oran, Navarr sent the News to the Cardinal, who passed that night without sleep in chanting Hymnes of praise to God for so important a Victory.

The day following he went aboard the Gallies, [Page 54] and came by Sea to Oran, to avoid the Hill that lay in the way by Land. The greatest part of the Army then Marched to meet him, Received him in Triumph, and with joyful acclamations sa­luted him Conquerour of Barbary, the Keyes of the Town were presented to him, which he afterwards sent to the Colledge of Arcala, with some Stan­dards and Armes of the Turks. All the booty was laid at his feet; Navarr having caused it to be carefully locked up by the Cardinals order; Part was disposed afterwards defraying the charge of the Army; some rare pieces of value sent to Ferdinand, and the rest distributed among the Captains and Soldiers according to their respe­ctive valour and merit: The Cardinal for his share taking that which is most acceptable to ge­nerous spirits the pleasure of giving to others. After this he caused the Town to be cleansed and what might prove infectious to be carryed out, and in memory of the taking of the Town sounded an Hospital, and ordained in the Church he built there, an Annual Service for the 15 of May to per­petuity with Prayers to be made for him, for which he gave thirty thousand Crowns.

Alvarez Gomez who writ more of the Actions of the Cardinal, then any Author come into my hands observes that he held intelligence in Oran before he left Spain with two Jews, Acmat Alca­nixe the prime man of the Town and Catorre. These perswaded the Townsmen to deny entrance to the Succours from Tremisen, sent by that King to maintain the Siege, suggesting he designed by those Succours to take the Town for himself. And when the Spaniards entred the Town, those [Page 55] two men broke the Keyes of a Gate where the people might have fled and escaped the Massacre. The houses of these Jews were exempted from pillage, and their persons from Violence, they passed afterwards into Spain, and had pensions from the King, during their Lives: Yet the same Gomez, and most of the Spanish Historians forbear not to say that the Arrival of the Army the Siege, and taking of the Town were all miraculous, that a Cross appeared to them at their Landing, that the Sun stopped his Course 4 hours, adding so much length to the day, to give light to the Combat.

Those of Tremesen made the taking of Oran fa­tal to the Christians and Jews trading there, put­ing them all to death upon the news; while Spain on the other shore Celebrated the success with Joy. The Cardinal had sent Ferdinand the news by Fernand de Vera, son to Diego Master of the Artillery in this expedition, who had desired the employment for his Son, but Fernand being young and careless, made slow haste, sleep and play took up the best part of his time: This oc­casioned a Soldier desirous to make advantage of the voyage to follow him privately, and know­ing the softness of his temper he robbed him off his Letters to the King in the first Journey he made by Land, and arriving at Court, ere Fer­nand was half way thither, Received of the King, the gifts usually bestowed on Courriers that bring such happy news.

This new instance of negligence in Vera, con­firmed the Cardinal in his resolution taken on the Ethiopians miscarriage mentioned above, never to send a Courrier on Affairs of importance, but such [Page 56] as should be a person of Judgement and Merit, whose good address may advance the honour of the Prince and Reputation of his Ministers.

The Cardinal had many Crosses in the begin­ning, nor had he fewer in the end of this Warr: For as Fortune labours to obstruct vertuous Acti­ons, so Envy strives to obscure their glory: Peter of Navarr was preferred by the Cardinal to be Lieutenant General of the Army, and Received from his hand the Authority and honour he stood possessed of; but made so ill acknowledge­ment of the favour that he employed them against the person of his Benefactor. A Soldier had killed a Domestick of the Cardinals, who commanded Justice to be done thereupon: Na­varr not only opposed it, but upheld the Criminal, and bespoke his General and Benefactour in this arrogant Language: If there be disorder and insolency among the Soldiers; the cause is from you alone: They never knew two Masters in Warr: Had I the sole command of the Army, I durst undertake in few moneths to subdue Africk. Return when you please into Spain to attend your charge of Prelate, and know that from henceforth you shall be no otherwise treated then as a private person: These are not yours, but the Kings Armes. I know the King gave you the Charge of Generalissimo, but it was only for the Siege of Oran: your power is determined with the Siege: I will instantly cause the Kings name to be proclaimed throughout the Army without mention of yours, which he did the same day: To [...] offer reasons [Page 57] to a mad-man, is to imitate him. Nor was he daunted it this insolent Proclamation that de­stroyed his Authority, and Annulled his com­mand. But some dayes after, with the genero­sity and gravity natural to him, he sent for Na­varr, gave Orders, and commanded him to do what was necessary and fit to be done. Navarr obeyed him, acknowledged his fault, begg'd his pardon, and was reconciled to him. The Cardinal embraced him, commended him in publick, and told him he deserved worthily the name of Captain: but after their arrival in Spain, he set forth his humours and extravagancies to the King, and advised him not to give him the Government of Oran, nor any Authority in the Affairs of Africk, that the haugh­tiness of his Nature, rendred him unfit for such imployments, and was proper only for the com­mand of Armies, wherein he behaved himself as a man of valour and great undertaking.

The Cardinal had in the mean time command­ed the guards of the Port of Africk to send him all the Letters that came from Spain, without any respect to their address to others; they send him a packet directed to Navarr, he opens it where he finds the Kings command to Navarr, that if the Cardinals presence were requisite in Africk, he should keep him there as long as he could, and disswade him from crossing the Sea. The Car­dinal being of a temper (natural to all great spirits) Melancholick and Suspicious, imagined the King had written this with design to ruine him, and that supposing the strength of his Aged body, much impaired by the toiles of the Warr, he gave this command in hopes he would soon [Page 58] pine away, and end his life there. This hastened his return; so that about the end of May, he went on Board, and soon after arrived at Car­thagene.

The first Action he did after his Arrival in Spain, was to Execute an Article of his Testament, whereby he appointed that in case the Warr of Africk brought any Damage to the Villages of the Diocess of Toledo, by reason of the great number of Peasants he had imployed in the Warr; Repa­ration should be made out of his Estate, which he did himself in all places where he held it ne­cessary. A vertuous man ought not to leave that good undone till his Death, which he can per­form in his life.

The Cardinal arrived at Court continued his good Counsels for the advancement of the State: he proposed to Ferdinand to change the Residence of the Knights of Saint James, from the Mo­nastery of Volsan in Spain, into the City of Oran in Africk; And that to merit the Commanderies they should serve twenty years, without parting thence, that so many years elapsed, they should succeed in the Commanderies by their Seniority and Services. This (said he) will strengthen your Militia in Africk, and render it formida­bly a number of Gentlemen who commonly ex­ceed others in valour: This advice if embraced had been attended with great advantages, but the King refused it, only to reserve in himself the power to preferr whom he pleased to these Com­manderies.

The year following in the beginning of Janu­ary, the Army Led by the Cardinal into Africk, [Page 59] continued their progress, and advanced farther into the Countrey: Peter of Navarr took the Town of Bugia, and about the end of July fol­lowing, that of Tripoly, but relapsing into his Vice of ingratitude against the Cardinal, he joyn­ed with Vianelli, who followed his passion in en­deavouring to rend in pieces the Cardinals name, and destroy the reputation of him who had ad­vanced him to the prime Offices of the Warr. But as great Men prosper by their Generosity, so unthankful wretches perish by ingratitude: Vianelli having abused an Ensign in Africk, was by him betrayed to the Moors, who stabbed him in his sleep. Peter of Navarr soon after on change of Fortune changed his party, and side­ing with the French in the Wars of Italy, was taken and imprisoned by the Spaniards, where the miserable incommodities of a prison, brought him to that height of despair, that the Spaniards say he attempted his own life, and in hope to end his miseries, ended his dayes by his own hand, so tragical was the Catastrophe of these two men signal for their envy, and remarkable for their enmity to the glory of the Cardinal their Benefactour.

Peter Arias a valiant Captain, famous for many gallant actions in the same Warr of Africk, hath merited eternal praises for his constant payment of the respect and acknowledgements due to the Cardinal who imployed him. This recommend­ed him to the favour of the Court where he ob­tained the charge of General of the Fleet, to the West-Indies, against the savage Cannibals feeding on humane flesh. There he became famous for [Page 60] his remarkable familiarity with death, for being taken with an incurable malady, that sensibly threatned to bring him lingeringly by degrees to his Grave, and finding himself past hope of re­medy, he caused a Grave to be digged in a Church where he went every day to hear Mass, which being ended, he went to his Grave, and lay along in it, celebrating in his life his own Funeral. As he lay in this Posture the Priest with his Laver sprinkled Holy Water over him, and Chanted a Libera where it needed not. This done, he rose again before death, went out of his Grave, and made to his Lodgings. His wife and friends imputing this Action to Melancholy more than Vertue or Devotion, endeavoured to divert him from it. But he seriously answered, I Do this to Accustome my self by little and little to an habitation where I must long abide. And though Dead men need no Accustomance to their Long home, yet such was the Meditation of this gallant Captain Arias up­on death, which though a stranger to his mind in the Warrs where he had it daily in his Eye, he practised in peace in all its parts and Circum­stances. Man better thinks of his end in repose and tranquility of Spirit, than in the troubles of Affairs, and passions that distract him.

The envy that attaqued the Cardinal in the be­ginning and progress of the Warr of Africk, could not hinder him from obtaining (over and above the glory of having planted the Cross there, and extended the limits of Spain, to the other side of the Sea) the reputation of a Captain fit to command Armies, generous in Enterprize, prudent in Conduct, and hardy in Execution. [Page 61] Order and Discipline the soul of Warr, as well as other Affairs of the World was wisely esta­blished, and carefully kept during his command, insomuch that the old Spanish Soldiers long af­ter his death, gave this testimony of his conduct in Warr, that Captains and Soldiers were never in greater honour and esteem, nor the Musters better paid than in his Time: 'Tis admirable that a Man bred in a Cloyster, having never made profession of Armes, imployed to the Age of Se­venty years in Ecclesiastical Functions became ca­pable in a Moment to command an Army like him in former Ages of whom it is observed that he went from the Republick less than a Soldier,Scipio. became by the way an excellent Captain. Mi­nisters of State endued with an excellent vivacity of Spirit and solid Judgement, learn by little ex­ercise the business of a Captain. The Cardinal attained it so, quickly and happily that had he lived in those great Republicks that triumphed over the best parts of the World, they had to his name Ximenes, added the Sirname of Afri­can.

UPon the first design of the Warr of Africk, the Cardinal furnished the King with mo­ney toward the Charge thereof on Condition of re-imbursement, or case Oran were taken, the King should grant it to the Arch bishop of Toledo, unless he chose rather to pay the money; The Voyage of Africk being generously accomplish­ed, and the Spaniards masters of Oran, the Car­dinal demands the money he advanced. This gave his Enemies fresh occasion to attacque his reputation, and calumniated his integrity; The grandees of Spain who had designed to trouble the State after Isabels death, and to take from Ferdinand the Administration of Castile saw their designs defeated by the Counsels of the Cardinal, and themselves reduced to a private life in their houses with as little Authority as the meanest Burgesses of Madrid. See here an opportunity of Revenge, to out the Cardinal from Court, and soon after with ease to Remove Ferdinand from the Administration: they lay hold on't, and Re­monstrate to Ferdinand, that the Cardinals avarice was insatiable; that there was no reason he should demand the money advanced, having made vast gains by the richest part of the booty of Oran which he had reserved for himself, in recompence of his Loans, That the bravest warriers having lost their blood in battel, returned with no greater felicity than that of being loaden with glory and Booty; that the more generous contented them­selves [Page 63] with the glory, leaving the booty to the Soldiers. But the Cardinal who had seen no Field but St. Michaels Chappel, nor handled other Weapon than his Breviary, while others with their Swords in their hands, lay weltred in blood in the midst of their Enemies, is not satisfied with the glory of Conquest, and spoils of a City, but must empty the Kings Coffers on pretence of a Lone, which the King was not obliged to pay. The King unwilling to drain his Treasures (as what King is willing to do it?) approves of these discourses. So easily do Monarks believe what they desire: The Kings Officers spake al­most to the same effect: The Cardinal never daunted by the Crosses and Troubles of Court, makes a generous defence; alledges the Services he had done in the Warr, that besides the money furnished to Levy the Army, he had Conducted them to the place, established order amongst them, prevented the frauds and pilleries of the Captains at Musters, which often proves the destruction of Armies (for where the Soldier is not paid, he must of necessity starve or disband) That but for him Navarr had left the Cavalry useless in the Ships, that the Combat had not been undertaken if not Counselled yea commanded by him. As to the Booty of Oran he took only some Arabick Volumes for the Library of Alcala, where they were bestowed. That even that small parcel of the Booty was not for him alone, but for the benefit of the whole Kingdom of Spain, for whom he had founded the Colledge and Library; and therefore he prayed his Majesty to pay him the money advanced, or grant the City of Oran to [Page 64] the Church of Toledo, according to promise. Some of the Councel held this proposal reasona­ble and useful to the King in saving him the Charge of a Garrison at Oran; Others had more generous sentiments, and said that fear of expence ought not to Ravish the Crown of Spain, of so important a place, that the Cardinal in offering to maintain a Garrison there, acted as a King; and the King by refusing it to save his money should act as a private person, and in derogation to his Royal Condition; That honour is the true pa­trimony of Kings, to which money ought to be subservient to preserve and increase it. That by the Laws of the State, no private person can hold a place of strength upon the Frontiers of the Kingdom that Agrede had been, heretofore taken from the Earles of Montacute, because it was sci­tuate on the Confines of Arragon, and the Village of B [...]z [...], on the Sea side, over against Africk, from the Arch-bishops of Toledo. That in Af­fairs of this Nature, the History of Spain gives no encouragement to trust Priests more than men of other quality: Oppo Arch-bishop of Toledo assisted Count Julian Governour of Granada to introduce the Moors into Spain, who for many Ages shed the blood of the people, pulled down the Altars, destroyed the Temples. And in several places established the Abominations of Mahomet.

The Cardinal patiently heard these several Opi­nions, and saw they tended all to his Ruine, but had before his eyes the Example of the great Captain Gonsalves who having Conquered the Kingdom of Naples, and made it Subject to the [Page 65] Crown of Spain, had no other Recompence but that of banishment in his own Countrey, as living there without Office, without imployment, without any acknowledgement turning over his Beads at Valladolid, or sometimes at Court where he was as inconsiderable; For men, how great soever their Vertues be are oftentimes in the hands of Fortune and of Kings, as Counters in the hand of a Banker, where that which now stands for a thousand presently signifies no more than one.

Yet Reason and Justice carryed the day, the Cardinal had them on his side, and the King caused payment to be made him of the moneys he advanced, his Vertue which before defended his Authority against Envy, and Obloquy preserved it still and triumphed over both: and the Car­dinal gave his Majesty thanks for altering those opinions which the envy of the Grandees his Enemies had once infused into his Majesty against him.

