GIFT OF JANE K.SATHER SPANISH PROTESTANTS/ AND THEIR PERSECUTION BY PHILIP II. ; A HISTORICAL WORK, SENOR DON ADOLFO DE CASTRO. li TRANSLATED, FROM THE ORIGINAL SPANISH, THOMAS PARKER. LONDO'N: CHARLES GILPIN, BISHOPSGATE STREET WITHOUT. EDINBURGH : ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK. DUBLIN : J. B. GILPIN. 1851. C/3 CONTENTS. Picture of the true religious character of Spaniards in the sixteenth century, page xv. Error in mode of judging our ancestors Satires and censures against the clergy Opinions of Hita Lopez de Ayala, xvi. Fr. Joan de Padilla Torres Naharro, xvii. Osuna, xxiii. Leon, xxv. Villalon, xxxiii. Castilian proverbs, xxxvi. Bernal Diaz de Lugo, xxxix. Prohibition of the Bible in the vulgar tongue, xli. Doctor Antonio Porras, xliii. Palmireno, xlvi. Grines de Sepulveda speaks in favour of the Lutherans. The Master Ciruelo speaks against superstitions, xlvii. Fray Alfonso de Virues complains of the Inquisition, and defends liberty of thought, li. Fadrique Furio Ceriol shews a partiality for religious tolerance, Iv. Dr. Gins de Sepulveda mani- fests a desire that sovereigns would not promote wars against Protestants. CHAPTER I. Introduction Ruin of the sciences in Europe, and their restoration. CHAPTER II. Luther Protestantism in Spain Opinions of Illescas and of Valera, 14 Juan de Valdes, a Spanish Protestant, his life and writings, 17 Alfonso de Valdes, 25 Rodrigo de Valero, 26. CHAPTER III. Doctor Juan Gil (known as Egidius,) 30 Francisco de Enzinas 37 Francisco de San Roman, 40 Doctor Juan de Enzinas, 41 Doctor Juan Diaz, 42. CHAPTER IV. War by Philip II. with Paul IV., 46 to 47 Letter from the Duke of Alba to that Pope, 47 to 54 Peace between Philip and Paul IV., 55 The Duke of Alba asks pardon of the Pontiff, 57 Political portrait of Philip II. His assassina- tion of Don Juan de la Nuza, 59 M. de Montigny, 61 Philip's bad government of Flanders, 63 His appellation of "the Prudent?' 65. a 2 IV CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Philip's letter to Gternica, 67 Influence of his confessor in state affairs, 70 St. Quintin and Lepanto, 72 The Armada. The Escurial, 76 Maurice Duke of Saxony ; Prince of Orange ; The Earl of Murray ; Coligni and the Duke of Guise, 78 Want of pretexts was the cause of civil wars, and not Philip and the Holy Office, 80 Poverty, ignorance, and ruin of Spain under Philip, 81. CHAPTER VI. Juan Perez, 82 Charles V. orders the Protestants to be punished 84 Hatred against the Jesuits, 85 Description of an auto- de-fe, 87 Dona Leonor de Vibero, 92 Doctor Augustin Cazalla, 93. CHAPTER VII. Incredible story about Cazalla's appearance after his execution, 98 Francisco de Vibero Cazalla ; Doiia Beatrix Vibero Cazalla ; Alfonzo Perez ; Don Cristobal de Ocampo and other Pro- testants, 99 The Bachelor Herrezuelo and Dona Leonor his wife, and their tragical end, 104 Don Pedro Sarmiento de Rojas ; Don Luis de Rojas ; Dona Mencia de Figueroa ; Doiia Ana Henrique de Rojas ; and several other Protestants, 106 Don Juari de Ulloa Pereira Melchor Cano preaches in Valladolid against the Protestants, 109 Oath exacted from the Prince Don Carlos, and the Princess Doiia Juana to sup- port the Inquisition, 109. CHAPTER VIII. Philip returns from England after the death of Mary Tudor and assists at the grand auto-de-fe of 8th of October, 1559, 110 ; his oath to defend the Holy Office, Don Carlos de Seso, or de Sesse,and his barbarous execution, 112 ; Philip's famous answer to that nobleman, 113 Fray Domingo de Rojas, 114 His confession of faith, 115 Juan Sanchez, his heroic end, 116 ; several other Protestants and their punishments 117 ; Philip II. and Nero compared Incendiary fire in Valladolid compared with that in Rome in the time of Nero, 120 Column of ignominy to commemorate the crimes of the Cazallas, 124. CONTENTS. V CHAPTER IX. Life of Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, 126 His catechism written with artifice ; many passages taken from Luther and other Protestants, but their phraseology changed, 132 Catechism submitted by Inquisitor-general to various divines for examination, 133 Their judgment Pope Paul IV. gives a faculty to Valdes, Inquisitor-general, to proceed against all bishops, &c., suspected of Protestantism, 135 Pius IV. renews the faculty Carranza writes to the Pope, and to King Philip, and also obtains the approbation of some divines to his catechism, but these, to save themselves, retract,! 36. CHAPTER X. The princess Dona Juana calls Carranza to Valladolid He sus- pects the object She repeats the call through Don Rodrigo de Castro Carranza sets out is informed that the Holy Office was about to arrest him, 138 Ambrosio Morales' account of the arrest, 140 MS. found in Carranza's possession, 152. CHAPTER XI. Carranza appeals to the Pope, 153 Two councillors of the Inquisi- tion appointed Dr. Azpilcueta retained for Carranza's defence, 154 The catechism obtains the approbation of the deputies appointed by the Council of Trent, 157 Not ratified by the council, 159 Report of Melchor Cano and others as to the catechism, 161 Simancas' dislike to Carranza, 164 Artifices of inquisitors, and examples given of unfairness in their exami- nation of parties, 166 Delay in the trial not all attributable to inquisitors, 168 Simancas' own accounts of the adjourn- ments, 169 Carranza, as Primate of Spain, appeals to Pope Pius IV., who resolves to take the case into his own hands. Philip objects, but finally gives way, 170 Carranza em- barks for Rome and is conveyed to the Castle of St. Angelo to finish his trial, 172 Pius remembers Carranza's services against the Protestants in England ; orders a translation of the process into Latin, many of the consul tors being ignorant of Castilian, 174 Murmurs of inquisitors as to their treat- ment by the pope, 175 Pius V. ready to approve the catechism, but died without giving sentence, 176 -The report that he had given the sentence to Philip, is denied by the judges, 177. VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. Gregory XIII. succeeds Pius V. Offers twenty thousand ducats for production of the alleged sentence, 178 New pontiff takes up the trial Embarrassments thrown in the way, 179 He delivers sentence, which has never been published Short abstract of it, 181 Carranza's conduct on hearing it He is sent to the monastery of Minerva, 183 Visits the seven churches of Rome, in triumph His death Last protestation of Carranza and also that of Melchor Cano, 185 Eulogies of historians on Carranza, 187 Opinions on the case, 189. CHAPTER XIII. Further comparison between Philip and Nero, 192 The Catholic kings and their oppression of the Hebrews, 195 Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, 197. CHAPTER XIV. Life of Julianillo Hernandez his contrivances to convey Pro- testant Books into Spain, 202 He is denounced to the Inquisition, 205 Suffers torture, maintains his opinions, 206 Is condemned to be burnt alive, 207 His courageous death at the stake, 208 Monastery of St. Isidro del Campo, 209 Queen Elizabeth succours the Spanish Protestants in England, where they publish a confession of their faith, and address " two informations" to the Emperor Charles V., and Philip II., 211 False charges made to the Inquisition, 215. CHAPTER XV. Life of Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, 219 Is appointed honorary chaplain and preacher of Charles V., with whom he travels in Germany, 220 Returns to Seville, and is elected magistral-canon, 221 Is suspected of entertaining Pro- testant doctrines, 222 The Jesuits narrowly watch him He is called before the inquisitors, 224 He seeks admission among the Jesuits, but is unsuccessful, 225 His protest- antism discovered by a curious accident, 228 His arrest, and acknowledgment of his principles, 230 His death, 231 The names of Constantino and Cazalla, how perpetuated, 234. CONTENTS. CHAPTER XVI. Life of Ponce de Leon, 236 Cristobal de Losada, 239 Isabel de Baena and Juan Gonzalez, 241 Fernando de San Juan, 243 Garci-arias (Master Blanco), 246. CHAPTER XVII. The monks of Isidro del Campo, 250 Dona Maria de Bohor- ques, 253 Dona Juana de Bohorques, 255 Dona Francisca de Chaves, 256 Casiodoro de Reyna, 259 Philip's ambas- sador writes respecting the succours afforded by Queen Eliza- beth to Casiodoro and the other Spanish Protestants, 260. CHAPTER XVIII. Life of Cypriano de Valera, 263 His visit to Ley den, 266 Reinaldo Gonzales de Montes, 268 Tomas Carrascon, 269 Denouncement by a father of his own daughters, 269 Brings from his own estate the wood to burn them, 270 Petitions the inquisitors that he may be permitted to set light to the pile with his own hands His request granted, 271' Lamentation of Juan Luis Vives, 272 John Man, Dean of Gloucester, the ambassador of Elizabeth, is expelled from Madrid by Philip II., 273. CHAPTER XIX. The Prince Don Carlos of Austria, 278 Charges of Cruelty in childhood refuted, 282 Treaty for his marriage with Eliza- beth of Valois, 283 His father holds it void, and marries her himself, 284 Carlos and Doctor Suarez de Toledo, 286 Eulogy of Carlos by Juan Martin Cordero, 288. CHAPTER XX^ Accident to Carlos, 292 Low Countries, 295 Count Egmont's conferences with Carlos, 298 Carlos intercedes with his father for the Flemings, 299 Dislike of Philip towards his son, 300 Calumnies circulated against the prince. The story of the shoemaker, 301 Banishment, by Espinosa, of the performer Cisneros, 302 Carlos seizes Espinosa, 303 Proof of the prince's poverty, 304 The low countries pre- pare to assert their freedom, 305 Pope Pius V. inter* cepts their Protestant books, 307 Philip is solicited to visit Flanders, 308 Lara ventures to suggest that Carlos alone could appease the Flemings, 309 Philip sends the Duke of Alba, instead, 310. viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXI. Alba departs for Flanders Maximillian desires to marry his daughter Ann with Carlos, but Philip delays the event Carlos in disgust determines to set out secretly for the low countries, 312 Philip desirous of shutting him up, calls a council Opinion of Azpilcueta, 313 Philip enters the chamber of Carlos by night with guards, and seizes him, 31 8 The Nuncio Rossano's account of the arrest and of the prince's plans and papers, 319 Maximillian remonstrates with Philip, 323 A Junta formed to try Carlos, but his death puts a stop to the proceedings, 324. CHAPTER XXII. The real crime of Carlos was that of being a Protestant, 325 He had promised liberty of conscience to the Flemings Opinions of various authors, and other proofs as to this, 326 Circumstances touching the death of Carlos, 332 Remark- able words of Antonio Perez on this subject, 334 The like of Salazar de Mendoza, 336 Philip's cruelty to Carlos in prison Reasons for believing that Carlos was murdered, 339. CHAPTER XXIII. National pride on account of military glories considered, 342 Oppression of science and philosophy, 346 Population diminished, 351 Poor labourers oppressed by tributes The rich proprietors of unentailed estates are induced by the clergy to found colleges, &c., to gain posthumous reputation, 352. CHAPTER XXIV. Detestable doctrine of the Jesuits as to regicide Marianna's account and approbation of the murder of Henry III. of France, by James Clement, 356 Evils consequent on regi- cide, 360 Melchor Cano foretells the destruction of Spain by the Jesuits, 363 Atrocities of confessors, 364 Edict against them, 355 Conclusion, 368. TO THE KEADER. THE English translation of Senor de Castro's Spanish Protestants makes its appearance at the same time as the original. This somewhat unusual circumstance is owing to that gentle- man's courtesy in having forwarded to me, in London, the sheets of his work singly, as they issued from the press at Cadiz. In addition to what Senor de Castro has stated, in the last paragraph of his Preface, with respect to his not having analyzed doc- trines nor discussed religious questions, it may be remarked, that although the day is gone by, in Spain, for burning, or even imprisoning, what Romanists call heretics, yet, even now, in this enlightened era, in the year of our Lord, 1851, there remains, in the penal code of that coun- try, an article which says, He who shall pub- licly apostatize from the Catholic religion, shall be perpetually banished. Prudence forbids me to say what I know of X TO THE READER. the author's own religious views; but, as his labours are now before the world, I, as a reader, have a right to draw my own conclusions from them. The book is evidently written with great caution, and, possibly, with a view to future publications ; for although, with the in- trepidity of a champion for the truth, he daunt- lessly comes up to, yet he never goes beyond, those narrow bounds his country has prescribed as the extreme limits of its religious toleration. I believe that if, before commencing my translation, I had asked the author whether he did not think, with me, that the true Christian religion was simply and yet amply denned by St. Paul, when he said, " If thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved," his answer would have been, " Yes, if you will add to it what our Lord says : ' These are they which are sown on good ground ; such as hear the word and receive it, and bring forth fruit" THO : PARKER. Spring Gardens, January, 1851. PREFACE (TO THE ORIGINAL WORK.) I AM not the first author who has treated on this subject. In 1829,, Mr. MacCrie published, in Edinburgh, a work, entitled History of the Reformation in Spain. This gentleman, a person of great judgment and erudition, discharged his labours with much ability, notwithstanding his having had but few Spanish books at hand. Of these, he seems to have most followed the Ensayo de una Biblioteca de traductores, by D. Jose de Pellicer, and the Historia critica de la Inquisition, by D. Juan Antonio Llorente, the^ Catholic authors, who wrote most respecting the Lutherans in Spain, during the sixteenth century. Mr. MacCrie, although a very learned author, could not have before him the printed Xll PREFACE. books and manuscripts which have supplied me with materials for my undertaking ; and who- ever compares my history with that of the erudite Scotchman, will see that between the two there is no similarity. There has also been recently published in England, a small volume in 12mo., intituled The Reformation in Spain, a fragment, by A.F. R. (London, 1850.) This work is nothing else than a bad extract from the books of Llorente and Pellicer, just cited, and in it there is not a single Spanish name written correctly. The history of the Spanish Protestants, and their persecution by Philip II., which I now offer to the public, is entirely new, as well in regard to the opinions given, as to the facts stated. Take for example, the life of the un- happy prince, Don Carlos de Austria, and the trial of the Archbishop of Toledo D. Fr. Bartolome de Caranza; indeed it will appear evident that I differ entirely in opinion from all the historians, both ancient and modern, who have spoken of those two celebrated per- sonages. Llorente wrote of Don Carlos, in his Historia critica de la Inquisition, with great want of PREFACE. Xlll judgment, and also of materials drawn from good sources : and in the affair of Carranza he did nothing else than extract the process itself, which the Romans called rudis indigestaque moles. His entire want of judgment,, and his not having at hand the authentic documents of the defender, and of one of the judges, of that prelate, relative to the proceedings, render his labours of little use in clearing up the events which led to the imprisonment of the arch- bishop in the secret cells of the Holy Office. I have thought it desirable to place, at the commencement of the work, a picture of the true religious character of Spaniards in the sixteenth century, which affords a contrast to the vulgar opinion erroneously entertained by some learned authors. I consider it is the duty of a historian, before referring to events, to give an exact description of the age in which they occurred. In the notes to my history I have cited, rather fully, passages from ancient authors, not with a view of affecting erudition, but merely to give authority to my labours, for I do not forget the saying of the celebrated Spanish physician Gomez Pereyra : " En las ciencias humanas a XIV PREFACE. ninguno se ha de prestar fe, si no prueba to que qfirma."* Of the materials which I have collected for this work, I have suppressed more than I have given, for I do not wish to afford the malicious a pretext to put a false interpretation on my intentions,, which have only been to elucidate the history of my country. I would also observe, that although in this work, I necessarily speak of both Roman Catholic and Protestant doctrines, it does not follow that I should analyze them, or discuss religious questions. My object has been not to inquire into matters of faith, but only into facts. * In the human sciences believe nobody, if he does not prove what he affirms. PICTURE OF THE TRUE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. MEN are easily deceived by misrepresentations, especially when made under the impulses of hatred or expediency. Hence the many erroneous opinions which have been formed relative to the manner in which certain subjects were wont to be viewed and considered by past generations. Hence, also, the popular notion, that this or that age was super- stitious, merciless, ignorant, subservient, intolerant, or idolatrous. So the sixteenth century has been presented to the world through the malice of some and the ignorance of others. In attempting to write the history of the Spanish Protestants of that age, it may be well, at the out- set of our labours, to notice the opinions then entertained, even by good Catholics, touching the religious questions discussed at that period in Europe by the partizans of Luther. It may with truth be affirmed, not only in refe- rence to Spanish Protestants, but to good Catholics who flourished in that age, that their mode of XVI RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS examining and treating these subjects is totally un- known among us. Prom a very remote period, Spain has had occa- sion to lament the scandalous disorders of the clergy. There was no species of vice or wickedness into which, unhappily, they did not fall. This was owing, in no small degree, to that power which they exer- cised over the minds of the common people, and even over those of the nobility, a power to be attributed, partly to the great advancement of the clergy in the study of letters, and partly to their ostentatious display of those dignities to which they had been promoted. Against these vices, Pero Juan Ruiz, archpriest of Hita, the Petronius of Castilian poesy, raised his voice in the sixteenth century. In one of his elegant productions, he severely satirized the lewd- ness and covetousness of the clergy.* Peter Lopez de Ayala, commonly called the elder [el viejo], complains not less loudly of those abomi- nable vices on the part of the priesthood, in his work the Mimado de Palacio, printed for the first time in the Eevista de Madrid (8th December, 1832.) The power which prevailed, and was gaining strength among the nobility and the common people, was greatly favoured by the ignorance and careless- ness in which one and another was living, preferring rather to fight against the heathen and competitors of kings and princes, than to defend themselves against the subtilties of domestic tyrants. These complaints, therefore, were totally disregarded amid the clamours of war and through the self-interest * Collecion de poesias castellanas anteriores al siglo XV. col- lected by D. Toraas Antonio Sanchez. Madrid, 1790. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTUBY. XV11 and sagacity of men who, by means of their, dig- nities, assumed to be the lords of the creation. But although those severe censures did not bring about the end which the authors of them desired to see, yet still other eminent writers, of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, did not cease to pursue the work commenced by the arch- priest of Hita and by Lopez de Ayala ; a proof that the vicious practices of the clergy increased daily, to the grief of those good men who bewailed the scandal and disgrace brought on (rod's church by those devoted only to ambition and lewdness, and who, without fear or shame, were giving unbridled scope to their sinful passions, forgetting not only their obligation as faithful pastors, to lead the flock of Christ in the right way, but even all sense of decency in their outward conduct. Friar Joan de Padilla, (the Carthusian) who flourished towards the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, denounces these practices in his poem called, " The twelve triumphs of tlie twelve apostles.* But although it was chiefly against the vices of the Spanish clergy that these authors wrote, yet very severe censures and satires were also penned and circulated against the clerical order generally, and sent almost to the gates of Home herself. Bartolome de Torres Naharro, one of the most distinguished satirical poets that ever honoured the Castilian muse, published at Naples in the year 1517, a work bearing the title of La Propalladia^ dedicated to Don Fernando Davalos, Marquis of Pescara, and which was formed out of various plays, * " Los doze triumphos de los doze Apostoles : fechos por el cartuxauo ; professo, en Sea Maria d'las Cuevas, en Sevilla." XV111 EELIGIOTJS CHAEACTEE OF SPANIAEDS romances, sonnets, satires, and songs.* In many of these little works he betrays the venom which lay concealed in his mind, ready to be discharged against the infamous disorders of the Roman ecclesiastics. Torres Naharro was himself a clergyman ; but he was unable to remain silent, or repress his in- dignation. Nor did he content himself by censuring the turpitude to be met with in Home, although perhaps there might be something of exaggeration in the picture he drew. Eut these numerous and pungent satires, and loud complaints, were not despised by every one. There were those who could give them more force, by transferring them from the pens of poets, and bringing them to bear on persons who were able and willing to second the assault on the strongholds of covetousness, ambition and pride. It is truly curious, if we turn our eyes to the Spanish monarchy at the beginning of the sixteenth century. If a friar, like Luther, called for reformations in Germany, another friar called for them also in the heart of Spain. But there is a notable difference between the pretensions of these two reformers. The German friar asked, with the reformation of the clergy, that of the dogma also ; whereas the Spanish friar asked only the former. * " Pro Palladia de Bartholom de Torres Naharro, dirigida al Illustrissimo Senor: el S. Don Fernando Davalos de Aquino Marques de Pescara. Conde de Zorito ; gran Camarlengo del Reyno de Napoles etc. Con gratia y privilegio : Papal y Real. Napoles por Juan Pasqueto de Sallo : acabosse Jueves XVI. de Marzo de M.D.XVII." Sevilla par Jacobo Cromberger Aiio de MDXX Id. MDXXXIIL Madrid, 1573. (Edicion ex- purgada por el Santo Oficio.) IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XIX When Spain, by the departure of Charles V., and the tyrannical government of his foreign ministers, in the year 1520, became divided into bands, the towns of Castile rebellious, the knights forming themselves into communities to defend their rights and liberties : in other words independence of the foreign yoke, and when the common people rose in Valencia, and under the name of brotherhood [Hermania] constituted a popular government com- posed of twelve mechanics and a fisherman, with the view, at the beginning and in appearance, to defend the cause of the king against the intrigues of the nobility, but in the sequel and in reality, to destroy the knights and convert the kingdom into a republic similar to those of Greece and Rome ; then it was that a person of a religious order, a native of Burgos, but whose name is withheld by Don Pray Prudencio Sandoval, in la cronica del Emperador, addressed a letter to the bishops and prelates, and governors and ecclesiastics, and to the knights and hidalgos, and noble university of Spain. This document, which is given at large in that history, speaks plainly of the disorders existing among all sorts of persons then in Spain, and ends by censuring those in particular of the clergy of his times, demanding with grave and energetic reasoning, a remedy for the crying evils which threatened to overthrow the monarchy. Let us quote the author's own words on the subject. " I do not wish to forget the monasteries which have vassals and large incomes ; but I must say, that when they meddle in matters of religion, it ought to be with zeal to serve God and to save souls. And then, as to those who enter these establishments, and I 2 XX RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS who are made prelates. "When they become lords, they cease to know themselves : on the contrary, they swell themselves out with pride and vain-glory, of which they boast : and, instead of setting an example to their subjects and dependents, sleeping in the dormitory, and following in the choir and refectory, they forget all, and give themselves up to eating and drinking, and evil-treating their depen- dants and vassals, who, by the way, are better than themselves " There is also another great mischief, and that is, that they are capable of inheriting and of pur- chasing. The donors have left them ample revenues for all that is requisite, and therefore it is a pre- judice to the king that they should be so capable ; for, be it remembered, that nothing, of all they get into their power, pays either tithes, first-fruits, excise, or any other duties. The more they get, the poorer they appear and pretend to be, and the less alms they bestow. The heads of these monasteries act in concert together. One makes the beard for the other, in order that (as the saying is,) he may, in his turn, make the toupee of the former, neither of them seeing their dishonesty, nor, of course, cor- recting it ; but cloaking and passing by it as a cat does by cinders. Although it is certain there are many of the religious orders both good and holy, yet still it would be good and holy to remedy this inconvenience ; for, if left alone, every thing, very soon, will belong to the monasteries Therefore, I beseech you, by the love of Jesus Christ, that you will be careful whom you appoint to serve the cathedral and parochial churches ; because, at present, for our sins, all the bad ex- IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XXi amples come from the clergy, and there are none with power to correct and to chastise them. Of olden times these dignities were given to holy and devoted persons, of good example, and who were wont to spend their incomes and to apportion them into three parts, viz : in relieving the poor in re- pairing the church and in the expenses of the prelates themselves, as the holy church commands. " . . But now, through our sins, these dignities are neither given nor bestowed, but to and upon those who well serve kings and lords in order to obtain their favour. He who holds a bishopric with a revenue of two millions [of reals] is not con- tent with them; but he spends them in private service on the favourites of the sovereign, in order that they may become his protectors, and favour him with another bishopric with four millions ; and so they never remain content, and yet they think themselves holy fathers. Then there are some others whose great care is to create entails for their chil- dren, whom they call nephews and nieces. In this way are the revenues of the holy Mother Church wickedly consumed ; and not only have the poor and the churches this injustice done to them, but, worse than this, every effort is made to plunder and steal away the chalices which the churches already possess. Thus do prelates act towards their churches. How then shall they punish wicked priests ? If they do so, it will be in order to rob them."* This friar, a native of Burgos, called for the reformation of the clergy in Spain, as did Luther in * Historia del Emperador Carlos V., por D. Fray Prudencio de Sandoval. Tomo I. XX11 EELIGIOTTS CHAKACTEE, OE SPAIS^TAEDS Germany ; but the former, as already observed, never gave the least indication of a desire to interfere with the doctrines of the church. From this, one would infer that he, at least, was not for the introduction of novelties in the interpretation of the sacred Scriptures. He respected the Pope, as the head of the Catholic church, and believed with her what tradition had taught. His zeal for the common good induced him to cry aloud for those remedies which the case demanded : but his love of holiness, his complaints, just and reasonable as they were, and his boldness in throwing in the teeth of trans- gressors their scandalous crimes, did not meet with encouragement. The fruitlessness of his ardour, the non-reformation of the clergy, and daily in- crease of their disorders, afforded, to the partizans of Luther, a pretence to demand not only a re- formation in practice, but also in doctrine, and induced other sincerely religious Spaniards to com- plain ; for they could not, without great pain, con- template the havoc daily made in the church by men so much addicted to the pomps and pleasures of the world men who were living regardless of the reproach which they were bringing upon their sacred calling. The holy and devout pastors, who desired to lead the sheep of Christ in the way of evangelical truth, on turning their eyes towards their companions in the priesthood, only beheld in them their enemies. They could not but perceive how much the cause of the Protestants advanced by the profligacy of the clergy. Complaints were now louder and louder ; and so were calls for reforming the dogma, under a belief that new interpretations of the sacred books IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XX111 would have a tendency to put an end to such enormities. Father Pray Francisco de Osuna, in the fifth part of the Abecedario ^spiritual, (a work published in 1542,) painted in dismal colour the irregular lives of some Spaniards bishops of his time. His words are remarkable. " A bad procurer (says Fray Francisco de Osuna) would he be who procured his own condemnation : and it is so clear that he does so who procures dig- nities, that it is hardly necessary to make the asser- tion : for we see that all bishops and prelates live in such a way that the dignities serve them, and not they the dignities. The income of the poor, which they seize and lay hold on, they spend as though it were inherited from their fathers, or as though they had gained it by the sweat of their brow ; whereas, in truth, it is the patrimony of the Crucified to maintain his poor followers " You must know that there are two kinds of bishops : viz., those who are instituted by our Lord, and who, by good works, and holy doctrines, edify and rule the church of Christ with good precept and example, benefiting as much as they can the flock of the Shepherd of shepherds There is another class of bishops who possess the ring and the crozier, and great authority to eat, drink, and trim themselves up with the patrimony of the Eedeemer. These are such as might better be called mock-bishops, (oUspotes) and are aptly re- presented or personified in the bishops which they make out of the swine in Castile, where they join together many scraps and bones to make up a good and varied stuffing to throw into an olla podrida, XXIV EELIGIOUS CHAEACTEE OE SPANIAEDS and invite many to partake of it. This kind of bishop has no mitre, although great authority to assemble honourable men at his table from one part and another, who have to dine off it : and then the bones are given to the poor. Now, looking at the matter in this light, you will find many more bishops of the second class than of the first; because, invariably, the bad ones are more numerous than the good ones, and are pampered with rich living, nice, rough, spicy bones, which are the tithes and the first-fruits, and other fees thrown into their immense purse. And yet these mock-bishops, elected by men, the creatures of favour, ought not to be envied : for on the day of their death, the devil will feast upon them. They will be cast away as the bishop of the pig,* and leave nothing but the skin apart from the flesh, which is the carnal life they formerly led ; for that they can no longer enjoy : no, rather, the dogs which licked the sores of Lazarus will enjoy them, for these shall ravenously turn against the rich, the covetous, bishop, to avenge the death of the poor, whose resources he has swallowed up and dispensed as marriage portions for his relatives Let the clergy, let the ministers of the church, fear, and well they may ; for, on the estates which they possess, not content with that portion which ought to suffice for their own living, they take also that which should go to maintain the poor, and are not ashamed to spend it wickedly for purposes of lewd- ness and pride."f * In Spain there is a useless part of the inside of a pig called the bishop, which is cast away. } Quiata parte del Abecedaris Espiritual, de nuevo compuesta IF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XXV But while Ossuna, thus severely and loudly, and without any respect to persons or their rank, ex- claimed against the vices of the clergy, another friar raised his complaints to the very clouds on account of the same evils. Friar Pablo de Leon, of the order of preachers, wrote a book called The Guide to Heaven [ Guia del Cielo\ (a work printed in 1553.) The picture which he gives of the irregularities in which the clergy of his time were living, is drawn with a master-hand, and in such frightful colours, that it cannot fail deeply to affect all who esteem them- selves good men. " Those tithes are due to the prelacy and to the clergy for the labour they have to take with the souls committed to their charge ; and it is but just that the shepherd, who guards the sheep, should eat of their milk and their butter, and be clothed with their wool. But with what reason can he expect to do so when he neither guards them nor sees them ? I do not know." " We have so many excommunications so many exactions beyond these tithes so much working por el Padre Fr. Francisco de Ossuna. que es consuelo de pobres y ariso de ricos. No menos util para los frayles que para los seculares y aun para los predicadores. Cuyo inento deve ser retraer los hombres del amor de las riquezas falsas y bacerlos pobres de espiritu." TRANSLATION. Fifth part of the spiritual alphabet, or A, B, C, newly composed by Father F. F. de Ossuna, which is a consolation to the poor and counsel to the rich. Not less useful to friars than to laymen, and even to preachers. Its intent is to withdraw men from the love of false riches, and to make them poor in spirit. XXVI RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS and striving to increase income to acquire higher rank so many usurious renters of incomes, and who pay them in advance to the clergy that it is quite pitiable to see them. And the prelates and curates never see their sheep, but put over them a set of robbers as overseers ; and for visitors, they send auxiliary bishops of bad character, who, on another occasion, will sell pontifical acts .... They issue an infinite number of their letters of excommunication, without enquiring into or requir- ing any cause, although the penalty is so severe, but simply because they can eke out a quarto or a real for the job. They give absolution to none without being paid for it ; nor is there any dispensa- tion to be had without money. They hold a thou- sand synods for simoniacal purposes : to do nothing but invent means to raise money at one time by the sale of capilos to the inferior clergy at another by selling breviaries and at another by newly- invented missals. Others of them guard the bread like misers ; and the dearer they can sell it the better : even on their own estates, where they have to dispose of it to the poor, thus again robbing them with the very bread exacted for their tithes. They seek a thousand excuses in order to inflict penances on their curates. These penances are soon converted into money. All this they do ; and, besides, if the clergy and vassals do not bring them presents, they take them for enemies; and those wicked prelates, having in the courts, some, one, and some, another, office, of an ecclesiastical, or of a secular kind, . . . they and their squires consume, in eating and drinking, in their houses, and on their estates, the incomes arising from their dignities. IN THE SIXTEENTH CEffTUEY. XXV11 They shun the name of father, but delight in that of senoria and of reverendissimas, and to be sur- rounded by harlequins, pages, amusements, and banquets, and never see their sheep. Oh ! what a grief and mortal plague is this ! That in our day the church should have no greater wolves, nor ene- mies, nor tyrants, nor robbers, than those who are the pastors of souls and have the largest incomes that if even one of them should serve his office, it is merely because he has a scanty income that he who has a large one quits his post, putting in his stead a mercenary, as great a robber as himself, but one who acts the part at a cheaper rate ! "See, then, to what a plight we are reduced; consider the pain which every good man must feel, seeing this state of things, and how loudly he ought to exclaim against it, and cry to Glod for the appli- cation of a remedy Many who go to Eome, or live with bishops, .... only obtain benefices because of the services they have rendered, although none of them are acquainted with letters, nor prac- tise good habits. Hence it would be marvellous, if one ever came from Home, with a benefice, who knew any thing of grammar, or, who knew nothing of servants of bishops ; and thus it is, for our sins, the church is full of those who either are, or have been, servants, in Home, to bishops, or their sons, or their parents, or their nephews, or to the sons of the clergy, or those who enter the church by in- terest as the sons of grandees, or who enter by money or something equivalent to money; but strange indeed would it be if ever one entered for his literary attainments, or for a good life, as Jesus Christ has commanded, and as right and reason require. XXVU1 EELIQIOTJS CHARACTEB OF SPANIARDS " And then, as money was the standard by which they were measured into the church, so they never aim at any thing else, nor have they any other design or end in view than to increase their income of that they take especial care, but none whatever of souls ; no : for these they have none of that solicitude which our Lord has enjoined. As for those who have entered by services, they never care for any thing, but to be served and honoured ; by which means the honour and quietude they lost in serving may be recovered on their own elevation to constituted dignities. These persons are, moreover, more fantastical than others, for they understand more about servants, and shooting and hunting, and hawking, and falcons, and dress ; but they never know how to cure any thing, but a mule, or to take charge of or of other vile or infa- mous offices. And yet those are the men who come to take charge of souls, and to rule the church ! They are, from the circumstance of having filled the most menial situations, generally ambi- tious, illiterate, destitute alike of good breeding and good habits ; and consequently, when raised to such positions, they know not how to be virtuous, but are generally enemies of all that is good. If, perchance, there should come among them one who is good, noble or wise, he is persecuted by them Oh ! Lord Grod ! How many benefices are there at this day in the church of God, which are provided with no better pastors than mercenary idiots, who cannot even read, much less comprehend the nature of a sacrament, and yet who take upon themselves to give absolution in