The History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Volume III Part 26

[29] Navagiero says, it was prescribed the lectures should be in Latin.

Viaggio, fol. 7.--Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. 16.

Of these professors.h.i.+ps, six were appropriated to theology; six to canon law; four to medicine; one to anatomy; one to surgery; eight to the arts, as they were called, embracing logic, physics, and metaphysics; one to ethics; one to mathematics; four to the ancient languages; four to rhetoric; and six to grammar. One is struck with the disproportion of the mathematical studies to the rest. Though an important part of general education, and consequently of the course embraced in most universities, it had too little reference to a religious one, to find much favor with the cardinal.

[30] Lampillas, in his usual patriotic vein, stoutly maintains that the chairs of the university were all supplied by native Spaniards. "Trovo in Spagna," he says of the cardinal, "tutta quella scelta copia di grandi uomini, quali richiedeva la grande impresa," etc. (Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. i, part. 2, p. 160.) Alvaro Gomez, who flourished two centuries earlier, and personally knew the professors, is the better authority. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 80-82.

[31] L. Marineo, Cosas Memorables, fol. 13.

Alvaro Gomez knew several of these _savans_ whose scholars.h.i.+p (and he was a competent judge) he notices with liberal panegyric. De Rebus Gestis, fol. 80 et seq.

[32] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.

[33] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 86.

The reader will readily call to mind the familiar anecdote of King Charles and Dr. Busby.

[34] "Alcala de Henares," says Martyr in one of his early letters, "quae dicitur esse Complutum. Sit, vel ne, nil mihi curae." (Opus Epist., epist.

254.) These irreverent doubts were uttered before it had gained its literary celebrity. L. Marineo derives the name _Complutum_ from the abundant fruitfulness of the soil,--"c.u.mplumiento que tiene de cada cosa."

Cosas Memorables, fol. 13.

[35] Ximenes acknowledges his obligations to his Holiness, in particular for the Greek MSS. "Atque ex ipsis [exemplaribus] quidem Graeca Sanct.i.tati tuae debemus; qui ex ista Apostolica bibliotheca antiquissimos tam Veteris quam Novi codices perquam humane ad nos misisti." Biblia Polyglotta, (Compluti, 1514-17,) Prologo.

[36] "Maximam," says the cardinal in his Preface, "laboris nostri partem in eo praecipue fuisse versatam; ut et virorum in linguarum cognitione eminentissimorum opera uteremur, et castigatissima omni ex parte vetustissimaque exemplaria pro archetypis haberemus; quorum quidem, tam Hebraeorum quam Graecorum ac Latinorum, multiplicem copiam, variis ex locis, non sine summo labore conquisivimus." Biblia Polyglotta, Compluti, Prologo.

[37] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 39.--Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.

[38] Martyr speaks of Ximenes, in one of his epistles, as "doctrina singulari oppletum." (Opus Epist., epist. 108.) He speaks with more distrust in another; "Aiunt esse virum, _si non literis_, morum taraen sanct.i.tate egregium." (Epist. 160.) This was written some years later, when he had better knowledge of him.

[39] Quintanilla, Archetype, lib. 3, cap. lo.--Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 38.

The scholars employed in the compilation were the venerable Lebrija, the learned Nunez, or Pinciano, of whom the reader has had some account, Lopez de Zuniga, a controversialist of Erasmus, Bartholomeo de Castro, the famous Greek Demetrius Cretensis, and Juan de Vergara;--all thorough linguists, especially in the Greek and Latin. To these were joined Paulo Coronel, Alfonso a physician, and Alfonso Zamora, converted Jews, and familiar with the Oriental languages. Zamora has the merit of the philological compilations relative to the Hebrew and Chaldaic, in the last volume, lidem auct. ut supra; et Suma de la Vida de Cisneros, MS.

[40] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 10.

[41] The work was originally put at the extremely low price of six ducats and a half a copy. (Biblia Polyglotta Compluti, Praefix.) As only 600 copies, however, were struck off, it has become exceedingly rare and valuable. According to Brunei, it has been sold as high as 63.

[42] "Industria et solertia honorabilis viri Arnaldi Guillelmi de Brocario, artis impressoris Magistri. Anno Domini 1517. Julii die decimo."

Biblia Polyglotta Compluti. Postscript to 4th and last part of Vetus Test.

[43] Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 38. The part devoted to the Old Testament contains the Hebrew original with the Latin Vulgate, the Septuagint version, and the Chaldaic paraphrase, with Latin translations by the Spanish scholars. The New Testament was printed in the original Greek, with the Vulgate of Jerome. After the completion of this work, the cardinal projected an edition of Aristotle on the same scale, which was unfortunately defeated by his death. Ibid., fol. 39.

