Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros with legate's cross and miter.
Paintings by Juan de Borgoña (1470-1534) in the Chapter House of the Cathedral of Toledo
Cardinal's coat of arms

Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros OFM (baptized as Gonzalo Jiménez de Cisneros ; * 1436 in Torrelaguna , today city of Madrid ; † November 8, 1517 in Roa ) was Archbishop of Toledo (Spain) and Grand Inquisitor , inquisidor general de Castilla since 1495 . Jiménez de Cisneros' parents Alfonso Jiménez de Cisneros and María de la Torre came from Cisneros in the province of Palencia . His siblings were Bernardino Jiménez de Cisneros and Juan Jiménez de Cisneros.

Working as a clergyman and in politics

He first studied in Roa with an uncle, later in Alcalá de Henares , in the Franciscan seminary. He received his law degree from the University of Salamanca and then went to Rome for six years .

In 1471 he was appointed Archpriest of Uceda by Pope Paul II , which displeased the Archbishop of Toledo, Alfonso Carrillo de Acuña . He accused Jiménez de Cisneros of misconduct committed by his predecessor and had him imprisoned. However, Cisneros received support from Cardinal Pedro González de Mendoza and in 1480 became his chaplain and episcopal vicar in Sigüenza . In 1484 Jiménez de Cisneros entered the Franciscan order , probably in Toledo . He was given the religious name Francisco and lived for eight years in great seclusion and asceticism. In 1494 he became Vicar Provincial of the Franciscans of Castile. After Pope Alexander VI. by the Bull Quanta in Dei Ecclesia of July 27, 1493, the Catholic Kings had authorized to reform the mendicant orders , Jiménez de Cisneros and Diego de Deza were entrusted with it.

On February 20, 1495, after Mendoza's death, Jiménez de Cisneros was appointed Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Chancellor of Castile. He started a program of renewal of his diocese and the province of Toledo. In this way he brought about peace in the diocesan synods of Alcalá and Talavera, established new constitutions for pastoral care and promoted the reform of the Franciscan order in Spain.

In 1495 he was the confessor of Queen Isabella I of Castile . From 1499 onwards, he followed the orders of the Queen and the King and personally led a mission campaign in Granada among the Mudejares , whose resistance he brutally suppressed. The methods used ranged from gifts to threats and punishments. At his behest in 1499, stakes were set up in a square in Granada to burn books on Islamic theology , philosophy , historiography and science ; only the books on medicine were expressly spared and brought to Alcalá de Henares . However, this also led to uprisings by the Moors, which almost cost Cisneros his life. Cisneros wrote in letters of a great success of the mission and was personally congratulated by the Pope.

After the death of Queen Isabella I, he supported the reconciliation between Ferdinand and Philip I. His mediation led to the Peace of Salamanca on September 24, 1505. When Philip I died in 1506, he supported Ferdinand and had a great influence on politics.

Pope Julius II elevated him to cardinal in 1507 and appointed him general inquisitor in Castile. In 1509 he led an expedition to Africa and paid for a mercenary force himself with which he conquered Oran . Cisneros organized the mostly Franciscan missions in America and the Caribbean and sent monks to the mission areas.

After Ferdinand's death in 1516, Jiménez de Cisneros ruled for the young King Charles I (later also Emperor as Charles V), who was still in the Netherlands. Jiménez arranged the conditions in the empire and ruled prudently. When Karl finally arrived in Spain, he dismissed Jiménez de Cisnero from civil service. Jiménez de Cisneros died soon afterwards in 1517 and was buried in Alcalá de Henares.

