XIMENES, FRANCIS DE CISNEROS, by which latter name he is commonly called in Spain, the well-known statesman, archbishop, and cardinal, was born of a humble family at Torrelaguna, in Castile, in 1437. He was educated at Alcalit de Henares, Sala manca, and finally Rome, where he obtained from the pope a provisional or prospective nomination to a prebend in the cathedral of Toledo. The archbishop, resisting the papal claim of "provisor," refused to admit Ximenes; and on his persisting in his claim, pat him in prison, where be was detained for a long period. On his release, he was named vicar-general of cardinal Mendoza at Siguelica; but he gave up this preferment, and entered the Franciscan order in 1482. His reputation for piety and learning, led the queen, Isabella, to choose him, in 1492, for her confessor; and three years afterward, to name him archbishop of Toledo—a dignity which he refused to accept until he received an express command from the pope. Having yielded in the end, he continued as archbishop the life of mortification and austerity which he had practised in his mon astery; and he applied to purposes of religion, charity, and public utility the whole of the princely revenues of his see. As confessor and confidential adviser of the queen, Ximenes, during the lifetime of Isabella, was the guiding spirit of Spanish affairs; and on her death in 1504 he held the balance between the parties of Ferdinand and Philip of Burgundy, husband of Joanna, the heiress of the crown. On the death of Philip in 1506, Ximenes was appointed regent, in consequence of the incapacity of Joanna and the absence of Ferdinand, and conducted the affairs of the kingdom through a most critical time with consummate skill and success. In 1507 ho was created cardinal; and in the following year he organized, at his own expense, and himself accompanied as commander, the celebrated expedition, consisting of 10,000 foot and 4,000 horse, for the conquest of Oran, on the African coast. Ferdinand died in Jan., 1516, and on his deathbed named Ximenes regent of Spain till the arrival of his grandson Charles; and although the grandees had organized an opposition as well to himself as to the royal authority, Ximenes, by his prompt and able dispositions, overawed them into submis sion; and subsequently, by the same exercise of vigor and determination, quelled the incipient revolt of Navarre. In order to the better consolidation of the royal authority in Spain, Ximenes urged very strongly the speedy visit of Charles, who still lingered in his Flemish principality; but it was not till after the lapse of a year and a half that the king decided on his journey; and meanwhile the enemies of Ximenes had so worked upon his jealousy and pride, that he took the ungracious and ungrateful course of dis missing his faithful, but, as he feared, too powerful servant. Ximenes had set out to meet the king, and although laboring under great infirmities, continued to prosecute his journey, when he was seized with a mortal illness at Branguillas, near Aranda de Duero, where he died, Nov. 6, 1517.
As a statesman and administrator, the reputation of cardinal Ximenes is deservedly of the very highest. The social and political revolution which he effected in breaking down the feudal power of the nobles has often been compared with the analogous change wrought in France by Richelieu. But the revolution of Ximenes was, at least in its results, rather in the interest of the people than, like that of cardinal Richelieu, of the crown; and while it freed the sovereign from the unworthy position of dependence on the nobility, it established the municipalities and the communal representatives in the enjoyment of certain well-defined and undoubtedly substantial privileges and immuni ties. His munificence as a patron of religion, of letters, and of art, has been the theme of praise in every history of his time. The university of Alcalti de Henares, which he planned, organized, erected, and endowed, was a marvel of enlightened munificence in such an age, and may compare advantageously with even the most princely foundations of the most enlightened times. His Complutensian Polyglot (q.v.), besides being the first of its class, was, considering the resources of the period, perhaps the grandest in con ception among the projects of its own order; and the perseverance with which, during the long period of fifteen years devoted to its preparation, he watched and directed its progress, Is an evidence that it originated from a genuine love of sacred learning, rather than a passing impulse of literary enthusiasm. The cost of this gigantic undertaking amounted, on the whole, to 80,000 ducats. His expenditure on churches, hospitals, schools, convents, and other works of religion and benevolence, was on a scale of corre sponding munificence. He maintained thirty poor persons daily at his own cost, and he regularly set apart one half of his income to the uses of charity.—See Hefele's .Der Car dinal Ximenes and die kireldichen Zustande Spaniens (Tubingen, 1851); Prescott's Ferdi nand and Isabella.
XYLOrDIN is a substance which is precipitated in the form of a white powder, insolu ble in water, alcohol, and ether, when water is freely added to a solution of starch in cold nitric acid. Its composition is not determined with positive certainty, but it is probably starch, in which either one or two atoms of hydrogen are replaced by a corresponding number of atoms of peroxide of nitrogeu, NO.. According to prof. Miller, there is a substitution of two atoms, so that the formula representing xyloidin is I1 Ci,B(N04)101c, It explodes when sharply struck, and burns with violence at By the action of reducing agents, it is again converted into starch.