[44] The princ.i.p.al controversy on this subject was carried on in Germany between Wetstein and Goeze; the former impugning, the latter defending the Complutensian Bible. The cautious and candid Michaelis, whose prepossessions appear to have been on the side of Goeze, decides ultimately, after his own examination, in favor of Wetstein, as regards the value of the MSS. employed; not however as relates to the grave charge of wilfully accommodating the Greek text to the Vulgate. See the grounds and merits of the controversy, apud Michaelis, Introduction to the New Testament, translated by Marsh, vol. ii. part 1, chap. 12, sec. 1; part 2, notes.

[45] Professor Moldenhauer, of Germany, visited Alcala in 1784, for the interesting purpose of examining the MSS. used in the Complutensian Polyglot. He there learned that they had all been disposed of, as so much waste paper, (_membranas inutiles_) by the librarian of that time to a rocket-maker of the town, who soon worked them up in the regular way of his vocation! He a.s.signs no reason for doubting the truth of the story.

The name of the librarian, unfortunately, is not recorded. It would have been as imperishable as that of Omar. Marsh's Michaelis, vol. ii. part l, chap. 12, sec. 1, note.

[46] The celebrated text of "the three witnesses," formerly cited in the Trinitarian controversy, and which Porson so completely overturned, rests in part on what Gibbon calls "the honest bigotry of the Complutensian editors." One of the three Greek ma.n.u.scripts, in which that text is found, is a forgery from the Polyglot of Alcala, according to Mr. Norton, in his recent work, "The Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels," (Boston, 1837, vol. i. Additional Notes, p. x.x.xix.),--a work which few can be fully competent to criticize, but which no person can peruse without confessing the acuteness and strength of its reasoning, the nice discrimination of its criticism, and the precision and purity of its diction. Whatever difference of opinion may be formed as to some of its conclusions, no one will deny that the originality and importance of its views make it a substantial accession to theological science; and that, within the range permitted by the subject, it presents, on the whole, one of the n.o.blest specimens of scholars.h.i.+p, and elegance of composition, to be found in our youthful literature.

[47] "Accedit," says the editors of the Polyglot, adverting to the blunders of early transcribers, "ubicunque Latinorum codic.u.m varietas est, aut depravatae lectionis suspitio (id quod librariorum imperitia simul et negligentia frequentissime accidere videmus), ad primam Scriptunae originem recurrendum est." Biblia Polyglotta, Compluti, Prologo.

[48] Tiraboschi adduces a Psalter, published in four of the ancient tongues, at Genoa, in 1516, as the first essay of a polyglot version.

(Letteratura Italiana, tom. viii. p. 191.) Lampillas does not fail to add this enormity to the black catalogue which he has mustered against the librarian of Modena. (Letteratura Spagnuola, tom. ii. part. 2, p. 290.) The first three volumes of the Complutensian Bible were printed before 1516, although the whole work did not pa.s.s the press till the following year.

[49] Quintanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.--Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., dial. de Ximeni.

Ferdinand and Isabella conceded liberal grants and immunities to Alcala on more than one occasion. Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, fol. 43, 45.

[50] Erasmus, in a letter to his friend Vergara, in 1527, perpetrates a Greek pun on the cla.s.sic name of Alcala, intimating the highest opinion of the state of science there. "Gratulor tibi, ornatissime adolescens, gratulor vestrae Hispaniae ad pristinam eruditionis laudem veluti postliminio reflorescenti. Gratulor Compluto, quod duorum praesulum Francisci et Alfonsi felicibus auspiciis sic efflorescit omni genere studiorum, ut jure optimo _pamplouton_ appellare possimus." Epistolae, p.

771.

[51] Quintanilla is for pa.s.sing the sum total of the good works of these worthies of Alcala to the credit of its founder. They might serve as a makeweight to turn the scale in favor of his beatification. Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17.

CHAPTER XXII.

WARS AND POLITICS OF ITALY. 1508-1513.

League of Cambray.--Alarm of Ferdinand.--Holy League.--Battle of Ravenna.

--Death of Gaston de Foix.--Retreat of the French.--The Spaniards Victorious.

The domestic history of Spain, after Ferdinand's resumption of the regency, contains few remarkable events. Its foreign relations were more important. Those with Africa have been already noticed, and we must now turn to Italy and Navarre.

The possession of Naples necessarily brought Ferdinand within the sphere of Italian politics. He showed little disposition, however, to avail himself of it for the further extension of his conquests. Gonsalvo, indeed, during his administration, meditated various schemes for the overthrow of the French power in Italy, but with a view rather to the preservation than enlargement of his present acquisitions. After the treaty with Louis the Twelfth, even these designs were abandoned, and the Catholic monarch seemed wholly occupied with the internal affairs of his kingdom, and the establishment of his rising empire in Africa. [1]

