Fray Luis de León: A Biographical Fragment
Date: 2005-06-29T00:00:00+00:00
Keywords: León; Luis de; 1527-1591

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Title: Fray Luis de León: A Biographical Fragment

Author: James Fitzmaurice-Kelly

Release date: June 29, 2005 [eBook #16148]
Most recently updated: December 11, 2020

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRAY LUIS DE LEÓN: A BIOGRAPHICAL FRAGMENT ***

HISPANIC
NOTES & MONOGRAPHS

ESSAYS, STUDIES, AND BRIEF
BIOGRAPHIES ISSUED BY THE
HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA

I

FRAY LUIS
DE LEON

A Biographical Fragment

BY

JAMES FITZMAURICE KELLY, F.B.A.

With a Portrait from
an engraving after Pacheco

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
HUMPHREY MILFORD
1921

PRINTED IN ENGLAND
AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY FREDERICK HALL

- PREFACE
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- APPENDIX
- EPIGRAMMA
- INDEX

PREFACE

This biographical sketch is, in fact, a fragment of a book which will now never come into existence. This particular chapter has been snatched from the burning by an accident. The name of Luis de Leon deservedly ranks as high as that of any poet in the history of Spanish literature; but his reputation as a poet is mostly local, while he is known all the world over as the subject of a dubious anecdote. The attempt is now made to render him more familiar than he has hitherto been to English-speaking people, and to do this, to exhibit the man as he was, it proved necessary to analyse the two volumes of his first trial, the evidence of which is brought together in vols. X and XI of the Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España. Edited by Miguel Salvá and Pedro Sainz de Baranda, these volumes appeared in 1847; their value is incontestable, but, though they give the evidence as it occurs in the register of the Inquisition, this evidence is not arranged in consistent chronological order, nor is it supplied with an index. The work, printed seventy-three years ago, is not within easy reach of every reader; and of those who have access to it not all are patient enough to read steadily through so large a mass of somewhat incoherent matter. Should any such readers be tempted to examine the record closely, it is hoped that this sketch will do something to make their task easier. An attempt is made here to picture the man as he was, full of fortitude, yet not exempt from human weakness. I trust that I have avoided the temptation to go to the opposite extreme, and lay the blame—as has been done—for the irregularities of the trial at Luis de Leon's own door.

In dealing with his Spanish poems, I have tried not to put his claims to consideration too high. Laboulaye, in La Liberté religieuse, calls Luis de Leon 'le premier lyrique de l'Europe moderne'. This phrase dates from 1859, and was addressed to a generation which delighted in arranging authors in something like the order of a class list. Though I have the highest opinion of Luis de Leon's genius, I have not felt tempted to follow Laboulaye's example; I have by preference discussed, so far as space allows, such points as the probable chronology of Luis de Leon's poems. Once more I repeat that this is a chapter of a book that will now never be written.

It may be as well to add at this point a few explanatory words concerning the plan of accentuation adopted here. There seems to be no valid reason for applying, in a book primarily intended for English readers, the modern Academic system to proper names borne in the sixteenth century by men who lived more than three hundred years before the current system was ever invented. Except of course in the case of quotations, that system is applied rigidly only to the names of those who have adopted it formally (as on pp. 114 n. and 191 n.). I have gone on the theory that accents should be sparingly used in a work of this kind, and that, as accents are almost needless for Spaniards they should be employed only when the needs of foreigners compel their use. It is a fundamental rule in Spanish that nearly all words ending in a consonant should be stressed on the last syllable. But since nobody, however slightly acquainted with Spanish, is tempted to pronounce such words as Velazquez (p. 79) or Gomez (p. 250) incorrectly, no graphic accent is employed in such cases. Names ending in s—such as Valbás—are accentuated, however, when the stress falls on the last syllable: this prevents all possibility of confusion with the pronunciation of ordinary plural forms. Place-names—such as Béjar (p. 58) and Córdoba (p. 184)—are accentuated; so are trisyllables and polysyllables such as Góngora (p. 209) and Zúñiga (p. 57 and elsewhere). It will be seen that, in this matter, I have been guided by strictly utilitarian principles. Inconsistencies are perhaps unavoidable under any system. The plan followed here, while it tends to diminish the total number of accents, probably involves no more inconsistencies than any other. It is based on rational grounds, and is, it may be hoped, less offensive to the eye than the current system. Quotations, I repeat, are reproduced exactly as they stand in the sources from which they profess to be taken.

With these words, I close what I have to say here on this subject and commend these pages to the indulgent judgement of my readers.

The following works, or articles, may be usefully consulted by the student of Spanish.

EDITIONS. LUIS DE LEON: Obras, ed. A. Merino, Madrid, 1804-5-6-16. 6 vols. [reprinted with a preface, by C. Muiños Sáenz, Madrid, 1885, 6 vols.]; Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, vols. XXXV, XXXVII, LIII, LXI, and LXII; De los nombres de Cristo, ed. F. de Onís, Madrid, 1914-1917 [Clásicos castellanos, vols. XXVIII and XXXIII]; La perfecta casada, ed. E. Wallace, Chicago, 1903; La perfecta casada, ed. A. Bonilla y San Martín, Madrid, 1917; El perfecto predicador, ed. C. Muiños Saenz in La Ciudad de Dios (1886), vol. XI, pp. 340-348, 432-447, 527-537; (1886), vol. XII, pp. 15-25, 104-111, 211-218, 322-330, 420-427, 504-512; (1887), vol. XIII, pp. 32-38, 106-114, 213-222, 302-312; (1887), vol. XIV, pp. 9-17, 154-160, 305-315, 449-459, 581-591, 729-743; Exposition del Miserere [facsimile of the Barcelona ed. of 1632], ed. A.M. Huntington, New York, 1903.

WORKS OF REFERENCE: Proceso original que la Inquisicion de Valladolid hizo al maestro Fr. Luis de Leon, religioso del órden de S. Agustin, ed. M. Salvá and P. Sainz de Baranda, in Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España (Madrid, 1847), vol. X, pp. 5-575, and vol. XI, pp. 5-358; J. Gonzalez de Tejada, Vida de Fray Luis de Leon (Madrid, 1863); C.A. Wilkens, Fray Luis de Leon (Halle, 1866); A. Arango y Escandon, Frai Luis de Leon, ensayo histórico, 2ª ed. (Mexico, 1866) [the first edition appeared in La Cruz (Mexico, 1855-56)]; F.H. Reusch, Luis de Leon und die spanische Inquisition (Bonn, 1873); M. Gutiérrez, El misticismo ortodoxo (Valladolid, 1886); M. Gutiérrez, Fray Luis de León y la filosofía española del siglo XVI, 2ª ed. aumentada (Madrid, 1891) [Adiciones póstumas in La Ciudad de Dios (1907), vol. LXXIII, pp. 391-399, 478-494, 662-667; vol. LXXIV, pp. 49-55, 303-414, 487-496, 628-643; in La Ciudad de Dios (1908), vol. LXXV, pp. 34-47, 215-221, 291-303, 472-486]; J.M. Guardia, Fray Luis de Leon ou la poésie dans le cloître, in the Revue germanique (1863), vol. XXIV, pp. 307-342; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Horacio en España, Solaces bibliográficas 2ª ed. (Madrid, 1885), vol. I, pp. 11-24, vol. II, pp. 26-36; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Estudios de crítica literaria, 1ª serie (Madrid, 1893), pp. 1-72; F. Blanco García, Segundo proceso instruído por la Inquisición de Valladolid contra Fray Luis de León (Madrid, 1896); F. Blanco García, Fray Luis de León: rectificaciones biográficas, in the Homenaje a Menéndez y Pelayo (Madrid, 1899), vol. I, pp. 153-160; J.D.M. Ford, Luis de León, the Spanish poet, humanist and mystic, in the Publications of the Modern Language Association of America (Baltimore, 1899), vol. XIV, pp. 267-278; F. Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico del insigne poeta agustino (Madrid, 1904); Acta de la reposición de Fray Luis de León en una cátedra de la Universidad de Salamanca in the Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, Tercera época (1900), vol. IV, pp. 680-682; L.G. Alonso Getino, La Causa de Fr. Luis de León ante la crítica y los nuevos documentos históricos, in the Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, Tercera época (1903), vol. IX, pp. 148-156, 268-279, 440-449; (1904), vol. XI, pp. 288-306, 380-397; C. Muiños Sáenz, El 'Decíamos ayer' de Fray Luis de León, (Madrid, 1905); L. Alonso Getino, Vida y procesos del maestro Fr. Luis de León (Salamanca, 1907); C. Muiños Sáenz El 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos, in La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXVIII, pp. 479-495, 544-560; vol. LXXIX, pp. 18-34, 107-124, 191-212, 353-374, 529-552; vol. LXXX pp. 99-125, 177-197; F. de Onís Sobre la trasmisión de la obra literaria de Fray Luis de León, in the Revista de Filología Española (Madrid, 1915), vol. II pp. 217-257; R. Menéndez Pidal, Una poesia inédita de Fray Luis de León, in the Revista de Filología Española (Madrid, 1917), vol. IV, pp. 389-390; C. Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía madrileña (Madrid, 1891-1906-1907), parte ii, pp. 254-255, and parte iii, pp. 404-409; G. Vázquez Núñez, El padre Francisco Zumel, general de la Merced y catedrático de Salamanca (1540-1607), in Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos, Tercera época (1918), vol. XXXVIII, pp. 1-19, 170-190; (1918), vol. XXXIX, pp. 53-67, 237-266; (1919), vol. XL, pp. 447-466, 562-594.

J. F-K.

PS. Had they reached me in time, the following two items would have been included in the respective sections of the foregoing summary bibliography: Poesías originales de Fray Luis de León, ed. F. de Onís, San José de Costa Rica, 1920; Ad. Coster, Notes pour une édition des poésies de Luis de León in the Revue hispanique (1919), vol. XLVI, pp. 193-248.

I

We are all of us familiar with the process of 'whitewashing' historical characters. We are past being surprised at finding Tiberius portrayed as an austere and melancholy recluse, Henry VIII pictured as a pietistic sentimentalist with a pedantic respect for the letter of the law, and Napoleon depicted as a romantic idealist, seeking to impose the Social Contract on an immature, reluctant Europe. Though the 'whitewashing' method is probably not less paradoxical than the opposite system, it makes a stronger and wider appeal, inasmuch as it implies a more amiable attitude towards life, and is more consonant with a flattering conception of the possibilities of human nature. A prosaic narrative of established facts does not immediately recommend itself to the average man. Possibly few have existed who were so good and so great that they can afford to have the whole truth told about them. At any rate, it is easier to convey a picturesque general impression than to collect all the available evidence with the untiring persistence of a model detective and to present it with the impartial acumen of a competent judge. Moreover, the inertia of pre-existing opinion has to be overcome. Once readers have been accustomed to accept as absolutely authentic an idealized conventional portrait of a man of genius, it is difficult to induce them to abandon it for a more realistic likeness. In the interest of historical truth, however, the attempt must be made. We are sometimes told that 'historical truth can afford to wait'. That may be true; but it has waited for nearly four centuries, and, if it be divulged in English now, the revelation lays us open to no reasonable charge of indiscretion or indecent haste.

It may be that the name of Luis de Leon is comparatively unknown outside the small group of those who are regarded as specialists. Luis de Leon is nothing like so famous as Cervantes, as Lope de Vega, as Tirso de Molina, as Ruiz de Alarcon, and as Calderon, whose names, if not their works, are familiar to the laity. This is one of chance's unjust caprices. With the single exception of Cervantes perhaps no figure in the annals of Spanish literature deserves to be more celebrated than Luis de Leon. He was great in verse, great in prose, great in mysticism, great in intellectual force and moral courage. Many may recall him as the hero of a story—possibly apocryphal—in which he figures as returning to his professorial chair after an absence of over four years (passed in the prison-cells of the Inquisition) and beginning his exordium to his students with the imperturbable remark: 'We were saying yesterday.' Mainly on this uncertain basis is constructed the current legend that Luis de Leon was a bloodless philosopher, incapable of resentment, and, indeed, without a touch of human weakness in his aloof and lofty nature. His works do not lend colour to this presentation of the man, nor do the ascertainable details of his chequered career. The conception of Luis de Leon as a meek spirit, an unresisting victim of malignant persecution, is not the sole view tenable of a complex character. However, the recorded facts may be trusted to speak for themselves.

II

What was Luis de Leon's full name? Was it Luis Ponce de Leon? So it would appear from the summarized results of P. Mendez printed in the Revista Agustiniana.[1] The point is not without interest, for Ponce de Leon is one of the great historic names of Spain. If Luis de Leon was entitled to use it, he appears not to have exercised his right, for in the report of his first trial[2] he consistently employs some such simple formula as:—'El maestro fray Luis de Leon... digo'.[3] The omission of the name 'Ponce' during proceedings extending over more than four years can scarcely be accidental. It may, however, have been due to monastic humility,[4] or to simple prudence: a desire not to provoke opponents who declared that Luis de Leon had Jewish blood in his veins.[5] Whether this assertion, a serious one in sixteenth-century Spain, had any foundation in fact is disputed. It is apparently certain that Luis de Leon's great-grandfather married a Leonor de Villanueva, who is reported to have confessed to practising Jewish rites and to have been duly condemned by the Inquisition in 1513 or thereabouts.[6] This does not go to the root of the matter, for Leonor de Villanueva is alleged to have been Lope de Leon's second wife. His first wife is stated to have been Leonor Sanchez de Olivares, a lady of unquestioned orthodoxy, and mother of Gomez de Leon,[7] the future grandfather of the Luis de Leon with whom we are concerned here. If this statement be correct,[8] obviously there can be no ground for asserting that Luis de Leon was of Jewish blood. But it must in candour be admitted that the point is not wholly clear from doubt.[9]

It is now established that Luis de Leon was born at Belmonte in the province of Cuenca: 'Belmonte de la Mancha de Aragon' as he calls it.[10] When was he born? On his tombstone, he was stated to be sixty-four years old when he died on August 23, 1591.[11] This is almost the only scrap of evidence available, for no baptismal registers dating back to the third decade of the sixteenth century are preserved at Belmonte.[12] Did the inscription on Luis de Leon's tomb mean that he had completed his sixty-fourth year, or did it mean that, at the time of his death, he had entered upon his sixty-fourth year? According to the answer given to these questions, the date of Luis de Leon's birth must be fixed either in 1527 or 1528.

Apart from the fact that Luis de Leon was taught singing,[13] as became the future friend of Salinas, we know next to nothing of his early youth. From himself we learn that he was taken from Belmonte to Madrid when he was five or six, that at the age of fourteen he was entered at Salamanca University, where one of his uncles—Francisco de Leon—was lecturer on Canon Law, and that shortly afterwards he resolved to enter a religious order.[14] The eldest son of a judge,[15] Luis de Leon renounced most of his share of the paternal estate,[16] and gave it up to one—or both—of his younger brothers Cristóbal and Miguel, each of whom had been veinticuatro of Granada at some date previous to April 15, 1572.[17] On January 29, 1544, Luis de Leon was formally professed in the Augustinian order.[18] In his monastery we may plausibly conjecture that he led a solitary and bookish existence, poring over his texts and attending lectures assiduously. As early as 1546-1547 his name appears on the list of students of theology at Salamanca; the registers of theological students covering the years 1547-1548 to 1550-1551 are missing; Luis de Leon's name does not appear in the register for the academic year 1551-1552, but it recurs in the University books for the years 1552-1553 and 1554-1555. He there figures still as a student of theology.[19] He would seem, therefore, to have shown no amazing precocity in the schools; but his application, we may be sure, was intense, and there is nothing rash in assuming that during part of the two years that he was absent, as he tells us,[20] from Salamanca, he was lecturing at Soria. The remaining eighteen months he probably devoted to exegetical studies at Alcalá de Henares, where he matriculated in 1556.[21] He was about thirty when he rather unexpectedly graduated as a bachelor of Arts at the University of Toledo.[22] Why he preferred to take his degree at Toledo instead of at Salamanca is not clear; it is plausibly conjectured that economy may have been his motive, as the obtaining of a bachelor's degree at Salamanca was an expensive business.[23] Confirmation of this conjecture is afforded by the fact that he speedily returned to his allegiance, was 'incorporated' as a bachelor at Salamanca in 1588, graduated there as a licentiate of theology in May 1560, and in the following month became a master of theology.[24] It soon became clear that he did not regard a University degree as a mere distinction. The retirement of Gregorio Gallo caused a vacancy in the chair of Biblical Exegesis at Salamanca. Luis de Leon, though but a master of a few months' standing, presented himself as a candidate for the post. He failed to obtain it, being defeated by Gaspar de Grajal, a future ally and fellow victim:[25] so far as can be ascertained, this was Luis de Leon's sole academic check. Manifestly he was not daunted. He claimed, and established, his right to take part in certain examinations in his faculty,[26] and 'con mucho exceso' thwarted the designs of the famous Domingo Bañez, whom he afterwards described as 'enemigo capital'.[27] His combativeness did him no immediate harm, for, in December 1561, he was elected Professor of Theology at Salamanca.[28] He was obviously not disposed to hide his light under a bushel, nor to perform his academic duties in a spirit of humdrum routine. Whatever he did, he did with all his might, and his strenuous versatility made him conspicuous in University life. In 1565 he was transferred from the theological chair to the chair of Scholastic Theology and Biblical Criticism, in which he succeeded his old master Juan de Guevara.[29]

Such successes as Luis de Leon had hitherto won he owed mainly to his own talents.[30] Brilliant as he was, there is no reason to assume that he was personally popular in Salamanca.[31] It does not appear that he made any effort to win popularity; nor is it certain that he would have succeeded even if he had sought to win it. His temper was impulsive, his disposition was critical and independent; his tongue and pen were sharp and made enemies among members of his own order; moreover, he contrived to alienate the Dominicans, a powerful body in Salamanca, as in the rest of Spain. No doubt he had many admirers, especially among his own students. Yet the University, as a whole, stood slightly aloof from him, and before long in certain obscurantist circles cautious hints of latitudinarianism were murmured against him. For these mumblings there was absolutely no sort of foundation.[32] As might be inferred from the simple fact that he was afterwards chosen to be the first editor of St. Theresa's works, Luis de Leon was the most orthodox of men. His selection for this piece of work may have been due to the influence of the saint's friend and successor, Madre Ana de Jesús, who had the highest opinion of him.[33] But it was not often that he produced so favourable a personal impression; he had not mastered the gentle art of ingratiation; it is even conceivable that he did not strictly observe St. Paul's injunction to 'suffer fools gladly'.[34] Though fundamentally humble-minded, he was intolerant of what he thought to be nonsense: a quality which would perhaps not endear him to all his colleagues. He set a proper value on himself and his attainments; he was prone to sift the precious metal of truth from the dross of uninformed assertion; he had an incurable habit of choosing his friends from amongst those who shared his tastes. A good Hebrew scholar, he was on terms of special intimacy with Gaspar de Grajal and with Martin Martinez de Cantalapiedra,[35] respectively Professors of Biblical Exegesis and of Hebrew in the University of Salamanca. Frank to the verge of indiscretion and suspecting no evil, Luis de Leon scattered over Salamanca fagots each of which contained innumerable sticks that his opponents used later to beat him with. Lastly, he had the misfortune, as it proved later, to differ profoundly on exegetical points from a veteran Professor of Latin, Rhetoric, and Greek.[36] This was Leon de Castro, a man of considerable but unassimilated learning, an astute wire-puller and incorrigible reactionary whose name figures in the bibliographies as the author of a series of commentaries on Isaiah—a performance which has not been widely read since its tardy first appearance in 1571. The delay in publishing this work, and the contemporary neglect of it, were apparently ascribed by Castro to the personal hostility of Luis de Leon who, though he did not approve of the book, seems to have been perfectly innocent on both heads.[37]

The fires of these differences had smouldered for some years when, during the University course (as it appears) of 1568-1569, Luis de Leon gave a series of lectures wherein he discussed, with critical respect, the authority attaching to the Vulgate. The respect passed almost unnoticed; the criticism gave a handle to a group of vigilant foes. Since 1569 a good deal of water has flowed under the bridges which span the Tormes, and it is intrinsically likely that, were the objectionable lectures before us, Luis de Leon might appear to be an ultra-conservative in matters of Biblical criticism. But this is not the historical method. In judging the action of Leon de Castro and his allies we must endeavour to adjust ourselves to the sixteenth-century point of view. Matters would seem to have developed somewhat as follows. In 1569 a committee was formed at Salamanca for the purpose of revising François Vatable's version of the Bible; both Luis de Leon and Leon de Castro were members of this committee,[38] and as they represented different schools of thought, there were lively passages between the two. It is customary to lay at Castro's door all the blame for the sequel. Nothing is likelier than that Leon de Castro was incoherent in his recriminations and provocative in tone: it is further alleged that his commentaries on Isaiah contained gratuitous digs at the views on Scriptural interpretation ascribed to Luis de Leon. It may well be that Luis de Leon, who had in him something of the irritability of a poet, took umbrage at these indirect attacks, and entered upon the discussion in a fretful state of mind. According to Leon de Castro, whose testimony on this point is uncontradicted, the climax came about in connexion with the text: 'Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.' Castro obstinately maintained that Vatable's interpretation of this passage was an interpretation favoured by the Jews against whom he cherished an incorrigible prejudice. Luis de Leon is reported to have lost patience at this assertion, and to have said that he would cause Castro's Commentaria in Essaiam Prophetam to be burnt. Castro, whatever his faults, was not the man to be cowed by a threat, and he retorted with the remark that, by God's grace, this should not come to pass, and that if there were any burning it would be applied rather to Luis de Leon and his family.[39] Having fired his bolt, but conscious that he was in a minority on the committee, Castro concluded with the sulky declaration that he did not propose to attend any further meetings of that body. He would seem to have changed his mind later on this point, modestly alleging that he gave way to the insistence of others who deemed his presence indispensable, on account of his knowledge of languages.[40] Whatever his linguistic accomplishments, they did not produce the desired effect, for Vatable's version of the Bible was passed as revised by the committee of Salamancan theologians in 1571, though, for some unexplained reason, their revised text was not published till thirteen years later.

The quarrel between Castro and Luis de Leon soon became public property. Passions were ablaze in a moment. Parties were formed, and Castro found much support, especially among the body of undergraduates, of whom one at least ingenuously described himself as 'del bando de Jesucristo'.[41] There was almost as much tumult in the University of Salamanca as in Agramante's camp. Even if Castro thought that the hour of his triumph was at hand, he was too experienced and too Spanish to be precipitate. He may well have had an inkling that, if many were repelled by Luis de Leon's austerity and implacable righteousness, his own reputation as a pedant and reactionary did not mark him out for leadership. His lack of expository power may also have struck him as a disqualification.[42] Further, on tactical grounds, he may have argued that his notorious hostility to Luis de Leon made it advisable for him not to figure too prominently in the ranks of the attacking party. Whatever his motive may have been, Castro gave place to a younger and far abler man, the well-known Dominican, Bartolomé de Medina, whose relations with Luis de Leon, never cordial, had grown strained, owing to various checks and disappointments. Medina honestly differed from Luis de Leon's views as regards Scriptural interpretation; he would have been a good deal more (or less) than human if he had not been galled by a series of small personal mortifications. He particularly resented, as well he might, being out-argued when he presented himself before Luis de Leon to be examined for his licentiateship of theology; the knowledge that this incident was talked over by mocking students did not improve matters.[43] Medina was, however, too wily to delate Luis de Leon directly; he reported to the Inquisition on the general situation at Salamanca, and in this document no names were mentioned. Luis de Leon was not in a position to counteract the manœuvres of his opponents. It is not certain that he could have done so, had he been continuously in Salamanca at this time: as it happened, he was absent at Belmonte from the beginning of 1571 till the month of March, and on his return he fell ill. All this while, Medina and Castro were free to go about sowing tares, making damaging suggestions, and collecting such corroborative evidence as could be gleaned from ill-disposed colleagues and garrulous or slow-witted students.[44] It appears that Medina's statement, embodying seventeen propositions which (as he averred) were taught at Salamanca, reached the Supreme Inquisition in Madrid on December 2, 1571; on December 13 the Inquisitionary Commissary at Salamanca was instructed to ascertain the source of the statement,[45] and to report on the tenability of the views set forth in the seventeen propositions.[46] Evidently the matter was regarded as urgent: for, on December 17, the Inquisitionary Commissary opened his preliminary inquiry at Salamanca. The sole witness called at the first sitting was Medina,[47] who repeated his assertions, mentioning Luis de Leon, Grajal, and Martinez de Cantalapiedra as offenders. A committee of five persons was appointed to examine into the orthodoxy of the views alleged to be held by these three. As Leon de Castro was a member of this committee, and as none of the other four members was in sympathy with Luis de Leon, the general tenor of the committee's findings might readily be predicted. These findings were somewhat hastily adopted by the local Inquisition at Valladolid on January 26, 1572, when the arrest of Grajal and Martinez de Cantalapiedra was recommended.[48] Up to this point Luis de Leon would seem not to have been officially implicated by name, though he was clearly aimed at, especially by Castro who appeared before the Inquisitionary Commissary at Salamanca, and reiterated Medina's charges with some wealth of rancorous detail.[49]

With significant promptitude effect was given to the recommendation of the local Inquisition: Grajal was apprehended on March 1; shortly afterwards Martinez de Cantalapiedra was likewise apprehended; and, as these measures seemed to arouse no feeling more dangerous than surprise in Salamanca, it was conceivably thought safe to fly at higher game. Manifestly, Luis de Leon must have known that something perilous was afoot when he handed in a most respectfully-worded written statement on March 6, 1572.[50] By about this time there had arrived in Salamanca Diego Gonzalez—an experienced official, whose conduct of the Inquisitionary case against Bartolomé de Carranza, the Archbishop of Toledo, has earned him an unenviable repute.[51] Under the presidency of Gonzalez, who might be trusted to keep the weaker brethren, if there were any, up to the mark, the local Inquisition on March 15 resolved to recommend the arrest of Luis de Leon. Apparently the gravity of this step was recognized. Another sitting was held on March 19, and a vote was taken with the result that the previous decision was confirmed by four votes to two. It should not, however, be assumed that the vote of the two implied any marked personal sympathy with Luis de Leon. On the contrary: the difference between the majority and the minority was concerned solely with a question of procedure. The minority suggested that it would cause less fuss and less scandal to seize Luis de Leon, Grajal, and Martinez de Cantalapiedra, to place each of them in solitary confinement for a short while in a Valladolid monastery, and thence to remove them, without trial, to the secret prison of the Inquisition.[52] It is difficult to detect the humanitarian motive of this alternative proposal.

II

[1]

Revista Agustiniana (Madrid, 1882), vol. III, p. 127. 'Lope Alvarez Ponce de Leon, Regidor de Segovia... casó dos veces: la primera con Doña Leonor Sánchez de Olivares, hija de Díez Sánchez de Olivares y hermana de aquel valiente caballero Don Pedro de Olivares, comendador del Olmo, del orden de Calatrava en tiempo del Maestro D. Rodrigo Téllez Girón. De este matrimonio tuvieron tres hijos. En segundas nupcias casó con Doña Leonor de Villanueva, y tuvieron dos hijos; pero no declaran quienes fueron del primer matrimonio, y quienes del segundo. Solo de D. Gómez consta que es del primer matrimonio.'

[2]

Proceso original que la Inquisicion de Valladolid hizo al maestro Fr. Luis de Leon, religioso del orden de S. Agustin. This proceso, edited by D. Miguel Salvá and D. Pedro Sainz de Baranda, occupies the tenth volume and pp. 5-358 of the eleventh volume of the Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la historia de España (Madrid, 1847).

[3]

Ex. gr. Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 96-97, 184-185, 255-256; vol. XI, pp. 38, 131, 350.

[4]

It is established beyond doubt, however, that some members of the family used the name Ponce. The works of Luis de Leon's eminent nephew, Basilio, an Augustinian like himself, bear on their title-pages the words 'Basilius Pontius Legionensis'.

[5]

This assertion is made emphatically by Diego de Haedo, the prosecuting counsel on behalf of the Inquisition; he calls Luis de Leon a 'descendiente de generacion de judíos' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 206). An echo of the charge is faintly audible in Luis de Leon's own testimony. It is repeated with violence by Leon de Castro: '...enojado de la porfía el dicho fray Luis, despues le dijo á este declarante que le habia de hacer quemar un libro que imprimia sobre Exsahías, y este declarante le respondió que con la gracia de Dios que ni él, ni su libro no prenderia fuego, ni podia; que primero prenderia en sus orejas y linaje; y queste declarante no queria ir mas á las juntas' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 12).

[6]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 157.

[7]

See note 1.

[8]

Luis de Leon apparently took no special interest in his family history. Before the Inquisitionary Tribunal at Valladolid on April 15, 1572, he traced his descent no further back than his grandparents, adding that, as he entered religion when he was fourteen years old, 'no tiene entera noticia de qué casta vienen los dichos sus padres y agüelos, mas de haber oido decir que ciertos contrarios que tuvo su padre, le pusieron en su hidalguía que venia de casta de conversos.

E preguntado si sabe que alguno de los de su descendencia ó trasversalía haya seido preso ó peniado ó condenado por este Santo Oficio; dijo que no lo sabe' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 182).

By May 14, 1573, Luis de Leon had recalled further particulars: 'Porque mi padre fué un hombre muy católico y muy principal como conoció todo el reino, y su padre que se llamó Gomez de Leon lo fué no menos que él en su lugar, y este tuvo un hermano de padre y madre que se llamó el licenciado Pedro de Leon, que fué collegial en el collegio del Cardenal desta villa como se puede luego saber; y el padre de ambos, visagüelo mio, se llamó Lope de Leon muy católico y de los mas honrados y principales de su lugar; y el padre de este y visagüelo mio, se llamó Pero Fernandez de Leon que le trujo el primer Señor de Belmonte consigo á aquel lugar, y fué alcaide en la fortaleza dél todo el tiempo que vivió, y el mas principal y mas limpio que habia en él, desto que el mundo llama limpieza, como siendo necesario probaré bastantemente' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 385-386). This challenge was never taken up.

[9]

It is not free from doubt because, though some of the witnesses, whose testimony is given in Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 146-174, are doubtless in good faith in their evidence as to Luis de Leon's Jewish descent, they refer to events which happened long before; and their memories are apt to play them false and their narratives are muddled. Luis de Leon appears to point to these depositions when he says: 'Y no se hallará en memoria de hombres ni de escrituras ciertas, que nombrada y señaladamente alguno de todos mis antecesores se haya convertido á la fe de nuevo' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 386). In common fairness, it should be said that the statement of P. Mendez [see note 1] is more in the nature of assertion unsupported by full evidence.

[10]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 180.

[11]

M.R.P. Francisco Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico del insigne poeta agustino, p. 254.

