His aptitude for managing men was very great; his capacity for affairs
incontestable; but it must be always understood as the capacity for the
affairs of absolutism. He was a clever, scheming politician, an adroit
manager; it remained to be seen whether he had a claim to the character
of a statesman. His industry was enormous. He could write fifty letters
a day with his own hand. He could dictate to half a dozen amanuenses at
once, on as many different subjects, in as many different languages, and
send them all away exhausted.

He was already rich. His income from his see and other livings was
estimated, in 1557, at ten thousand dollars--[1885 approximation. The
decimal point more places to the right would in 2000 not be out of line.
D.W.]--; his property in ready money, "furniture, tapestry, and the
like," at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. When it is considered
that, as compared with our times, these sums represent a revenue of a
hundred thousand, and a capital of two millions and a half in addition,
it may be safely asserted that the prelate had at least made a good
beginning. Besides his regular income, moreover, he had handsome
receipts from that simony which was reduced to a system, and which gave
him a liberal profit, generally in the shape of an annuity, upon every
benefice which he conferred. He was, however, by no means satisfied.
His appetite was as boundless as the sea; he was still a shameless
mendicant of pecuniary favors and lucrative offices. Already, in 1552,
the Emperor had roundly rebuked his greediness. "As to what you say of
getting no 'merced' nor 'ayuda de costa,'" said he, "'tis merced and
ayuda de costa quite sufficient, when one has fat benefices, pensions,
and salaries, with which a man might manage to support himself." The
bishop, however, was not easily abashed, and he was at the epoch which
now occupies us, earnestly and successfully soliciting from Philip the