all cases ! " This accursed sin (lewdness) is so prevalent IN THE SIXTEENTH CEFTUEY. XXIX that the whole church is damned by it. The higher the position, and greater the obligation to set a good example, the more corrupt are the clergy in this vice. It is scarcely possible to find either a cathedral or a collegiate church, in which all, or most of its clergy, are not living with concubines, by whom they have a numerous offspring, for which provision is made, by converting into successions, entails, and portions, for them, the property of the church, and then marrying them, not as children of the poor, but as those of the nobility. Others resign their incomes to their sons, so that all of them, fathers and sons, are canons, archdeacons or other dignitaries ; and, as they are generally ex- empted from service by the bishop, (and if not, they exempt themselves^) they are never subject to any reprimand, penance, or mortification. As they, the bishops, are bad men, so, for the most part, are all the clergy of their diocese. The bishops take more care in looking after incomes than souls ; and there never is, in fact, any penance, mortification, or humi- liation, at all, even although none of them are free from this sin. " All this accursed evil, too, comes from whence we expect perfection, viz., from Eome. From hence all wickedness proceeds; for, as the cathedral churches ought to be the mirrors, in which the clergy of the diocese may look for an example of perfection, so ought Home to be the mirror of the ecclesiastical world, to which the clergy should resort, not in search of benefices, but in order to acquire per- fection, in the same way as those attending private studies or the public schools strive to improve and perfect themselves afterwards at the universities. XXX RELIGIOUS CHAEACTEE OF SPANIARDS " But unhappily by our sins in Kome, that city is become the very abyss of these and other attendant evils ; and, as the majority of our cathedral clergy go to Rome, almost all of them who do so are struck with this pestilence, which never leaves them till they die. The inferiors learn of the superiors ; and so it is that every thing is lost in the church of God " But what shall we say of those who come from Rome, as well bishops as canons, archdeacons and others, bringing dignities away with them ? They are nothing but idiots, soldiers, stewards of cardinals, jockies, grooms, and ostlers ; adepts in wickedness and crime, but blockheads in science and virtue ; and yet with these all Spain and her cathedral churches are filled. " If there are others, it is merely because they have been the servants of some bishop or of his parent, or of his son, or of the parent of some other canon, (which is wonderful) : and thus are seen, in the church of God, idols, dressed in silk, loaded with titles, well supplied with attendants and with money, but as destitute of either virtue or learning as a brute. " Such are the men who rule the church of God ! Such those by whom she is governed ! As they know nothing, it must follow that the church is full of ignorance that every thing is pomp, parade, folly, malice, lewdness, and pride. Nothing is understood but how best to aggrandize and exalt families, create rights of succession, and acquire wealth, by any means, be they good or bad. " There are canons, or archdeacons, who hold as many as from ten to twenty benefices, and yet serve IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XXXI none ! "WTiat an account will those men have to give to God of incomes and of souls. "* Such a portrait of those times, by the vigorous hand of Friar Paul of Leon, who was of the order of preachers, and master in holy divinity, well deserves, for its truth, force, and effect, to rank with those admirable satires for which Juvenal was famed in the days of ancient Borne. Every dash of the pen of this friar is a barbed dart shot forth by a holy indignation. Every sentence denotes his ardent desire to see lewdness and avarice banished from the church of Grod ; those abominable vices which seem to have conspired against the peace of Christianity, and to have so closely besieged the souls of many of the clergy, as to induce them to pay more regard to riches and pleasures than to the decorum and respectability which ought to be in- separably connected with their calling. Never, in the eyes of virtue, can actions be justified which flow from covetousness or lewdness. If the practice of vice, even by those who have permitted themselves to be dragged along by its blandishments, more through the weakness of the understanding than by the impulse of the will, can- not be looked on but with contempt or with horror, how, and with what words, can those justify them- selves to the world, who, by their position and dignity, ought to set a good example, and be a light to the path of those who, unhappily, walk in dark- ness, and fall into sin ? * " Guia del Cielo, compuesto por el muy reverendo padre Fr. Pablo de Leon, de la orden de predicadores, maestro en Sancta Theologia : el qual tracta de los vicios y virtudes des . . . . Agora nuevamente impresso en Alcaa de Henares por Juan Brocar, Ano de 1553." XXX11 RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS It cannot be doubted that in these bitter com- plaints of Pablo de Leon there was much truth ; for who, in the year 1553, would have been permitted by the Holy Office of the Inquisition to print such censures against the vices of the clergy in that age, had not truth, arrayed in its own armour, and, con- sequently, more formidable than ever, been at once a guide and shield to the author who dared to raise his pen, and thus, hold out, to public scorn, crimes which were then iniquitously and sacrilegiously per- petrated, under colour of the holy name of Christ, by so many men bound by their office and calling to honour and exalt that name ? Friar Pablo de Leon, in his Guia del Cielo, appears to shew much Catholicism. In that work he speaks of the communion and other sacraments of the church, in what a Catholic would call a sound sense ; and, finally, he urges upon all faithful Chris- tians the necessity of maintaining obedience to the Apostolical See. But, strange to say, in spite of his strictures against the malpractices of the Spanish clergy, the work itself was not prohibited by the Holy Office ! On reference to the expurgatories of books forbidden by the tribunal, called "qfthefaiih" we shall certainly not find either the name of Friar Pablo de Leon, nor the title of La Guia del Cielo. Such and so great is the force of truth, that, fre- quently, it is respected even by those who most desire to bury it in oblivion. The complaints of Pablo de Leon against the clergy, especially those who were farming the revenues of bishoprics, had, many years previously, been heard of in Spain, and been noticed by other authors not less zealous for the spread of Christianity and for the setting of that good example which every IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTUKY. XXXU1 member of the priesthood is under a solemn obliga- tion to give to the world. The Licenciate Cristoval de Villalon, in his Pro- vechoso tratado de Cambios (Profitable treatise on Exchanges), says, in the year 1546, "In all this they (the farmers of the bishoprics) practice the reverse of what they ought to do ; for, as tyrants, they have no regard to the misery of these poor Christian people nor to their subjects and parishioners. Although they see them poor and ruined, they despoil, oppress, and reduce them to the greatest necessity, by wringing out of them their revenues ; and that with so much harshness, vexation, and expense, that, in another year, there will not remain one sheep who will endure such a pastor ; he will be shunned as a tyrant.* * " Provechoso tratado de cambios y contrataciones de mercaderes y reprovacion de usura. Hecho por el licenciado Christoval de Villalon, graduado en sancta teologia. Provechoso para conoscer los tratantes en que peccan y necessario para los confesores saberlos juzgar. Van aiiadidos los daiios que ay en los arrendamientos de los obispados y beneficios eclesiasticos, con un tratadico de los provechos que se sacan de la confession, visto y examinado por los senores del muy alto Consejo y Sancta Inquisition, Ano de 1546." TRANSLATION. " Profitable treatise on exchanges and contracts of dealers and reprobation of usury, written by the Licenciate Christopher de Villalon, graduate in sacred theology. Profitable, in order that the dealers may know when they sin ; and equally necessary, in order that confessors may be enabled how to judge concerning them. To which is added, the mischiefs that arise by separating the property from the bishoprics and ecclesiastical benefices ; with an account of the profits wrung out by confessions. Inspected and examined by the Lords of the very high Council and by the Holy Inquisition in the year 1546. V| At the end of the work are these words : " To the glory and c XXXIV BELIGIOUS CUAKACTER OP SPANIAEDS But the Licenciate Villalon was not content with affirming such things, for in another little work of his, speaking of the confessors of his day, he says : " It is very requisite that the confessor should be sage, prudent, and not wanting in learning. There is, in this respect, in our day, a great evil, which demands a great remedy, in the church of God ; for at every turn you may see a multitude of confessors, foolish, imprudent, and very vain ; who, out of covet- ousness, and for the sake of a miserable self-interest, mix themselves up in this trade of confessor with as much freedom as if they were treating for the making of a pair of shoes, or other the most frivolous thing imaginable. It would be better to banish such men from the republic, than to attempt to guard against the injuries which they inflict on it."* praise of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the glorious Virgin his mother, the present book finishes with an article against usury, by the Licenciate Villalon, and now newly corrected and added by him. Printed in the most noble and distinguished city of Valladolid, near the great schools, at the office of Francisco Fernandez de C6rdova, printer. Finished in 15th day of August, in the year from the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ 1546." The first edition of this work was published in Seville, in 1542, by Domingo Eobarts. (Vide Nicolas Antonio.) * " Exortacion & la confession, en la cual se trata la bondad della porlos provechos que della se siguen, cdmo se ha de aver en ella el prudente confesor y el discrete penitente. Hecho por el Licenciado Christdval de Villalon." At the end is the following : " A gloria y alabanza de Nuestro Sefior Jesu Christo, fenesce el muy provechoso tratado de los provechos de la confesion. Hecho por el Licenciado Christdval de Villalon. Impresso en la muy noble Villa de Valladolid, cerca de las esculas mayores. En la officina de Francisco Fernandez de Cordova, impresor. Acabdse en quinze dias del mes de Agosto. Ano de 1546. 4o gdtico." I1ST THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XXXV It is certain, however, that in spite of the im- mense number of perverse and ignorant ecclesiastics who, to the disgrace of Christianity, were then living in the Spanish dominions, there were also many wise and virtuous men, some of whom were sufficiently bold to denounce vice, and applaud good actions, with a liberty and energy quite equal to the occa- sion. I speak of both clergy and friars zealous for the honour of Glod, pilgrims in the narrow path which leads to holiness, and who were not satisfied with merely censuring wicked clergymen, for they even wrote ascetical works for their guidance, and in order to the training up their souls in the doc- trines of the religion of Christ. Erom the year 1520 to that of 1560, many books were published full of admirable passages. "We have but to turn our attention to the Abecedario Espiri- tual of Eriar Francisco de Osuna, already quoted : the Agonia del trdnsito de la Muerte of Alejo de Venegas : the Vergel de oration y Monte de Contem- plation of Eray Alonso de Orozco: the Doctrina Christiana of Grutierre Gronsalez : the same of Eray Domingo de Yaltanas : the Camino del Cielo of Eray Luis de Alarcon : and many other books not less learned than pious, written by the few friars and clergymen who cultivated with equal ardour all the virtues and the divine sciences. And although great the corruption and ignorance in which the chief part of the bishops of that time were living, still there were some free from the lamentable contagion, and who from their great erudition were the astonish ment of Europe in the celebrated Council of Trent, Yet still these few isolated exceptions were not sufficient to countervail, or to blot out from the c 2 XXXVL EELIGIOTTS CHAEACTEE OF SPANIAED8 minds of the people of the lower orders, or even of the nobility, the shameful atrocities practised by the major part of the Spanish ecclesiastics, and those too in open day, and without the least disguise, or sense of shame for the scandal, and without even seeking to hide them, in the shades of darkness, till the hour of discovery and punishment. In those days were bandied about from mouth to mouth, proverbs in which the bad lives and pro- cedure of the licentious clergy were freely censured. Take a few as examples.* Kunca vide cosa menos que de Abriles y Obispos buenos : You seldom see, I wish you could, A month of April ', or a bishop, good, Obisbo de Calahorra que haze los asnos de corona : The Bishop of Calahorra town, Who makes the asses of the crown."f Pediamos a Dios Obispo y vinonos Pedrisco : We asked of God a lishop alone, And there came to us a great hailstone. * I venture, witli much diffidence, to give, somewhat after the style of the original, a free translation of these proverbs ; and I here offer to the author an apology for suppressing specimens of ancient poetry given by him in the original to illustrate this part of his work ; but as I had not the temerity to offer translations, I thought those originals would be uninteresting to the English reader. Translator. ^ Alluding to the shaven crowns of the heads of the clergy. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XXXVLL Beniego de sermon que acaba en DACA : Denounce the sermon far and near Which always ends in "pray give here" Clerigo, fraile 6 judio no lo tengas por amigo : The clergy ) friars, or the Jews, Are not the friends whom I should choose. Bula del Papa, ponla sobre la cabeza y pagala de plata : The bull of the Pope lay on your head, And beat it well with silver thread. Eien se esta San Pedro en Roma si no le quitan la corona : Content in Rome St. Peter sits down, tSo that they take not away his crown. Camino de Eoma, ni mula eoja, ni bolsa floja : On road to Rome there's no reverse, JVb limping mule nor scanty purse. Homa Homa, la que a los locos doma y a los cuerdos no perdona : Rome tames her fools, 'tis true, but then She ne' er forgives her learned men. Eraile que su regla guarda, toma de todos y no da nada : The friar by his rule lives on, He takes from all and gives to none. These and many other proverbs were on the tongues of the vulgar in the times of which I now write, and XXXV111 EELIGIOTJS CHAEACTEE OF SPAIS'IAEDS were collected in 1555, by the curious, learned cathe- dratical professor of Greek and of rhetoric in the noted University of Salamanca, and printed in various editions, with the sanction of the court of Castile, and of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. They have been handed down to our times to shew, that if highly censurable vices were anciently practised by the clergy, yet still the lower orders of the people were, in their turn, permitted, with great latitude, to blame them, although doubtless obligated both by interest and convenience to have sealed those lips which proclaimed, as it were with trumpets and cymbals, actions unworthy the men who were carry- ing about with them the sacerdotal dignity, in con- junction with covetousness, lewdness, and pride. And what were the results of so many, and such often-repeated irregularities ? Doubtless, among others, a declension, if not in the faith, at least in the practical love and holiness of all true Catholics. A certain Franciscan friar, whose name is not given, composed a " Treatise on the Value and Effect of Indulgences'' printed 1548, with a view of inciting the people to value those spiritual helps. He was only induced, in taking up his pen, to consider how very lightly these indulgences were esteemed Ity many, Jiow easily and for what very little causes they were attainable, and how great the negligence manifested in not acquiring, at so small a cost, such necessary succour and relief.* * " Tract on the Value of Indulgences and Pardons." At the end of it are these words : " To the glory of Jesus Christ, and for the use of Christian Catholics, is concluded this Treatise on the vahrs and effect of indulgences and pardons, in which treatise are cleared up and satisfied many doubts and points of daily occur- IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. XXXIX, The scandalous, dishonourable, and disorderly, lives of the clergy, had doubtless a great effect in diminish- ing an ardour for the faith, at least in the minds of a large portion of the common people. Doctor Juan Bernal Diaz de Lugo, (afterwards Bishop of Calahorra) well knew of, and asked a remedy for, these delinquencies when he wrote his Aviso de Curas, a work published under the protec- tion of the Cardinal Don Juan Tavera, Archbishop of Toledo and inquisitor-general. I quote his own words : " Some of the clergy are wont to say that their parishioners ought to do the good which they, their pastors, advise and counsel them to do, and not to look at the mode of living of those giving that advice. All are not capable of considering this reasoning; for, generally, in the towns and villages where they can neither follow nor see any prelate, nor hear any other preacher, nor have any other example of the Christian life than that of their curate, .... when those who preach, practise the very reverse of what they recommend to ignorant men men uninstructed in things re- lating to the faith the result of this is to throw a doubt upon it, and to deprive it of that authority which it deserves ; for the devil, .... from the bad works of the preacher, draws arguments against the faith and doctrine that he preaches, representing to the understandings of the hearers that since he who knows the law of God and teaches it, does and acts contrary to it, there can- not be that certainty or truth in the punishment threatened to evil doers, or in the bestowment of that reward which is promised to the righteous ; rence touching these said indulgences and pardons. Printed at Seville, at the press of Jacome Cromberger. 1548." 80. gothic. xl EELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS because if the preacher himself believed it to be true, knowing best about the matter, he would fly from the one, and contrive to pursue the other.* Such was the way in which the common people were wont to argue in consequence of the clerical delinquencies in Spain during the sixteenth century. The very faith had become cold in their hearts, and not in theirs alone, but even in those of the nobility. All classes called for the amendment of such evils. The result of these continued profligacies was, that those same friars, and other ecclesiastics who de- parted not from the ways of lewdness and covetous- ness, gave constant occasion to introduce the fire of Lutheranism into the very heart of the kingdom. In Spain there was no disposition on the part of the people to examine or scrutinise the sacred scrip- tures, as in other kingdoms infected with Lutheran- ism. It is certain that in the sixteenth century very many ascetical works were written, in which the dissolute lives of the clergy were largely dwelt on, as also was the mode of applying a remedy ; but the * rt Aviso de curas muy provechoso para todos los que exercitan el officio de curar animas. Agora nuevamente anadido por el Doctor Juan Bernal Diaz de Lugo, del consejo de S. M." At the end is added ; " Fue irapressa en la muy noble villa y florentissirna Universidad de Alcala de Henares, en casa de Joan Brocar a veynte y cinco dias del mes de Octubre : del ano de Nuestro Salvador Jesu Christo, de mil y quinientos y cuarenta y tres anos." TRANSLATION. Advice as to the cure of souls, very profitable for all those who exercise the office of curing souls. Now newly added by Doctor John Bernal Diaz de Luco, one of the council of His Majesty. Printed in the very noble city and most flourishing University of Alcala de Henares, at the house of Joan Brocar, the 26th of October, in the year of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 1543. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. xli authors of such works were almost all ecclesiastics : a proof that religious questions were not looked upon with much interest by the lay-Spaniards who flourished in that age. The number of secular per- sons was exceedingly great who devoted their genius to the composition of books of philosophy, of medi- cine, of history, of politics, and all sorts of letters; but we shall find that very few of these ever meddled with matters of religion, which so much ' occupied the minds and endangered the peace of foreign kingdoms. Therefore the Holy Office believed that by wrenching from the hands of the commonalty the Spanish translations of the Bible, it would afford no opportunity for persons of weak understanding, guided by Lutheran counsel, to alter the sense of various passages of the sacred writings. And as it was supposed this would, in the end , result in a desire that as every one should interpret them for himself, and according to his own manner, the kingdoms would be filled with religious sects, and be thereby seriously damaged, it was resolved to avert those evils by shutting the door by which the common people, might be able to enter and agitate questions on which, hitherto, they had been wont to look with disdain, as on things full of vanity and foolishness.* * Don Fr. Bartolom de Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, was of this opinion, as appears from his preface to the Catecismo de la doctrina Christiana ( Amberes 1558,) in which he says : "In Spain, which was, and is, free from this discord they resolved on a general prohibition of vulgar translations of the Scriptures, in order to deprive strangers of the occasion of referring to their dif- ferences in the presence of the simple and unlearned ; and also because they had, and still have, the experience of particular cases xlii EELIGIOUS CHAKACTEB, OF SPANIARDS But some wise men could not do less than behold with pain and regret a state of things in which the reading of the sacred books should be made appear to the faithful as contrary to the health of their souls : and, therefore, they circulated, in their writings, opinions, very distinct and clear, relative to some of the doctors and others, by whom the Holy Office had been advised to take such a step. Among the rest we find a canon of Plascencia, a good man, zealous, and of sound doctrine, raising his voice. I speak of Doctor Antonio Porras, who in his Treatise on Prayer [" Tradado de la Oracion"] in 1552, makes use of the following arguments : "How can it be? Did Christ teach things so obscure and difficult that only divines are able to comprehend them ? If the doctrines which Christ taught are clear and distinct, and necessary to all the world, for what cause shall a few withhold that which is common to all ? And if Christ desired that his mysteries might be universally divulged, and made known to all the world, why are divines to monopolise them ? God grant that all women might occupy themselves in reading nothing else than the Gospels, and the epistles of St. Paul ! . . . . Might it please God that the labouring men and mechanics would sing no other songs to relieve their toil except the holy Gospel. And God grant that all travellers might pursue their journey with such narratives and subjects ! Would that the speeches in which error had begun to be engendered in Spain, and which had arisen from the reading some parts of the scriptures without understanding them. What I have now stated is the true history of what has occurred. For this reason the reading of the Bible iu the vulgar tongue was prohibited." IK THE SIXTEENTH CENTTTBY. xliii of all Christians were upon nothing else but the doctrine of the gospel ! " How can it be believed to be the desire of Grod that evangelical doctrine should only be known and understood by a few ? And as all things else are universal, and common to all, how can it be said that God has chosen only divines to understand his mysterious secrets of the Christian law, to the exclu- sion of all besides ?* At the very time that Dr. Antonio Porras was complaining of the prohibition of the reading of the Bible in the vulgar tongues, the Holy Office saw how many Castilian translations were being made of all, or of some, of the sacred books. Its first measure was to put into all their expurgatory in- dexes "The translation (by Alonzo Alvarez de Toledo) in the vulgar tongue of the book of Job, which goes along with the translation of the Morals of St. Gregory, by the same author, printed in Seville in the year 1527, is prohibited." But although there was great rigour on the part of the inquisitors to prevent Castilian translations of the Scriptures passing about from hand to hand, yet we shall find that those who desired to instruct the people in divine things were not wanting in ingenuity and spirit to evade and turn into ridicule the decisions of the Holy Office, and, in due time, to give accomplishment to their own desires. The translation into Castilian verse of some books of the Bible did not attract the suspicions or the zeal of the ministers of that severe tribunal, the watch- tower of the Catholic faith in those kingdoms ; and * Tradado de la Oracion. Alcala de Henares, por Juan Brocar. Aao 1552. RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS therefore many sincere and pious men devoted their talents to this delightful task. The first of these was one whose name is unknown : he it was who, in 1558, put the Proverbs of Solomon into the Spanish idiom and metre. His work is noted, as well for the simplicity, elegance, and fidelity, with which his labours are crowned, as for the learned explanatory notes with which he illustrates the sayings of that wise monarch. The learned Spanish divine, Benito Arias Montano, after having super- intended the polyglot edition which he made of the Bible in Antwerp, at the expense of King Philip II., not only translated, from the Hebrew into ex- cellent Latin verses, the Psalms of David, but also put many of them into Castilian metre, with the propriety and elegance which distinguish all the works of that renowned author. The version of the Psalms of the royal prophet put into Latin verse was brought out to the public without the least hindrance ; and, in fact, with the universal applause of the doctors and the sanction of the judges of the Holy Office ; but the Castilian translation remained unedited, to the regret of those who had been able to discover and admire its beauties. The example of Benito Arias Montano was imme- diately followed by many other Spanish poets, mostly friars, who translated into the Castilian tongue, and in verse, several of the Psalms of the prophet-king. Other books also of the sacred writings were simi- larly translated, without any risk on the part of those who undertook the design ; for the inquisitors, when they saw works of that kind in verse, offered no impediment ; because they thought they saw in them a proof of the zeal of their authors for the IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTTTBY. xv public good, but which was in reality nothing less than a protest, in verse, against the prohibition of reading the sacred Scriptures in Spanish. But the translators of these works were never permitted the use of prose, except only in commentaries or interpre- tations ; and if by chance they dared to go contrary to the rigorous orders of the Holy Office in this respect, dungeons, torments, and sometimes the fire, were the punishments inflicted on those who had so attempted to interfere with the people in things pertaining to doctrine. Indeed, to such a pitch did the obstinacy and opposition of the inquisitors on this point arrive, that, whilst it was giving its sanc- tion to the printing of a Castilian translation, in verse, of the book of Job, it prohibited, in its ex- purgatorial indexes, those versions of the same work which were in prose. In reality, they did not wish that the text, faithfully rendered in Castilian, should circulate from hand to hand, and thereby afford the common people an opportunity of interpreting the holy writings in their own way. But there was no such fear when rendered into verse ; for however justly and faithfully they might follow the originals, yet still it was always considered, by those who perused such works, that the versification was not in all respects conformable to the originals, because of the liberty conceded to those who took upon themselves the task of reducing the thoughts of foreign authors into other metres and other lan- guages. Although the Holy Office was so severe in this and other cases, yet there were some in which its accustomed rigour was mitigated. It permitted free circulation to those works which were greatly xlvi EELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS wanted by the studious and lovers of literature, although the reading of them had been prohibited in the index of the Pope. We find this fully veri- fied by a learned man of the sixteenth century, called Lorenzo Palmireno, who, in a small treatise which he composed upon " the easy imitation of the rhetorical elegancies of Mlarcus Tullius (Cicero) in 1560,' ' makes the following very remarkable state- ment : " In the account which I give, below, of the Catholic Commentators of Cicero, I state that Sixtus Eetuleius is prohibited as to all his works ; because when I so wrote I had in my hand the catalogue of Pope Paul IY. But, after finishing the work, and comparing it with the catalogue of the Holy Office of Castile, I found it was only pro- hibited as to the offices of Cicero. God grant long life to the inquisitor-general, who has been, in this and other books, more liberal to the studious than the Pope has been ; for if they were to deprive us of the Adagia of Erasmus, as the Pope has wished, by his catalogue, to do, we should indeed have toil enough, and be in a pretty condition. However, to the extent above stated, Sixtus Betuleius may be freely read"* These remarkable words, from one of that century, shew, but too clearly, the oppression under which all studious and learned men of the age were living. They were, even as to matters of erudition, only at liberty to read what was permitted ; and were * Laurentii Palmyreni, de vera et facili imitatione Ciceronis, cui aliquot opuscula studiosis adolescentibus utilissima adjuncta sunt, ut ex sequent! pagella cognosces. Zaragoza en casa de Pedro Bermiz, 1560. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. xlvii expected under severe penalties to despise as useless all that was prohibited. There is something truly pitiable in the words of Lorenzo Palmireno, when he comes out to praise the liberality of the inquisitors in permitting, to those in pursuit of Greek and Roman erudition, the enjoyment of this or that book included in the papal indexes of Paul VI. Few, however, were the in- stances in which the ministers of the Holy Office were careful thus to facilitate the studies of wise men ; so that the case above referred to by the distinguished Valentian philosopher might appear almost incredible. All the works cited prove that in Spain there was, in the sixteenth century, sufficient culture to suggest, and cause to be demanded, a reformation in the church. Perhaps, if Luther had not raised his voice against the court of Rome in Germany, some of the few Spanish ecclesiastics might have taken upon themselves the task of restoring to its former vigour, purity and integrity, the religion of Christ. Again : whoever takes the pains to compare the works of Luther and his adherents with those of some good Catholic Spaniards who nourished in the fourteenth century, will find a great similarity in the mode of treating and discussing matters of re- ligion, and the state and condition of the church at that time. A certain chaplain and historian of the Emperor Charles V. (the noted Doctor Juan de Sepiilveda), in a dialogue, entitled Democrates, which he pub- lished in 1541, and in which he introduces three personages, whom he calls Leopoldo, Alonzo de Guevara, and Democrates, the first a German, the EELIGIOTJS CHAEACTEE OF SPAKEAEDS second a Spaniard, and the third a Greek, speaks of the declension of the church of God in such terms, as would lead one to think them dictated rather by the reading of Luther's works than by his own con- viction, although in reality they were the effusions of his own love for the faith and of the hatred which had been kindled in his breast against a priesthood abandoned to the slavery of their vices. See his mode of thinking on this subject : " LEOPOLDO. Leave a moment, Democrates, the profane republics, and tell me (which will be more to the point) of the principles and progress of the church, and the state of decay to which she is now reduced and we may well say she is in a state of decay: think you, after ecclesiastical riches shall have increased without measure, and the bishops, not only the Roman, but many others, shall have begun to be like kings, that the sanctity and re- ligion of the clergy will be equal to that of the time when St. Peter and the other apostles were living upon the alms of the devout and pious ? and when St. Paul, at the time he was preaching the gospel, ceased not to labour day and night with his own hands to gain his living ? or when Clement, Igna- tius, Marcellus, Polycarp, Athanasius, and other most holy high-priests and bishops, who contented themselves with little, were taking up the office of the priesthood, not for riches, but for the exercise of all holiness and occasion of holiness ? " DEMOCEATES. What you say, Leopoldo, does not exceed the truth ; but it is certain, that at the beginning, at the birth of the church, and so long as the name of Christians was hateful and suspicious to princes, the Christians, and especially the clergy, IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. xllX who were the captains of the others in the combat for the faith, and maintained themselves upon what was given to them from day to day, or upon very slender means, lived more holy and devotedly than after the church obtained liberty, and her authority was confirmed and fortified with riches ; but the fault of this evil, if we would judge without prejudice, is in the manners, and not in the riches"* So wrote the celebrated chaplain and chronicler of Charles Y., Juan de Sepulveda in language very conformable with that used by Luther and his par- tizans in their mode of treating the same subjects, as well in their sermons as in their books, which were then circulating through Europe, with a view of turning the people against the court of Rome. But if Sepulveda complained of the decay to which the church was then reduced, a most learned canon of Salamanca, not less, but, perhaps, more celebrated, ridiculed some ceremonies with which Christians were wont to accompany their prayers addressed to the King of heaven and earth. The Master Pedro Ciruelo, a theological canon of the Cathedral Church of Salamanca, wrote a treatise on the Reprobation of Superstitions and Witcheries, one of the best and most admirable books composed in Spain during the fourteenth * "Dialogo llamado Democrates, compuesto por el Doctor Juan de Sepulveda : capellan y coronista de su S. C. C. M. del empe- rador : agora nuevamente impresso con privilegio imperial MDXLI. Aqui haze fin el presente dialogo intitulado Democrates. Fue impresso en la muy noble y muy leal ciudad de Sevilla : en casa de Juan Cromberjer, difunto que dios aya. Acab6se veynte y ocho dias del mes de mayo de mil a quinientos y qua- renta y un aiios. d 1 BELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS century. This wise man, an honour to his country, after censuring, in his work, the use of charms and other similar things, thus proceeds : " A third sin in prayer consists in the use of vain ceremonies and thinking that without them the prayer will not avail in obtaining the blessings we ask of Grod. I call those vain ceremonies which are neither approved nor used by good Christians in the Catholic church. I say this because there are some who use them, among Christians, as things which incite men to more devotion in the prayers they utter. Such, for example, as kneeling on the ground, raising the eyes to heaven, joining the hands, striking the breast, uncovering the head, and so on. And yet Catholics do not make use of these cere- monies under a notion that they are so necessary that without them their prayers will be inefficacious ; for, the sick on their beds travellers on horseback, prisoners in chains, and many such other kinds of persons, pray, and that devoutly, without the use of any such ceremonies All sin of this description in prayer is, properly, superstition, and idolatry, and witchery; because it leads man to trust in vain ceremony, which can have no virtue whatever to effect his desires ; and it is an artifice which the devil has found to entangle bad Christians in . . . . very abominable ceremonies.