Back Aa

Dialogues of the Dead

Close

<h3>DIALOGUE XXI.</h3> Cardinal Ximenes—Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey.—You seem to look on me, Ximenes, with an air of superiority, as if I was not your equal.  Have you forgotten that I was the favourite and first Minister of a great King of England? that I was at once Lord High Chancellor, Bishop of Durham, Bishop of Winchester, Archbishop of York, and Cardinal Legate?  On what other subject were ever accumulated so many dignities, such honours, such power? Ximenes.—In order to prove yourself my equal, you are pleased to tell me what you had, not what you did.  But it is not the having great offices, it is the doing great things, that makes a great Minister.  I know that for some years you governed the mind of King Henry VIII., and consequently his kingdom, with the most absolute sway.  Let me ask you, then, What were the acts of your reign? Wolsey.—My acts were those of a very skilful courtier and able politician.  I managed a temper which nature had made the most difficult to manage of any perhaps that ever existed, with such consummate address that all its passions were rendered entirely subservient to my inclinations.  In foreign affairs I turned the arms of my master or disposed of his friendship, whichever way my own interest happened to direct.  It was not with him, but with me, that treaties were made by the Emperor or by France; and none were concluded during my Ministry that did not contain some Article in my favour, besides secret assurances of aiding my ambition or resentment, which were the real springs of all my negotiations.  At home I brought the pride of the English nobility, which had resisted the greatest of the Plantagenets, to bow submissively to the son of a butcher of Ipswich.  And, as my power was royal, my state and magnificence were suitable to it; my buildings, my furniture, my household, my equipage, my liberalities, and my charities were above the rank of a subject. Ximenes.—From all you have said I understand that you gained great advantages for yourself in the course of your Ministry—too great, indeed, for a good man to desire, or a wise man to accept.  But what did you do for your sovereign and for the State?  You make me no answer.  What I did is well known.  I was not content with forcing the arrogance of the Spanish nobility to stoop to my power, but used that power to free the people from their oppressions.  In you they respected the royal authority; I made them respect the majesty of the laws.  I also relieved my countrymen, the commons of Castile, from a most grievous burden, by an alteration in the method of collecting their taxes.  After the death of Isabella I preserved the tranquillity of Aragon and Castile by procuring the regency of the latter for Ferdinand, a wise and valiant prince, though he had not been my friend during the life of the queen.  And when after his decease I was raised to the regency by the general esteem and affection of the Castilians, I administered the government with great courage, firmness, and prudence; with the most perfect disinterestedness in regard to myself, and most zealous concern for the public.  I suppressed all the factions which threatened to disturb the peace of that kingdom in the minority and the absence of the young king; and prevented the discontents of the commons of Castile, too justly incensed against the Flemish Ministers, who governed their prince and rapaciously pillaged their country, from breaking out during my life into open rebellion, as they did, most unhappily, soon after my death.  These were my civil acts; but, to complete the renown of my administration, I added to it the palm of military glory.  At my own charges, and myself commanding the army, I conquered Oran from the Moors, and annexed it, with its territory, to the Spanish dominions. Wolsey.—My soul was as elevated and noble as yours, my understanding as strong, and more refined; but the difference of our conduct arose from the difference of our objects.  To raise your reputation and secure your power in Castile, by making that kingdom as happy and as great as you could, was your object.  Mine was to procure the Triple Crown for myself by the assistance of my sovereign and of the greatest foreign Powers.  Each of us took the means that were evidently most proper to the accomplishment of his ends. Ximenes.—Can you confess such a principle of your conduct without a blush?  But you will at least be ashamed that you failed in your purpose, and were the dupe of the Powers with whom you negotiated, after having dishonoured the character of your master in order to serve your own ambition.  I accomplished my desire with glory to my sovereign and advantage to my country.  Besides this difference, there was a great one in the methods by which we acquired our power.  We both owed it, indeed, to the favour of princes; but I gained Isabella’s by the opinion she had of my piety and integrity.  You gained Henry’s by a complaisance and course of life which were a reproach to your character and sacred orders. Wolsey.—I did not, as you, Ximenes, did, carry with me to Court the austerity of a monk; nor, if I had done so, could I possibly have gained any influence there.  Isabella and Henry were different characters, and their favour was to be sought in different ways.  By making myself agreeable to the latter, I so governed his passions, unruly as they were, that while I lived they did not produce any of those dreadful effects which after my death were caused by them in his family and kingdom. Ximenes.—If Henry VIII., your master, had been King of Castile, I would never have been drawn by him out of my cloister.  A man of virtue and spirit will not be prevailed with to go into a Court where he cannot rise without baseness. Wolsey.—The inflexibility of your mind had like to have ruined you in some of your measures; and the bigotry which you had derived from your long abode in a cloister, and retained when a Minister, was very near depriving the Crown of Castile of the new-conquered kingdom of Granada by the revolt of the Moors in that city, whom you had prematurely forced to change their religion.  Do you not remember how angry King Ferdinand was with you on that account? Ximenes.—I do, and must acknowledge that my zeal was too intemperate in all that proceeding. Wolsey.—My worst complaisances to King Henry VIII. were far less hurtful to England than the unjust and inhuman Court of Inquisition, which you established in Granada to watch over the faith of your unwilling converts, has been to Spain. Ximenes.—I only revived and settled in Granada an ancient tribunal, instituted first by one of our saints against the Albigenses, and gave it greater powers.  The mischiefs which have attended it cannot be denied; but if any force may be used for the maintenance of religion (and the Church of Rome has, you know, declared authoritatively that it may) none could be so effectual to answer the purpose. Wolsey.—This is an argument rather against the opinion of the Church than for the Inquisition.  I will only say I think myself very happy that my administration was stained with no action of cruelty, not even cruelty sanctified by the name of religion.  My temper indeed, which influenced my conduct more than my principles, was much milder than yours.  To the proud I was proud, but to my friends and inferiors benevolent and humane.  Had I succeeded in the great object of my ambition, had I acquired the Popedom, I should have governed the Church with more moderation and better sense than probably you would have done if you had exchanged the See of Toledo for that of Rome.  My good-nature, my policy, my taste for magnificence, my love of the fine arts, of wit, and of learning, would have made me the delight of all the Italians, and have given me a rank among the greatest princes.  Whereas in you the sour bigot and rigid monk would too much have prevailed over the prince and the statesman. Ximenes.—What either of us would have been in that situation does not appear; but, if you are compared to me as a Minister, you are vastly inferior.  The only circumstance in which you can justly pretend to any equality is the encouragement you gave to learning and your munificence in promoting it, which was indeed very great.  Your two colleges founded at Ipswich and Oxford may vie with my University at Alcala de Henara.  But in our generosity there was this difference—all my revenues were spent in well-placed liberalities, in acts of charity, piety, and virtue; whereas a great part of your enormous wealth was squandered away in luxury and vain ostentation.  With regard to all other points, my superiority is apparent.  You were only a favourite; I was the friend and the father of the people.  You served yourself; I served the State.  The conclusion of our lives was also much more honourable to me than you. Wolsey.—Did not you die, as I did, in disgrace with your master? Ximenes.—That disgrace was brought upon me by a faction of foreigners, to whose power, as a good Spaniard, I would not submit.  A Minister who falls a victim to such an opposition rises by his fall.  Yours was not graced by any public cause, any merit to the nation.  Your spirit, therefore, sank under it; you bore it with meanness.  Mine was unbroken, superior to my enemies, superior to fortune, and I died, as I had lived, with undiminished dignity and greatness of mind. <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

1 of 2

2 of 2