[12]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 23. On April 15, 1572, Luis de Leon stated that he was about forty-four (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 180): '...de edad de cuarenta é cuatro años, poco mas ó menos tiempo'. This is perhaps too vague to furnish a basis for a conclusion.

[13]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 173.

[14]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 182. Luis de Leon states that he made up his mind as to his religious vocation within four or five months of reaching Salamanca.

[15]

'El licenciado Lope de Leon, oidor que fué de la Chancillería de Granada, defunto, y Doña Inés de Alarcon su muger, que agora vive en Granada.' So Luis de Leon described his parents at the first sitting of the Inquisitionary Tribunal at Valladolid (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 180).

[16]

'Y en lo que toca á mi vida, aunque estoy lleno de faltas y pecados mas que otro alguno; pero esto es verdad que yo tomé el hábito de religion que tengo, de 14 años de mi edad, y dejé cuatro mill ducados de renta que mi padre tenia vinculados en mi cabeza como en el mayor de sus hijos' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 386).

[17]

Luis de Leon seems to have arranged that his brother Miguel should pay him annually a small sum which was, apparently, to be spent on books. This is a fair inference from Luis de Leon's reply to a claim lodged against him by one Lucas Junta, a bookseller of Salamanca, on March 17, 1575 (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 51, 52). It seems doubtful whether Miguel reached Luis's standard of punctuality in the matter of payment (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 196). Luis de Leon had two sisters, Mencía de Tapia and María de Alarcon. The latter had died before April, 1572. So had another brother, Antonio, who was a priest (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 182).

[18]

Revista Agustiniana (Madrid, 1882), vol. I, p. 414.

[19]

Blanco García, op. cit., pp. 47-48.

[20]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 182.

[21]

J. Gonzalez de Tejada, Vida de Fray Luis de Leon, Madrid, 1863, p. 10.

[22]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 59.

[23]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 59, note I.

[24]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 60.

[25]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 62, note 4. Grajal was so greatly struck with his opponent's ability that he supported Luis de Leon in all his subsequent candidatures. On this point we have an explicit statement from Luis de Leon: 'Es verdad que el maestro Grajal ha sido y es mi amigo, y querelle yo bien comenzó de que habiendo sido primero competidores en la cátreda de Biblia que él llevó, en las demas oposiciones que yo hice, sin sabello yo, trató en mi favor con tanto cuidado y con tan gran encarecimiento de buenas palabras, que cuando lo supe quedé obligado á tratalle, y del trato resultó conocer en él uno de los hombres de mas sanas y limpias entrañas y mas sin doblez que yo he tratado; y ansí nuestra amistad fué siempre, no como de hombres de letras para comunicar y conferir nuestros estudios, sino como de dos hombres que trataban ambos de ser hombres de bien, y por conocer esto el uno del otro se querian bien' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 326-327).

[26]

Gonzalez de Tejada, op. cit., pp. 21-22.

[27]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 261-262.

[28]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 63.

[29]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 64.

[30]

Not altogether, for though Luis de Leon had, in an eminent degree, the knack of success in all open competitions, the students took part in the elections of professors at Salamanca, and this element disturbed calculations.

[31]

This is a fair inference from Luis de Leon's assertion: 'en aquella universidad yo tengo muchos enemigos por causa de mis pretendencias' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 574).

[32]

On this head, Luis de Leon's acquittal by the Supreme Inquisition speaks for itself.

[33]

'Es muy santo... Tiene mucho caudal de Dios'. These encomiastic phrases of the pious nun's are quoted by Blanco García (op. cit., p. 245) from Angel Manrique, Vida de la Venerable Ana de Jesús (Bruselas, 1632), p. 328. Manrique's biography is not within my reach.

[34]

Luis de Leon's probity was not free from a touch of brusqueness. This is disclosed by his own description of his behaviour to a dullard who made his life at Salamanca a burden: 'Acerca del capítulo cuarto, demás de lo dicho digo que creo que este testigo es un bachiller Rodriguez, y por otro nombre el doctor Sutil que en Salamanca llaman por burla; y sospécholo de que dice en este capítulo que le dejé sin respuesta, porque jamás dejé de responder á ninguna persona de aquella universidad que me preguntase algo, sino a éste que digo, con el cual por ser falto de juicio y preguntar algunas veces cosas desatinadas, y colligir disparates de lo que oia y no entendia, me enojaba y le decia que era tonto. Y otras veces por no enojarme ni desconcertarme con él no le respondia nada, sino huia dél' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 357-358).

[35]

This was the contention of the prosecuting counsel. Luis de Leon, however, declared that, highly as he thought of Martinez de Cantalapiedra's patristic learning, there was no marked intimacy between them, and that he often did not meet Martinez de Cantalapiedra for a year or two. 'Ni yo tenia con él trato ni conversacion ordinaria; antes se pasaba un año y dos años que no le veia ni hablaba.... Y siempre le tuve y tengo por el hombre mas leido en los sanctos de cuantos hay en aquella universidad' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 227).

[36]

Leon de Castro's first appointment at Salamanca is dated March 28, 1549: he was 'jubilado' on July 5, 1561. See Vicente de la Fuente, Historia de las universidades, colegios y demas establecimientos en España (Madrid, 1884-1889), vol. II, p. 250.

[37]

Francisco Sanchez, possibly El Brocense, testified to Castro's saying: 'isti judæi et judaizantes me han echado á perder, y por eso no se vende mi libro'. Sanchez bluntly told the Inquisitors that he did not believe this, and attributed the book's failure to its size and price (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 299-300). It is suggested by Vicente de la Fuente (op. cit., vol. II, p. 289, note 3) that there was some basis for Castro's opinion. Luis de Leon implicitly denied the charge, which he manifestly thought beneath contempt: 'Y si yo hubiera tratado como Leon cree de que la Inquisicion vedara su libro, yo hiciera que se advirtiera. Y aunque el doctor Valbas en Alcalá á quien fué cometido por el Consejo Real, al principio le quitó grandes pedazos adonde trataba á San Hierónimo como me trata á mí agora, no le pudo quitar esto que yo digo, por que era quitalle todo el libro,...' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 352). Luis de Leon tried in a friendly way to convince Castro about the errors in his book before it was published and as soon as the printing began (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 351). This intervention would nettle Castro, who seems to have had Jewry on the brain; he mentioned, apparently, that Vatable, St. Jerome, and St. John Chrysostom were all Jews or Judaizers (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 294). What probably nettled Castro still more was that Luis de Leon found fault with his knowledge of Latin and Greek: 'lo cual él sentia mucho porque tocaba en propio de su profesion.' Luis de Leon proposed to call five witnesses on this point (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 256-257), but this was ruled out as irrelevant (impertinente) by the Inquisitionary Tribunal.

[38]

The Chairman of this Committee was Francisco Sancho, Dean of the Theological Faculty of Salamanca. The other members—at any rate those who signed Sancho's copy of Vatable (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 521-522)—were Juan de Almeida, Don Carlos, García del Castillo, Diego Gonzalez, Grajal, Juan de Guevara, Martinez de Cantalapiedra, Bartolomé de Medina, Muñiz, and Juan Vique. As the names of Luis de Leon and Juan Gallo are omitted, the list cannot be thought exhaustive. So, also, are the names of Bravo and Muñon absent from the list. These last two omissions are readily explained. Bravo and Muñon had both died before December 26, 1571 (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 10).

[39]

Castro's statement was: 'Porfió de tal manera [fray Luis de Leon] que no era el sentido este deste lugar, y despues de visto que era ansí, porfió... que tambien podia ser verdadero el sentido de los judíos...; dijo este testigo que aunque viniesen todos los letrados del mundo, no podrian hacer que aquel sentido de los judíos pudiese venir ni cuadrar con la letra griega, ni hebrea ni latina,... y enojado de la porfía el dicho fray Luis, despues le dijo á este declarante que le habia de hacer quemar un libro que imprimia sobre Exsahías, y este declarante le respondió que con la gracia de Dios que ni él, ni su libro no prenderia fuego, ni podia; que primero prenderia en sus orejas y linaje; y queste declarante no queria ir mas á las juntas' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 11-12). Though far from friendly to Luis de Leon, the Dominican Juan Gallo was provoked into saying that he would pare Castro's claws till the blood streamed from him: 'queriendo decir por las uñas que era este declarante áspero porque les decia que era aquello de judaizantes, y que no lo decia por ellos, sino porque defendian las cosas de judíos;...' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, P. 15).

[40]

'Y el colegio de teólogos envió al maestro fray Juan de Guevara y á otro maestro, á pedirle y mandarle que no faltase de allí porque no podían hacer nada sin las lenguas.' This is Castro's version. (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 12.)

[41]

Castro states (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 16) that this pious student was Bernardino de Mendoza, son of the Marqués de Mondéjar.

[42] Bartolomé de Carranza mentions (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 279) Castro's muddle-headed knack of misunderstanding what was said to him, and his propensity to argue points, imagining that his opponents had said the very reverse of what they had said. As to Castro's lack of expository power, Luis de Leon states, 'tiene falta de lengua' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 327).

[43]

This is established by the evidence of Mancio, a professor who came to Medina's rescue: '...vió este testigo quel dicho fray Luis de Leon arguyó al dicho fray Bartolomé de Medina muy bien, é que no le concluyó, y ques verdad que tuvo el dicho fray Bartolomé de Medina padrino en este testigo para ayudalle y le ayudó para los argumentos que se le ofrecieron; é que lo queste testigo contó á los estudiantes fué que tuvo necesidad el dicho fray Bartolomé de Medina que le ayudase, aunque sin padrinos pudiera él responder' (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 317). This must be dated before February, 1570, when Medina took his degree as Master of Theology (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 340). In May-June, 1571, Luis de Leon and Medina had a squabble as to the distribution of lectures. The Rector of Salamanca decided in Medina's favour: Luis de Leon appealed to the Consejo Real at Madrid, and won his case on September 23, 1566 (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 323-327).

[44]

The evidence of Alonso Rejon (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 51) seems conclusive: '...preso ya el maestro Grajal, se llegó á este declarante el maestro fray Luis de Leon... quejándose de algunos maestros de esta universidad y particularmente del maestro fray Juan Gallego, que admitian dichos de estudiantes, los cuales decian algunas cosas diferentemente de lo que las habian leido los maestros,...' As to Medina's action, Luis de Leon wrote (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 228): 'Tambien me acuerdo que vino un estudiante á mí, y tomándome palabra de secreto, me dijo que fray Bartolomé de Medina andaba haciendo pesquisa de Grajal y Martinez, aunque no me los nombró, pero entendílo de las señas que dió; y que á él le habia preguntado, y él le habia dicho cinco ó seis cosas que les habia oido, y acuérdome de dos dellas, porque me pareció que me tocaba á mí tambien. La una era de la Vulgata que se podria hacer otra mejor, y yo le dije riendo: pues quieren atar las manos á Dios que no pueda hacer un profeta en su iglesia. Y la otra era que los Cantares eran Carmen amatorium, y le dije: Carmen amatorium ni dice bien ni mal. Si dice Carmen amatorium carnale, eso es mal; pero si dice Carmen amatorium spirituale, eso verdad es. Y á lo demás que me dijo, me encogí, como cosa que oia entonces, y no entendia bien lo que queria decir, á todo cuanto me acuerdo;...'

[45]

These data, given by Blanco García (op. cit., pp. 111-115), are derived from the record of Grajal's trial.

[46]

The seventeen propositions are printed in Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 286-287; they are reproduced by Blanco García (op. cit., p. 111). According to Bartolomé de Medina (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 66), the teaching of the doctrines embodied in the seventeen propositions scandalized the Salamancan students.

[47]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 5-7.

[48]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 113.

[49]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 7-18.

[50]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 96-102.

[51]

See Documentos inéditos, vol. LXVIII.

[52]

Blanco García, op. cit., pp. 114-115.

III

Though, in accord with the customary procedure in such cases, each witness who appeared before Gonzalez was sworn to secrecy, it is evident that there was no mystery in Salamanca as to the intention of the Valladolid Inquisitors. On March 25, 1572, a day before the formal order for the arrest of Luis de Leon was actually signed, Diego de Valladolid was accepted as bail to the amount of two thousand ducats, that the said Luis de Leon would go quietly to prison in Valladolid without making any attempt at escape.[53] A document to this effect was drawn up and was duly signed by three witnesses, of whom one was a Familiar of the Inquisition, Francisco de Almansa. It seems likely that Almansa may have suspected that, for the time being, the hours of Luis de Leon's comparative freedom were already numbered; for, on the following day (March 26, 1572), Almansa was appointed alguacil of the Valladolid Inquisitionary court, was directed to arrest Luis de Leon wherever he might be—'in church, or monastery, or other hallowed place'—and was further ordered to sequestrate any arms, cash, jewels, or papers which the prisoner might have about him. [54] Almansa, to whom Luis de Leon was perfectly well known, [55] obeyed instructions, and reached the Valladolid jail with his captive at about six o'clock in the evening of Thursday, March 27, 1572.[56] After being carefully searched, Luis de Leon was lodged in the secret cells of the Inquisition, and there, except for his appearances in court, he was detained for over four years and eight months.[57]

Though he was notoriously in weak health, the prisoner does not seem to have received any special consideration. On the other hand, it cannot be maintained that, at the outset, his judges treated him with inhumanity. That Luis de Leon was nervous about himself, and that he believed it possible he might die without warning is the impression conveyed by a fervent act of faith which, though undated, was probably written almost as soon as his imprisonment began. On March 31, Luis de Leon asked for various things besides four books: one of them a box of powder with which he was usually provided by a nun named Ana de Espinosa to alleviate his heart-attacks.[58] This petition was granted. Luis de Leon's request for a knife to cut his food with was so clearly against all prison regulations that he can scarcely have expected a favourable reply.[59] The Inquisitors met him half-way by ordering that he should at once be supplied with a rounded spoon, sufficient for his purpose, though useless to a prisoner of suicidal tendencies.[60] At this stage, it cannot be said that Luis de Leon was treated with any want of lenity. There was no reason why he should be. He was arrested mainly on suspicion of being concerned in the (purely imaginary) Jewish propaganda imputed to his colleagues Grajal and Martinez de Cantalapiedra; the evidence against him was second-hand and meagre.

Before long matters began to take a graver aspect. A definite charge[61] emerged that some ten or eleven years earlier[62] Luis de Leon had translated from the Hebrew into Spanish the Song of Solomon, to which he appended a commentary, also in Spanish. This he did at the request of a nun whose name is incidentally revealed as 'Doña Isabel Osorio, monja de Sancti Espíritu de Salamanca'.[63] That Luis de Leon's proceeding was most imprudent is undeniable. With characteristic courage and candour, in his first confesion of March 6, he volunteered the admission that he had made such a rendering.[64] At this moment he was apparently unaware that the existence of this rendering had been already brought to the notice of the Inquisition by Medina.[65] Nobody questions Luis de Leon's good faith. Nevertheless one gets the impression that he felt this to be a weak point in his case. It was. He had committed a serious indiscretion by infringing the general prohibition of vernacular versions of any part of Scripture. No doubt it might be contended that his rendering of the Song of Solomon, and his commentary on it, were originally meant to be used by only one private person; that the prohibition referred to the circulation of vernacular versions; that this particular version, made for the exclusive use of Doña Isabel Osorio, did not amount to circulation (within the four corners of the general prohibition); and that such circulation as had taken place had occurred against the will of the translator. This is not mere sophistry. What seems to have happened was this. It appears that a lay brother, named Diego de Leon, part of whose business it was to tidy Luis de Leon's cell, stumbled one day upon the original manuscript of the vernacular version of the Song of Solomon, copied it without leave or licence, and allowed so many transcriptions of his copy to be made that it became absolutely impossible for the translator to control or recall them afterwards.[66] Manifestly Diego de Leon did not venture to remove the original manuscript from its resting-place; it was still in Luis de Leon's monastery-cell on November 7, 1573.[67] Search being made for it, the version was found, handed over to the Inquisitionary authorities, and retained by them when judgement was pronounced.[68] There is evidence to show that many manuscript copies of the vernacular Song of Solomon stole into existence and were widely distributed. On March 6, 1572, Luis de Leon, whose references to this matter are tinged with regret, uses words which seem to imply that a copy had reached Portugal; and an inquiry, opened at Cuzco in the autumn of 1575, revealed the fact that a transcription of the Cantares que llaman de fray Luis de Leon had been made by Fray Luis Alvarez and conveyed by him to South America. This transcription, after being recopied by a Lima graduate, who appears to have left for Spain to continue his studies at the University of Alcalá de Henares, was deposited in the public library of Quito which was housed in the Augustinian monastery there.[69] This episode denotes a morbid curiosity which must have been revolting to Luis de Leon's austere nature. He candidly avowed doubts as to the prudence of facilitating the reading of the Song of Solomon in Spanish, and would have cancelled all manuscript copies if he could.[70] In this respect, however, he was powerless, and no better remedy occurred to him than to set to work on a Latin version which, when printed, should supplant the Spanish rendering. This he hoped to be able to disown. But fate was hostile to his design. Constant ill-health hindered him from making rapid headway with his projected Latin translation. He submitted himself to the Court which, naturally enough, vouchsafed no reply to his request for alternative suggestions as to how he could make amends for a preliminary error of judgement.[71]

If Luis de Leon's opponents expected to overwhelm him by the suddenness, vehemence, or volume of their attack, they must speedily have been disillusioned. The mystic poet proved to be a formidable fighting-man. Before very long it must have dawned upon the Inquisitionary deputies at Valladolid that they had caught a Tartar. Unversed in the ways of the world, Luis de Leon came of a legal stock, and was thoroughly at home in a law-court. A master of dialectics, he was always alert, always prompt to criticize the evidence, always ready to deal with every point as it arose, always prepared to furnish elaborate written or verbal explanations as to every detail concerning which the tribunal could harbour a reasonable doubt. The official secretaries of the Court—Celedon Gustin and the rest of them—must have grown to dread Luis de Leon's continual demands for sheets of paper on which to write his long, considered replies. It would be idle to attempt to summarize the technical arguments advanced by each side in support of conflicting views on doctrinal or exegetical problems. In this place, it will suffice to advert to points which help to illuminate the character of Luis de Leon, or to exemplify the attitude of the court towards him.

At the outset, as already stated, there seems to have existed no decided prejudice against Luis de Leon in the minds of his judges: they apparently administered the existing system in a not illiberal spirit. There are indications, however, that this position of relative impartiality was not maintained. That the court became gradually biased against the accused seems to follow from the small but eloquent fact of its rejecting Luis de Leon's petition that his University chair should not be declared vacant till the end of his trial.[72] It cannot be argued that the judges were concerned for the efficiency of the teaching in the University of Salamanca—a matter in which they took no sort of interest. The decision of the court in Luis de Leon's case was in direct conflict with the ruling of the same court as regards Barrientos, another Salamancan professor who was in custody of the Valladolid Inquisition on May 20, 1572.[73] It was then settled that Barrientos should not be disturbed, and that no successor to him should be appointed so long as he was imprisoned. Luis de Leon's chair was declared vacant as soon as his normal tenure of four years had expired; the ordinary course of unquestioned renewal was not followed; and, to make matters worse, his implacable opponent, Bartolomé de Medina, was appointed to succeed Luis de Leon in his chair.[74] For this appointment, no doubt, the University of Salamanca is entitled to claim such credit as is due. But no such appointment would have been possible had the Valladolid Inquisitors been consistent. What caused the court to be more severe to Luis de Leon than to his colleague Barrientos?

This instance of inconsiderateness is not unique. As time went on the bias of the court against the accused waxed rather than waned. Luis de Leon's ill-health was notorious and, in fact, so obvious that it is recorded by the court in an official minute.[75] His state did not improve in jail. Suffering from fever—'como á sus mercedes les consta'—so he says plaintively—he had nobody to look after him in his secret cell save a sleepy-headed boy, a fellow-prisoner who was half a simpleton. Luis de Leon had fainted from lack of food, and, in the circumstances, it is not surprising that he should have asked to be allowed the companionship of a monk of his order—preferably Fray Alonso Siluente—or anybody else whom the court should think fit to name.[76] Somewhat later, while still suffering from fever, Luis de Leon begged that, on his providing satisfactory bail, he might be transferred from his prison-cell to some neighbouring monastery, where he could be detained till the end of his trial. So depressed was he at this moment that he even welcomed the idea of being placed in a Dominican monastery; it was true that the Dominicans were hostile to him, yet if he died among them, he should be dying like a Christian, surrounded by religious—not like a heathen with a blackamoor at his bedside.[77] The first of these two requests was made to the Valladolid judges, who passed it on to the Supreme Inquisition at Madrid; the reply of this body was discouraging, for, though the request was granted in principle, impossible conditions, tantamount to a refusal, were imposed.[78] Luis de Leon's second request was addressed direct to the Inquisitor-General: this petition was disregarded. In other matters, less urgent but not less important from an orthodox point of view, the Inquisitionary judges at Valladolid made no concession to the prisoner. He asked to be allowed to go to confession, and to say Mass once a fortnight in the hall where his case was heard.[79] Apparently a deaf ear was turned to his entreaties. A hostile critic might be tempted to say that a vindictive spirit prevailed in the deliberations of the Valladolid tribunal.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, as the case developed, the attitude of the Valladolid judges became less and less favourable to Luis de Leon. Judges are mortals and liable to error. The very pertinacity of the prisoner may have impressed them badly.[80] It is in the highest degree improbable that they attached any importance to his few slips. He speaks of having a naturally weak memory which, so he declares, had grown worse while he was in prison,[81] and he was frankly sceptical as to the possibility of any man's recalling every incident in squabbles that happened years before.[82] As it happens, his memory seems to have been excellent. No doubt it failed him now and then; but seldom did it mislead him on any essential point.[83] It is conceivable that Luis de Leon's judges at Valladolid thought him lacking in deference. Though perfectly respectful, his attitude to them was anything but subservient. The judges were accustomed to see prisoners who were brought before them crushed with awe and a sense of impending doom. Conscious of the baselessness of the charges against him, the accused seemed to take his acquittal as certain; and he stood so little in awe of his judges that he announced his intention of appealing over their heads to the members of the Supreme Inquisition.[84] Timidity was not among his failings. A priest of Astudillo, formerly a student at Salamanca, had occasionally strayed into Luis de Leon's densely-packed lecture-room, and retained an abiding impression of the professor's desenvoltura in his chair.[85] Luis de Leon had not become wholly subdued during the intervening years. He did not mince words in court, and indulged in sweeping denunciations of large groups of men; he branded all Dominicans as 'enemies';[86] he was scarcely more indulgent in speaking of the Jeromites (who resented his opposition to the candidature of their representative, Hector Pinto, for a chair at Salamanca);[87] and on general grounds, not unconnected with ancient academic rancours, he objected to the entire faculty of theology at the University of Alcalá de Henares.[88] The evidence of such persons should, he suggested, be discounted in advance. Slow to think evil of his neighbours, Luis de Leon was apt, once his suspicions were aroused, to fling his net widely. He had some inkling that he and his had the fatal gift of rousing antagonism. His uncle had been a practising lawyer, and Luis de Leon argued that all who had suffered through the professional activities of his kinsman should be debarred from testifying in his case.[89] The unworldly man manifestly took it for granted that witnesses who harboured any such grudge against him would willingly admit it, if pressed on the point.

Outspoken as was Luis de Leon with regard to groups, he was not less outspoken with regard to individuals, and in this respect it must be admitted that he does not appear at his best. Vehemence of language had been the rule in the Salamancan juntas of professors, and much of this intemperate tone clung to Luis de Leon. No doubt large allowances should be made for him. He knew that his honour was at stake and that his life was in peril.[90] As he was persuaded—perhaps rightly—he had been brought to this pass mainly through the intrigues of an unscrupulous pair.[91] His provocation was extreme. It was almost to be expected that he should use plain words when referring to foes as malignant as Medina and Castro. These two men he accused of deliberately organizing a conspiracy against him;[92] he spoke bluntly of Medina's 'hatred', 'rage', 'trickery', and 'lying';[93] he was not mealy-mouthed in describing Castro's 'malice', 'deceit', 'calumnies', and 'perjury'.[94] Luis de Leon dealt no less faithfully with some members of his own order who were spiteful or cowardly—or both. As early as the beginning of August 1572 Fray Gabriel Montoya, Prior of the Augustinian Monastery at Toledo, stated to the Inquisitors at Valladolid that, in his opinion, certain remarks on the Vulgate, made by Luis de Leon in the course of a lecture, were of an heretical savour.[95] The value of this opinion is somewhat diminished by the fact that Montoya had a personal grudge against Luis de Leon who, some four or five years previously, had prevented Montoya's election as Provincial of the Augustinians in Spain.[96] This check seems to have galled Montoya, who gives the impression of being a rancorous gossip, and, before leaving the court, he repeated a malignant rumour—derived he knew not whence—to the effect that Luis de Leon's father had enjoined his son to be submissive to his superiors and to follow the current opinion in matters intellectual.[97] Luis de Leon indulges in no circuitous phrases when he comes to deal with Montoya, whom he describes as an enemy notorious for his untruthfulness.[98] It would appear that much of Montoya's second-hand information came from another Augustinian, Francisco de Arboleda,[99] who had once been a student of Luis de Leon's,[100] and had been entrusted by the prisoner with the delicate mission of collecting from certain theologians in Seville opinions favourable to Luis de Leon's views upon the Vulgate.[101] This very sensible precaution scandalized Montoya. It is open to criticism solely on the ground that Luis de Leon chose his agent badly. To this criticism the real answer is that Luis de Leon had to employ what agents he could, and that nobody but Arboleda, who was not above flattering his old master,[102] was available at the time of his mission to Seville. Arboleda's evidence was not damaging; it was ill-intentioned and impertinent, inasmuch as it repeated vague rumours of the Jewish descent of the accused;[103] the gravest fact the witness could allege was Luis de Leon's view that a friar, despite his vow of poverty, might spend a couple of coppers without mortal sin in buying an Agnus Dei.[104] Arboleda gives the impression of being a dullard, and this is pretty much the description of him by another member of the Augustinian order—Pedro de Rojas,[105] son of the Marqués de Pozas and afterwards Bishop of Astorga and Osuna. Luis de Leon apparently agreed with Rojas in his estimate of Arboleda's ability, and this may account for his comparative leniency to the poor numbskull. More severe treatment is meted out to another Augustinian, Diego de Zúñiga, whom Luis de Leon brands as a deliberate perjurer.[106] Who was this Zúñiga? He has generally been identified with the Zúñiga who was among the first in Spain to declare in favour of the Copernican theory;[107] this action needed courage and Zúñiga has had his reward. As he is respectfully quoted by Galileo, he has attained something like immortality.[108] There is, however, no conclusive evidence to show that this enlightened writer is the Zúñiga who came under Luis de Leon's lash. The correctness of the current identification is, at least, doubtful.

