endoza,
who fought at the battle of Toro, and at the conquest of Granada,
afterwards governing that kingdom; and Jimenez de Cisneros, who,
finding no Moors left in the Peninsula to fight, crossed the sea and
went to Oran, waving his cross and turning it into a weapon of war.

The seminarist admired these men, magnified by the mists of ancient
history and the praises of the Church. For him they were the greatest
men in the world after the Popes, and, indeed, often far superior to
them. He was astonished that the Spaniards of the present times were
so blind that they did not entrust their direction and government to
the archbishops of Toledo, who in former centuries had performed
such heroic deeds. The glory and advancement of the country was so
intimately connected with their history, their dynasty was quite as
great as that of the kings, and on more than one occasion they had
saved these latter by their counsels and energy.

After these eagles came the birds of prey; after the prelates with
their iron morions and their coats-of-mail came the rich and luxurious
prelates, who cared for no other combats but those of the law courts,
and were in perpetual litigation with towns, guilds, and private
individuals in order to retain the possessions and the vast fortune
accumulated by their predecessors.

Those who were generous like Tavera built palaces, and encouraged
artists like El Greco, Berruguete and others, creating a Renaissance
in Toledo, an echo from Italy. Those who were miserly, like Quiroga,
reduced the expenses of the pompous church, to turn themselves into
money-lenders to the kings, giving millions of ducats to those
Austrian monarchs on whose dominions the sun never set, but who,
nevertheless, found themselves obliged to beg almost as soon as their
galleons returned from their voyages to America.

The Cathedral was the work of these priestly ecclesiastics; each one
had done something in it which revealed his character. The rougher
and more warlike its framework, that mountain of stone and wood which
formed its skeleton; those who were more cultivated, elevated to the
See in times of greater refinement, contributed the minutely-worked
iron railings, the doors of lace-like stonework, the pictures, and
the jewels which made its sacristy a veritable treasure house. The
gestation of the giantess had lasted for three centuries; it seemed
like those enormous prehistoric animals who slept so long in their
mother's w