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;...']
[Footnote 45: These data, given by Blanco García (_op. cit._, pp.
111-115), are derived from the record of Grajal's trial.]
[Footnote 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.]
[Footnote 47: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, pp. 5-7.]
[Footnote 48: Blanco García, _op. cit._, p. 113.]
[Footnote 49: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, pp. 7-18.]
[Footnote 50: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, pp. 96-102.]
[Footnote 51: See _Documentos inéditos_, vol. LXVIII.]
[Footnote 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.