Francisco Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros: Encyclopedia II - Francisco Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros - Influences

Francisco Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros - Influences

Cisneros was a bold and determined statesman. Stern and inflexible, with a confidence that became at times overbearing, he carried through what he had decided to be right, with as little regard for the convenience of others as for his own. In the midst of a corrupt clergy his morals were irreproachable. He was giving to all, and founded and maintained very many benevolent institutions in his diocese. His whole time was devoted either to the state or to religion; his only recreation was in theological or scholastic discussion.

In 1500 was founded, and in 1508 was opened, the university at Alcalá de Henares (now known as Complutense University of Madrid), which, fostered by Cardinal Cisneros, at whose sole expense it was raised, attained a great reputation. At one time 7000 students met within its walls. In 1836 the university was moved to Madrid, and the costly buildings were left vacant until the creation of the modern University of Alcalá de Henares. Cisneros published religious treatises by himself and others. He revived also the Mozarabic liturgy, and endowed a chapel at Toledo, in which it was to be used.

He is best known for his sponsorship of the Complutensian Polyglott, the first printed polyglot translation of the Bible in which six different versions were put in parallel columns with the original Aramaic, Greek, Latin and Hebrew so that readers for the first time could check all the translations simultaneously. The text occupies five volumes, and a sixth contains a Hebrew lexicon, etc. The work commenced in 1502. The New Testament was finished in January 1514, and the whole in April 1517. It was dedicated to Leo X, Cardinal Cisneros died months after it was completed but did not live to see it published.

In 1884, Spanish colonist commemorated Cisneros by founding Villa Cisneros, now Dakhla, Western Sahara.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Influences", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki