ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. 217 fore this body, represented with so much energy the chapter inconvenience of devolving powers of such magni- 1-- tude on any private individual, and its utter in- compatibility with public order, that she prevailed on them, smarting, as they were, under the evils of a disputed succession, to solicit the administra- tion for the king, her husband. That monarch, indeed, consented to wave this privilege in favor of Alonso de Cardenas, one of the competitors for the office, and a loyal servant of the crown ; but, at his decease in 1499, the sovereigns retained the possession of the vacant mastership, conformably to a papal decree, which granted them its adminis- tration for life, in the same manner as had been done with that of Calatrava in 1487, and of Al- cantara, in 1494.^^ The sovereigns were no sooner vested with the Jheir re- o formation. control of the military orders, than they began with their characteristic promptness to reform ihe vari- ous corruptions, which had impaired their ancient discipline. They erected a council for the general superintendence of affairs relating to the orders, and invested it with extensive powers both of civil and criminal jurisdiction. They supplied the va- cant benefices with persons of acknowledged worth, exercising an impartiality, which could never be 41 Caro de Torres, Ordenes sovereigns gave great offence to Militares, fol. 46, 74, 83. — Pul- the jealous grandees who were gar, Reyes Catolicos, part. 2, cap. competitors for the mastership of 64. — Rades y Andrada, Las Tres St. James, by conferring that dig- Ordenes, part. 1, fol. 69, 70 ; part, nity on Alonso de Cardenas, with 2, fol. 82, 83 ; part. 3, fol. 54. their usual policy of making merit — Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS., rather than birth the standard of bat. 1, quinc. 2, dial. 1. — The preferment. VOL. I. 28
