XIMENES DE CISNEROS, FRANCISCO

   cardinal and statesman, born in Castile, of a poor but noble family; studied at Salamanca and went to Rome, where he gained favour with the Pope, who appointed him to the first vacant ecclesiastical preferment in Spain, as the result of which he in 1495 became archbishop of Toledo, but not till he was 60 years of age; in 10 years after this he became regent of Spain, and conducted the affairs of the kingdom with consummate ability. He was a severe man, and he was careful to promote what he considered the best and highest interests of the nation; but he was narrow-minded, and did often more harm than good; he was intolerant of heresy such as the Church deemed it to be, and contrived by his policy to confer more than sovereign rights upon the crown. He was to Spain pretty much what Richelieu was to France.