milies
they received large donations and handsome legacies.

The penal code of the convents provided for certain offences the
punishment of flagellation, imprisonment in a dungeon for indeterminate
periods, living on bread and water, and public confession of sins. The
mildest punishment consisted in being compelled to eat off the ground,
kneeling, at the hour of the refectory. The friar who by his conduct had
become incorrigible, and worthy of the severest punishment, was sent
away, for the remainder of his life, to one of the convents situated in
desert places.

All the religious orders of Spain have produced many men eminent for
science and virtue, and among these may be reckoned one of the greatest
and most distinguished statesmen that ever governed in that
country,--such was the Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros, minister of
Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic sovereigns, and of Charles V. This
cardinal was the founder of the proud university of Alcala; he was the
conqueror of Oran, and the great reformer in all branches of the
administration and of the government.

The sacred sciences owe to him inexpressible benefits for his famous
Complutense Polyglot Bible, one of the most correct and splendid editions
of the sacred writings hitherto published. One of the few copies now
extant of that monument of piety and wisdom is to be found in the British
Museum. Such men, however, were, it must be admitted, extremely rare
exceptions, which do not weaken the force of our objections to the whole
system of monastic institutions.

The corruption of the monastic orders began during the earliest times of
the monarchy. In the time of Isabella the Catholic, the immorality of
the friars had arrived at such a height as to induce that eminent woman,
led by the counsels of the Cardinal Cisneros, to demand of Pope Alexander
VI. a bull permitting her to introduce a radical reform among the
religious orders in Spain. The Pope resisted, but, ultimately, was
obliged to cede to the Spanish court; and Isabella checked, for some
years, the disorders which brought so much scandal on the nation. The
fact is, that the friars formed a separate state, independent of the
government, and even of the bishops; they acknowledged no authority but
that of the Pope, and their communications with the court of Rome were as
frequent as they were private and mysterious. The bishops often claimed
the right to exercise their own authority over this part