.

The Monks of St. Francis were celebrated alike for their sterling
piety, great learning, and general benevolence. Their fault, if such
it could be termed in a holy Catholic community, was their rigid
exclusiveness regarding religion; their uncompromising and strict love
for, and adherence to, their own creed; and stern abhorrence towards,
and violent persecution of, all who in the slightest degree departed
from it, or failed to pay it the respect and obedience which they
believed it demanded. At their head was their Sub-Prior, a character
whose influence on the after position of Spain was so great, that we
may not pass it by, without more notice than our tale itself perhaps
would demand. To the world, as to his brethren and superiors, in the
monastery, a stern unbending spirit, a rigid austerity, and unchanging
severity of mental and physical discipline, characterized his whole
bearing and daily conduct. Yet, his severity proceeded not from the
superstition and bigotry of a weak mind or misanthropic feeling.
Though his whole time and thoughts appeared devoted to the interest
of his monastery, and thence to relieving and guiding the poor, and
curbing and decreasing the intemperate follies and licentious conduct
of the laymen, in its immediate neighborhood; yet his extraordinary
knowledge, not merely of human nature, but of the world at large--his
profound and extensive genius, which, in after years was displayed,
in the prosecution of such vast schemes for Spain's advancement, that
they riveted the attention of all Europe upon him--naturally won him
the respect and consideration of Ferdinand and Isabella, whose acute
penetration easily traced the natural man, even through the thick veil
of monkish austerity. They cherished and honored him, little thinking
that, had it not been for him, Spain would have sunk at their death,
into the same abyss of anarchy and misery, from which their vigorous
measures had so lately roused, and, as they hoped, So effectually
guarded her.

When Torquemada, Isabella's confessor, was absent from court, which
not unfrequently happened, for his capacious mind was never at peace
unless actively employed--Father Francis, though but the Sub-Prior of
a Franciscan monastery, always took his place, and frequently were
both sovereigns guided by his privately asked and frankly given
opinions, not only on secular affairs, but on matters of state, and
even of war. With such a character for his Sub-Pr