The fact that Diego de Zúñiga is a frequent combination of names in Spain is an embarrassment to the investigator. It is noticeable that Luis de Leon's references seem to imply some doubt as to his opponent's real name; he is obviously uncertain whether his accuser should be called Zúñiga or Rodriguez,[109] and in this uncertainty he is not alone.[110] It appears that there were at least two Augustinians known as Diego de Zúñiga in Luis de Leon's time; it further appears that neither of the two inherited from his father the surname which he habitually used. Both men claimed relationship with the Duque de Béjar—it was to the seventh Duque de Béjar that Cervantes dedicated the First Part of Don Quixote in 1605—and both assumed the family name of that illustrious stock.[111] The original name of the more celebrated of these Zúñigas was Diego Arias;[112] the original name of the less celebrated was Rodriguez.[113] This is not decisive, but it may well be one of those small facts which speak volumes. Chronology confirms the conclusion to be drawn from these considerations. The Zúñiga who appeared against Luis de Leon at Valladolid was evidently professed as early as 1559 or 1560;[114] the more celebrated Zúñiga was not professed till 1566.[115] General considerations point in the same direction. The views of Zúñiga (alias Arias) were approximately those of Luis de Leon;[116] he viewed matters from the same standpoint, was himself a university professor,[117] and had something of Luis de Leon's fearlessness.[118] Zúñiga (alias Rodriguez) was a man of a very different type: pedantically attached to the letter of the law, morbidly scrupulous on points of discipline. There seems to be no touch of burlesque intention in Luis de Leon's presentment of the man. According to Luis de Leon, Zúñiga (alias Rodriguez) was half-crazed with vanity, much given to boasting of the esteem in which he was held at the Papal Court. On one occasion, the fatuous Zúñiga produced a short treatise entitled Manera para aprender todas las ciencias, and, stating that he proposed sending this pamphlet to the Pope, made bold to ask what his interlocutor thought of it. Can he have been vain enough to expect a favourable verdict? If so, he did not know his man. Luis de Leon drily expressed his regret that a work destined for the Pope should be so slight and should contain a number of rather commonplace passages such as might be found in any current book of reference—though, as he added politely, he assumed that these passages were the fruit of independent reading. This courteous assumption, which Zúñiga hastily assured Luis de Leon was exact,[119] could not alter the fact that the ambitious author had been severely snubbed, and this snub may well have rankled in the mind of a man who is described as 'vindictive'. Zúñiga had another grievance against Luis de Leon, who had taken a severe view of his companion's insolence to an official superior at a Provincial Chapter, and had joined in making representations the upshot of which was that the culprit was publicly and ignominiously punished.[120] It is well-nigh incredible that the Zúñiga who championed Copernicus, and displays vigilant self-restraint in his writings, should have been guilty of such flightiness as is brought home to his namesake; it is by no means inconceivable that the Zúñiga who deposed against Luis de Leon should have been guilty of occasional lapses. He is said to have been impetuous as well as vindictive;[121] he had the dangerous gift of pulpit eloquence[122] and may have acquired the trick of saying rather more than he meant. His evidence against Luis de Leon, though fluent and clear, is not what we should expect from a man of talent, who recognized the gravity of the charges against the prisoner. His testimony, such as it is, has less intellectual substance than the testimony of Castro and Medina; it turns mainly on petty personal questions or on points of morbid scrupulousness. The more closely his evidence is scrutinized, the more difficult is it to avoid the suspicion that Zúñiga was not a perfectly trustworthy witness. For instance, according to his sworn statement he was thirty-six years old when he deposed at Toledo on November 4, 1572.[123] The declaration is made positively without any of the qualifying phrases—'about', 'nearly', 'more or less'—so frequent on the part of witnesses. Nevertheless, it seems possible that this assertion is erroneous. Zúñiga refers to a discussion respecting Arias Montano which he had with Luis de Leon in the latter's cell some thirteen years previously. At this time Zúñiga would, on his own showing, be but twenty-three. From what we know of Luis de Leon, it seems improbable that he would admit to his confidential intimacy a man so much his junior. No doubt Zúñiga (or Rodriguez) was young at the time—hardly old enough, by his own reckoning, to be an ordained priest—a mancebo, as he seemed to Luis de Leon's retrospicient eyes.[124] Yet it is very hard to believe that Zúñiga was no more than twenty-three when he took it upon himself to cast doubts on the orthodoxy of Benito Arias Montano;[125] nor is it likely that Luis de Leon would discuss so delicate a topic with the most brilliant of youths. Let it not be said that the question of Zúñiga's accuracy in stating his age is relatively unimportant. It is highly relevant; for, if Zúñiga were capable of making a mistake on such a point, he was manifestly more liable to error when dealing with other matters on which he necessarily knew less. However, Zúñiga's evidence is not weighty enough to call for detailed examination. He may be left to bear the burden of Luis de Leon's scorn. I am more concerned here to suggest that, on the facts before us, we are not compelled to identify the Zúñiga who deposed against Luis de Leon with a namesake of a higher intellectual type. To us who read the testimony in cold blood, more than three centuries after it was given, it seems that Luis de Leon deals as impartially with his brethren as with members of other religious orders. This was not his intention, at any rate. He knew his fellow-Augustinians better than he could know the rest, and he himself tells us not obscurely that, out of consideration for his gown, he was silent on various matters which, if proclaimed aloud, would not make for edification.[126]

Members of the Valladolid Court could see for themselves that while Luis de Leon's opponents—Dominicans, Jeromites, and the rest—were banded solidly against him, the Augustinians were by no means unanimous in his favour. That he was difficult to deal with personally the Court had opportunities of knowing. His unbending fidelity to principle and his impetuosity probably produced on the tribunal an impression of obstinacy combined with caprice. On May 6, 1573, a certain Dr. Ortiz de Funes was, as is recorded, nominated counsel to the prisoner;[127] there is no reason to suppose that Ortiz de Funes was in ability below the average level of the bar, but he was no match for his client, and though he may have given valuable advice on purely legal points, when these arose, it soon became plain that Luis de Leon was the brain of the defence and that he meant to conduct that defence in his own way. Ortiz de Funes became a nullity or, at least, a mere figure-head whose main duty consisted in signing papers which the prisoner had drawn up. A time came when, according to the practice of the Inquisition, it became necessary for Luis de Leon to nominate patronos, and in this matter Ortiz de Funes intervened somewhat more prominently than was usual with him. A patrono has no exact counterpart in English ecclesiastical law; it was his business, within narrow limits, to defend the interests of the accused from the theological point of view. On June 26, 1574, Luis de Leon was brought into court, and was told that he was to choose two patronos out of four men whose names were given him.[128] He was obviously taken aback at this proposal, and replying that, since he did not know any of the four, he was ignorant as to their qualifications, added that he had already requested the appointment of Sebastian Perez, professor of Theology at Párraces, as patrono. He renewed his request, adding that either Dr. Cáncer or the Dominican Hernando del Castillo could be appointed with Perez; but before any determination was taken, he begged leave to consult his legal adviser.[129] As might have been expected, Ortiz de Funes fell in with his client's view and two days later made a formal application to the Court that Perez be appointed patrono, with either Cáncer or Castillo to help him.[130] No appointment was made at the moment and, as it turned out, this was perhaps just as well; for by June 30 Luis de Leon had changed his mind, and appeared in court to ask that Castillo's name be removed from the list of acceptable patronos.[131] On July 14 Ortiz de Funes announced his client's intention of appealing to the Inquisitor-General against the decision forcing him to select patronos from a list of persons unknown to him.[132] Neither Luis de Leon nor Ortiz de Funes seemed to have guessed that the Valladolid judges were acting on instructions from the Supreme Inquisition at Madrid.[133] For a moment the step taken by Ortiz de Funes and his client appeared to have some slight effect. Luis de Leon was informed that he would be allowed to appoint Perez as his patrono but on two conditions: (1) he must undertake to pay all the travelling expenses of his patrono, and (2) an inquiry must be held to establish the limpieza of Perez. This last proceeding, it was significantly added, would be slow.[134] Again Ortiz de Funes was consulted; but it is difficult to believe that he had more than a technical responsibility for the startling decision which he announced: the decision to accept as patronos Fray Mancio de Corpus Christi and either Bartolomé de Medina or Dr. Cáncer.[135] Mancio, whose pupil Luis de Leon had once been at Alcalá, was a Dominican;[136] hence he would be suspect—perhaps doubly 'suspect'—in the prisoner's eyes. Medina, also a Dominican, was an overt foe; Cáncer, of whom Luis de Leon knew nothing except that he was a professor at Salamanca, proved to be not over friendly. Luis de Leon may conceivably have thought that Mancio's undoubted learning would ensure his treading in the strict path of justice, and that Mancio's advanced age[137] would enable him to press his views on his coadjutor. It is more likely, however, that the three names were put forward in a paroxysm of impatience—at a moment when Luis de Leon was willing to fall in with any arrangement which might hasten a decision of his case.

Mancio was appointed patrono, and was duly sworn in at Valladolid on October 9, 1574;[138] on October 13 he made a report favourable to the accused.[139] The prisoner was not informed of this (as he should have been), and took umbrage at what he thought was an act of insolent remissness. He appeared in court on October 16, and protested against any of his papers being entrusted to Mancio, lest he should take them to his Dominican monastery where they ran the risk of being scanned by hostile eyes.[140] On October 22 the prisoner showed signs of increasing distrust, for he then requested the return of thirty-two sheets of paper, covered with notes for his defence, which he himself had handed to Mancio.[141] Luis de Leon's suspicions deepened rapidly. On October 25 he asked to be allowed to cancel his nomination of Mancio as patrono.[142] The local judges referred the application to the Supreme Inquisition, and were instructed to proceed as though nothing unusual had happened; Mancio, however, was to be told to stay away still further notice.[143] On December 7 Luis de Leon handed in a written explanation of his recent action. With regard to Mancio, he complained of his patrono's omission to confer with him, expressed some suspicion that Mancio might have become a party to Medina's plot, declined to accept as valid Mancio's excuse for not attending—that he had to lecture in Salamanca—and vehemently declared that Mancio's negligence amounted to very grave sin.[144] These phrases can scarcely have been used in their natural sense, for Luis de Leon concluded his written petition by stating that he was still willing to accept Mancio as his patrono, if Mancio were able to be present at Valladolid. Should this be impossible, the prisoner asked that Dr. Vadillo, Canon of Plasencia, and the Augustinian Fray Francisco Cueto should be assigned to him as patronos. A working arrangement thus became possible, and the General Inquisitor at Madrid ordered that Mancio should be given due facilities. These orders were received on December 13.[145] It appears that Mancio picked up the dropped threads of this business on December 23, and spent another day or two in reviewing the general situation.[146] Mancio's cautious policy was doubtless sound; but to Luis de Leon, who maintained that the matters on which his patrono had to pronounce were as simple as could be, these tactics seemed mistaken, and on January 13, 1575, he begged the Court to press Mancio to give an opinion without delay.[147] On March 6 Luis de Leon once more complained of being unable to confer with his patrono; but now, rather late in the day, he came nearer to putting the blame on the right shoulders. Hitherto he had been prone to ascribe all manner of evil motives to Mancio, whom he should have known better: at last it vaguely dawned on him that the obstacles might come (as, in fact, they did come) from the tribunal which was trying him.[148] On March 15 Mancio wrote a letter to the judges, promising to attend at Valladolid unless absolutely prevented from doing so.[149] Four days later the General Inquisition wrote to the same judges, hinting that a decision might be given shortly.[150] The Valladolid Court was stirred into temporary activity. A sitting was held on March 30; Mancio was present; a consultation took place between him and his client;[151] and henceforth we hear no more of difficulties in connexion with Luis de Leon's patrono. Nearly six months had been wasted owing to want of tact on the part of the Inquisitionary officials.

As the event proved, the prisoner's protests in this matter were thoroughly justified. It is easy to perceive this now. We cannot be sure that we should have taken the same view had we been contemporary spectators. If appearances were not actually against Luis de Leon, they combined to reveal him in his least attractive posture. His comparative promptitude in accepting Mancio as patrono, his unwillingness to abide by his choice, his sudden hostility to Mancio, his final acceptance of Mancio, are all explicable variations. Nevertheless they showed a disregard for superficial consistency which might easily be misinterpreted as caprice. The bias of the court had been veering away from the prisoner for some time. His series of actions with respect to Mancio lost him all judicial favour. His judges considered him as an unreasonable man, a gifted sophist fertile in inventing objections in and out of season, a hair-splitter perpetually arguing for argument's sake. Luis de Leon was, as a rule, so unaccommodating that some of his judges may have begun to think they understood why he was not universally popular with members of his own order. Nor did Luis de Leon's demeanour in court serve to dissipate the atmosphere of almost arrogant rectitude which enveloped him. He felt bound to criticize the machinery of the Inquisition. He may easily have seemed to be criticizing those engaged in working the machinery. At the best of times the procedure of the Court was not expeditious. For example, though Luis de Leon was arrested on March 27, 1572, the first hearing of his formal defence did not take place till April 14—more than a fortnight later. More than once Luis de Leon complained of the Court's delays without going into questions of motive.[152] In this he was clearly right, for, as we have seen, the Supreme Inquisition was not wholly satisfied with the progress made. At other times the prisoner stressed the fact that constant postponements were apt to do him injury, and he hinted rather plainly that there was an intention to wear him down by deliberately prolonging the proceedings.[153] In this conjecture he was almost certainly wrong. The Valladolid judges had no power to alter the system which they found in existence; possibly, becoming accustomed to it, they ended by thinking well of it. Its weak points were naturally more evident to Luis de Leon, and his torrent of critical remarks may have seemed to reflect on the intelligence and probity of the Court. Administrators, however exalted, are human, and even the lowliest of magistrates is prone to take offence, if given to understand that he is considered dull and dishonest. Luis de Leon never was betrayed into using disrespectful language; but his polite formulae could not conceal the fact that he had no very high opinion of those in whose hands his fate lay. Nor did the well-meant observance of established forms on the part of the Court do anything to modify his sentiments. It was in strict conformity with precedent that he should be adjured to make a clean breast of it and should be informed that, while truthfulness would meet with clemency, lying would be severely dealt with.[154] It is strange that it should have been thought necessary to use this formula in the case of Luis de Leon—a highly-strung, sensitive man, with an almost morbid passion for truth. The sole excuse for the Inquisitors is that this warning was given at the first sitting. But, at the second sitting, the warning was repeated in almost identical terms.[155] It seems scarcely possible to show less tact in the conduct of a difficult case. No doubt the explanation is that none of the Valladolid judges was sufficiently independent to set a precedent of his own.

Large allowances must be made for those unhappy men. They cannot reasonably be blamed for not taking it upon themselves to alter the established procedure of the Court in which they sat. Their position was always difficult, and it did not become easier as time went on. They had good reason to know that a vocal group of influential persons in Salamanca confidently expected them to condemn Luis de Leon; yet some of them, at least, were uncomfortably aware that the evidence before them would not warrant a conviction on the major charges. The most damaging witnesses—Medina, Castro, and Zúñiga—had been called at a very early stage of the proceedings. These heavy guns had been fired without destroying the adversary. There was nothing for it now but to hope for the worst from the reports of the official calificadores, Dr. Cáncer, Fray Nicolas Ramos, and Dr. Frechilla, who did their utmost to fulfil expectations.[156] Lest the pronouncements of this trio proved unconvincing, the precaution was taken of excluding evidence. At the beginning of the case, any sort of second-hand gossip was admitted as evidence on the chance that its cumulative effect might be damaging to the accused. At Murcia, on February 4, 1573, a hostile Augustinian, Fray Juan Ciguelo, a man of doubtful character, was permitted to retail idle chatter on the part of another Augustinian who averred that Luis de Leon was prone to saying Requiems too often, and was in the habit of reading Latin too quickly.[157] Ciguelo's testimony, though malignant, had done no harm; later on, it was thought more prudent to adopt the opposite policy and to prevent as many as possible of the witnesses for the defence from being heard. As late as July 7, 1576, no less than three interrogatories[158] by Luis de Leon were rejected on the ground that they were irrelevant (impertinentes).[159] It is difficult to reconcile these decisions, except on the hypothesis that the later ruling was thought to be more likely to damage Luis de Leon than the earlier one. In their despair, his adversaries trumped up an assertion which was easily disproved.[160]

Disorderly and incoherent as it is, the record of the case enables us to corroborate and, in one or two trifling particulars, to supplement the details reported by Francisco Pacheco who, in his youth, may easily have met Luis de Leon and must later have known many who had seen him. According to that painter's Libro de Descripcion de verdaderos Retratos de illustres y memorables varones, Luis de Leon was below the middle height; he had a large but shapely head, covered with thick and rather curly hair which grew densely on the crown; his brow was broad; his features were more blunt than aquiline; his complexion was darkish; his green eyes were bright; his aspect was grave; and, we may add, he was prone to walk quickly. Pacheco, indeed, regarded Luis de Leon as something of a universal genius: an expert in mathematics, in jurisprudence, in medicine—and, though self-taught as a painter—an artist of considerable skill. (This last was a compliment, coming as it did from the future father-in-law of Velazquez.) Evidently Pacheco was a whole-hearted admirer whose enthusiasm needs discounting. However, so far as we can check it, his account seems to be correct in the matter of direct observation. The fact that there is scarcely one flash of humour in the interminable record of the Valladolid trial confirms Pacheco's report of the prisoner's habitual gravity. No doubt the tragic circumstances in which he found himself were not conducive to displays of humour. When being tried for his life, the merriest of men does not dwell on the innate absurdity of things. Humour was, however, one of the few gifts which nature had denied to Luis de Leon. He was aware of this himself, to judge from his statement that he had nothing of the jester or scoffer in him.[161] But if Luis de Leon was relatively poor in humour, he had an abundant store of mordant sarcasm and a faculty for ironic banter, as Medina and Castro learned to their chagrin.[162] Pacheco's opinion of Luis de Leon's versatile talent is borne out by the scrap of evidence given at the trial by Francisco de Salinas—the sightless dedicatee of El aire se serena. Salinas bore witness that some of Luis de Leon's admirers were persuaded that he could carry any University chair against all competition.[163] Evidently to those who met him frequently Luis de Leon conveyed the impression of irresistible talent. Though students voted in professorial elections at Salamanca, and supported Luis de Leon loyally, he did nothing to conciliate them, and expressed his opinion of them with unquestionable candour. We gather that he was profoundly attached to the ancient order of things[164] and that, though accused of interpreting the Bible in a rabbinical sense, he had never read a rabbinical book.[165] We learn that among his teachers were Guevara, Mancio, Cipriano, and Melchor Cano;[166] of these he would seem most to have esteemed Cano.[167] With such masters, and being the man he was, Luis de Leon would naturally have got together a good theological library, and he was allowed to have some of his books in his prison-cell; it is but natural that most of his requests should be for theological works which would be of service in preparing his defence on technical points. Reading was his sole solace during his imprisonment, and it is noticeable that, whenever he asks for a book he speaks of it—not with the dry, meticulous precision of a bibliographer but—with all the caressing detail of a genuine book-lover. He indicates the sizes of the various works which he needs, describes their bindings, and mentions in what part of his monastery-cell they will be found. He wants a Vatable with gilt edges, bound in black; it should be found in a case for smaller volumes which lies on his writing-table. He asks for a Bible, printed by Plantin, bound in black leather and fastened with black silk ribbons. He demands a Biblical concordance which is in folio. This lies on a high shelf near the window.[168] He begs to have the works of St. Justin, which will be found in the shelves on the left as you enter his monastery-cell. But not all his requests are for theological works. A true son of the Renaissance, he finds entertainment or instruction in communing with the best of antiquity. When in this mood he asks for his Aristotle bound in sheep's-skin; it will be found in the shelves on the right as you enter the monastery-cell. He would like a Horace and a Virgil—of which there are a great many ('de que hay hartos'), so that he does not particularize. He wants his Homer (in Greek and Latin) bound in sheep's-skin, and with red edges; it will be found in the shelves where the works of St. Justin are.[169] Again, besides the works of St. Leo, bound in parchment, he asks for his Sophocles in black calf; for a Pindar (in Greek and Latin), bound partly in black leather, with gilt edges; and for Le prose dil Bembo, a volume in small quarto with a parchment binding.[170] This throws light on Luis de Leon's progress as a linguist. An imprisoned man who asks for an Italian book to becalm his fever may be safely presumed to know that language. In or about 1569 when Arias Montano read aloud the anonymous Italian work which disturbed Zúñiga's scrupulous conscience, Luis de Leon, though of course able to catch the author's drift, did not really know Italian at that time.[171] This deficiency had been made good, as he gives us to understand, previous to March 12, 1573—twenty eight months, or more, before Luis de Leon asked that his copy of Le prose dil Bembo should be given to him in prison.

The record of the Valladolid trial likewise reveals to us some of Luis de Leon's intellectual foibles. But these were extremely few. Towards the end of the proceedings at Valladolid the Inquisitionary judges there summoned before them Juan Galvan, a young theological student who lodged with Salinas, the blind musician. Galvan testified that for about two years he had discussed matters of theology, mathematics, and astrology with Luis de Leon.[172] It may astonish some that Luis de Leon toyed with the pseudo-science of astrology: it cannot have surprised his judges for, on April 18, 1572, while still bewildered as to the cause of his arrest, he had stated to them in writing that he had read a compilation on astrology which had been lent to him by a student named Poza, a licentiate in canon law. Poza seems to have doubted whether he ought to keep such a work, and consulted Luis de Leon on the question. Luis de Leon dipped into the book, and came finally to the conclusion that the whole thing was rubbish. But he found in the work some curious observations, and was tempted to make at least one experiment which involved the use of a pious formula. The owner of the book left Salamanca to avoid an epidemic which was then raging there. Luis de Leon had expected a visit from Poza that day, and had intended to burn the volume in Poza's presence. He carried out the main part of his intention by burning the work in the presence of Fray Bartolomé de Carranza, to whom he explained the meaning of this holocaust. No more was heard of Poza; yet it seems that Luis de Leon's curiosity as to the possibilities of astrology continued with but little abatement.[173] This half-belief in astrology as a kind of black art was widespread during the sixteenth century, and vestiges of this ingenuous credulity have survived in unexpected quarters till our own time. It was perhaps unwise of Luis de Leon thus to furnish his adversaries with ammunition which they might use against him; but could anything bespeak conscious innocence more strongly than his voluntary avowal?

Luis de Leon heaped one indiscretion on another. In his protestations of innocence, he went so far as to suggest to the Court what course it should take. He told the judges plainly that they ought to order Leon de Castro to be prosecuted for perjury.[174] Later on, he declared with vehemence that his detention was without a shadow of legality, that his imprisonment ought not to continue for a single day, and that he ought to be compensated for the injury done him.[175] These may have been truths; but they were decidedly unpalatable, and the expediency of making these assertions to a prejudiced bench is at least doubtful. But expediency was not an arm that Luis de Leon could bring himself to use. He complained again and again of delays, attributing this loss of time to official mismanagement and incidentally reflecting on the competency of the judges. As time went on, and as the prisoner's health grew weaker, he lost patience, making his complaints of delay more frequently and with increasing vehemence.[176] He impressed on his hearers the fundamental absurdity of certain charges against him, and, waxing indignant at the statement that he had thrown doubt on the coming of Christ, he objected to having so senseless a jest fathered on him. There was always the alternative that he might be supposed to have used in earnest the words imputed to him; in which case, even if the evidence on this point were far more decisive than it actually was, 'before believing it, it would be your duty to ascertain whether I had gone out of my mind at the time, or were drunk'.[177] It is, no doubt, difficult to meet a contention of this kind; but such a contention is not calculated to capture the sympathies of a wavering Court. Nor should it be overlooked that the judges were subjected to continual pressure from the attacking parties. The official calificadores took a serious view of Luis de Leon's opinions on the authority of the Vulgate; they showered reports upon the judges; naturally these reports did not always agree with one another, but they were unanimous in one respect; they declared against the teaching of Luis de Leon,[178] and this perhaps decided the tribunal in giving judgement. We may think that the court unconsciously allowed itself to be swayed by personal prejudice against a prisoner who was at no great pains to conceal his estimate of its capacity. However that may be, it must be admitted that the decision of the Court had behind it a great body of what may be called expert opinion. The question of the authority due to the Vulgate was skilfully kept in the foreground; and the report of even so liberal-minded a man as the Dominican Hernando del Castillo was not wholly favourable. Castillo, indeed, came to the conclusion that Luis de Leon had uttered nothing against faith; but while he acquitted the prisoner of teaching 'erroneous, temerarious or scandalous doctrine', he held that Luis de Leon was much to blame for dealing with the question when and where he did.[179] The opinion of other calificadores was still more hostile, though it is to be noted that their hostility diminished as time went on and the hour for the delivery of a decision drew near.[180]

That decision had at last to be given. It had been put off year after year. This series of postponements—ordered, despite the wishes of the prisoner and (as he contended) against his interests—had got on to Luis de Leon's nerves, had led to occasional moods of depression, and had betrayed him into a few irritable or intemperate outbursts. But these results were unintentional. The Valladolid judges were well aware from the outset that no time was to be lost. As early as July 29, 1572, they delegated a piece of work to one of their commissaries in Salamanca, and impressed on him the urgency of dispatch.[181] They secured from Benito Rodriguez, the commissary in question, greater speed than they attained themselves. This may have been due to accident, or to incompetence on their part. But the policy of continual adjournment could not be prolonged for ever. It had lasted too long for the patience of the Supreme Inquisition:[182]

...even the weariest river
Winds somewhere safe to sea.

On September 28, 1576, a vote was taken on Luis de Leon's case. Seven members at least were present: Francisco de Menchaca, Andrés de Álava, Luis Tello Maldonado, and Francisco de Albornoz voted that Luis de Leon should be put to the torture—a moderate amount of torture in view of his frail health—and, when this was done, the court should sit again and determine accordingly. Dr. Guijano de Mercado and Dr. Frechilla took a more lenient view, recommending that, in consideration of the more exculpatory reports recently given by the calificadores, in consideration also of the replies made by the prisoner and by Mancio, Luis de Leon should be reprimanded for dealing with so grave a matter (as the authority of the Vulgate) at an unsuitable time, before an unsuitable audience; that he should be called upon to renounce publicly certain views which seemed ambiguous; that he should be told by his bishop to occupy himself with matters of general interest; that he should cease lecturing altogether; and that his Song of Solomon, done into Spanish, should be seized. The Licentiate Pedro de Castro undertook to give his decision in writing.[183] It may not have been committed to paper: at any rate, it does not appear in the record. Even the milder judgement of Guijano and Frechilla seemed excessive to the Supreme Inquisition, which curtly ordered its deputies at Valladolid to acquit Luis de Leon, to reprimand him and warn him to be more careful in future, and to confiscate the manuscript copy of his Spanish version of the Song of Solomon.[184] These orders, dated at Madrid on December 7, 1576, were, of course, obeyed.[185] As the senior member of the Court, Dr. Guijano gave the reprimand to which Luis de Leon listened, standing up while it was pronounced.[186] The date is not stated, but it cannot have been later than December 15, 1576; for on this day Luis de Leon applied in writing for an official certificate of acquittal, and for an order on the accountant of Salamanca University instructing that officer to pay him arrears of salary from the date of his arrest till his chair was vacated owing to the lapse of his four years' tenure.[187] Both applications were granted. But the Ethiopian cannot change his skin, and it was not till August 13, 1577, that the petitioner received full satisfaction.[188]

III

[53]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 143-144.

[54]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 174-176.

[55]

Luis de Leon administered a fund left by the late Doña Ana Abarca de Sotomayor whose servant Almansa had been. Out of this fund a life-pension was paid to Almansa (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 333), of whom Luis de Leon formed a good opinion as appears from his request of December 20, 1572 (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 248): 'Yo entiendo que con la mudanza de los priores estará trastornada toda mi celda, y en poco tiempo faltará lo mas della, porque conozco en esto la condicion de mi gente; y podrá ser tener yo necesidad para mi negocio de algunas cosas della; y tambien hay cosas agenas y que estan á mi cargo dar cuenta dellas si Dios fuere servido darme libertad algun dia. Suplico á V. md. por amor de Dios sea servido de enviar á mandar al maestro Francisco Sancho, ó á Francisco de Almansa, el familiar que vino conmigo, que la cierre y tome todas las llaves y las guarde. Y este Almansa lo hará muy bien, porque es hombre de mucha verdad y recaudo. Y suplico á V. md. no lo ponga en olvido.' Perhaps this recommendation was thought suspiciously warm; at any rate, the task was entrusted to Pedro de Almansa, Familiar of the Inquisition at Salamanca.

When taken into custody, Luis de Leon seems to have been in the company of Fray Alonso Siluente (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 188).

[56]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 176. Naturally enough Luis de Leon lost exact account of time during his imprisonment, and was not very sure as to when the order for his arrest was issued: 'Y despues á veinte tres, ó veinte cuatro del dicho mes [de marzo pasado], el dicho Señor Inquisidor [Diego Gonzalez] me mandó prender, ...' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 185).

[57]

Opinions differ as to whether Luis de Leon was imprisoned in the original Inquisitionary cells on the site of which 18 and 20 calle del Obispo now stand. Blanco García thought that this was not the case (op. cit., p. 129 n). The recurrence of such phrases as mandó subir de su cárcel (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 22, 36, 129, 196) perhaps indicates that Luis de Leon's cell was underground.

[58]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 179. 'Y suplico á sus mercedes sean servidos dar licencia para que se le diga al dicho padre prior [Fray Gabriel Pinelo] que avise á Ana de Espinosa, monja en el monasterio de Madrigal, que envíe una caja de unos polvos que ella solia hacer y enviarme para mis melancolías y pasiones de corazon, que ella sola los sabe hacer, y nunca tuve dellos mas necesidad que agora; y sobre todo que me encomiende á Dios sin cansarse.'

[59]

The tone of his request shows that he anticipated a refusal on the ground that he might wilfully injure himself with a knife: 'Tambien si sus mercedes fuesen servidos, torno á suplicar se me dé un cuchillo para cortar lo que como; que por la misericordia de Dios, seguramente se me puede dar; que jamás deseé la vida y las fuerzas tanto como agora, para pasar hasta el fin con esta merced que Dios me ha hecho por la cual yo le alabo y bendigo' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 179-180).

[60]

The concession of the Inquisitors reads thus: 'Que se le dé esto que pide; y atento que es hombre enfermo y delicado, dijeron que mandaban y mandaron que el alcaide le dé un cuchillo sin punta. Lo cual se mandó al alcaide luego en su presencia' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 180).

[61]

It figures as the sixth charge in the speech of the prosecuting counsel, Diego de Haedo (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 208). Even at this early stage, Haedo is found suggesting that the prisoner should be tortured till he tells the whole truth: 'pido sea puesto á quistion de tormento hasta que enteramente diga verdad etc.' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 209).

[62]

The date of the translation is stated on the authority of Luis de Leon himself (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 98).

[63]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 271; see also Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 214-215.

[64]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 98-101.

[65]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 6.

[66]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 98-99.

[67]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 489.

[68]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 353, 355.

[69]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 505-509.

[70]

The exordium, the translation of the first chapter of the Song of Solomon and the commentary on this first chapter are printed in Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 449-467.

[71]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 99: '...pero no obstante esto á algunos amigos mios, y á otros, les ha parecido tener inconveniente por andar en lengua vulgar; y á mí, por la misma razon, me ha pesado que ande, y si lo pudiera estorbar, lo hubiera estorbado. Y para remedio dello, el año pasado comencé á ponello en latin, para siendo examinado y aprobado, imprimillo, dando por cosa agena y no mia todo lo que anduviese en vulgar y escrito de mano. Y por la falta de salud que he tenido como es notorio, no lo he podido acabar. Y así digo que estoy presto á hacer esta ó otra cualquier diligencia que por V.m. me fuere mandada, y que me pesa de cualquier culpa que haya cometido, ó en componer en vulgar el dicho libro, ó en haber dado ocasion directa ó indirectamente á que se divulgase. Y estoy aparejado á hacer en ello la enmienda que por V.m. me fuere impuesta: y digo que subjecto humilde y verdaderamente á V.m. y á este Sancto Oficio y tribunal, ansí este dicho libro, como cualquier otra obra y doctrina que ó por escrito ó por palabra, leyendo ó disputando, ó en otra cualquier manera haya afirmado ó enseñado, para en todo ser enmendado y corregido.

[72]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 252-254. The following occurs in a document handed in by Luis de Leon on January 26, 1573: '...digo que en fin del mes de hebrero que viene, deste presente año de setenta y tres, ó por principio de marzo, se cumple el cuadrienio por el cual me está proveida la cátreda de Durando que tengo en la universidad de Salamanca, el cual cumplido como es notorio se vacará, y no oponiéndome yo á ella otra vez, se proveerá en el que se opusiere y los estudiantes eligieren. Y aunque es verdad que yo no tengo deseo ni intento de tratar mas de escuelas, habiendo trabajado en ellas tan bien como mis concurrentes, y habiendo sacado por ocasion dellas y de sus competencias el trabajo en que estoy; pero entendiendo que si en esta coyuntura se vacase la dicha cátreda y se proveyese en otra persona, mucho número de gentes que en el reino y fuera dél tienen noticia de mi prision, y presumen por ella mal de mí, sabiendo la dicha vacatura de cátreda y provision en otra persona, no entendiendo como no entienden, ni saben la ley y estilo de la dicha universidad, me tendrian del todo por culpado y condenado, y quedaria siempre en pie esta mala opinion contra mí, aunque Vs. Mds. conociendo en la prosecucion deste pleito mi inocencia, me den por libre y me restituyan en mi honra como espero en Dios que sucederá; porque las sobredichas personas que no saben el estilo de la dicha universidad, viéndome fuera destas cárceles, y fuera de las escuelas, siempre entenderian que fué órden de Vs. Mds. y pena de mi culpa, siendo como son los hombres fáciles á creer lo peor, en lo cual mi órden y mis deudos, y lo que es principal, la opinion de mi fé y doctrina recibiria notable agravio y detrimento; por tanto en la mejor manera y conforme á derecho haya lugar, pido y suplico á Vs. Mds. sean servidos de ó mandar á la dicha universidad que no innove cosa alguna acerca de la dicha cátreda, ni de otra cosa que me toque hasta que Vs. Mds. habiendo conocido los méritos deste pleito juzguen y manden lo que fueren servidos conforme á justicia, ó me den licencia para... dar poder á dos ó las demas personas que me pareciere en Salamanca, porque por mí y en mi nombre, al tiempo que se vacare la dicha cátreda, se puedan oponer y opongan á ella, y hagan por mí las demas diligencias que conforme á las leyes y estatutos de aquella universidad fueren necesarias.'