* * " E/eprovacion de las Supersticiones y hechizerias. Libro muy util y necessario a todos los buenos christianos : El cual compuso y escribio el reverendo Maestro Ciruelo, canon igo Theologo en la Sancta Iglesia Cathedral de Salamanca, y agora de nuevo lo a revisto y corregido ; y aun le a anadido algunas raejorias. Ano de mil y quinientos y treinta y nueve anos." " Impresso en Salamanca por Pedro de Castro a quatro dias del mes de marzo MDXXXIX." IF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, li The reformation of the church was desired, as we have seen, by men of superior knowledge, and of blameless lives, in our own country ; yet still it may be doubted whether they would ever have carried things to such ultimate extremes as the German Lutherans ; although, doubtless, all their works tended to the accomplishment of the same ends, but by different ways. The Inquisition destroyed all the books which contained doctrines adverse to the opinions and convenience of its judges. Even some works which only threw a glimmering light upon, but did not censure, that pitiable oppression to which Spaniards were reduced, were thrown into the fire ; their titles were put into the indexes, with a view of rendering odious the reading of the few copies which might happen to be miraculously saved from the fury of the Holy Office. Not all the authors, however, who shewed their hatred to this barbarous tribunal, and desired to see the Lutherans proceeded against with milder measures, fell under the jurisdiction of those men. There were various books of a remark- able kind, which were not cast into oblivion for the cause above stated. In some of those books of the sixteenth century may be discovered the manner in which religious tolerance was wont to be treated, as well as the true opinions of our ancestors upon so delicate a subject ; Id. id. "Impresso en la noble cibdad de Salamanca, porPierres Tovans. Acabose a veynte y quatro dias de hebrero. Ano MDXXXX." Id. id." En Salamanca en casa de Juan de Canova, 1556." There are other editions of this work, but these are the only ones I have seen. d 2 Hi EELTGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIAKDS althougli disguised, as they then were, by the self- interest of fanatics, and the fear of the stake ; or misrepresented, as they are now, by the ignorance of those who would judge our forefathers, and their opinions also, by vulgar traditions, distorted by malice, and far wide of the truth. Thus it is that a deceptive tone and colouring is given to historical events. The opinions which men have entertained are, almost invariably, veiled in falsehood, either through the weakness of their un- derstanding, or for want of consulting proper and authentic sources for that information which is to be transmitted to future ages. Friar Alfonso de Yirues, a Benedictine monk, and one of the most learned Spanish divines of the sixteenth century, accused, first in the Inquisition as a Lutheran heretic absolved by that tribunal protected by the Emperor Charles Y. created Eishop of the Canaries by the same sovereign, after being unjustly persecuted confirmed by the Pope being still in the exercise of his functions and dignity, to which he had been elevated by his virtues and devotedness to the Holy See, published at Antwerp in 1551, certain philippics against the Lutheran doctrine defended by Melancthon;* a * " Frat. Alfonsi Viruesii Theologi Canariensis episcopi, phi- lippicae disputationes viginti adversus Lutherana dogmata, per Philippum Melanchthonem defensa. Habes hie, lector, omnium disputationem summam, dudum Augustas et nunc Ratisporue habitam. Vox usurpata Luthero : Verbum domini manet in oeternum. Isaiae xl. Vox ecclesise propria : Et respondebo expro- bantibus mihi verbum : quia speravi in sermonibus tuis. Psalm cxviii. Antuerpise : excudebat Joannes Crinitus. Anno MDXLI. Cum gratia et privilegio Csesareo." IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTTJBY. liii work written with all the proper zeal of a good Catholic in relation to the view he took of the dogma, and with all the vehemence of a man who could not but regard with indignation the severe measures of the Inquisition against Protestants. The words of the Bishop of the Canaries are very striking, and afford another specimen of the mode adopted by our ancestors in discussing such matters. I translate them faithfully from the ori- ginal Latin : " Some wish that heretics should be proceeded against with greater suavity, and that every means may be resorted to before carrying matters to the last extremity. And what should be the remedy ? Instruct and convince them with words, with solid reasons, with decisions of councils, and with the testimony of the holy Scriptures and of the sacred interpreters. All Scripture, inspired by God, is useful, for teaching, for argument, for correction, and for wisdom, according to the declaration of Paul to Timothy. And how can it be profitable to us if we do not use it on those occasions indicated by the apostle ? I observe a practice in many to abuse, both in speaking and in writing, those Pro- testants whom they are not able to punish cruelly or to deprive of life. If they happen to lay hold on some unfortunate offender, against whom they are at liberty to proceed, they subject him to an in- famous trial; and though he may be presently liberated on being found free from guilt, yet he never loses the stain fixed on his reputation. If, however, seduced by the talk, or by the subtilty, of some, or by his own negligence, he may have fallen into error, they never attempt to convince him with solid liv EELIGIOTJS CHAEACTEE OE SPA^IAEDS doctrine with kind persuasions, or with fatherly advice ; for, notwithstanding that those judges call themselves fathers, they punish with dungeons, with whips, with sickles, and with axes, as if by the suf- ferings of the body they would be able to change the opinions of the mind. The Divine word alone is more powerful, efficacious, and penetrating, than a two-edged sword." * These words of Yirues deserve to be stamped in bronze and marble. Yes, if such words spoken at any time would merit the highest praise, what language can sufficiently enhance the courageous zeal of that wise prelate, when he dared to infuse into his writings such arguments against the prac- * " Sunt qui velint modeste agi adversus hereticos et omnia debere tentari priusque veniatur ad ultimum discrimem. Quse omnia ? Nerape ut verbis, solidis rationibus, conciliorum placitis, Scrip- turarum Sanctarum et sacrorum interpretum testimoniis, doceantur et convincantur. Omnis enim Scriptura divinitus inspirata, utilis est ad docendum, ad arguendum, ad corripiendum, ad erudieridum. Tim. 3. Quomodo autem erit Scriptura utilis nobis, nisi ea in his quae recenset apostolus utamur ? Video enim usu receptum esse apud plerosque, ut adversus illos agant literis et verbis, in quos non possunt sevire verberibus aut necibus grassari ; quia si qua> piam miserum homuncionem nacti fuerint, in quse liberum sit illis animadvertere, mox arreptum infami judicio sistunt, in quo, ut celerrime absolvatur et ostendatur inmunis culpa, criminis tamen notam nunquam non feret. Si vero aut aliorum consuetudine seductus, aut circumventus astutia, fortassis et incuria lapsus deprehenditur statim, non solida doctrina, non blandae suasiones et monita paterna (tametsi patres gaudent appellari) sed carceres, flagra, secures aut faces expediuntur ; quibus et si corpus afficitur supplicio, animus tamen non potest immutari. Solus enim ad hoc est idoneus, sermo Dei vivus et efficax, penetrabilior omni gladio ancipiti." Fr. Alfonso de Virues Philippicse disputationes viginti adversus Lutherana dogmata, per Philippum Melanchtonem defensa Philippica Decima Nona. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Iv tice of the Holy Office towards Protestant ; a tri- bunal the very name of which caused the great of the earth to tremble, as subjects of its jurisdiction, and be ready to fall under its yoke for the slightest indiscretion which might escape the pen or the lips ? Men who are devoted to the true interests of hu- manity, who fear not to state and maintain true doctrines in opposition to those of an insane pride and of a selfish expediency, will be respected in all ages; their names will be blessed their memory will be exalted to the heavens. But notwithstanding the bold and noble spirit with which such words were written, the Inquisi- tion took no steps respecting them, and took no cognizance of the intrepid, zealous Eriar Alfonzo de Virues. His work was not so much as prohibited in the expurgatorial indexes ; nay, the words above quoted were never even stained by the ink which the cattficadores* were wont to use so freely to conceal from coming generations the true opinions of men who lived in an age in which they were re- strained from expressing them openly, through fear of the tortures and gags of the Holy Office. Within the walls of that tribunal, the cries and complaints which proceeded from many an innocent breast were confounded with the groans of the dying, stifled by the smoke of the burning victim, or art- fully silenced amid the embers of the devouring element. One may well fancy the confusion, the disorder, the loss, and the inconvenience, to the husbandmen * Inferior officers whose duty was to peruse books, and deter- mine as to the orthodoxy of doctrines. Ivi RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF SPANIARDS and to the inhabitants of a once rich, blooming, and fertile, country, laid waste by a conqueror. Its fields may be pillaged, its forage and its fruits may be consumed or destroyed, yet still every plant is not uprooted, every branch is not severed by the knife of the enemy. Some still remain. These feel the warmth of the sun ; they germinate ; they fructify, and present a lasting memorial of man's industry, and of that felicity which had once shed its influ- ences over the now desolated land. So it is with some of the scarce religious works of the sixteenth century. They prove that all men of that time were not of the same way of thinking on religious tolerance as the inquisitors, and their partisans, the kings and ministers who assisted them in ruling the vast dominions of the Spanish monarchy. It may be well to quote, in confirmation of this truth, a celebrated and learned Valencian of that time, who was much honoured by the emperor, Charles V. I allude to Fadrique Furio Ceriol. This eminent politician composed a work with the title of " Concejo y consejeros del Principe" printed about the year 1559, at Antwerp, and dedicated to the Grand Catholic of Spain, Don Philip II. Furio Ceriol was a most learned and sagacious politician. Prom his earliest years it had been his study to understand the ancient government of the Syrians, Thebans, Athenians, Carthagenians, and Romans : he studied the forms by which the prin- cipal nations of Europe and Asia were governed in his own time : he learned by experience the causes of war and of dissensions, comparing those which then afflicted the most powerful states of Christen- dom with those which are read of in ancient history ; Itf THE SIXTEENTH CENTUET. Ivii and finally, lie consulted the great politicians of his time, both at home and abroad, upon a great portion of his work relative to the institution of princes. Ceriol could not help manifesting an opinion favourable to religious tolerance. In his immortal treatise on the Council and Counsellors of Princes, he makes use of the following expressions : " It is a very certain sign of a torpid genius to speak ill or with prejudice against one's adversary, or against the enemies of one's prince, or of those who belong to a different sect, or of foreigners, be they Moors, or Heathen, or Christians ; for true genius finds, in all countries, seven leagues of bad road: in all parts there are good and bad; the good he lauds and cordially receives; the bad he denounces and rejects : but he does not, on this account, abuse the nation in which the bad are found."* But this sage politician of the sixteenth century declares his opinion, more openly still, touching religious tolerance, in the following passage of his work : " There are but two lands in all the world : the land of the good and the land of the wicked. All the good, be they Jews, Moors, Heathens, Christians, * " El Concejo y Consejeros del Principe, obra de F. Furio Ceriol, que es el libro primero del quinto Tratado de la Institucion del Principe. En Anvers. En casa de la Biuda de Martin Nucio. Ano MDLIX." This work was much noted in its time. Alfonso de Ulloa translated it into Italian, and published it at Venice in 1560. Simon Schardio translated it into Latin, and Father Scoto printed it at Cologne in 1 568. Cristoval Varsvicio, a canon of Cracovia, put it into the same language, and printed it with his treatise De Legato et Legatione, at Dantzic in 1646. Iviii EELIGIOTJS CIIAEACTEE OF SPA1S1AEDS or of any other sect, are of the same land, of the same house, and the same blood; and so in like manner are the wicked. The truth is, that the parent, the friend, the neighbour, of the same nation, being equally counterpoised, both the divine and the human law require that we should, in the first place, care for those who are nearest of kin to us, but the foreigner outweighing these ought to be preferred to them all."* These are very striking words, particularly when it is considered that they are to be found in a work published under the patronage of the Grand Catholic of Spain, Don Philip II. that monarch who, insti- gated by an ardent zeal for the conservation of the faith in his dominions, was even punishing with the flames those who had the misfortune to be con- vinced by Lutheran doctrines that monarch who, by protecting the Catholics persecuted in other lands where Protestantism prevailed, was impover- ishing his exchequer that monarch, in fine, who in wars of religion caused the blood of his vassals to be shed in torrents, and the vigour of the Spanish nation to be paralysed. I doubt whether the inqui- sitors ever could have read the arguments used by Ceriol to teach princes how necessary it was, in order to the happy government of their states, that religious tolerance should be taken into account. The works of Yirues, and of Ceriol, men who * There are even liberal doctrines in this work. For example " This is a certain rule, and without any exception, that every hypocrite and every covetous man is an enemy to the public weal ; so also are those who say that every thing is of the king, and that he may do according to his will, and in short, that the king can do no wrong." IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY, lix were an honour to the age in which they lived, and to the nation which gave them birth, afford sufficient proof, in spite of the fanatical flatterers of the Holy Office, that in the reigns of Charles V. and Philip II., in which an opinion was current in the palace, and in ecclesiastical councils, that burning without respect to persons, was the proper punishment for those who had fallen into strange doctrines, there were still good and wise men who defended religious tolerance at the risk of their reputation, their pro- perty, and their lives : examples sufficient to shew the madness and folly of the self-interested and the wicked in attempting to conceal this fact. But why should it appear strange that there should be in the Spanish monarchy, men who dared to defend religious tolerance and reprobate the dun- geon and the flames, when some of the wisest men have boldly avowed, in their writings, opinions, opposed as they are to those of kings and inqui- sitors, touching the persecution of the Protestants ? Juan de Sepulveda, in his work already cited, treats upon the question whether it be lawful or not for a gentleman, and a Christian soldier, to make war against the enemies of the faith, and, after long disputes, we find the personages of the dialogue thus speaking : " DEMO CRATES. I am glad, Leopoldo, that you have been more prudent than you are wont to be ; for now, this being your opinion, you are not far from the doctrine of Luther. Considering that you speak in Eome, and in the palace of the Pope, and not in Saxony, you ought to temper your words with a caution that we all understand: a caution very much among your people" Ix RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OP SPANIARDS " LEOPOLDO. Pray do not speak of Luther, nor of his faults ; if faults he has, do not throw them in our teeth ; for we follow not the authority of any man, but the dictates of reason, and the testimony of the Holy Scripture" The time has now at last arrived when the history of Spain may be written by giving a faithful por- traiture of the centuries in which the events we have to record took place. Hitherto the authors of works of this kind have done little else but repeat vulgarisms, unworthy men of right judgment and a wholesome erudition, whilst they suppress the truth, especially in reference to the free mode in which our progenitors were accustomed to handle religious subjects. If inquisitors, looking to their own interest and power if Jesuits, covetous of domination over the human mind if kings, guided by the perfidious counsels of wicked men, although with the semblance of piety, and as the miserable instruments of persons whose only aim was their own interest, brought down upon unhappy Spain, disasters, poverty, desolation, ignorance, and every species of misfortune and ruin, we cannot be surprised that learned and distinguished men, men of the clerical order too, and remarkable for their wisdom and holy lives, though separated from the Catholic faith, should fall a prey to the dungeon, the scaffold, and the flames, that the fields of Europe should be changed into seas of blood, and its cities and mountains into flames. Against such cruelties and against such deeds, far wide of even a prudent policy, were loudly raised the voices of many wise men, who at that time flourished in our country. But some of the perverse clergy, whose crimes IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. Ixi were a scandal to Catholics, were nevertheless themselves men of learning. In their sermons, and in their printed political works, they contrived to cloak with a deceptive exterior the wickedness of their intentions ; and used all their efforts to gain the approbation and favour of kings, in order to make fools of them, and change them into machines to be worked by the artifice of those who prospered by the perdition of Spaniards, as well in reference to arms and literature, as to commerce and agriculture. The sixteenth century is not known, either by Spaniards themselves or by foreigners. Both one and the other have been deceived by false accounts, which have gone forth to the world, guided by the vilest flattery, or the most infamous and slavish fear. In that age the good Catholics raised their voice against the vices and disorders of the clergy, who, forgetting Grod and their own dignity, ran wild, like so many horses without bridles, over the fields of covetousness and lewdness. It is certain that this liberty ceased through the vigilance and rigours of the Holy Office. And hence some would attempt to infer that the men of that age idolized the vices, because, in fact, those vices held their sway in the hearts of the clergy and friars, whose lives were not conformable to the orders of the church. But silence in that age of oppression ought not to be taken for proof that the crimes of the priesthood were unknown, but rather as evidence of the want of liberty to denounce them. Before this liberty was repressed, there were not wanting authors to censm^e the perverse habits of the clergy of that age, in terms quite equal to the occasion. When the Holy See- was permitting the sacred Ixii EELIGIOUS CHAEACTEE OP SPAKIAEDS Scriptures to be read in the vulgar tongues by only those authorized by prelates to do so, they being persons well known as lovers of the Catholic reli- gion, the Holy Office brought things, as usual, to the last extremity, and prohibited in its catalogues the translation of the divine books. Spaniards then, as far as they were able, shewed, in a clear and unequivocal manner, their disgust and disinclination to obey such decrees. Eut the force which was employed to oppress the understandings of the people silenced the voices which were at that time raised in favour of the free reading of the Bible. Still the prohibition did not altogether succeed, for we frequently find that the astuteness of the human mind can force the strongest locks, and open doors which appear to be most firmly secured. The Book of Job, the Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon, as we have seen, and many lives of Christ drawn from the Evangelists, came forth from the press without any interruption on the part of the inquisitors ; for, as before stated, the lovers of these sacred books had recourse to the artifice of writing their translations in Castilian verse. In this way the judges of the Holy Office were cheated, for they believed that the peace of their Christianity had nothing to fear from such publications. At the proper time, with a zeal highly dangerous to those who dared openly to state their opinions, religious tolerance was by some defended, and that too with remarkable earnestness, considering the oppression of the times, against the barbarous chas- tisements and tortures inflicted by the Holy Office upon those unfortunate creatures who happened to espouse Lutheran doctrines. IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTTJBY. kill Thus thought the good divines who flourished in the sixteenth century, on such matters, freed en- tirely from those barbarous superstitions, which only flatterers or cowards attempted to defend. The Inquisition was enabled to keep under their flames, though not to quench that other flame which burned in every truly religious breast against the dissolute lives of their pastors, against the abso- lute prohibition of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongues, and against religious intolerance, which was then raised to its highest pitch by kings, and by judges of the Holy Office, as necessary in their view, to the perpetual conservation of the peace in the dominions of the sovereign. But if such an opinion prevailed in theory, it was not practically sustained by the learned, whether divines or poli- ticians, who had the misfortune to be born in Spain in those times. State policy saw a danger in suffering Protestantism to go unpunished, but the learned doctors of the age were adverse to such a mode of procedure. If the ferocity of the inqui- sitors painted Protestants as monsters guilty of every species of wickedness, the political Spaniards, in whose bosoms were found no barbarous passions, formed this different judgment: that such persons, being of virtuous and exemplary lives, although they might have separated themselves from the Catholic faith, they certainly did not deserve to be hated and vituperated. In Spain, however, in the sixteenth century, by means of force, intolerance and rigour, it was legal to oppress and to punish persons who disbelieved the Catholic faith. But it is well not to confound the proceedings of kings and inquisitors with the EELiaiOTJS CHAEACTEK OF SPANIARDS, &C. opinions of good, wise, and virtuous men, lovers of true religion, and entirely adverse to imprisoning and burning, to the disorders which then prevailed in the habits of the clergy, to barbarous supersti- tions and deceptions, and to a hatred against persons of a blameless life. It is well also that we should not be ignorant of the fact, nor forget it, that almost all the sages whose opinions are cited in the present work, were ecclesiastics of that age. This will give more authority, in the eyes of the world, to what I humbly ca]l this faithful picture of the sixteenth century. HISTORY SPANISH PROTESTANTS, &c. CHAPTEE I. I DO not profess to write the history of wars, or of popular tumults, or of rebellions, or of prosperous or disastrous results to the Spanish arms ; or of treaties which have been unfruitful, but which by prudence and diligence might have been followed up with great advantages ; or of kings anxious for the welfare of their subjects, and striving to make them happy by ruling them according to the judg- ment and counsel of dispassionate men ; or of cele- brated enterprizes worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance : but of barbarous deeds, of cruel tor- tures, of burnings at the stake, of families con- demned to dishonour and to infamy, of patricians, plebeians, and ecclesiastics, men renowned for their learning and holy lives, branded with infamy, per- secuted and driven from their own country to save B ' THE SP'CtflSH PEOTESTANTS. their lives and liberties in lands which afforded a shelter against the reverses of fortune, and the in- tolerance of tyrants. In the course of my history will be seen a Rodrigo Valero, disseminating, with his eloquence, the Lutheran tenets in the populous city of Seville ; a Doctor Juan Gril, canon of its cathedral church, and one of the most popular preachers of his time ; a Constantino Ponce de la Puente, a sage who suc- ceeded Gril in his dignity, excellence, and doctrines ; a Doctor Arias, and many other learned and good men following the steps of Valero in the Protestant faith. All the monks of St. Isidro del Campo, con- verted into disciples of those who were demanding reformation in the church ; a Julian Hernandez, " the muleteer," with a view of augmenting the num- ber of that sect, ridiculing and frustrating the vigi- lance of the Inquisitors, by conveying secretly into Andalusia, bibles translated into Castilian, as well as catechisms, in which matters of the faith were dis- puted by a new mode ; a doctor, Augustine Cazalla, and a friar, Domingo de Itojas, promoters of the Protestant cause in Valladolid. Men and women of high rank and reputation, as well as friars and nuns, suffering on the public scaffolds, some reduced to ashes by the flames, and others condemned to live in perpetual seclusion, leaving behind them to their children and families, an infamous reputation as their only inheritance ; and finally, will be seen at one and the same time, an illustrious and generous prince, the defender of the unfortunate, the enemy THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 3 of such barbarous deeds, paying, first with his liberty and then with ( his life, for his attachment to the principles of those who refused obedience to the Bornan Pontiff; and a sovereign the wicked admi- nistrator of his kingdoms, the supporter of intole- rance and persecution which he had learned from his confessors and councillors, men who under colour of state reasons urged him to the perpetration of deeds, but ill adapted to either the extension or preservation of those dominions which had been transmitted to him by his ancestors. History of this kind should be treated with a liberty and a courage which the subject demands, and regardless of the want of harmony with former writers whose judgments may have been warped by popular errors, by superstition, or by other causes. Truth gets on but lamely in the world when facts are distorted. What dependence can be placed in a knowledge of history derived from men who wrote at random, without considering events or their attendant circumstances, much less searching out and examining their causes ? There have been writers of this class who pre- tended to give us a knowledge of some opulent cities from a brief and superficial survey of their external ruins, prostrated by fire, by war, or by time, by which ruins they fancy they can trace the spots where once stood the streets, the squares, and the walls glori- ously defended, or still more gloriously conquered. Those who so judge of ancient cities from a cursory glance at the sorrowful remains of their grandeur, B 2 4 THE SPAKTSH PKOTESTAKTS. must have but a doubtful notion of the culture, the mode of thinking, the exploits, the prowess and the character of their inhabitants. But when in the more careful pursuit of such inquiries, men are induced to explore the bowels of the earth, and discover beneath those heaps of ruins, it may be statues, lamps, arms, books, and medals, we may with some degree of reason form opinions and conjectures respecting manners, customs, and people at so great a distance from our own era. Time consumes all things. Its velocity outstrips the wind. Its career is ever onwards. It obscures the light of truth in many instances, and hence the difference we often find in the judgment and opinions of men. But this deficiency of facts and events caused by the lapse of time, pride and igno- rance are always ready to supply. By the help of these two slaves of the mind, time can convert virtue into vice, bravery into cowardice, kings who seek the happiness of their kingdoms into tyrants, and tyrants who seek only their own profit and aggrandisement into kings of noble and generous deeds ; acts of cruelty into works of state-policy ; battles lost for want of prudence in the commander, into a lack of courage on the part of the soldiers ; and victories gained by bravery and military skill, into the mere freaks of fortune. In such fashion have some historians painted our ancestors, that could they return to life we should be struck with astonishment as well as themselves, at such unfaithful portraits. But so it is ; as foun- THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 5 tains give to the rivers and these again to the sea, in like manner erroneous opinions are gradually formed and promulgated ; false judgments are pro- nounced and popular errors are magnified and con- firmed. When I see canonized, as generous actions, the crimes of some ancient generals ; when I hear ap- plauded, the deeds of monarchs who were neither great politicians nor lovers of the well-being of their subjects, but haughty aspirants for the extension and preservation of their dominions, through the lamentable and frightful ruin of the nation ; when I see statues erected to the memory of Patricians who in the service of tyrants have destroyed the people's liberty, I say a thousand times, that history lies, or such is the weakness of our understanding, that it knows not how to distinguish truth from falsehood; or, that the opinions of men are so changed that virtue really deserves the name of vice ; and that a turpitude, a contempt for all that is good, the vilest enterprises, an insatiable covetousness, and an un- bridled ambition which even thrones cannot satisfy, have usurped the places of reason, wisdom, holiness, and truth. But time with all its power to obliterate, does not invariably blot out the infamous reputation of the wicked, nor destroy the fair fame of those who have loved liberty and the happiness of their country, nor does it always throw a shade over those noble and heroic deeds which are designed by Providence to operate as a warning to tyrants. 6 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. The sixteenth century was most felicitous for letters ; in it they recovered their imperium in the minds of men, after having, for so long a time, been fugitives from the Christian world. Already the decay of the sciences had commenced in Rome when the northern barbarians invaded Europe. Modern authors affirm that that city, in another age the mistress of the world, was inhabited only by the vices that in it, the arts were not cultivated that its love of glory had become converted into a taste for pleasure ; its contempt for riches into avarice, and that virtue was no longer found to occupy a place in the breast of man. But although these assertions may be true, we must attribute the decay of literature to other causes. The Christians being persecuted and menaced with cruel tortures and executions, still contrived, with unconquerable perseverance, to disseminate over the world the religion of Christ. They had a mortal dislike to the heathen as well as to their arts and sciences, and strove earnestly to bring discredit upon both, in order that the tenets of people who were maintaining another religion, and another mode of discussing and examining natural things, might in no way enter or be received in the minds of the unsuspecting and weak in the Christian faith. Hence I infer, that the Christians of the second, third, fourth, and fifth centuries of the church did not think it expedient that their disciples should imbibe from the books of an Epicurus, or a Pliny, THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 7 the absurd notion that the soul perishes with the body, much less that in the works of some Greek and Latin authors, they should read the fabulous origin therein given of the Hebrew people. How could it be endured that persons recently converted to the Christian religion, persons whose faith was not sufficiently firm to dispel doubts from the mind, should be permitted to study the writings of Appianus Gramaticus, of Trogus Pompeius, of his Abbreviator, Justin, of Cornelius Tacitus, and many other such men, who attributed to natural causes, the deliver- ances of the Israelites, when, in the sacred books of Genesis and Exodus, it is declared that they were the marvellous works of the Divine Power ? Those heathen authors, ignorant of scriptural truth, falsely allege that a great leprosy fell upon Egypt, and that all infected with the pestilence were constrained to leave their beloved country, in order that the evil might not extend itself to the lament- able destruction of that entire people. They further narrate, that by the advice of their leader Moses, the Israelites, after robbing the tem- ples of their jewels, were pursued by the Egyptian forces, up to a certain altitude, in which a frightful tempest compelled the latter to return to Memphis, without having rescued the spoils which the leprous carried with them ; whereas the sacred books prove that Pharaoh and his arrogant host perished in the Eed Sea. These heathen authors go on to say, that the fugitives passed six days of hunger and thirst in 8 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. the desert, at the end of which time, Moses guided by some wild asses, found at the foot of a small mount covered with trees and herbs, a running stream. "Whereas the inspired text says, that the lawgiver of the Hebrews at the command of Grod, applying his rod to a naked rock, .caused the waters to gush out and alleviate the sufferings of that afflicted people. Again, these authors also taught that the resting of the Israelites on the Seventh- day, was to commemorate the end of their suffer- ings which they endured in the wilderness, and not, as affirmed in holy writ, God's resting from his labours in the creation of the world. These errors on the part of Greek and Latin historians and philosophers, which were contrary to the religion of Christ had this effect, viz., that in the primitive times of the church, those who fol- lowed the new doctrines attempted by all means to prohibit the perusal of such works, by the weaker and less established in the faith. Saint Jerome, who, in his epistles, praised Pytha- goras, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle among the phi- losophers ; Homer, Yirgil, Menander, and Terentius among the poets ; Thucydides, Herodotus, Sallust, and Livius among the historians ; Demosthenes and Tully among the fathers of eloquence ; had on many occasions to defend himself from unjust censures directed against him by his own followers, with a view of detracting from the merit and excellencies of those profane men ; and because he obscured, as they alleged, the splendour of the church by his THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 9 writings, in which he gave examples drawn from heathen and secular literati. The very parchments on which were copied the works of philosophers, historians, and poets, Greeks and Latins, were, after being imperfectly blotted out, made use of to receive the transfer of missals , breviaries, books of the choir, and other ecclesias- tical documents, and thus, once converted from pagan into religious books, were lost for ever ; ad- mirable testimonies of the wisdom of that class of the community in those times. The invasion of the barbarians completed the banishment of the sciences in Europe : a work com- menced by the intolerance of the Christians, who wished to blot out from the memory of man, not only the rites of paganism, but even the writings in which its doctrines were maintained or illustrated. By degrees Europe became enveloped in the dark- ness of ignorance : a darkness relieved only now and then by the erudition of some stray eccle- siastic, a lover of learning and of science. But even his writings were of little avail in a barbarous age. Their appearance was as brief as a passing meteor through the sky in the obscurity of night, and their fruits might be compared to those of weak plants on a barren soil. Modern writers are wont to praise friars and monks who lived in the middle ages, for their literary la- bours, which they performed in the retirement of the cloisters, for the benefit of coming generations. I 10 THE SPANISH PBO TEST ANTS. do not mean to deny the merit of those men ; but the present age owes little to their diligence. Let us turn to those times. What works on human science, useful to nations, did those authors, ever compose ? Scarcely any. Bad comments on the writings of the Greeks and Latins, interlarded with theological questions which can render no service in matters of medicine, natural history or mathematics, and which are preserved only as speci- mens of the sagacity of such men. But by and by, in the middle of the fifteenth century, after the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, many literary Greeks flew to Italy for the preservation of their liberties, and kindled in the public mind a desire to be taught and instructed in the manuscripts of the ancient fathers of the Hellenic literature ; and soon afterwards, through the medium of the divine art of printing, an open field was pre- sented to ignorance : the study of the great authors of a learned antiquity, ceased to be the patrimony of ecclesiastics and was brought within the secular reach, in order that the sciences might revive and flourish again in the world. Then it was that with the help of incessant reading of the Greek and Latin authors, great discoveries were made in medicine, in natural history, philosophy, and the mathematics. The secular writers, without mixing in their labours theological questions, which in no way concerned the subject, devoted themselves entirely to the sciences ; and the fruits which were the results of their labours THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 11 may now be regarded as the foundations of modern culture. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, whilst letters were returning to their ancient splendour, maxims of independence and hatred to tyrants began to diffuse themselves anew in Europe. The lower people found themselves oppressed by a multitude of petty sovereigns. Political liberty was scarcely known in Europe from the time that the Eoman nobility, (and not the tumults of the people, as affirmed by the blind defenders of the aristocracy) destroyed the exemptions and pre-emi- nences which the people had purchased with their blood. Tribunes the most eloquent and most dis- posed to defend the unhappy plebeian against the cunning of perfidious senators, if they were not to be conquered with gold and with menaces, were immediately falsely accused of all sorts of crimes, punished with the loss of their property, and expa- triated to the insalubrious shores of the Euxine, if not condemned to suffer an ignominious death. The nations lost their liberties and the desire to maintain them against the rigour of their enemies. Tyrants, then, aware that the Christian religion taught humility and patience in adversity, began to rule their subjects most cruelly without fear of vengeance from the sufferers, because the plebeians hitherto had not proceeded further than to defend the dominions of the nobles, when these had com- pelled them to exchange the plough and the spade for the lance and the shield, or, when the adver- 12 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. saries of another sect attempted by force of arms, to destroy the religion of Christ in the very lands they inhabited. This is not to be wondered at. Slavery, contrary to what is affirmed by modern authors, was not totally abolished by the propagation of the holy doctrines of Him who expired on the Cross to save mankind. It cannot be denied that even the apos- tolic see forbids, under grave penalties, that among Christians, Christians shall be slaves ; but there can be no doubt that slavery has continued many cen- turies, and even still continues in some parts of the world under a different name. In the middle ages, the plebeian was nothing else but a slave. The feudal lords, on selling or buying their lands, bought or sold them with their inhabitants ; true serfs, who could neither go out of the domains of their masters, nor undertake any work without their permission. Such slavery existed in Christian Europe in the middle ages, and in our own times, we have seen it in Hun- gary, Poland, and even E/ussia. If Greece and Rome in ancient times were obliged to have slaves to work the lands which free people had abandoned, in order to defend them by means of arms, or to enlarge the extent of their national boundaries : if the states were not able to defend themselves without the aid of such men, certainly in the middle ages, the nobility, who so little appre- ciated the rule of kings, maintained themselves, de- fying their competitors, with the forces they borrowed of their serfs. >wed THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 13 It is hard to say whether this slavery was worse than that of the ancient Greeks and Boinans : but those of the latter, it must be remembered, who could exercise any art or science for the public profit, were able to emancipate themselves ; whilst those in the barbarous nations of the middle ages bought the charter of their liberty by the lance and the impulse of their arm, in defending the lands of their lords. Monarchs and plebeians laboured together to pro- tect each other against the tyranny of the nobility : the former by means of the laws, and the latter by means of arms. This alliance was the loss of the sceptre of Castile to the wise king, Don Alonso X. : this alliance cost Don Pedro I. his throne, his repu- tation, and even his life : this alliance led the con- stable Don Alvaro de Luna to die on a public scaffold before the populace of Valladolid, to the dismay of those who had beheld him as the greatest of the great in the court of the king, Don Juan II., arresting, as it were, the very wheel of fortune on the summit of prosperity. At last victory was with the monarchs and with common-people. The slavery imposed by the lords gradually disappeared in almost all the states which followed the religion of Jesus Christ. Now it was about this same period, when the understanding threw off the yoke of ignorance, and when love of liberty began to revive, that Luther appeared in Germany demanding of the Eoman court a reformation in the church. 