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Article THE LIFE OF XIMENES, ARCHBISHOP OF TOLEDO. ← Page 11 of 12 →
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The Life Of Ximenes, Archbishop Of Toledo.
with which the church was particularly afflicted . Scarcety was there a city or province , that was not depopulated by this visitation . The Monks , to appease the divine wrath , made at first processions : some , through charity , assisted the people , and administered to them the sacrament ; but the most zealous dying , and the contagion beginning to rage in the cloysters , each one sought for safety in the most unfrequented retreats . Those , whom this misfortune had dispersed ,
accustomed to live without authority , could no more subject themselves to discipline . By intercourse with seculars , the spirit of prayer and retirement , the links of regularity , were entirely lost . To shelter themselves from the necessity to which they were reduced , they acquired estates ; and because the monasteries were deserted , to repair this loss , they were obligated to confer , indiscriminately , the habit on all who presented themselves ; without examining , agreeably to the established constitutions , into their life and morals .
Ximenes was sensibly affected when he visited the monasteries of his own order . Besides the license which generally prevailed in regular communities , he found that the Monks of St . Francis had overturned the whole system of their institution . They possessed town and country houses , and enjoyed large revenues . Such were those called Conventuals , who had , all over Spain , rich and magnificent convents . Such , on the contrary , as rigorously observed discipline , and , on this account , were called fathers of observance , had few convents , and these very small : of the latter the Provincial became the protector . Pie elected visitors of great capacity , and of
an acknowledged severity- of life , to inform themselves of the Conventuals' morals . A proposal was made to the latter either to embrace reform , or to relinquish their houses to the reformed . ' Money was given to some , for subsistence , out of the cloysters : the most scandalous were expelled ; but persisted in their dissolute manner of living ; and it is related of them , that those of Toledo , who were dismissed by order of the court , marched out in procession , bearing the
cross before them , and singing the psalm of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt ! Ximenes found such opposition , that he stood in need of all his courage , and the Queen ' s unlimited confidence , to protect him against powerful combinations that traversed his design . A Prior in Segovia , president of the monastery of the Holy Ghost , started up , and under pretended privileges from the Court of Rome , boasted of a right that dispensed with the Monks of St . Francis , and placed them
in the liberty of the Holy Ghost ; that is , of consigning the reformed to the order of Conventuals . There was not an abuse that he did not favour : all , who wished to shake off the yoke of religion , found in him a sure refuge from the justice of superiors ; and his door was open to revolt and libertinism . Ximenes , at the instance of the Catholic Kings , arrested and deprived him of the revenues of his benefice ; but lie found means to escape from prison , and sought shelter at Rome , under the auspices of Cardinal Ascagne Sforca , formerly his patron . To him he complained of the want of respect to the holy see , and the violence conn-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Life Of Ximenes, Archbishop Of Toledo.
with which the church was particularly afflicted . Scarcety was there a city or province , that was not depopulated by this visitation . The Monks , to appease the divine wrath , made at first processions : some , through charity , assisted the people , and administered to them the sacrament ; but the most zealous dying , and the contagion beginning to rage in the cloysters , each one sought for safety in the most unfrequented retreats . Those , whom this misfortune had dispersed ,
accustomed to live without authority , could no more subject themselves to discipline . By intercourse with seculars , the spirit of prayer and retirement , the links of regularity , were entirely lost . To shelter themselves from the necessity to which they were reduced , they acquired estates ; and because the monasteries were deserted , to repair this loss , they were obligated to confer , indiscriminately , the habit on all who presented themselves ; without examining , agreeably to the established constitutions , into their life and morals .
Ximenes was sensibly affected when he visited the monasteries of his own order . Besides the license which generally prevailed in regular communities , he found that the Monks of St . Francis had overturned the whole system of their institution . They possessed town and country houses , and enjoyed large revenues . Such were those called Conventuals , who had , all over Spain , rich and magnificent convents . Such , on the contrary , as rigorously observed discipline , and , on this account , were called fathers of observance , had few convents , and these very small : of the latter the Provincial became the protector . Pie elected visitors of great capacity , and of
an acknowledged severity- of life , to inform themselves of the Conventuals' morals . A proposal was made to the latter either to embrace reform , or to relinquish their houses to the reformed . ' Money was given to some , for subsistence , out of the cloysters : the most scandalous were expelled ; but persisted in their dissolute manner of living ; and it is related of them , that those of Toledo , who were dismissed by order of the court , marched out in procession , bearing the
cross before them , and singing the psalm of the departure of the Israelites out of Egypt ! Ximenes found such opposition , that he stood in need of all his courage , and the Queen ' s unlimited confidence , to protect him against powerful combinations that traversed his design . A Prior in Segovia , president of the monastery of the Holy Ghost , started up , and under pretended privileges from the Court of Rome , boasted of a right that dispensed with the Monks of St . Francis , and placed them
in the liberty of the Holy Ghost ; that is , of consigning the reformed to the order of Conventuals . There was not an abuse that he did not favour : all , who wished to shake off the yoke of religion , found in him a sure refuge from the justice of superiors ; and his door was open to revolt and libertinism . Ximenes , at the instance of the Catholic Kings , arrested and deprived him of the revenues of his benefice ; but lie found means to escape from prison , and sought shelter at Rome , under the auspices of Cardinal Ascagne Sforca , formerly his patron . To him he complained of the want of respect to the holy see , and the violence conn-