Ximenes de Cisneros, FRANCISCO, cardinal-statesman, was born of an ancient but impoverished family at Torrelaguna, in Castile, in 1436. He was educated at Alcalá de Henares, Salamanca, and finally Rome, where he obtained from the pope a provisional or prospective nomination to the archbishopric of Uzeda in Toledo. The archbishop refused to admit him, and flung him into prison, where he lay for six years. On his release he was named Vicar-general of Cardinal Mendoza at Sigüenza; but he suddenly threw up this preferment and the most brilliant worldly prospects to enter the Franciscan monastery of San Juan de los Reyes at Toledo (1482). His reputation for piety and learning led Queen Isabella to choose him for her confessor in 1492, and three years later to name him Archbishop of Toledo—a dignity which he refused to accept until he received an express command from the pope. Compelled to yield, he continued as archbishop the life of mortification and austerity of the monk, applying to purposes of religion and charity the whole of the princely revenues of his see; and even when admonished by the pope to maintain the dignity of his position, he hid the hair shirt of the ascetic under the gorgeous robe. As confessor and confidential adviser of the queen, Ximenes during the lifetime of Isabella was the guiding spirit of Spanish affairs; and on her death in 1504 he held the balance between the parties of Ferdinand and Philip of Burgundy, husband of Joanna, the heiress to the crown. On the death of Philip in 1506 Ximenes was appointed regent in consequence of the insanity of Joanna and the absence of Ferdinand, and he conducted the affairs of the kingdom through a critical time with consummate skill. In 1507 he was created cardinal, and next year he organised at his own expense, and himself accompanied as commander, the celebrated expedition for the conquest of Oran and extirpation of piracy, consisting of 10,000 foot and 4000 horse. Ferdinand died in January 1516, and on his deathbed named Ximenes regent of Spain till the arrival of his grandson Charles; and although the grandees had organised an opposition as well to himself as to the royal authority, the aged cardinal quickly overawed them into submission, and with the same vigour quelled the incipient revolt of Navarre. In September 1517 Charles at length landed on the soil of Spain, and Ximenes at once set out to meet him, but was seized with a mortal illness on the way, and died at Roa, November 8, 1517, probably before receiving the cold letter of Charles, which was equivalent to dismissal.
As a statesman and administrator Cardinal Ximenes showed inflexible determination and courage, but it is scarcely doubtful that his measures did a fatal injury to Spain, by building up to an excessive height the power of the crown, and by mercilessly crushing the conquered Moors. He was fanatical in his hatred of heresy, and as Grand-inquisitor is supposed to have caused the death of as many as 2500 persons. The social and political revolution he effected in breaking down the feudal power of the nobles has often been compared with the analogous change wrought in France by Richelieu. His munificence as a patron of religion, of letters, and of art has been the theme of praise in every history of his time. He founded and endowed the university of Alcalá de Henares, and published the famous Complutensian Polyglot—a magnificent undertaking, on which he expended half a million ducats (see Vol. VIII. p. 298). His expenditure on churches, hospitals, schools, convents, and other works of religion and benevolence, was on a scale of corresponding munificence.
The chief authority for his life is the work by Alvaro Gomez de Castro, De rebus æstis Francisci Ximenii (1659). Other Lives are by Hefele (Tüb. 1844; 2d ed. 1851; Eng. trans. 1860) and Ulrich (1883).