Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/346

320 AFRICAN EXPEDITION OF XIMENES. PART In July, 1508, the cardinal received the welcome II. . . intelligence, that his academy was opened for the admission of pupils ; and in the following month the first lecture, being on Aristotle's Ethics, was publicly delivered. Students soon flocked to the new university, attracted by the reputation of its professors, its ample apparatus, its thorough system of instruction, and above all, its splendid patronage, and the high character of its founder. We have no information of their number in Ximenes's life-: time; but it must have been very considerable, since no less than seven thousand came out to receive Francis the First, on his visit to the university, within twenty years after it was opened. ^^ Ti^ekiiis Five years after this period, in 1513, King Ferdi- university. j^j^j-,(]^ jj^ jjj^ cxcursiou made for the benefit of his declining health, paid a visit to Alcala. Ever since his return from Oran, the cardinal, disgusted with public life, had remained with a few brief excep- tions in his own diocese, devoted solely to his per- sonal and professional duties. It was with proud satisfaction that he now received his sovereign, and exhibited to him the noble testimony of the great objects, to which his retirement had been con- secrated. The king, whose naturally inquisitive mind no illness could damp, visited every part of the establishment, and attended the examinations, and listened to the public disputations of the scholars with interest. With little Ie:irning of his own, he had been made too often sensible of his 32 Qiiiiitanilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 17