But this was not the only Trouble that sprung from the taking of Oran to the vexation of the Cardinal. For among the conditions agreed on before the Warr; one was that the Church of Oran should depend on that of Toledo in the qua­lity of an Abby to which the Arch-bishop of Toledo, and not the King of Spain should present Lewis William a Cordelier obtains a grant thereof by Bull from the Pope with the Title of a Bishoprick, which he assumed, but was hindred by the Car­dinal from taking possession; This man who leav­ing his Cloyster, proposed to himself the glory of appearing in the World with the Mytre and [Page 66] Revenue of a Bishop, frames a Process in the Council, exclaims in the Court, complains of the Cardinal, protests against his Violence, and pro­claims to all the World, that by the force of his great Authority he had Ravished a Bishoprick from him. The Cardinal to stop the mouth of this impudent Monk, who cared not what he said, thought it prudence to propose a fair Ac­commodation, makes him understand the Right accrued to the Arch-bishoprick of Toledo, over the Church of Oran, that he was obliged to main­tain and Consecrate it to the Dignity of the Arch-bishoprick in memory of the Warr of Africk, not out of any covetous designs to draw profit thence to enhance his Revenues, nor Am­bition to joyn it to the Cross of the Arch-bi­shoprick, Offers it to him with the Title of Ab­bot of Oran, and a seat in the Quire of the great Church of Toledo, with the dignity and Revenue of a Canon, besides the Dignity and Revenue of Abbot of Oran; Nothing but a Bishoprick could satisfie the Cordelier; he refuses the offer, the Cardinals Enemies bear him in hand, he should overthrow the Cardinal, and obtain sentence from the King against him, he believes them and continues obstinate. Ferdinand dying soon after, the Cardinal receives the intire Govern­ment of Spain, slights the Cordelier, who con­tinued, as before, a Monk; and it may be, an ill one.

Francis Rouys Bishop of Ciudad Roderigos, the Cardinals Companion in the Order of St. Francis, followed his fortune, and had negotiated for him at Court in several Affairs of importance: he [Page 67] not content with his Bishoprick, his Cross seemed too small, and his Revenue far short of his de­sires; he presses the Cardinal to procure him the Bishoprick of Avilas then vacant: The Cardinal answers, If my advice might prevail with you, you would value your repose above Dignity and Revenues. You live happily in the condition you are in: Let me perswade you to keep you so, and not seek troubles, and inquietudes else­where. The time of our acquaintance cannot but have furnished you with clear experience by your knowledge of my affairs, how many cares and troubles are hid under the fair appear­ances of great Offices, and Eminent Dignities. Nevertheless to satisfie the desires of his person who was knowing and Vertuous, he made him Bishop of Avila, though he was ever averse from bringing his friends into Offices which might break their repose, or endanger their Consciences, and very Loath to draw out of Monasteries to the great dignities of the Church, those men who were consecrated to God in the tranquility of holy Solitude. To draw a good Fryer from the Cloyster, when he loves his profession, is to take Fish out of water, which is his proper Ele­ment.

The Cardinal had Laboured with great care and Vigilance in peace and Warr for the State of Spain, and now pressed with Age, which sliding away like the Current of a rapid stream, brings a man to his end sooner than he is aware of, casts his thoughts towards the advancement of his house; Marries one of his Brothers to great ad­vantage into one of the noble families of Spain, [Page 68] where Vertue the Mother of Nobility was as Eminent as the blood illustrious; he made it a condition in the Marriage, his Brother should not come to Court, where vanity and Luxury (whose Vassals are the basest of Slaves) bear a Soveraign sway, introducing into their Domini­ons all sorts of Corruptions. He enjoyned him to reside in the place of his nativity to live nobly there in a vertuous tranquility. Some years af­ter he marryed Joan Cisnere his Niece to Peter Gonsales Mendoza Nephew of Diego Mendoza Duke of Infantado, a name and Family of the first Rank of the Nobility of Spain, he gave him for portion the Marquisat of Val Suilian: The marryed Couple were both in their Minority, which soon after served the Cardinal for a pre­tence to annul the Marriage, though really the true cause of the Rupture was the cheat and de­ceit of Mendoza's Kindred, who thinking that having given the Cardinal a man of their name and Family, they had sufficiently obliged him to provide him a fortune, performed not the pro­mises they had made in behalf of their Kinsman in point of Estate. For his Mother in confidence the Cardinal would provide enough for Peter, left by her Will, her whole Estate to Roderick Gon­sales her younger Son, but the Cardinal who loved solid honour, scorned to be baffled, and broke the Marriage, maugre all the opposition of the Duke of Infantado: Yet afterwards he marryed her into the same Family to Alfonso Mendoza, son and heir to Bernardo Mendoza Earl of Clung: Such was the care he had of his Kin­dred. Nor is it forbidden that a Minister of State [Page 69] should impart to this Kindred the fortune he possesses, if done with moderation, and that by his Alliance he cover not, nor uphold the Violences of others. This natural affection is an evidence of his goodness, and sets of the Glory of his Acti­ons with greater advantage.

The Naval Army soon after sent for the Con­quest of Africk, had not the good success of that Led by the Cardinal. Don Garija son to the Duke of Alva, Commanded it, and had the misfortune to see it defeated by the Turks and Moors at Gerbes: Ferdinand designes to set out another Fleet, and the Rendezvous to be at Cadiz, but would not resolve till advice with the Cardi­in this as other matters, a Courrier is dispatched to him at Toledo to command his attendance at Sevil: The Cardinal set out, and drawing neer to Guadalquana expresses a desire to Lodge in the Inn of Saja Vedra and sends his harbingers to take it up, The harbingers find it marked for Gonsalve the great Captain, and advise the Cardi­nal accordingly, Take another (sayes the Cardi­nal and leave that to him who deserves all manner of honour. So propense was the Cardi­nal on all occasions to honour persons of Eminent Vertues: great men naturally love those that re­semble themselves when the Concurrence of Offices or Jealousie of dignities do not intetpose.

When the Cardinal drew neer to Sevil, the King with all the Court went four Leagues to meet him; the Cardinals Enemies being part of the Retinue, and thus forced to honour him, they envyed and hated. The King at their meeting alighted and Reverenced that head whence issued [Page 70] those Counsels that gave happiness to Spain. This honour wrought two different effects, of humi­lity in the Cardinal and Rage in his Enemies.

At Sevil a Vessel arrived from the Indies, brought the King and Cardinal advice that the Spaniards in the West Indies abusing the advan­tages they had received from God above the peo­ple of that Countrey, tyrannized over those new subjects of God and the King, and Sacrificed the lives of the Indians to their avarice, Murdering them first, and then Robbing them of the Gold amassed in their Grounds, and laying all desolate, without pi [...]ty, without mercy, without Justice. The Cardinal advised his Master to send thither some men under the Rules of Religion, who dead to the World, and wholy dis-interessed from se­cular concerns might oppose their Charity to the violence of the Governours. The advice was embraced; many men of his Order, Embarqued for the Voyage; and among them three of the Cardinals companions, whereof Francis Rouys was one; but the Ayre of India, not agreeing with his Constitution, forced him to return to Madrid, six moneths after his departure: At his Arrival he presented King Ferdinand with a Box full of Idols Worshipped by the Indians, and a wedge of Gold weighed above a thousand Ducats which doubtless had been an Idol to which they who tormen [...]ed the Indians paid their devotions. At Sevil proposal was made for raising another Army to recover the honour lost by the defeat of the former, some preparations were made, but the affairs of Pope Julius the second put a stop to the proceedings. This Prelate who [Page 71] troubled all Europe sent his Nuncio into Spain to desire Aide from Ferdinand against the Council of Pisa, (where the Cardials had chosen another Pope) and to demand vengeance against Ber­nardine Cardinal Caruajale a Spaniard whom he had struck out of the Catalogue of Cardinals as Author of that Council, and prayed the King to devest him of the Bishoprick of Siguenza which he held in Spain: Ferdinand to please the Pope, took the Bishoprick from Bernardine, and gave it Frederick of Portugal; But the storm being over, Bernardine was afterwards restored to the Bi­shoprick, that he might end his life with some kind of Dignity: in the affair of Julius the se­cond the generosity of the Cardinal in acknow­ledging the fauours of those who had obliged him was remarkable: he writ to this Pope who had sent him the Cardinals Cap, that he would return him to Rome four hundred thousand Crowns when he pleased, that he would Levy an Army at his own Charge if the Pope needed it, and would in person lead them into Italy against his Enemies. The fruit of a good Office is never lost, where it is sown in a generous spirit.

SOon after the affairs of Africk put on a better face, the Kings of Tremesen and Tunis sent their Embassadours with presents to Ferdinand to treat of peace, which was concluded, and free Commerce established between the Moors and Spaniards of Oran: This peace with Africk pleased the Cardi­nal exceedingly, who having been the first Au­thor of the Warr of Africk, rejoyced beyond measure, to see the fruits of his Lab [...]urs in a hap­py peace. The Affairs of Europe rann a course quite contrary; Julius the second increased the trouble, he makes a League with Ferdinand and the Venetian against the French; And he who ought to have been the father of Christians, la­boured nothing more than to set his Children by the Eares: Ferdinand to prepare himself for this League, sent for the Cardinal to Burgos to advise with him; the Cardinal came thither, and for his Lodging they had marked the Count of Salines house, where Prince Ferdinand brother of Charles afterwards sirnamed the fifth was Lodged: The King his Grand father commanded him to Re­move, but the Cardinal would not by any means accept of that Lodging, And when the King would have forced him by absolute and express commands to that purpose, be excused himself saying, the Countess of Salines with her Ladies were Lodged there, and that by the institution of his order, he was prohibited to Lodge with wo­men, which he Religiously observed both at [Page 73] Court, and in his journeys: The day following the Cardinal walked with Prince Ferdinand into the Palace Gardens: the King spies them from his Window, and Calling to the Prince, bespeaks him aloud in these words, Son, You are in very good company, and if you take my advice, will never part from it. Knowing he was with a man who could make Princes such as they ought to be Wise, Religious, and Generous: from the Garden the Cardinal attended the young Prince to the Palace where he took leave of him to re­tyre to his Lodgings, the Prince offered to bear him Company, the King coming upon them in the Complement advised him to it, but the Car­dinal thanked for the honour and obtained per­mission to Go alone. The resolutions taken in the Assembly at Burgos by the advice of the Car­dinal were, that the King should not hasten the Warr, but choose any way rather than that of Armes to bring affairs to a solid peace: but this advice was soon changed: The Cardinal receives Advertisement of a secret League between the Kings of France and Navarr, thereupon he pre­pares for Warr, advises his Master to it: And presseth him to hasten the raising of an Army: The discovery of the League was thus: The King of Navarr was passionately in Love with a Lady of the Court, whose beauties had charmed his reason; This Love by the prerogatives of the Crown which few Women know how to deny, was come to enjoyment. A Secretary of State, and prime confident of this Prince took part in this affair of Love, as if it had been a matter of State, Visits the Lady, declares his affection, [Page 74] beggs her savour; she who had as great need of this mans pen as the Liberality of the King, grants his desire; the King surprizes them toge­ther, and stabbs the Secretary: For Kings can no more admit partakers of their Loves, than of their Scepters: A Priest of Pampelune called to Confess the dying Secretary, having cleared his Conscience, ransacked his pockets; there among other things he finds this secret Treaty, which he gave or sold to the Spanish Embassadour resi­dent in the Court of Navarr: They sent it to the Cardinal; The Tenour of the League was that the King of Navarr should refuse Ferdinand passage through his Countreys when he marched in the aide of Julius the second. That he should enter Spain with an Army when required by France. That for this, restitution should be made him by France of his Patrimony, than in the poss [...]ssion of the Duke of Nemours, father of Germain then Queen of Spain, and of all the Rites and Possessions of the house of Albret de­tained by France. That he should receive from France an Annual pension suitable to his Royal Dignity. That France should by negotiation or Armes procure restitution to be made him of that part of the Estate of Queen Catherine his Wife about Burgos then detained from him: The Car­dinal having read those Conditions, Levyed an Army and carryed things to that point, that the Spaniards attribute to him the Warr of Navarr, as the Author of it, though in truth the Vio­lence of Julius the second, and Ferdinands Am­bition caused that Warr memorable in History for the blood shed therein, which hath afforded [Page 75] us this observation, That Warr is a bloody bury­ing place or Caemitere of Mankind.

The year 1513. being the next after the trou­ble of Navarr, Carryed Julius the second, out of the world to prevent his spreading of further mischiefs: soon after, Ferdinand fell sick of the malady whereof he dyed: this affected him with extraordinary sadness. To make him merry the whole Court turned Revellers: the Ladies en­deavoured to please him by their divertisements of Balls and Dances; the Gentlemen by Justs and Turnaments. Alfonso Mendoza Husband of the Cardinal Niece was of the party and expended seven thousand Crowns to fit himself for the so­lemnity a great expence in those times; this was to be paid out of the Cardinals purse who used to reject and disallow all vain expences, but paid this cheerfully, telling those who spoke to him of it, that these Turnaments were the remedy for recovery of the Kings health which he should buy very cheap since his Nephew had expended no more. So willing was he to part with his estate for the good of his Prince or re­lief of the people. 'Twas at this time he made provision against that publick exigency to which Spain is often reduced for want of Corn: At Toledo, Arcala and Torrelaguce, he built publick Granaries, and filled them with Corn. The Se­nate of Toledo, in acknowledgement of the bene­fit, hath Consecrated the memory thereof to per­petuity, by an Inscription engraven in the midst of the Palace; and the people preserves the me­mory of it by a Marble Table, which to this day shews the Character of his Liberality in the [Page 76] great Market of the City; and yearly on the fifth of October, they Celebrate their grateful ac­knowledgements in an Harangue made of the Vertues and merits of this great man.

Soon after he erected a magnificent Monastery and Church at Torrelagave for the perpetual Cele­bration of his praises, whose bounty raised him to the height of his fortunes: he adorned the Church with Sacred Vessels, and Vestments, and furnished it with all necessaries for the Ser­vice of God, and Ornament of Religious Wor­ship. For the convenience of this holy place and the publick, he clave Rocks, and boared through Mountains to make Aqueducts for conveyance of water thither from a spring at great distance from the Church; the Aqueducts were Arched and Wide, and cost him by the computation of the Spaniards, no less than a Million of Gold, this place to this day testifies the Generosity of this Cardinal in his affections to the publick; for great edifices without flattery, report to posterity the Grandeur of the Builders.

But though he built of his own for the pub­lick good, yet would he not permit others to be Magnificent at the Spaniards charges. Pope Leo the Tenth, who succeeded Julius the second, had a design at this time to build at Rome, a Temple to St. Peter, suitable to the dignity of the first Church of Christendome; and because the charge of such a building amounted to vast summs of money, he sent his Bulls into Spain, to demand Contribution from the Spaniards. King Ferdi­nand consented, but the Cardinal being a severe man, and inclined to ease the people, though [Page 77] he commended the Popes design, approved not his exacting Money by his Bulls, but with all his power hindered the Execution thereof; and with a generous liberty writ his thoughts thereupon to Rome, and told them his mind.

Ferdinand approached the end of his Reign, and his Life, by the malady before mentioned, which handled him so rudely at Burgos, that he left that place, imputing to the Ayre the cause of that distemper he carryed within him. When he came to Arand, he sent for the Cardinal, who set out to attend him, and drawing neer to the Court, the King went in his Litter to meet him, to the astonishment of all that were about him, his disease having so weakened him that he could hardly stand, and in a few dayes after was laid on his death-bed. The Cardinal was very de­sirous to wait on his Master to the last moment of his dayes, but thought fit to withdraw, to avoid the suspicion his attendance might occasion, if he were appointed governour of the Kingdom, which would be attributed more to the Ambiti­on of the Cardinal, than the Judgement of the King or the advice of his Council.