[73]

This is recorded in a letter from Francisco Sancho to the Valladolid Inquisitors (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 135): 'Tres cartas tengo á que responder á Vs. Mds. La una es sobre la cátedra del maestro Barrientos, en la cual mandan Vs. Mds. que diga al rector de esta universidad, como está detenido en ese Santo Oficio, y que en tanto que estuviere ansí detenido, no se provea su cátedra, ni se haga mudanza en ello. Y luego que recebí la dicha carta, que fué estando con el mesmo rector, se la mostré y dijo que ansí lo haria y cumpliria de buena voluntad.'

[74]

Gonzalez de Tejada, op. cit., pp. 44-46. No time was wasted in filling the chair. It was declared vacant on March 30, 1573; Medina was elected to it on April 4; he received 95 votes, and the Augustinian Pedro de Uceda received 54. Uceda (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 85-90) testified in favour of Fray Luis de Leon; his evidence gives the impression that he was a timid man, overawed by the court.

[75]

The Inquisitioners' phrase (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 180) has been already quoted: 'atento que es hombre enfermo....'

[76]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 188: 'E antes de ser llevado á su cárcel, dijo quél está muy enfermo de calenturas como á sus mercedes les consta, y no tiene quien le cure en su cárcel sino un mochachico que está allí preso, que es simple; y para habelle de despertar padece trabajo con él, y ha venido dia de quedarse desmayado de hambre por no tener quien le dé la comida; y que suplica á sus mercedes le den un fraile de su órden que le sirva, pues en esto no hay enconveniente, si ya no quieren permitir de que muera entre cuatro paredes solo: que por reverencia de nuestro Señor se duelan dél y le den un fraile que esté en su compañía siquiera para que si se muere le ayude á bien morir; y que podrá ser que fray Alonso Siluente, que á la sazon que á este prendieron estaba en su compañía, holgaria de venir á tenérsela si está en Salamanca, ó sino que sea quien sus mercedes mandaren. Con tanto fué llevado á su cárcel.'

[77]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 197. In a letter which reached Madrid on November 21, 1575, Luis de Leon wrote as follows to the Inquisitor-General: 'Por lo cual y atento... a lo mucho que ha que estoy preso, y á mis pasiones y flaquezas, en caso que pareciere ser conveniente que la sentencia deste pleito se dilate; suplico á V.S. Illma. por Jesucristo sea servido, dando yo fianzas suficientes, mandarme poner en un monasterio de los que hay en esta villa, aunque sea en S. Pablo, en la forma que V.S. Illma. fuese servido ordenar, hasta la sentencia deste negocio, para que si en este tiempo el Señor me llamare, lo cual debo temer por el mucho trabajo que paso y por mis pocas fuerzas, muera como cristiano entre personas religiosas, ayudado de sus oraciones, y recebiendo los sacramentos, y no como infiel solo en una cárcel y con un moro á la cabecera.'

[78]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 194: 'Tambien se consultó á su Señoría Reverendísima lo que escribís cerca de la indispusicion del maestro fray Luis de Leon y la necesidad que tiene de servicio, el cual pide que en el monesterio de Sant Augustin de Salamanca ó en el de esta villa se pida un fraile que esté con él, y ha parescido que así se haga; pero adviérteseos que el fraile que se le hubiere de dar no ha de salir de la compañía del dicho fray Luis hasta que se acabe su causa, y ansí será bien se le avise al que hubiere de ser antes que entre en las cárceles.'

[79]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 50-51: '...ha tres años que estoy preso, y todo este tiempo he estado sin el uso de los sacramentos con detrimento de mi ánima, y sin causa que conforme á derecho obligase á Vs. Mds. á privarme dellos,... Por lo cual pido y suplico á Vs. Mds., y si menester es les encargo las conciencias, pues que no son servidos de pronunciar lo que en este mi negocio tienen difinido, y lo dilatan por concluir primero otros procesos que no me tocan, ó por los respectos que á Vs. Mds. parece y me tienen preso; alomenos no me priven de este bien, sino que me den licencia para confesarme con quien Vs. Mds. señalaren, y para decir misa en esta sala siquiera de quince en quince días, en lo cual Vs. Mds. harán gran servicio á Dios, y á mí darán grandísimo consuelo.' This is from a document which was handed in by Luis de Leon at Valladolid on March 12, 1575. An order was made that this document should be forwarded to the Supreme Inquisition. I have failed to trace any further reference to it.

[80]

They may have thought that, owing to his unacquaintance with legal procedure, Luis de Leon was wasting the time of the court; at any rate, as early as May 6, 1572, Dr. Ortiz de Funes was appointed counsel to the prisoner (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 217). No saving of time was wrought by this change.

[81]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 220: '...yo tengo flaca memoria, y despues que estoy en la cárcel he perdido gran parte della,...'

[82]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 193: 'Es imposible acordarse memoria de hombre de todo lo que en las dichas juntas se ha dicho, mayormente que con la cólera de la disputa, algunas veces salen de todos los términos de razon y modestia los hombres, y se ciegan de manera que dende á poco ellos mismos no saben lo que han dicho.'

[83]

Luis de Leon's memory betrayed him as regards the signatures attached to the Vatable Bible. He was under the impression that he had signed a copy which was handed over to Francisco Sancho. In this he proved to be mistaken. On thinking the point over, Luis de Leon suggested that he must have signed a copy in the possession of the Salamancan bookseller, Gaspar de Portonariis; this impression was likewise mistaken. (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 520-527.)

An amazing lapse of memory led Luis de Leon astray with respect to Bartolomé de Medina; as Medina did not take his degree till 1570 (Documentos inéditos, vols. X, p. 323, and XI, p. 340), Luis de Leon felt justified in stating that his opponent did not take part in the revision of Vatable's Bible, which (such was the prisoner's impression) was finished in 1569. The discovery of Medina's signature in the Sancho copy of Vatable (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 522) rendered this position untenable. The fact appears to be that the Old Testament was revised in 1569; owing to the absence of Sancho and Luis de Leon, the revision of the New Testament was suspended; it was not finished till 1571, and thus Medina was enabled to sign the Vatable Bible. It seems clear that Luis de Leon had no head for dates. He was, as we have seen (p. 94), doubtful as to when he was arrested, and he was capable of imagining that a sitting of the Valladolid court had been held a week before, when no such sitting had taken place. (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 18.)

[84]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 23, 24: '...antes de agora yo tengo pedido que se me declaren los nombres y personas de los Señores del Consejo de la santa y general Inquisicion, ante quien los auctos y sentencias interlocutorias y difinitivas deste negocio pueden ir á parar, para que sabiendo quien son yo pueda deliberar lo que conviene á mi justicia, y si tengo justa causa para recusar á alguno dellos; y por no se me haber declarado yo tengo apelado. Y porque por estar preso en cárceles secretas no puedo por mí ni por otro informarme... pido y suplico á Vs. Mds., é si necesario es, con debido acatamiento y reverencia requiero, no se envíe cosa alguna de lo tocante á este mi proceso á los dichos Señores del Consejo, y protesto la nulidad de lo que en contrario se hiciere. Y si tácita ó expresamente me fuere denegado otra vez, apelo para ante quien y con derecho debo, y pido los apóstolos desta mi apelacion con las instancias é ahincamientos necesarios, y pídolo por testimonio.' It will be seen that the account given in the text is an under-statement. Luis de Leon not only appealed over the heads of the Valladolid judges to the General Inquisition; he was prepared also to challenge, if necessary, individual members of the General Inquisition itself.

[85]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 81-83. Diego de Gaona states that he knew Luis de Leon in 1567 or 1568. Gaona esteemed Luis de Leon to be 'hombre muy hábil en su facultad de teología, aunque le tenia por hombre algo atrevido en su manera de leer, y á esta causa este testigo... le oia muy pocas veces por ver su desenvoltura en las liciones que leia... entraba muy pocas veces á oir al dicho fray Luis de Leon, é que á esta causa no se le acuerda quienes estaban presentes, mas de que estaba el general lleno de gente...'

[86]

Luis de Leon frequently makes this point. The following passage (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 482) is sufficiently categorical to render further quotations superfluous: 'Demás desto digo que el dia pasado aquí en la audiencia entendí que algunos de mis papeles, los cuales se veen por mandado de Vs. Mds. se han dado á ver y examinar á fray Juan Gutierrez fraile dominico, y ansí entiendo que se habrán dado á otros de la misma órden: y siendo notorio como es que todos los frailes de la dicha órden son sospechosos contra mí por las competencias que mi órden, y yo señaladamente he tenido con ellos, y por la cátreda que les hemos quitado, y por las demas causas que yo en este proceso tengo alegadas y probadas, por las cuales los tengo tachados por enemigos...'

[87]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 559-560: 'Que por cuanto para hacer el juicio difinitivo acerca de la cualidad de mi doctrina, Vs. Mds. han de consultar á teólogos doctos y desapasionados; y porque yo tengo tachados por apasionados y sospechosos á todos los frailes de la órden de Santo Domingo y de Sant Hierónimo, y agora de nuevo tacho por lo mismo á los teólogos de la universidad de Alcalá, porque como es notorio estan encontrados con los teólogos de Salamanca por muchas causas antiguas y recientes, y señaladamente porque el Consejo general de la Inquisicion cosas notadas y censuradas por ellos las ha remitido á los de Salamanca, los cuales corrigieren las censuras de los dichos, y el Consejo siguió el parecer de los de Salamanca...' According to Juan de Guevara (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 277): 'hizo el dicho fray Luis públicamente cuanto pudo contra Hector Pinto, fraile gerónimo, en la sostitucion de Biblia, por el maestro Grajal; y los dichos frailes gerónimos se quejaron dél en el monasterio de Sant Augustin'.

[88]

See the first part of the previous note.

[89]

Luis de Leon's first application on this point is dated October 20, 1573 (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 483-488): in this he mentions his brothers (who were both lawyers) as well as his uncle. The subsequent proceedings illustrate the leisurely methods of the Inquisition. Nothing seems to have been done in the matter up to May 12, 1574, when Luis de Leon made another application to the Inquisitor General; this was entrusted to the Valladolid judges to forward. Though the Supreme Inquisition directed that an inquiry be held, no reply had reached Luis de Leon on July 14, 1574, on which date he renewed his application. He presented a fourth petition on the subject on August 7: in this he substitutes his father for his brothers (who were not included in his second and third applications). His request was refused by the authorities in Madrid on August 13, 1574 (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 5-7, 17, 24-25).

[90]

Documentos inéditos, vols. X, XI, passim.

[91]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 353.

[92]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 318: 'Y para este efecto [fray Bartolomé de Medina y el maestro Leon de Castro] hicieron junta de estudiantes, y el dicho Medina llamó á su celda á muchos dellos, y inquirió dellos si habian oido ó sabian algo, poniéndolos en escándalo, y tomándoles firmas y juramentándolos para que no le descubriesen. Y con el dicho maestro Leon, y ciertos frailes hierónimos y otras personas enemigas, se concertó lo que habian de hacer, y repartieron entre si como en caso de guerra las partes por donde habian de acometer cada uno y lo que habia de decir, como vuestras mercedes podrán ser informados de fulano de Alarcon, colegial de Sanct Millan en Salamanca, que fué uno de los llamados, y él dirá de otros; y fray Gaspar de Uceda fraile y lector en Sanct Francisco de Salamanca sabe tambien mucho desto.' Luis de Leon repeats the accusation of conspiracy in Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 353, with some comments on Castro's motives.

[93]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 318, 321, 324, 433.

[94]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 348, 439.

[95]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 32.

[96]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 369: 'Habrá cuatro años ó poco mas que por insistir yo en ello, en un capítulo provincial de mi órden se votó secreto en la eleccion conforme al concilio, y se atajaron los pasos á la ambicion de muchos, y resultó que este que se tenia ya por provincial por la violencia de un su amigo, que si se votara público como solia, era muy poderoso, quedó en vacío. Y estas son todas sus lágrimas y mis desobediencias.'

[97]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 32: 'Item dijo que este declarante ha oido decir, no se acuerda á qué personas, que el padre de dicho fray Luis de Leon le dejó muy encargado que fuese muy obediente á sus prelados, y que siguiese la opinion comun en las letras...'

[98]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 366, 368: '...entre nosotros es este conocido por hombre que sino es por descuido, jamás dice verdad.'

[99]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 32.

[100]

This we know from Luis de Leon himself: 'fué mi discípulo' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 370).

[101]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 35-40.

[102]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 371: 'Y porque mas claramente conozcan Vs. Mds. la mala intencion deste que depone,... me dijo que tenia los papeles de aquella lectura de la Vulgata, y que era la mejor cosa del mundo,... con otras palabras tan encarecidas que no me estan á mí bien decillas.'

[103]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 38.

[104]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 33, 42.

[105]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 345. Rojas is brutally frank. After mentioning that Arboleda was annoyed at Luis de Leon's preference for Fray Diego de Caravajal, he continues: 'y que tiene para sí que por esta razon habrá algun resentimiento de parte del dicho fray Francisco de Arboleda contra el dicho fray Luis de Leon, por ser el dicho Arboleda cabezudo y no de mucho entendimiento'.

[106]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 396. The word 'perjuro' is again used by Luis de Leon of this witness in Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 375.

[107]

F. Picatoste y Rodríguez, Apuntes para una biblioteca científica española del siglo XVI (Madrid, 1891), pp. 340-344.

[108]

Galileo Galilei, Opere (Milano, 1811), vol. XIII, p. 49.

[109]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 373: '...es un fraile de mi órden que se llama fray Diego de Zúñiga, ó por otro nombre Rodriguez, el cual me quiere mal por las causas que articularé en su tiempo y lugar; y en esta deposicion lo muestra no obscuramente, porque demás de no referir verdad en muchas cosas, ninguna cosa dice en ella forzado por la consciencia, sino movido por su libre y mala voluntad.' Other instances will be found in Luis de Leon's Quinto interrogatorio (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI): 'Item si saben etc. que... fray Diego Rodriguez, ó de Zúñiga por otro nombre, se desmandó ..., y que allí se ordenó que castigasen al dicho fray Diego Rodriguez ó Zúñiga' (p. 335). 'Item si saben etc. que en un acto,... el dicho fray Diego Rodriguez ó Zúñiga,...' (p. 336). 'Item si saben etc. que el dicho Rodriguez ó Zúñiga, de algunos años á esta parte, ha mostrado en sus palabras y pláticas tener enemistad y mala voluntad al dicho maestro fray Luis, hablando mal dél y de sus cosas, y diciendo que el dicho maestro no habia consentido que el dicho Rodriguez viviese en S. Augustin de Salamanca, porque sabia mas que el dicho maestro, y otras cosas ansí' (p. 336).

[110]

Pedro de Rojas refers to the fact 'quel dicho fray Diego Rodriguez ó Zúñiga pasó algunas palabras descorteses con el padre Cueto,...' (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 345).

[111]

C. Muiños Sáenz, Fr. Luis de Leon y Fr. Diego de Zúñiga (El Escorial, [1915]), pp. 47, 245.

[112]

C. Muiños Sáenz, op. cit., p. 58.

[113]

C. Muiños Sáenz, op. cit., pp. 57, 64.

[114]

It is inferred that Zúñiga was professed when he entered Luis de Leon's cell thirteen years before 1572 (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 67-68). There is, however, some difficulty in adjusting the date of this profession with the statement that Zúñiga was thirty-six when he gave evidence.

[115]

C. Muiños Sáenz, op. cit., p. 48.

[116]

C. Muiños Sáenz, op. cit., pp. 224-240.

[117]

He became professor of Scripture at Osuna in 1575. See F. Rodríguez Marín, Cervantes y la Universidad de Osuna in Homenaje á Menéndez y Pelayo (Madrid, 1899), vol. II.

[118]

It needed uncommon courage to pronounce in favour of Copernicus at the end of the sixteenth century. The assertion that 'the advancement of Spaniards is evidenced by the facility with which the theory of Copernicus... was accepted in Spain, when it was rejected elsewhere' is in the nature of an over-statement. According to Muiños Sáenz (op. cit., pp. 19-20), who refers to his brother-Augustinian, M. Gutiérrez, 'la doctrina copernicana pugnaba con la opinión generalizada en las escuelas, y tuvo en España impugnadores que, como Pineda, y con referencia personal á Zúñiga, la calificaron de falsa, no sin añadir que, á juicio de otros autores, merecía las calificaciones de temeraria, peligrosa y opuesta al sentir de la Sagrada Escritura.' It seems likely that Zúñiga was dead before this sweeping condemnation appeared, but the fact that he thought it prudent to modify the expression of his unqualified acceptance of the Copernican theory favours the assumption that he may have had to endure some volume of hostile private criticism. Whatever may have been Zúñiga's reasons for qualifying his early adhesion to the Copernican theory, it seems safe to think that timidity was not one of them. His nerve was unshaken. Towards the end of his life he was engaged on a task after Luis de Leon's own heart: the bringing to book of an unreasonable Provincial.

[119]

Luis de Leon describes (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 374) the circumstances as follows: 'Díjome un dia ansí por estas palabras que el Papa tenia gran noticia de su persona y le estimaba en mucho; y trás desto refirióme un largo cuento de un mercader y de un cardenal por cuyos medios florecia su nombre en la corte romana, lleno todo de su vanidad; y añadió que habia enviado al Papa un tratadillo que habia compuesto, porque Su Santidad tenia deseo como él decia, de ver alguna cosa suya; y mostrómele para que yo le viese... Visto, porque me pidió mi parecer y yo soy claro, díjele que quisiera que una cosa que enviaba á lugar tan señalado por muestra de su ingenio, fuera de mas substancia, ó que á lo menos aquel argumento lo tratara mas copiosamente, porque traia pocos lugares, y esos ordinarios, aunque como le dije yo creia que aquellos lugares que alegaba los habia él sacado de su estudio y no de los libros ordinarios. Respondióme que era gran verdad que él con su trabajo los habia notado en la Biblia sin ayudarse de otro libro; y créolo porque no se precia de leer ni aun á los sanctos, y promete que de improviso dirá una hora y mas sobre cualquier paso de la Biblia que le abrieren; y si le dicen que lea los sanctos dice que no los lee porque no le sirven de nada. Díjele mas que no debiera, porque para su condicion fué palabra dura.'

[120]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 335-336. Luis de Leon suggests that five Augustinians whom he mentions by name be asked if they knew 'que en un capítulo provincial... que habrá diez ó once años que se hizo en la villa de Dueñas, fray Diego Rodriguez, ó de Zúñiga por otro nombre, se desmandó en palabras con fray Francisco Cueto, el cual era en aquel capítulo definidor mayor, y que el dicho Cueto se quejó del dicho fray Diego en definitorio al provincial fray Diego Lopez y á los definidores presentes, de los cuales era uno el dicho maestro fray Luis, y que allí se ordenó que castigasen al dicho fray Diego Rodriguez ó Zúñiga, y que otro dia en ejecucion dello el dicho provincial le dió en el refitorio delante de toda la provincia una disciplina, que es cosa que se tiene por grande afrenta; y que por esta causa el dicho Zúñiga tiene enemistad con el dicho provincial fray Diego Lopez y con el dicho maestro que era definidor entonces, y es amigo del dicho provincial.' As not all the five Augustinians were called, it may be assumed that the Court considered the point proved.

[121]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 345. Rojas states: 'Y que sabe este testigo de cierto que por esta causa el dicho fray Diego tuviese enemistad con el dicho fray Luis, que no lo puede saber por ser negocio interior; pero que á lo que puede imaginar de la condicion del dicho fray Diego [Rodriguez ó Zúñiga] no dejaria de creer que es ansí, porque es recio de condicion y algo vengativo, y trás esto siempre le ha visto enemigo declarado contra fray Diego Lopez, y tambien ha visto que despues acá nunca vió amistad entre los dichos fray Diego y fray Luis.'

[122]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 67 and 71. Zúñiga is careful to state that he is 'predicador y religioso, morador en el monasterio de Sanct Agustin de la dicha ciudad de Toledo, de edad de treinta y seis años', and again, 'predicador, profeso de la órden de Sanct Agustin... de la dicha ciudad de Toledo, é dijo ser de edad de treinta y seis años'. It appears that in the sixteenth century a very straight line was drawn by the Augustinians between official 'preachers' and 'professors': it was thought that the qualities needed by the one were not likely to be found in the other. There were distinguished exceptions, no doubt. But as a general rule a 'predicador' was rarely considered eligible for a university chair. (Muiños Sáenz, op. cit., pp. 64-67.)

[123]

See the previous note.

[124]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 305: '...era mancebo y melancólico, y le paresció á este que habia ido muy adelante en imaginar mal del dicho Benito Arias;...'

[125]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 68-69. The following is Zúñiga's account of what occurred: 'Item dijo que habrá trece años estando en Salamanca por huesped, le dijo Fr. Luis de Leon en su celda, que habia venido á sus manos un libro estrañamente curioso, el cual le habia dado Arias Montano... y que en el principio del libro contaba una revelacion que habia tenido el que lo compuso, estando de noche orando, que vió en la oscuridad una luz, y que della oyó que salia una voz que dijo: Quomodò obscuratum est aurum, mutatus est color optimus! y que temiéndose este declarante no fuese algun mal libro, le habia mucha instancia que le dijese si habia en él alguna herejía, y que el dicho Fr. Luis de Leon le respondió que en lo de confesion le parescia que decia una herejía, y que entonces este declarante le dijo que quitase allá tal libro y tal revelacion como decia; y que con esto no le dijo mas el dicho fray Luis de Leon; y que despues formó este declarante escrúpulo si estaba obligado á denunciar de aquello que le habia dicho, y que lo preguntó á dos personas de ciencia y consciencia, religiosos de su órden, y le dijeron que sí;... Y este declarante determinado de denunciar, preguntó al dicho Fray Luis de Leon á solas por el dicho Arias Montano que le habia dado el dicho libro, que si era buen cristiano; que el dicho Fr. Luis de Leon se alteró con esta pregunta, y le dijo muy encarescidamente que era muy buen cristiano, y en prueba dello mostró á este declarante una carta que le habia escripto el dicho Arias Montano en que le daba muy buenos consejos:...'

[126]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 369. In relation to Montoya, Luis de Leon says: 'Y cuanto toca al capítulo tercero, si yo no temiera aquella sentencia Malédici regnum Dei non possidebunt, y aquella Invicem mordentes, invicem consumemini, yo pudiera relatar mas de dos cosas, algo mas pesadas que es dar un agnus Dei un fraile á otro sin pedir al perlado licencia, de las cuales este hombre religioso no hace escrúpulo. Y esta fuera su merecida respuesta; pero aunque él hable lo que ni sabe ni debe, yo miraré lo que debo á mi hábito y á mi persona.'

[127]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 217-218.

[128]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 13-14.

[129]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 14.

[130]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 14-15.

[131]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 15.

[132]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 15-16.

[133]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 12-13.

[134]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 21.

[135]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 22.

[136]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 316-318, 325.

[137]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 317.

[138]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 29-30.

[139]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 30-35.

[140]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 35. Luis de Leon had applied for a special hearing: '...para suplicar á sus mercedes que ninguno de sus papeles se dé al maestro Mancio para que los lleve á su casa por el peligro que hay de poderlos ver frailes suyos, á los cuales tiene tachados...'

[141]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 35-36.

[142]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 36.

[143]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 37. The instructions of the Supreme Inquisition to the Valladolid judges were as follows: 'En lo que escrebís quel maestro fray Luis de Leon ha recusado al maestro Mancio, que le habia nombrado por patrono, y pedido traslado de lo que dejó escripto en su negocio; consultado con el Reverendísimo Señor Inquisidor general, ha parecido aviseis, Señores, al dicho maestro Mancio que no vuelva ahí hasta que otra cosa se le ordene, y proseguiréis en la causa del dicho fray Luis de Leon sin embargo de la dicha recusacion, y sin darle copia de lo quel dicho maestro Mancio dejó anotado en él; y ponersehá la dicha nota en el proceso signado y autorizado de uno de los notarios del Secreto, para que dello conste. Guarde nuestro Señor vuestras muy Reverendas personas.' This letter was signed in Madrid on November 4, 1574.

[144]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 41-42: 'Digo que yo nombré por mi patron al maestro Mancio catredático de prima de teulugía en Salamanca, el cual habiendo comenzado á ver mi negocio se ha ausentado á leer su cátreda, y porque pudiendo fácilmente dar su parecer se ha hecho vehementísimamente sospechoso que es partícipe y compañero en la maldad que contra mí ha intentado fray Bartolomé de Medina, fraile de su órden y casa, porque conforme á derecho no carece de sociedad oculta el que deja de obrar á tan manifiesta malicia; y siendo obligado á defenderme por el juramento que se le tomó y por haber empezado el negocio, en desampararme cometió grandísimo pecado, porque conforme á derecho tambien es falso testigo el que deja de decir verdad cuando es obligado á la decir, como el que dice falso testimonio. Y la causa de ir á leer su cátreda no le escusa, porque mi defensa se habia de hacer en muy pocos dias, y estando él impedido por Vs. Mds. ni habia de perder la cátreda ni multarle en ella, ni los estudiantes recibian detrimento considerable, porque en las cátredas de propriedad se asignan lecturas que no las acaban, y el sostituto podia leer de lo del cabo de la asignatura si él queria leer del principio como lo hacen los catredáticos de propiedad que al principio de Sant Lucas están impedidos.'

[145]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 44.

[146]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 45-46.

[147]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 46: '...suplico á Vs. Mds. le manden que con brevedad se resuelva y dé su parecer, y ansí mismo suplico, y con el acatamiento que debo requiero á Vs. Mds. manden que ansí el parecer que diere en lo que vea agora, como el que ha dado en la Vulgata el dicho maestro Mancio, los comunique conmigo antes que se vaya; porque el fin de su oficio le obliga á ello, y yo le nombré por patron debajo desta condicion, y no en otra manera, ...'

[148]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 47-48: '...como otras veces he dicho ha mas de dos meses que persevero pidiendo audiencia con el maestro Mancio, y no me se ha dado... Y aunque yo tengo por cierto que el dicho maestro ha aprobado las proposiciones [que se dicen resultar deste proceso] porque son así ciertas y llanas las que yo he afirmado, que decir lo contrario es ó temeridad ó error; y porque cuando las comuniqué con él, me dijo claramente delante de Vs. Mds. que eran cosas llanas; pero si por caso hubiese otra cosa, digo que no me dañan porque no se me ha dado en ello el lugar de defensa que de derecho se me debe: lo uno porque no me han querido Vs. Mds. dar audiencia para informar enteramente al dicho maestro mi patron; lo otro porque si ha dado parecer sin haberse comunicado conmigo no he tenido patron;...

Demás desto digo que el mismo negocio me da á entender que este proceso está visto por Vs. Mds. dias ha y decretada la sentencia definitiva dél; y que no se pronuncia por una de dos cosas, ó porque el fiscal ha apelado del dicho decreto para el Consejo general de la Inquisicion, ó porque los Señores dél han mandado que se suspenda la pronunciacion della hasta que se averiguen los pleitos de los demas maestros que fueron presos cuando yo lo fuí.'

[149]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 52.

[150]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 52-53.

[151]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 53-55.

[152]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 315: '...suplico á Vs. Mds. sean servidos que se me dé entera noticia de todo lo que hay contra mí, por que despues de tantos meses parece justo que yo sepa por qué fuí preso, lo cual no alcanzo hasta agora por las deposiciones que he visto; y que pueda responder por mí y defenderme enteramente, lo cual no puedo hacer no se haciendo publicacion entera!' It would be easy, but superfluous, to quote other examples of Luis de Leon's complaints on this point; his evidence is honeycombed with them.

[153]

As early as January 21, 1573, Luis de Leon complained in writing (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 250): 'que en todo el tiempo que ha que estoy preso, que son ya poco menos de diez meses, no se habia hecho en este mi pleito publicacion de testigos, ni se me habia dado lugar de entera defensa, no pareciendo haber para la tal dilacion causa ninguna jurídica ni necesaria,... y yo, dilatándose la publicacion y el tiempo de mi defensa, corria riesgo de no poder probar mi inocencia por los casos ordinarios de muerte y ausencia que podrian suceder á mis testigos;...' See also Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 474 and 563.

[154]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 183: 'Fuéle dicho que en este Santo Oficio naide se prende sin causa de culpa que tenga en cosas que sean contra nuestra santa fe católica; por tanto que se le amonesta por reverencia de nuestro Señor Jesucristo y su bendita madre, que diga enteramente la verdad; y haciéndolo ansí de lo que sabe de su persona y de otros, se usará con él de mucha misericordia: donde no, que se hará justicia.'

[155]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 184.

[156]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 151-186.

[157]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 77: 'Preguntado qué es lo que quiere: dijo quél ha entendido quel P. maestro fray Luis de Leon, catredático de Salamanca de la órden de Señor San Agustin, está preso en la Inquisicion de Valladolid; y que habia un mes que estando este en el convento de la dicha ciudad de la dicha órden, hablando con fray Martin de Guevara, natural de Lorca, residente en el dicho monasterio de San Agustin desta ciudad, le dijo el dicho fray Martin quél habia ayudado muchas veces á decir misa al dicho fray Luis de Leon en su celda en Salamanca, y que siempre se la oyó decir de Requiem, aunque fuese fiesta, y que nunca le entendia lo que decia porque hablaba tu tu tu, de manera que no lo entendia, y acababa muy presto. Y cuando se lo dijo, estaban los dos solos paseándose en el monasterio desta ciudad. Y en lo que dice que ha un mes que se lo dijo, no está bien cierto, sino que de tres meses á esta parte se lo oyó decir, y esta es la verdad, y que no hubo ocasion mas que estar hablando de su prision.'

It is right to add that Ciguelo, who appears to have been silly and malignant, was not summoned by the Inquisition. He appeared as a volunteer witness who came forward of his own accord to give evidence. At the same date, he insinuated that Luis de Leon did not believe in the coming of Christ. On being pressed to give the names of those who had heard Luis de Leon say anything of the sort, Ciguelo declared that he had not been told them.

[158]

The interrogatories rejected will be found in Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 268-272, 273-275, 286-290, 293-294.

[159]

The Licentiate Diego Gonzalez, Doctor Guijano de Mercado, and the Licentiate Andrés de Álava gave the following ruling (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 273): 'Dijeron que el segundo, tercero y cuarto interrogatorios presentados por el dicho fray Luis de Leon, en esta causa dados, y otras preguntas añadidas en otras dellos dadas, que van señalados, les paresce son impertinentes, y que no se debe hacer diligencias por ellos.'

[160]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 200.

[161]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 272: 'Item si saben que el dicho maestro fray Luis no es mofador ni murmurador, ni de los sanctos ni de los no sanctos, sino que es de condicion modesta y humilde.'

