XIMENES (JIMÉNEZ) DE CISNEROS, FRANCISCO. — Born at Torrelaguna (Madrid) in 1436, died at Roa on 8 November 1517. After obtaining his degree in canon law, he went to Rome and remained there from 1449 to 1465. Upon returning to Spain, he came into conflict with the archbishop of Toledo, Alonso Carrillo, who had him imprisoned for six years. Then Bishop Mendoza took him under his protection and appointed him vicar general of Sigüenza. In 1484 X. entered the Franciscan Order, changing his name from Gonzalo to Francisco.
In 1494 he was appointed provincial of the Order and undertook a visitation of the convents of Castile; authorized by a brief from Alexander VI to reform the monasteries
(from the anastatic edition edited by R. Elwood, Berlin 1903, p. 2r)
XILOGRAFICI, LIBRI — Mirabilia Romae (second half of the 15th century), German version — Copy in the Gotha Library.
The Spaniards, he set to work with inflexible energy, and after being appointed archbishop of Toledo in 1495, continued his efforts, aimed at restoring the unity of the Franciscan Order, restoring ecclesiastical discipline and hierarchy, and spreading education. He founded the University of Alcalá and, with the collaboration of scholars from all parts of Europe, oversaw the preparation and printed at his own expense the Polyglot Bible. His harsh intransigence earned him many enemies who sought to harm him at court and before the Pope, but the sovereigns defended him against all his detractors. When in 1506 Philip of Castile died, Ferdinand was in Italy. X. assumed the regency and assembled troops that kept the nobles’ rebellious inclinations in check. In 1507 he was appointed grand inquisitor, and Julius II made him a cardinal. X. worked strenuously to convert the Moors of Granada to Catholicism. Finally, he became an advocate of a new Crusade. Ferdinand would have liked an expedition to India, but X., invoking Isabella’s final wishes, obtained that it should be directed toward Morocco and set Oran as its objective, while the King aimed at the conquest of Tunis, which would have provided him with a strong strategic base in the Mediterranean. The undertaking was led by X. himself, who followed into Africa the army commanded by Pedro Navarro. After the occupation of Oran, conflicts arose between X. and Navarro, and the latter succeeded in having the cardinal recalled to Spain. But a series of victories that brought the Spaniards as far as Tunis was followed by a defeat that caused them to lose all the territories they had conquered, with the exception of Oran. In 1516, when Ferdinand died, X. assumed the regency to which the King had appointed him. During his brief government, X. devoted every effort to preserving the unity of the State, established a national army that enabled him to maintain order, thwarted all the machinations of the magnates, and reorganized the finances. After repelling an attempt by the Albret family to reconquer Navarre, he had all the fortresses in that province razed to the ground, with the exception of Pamplona. A campaign against the pirates of Barbarossa, on the other hand, ended unfavorably.
Although Joanna was still alive, X., yielding to Charles’s wishes, had him proclaimed king on 30 May 1516. But the new sovereign’s first act was to relieve him of the government. When Charles went to Spain, X. was ill, and died before he could meet him. In his ecclesiastical activity, X. anticipated the directives of the Catholic Reformation through his strenuous defense of the faith against heresy, and through his constant work of moral purification and cultural improvement among the clergy. As a statesman, he sought internally to strengthen the monarchy and the State, while externally he aimed to secure Spanish predominance in North Africa.