The craving appet.i.te of Louis the Twelfth, on the other hand, sharpened by the loss of Naples, sought to indemnify itself by more ample acquisitions in the north. As far back as 1504, he had arranged a plan with the emperor, for the part.i.tion of the continental possessions of Venice, introducing it into one of those abortive treaties at Blois for the marriage of his daughter. [2] The scheme is said to have been communicated to Ferdinand in the royal interview at Savona. No immediate action followed, and it seems probable that the latter monarch, with his usual circ.u.mspection, reserved his decision until he should be more clearly satisfied of the advantages to himself. [3]

At length the projected part.i.tion was definitely settled by the celebrated treaty of Cambray, December 10th, 1508, between Louis the Twelfth and the emperor Maximilian, in which the pope, King Ferdinand, and all princes who had any claims for spoliations by the Venetians, were invited to take part. The share of the spoil a.s.signed to the Catholic monarch was the five Neapolitan cities, Trani, Brindisi, Gallipoli, Pulignano, and Otranto, pledged to Venice for considerable sums advanced by her during the late war. [4] The Spanish court, and, not long after, Julius the Second, ratified the treaty, although it was in direct contravention of the avowed purpose of the pontiff to chase the _barbarians_ from Italy. It was his bold policy, however, to make use of them first for the aggrandizement of the church, and then to trust to his augmented strength and more favorable opportunities for eradicating them altogether.

Never was there a project more dest.i.tute of principle or sound policy.

There was not one of the contracting parties, who was not at that very time in close alliance with the state, the dismemberment of which he was plotting. As a matter of policy, it went to break down the princ.i.p.al barrier, on which each of these powers could rely for keeping in check the overweening ambition of its neighbors, and maintaining the balance of Italy. [5] The alarm of Venice was quieted for a time by a.s.surances from the courts of France and Spain, that the league was solely directed against the Turks, accompanied by the most hypocritical professions of good-will, and amicable offers to the republic. [6]

The preamble of the treaty declares, that, it being the intention of the allies to support the pope in a crusade against the infidel, they first proposed to recover from Venice the territories of which she had despoiled the church and other powers, to the manifest hindrance of these pious designs. The more flagitious the meditated enterprise, the deeper was the veil of hypocrisy thrown over it in this corrupt age. The true reasons for the confederacy are to be found in a speech delivered at the German diet, some time after, by the French minister Helian. "We," he remarks, after enumerating various enormities of the republic, "we wear no fine purple; feast from no sumptuous services of plate; have no coffers overflowing with gold. We are barbarians. Surely," he continues in another place, "if it is derogatory to princes to act the part of merchants, it is unbecoming in merchants to a.s.sume the state of princes." [7] This, then, was the true key to the conspiracy against Venice; envy of her superior wealth and magnificence, hatred engendered by her too arrogant bearing, and lastly the evil eye, with which kings naturally regard the movements of an active, aspiring republic. [8]

To secure the co-operation of Florence, the kings of France and Spain agreed to withdraw their protection from Pisa, for a stipulated sum of money. There is nothing in the whole history of the merchant princes of Venice so mercenary and base, as this bartering away for gold the independence, for which this little republic had been so n.o.bly contending for more than fourteen years. [9]

Early in April, 1509, Louis the Twelfth crossed the Alps at the head of a force which bore down all opposition. City and castle fell before him, and his demeanor to the vanquished, over whom he had no rights beyond the ordinary ones of war, was that of an incensed master taking vengeance on his rebellious va.s.sals. In revenge for his detention before Peschiera, he hung the Venetian governor and his son from the battlements. This was an outrage on the laws of chivalry, which, however hard they bore on the peasant, respected those of high degree. Louis's rank, and his heart it seems, unhappily, raised him equally above sympathy with either cla.s.s.

[10]

On the 14th of May was fought the b.l.o.o.d.y battle of Agnadel, which broke the power of Venice, and at once decided the fate of the war. [11]

Ferdinand had contributed nothing to these operations, except by his diversion on the side of Naples, where he possessed himself without difficulty of the cities allotted to his share. They were the cheapest, and if not the most valuable, were the most permanent acquisitions of the war, being reincorporated in the monarchy of Naples.

Then followed the memorable decree, by which Venice released her continental provinces from their allegiance, authorizing them to provide in any way they could for their safety; a measure, which, whether originating in panic or policy, was perfectly consonant with the latter.

[12] The confederates, who had remained united during the chase, soon quarrelled over the division of the spoil. Ancient jealousies revived. The republic, with cool and consummate diplomacy, availed herself of this state of feeling.

Pope Julius, who had gained all that he had proposed, and was satisfied with the humiliation of Venice, now felt all his former antipathies and distrust of the French return in full force. The rising flame was diligently fanned by the artful emissaries of the republic, who at length effected a reconciliation on her behalf with the haughty pontiff. The latter, having taken this direction, went forward in it with his usual impetuosity. He planned a new coalition for the expulsion of the French, calling on the other allies to take part in it. Louis retaliated by summoning a council to inquire into the pope's conduct, and by marching his troops into the territories of the church. [13]