14 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. CHAPTEK II. IT is no part of my design to recount the life of the reformer Luther, nor the history of his followers, except those of them belonging to Spain, because that life and that history are both known to the world. It only belongs to me to notice the progress of his doctrines in our own country, which was great and rapid, if we are to believe Glonzalo de Illescas, a Catholic author, who says in his Historia Pontifical. " In past years, Lutheran heretics in greater or less numbers, were wont to be taken and burnt in Spain ; but all those that were so punished were foreigners, viz. Germans, Flemings, or Englishmen. At other times people poor and of mean birth, used to be sent to the scaffold, and to have San JBenitos* in the churches ; but in these later years, we have seen the prisons, the scaffolds, and even the burning pile crowded with illustrious people, and (what is even more to be deplored) persons who in the opi- nion of the world were greatly superior to others in letters and in virtue ... I withhold their names in order not to tarnish with their injured reputation, the fair fame of their descendants, or * A tunic and a rope, which were a badge of ignominy of those condemned by the Inquisition. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 15 even of some illustrious houses to whom this poison attaches. They were such and so many that it was believed if two or three months more had been suf- fered to elapse before applying a remedy to this mis- chief the conflagration would have spread itself all over Spain, and brought upon her the most dire mis- fortunes she has ever seen."* "While one Catholic author wrote in this way touching the Protestants, another, persecuted by " the tribunal of the faith," wrote freely from Amsterdam, his opinion in the following words : " In Spain, many very learned, many very noble, and many of the most distinguished of the gentry have for this cause been led forth to the scaffold. There is not a city, and if one may so speak, there is not a village, nor a hamlet, nor a noble house in Spain that has not had and still has one or more, that God of his infinite mercy, has enlightened with the light of his gospel. It is a common proverb in Spain in the present day, when speaking of a learned man, to say, he is so learned that he is in danger of being a Lutheran. Our adversaries have done what they could to put out this light of the gospel, and thus they have visited with loss of property, of life, and of honour, very many in Spain. And it is worthy of note, the more they threaten, scourge, ensambenitan, throw into the galleys, or perpetual imprisonment, or burn, the more they multiply, "f * Gronzalo de Illescas, Historia Pontifical, vol. ii. f " La Biblia. Que es, Los sacros libros del Viejo y Nuevo Testamento. Segunda Edicion. Revista y conferida con los 16 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. To such an extreme did Protestantism arrive in Spain. Pope Leo X., a little before Luther com- menced Ms preaching in Grermany, directed two briefs to the constable and to the admiral of Cas- tile, governors of those kingdoms in the absence of Charles I. In these documents, he admonishes them to the effect that they should forbid the entrv , into the Spanish monarchy, of the books of the German friar, and of those who maintained similar doctrines in disparagement of the Holy See. The Cardinal Adrian, inquisitor general, in obedi- ence to the wishes of the Pope, ordered on the 7th of April, 1521, the books of Luther, to be seized wherever they might be found. Doubtless the copies testos hebreos y griegos y con diversas traslaciones. For Cypriano de Valera. La palabra de Dios permanece para siempre. Esayas 40, 8. En Amsterdam. En casa de Lorenzo Jacobi M.D.C.II." The words copied in the text of this history are introduced by Valera into an exhortation which precedes the Bible. Very many ancient writers are of the opinion of Gronzalo de Illescas, and of Cypriano de Valera. The chronicler Antonio de Herrera in La Historia General del Mundo of 16 years in the time of the king, Philip II., (Madrid, 1601) says: " With the good diligence brought to bear by the Holy Office, the evil was marvellously cut short, which if neglected would have greatly increased." Francisco Nunez de Velasco says, in his Didlogos de contention entre la milicia y la ciencia, (Valladolid, 1614). In Spain it began to take root, (the venom of heresy), some who had com- municated with those infected kingdoms, bringing the pestilence with them. And if it had not been for the most vigilant care of the Fathers the Inquisitors. . . . that with suitable cauterisings with fire, cut down the cancer, the body of the Spanish republic would have been infected, it having commenced with some < principal members. j of the THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 17 introduced into Spain, were numerous, as the same inquisitor-general was under the necessity of re- peating these orders in 1523, which up to that period had been of little service. JTJAN DE VALDES. Juan de Valdes, descended from an illustrious family, a native (as it is believed) of Cuenca, and son of Don Fernando de Valdes, the corregidor and military commander of that ancient city, was one of the most famous Protestants which Spain ever produced. As a jurisconsult, notable in his age and highly valued by the Emperor Charles V., who held in much estimation his erudition in philosophy, theo- logy, languages and literature, he visited and con- versed with the greatest philosophers to be met with in his travels through Germany and Italy. His merits raised him to the situation of secretary to the Spanish Viceroy at Naples, in which city he dwelt for a considerable period. He followed the tenets of Luther and made many converts to his doctrines. He presided over the flower and wisdom of the nobility at the meetings which the Italian Protes- tants held in that opulent city. Mark Antony Maminius, the noted Latin poet; Peter Martyr Vermigli, and Bernardino Ochino, famous leaders of the Protestants in Italy ; Jacob Bonfadio, the his- torian of Geneva, and Peter Carnesechi, who after- wards came to such a horrible end, victims of their c 18 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. Protestant tenets and of the intolerance of tyrants; G-aleazo Caracciolo, Marquis of Vico, and Isabel Manrique who fled from her beloved country to live in the land of liberty without fear of the oppressor ; and lastly, the famous Duchess de Palliano Julia Gronzaga, a lady of the brightest intellect, of most consummate beauty, and of a vehement attachment to the opinions of Luther : these were some of the most faithful disciples of Valdes, who, at that time, were spreading his doctrines abroad in Italy. But even before this, Yaldes had attempted to diffuse them through the medium of a book, written with great skill and humour, in a pleasing style and with great originality of thought. I allude to two dialogues : one between Charon and Mercury, in which it is feigned that in the Stygian Lake, those two personages conversed on the wars which at that time afflicted Europe ; the other, between a gentleman, called Lactancius and an Archdeacon, being a discussion on the taking of Home by the Spaniards and Germans in 1527. In both these pamphlets, Yaldes attempted, with remarkable artifice, to imbue the minds of his readers with the doctrines of Luther. There is not the least doubt that those two dialogues laid the foundations of Protestantism in Spain. The author with great skill and ingenuity, ridiculed the practices of the Eoman Catholic Church, and the manner in which some of its ministers were living. The publication of these dialogues is notorious is, THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 19 in the history of Spanish Protestants, and so is the fact, that they were written by Juan de Valdes with the intention of initiating his fellow-countrymen into doctrines and matters of faith, as explained by the Lutherans. But the works of Valdes are en- titled to renown on other grounds. The maxims of political liberty which they enforce are worthy of notice, for, they prove that although Nicholas Machiavell wrote in Italy, some time afterwards, his book of The Prince (El Principe) with a view of tendering a snare to tyrants, by giving them their entire sway so that they might incur the indigna- tion of the people whom they desired to oppress ; and although that writer in entering upon the his- tory of Borne, drew from various events, examples and political maxims which were of so much service to Montesquieu in writing his Spirit of Laws, there were not wanting Spaniards, who also devoted their studies to matters of the state, and who, in works of that kind, proved themselves to be successful com- petitors for that profound knowledge of the human heart which shone so resplendently, and to so much advantage, in the secretary of the Florentine Ee- public. Valdes in the dialogue which he composed in the year 1527, makes the soul of a king descend into the infernal regions, and there to relate his life in the world and the counsels he left to his son, before quitting it. The political maxims are excellent, some of them are taken from Plato, Aristotle, and Seneca, but the most were originals of Valdes himself, c 2 20 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAKTS. deduced in a great measure no doubt, from an inti- mate acquaintance with ancient history.* 1 All the works of Valdes are written with a love of liberty worthy the highest praise. Among the same precepts which he feigns to be given by a king to his son and successor, in order to teach him the difficult art of governing his states, there are sentences so free that they appear rather to be dictated by the reading of the Social Contract of Jean Jaques Eousseau, than to have proceeded from the experience and sober genius of a Spaniard, * Some of the political precepts of Juan de Valdes, drawn from the dialogue between Charon and Mercury are these : " Take more care to improve than to extend thy dominions, endeavouring to imitate those who govern well their kingdoms, and not those who either wish to acquire others or to extend their own. For many in seeking others, lose their own." " The greatest want that princes have, is of some who might tell them the truth." " Grive then, full liberty to all who admonish thee, and repre- hend thee, and to those who do this freely. Take them for true friends. As much as thou exceedest thy subjects in honour and dignity, so much also oughtest thou to exceed them in virtue." " Endeavour rather to be beloved than feared ; for, by fear a kingdom cannot be long maintained. Whilst thou art only feared, thou wilt have to encounter many enemies : if beloved, thou wilt have no need to guard against them, for every vassal will be to thee a body guard." " Learn rather from history than experience, how bad and per- nicious a thing is war." w Thou wilt build a city in thine own lands at less cost than thou wilt conquer another abroad." rt Resolve never to make war through thine enmity, nor for thy own interest, and when thou dost make it, let it not be for thyself but for thy subjects, considering first what it will benefit them : and make it or leave it alone accordingly. If they will be better THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 21 bred in the court of Catholic kings. Let us take a sample : " Remember that there is a compact between the prince and the people, for if thou doest not what thou oughtest for thy subjects, neither are they obligated to do that which they ought towards thee." "With what face canst thou ask of them thy dues, if thou payest not to them theirs ? Remem- ber that they are men, and not beasts, and that thou art the pastor of men, and not a lord over sheep." " Since all men learn the art by which they live, make it, but only in extreme necessity. And first propose some treaty: for an unequal peace is better than a very just war." " Love those who freely reprehend thee and hate those who go about flattering thee. Look not to that company which will be most agreeable, but most profitable. There is no beast so poison- ous, no animal so pernicious to a prince as a flatterer ; and next to him an ambitious person." " As the common people never have the privilege of conversing with their prince, they always think he is pretty much like his favourites and ministers. If they are virtuous, he is also taken to be so, if wicked and vicious, he is presumed to be so likewise." " See then how much care thou oughtest to take in choosing those who are to be about thee and converse with thee." " Take heed how thou conferrest offices, benefices, and bishoprics. Plato says, none are worthy of office, but those on whom office is forced against their will. Never, then, confer thou office, benefice, or bishopric to him who asks it, but in asking it of thee whether for himself or for a third person, judge him at once incapable to exercise its functions, for either he knows what he asks for or not. If he knows not, he is not worthy of it : if he knows and asks it, he already shews himself to be proud, ambi- tious and bad." 22 THE SPANISH PEOTESTATs'TS. why shouldest not thou learn the art of being a prince, which is higher and more excellent than all others ? If thou contentest thyself with the name of king or prince, thou wilt lose it, and they will call thee a tyrant. He is not a true king nor a prince, who is descended from them, but he who by his works proves himself to be so. He is a king and a freeman who rules and governs himself; and he is a servant and a slave who knows not how to bridle his passions. If thou vainest liberty, why wilt thou serve thine appetites, which is the most turpid and wretched servitude of all ? Many free- men have I seen serving, and many slaves served. The slave is a servant by force, and he cannot be blamed for it, for he has it not in his power to be otherwise ; but the vicious who is a voluntary ser- vant, ought not to be counted among men. Love, then, liberty, and learn to be a true king." The work of Juan de Valdes was printed furtively in Venice, and without permission of the proper authority. The maxims of liberty in political and religious matters involved in the dialogue between Mercury and Charon, were sufficient to induce the Inquisition, looking to their own convenience and that of kings, to prohibit the reading of the book, in all the expurgatorial indexes of the Holy Office, under severe penalties ; and the preservation of the work is owing to the pen of one of the most learned men in Spain at that time. The sixteenth century was scarcely commencing to break the iron yokes with which ignorance and THE SPANISH PBOTESTAKTS. 23 barbarous superstition had so long oppressed it, when reason was about to become her own mistress, and truth to defend herself from the subtleties of error, when the gags of the Inquisition, its torments and its burnings contrived to seal the lips of all great thinkers, wringing from them confessions of crimes they never committed, and annihilating them amid the flames. Thus wicked men, assisted by the furies of the nethermost abyss, attempted to destroy, in Spain, the germs of liberty which were beginning to grow with vigour, and promised the best of fruits. But although these shoots were demolished, or crushed in the bud, there still remained the roots of the good seed which had been scattered. Tyranny may lord its jurisdiction over the body, and consign it to a tomb, or even to the burning pile, but it can seldom eradicate opinions from the minds of men. Many are the works attributed to Juan de Yaldes.* This famous Spanish Protestant died at * Seiior Don Pedro Jose Pidal in the erudite article published with the title of de Juan de Valdes y de si es el autor del dia- logo de las lenguas, made the following catalogue of the works of this Spanish Protestant. 1. Tralado utUisimo del Benefido de Jesucristo, a book ex- tremely rare, attributed by some to Vald^s, and by others to a monk of San Severino, his disciple. 2. Comentario o declaracion breve y compendio*a sobre la Epistola de San Paulo Apdstol a los romanos muy saludable para todo Christiano compuesto por Juan Valdesio, pio y sincere teologo En Venecia en casa de Juan Philadelpho M.D.LVI. 3. Comentario o declaracion familiar y compendiosa sobre la primera Epistola de San Paulo Apdstol a los corinthios, muy util para todos los amadores de la piedad cristiana. Compuesto por 24 THE SPANISH PKOTESTAKTS. Naples in the year 1540. He was a man of delicate constitution, weak in body and extremely slender. His disciples loved him most tenderly, and bitterly mourned his death, for a long space of time, during which they venerated his memory, remembering the happy days in which they listened with delight to the words of eloquence and wisdom, that fell from his lips. Very rare indeed is the work of Yaldes which is not prohibited by the Holy Office. Juan VV pio y sincere t^ologo. En Venecia, en casa de Juan Philadelpho M.D.LVII. 4. Los Psalmos de David traducidos del Hebreo en romance castellano. 5. One hundred and ten divine considerations. This work was translated into French with the following title. Cent et dix con- siderations divines de Jean de Valdesso. Traduites premier e- ment d'espagnol en langue italienne, et de nouveau mises en fran- cois par C. K. P. (Claude de Kequifinen parisien.) Lyon, par Charles Pesnot. Paris, par Mathurin Prevost, 1565. The Italian version of this work was printed in Basle, in 1550, It was also translated into English with notes, by Gfeorge Herbert, in 1646. 6. The Dialogue of Mercury and Charon, containing besides good and sound doctrine, a history of the war from the year 1521, until the appeals of the kings of France and of England, made to the Emperor in the year 1523, and treating particularly of the events which took place in Rome, in the year 1527, to the glory of God and universal good of the Christian republic. 8vo. but without year or place of impression. These dialogues were translated into Italian. 7. Modo di tenfr nell insegnare e nell prcdicare al principio della religione Christiana. This work is attributed to Juan de Valdes. The way of teaching and preaching at the beginning of the Christian Religion. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 25 / ALFONSO DE VALDES, Son of Fernando de Yaldes chief magistrate of the city of Cuenca, was brother of Juan, the celebrated protestant, who introduced the doctrines of Luther into Naples. He was indebted to Peter Martyr de Angleria, for a sincere friendship. They commu- nicated with each other most affectionately by letters. To this distinguished literary genius, he sent, from Brussels in 1520, a long letter, giving him an account of the commencement of Lutheranism in G-ermany. Alfonso de Yaldes discharged for some years the office of secretary of the high Chancellor of Charles Y. It is believed that he composed an account of the route of Pavia, in which king Francis I. of France, was taken prisoner by the Spanish leaders. I say it is believed, because from the copy of this work in existence in a printed form, it is not clearly shewn by satisfactory evidence, that Alfonso de Yaldes was the author, but merely that he published it by order of the council of Charles. This is its title : " Re- lation de las nuevas de Italia, sacadas de las cart as que los capitanes y comisario del Emperador, y Jtey nuestro senor nan escripto a su Magestat : asi de la victoria contra el rey de Francia, como de otras cosas alia acaecidas : vista y corregida por el senor gran chanciller e consejo de S. M" This very small pamphlet finishes with these words :* Los senor es * The Lords of the Council of his Majesty, have ordered me, Alfonso de Valde's, secretary of the High Chancellor, to print the present work. 26 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAOTS. del consejo de su majestat, mandaron a mi Alfonso de Valdes, secretario del illustre senor gran chanciller queficiese imprimir la presente relation Alfonso de Valdes." The most important work from the pen of this Spanish Protestant, is entitled "Aviso solre los interpreter de la sagrada Escritura"* if we are to place reliance on the critics who attribute this book to the secretary of the Chancellor of Charles V., against the opinion of those who contend that Juan, and not Alfonso, was its true author. There is so much confusion in the lives of those two Protestants, that it is difficult to single out the acts of one of them, without danger of falling into error, seeing that the surnames are identical, the doctrines are the same, the important offices they filled were also similar, and these coincidences, to- gether with the paucity of information preserved in Spain respecting them, only tend to throw doubts on the mind, in treating of the two Valdes, followers of the Lutheran doctrines in Spain. BODRIGO DE YALERO was the first who commenced preaching the doc- trines of the Protestants in the heart of our country. "About the year 1540 (says Cyprian de Yalero, a Protestant author) there lived in Seville one Rodrigo Yalero, a native of Lebrixa, where was born also the learned Antonio de Lebrixa, restorer of * Advice as to interpretations of the Sacred Scriptures. THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 27 the Latin language in Spain. Yalero passed his earliest years in vain and worldly exercises to which every rich young man is more or less addicted. I know not how, nor by what means, God was pleased to lead him to detest, as much as he had before loved, these things, and to dedicate himself to exercises of piety, reading and meditating on the sacred Scriptures, for which he found the little knowledge he had of the Latin tongue extremely valuable. He had every day in Seville, where he lived, disputes and debates with the clergy and friars : he told them to their faces that they were the cause of all the corruption that was not only in the ecclesiastical state, but even throughout the Christian republic : which corruption, he said, was so great, that there was no hope of amendment. And this he said, too, not in a corner, but in the middle of the squares and streets and public places of Seville."* After referring to the report, that Eodrigo de Valero was taken for a romancer and a fool, this author proceeds : " In conclusion, Valero, speaking so freely and constantly, was called before the inquisitors. He disputed boldly, and contended for the true church of Christ, its marks and signs, the justification of man and of other principal points of the Christian religion, a knowledge of which Valero had attained without any ministry or human aid, but by a pure and wonderful divine revelation. * Cypriano de Valera Tratado de los Papas. 28 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. " His foolishness, as the inquisitors called it, ex- cused him for that time, and they sent him away ; first confiscating everything lie had. But in spite of this loss of his property, he did not cease to continue as he had begun. After the lapse of a few years, he was again called before that tribunal ; and thinking still that he was mad, they did not burn him, but made him . recant, not at a public auto, but alone in the principal church between the two choirs. This was about the year 1555. With all his madness, they condemned him to a perpetual and very large sambenito, and to perpetual imprison- ment Erom hence they took him every Sunday, with other penitents, to the church of St. Salvador to hear mass and the sermon. Being there seated, hearing . . . and being a prisoner, he frequently rose up in the presence of all the people, when he conceived the doctrine to be false, and contradicted the preacher to his face. But the inquisitors, who at that time were not so bad, excused him under a belief that he was insane. He prided himself much in being an old Christian, and not of the race of Jews nor Moors. At last the inquisitors took him out of prison, and sent him to Sanlucar to a monastery there, called Nuestra Senora de Barrameda, where he died at the age of fifty and some odd years." Such is the narrative of the misfortunes of Eodrigo de Valero, the principal leader of the Protes- tants in the populous city of Seville. His adherents considered him as a man inspired by God to preach THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 29 the true gospel in Spain, and the inquisitors con- demned him as a pseu do-apostle. His sambenito was hung up in the cathedral church of Seville, where it served as the wonder of the vulgar of the city, and of those who came from foreign parts ; for at the foot of this monument was preserved an inscription to the effect that he was condemned as a pseudo-apostle and a Lutheran, a designation which, until then, had never been given to the penitents of the Holy Office. The noble-mindedness, the knowledge, the sim- plicity of life of Valero, as well as the novelty of the doctrines he maintained, attracted many fol- lowers who were distinguished, as well for their attainments in learning, as for their advanced posi- tion in society. 30 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. CHAPTEK III. DOCTOR JTJAN GIL, (KNOWN AS ^GIDIUS.) THIS Protestant was born in Olvera, a town in the kingdom of Arragon. He studied theology in the University of Alcala de Henares, until he received his doctor's degree with so much credit and renown, that many have compared him with Pedro Lom- bardo, St. Thomas de Aquinas, John Scotus, and other great men, distinguished for learning. The reputation of Juan Gil was the cause of his promotion to the office of magistral canon in the ecclesiastical court of Seville, by acclamation in 1537, without any literary contest, as was the usual practice. This election, which partook so little of the established usage of that cathedral church, brought upon Gril not only the hatred of those who were aspiring to the post which he had gained, but the murmurs of the vulgar, always the blind instrument of those who know how to direct it in their own way, and to their own profit. Gril, from the first day of his promotion, was looked upon by many with indignation. When he preached for the first time in the cathedral church of Seville, there was still greater bitterness of feel- ing against him. All were expecting from his THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 31 great reputation a discourse which in many re- spects would be striking and remarkable ; but when they saw that the new magistral canon appeared to be far inferior in merit to what his fame had, as it were, with cymbals and trumpets proclaimed throughout Spain, the feelings of hope and admira- tion became exchanged for those of envy, hatred, and contempt. Eodrigo de Yalero, on a certain occasion, advised ^Egidius (as Gil was called) to abandon the reading of uninspired theological books, since they taught nothing useful ; and that if he wished to be truly wise, he ought to learn and study day and night the precepts and doctrines of the Bible, which he would find to be healthful to the spirit, and consol- ing in adversity. Gil adopted this advice, and soon acquired the name of a celebrated preacher. The malice of his emulators was newly awakened, and many of them conspired against him. At this time, Caesar Charles V., who was a great lover of learning and morality, nominated the doctor to fill the see of Tortosa. This appointment in- creased the rage of his enemies, of which the num- ber was great, and induced them to denounce him to the Holy Office of the Inquisition as the propa- gator of Lutheranism, which was then beginning to extend itself through the city, by the help of the disciples of Valero and his other adherents, who, with more secrecy than Gil, were disseminating those doctrines among the people. The denouncers of Gil reported to the judges of 32 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. the tribunal of the faith, that in 1540 this canon had obstinately defended Valero during the time of his trial. The unhappy doctor, a prisoner in the Inquisition, wrote an apology for the doctrines he had main- tained in the pulpit of the cathedral of Seville ; but even in this work were found some sentences so Lutheran, that instead of his labour proving to him a defence, it only became the foundation of new and more terrible accusations. Spanish divines saw in the written apology a ratification of the tenets he was charged with having preached. Notwithstanding matters had arrived at such an extremity, Charles, induced by the many and good protectors and friends of the Protestant canon in the court, interceded for him with the inquisitors : the chapter of Seville followed the example of the emperor, and so did the Licenciate Correa, a judge of the Holy Office, in opposition to his colleague, Don Pedro Diaz, a member of that tribunal, and who was himself a renegade disciple of Valero. Gril petitioned to be heard in conference with some of the most noted divines of the day ; and in compliance with his wishes, the inquisitors intro- duced to him friar Grarcia de Arias, a monk of the order of San Jerome, and a Protestant, though secretly for fear of the Holy Office. The opinion of Arias, favourable to the canon, was not held suffi- cient to exculpate him. A doininiean friar, professor in Salamanca, called Domingo de Soto, was sent to Seville by the inqui- THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 33 sitors, with a view of examining the propositions which formed the foundation of the charge. Soto was a wicked, hypocritical fellow ; and, anxious to ruin Gil for ever, suggested to him that in order to clear up the suspicions entertained against his doc- trines, each of them ought to write out a kind of creed, a profession of his faith, or manifesto of his opinions touching the points in dispute. The doctor did so, and sent his performance to the friar. The friar did the same, and the two concerted the thing so well, that between one production and the other, there was not the least substantial difference. The inquisitors, however, observing this coinci- dence, ordered that the two professions of faith should be read publicly in the cathedral of Seville, with a view of treating the matter with greater so- lemnity. De Soto preached a sermon on the occa- sion, declaring the object of that ceremony, which, in appearance, was nothing less than that every one might have an opportunity to state what he felt touching the propositions of Doctor ^Egidius, which were reported by some persons to be Lutheran. De Soto, having finished his discourse, read, not the paper which he had concocted with the Protes- tant canon, but one entirely diverse, in which he declared his opinion to be contrary, in everything, to the doctrines of Gil. It happened that the pulpit of De Soto was so dis- tant from that of the accused doctor, that the latter, in spite of every effort, could not hear the reading of his false friend, but as he relied on his promises, D 34 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. he, both with his features and his hands, made signs of approbation to every sentence the dominican friar was cunningly reading. As soon as De Soto had finished his manifesto > Gil gave his in a clear and distinct voice. The audience were amazed at the want of conformity between the two documents, and the members of the Inquisition could not do less than declare that Gril was a suspicious culprit in the heresies of Luther. Don Juan Antonio Llorente, in the Critical His- tory of the Inquisition in Spain, assures us on the testimony of a Protestant Sevillian,* that the judges of that tribunal pronounced sentence against Gril, and that he remained in prison, unable to under- stand why he was so unjustly treated after the two documents had been read before the people and the principal nobility and clergy of Seville, conformable (as he believed) to each other, in explaining, in a catholic sense, the censured doctrines. But I think there is in this a palpable error. Doctor Gril then went forth from the secret cells of the Holy Office, in order to make a public abjura- tion of many of the passages in his sermons. This took place in Seville cathedral between the two choirs, on Sunday, August 21st, 1552. The "act" of this ceremony, which I have now before me, commences in this form : "Forasmuch as I, Doctor Juan Gil, Canon of the Holy Cathedral Church of Seville, have been * Raimundo Gronzales de Montes. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 35 denounced and accused in the Office of the Holy Inquisition, of having promulgated certain propo- sitions which were a scandal to many persons, because calculated to be taken or understood in an erroneous and heretical sense against our holy catholic faith; and although I have never been pertinacious, and may not have been condemned in the penalties against such discovered heresies ; but have been commanded to retract the said pro- positions, abjure some of them, and declare others ; therefore, as an obedient son of the Holy Mother Church, submitting to its correction, and availing myself of its mercy, I abjure and retract and declare in the form following."* All the propositions which Gil retracted were Lutheran. The sentence pronounced upon him was this : " We condemn him to one year's imprisonment within the castle of Triana ; and during that year, we concede to him the privilege of coming to the principal church fifteen times, either successively or interpolatedly, as he may desire, so that he comes and goes by the direct way. Further, that he fast every Friday in that year, and confess once a month, receive the sacrament at the discretion of his confessor, and that he shall not quit the Spanish dominions during the term of his life. Also, we * The MS. of this document is in the library of Don Fernando Colon, in the cathedral of Seville. Llorente, in his History of the Inquisition, says nothing about this ceremony of abjuration by Juan Gil. 3)2 36 THE SPANISH PEOTESTAISTTS. deprive him for ten years from exercising the func- tions of a confessor, a preacher, professor, or lecturer on the sacred scriptures: he shall neither write, maintain, nor argue, nor take a part nor be found in any public act or business. Further, that he shall not say mass during the whole of this first year." Such was the sentence pronounced by the inqui- sitors, in the prosecution against the Protestant Doctor Juan Gil, Canon of the Cathedral of Seville. During the period of his punishment, this un- happy ecclesiastic found consolation in the study of philosophy and divinity. In the castle of Triana, the place of his captivity, he composed some com- mentaries on Genesis, on St. Paul's Epistle to the Colossians, the Song of Solomon, and some of the Psalms of King David. I believe he also wrote a work, entitled Tobias de las igualaciones de los planet as, which is extant in MS. in the Library of Seville Cathedral. The doctor was at last set at liberty after a long confinement in the dungeons of the Holy Office. He took a journey to Yalladolid, where he had much intercourse with the Protestants who were there secretly met together, and shortly after his return to Seville, he became afflicted with a severe illness, which carried him to his grave in the year 1556. The inquisitors, being made acquainted with his interviews with the Protestants of Yalladolid, and of his re-imbibing Lutheran opinions, opened a new prosecution, ordered his body to be disinterred, THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 37 burnt it with his effigy in a public auto-de-fe, confis- cated his property, and covered his memory with infamy. This sentence was executed 22nd Decem- ber, 1560. ERANCISCO DE EKZINAS was born at Burgos. The place of his studies was the University of Louvain, in which he took the name of a great Theologian and Philologist. Philip Melancthon was his master. Between them there existed the most cordial friendship, and hence we find that the protestant doctrines had entire possession of his mind. Enzinas, desirous of contributing to the propaga- tion of these doctrines, translated into the Castilian language the New Testament, which he published at Antwerp, in 1543. He dedicated the work to the Emperor Charles V., to whom he presented a copy at Brussels. This work was the occasion of great disputes among the Flemish divines. Enzinas had followed the Latin version by Erasmus ; but now and then leaving the text, and introducing, without any inti- mation to the reader, some words which appeared better adapted to convey the sense in the Spanish translation. He composed, in Latin, at great length, an account of all his contests with certain divines of the Low Countries, and this he dedicated to his friend and master Melancthon. In spite of the arguments with which he defended 38 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. himself, and contrived to diminish the gravity of the charges brought against him by the Catholic divines, he was made a prisoner at Brussels as the propagator of heresies. Eut in this state he continued a very short time, for he contrived to break his fetters, and escape to Germany in 1543, where Melancthon received him with open arms, lodged him in his house, and gave him great proofs of his friendship and esteem. In 1548, Enzinas wished to cross over to England. His master recommended him to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, giving at the same time such a eulogy on the genius, erudition, goodness of spirit, and simplicity of manners of his pupil, that very few ever enjoyed, in so high a degree as he did, such clear and repeated proofs of affection and esteem from that prelate. Melancthon, in his letter to Cranmer, called Enzinas Francisco Dryander, a sort of a Greek translation of his real name, given to the Spanish Protestant by his friends, with a view of protecting him against the fury of the Inquisition. Others gave him the name of Prancisco du Chesne, a word which, in Trench, is equivalent to the word Fnzina* This Protestant died in Germany. His works are various : " El nuevo testamento de Nuestro Redemptor y Salvador Jesu Ckristo, traducido de griego en lengua castellana por Francisco de Enzinas, dedicado a la * The word signifies in Castilian ever-green oak. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 39 Cesdrea Magestad. En Anvers, en casa de Esteban Meerman, 1543." " Breve description del Pdis Baxo y razon de la religion en Espana" " Las vidas de dos illustres varones, Oimon griego, y Lucio Lucullo, romano, puestas alparangon la una de la otra, escritas primer o en lengua griega por el grave Philosopho y verdadero Jiistoriador PlutarcJio de Cheronea, y al presente traducidas en estilo cas- tellano, M.D.XLVII." One volume in quarto with- out printer's name or place of publication.