[162]

A good specimen of Luis de Leon's sarcasm is given on pp. 320-321 of Documentos inéditos, vol. X: 'Los dominicos se sintieron desto mucho; y porque yo soy particular servidor del dicho D. Juan [de Almeida], entendieron que era cosa comunicada, y acusaron al dicho Medina, el cual movido con el sanctísimo celo que le pudo poner esta nueva, paresció delante de Vs. Mds. en tantos de hebrero del dicho año [1571] á hacer esta segunda declaración, donde comenzó á descubrir mas la piedad de su buen ánimo; y ansí como no tenía de nuevo cosa particular que decir de mí,... dice confusamente que me sintió inclinado á novedades agenas de la antigüedad de nuestra fe y religion, en lo cual si este testigo tuviese conciencia..., habia de señalar en particular algunas novedades que hubiese visto en mi doctrina, ó oido en mis disputas;... Demás desto si es verdad que sintió de mí lo que dice ¿por qué en la deposicion primera que hizo por el diciembre no lo declaró? Pues ninguna cosa de las que entonces declaró es tan pesada como es esto si fuera verdad. Y por la misma causa no es creible que lo dejó por olvido habiéndose acordado de cosas muy menores, y siendo verdad como he dicho, que anduvo muchos dias tratando y ordenando esta buena obra.' Of Luis de Leon's banter a specimen will be found a few pages further on (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 347): 'Y hecha la censura, y leyéndola yo á los sobredichos maestros que me estaban esperando, me acuerdo que llegando á aquellas palabras añadidas dije: "Estas puse mas de lo que Vs. Mds. ordenaron por contentar al Señor maestro Leon"; y volvíme á él riyendo, y díjele: "alomenos hoy no podrá decir sino que le tengo bien contento"; y ansí con risa y muy en paz y amistad nos levantamos todos, y quedó ordenada y firmada la dicha censura.'

[163]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 303: 'A la décima pregunta dijo que lo que sabe de la pregunta es haber oido decir quel dicho maestro fray Luis de Leon era tan buen letrado que á cualquiera con quien se pusiese, pudiera llevar cualquier cátreda, y mas la d'Escriptura.'

[164]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 321-322: 'Ultimamente véanse mis leturas: y si en ellas se hallare rastro de novedades, sino antes inclinacion á todo lo antiguo y lo sancto, yo seré mentiroso, si no es que este testigo llama novedad todo lo que no halla en sus papeles.'

[165]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 210: '...este declarante... jamás leyó ningun rabino,...' Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 295: 'Al capítulo octavo dijo que este nunca defendió interpretaciones de judíos por ser de judíos, ni en su vida ha leido comentario de judíos...'

[166]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 267.

[167]

This inference is based on the fact that Luis de Leon refers to Cano more often than to any of the others, that he sometimes mentions Cano separately, and that his allusions to Cano are always couched in the most respectful terms: '...oyendo al maestro Cano que fué mi maestro,...' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 239).

[168]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 388.

[169]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 510.

[170]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 147.

[171]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 305: 'Al segundo capítulo dijo que como tiene declarado en sus confesiones, ha once ó doce años que desde Salamanca vino este confesante no á otra cosa, sino á dar cuenta á los Señores Inquisidores de aquel libro en vida de los Señores Inquisidores Guigelmo y Riego, y lo dió por escripto, porque á este le paresció que aunque tenia el dicho libro muchas cosas católicas, tenia otras que le parescian á este peligrosas que no las entendia este bien, porque era en lengua toscana, la cual este no sabia entonces. Y este no lo leia sino que se lo leian á él, como lo declaró por el dicho escripto al cual se remite.'

[172]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 303-304.

[173]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 200-202: 'Tambien estando escribiendo esto se me ha ofrecido á la memoria que habrá como año y medio que en Salamanca un estudiante licenciado en cánones, que se llamaba el licenciado Poza, que me leia principios de astrología, me dijo un dia que él tenia un cartapacio de cosas curiosas, y que tenia algun escrúpulo si le podia tener; que me rogaba le viese y le dijese si le podia tener, porque si podia se holgaria mucho. Era un cartapacio como de cien hojas, de ochavo de pliego, de letra menuda. Víle á ratos, y habia en él cosas curiosas, y otras que tocaban á sigillos astrológicos, y otras que claramente eran de cercos y invocaciones, aunque á la verdad todo ello me parecia que aun en aquella arte era burlería. Y acusome que leyendo este libro, para ver la vanidad dél, probé un sigillo astrológico, y en un poco de plomo que me dió el mismo licenciado, con un cuchillo pinté no me acuerdo qué rayas, y dije unas palabras que eran sanctas, y protesté que las decia al sentido que en ellas pretendió el Espíritu Sancto, acordándome que Cayetano en la Suma cuenta de sí haber probado una cosa semejante con la misma protestacion, para ver y mostrar la vanidad della; y así todo aquello pareció vano. Y tambien me acuso que otro dia de aquellos en que iba mirando lo que habia en aquel libro, tuve casi deliberada voluntad, estando solo, de probar otra cosa que parecia fácil, aunque de hecho no la probé, porque mudé la voluntad. Yo quise quemar este libro en presencia de su dueño, y esperándole un dia que me habia de venir á ver, supe que dos dias antes se habia ido á Avila, huyendo de la enfermedad de pintas que andaba entonces en Salamanca; y así le quemé aquella noche en mi celda en una chimenea que hay en ella. Y á todo lo que agora me puedo acordar, me parece que estaba conmigo entonces el padre fray Bartolomé de Carranza, y que me preguntó por qué quemaba aquello, y se lo dije. Este estudiante me escribió pocos dias despues preguntándome por el libro: yo no le respondí, porque no hubo con quien, ni despues acá he sabido ni oido mas dél, porque no volvió mas á Salamanca, ni yo me he acordado dél hasta este punto. No me acuerdo bien si me dijo un dia que quien le habia dado aquel libro habia experimentado lo de los conjuros. No me dijo quien era ni yo se lo pregunté ni lo sé.'

[174]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 439: 'Este testigo no me perjudica por ser el maestro Leon á quien tengo tachado por mi enemigo, y es singular, y es testigo falso, y como contra tal se debe proceder contra él por ser falso en cosa tan substancial como esta, y las demas que ha dicho contra mí, fuera de lo que yo tengo confesado.'

[175]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 193: 'Por todo lo cual digo que es notorio y manifiesto que en mí no hay conforme á razon y derecho, alguna color ni parte de sospecha; ni por esta causa puedo ni debo ser detenido por vuestras mercedes ni un solo dia, y que en ello recibo claro agravio y que debe ser por vuestras mercedes enmendado.'

[176]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 19, 142, 149.

[177]

Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 385: 'Item ello en sí no tiene ninguna verosimilitud ni apariencia de verdad porque ¿en qué seso cabe que un hombre que no es hablador ni le tienen por tonto, habia de decir un desatino semejante, y en un lugar tan público como es un convite? Porque si lo echan á donaire, demás de ser muy necio donaire, y muy sin órden, no era donaire que ningun hombre de juicio lo habia de decir en los oidos de tan diferentes gentes como son las que se juntan en un banquete donde unos son necios, y otros escrupulosos, y otros enemigos y naturalmente malsines, y amigos de echallo todo á la peor parte. Y si quieren decir que se dijo de veras, lleva mucho menos camino que yo lo dijese, porque cosa cierta es que los que tratan de semejantes males, no los dicen á voces, ni en público, sino muy en particular y muy en secreto, y muy despues de haber conocido y tratado á los que los dicen, y fiándose mucho dellos, y á fin de persuadir y no de reir. Y cuando en esto hubiera testimonios contra mí mas claros y mas ciertos que el sol, antes de creello habian Vs. Mds. informarse de si aquel dia habia yo perdido el seso ó si estaba borracho, porque si no era así no era creible cosa semejante.'

[178]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 151-171, 173-179, 179-183, 183-186, 199-214, 220-253.

[179]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 228-230: '...no me parece que hay cosa contra la fe, ni doctrina errónea, temeraria ó escandalosa. Mas no puede el autor excusarse de gran culpa en haber tratado materia y cuestion semejante en estos tiempos, y leídola á multitud de estudiantes, entre los cuales los rudos, los idiotas, los libres y los desasosegados ingenios, y los mal intencionados y los simples y flacos no podrian sacar aprovechamiento ni edificacion, sino atrevida osadía y poca reverencia á la edicion Vulgata que la iglesia católica nos da por auténtica. Y aunque las palabras y razones y autoridades de doctores con que el autor procede, no sean en sí malas; pero piden auditorio muy pio, muy docto y muy atento para no tomar de aquí ocasion á tener en poco nuestra Biblia latina, y errar.... Mas no todas las verdades se han de sacar á plaza, ni todos los oyentes son capaces dellas; y por doctrina suelen sacar errores y escándalo, y tal es esto: porque el oficio del teólogo en públicas lecciones no era desnudar sino vestir cuanto pudiese la edicion que el concilio aprueba, y no dejarla tan en los huesos como la deja, que es todo lo posible sin ser hereje, ni tener nota de error, temeridad ó sospecha en la fe, ni ser proposiciones escandalosas.

De la proposicion 4ª digo que es falsa,... Pero no hay cosa en todo ello para retratar.'

This calificacion appears to be in the handwriting of Fray Hernando de Castillo, who signed it. It is also signed by the Dominican Antonio de Arce and by Dr. Cáncer. Cáncer appears to have been ready to put his name to anything. Earlier in the same year, as it seems—for no date is attached in Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 122-127—Cáncer wrote, concerning one of Luis de Leon's tenets: 'Haec propositio est irrisoria, injuriosa, temeraria et... haeretica in 2º gradu...'

[180]

This mellowing of judgement is particularly the case with the Franciscan Fray Nicolás Ramos. Cp. Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 231, and pp. 234-237.

[181]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 295: 'Y hacersehá todo luego porque importa la brevedad, y vendrá esta por cabeza de todo.'

[182]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 195: '...y hecho esto pasaréis adelante con el negocio como os está ordenado, con toda brevedad, pues veis lo que importa'. This occurs in a letter dated 'Madrid, 8 de otubre de 1575'. There seems to be a mistake in the heading of this letter: according to this heading, the letter from the Supreme Inquisition reached Valladolid on October 8, 1575. I cannot say whether this is a slip of Pedro Bolivar, notary to the Holy Office at Valladolid, or a slip in transcription made by Miguel Salvá and Sainz de Baranda. It can scarcely be a mere misprint.

[183]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 351-353: 'Al margén se halla la siguiente nota. "Cuando este proceso se comenzó á ver y hasta la mitad dél, se hallaron á la vista los Señores licenciados Juan de Ibarra y Don Hernando Niño, y no lo votaron por no poderlo acabar de ver por estar enfermos." En la villa de Valladolid á veinte é ocho dias del mes de setiembre de mill y quinientos y setenta y seis años, habiendo visto los Señores licenciado D. Francisco de Menchaca del Consejo de S.M., é dotor Guijano de Mercado, é licenciado Andrés de Álava Inquisidores, juntamente con los Señores licenciado Luis Tello Maldonado, D. Pedro de Castro, Francisco de Albornoz, oidores desta Real audiencia é chancillería, asistiendo á ello por ordinario del obispado de Salamanca el Señor doctor Frechilla catredático en esta universidad, por virtud del poder que para ello tiene del Señor obispo de Salamanca, que está en el secreto deste Sancto Oficio, el proceso criminal de fray Luis de Leon, de la órden de Sancto Agustin; los dichos Señores le votaron en la forma siguiente.

Los dichos Señores licenciados Menchaca, Álava, Luis Tello y Albornoz, dijeron que son de voto y parecer que el dicho fray Luis de Leon sea puesto á qüistion de tormento sobre la intencion y lo indiciado y testificado, y sobre las proposiciones que estan cualificadas por heréticas, no embargante que los teólogos digan últimamente que satisface, entendiéndolo como él, respondiendo á ellas, dice que lo entendió; y que el tormento se le dé moderado, atento que el reo es delicado: y con lo que dél resultare, se torne á veer y determinar.

Los dichos Señores Inquisidores doctor Guijano, é Frechilla, ordinario, dijeron que atento lo que los calificadores que últimamente vieron las proposiciones cargadas al reo, y lo que él y su patron responden á ellas, califican; que su voto y parecer es que este reo sea reprendido en la sala deste Sancto Oficio por la culpa que tuvo en tratar desta materia en estos tiempos, por los inconvenientes que dello resultan, y por el peligro y escándalo que podia causar, como lo dicen los calificadores en la censura general que hicieron de todo el cuaderno de donde se sacaron las diez y siete proposiciones de latin; y que en el general grande de las escuelas mayores, estando juntos los estudiantes y personas de la universidad, y algunos doctores del claustro della, este reo declare las proposiciones sospechosas é ambigüas, y que pudieron dar escándalo, que se le darán en escripto en un memorial ordenado por los teólogos calificantes con la declaracion que ellos ordenaren; y que extrajudicialmente se diga á su perlado que sin privacion ni otra declaracion, mande á este reo emplear sus estudios en otras cosas de su facultad en que aproveche á la república, y se abstenga de leer públicamente en escuelas ni en otra partes, y que el libro de los Cánticos, traducido en romance, se prohiba y recoja, siendo dello servido el Illmo. Señor Inquisidor General y Señores del Consejo. Y que los libros y papeles pertenecientes á los cargos deste proceso se retengan en este Sancto Oficio.

El dicho Señor licenciado D. Pedro de Castro dijo que dará su voto por escripto.'

[184]

The peremptory letter of the Supreme Inquisition to the Valladolid tribunal is printed in Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 354: 'Aquí se ha visto el proceso contra fray Luis de Leon, de la órden de Sant Agustin, preso en esas cárceles, y va determinado como veréis por lo que al fin dél va asentado. Aquello se ejecutará. Y advertiréis á este reo que guarde mucho secreto de todo lo que con él ha pasado y toca á su proceso; y que no tenga pasion ni disensiones con persona alguna, sospechando que haya testificado contra él en esta su causa; porque de todo lo que á esto tocare se tratará en el Sancto Oficio, y no se podrá dejar de proveer en ello justicia con rigor. Hacerloéis, Señores, así. Guarde nuestro Señor vuestras muy Reverendas personas. En Madrid siete de diciembre 1576.'

The decision of the Supreme Inquisition is reproduced in Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 353:

'En la villa de Madrid á siete dias del mes de diciembre de mill y quinientos y setenta y seis años, habiendo visto los Señores del Consejo de S.M. de la Sancta general Inquisicion, el proceso de pleito criminal contra fray Luis de Leon, de la órden de Sant Agustin, preso en las cárceles secretas del Santo Oficio de la Inquisicion de Valladolid; mandaron que el dicho fray Luis de Leon sea absuelto de la instancia deste juicio, y en la sala de la audiencia sea reprendido y advertido que de aquí adelante mire como y adonde trata cosas y materias de la cualidad y peligro que las que deste proceso resultan, y tenga en ellas mucha moderacion y prudencia como conviene para que cese todo escándalo y ocasion de errores; y que se recoja el cuaderno de los Cantares traducido en romance y ordenado por el dicho fray Luis de Leon.'

[185]

It is unnecessary to reproduce the exact terms of the judgement (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 354-357), for this closely follows the terms employed by the Supreme Inquisition.

[186]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 356.

[187]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 357-358: 'El maestro fray Luis de Leon suplico á vuestras mercedes sean servidos mandar que me sea dado un testimonio en manera que haga fe, por donde conste al claustro de la universidad de Salamanca que yo por vuestras mercedes fuí absuelto de la instancia[A] que contra mí hizo el fiscal deste Santo Oficio delante de vuestras mercedes, y dado por libre, en manera que pueda ejercer cualquiera de las cosas que tocan á mis órdenes y oficio, y sin penitencia ni nota alguna.

Item suplico á vuestras mercedes manden se me dé un mandamiento para el pagador de las escuelas de Salamanca[B] para que pague lo corrido de mi cátreda desde el dia de mi prision hasta el dia que vacó por el cuadrienio. Y en todo imploro el oficio etc.—

[A] Al márgen se lee: "Que se le de la fee".

[B] Al márgen: "Que se le de mandamiento. En 15 de diciembre de 1576".'

[188]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 358: 'En 13 de agosto de 1577 años, por mandado de los señores Inquisidores saqué esta sentencia de fray Luis, signada, é la entregué al Señor Inquisidor doctor Guijano. Sacóse para el maestrescuela de Salamanca.' This sentence is probably written by the secretary, Celedon Gustin.

IV

When did Luis de Leon return to Salamanca, and how was he received there? According to an anonymous contemporary, whom Gallardo conjectured to be a Jesuit, Luis de Leon made a sort of triumphal entry into Salamanca, accompanied by a procession which marched along to the sound of timbrels and trumpets.[189] This procession is alleged to have taken place in the afternoon of December 30, 1576; but, as the statement is made by one who has no divine idea of a date,[190] it would be imprudent to rely on his unsupported authority in this particular. The date of the procession may be doubtful. There is no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the assertion that there was some public manifestation of joy at Luis de Leon's release.[191] Though he was not popular, his fellow-citizens were proud of him, and there is a natural tendency to show sympathy with a man who has been hardly used. But life is not made up of triumphal processions. On December 31[192] Luis de Leon met the Claustro of the University, which had been duly informed of his acquittal. After congratulatory phrases from the Rector, the released man was invited to speak. According to the decree of the Inquisition, Luis de Leon was entitled to claim restitution to his University chair. There were practical difficulties in the way. Luis de Leon's tenure had lapsed while he was in prison at Valladolid; his immediate successor had been Bartolomé de Medina, a dangerous enemy, and the chair was subsequently occupied by the Benedictine Fray Garcia del Castillo, another declared opponent who had intervened at an early stage of the case. Luis de Leon renounced all claim, present or future, to his former chair—que la daba por bien empleada—so long as it was held by Castillo. He besought the Claustro to bear in mind his past services, pointed out that his acquittal implied a general approval of his teaching, and then left the meeting.[193] Finally the Claustro of Salamanca agreed to create a new chair for Luis de Leon, with a salary of two hundred ducats a year, his duty being to lecture on theology.[194]

We now come to the best-known trait in Luis de Leon's career. He would seem to have begun lecturing in his new chair on January 29, 1577.[195] The gathering was large, and now and here—if at any time and in any place—he must have begun his lecture with the famous phrase: 'As we were saying yesterday' (Dicebamus hesterna die). Almost everybody who hears the story for the first time takes it for granted that the remark was made to what was left of Luis de Leon's old class—the class which he had been instructing just previous to his arrest: otherwise, the anecdote loses great part of its point. It behoves us therefore to examine the circumstances in which the story was first made public. The earliest mention of the incident occurs apparently in the Monasticon Augustinianum by the once well-known Nicolaas Cruesen, whose work appeared at Munich in 1623.[196] The picturesque narrative soon struck the popular imagination, and it has been repeated times innumerable.[197] One is always reluctant to part with a good tale, but there is no denying the fact that the evidence in favour of the current version is slighter than one could wish it to be. The silence of all contemporary Spaniards with respect to this episode is not a little strange. It is singular that the anecdote should reach Spain from abroad, and that it should not be printed till forty-six years after it is supposed to have occurred; that is to say, till Luis de Leon had been thirty-two years in his grave. It does not necessarily follow that the story is untrue. Nobody imagines that Cruesen deliberately invented it. So far as appears, Cruesen was an absolutely upright man who recorded with fidelity such information as he could obtain. He was not ill-placed for obtaining information. Himself an Augustinian, he was something of a cosmopolitan. Though Flemish by blood, Cruesen was technically a Spanish subject; he was in full sympathy with the politico-religious aims of Spain in the Low Countries, and during the Spanish occupation he must have had opportunities of meeting and questioning men who were Spanish by race. Moreover, it seems to be established that, though the story concerning Luis de Leon's remark did not appear in print till 1623, the chapter containing it was written previous to 1612.[198] If this be so, the account given by Cruesen must be dated thirty-five years after the alleged occurrence and twenty-one years after Luis de Leon's death. Further, Cruesen, who knew Spanish, travelled in Spain. There he seems to have made the acquaintance of Fray Basilio Ponce de Leon, Luis de Leon's able and admiring nephew. It is by no means impossible that Fray Basilio was Cruesen's informant,[199] and, if this were proved, the case for the story would be greatly strengthened, since it is inconceivable that the nephew should repeat the anecdote, for the purposes of publication, unless he had had it direct from his famous uncle. These, however, are conjectures, more or less probable. The story may derive from Fray Basilio Ponce de Leon or it may not. It is the kind of story that any unscrupulous person might easily invent and repeat to a too credulous visitor. As it stands, the evidence in its support is, on the face of it, unsatisfactory. The case for the story is perhaps not quite so weak as has been supposed;[200] ingenuity has shown that the case against it may, to some extent, be frittered away.[201] Still, there is no getting over the fact that this charming anecdote is first reported outside of Spain by a foreigner who related it in print long after Luis de Leon's death. No first-hand testimony in its favour has hitherto been produced. Those who choose to believe in the authenticity of the current version may not unreasonably do so; it is obvious, however, that, in the absence of direct evidence, they will have great difficulty in persuading others to share their belief.

To return to prosaic details. The Claustro had promptly created a chair for Luis de Leon after his release from prison; there was more ado about granting his request—made on the ground of health—that he should be allowed to lecture from ten till eleven o'clock. Unluckily, this time had been already allotted to the Dean of the Theological Faculty, Diego Rodriguez, a Dominican, who objected to the proposal. Bartolomé de Medina not unnaturally stood by his brother-Dominican, opposed the demand of the newly elected professor on the ground that it could not be granted without showing disrespect to the Dean, and suggested that Luis de Leon should be instructed to lecture from four to five o'clock. On a vote being taken, the Claustro gave Luis de Leon a majority; but, as the Rector of the University claimed to be the deciding authority on such questions, the matter was not finally decided at this meeting.[202] It might seem that, in practice, Luis de Leon carried his point for, as the clock struck ten on January 29, 1577, he began his first lecture in his new post; but this was mainly a formal taking possession of the post, and the professor in his fragmentary lecture took occasion to protest against not having a lecture hour assigned to him.[203] Luis de Leon continued to occupy the chair that had been created for him. The death of Francisco Sancho, bishop of Segorbe, in June 1578 caused a vacancy in the university chair of Moral Philosophy. Luis de Leon determined to present himself as a candidate. A rival candidate came forward in the person of Fray Francisco Zumel, Rector of the Mercenarian College. The struggle was vehement. Zumel did not stick at trifles; he charged his opponent with exercising undue pressure on the electors by means of cajolery, threats, lavish hospitality (which was dispensed with the aid of brother-Augustinians), bribery, and attempted personal violence.[204] Luis de Leon was not behindhand: he sought to have Zumel disqualified on technical grounds, and further accused his opponent of breaking the law governing elections. In the heat of conflict, the very best of men seem able to persuade themselves that the most extravagant assertions are true. No one but the candidates can have taken these amenities seriously. When the battle was ended on August 14, 1578, Luis de Leon, who received 301 votes, was in a majority of seventy-nine.[205] This check appears to have rankled in Zumel's mind. Luis de Leon celebrated his success by taking the degree of Master of Arts on October 11. Why? It is hard to say. He cannot well have thought that the possession of a Master's degree would strengthen his position as one of the members representing the University of Salamanca on the Committee appointed to report on the projected reform of the calendar.[206] Normally this Committee, of which Medina and Domingo Bañez were also members, would have absorbed much of Luis de Leon's attention. His energies were to be otherwise exercised in the immediate future. The death of Gregorio Gallo, Bishop of Segovia, on September 25, 1579, caused a vacancy in the Biblical chair at Salamanca. The late bishop had viewed with no very friendly eyes some of Luis de Leon's proceedings before the Valladolid trial,[207] and it might have troubled him to think that Luis de Leon was destined to follow him at Salamanca. That, however, was what happened. The position was not carried without a stiff fight. At Valladolid, Salinas had said it was commonly thought by some of Luis de Leon's admirers that he could carry any University chair—especially a chair of Scripture—against all comers.[208] It was now to be seen whether this opinion was, or was not, well founded. A formidable competitor appeared in the person of Fray Domingo de Guzman, the third son of Garcilasso de la Vega. Though Guzman had not inherited his father's poetic gift, he had a turn for versifying, and his burlesque glosa of Luis de Leon's celebrated quintillas—

Aqui la envidia y mentira
me tuvieron encerrado—

is not wholly forgotten, since four lines of it find a resounding echo in Cervantes' preliminary verses at the beginning of Don Quixote to Urganda la Desconocida.[209] But the relative merits of the two candidates for the vacant chair were not the point at issue. More relevant was the fact that Guzman was a Dominican with all the strength of the massed Dominican vote at his back. Whatever may have been the case at other times and places, at this period there was no love lost between Dominicans and Augustinians in Salamanca. Medina represented with distinction the more rigid teaching of the Dominican school; with at least equal distinction Luis de Leon represented the freer tendencies of the Augustinians. He was almost imprudently loyal to his own order. He publicly championed Augustinian candidates whenever a suitable chair became vacant at the University of Salamanca, and, despite the secrecy enjoined by the Inquisition, it had probably leaked out that, at his recent trial in Valladolid, he had repeatedly objected to all Dominicans as being so many enemies. In the nature of things he could not be popular with the Dominicans and their sympathizers. In this particular contest, however, his great personal qualities were somewhat overclouded. He and Domingo de Guzman were but standard-bearers. The conflict in which they were engaged resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between two potent religious orders. Apart from the personal merits of the respective candidates, the forces marshalled on each side were about equal. Passions ran high. Poetasters on both sides did their part.[210] It speedily became evident that the margin of the successful candidate would be narrow. This prevision proved to be correct. When the poll was declared on December 6, 1579, Luis de Leon's total of votes amounted to 285, giving him a majority of thirty-six over his opponent.[211] Since he stood against Grajal, and was defeated, at the very outset of his professorial career, he had hardly ever been so pressed in any academic struggle. Unfortunately, in the contest against Guzman there was some irregularity in the voting; each side accused the other of malpractices; an appeal was lodged on behalf of Domingo de Guzman; for some unknown reason the case was not decided till over twenty-two months later. Finally, on October 13, 1581, judgement was delivered in favour of Luis de Leon at Valladolid.[212] The equity of this decision has been questioned;[213] but there is no reason to doubt the substantial justice of the verdict given by a court with all the facts before it, and with the opportunity of cross-examining the witnesses who appeared to give evidence. It should be said, however, that the Dominicans never accepted the official decision, and put about a rumour that the irregularity had been committed by a supporter of Luis de Leon's—a supporter who (so it was alleged) some twenty years later avowed his transgression and sought to make amends for it by paying a sum of 8,000 reales into the Dominican chest.[214] Meanwhile Luis de Leon (who, like Domingo de Guzman, was perfectly innocent of any share in these clandestine manœuvres) had taken possession of the Biblical Chair at Salamanca by reading himself in on December 7, 1579. Hitherto his reputation, great as it was, had been more or less local: that is to say, it depended mainly on his University lectures, which were exploited by certain unscrupulous persons. It was not till 1580 that, at the express command of his superior, Fray Pedro Suarez,[215] he issued his first book: a Latin commentary on the Song of Songs. On the title-page stood a characteristic motto from his favourite Horace: ab ipso ferro. Possibly at this moment Luis de Leon looked forward to a period of learned leisure:

O ya seguro puerto
de mi tan luengo error! o deseado
para reparo cierto
del grave mal pasado,
reposo dulce, alegre, reposado!

If the author of this opening stanza of Al apartamiento were optimistic enough to assume that these verses might be applied to his own case, he was destined to be speedily disillusioned.

