CISNEROS, FRANCIS XIMENEZ DE (by the Spaniards generally called Cardinal Cisneros; but in biographical and other works he goes under the name of Ximenez), a celebrated statesman and patron of literature, a cardinal and primate of Spain, was born in 1437 at Torre laguna. In New Castile. He studied at a school at Alcala de Henares and at the university of Salamanca, and afterwards went to Rome, where he acquired such reputation, that Sixtus IV. promised him the first vacant prebend in the cathedral of Toledo; but the Archbishop of Toledo, vexed at this inroad on hie patronage, and at the firmness with which Cisneros demanded it as his right, threw him into a dungeon. Being releneed at the end of six years, Cisneros went to 3inmenza, where Cardinal Mendoza appointed him his grand vicar. In 1482, abandoning his brilliant prospects, he embraced the Franciscan rule. In 1492 Queen Isabella took him for her confessor, and in 1495 nominated him Archbishop of Toledo. This honour he declined with s firmness which nothing but the commands of the pope could over come. In this exalted station he retained all his monastic severity.
He constantly wore under the pontifical robes the coarse frock of St. Francis. In his travels he always endeavoured to lodge at some convent of his order, and he conformed to all the rules like an ordinary member. He set apart half of his enormous revenue (at that time amounting to 200,000 ducats) for the relief of the necessitous ; and he made a daily distribution of provisions to thirty poor. He also expended considerable sums in the ransom of captives.
In 1498 Cisneros founded the University of Alcala de Henarea, in which he provided for poor students, appointed a fund for prizes, and invited distinguished men from Paris, Bologna, Salamanca, and Valla dolid. He instituted also a seminary for young ladies of respectable families who were destitute of fortune. Adjoining it he established a nunnery for those among them who chose to retire from the world : to the rest he allotted portions, and disposed of them in marriage suitably to their condition.
In 1502 he undertook, assisted by emineut scholars, his Compluten sian Polyglot, the type and the model of all subsequent ones. He sent to every quarter for manuscripts, and Leo X. obliged him with a
communication of what he possessed. He collected seven copies in Hebrew at the expense of 4000 ducats, besides procuring from Rome a Greek manuscript, and from other quarters many Latin manuscripts: not a single manuscript of this collection was of less antiquity than 800 years. The whole charge of the undertaking, which was com pleted in fifteen years, amounted to the immense sum of 50,000 ducats.
On the death of Queen Isabella in 1504, as all parties strove to attach Cisneros to their interest, he became the arbitrator between King Ferdinand and the Archduke Philip, the husband of Joanna, heiress of the crown. On the death of Philip, two years after, Cisneros was appointed regent on account of the incapacity of Joanna and the absence of Ferdinand. This was a critical moment for him, but his prudence overcame all difficulties, and kept all parties in check. He levied troops at the public expense, totally independent of the grandees, from whole hands he succeeded at last in rescuing the crown. He thus began, perhaps unconsciously, to vindicate the rights of the people against the nobility in Europe. By the feudal system, the military power was lodged in the hands of the nobles, and men of inferior condition were called into the field as their vassals. A king with scanty revenues therefore depended on them in all his operations. In 1507 Julius IL gave Cisneros the cardinal's hat. In 1508 the septuagenarian cardinal set off from Malaga at the head of 10,000 foot and 4000 horse for the conquest of on the coast of Africa, which he added to the Spanish dominions at his own expense.
When Leo X., in order to raise money to complete the church of St. Peter, proposed to sell dispensations, Cisneros opposed the intro duction of the pope's bulls into his diocese. On another occasion, as a primate of Spain, he prevailed on the king to exclude all bulls but what had received the sanction of the royal council; and ever since that time this salutary advice has been acted upon in Spain. At another time he opposed a claim of the same pope to the tenth of ecclesiastical benefices, and obliged him to be content with a tax of a tenth upon the clergy of the States of the Church.