This was the reason of his retiring to Ar­cala D' Henares, while God disposed of this Prince according to the Decree of his will. Ferdinand in the mean time felt himself dying, yet could not believe he should dye of this sickness. The holy women of Avila had deluded his reason by her pretended prediction, that he should out-live the violence of his distemper: he was so possest with conceit of the truth of her assertions, that he re­jected and put off Matreuse the Cordelier his [Page 78] Confessor who came to dispose his Conscience to part with this World, and appear before him who Judges Kings without respect to their Crowns, and said, That Man came to see him, not out of zeal, of piety or devotion, but ambition, and in hopes to obtain some gift. Prince Charles his young Son, sent Dean Adrian of Ʋtretcht to Visit him in his Sickness, but he could not get audi­ence; and when the Secretaries of State, moved in his behalf, and were urgent with the King to admit him to his presence, he refused answer­ing them in Spanish, What comes he for, it may be to see whether I am dead or not. However he ad­mitted him afterwards, and received the com­plement of Charles: The great ones of the world can hardly part with it, nor is there any place men are more loath to leave, than a Throne: But Death is as inexorable as necessary; She re­spects not Scepters, nor fears Crowns. The Phy­sitians, and principal Councellors of State adver­tise Ferdinand, he was arrived at the last hour of his life, that he had but a short time left to think of the Affairs of his Conscience and Kingdom this made him Resolved to admit his Confessor and believe, the Saint of Avila had not received from Heaven the advice she gave in the Affairs of his Kingdom: he told them that by his secret Testa­ment made at Burgos, he had ordered Ferdinand his younger son, Brother of Charles to be Go­vernour of Spain, and appropriated to him as a peculiar Legacy the grand Master-shipps of the three principal orders of Spain, those of St. James, Calatrave and Alcantara. The Coun­cellors remonstrate to him the injury he did the [Page 79] Crown in the Alienation of those three orders which himself had judged necessary to be kept alwayes annexed to it: That he gave them to a Prince who might when he pleased make use of them against the Crown, that the best and surest inheritance he could leave Ferdinand was the love and good will of his brother Charles. That it was dangerous to leave the Government of Spain in the hands of Ferdinand whose youth made him sussceptible of ill impressions from the great ones to the ruine of the State: Upon these Remonstrances he altered his Resolutions and appointed Charles Governour during the life of the Queen his Mother, sole Heiress of that Kingdom. But in the absence of Charles, there wanted an administrator to manage the publick affairs, with prudence, integrity and generosity: Laurence Galinda Caravegal, one of the Counsel­lors proposed the Cardinal as eminently endued with all these qualities. Ferdinand turns his head, and answers, Know you not the severity of Ximenes his spirit, no wayes fit to treat with men? Thus did he Reject him whose conduct he admired, whose person he honoured going to meet him every time he came to do him service, such was the inconstancy of this great King. But there was some (though a very light) cause for this disdain of Ferdinand against the Cardi­nal. The King wanted a great summ of money, and would have borrowed it of the Cardinal, but he refused to lend it, telling him boldly, the moneys arising from his Ecclesiastical Revenues, were neither his, nor his Majesties, but belonged to the poor of the Arch-bishoprick of Toledo, [Page 80] whose necessities could not give way to the Loan he proposed: Nevertheless the Cardinals merit prevailed more with Ferdinand than the memory of this Refusal: having mused awhile; his mind altered, and he tells the Councellors, Were it possible to frame a person of purpose fitted with vertues proper for the Government of my King­doms, he could not be more capable than the Cardinal to discharge it, if we could mitigate the excessive severity of his nature, and tem­per it with some sweetness of disposition: he hath to this time acknowledged Queen Isabels favours and mine, and will certainly retain a grateful memory of them for the future: with that, he declared him administrator General of Spain, and presently after breathed his last.

This change of the Testament at Burgos alarm'd the Governours of Prince Ferdinand, they per­swaded him to take on him the Government of the Kingdom, and dispatch Patents in his name to the Councellors of State, requiring their atten­dance to advise him in the Government. One of them upon receipt of his Letters made An­swer, We will go to the Prince to pay him our respects but we know no King but Caesar: which allusion to that piece of holy Scripture proved Prophetical; Charles then King, being afterwards Emperour. The Cardinal in the mean time enters on the Government of Spain, where he was so absolute that having long since the purpose of the Church, he wanted only that of a Monarch, and the name of a King, he held the Government two years, which he managed with prudence, integrity, and magna­nimity [Page 81] inseparable from his actions: he bore up couragiously against the disturbers of the publick peace, and wisely appeased the Trou­bles of Spain, checked and suppressed the bold­ness of the great Ones; and plucked out of their hands the estates of the meaner sort, ravished from them by violence and injustice: insomuch that Spain did then acknowledge, and confesses to this day, She never enjoyed so perfect repose, so secure a peace, as under the conduct of the Cardinal; who made it appear that the happiness of the people is so far from being inconsistent with the glory of Administration, that the direct way for a Minister of State to acquire glory and honour is, by imploying his cares with prudence and generosity to procure and promote the good of the People.

THE first Action he did after opening King Ferdinand's Testament, which declared him Regent of Spain, was, The taking of Prince Fer­dinand into his care. And having given him a Retinue befitting his birth, he kept him alwayes neer him, to prevent the great Ones of Spain, from drawing him to their party, and making him their head, to follow the motion of the members, and to be at the discretion of his pretended Vas­sals. After this he took order for performance of the honours due to Queen Germaine, and the Maintenance of her family, suitable to her dig­nity.

[Page 82]The Crosses that rendred his Conduct more illustrious, attacqued him early: Adrian of Ʋtrecht, Dean of Lorain, was sent by Charles into Spain in Ferdinand's sickness, with Patents for the Govern­ment of Spain, in case Ferdinand dyed: After his death, Adrian declared his Charge, published his Patents in full Council; and would have taken upon him the Soveraign administration of affairs. The Cardinal opposed it, and Remonstrates, that by the Testament of Queen Isabel, King Ferdinand was made Regent of the Kingdom, untill Charles should have attained the Age of twenty years, that, Ferdinand being dead before that time, he was by his Testament to succeed in his room. And therefore the Regency belonged to him alone. Moreover, that by the Laws of the King­dom it was prohibited that a Stranger should Go­vern the State; and that Adrian, being a Fleming, his birth excluded him from what he pretended to. This Contest had Abettors and maintainers on both parts: the Cardinal had the good Pa­triots on his side; and Adrian was upheld by the ambitious Grandees, who desired nothing more than trouble to gain by, Charles who was in Flanders must determine the difference: but while his Judgement was expected, the Cardinal and Adrian Governed joyntly, and both signed all Orders and Commands; though Adrian was but the shadow to follow the motions of the Cardinal as the substance acting in the publick Affairs.

The first that by Armes disturbed the publick peace was Peter Porto Carrero, Brother to the Duke of Ascalon, whose Successours, are, at this day, Marquesses of Villa-nova. This man, of great [Page 83] power among the Portuguese beyond the River Guadiana, stirred up the people on that side the River to take up Arms, and set all in confusion throughout that Province: his design was to possess himself, by force, of the great Mastership of St. James, which the great Gonsalve pretended to; and attended so long, till death put an end to his pretensions, his hopes, his life, and his displea­sures: Porto Carrero had obtained the Pope's Bulls to succeed Ferdinand, in case he survived him. On the other side, Prince Charles who was in Flan­ders had the Pope's Bulls for the three great Com­manderies of Spain: The Cardinal upon the first news of Porto Carrero's Arming, without more ado, sent towards him some Troops of his men at Armes, under the Conduct of Ville Fanno who restored peace to the Province, and beat the feeble Mutineer, into more wisdom for the future: The best remedy for Troubles raised by particular per­sons, is the Publick Force.

This first Cloud thus dissipated, the Cardinal brought the Court and Council to Madrid, as a place where the Liberty of the Regency would be more absolute against the Grandees of Spain. A Courrier arrives there from Charles with Letters to Queen Germaine, the Council, and Grandees; containing his promise of coming into Spain the next Summer; with Order to all that owed him obedience, to pay it in the mean time intirely to the Cardinal. These Letters came attended with private instructions to Adrian to found their opinions of the new Title of King of Spain, which he had assumed on the death of Ferdinand, Adrian speaks of it to the Cardinal and Council; [Page 84] they wonder at the Novelty, and Answer, That by Ferdinand's death, Charles had acquired no­thing in Spain; That the Queen his Mother lived there sole Heiress of the Kingdoms. In their Letters to Charles, they remonstrate that his As­suming the quality of King, might cause trouble in the State, by furnishing seditious Spirits with a pretence to take up Arms; and declare, that it was not Just to suffer the usurpation of the Roy­alty, during the life of their natural Queen. Charles answered, that having taken upon him the quality of King at the request of the Pope, and by advice of the Emperour; it would not be­come him to quit it, but would be of prejudice to his Authority, and derogatory to his honour. He writes to the Cardinal to imploy his Credit to procure him the continuance of the name of King, and to proclaim him King throughout Spain. The Cardinal sitts about it, and plyes it closely; called an Assembly of the Notable per­sons of the Realm composed of Prelats, Grandees of Spain, and Counsellors of State, and causes overtures to be made, and the Affair proposed to them by Laurence Galiud Counsellor of State, his Confident, a man of great Learning and Eloquence. Who declared to the Assembly the pittiful con­dition, and miserable Estate of Queen Joan now besides her self, and uncapable to Govern; shews them the necessity of having a Prince, who might, at least in name, fill up what she could not indeed possess: That Authority was the soul of the Kingdom; and since it could not be found in the person of Joan, they must seek it in that of Charles: That it was no new thing for the Infantes [Page 85] of Spain to bear the Title of Kings in their Pa­rents life-time. He cited Presidents in the Reign of the Goths and their Successours. In the Close of his discourse, he drew out of his bosome the Prince's Letters, not demanding advice, but com­manding obedience; and concluded it better, By unanimous consent to gratifie him in his desires, with Congratulation to him for the Title he had assumed, than to refuse him That he had already taken, and was resolved to keep. The Bishops, and Councellours of State, were of his Opinion: The Grandees, of the Contrary. Henry Almi­rante, and Frederick D' Alva, swore before the Assembly, They would never endure such an Usur­pation. The Cardinal turns to them, and with a face and voice full of severity sayes, King Charles has no need of your Votes for the quality he As­sumes; nor did I assemble you, to desire them: but of my free inclinations for your good to give you this occasion by the freeness of your Suffrages and cheerful Consent, to merit the good-will and favour of our Prince. But since you conceive that to be due to you of Right, which was done you of Courtesie; I'le make you know, you are not so necessary in this business as you mistake your selves to be. And going out of the Coun­cil he sent for the Governour of Madrid, and commanded him to cause Charles of Austria, to be proclaimed King of Castile by sound of Trumpet in every Street of the Town; which was solemnly done the same day. Toledo followed the Example of Madrid, and joyfully made the like Proclama­tion: Such was the fruit of the Cardinals Seve­rity, that the Grandees durst not attempt any [Page 86] thing to hinder it. Where a Minister of State sees, Discourse and Perswasions too feeble to pre­vail, he must use severity and force to back his Authority.

The Kingdom of Arragon, followed not the example of Castile. Alfonso of Arragon, Bishop of Saragosa, was Governour there by the Testament of Ferdinand. The Arragonois, wonderful Jea­lous of the Laws of their State, refused to give Charles the Title of King, during his mothers life: And, to second the refusal with violence, Peter Gironne, eldest Son of the Earl of Ʋrenne, takes up Armes, attacques the Dutchy of Medina, Sedonia pretending a right to't; and besieges Luzerre on the Sea side. The Cardinal sends against him a light Army under the Conduct of Anthony Fonseca, and with him a Minister of Justice to punish the Rebells with the Axe and Rope; Fonseca goes directly to Luzerre, raiseth the Siege, and puts the Rebells to flight; who not long after came from those parts to increase the troubles raised by the Duke of Infantade on his side: Who keeping in mind the offence given by the Cardinal, by breaking off (as he said) the Marriage between his Niece, and the Duke's Ne­phew, exclaimed against him in Words and Writing; publishing in his Manifestoes, that the Nobility of Spain were oppressed by the Cardinal (whom he called an unfrock'd Monk); That the grandees of Spain had ever defended the Crown; that it was more reasonable the Cardinal should obey them as Protectors of the State, than that they should submit to the Cardinal, who had nothing worthy the taking notice of, but the [Page 87] quality he owed to the gift of blind Fortune; and knew no more than the severities and hu­moursome Vagaries the Monks practise in their Cloysters, when they persecute one another. The Cardinal who was excellently judicious slighted these Rodomantadoes, knowing that Cho­ler without Force, is a Wind that makes a noise but cann [...] [...]. That the Grandees of Spain, spend their Revenues on their Vanity and Luxu­ry, to the last Farthing; having nothing left but noise and exclamations, the feeble support of their huffing and pride; when he could pay an Army with the Revenue of his Benefices. And leaving them thus to Champ on the bit, he gave them leisure to acknowledge their fault and feebleness, and by the Experience of his powerful Authority to come to themselves, and return to their duty; which most of them did, and among others the Duke of Infantade, who, after so many sallies, and freaks, sent him Letters of Submission and testimonials of his Affection and Obedience. For they saw this Man intirely fix'd and resolute in his designs; when just then he had rendred him­self capable to command Armies, learning daily the Theory and practick of the Art of Warr, en­tertaining himself with Discourses of all points thereof, amongst the sagest and most Ancient Captains. Besides, he had a standing Army of thirty thousand men, raised out of the Cities and Burroughs of Spain, who had no other pay than Franchises and Immunities; These Forces made him formidable to his personal Enemies, and to the Disturbers of the publick peace. As wings carry the Eagle to the glory of Combat; so Armies, [Page 88] the wings of Royal Authority, carry it against the Enemies of the State, to their ruine and con­fusion, but to its own certain Victory and Tri­umph.

The next Year being 1516. the Cardinal sent to Charles in Flanders, Diego Lopez Ajala, a person in whom he reposed much confidence, to pro­cure Letters Patents to confirm Ferdinands Testa­ment, which gave him the Regency; to approve his Conduct; and to give him full Authority over the Council, the Tribunals of Justice, the Governours of Towns, and the Receivers and Treasurers of the Finances. Diego had in his Instructions, To let the King know, that the Grant of these things by Letters Missive to the Coun­cil, was not sufficient. This he did to take away all pretence from the Grandees for stirring the people against him, on colour that his Actions were not approved of by the Prince. For upon his setting a foot thirty thousand men of the Militia of the Towns and Cities which received Immunities on­ly, for pay; the great Ones of Spain gave out that these violent Courses tended to the subversi­on of the State That he Armed the people against them, and with design first to destroy them, and then to ruine the People; That his irregular Am­bition, and exorbitant Pride had transported him into a fantastick extravagancy of Acting the Captain, who had never handled any Arms but a Breviary; nor worn any Armour but a Frock. Insomuch that when he sent Japie of Segonia to make Levies of the Militia at Valladolid, the in­habitants, instigated by Henry Almirant and others, ran to their Arms, imprisoned Japie, fortified [Page 89] the Town; and rolling the Cannons to the Ram­parts, cryed openly in the Streets, This is against Ximenes the Tyrant of the people. The like fury was practised in the Towns neer Valladolid; and passing forward, like Fire in a Forest, drew the Cities of Leon, Burgos, and many more, into the like Revolt. The Cardinal was of opinion that violent Remedies would heighten the disease, and inflame the more; and inclined to reduce the Mu­tineers to their duty by the wayes of Sweetness and Gentleness. Hence it was, that he writ to them of Valladolid that had begun the disorder, That he never intended to infringe their privi­ledges, or violate their immunities: But that, if they had any to exempt them from the Levies of the Militia, they ought to make them known to the Council; where he would protect them to the utmost of his power.