The Valladolid Inquisitors had not treated him in such fashion as to make him desirous of meeting them again. This experience was, however, awaiting him.[216] On January 20 or 21, 1582,[217] his former opponent, the Mercenarian Fray Francisco Zumel, took the chair at a theological meeting in Salamanca. At this meeting a Jesuit named Prudencio de Montemayor put forward a thesis which opened up the difficulties connected with the reconciliation of the theological doctrines of predestination and free-will. Owing to some disturbance in the assembly, Montemayor's voice did not reach all who were present and, in the interest of the audience, Luis de Leon repeated Montemayor's arguments without lending them any support; his action was misunderstood, and many supposed that he was expressing his personal opinions. In the ensuing discussion his vanquished opponent, Domingo de Guzman, intervened, and with unnecessary acerbity declared that Montemayor's views were heretical. Nothing would have been easier than for Luis de Leon to keep out of the fray, especially as he himself held, and had always taught, opinions opposed to those advanced by Montemayor. If, as Pacheco reports, Luis de Leon was the most taciturn of men, he was chivalrous to the point of quixotism. In the circumstances silence was impossible for him. He was for as much liberty of thought as was compatible with orthodoxy; he was persuaded that much of the opposition of the Dominicans to Montemayor was due to the fact that the latter was a Jesuit;[218] and no doubt he was quite human enough to be annoyed at the intrusion of Domingo de Guzman as the champion of doctrinal intolerance.... Be this as it may, Luis de Leon took up the cudgels for Montemayor's views which, as he maintained, were perfectly tenable. At a later meeting in Salamanca, Fray Juan de Castañeda, a Benedictine,[219] advanced views very similar to those of Montemayor; Domingo Bañez, whose relations with Luis de Leon were never cordial, was even more emphatic than his brother-Dominican, Domingo de Guzman, and denounced Castañeda's views as savouring of Pelagianism. A sharp passage of arms followed between Bañez and Luis de Leon,[220] and, after some exchange of argument, Bañez professed to be satisfied with Castañeda's thesis, and therefore with Luis de Leon's explanations.[221] Others were less easily contented; even some of the Augustinian professors at Salamanca were uneasy;[222] and finally the case came before the Inquisition of Valladolid, though the sittings of the court were held in Salamanca. The delator would appear to have been a Jeromite, Fray Joan de Santa Cruz, who took objection to some sixteen propositions which, as he alleged, were put forward by Luis de Leon.[223] Some exaggeration on the part of Santa Cruz is conceivable. As a Jeromite, he bore a grudge against Luis de Leon for his overt opposition to the candidature of Hector Pinto at Salamanca University and, as Francisco de Palacios deposed at Valladolid on February 5, 1573, Santa Cruz had been somewhat excited by the news of Grajal's arrest and was anxious to know if Luis de Leon had been apprehended at the same time.[224] This incident implies no great impartiality on the part of Santa Cruz. Still, a report made officially has to be met. On March 8, 1582, Luis de Leon, adopting the same procedure which he had followed at Valladolid, voluntarily presented himself before the Inquisitionary tribunal at Salamanca, and read his account of what had occurred.[225] In several particulars he was enabled to correct the version of Santa Cruz, which was admittedly second-hand in part.[226] He must have thought of 'old, unhappy, far-off things' as he entered the Court and recognized the Inquisitionary secretary with the singular name of Celedon Gustin; these remembrances probably led him to take additional precautions. On March 31 he appeared a second time before the Inquisitionary Court at Salamanca, and volunteered the statement that, though he still believed Montemayor's thesis to be free from heretical taint, reflection caused him to think that it was temerarious (inasmuch as it differed from the usual scholastic teaching on the subject); that its promulgation in a public assembly was regrettable; and that he was ready to make amends if he had in any way exceeded in his defence of Montemayor.[227] A little later three Augustinians, one of them a man of some prominence in the order, appeared with a view to disassociate themselves from Luis de Leon's action;[228] and a fourth witness came forward in the person of Fray Francisco Zumel, who produced fragments of a lecture on predestination delivered by Luis de Leon at Salamanca as far back as 1571.[229] One hardly knows whether to say that Luis de Leon was fortunate or unfortunate in his opponents. Zumel, as we have seen, was a defeated competitor for the chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Salamanca in 1578. Similarly, Domingo de Guzman was a defeated competitor for the Biblical Chair at the University of Salamanca in 1579. So, too, at the dawn of his professorial career, Luis de Leon had easily carried a substitucion de vísperas against Domingo Bañez.[230] These men were the soul of the opposition to Luis de Leon in his second encounter with the Inquisitionary tribunal; inasmuch as they had all three been beaten in open contest by Luis de Leon, their motives were not altogether free from some suspicion of personal animus; but their united hostility was undoubtedly formidable. Luis de Leon's foes were not, however, limited to the Dominicans and the Jeromite whom he had defeated for University Chairs. Some members of his own order had been rendered unhappy by his latest outbreak. Fray Pedro de Aragon, Fray Martin de Coscojales, and Fray Andrés de Solana were not alone.[231] This is obvious from a highly disagreeable letter written in Madrid on February 15, 1582, by the well-known Augustinian Fray Lorenzo de Villavicencio. In this letter, which was laid before the Inquisition by Luis de Leon, Villavicencio thought it his duty to tell his correspondent to mind his own business, to cease denouncing tyranny, and to understand that his action, while it did good to nobody, was a source of annoyance to many.[232] Manifestly Luis de Leon's passion for fair play was altogether incomprehensible to his opponents, and it may be that he made no great effort to win their support. If, however, his experience of the Inquisition had made him more cautious in his dealings with it, the Inquisition had learned a lesson from its previous experience with Luis de Leon. He was not arrested, but was allowed to go about his business as usual; no prosecuting counsel was appointed, and when the Supreme Inquisition at Madrid called upon the Valladolid judge to make a report,[233] Juan de Arresse confined himself to suggesting that Luis de Leon should be severely reprimanded, and should be called upon to express publicly from his University chair his regret for having described as heretical opinions which were not his.[234] This must have been signed shortly after August 7, 1582, the date on which the request of the Supreme Inquisition reached Valladolid. Mitigated as it was, the suggestion of the Valladolid judge seemed too severe to the Supreme Inquisition. For reasons which are unknown the case was not ended till February 3, 1584. On this date Luis de Leon was summoned to Toledo and was there privately reprimanded by the Grand Inquisitor, Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga, to whom in 1580 he had dedicated his In Psalmum vigesimum sextum Explanatio, a work written during the tenth month of his imprisonment at Valladolid. Luis de Leon appears to have thought that he had a friend in Quiroga, but for whose intervention his imprisonment at Valladolid would have been still further prolonged. As Quiroga became Grand Inquisitor on April 20, 1573, and as the prisoner in the Valladolid cells was not released till the month of December 1576, Luis de Leon's gratitude has been thought excessive.[235] However, he knew the facts better than anybody else, and Quiroga's attitude at Toledo was benignant. Instead of giving the severe reprimand which was suggested by the Valladolid Inquisitors, Quiroga 'charitably and kindly' rebuked the Augustinian in private and dismissed him with a solemn warning not to uphold such views as he was alleged to have defended.[236] It has been held that the Inquisition proceeded against Luis de Leon a third time.[237] No evidence to support this view has been hitherto produced.

Meanwhile in 1583 appeared Los nombres de Cristo and La perfecta casada. The theologian, philosopher, and poet was also a man of affairs. That he was so esteemed by his colleagues is proved by the fact that he was nominated by them to take in hand, and settle, a long-standing suit between the University of Salamanca and the Colegios Mayores which had secured from Rome two concessions that were held to be injurious to the interests of the University. This suit, begun in 1549, was taken charge of by Luis de Leon in January 1585; in February Dr. Antonio de Solís, a learned lawyer, was dispatched to Madrid to give advice on legal points; Solís fell ill and was replaced by Doctor Diego de Sahagun. The business involved an interview with Philip II and, as the king was absent from the capital, Luis de Leon wrote to the University authorities explaining the situation, and suggesting that, in the interests of economy, the mission should be recalled. The University evidently acted upon this suggestion, for on August 1 Luis de Leon was back in Salamanca.[238] He was re-appointed to take up the same work again on November 22, 1586, and on January 17, 1588, he was able to report that the everlasting lawsuit was at an end, and that the contention of the University of Salamanca had been accepted.[239] The Claustro was so overjoyed that it authorized the fulfilment of its promise to pay Luis de Leon his salary and expenses. This elation and fit of generosity proved to be premature. On March 5, 1588, Luis de Leon was obliged to ask for the return of the original cédula and to state that no use could meanwhile be made of it.[240] The disappointment at Salamanca was great, and the Claustro showed its irritation by ordering the return of Luis de Leon and by voting that the payment of his salary be suspended after October 18, if he had not returned by that date. Owing to Luis de Leon's illness a prolongation of his absence was agreed to, later on; but this concession implied no change of mind on the part of the Claustro. A certain University Professor, Dr. Bernal, who had acted for several years as Regidor of Salamanca, and had been from the first hostile to Luis de Leon in this matter, moved that the absentee be ordered back to Salamanca at once with a view to avoiding the unnecessary expense of paying the salary of a substitute to deliver lectures. This was carried by an overwhelming majority on January 20, 1589,[241] and three days later it was resolved that Luis de Leon be instructed to return to his chair within a month. As Luis de Leon was plunged in important business which could not be broken off lightly, Philip II caused a letter to be written on March 7 in which he requested the Claustro to authorize Luis de Leon's absence from his chair till the end of August.[242] The royal request was refused and, as if to mark a want of confidence in Luis de Leon, another member was nominated to conduct the negotiations at Madrid. Luis de Leon's mission was really ended, for his delegated powers had expired; nevertheless, he acted as though they were still in force and with such effect that on August 23 he appeared before the Claustro with the royal warrant.[243] He was warmly complimented on his success, but the Claustro was less profuse of deeds than of words. On August 26 Luis de Leon made three requests:[244] (a) that his arrears of salary be paid for the time that he had represented the University in Madrid; (b) that some compensation be paid to his monastery for the time he had been engaged on University business after his mandate had expired; and (c) that he be given two years' leave of absence from his chair. As to the first point, Doctor Diego Henriquez was commissioned to examine vouchers and pay the petitioner what was due; as to the second point, the decision was referred to a group of professors who held their chairs by a life-tenure; it was agreed to grant the third request, if the King's approval was secured. This sounds like satisfactory treatment. In practice the concessions were not made. On December 20, 1589, the arrears of salary still remained unpaid; on October 20, 1589, it appeared that the Claustro had no power to grant leave of absence.[245] It had apparently the power to fine Luis de Leon for not lecturing, and it did so with such insistency that the Prior of the Augustinian monastery in Salamanca felt compelled to lodge a protest against this action, which, it was contended, was unconstitutional. This protest was set aside on March 9, 1590, and two professors—one of whom was the Jeromite Zumel—were appointed to defend the position taken up by the University of Salamanca.[246] It is impossible to deny that the behaviour of the University of Salamanca to Luis de Leon was most unhandsome, not to say shabby.

As his life drew to a close, and as his fame increased, constant demands were made upon him. Apparently he refused the invitation of Sixtus V and Philip II to join a committee appointed to revise the Vulgate; it is not clear that he altogether approved of the project, nor of the plan on which the revision was to be carried out.[247] Not only was his scholarship held in honour; his rigorous, valiant righteousness was universally recognized. On April 13, 1588, the papal nuncio signed a brief naming Luis de Leon one of two commissaries who were entrusted with the delicate task of inquiring into the administration of certain funds by the Provincial of the Augustinians in Castile. The result of this inquiry seems not to be recorded, but a passage in an extant autograph letter of Luis de Leon's suggests that his conclusions were unfavourable to his official superior.[248] Luis de Leon's zeal led him to champion (perhaps inopportunely) a change in the constitution of his order.[249] In 1588 appeared his edition of Saint Theresa; and as the letter dedicatory to Madre Ana de Jesús is dated September 15, 1587, it may perhaps be inferred that the editor before this date was personally acquainted with the great saint's successor. If not a judge of scholarship, Ana de Jesús was an excellent judge of character. She had shown uncommon insight in choosing Luis de Leon as editor of her great friend's writings; she esteemed him for his eminent sanctity; he proved worthy of her confidence, and upheld her plans for reform against Nicolás de Jesús Maria Doria, the Provincial of the Barefooted Carmelites in Spain. Doria was supported by Philip II and, to some extent, by Sixtus V. The proceedings of the Carmelite nuns were conducted from this point onwards with supreme ability. Doctor Bernabé del Mármol was sent to Rome on a secret mission. His object was to obtain the papal sanction for reforms which had been advocated by Saint Theresa herself. Mármol succeeded to admiration. His antagonists had no suspicion of his errand. A papal brief, dated June 5, 1590, granted the desired sanction; and a second brief, dated June 27, appointed Teutonio de Braganza, Archbishop of Evora, and Luis de Leon to carry the first brief into effect. Braganza was too busy to do the necessary work, and authorized Luis de Leon to act for him. Luis de Leon begged the University of Salamanca to grant him some days' leave to attend to the business. This petition was rejected. But the indomitable man went on. Taken aback and irritated, Doria hastened to the Prado and easily induced Philip II[250] (who was, in fact, already won over to approval of Doria's scheme) to obtain from the papal nuncio an order suspending the delegate's instructions. After a reasonable time had elapsed Luis de Leon returned to the charge, and called a meeting of those immediately concerned; the papal nuncio made no sign, as the King had not spoken to him again on the subject. Meanwhile Doria, who was better informed as to what was afoot in Madrid than as to what was afoot in Rome, once more interviewed Philip II and urged him to stop Luis de Leon's proceedings. Philip took action. As Luis de Leon's supporters were filing into the room where they were to discuss the situation, they were approached by a member of the royal household who informed them that he had it in command from the King to bid them suspend the execution of the brief till fresh orders came from Rome. Annoyed at this piece of fussiness, Luis de Leon is stated to have left the room, remarking: 'No order of His Holiness can be carried out in Spain'[251]. This report, which comes down to us on the dubious authority of the Carmelite chronicler, Fray Francisco de Santa Maria, may, or may not, be correct. The impetuous Luis de Leon was no doubt extremely capable of showing that he resented Philip II's interference in church matters. On the other hand, Santa Maria cannot have written with any personal knowledge of the facts, as he belonged to a much later generation. Even had he been an exact contemporary,[252] Santa Maria's statements would call for careful examination, for he does not appear to have had a critical intelligence, since he commits himself to two assertions, one of which is certainly false and the other—intrinsically unlikely—is without a shred of corroboration. Santa Maria avers that Philip II showed his displeasure by forbidding the Augustinians of Castile to elect Luis de Leon as their Provincial. It is on record, however, that Luis de Leon was elected Provincial of the Augustinians of Castile on the earliest opportunity (August 14, 1591) that presented itself. Santa Maria further states that Luis de Leon took the King's annoyance so much to heart that his death was hastened in consequence. No evidence is produced to support a story so innately improbable. This legend evidently throve in credulous opposition circles, for something of the same sort had been set about earlier by Fray José de Jesús y Maria, a Carmelite historian who, unaware that Luis de Leon had declined an archbishopric, added a calumnious insinuation that the editor of Saint Theresa's works was a disappointed aspirant to episcopal honours.[253] Santa Maria, not knowing that Philip II highly esteemed Luis de Leon, seems to have been content to report such gossip as filtered down to him.

The correspondence connected with the papal brief dragged on till January or February 1591.[254] To all who saw Luis de Leon at this time it must have occurred that his career was drawing to a close. He had never been robust; his sedentary habits, his ascetic practices, and his prolonged imprisonment combined to wear him down. His last years were packed with troubles. The Inquisition watched him with suspicious eyes; he had always regarded the Dominicans and Jeromites as his enemies; he had contrived to increase the forces hostile to him by alienating the Carmelites. Doria was not without the power to make his resentment felt; a few well-meaning Augustinians did Luis de Leon more harm than good by suggesting that he had extorted from the Inquisition the admission that his doctrinal teachings were correct;[255] he was deeply affected by the enmity of other Augustinians whom he (perhaps too hastily) denounced by name to the Inquisitors.[256] Many of his colleagues at Salamanca stood aloof from him; some were openly opposed to him; one or two carried their spite so far as to suggest that he should be deprived of his University chair. His constant absence from Salamanca gave his foes a handle; it is conceivable that they might have succeeded in ousting him from his chair had his life been prolonged. Apart from public business, connected with his own order and with the proposed reform of the Carmelite nuns, Luis de Leon was retained in Madrid by his failing health. On January 11, 1591, he was examined by Doctor Estrada, who reported that his patient was suffering from a cystic tumour of the kidney.[257] This is a malady which might last many years. No doubt Luis de Leon had had the tumour for a long while; it is extremely likely that at the end the growth became malignant and that he died from it. It has been alleged that Luis de Leon's end came suddenly.[258] This is not so. His death was lingering. For all but himself this was fortunate, and, even for himself the pause before the end was convenient, for it enabled him to discharge certain duties. As editor, he was naturally in possession of many of Saint Theresa's papers; these he had time to make over to Doctor Sobrino, Professor of Theology in the University of Valladolid, and to Fray Agustin Antolinez, a future bishop, with instructions to return them to Madre Ana de Jesús. Nevertheless the saint's papers were not destined to reach Madre Ana de Jesús, for Philip II asked both the trustees to give him the holograph copies to be deposited in the Library at the Escorial. The trustees complied, and the papers are now stored in the Camarín de Santa Teresa.[259] Assiduous to the last in the discharge of his duties, Luis de Leon dragged himself to Madrigal, where a Chapter of the Augustinian Order was to be held in August 1591. The effort was too much for him. He had to take to his bed, and was still there on August 14 when he was elected Provincial[260]. He did not enjoy the honour long, for he died on August 23.

Though most people who are interested in Luis de Leon at all are familiar with Pacheco's portrait of him, Pacheco's character-sketch is so apt to be overlooked that it may be briefly summarized here.[261] Pacheco reports Luis de Leon as having a special gift of silence, as being the most taciturn of men though one of the wittiest; as being a man most trustworthy, truthful and upright, precise in speech and in the keeping of promises, reserved, not given to smiling; in the gravity of his countenance his nobility of soul and, still more, his deep humility were obvious; most cleanly, chaste, and reflective, he was a great monk and a close observer of laws; so marked was his devotion to the Blessed Virgin that he fasted on the eve of feasts, dined at three, and ate no supper; in her honour he wrote the lovely hymn Virgen que el Sol mas pura, very spiritually-minded and greatly given to prayer, at the time of his severest trials God hearkened to him. Though by nature hasty, he was very long-suffering and gentle to those with whom he had to deal; he was most abstemious in matters of food, drink, and sleep; indeed with regard to sleep (as was stated to Pacheco by Fray Luis Moreno de Bohorquez, who had lived in the same monastery as Luis de Leon for four years) he carried mortification so far that he seldom lay down, and the monk who had to make his bed would often find that it had not been slept in. So great were his intellectual gifts that he seemed more meet to teach every one than to learn things from anybody. On matters concerning government his judgement was sound; he was highly esteemed by prominent men both in Spain and out of it; Philip II was wont to consult him in difficult cases, and would send messengers from Madrid to Salamanca; when he visited Madrid on University business he was admitted to private audience and received signal marks of royal favour; with respect to offers of bishoprics and the Archbishopric of Mexico he displayed his courage and magnanimous spirits not only by stripping himself of rank (a thing seldom done) but of all he had in the world; a man of truly evangelical temper. In those holy exercises, and in fitting sequel to his life, he piously ended his course as Provincial of Castile, leaving all in great affliction, but with a still greater certainty of his glory.

This estimate was printed in 1599, eight years after Luis de Leon's death and one year after Philip II's death. Making some allowance for the partiality of an admirer, Pacheco's description may stand. A dry contemporary chronicler, like Luis Cabrera de Córdoba,[262] after paying tribute to Luis de Leon's intellectual gifts and heroic courage in adversity, speaks of his death as a national loss. Even in his lifetime Luis de Leon was recognized by men of exceptional genius as one of themselves. His poems, which were not published till forty years after his death, must have been handed about in manuscript long before. In 1585 Cervantes in his Galatea introduced Luis de Leon into the Canto de Caliope. It cannot well be maintained that Cervantes had been impressed by Luis de Leon's Latin treatises, by De los nombres de Cristo, and by La perfecta casada. The Canto de Caliope records the names of those only whom Cervantes considered to be eminent poets—masters en la alegre sciencia dela poesia—and hence it is to the poet that he refers when he writes in his 84th stanza:

Quisiera rematar mi dulce canto
en tal sazon pastores, con loaros
vn ingenio que al mundo pone espanto
y que pudiera en estasis robaros.
En el cifro y recojo todo quanto
he mostrado hasta aqui, y he de mostraros
Fray Luys de Leon el que digo
a quien yo reuerencio, adoro, y sigo.

IV

[189]

Bartolomé José Gallardo, Ensayo de una biblioteca española de libros raros y curiosos (Madrid, 1863-66-88-89), vol. IV, col. 1328: 'En unos apuntes cronológicos que hacia en Salamanca un curioso (jesuita?) á fines del siglo XVI, fol. 23 de un tomo de Papeles varios, en folio, se lee:

'Año de 76, Mártes 23 de diciembre dia de San Dámaso, dieron por libre a fr. Luis sin pena. Y donde a 30 de diciembre entró en Salamanca a las tres de la tarde con atabales, trompetas y gran acompañamiento de Caballeros, Doctores, Maestros, &c.'

[190]

He is clearly wrong in stating that Luis de Leon was set free on December 23. We have already seen that Luis de Leon presented two applications in writing on December 15. From the nature of these applications, it is a fair inference that he was free when he made them.

[191]

Especially as the fact is confirmed by a contemporary Augustinian, Fray Juan Quijano: see Blanco García, op. cit., p. 206, n. 1.

[192]

This date is given on the authority of the anonymous writer quoted by Gallardo, op. cit., col. 1328: 'Y lunes adelante le presentó el Comisorio al Claustro, para que se le diese su proprio lugar, honra y cátedra de Durando. Él no la quiso y la Universidad cedió 200 ducados de partido.' The date in this case is corroborated by a summons from the Rector of the University: see P. Fr. Luis G. Alonso Getino, O.P., Vida y procesos del maestro Fr. Luis de León (Salamanca, 1907), p. 244.

[193]

According to Blanco García (op. cit., p. 207), Luis de Leon did not vote, but assigned his proxy to Bartolomé de Medina. This incident occurred, but it happened at a meeting of the Claustro held two days later: see Alonso Getino (op. cit., pp. 252-254). Medina seems to have thought that Luis de Leon's chair had not been legally vacated, and that it was not in Luis de Leon's power to say that he would assign it to Castillo.

[194]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., p. 258.

[195]

Gallardo, op. cit., vol. IV, col. 1328: '...y martes a 29 [de enero de 1577] empezó a leer. Hubo gran concurso, &c.'

[196]

Monasticon Augustinianum (Munich, 1623), p. 208: 'Primam vero lectionem post tenebras ut auspicabatur, pleno concessu ad novitatem evocato, inquit: Dicebamus hesterna die.' Blanco García, who quotes this passage (op. cit., p. 209, n. 1), refers also to p. 119 of a reprint issued at Valladolid in 1890: this reprint I have not seen.

[197]

Early instances, dating from 1636, are given by Blanco García, op. cit., p. 209, n. 2. The story first appeared in print in Spain in 1771, when it was given in the fifth volume of Juan Josef Lopez de Sedano, Parnaso Español (Madrid, 1768-1778).

[198]

C. Muiños Sáenz, Sobre el 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos in La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXIX, p. 22.

[199]

C. Muiños Sáenz, La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXIX, p. 29.

[200]

Luis G. Alonso Getino, Vida y procesos del Maestro Fr. Luis de León (Salamanca, 1907), pp. 242-243, 262-263.

[201]

C. Muiños Sáenz, El 'Decíamos ayer' de Fray Luis de León (Madrid, 1905) and Sobre el 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos in La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXVIII, pp. 479-495, 544-560; (1909), vol. LXXIX, pp. 18-34, 107-124, 191-212, 353-374, 529-552; (1909), vol. LXXX, pp. 99-125, and 177-197.

[202]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 260-261.

[203]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 262-263: 'É despues de lo sobredicho en la dicha ciudad de Salamanca martes á la hora que dió las diez de la mañana el relox de la iglesia mayor, al fin de la lecion del padre mº. Pedro de Uceda, que se contaron veinti nueve dias del mes de Enero... Antonio de Almaraz bedel puso en la posesion del dicho salario al dicho padre mº. fray Luis de Leon en la catedra questá en el general mayor de theologia de escuelas mayores, el qual la tomó é apprehendió sin contradicion ninguna, y en lugar de posesion leyó un poco. É dijo y protestó... que estaba y está presto de leer el dicho salario é partido, é que si no leyere no se le pare por ello perjuicio ni se le descuente de su salario y partido ni por ello sea multado en cosa alguna, pues no es su culpa, hasta tanto que le den hora en que lea, conforme á lo proveido por la junta de los señores theologos... y le señalen lectura, é asi lo pidió é protestó, siendo presentes por todo el Padre mº. Pedro de Uceda... é Antonio de Almaraz bedel, é otros muchos estudiantes y personas de la universidad é yo Bartme. Sanchez notario é vicesecretario.'

[204]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 266-268.

[205]

Blanco García, op. cit., pp. 212-213.

[206]

Blanco García, op. cit., p. 214, n. 1; Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 282-301.

[207]

The bishop seems to have resented Luis de Leon's opposition to the candidature of the bishop's brother, Juan Gallo, for the cátedra de vísperas de teología. In this contest Juan Gallo, a Dominican, was defeated by the Augustinian Fray Juan de Guevara (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 275-277). Guevara was present when the bishop told Luis de Leon that 'he knew Luis de Leon's hostility to his (the bishop's) brother had done him more harm than all the rest' (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 261). Later on, Juan Gallo appears to have been appointed to another chair at Salamanca (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 318).

[208]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 303. Salinas, it should be noted, denied having heard that this applied specially to opponents of the Dominican order.

[209]

The verses ascribed to Domingo de Guzman are reproduced in part by Adolfo de Castro, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles desde la formacion del lenguaje hasta nuestros dias (Madrid, 1847-1880), vol. XXXV, p. x; they are given in full by Cayetano Alberto de la Barrera in the Revista de Ciencias, Literatura y Artes (Sevilla, 1856), vol. II, pp. 731-741; (Sevilla, 1857), vol. III, pp. 5-22, 69-80, 209-220. La Barrera, following Gallardo, was careful to point out that lines 37-40 of the verses to Urganda la Desconocida are practically identical with four lines in Domingo de Guzman's glosa. Sr. Rodríguez Marín, in his edition of Don Quixote, published at Madrid in 1916-1917, prints the four lines (vol. I, pp. 49-50) in inverted commas. Cervantes, if he meant to quote, must have trusted to his memory.

GUZMAN

que don Albaro de Luna,
que Anibal Cartajines,
que Francisco Rey frances,
se queja de la fortuna.

CERVANTES

Que don Aluaro de Lu
Que Anibal el de Carta
Que Rey Francisco de Espa
Se quexa de la fortu.

In Guzman's case I reproduce La Barrera's transcription. In the case of Cervantes I follow the spelling adopted in the princeps of the First Part of Don Quixote.

For some readers, it may be convenient to refer to the revised but abridged reprint in C.A. de la Barrera, El Cachetero del Buscapié (Santander, 1916), pp. 133-136.

[210]

The first quintilla of some verses by a poetaster on Luis de Leon's side is quoted by Fray Antolin Merino in the preface to his edition of the Poesías of Luis de Leon contained in the Obras del Il. Fr. Luis de Leon (Madrid, 1804-1805-1806-1816), vol. XI, p. xxv:

Luis y Mingo pretenden
casarse con Ana bella,
cada cual pretende habella,
mas segun todos entienden
muérese por Luis ella.

[211]

Gallardo, op. cit., vol. IV, col. 1328: '...En este año (79) domingo 6 de diciembre se proveyó la (cátedra) de Biblia a Fr. Luis de Leon, y el dia siguiente tomó la posesión: tuvo 281 votos, y el maestro fr. Domingo de Guzman tuvo 245: llevóla con 36 votos.'

[212]

Gallardo, op. cit., vol. IV, col. 1328-1329: 'Reguláronse los cursos, y vino en llevarla por solo tres Cursos, y esto fué quitando un voto señalado, que tenia cinco cursos, el cual se sospechó era Dominico. No pudiendo conformarse con él, hubo concierto entre los frailes, que votasen de Santo Domingo 100 y de San Agustin 50. Anduvo pleito hasta viernes 13 de Octubre de 81, que sentenciaron en Valladolid en favor de fr. Luis de Leon.'

[213]

For example, by Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 268-274.

[214]

This is stated by Alonso Fernandez, who wrote more than twenty years after the election. A relevant passage is given in Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 272-273.

[215]

The terms of Suarez's order are reproduced by Blanco García, op. cit., p. 218, n. 3.

[216]

Nothing was known of this second suit by the Valladolid Inquisitors till 1882, when a considerable part of the report of the proceedings was published by Sr. D. Álvarez Guijarro in the Revista Hispano-Americana.

It was given later more fully in La Ciudad de Dios (Madrid, 1896), vol. XLI, pp. 15-31, by P. Francisco Blanco García. The subsequent references are to the tirage à part entitled: Segundo Proceso instruído por la Inquisición de Valladolid contra Fray Luis de León con prólogo y notas del P. Francisco Blanco García (Madrid, 1896).

[217]

Zumel gives the date (Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 40) as January 21; the delator, Santa Cruz, fixes the date a day earlier (Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 20).

[218]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 31: '...mouime lo uno por parecerme que los padres dominicos le querian oprimir por ser de la compañia contra la qual se muestran siempre apasionados y lo otro y principal porque me pareció gran sin razon condenar por eregía vna cosa que la presuponen por cierta muchos sanctos y otros muchos catholicos sanctos y no sanctos la afirman y defienden...'

[219]

Luis de Leon merely says (Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 31) 'vn fraile benito': Castañeda's full name is given in the report of the Valladolid Inquisitors (Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 52).

[220]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 32: '...porque se dezia en la escuela que el maestro yuañez dezia que era error pelagiano yo dixe que no tenia razon de ponelle aquella nota,...'

[221]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 33: '...y despues del acto me dixo el maestro Vañez que el quedaba bien satisfecho de la manera como el sustentante auia declarado su opinion'.

[222]

Juan de Guevara and Pedro de Aragon, for example. This emerges from the evidence of the Augustinian Fray Martín de Coscojales (Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 37). Pedro de Aragon was Duns Scotus Professor of Theology at Salamanca, a former pupil of Luis de Leon's and a great admirer of his. He appeared as a witness against Luis de Leon (Blanco García, Segundo proceso, pp. 36-37).

[223]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, pp. 20-27.

[224]

Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 328.

[225]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, pp. 28-34.

[226]

Even in his official calificacion Joan de la Cruz (Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 24) speaks of 'las [cosas] que yo ví y las que oy y se por Relacion....'

[227]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 35.

[228]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, pp. 36-40.

[229]

Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico, p. 225; Blanco García, Segundo proceso, pp. 40-45.

[230]

This seems to follow from a question which Luis de Leon proposed to put to six witnesses: the Augustinians Juan de Guevara, Pedro de Rojas, and Hernando de Peralto, and three laymen, Loarte, Ruiz, and Madrigal: 'Item si saben etc. que el maestro fray Domingo Ibañez, antes y al tiempo que juró y depuso en esta causa, era y es enemigo capital del dicho fray Luis de Leon, ansí por ser fraile dominico como porque se opuso contra él á una substitucion de vísperas, y se la llevó fray Luis de Leon con mucho exceso, de lo cual él y sus frailes se sintieron mucho' (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 261-263). Luis de Leon was mistaken in supposing that Bañez had deposed against him at Valladolid. Alonso Getino endeavours to show (op. cit., pp. 384-386) that Luis de Leon never competed against Bañez, and that his memory played him a trick on this point.

[231]

See note 222.

[232]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, pp. 46-47: 'V.P. dexe las cosas de la orden aunque esten en peor estado del que hahora tienen, trate de su cathreda, y dexe de tomar á su cargo el remedio de las tiranias. No llame tyrano a nadie, y sepa V.P. que publicamente dicen muchos religiosos que V.P. no hiço bien a nadie y disgustos sí a muchos, recibiendo buenas obras de aquellos a quien hahora maltrata, cosa que no puede tener buen suçeso ni puede parecer bien a nadie.'

[233]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 52.

[234]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, pp. 52-53: '...sea grauemente Reprehendido, y... que en su cathedra publicamente declare la calidad de las proposiciones que se le dieren diçiendo que en dezir que lo contrario de lo que el sustentaba era heregía, dixo mal, y que esto era su parezer'. The official report of the proceedings must be incomplete, for Arresse's parecer mentions that Domingo de Guzman had spoken of receiving an apology from Luis de Leon. No evidence by Domingo de Guzman is disclosed in the record.

[235]

Fr. Heinrich Reusch, Luis de Leon und die spanische Inquisition (Bonn, 1873), p. 111.

[236]

Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 53: 'En Toledo... parescío siendo llamado, el Maestro fray luis de leon..., al qual su señoría Illma reprehendío y declaro la culpa que contra el resulta por los auctos y meritos deste processo, y le amoneste benigna y caritatiuamente, que de aquí adelante se abstenga de dezir, ni deffender publica ni secretamente, las proposiciones que paresce hauer dicho y defendido,... y el ha confesado que la sentencia dellas no caresce de alguna temeridad, ni otras semejantes, con apercibimiento que no lo cumpliendo se procedera contra el por todo rigor de derecho, y el dicho fray luis de leon promettío de lo cumplir y que lo haria assí.

[237]

By Sr. D. Carlos Álvarez Guijarro. Blanco García (Segundo proceso, p. 54, n. 1) dissents from this view.

[238]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 305-308.

[239]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 308-315.

[240]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., p. 316.

