374 RISE OF XIMENES. lAiM delaguna, in the year 1436,^ of an ancient but '■ — decayed family.^" He was early destined by his parents for the church, and, after studying grammar at Alcala, was removed at fourteen to the university of Salamanca. Here he went through the regular course of instruction then pursued, devoting him- self assiduously to the civil and canon law, and at the end of six years received the degree of bachelor in each of them, a circumstance at that time of rare occurrence.'^ Ronle'"^ Three years after quitting the university, the young bachelor removed by the advice of his par- ents to Rome, as affording a better field for eccle- siastical preferment than he could find at home. Here he seems to have attracted some notice by the diligence with which he devoted himself to his professional studies and employments. But still he was far from reaping the golden fruits presaged by his kindred ; and at the expiration of six years he was suddenly recalled to his native country by the death of his father, who left his affairs in so embar- 9 It is singular, that Flechier Mendoza makes a goodly genealo- should have blundered some twenty gical tree for his hero, of which years, in the date of Ximenes's King Pelayo, King Pepin, Charle- birth, which he makes 1457. (Hist, magne, and other royal worthies are de Ximenes, liv. 1, p. 3.) It is the respectable roots. (Procomia not singular, thatMarsollier should. Dedicatoria, pp. 5-35.) According Histoire du Minist^re du Cardinal to Gonzalo de Oviedo, his lather Ximenez, (Toulouse, 1694,) liv. 1, was a poor hidalgo, who, having p. 3. spent his little substance on the 1" The honorable extraction of education of his children, was Ximenes is intimated in Juan Ver- obliged to take up the profession of gara's verses at the end of the an advocate. Quincuagenas, MS. Complutensian Polyglot : ^^ Quintanilla, Archetypo, p. 6. "Nomine Cisnerius Clara de stirpe paren. —Gomez, Dc Rebus Gestis, Xi- tum, men., fol. 2. — Idem,Miscellanear., "Et meritia factus clarior ipse suis." MS., ex Bibliotheca Regia Malri- Fray Pedro de Quintanilla y tensi, torn. ii. fol. 189.
