XIMENES, zi-me'riez Sp. he-sni'ruis. or JIMENES (or XIMENES) DE CISNEROS, Francisco, Spanish ecclesiastic, prime minister and regent: b. Torrelaguna, Castile, 1436; d. Roa, near Valladolid. 8 Nov. 1517. Ile was graduated in civil and canon law at Sala manca in 1456, became a priest and going to Rome practised in the courts of the consist ney 1459-45. He obtained a papal bull, which secured to him the first vacant benefice in Spain, but the archbishop of Toledo refused to give him any place, and, Ximencs having talon possession of a vacant benefice, the arch bishop caused him to he imprisoned. Ximencs, nevertheless, recovered his freedom and the Cardinal Gonzalez Mendoza, bishop of Sign enca, appointed hint his grand-vicar. He en tered the Franciscan order in 1482, and for several years practised the most rigid asceti cism. In 1492 he became confessor to Queen Isabella of Castile, to whose notice he had been recommended by Cardinal Mendoza, and in 1495 was made archbishop of Toledo. He did not accept this dignity till after many refusals, and an express command from the Pope. As an archbishop he was very zealous, behaving as a father toward the poor, abolish ing a multitude of abuses, and adhering stead fastly to his resolution that public offices should he filled with honorable and well-quali fied men. In spite of all opposition he effected a reform in the mendicant orders of Spain, founded in 1499 a university at Alcala de Henares, and undertook in 1502 the Complu tensian Polyglot Bible. His activity was also displayed in other ways. Dissensions pre vailed in the royal family. Philip.of Austria, son of the Emperor Maximilian I, had mar ried Joanna. the only daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and on the death of the latter Philip received Castile, in right of his wife, the sole heiress of her mother. This gave rise to disputes between him and his father-in-law, which were composed by Ximenez. After Philip's death (1506) Ferdinand became regent of Castile for his grandson, afterward the peror Charles V, who was a minor. On this
occasion he had been much assisted by Ximenez, who in 1507 was made cardinal and grand-inquisitor of Spain. The con version of the Moors now particularly occupied his attention. With this view he formed the project of passing over to Africa, in order to take the fortress of Oran, and in May 1506, landed on the coast of Africa. A batik soon followed in the neighborhood of Oran, in which the Moors were defeated. The fortress was immediately taken and the garri son put to the sword. Ximencs caused Oran to be fortified anew, changed the mosques into churches, and returned as a conqueror to Spain. When Ferdinand died in 1516, his grandson Charles being still a minor, Ximenes became regent of Spain and during his re gency of two years brought the finances into paid the crown debts and restored the domains which had been alienated, caused the laws to he observed, and placed the Spanish military force upon a respectable footing. Consult Flechier, ' Nistoire du Cardinal Ximenes' ( 1693) ; ' Der Kai-dotal Ximens' (1844; English trans 186)); Bar rett, 'Life of Cardinal Ximencs' (1813); Prescott. 'Ferdinand and Isabella' (1838); 'Life,' by Ulrich (1883).
XIIIiNEZ DE QUESADA, chi ka sa thi, Gonzalo, Spanish explorer and conqueror: b. Granada, about 1498; d. Mariquita, sew Gran ada 16 Feb. 1579. He came to America in 1535 as a judicial functionary in the suite of Pedro Fernandez de Lugo, governor of the province of Santa Marta, who choose him to head an expedition against the Chibchas. supposed to number more than 2,000,000 souls, on the great plains of Tunja and Bogota. and the neighboring regions about the head-waters of the river Magdalena. He set out 6 April 1536 from Santa Marta, but at the end of eight months had made no more than 450 miles. After great hardships the expedition reached the mountains and in the following March progress was resumed.