But Reason and Gentleness are sometimes en­couragements to greater Insolences in the people: They of Valladolid sent the Cardinal an arrogant Answer, that they had nothing to do with him, nor the Council, for the preservation of their pri­viledges; but knew well enough how to main­tain them by their Armes against his manifest Tyranny; and yet doubtless this was the Lan­guage of the great Ones in the mouth of the peo­ple. They send into Flanders a solemn Embassy to Charles against the Cardinal, to represent the peril he put the State of Spain in. The Cardinal, whose prudence and courage crowned all his enterprizes with good success, sent also into Flan­ders; and by the negotiation of his Diego Lopez, a man of Judgement and Dexterity, prepossessed [Page 90] Charles and made it appear to him, that the Re­volts in Spain were effects of the envy and malice of the great Ones. Moreover, he ordered him to press for the Confirmation he desired, and to de­clare that if it were not sent him, he would quit the management of Affairs, and go to Toledo to enjoy there that Repose which is not to be found at Court.

The business of the Militia was for some time interrupted and laid aside, till these Seditious were banished Spain. But (as the institution thereof by the Cardinal was upon grounds of prudence, and very necessary to the Kingdom) Philip the second, a Judicious Prince, Re-established it in the year 1565. long after the decease of Ximenes. The Training of the People to Warr, is the fortifying of the State. And the prudent Counsels of a Minister of State, who designs the good of the publick, are durable; and Time, the Father of truth, dissipating the Factions and Fictions of those that Envy him, give them the glorious ad­vantage to serve after his death, for the rule of good Conduct.

THe Affairs of the Marine, claimed no less share in the cares of the Cardinal, than the other Affairs of Spain. The death of Ferdinand, the malady of Queen Joan, the absence and immatu­rity of Charles had made way for disorders to creep in, to their Ruine. The Cardinal re-establishes at Sevil the ancient Methods for Regulating the Maritine Affairs, re-fitts the number of Men of Warr necessary for defence of the Coast; and Chasing Pyrats, Manns and furnishes them with Cannon, Powder, Bullets, and Victuals. Diego Co­lumbo the Admiral, son of the great Christopher Columbo who filled the new World with the Re­putation of Spain, and Spain with the Treasures of the new World, addresses himself to the Car­dinal as Regent of the Kingdom; beseeching him to extend his Compassion and Justice to the Isles of the Ocean depending on the Crown of Spain, where the merciless Spaniards treated the Natives ill, committing inhuman Cruelties and using them worse than Mules or Asses, forcing them to carry burdens, and to undergo Labours and Toyler intolerable; That these poor Islanders were men, and carryed in their faces the image of God as well as the Spaniards; That if they were duller and more ignorant than the Spaniards, they were also better and more innocent than they. The Cardinal sent thither Judges of known integrity and sufficiency to end the differences which ava­rice and fury had sown in the Islands, and in order [Page 90] [...] [Page 91] [...] [Page 92] to the relief of the Islanders, of whom some were killed daily by the Spaniards in their Sugar-works, sent dispatches to Charles on that Sub­ject, desiring him to do therein as he thought fit. Charles, by advice of the Flemings, and without the privity of the Cardinal, commanded 400 Moors brought from the Land of Negroes into Portugal, to be sent into the Islands to labour in the Sugar-works, and ease the Islanders, who were naturally weak and feeble. The Cardinal, adverti­sed of this Order, dispatched a Courrier to Charles to put him in mind of the inconveniencies might ensue upon the introduction of these Negroes who were a strong and Warlike people, and would questionless teach the Islanders the use of Armes, and the Art of Warr, which would one day cause a notable Revolt. Charles communicates to his Council the Advices of the Cardinal; the Flem­ings divert him from following them; and per­swade him, This Advice proceeded from the Car­dinals Ambition because he was not consulted with in the Affair: But in 1522. (5 years after the Car­dinals death) Charles felt to his cost the peril the Islands were in, occasioned by the flighting of that Counsel; for the Moors, taking up Arms at the Isle of St. Domingo, Attacqued the Town of that name, and had put all to Fire and Sword, if not prevented by the valour of Melchior Castre, and Francis D' Avila, who forced them to retreat and flee to the Mountains; and being beaten thence by the Admirals Army, they had the deserts of their Rebellion in the punishment of the Axe and the Rope inflicted on them.

The Warr of Navarr which happened in the [Page 93] time that the Cardinal ordered the Affairs of the Marine, was an Evidence of his Courage and the haughtiness of his Conduct: He sent an Ar­my which stopped the Progress of the French more by the advantage of narrow and difficult wayes, than their Valour and Arms: and, to de­prive the Navarrois of occasion to take up Armes again, and recalling home their Ancient and Lawful Lords, he pulled down the Walls of all their places of strength, except Pampelun, and de­molished all their Castles and Forts: which was afterwards of great advantage to Spain, which possessing Navarr without just Title, kept it by the force of the Garrisons placed there, and the weakness of the inhabitants. Great States are sub­ject to Revolts, as gross bodies to Feavers. Ma­laga, a Martine Town of Spain takes up Arms, and cryes Liberty, on this occasion. Complaint was made, that no punishment was inflicted on Robbers taken in the City, though Justice had been demanded; for the Criminal, by appeal from the sentence of the Judges of the City to the Admiral of Castile, the Soveraign Judge in places neer the Sea, oft escaped the punishments due to his mis­deeds: the people in Armes ran into the places subject to the Admiral's Jurisdiction, demolish the Tribunals of his Officers of Justice, beat down the Racks and Gibbets set up for marks of their Soveraignty, and, to maintain the sedition, roll the Cannons off the Ramparts, shut the City Gates, and declare, that if the Cardinal would use his ordinary Violences to the preju­dice of their Liberties, they knew how to defend them by Force. The Inhabitants brought into [Page 94] one place all their Utensils of Brass and Copper, and having melted them down, Cast new Cannons, with the Armes of the City, and these words atop, The Defenders of the Liberty of Malaga, caused these Cannons to be Cast. The Flemmings in Charles's Court, thinking to draw the Envy and Blame of the Rebellion of Malaga, on the Cardinal's Conduct, who, they said, was too harsh, and Rigorous for the people of Spain; encouraged those of Malaga by Letters, to defend themselves against his Violence, promising them their As­sistance with Charles. But the Cardinal, slighting the threats of the Flemmings, carryed on his Af­fairs with Courage and Prudence; and like a sage Pilot, who scorns to forsake the Helm in a Tempest, continued his Conduct; and applyed the Remedies he thought proper for these Popular Commotions, by sending 6000 Foot, and 400 Horse of the Militia of Spain, under the Com­mand of Anthony Cueva, directly to Malaga; with Order to use the inhabitants as Enemies of the State. Cueva marches with these forces; and be­ing within two dayes March of the City, the Ci­tizens, better advised, sent their Deputies to ten­der him Obedience. He goes thither, and enters the City, disarmed the Rebels, and Hanged five only, for an Example, and Terrour to others. Thus, without Expence, without spilling the blood of the Subject, whereof a Minister of State ought to be alwayes sparing; the Cardinal quenched the fire of Rebellion, kindled in a place from whence it might have easily dilated to the utter Consumption of the soundest parts of the State. Of so great importance it is, that the [Page 95] Authority of a Minister be intire, and like that of the Soveraign's it represents.

The flames of Rebellion were no sooner quenched in one part of Spain, but the Grandees blew them up in another; and alwayes with de­sign to charge the Cardinals Conduct with the blame of the Confl [...]gration. They set up Velasio Cuellar, high Treasurer of Spain, and Superinten­dant of the Finances, against the Cardinal; and, to engage him to Arm with more Ardour and Eagerness, they make Mary, Velasio his Wife, of the party: who perswaded him to seize Arevale, which he did, and Cantoned it with his Forces, whom he disposed into several quarters, Fortified by him in that Countrey. The Admiral of Spain was the principal Boutefeu, and main Incendiary, and Ringleader of this new Commotion; he fo­ments it, goes by Night to the Duches of the place, speaks to the Inhabitants, encourages them to hold out stifly; promising them Succours of Men, and supplyes of Money, in case they were Assaulted; And that he would come in person to defend them from the Violences of the Regent, till the arrival of Charls into Spain, for their deli­verance. The Cardinal knew of these Troubles, and the Abettors thereof; and fearing to lose Velasio, a person of quality, he tryed every way before that of force to reduce him: he writ, ex­horted, intreated, and threatned if he obeyed not, but all to no purpose: This obliged him to send thither some Regiments of Horse, and Foot, with a train of Artillery, under the Command of Cornelius. The Forces arrived at the place, and the Captain summoned Velasio to render himself, [Page 96] declaring that in case of disobedience, he would put all to Fire and Sword, and him to death by the hand of a Hang-man, and transmit to his posterity the infamy of his Crime. Velasio, seeing himself deceived by the Admiral, and other Grandees, who had made him promises of Forces and other Succours they could not perform, con­sulted his own safety, obeyed, opened the Gates; and received Grace and Pardon, instead of the Punishment he deserved.

The Cardinal having appeased this Sedition also, without Charge or Blood, gave Charls Advice thereof, and intreated him to cause the Admiral to be punished, as the Author of all those trou­bles that arose in Spain; whose proceedings con­firm, by a pregnant instance, That th' Obedience due to Kings is a very brittle and frail thing, if not upheld by fear, and the reverence of Majesty. To preserve which, the Cardinal instituted the Militia in the Kingdom, that he might have Armes ready at hand to resist the motions of Insurrections, and suppress them in the birth, without giving them time of growth and increase. And, to render the strength of the Militia more considerable he caused a great quantity of Artil­lery to be made: and filled Arsenals with it in the four Corners of Spain, for the Conveniency of drawing them where it should be necessary for defence of the Royal Authority, with these fulmi­nous Engines. The Cannon is the last reason of Kings, and, if not the best, yet certainly the best able to defend them.

THhough the Cardinal, Regent of Spain after Ferdinands death, had in his hand the Regal Authority, yet hitherto you have seen him exer­cise only the Office of a Physitian to cure the distempers of it; But now that he hath restored it to health and peace, he bends all his thoughts to the exercise of Justice, the principal business of Kings. He began with the Governours of Towns and Cities, sending Judges impartial and not subject to Corruption, to inquire into their demeanour, and inform him of their deportment and behaviour in their places; and where he un­derstood they were Tyrannical to the oppression of the poor, who groaned under their violences, he deposed them from their dignities; and hav­ing made their names infamous, left them more miserable than those they oppressed. He of Toledo was the first example of his Justice. The Officers of Justice who behaved themselves ill, had the punishments they deserved: some of them who had been more covetous than Just, having sold the right of the Poor to the purse of the rich, were whipped through the Streets of those Towns where they had been in Commission; with a Hang-man at their backs, and before them, a Trumpet who proclaimed their shame in the Enormity of their Crime. The like usage had they who in places of Judicature had exacted sees that were not due. The greater Gentry who were Justices in the Countreys whereof [Page 98] they were Lords: those Eagles which break through the Spider-webb, could not escape the punishment due to their violences, by being ex­empt from the Jurisdiction and power of the Judges: for the Cardinal caused them to be handled with the Rigour they deserved.

Arrojou a Knight of the Order of Calatrava, acted in his Commandery of Zoritan like a Ty­rant in the Countrey he Usurpes. The Maids and Women whom Nature had made most Beau­tiful, and Vertue most Amiable, he Sacrificed to his extravagancies: And what Love could not obtain, Force ravished from them: Those were taken from their Parents, and these from their Husbands, to serve the pleasure of this Beast; The Cardinal sent a power Competent to Attaque him, but by flight to Flanders he changed his place, but escaped not his punishment: The Cardinal by Letters signifies to Charles the Ex­orbitances and Enormities of this Ruffian, and the punishment due to his Crimes, and prayed him to make him an Example of his Justice by severity answerable to the heinousness of his Actions.

The Treasurers of the Finances who had em­bezelled the publick Moneys (which are the blood of the people) were strictly Examined and Nar­rowly sisted, nor were these Spunges squeezed only, but punished for their Rapines.

These Actions of Justice drew an universal Love to the Cardinal from the people of Spain, who reverenced his Name; and most of the Grandees sought his Friendship, with Oaths and protestations to defend his Authority as their [Page 99] Lives; and not without reason. For, Justice the Mother of other Vertues, being the Daughter of Heaven and Queen of the Earth, gains them that Exercise it the savour of God, and good will of men.

The happiness of the Kingdom was this great mans Aim; and in order to attaining a compleat felicity he continued the Exercise of his Justice in Reducing every part of the State into their proper bounds. The military Orders of Knights in Spain are divers, and of great Latitude; the greatness of their power made them usurp on others within their Jurisdiction, and abusively assume Priviledges not due to them: But the Cardinal forced them to make restitution of what was not theirs, Re­gulated their Jurisdictions, and Abrogated the Priviledges they had arrogated to themselves. The favour of Court having introduced more Members into the Council of State, than Merit or Vertue, had filled it with Persons unworthy that place. But he who knew that the Ministers who serve in this Sacred Temple of Policy ought to be persons of the greatest experience and singu­lar integrity, purged it of all those who were unfit for that dignity, and filled their places with better men.

Having reformed the Council he turned to the Train, and Attendants of the Court; where the importunity and impudence of the Mean, and the Recommendations of the great Ones, had in­troduced a multitude of men who had no other Vertue to boast of than a confident Miene, a proud Gate, and vain Discourse. He resolved to Cashiere these dronish Lurdanes, and stop [Page 100] those unprofitable Mouths that ate the Kings Bread, but did him no Service: which he did with one dash of his Penn, Crossing out the Al­lowances made them, who were so leight in their Vanities, that they were blown away with a Feather. That Monarch wants a Guardian to order his Affairs, who by the Pensions he bestows, feeds with the Bowels of his People, such men as are neither necessary for him, nor serviceable to the publick.

This Retrenchment was Just: but his taking from two famous Historians of that time, the Pensions given them as due to their Labours, is marked as unjust in the History of his Admini­stration. Peter Martyr, and Gonsales D' Oviedo were crossed out amongst the Retainers; but re­venged, with their Penns, the Loss of their Pen­sione; staining his name with spots of so black a dye, as the whole series of the past Age hath not been able to wash out. But it may be he was forced to this; By their example, to take from others all cause of Complaint. But what an example is this to robb them of their Re­ward who deserve it, and take away the Pensi­ons of two Learned men who served the pub­lick. Or if he thought this necessary to be done, he should have made up their Pensions out of his own fortunes, and paid them out of that estate which was sufficient to pay an Army.

Peradventure 'twas Charls his pleasure it should be so. Had he so little credit with Charles whose [...] he preserved for him, as not to prevail with him to continue the Pensions of two Histo­rians, who could have given Charles and his name [Page 101] immortal Glory? This seems sufficient to con­demn his Severity, and call it Inconsiderate. But the greatness of his Conduct in other matters, his excellent Justice, and singular favour and pro­pensity to oblige men of Vertue, make it hardly credible that so great a person, who had done so much for Learning, should commit so gross a sault; but give cause to impute it to some other Minister, whose enmity against these Historians, might have engaged him in so foul a fact. Thus Alvarez Gomez in the History of his life excuses him; and observes that he lamented several times, that occasion was often given him to exercise just Severities in taking from men what they unjustly possessed; and not to express his Liberality, in giving unto them those Largesses he esteemed due from him to Vertue.

To do good to men of merit, is to pour Oyle into Lamps, which proves no less usefull to others in the light they receive from them, than benefici­al to them in enabling them to impart it.