[241]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 309, 317-318.

[242]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 319-320.

[243]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., p. 321.

[244]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 327-329.

[245]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 329-331.

[246]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 329-335.

[247]

Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico, &c., pp. 236-239.

[248]

Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico, pp. 239-240. The pressmark of this autograph letter in the British Museum is Add. MSS. 28, 698.

[249]

Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico, pp. 242-244.

[250]

The whole episode is clearly set forth by Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico, pp. 246-250.

[251]

Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico, pp. 248-249; Alonso Getino, op. cit., pp. 349-351.

[252]

A passage in Alonso Getino (op. cit., p. 349) describes Santa Maria as 'contemporáneo de los sucesos'. This, though literally true, is somewhat misleading. Santa Maria was twenty-four the year that Luis de Leon died. See Gallardo, op. cit., vol. IV, col. 489.

[253]

'...al principal de ellos [los que habían procurado el Breve] y pretensor de mitra, le costó la vida el sentimiento que tuvo de ver tan indignado al Rey Católico'. I have not been able to consult Jesús y Maria's work. My quotation, like Alonso Getino's (op. cit., p. 354), is taken at second-hand from Vicente de la Fuente's edition of Saint Theresa's works.

[254]

January 26, 1591, is the latest date attached to the Documentos published by Cristóbal Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía madrileña (Madrid, 1907), Parte III, pp. 404-409. On January 25, 1591, Luis de Leon signed a document undertaking to accept 1,000 reales in lieu of 2,800 due to him by the estate of Cornelio Bonard, formerly a bookseller at Salamanca; see Cristóbal Pérez Pastor, Bibliografía madrileña (Madrid, 1906), Parte II, pp. 454-455.

[255]

F. Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 53. The Salamancan Inquisitors reported to the Supreme Inquisition: '...hauemos entendido que los de su orden se xatan y alaban de que en este sto offio se a declarado ser verdad lo que el dho frai luis sustentó...'

[256]

F. Blanco García, Segundo proceso, p. 49.

[257]

C. Muiños Sáenz, Sobre el 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos in La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXIX, p. 540.

[258]

Alonso Getino, op. cit., p. 355.

[259]

C. Muiños Sáenz, Sobre el 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos in La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXIX, p. 540, n. 1.

[260]

Alonso Getino writes (op. cit., p. 355): 'al ser elegido Provincial, nueve dias antes de morir, no puede suponerse que estuviera enfermo de consideración'. This is a guess very wide of the mark. F. de Méndez, in the Revista Agustiniana (1881), quoted (p. 351) Juan Quijano, a contemporary whose chronicle is now lost, as saying that when Luis de Leon was elected Provincial he was already confined to his bed with the illness of which he died.

[261]

The portrait and character-sketch will be found in the photo-chromotype reproduction of Francisco Pacheco, Libro de descripcion de verdaderos retratos de illustres y memorables varones. The original is dated Sevilla, 1599. The reproduction, due to José María Asensio y Toledo, was photo-chromotyped between 1881 and 1884. Owing to the rarity of the reproduction, it has been thought desirable to reprint in an appendix the passage in which Pacheco deals with Luis de Leon.

[262]

The reference is given by C. Muiños Sáenz, Sobre el 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos in La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXX, p. 119.

V

By his contemporaries Luis de Leon was perhaps more esteemed as a theologian or a scholar than as a man of letters. This judgement has been reversed by posterity mainly on the strength of the Spanish poems which were little known during the author's lifetime beyond a small circle of his personal friends.[263] Experts tell us that as a theologian he ranks below his master Melchor Cano; and in the annals of scholarship Luis de Leon is less conspicuous than Benito Arias Montano and than Francisco Sanchez (el Brocense). Few now read for pleasure the treatises which Luis de Leon composed in a dead language: in any case these treatises can add nothing to his reputation as a writer of Spanish, and it is solely as a Spanish author that he concerns us here and now. He was by no means the earliest of devout writers to use Spanish as a literary medium. There is a long and illustrious bead-roll of authors from Bernardino de Laredo to Saint Theresa to prove the contrary. Much less was Luis de Leon the first post-Renaissance scholar to recognize that Spanish had a great future before it. Yet, if we take leave to assume that Luis de Granada was an ascetic rather than an extatic, we may account Luis de Leon as perhaps the first professional scholar to perceive that Spanish was adequate to convey the subtleties of theology and the ravishments of mysticism. His chief prose works in Castilian include the Exposicion del libro de Job, a commentary dedicated to Madre Ana de Jesús, but not published till near the end of the eighteenth century (1779). The provenance of this work calls for no explanation. Apart from the quotation of a passage in Jorge Manrique's Coplas, the Exposicion del libro de Job offers few indications of Spanish origin and fewer personal touches. Equally Biblical in origin are a rendering of the Song of Songs and a corresponding commentary; the existence of both has a personal interest inasmuch as they prove that Luis de Leon was enabled to carry out a long cherished design by means of which he hoped, as he declared at Valladolid, to counterbalance the indiscreet prying of Fray Diego de Leon. La Perfecta Casada (1583) and De los nombres de Cristo (1583-1585) likewise have their roots in Scripture. La Perfecta Casada is avowedly based on the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs, and De los nombres de Cristo, the first part of which appeared simultaneously with La Perfecta Casada,[264] discusses the various symbolic names applied to the Saviour in the Bible.

La Perfecta Casada is dedicated to Maria Varela Osorio, a recently wedded bride, who may have been a distant kinswoman of the author's.[265] Nowhere more clearly than in this treatise does Luis de Leon justify the statement that he had a Hebrew soul. He takes for granted the Oriental point of view, and illustrates his imperious thesis with ample quotations from writers of all types—pagans, Christians, saints, and laymen. There are references to Simonides, to Sophocles, to Euripides, to Plutarch, to Saint Clement of Alexandria, to Saint Cyprian, to Saint Ambrose, to Garcilasso de la Vega. It seems likely that La Perfecta Casada was written after De los nombres de Cristo, which was almost certainly begun in prison. But there is perhaps nothing in the internal evidence of the style which would point to that conclusion. The style of La Perfecta Casada is vigorous and clear; but it is marred by gusts of rhetoric and by an excess of copulative conjunctions. These peculiarities produce the effect of relative inexperience, and might easily mislead a too confident critic.

De los nombres de Cristo is cast in the Platonic form of dialogue, and, in the section entitled Pastor, Plato is quoted by name. But the Hellenic influence, though present, is not dominant. Already Alonso de Orozco had anticipated Luis de Leon with De los nueve nombres de Cristo,[266] and there are points of contact in the handling as is inevitable from the similarity of the subject. But it cannot be denied that Luis de Leon's work is suffused with a warmer, more human interest than Orozco's brief sketch. These more intimate personal elements are present on almost every page of De los nombres de Cristo. Nobody can read far without perceiving that Marcello, hindered by his poca salud y muchas occupaciones, is manifestly a double of Luis de Leon; there are passages which gloss themes developed metrically elsewhere; there are retrospicient glances at the Valladolid trial; the scene of the dialogue is laid within view of La Flecha, and the details of the landscape are reproduced with exact fidelity; Luis de Leon has a freer hand in De los nombres de Cristo than in his other prose works, but here again in his paraphrases of the Biblical passages relating to Christ his interpretation is at one with the interpretation of the prophets. And this identity of sentiment has in it nothing dramatic. Those who have alleged that Luis de Leon came of Jewish stock may have been—apparently were—mistaken; but their mistake is comprehensible, for more than any contemporary Spanish poet—more even than Herrera in his odes—is he saturated with the Jewish spirit. In all his work Luis de Leon adheres closely to the Bible. In the De los nombres de Cristo he is also a Platonist within limits: not so much as regards the manner (which tends to an oratorical pomp more reminiscent of Cicero) as in his conciliatory method. With the Jewish and Hellenic blend of influence we must rate the Latin influence—that of Horace and of Virgil. The influence of Horace on Luis de Leon has been often noted. It exists no doubt, but has perhaps been exaggerated: why should we suppose that his love of moderation was learnt from Horace and was not partly, at least, temperamental? May not the references to Horace be a characteristic of humanism? An opinion backed by the weight of classical authority must reach us with irresistible force, must it not? However this may be, the predominant influence in De los nombres de Cristo, as in all Luis de Leon's prose, is Scriptural and Christian. In maturity of development, in intellectual force, in beauty of expression, and in general adequateness, De los nombres de Cristo exhibits Luis de Leon's prose at its culmination. The book is dedicated to Pedro Portocarrero,[267] Bishop of Calahorra, who had previously twice been rector of Salamanca University. It seems probable that Luis de Leon's friendship with him dates back to 1566-1567, when Portocarrero held the office of rector for the second time. Besides De los nombres de Cristo Luis de Leon dedicated to Portocarrero In Abdiam prophetam Explanatio (1589) and the manuscript collection of his poems. For some reason not very obvious this collection of verses was not published till 1631 when it was issued by Quevedo, who hoped that it would help to stem the current of Gongorism in Spain. The poems, printed forty years after the author's death, appeared too late to affect the public taste. Góngora himself had died in 1627, but his influence was undiminished. Quevedo, who had obtained his copies of Luis de Leon's verses from Manuel Sarmiento de Mendoza, a canon of Seville cathedral, did his share as editor by writing two prefaces, one addressed to Sarmiento de Mendoza, and the other to Olivares who was manifestly expected to pronounce against Gongorism. Olivares, however, had no reason to love Quevedo, and was resolved to take no active part in what he doubtless regarded as a scribblers' quarrel. Gongorism pursued its way unchecked. Quevedo's edition, though incomplete and disfigured by certain errors, was reprinted at Milan during the same year (1631), and then all interest in Luis de Leon flickered out for a while.

In the prefatory note of the 1631 Madrid edition—entitled Obras propias, y tradvciones latinas, griegas y italianas—Luis de Leon speaks of his poems slightingly as mere playthings of his youth, now brought together at the request of an anonymous friend—perhaps Benito Arias Montano—to whom they had been ascribed. Luis de Leon arranges the material in three books, containing respectively his original compositions, his translations from authors profane, and his versions of certain psalms, a hymn, and chapters from the Book of Job. But, beyond the general statement as to the early date of composition, Luis de Leon gives no precise information as to when individual poems were written. The assertion that the poems date back almost to the author's childhood is contradicted by concrete facts. Take, for instance, the celebrated Noche serena dedicated to Oloarte. If, as I conjecture, the dedicatee of the Noche serena is identical with the Diego de Loarte, archdeacon of Ledesma, who gave evidence at Salamanca on January 27, 1573, and who on that date had known Luis de Leon for fourteen years, the Noche serena cannot have been composed earlier than 1559 when Luis de Leon was thirty-one—youthful, indeed, but long past his niñez. On January 17, 1573, Francisco Salinas testified at Salamanca to having known Luis de Leon for six years: whence it follows that El aire se serena cannot have been written before 1567, when Luis de Leon was bordering on his fortieth year. As Don Carlos died on July 24, 1568, the Cancion a la muerte de don Carlos and the Epitafio al túmulo del príncipe don Carlos must necessarily have been composed after that date; that is, when Luis de Leon was just forty and had left his niñez far behind him. Besides a general dedication to Portocarrero, the collection includes three individual poems which are dedicated to that personage: (1) Virtud, hija del Cielo; (2) No siempre es poderosa; (3) La cana y alta cumbre. In La cana y alta cumbre there is a reference to

la cruda guerra
que agora el Marte airado
despierta en la alta sierra.

These verses can scarcely allude to anything but the Alpujarras rising of 1568-1571, and the conjecture hardens into certainty in view of the mention of Alonso and Poqueira: this is clearly the Alonso Portocarrero who, as Hurtado de Mendoza records, perished at Poqueira, 'trabado del veneno usado dende los tiempos antiguos entre cazadores'. This poem must have been written when Luis de Leon was at least forty-one. Virtud, hija del cielo, in mentioning the Miño, refers to Portocarrero's appointment in Galicia; and as Portocarrero's term of office appears to have lasted from 1571 to 1580, the poem cannot be dated earlier than 1571 when Luis de Leon was over forty-three. If the mention of la morisca armada in the lines A Santiago glances at the battle of Lepanto which was fought on October 7, 1571, then the poem must have been written after that date, when the author was close on forty-four. The verses dedicated to Juan de Grial, with their closing reference to the writer's trials:

Que yo, de un torbellino
traidor acometido, y derrocado
del medio del camino
al hondo, el plectro amado
y del vuelo las alas he quebrado;

the fervent entreaty A todos los santos and its unreserved lament:

No niego, dulce amparo
del alma, que mis males son mayores
que aqueste desamparo;
mas cuanto son peores,
tanto resonaran mas tus loores;

the very beautiful and justly renowned Virgen que el sol mas pura, with its heart-rending supplication:

los ojos vuelve al suelo
y mira un miserable en cárcel dura
cercado de tinieblas y tristeza:

possibly[268] the song Del conocimiento de si mismo, with its significant simile:

el gusanillo de la gente hollado
un rey era, conmigo comparado;

and assuredly the famous quintillas beginning Aqui la envidia y mentira: these compositions were probably composed during, or after, the writer's imprisonment at Valladolid, that is to say between the spring of 1572 and the winter of 1576, when Luis de Leon was from forty-four or forty-five to forty-eight or forty-nine. Del mundo y su vanidad glances at

la grave desventura
del lusitano, por su mal valiente,
la soberbia bravura
de su animosa gente
desbaratada miserablemente.

This passage obviously recalls the disastrous defeat of Sebastian I, King of Portugal, at Al-Kaor al-Kebir in August 1578, when Luis de Leon was more than fifty years of age. If these inferences are valid, it would follow that many of his original poems were not composed till he was nearly forty or more. It is difficult to reconcile these conclusions with the author's categorical assertion that the poems were produced during his early years. As Luis de Leon was the least vain, as well as the most truthful of men, an explanation must be found, and it is perhaps permissible to suggest that Luis de Leon wrote a prefatory note to Portocarrero intending it to be placed at the beginning of the Second Book which contains his poems translated from Roman and other authors. By some mischance the poet's intention was frustrated; perhaps a leaf was out of place in Sarmiento de Mendoza's copy; perhaps Quevedo is directly responsible for what occurred. At any rate, the letter dedicatory was bisected, the greater part of it being transferred to the beginning of the First Book, while a mere morsel came to be printed at the beginning of the Third Book. This surmise may serve till a better explanation is forthcoming.

It is not to be inferred from the foregoing summary that all Luis de Leon's original and graver compositions were written during his maturity, but there is some reason to think that his earlier efforts in verse took the form of translations. Though it is undoubtedly true that his poems as a whole were not published till 1631, four isolated pieces of his strayed into print as early as 1574 when they were included by Francisco Sanchez, el Brocense, in the notes to his edition of the Obras del excelente poeta Garci-Lasso de la Vega.[269] At that date Luis de Leon was in the secret prison-cells of the Inquisition at Valladolid. Sanchez had been a colleague of his at Salamanca for some six years, was on friendly terms with him, knew the exact turn things were taking, felt that no good, and possibly some harm, might be done by mentioning the prisoner's name, and accordingly gave a version of an Horatian ode with the comment: 'vn docto destos reynos la traduxo biẽ'[270]. This needs interpretation. There can be no doubt that Luis de Leon was a very competent Latin scholar; neither is there any doubt that he had a profound admiration for Horace. At his best, his Horatian versions, if somewhat lacking in polish, are remarkably faithful and vigorous. But when we find him in his translation of the eighteenth ode of the Second Book rendering salis avarus by de sal avariento—the second person singular of the present indicative of the verb salire being mistaken for the genitive of the substantive sal[271]—we may perhaps conclude that a boyish exercise has somehow escaped destruction.

It is sometimes alleged against Luis de Leon that he is restricted in his choice of themes, and it is impossible to deny that his sacred profession acted as something of a limitation to him. Still, when the mood was on him, he rent his chains asunder as readily as Samson broke the seven green withs at Gaza: 'as a thread of tow is broken when it toucheth the fire.' Perhaps nobody would guess off-hand that the Profecia del Tajo was the handiwork of a sixteenth-century monk, a dweller in the rarefied atmosphere of mysticism. It only remained for a friar in the opposition camp to discover nearly three hundred years later a tendency in Luis de Leon to treat sensual themes in a sensual fashion.[272] To deal seriously with a belated judgement based on malignant ignorance would be a waste of time. It is the very irony of fate that the poem which has been the subject of severe censure should prove to be a translation from Cardinal Bembo.[273] The standard of the twentieth century is not the standard of the sixteenth, and it is certain that Luis de Leon has not the unfettered liberty of a godless layman. He is restrained by his austere temperament, by his monk's habit, by Christian doctrine. Nevertheless he moves with easy grace and dignity on planes so far apart as those of patriotism, of devotion, of human sympathy, of introspection. His patriotism finds powerful expression, as already noted, in the Profecia del Tajo, besprinkled with sonorous place-names, these growing fewer as the movement is accelerated, and Father Tagus describes with a mixture of picturesque mediaeval sentiment and martial music the onset of the Arabs and the clangour of arms as they meet the doomed Gothic host. In the sphere of devotional poetry Luis de Leon nowhere displays more unction, more ecstatic piety than in the verses on the Ascension beginning with the line:

Y dexas, Pastor santo.

It will be observed that the conjunction y, so superabundant in La Perfecta Casada, is the first word of this poem, of which Churton has supplied a well-known rendering:

And dost Thou, holy Shepherd, leave
Thy flock in this dark vale alone,
In cheerless solitude to grieve,
Whilst Thou to endless rest art gone?

The sheep, in Thy protection blest,
Untended wilt Thou leave to mourn?
The lambs, once cherished at Thy breast,
Forlorn,—oh! whither shall they turn?

Where shall those eyes now find repose,
That pine Thy gracious glance to see?
What can they hear but sounds of woes,
Sad exiles from discourse with Thee?

And who shall curb this troubled deep,
When Thou no more amidst the gloom
Shalt chide the wrathful winds to sleep,
And guide the labouring vessel home?

For Thou art gone! that cloud so bright
That bears Thee from our gaze away,
Springs upward into dazzling light,
And leaves us here to weep and pray.

Four additional stanzas, accepted as authentic by perhaps the most painstaking of Luis de Leon's editors, are thus Englished by Churton:

Our life has lost its richest store,
The balm for sorrow's inward thorn,
The hope, that, gladd'ning more and more,
Out-brighten'd all the springs of morn.

Ah me! my soul, what hateful chain
Holds back thy freeborn spirit's flight?
Oh break it, disenthrall'd from pain,
And mount those azure depths of light.

Why should'st thou fear? What earth-born spell
Is on thee, with thy choice at strife
The soul no dying pang can quell,
But loss of Christ is death in life.

Dear Lord, and Friend, more dear to me
Than all the names Earth's love hath found,
Through darkest gloom I'll follow Thee,
Or cheer'd with beaming glory round.

Now there is no question of mere executive skill and simple craftsmanship in Luis de Leon's poems. He is, indeed, always sound and competent in these respects; but artistry is not his supreme virtue as a poet. He is ever prone to be a little rugged in his manner, and this ruggedness has proved something of a trap to the unwary. Luis de Leon has no real mannerisms, and is no more to be parodied than is Shakespeare. Yet it is sometimes difficult to distinguish him at his worst from his imitators at their best. Though withheld so long from the public, Luis de Leon's poems, while still in manuscript, were repeatedly imitated—especially by Augustinians. To my way of thinking, he is most nearly approached by his friend Arias Montano. But it should be said that this is not the general verdict. That goes decisively in favour of Miguel Sanchez, el Divino. Miguel Sanchez is the author of a beautiful Cancion de Cristo Crucificado, a poem which, though not published till 1605 with the real writer's name attached to it, has constantly been ascribed to Luis de Leon.[274] The Cancion is no doubt a composition of great charm and mystic unction; but it lacks the concentrated force of Luis de Leon. Luis de Leon has a lofty dignity of his own; he outstrips all rivalry by virtue of his nobility, by virtue of his intellectual vigour, by virtue of sheer excellence rather than by curious refinements of technique. These positive qualities defy reproduction by even the most accomplished of imitators. It has been said that Luis de Leon's verse, as well as his prose, has noticeable roughnesses; but let us not derive a wrong impression from this assertion. Luis de Leon is not 'finicking'. Withal he is a master of his art. Retrograde as we may perhaps think him in some matters, he was on the side of the reformers in the matter of metrics. He was a partisan of Boscan's innovating methods: so much might be expected from a man of his period. It is to be noted that, in his best poems, he shows a decided preference for liras, a form apparently invented by Bernardo Tasso before it was transplanted to Spain by Garcilasso de la Vega. Luis de Leon was of opinion that those who violate poetry, using it for purposes of a meretricious kind, deserved punishment as public corrupters of two most sacred things: poetry and morals. It is one of the curious ironies of art that the measure which the seductive Garcilasso used for amatory purposes should have appealed to Luis de Leon as the vehicle most suited to enraptured chants and hymns of philosophic meditation.

It is obvious that Luis de Leon took a keen interest in all the real essentials of his art. It is no less obvious that he saw matters in their actual perspective, that he attached no undue importance to technique, as such, and that he gave no less weight to the choice of matter than to the choice of form. Luis de Leon was not incapable of metrical audacities: as when he divides into two separate words adverbs in -mente occurring at the end of a line. This practice was audacious, but it was not an innovation. Juan de Almeida defended it by citing a host of precedents from other literatures and, had Almeida been a prophet, he might have foretold that this device was destined to be repeated hundreds of years later by that innovating genius Rubén Darío. But Almeida was not a prophet. His titles to remembrance are that he was learned, and that he may rank with Miguel Sanchez, with Alonso de Espinosa, and with Benito Arias Montano as among the least unsuccessful of Luis de Leon's followers. They often follow his lead with undeniable adroitness. Yet they never attain his incomparable concentration, his majestic vision of nature and his characteristic note of ecstatic aloofness. Nowhere is he more himself than in the immortal stanzas dedicated to Oloarte under the title of Noche serena of which Churton has bequeathed us an English version which I will quote, though it gives but a far-off echo of the original's magic melody:

When nightly through the sky
I view the stars their files unnumber'd leading,
Then see the dark earth lie
In deathlike trance, unheeding
How Life and Time with those bright orbs are speeding:

Strong love and equal pain
Wake in my heart a fire with anguish burning;
The tear-drops fall like rain,
Mine eyes to fountains turning,
And my sad voice pours forth its tones of mourning:

O mansion of high state,
Bright temple of bright saints in beauty dwelling,
The soul, once born to mate
With these, what force repelling
Hath bound to earth, its light in darkness quelling?

What mortal disaccord
Hath exiled so from Truth the mind unstable?
Why of its blest reward
Forgetful, lost, unable,
Seeks it each shadowy fraud and guileful fable?

Man lies in slumber dead,
Like one that of his danger hath no feeling,
The while with silent tread
Those restless orbs are wheeling,
And, as they fly, his hours of life are stealing.

O mortals, wake and rise;
Think of the loss that on your lives is pressing;
The soul, that never dies,
Ordain'd for endless blessing,
How shall it live, false shows for truth caressing?

Ah, raise your fainting eyes
To that firm sphere which still new glory weareth,
And scorn the low disguise
The flattering world prepareth,
And all the world's poor thrall hopeth or feareth.

O what is all earth's round,
Brief scene of man's proud strife and vain endeavour,
Weigh'd with that deep profound,
That tideless Ocean-river,
That onward bears Time's fleeting forms for ever?

Once meditate, and see
That fix'd accord in wondrous variance given,
The mighty harmony
Of courses all uneven,
Wherein each star keeps time and place in heaven.

Who can behold that store
Of light unspent, and not, with very sighing,
Burst earth's frail bonds, and soar,
With soul unbodied flying,
From this sad place of exile and of dying?

There dwelleth sweet Content;
There is the reign of Peace; there, throned in splendour,
As one pre-eminent,
With dove-like eyes so tender,
Sits holy Love,—honour and joy attend her.

There is reveal'd whate'er
Of Beauty thought can reach; the source internal
Of purest Light, that ne'er
To darkness yields; eternal
Bloom the bright flowers in clime for ever vernal.

There would my spirit be,
Those quiet fields and pleasant meads exploring,
Where Truth immortally,
Her priceless wealth outpouring,
Feeds through the blissful vales the souls of saints adoring.

The fact that the original is cast in the lira form would compel one to assign this composition to a date not earlier than 1542, when Garcilasso's poems were first published. Nothing, however, could be more remote from Garcilasso's nebulous half-pagan melancholy; we are no less distant from the pseudonymous nymphs of Cetina and Francisco de la Torre: the elegant Amaryllis of the one, the elusive Filis of the other, though destined to be re-incarnated by a tribe of later poets, find no place in these stately numbers. Luis de Leon does not emulate Alcázar's epigrammatic wit, nor Herrera's Petrarchan sweetness, nor Ercilla's tumultuous rhetoric. He has an individuality all his own, the moral purpose of the man is wedded to the poet's art in such wise that he strikes a note individual and completely new in Spanish literature—a note rarely heard in any literature till we catch its strain in the verses of him who tells us that

The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's Priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

In Luis de Leon, as in Wordsworth, art is raised to a hieratic dignity: both have a splendid simplicity, a most lofty expression of sublime meditation—qualities rare everywhere in every age, and rarest of all in the flamboyant, if gloomy, Spain of the sixteenth century.

Luis de Leon has his weak points. He does not attain to the angelic melody of St. John of the Cross. He is apt to be indifferent to sheer beauty of form; though he often reaches it, this success seems with him to be a happy accident. Lucidity is not his main object; though he uses simple terms, his immense range of knowledge tempts him at whiles to indulge in allusions which it might tax all the ingenuity of commentators to explain. Commentators of Luis de Leon have a sufficiently heavy task before them in reconstructing the text of his poems—the heavier because the originals no longer exist. Sr. de Onís has given us some idea of the problems to be solved.[275] Whatever flaws are revealed in Luis de Leon's manner, he is nearly always vital, nearly always has something elevating, illuminating and beautiful to say. As a human being, too, he is not above criticism. There is an unpleasant savour in the story that he asked Antonio Perez to let him have the Chrysostom manuscript which he proposed to translate in Paris, the profits to be divided. We need not believe this perhaps calumnious little tale. Antonio Perez is open to suspicion of being an assassin and a traitor; he may also have been untruthful. Luis de Leon is not a candidate for canonization. He was no icicle of perfection. He was something vastly more interesting than a chill intellectual: a man ardent, austere, conscious of resplendent intellectual faculties, perhaps a little arrogant when off his guard, incautious but wary, individualistic but self-sacrificing, emotional, sensitive, reticent: a mass of conflicting qualities blended, unified and held in subjection by sheer strength of will, fortified by a professional discipline, deliberately embraced and rigorously followed. Add to this that he had in a supreme degree the creative impulse, an irrepressible instinct for self-expression. It is not strange that the self-expression of a personality so fine, so complex, so rich, so rare, should produce the series of compositions which entitle Luis de Leon to rank among the very greatest of Spanish poets, and beside the most glorious figures in the history of any literature. He stands a little apart from the rest of Spanish poets in a splendid solitude which befits him; he must perforce be solitary, dwelling as he most often does at altitudes inaccessible to ordinary mortals.

Those solemn heights but to the stars are known,
But to the stars, and the cold lunar beams:
Alone the sun arises, and alone
Spring the great streams.

V

[263]

They must have been known to the dedicatee of the Noche serena, whom I am inclined to identify with Diego de Olarte who appeared before the Valladolid tribunal (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 301-302). But the only positive evidence on this head is given by Francisco de Salinas who testified 'que era amigo del dicho fray Luis de Leon, el cual venia muchas veces á casa deste testigo, y oyó deste testigo la especulativa, y comunicaba con este testigo cosas de poesía y otras cosas del arte' (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, pp. 302-303).

[264]

In the early editions—those of 1583, 1585, 1587, 1595, and 1603—De los nombres de Cristo and La Perfecta Casada are bound up together. Each treatise has a separate pagination in all five cases.

[265]

Luis de Leon's mother was 'Inés de Valera, hija de Juan de Valera, vecino que fué de la villa de Belmente, escudero, que vivia de su hacienda' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, pp. 170-171). The substitution of Varela for Valera, or vice versa, is easy in Spanish. An example of such a substitution in the case of Luis de Leon's mother is given by Blanco García, Fr. Luis de León, p. 24, n. 1. Blanco García mentions a tombstone in the monastery of San Jerónimo at Granada with the following inscription:

'En esta capilla está enterrado el noble hidalgo el Lic. Lope de Leon del Cº del Rey nuestro Señor, Oidor que fué de Granada, y Asistente de Sevilla: falleció á 24 de Julio de 1562 años: y Doña Inés Barela (sic), y Alarcon, su mujer, dotó esta capilla para entierro suyo y de sus descendientes.'

The name of Luis de Leon's maternal grandmother was Mencía Alvarez Osorio. From these circumstances, it appears possible that some relationship existed between the dedicatee of La Perfecta Casada and the author of that treatise. Luis de Leon had four maternal uncles, three of whom were laymen—Francisco de Valera, Bernardino de Valera, and Cristóbal de Alarcon, 'capitan que fué en Italia'. All three had died before April 15, 1572 (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 181).

It is also possible that Isabel Osorio (Documentos inéditos, vol. XI, p. 271), to whom the manuscript of the vernacular version of the Song of Songs was lent, may likewise have been related to Luis de Leon.

[266]

Orozco's treatise was printed in La Ciudad de Dios (1888), vol. XXI, pp. 393-401, and vol. XXII, pp. 543-550. It is reproduced by Sr. D. Federico de Onís in his edition of De los nombres de Cristo in the series of Clásicos Castellanos (1914), vol. XXVIII, pp. 261-281, and (1917), vol. XXXIII, pp. 257-271.

[267]

Nowhere have I found an indication of Portocarrero's birth-date. He became Bishop of Calahorra in 1587, and was translated to Córdoba in 1594; he died on September 20, 1600.

[268]

Alonso Getino (op. cit., p. 48) writes, however: 'la Canción del conocimiento de sí mismo, que es la primera cuya fecha se puede averiguar, la escribió diez años después de entrar en religión'. This is an inference from the closing lines of the poem:

aunque sané del mal y su accidente
diez años há que soy convaleciente.

In a note to the passage quoted above, Alonso Getino refers to the Canción al nacimiento de la hija del Marqués de Alcañices, written, as he thinks, 'en un tono impropio de un imberbe'. He appears to have no doubt as to the authenticity of this composition: the correctness of the ascription of this poem to Luis de Leon is at least questionable.

[269]

The pieces printed by Sanchez are translations of Ode X, Book II; Ode XXII, Book I; Ode XIII, Book IV; and Epode II.

