GONZALES XIMENES DE CISNEROS, Primate and Regent of Spain, was born at Tordelaguna, in Castile, in 1437. He was descended of an ancient family, long settled at Cisneros in the kingdom of Leon, and was baptized Gonzales after an ancestor who was one of the most renowned knights of his day: the name of Francis, by which he is commonly known, he assumed in after-life, in honour of the saint whose monastic rule he embraced. But though he was of honourable descent, neither rank nor wealth were steppingstones to his preferment. His father supported a large family upon the income of his humble office of collector of tenths, payable to the king by the clergy: but his own studious disposition, and the facilities then afforded by the universities to poor scholars, raised him out of the obscurity in which his lot appeared to be cast. At the schools of Alcala, and at the University of Salamanca, he studied philosophy, theology, canon and civil law; and his proficiency soon enabled him to support himself, by teaching others. Having completed his education he undertook a journey to Rome, hoping there to find a readier field for the exercise of his talents than at home. Poor and friendless, he maintained himself by pleading in the Spanish causes which came before the Court of the Consistory; and he was already rising into eminence, when, hearing of his father's death, and the distress of his family, he abandoned his flattering prospects and returned to Spain.

It appears that he had taken holy orders during his abode at Rome, for before his departure Sixtus IV. bestowed on him a reversionary grant of the first benefice which should fall vacant. This proved to be Uceda; and he immediately produced his letters and took possession. The Archbishop of Toledo, who had already promised the living, was highly offended at this exercise of what in. truth was a most objectionable prerogative of the Holy See. He not

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only dispossessed, but imprisoned for six years, Ximenes, who remained firm in the assertion of his rights. At the end of that time the prelate yielded. Ximenes soon exchanged Uceda for a chaplaincy in the cathedral of Siguenza. Here he applied himself to the pursuit of theology, and laid the foundation of that Hebrew and Chaldaic learning which bore such noble fruit in after-life. He gained the warm friendship of his bishop, the Cardinal Mendoza, who, in 1483, appointed him grand vicar of the diocese. In that office he distinguished himself by integrity and talents for business, as he had before by piety and learning. And the fairest prospect of advancement was open to him, when all at once he resolved to quit the world, and to devote himself wholly to religious meditation.

He embraced the strictest rule of the Franciscan order, with a zeal to which the general example of his brethren gave no countenance. He retired to the secluded monasteries of Castagnar and Salceda, and in the forests which surrounded them, devoted himself wholly to prayer, the study of the Scriptures, and the mortification of the flesh. He thus gained the reputation of uncommon sanctity, and there seems to be no reason to think that his asceticism was defiled by any trace of hypocrisy. But his friend the Cardinal saw that he was fitted for still better things, and regretting his departure from active life, expressed a belief that he would ultimately be raised to much higher dignity, to the great advantage of the Church. And, in truth, the Cardinal, who had been raised from the see of Siguenza to the primacy of Spain, the Archbishopric of Toledo, did much to fulfil his own prediction. He introduced Ximenes to the Queen Isabella, who was then in want of a confessor, and she readily listened to his recommendation, and appointed Ximenes to the vacant office. He would fain have declined it, urging that he had been called to the cloister from active life to attend to his own salvation; that what was demanded would withdraw him from his proper vocation; and that a sovereign above all persons needed a religious guide, not only of good intentions, but of experience and wisdom. The Queen smiled as she assured him, that if he had formerly been directed to solitude, he was now summoned to court, and that if he would take charge of her conscience, she would be answerable for having chosen him to do so. And he consented, on condition that he should be required to attend her only when called by the duties of his office. This was in 1492. The austerity of his life and the wildness of his aspect caused him, when he appeared, to be compared