That the Exchequer be full, and the Treasury of the Prince abound in Cash, is certainly one of the things most necessary for the State; this de­fends it, this augments its Grandeur, and renders it formidable to its Enemies: The Cardinal who harboured in his heart as one common Cen­ter, an extraordinary zeal for the Service of his Master, and no less affection for the good of the people; designed to fill the Treasuries of Spain, to serve the glory of his Master; but with­out any intention to inrich his King by the im­poverishment of his people; saying, Thrift and Frugality, Parsimony and good Husbandry, were [Page 102] great Revenues to a monyed King, as the King of Spain. And that Gifts made without reason and against Justice, are the Moths that eat through his Baggs, and the Thieves that empty his Coffers. Charles, in four moneths of his Reign, gave away to his Courtiers (or rather Leeches of his Court) two Millions of Gold: This he said, with grief, to see so prodigious an excess, of Profuseness and Lavishment: Not but that he allowed Liberali­ty place among the Vertues of a Prince, but that he would have it exercised with Moderation and Justice.

Henry the Admiral, Pacieco D' Ascalone, and Henry Fortune, had obtained of Ferdinand, a mil­lion a piece of Lievres of Gold, charged on the Revenue of Peru; and should have received it at the return of the Plate-Fleet. The Cardinal made void, and annulled these Gifts; And though Fortune was of Kin to his good Master Ferdinand, he took from him his Million as well as from the others. Kings, said he, ought to dispense the effects of their Justice, indifferently to persons of all sorts; but those of their Liberality to them only, who serve their Persons or the Publick; ad­vantage others by their Labours, and excell them in the fidelity of their Services, and the Dignity of their Vertues. The Revenue of Princes, though great in it self, is alwayes too little for the necessities of State, and passing through many hands, is much diminished ere it arrive at their Coffers. The Cardinal to provide against this inconvenience, gave the Offices of the Finances, to men fit for them; persons under no necessity to tempt them to Rapine. And chose for Surinten­dant [Page 103] of the Kings moneys, a Lord by Birth, one of the Noblest of Spain, and in Estate the Richest in the Kingdom. Spunges full of water, take in no more, though steeped in it.

Great Buildings, without good Foundations, swagg and come to Ruine. The Cardinal laid three Foundations necessary for Royalty, where­on, as on firm pillars, the Authority thereof re­lies: The first is Justice, when the King dispenses it to his Subjects impartially, and without respect of persons; when the Scepter affords relief to the poor and the weak, against the injuries of the Rich, and the Powerful. The second, when the King hath a respect, and good value, for the Men of Warr, that give proofs of their Experience, and Valour, in the Service of his Warrs. The third, when the King doth not squander away his Revenue, but, by thrift and parsimony, keeps a good stock in Reserve for Royal Enterprizes, which ought to be his ordinary Exercises; who, that he may be great, must do great things. Ex­perience had taught the Cardinal the truth of this sage Maxim; for in four months of his Regency under Charles, by help of his Treasure, he had compassed his designs, ended a Warr of great im­portance, calmed the Commotions of Spain, made sure of Navarr, reduced Malaga to Obedi­ence, maintained strong Garrisons on the Fron­tiers, assured the Sea-coast, made incursions into Africk, sent a Naval Army against Algiers, and delivered Bugie, Pignon, and Melillo, from the Siege of Barbarosse, great Admiral of the Turks. If I (said he) have done all these things, not­withstanding the oppositions of my Enemies, [Page 104] what cannot a King do, by his absolute power, if he leave in his Treasure a stock for Royal Un­dertakings. Money being the sinews of Warr, and the object of mens Affections, the Monarch who is Rich, becomes puissant in the one, and absolute Master of the other.

The glory the Cardinal had acquired by his prudent management of the State, and his good Actions to private persons, was greatly augment­ed by the Violences of the Turks, and misfortunes of Africk, which brought a stronger King at his feet, to implore his Assistance. The King of Tunis, Son and Heir of Jabet Albuzen, was guilty of the Crime of being Neighbour to a Monarch, more powerful than he, and possessing a Crown convenient for the Ottoman. This brought a Warr upon him; Barbarosse who had command from the Turk his Master to oute him from his Throne, was the more willing to attacque him, in that he had obtained from the Ottoman Poste, a promise to succeed in the Throne and Title of the King of Tunis, in case he Conquered him; on Condition nevertheless to hold it of the Crown Imperial of the Turks. The Corsayre undertakes it; and, over­powering Tunis, enters the City, and drives out the King; who dispoiled of his Estate, embarks for Spain, to seek relief in Christendome for his disasters: in his passage he was set upon with Tempests and Storms; which, though less than those he met with at Land, put his Vessel in dan­ger; but he escaped a wreck at Sea, being reser­ved for a greater at Land, which had already de­prived him of his Crown, his estate, his repose, and reputation, and had more miseries in store [Page 105] for him during the rest of his life, which the Sea might have swallowed up, and therein all his Losses and Calamities. He Arrived in Spain, and threw himself into the Cardinals Arms, who received him, gave him Retinue befitting a King, comforted his miseries with kind entertainment, and promises of Re-establishment in his Throne. The Minister that represents a King, and holds his Scepter in his absence, ought to do Royal Actions; and, to reach forth a helping hand to distressed Princes, is one of the greatest of these; for if, the Man that helps a Man, is a God to that Man, the King who is a God on Earth, and his Minister in his stead, succouring a persecuted King, is a God to a God.

THE same Year John Rio, a Spanish Pyrate, returned from his Course, having taken many Genoa-Vessels, and Rich in Booty and Prizes, and at Anchor in the Port of Carthagena Nueva, where he enjoyed other mens goods, by the Laws of Pyracy: when some Ships of Warr, arrived from Genes, attacqued him in the Har­bour; and, being well Armed, and fighting for the interest of their Republick, they took this Sea-robber, and carryed away his person, and Vessels. But this Action done within a Port of Spain, was an offence against the Majesty of the King: the Cardinal resents it as such, and pub­lisheth an Edict, commanding all the Genoese in Spain, to depart the Kingdom within fifteen dayes, upon pain of Confiscation of their goods, and of their Lives; and in the mean time caused seizure to be made of their Goods, wherever they could be found; This Alarum'd the Republike, seeing their Commerce, to which they owe their Maintenance and Grandeur, broken on that side, and their Allyance much altered: They betake themselves to their remedy, and send Ambassa­dours to Charles in Flanders, to disavow the bold­ness of those Ships which in the Port of Cartha­gene, had violated the respect due to his Crown, which had met by the way the punishment they should have received from the Republick, had they arrived at Genes, which the Tempest pre­vented, in taking from them both their Ships and [Page 107] their Lives: Therefore, they implored his Ma­jesty not to impute that to their State, which was the Act of two or three private persons; Charles was satisfied with this submission, and revoked the Edict published by the Cardinal. But he be­ing Jealous for the honour of his Master, which had a greater share in his thoughts, than the care of his own life, holding the Genoese to be very Cautelous people, and desirous to penetrate the depth of their intentions; upon information re­ceived, that they held intelligence with the French about the Kingdom of Naples, deferred the pub­lishing of the Revocation, and Restitution of the Genoese goods, till he had sent Ambassadours to Genes to clear the doubt; but the Ambassadours finding the Genoese sincerely inclined to keep good Correspondence with Spain, he made resti­tution to the Genoese of their Goods, and their liberty of Commerce. The Honour of Kings is their true Patrimony, preferrable to their estates. Their Ministers ought carefully to pre­serve, and couragiously defend it; for as bodies without souls, which give them life, are easily corrupted, so Monarchies without Honour and Reputation decline and come to Ruine.

Spain had long since laid the Foundations of Dominion over Italy; and the house of Austria, now entred into Spain, carryed on the building. Maximilian, Grand-father of Charles passed the Mountains on that design. Charles dispatched a Courrier to the Cardinal to demand his Advice in the Affairs of Italy: the Cardinal sent it him, and advised to divert Maximilian from the Siege of Breseia then in design, and to turn his [Page 108] Forces against Milan; for that City being once taken, the other would be easily Conquered; that, to render himself yet more considerable in Italy, he must gain the Popes affection, and make use of him upon occasion; to quiet the troubles of the Countrey, and to serve himself of his Authority, as a new Peru to furnish moneys for the Warr, by obtaining Crusadaes for Spain, which (as usual) would bring a Cross on Gold and Silver, and raise him a Considerable Revenue: He ad­vised Maximilian to threaten the Pope into fear, to force his Condescension to what he would not willingly grant; and counselled Charles to make choice of a person Generous, Vigilant, and of great Authority, to be Ambassadour at Rome, and to gain from the Pope a person of innocent Manners, and of a gentle and tractable dispo­sition to be Nuncio in Spain; For on this de­pends the good of all great Affairs, and the peace of the Nation. These Counsels the Princes of the house of Austria did then make use of to their great advantage, and pursue the same to this day: For the sage Answers of a great Mi­nister consulted with in affairs, whose like do often fall out in a State, are the voice of an Ora­cle, which foresees things to come, and guides the designs of Posterity.

The Kingdom of Spain, had been long in­fected with the falsity of Religions, contrary to the Christian; The Moors Preached there the Errours of the Alcoran; and the Jews the sop­peries of their Talmud; and though they had woon the one and the other to the faith of Christ, yet the Jews whose Religion is Obsti­nacy, [Page 109] relapsed often to their former Worship, Apostatizing from the faith they came to profess. This exposed them to the rigours of the Inqui­sition, being daily dragged before that severe Tri­bunal. To deliver themselves from the pains they deserved, they Deputed the principal amongst them, to attend Charles in Flanders, and beseech him to permit them to enjoy that which God gave man when he sent him into the World, the Liberty of Choice in a Free will; That Re­ligion could not be imposed by force, but instilled by Discourse; And that he would grant them who were born in Judaism, liberty to Judaise as their Fathers had done, or become Christians at their pleasure: In acknowledgement of this fa­vour, they offered him eight hundred thousand Crowns of Gold: Charles assembles his Council to advise on this proposal, they give their opini­ons in favour of the Jews, and that in the ne­cessity he was reduced to, he should accept the eight hundred thousand Crowns: The Cardinal, Advertised by his Agent in his Masters Court of the Counsels of the Flemmings, sent a Courrier to Charles, advising him not to meddle with Gods right, that Religion was above Crowns, that Heaven knew to maintain its interest against his incroachments, that he ought rather to imi­tate the Piety of King Ferdinand, his Grand-fa­ther, who in the necessities of the Warrs of Na­varr, had refused six hundred thousand Crowns of Gold offered by the Jews for the like indul­gence: Charles followed the Cardinals Advice: That King is unworthy the Assistance of Hea­ven, for preserving his estate, who despises the [Page 108] [...] [Page 109] [...] [Page 110] Estate of God, which is Religion; and God who expelled out of the Temple, the Tradesmen, who made it a place of Merchandise, outes those Monarchs from the Throne who sell for money the respect due to Divine Worship. The inte­rest whereof a good King and his Ministers, preferr before the reason and interest of State.

Ill Customes never dye, or grow old at Court, though good ones presently make their Exit. The Government of Provinces and Towns in Spain, was heretofore committed to the persons best qua­lified, and of greatest integrity in the Kingdom; Time which carries away the best of things abo­lished this custome, and made it absolete; Favour brought in such men whose faults and defects the blindness of Court discovers not. The Cardinal resolved to re-estabish what he found Just in the ancient Customes of Spain, bestowed the same Governments on men whose nobleness of blood and integrity of life rendred them the most Considerable in the Kingdom.

But that the puissance of their Families, and support of their Kindred, being persons of qua­lity, might not debauch their integrity, and encourage them to violence, he Removed them to places distant; imploying them in Govern­ments of Towns and Provinces, where they could expect no support but from their Ver­tue. He who adds greatness of dignity, to that of birth and quality, tempts vertue, and needs a Bridle to retain it within the bounds of Justice.

[Page 111]These eares of the Cardinal tended to the Glory of Vertue; the aime and mark of his designs, being the advancement of vertuous per­sons, whose fortunes he raised in his Administra­tion by his own beneficence, or the Kings, by his procurement. He gave Adrian Florent, of Ʋtricht, Dean of Lovayn, and his companion in the Government of Spain, the Bishoprick of Tortosa, with the Office of Inquisitor General of Spain, which was an advantagious step for him to a Cardinalship; and to mount him thence to the Papal Chair. He preferred Alfonso Manri­quez to the Bishoprick of Cordova. And the Sieur Motta of Burgos, a person well verst in Theology, and Secretary to Charles, to that of Badacos; The advancement of Motta was great in appearance, but in effect mean; his Vertue and Learning had rendered him considerable in the Court of Charles, and that of Rome; After the death of Ximenes, the King gave him the Arch­bishoprick of Toledo; and the Pope, a Cardi­nals Cap. But these Gifts were made him, when he could not enjoy them; and Fortune gave him only a View, but no Livery and Seizen of the Grandeurs of the World. The Letters of the King, and those of the Pope, which conveyed to him those eminent digni­ties, sound him on his death-bed; So that see­ing himself on the brink of the Grave, he took the Letters out of a Box, and gave them one of his principal Domesticks to Read. Having heard them, he discoursed of the vain pretensions of Court, and the cheating hopes of the World, that the sutest course for a vertuous man to [Page 112] steer, is to conform to the will of God, and condoled their misfortune to see their expecta­tions fall with him into the Dust. But this care of the Cardinal to advance persons of me­rit, evinces he was not guilty of retrenching the Pensions of the two Historians afore mentioned; But rather that of Learned men, the most know­ing and Laborious for the publick, are not the greatest favourites of Fortune, whether it be for want of importunity in pursuing it, or of Friends to introduce them into the Theatre of Prefer­ment; so that their Vertue continues indigent, like the Sick man on the brink of the Pool, which makes Poverty often the Sister of Wit.

These things happened in 1516. The follow­ing year will be the last of the Administration, and Life of the Cardinal: In the moneth Octo­ber this Year, he entertained himself one Even­ing with some Divines of Repute; and their Discourses being of matters of holiness advanced far in the night. One of the Domesticks tells the Cardinal, A Courrier from Africk, then at the door, desired to speak with him; he Command­ed them to admit him, the Courrier delivered his Letters, the Cardinal read them to himself; and then turning to them that stood by, with a Composed and Serene Countenance told them, The News is, that the Moors and Turks have beaten us at Algiers, and our Army Defeated. But the Loss is not great, for Spain is delivered of a mul­titude of Malefactours. Vagabonds, and Assa­sines, whereof our Army was Composed. It was my Master Ferdinands Maxim, that 'tis necessary to send [...] abroad to purge the [Page 113] Realm, of murtherers, thieves, robbers, and other-ill Livers. Having said this, he continued his Theological discourse with admirable vigour of spirit, and force of wit: The prudence of a Governour ought to be attended with con­stancy in publike misfortune, that the serenity of his countenance, and alacrity of Discourse, may extenuate and lessen the ills that befall; And that Minister deserves well of the publike, who bears up in good hopes of the State, notwithstanding the Losses and Calamities that seem to discou­rage him.

