[55] According to the _Testimonio de Hidalguia de Cortés_, in _Col. Doc. Inéd._, iv. 238-9, the names of the mother’s parents were Diego Altamirano and Leonor Sanchez Pizarro, which would reverse her surnames, and make the son a Cortés y Altamirano. But Gomara, _De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii_, and other authorities, do not accept this form. This important document, however, the _Testimonio_, establishes the fact that both parents were hidalgos, ‘gozando de los oficios que gozan los hijosdalgo en ... Medellin.’ Some historians strain themselves to make Cortés the scion of a Roman family, or even of a king of Lombardy and Tuscany, whose descendants entered Spain during Gothic rule. Those who have tastes in that direction may consult _Siculus_, _Viris Illust._, 141; _Anales de Aragon_, iii. xiv.; _Pizarro y Orellana, Varones Ilvstres_, 67. Las Casas, _Hist. Ind._, iv. 11, who claimed acquaintance with the family, slurs their pretensions to high origin. ‘Ambos hijosdalgo sin raça’ is the qualification in _Sandoval_, _Hist. Carlos V._, i. 160. No doubt the parents of Cortés were respectable and amiable people, but to attempt to make of them other than they were is folly. ‘Catharinia namque probitate, pudicitiâ et in conjugem amore, nulli ætatis suae feminae cessit.’ _De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii_, in _Icazbalceta_, _Col. Doc._, i. 310-11. This document refers to Martin Cortés as ‘levis armaturae equitum quinquaginta dux fuerit,’ on which evidence Prescott makes the man a captain when he is only a lieutenant, which yet more clearly appears by Gomara, who states, _Hist. Mex._, 4, that he was a ‘teniente de vna compañia de Ginetes.’ [56] The nurse was a ‘vezina de Oliua,’ and her method of choosing a patron was characteristic of the times. ‘La deuocion fue echar en suertes los doze apostoles, y darle por auogado el postrero q̄ ssliesse, y salio san Pedro. En cuyo nõbre se dixeron ciertas missas y oraciones, con las quales plugo a Dios q̄ sanasse.’ _Gomara_, _Hist. Mex._, 4. [57] And Pizarro y Orellana, _Varones Ilvstres_, 66-69, indulges in a lengthy dissertation upon the effect of mothers’ milk on heroes. ‘Criole a sus pechos Doña Catalina Pizarro su madre: y a la generosidad deste lacticinio atribuye Marineo e Siculo su gran valor, y virtud.’