424 XIMENES. PART 11. the invincible energy of the man, who, in the face of such mighty obstacles, had so speedily effected this momentous revolution in the faith of a people, bred from childhood in the deadliest hostility to Christianity ; ^* and the good archbishop Talavera was heard in the fulness of his heart to exclaim, that " Ximenes had achieved greater triumphs than even Ferdinand and Isabella ; since they had con- quered only the soil, while he had gained the souls of Granada ! " ^^ 41 " Magnas deinceps," says Go- mez, " apud omnes venerationi Ximenius esse cospit. — Porr6 plus mentis acie videre quam solent homines credebatur, quod re anci- piti, neque plane confirmata, bar- bara civitate adhuc suum Mahume- tum spirante, tanta animi conten- tione, ut Christi doctrinam amplec- terentur, laboraverat et effecerat." (De Rebus Gestis, fol. 33.) The panegyric of the Spaniard is en- dorsed by Flechier, (Histoire de Ximen6s, p. 119.) who, in the age of Louis XIV., displays all the bigotry of that of Ferdinand and Isabella. 42 Talavera, as I have already noticed, had caused the offices, catechisms, and other religious ex- ercises to be translated into Arabic for the use of the converts; pro- posing to extend the translation at some future time to the great body of the Scriptures. That time had now arrived, but Ximenes vehe- mently remonstrated against the measure. "It would be throwing pearls before swine," said he, " to open the Scriptures to persons in their low state of ignorance, who could not fail, as St. Paul says, to wrest them to their own destruc- tion. The word of God should be wrapped in discreet mystery from the vulgar, who feel little rever- ence for what is plain and obvious. It was for this reason, that our Saviour himself clothed his doc- trines in parables, when he ad- dressed the people. The Scrip- tures should be confined to the three ancient languages, which God with mystic import permitted to be inscribed over the head of his crucified Son ; and the vernacular should be reserved for such devo- tional and moral treatises, as holy men indite, in order to quicken the soul, and turn it from the pursuit of worldly vanities to heavenly con- templation." De Rebus Gestis, fol. 32, 33. The narrowest opinion, as usual, prevaOed, and Talavera abandoned his wise and benevolent purpose. The sagacious arguments of the pri- mate lead his biographer, Gomez, to conclude, that he had a prophetic knowledge of the coming heresy of Luther, which owed so much of its success to the vernacular ver- sions of the Scriptures ; in which probable opinion he is faithfully echoed, as usual, by the good bishop of Nismes. Flechier, Hist. de Ximen6s, pp. 117- 119.