'TIS natural to the Spaniards, to pursue their Resolutions with a settled and unmoveable constancy; so that 'tis equally difficult to divert them from pursuing their designes as to extort from them what they are possessed of by their Atchievements. The Grandees of Spain envying the Cardinal's Authority had resolved his ruine, as appears before; and what demonstration so­ever they made of Amity, yet the Leaven of Jea­lousie remaining in their hearts, set them on afresh to carry on their design, and endeavour the destruction of his, by establishing of another's Authority! They prevail with Adrian his asso­ciate in the Government, to write to Charles in Flanders, that the Cardinal was a proud man, impatient of a companion, and did all after his own humour and fancy, without consulting him; that he wanted strength to resist the sallies of his daring and hardy spirit: And therefore became his humble Suppliant for a second to Assist him in the Government; and, by their joynt-Autho­rity, to balance the Excessive power of the Cardi­nal, which might otherwise prove in time pre­judicial to his Majesty's. Charles sent Laxaus a Flemming, and of His Council, to make up the Triumviral in the Government of Spain. The Grandees who knew that what is divided, is of less force, rejoyced to see the Cardinal's Autho­rity in that predicament; and went all to meet Laxaus with great Demonstations of honour: [Page 115] The Cardinal staid in his Lodgings to attend his coming; and as Laxaus was conducted to him, he came no farther to meet him, than to his Ante-chamber, where he received him with a gravity befitting his Person, and Dignity. And as it is a principal part of the dexterity of a Mini­ster of State, To know men, he studied the tem­per and humour of Laxaus; and finding him a downright Flemming, more enclined to Pleasures and Jollity, than serious Affairs; he thought his Enemies made choice of a weak Rival to confront his Authority: and, to let them know he slighted him, shewed greater respect to Adrian, than him. Yet Adrian, led by the Nose by the Cardinal's Enemies, made use of the occasions they offered him to attacque his Authority. Letters Patents were to be dispatched and published in some Af­fairs of importance; The Grandees advise Adrian and Laxaus to sign them first, and to take up the most honourable place of signature: They did so, and then sent the Letters to the Cardinal to be Signed. Who having Courage answerable to the Grandeur of his Spirit, observed this Flemmish Bravado of Ambition, and slighted it; causing the Letters to be torn in pieces by his Secretary in his presence, and ordered others to be made ready, which he signed alone, and caused them to be executed as effectually, as if signed by all three; and, during the course of his Administation, con­tinued it thence forward, though before he shew­ed Adrian the respect of sending them to him to be signed; which he forbore after this time, that the Contempt he had designed for him, might fall on himself. The Flemmings durst not [Page 116] resist his Authority, fearing his Anger; and that, by provoking him, they might prejudice Charles, who would impute to them the disorders that might follow; Ferdinand, brother to Charles, be­ing then in Spain, under the Guard and Conduct of the Cardinal.

Nevertheless, to destroy this great Authority, by more powerful means; they proposed to Charles, to put the Scepter of Spain in his absence, into the hand of a Prince of his House, and Ad­vised him to intreat Maximilian th' Emperour, his Grand-father, or Lewis Count-Palatin, his Cousin, to come into Spain for that purpose. Some were for making Ferdinand Governour, others for the high Chancellour Savage, but all for outing the Cardinal. Maximilian was busie in Italy: The Genius of Spain, is so far above that of Alemain, that the Count Palatin was not likely to bear up to the height, requisite for the Government; and, if the absolute power were committed to Ferdinand, it might be feared he would not quit it when desired. So that of all the persons proposed in Council, the Chancellour only stood. The Cardinal had intelligence of all transactions in Charles his Councils, and desired him by Letter, to grant him leave to quit the Government, and retire to his Diocess, rather than send him a new Companion, with whom he must renew the contests with the former. That the nature of Government is such, that, to carry it on with Authority, it must be given to one alone. Not­withstanding this, Savage came into Spain, with the Title of Governour, as well as the Cardinal: But made no other progress in the State, than to [Page 117] establish there, venality of Offices in Judicature, Council, and Court; to banish vertue; and fill his purse. For it is observed, that in his four moneths stay in Spain, he drew away five hun­dred thousand Crowns, which he carryed into Flanders: The Cardinal vexed to see those ex­cellent Orders his care and pains had established in the State, ruined in a moment; and that Offices formerly the Rewards of Vertue and merit, were now put to sale by the Avarice of this Flemming; and possessed by them who had more money to buy, than capacity to mannage them; complained to Charles, and with a liberty full of respect writ him his mind; Remonstrating to him, That great Kings obtain from God the enjoyment of their Crowns, and from men the Reverence due to them, so long as they govern the people with Justice and Integrity; That in respect of the great weight of the Government, God allowed them to call Assistants for their ease and support in the Management of great Estates; That their Justice and Vigilance ought to be as Conspicuous in the choice of their Assistants, as in the Government of their Subjects: That a Prince is Responsible for his Ministers, and Chargeable with the Crimes they commit in the State, if he knows and suffers them. He prayed him in all humility, that he would come into Spain, to establish there by his presence, that order which the Strangers he had sent thither, had destroyed; and to keep the peo­ple within the bounds of their duty, who were now apparently raised to a boldness that tended to the subversion of the State; being so licentious that every one not only said, but Printed what he [Page 118] pleased; and attacqued his Authority by publish­ing and Justifying their complaints against him.

This couragious Liberty of Advertising Charles of the disorders and misdemeanours of the Flemmings in Spain, drew on the Cardinal the hatred of many to such a degree as obliged him to provide for the safety of his life; his guard was more strictly and constantly kept, his meat watched to prevent poison, and this care ex­tended to his bed, and tryal made of the water that was sprinkled in his Chamber. But all this caution could not save him from that Lingering Poyson, which, the Spaniards write, destroyed his health, and at last his life: whereof you shall hear in due time.

The Court of Spain was at this time full of in­famous Libells, against the Flemmish-Ministers; and against Xeures, of the House of Croy, favou­rite to Charles, whom Lewis the 12. of France having the Gard-noble of his person, gave Charles for his conduct; The Libellers spared not the Cardinal; nor his Confident, Francis Rouys; the Flemmings were highly incensed at the Libels and Obloquy of the people; This obliged the Cardinal to make search for the Authors; but so lightly, that neither Author nor Seller was pu­nished for writing or publishing. For as for him, though he writ of this matter to Flanders, yet he was (sayes Gomez) of opinion, that, In­feriours should have the Liberty to avenge their grievances by words and writings, which endure no longer than while you are offended at them; that to slight them was the only way to suppress them, and, to be angry at them, was to acknow­ledge [Page 119] them true. Alphonso Castilla, Governour of Madrid, brought Adrian, and Laxaus, some Copies he had recovered of the Libells against them. They, not used to such Satyrs, as things not accustomed in Flanders, resented them highly, and specially Adrian, to whom injuries of this kind were like Fleas in his Ears, or Snuff in the Nose, to dis­compose and inflame the Levity of his Temper; insomuch that being afterwards advanced to St. Peters Chair, under the name of Adrian the 6. the Satyrical reflections, and tart Animadversions published by the Roman Witts on the Statues of Pasquin, and Morphorio, were so offensive to him, that he commanded the Statues which had stood there many Ages, to be digged up, and thrown in­to Tyber. The Count De Sessa, being present when this Order was given, told him, Holy Fa­ther, if you cause these Libel-Carryers to be cast into Tyber, the Froggs will Croke out their Verses; and what two Stones whispered to men, many mouths will proclaim to the River: 'Tis a hard matter to take from men that liberty of their spirit which God hath allowed them, which they will find means to make known to the World: Adrian followed his Advice, and left Pasquin, and Morphorio standing in the place they possess at Rome to this day. Certainly they are much deceived, who think by power to bury in Oblivion the ill actions they are guilty of, or to keep from Posterity the knowledge of their vices: The severities they exercise against the writers thereof, give Credit and Authority to the relati­on; and procure as much glory to the Historian, as shame to the Criminal: 'Tis a good Rule for [Page 118] [...] [Page 119] [...] [Page 120] great Ones, to live so as they would be repre­sented to posterity in the stories of their Lives, that, by their good actions, they may obtain the glory of an immortal name.

The Troubles which before had disquieted the Court, and raised the people to Armes, were now entred the Churches, and got up to the very Al­tars: The Priests of Spain had taken the Alarm, and published grievous Complaints, and loud Threats in defence of their Revenues, and the liberty of their Dignities; For Selim, Emperour of the Turks, having carryed his Arms into Aegypt, taken from Tomombey his Crown and his Life, and Triumphed over the whole Nation; resolved, after this notable Conquest, to turn his victorious Arms against Italy, to add that Coun­trey to the rest of his Triumphs, to enter Rome by a breach, and feed his Horse on the Altar of St. Peter. These barbarous Threats obliged the Princes of Italy, to provide for the security of their Estates. Pope Leo the tenth, then in the Chair, imployed his care to preserve the Patrimony of the Church; and for the Guard of the Sea-Coast, an Ordinance was past in the Lateran-Council to Levy the tenths upon the Clergy of Spain. This put them in an uproar: the Cardinal used his best endeavours to appease them, and to restore peace to the Church, the house of God, as he had done to Cities the habitations of men: he dispatched a Courrier to Rome, and ordered Arteagua his Agent in that Court, in his name, to make the Pope an offer, not only of the tenths of the Arch-bishoprick of Toledo, but of all its Revenues, his money, his moveables, all that he [Page 121] had of rich or precious in the Treasure of his Church; if the necessity of a holy Warr required it for the defence of the Altars of God in Italy. But, to declare, that, without such a necessity he would never be the Author of those new Impo­sitions, nor consent that the Priests of Spain should be made Tributary to Strangers; with a strict charge to send him the Resolutions of the Lateran Council hereupon. Arteagua understood by the Pope's Nephew, the Cardinal De Medicis, that the Council had not ordained the Levying of these Dismes, but in case of extream necessity, and that the Enemies were within the State of the Church, or upon the Borders of Italy; and it appeared, the Source of this trouble about the Benefices of Spain arose from the Pope's Nuncio in that Kingdom, engaged therein by his de­sires to finger the moneys, or his imprudence in management of Affairs. Thus the Cardinal pro­tected the interest of the Church, and calmed the Commotion. Priests have in their persons a kind of Spiritual Royalty, whereof their Miters are marks. To protect and defend them is to pass to Glory, by the way of Piety.

THough the Cardinal had surmounted the op­position of the Flemmings against his Au­thority, triumphed over the Envy of the Court, and the Threats of the greatest part of the Gran­dees of Spain; there remained an important victory to be gained over three potent Enemies, who like a triple-headed Monster stood up against him, with a boldness he was obliged to humble, and bring to the ground: The first was Mendoza Duke of Infantado, his Capital Enemy for the Rupture of the Marriage between his Nephew and the Cardinal's Niece: This hatred was in­flamed by the loss of a Cause at Law, whereby a Burrough of the Duke's demeans, was rejoyned to the Church of Toledo, from which it had been dismembred. And as the Syndic of the Church went to take possession of it, the Duke himself gave him the Bastonado. This Outrage offended the Cardinal at Madrid, who told many. He would teach the Duke more Reverence to Justice, make him loose his Dukedome, and undergo the punishment he deserved. The Duke was netled to the quick at these Threats, and, to declare his resentment, sent to the Cardinal one of his Atten­dants to tell him, That he was a dissembling Monk, meanly born, and raised to the fortune he possessed by the subtlety and hypocrisies natural to his Frock. This Envoy arrives at Madrid, goes to the Cardinal, and shews him that he was a Domestick of the Dukes, received wages from [Page 123] him, and ate of his bread, and therefore subject to his Commands; that he had given him one to tell him such words which peradventure would Anger him, and therefore before he spoke them, he desired his leave to do it; and that he would not impute the offenee to him: The Cardinal gave him leave to deliver his message, which he did word by word as the Duke had commanded: The Cardinal nothing moved, made Answer; My Friend, you are employed in a very foolish Embassie: Return to your Master, and I am perswaded you will find him wiser than when you left him, and repenting his follies. Which was true; for the Duke much troubled that passion had so far blinded his reason, sharply rebuked his principal Domesticks, that they had not withstood his Choler, and prevented the sending of that message to the Cardinal. Velasco Constable of Castile, who knew the inconsiderate rashness of the Duke, advised him to a Reconci­liation with the Cardinal; returned to Madrid; and intreated the Cardinal to pardon the Duke, and impute these words to the blindness of pas­sion, and not esteem them the sense of his mind. The Cardinal Answered, that when Mendoza would in person begg pardon, and confess with his own mouth he deserved punishment, he should not find him inexorable. Velasco disposed the Duke to do it: A day and place were ap­pointed for the enterview. Fountain Caralla, within two Leagues of Madrid, was chosen for that purpose; where the Cardinal came attended with some of his Domesticks: The Constable and the Duke came also. But being upon the [Page 124] place, the Duke forgot the Conditions of the En­terview; and, instead of performing them, with a bold Countenance, and haughty expression, having saluted the Cardinal, told him, Provided I violate not the Laws of Religion, and pay the King the obedience I owe him, I little value the displeasures of others, slight their Checks, and scorn their Affronts. These words of pride, sounded strange in the Cardinal's Ears, who ex­pected a better temper, according to the Consta­ble's Promise; and, made this Answer: Mendoza when you fail in the one or other, you shall know me to be the grand Inquisitor of Spain, and the King's Lieutenant General in all his Estates; and in these qualities, I will cause you to be pu­nished according to your demerits. The Con­stable, seeing their hatred inflamed, not reconciled; and troubled at the huffing of the Duke, repro­ved him sharply for it; and having brought him by discourse to an acknowledgement of his fault, inclined him to expiate it in the instant he had committed it, making him cast himself at the Cardinals feet, and begg his pardon, whereupon the Cardinal embraced him, and took him up.

The very instant this was doing, they heard a noise of Soldiers, and a Volley of Muskets, shot at the door of the house. Horrour seized the Constable, and the Dukes pride was turned into fear. Both apprehended a train laid for their Li­berty or Lives: but 'twas a Pannick fear, and the cause appeared to come from John Spinosa Cam­pina of the Regiment of Guards, who having understood that the Cardinal was with two Grandees of Spain, without any Guard to attend [Page 125] him, rann thither with the Guards under his Command. The Cardinal reproved him for comming without order, and having taken leave of the Constable and Duke, with a countenance full of respect and friendship, returned for Ma­drid.

The second of the three powerful Grandees, whose boldness and envy the Cardinal was to grapple with, and overcome; was Giron, Lord of Vienna, who was alwayes of the contrary par­ty, and Ringleader to those that opposed his Authority: Giron was of a lively spirit, bigg words, bold in his raillery, smart and cutting in his Reparties: Coming one day to the Cardinal's Chamber-door, he asked the Usher, Friend, what is King-Ximenes a doing? Spain had been govern­ed by a King of that name, who was so dull and sottish of spirit, and so grosly vitious, that no day passed without some instances of his extra­vagancies; which gave his Subjects cause to ask one another often, What is King Ximenes a do­ing? Another time, this Lord having been in Treaty with the Cardinal, about some affairs of importance, and taking his leave, the Cardinal scarce moved his Cap at parting, Giron turn'd about and asked the Servants, Whether their Ma­ster had a scalded head: These flights added to many attempts against his Authority, provoked the Cardinal to Resentment upon occasion, which fell out patly: For Giron was in suit against Gut­terio Quixada for the Burrough of Villas Herma­nos, which Giron had usurped; In the suit the weakest went to the Wall, and suffered under the oppression of the greater; Giron having drawn it [Page 126] at such length that Quixada's purse being too shallow, could not have Justice: he complains to the Cardinal, telling him, that, as the King ought to do Justice to his people, so ought the King's Lieutenant: the Cardinal did it, and, by Judge­ment of the Court of Valladolid, Giron was en­joyned to restore to Quixada, the Burrough of Villas Hermanos: A Senator of Valladolid went upon the place to execute the Judgement, and put Quixada in possession: Giron makes up a party, sends his Son and Servants to the place; where they received the Commissioner, and gave him the Bastonado. An information was drawn up of this insolent Rebellion, and sent to the Cardinal and Council, who decreed the offen­dours to be Arrested; cited them by sound of Trumpet to appear, and proceeded against them as Traytors: The Grandees of Spain, who saw Giron in the high way to destruction, sent two Gentlemen of note to the Cardinal, to intreat him, not to ruine a person of Giron's quality: That it was his interest to preserve the Grandees; and, to destroy them, as he did was to destroy himself, as being by his dignity of Arch-bishop of Telodo, as Primate of the Prelates, so first of the Grandees of Spain, and having precedence of all; The Cardinal's answer was, He would protect honest men, and punish the wicked contemners of Ju­stice, and disturbers of the publick peace.