* " El primero volumen de las vidas de illustres y excellentes varones griegos y romanos, pareadas, escritas primero en lengua griega por el grave Phi- losopJio y verdadero Jiistoriador Plutarco de Cheronea, e al presente traduzidas en estilo castellano. Por Francisco de Enzinas. En Argentina en casa de Augustin Frisio, ano del senor de M.D.LI." This work was dedicated " Al invictissimo MonarcJia Don Carlos, Emperador, Semper Augusto, Itey de Espana, d'Alemania" etc. It contained the lives of Theseus andKomulus,Lycurgus, and Numa Pompilius, Solon and Publicola, Themistocles and Eurius Camillus. I do not know whether he was the author also of * Enzinas concealing his name from the reader in this work which is extremely rare, says : " As a specimen of most arduous labour we have brought to light this small publication. If it be favourably received by our nation and with that gratitude and benevolence which the intolerable fatigue of so long and difficult a labour leads one to expect, we shall shortly, (God willing) bring out the entire work of Plutarch, the greater part of which is already in an advanced state." 40 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. a very scarce translation of the Decads of Titus Livius, published at Antwerp in 1553. FRANCISCO DE SAN ROMAN, son of the chief magistrate of Bribiesca, was born at Burgos. Eaised by his high order of genius, and singular attachment to the study of divinity and philosophy, he passed his early years in Flanders, with the intention of taking his degree in the University of Louvain, much celebrated at that time in Europe. The fruits of his vigils and incessant reading, were a catechism and other ascetical works, which he published at Antwerp, and which, con- taining suspicious maxims, were prohibited by the Holy Office. In a journey which he made to Brema in 1545, he openly declared himself a Lutheran. Immedi- ately on his return, his relations and friends not touched with the views of the Protestants, attempted to bring him back to the bosom of the Catholic church, but all their efforts were in vain. Francisco de Enzinas, in Louvain, had confirmed San Eoman in Protestant opinions in such a manner, that in a short time the latter found himself the occupant of a very narrow prison in Eatisbon, by order of Charles Y. San Eoman was brought to Spain, and confined in the dungeons of the Holy Office of the Inquisi- tion of Valladolid. He was burnt alive in that town as an impenitent Lutheran. The celebrated friar, THE SPANISH PEOTESTASTS. 41 Bartolome de Carranza, afterwards Archbishop of Toledo, whose life will be given at some length in the present history, preached the sermon in the most solemn auto-de-fe, in which Francisco suffered the penalty of death at the stake, with a heroism equal only in greatness to the cruelty of his judges. It is not exactly known in what year this unhappy Lutheran perished ; but I imagine that event must have happened in 1545 or 1546. It was in this manner that the inquisitors began to clip the wings which Protestantism was then taking in Spain. DOCTOR JUAK DE EKZIKAS, was brother of Francisco, the famous translator of the ISTew Testament, and of the parallel lives of Plutarch. Ambitious of study in the distinguished universities of Europe, he travelled in Flanders and Germany, where at last, influenced by his brother, he became devoted to the doctrines of Luther. While Juan de Yaldes was preaching them secretly in the city of Naples, Doctor Juan de Enzinas, was diffusing them in Borne. Much time, however, was not suffered to elapse before the Eoman Inquisition took cognizance of his discourses ; and after throwing him into prison, they confiscated his property, and consigned him to the flames in 1546. 42 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. DOCTOE JUAN DIAZ is one of the most unhappy victims presented to us in the history of those who perished by the hands of a barbarous intolerance. He studied divinity for thirteen years in the University of Paris, and in 1543, set out to Home with a brother named Alonso, a barrister of the sacred Eota. In this city, he held familiar intercourse with Doctor Juan de Enzinas, through whose friendship and conver- sations, he acquired a knowledge of the Protestant tenets. Desirous of living in a land of liberty, he quitted Rome, and took refuge in Geneva ; and there, by his intercourse with Calvin, he became more devoted to the opinions of those who were clamorous for reformation. Prom Geneva, he proceeded to Ger- many, and Neoburg was the place he selected for his residence. The Lutheran, Martin Bucero, preached his doc- trines in this city, which were conformable to those entertained by our Spanish Protestant, Juan Diaz ; so that in a short time, the doctor was a more expert and devoted disciple than Bucero himself. The fame of Juan Diaz arrived at such a pitch, that the Senate of Neoburg, on the entreaty of Bucero, named him to go, in conjunction with the latter, and represent that city at the conference appointed by Charles Y. at Eatisbon. So great was the reputation which Juan Diaz acquired out of his own country, and so highly was THE SPANISH PHOTESTANTS. 43 he esteemed in Germany for his wisdom and his learning. The Catholic divines of Spain, which Charles had sent to Eatisbon, were indignant at seeing him the representative of a protestant city, and having for his colleague one of the most ardent leaders of the Eeformation. The celebrated Doctor Pedro de Maluenda could not do less than reprehend Diaz, and that most warmly ; but his answers soon obliged Maluenda to moderate his anger, and restrain himself in silence in the presence of so stern a reformer. Some friends of his brother, Doctor Alonso, at Eatisbon, wrote to the latter at Eome, complain- ing of the scandal brought upon the Spanish eccle- siastics, at seeing the son and relative of Catholics converted, not only into a follower, but a chief of the Protestants in a German city. The advocate of the sacred Eota, burning with rage, left his own affairs to shift for themselves, took the road for Eatisbon with all possible haste, and most unex- pectedly presented himself before his brother, bent on the resolution of drawing him back to the pale of the Eoman Catholic church, or to deprive him of his life. Great, indeed, was the surprise of Juan Diaz to see his brother Doctor Alonso before him in Eatis- bon ; that brother who was one of the greatest fanatics of the age. Alonso, with any thing but calm reasoning, with words of violence rather than persuasion, threw in 44 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. the teeth of his brother, with great rage and bitter- ness, the disgrace which he alleged had been brought by Juan upon Alonso and his whole family. Still Juan was firm still he persisted in maintaining his opinions and in declaring that he would defend them whilst he had breath to do so ; whereupon the excited, the barbarous and indignant Alonso, laying his hand upon his sword, drew it from the scabbard, and plunged it into the heart of his ill- fated brother, who instantly fell dead at his feet. The news of this dreadful crime filled the minds of all the then residents of Eatisbon, as well Catholics as Protestants with the greatest conster- nation. Some there were who even applauded the deed, and affirmed that Doctor Alonso had equalled the illustrious men of ancient Greece and Rome, who had valued more than their own blood a desire to preserve pure and unspotted the honour which they had inherited from their progenitors. Others could not do less than raise their complaints to heaven against so horrible and so atrocious a crime, the result of a barbarous fanaticism, bordering on absolute madness. Charles V. ordered Doctor Alonso to be appre- hended. His imprisonment, however, was not of a severe description. In a short time, Caesar, over- come by the entreaties of the Catholic clergy, who canonized the crime when committed on the persons of Protestants for questions of the faith, gave him his liberty, and promoted him afterwards to more honours and dignities. Thus did the execrable fra- THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 45 tricide escape with impunity thus was supersti- tion wont to give crimes the names of virtues : thus with complacency did the clergy survey the spectacle of the gory body of Juan Diaz, murdered by his own brother, for maintaining doctrines op- posed to their own. Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum ! 46 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. CHAPTER IY. WHILST Charles Y. was wasting all his treasures and the blood of his vassals in reducing the Grer- mans to obedience to the Roman See, wandering as they were from it, he received many indignities at the hands of the Pontiff. Juan Pedro Carrafa, a Neapolitan knight, having been elected to the Pontificate, and being a vassal of Charles Y., and, in short, a man who hated the Spaniards to the death, made a league with the king of France, and declared the emperor and his son Don Philip to be heretics, schismatics, and authors of heresies. This proceeded from attempts of Paul IY. to include within the dominion of the Church the lands which composed the Neapolitan states. The Pope had arrested Garcilaso de la Yega, lord of the towns of Arcos, Batres, and Cuevas, who had gone to Rome with the embassy of Philip II., he having commenced to reign in consequence of the abdication of his father. The cause of this indiscreet action of Paul IY. is by various historians recounted in a manner con- formable to the sentiments and opinions of each, but most are agreed that the Pope took for his ex- cuse some letter which Garcilaso had written in THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 47 ciphers to the Viceroy of Naples, and which letter was found in the soles of a post-boy's shoes. Prom this act Philip took great umbrage. He commanded the Duke of Alba, that, without the loss of a single moment, he should enter into the Pontifical dominions with fire and blood. Before giving these directions, he had consulted the opi- nions of many lawyers and divines, (among others the famous Melchor Cano) who, with common as- sent, declared that when the Pope went out of his spiritual jurisdiction, and entered that of the tem- poral, it was necessary to drive him out of the latter, first by reasons, and if these should fail, then by the sword. The Duke of Alba, a brave captain, but more bold than prudent, had scarcely received the orders of Philip II. than he prepared his troops to take the field against Eome ; but before setting out, he ad- dressed to Paul IY. the following most extraordi- nary letter : COPY OF THE LETTER OF THE DUKE OF ALBA TO POPE PAUL IV. " Most Holy Senor, " I have received the brief which was handed to me by Dominico del Nero, and heard that which on the part of your Holiness he has told me by word of mouth, which was, in effect, a desire to smooth and justify the offences against his Majesty, in the person of the Conde de St. Valentine, sent 48 THE SPANISH PKOTESTAtfTS. as representative to your Holiness ; and because the answers are not such as are sufficient to justify or excuse the deed, it has not appeared to me ne- cessary to give any other reply, the more especially as your Holiness afterwards proceeded to things more prejudicial, and wrongs more grievous, which show, without disguise, the will and intention of your Holiness. And because your Holiness wishes to persuade me to lay down arms, without offering any security on your part, in respect of the affairs, dominions, and estates of his majesty, the preser- vation of which is all I desire, it appears to me fit, as a last effort and a justification of my con- duct, to send with this Pirro de Loffredo, a Neapo- litan gentleman, to make known to your Holiness what by others of my people I have sometimes done before, and which is : that my lords, their Majesties Caesar and the King Philip, being most obedient and true defenders of the Holy Apostolical See, up to the present, have passively suffered many offences from your Holiness, each of which has given to them just occasion for resentment, in such way as to them might seem fit : your Holiness having from the com- mencement of your Pontificate, begun to oppress, per- secute, imprison, and to deprive of their property, the servants, vassals and followers of their majesties, and having afterwards solicited and importuned princes, potentates, and Christian powers, to enter into a league with you to the injury of the states, dominions, and kingdoms of their majesties, ordering the couriers of their ministers to be arrested, taking from them THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 49 and reading the despatches which they carried a proceeding which only an enemy is wont to take : also, your Holiness has favoured, assisted, given offices, benefices, and commands to the rebels and delinquents of their majesties, availing yourself of them in charges and places in which they might cause disaffection to their states and kingdoms : besides this, your Holiness has caused foreigners to come into the possessions of the church, without any other motive than the mischievous intention of occupying this kingdom, all which is confirmed by the fact that your Holiness has secretly raised both horse and foot soldiers, and sent a considerable part of them to the frontiers : and not ceasing from your design, you have ordered Juan Antonio de Tassis, postmaster, to be arrested and cruelly tor- tured, taking away that office which their majesties and their predecessors had always been accustomed to hold in Eome. Not content with this, you have imprisoned and maltreated G-arcilaso de la Yega, a servant of his majesty, who had been sent to your Holiness for purposes which you well know: and you have often publicly uttered expressions of such a nature in prejudice of their majesties, as were inconsistent with decency and the paternal love of the Holy Pontiff. All which, and many other things, as it is said, they have suffered, more for the respect which is entertained for the holy Apos- tolic See, than for anything else ; hoping always that your Holiness might be induced to perceive and to take a better course ; not being able to believe that 50 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. jour Holiness, for the sake of benefiting and ag- grandizing your relations, would wish, to disturb the quiet of Christendom and of this Holy See, especially in those times so prevalent with heresies and mischievous opinions, which it would be more just and convenient to attempt to gainsay and cor- rect, and not to think of offending their majesties without a cause. However, seeing that the thing has arrived at such a pitch, and that your Holiness has permitted the fiscal-procurator and advocate of the Holy See to make, in your presence, in the public consistory court, the unjust, iniquitous, and temera- rious demand, that my lord the king may quit the kingdom of Naples, accepting and consenting to that demand at the desire of your Holiness, when you may please to order it : and seeing that in the monition dispatched against Aseanio de la Coma;, your Holi- ness publishes his majesty to be an enemy to this Holy See : and that the Conde de St. Valentine has spoken in public most scandalous words against their majesties : knowing clearly your dissatisfaction with the truce made, though so necessary and pro- fitable to all Christendom : and that you are not content to increase and aggrandize your favourites through the medium and good pleasure of his majesty : his majesty having so often offered to do so at the expense of Ms own possessions and patri- mony : in all which is given openly to understand, that your design is no other than to offend their majesties : as also you avowed before being made Pope, during the time of the disturbances at Naples, THE SPANISH PBOTE STARTS. 51 that you did not fail to advise and solicit Pope Paul III. to invade the kingdom, and persuade him that he ought not to lose that conjuncture : all these aforesaid things being as they are, and knowing clearly, that from them there is nothing to expect but the loss to their majesties of their reputation, states and kingdoms, after having used with your Holiness, as has been seen, all compliments and forms ; your Holiness having, in fine, reduced his majesty to so strait and extreme a necessity, that any son, how- ever obedient, if he were thus treated and oppressed by his own father, would not fail to defend himself, and deprive his antagonist of the arms with which he wished to offend : not being able to fail in my own obligations as minister to whose charge the states of his majesty in Italy are committed, I shall be constrained to take means for their defence : en- deavouring with the favour and help of Grod, to take from your Holiness the forces with which you assail them, in the best manner that I can ; and although I could excuse myself with similar justifications, having so often done so with your Holiness, still, as zealous for the peace of Christendom, I am desirous that wearied Italy may enjoy some repose ; and for the respect and reverence which their majesties have towards this Holy See, I wish now, this last time, to supplicate and entreat your Holiness, throw- ing myself at your feet, that you may be pleased to regard the infinite troubles with which our Lord has permitted Christianity to be loaded, and the innumerable miseries, calamities and extreme neces- E2 52 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. sity in which, not without suspicion of pestilence, she finds herself; the incredible mischiefs, the in- sufferable destructions, the cruel homicides with manifest danger of the loss of souls, the pillage and incendiarisms, depopulation of cities and lands, rapes, and adulteries, and other infinite evils which are engendered in war without being able to pre- vent them ; and as a good pastor you may be pleased to cast aside the hatred and desire which you have to offend their majesties, their states and king- doms : and that you may be pleased to receive and embrace with charity and with paternal love his majesty my lord the king : who, following the steps of his father, has always offered, and anew offers, his own person, and all his forces in the service of the Holy See ; and since that the omnipo- tent and supreme Grod, at the end of such great troubles, overruling with his goodness and mercies our infinite sins, has been pleased to give us re- pose and necessary relief and quiet from war ; your Holiness does not wish it, with the intention and desire of aggrandizing your dependants, being already able, as I have said, to do this with the good pleasure of his majesty in the kingdom, with per- petual peace, which his majesty offers to you, without disturbing the good which he has conceded to Christendom ; moreover, as a true shepherd, deputed to preserve, and not leave to be devoured, the sheep committed to your charge, that you may be pleased to allow the Christian people, after so many and such continuous injuries, which they THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 53 have suffered, to enjoy so blessed a grace, reposing and resting in a truce of perpetual peace. And should your Holiness be pleased (as is reasonable and as I hope) to grant this, I implore you to order that by the most convenient and proper ways and means, his majesty may be assured that no offence will be committed either against his majesty or his kingdom, or in other of his domi- nions, satisfying particularly all the aforesaid, and providing against the mischiefs which might ensue, that I, in the name of his majesty, may offer most promptly to do the same, certifying and assuring that his majesty has no pretension against your Holiness, nor the least intention to diminish one particle of the dominion and state of the Holy Apostolical See : and that neither he, nor his ser- vants, nor adherents, desire any thing else than to remain assured that your Holiness will not molest or disturb his majesty, his states or his kingdoms : And thus I protest to Glod and to your Holiness, and to all the world, that if your Holiness without delay of time shall not be pleased to do and execute the aforesaid, I shall set about defending the kingdom in the best way I can: and the evils resulting from this, will fall on the soul and con- science of your Holiness. All the above being said, I shall esteem it a great favour if your Holiness will order communication to be made with the sacred holy college, giving to it liberty to say what it may feeL I am certain that not only it will not dissuade your Holiness from the way of peace and quietude, 54? THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. which his majesty and his ministers ardently desire, but that as pillars and props of the Holy Church they will assist to procure it : for which with great fervour I remain, beseeching our Lord that he may put into the mind of your Holiness, a disposition to follow out the same, so that with tranquillity and love you may be able to order us all, and we, as is just, to obey your blessed person, which God guard for many long years as Christendom requires. From Naples the 21st August, 1556."* * This most important document is found in a book, entitled De la guerra de Campana de Roma y del Reyno de Ndpoles en el Pontificado de Paulo IV., por Alejandro Andrea (Madrid, 1589) and in the Mesultas de la vida de Don Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, tercero duque deAlva, escrita por Juan, Antonio de Vera y Figueroa, conde de la Roca. (Milan, without date of printing.) There exists in the Bibliotheca Nacional a copy in MS. of this letter and conformable to that published by Andrea and Vera. But such as it is, it differs much from the original Latin which was published by Geronimo Euscelli in Venice, in the year 1572. The Duke of Alba, if we are to put faith in the Latin text, threw in the teeth of the Pope, that he had " commanded the couriers to be arrested as well as those of the principal ministers (of Philip II.) depriving them of their despatches and opening these and all letters : an act certainly which only an enemy would be wont to do, but without precedent, and which causes a species of horror to all the world, the like never having been practised before by a Pope towards a King so Catholic and just as is my Lord, and a thing in short which your Holiness will never be able to blot out from the page of history, a stain with which your name, shall be handed down to posterity, for even those Anti- Pope-schismatics, who wanted little or nothing in order to fill Christianity with heresies, would never haye thought of perpe- trating such an act." He says also, speaking of the cruelties committed by Paul IV., on the persons of some vassals of Philip II. : " it will not appear THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 55 The Pope seeing how numerous and how great were the forces with which the furious Duke of Alba strange to any body, if I take that vengeance which corresponds with, such vile conduct ; for the son may take the life of the father, if the latter he intent on taking that of the former, and there be no other way to save it." And then, he continues, " These aforesaid things then, being in the state in which they are, and knowing clearly that we can only expect from them loss of reputation, honour, and even vassals of my lord the king ; after having used with your Holiness all compliments and terms that have been seen and are public, your Holiness having at last reduced my lord the king to such a strait necessity in which no most obedient son, if he were thus oppressed and treated by his father, would forbear to defend himself, and take away from him his arms by which he might wish to offend, and not being able to fail in my obligations which I owe to my king, to my blood and to my country, nor to the great ministry which is confided to my charge, which is the good government and defence of the states of my lord the king in Italy, nor to brook that your Holiness shall do such evil deeds and cause such opprobriums and disgusts to the king and mischief to his good vassals, failing me of patience to suffer such things of your Holiness to be repeated, I shall be forced, not only to not lay down arms, as your Holiness desires me, but to provide myself with new levies which I have both ready and willing for the defence of the states of my lord the king, and even to put Rome into that extremity which she knows in her depravity has been avoided through respect, and that they may know how to demolish her walls when patience ends and reason begins." And then he adds," Should I not receive in eight days a catego- rical answer, that will be to me a certain proof that you wish to be a step-father and not a father, a wolf and not a shepherd, and I shall proceed to treat you as the latter, not as the former." These and other words the Duke of Alba, dared to address to God's Yicar in the world, the successor of St. Peter, the Roman Pontiff. I have preferred giving in the body of my work, the Castilian translation of this letter ; it seems much at variance with the ori- ginal Latin which was published in Venice, by Gteronimo RuscelH. 56 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. was entering into his states, how resolutely he went desolating his territories, and how without opposi- tion he was taking the best and greatest cities, and that he was already approaching Home, threatening to attack its walls, and to renew the pillage which was made in the life of Clement VII. by the powerful army of the Duke of Bourbon, asked for peace in the humblest terms. Alba did not wish to assent, unless Paul should first confess in the treaty all the misdemeanours of which he had been guilty towards the Emperor Charles and King Philip, and his friends and vassals ; nay more than this, that for all these offences, he should manifest his repentance, entreat pardon of the Spanish monarch, and promise not to offend again. Astounded with these propositions, Paul, know- ing that in negotiating the business with the Duke of Alba, nothing favourable nor honourable to his dignity would be the result, sent the heads of the treaty at once to Philip. Thereupon, the king wrote to the duke, commanding him to ratify and sign the treaty in his name, without conditions which might be dishonourable to the Apostolical See. The Duke of Alba was much displeased with the orders of his master, but he did not delay to put them in execution in so shameful a manner as asto- nished all Europe. One of the heads of the treaty ran thus : " His Holiness shall receive from the Catholic King, by the mouth of the Duke of Alba, all submissions necessary to obtain pardon for the offences committed." THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 57 The capitulation being concluded, the Spanish general entered Borne, not as a conqueror, but as conquered, and asked, upon his knees, pardon of the Pope for what he had written and done for King Philip II., and even for the Emperor Charles V., who were absolved from the censures which they had incurred, each in his own way, in levying war against the court of Rome. The pride and the vanity of Paul IV. was con- tented with the end (so disgraceful to the King of Spain) of so many menaces by word and writing, and of the subjection of so many cities and towns in the pontifical states. It is even reported, that the Pope said in the consistory of cardinals, on the same day in which he gave absolution to the Duke of Alba, " I have now rendered to the Apostolical See the most important service she can ever receive. The example of the King of Spain will serve the sovereign pontiffs, in future times, to mortify the pride of princes, who know not how far the terms of legitimate obedience to the visible head of the church ought to extend." The Duke of Alba, on the contrary, spoke with the leaders of his army near to the Pope, in dis- jointed sentences, saying among others, " The king, my master, has incurred great blame. If, changing conditions, I had been King of Spain, the Cardinal Carrafa should have gone to Brussels to do on his knees before Philip II. what I have to-day done before Paul IV." The reputation of Philip was great, in his time, 58 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. among the Catholics, who esteemed Mm as a good politician. The Protestants however of that day, accused him of being an evil-doer, and a king of but little capacity in the government of his people. The writers of the close of the last and those of the beginning of the present century were of this opi- nion. But as fashion presumes to have jurisdiction even in history, during the last few years there have not been wanting authors who, despising sound rea- son or armed with ignorance, trusting only to their own way of thinking, and to the faith of their own thoughts and assertions, have attempted to restore the memory of Philip II., so much censured by those severe writers who have attempted to give to the world a faithful portrait of the life and deeds of that king, famous as he was for his power in Europe, during the sixteenth century. King Philip II. has been the object of a thousand doubts and contentions among both Spanish and foreign historians. Those who wrote his life in our own country, were chroniclers paid by the crown of Castile to applaud the actions of its monarchs ; so that really their testimony in the estimation of good criticism is not worthy the faith which some would attach to it. The reason is very simple. How can it be inferred that truth has served as a rule to men who were compelled by their very office, in the com- position of their histories, to write precisely what kings wished them to write ? Foreign authors of the time of Philip II. might be guided by hatred be- cause he was, in contradiction to almost all Europe, THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. 59 a defender of the Apostolical See. Founded on tliis circumstance, many modern authors have attempted to restore in the world the reputation of Philip, re- presenting him to us as a great political sovereign, and as the most worthy of those who, in olden times, sat upon the Castilian throne. They forget that in truth he does not deserve the name of a great politician, except so far as he castigated rebels or destroyed obstructions which opposed themselves to the increase of his power, not availing himself of artifices but assassins, for assassi- nation was the death, on the public scaffold, of the unhappy knight, Don Juan de la Nuza, chief justice of Arragon. According to law, he could neither be tried nor condemned but by the king and the king- dom jointly in the Cortes ; and yet by the mere order of Philip II., he was beheaded at Zaragoza. This was the most execrable, iniquitous, and atrocious deed which, since that time, has been known or heard of down to the present. But the historians, modern and ancient, as well Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola as M. Mignet, are all entirely silent as to the most terrible circumstances with which the frightful murder of that ill-fated man ought to be presented to the world. The only crime of this gentleman consisted in having levied an army to resist the troops of Castile, which were penetrating the kingdom of Arragon, with a view of punishing those who had risen in defence of their liberties and privileges. There was a privilege \_fuero~] in Arragon, which 60 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. provided, that when foreign troops wished to enter that kingdom to punish evildoers, the inhabitants were at liberty to rise and oppose such troops as should so attempt to overrun that country, and also to condemn to death those who dared to do so. The chief justice [justicia] no sooner knew that a Castilian army was invading the Arragonese terri- tory, than he summoned a council of his deputies. These, with common consent, were of opinion that la Nuza was bound by his office to convoke the nobles and the people, and to resist the hosts of Castile. This chief magistrate was, in course of form, president of his council, and had neither vote nor influence in its decisions. He was the mere execu- tive of the wishes of those deputies whom the king had given him, with strict orders that he should in all things follow their advice without deviation. Therefore he had no right to scrutinize causes, nor question the decisions of his council, but was bound to put in execution whatever it ordered. It might well be that the determination of the deputies was erroneous, and so might the execution of it; yet there is a fuero which says: "The justicia of Arragon is not subject to any penalty for the crime of his deputies, nor for what he orders or executes according to the counsel which they may give to him." And this law was well founded in reason ; for it would have been unjust, that on one hand the magistrate should be ordered to follow the opinion THE SPANISH PBOTESTAtfTS. 61 of his counsellors, if on the other he were to be punishable for so doing. So therefore the assassination of the Justicia, leaving apart the fact that Philip II. had no right to judge a man, who could only be accused before the king and the kingdom jointly in the Cortes, was an act of the greatest cruelty and tyranny; because, although the power to pass sentence had remained solely in the crown, still Don Juan de la JN"uza, following the directions of his deputies was free from all blame, and consequently from all penalty.* The great policy of Philip II. consisted in order- ing assassinations from his very chamber, sur- rounded by friars and ecclesiastics. He wished to punish Mons. de Montigny, the Envoy of Flanders under the pretence that he had attempted to seduce the Prince Don Carlos, Philip's first-born, a youth who was unfortunate in having such a father, in * Only one Spanish writer, Father Friar Diego Murillo, (in his Fundacion milagrosa de la Capilla Angelica y apostolica de la madre de Dios del Pilar y excelencias de la imperial Ciudad d# Zaragoza, : Barcelona, 1616:) defends in the time of the dunce Philip III., the innocence of de la Nuza: the following are his words : " Thatfuero is known to the king, and he swears to maintain it ; and in case he should not do so, he concedes the same fuero that the Justicia of Arragon, with the assistance of his deputies shall have a right to rise in defence of it, resisting the royal officers who would pretend to enter the kingdom with arms. The justice goes out with the counsel of his deputies according to the form of the fuero: this clearly is no rebellion; for the king who concedes the fuero, and swears to maintain it, concedes also the mode in which it is to be exercised and defended, and there- fore with the license of the king, the justice proceeds to maintain the fuero. 62 THE SPANISH PBQTESTANTS. being bom in such an age, and in being misre- presented by the pens of flatterers, or of men of little minds, who departing from the truth, through malice or through ignorance, have defamed his memory. The Flemish Envoy was a recluse in the castle of Segovia. One night, by the orders of the king, an eseribano, a confessor, and an executioner, set out from Madrid; and without trial, without sentence, or any thing else, presented themselves in the prison of that gentleman, and in the name of Philip II. told him he must die. Mons. de Montigny, dressed in his habit of the order of San Francisco, was then and there beheaded, his head being dexterously arranged within the capucha, or hood, in order that those who saw his body might not perceive that he had died by violence. But I forbear speaking of this and many other murders of a like kind, which will suffice to prove that Philip II. was equal in atrocity to either Tiberius or Nero. I do not wish to repeat what has been recounted by so many historians, both ancient and modern.* * Father Murillo, in his JZxcelencias deZaragoza, (1816,) with extraordinary courage could not help saying in effect, that Philip II. was a tyrant, saying so, however, in a very artful way, for fear of bringing down the indignation of Philip III. His words are : " Speaking, (Dr. Francisco Lobinio) of the greatness and excel- lencies of this monarch, affirms that he pacified the people of Arragon, and reduced them to obedience to his crown, making himself their natural king, which he was not before, neither were the Arragonese his vassals. And the worst of it is (says he) that with the names of exemptions and fueros, it was impossible for him to maintain justice. All this, says the Doctor ; and it is certain (at least I think so) that he would not have said so, if he THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 63 Many writers in this century have attempted to defend this monarch, upon the ground that all these acts of cruelty were directed by a dexterous policy to save Spain from the horrors of a civil war, and in order to destroy the competitors for distinction in the Spanish dominions. It really provokes a smile to notice the absurdities which are presented to us by the blind apologists of Philip II. to sustain their opinions concerning him. But he it was who gave birth to all those evils which curtailed the power of the crown of Castile in the subsequent reigns. The wars of Elanders, begun through thebarbarous had considered what he was going to say, for as has been well said by an author of ours, instead of praising the king by these words, he makes him a tyrant, which is one of the greatest injuries you can do to kings. Because, if what the Doctor says is true, that King Philip, until he sent his army among them, was not king of the Arragonese, neither were those of that kingdom his vassals until he subdued them by violence, how is it possible he could be their natural king ? Natural kings are not made so by force, but by being born with the right of succession, and whenever violence comes in without that right, tyranny comes in. ... And if a king, under colour of punishing crime in those who are not his subjects, without having any other right of subjugation than by force of arms makes himself a king, that would be tyranny, and the language of the Egyptian to Moses might be applied to him " Quis constituit te judicem super nos $ Or as it might be rendered : granted, that I may have done violence to tills Israelite, it being certain that ihou art not our king, and that thou tost no appoint" ment to make thee competent to look into the matter, what business hast tkou to make thyself a judge among us t or to punish usjor our crimes ? The same might the Arragonese say to Philip, if what Doctor Lobino says were true" The boldness of Murillo could no further go in those times of barbarism, oppression and tyranny. 64 THE SPANISH PKOTE STARTS. intolerance of this king, were the chief occasion of the ruin of Spain. Philip II. with the erroneous opinion of his council, did not perceive that the fire of heresy, as he called it, and even hatred to his government was kindled by princes who were his enemies, with a view of drawing off his care and his forces to weaken the latter, and to bring about a more easy victory over them. The Flemings were not the people to fight for liberty of conscience, as were the French, the English, the Scotch, the Pro- testants of Grermany, and the rebels of Italy, all of them enemies of the power of the house of Austria, and still more so of Philip II., the constant defender of the Apostolical See. The monarchs and princes, therefore, of those people assisted the Flemings to recover their liberties ; at least, so it was in ap- pearance ; but the intent was, in reality, to enter- tain and divert the armies of the King of Spain, preferring that even the flames of war should blaze in foreign lands, rather than the ambition of Philip should spread itself over their own. The Duke of Alba, Philip's governor in Flanders, committed an act more of imprudence, if not of in- justice, which served at once to inflame all minds against the Spanish domination: I allude to the violent deaths of the Counts Egmont and Horn, by the hands of the executioner in the public square of Brussels ; and which only served, not to intimidate but to kindle in the breasts of the Flemings a feel- ing of resentment, and an anxious desire to annihi- late Spanish pride, which was at that time lording THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 65 itself over their country. But after having lighted up the flames of discord in Flanders, the imprudence of Philip, whom his apologists are pleased to call prudent, caused him to lose that territory. Philip, who, according to Pope Clement VIII. in a funeral oration preached before the College of Cardinals, had wasted in drawing out heretics from the church, more than all the Catholic kings put together, forgot Flanders, when the war was more dubious on the part of the rebels ; and desiring to assist affairs in France, then becoming daily worse and worse to those who maintained the faith of the Roman church, left his dominions in Flanders almost unprotected, his armies being sent away to the succour of the Catholic French. The losses occasioned by this act of Philip were very great to Spain. The rebels constituted themselves into the Eepublic of Holland, and became invincible ; and, besides this, they made themselves masters of all the territory beyond the Rhine. Observing these things, a Spanish writer of the seventeenth century asks the question : How could this king be called prudent ? The answer to this question may be found in Don Carlos Coloma, the celebrated historian of Flanders. " All the prudence of this king consisted in saving the Catholic faith, but beyond this his prudence did not extend."