- Hist. de Don Pedro Gasca,
Ms.]
While the grant of such unbounded powers excited the warmest
sentiments of gratitude in Gasca towards the sovereign who could
repose in him so much confidence, it seems - which is more
extra-ordinary - not to have raised corresponding feelings of
envy in the courtiers. They knew well that it was not for
himself that the good ecclesiastic had solicited them. On the
contrary, some of the council were desirous that he should be
preferred to the bishopric, as already promised him, before his
departure; conceiving that he would thus go with greater
authority than as an humble ecclesiastic, and fearing, moreover,
that Gasca himself, were it omitted, might feel some natural
disappointment. But the president hastened to remove these
impressions. "The honor would avail me little," he said, "where
I am going; and it would be manifestly wrong to appoint me to an
office in the Church, while I remain at such a distance that I
cannot discharge the duties of it. The consciousness of my
insufficiency," he continued, "should I never return, would lie
heavy on my soul in my last moments." *14 The politic reluctance
to accept the mitre has passed into a proverb. But there was no
affectation here; and Gasca's friends, yielding to his arguments,
forbore to urge the matter further.
[Footnote 14: "Especialmente, si alla muriesse o le matassen: que
entoces de nada le podria ser buena, sino para partir desta vida,
con mas congoxa y pena de la poca cuenta que daua de la prouision
que auia aceptado.
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