[270]

Obras del excelente poeta Garcilasso de la Vega, Salamanca, 1577. This (second) edition is the earliest to which I have access. On pp. 91-92 Sanchez writes: 'Trato este elegantemente Horacio, Oda 10. lib. I. Y porque vn docto destos reynos la traduxo biẽ, y ay pocos casos destos en nuestra lengua, le pondre aqui todo: y ansi entiẽdo hazer en el discurso destas sentencias quando se ofreciere'. On p. 94, Sanchez writes: 'Por traer el lugar de Horacio, donde todo esto se toma, aure de poner toda la Oda, sacada por el mismo que traduxo la otra'. On pp. 97-98 Sanchez writes: 'Al reues desto se burla Horacio de vna dama, motejandola de vieja: y q̃ ya se le passo la flor, aunque ella no lo piensa. Y por estar traduzida por el mismo q̃ las pasadas, põgo aqui la Oda, que es del libro 4 l. 13.'

[271]

This slip has been pointed out by Menéndez y Pelayo in both editions (Madrid, 1878[?] and 1885) of his Horacio en España. Solaceas bibliográficas.

[272]

Alonso Getino (op. cit., p. 50) and in El Correo Español (1908). A reply to these views has been made in the form of an open letter to Sr. Berrueta, Director of El Lábaro, by P. Conrado Muiños Sáenz. The reply of Muiños Sáenz will be found in La Ciudad de Dios (1909), vol. LXXVIII, pp. 479-495, 544-560, vol. LXXIX, pp. 18-34, 107-124, 191-212, 353-374, 529-552; vol. LXXX, pp. 99-125, 177-197.

[273]

M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Antología de poetas líricos castellanos (1908), vol. XIII, p. 332.

[274]

It is printed among Luis de Leon's poems in the Biblioteca de Autores Españoles desde la formacion del lenguaje hasta nuestros dias, vol. XXXVII, pp. 12-13. As this is perhaps the best-known edition of Luis de Leon's poems, most of my quotations are taken from it.

[275]

Sobre la transmisión de la obra literaria de Fr. Luis de León in Revista de Filología española (1915), vol. II, pp. 217-257.

APPENDIX

EL MAESTRO FRAI LVIS DE LEON

Silas obras acertadas de algun Artifice le estan (como dize el Sabio) alabando siempre, con cuanta mayor razon las de Dios nos dan motivo para engrandecer su infinita Sabiduria. i mas cuando vemos que nacen algunos ombres, acõpañados de tantas gracias que parece que fueron hechos, sin otro medio, por sus divinas manos, sien alguno se puede esto verificar, es en el gran Maestro (como veremos) sus Progenitores fueron de Belmonte, de clarissimo linage, en el cual resplandecieron muchos varones insignes en letras i Santidad. El Licenciado Lope de Leon su Padre, siendo uno de los mayores letrados de su tiempo, vino por Oidor a Sevilla, donde hizo oficio de Asistente, i en ella tuvo (para onra de nuestra Patria) este ilustre hijo, que siendo promovido luego ala chancilleria de Granada, nacio en ella, elaño 1528 para engrandecer l' Andaluzia la Nacion Española, i el mundo. En lo natural, fue pequeño de cuerpo, en devida proporcion, la cabeça grande, bien formada, poblada de cabello algo crespo, i el cerquillo cerrado, la frente espaciosa, el rostro mas redondo que aguileño, (como lo muestra el Retrato) trigueño el color, los ojos verdes i vivos. En lo moral, con especial don de Silencio, el ombre mas callado que sea conocido, si bien de singular agudeza en sus dichos, con estremo abstinente i templado, en la comida bevida, i sueño. de mucho secreto, verdad, i fidelidad: puntual en palabra i promessas; compuesto, poco onada risueño. Leiasse en la gravedad de su rostro, el peso de la nobleza de su alma, resplandecia enmedio desto por eccelencia una umildad profunda. fue limpissimo, mui onesto i recogido, gran Religioso, i observante de las Leyes. Amava ala santissima Virgen ternissimamente, ayunava las visperas de sus fiestas, comiendo alas tres de la tar de, ino haziendo colacion. de aqui nacio aqella regalada Cancion que comienca; Virgen q'el Solmas pura. fue mui espiritual, i de mucha Oracion, i en ella en tiempo de sus mayores trabajos, favorecido de Dios particularissimamente. con ser de natural colerico fue mui sufrido i piadoso para los que le tratavan. tan penitente i austero consigo, que las mas noches no se acostava en cama, i el que la avia hecho la hallava ala mañana de la misma manera certificalo el Padre Maestro frai Luis Moreno de Bohorquez (onra de su Religion, que estuvo 4 años en su compañia) a quien devemos la verdad deste discurso, Professo en el Monesterio de San Agustin de Salamanca, en 29 de Enero de 1544, siendo de edad de 16 años. en lo adquisito, fue gran Dialetico i Filosofo, Maestro graduado en Artes, i Dotor en Teologia, por aquella insigne Universidad; donde fue Catedratico mas de 36 años, en la Catedra de Santo Tomas de Durando, de Filosofia moral, i de Prima de Sagrada Escritura, que tuvo con crecido premio, por que leyesse una leccion, supo Escolastico tan aventajadamente, como sino tratava de Escritura, i de Escritura, como sino tratava de Escolastico. fue la mayor capacidad de ingenio que sea conocida en su tiempo, para todas Ciencias i Artes; escrevia no menos que nuestro Francisco Lucas, siendo famosso Matematico, Aritmetico, i Geometra; i gran Astrologo, i Judiciario, (aunque lo uso con templança) fue eminente en el uno i otro derecho, Medico superior, que entrava en el General con los desta Facultad, i arguía en sus actos. fue gran Poeta Latino i Castellano, como lo muestran sus versos. estudio sin Maestro la Pintura, i la exercitò tan diestramente que entre otras cosas hizo (cosa dificil) su mesmo Retrato. tuvo otras infinitas abilidades, que callo por cosas mayores. La lengua Latina, Griega, i Hebrea, la Caldea i Siria, supo como los Maestros della. pues la muestra con cuanta grandeza? siendo el primero que escrivio en ella con numero i elegãcia; digalo el Libro de los Nombres de Cristo i perfeta casada, encarecido i admirado de los doctos, que no sabe acabar de loarlo Antonio Possevino en su Biblioteca. escrivio en Latin Comentarios sobre los Cantares, i fue el primero que allanò las dificultades de la letra: i sobre el Psalmo 26 i el Profeta Abdias, i la Epistola ad Galatas, i un tratado de utriusq agni: expuso otros libros de la Escritura que no estan impressos. ai muchas obras suyas de mano en verso, divididas en tres partes, la primera de las cosas proprias, la segunda lo que traduxo de autores Profanos, la tercera de los Psalmos, Cantares i Capitulos de Job. lo cual asido siempre estimadissimo, con la carta a don Pedro Puertocarrero, a quien lo dirige, escrivio otra en san Felipe de Madrid año 1587 alas Carmelitas descalças, en favor del espiritu i escritos de Santa Teresa de Jesus, que anda con su libro, digna de la eccelencia de su ingenio. Al passo destas grandezas, fue la invidia que le persiguio, pero descubrio altamente sus quilates, saliendo en todo superior, i con el mayor triumfo i onra que en estos Reinos sea visto. fue varon de tanta autoridad, que parecia mas a proposito para mostrar alos otros, que para aprender de ninguno. grande su juizio i prudencia en materias de govierno, alcançò mucha estimacion en España i fuera della con los mayores ombres; consultavalo el Rei Filipo Segundo en todos los casos graves de conciencia enviandole correos estraordinarios a Salamanca; i despues yendo por orden de la Universidad, con particular comision, a su Magestad, lo tratò i comunicò, haziendole especial favor imerced. i en los acometimientos onrosos de Obispados, i del Arçobispado de Mexico, descubrio su valor i animo grande, no solo para desnudarse de la dignidad (cosa intentada de pocos) mas aun de todo cuanto tenia en la tierra: varon de veras Evangelico. en estos santos exercicios i con esta continuacion de vida, siendo Provincial de la Provincia de Castilla, acabò su curso santamente (dexando en todos harto desconsuelo, aun que mayor certeza de su gloria) en la villa de Madrigal en 24 de Agosto del año 1595. de 63 años de edad. traxeronle con la devida onra a san Agustin de Salamanca donde avia tomado el abito, i yaze sepultado en el claustro de aquel ilustre Convento. I para cumplimiento de su Elogio i de mi desseo no me contentè con menos (en onra de tan insigne varon) de que los versos Latinos fuessen del Licenciado Rodrigo Caro, i los Castellanos de Lope de Vega, en su Laurel de Apolo, con que se encarecen bastãtemẽte.

EPIGRAMMA

Hispalis, Iliberis, Salmantica, Monta, Toletum
Municipem iactant te, Ludovice, suum.
Contigit id magno quondam certamen Homero:
Contigit Hesperio sicqȝ Melesigeni.

Agustino León, Frai Luis divino
o dulce Analogia de Agustino!
conque verdad nos diste
al Rei Profeta en verso Castellano,
que con tanta elegancia tra duziste;
ô cuanto le deviste
(como en tus mismas obras encareces)
ala invidia cruel, porquien mereces
Laureles inmortales;
tu prosa, i verso iguales
conservaran la gloria de tu nombre;
i los Nombres de Cristo Soberano
tele daran eterno, porque asombre
la dulce pluma de tu heroica mano
de tu persecusion la causa injusta,
tu fuiste gloria de Agustino Augusta,
tu el onor de la lengua Castellana,
que desseaste introduzir escrita,
viendo que ala Romana tanto imita
que puede competir con la Romana.
Si en esta edad vivieras
fuerte Leon en su defensa fueras.

INDEX

A

Abarca de Sotomayor (Ana) | 93 n.
Agustiniana, Revista | passim
Alarcon (Cristóbal de) | 234 n.
Alarcon (fulano de) | 110 n.
Alarcon (Inés de) | 27 n., 234 n.
Alarcon (María de) | 28 n.
Álava (Andrés de) | 90, 128 n., 139 n.
Albornoz (Francisco de) | 90, 139 n.
Alcañices (Marqués de) | 235 n.
Alcázar (Baltasar de) | 229
Almansa (Francisco de) | 39, 40, 93 n., 94 n.
Almansa (Pedro de) | 94 n.
Almaraz (Antonio de) | 189 n.
Almeida (Juan de) | 33 n., 129 n., 224
Alvarez (Luis) | 44
Alvarez Guijarro (Carlos) | 193 n., 198 n.
Alvarez Osorio (Mencía) | 234 n.
Ambrose (Saint) | 205
Ana de Jesús (La Madre) | 12, 30 n., 174, 180, 181, 203
Antolinez (Agustin) | 180
Aragon (Pedro de) | 165, 194 n.
Arboleda (Francisco de) | 56, 57, 112 n.
Arce (Antonio de) | 137 n.
Arias Montano (Benito) | 62, 63, 83, 119 n., 120 n., 202, 210, 221, 224
Arias (Diego) | 59, 114 n.
Aristotle | 82

Arresse (Juan de) | 166, 197 n.
Asensio y Toledo (José Maria) | 201 n.

B

Bañez (Domingo) | 10, 154, 161, 164, 194 n., 195 n., 196 n.
Barrera (Cayetano Alberto de la) | 190 n., 191 n.
Barrientos | 48, 100 n.
Béjar (Séptimo duque de) | 58
Bembo (Pietro) | 83, 84, 218
Bernal, Dr. | 170
Berrueta | 237 n.
Blanco García (Francisco) | passim
Bolivar (Pedro) | 138 n.
Bonard (Cornelio) | 199 n.
Boscan Almogaver (Juan) | 223
Braganza (Teutonio de) | 175
Bravo | 33 n.

C

Cabrera de Córdoba (Luis) | 184
Calderon de la Barca Henao de la Barreda y Riaño (Pedro) | 3
Cáncer, Dr. | 66, 68, 77, 137 n.
Cano (Melchor) | 81, 131 n., 202
Caravajal (Diego de) | 112 n.
Carlos (el maestro Don) | 33 n.
Carlos (el príncipe Don) | 211
Caro (Rodrigo) | 244
Carranza (Bartolomé de) | 21, 35 n., 85, 134 n.
Castañeda (Juan de) | 161, 194 n.
Castillo (Garcia del) | 33 n.
Castillo (Hernando del) | 66, 67, 89, 137 n.
Castro (Adolfo de) | 190 n.

Castro (Leon de) | 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24 n., 31 n., 32 n., 33 n., 34 n., 35 n., 54, 62, 77, 80, 86, 110 n.
Castro (Pedro de) | 91, 139 n., 141 n.
Cayetano (see Vio).
Cervantes Saavedra (Miguel de) | 3, 58, 155, 184, 191 n.
Cetina (Gutierre de) | 228
Churton (Edward) | 219, 220, 225
Cicero | 207
Ciguelo (Juan) | 77, 78, 128 n.
Cipriano (el maestro) | 81
Clement of Alexandria (Saint) | 205
Copernicus (Nicolaus) | 61, 114 n., 115 n.
Coscojales (Martin de) | 165, 194 n.
Cruesen (Nicolaas) | 148, 149
Cruz (Joan de la) (see Santa Cruz)
Cueto (Francisco) | 71, 114 n., 117 n.
Cyprian (Saint) | 205

D

Darío (Rubén) | 224
Doria (Nicolás de Jesus Maria) | 174, 175, 176, 179

E

Ercilla y Zúñiga (Alonso) | 229
Espinosa (Alonso de) | 224
Espinosa (Ana de) | 41, 95 n.
Estrada (Doctor) | 180
Euripides | 205

F

Fernandez (Alonso) | 193 n.
Frechilla (Doctor) | 77, 91, 139 n., 140

G

Galileo | 57, 112 n.

Galvan (Juan) | 84
Gallardo (Bartolome Jose) | 145, 185 n., 187 n., 191 n., 192 n., 199 n.
Gallego (Juan) | 36 n.
Gallo (Juan) | 33 n., 34 n., 190 n.
Gallo (Gregorio) | 9, 154
Gaona (Diego de) | 107 n.
Garcia del Castillo | 146
Garcilasso, see Lasso de la Vega (Garci).
Getino (Luis G. Alonso) | passim
Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas (Francisco) | 209, 215
Góngora (Luis de) | 209
Gonzalez (Diego) | 21, 39, 94 n., 128 n.
Gonzalez de Tejada (J.) | 28 n., 29 n., 100 n.
Grajal (Gaspar de) | 10, 13, 20, 21, 22, 29 n., 33 n., 36 n., 37 n., 42, 108 n., 157, 162
Granada (Luis de) | 203
Grial (Juan de) | 213
Guevara (Juan de) | 11, 33 n., 35 n., 81, 108 n., 190 n., 194 n., 195 n.
Guevara (Martin de) | 127 n.
Guigelmo | 132 n.
Guijano de Mercado (Doctor) | 91, 92, 128 n., 139 n., 140 n., 144 n.
Gustin (Celedon) | 46, 144 n., 163
Gutiérrez (Juan) | 107 n.
Gutiérrez (Marcelino) | 115 n.
Guzman (Domingo de) | 154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 160, 161, 164, 190 n., 191 n., 192 n., 197 n.

H

Haedo (Diego de) | 24 n., 96 n.
Henriquez (Dr. Diego) | 171
Henry VIII | 1

Herrera (Fernando de) | 207, 229
Homer | 83
Horace | 83, 159, 207, 208, 217, 236 n.

I

Ibañez, see Bañez.
Ibarra (Juan de) | 138 n.
Isaiah | 13, 15, 34 n.

J

Jerónimo (San) | 32 n., 33 n., 108 n., 234 n.
Jesús y Maria (José de) | 178, 199 n.
John Chrysostom (Saint) | 33 n.
John of the Cross (Saint) | 230
Junta (Lucas) | 28 n.
Justin (Saint) | 82, 83

L

Laredo (Bernardino de) | 203
Lasso de la Vega (Garci) | 155, 205, 216 n., 223, 228, 236 n.
Leo (Saint) | 83
Leon (Antonio de) | 28 n.
Leon (Cristobal de) | 8
Leon (Diego de) | 43, 44, 204
Leon (Francisco de) | 7
Leon (Gomez de) | 6, 23 n., 25 n.
Leon (Lope de) | 6, 23 n., 25 n., 27 n., 234 n., 238
León (Luis de)

his full name, 5; his Jewish descent, 5-6; his birthplace, 6; his date of birth, 7; he goes to Madrid, then to the University of Salamanca, 7; he enters a religious order, 7; renounces his share of the paternal estate, 8; professes in the Augustinian order, 8; his name appears on the list of theological students at Salamanca, 8; he lectures at Soria, 9; matriculates at Alcalá de Henares, 9; graduates at Toledo, 9; graduates as licentiate of theology at Salamanca, 9; fails to obtain the chair of Biblical exegesis at Salamanca, 10; thwarts the designs of Domingo Bañez, 10; is elected Professor of Theology at Salamanca, 10; is transferred to the chair of Scholastic Theology and Biblical Criticism, 10, 11; is chosen to be the first editor of St. Theresa's works, 12; incurs the enmity of Leon de Castro, 13, 14; lectures on the Vulgate, 14; is elected on the committee appointed to revise François Vatable's version of the Bible, 15; threatens to burn Castro's Commentaria in Essaiam Prophetam, 16; out-argues Bartolomé de Medina, 18; goes to Belmonte, 19; falls ill, 19; is mentioned as an offender before the Inquisitionary Committee, 20; hands in a written statement to the local Inquisition, 21; his arrest is recommended by that body, 22; he finds fault with Leon de Castro's knowledge of Latin and Greek and proposes to call witnesses to prove this point, 33 n.; quarrels with Medina, 36 n.; appeals to the Consejo Real at Madrid and wins his case, 36 n.; is taken to Valladolid jail by Almansa, 40; is lodged in the secret cells of the Inquisition, 40; is nervous about his health, 41; asks for books, for powders for his heart-attacks, and for a knife to cut his food, 41; is charged with translating into Spanish the Song of Solomon, and admits having done so, 42; implies that a copy may have reached Portugal, 44; proves a formidable foe, 46; petitions that his University Chair should be kept open until the end of his trial, 47; his petition is refused and Medina is appointed in his place, 48; his health suffers from imprisonment, and he asks for the companionship of a monk of his order, 49; he requests to be transferred to a Dominican Monastery, 50; petitions for leave to go to confession and to say Mass, 50; his requests are refused, 50; the increasing bias of the tribunal against him, 51; he complains of his bad memory, 51; his fearless attitude, 52; he brands all Dominicans as enemies, 52; objects to the Faculty of Theology at Alcalá de Henares, 53; inveighs against Medina and Castro, 54; prevents Montoya's election as Provincial of the Augustinians in Spain, 55; describes Montoya as notorious for lying, 56; entrusts Arboleda to collect favourable evidence, 56; brands Diego de Zúñiga as a deliberate perjurer, 57; his criticism on Zúñiga's book, 60; his counsel, Dr. Ortiz de Funes, 65; his skill in drawing up his own defence, 65; he is told to choose two patronos from four names unknown to him, 66; requests that he be given Sebastian Perez as patrono, 66; suggests that Dr. Cáncer or Hernando del Castillo may be appointed with Perez, 66; asks that Castillo's name be removed from the list of patronos, 67; threatens to appeal to the Inquisitor-General against the enforced choosing of unknown patronos, 67; decides to accept as patronos Fray Mancio de Corpus Christi and either Medina or Dr. Cáncer, 68; Mancio is appointed patrono and makes a report favourable to him, 69; all information of this is withheld from him, 69; he protests against his papers being entrusted to Mancio, 69; his suspicions and distrust of Mancio, 69-71; he becomes reconciled with Mancio, 72; loses judicial favour owing to his vacillations over Mancio, 73; his demeanour in court, 74; his portrait by Pacheco, 79; his want of humour, 80; his gift of sarcasm, 80; his versatility, 81; his conservatism, 81; his teachers, 81; his books, 81, 82; his knowledge of Italian, 83; his curiosity about astrology, 84, 85; he urges the Court to prosecute Castro for perjury, 86; declares that his detention is illegal and demands compensation for it, 86; his health declines and his irritability increases, 87; he is blamed by Castillo for teaching erroneous doctrine, 89; his moods of depression, 89; Menchaca, Álava, Tello Maldonado, and Albornoz recommend that he be tortured, 90; a more lenient view is adopted by Guijano de Mercado and Frechilla, 91; the Supreme Inquisition brushes aside the views of both parties, 91; he is publicly reprimanded by order of the Supreme Inquisition and acquitted, 92; his Spanish version of the Song of Solomon is confiscated, 92; he asks for an official certificate of acquittal and for arrears of salary as regards his chair, 92; his applications are granted but their fulfilment delayed, 92; his return to Salamanca, 145; he meets the Claustro of the University, 146; renounces all claim to his Chair so long as it is occupied by Castillo, 146; creation of a provisional new chair for him by the Claustro, 147; he lectures in his new chair January 29, 1577, 147; his famous alleged phrase Dicebamus hesterna die, 147-150; difficulties about his lecture-hours, 151; he presents himself as a candidate for the Chair of Moral Philosophy, 152; is strenuously opposed by Zumel, 152; defeats Zumel by a majority of seventy-nine votes, 153; takes the degree of M.A., 153; is appointed member of the committee for the reform of the calendar, 153; his contest with Domingo de Guzman for the Biblical chair at Salamanca, vacant by the death of Gregorio Gallo, 154-155; he defeats Guzman by thirty-six votes, 157; appeal lodged by Guzman against irregularity in voting, 157; judgement given in favour of Luis de Leon, 157; he reads himself into the chair at Salamanca, December 7, 1579, 158; publishes a Latin commentary on the Song of Solomon, 158; chivalrously supports Montemayor against Domingo de Guzman at a theological meeting in Salamanca, 160-161; through this action he is involved in a quarrel with Domingo Bañez, 161; the case comes before the Valladolid Inquisition, 162; he presents himself voluntarily before the Inquisitionary tribunal at Salamanca on March 8, 163; appears again before it on March 31, and offers to apologize if he has exceeded in his defence of Montemayor, 163; his lecture on predestination (1571) is brought before the tribunal by Zumel, 164; his enemies, Zumel, Guzman, and Bañez, 164; he receives a severely reproachful letter from Villavicencio, 165; is summoned to Toledo and privately reprimanded by Quiroga, 167; publishes Los Nombres de Cristo and La perfecta casada, 168; is appointed to settle the suit between the University of Salamanca and the Colegios Mayores, 168; progress of the suit and conduct of the Claustro, 168-173; he refuses the invitation of Sixtus V and Philip II to join the committee for the revision of the Vulgate, 173; is appointed by the papal nuncio to inquire into the administration of funds by the Provincial of the Augustinians in Castile, 173; begins the publication of his edition of Saint Theresa's works, 174; upholds Madre Ana de Jesus's reforms, 174; is appointed by the Pope to execute them, 175; is opposed by Doria and Philip II, 175-176; his weakening health and the continuous opposition of his enemies, 178-179; he is reported to be suffering from tumour, 180; his lingering illness, 181; he is elected Provincial of the Augustinians in Castile, August 14, 1591, 181; his death, August 23, 1591, 181; his character by Pacheco, 181-183; his prose works, 202-210; his poems, 210-221; his versification, 221-229; his character, 230-232.

Leon (Miguel de) | 8, 28 n.
Leon (Pedro de) | 25 n.
Leon (Pero Fernandez de) | 26 n.
Loarte (Diego de) [see Oloarte and Olarte] | 195 n., 211
Lopez (Diego) | 117 n., 118 n.
Lopez de Sedano (Juan Josef) | 188 n.
Lucas (Francisco) | 241
Lucas (Saint) | 124 n.

M

Madrigal | 195 n.
Mancio de Corpus Christi | 35 n., 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 81, 91, 122 n., 123 n., 124 n.

Manrique (Angel) | 30 n.
Manrique (Jorge) | 203
Mármol (Dr. Bernabé del) | 174, 175
Martínez de Cantalapiedra (Martin) | 13, 20, 21, 22, 31 n., 33 n., 37 n., 42

Medina (Bartolomé de)

18, 19, 20, 21, 33 n., 35 n., 36 n., 37 n., 38 n., 42, 48, 54, 62, 68, 70, 77, 80, 100 n., 105 n., 110 n., 123 n., 129 n., 146, 151, 154, 155, 187 n.

Menchaca (Francisco de) | 90, 139 n.
Méndez (F. de) | 5, 26, 200 n.
Mendoza (Bernardino de) | 35 n.
Mendoza (Diego Hurtado de) | 212
Menéndez y Pelayo (Marcelino) | 236 n., 237 n.
Merino (Antolin) | 191 n.
Mondéjar (Marqués de) | 35 n.
Montemayor (Prudencio de) | 159, 160, 161, 163
Montoya (Gabriel) | 55, 56, 120 n.
Moreno de Bohorquez (Luis) | 182, 240
Muiños Sáenz (Conrado) | 114 n., 115 n., 119 n., 188 n., 200 n., 201 n., 237 n.
Muñiz | 33 n.
Muñon | 33 n.

N

Napoleon | 1
Niño (Hernando) | 138 n.

O

Olarte (Diego de) | 233 n.
Olivares (Conde-duque de) | 209
Olivares (Pedro de) | 23 n.
Oloarte (see Loarte and Olarte) | 210, 225
Onís (Federico de) | 230, 235 n.

Orozco (Alonso de) | 206, 235 n.
Ortiz de Funes (Doctor) | 65, 66, 67, 68, 104 n.
Osorio (Isabel) | 42, 43, 234 n.

P

Pacheco (Francisco) | 78, 79, 80, 160, 181, 182, 184, 200 n., 201 n. [and Appendix]
Palacios (Francisco de) | 162
Paul (Saint) | 12
Peralto (Hernando de) | 195 n.
Perez (Antonio) | 230, 231
Perez (Sebastian) | 66, 67
Pérez Pastor (Cristóbal) | 199 n.
Philip II | 168, 170, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 181, 183, 184, 243
Picatoste y Rodríguez (Felipe) | 112 n.
Pindar | 83
Pineda | 115 n.
Pinelo (Gabriel) | 95 n.
Pinto (Hector) | 53, 108 n., 162
Plantin | 82
Plato | 205
Plutarch | 205
Ponce de Leon (Basilio) | 24 n., 149, 150
Portocarrero (Alonso) | 212
Portocarrero (Pedro) | 208, 211, 212, 215, 235 n.
Portonariis (Gaspar de) | 104 n.
Possevino (Antonio) | 242
Poza (Licenciado) | 85, 132 n.
Pozas (Marqués de) | 57

Q

Quevedo (see Gomez de Quevedo y Villegas)
Quijano (Juan) | 186 n., 200 n.
Quiroga (Gaspar de) | 167

R

Ramos (Nicolás) | 77, 138 n.
Rejon (Alonso) | 36 n.
Reusch (Heinrich) | 197 n.
Riego (El Inquisidore) | 132 n.
Rodriguez (Benito) | 90
Rodriguez (Diego), see Zúñiga | 58, 63, 113 n., 114 n., 117 n., 118 n.
Rodriguez (Diego) | 151
Rodríguez Marín (Francisco) | 114 n., 191 n.
Rojas (Pedro de) | 57, 112 n., 114 n., 118 n., 195 n.
Ruiz | 195 n.
Ruiz de Alarcon y Mendoza (Juan) | 3

S

Sahagun (Doctor Diego de) | 168
Sainz de Baranda (Pedro) | passim
Salinas (Francisco de) | 7, 80, 84, 154, 190 n., 211, 233 n.
Salvá (Miguel) | passim
Samson | 217
Sanchez (Bartolomé) | 189 n.
Sanchez (Francisco), el Brocense | 32 n., 202, 216, 236 n.
Sanchez (Miguel) | 222, 224
Sánchez de Olivares (Díez) | 23 n.
Sánchez de Olivares (Leonor) | 6, 23 n.
Sancho (Francisco, bishop of Segoibe) | 152
Sancho (Francisco) | 33 n., 100 n., 104 n., 105 n.
Sancho (el maestro Francisco) | 93 n.
Santa Cruz (Joan de) | 162, 163, 193 n., 195 n.
Santa Maria (Francisco de) | 176, 177, 178, 199 n.
Sarmiento de Mendoza (Manuel) | 209, 215
Sebastian I | 214
Shakespeare | 221
Siluente (Alonso) | 49, 94, 101 n.

Simonides | 205
Sixtus V | 173, 174
Sobrino (Doctor) | 180
Solana (Andrés de) | 165
Solís (Antonio de) | 168
Sophocles | 83, 205
Suarez (Pedro) | 158, 193n.

T

Tapia (Mencía de) | 28 n.
Tasso (Bernardo) | 223
Tellez Giron (Rodrigo) | 23 n.
Tello Maldonado (Luis) | 90, 139 n.
Theresa (Saint) | 12, 174, 175, 178, 180, 181, 199 n., 203, 242
Tiberius | 1
'Tirso de Molina' | 3
Torre (Francisco de la) | 228

U

Uceda (Gaspar de) | 110 n.
Uceda (Pedro de) | 100 n., 189 n.
'Urganda la Desconocida' | 155, 191 n.

V

Vadillo (Doctor) | 70
Valbás (Doctor) | 32 n.
Valera (Bernardino de) | 234 n.
Valera (Francisco de) | 234 n.
Valera (Inés de) | 233 n., 234 n.
Valera (Juan de) | 233 n.
Valladolid (Diego de) | 39
Vañez (see Bañez)
Varela Osorio (Maria) | 204
Vatable (François) | 15, 16, 17, 33 n., 82, 104 n., 105 n.

Vega Carpio (Felix Lope de) | 3, 244
Velazquez | 79
Vicente de la Fuente | 31 n., 32 n., 199 n.
Villanueva (Leonor de) | 6, 23 n.
Villavicencio (Lorenzo de) | 165
Vio (Cardinal Thomas de), surnamed Cajetanus | 133 n.
Vique (Juan) | 33 n.
Virgil | 83, 207

W

Wordsworth | 229

Z

Zumel (Francisco) | 152, 153, 159, 164, 172, 193 n.
Zúñiga (Diego de), see Arias and Rodriguez | 57, 58, 60, 61, 62, 63, 77, 83, 113 n., 114 n., 115 n., 117 n., 118 n., 119 n.

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Table of Contents

- HISPANIC NOTES & MONOGRAPHS

- ESSAYS, STUDIES, AND BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES ISSUED BY THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA

- I

- FRAY LUIS DE LEON

- A Biographical Fragment

- JAMES FITZMAURICE KELLY, F.B.A.

- OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS HUMPHREY MILFORD 1921

- PREFACE
- I
- II
- II
- III
- III
- IV
- IV
- V
- V

- APPENDIX

- EL MAESTRO FRAI LVIS DE LEON

- EPIGRAMMA

- INDEX

- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- Z

- THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG™ LICENSE