* * In the notes of Don Juan Vitrian, Prior and Ordinary of Calatayud, to the translation of the " Hemorias de PhUipe de Comines, Seuor de Argenton^ de los hechos y empresas de Luis Unde'cimo y Carlos Octavo reyes de Francia, (Antwerp, 1643,) F 66 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. he say.-, that Philip II. " wishing to help others out of danger forgot his own."* And on this account, Don Carlos Coloraa (in his commentaries on Flanders) complains, justly, of the king Don Philip, ".the Prudent," who, through meddling in matters of France, entirely foreign, with money and troops, neglected the states of Flanders, leaving them unprotected, by which his con- dition was damagad, that he lost everything from thence to the Rhine, at the same time making Holland powerful and invincible. How then can this king be called prudent ? Coloma says, (and so did Chrysostome before him) " That all the prudence of the king consisted in preserving the Catholic faith, but beyond this he was not so to le called ; he committed a thousand errors." THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 67 CHAPTER V. PHILIP II., being judged without favour to any race or dynasty, was, as a man, to all appearance a very good Eoman Catholic ; as a king, he was a bad governor of his subjects. The proof of this will be found in a letter from him, addressed to Don Erancisco de Gramica, counsellor of Castile. This document is given in the " Teatro de las grandezas de Madrid " the work of Gil Gonzalez Davila, printed in the year 1623. . Philip II., weighed down by the wretched state in which he found his affairs, and not knowing what remedy would be sufficient to relieve him from the straits and troubles which were threatening to shorten his life, had recourse to Grarnica, a man of great political experience. The letter of the king, written under such cir- cumstances, appears more like the production of the pusillanimous spirit of the stupid Charles II., than that of a king who, like Philip, has been painted by his apologists as a prudent man, a man of great spirit, stout heart, and great experience in state affairs. Nobody could better describe the mind of this monarch than he does himself. Let us take a few words from this important letter : they are to be found in page 255 of the work of Davila. r 2- 68 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. " "What I desire ... is, that the exchequer may adjust itself in a manner which hitherto it has not done ; and as the remedy for what I am now treating of is the last that I can have, if it be put out of reach, only see what I shall suffer ; finding myself at the age of forty-eight, with a prince three years old, and leaving to him an exchequer so much out of condition as it is at present. And besides this, what will be the evils of old age, for they appear already commencing, if I live much longer without seeing, in one day, how I am to live the next . . . . (I wish) to get rid of exchanges and debts which consume every thing ; even life itself, I believe, will soon terminate, if in such, matters a remedy is not provided ; I tell you that, for my part, I am already consumed" In fine, this great king, called the model of pru- dent princes, gives, by way of finish to this letter to G-arnica, the following ideas, with a view of remedying the sad state of his monetary affairs : "I see clearly what is necessary and must be done ; it gives me more anxiety than you can imagine, and I scarcely know how it is that I con* tinue to exist with the pain I suffer on account of the things I have here mentioned."* When Philip II., who was the " mirror of pru- dence," and whose mind was invincible, according to his ancient chroniclers, paid as they were by his * Teatro de las Grandezas de la villa de Madrid, Corte de los Reyes Catolicos de Espaua. Por el maestro Gil Gonsalez Davila su coronista. En Madrid por Tomas Junti, ano de 1623. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 69 son Philip III., could say in a letter, addressed to one of his own vassals too, the following words : That lie knew not what evils of old age awaited him, nor yet Jcnew in one day what would prolong his existence in another ; and when he affirms that his debts ivere about quickly to terminate that life which had already begun to consume away ; and, in fine, when he says, that the bad management of his finances weighed so heavily upon him, that he did not know how he breathed with the pain. Surely, he was not that king pictured to us by ancient and modern Spanish historians, who designate as calum- nious the right judgments of foreign authors con- cerning this monarch. The letter of Philip II. to Francisco de Grarnica, if it were not that of a king, but of a private indivi- dual, is enough to stamp it as coming from a man of little spirit and less confidence in the strength of his own mind. This document from the descen- dant of Charles V. would disgrace any individual who ventured so to address his friends concerning his own private affairs. But this is not all : Philip II. was directed in political affairs by his confessors. Friar Alonso Fernandez, in the history and annals of the city and bishopric of Plasencia, printed in 1627, describes at some length Friar Diego de Chaves, confessor of Philip II., and extols the ex- cellencies and virtues of that friar. This person well knew the king with whom, I blush to say, he played at his will. 70 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. Fernandez, in the course of these annals, copies a document which establishes my opinion on this matter, although he introduces it in his work with a view of praising the courage of Friar Deigo de Chaves. Philip II. wished to obtain a jubilee,* for which alone he had recourse to his confessor. The latter wrote him a letter, in which he says, " Your Majesty is bound to immediately provide persons to manage those affairs to which you are not equal, even in a state of health, much less when you are indisposed. I, as your confessor, cannot, nor indeed do I know how to say more, neither does Grod oblige me to say more .... but God enjoins me to for- bear administering any sacrament to your Majesty, until you shall have done what I have said ; because you cannot receive the sacraments until you do this, for it is the command of God, and I must infallibly perform it" Immediately after such a terrible declaration, everything that was necessary to be done in the council, and with reference to the persons to be nominated, was committed to him by the submissive Philip. Philip II. obeyed in everything those who, under the pretext of guiding the soul of the prudent Icing in the right way, were in fact governing Spain from the corner of their own cells. To such a miserable state was Spain reduced by the bad policy of Philip II. In only one thing did * A day appointed by the Pope to gain a certain class of indulgences, by practising peculiar acts of devotion. THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 71 this monarch manifest a clear discernment. He knew how to discover his errors, but the time was always inopportune for a prompt application of the remedy. Through his great attachment to Flanders, he committed a multitude of errors in the govern- ment of those states. Eut we are informed by Don Juan Vitrian, vicar-general of Calatayud, and trans- lator of the Memoirs of Philip de Comines, that he was assured by his own bishop, this king's last con- fessor, that the great Catholic of Spain, being per- fectly acquainted with his errors and also with himself, came at last to confess that in the councils, his counsellors alone might vote, for that he in matters concerning state affairs had no vote.* This shews how well founded are the opinions of those who speak against the prudence of the demon of the south. The defenders of Philip II. record, in praise of this monarch, that Spain never has been so great and so powerful as in the years of his reign. Eut they forget the fact, that almost all his great- ness and power was inherited, and not acquired In order to form an accurate judgment of kings we ought to carry back our minds to the ages in which they lived, ascertain the causes of the na- tion's prosperity or decline, and the mode in which political and religious matters were treated by the subjects who lived during their reign. Those who contend that the actions of Philip II., were guided by the most prudent policy and by * Don Juan de Vitrian, Escolios de la traducclon de las inemorias de Philip de Comines. 72 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAtfTS. the necessities of the states, are entirely ignorant of the manner of thinking on the part of the Spanish Catholics, who, having got rid of a barbarous into- lerance, hated to the death the bloody executions which under the authority and protection of that sovereign were perpetrated every hour by the tri- bunal, called of the Faith. Those who judge Philip II. favourably, know not the century in which that king held dominion in Spain. They canonize his memory, relying only on the clamour of some victories which our arms achieved during his reign. But, if we inquire what were the results of the triumphs, we shall see that they were all rendered fruitless by his subsequent bad policy. Many flatter our Spanish vanity, and not without reason, in referring to our banners waving gloriously over the walls of St. Quintin, and in many important places in Picardy, to the humiliation of French arrogance. But if so much credit is to be attributed to the Castilian arms, from these scenes of military enterprise, much disgrace ought to fall upon Philip II., who immediately at the suggestion of the pontifical court in adjusting a peace with France, returned to her all the strong places which our troops had so gloriously purchased with their blood. It is for armies to gain battles, and for kings to draw from these brilliant actions the greatest possible good for their subjects. That nation which draws nothing favourable from its victories beyond the credit due to its arms may be able to boast of a brave people, whilst its sovereign THE SPANISH PEOTESTA1STTS. 73 and ministers are wholly ignorant in the science of government. It is true that the French gave us some places, in the treaty for peace alluded to, but all of them were of small importance both as to situation and strength, compared with those which Philip restored to them. The famous naval action of Lepanto was one of the most glorious deeds achieved in the reign of Philip II. ; but, by the want of prudence on the part of that monarch, the results of so great an enter- prise were unavailing to Christendom in crushing the power of the Grand Turk. Philip on this occa- sion was nothing but a mere shuttlecock in the hands of the subtle Venetians. They saw them- selves oppressed by the infidels, who had snatched from the Eepublic of St. Mark, not only some places in the isle of Cyprus, but others elsewhere. In their difficulties they had sought of the Christian princes the formation of a ligue against the Turks. Pius Y. entered into it, and at his entreaty so did Philip II. The Armada of the Christian league was composed, almost entirely, of Venetian vessels, although many of them were manned by Spaniards. It is well known how the Turks were routed in the G-ulf of Lepanto. This was followed by the taking of G-oleta, Tunis, and other maritime places. The Venetians after having revenged themselves on the Turks, by the taking of the Island of Cyprus, made an advantageous peace for the Eepublic with Selim, and that moment withdrew themselves from the league, carrying off with them an immense number 74 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. of its gallies. Philip until then having been the mere tool of the stratagem of the seignory, found himself with but few forces, and in this strait he applied to the King of Prance and to the Emperor of Germany, to request they would enter the league, but both one and the other excused them- selves upon honourable pretexts. The result of this enterprise was, that Philip, through his bad policy, shamefully lost Groleta, the Fort of Tunis, and other maritime cities which he and his people had gained from the Turks after the battle of Lepanto. In this way was the courage of his soldiers wasted, and their blood shed in useless feats, which were in fact only nominal trophies to the crown of Castile.* * The Venetians could not by any means perform what they had stipulated to do, it being notorious that they became weaker every day, and totally incompetent to man the gallies, in conse- quence of the loss of so great a number of their people, who fell in the war in those parts from whence they were wont to be col- lected ; for after the loss of the kingdom of Cyprus, its island and its subjects on terra firma, and of the local tributes or taxes usually drawn from the city, and which had been greatly dimi- nished in consequence of the contract having ceased, they had not sufficient to pay the ordinary expenses, much less to promote war against so powerful an enemy. This induced them to make so ignominious a peace ; and the Turk as a prudent man, seeing that in the treaty he should gain so much, conceded it to them without a word, as one who thinks he is getting well out of danger ; and in such case the Grand Turk knowing that all idea of his own destruction, was at an end (unless, as Themistocles says, he chose to destroy himself) thought he might now be able to turn all his forces against his Majesty, as against something that hitherto bridled and limited the extent and importance of his victories . . . This peace which the THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 75 But to this the blind zealots of the memory of Philip II. reply, that although he was the model of prudence, he was very unfortunate, and they attribute to pure misfortune those disasters which he brought upon Spain by his political errors. Many will imagine that I judge Philip according to the notions of the present age, when in truth I form my judg- ment from the opinions of the great thinkers of our country in the calamitous times of his reign. "It is amusing," says Fadrique Furio Ceriol, "to hear the opinions of ignorant men on this subject ; some complain of fortune, and they do not perceive that where there is prudence, fortune has lut little to do in the case .... Others say that our sins are the cause of our disasters ; and this is a great truth, for the errors and faults of the prince and his miserable ministers, are sins which will work out our destruction as well as their own.* The invincible Armada directed against England, was a wise project, but Philip II. had the indiscre- Venetians made with the Turk nobody regarded as wise or pru- dent, for it was repugnant to them as Christians, and besides that, his majesty had taken upon himself in the cause, the greatest portion of the expenses, and almost the whole of the past war." Chronica y Recopttacion de varios succesos de guerra, que ha ac- contescido en Italia y paries de Levante y Berberia, desde que el Turco Sellm rompio con Venedanos y fue sobre la isla de Cypre, ano de MDLXXIII. Compuesta por Hieromymo de Torres y Aguilera. En paragopa, impresa en casa de Juan Soler, ano del Seuor de MDLXXIX. * El Consejo y Consejeros del Principi, obra de F. Furi6 Ceriol. 76 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. tion to place it under the command of a landsman, who knew nothing of fighting with either the fury of winds, or those ships of the enemy which were sent out to defend the passage. The same tempests which conspired against the Spanish Armada, bore down upon the English ships which followed in the rear ; but the ignorance of Philip's general, and the little dexterity of our marines, led to the loss of his sea-forces in both continents. "Whilst Spain found herself poor by sustaining such disastrous wars, her king amused himself in spending immense sums of money in constructing the proud monastery of the Escurial, the wonder of art, and a work, the erection of which served to ruin the exchequer, and to afflict with new burdens the kingdoms of Castile, already reduced to a miserable condition by his own bad policy. So terrible were the mischiefs brought upon Spain by the government of the prudent king, that in a very brief space were seen to decline for ever the vigour and integrity of the Spanish monarchy, the greatest then in Europe, not only in extent of dominion, but in the valour by which it sustained itself in the field, to the dread of its enemies and the surprise of foreigners. Philip II. raised the sumptuous edifice of the Escurial that it might serve as a Pantheon for our kings and princes. It was but just towards his successors that a mausoleum should be built by THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 77 him who had already opened a tomb, to which the greatness and power of opulent Spain was to be consigned. Finally, the partisans of Philip affirm that the Spanish nation owes to his policy, that integrity of her religion, in which her states are to be found in the present day. Eut I believe that those who make this affirmation, have allowed themselves to be caught by one of the many popular errors, which by force of repetition are made to pass, as though they sprang from truth, and a profound knowledge of the human heart. It is certain that Europe was afflicted with reli- gious wars in the sixteenth century. Intolerance was deemed necessary in order to the preservation of the state, and the greater part of the politicians of Spain, who saw themselves in the mirror of other nations, thought it useful for the interior peace of the kingdoms, to curb with chastisements by fire, with dishonour of reputation and loss of property, all those who should raise their voice in defence of the doctrines preached by Luther in G-ermany, and advocated by many thinking men of other princi- palities in Europe. In rooting up in the Church of Grod, the seeds of reform which had been thrown upon the face of the earth by the leaders of Protestantism, there can be no doubt it was intended to avert those desolations which invariably accompany civil dis- cords. I hold it to be indisputable, that the reli- gious wars which afflicted Europe with bloodshed, 78 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. tumults and rapine, were owing as much to the dexterous policy of princes and magnates, de- sirous of increasing their power, as to the love of Protestantism. Nations at that time did not easily rebel against their sovereigns for exemptions and liberties, and when they dared to do so, they were at once destroyed. Hence, I infer, that Maurice, Duke of Saxony, and the Landgrave of Hesse, assisted the Protestants, and made themselves its champions against Charles V., more with the inten- tion of destroying the forces, and curtailing the dominion of the emperor, than to sustain the de- fence of the Lutherans ; that the Prince of Orange fought with his people in the low countries, more with a view of making himself lord of those lands, than for that liberty of conscience so much desired by the ^Flemings ; that the partisans of the Earl of Murray in Scotland sustained the Protestant arms there, rather with a view to crown their friend as king, than from any great devotion to such doctrines as those for which the Protestants were then con- tending : and as to the Huguenots in Prance ; did they not fight for religion nominally, but in reality for Coligni, and those under his banners, against the Dukes of Cruise ? The civil wars, fomented in so many kingdoms, were not, I apprehend, merely to sustain Protes- tantism. Crowds of ignorant people, to whose bosoms, the poison of the new doctrines had pene- trated, were made by ambitious persons to believe that those doctrines could only be supported by THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 79 force of arms. And thus, by the intolerance of kings on the one hand, and malcontents and clever politi- cians on the other, painting that intolerance in the most frightful colours to those disaffected to the Catholic faith, the standard of rebellion was unfurled, and by great subtilty and management served to bring about a fortunate result to the pretensions of the Protestants. The populace, always the blind instrument of wicked men, lent itself readily, not perceiving the deceit, to defend with its arms and its blood, the ambition of those who well knew how to direct the minds of the low and ignorant. The professors of the new religion strove energetically to preserve their doctrines among the ignorant and the super- stitious ; and it was policy in those who aspired to the increase of their own power, to urge on the contest, but for very different causes. The want of political pretexts was not the only impediment to civil wars in Spain, for there existed more powerful causes why the flames of civil discord did not break out in the heart of our country. The adventurous portion of the community, ever ready to risk life for gain of property, had set out from Spain in quest of riches. America, Flanders, and Italy were objects of covetousness to these men. A desire to live with greater liberty, and an insa- tiable thirst for gold had made them abandon their houses and families. Many of those persons, there- fore, who, in rebellions, are ready to listen to the voice of the conspirators, and to follow, sword in 80 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. hand, the blind adherents of the ambitious and the turbulent, found themselves absent from Spain. Tor this reason, also, there was a failure of interior disturbances and civil wars in Castile. Besides this : the low people in Spain had never readily lent their ears to new doctrines they had never been friendly to inquiry in matters of religion never allowed themselves to be dragged away by opinions contrary to those which, in the years of childhood, they had learned from the mouths of their parents or superiors. It was all these things put together which operated as an impediment to civil dissensions in Spain, and not Philip II. with the Holy Office at his disposal. It is a want of knowledge of the sixteenth cen- tury, to persuade one's self that with seventy or eighty examples of punishment made by the inqui- sitors on the persons of a few Protestants, the inte- rior peace of our country was secured. If political pretexts, if adventurers, if attachment to new reli- gious opinions had not been wanting in Spain, the flame of civil war would have blazed in the heart of those kingdoms, in spite of Philip and the Holy Office, in the same way that, in spite of the intole- rance of that monarch and the executions and burnings of that barbarous tribunal, the Flemings rebelled against oppression, and maintained their doctrines by force of arms. Much praise is given to Philip by writers who knew neither the true religious character, nor the political state of Spain in the sixteenth century, THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 81 under a belief that this king saved us from the horrors and destructions of civil wars. Spain, without civil wars and with the religious unity imposed by Philip II., towards the seven- teenth century was in as great a state of poverty and ruin, as it was in ignorance, and far behind other nations in arts and sciences. But the same states in which there may have been such depravity, such destruction, and such calamities, in a short time become again nourishing and peaceful, eminent in science and prosperous in commerce and agriculture, the true source and basis of the vigour and harmony of nations. Until Philip occupied the throne of Castile, the terrible persecutions against Protestants, had not begun. It is certain also that until then, their doctrines had not extended themselves in Spain by means of the few works published by some Pro- testants who fled from these kingdoms to a land of liberty of conscience. 82 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. CHAPTEE VI. JUAN PEREZ. A NATIVE, or at least a resident in Seville, and a doctor of divinity, followed the Lutheran opinions. Persecuted by the Holy Office, and desirous of living where he might freely enjoy his religious views, he absented himself from Spain and went to Venice, where he printed many of his works. Among these, the principal one was his New Testament translated from the original Greek into Castilian verse, pub- lished at Venice by Juan Philadelpho, M.D.LVI. In the same city, he printed in 1556, A Com- mentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans , written by Juan de Valdes ; and also, in 1557., another Commentary upon St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians, which was another work of Valdes. Both of these publications were brought out with prefaces and dedications by Juan Perez, who then had the originals in the handwriting of the author. Cipriano de Valera affirms, that Doctor Perez fled to Geneva ; but I think there must be some mistake in this, if it be true, that he printed his works and those of Valdes in Venice and in distinct years, which is some proof of his residence there. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 83 He also published The Psalms of David, with Summaries, containing a brief note of the contents of each Psalm ; translated into Gastilian Verse, by Doctor Juan Perez. This was also published at Venice, by Pedro Daniel, M.D.LYII. Perez wrote a Catechism in the Castilian tongue ; which served greatly to propagate the doctrines of the reformers within the Spanish dominions. The doctor affirmed in his work that it had been seen and examined by the counsel of the Inquisition, this was done doubtless with a view to its free circulation among those devoted to the Holy See, and to draw them over more easily to the new opinions. The artifice was some time after- wards discovered by the Holy Office ; and in order to avert the mischief, which might be consequent on the reading this Catechism, not only was it prohibited under grave penalties, but the Inqui- sitors alleged that the statement about its having been approved by the Holy Office, was entirely false. There can be no doubt whatever, that the books of Juan Perez contributed much to the propagation of the reformed doctrines in Spain, especially in the populous city of Seville, as we shall have occasion to see in the course of the present history. Until this time the chastisements by the Inqui- sition had been but few, and mild, compared to those which that tribunal was afterwards wont to resort to. a 2 84* THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. But from that period these persecutions in Spain were multiplied, at the instance of the company of Jesuits, who began to extend their order in those kingdoms. The hatred against the Jesuits was great in the Spanish nation; it arrived at such an ex- treme that in Zaragoza they were obliged to save their lives from the fury of the mob, and fly from the city for shelter in some houses of certain Arra- gonese gentlemen devoted to their interests. The Jesuits finding that from day to day the hatred of the people increased, hit upon a plan of accrediting themselves with the populace, and of taking vengeance on those who had exclaimed against their order. And as the chief part of those who clamoured against the Jesuits were of the band of Protestants, the regular clergy began to denounce them to the Holy Office. The Emperor Charles V., who, withdrawn from the world, lived in the monastery of Yuste, had scarcely heard of the arrest of the followers and preachers of the Lutheran tenets in Spain, ere he wrote to his daughter, Dona Juana (she being at that time governess of the kingdom in the absence of Philip II.), urging her to favour, and give pro- tection to the Inquisition, in order to punish all who dared to wander from their obedience to the Pope. He also addressed a letter to Luis Quijada, that in his name, and with the princess Dona Juana, he might confer as to the best manner of extin- guishing the fire of heresy. In this document, Charles records the happy THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 85 years of his youth, and laments that they had passed away, and that he was now unable to mount his horse, and lance in hand, lead on his forces to exter- minate the Protestants. In one of the clauses of a certain codicil to his will, made 9th September, 1558, he observes, that in favour of the Holy See, he had ordered his son to punish the heretics, with all pomp and rigour, con- formable to tlieir crimes .... without exception .... without admitting entreaties, or having respect to any person. Those who sought most to discover and denounce the disciples of Protestantism in Spain were the fathers of the Company of Jesus. * These Jesuits found it necessary to gain the good will and assistance of persons in power, and possess- ing influence, in order to restrain the courage of their adversaries. They began to inquire into the mode of living of certain individuals not looked upon as much devoted to the Holy See. Prom these in- quiries it was discovered they were Lutherans, al- though the opinions of many of them were concealed from the world, in the hope that a season more opportune would arrive for declaring them openly. By this means many persons were denounced to the tribunal of the faith, and the cells of the In- * St. Francisco de Borja, writing to Pedro de Ribadeneyra, who at that time assisted in attending on the person of Philip II., in Flanders, says, " The company has placed its small means to the work .... so that the inquisitors of the Holy Office are aware they will now have no small assistance, and which they learn with much satisfaction. " 86 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. quisition were in a very short time filled with the victims. The populace, who detested the Jesuits, on hear- ing of so many arrests, spread about a report that nearly all the accused were belonging to that com- pany. This report went forth for many months, and was so generally credited throughout the king- dom, that the inquisitor-general, Don Fernando Valdes, was obliged to address various letters to his tribunals, declaring the falsehood of such a state- ment.* Many were the persons illustrious for their birth, or for literary fame and holy lives, who at this time were shut up in the secret cells of the Inquisition ; and against some of them the most rigorous punish- * " Most Reverend Inquisitors : It having been said that in this city, and in Huesca, and other parts of the kingdom, some persons have published a statement, that in the prison of the office of the Holy Inquisition of this town of Valladolid and its neighbourhood, there are confined some members of the Company of Jesus, which statement is not true. And because, in addition to what concerns the authority and devotion of their order, it is both scandalous and prejudicial to those who have conscientious intercourse with them, it will be well that in such way as to you may appear most convenient, and with the least noise, you signify to the lords, prelates, and persons of quality, and others who may understand the matter, that it is well they should know it, unde- ceiving themselves as to what has been so published relative to the arrest of persons of the Company ; for thanks to God, the contrary is the truth, for they are persons in general and in par- ticular who are accustomed to lead good lives, and to perform works of virtue in the service of Grod our Lord. May He give them grace so to continue. May He guard and add to your reverend persons. Valladolid, 12th June, 1558." (Vida de San Francisco de Borja, by the Cardinal Don Alvaro Cienfuegos). THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 87 ments now began to be inflicted in autos-de-fe. The publication of these autos were made by the principal officer, [alguacil mayor] and by a secretary of the Holy Office, who went forth from the palace on horseback, accompanied by many familiars and other ministers, and almost all the gentlemen of the city. Arrived at the doors of the city-council, there they made the first proclamation, saying, that for the glory of Grod and exaltation of the holy Catholic faith, a general act would be celebrated on such a day, in such a month, and at such an hour ; and then followed musicians, who went playing on cymbals, trumpets, and clarionets, through the prin- cipal and most frequented streets, halting at certain points and repeating the proclamation already alluded to. A scaffold was then erected in the principal square of the city, having in the centre an altar, on which was placed a green cross, and on each side a pulpit, from whence the secretaries might read to the cul- prits their sentences. Two stages were also erected with two rows of benches, one above for the chapter, and another below it for the municipal body, and a sort of gallery all round the lower part for the hal- bert-men, as guards of the tribunals. There was also erected a scaffold called the dome, (media naranja) which was the place assigned to the prisoners. On the day before the celebration of the auto, a secretary and the ministers with the criers before them, went forth from the residence of the Inqui- sition, and in the squares and most public places 88 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. unfurled a banner, containing the following prohi- bitions : That no person, of whatever station or quality, from that hour until the day after execution of the sentences of the auto, should carry arms, offen- sive or defensive, under pain of the greater excom- munication, latae sententiae, and the loss of such arms : and that this same day until two in the after- noon, no person should proceed in coach, nor on horse- lack, nor in sedan in the streets through which the procession was to pass, nor enter the square in which the scaffold was erected. On the eve of the auto, the procession of the green cross set out from the Holy Office, accom- panied by all the communities of friars that were in the city and its neighbourhood, together with the commissaries, the escribanos, and familiars of all the district ; after which went the consulters and qualifiers, and all the other officials of the tri- bunal, with their secretaries, and the chief bailiff and fiscal all of them with large, white, lighted tapers. Between the officials went the green cross, . covered with a black veil, underneath a pall, and on a bier. The music did its part in celebrating this fete, at one time with clarionets, at another with voices, singing the hymn which begins Vexilla regis prodeunt, &c. In this order the procession arrived at the square in which the scaffold was erected. Upon its altar the green cross was placed, and remained the whole night, accompanied by twelve large white tapers burning in large candlesticks, and by the friars of Saint Domingo, and by two THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 89 squadrons of the soldiers, lancers, who acted as sentinels. On the day of the auto, at the break of dawn, all those who intended to set out as penitents met together in the chapel (capilla), and at this hour arrangements were made for the procession which was to accompany them to the scaffold, and which arrangements were, for the most part, as follows : First and foremost went the cross of the cathedral or college, covered with its bag and a veil, and ac- companied by the curates of the parishes and a good number of the clergy. Then followed the penitents and the effigies of those who had died, or of those who had not up to that time been laid hold of, together with the bones of the defunct ones. At the side of each penitent went two familiars. The company of halberdiers, divided into two files, led the way, and guarded those who were about to become penitents, according to the order and the gravity of their offences, beginning with the least, and ending with the greatest ; each culprit carrying the insignia of his crime and his penitence. Those who were condemned to death had by their sides a number of the most experienced and learned of the religious orders, exhorting them to repentance. This procession finished with the chief officer (alguacil mayor) of the Inquisition on horseback, in company with numerous gentlemen, who, for the honour and increase of their family reputations, had become familiars or assistants of this most pious tribunal. 90 THE SPANISH PEOTESTAKTS. Shortly afterwards came out the tribunal itself, from the residence of the Holy Office, accompanied by both the ecclesiastical chapter and the civil cor- poration, and by a few familiars with long wands, and all mounted on horseback. On arriving in the square, they alighted, and went up to their seats. At the head of the scaifold was a raised bench, with six or eight steps, covered with a magnificent carpet, and upon the top, three seats covered with velvet, near to a throne made of the same material, in which was seen an escutcheon emblazoned with the royal arms and the insignia of the inquisition. The three seats were occupied by the inquisitors, and in the other, on the right hand side of the steps, was the public prosecutor [fiscal], having before him on a pedestal, the standard of the Holy Office. As soon as all were seated, up went a priest into the pulpit, on the right of the altar, to address the sermon of the faith to as many as were then assist- ing in that act. The sermon over, one of the secre- taries then ascended the pulpit, and with a loud voice and upon his knees, the people being in the same position, read the protestation or confession of the faith, whilst all the assembled multitude repeated his words. After this, the other secretaries began to read the sentences of the penitents, in which they were joined by certain of the friars, ecclesi- astics, and others appointed to take part in the ceremony. The reading of the sentences being ended, the THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 91 inquisitors next handed over to the corregidor, as representing the civil power, those who were to be burnt. After the penitents had abjured their errors in presence of this assembly, the impenitents were carried out on asses, in custody of the officers and other ministers, to the burning-place, called the Quemaclero, and were at once surrounded by a host of friars, exhorting them to repentance. Those who before being placed in the brasero, (the spot on which they were to be burnt,) confessed, suffered death by strangulation, [en garrote] their bodies, however, being reserved for the flames ; but there was no lack of Protestants who preferred the burning pile in all its horrors, to a somewhat milder form of suffering, to be purchased by a recantation of their opinions. On Trinity Sunday, 21st May, 1559, there was a most solemn auto-de-fe against the Spanish Lutherans in the great square of Valladolid. The Princess Dona Juana, governess of the kingdom, in the absence of her brother, Philip II., the Prince Don Carlos and many grandees of Spain, as well as prelates and nobles of Castile, and a multitude of ladies and gentlemen, all assisted on that occa- sion. Sixteen persons were brought out in that auto to be reconciled by penance ; also, the re- mains and effigy of one already dead, and fourteen living persons to be consumed by the devouring element. 