Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/364

220 ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. PART crown and the pontiff, in reference to the see of " Tara^ona, and afterwards of Cuenca. ^^ niirerpiicc Sixtus the Fourth, had conferred the latter ben- with the ' '"""' efice, on its becoming vacant in 1482, on his nephew. Cardinal San Giorgio, a Genoese, in direct opposition to the wishes of the queen, who would have bestowed it on her chaplain, Alfonso de Bur- gos, in exchange for the bishopric of Cordova. An ambassador was accordingly despatched by the Cas- tilian sovereigns to Rome, to remonstrate on the papal appointment ; but without effect, as Sixtus replied, with a degree of presumption, which might better have become his predecessors of the twelfth century, that " he was head of the church, and, as such, possessed of unlimited power in the distri- bution of benefices, and that he was not bound to consult the inclination of any potentate on earth, any farther than might subserve the interests of religion." The sovereigns, highly dissatisfied with this re- sponse, ordered their subjects ecclesiastical, as well as lay, to quit the papal dominions ; an injunction, which the former, fearful of the sequestration of their temporalities in Castile, obeyed with as much promptness as the latter. At the same time, Ferdinand and Isabella proclaimed their intention of inviting the princes of Christendom to unite '*<> Marina, Ensayo Hist6rico- the latter part of Henry IV. 's Critico, nos. 335-337. — Orde- reipn, a papal bull had been grant- nan^as Reales, lib. 1, tit. 3, Icyes ed against the provision of foreifjn 19, 20 ; lib. 2, tit. 7, ley 2 ; lib. 3, ers to benefices. Mariana, Hist, tit. I, ley 6. — Kiol, Informe, apud dc Espafia, torn. vii. p. 196, ed. Semanario Erudito, loc. cit. — In Valencia.