When they saw the Cardinal inflexible, they sent to Charles in Flanders, mis-re­presented the matter, and obtained a prohi­bition to stay execution of the Judgement, till he came into Spain: Upon receipt of the prohibi­tion, [Page 127] the Cardinal and Council, sent to Charles, informed him of the truth of the Crime, sent him the Process, and remonstrated to him, that having been appointed by God the Guardian and preserver of the Laws, he ought to give Justice liberty in her functions and freedom, and to do her duty; intreated him to consider the Consequence of this Affair, that if such Enormities were to­lerated, there should not be one King only in Spain, but as many Kings, as there are puissant great Ones: Charles, in Answer to the Cardinal and Council, writ, He had been mis-informed, and that it was his intention, Justice should be done: The Judgement against the Offenders was Executed. The Cardinal sending Regiments of Horse and Foot, against Villas Hermanos, where Giron's Son, and several Young Lords of his qua­lity, Sons of the Grandees of Spain, were assem­bled with some Forces, and had added new in­solences to the former Rebellion, having caused the Effigies of the Cardinal to be drawn through the Streets in his pontifical habit, with a Trumpet before it, to publish the Ignominy: But when they saw the Assailants, they left their sport, and betook them to their heels: The Walls of the Town were beaten down to the foundations, and they plowed up, the houses fired, and the places they stood on, sowed with salt, in token of ma­lediction. Seven men of the place, who had said they knew no Lord but Giron, were whipped by the hangman; and with them some of Giron's Domesticks on a holy day, that so important an execution might not be retarded: To make Quixada amends, and repair his damage in the [Page 126] [...] [Page 127] [...] [Page 128] loss of the Town, they adjudged him Giron's Estate, and proceeded further against his family and person. To take from the Rebels all hopes of mercy, this execution was confirmed by Let­ters Patents from Charles in Flanders. This brought Giron to reason: he humbles himself to the Cardinal and desires mercy; and to make his prayers more effectual, all the Grandees of Spain joyned with him: The Cardinal by Letter inter­ceded to Charles for a pardon; that in bringing him to an exemplary humiliation, and forcing him to begg pardon in person, he had sufficiently punished him; that the Grandees acknowledging their faults, and truly humbled, were not to be treated with the severities usual in other mens Cases.

The third puissant Enemy of the Cardinal, among the Grandees of Spain, was the Duke of Alva, of great Authority, of a great Family, Illustrious in blood, abounding in Riches, power­ful in Friendship and Allyance: the Cardinal had his opportunity to bring him to reason, as well as the others. The Duke of Alva, in King Ferdinand's life time, in whose favours he had a great share, obtained for Diegolus third son, the Priory of St. John in Spain, of the Order of Knights then at Rhodes, now at Malta; a Dignity of great re­venue, and equal Authority in the Kingdom: Antony Alstuniga of an illustrious family, was at that time in Legal possession; but the Duke of Alva, upheld by the Authority of the King, and the great master of Rhodes, took it from him by force, contrary to Right, and the Laws of Spain, and setled his Son there; who enjoyed it peaceably [Page 129] for six years, till Ferdinand's death: Astuniga seeing the Duke's credit buried with that Prince, had recourse to Justice, and summons the Usurper to a Legal Tryal: The Process was decided at Rome, and Diego enjoyned to make restitution of the Benefice. Astuniga returns into Spain with the Decree, implores the Cardinal's protection, whom he knew to be the Defender of Justice, and obtains it: Charles in the mean time, informed of this difference, looked upon it as of importance to the State, writes to the Cardinal and Council, to put the Benefice in a third hand till farther or­der. The Duke of Alva refuses to obey his Com­mand, believing it an invention to outt him from the Priory, calls the other Grandees of Spain his Friends to his Assistance, and fortifies Consabrona the principal place of the Priory: The Cardinal seeing him act the King in Spain, resolved not to endure it; he commands forth a thousand Horse, and 500 Foot of his Guards, in the Suburbs of Madrid; but at the instant falls sick to the danger of his life: Madrid, and all the Realm of Castile made publick Prayers for his Recovery, on which, as then, depended the peace of Spain. He Re­covers, and finding the Duke of Alva unwilling to obey, resolves to force him, but, by the way, pro­posed him a fair accommodation: And it is re­markable, this great Minister never took the way of Rigour, till he had first tryed that of Sweet­ness, and found it ineffectual to perform the duties of Justice, in his Administration: He proposed to the Duke, That he should give the King a Gentleman of his Family, to be answerable to his [Page 130] Majesty for the places of the Priory that should be put into his hands, and to surrender them to the King if there should be cause, when he had declared his Judgement; by which means the Duke might have remained Master of the Priory, and the Revenue. The Duke stormed at this pro­posal, and thinking that to accept it, would have been to part with his own, rejected it. The Cardinal sends a leight Army to besiege Casa­brona; the Duke also sent thither a thousand Foot, and some Horse with Victuals and Money: The Cardinal's Troops met them by the way, engaged, and defeated them, took their money and Victuals, and marched to the place they were to invest. The Duke of Alva's Son was within, with a great number of young men of his Age, most of them Sons of the Grandees of Spain; All the Nobles of Toledo, that had attained the age of 21 years, assisting in the Defence. The Herald summoned them to open their Gates, and obey the King; their Answer was high, though not a word spoken; for they set on the Walls of the place, Biers covered with black, to signifie tacitly their resolution, rather to dye than yield. The Duke of Alva this while was anxiously distract­ed in his thoughts. On the one side, he saw the shame that would attend his suffering a Piece of such convenience and profit to his Family, to be wrested out of his hands, and that his labours and great preparations would end in Affronts and greater Disgraces: On the other side, he beheld the thunderbolt hanging over his head, ready to fall upon him to the ruine of his person and his [Page 131] house. His Estate was already Confiscated by Decree of the Council, which gave him fearful apprehensions of the Cardinal's severity, as a man whom he knew intire and immoveable in his resolutions.

The example of Villas Hermanos, was fresh in memory, and the image of it in his thoughts troubled him; representing him as miserable as his friend Giron. He resolved to bow, rather than break; goes to Madrid, humbles himself, makes means of Reconcilement to the Cardinal, causes his Son to obey, renders the place, and obtains of Charles the moiety of the Priory for his Son, the other moiety being left for Astuniga, and enough for both. Another difficulty arises in the enjoyment of the Benefice: The great Ma­ster of Rhodes who had unjustly outed Astuniga, to invest Diego in the place, would not acknow­ledge any Prior but Diego, gave him all the Au­thority of Grand Prior, and sent him Orders for a general Assembly of all the Knights of the Order in Spain; Diego summons them, and would have had them assembled without other Authority than his; the Cardinal hinders it, sends for him, and tells him, If you were in the Isle of Rhodes, you might do your pleasure; but in Spain where I command, know, you must come to me and have my permission.

Thus he reduced to reason the three Grandees of Spain, who had most opposed his Authority; who having made a great noise, had experience to their shame of the greatness of his Judge­ment, the height of his Courage, and his mar­vellous [Page 132] Address, being compelled to throw them­selves at his feet, whose head they slighted, and had in contempt. The Fable of the Giants destroyed by Thunderbolts, and buried under the Mountains they had accumulated, instructs a Mi­nister of State, sometimes to use force and severity against potent men, who, to trouble the publick peace, would by destroying his Authority attain the King's.

These Crosses, and the unwillingness of the great Ones, to acknowledge the honour he had acquired in Spain, with the ingratitude of the people, whose ease he affected, and procured the happiness they enjoyed; gave him sensible dis­pleasures, and made him call to mind the tran­quillity and sweetness of his Religious life in the Monastery of Castanet. Neer which, there was in view a little hill covered with Trees, where he often went to search, under their shadows, the light of truth in Holy-Writt, and after some hours reading, kneeled, and with hands and heart lift up to Heaven, conversed with God in Prayer and Meditation; then retiring immediately into a little Cabbin, made with his own hands, in imitation of, those Angels of the Desart, the ancient Hermits, he fed his body with Bread and Water, but his Soul with plentiful repasts of spi­ritual delicacies: The holy pleasures of this so­litude he panted after, amidst the Crosses and oppositions he encountered in the State; saying often to his greatest Confidents, If I might ob­tain leave, how willingly would I change this Palace for my Cabin at Castanet; the Authority [Page 133] of Governour of Spain, for the silence of that solitude; and my Mitre of Toledo, and Car­dinals Cap, for the habit of that poor place. A Minister of State, hath not in the troubles of Affairs, a more solid comfort than that of Piety, which is the Policy of Heaven (if any be exer­cised there) as well as part of the Politicks of this World.

Charles, often advised by the Cardinal to come into Spain to enjoy his Crown, and dissipate by his presence the Troubles that daily grew up, at last leaves Flanders, and by an Express to the Car­dinal, gives him notice he was Embarqued; The Cardinal goes from Madrid, and advances with the whole Court to meet his Master, making choice of the Burrough of Alcande, scituate on the Banks of the River Guadalayer to attend his coming; and taking with him Prince Ferdinand under a strong Guard, on which depended the peace and safety of Spain; in his journey he passed through B [...]zeguillas, a Village on a Hill, and Dined there; but the worst Dinner he ever made: (for there the Spaniards generally believe) he had that venomous Dose of Lingering Poison which destroyed his life; which is the more probable, for that the Provincial of the Obser­vantines of St. Francis, being on his way with some of his Order, to go to the Cardinal, a man on Hors-back came to them with his face muffled up in a Hand-kerchief to prevent their disco­very, and said; Fathers, if your business be to the Cardinal, make haste to him before he Dines, and advise him, not to eat of a Pigeon that shall [Page 134] be served in to him, for 'tis poysoned; Marquine the Provincial arrives at Bozeguillas, and recounts to the Cardinal, what the strange Gentleman told him. The Cardinal having thanked him for his Care of him, made him this Answer; Father, if I have been poysoned it was not this day, but a while ago reading at Madrid, a Letter from Flanders, when me-thought I drew in poy­son by my Eyes; since which, I protest, I feel my self dye every day: Nevertheless I am not so well assured of this, as to exclude all doubt of the truth thereof; We are all under the Conduct of Gods Providence, which takes away, and restores our health, as he judges most necessary for our Salvation. Let's obey then those holy Decrees that are irreversible.

But when his malady came on him, he returned to his former opinion, telling his Physitians, that he should perish by the Treason of those Wretches, that attempted his life. The Spaniards write, that after Dinner at Bozeguillas, his ma­lady heightned so apparently, that putrified mat­ter broke out under his Nails; yet this could not hinder him from imploying the small portion of life that remained, in the service of the State. He had written to Charles, that it concerned him to command from his brother Ferdinand, Alvarez Osorio, the Dominican, Bishop of Astozia, the Prince's Tutor; and Peter Gusman, Grand Prior of the Order of Calatrave his Governour, who apprehending the Arrival of Charles in Spain, might give the young Prince Counsel to the disservice of the King, it being long reported [Page 135] that these men would never brook the Flemings whom they hated, and to avoid a meeting would retire to Arragon with Ferdinand, and cause him to be Crowned King of that Kingdom: But he was designed by Heaven for greater Fortunes, and was Emperour after his Brother Charles the fifth, and had the Royal Crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, in right of Queen Anne his Wife, Heiress to Ladislaus, and Lewis, her Father and Brother, Kings of those Kingdoms; he had four Sons, and eleven Daughters, of whom Joan d' Austria was marryed to Francis de Medicis, great Duke of Tuscany; of which Marriage was born, Mary de Medicis, Queen of France and Na­varr, Wife of Henry the Great, and Mother of Lewis the thirteenth late Regnant; a Princess of eminent Vertue, singular goodness, and incompa­rable magnanimity, maternally descended from the Houses of France and Austria, as well as those of Hungary, and Bohemia: for, the Emperour Ferdinand her Grand-father, was younger Son to Mary of Burgundy, only Daughter of Duke Charles, and Isabel of B [...]urbon.

Charles judging the Remove of Osorio and Guzman, necessary for his Service, Commanded it, and writ to the Cardinal to that purpose; The Master of the Courriers, who received the dispatch, instead of delivering it (as addressed) to the Cardinal, carried the Pacquet to Dean Adrian, who opened it, though not directed to him, and gives to Ferdinand his Brother's Letter, where the young Prince saw the King his Brother's Com­mand for Removing Osorio and Guzman; He went [Page 136] to the Cardinal, and with tears in his eyes en­treated him not to make any change in his Fa­mily, till his Brother's Arrival in Spain; that Guzman and Osorio were very faithful to him, and had great affections for him, that they were given him by the hands of King Ferdinand his Grand-father, and his Grand-mother Queen Isabel; That to take them from him, were to condemn the Judgement, and vilifie the Memory of two Princes whom the whole world had honoured: The Cardinal though surprized, as not knowing of the Affair (which Adrian had discovered) to remove the Odium from himself, exhorted the young Prince to obey the King his Brother, on whom depended his Fortune and Grandeur, that he ought to preferr the interest of Charles, be­fore that of his Domesticks, and to conform to his will. Ferdinand seeing that he gained nothing on the Cardinal's spirit, gave him in choler this reparty; Since you are resolved to destroy me and mine, when you might have pleasured me in forbearing a little while to execute what is writ to you from Flanders, I will take order, my Servants shall not be Ruined, as you have designed. The Cardinal was moved at his threats, but being Resolute and Couragious to maintain the interest of his Ma­ster, told him, Sir, You may do what you please; but before the Sun set to Morrow, though all Spain stood against me, the King shall be obeyed, and you shall obey him the first of any. Ferdi­nand ne [...]ed at these words, retired towards Aranda; The Cardinal sent after him, and gave the charge of his Person, and of the Town to [Page 137] Cabanilla and Spinosa Captains of the Guards, commanding them to be up all night with their Troops, and not permit a person of the Princes Family to go out of the Town: They obeyed him, and on the morrow Osorio and Guzman were dismissed, and the will of Charles was ex­ecuted with Fidelity and Courage; the principal qualities of a Minister of State, in Affairs which concern the interest of the King with the Princes of his blood.

