Note 1253 — Chapter VIII

Davila (Historia de Felipe Tercero, lib. ii. p. 41), after eulogizing the personal qualities of Lerma, adds, ‘Y sin estas grandes partes tuvo demostraciones christianas, manifestandolo en los conventos, iglesias, colegiatas, hospitales, ermitas y catedras, que dejó fundadas, en que gastó, como me consta de los libros de su Contaduría, un millon ciento cincuenta y dos mil doscientos ochenta y tres ducados.’ After such monstrous prodigality, Watson might well say, in his rather superficial, but, on the whole, well-executed History, that Lerma showed ‘the most devoted attachment to the church,’ and ‘conciliated the favour of ecclesiastics.’ Watson's History of Philip III., London, 1839, pp. 4, 8, 46, 224.