Working in science

Jiménez de Cisneros founded the University of Alcalá (along with 18 other schools in Spain) in 1499 ; it was opened in 1508 after a long construction period. He took care of the publication of classical theological texts and polyglots and promoted humanistic education. The six-volume Complutensic Polyglot was the first printed multilingual Bible edition. In type area was used a column set that placed the Hebrew, Greek and Latin text in columns side by side. The first four volumes include the Old Testament, the fifth the New Testament, and the sixth volume contains a number of dictionaries and other resources. It was put together by a team of scholars. Diego López de Zúñiga or Jacobus Stunica headed the edition and still had language skills in Aramaic and Arabic , Hernán Núñez de Toledo y Guzmán was a Latinist , Alfonso de Zamora was a Hebraist . The polyglot was printed in the period from 1502 to 1517, but could not appear until 1520 after his death due to a lack of papal approval (papal imprimatur ), so Erasmus of Rotterdam could publish his Latin-Greek edition Novum Instrumentum omne of the New Testament beforehand.

Tomb of Cardinal Cisneros in Alcalá de Henares

Jiménez de Cisneros specifically promoted and accelerated book printing ( expansion of book printing in Spain ).

reception

Heinrich Heine's tragedy Almansor , published in 1821, contains a replica of the book burnings ordered by Jiménez de Cisneros . The title character Almansor , a Moor who had not converted to Christianity, mentions the cardinal as a "terrible Ximenes", his friend Hassan replies with the famous quote " Where you burn books, you end up burning people " .

Works

  • Ximenez de Cisneros F. Vetus testamentū multiplici lingua nūc primo imprint, Et imprimis Pentateuchus Hebraico Greco atq (ue) Chaldaico idiomate: adiūcta vnicuiq (ue) sua latina interpretatione. Copluti vniuersitate: industria & solertia Arnaldi Guilielmi de Brocario; 1514 ( digitized version ).
  • Ximénez de Cisneros F. Haec tibi pentadecas tetragonon respicit illud, Hospitium petri et pauli ter quinq (ue) dierum, Namq (ue) instrumentum vetus hebdoas innuit, octo, Lex noua signature, ter quinq (ueton receptat vtrūq (ue): Inarium toletanum. Uniuersitatis Co (m) plute (n) si: i (n) dustria atq (ue) solertia Arnaldi Guillelmi Brocarij; 1515 ( digitized version ).
  • Jiménez de Cisneros F. Enmendar yerros de amor. En: Comedias nuevas escogidas. Parte treinta y ocho de comedias nuevas, escritas por los mejores ingenios de España. Madrid: Lucas Antonio de Bedmar; 1672 ( digitized version ).
  • Ximenio F. Constitutiones Insignis Collegij Sancti Ildephonsi: ac perinde totius almae Complutensis Academiae. Compluti: ex Officina Iulaini Garcia Briones; 1716 ( digitized version ).

literature

Web links

Commons : Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Mariano Delgado : The Spanish Century (1492-1659). Politics - religion - economy - culture. Scientific Book Society (WBG), Darmstadt 2016, ISBN 978-3-534-23953-5 , p. 16.
  2. ↑ "Complutense" is the adjective to designate the Roman settlement "Complutum" from which the city of Alcalá de Henares emerged .
  3. ↑ Heinz Schilling: 1517: Weltgeschichte einer Jahr. CH Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 3-4067-0069-1 , pp. 232-236.
  4. ↑ Heinz Schilling: 1517: Weltgeschichte einer Jahr. CH Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 3-4067-0069-1 , p. 232
  5. ^ Heinrich Heine: Works and letters in ten volumes. Volume 2. Berlin and Weimar 1972, p. 490 Almansor at Zeno.org ..
predecessor Office successor
Pedro VI. González de Mendoza Archbishop of Toledo
1495–1517 		Guillaume III. de Croy
personal data
SURNAME Jiménez de Cisneros, Francisco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jiménez de Cisneros, Gonzalo (baptismal name); Cisneros, Francisco Jiménez de; Ximenez de Cisneros, Francisco
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish Grand Inquisitor
DATE OF BIRTH 1436
PLACE OF BIRTH Torrelaguna
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 1517
Place of death Roa (Burgos)