Some Grandees of Spain seeing the Cardinal proceed with absolute Authority against the Infant Ferdinand and themselves, demanded of him a fight of his Commission; The Cardinal pointed to the Soldiers of his Guards, and told them, Those Folks there with the will of the King, are the power I have to command Castile: then twisting on his finger the Cord of his Order wherewith he was girt, This, said he, is sufficient to chastise proud Vassals, and bring them to Rea­son. A little after, he caused some Cannons to be discharged, and a Volley of Musquet-shot, which was the last Answer, but more terrible than the first: This stopped their mouths, and struck fear into these men who had been more curious than wise. Scarce had the Cardinal ended this impor­tant Affair of Ferdinand's Family, when a Cour­rier brought him news, Medina Sedonia was taken by Peter Giron, Son of Giron, Lord of Vienna, who took up Armes, made himself Master of the Field, and Siezed that place into his hands in Re­venge of the injury of Villas Hermanos: the Car­dinal sent against him some Troops of the Militia [Page 138] then afoot under the command of Count Quig­nonio de Luna, with order to take the Rebel and bring him alive or dead. Another Courrier at the same time arrived from Charles, to inform him of a design of the Turks against Oran; For having set Sail from Flanders, the ninth of Sep­tember, 1517. he met with some Corsayres by the way, who informed him that an Army of Turks were upon their March to Oran: this obliged him to advertise the Cardinal, praying him to pro­vide for the safety of that place with all Diligence possible, as a Piece of great convenience for the Rendevouz of the Forces he designed to send to Africk, for extending Christianity unto those Pa­gan Countries. The Cardinal by the same Cour­rier assured him of his best care for preservation of Oran, commended his design, and advised him to pursue it; that of so many Monarks who in past Ages had worn the Crown of Spain, they only added a constant felicity to a long Reign who had laboured most in the propagation of Religi­on: But Oran for this time had only an appre­hension of the Turkish Armes: for the Moors of Africk, fearing the violences of the Turks, ob­structed their Passage, and defeated their Army.

In the mean time Charles after a happy Voyage came to Villadichosa in Spain, with the Princess Elenor his Sister, afterwards Queen of Portugal, and since that Queen of France by Marriage with Francis the first: He gave the Cardinal notice of his Arrival, and demanded his advice about his En­try into the Kingdom, that he might make it like a King, and be received of his people according [Page 139] to his desires and dignity. The Cardinal advised him to Receive courteously such as came to meet him, to compose his Countenance, and order his Discourse and Habit, suitable to the mode of Spain; to send his Brother Ferdinand into Ger­many, for that his presence in Spain was useless to his person, and might prove prejudicial to his Authority; that it concerned him to use his ut­most dexterity in executing this Resolution; to impute the cause to Maximilian his Grand-father, and to appear much displeased at the separation; the people of Spain having a passionate love for Ferdinand, as bred amongst them, and a perfect Spaniard in Language, behaviour and inclinati­ons: That he would not come to any resolution against the Sicilians, who had Massacred their Senators, till he had first weighed the Condition of his Exchequer, and the forces of his Kingdom. That he would advance further into Spain, and make haste to Madrid.

As to this last point, the Flemmings relished it not, but resolved to retain Charles in the remote parts of the Kingdom, till the Cardinal's death, which they were advised must shortly follow: they desired nothing less than that this man should come to speech with the King, apprehending a discovery of their rapines by his generous liberty and integrity to the King. But Charles received those Counsels, as lights for his Conduct, and sent an Express to convey his thanks, confessing himself much obliged by his cares, his prudence, and fidelity. The Cardinal by the same Envoy Returns Answer, That the services he had done [Page 140] him, were of duty; That he esteemed it his glory to have sustained the Envy of almost all the world in serving him; That the predominant passion of his soul was his desire to see his Majesty, and to put into his hands the Kingdom more sound and intire, than he had received it, at the beginning of his Administration.

All Spain went to meet their new King: the Constable Velasio was attended with seven hun­dred horse; the Council made haste to tender him their duty, and thinking they had no more to do with the Cardinal, now Charles was arrived in Spain, they took their journey without adver­tising the Cardinal. But he out went them by his Courriers, whom he sent to the King, desiring his Majesty not to suffer a disorder of so ill example in the State; that the Council the principal body of it should thus separate from their head, and intreating him to command them back to Aranda: Charles did so, commanding the Coun­cil to return the way they came, and go to the Cardinal; that it would be more acceptable to him to see them together with him. This put them in great disorder; for, having with them their Wives and Children, they could not return without much inconvenience: They sent to the Cardinal, entreated him he would be pleased to permit them to attend his Majesty in the place the Courrier found them. The Cardinal impa­tient of Contempt, and highly offended at the slight offered him, made no shew of Resentment, but resolved not to bate them a step of their re­turn to Aranda; answers them, That he was glad [Page 141] they were all in health, that they all knew how punctual he had alwayes been in causing the obe­dience due to the King to be exactly performed. And since his Majesty had advised them to re­turn to Aranda; it was his advice, They should obey him with all the diligence in their power. They, as they parted rashly, returned shamefully:

The respect due to a Minister of State is to be preserved even to Jealousie, as that that main­tains his Authority which Slights and neglects destroy.

At this arrival of the King in Spain, the people were much moved, and hotly demanded an Assembly of the States of the Realm. The Cardinal was of opinion it ought not to be granted so soon, but that the King must be first Received, and Affairs setled in a quiet Posture, saying, It was of great concernment that Kings at their coming to the Crown should be received of their people with extraordinary reverence as a matter of great importance to their Authority: This advice was slighted, but the neglect cost Spain dear. All the Kingdom was in trouble and the State in danger by the contests that arose about the place where the Estates should convene; at last it was agreed, the King should come to Valladolid for holding the Assembly.

There the envy of the Cardinal's enemies mustered all its force to affront his Person, and attacque his Authority. The harbingers of this great Minister having taken up a house for him, the Marshals of the Kings Lodgings, being Flemmings, set on by the Grandees, took it [Page 142] from them, and for reason told them, This Lodg­ing must be marked for Queen Germain; The Cardinal Jealous of his Authority, and impatient of Affronts, having discovered the practises of the Flemmings, disputed it with them, and carryed the Lodgings.

But he must shortly dislodge from the Court, and the world, though with the same honour he had lived there: the Flemmings enter into a Cab­bal, to outt him the Court. Mota Bishop of Badaos, a dignity he owed wholly to the Cardinal's favour, to please Xeures, the Kings favourite, (as the Spaniards say) and his own interest, advised Charles to remove the Cardinal from Court into his Diocess of Toledo. Charles who was no less obliged to the Cardinal than to him who gave him the Crown of Spain, forgot the services of this Grand Minister, followed Mota's advice, and by his inconstancy confirmed the Proverb, that Services of great ones are no inheritance; having sent a letter to the Cardinal the tenour whereof was this.

My Lord Cardinal, I hold on my journey by Jurdefillas; whereof I thought fit to advertise you, that you may come to M [...]jados the Bishop of Segorges House, where I desire to see you, and to receive your good Counsels, not only for the conduct of my Estate, but the ordering of my Family, which I will regulate according to your sage Advice. This is the last help I can receive of you in my Affairs; for, your long Services de­serve repose, and your Age requires it; and I grant it willingly, and advise you to retire to [Page 143] your house, to enjoy it with more pleasure. God alone can give you a just recompence for your long travels in the conduct of this King­dom; as for me I shall never forget them, and will ever pay you the respects due from a good natured Child to a careful and bounteous Fa­ther.

This Letter of dismission by the trouble it gave the Cardinal cast him into a Feaver which brought him to his Grave, though some Spa­nish Historians say, that the Courrier who car­ryed it, finding the Cardinal desperately sick de­livered it not, but that (the Feaver holding him eighteen hours after, whereas the Physicians advertised him, he could not live above six hours) he brought back the Letter to the Council, and delivered it to Adrian. Others write, that he received it on his death-bed, and called for pen, ink, and paper to answer it; but that, having written three or four Lines, his strength failed him, the pen dropt out of his hand, and he soon after breathed his last. These Lines, or piece of a Letter were never published, as if fate had been unwilling to discover to the world any thing imperfect to which this man had put his hand. Certain it is, the Cardinal perceiving he must shortly dye, made an End worthy his good life, Mustering up the force of his Spirit, in the weakness of his body, and discoursing piously and learnedly of the mercy of God, the incon­stancy of the World, and the Vanity of the Court; imbracing the Crucifix, bedewing his face with tears, he begged pardon from God for his [Page 144] sins, and having protested he had not laid out one Rial of the Revenues of his Benefices for the advancement of his Kindred, he received the Christian-Viaticum, the Holy Eucharist, repeating often those words of David, My God, in thee have I put my Trust, and went to enjoy in Hea­ven those Crowns which God gives them, who govern people with prudence, integrity, and piety. This happened on Sunday the ninth of November, 1517. in the 80th. year of his Age, having worn the Mytre of Toledo 22. years, and governed Spain, as many, under Ferdinand, Isabel, Joan, Philip and Charles: His body was interred in the Colledge of St. Idelphons in Alcala D' He­nares, which he had built; his Tomb of white Marble, and his Effigies of the same are to be seen at this day, with this Epitaph worthy his illu­strious Actions, which comprehends in short, both what he did before his Glorious Administra­tion, and his Acts in the State,

He was tall, and streight of Stature, of a seri­ous Look, carrying in his face natural Gravity, his voice was Masculine and firm, his Visage Long and Meagre, his forehead Large and with­out Wrinkles, midling eyes somewhat deep set [Page 145] in his head, but very lively; his Nose long and aquiline; his Teeth jutting out a little toward his Lipps, which gave the Courtiers occasion in Raillery to call him, The Elephant: a piece of Buffonnery wherein they spoke more truth than they were ware of; for an Elephant must he needs have been in strength, who carryed the weight of so many Affairs, and so great Crosses. Twen­ty eight years after his death, as they were digging the Grave his body lay in, they drew out his Bones, and his Head, once the Palace of the greatest Judgement that ever appeared in Spain, the Scull whereof was all of a piece, without Suture, the mark of a strong Brain; but withal the cause of the continual Head-aches he was subject to, by the vapours wanting vent.

This is the Pourtrait of his body: that of his mind is already drawn in those many illustrious Actions, and sage Counsels it produced: yet like the Painters finishing Touches, we'll add some observations to the body of our past Story. He expressed himself in few words, but handsome and very significant, his Answers were clear and very intelligible; and when he discoursed of any business, he never went from the point; his En­tertainments were serious, saying often with the Roman Orator, We were not born to trifle away time, in sports and playes, but to imploy our selves in serious Matters and Affairs of Weight. His Study was his Pleasure; and Discourses of Divinity his Recreations after Meat.

True it is Melancholy was his, as most great mens predominant humour: but when it troubled him, [Page 146] he retired from business, and appeared not to any but his most intimate Familiars. This disco­vered it self in some notable passages of his life, as the Baptizing the Moors of Granada, with the Laver, and his design to Conquer Africk. What he had once resolved on, he executed with incre­dible promptitude: Salust had taught him that lesson which he would often repeat, That nimble Execution ought to tread on the heels of delibe­rate Resolutions. No man more impatient of contempt and slights offered against his Authori­ty, none more apt to endure Liberty of Speech.

A Priest of Osma desired of him a Judge extra­ordinary to determine a suit he had depending, and pressed him earnestly, as the chief of the Council, to grant it; the Cardinal answered, The ordinary Judges should do him right, that he must content himself with them, and abide sa­tisfied with their Decree, that he knew not where to find better in all the Cities of Spain. Is it possible (said the Priest) that the pittiful Burrough of Torrelagine should give a Primate to all Spain, and so many Cities not afford a compe­tent Judge for a small suit? The Cardinal find­ing him so free in his expression, thought he had belonged to some Grandee, who had set him on to speak these words, and asked him, Who was his Master? My self, said the Priest, and I be, no other: You say well, replyed the Cardinal, you cannot have a better; and having given a Judge as desired, dismissed him. Contrera a Spanish Priest Preached one day before the Cardinal, and, with more Zeal than Discretion, inveighed [Page 147] against Rich Habits, not considering how ne­cessary they are to procure Reverence from the people to persons in Authority and Eminent Dig­nity; and turning to the Cardinal, he reproved him in the face of the Congregation for wearing a Robe lined with rich Furrs. The Cardinal took this Reprimande very patiently, and after Sermon invited the Preacher to Dinner, and commended his Sermon. Some write that af­ter Sermon he took the Preacher aside into the Vestry, and having opened his Bosome, shewed him a hair Cloth under his Robe; but I dare not affirm it, lest I seem to condemn the most solid Judgement of that Age, of Levity. Time was one of the things most in his Esteem, and knowing that the Loss of it was irreparable, he was a very niggard of it, and loath to lose a moment: he was alwayes Trimmed by Night, for fear of spending any part of the day on the necessities of his person, which might be di­spatched another time. And as he was Trimmed, it was his course to have some serious Book Read to him. He took an ineffable delight to bestow Benefices in his Gift, on persons Capable, who sought them not, nor knew of the Vacan­cies; and severely rejected such as begged them of him, as failing in the respects due to his person. The way to miss a promotion from him, was to begg it of him. One of his Al­moners had advice of a Vacancy very conveni­ent for him; and, knowing that if he moved not the Cardinal for it, he might bestow it on one he never thought of; and that to begg it, [Page 148] was to lose it; he presented himself to his Master, and bespoke him thus: My Lord, such a Benefice is void, To desire it of you, were to violate your Laws, and the prohibitions you have made in that behalf, which I will never do, nor came I to that purpose, but humbly to crave your Directions how to obtain it. The Car­dinal liked his address, and answered, You shall have it with a good will, get the Writings dispatched, and the Benefice will be yours; and instantly commanded his Secretary to provide them.

But as he was severe in rejecting the impor­tunate requests of his Domesticks, he was no less ready to acknowledge their Services, but would have his favours prevent their demands, to engage them with more grace, and strong­er obligation. 'Tis observed of this great Minister, that never Man served him in or out of his Family, who was not largely Re­warded. God made man Free-born: Fortune hath Robbed him of that Liberty, by reduce­ing him under Servitude of great Ones, who are guilty of Ravishing from him, what is most precious, his Liberty, and his Time; un­less they restore them the fruits of the one, and the other by way of recompence in ample rewards, which alone can repair the loss of this letter, being otherwise irrecoverable.

The Cardinal was apt to resent Injuries, and Affronts, but no man more thankful for Pleasures done him, which he never forgot. Brunet the Spaniard, mentioned in the begin­ning [Page] of this Story who assisted him in his Voy­age to Rome when the Robbers had left him only his Tongue to begg, is a pregnant In­stance: this man came to see him in the time of his greatness. The Honours, the familiarity, and intimate privacy the Cardinal afforded him, put the Court into Admiration. No per­son in Spain, the King only excepted, having received so much respect from him: He labour­ed to retain him neer himself, he sent him pre­sents, promised him what entertainment, offer­ed him what preferment he pleased, courted his acceptance of Bishopricks, and great Offices; [...]or raising his Fortune: But Brunet, who pre­ [...]erred the repose of a mean Condition, before [...]he troubles of the great dignities of the World, [...]aving thanked the Cardinal for the honours he [...]id him, the offers and promises made him, [...]etyred home to enjoy there that tranquillity he [...]esired, in those conveniencies whereof he had [...]fficient to satisfie him.

Monsieur Xeures, who envyed the Reputation [...]f this great Minister, and feared his liberty of [...]peech to King Charles against him; and after him, [...]e Cardinal Granvel, on consideration of the [...]randeur of his Actions, averr the Cardinal [...]ued of Royal-blood, though Time, which no [...]ss Conceals, than Discovers the best of things [...]th hid his Extraction, it being in their Opini­ [...] impossible a Private man should be capable of [...] great things, unless he had in him the Seeds of [...]ose vertues which are proper to Monarks, [...]d were descended of mighty Potentates. [Page] But such was the life, and such were the Actions of Francis Ximenes, surnamed, for the effects of his prudence, The Cardinal of Spain, whose Counsels are to this day observed in that Kingdom, and his Vertues serve the World for Directions in the Conduct of State. For if the Pourtraicts of great Persons have the property to make the spe­ctators to imitate their qualities, their Vertues are excellent guides to lead us aright by their il­lustrious splendour in the wayes of this World.