His indifference to the soft things of this world was equalled by his contempt of popularity; and the revenues that had bought for other archbishops of Toledo influence and fame amongst the wealthy and well-born of the kingdom now went to ameliorate the lives of the poor and to enrich hospitals and schools. From the first, also, he had set his face against patronage bestowed for any reason except the personal merit of the candidate in question. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, a brother of the Cardinal, had been appointed Adelantado of Cazorla, a military office in the diocese of Toledo. Fearful, lest he should now be deprived of it, he obtained a recommendation from the Queen, but Cisneros would not look at it. “Archbishops of Toledo,” he declared, “should administer their patronage freely and not on any recommendation. My Sovereign Lord and Lady, whom I deeply respect, can dismiss me to the cell from which they fetched me, but they cannot force me to act against my conscience and the laws of the Church.” Isabel received the report of this interview with the serenity that ordinary court flatterers found so baffling; while Cisneros, on his part, satisfied on enquiry as to Diego Hurtado’s character and capability, consented to ratify his nomination. The work of reform, undertaken by Queen and confessor, proceeded with renewed energy after the latter’s appointment as Primate. With regard to the secular clergy, the sovereigns had from the beginning of their reign endeavoured to leaven the worldly character of the episcopate by conferring vacant bishoprics on men of the lower nobility or middle class, who were distinguished for their mental or moral qualities. Nor did they leave to the lax arm of the ecclesiastical courts the administration of the numerous laws and edicts designed to check the widespread immorality of the lesser clergy; and it was royal officials who “fined, scourged, or banished” the women kept by priests in defiance of their vow of celibacy. This policy of amendment and repression met with Cisneros’s full approval; but the reform in which as a friar he was most interested was that of the monastic orders. In 1493 the sovereigns had obtained a papal brief, authorizing them to appoint “visitors,” who should inspect the various Religious Houses, correct the errors that they found, and punish evildoers.