Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros

Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (b. 1436–d. 1517) is crucial for understanding the political and religious transformation of Spain during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs. He was born in 1436 in Torrelaguna, northeast of Madrid. His parents came from well-established, but not noble, families. He studied in Alcalá and Salamanca. There is no information about his academic achievements. He was appointed archpriest of Uceda in 1471. Seven years later, he exchanged his benefice for a first chaplaincy in Sigüenza, in the diocese of Pedro González de Mendoza, a wise move considering that the latter was influential at court. Cardinal Mendoza was impressed by his organizational ability and appointed Cisneros as his vicar-general in the diocese, which entailed privileges and benefits. In 1484 Cisneros unexpectedly left his post and entered the Franciscan order. Little is known about the reasons for this, although it did not mean losing the patronage of Mendoza, who recommended him as Queen Isabella’s confessor in 1492. Cisneros entered high politics when he was fifty-six, becoming regent of Spain after the deaths of Philip I of Castile in 1506–1507 and Ferdinand II of Aragon in 1516–1517. He became provincial of the Franciscans in Castile in 1494 and was promoted to the archbishopric of Toledo in 1495, the richest and most important episcopal see in the Peninsula. From this position of power, he undertook a reform of the religious orders, supported by Isabella and Ferdinand, and of the archdiocese of Toledo, and instituted an educational program that culminated in the founding of the University of Alcalá. Cisneros was responsible for the mass conversion of thousands of Mudejars in Granada in 1499–1500. He financed and participated in the campaigns of conquest in North Africa, with a major victory in Oran in 1509. Appointed Grand Inquisitor in 1507, he worked to ensure that the legal procedures of the tribunal were enforced. He supported the unsuccessful petitions of Las Casas to prevent the mistreatment of Indigenous populations. His major cultural achievements include founding the University of Alcalá and sponsoring publication of the first (Complutense) Polyglot Bible. Cisneros died in November 1517 and never met the young King Charles I, who had recently landed in Cantabria from Brussels. Portraits of Cisneros are preserved in the frescoes painted during the cardinal’s lifetime by Juan de Borgoña in the Chapter House and, while leading the Oran campaign, in the Mozarabic Chapel of the Cathedral of Toledo.

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