92 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Among the victims ordered to be burnt at the stake on that most memorable occasion, was DONA LEONOR DE YIBERO, a lady much distinguished in her time. She died long before the great persecution against the Spanish Protestants. Through information given by the wife of Juan Garcia, a silversmith in Yalladolid, he being a Lutheran, it came to the ears of the Inquisition that the Protestants held meetings, first in the house of Dona Leonor de Yibero, widow of Pedro Cazalla, comptroller of the king's household, and after his death, then in the house of her son, Doctor Augustine Cazalla. As a reward for this treacherous service, that woman, the wife of Garcia, was allowed a perpetual pension out of the public treasury, of what are called in Spain juros. The fiscal of the Inquisition demanded that the remains of Dona Leonor should be exhumed from their sepulchre in the monastery of San Benito el E/eal, in Valladolid, on the ground that she had died in the Lutheran faith, notwithstanding that up to the very last she had concealed that fact from every one that did not belong to her sect. Her memory was condemned, and branded with infamy, which was to descend upon her children and their heirs. All her property was confiscated, her disin- terred body was reduced to ashes, her house rased THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 93 to the ground, and even the site was prohibited from being used for its reconstruction. Over its ruins was erected a monument of ignominy, contain- ing an inscription declarative of the event, as a memento, and a warning to future generations. This column existed until the year 1809, when one of the generals of Napoleon ordered it to be thrown to the ground, in order that so revolting a testi- mony of intolerance and human ferocity, might no longer be presented to the light of the sun. DOCTOE AGUSTIN CAZALLA, suffered at the same auto. He was born in 1510. He was son of Pedro Cazalla, the royal comptroller, and of Dona Leonor de Yibero, the famous pro- tectress of the heretics of Valladolid, the lady of whom some particulars are already given. He studied in the nourishing university of Alcala de Henares until 1536. Charles V., hearing of the fame and wisdom of this ecclesiastic, nominated him his preacher in 1542, and took him in the following year to Ger- many and Elanders, where the doctor remained preaching against the Protestants until 1552, with so much credit and fame, that he was the admiration of all Catholics. Juan Cristobal Calvete de Estrella (a contempo- raneous author), in his account of the journey of Charles V. and Philip II. to Germany, speaks of Doctor Agustin Cazalla, in the following terms : 94 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. " Lent was passed in hearing sermons of the greatest preachers of the court, and especially three, viz., Doctor Constantino, the commissary Friar Bernardo de Fresneda, and the Doctor Agustin de Cazalla, preacher to the emperor, a most excellent divine, and a man of great learning and eloquence * Such are the words of Calvete de Estrella in praise of Cazalla ; and so great was the fame of this Protestant doctor among Catholics, before he became a convert to the Lutheran doctrines. The Inquisition in all its expurgatories ordered to be blotted out from the book of Calvete, the pas- sage just quoted, but in spite of the rigorous zeal of the Holy Office, in some copies they are still retained, as a proof of his reputation, both in and out of the kingdom of Castile, for according to another cotemporary author, f lie was one of the most eloquent in the pulpit of any of the preachers in Spain. The doctor was taken by Charles Y. to Ger- many, that by his eloquence, those who had deviated from the Catholic religion might be brought back to it. There it was, however, that by familiar inter- course with some of them, he was induced to, secretly, abjure the maxims in which he had been * El felicissimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso Principe don Filipe, hijo del Emperador don Carlos Quinto, Maximo, desde Espaiia a sus tierras de la baxa Alemafia con la descripcion de tod os los Estados de Brabante y Flandes, escripto en quatro libros por Juan Cristoval Calvete de Estrella. En Anvers en casa de Martin Mucio, 1552." (Libro 4.) f Gfonzalo de Illescas. Historic Ponticfial. VdSd. THE SPANISH PHOTESTANTS. 95 trained from his childhood, and he returned to Spain with the intent of disseminating his new opinions in the minds of his friends and connections. In Salamanca, of the church of which he was a canon, in Toro, and in Yalladolid, he commenced diffusing the reformed doctrines of which he became the leader in Spain. All Catholic authors, who write on this event, agree that Cazalla in Valladolid, and Constantino in Seville, were the chiefs of what was called the Lutheran conspiracy in these kingdoms. Cazalla, seized by the Holy Office and accused of supporting the Protestant views by word of mouth, denied the charges preferred against him by his judges, until brought into the chamber of torture, when, afraid of the sufferings that awaited him, he declared that he had separated himself from the Catholic religion, but that he was ready to reduce himself to obedience to the church, if permitted to abjure with penance in a public auto. The inqui- sitors, however, refused to spare his life, for they had ascertained on the authority of many witnesses that he had taught his doctrines to others. Cazalla was a man of very weak resolution, and believing that compassion would at last enter the breasts of his barbarous judges, he determined on giving great signs of repentance from the hour in which he was aware that his life was drawing to a close. Scarcely had he seen himself on the scaffold; 96 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. stripped of his clerical robes, with a sambenito upon his shoulders, the cap on his head and a rope round his neck, than he began to weep most shamefully. Some of his companions taunted him with his mean bearing, which they said only could proceed from a base spirit, and not from a man of his great learning and experience who had attempted to occupy, in Spain, the same distinguished position that Luther had taken in Saxony. But the reasoning of his friends could not re- strain his tears, nor in the least degree conceal his weakness in the presence of his judges and execu- tioners. To the observations of those who were his adherents in his doctrines, he answered with signs of having repented of his errors, and with suppli- cating the infamous tribunal that he might be re- conciled with the Catholic Church. To such an extreme did fear arrive, in the mind of the unhappy Cazalla, that on the very scaffold he preached to his friends, exhorting them to abandon their doctrines in that terrible hour and to die in the Catholic religion. Cazalla, who had already the day before availed himself of the sacrament of confession began again to confess, the moment he was placed in the ring to be reduced to ashes. The inquisitors, seeing so many signs of penitence, were moved by his con- trition to extend to him some mercy which with so many, entreaties and so mean a spirit he had solicited. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 97 This mercy, however, merely consisted in this : that he should be strangled in order that the names might devour only his dead body.* * Gonzalo de Illescas, an eyewitness of this auto-de-fe t de- scribes the last moments of Doctor Cazalla in the following words : " After arriving at the scaffold, and seeing himself degraded with a cap on his head and a rope round his neck, he was unable to refrain from tears, and among other expressions of penitence and contrition, he publicly declared, that ambition and malice had been the cause of his defection: that it had been his intention to stir up the world arid disturb the quietude of these kingdoms by his novelties, arid for no other reason than that he had believed he would be as exalted and adored by all in Spain as Luther was in Saxony, and that some of his disciples would take the surname of Cazalla." Another Catholic author (Fr. Juan de Salazar) in his Politico, Espauola, published at Logrono in 1619,) says, " that Cazalla became a Lutheran only because Charles V. had not rewarded THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. CHAPTEE VII. THE inquisitors did not fail to draw some profit from the death of Doctor Cazalla. One of the friars who assisted in the auto, published, by order of the Holy Office, a document, in which he certified that from what he had heard from the lips of that heretic, and seen in his face besides, from the hour in which he was informed of his sentence and approaching end, he evidently believed that Grod tad pardoned his errors, and would receive him to his bosom. There was current at that time a saying among the common people of Valladolid, that the doctor had foretold shortly before his death, that in proof of his eternal salvation, he would on the day follow- ing that of his execution, pass through the streets of that city, mounted upon a white charger, to the confusion of the incredulous. This saying, adroitly circulated by the sagacity of the inquisitors, found a ready reception in the rude minds of the ignorant and new-fangled populace; and to such a pitch was this fiction of the authors of so ridiculous a hoax carried, that on the day after the auto, a white horse, guided by an invisible rider, traversed the streets of Valladolid, striking dismay to the hearts of the vulgar, already terrified by the rigours of the Holy Office. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 99 Paramo, in his Origen de la Inquisition, (tit. iii. cap. 5.) refers to this event. Thus were they deceived in that age ! FRANCISCO DE VIBERO CAZALLA, was another who perished at the same auto. This Protestant was a brother of the Doctor Augustin, of the town of liormigos, in the bishopric of Palencia, and followed the same opinions. Arrested by the Holy Office, he professed repentance, but the judges did not place the least reliance on his words ; on the contrary, they believed his profession of penitence to be only through fear of being brought to the stake, and therefore they condemned him to undergo the last penalty for his offence. Francisco, hearing the exhortations of his brother Augustin, cast at him a look of contempt, mocked the signs of contrition of this chief of Castilian Protestants, and died in the flames with a serenity worthy the greatest admiration. There were also sacrificed in that auto DONA BEATRIZ VIBERO CAZALLA, a sister of those Pro- testants ; ALFONSO PEREZ, a Presbiter of Valen- cia, and a master in theology ; DON CRISTOBAL DE OCAMPO, an inhabitant of Zamora, knight of the order of St. John, and almoner of the Grand Prior of Castile and Leon, of the order of St. John of Jerusalem ; CRISTOBAL DE PADILLA, a gentle- man of Zamora ; JUAN G-ARCIA, a silversmith in Valladolid ; THE LICENTIATE PEREZ DE HERRERA, H 2 100 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. a judge of matters relating to smuggling in the city of Logrono ; DONA CATALINA DE OBTEGA, widow of the commander Loaisa, daughter of Hernando Diaz, fiscal of the Hoyal Council of Castile ; CATA- LINA EOMAN, and ISABEL DE ESTBADA, inhabitants of Pedrosa, and JTJANA BLANQTJEZ, a servant-maid of the Marchioness de Alcanices. They all died by the garrote ; for, having confessed their Lutheran opinions at the stake, " all of them," says Illescas, " retracted publicly, although it was understood some of them did so more through fear of being burnt alive than anything else.' 9 In this fashion did a Catholic author write of the feigned repentance shewn by Protestant Spaniards in the last hour of their ex- istence. In the auto-de-fe celebrated by the Holy Office of Yalladolid, 21st May, 1559, we find the Bachelor ANTONIO HEBEEZTJELO, a most learned jurisconsult, and DONA LEONOB DE CISNEBOS, his wife, a lady of only twenty-four years of age, discreet and vir- tuous, and as truly beautiful as fancy could imagine or heart desire. Herrezuelo was a man of noble spirit, and so firm in his opinions as to be superior to the torments of the Inquisition. In all his examinations before his judges, after being a recluse in the secret cells of the tribunal of Valladolid, as a culprit suspected in matters pertaining to the Catholic faith, he un- hesitatingly declared himself a Protestant, and not only a Protestant, but a teacher of his sect in the city of Toro, where he resided. He was required THE SPANISH PROTEST/NTS. It)!' by the inquisitors to declare to them, one by one, the names of those persons whom he had instructed in the new doctrines ; but neither promises, en- treaties, nor threats were sufficient to induce him to betray his friends. ISTay, not even torments could shake his constancy. He remained firm and im- moveable as a rock. His wife was also seized and lodged in one of the dungeons of the Inquisition, and at last, weak and fearful, as one might expect a young girl of twenty- four to be, yielding to the horrible feelings of seeing herself reduced to the last extremity within the gloomy walls which formed her habitation ; treated as a delinquent, far, as she supposed from her hus- band, whom she loved as dearly as her life, trusting in the specious but deceitful hopes with which destiny would flatter her, and dreading all the furies of the inquisitors she declared that she had permitted heretical opinions to have free ingress to her mind, at the same time shewing, by the elo- quence of her tears, the deepest signs of penitence. And who could have resisted her supplication, the sweetness of her sorrow, or the comeliness of her person ? The inquisitors believed her. Such is the power of a beautiful woman in tears. The day appointed for the celebration of the auto-de-fe, with all pomp and pride pertaining to the inquisitors, the criminals were brought out to the scaffold, and heard their sentences read : Herre- zuelo to be reduced to ashes by the devouring flames, and his wife to abjure the Lutheran doctrines she 102 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. had entertained, and to live during the pleasure of the Holy Office, in one of the houses of reclusion prepared for such delinquents, where with penance and sambenitOj she might receive the punishment due to her errors, and a lesson for the future. When Herrezuelo came to the scaffold and saw his wife in the dress of one who was reconciled to the Church of Home, he was no longer master of himself his indignation knew no bounds. Is this the way tJiou appreciatest the doctrines that I have taught theefor six years ? said Herrezuelo, foaming with rage against his unhappy wife, and at the same time stamping his foot on the ground in token of contempt, or rather to upbraid her weakness. The wretched Leonor was silent. She endured this taunt of her husband without a murmur, and parted with him for ever : from him she so much loved : him whom she now and for the last time regarded with grief and dismay : from that man whom she loved as something more than mortal, and who in the hour of death could give her such signs of hatred and contempt. She returned to her prison, there to bewail his untimely end. Herrezuelo walked with a firm step into the Irasero among the other Protestant victims. Prom that moment he ceased to think of his wife, with whom he had lived in the greatest felicity for six years. He now only thought of dying with the proper courage of a martyr to a cause which to him appeared holy and just. Through the streets he continued to sing psalms, or to repeat passages of the Bible. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 103 The inquisitors, displeased at this procedure, ordered his mouth to be stopped with a gag, but nothing could shake his resolution. The celebrated preacher of Charles V., Augustin Cazalla, chief of the Protestants in Yalladolid, who, as before related, either for fear of being burnt aKve or from repentance, gave signs of a desire to die in the Catholic faith, exhorted at the very pile, his friend Herrezuelo to repent or at least to abjure, although falsely, his opinions, so that only his dead and not his living body might be con- sumed by the flames. AH these efforts on the part of Cazalla were fruitless. His words were given to the wind, but found no entrance to the mind of his companion, who suffered death with the most admirable constancy. Doctor Gronzalo de Ulescas, a witness of the scene, narrates the end of Herrezuelo in the follow- ing words : " Only the bachelor Herrezuelo was pertinacious, and permitted himself to be burnt alive with the greatest stubbornness ever witnessed. I stood so close to him that I could see and observe all his movements. He could not speak, because, in conse- quence of his blasphemies, a gag had been placed in his mouth; yet still in every way he appeared a man hard-hearted and impenitent. He refused to yield one jot, and preferred dying in the flames rather than confess. I observed particularly, that, although he never complained, nor gave any symptom of suffering, yet still he died with the most sorrowful countenance of any person I ever saw, so much so that it was frightful to behold his face." 104 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. A report of this auto that came under the eye of Llorente, when he wrote his History of the Inquisi- tion, affirms that a halbertman [Alabardero,] not able to contain his rage at seeing the hardness and pertinacity with which Herrezuelo was dying, thrust his spear into the breast of the sufferer : a proper action of a vile coward towards a brave enemy, bound with heavy chains both hand and foot, a gag in his mouth, and the flames already consuming his body. Such was the end of the Bachelor Antonio Herrezuelo, a victim of constancy to his own opinions. But his horrible death, and the words with which he previously taunted his wife, were not forgotten by that beautiful and generous creature ; on the contrary, they served to raise her courage to such a point, that she openly declared herself to be a dis- ciple of the Protestant doctrines, which had brought her husband to the stake. Don Juan Antonio Llorente does not proffer one word as to the end of Dona Leonor : the MS. histories of Valladolid are also silent on the same point : and the traditions which are extant on this event are reduced to the quotation from Illescas, from his Historia Pon- tifical y Catolica, already cited. On the 26th of September, 1568, (nine years after her husband suffered) "justice was done upon Leonor de Cisneros, wife of the Bachelor Herrezuelo : she was burnt alive, the means to convince her, and they were many, being futile after all, nothing could move the obstinate heart of that hardened woman." She suffered at the age of thirty-three. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 105 Touched with the most lively sentiments by the words and action of contempt with which her husband had publicly upbraided her a few moments before he left the world, she in due time, having acquired true information of the firmness with which he suffered so frightful a death, believed him to have been supported in that faith in which he died, and that faith she again embraced. Unhappy pair ! equals in love, in doctrines, and in death ! "Who shall begrudge a tear to your memory, or a sentiment of horror and contempt for the judges, who, instead of swaying the understand- ings with the sweetness of Divine truth, would have recourse to such reasonings as dungeons and flames ? By the infamous execution of Herrezuelo, they, according to their own theory, separated from the Catholic religion, the soul of the once penitent Dona Leonor de Cisneros, while by the same rule, the barbarous punishment inflicted on her husband deprived the world of two lives and heaven of two souls, if Grod had not opened the portals of mercy to them both unhappy victims of their own constancy to the religion they professed, and to the intolerance of the Holy Office. On the same occasion, referred to in the last chapter, the following persons were branded with the mark of infamy, and loss of titles and possessions : DON PEDRO SARMIENTO DE EOJAS, a Protestant, resident of Palencia, a knight of the order of St. James, commander de Quintana, and son of Don Juan de Eojas, first Marquis of Poza. 106 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. DON Luis DE EOJAS, eldest son of the eldest son of the same Marquis of Poza. He was con- demned as a Protestant to banishment from Madrid, Valladolid, y Palencia ; prohibited leaving Spain without permission; had his property confiscated, and was deprived of the right of succeeding to the marquisate. DONA MENCIA DE FKHTEROA, wife of Don Pedro Sarmiento de Eojas, was also punished with samle- nito, confiscation of property, and perpetual im- prisonment. DONA ANA HENEIQTJEZ DE EOJAS, daughter of Don Alfonzo Henriquez de Almansa, Marquis of Alcanices, then deceased, was but four-and-twenty years of age when brought out as a Lutheran with sambenito to the auto-de-fe. She was a lady of great mind and erudition ; learned in the Latin language, an admirer of the works of Calvin, and of the Protestant Spaniard, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente : which works she had read with great devotion and diligence. Prom the auto-de-fe, she was taken by order of the inquisitors to a monastery, in which she re- mained a recluse for the rest of her life. DONA MAEIA DE EOJAS, a nun of the convent of Santa Catalina de Valladolid, aged forty, sister of Dona Elvira de Eojas, Marchioness of Alcanices, was similarly brought out with sambenito at the auto. The sentence passed upon her by the in- quisitors, reduced her to a perpetual seclusion in her own convent, to be last of all the community THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 107 in the choir and the refectory, and to be deprived of all vote, active or passive. DONA FRANCISCA ZTINIGA DE BAEZA, a beata of Valladolid, and daughter of Alonzo de Baeza, one of the king's comptrollers. DONA CONSTANZA DE VIBERO CAZALLA, sister of the Doctor Augustin and widow of Hernando Ortiz, also a king's comptroller. DON JUAN DE VIBERO CAZALLA, an inhabitant of Valladolid, and another brother of the Lutheran doctor ; and DONA JTTANA SILTA DE EIBERA, his wife, daughter of the Marquis of Montemayor, came -out with sambenitos in the same auto, as Protestant heretics, and were condemned to confiscation of property and perpetual imprisonment. ISABEL MINGUEZ, a servant of Dona Beatrix Vibero Cazalla. ANTON MINGUEZ, a brother of Isabel, and inha- bitant of Pedrosa. DANIEL DE LA CTJADRA, of the same place. DON JTJAN DE ULLOA PEREIRA, a knight com- mander of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, resident of Toro, and son of the Lord of Nota. In the auto before cited, he came forth with sambenito, and in it heard his sentence mitigated, through the benignity of his judges, to perpetual imprisonment, loss of property, brand of infamy, disqualification for honours, deprivation of his habit of the cross, and to privation (if absolved from perpetual im- prisonment) from a residence in the court, Valladolid, 108 THE SPANISH PROTESTAKTS. and Toro, and prohibited from leaving Spain. On the entreaty of many of his friends, in 1564, the inquisitor-general dispensed with all the parts of the sentence which he had power to remit, in the hope that Pereira was truly a sincere penitent for his errors. He was now desirous of acquiring restitution of his property, his liberty, and his honours, and applied to the Pope in 1565, urging the many and great services he had rendered to the Christian faith at Malta, when fighting against the infidels in the galleys there, he not only having taken five ships belonging to the pirate Caramain, a Turkish captain, but also distinguished himself in the feats of Algiers, Bugia, and other towns in Africa. The Pope promulgated a brief on the 8th of June, 1565, returning to Pereira his honours, pro- vided that the inquisitor-general of Spain and the grand master of Malta should not object. He at last recovered his dignities after so many persecu- tions. So great had been his previous services to the Christian faith, that they sufficed to blot out from the mind of the Pope, and the Inquisition, and the master of his order, the indignation under which this brave warrior had fallen, by following the Lutheran opinions. Ulloa Pereira was very famous in his day. Ey his valour and knowledge of military and of political affairs, he had previously merited from Charles V. the baton of general, and the confidence of a numerous regiment under his command in Germany and Hungary. The celebrated Melchor Cano preached the ser- THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 109 mon of the faith at the famous auto in Valladolid, against the Spanish Protestants, But previously, the inquisitor, Don Francisco Baca, approached the bench on which sat the Prince Don Carlos and his aunt Dona Juana, regent of the kingdoms, and took from them a solemn oath to support the Holy Office in all times and places, and to give to it a strict account of what any person might do or say con- trary to the faith. The audacity of the inquisitor in requiring such an oath from the prince and princess assisting at the auto, had, doubtless, its origin in an order of the Catholic sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, in which it was commanded that the presiding magistrate at such ceremonies should do homage to the cause, and honour and defend the deeds of the Holy Office, j Don Carlos and Dona Juana took the oath de- manded of them : the latter, because she believed, without doubt, that in taking it she was but pur- suing an ordinary course, or she complied with the rite from a sacred duty of conscience; and the prince, because he was of too tender an age to com- prehend the malice of the inquisitors, he being then but fourteen years old. He had not yet learned to estimate the wickedness of those courtiers and friars by whom his father, the king, was surrounded ; men, by whom the youthful Carlos himself was ultimately hurried to an untimely death, to the dismay of all Europe, as will be seen in the sequel of this present history. 110 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. CHAPTER VIII. ALTHOUGH so many were burnt or oppressed with ignominious penances at the before-mentioned auto- de-fe, the inquisitors reserved the greatest number, and most noted of prisoners for Protestantism, in order to bring them to condign punishment on the arrival of Philip II.: a festival very appropriate to this monarch, whose reign in England, with the barbarous Mary Tudor had terminated after broiling, in the flames there, a multitude of Protestants. This auto was celebrated on the 8th of October, 1559. In order to greater decorum and solemnity, this most pious monarch thought it opportune to assist, with all his court, in those horrors, and recreate himself in the frightful destruction of many of his subjects, illustrious for their birth, their virtue and their learning. In his company were his son, his nephew the Prince of Parma, three ambassadors of France, the Archbishop of Seville, the Eishops of Valencia and Zamora, and others elected, though not then consecrated to the priest- hood, the constable of Castile, the admiral, the Dukes of Najera and of Arcos, the Marquis of Denia, afterwards Duke of Lerma, the Marquis of Osuna, the Count, afterwards Duke, of Astorga, the Count of Urena, afterwards Duke of Bena- THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. Ill vente, the Count of Buendia, the last great master of the military order of Montesa, Don Pedro Luis De Borja, brother of the Duke of Gandia, Don Antonio de Toledo, Grand Prior of Castile and Leon, of the order of St. John of Jerusalem. Besides these, there assisted other grandees of Spain, also the Countess of Eibadabia and other ladies of the nobility, councillors, judges, and many other per- sons of authority. Don Deigo de Simancas, then secretary of the Holy Office, and afterwards Bishop of Zamora, says in one of his works :* " The auto of those heretics was most solemnly celebrated in the great square, upon a stage made upon a new plan, so contrived that from all parts the culprits might be seen. Upon other stages were assembled the council and principal persons; and so great was the concourse of people, who came from all the country round, that it was believed the number of persons there assembled, including those of the city, could not be less than 200,000." In this fashion the most pious king, the clergy, the nobility and the people, with tumultuous haste had recourse to a method of amusement worthy of cannibals or the ancient Mexicans. After the sermon and before reading the formal process against those about to suffer, the Cardinal Archbishop of Seville, Don Hernando Valdes, in- quisitor-general, said to Philip, Domine adjuva nos, [O Lord assist us !] The king rose up and drew * La vida y cosas notables del Sr. Obispo de Zamora Don Diego de Simancas, natural de Cordoba, escrita por el mismo. MS. which is preserved in the library of Seville Cathedral. 112 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS . his sword, as a signal that with it he would defend the Holy Office. Then the archbishop read a minute which had been ordered the day before by Don Diego de Simancas, which was in these words : " It having been by Apostolical decrees and sacred canons ordered, that kings should swear to favour the holy Catholic faith and Christian religion, does your Majesty swear by the holy cross, with your royal right hand upon your sword, that you will give all favour which is necessary to the Holy Office of the Inquisition, and to its ministers against heretics and apostates, and against those who de- fend and favour them, and against whomsoever person, directly or indirectly, may impede the efforts and things of the Holy Office ; and that you shall force all your subjects and people to obey and observe the constitutions and apostolical letters given and published in defence of the holy Catholic faith against heretics and against those who believe them, receive them, or favour them ?" Philip II. answered, So I swear. The first who came out at this auto was DON CABLOS DE SESO, OB SESSE, a gentleman born at Verona, and of one of the most illustrious families of Italy. He was a great scholar, and had served Charles Y. many years in the Imperial armies, and afterwards in the office of political corregidor in the city of Toro. He was married to Dona Isabel Castilla, daughter of Don Francisco de Castilla, a descendant of the kiiip THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 113 Don Pedro I., and he was an inhabitant of Yilla- mediana, near Logrono. This gentleman was, ac- cording to the declarations of other prisoners, the author of Lutheranism in Yalladolid, Palencia, and Zamora, and other neighbouring places. After being a recluse in the dungeons of the Inquisition and condemned to death, he wrote, the day before the auto-de-fe, a confession entirely Protestant, which he asserted to be the true doctrines of the gospel, and not that perverted doctrine which was taught by the church of Borne, and he declared that, having lived in those doctrines, he hoped to die in them, offering himself with fortitude to G-od, in memory and for the sake of his Son Jesus Christ. Llorente, who to form a critical history of the Inquisition, registered many of the most notable cases of this tribunal, says, speaking of the Protes- tant confession of Don Carlos de Seso, " It is diffi- cult to describe the vigour and energy with which those two sheets of paper were written by a man condemned to die within a few hours." When they brought him out to the auto, on pass- ing before the throne where King Philip sat, he asked that monarch liow he could permit a gentle- man of Tiis rank to be burnt. To which words the demon of the south replied : /, myself, would bring the wood to burn my own son if lie were as bad as And having so said, he ordered the mouth * See the History of Philip II. by Luis Cabrera. Baltasar Porreno in his Dichos y hechos del Key Don Felipe II. el Pru- dente, (Seville, 1639,) says, speaking of the autos-de-fe in Valla- I 114 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. of Don Carlos to be stopped with a gag, in order that he might utter no more blasphemies. With that gag remained this most distinguished man during the whole time that the auto lasted. On the way to the stake, they continued preach- ing to him in order to convert him to Catholicism, but in vain ; for when they tied him to the stake and took out the gag he pronounced these heroic words : If I had time you should see that I would demonstrate that all of you who do not imitate me condemn your- selves. Set fire to this pile as quickly as possible, that I may die in it. The executioners did not delay to satisfy the desires of Don Carlos, for, setting fire to the wood, he was soon reduced to ashes. Thus did the Spanish Protestants defy the fury of their persecutors, equalling in constancy and courage, if not also in the truth of their doctrines, the first martyrs of the church. Another of the illustrious prisoners who was brought out to suffer martyrdom at the second auto-de-fe in Valladolid, was FEAT DOMINGO DE EOJAS, a Dominican presbyter, and son of the Marquis de Poza. In one of the many accounts which are dolid : " Thus he greatly displayed his zeal ; for, having to punish some noble persons for whom some grandees had interceded, they being moved with compassion for them, his majesty answered with great severity, It is quite right that noble blood, if stained, should be purified in the jire, and if my own were to be stained by my ton, I would be thejirst to throw him into $." THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 115 written touching this event, we read, " Er. Domingo de Eojas, a Dominican friar of illustrious family, came out second with a cross in his hand, and with an escapulary and white habit, but without the cloak [manto] over it. He held the same opinions as Don Carlos, and carried them still further. He confessed to hold some which he had pretended to oppose. Having demanded permission of his majesty to speak, he said, " / think it necessary to say certain things, by way of advice, to your majesty and many others, and which things are, that although I come forth here, in the opinion of the vulgar, as a heretic, I believe in God the Father almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and in the holy church (he did not say of Borne), and I believe in the passion of Christ, which alone is sufficient to save all the world without any other work more than the justification of the soul with God; and in this I believe for salvation." Before he had ended these last words, the king ordered him to retire from thence ; but he threw his arms around a large post, and continued to insist on his opinions in such a manner, that two friars were unable to disengage him, until an officer of the Holy Office fell upon him, and parted him at last from his grasp, putting a gag in his mouth, which was never removed until he died. There were accom- panying him more than a hundred of his order, admonishing and preaching to him : to all they said, he answered, "No, no;' 1 for notwithstanding the gag, these words were understood. Nevertheless, they pretended to have heard him say, that he i 2 116 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. believed in the Holy Mother Church of Borne, and therefore they did not burn him alive." Also, at this auto came out JTTAN SANCHEZ, aged thirty-three, a resident in Yalladolid, a native of Astudillo de Campos, and % servant of Pedro Cazalla, curate of the town of Pedrosa, in the bishopric of Zamora. Dreading that he would be arrested by the Inquisition, he had fled by the Bay of Biscay to Flanders, under the name of Juan de Yibar. The judges of the Holy Office discovered his retreat by means of letters which he wrote to Dona Catalina Ortega without knowing that she was a prisoner for Lutheranism ; and the king, at that time in Brussels, being advised of it, took the necessary means of securing him. In the end, he fell into the power of the alcalde of the court of Don Erancisco de Castilla, at Turlingen, and was conveyed to Yalladolid, shut up in the secret cells of the Inquisition, and condemned to death. He was brought out to the auto with a gag in his mouth. In the account already cited, his martyrdom is thus referred to : " Juan Sanchez, a servant of Cazalla, then came out gagged. He held the same heretical opinions, and, besides that, he had left the kingdom. To the accusation against him, he answered, that all was true, and that in those opinions he protested he would live and die, because he was certain of his salvation through them. In all hearings of his case, he showed such pertinacity, that he would confess nothing else. They burned him alive ; and it is said, that being in the midst of the fire, he THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS 117 leapt out of the ring (argolla), and was bounding from one faggot to another, saying, Mercy, mercy ; whereupon the friars came to him, and said there was yet time for G-od to show him mercy, if he would but confess ; he, however, said he should not confess but to G-od ; and so they burnt him alive. This was the most pertinacious heretic of all." In other accounts of these autos-de-fe, it is affirmed that Juan Sanchez, being on the post, saw that Don Carlos de Sesse was left to be burned alive, and from that instant, instead of repeating his cry for mercy, he mocked the friars who were exhorting him to confess and die by the garrote, and at last he threw himself headlong into the devouring flames. The others who were brought out to suffer the penalty of death at this auto, were induced to confess, and then died by the garrote. Their names were, PEDRO DE CAZALLA, a native of Valladolid and parochial curate of the town of Pedrosa. DOMINGO SANCHEZ, the presbyter already named. DONA EurEOSiNA Rios, a nun of the order of Santa Clara, in Valladolid. DONA MARINA DE GTJEYARA, a nun of the convent of Belen, of the order of Cister, in the same city. DONA CATALINA DE EEYNOSO, and DONA MAR- GARITA DE SANTISTEBAN, nuns also of the same convent. PEDRO SOTELO, FRANCISCO DE ALMANSA and DONA MARIA MIRANDA, a nun of the same con- vent of Belen. 118 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Also there were brought out at this auto, the effigy and the remains of JIT ANA SANCHEZ, beata,* an inhabitant of Valladolid ; who, on finding herself a prisoner in the Inquisition, and knowing that her condemnation was inevitable, inflicted a wound upon her throat with a pair of scissors, of which wound she died in a few days, all efforts to induce her to confess previously having been useless, for she wished to die firmly in the Protestant doctrines. DONA ISABEL DE CASTELLA, wife of Don Carlos de Seso ? DONA CATALINA DE CASTILLA, her niece and DONA EEANCISCA DE ZTTNIOA T EEINOSO, DON FELIPE DE HEREDIA and DONA CATALINA DE ALCARAZ, all nuns of the convent of Belen, were punished with sambenitos, perpetual imprisonment, confiscation of property, and other penalties. "The account of this auto was carried," says D. Diego de Simancas, in his MS. life, "to Pope Paul IV., who was much pleased with it, and re- quested that it might be read before some of the cardinals, at the same time adding, that the Catholic kings had, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, given orders for the appointment of inquisitors in Spain, in order that heresy might not prevail, and he had consequently conceded many favours to the Holy Office." Simancas also says, in his own life : " At that time, the French king, hearing that his kingdom was full of heretics, sent to ask our king, his brother-in-law, to send him a particular account * Nuns who are permitted to go out of the convent are so called. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 119 and information of the form adopted in Spain for proceeding against them. Our king communi- cated this request to the inquisitor-general, who empowered Yaltodano and myself to see to the matter. We prepared the required document, which was sent to him, and he commenced, by the hands of the bishops, the ordinary inquisitors, proceedings against some heretics, some of whom were taken prisoners ; but such were they and so much were they favoured that what ought to have been done was never executed." Philip II. was present within the place of execu- tion (quemadero) and made his guards, as well horsemen as> footmen, assist in the execution of the unhappy martyrs to liberty of conscience, and allowed them to be converted into miserable assistants of the executioners who were paid by the iniquitous tribunal of the Holy Office.* * He was present (Philip II.) to see brought out and thrown into the fire many of the delinquents, accompanied by his guards, both horsemen and footmen, icho assisted in the execution." (Luis Cabrera de Cordova, Libro v. de la Historia de Felipe II. capi- tulo III.) This (the Faith) made him favour the Holy Office of the Inqui- sition so much, and put it into so regular and organised a system. It made him assist at the acts of the faith in this city, ( Valladolid) where he delivered that famous sentence on the complaining of a certain principal person : " If my son were against the Catholic Church I myself would carry the materials to burn him" A Sermon preached by Don Fray Agustin Davila, in Valladolid in 1598. (See the Funeral Sermons in honour of Philip II. with others added thereto. Printed in Seville by Clementa Hidalgo. Aiio 1600.) 120 THE SPATTCSH PKOTESTAKTS. The picture of so cruel a deed wrought by the demon of the south, is by some writers, guided by stupidity, by ignorance, or by a blind respect to superstitious chroniclers, called a calumny of foreigners to brand this king with infamy. Philip II. can be very little calumniated. Almost all that calumny may be able to invent in opprobium of any person is to be verified in the deeds of that monarch. His presence at the unhappy death of the Spanish Protestants makes him equal in ferocity to the son of tha^ambitiou^Agripina. Nero, d\irmg tlie frightful incendiary fire of proud Rome, ordered some Christians to be taken, as criminals suspected of being concerned in that exe- crable crime ; he punished as many as confessed being guilty of it, and he reduced to close confine- ment all those who appeared culpable, according to the denouncement of other delinquents.* Philip II. when the fire of heresy began to spread itself in Spain, filled the prisons with Protestants, t the penalty of those who had wandered from the Catholic faith. Nero added to the torment of those whom he * " Igitur primo correpti, qui fatebantur, deinde indicio eorum multitude ingens, haude perinde in crimine incendii, quam odio humani generis con vie ti sunt." (C. Cornelii Taciti Annalmm y Liber XV.) " At the beginning those who confessed were punished, and then many others discovered by those, not so much for the crime of incendiarism as for having been convicted of holding all the human species in hatred." (Translation of Tacitus by Sueyro, Antwerp, 1613.) THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 121 "held guilty, the disgrace of being dressed with the bloody skins of horrid and still palpitating beasts.* Philip II., after the pains and torments inflicted upon the clergy and gentry despoiled of their rank and their dignities, and stripped of their vestments, could feel complacency in seeing them covered with ridiculous sacks, on which the figures of toads and lizards were painted to represent slavery, to gratify the pride of the inquisitorial judges and fill with ter- ror and dismay an ignorant and fanatical populace. Nero caused the Christians to be tornkypieces by hungry dogs, or put them on crosses an^rset fire to them at nightfall.t Philip II. ordered Protestants to be strangled in the garrote, or to be gibbetted on the posts within which the fuel was kindled, so that those migrht burn the more conspicuously towards night, &if er the reading of the formal processes in the public squares. Nero readily offered his gardens for the inhuman spectacle of torturing delinquents. J * " Et pereuntibus addita ludibria, tit ferarum turgis contecti." (Ibid.) " He added to their torments, the infamy of being clothed with skins of beasts." (Same author.) t "Laniatu canum interirentaut crucibus affiixi autftammandi, atqui ubi defecissit dies, in usum nocturni luminis arerentur." (Ibidem.) " And caused them to be devoured by the dogs, or placed them on crosses which, at the close of day, might be lighted with fire and serve to illuminate, by their brilliancy, the gloom of night." (Same author.) " Hortos suos ei spectaculo Nero obtulerat." (Ibidem.) " Nero offered his gardens for this spectacle." (Same author.) 122 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. Philip II. as readily lent the guards of his royal person to the executioners in order that they might contribute their services in the lighting the wood, the flames from which, were to devour the bodies of the Protestants. Nero and Philip. One tormented the Christians. The other reduced Protestants to ashes, pretending in both cases to defend by such cruelties the public weal. Nero in the habit of a charioteer, and amid an immense concourse of people, was present at the unhappy end of the Christians.* Philip II. with all pomp, and followed by his stupid court, beheld the horrible death of the Pro- testants, who were roasted alive before him. Nero disgraced himself in allowing the people to see him without his imperial insignia, and in his viewing with complacency the frightful destruction of those whom he called delinquents. Philip II. did himself the honour to preside over executions. Nero had not the audacity to demonstrate his ferocity before the Roman people. Philip II. was ostentatious of it before the popu- lace of Valladolid, and the grandees of Castile. Nero, ferocious as he was, although more hypo- critical in his wickednesses, is execrated by Tacitus * " Et circense ludicrum edebat habitu aurigce permixtus plebi, vel curricula inmteus" (Ibidem.) " And in the dress of a charioteer, he mixed among the people, or, standing on the car, kept up the play of the circle." (Same author.) THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 123 in speaking of the terrible punishments of the Christians. Philip II., equally ferocious, and having by the affrontery of his cruelties dissimulated with the greatest hypocrisy, is praised and nattered by the pens of ancient writers, for having with his guards assisted the inquisitorial executioners in the exter- mination of the Protestants. The generous Britanicus was not worthy of being engendered by the same father as Nero. Philip II. would have been a more worthy brother. If both had been nourished from the same maternal bosom of the proud Agripina, never would Rome have seen the emperor performing in its theatres, a scandal to the people and to the senate, nor Nero's imperial eagles domineering from the capitol, spreading themselves over the world, and then uniting to throw down the diadem from his brow. No. A knife would sooner have been plunged into his breast, and a priest of the temple of Jupiter would have taken the purple mantle from the shoulders of Nero, and placed it on those of Philip II. Although previously to the punishment of the Pro- testants there had been no fire blazing in the midst of Valiadolid, similar to that which destroyed so many quarters of Home, in the time of Nero, yet in the following year, viz., 1561, on Sunday, the 21st of September, two hours before daybreak, a dreadful fire broke out in the Costanilla quarter of the town of Valiadolid. In the space of thirty hours, more 124 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAtfTS. than four hundred houses were destroyed by the devouring element, besides great quantities of corn, wine, and merchandise of considerable value. The cause of so much loss and distress was attri- buted to the friends and relations of the Protes- tants imprisoned by the Holy Office, or punished with samfienitos and other penances, in certain houses of Valladolid in the quarter of St. John, erected to receive those who had been reconciled and taken back to the pale of the Catholic Church. Doubtless the authors of the fire expected it would extend to the greater part of Yalladolid, and they judged it would be an easy matter to save the prisoners from the extreme penalty, or to get rid of the sambenitos, whilst confusion and dismay were prevailing in every direction. Eut if such were the intentions of the authors of the catastrophe, their hopes vanished like the smoke from the flames they had kindled. For, with the ruin of some four hun- dred houses the fire was subdued, and the object of the alleged perpetrators of the deed, in setting their friends and relations at liberty, was defeated. The pride of the inquisitors prompted them to raise as a perpetual memorial of their triumph, an infamous monument to the memory of the Pro- testants who perished by the cruelties of the Holy Office. On the site where once stood the house of Dona Leonor de Vibero, thrown down by the Catholic divines, as has already been observed. The column of infamy, to which I have alluded in a former chapter, was ordered to be constructed of THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 125 white stone. It was six feet high, and half a yard in diameter, and contained an inscription setting forth the crime of the Cazallas, the name of the king, and of the Pope, in whose time it had been discovered, and the tribunal which pronounced the merited sentence. In an angle of the destroyed house, and upon some rubbish, taken from the street, and about three yards high, that monument existed until levelled with the ground by the French. It is however, to our national shame, still preserved in the same locality where it was first erected. On the remainder of the site of that house the Jesuits founded a part of their college. Dungeons, torments, sambenitos, gags, flames, garrotes, infamy, confiscations, perpetual imprison- ments, and all sorts of sufferings and ignominy, were not enough to appease the hatred, vanity and thirst for vengeance of the ferocious wretches, who assumed the garb of ministers of the Holy Office. They wished to immortalize the victory they had achieved over gentlemen in chains, humble priests, innocent nuns and helpless women, who could only in the hour of their extremity arraign their infamous judges before the incorruptible tribunal of the Supreme Being, or cry to Grod out of the very flames that he would pardon their executioners. ^' 126 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. CHAPTEE IX. CAEEANZA. THE astonishment of Spain at so many severities perpetrated by the Inquisition on persons distin- guished as well for their wisdom as for their holi- ness, was increased by the arrest of the Archbishop of Toledo, Don Pray Bartholome de Carranza, who was accused of having fallen into the views of Luther and his followers. This was a strange case, not only because the culprit was the first dignitary in the Spanish Church, but because of the circum- stances which made it incredible that he could be supposed guilty of the crime. The archbishop had spent his whole life in ren- dering many and very great services to the Eoman see, as a divine in the Council of Trent ; in the publication of his various Latin and Castilian works, written against the Protestants ; in his convincing them by his eloquence in the pulpit, when Philip II. reigned in England ; in punishing by fire the blindly pertinacious, and finally, in burning to ashes the books of the Protestant writers. The constant zeal which he evinced on many occasions, to- preserve the integrity and rigour of the Catholic religion was not enough to dissipate in the Holy Office, the THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 127 appearances that began to stain his reputation, which until then was unimpeachable. As men, we are always more prone to believe in the vices than the virtues of our contemporaries. Against the ingress of the former, the doors of our perception are never closed ; but the latter, in seeking access to our minds, meet with many ob- structions to impede their passage. A single action which presents itself to us as merely suspicious, is often enough to blot out from our memory the most noble actions performed by the objects of our hatred or abuse, in honour of the country to which they belong, and as beneficial to their fellow-creatures as creditable to themselves. DON FEAT BAETOLOME DE CAEEANZA, from the grade of a friar of the order of preachers, was raised by Philip II. to the dignity of Archbishop of Toledo, as a reward for the many and important services he had rendered to the Catholic religion and the crown of Spain. He was consecrated in Brussels on the 27th February, 1558, by the Car- dinal Perenot, Bishop of Arras, but known by the name of Granvelle. He set out for Spain with a view of entering into his church, and putting in order the affairs of his see. But before doing this, he was bound by an express mandate and secret commission from the king, to go to the Monastery of Tuste, of the order of St. Jerome, where, at that time, the Emperor Charles V. lived in retirement from the world; for, according to history, that monarch, who, by the force of his arms, his know- 128 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAtfTS. ledge, and military talents, had subdued so many nations, princes, and warriors, was about to pass from this world to another. I do not know whether Carraiiza discharged this mission to the taste of Philip, but I am disposed to think he did not ; for from that moment Philip ceased to afford his pro- tection to the archbishop a man whom he had always had about his person, and whose counsels had been of great utility to him in the north, and guided him in his most hazardous enterprises. No historian relates the object of the journey of Carranza to Tuste. All say it was by command of Philip II. ; but no one declares its purpose, nor whether that purpose was effected to Philip's satis- faction: therefore, nobody has opposed himself to my conjectures with regard to the beginning of the adversities of Carranza.* Antonio Perez gives one to understand that they had their origin either in * In the Epitome of the life and deeds of the Emperor Charles P., by Don Juan Antonio de Vera y de Zuniga (Madrid, 1622), we find the following, evidently copied from Sandoval's History of Ccesar : "The funeral and novenario* following of the immortal (in name) Charles V., was attended by, besides his family, the Arch- bishop of Toledo, Don Bartolome de Carranza, who had shortly previously arrived at Yuste, and whose presence had been desired and anxiously expected by Caesar, with a view of having an understanding as to some opinions not very orthodox, which he had acquired during his residence in England opinions which cost him so much trouble afterwards, and for which the Most Catholic King upbraided him severely. * Novenario, Religious rites performed during nine days after death, for the soul of the departed. THE SPANISH PEG TE STARTS. 129 covetousness of the prize on the part of the inqui- sitors, or in the regret of Philip II. that he had elected him to the see of Toledo, but that the cause was kept a profound secret ; for that politician says, that one of his twelve memorials declares it ; and these, if not already lost, have hitherto eluded the diligent searches of the learned ; so that the occa- sion of the dislike of the king towards his protected and constant servant can never be made patent to the world ; for although we may form conjectures on the subject, we run the risk of falling into error.* Carranza had published some Commentaries on the Christian Catechism, divided into four parts : which contain all that Catholics profess in Holy Baptism. The work was dedicated to Philip II., and printed at Antwerp by Martin Nucio, in 1558, and not in Brussels, as erroneously stated by Nicolas Antonio. This work, about which so much has been said, may be considered as the foundation of the archbishop's misfortunes. Pr. Melchor Cano, TV. Juan de Eegla, confessor of Caesar Charles V., and other friars who disliked Carranza, read, one after another, all the pages of the Catechism with that peculiar care and attention which a person would be likely to bestow in search- ing for beautiful flowers among venomous plants. * Much might have been said on this matter by Miranda, who saw what took place in the cause against the Archbishop of Toledo, and affirms, that either on account of indignation, or the richness of the prize, and repentance for having elected him, the cause was kept a profound secret. (A ntonio Perez Rdaciones.) K 130 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Those men, in conversations and in writing, which circulate freely among persons well informed, and in no way devoted to the archbishop, gave out, that in the work in question there was nothing but Lutheranism ; an assertion which inflamed the minds of both the author's friends and enemies, the former having believed him incapable of writing anything which could in the least offend the religion of their ancestors ; and the latter, moved with indignation to think how inconsiderately the see of Toledo had been given to a friar, whose first step after his con- secration was to issue from the press a work replete with anti-catholic opinions. But did that work contain in its pages any such doctrines ? " My intent (says Carranza, in his preface) is to insert, in the text, the catechism which the Church has had from its foundation, ordered by the Holy Spirit, and promulgated by the Apostles, and to explain to the people what is necessary for them to know concerning the profession of faith, and to adopt and explain the holy Scriptures and declara- tions of the ancient fathers in the same sense in which they understood and explain them, and to extract the bad herbs which the heretics of the present day have sown, giving in each instance a caution against the bad ones, and adopting the good ones. As far as I have been able, I have endea- voured to resuscitate here the antiquity [antigiiedad] of our progenitors and of the first church, because that was the most sound and pure. My intention has been good : whatever is faulty in the work, the THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 131 Church will correct it, for to its judgment and cor- rection I first submit all, and then to every Chris- tian reader to whom Grod may be pleased to give more light than I have enjoyed," Some of the words of this preface were very dangerous ones to write at that time, because all Protestants were professing in their works that their only object was to restore the Church to the vigour and integrity of the first ages, No wonder, then, that Spanish divines, and, above all, inqui- sitors, who had commenced to destroy a Lutheran conspiracy formed by distinguished ecclesiastics and men of great learning, should be surprised to find the Archbishop of Toledo publishing a catechism in which, according to his own words (confirmed after- wards in the succeeding chapters of the work), he did not wish to do anything more than resuscitate the antiquity of our forefathers and of the primitive church, because that was the most sound and pure ! None of those who have treated of the adverse events of the archbishop (not even Llorente him- self), allude to this preface in speaking of the catechism, in every part of which work, one meets with phrases very similar to those used by the Protestant authors of that time. Nay, even some of the sentences appear clearly to have been sug- gested by reading the writings of Luther, (Ecol- ampadius, and Melancthon. The Catholics who have defended Carranza can- not deny the truth of these observations ; but they exculpate the archbishop by saying, that he spent K 2 132 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. many years in reading heretical books, which he had permission to read ; that he never occupied himself in so disagreeable a task through affection for them, but on the contrary was compelled by Philip II. and other persons of dignity to do so, in order to refute them by his pen or viva voce in the pulpit ; that comparing some of the Catholic doctrines with those of the Protestants, he frequently adopted the same phrases used by them ; and lastly, that not advert- ing to the risk to which he was venturing in such calamitous times, and in faith of his good intention, he wished to speak according to his feelings, not thinking to offend in the least degree the religion of his forefathers. This is what is affirmed by the partizans of the archbishop. But I, uninfluenced by either love nor hatred towards Carranza, believe that there is too much of partiality in the authors who have thus sought to defend the catechism. The book is written with great artifice. Carranza evidently composed it with the utmost caution, fear- ful perhaps of the consequences that might follow, if his intentions were discovered by the judges of the Holy Office. I have carefully compared some pas- sages of the catechism with the works of Martin Luther and other Protestants, and succeeded in discovering the mode in which he formed his book. He evidently took passages from the writings of Luther, and inserted them in the catechism, dress- ing them up with his own reasoning. And in order the better to dissimulate, he altered the phrases which he introduced to his work, changing into THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 133 singular that which was plural, and active into passive, besides making other transpositions and changes to conceal the fact that he copied from the G-erman friar and to escape detection. The Inquisitor-general, Don Fernando de Valdes, Archbishop of Seville, a great persecutor of the Protestants, gave the catechism to various divines, in order that they might examine it. Some writers pretend to say that Valdes secretly hated Carranza, through envy at seeing him pro- moted to so superior a post ; and that the motive for his referring to lawyers the examination of the work, was entirely that of envy. At the sar e time Valdes might have been influenced also by hatred ; but to confide to him the examination of all the works which came from the press, even after the legal approbations, was a thing of daily occur- rence. To his zeal the Holy Office owed the first prohibited index of books, which it published in Spain; and to such an extreme did he carry his rigour in that case, that even the works of Catholic writers were prohibited under grave penalties.* Why then should it be thought strange that he should treat Carranza as he was wont to treat every other writer ? * Cathologus librorum, qai prohibentur mandate Illustrissimi ti Reverendissimi D. D. Fernandi de Valdes, Hispalensi Archi- episcopi, Inquisitoris-generalis Hispanice. Nei non et supremi sanctce ac Generalis Inquisitionis senatu*. HOG anno MDLIX. editus. Quorum jussu et licentia Sebastianus Martinez excudebat. Pincia. 134 THE SPANISH PKOTESTAKTS, The judgment of the divines was adverse to the catechism, and thus Yaldes from that moment began to entertain the more wakeful suspicions that Friar Carranza had drank deeply of Protestantism. Un- luckily for the unhappy archbishop, an event hap- pened which threw the seal upon all the suspicions entertained in the heart of Yaldes. The Protestant friar, Domingo de Eojas, overtaken by the torments of the Inquisition, and with a view perhaps of saving his life, said in one of his declarations that, if the ArcJibisJiop of Toledo had not given the syrups \Jarabes] to the purge, it would not have worked so quickly upon him and upon the erring people* To which the inquisitor, Don Diego de Simancas, added, that the language of all those prisoners was the same as that used in the catechism.^ Simancas at that time executed the office of councillor to the Holy Office. The declarations made in the Inquisition of Yal- ladolid by various Protestants did great mischief to * So says the Doctor Don Diego de Siraancas, and it is con- firmed by Doctor Don Pedro Salazar de Mendoza in La vida y sucesos prosperos y adversos, de Don Fray Bartolome de Car- ranza, a work written with a view of exculpating the archbishop. He left it inedited, and it was published by Don Antonio Valla- dares at Madrid, in 1788. Salazar de Mendoza then affirms, speaking of the Friar Domingo de Rojas, " that among other things he said publicly that no one could be alarmed at that purge work- ing so much, seeing that the syrups had been prepared by the arch- bishop." J* La vida y cosas notifies del senor obispo de Zamora don Diego de Simancas, natural de Cordova, escritopor el mismo. MS. which is in the Columbian Library. Simancas wrote his own life up to 1579. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 135 the cause of the archbishop. I have tried a thou- sand times to imagine from whence this notable coincidence could have its origin ; and I have only found its explication in the phrases of the catechism being similar to some in use among the German Pro- testants, and in which the unhappy Lutheran recluses in the cells of the Holy Office of Valladolid avowed, doubtless with a view of exculpating themselves before their judges, that the doctrine they pro- fessed was no other than that of the Archbishop of Toledo, a man in whom not even the shadow of a fault could be found, he having rendered so many and such great services in promoting the lustre and extension of the Apostolical See. With these declarations so injurious to the arch- bishop, and the suspicions which already the Inqui- sition had been led to entertain by the appearance of his catechism and the opinions of the famous divines as to the impurity of its doctrines, the storm began to increase and threatened to destroy the ill- fated Carranza. Things having arrived at this point, Pope Paul IY. hearing that the Lutherans and other heretics had commenced extending their opinions in Spain, that they had already taken deep root in the minds of many illustrious persons ; and fearing that even some prelates were not free from that con- tagion, gave a faculty in form of a brief, in order that Don Fernando de Valdes, inquisitor-general, with the concurrence and deliberation of the supreme council, might officially proceed against all bishops, archbishops, and patriarchs, who had shewn, or who 136 THE SPANISH PEOTESTAOTS. might shew palpable signs of having permitted the venom of Protestantism to enter their minds. And not only did this faculty empower them to form processes against the delinquents, but also to throw them into prison, provided that the Pope should be made acquainted with every thing, and that they should send the accused to Home with safe convoy and the original process. This faculty of Paul IY. was to be in force two years ; but as it would have expired on the death of this Pope and pending the trial of Toledo, Valdes sent to Rome, and asked the new Pope Pius IV. to confirm the letters of his predecessor with greater amplifications, pro- vided they were consistent with the discovery of crime, the service of God, and the Holy Church. This brief being dispatched by Pius IY. and come to Spain, the inquisitor-general now began to think of arresting Carranza. "Whilst these things were passing, the archbishop, fearing the evils which his catechism was likely to bring upon his head, wrote to the Pope, and to the king, Philip, then absent from Spain, in order to prepare the minds of both, so that should fortune present to him a frowning face, he might have those two high personages, to whom he could direct his complaints, and send his entreaties for assistance in the time of adversity. On the other hand, he obtained for his catechism the approbation of some learned divines, not at all suspected of the heresy of those times, which approbation would be, as he thought, sufficient to prove the orthodoxy of tho THE SPANISH PEOTESTAKTS. 137 work, in case the Inquisition should bring matters to that extremity which some of the friars, and others, were most ardently desiring. But such en- deavours were of no avail : almost all the divines who approved his work, as one defending the Catholic faith, found themselves very soon compelled to retract, in writing, or to pay in the prison of the Inquisition for their own crime of believing Carranza innocent ; for in those unhappy times, the mere giving of an opinion, and that according to the dictates of the understanding and conscience, was often reported for heresy, and even in reference to subjects which had no bearing, either upon religion or the clergy. 138 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. CHAPTEE X. AT the beginning of August, 1559, there was cir- culated a false report that Philip II., quitting the states in Flanders, had taken the road to Spain. The Archbishop of Toledo was then at Alcala. de Henares, when a courier arrived with letters from the Princess Dona Juana, then governess of the kingdoms, desiring him to repair to Yalladolid, and there await the king's arrival. Carranza suspected something of the real object of this call, although I have not been able to ascertain with certainty whe- ther he was secretly advised of it, by some friend, who knew that up to that moment the Inquisition had not ceased, for a considerable period, to fix its eyes on the archbishop as its victim, and now wished to make him its prisoner. Carranza appeared as if willing to obey the command of Dona Juana, and ordered his family to prepare what was neces- sary for his journey, which he professed himself anxious to make with the decorum belonging to the dignity of his station. On the 9th of August, scarcely had the day begun to dawn, when DonEodrigo de Castro entered, post haste, the town of Alcala de Henares. He alighted at the palace of the archbishop, and put into his hands a letter from the princess, in which she THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. 139 ordered, that immediately and without excuse of any kind, he should proceed to Yalladolid, as his presence was necessary in the court, and that as for his lodgings she had prepared every thing suitable to the dignity of his person. Don Eodrigo felt indisposed by the heat and fatigue of his journey, and as the medical men told him it would be proper for the recovery of his health, that he should keep his bed for a few days, the archbishop suspecting the misfortunes that awaited him, at the same time profited by the occasion to beg of Don Eodrigo that the journey might be postponed until he recovered from his indisposition. The archbishop, as is in- ferred, contrived to gain time, thinking that the presence of the king, which he vainly expected, would put an end to the machinations of those enemies he had acquired by his elevation to the dignity of primate of Spain. At the end of eight days from the arrival of Don Eodrigo at Alcala, the archbishop set out for Valla- dolid, stopping very appropriately at some places on the road, under the colour of giving confirmation to the people, but in truth because he was already timorous of his fortune. His suspicions were confirmed on meeting with Fray Philip de Meneses, at Fuente el Saz. This friar was Professor of St. Thomas' in Alcala, and he, calling Carranza aside, told him that in Yalladolid no other news was current than that the Holy Office had resolved on arresting the Archbishop of Toledo ; and now, that as Providence had given him 140 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. intimation of such a report he might either return to Alcala or haste on to Valladolid, where perhaps, he might find some way of extricating himself from so unhappy a position. It is said that the arch- bishop replied : There can be no belief in such non- sense : for the princess herself calls me, and has very politely sent Don Rodrigo de Castro to convey her desires. Besides this, I can appeal to God this very moment, whether at any period of my life I have been tempted to fall into any err or ^ the knowledge of which could in any way concern or pertain to the Inquisition. On the contrary, God knows that he has deigned to take me as his instrument, in order that by my labour and industry, more than two millions of heretics might be converted /* The particulars of Carranza's arrest are as yet unknown to the world. Neither Salazar de Men- doza, nor Llorente notices them. The celebrated chronicler Ambrosio de Morales, in his account, * This reply is to be found in an unedited work which has for its title the following words : " Comofue preso y sentenciado el arzobispo de Toledo Don Fray Hartolome de Carranza, escripto por mi, Ambrosio de Morales coronista mayor de el Catolico y Prudente Monarca de las Espauas el Sector Don Felipe II. que de orden de su Majestad (Dios le conserve y guarde) fue por mi escripta de mi propia mano, para depositarla entre los demas escriptos que estdn en la libreria de esta octava maravUla del mundo San Lorenzo el Real del Escorial." Of this important MS. I have before me a copy, of the last century, which is preserved in a volume of various papers in the select library of my good friend, the excellent Senor Don Jose Manuel de Vadillo, author of the Sumario de la Espaiia Economica de los siglos XVI. y XVIL, and of other very notable works. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 141 composed by order of Philip II., in order to the preservation of the MS. in the Escurial, as stated in the last note, gives word for word, the steps which preceded, and the circumstances which accompanied that event. These are exceedingly minute and curious, and considering the rarity of the work, are worthy of being here transcribed. " The departure of the archbishop was approach- ing, and on Thursday, the 10th of August, the day of St. Lorenzo, by his orders a solemn procession was formed from the church of the Holy Martyrs, San Justo and pastor, to the monastery of San Fran- cisco, in order to pray to Grod for the prosperous arrival of the king ; but on the "Wednesday follow- ing at noon, the chief officer [alguacil mayor] of the Inquisition of Toledo arrived, and immediately visited the archbishop, to inform him that in the course of that very night, Don Diego Ramirez, inquisitor- general of that tribunal, would arrive to publish the edict of the faith ; and the archbishop immediately caused proclamation to be made for celebrating it in the church of St. Francisco where it was to be published. The archbishop was to preach the sermon, and the procession being of so solemn a nature, an incredible number of people met together in St. Francisco. The hour for the sermon being arrived, the prelate mounted his place, and he who was to read the edict got into the ordinary pulpit,, which was in front, and duly decorated as for the sermon, and having taken out the edict to read, the inquisitor, Don Diego Ramirez, sent and desired 142 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. him to wait until after his reverence should have preached. " The archbishop in his sermon spoke of the edict, admonished the people to obey it, and to consider that in its observance consisted the health of their souls, and in treating of this he dwelt upon the point with great eloquence. The edict was after- wards ready l)wt in it nothing was said about pro- hibited booJcs ; and this was much noticed by many who, being little affected towards Carranza, said it was out of respect to his person that the omission had been made" After Ambrosio de Morales has given this rare information, which cannot fail to be appreciated by those who have studied the life of the archbishop, he then follows him from the time of his setting out from Alcala, until his arrival at Tordelaguna, and then says : " On Sunday, the 20th of August, in the morning, the archbishop reached Tordelaguna, the chief of the three principal towns which are about a league from Talamanca. There he was met by Father Master Fr. Pedro de Soto, who told him that his (the archbishop's) correspondent, Friar Luys de la Cruz, had been arrested in Valladolid. The arch- bishop answered, What do you say, leather Master ? Then according to this, I suppose they will wish to make me also a heretic. Friar Pedro was the head Professor of Salamanca, a man of great veracity and to whom great credit was given, and therefore he left the archbishop much disconcerted, because, in THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 143 confidence he assured his reverence, that they had already left Valladolid in order to take him. " This was perfectly true. For, four days pre- viously, the alguacil mayor of the Council of the Inquisition had been concealed in an inn at Torde- laguna ; all day he remained in bed, and at night- fall he went out with two servants on horseback and passed in disguise to Talamanca, there to com- municate with Eodrigo de Castro. He then re- turned to his inn before daylight. On Saturday night Eodrigo sent for Diego Eamirez, who was in Alcala. The messenger arrived and Don Diego was informed of his communication. Yet although he had convoked the people for that Sunday to hear the edict read in the church of Santa Maria, he ordered another to take his place, and left the town with only his alguacil and servants, under pretence of going to Madrid on important business. This caused a great stir in the place, which became still greater when a minister of the Holy Office ordered a bundle of wands of justice to be purchased, and calling together twenty assistants on horseback, he distributed the wands among them, and set out from the town with these assistants, saying he had been so ordered by Don Diego Eamirez, whom he came up with, two leagues from Tordelaguna, for he had not travelled the direct way, but through by-roads, collecting the people as he proceeded. On Tuesday, 22nd, he arrived at daybreak, within half a league of Tordelaguna with almost a hundred men. He came to the river called Malacuera, and 144 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. in its neighbouring woods he remained concealed with his followers. There he admonished them to obey the Holy Office and be constant to it in what they were about to do ; but without saying what that was. If some of them even conjectured the object in view, it could only have been conjecture, and not because any thing was told, for, with the most marvellous and inimitable secrecy the Holy Office governed all its operations. " On the Sunday night, Don Eodrigo de Castro supped with the archbishop, and under pretence of his wishing to go to bed on account of his health, he retired very early to his lodgings, which were in the house of Hernando Berzoza, the principal person in that town, and brother-in-law of the host in whose house the archbishop was. Don Eodrigo commu- nicated to Berzoza all that was necessary, and gave him a dozen authorities [cedulas] to create as many more assistants which he thought it well to have. These additional assistants Berzoza very soon found and brought with him, leaving instructions to Juan de Salinas, who at break of day was to have all the doors of his house open. This done, at about one o'clock in the morning Eodrigo set out with his servants, the alguacil mayor of the council, the dozen assistants newly nominated, and Hernando de Ber- zoza. They all went to the house of the governor of the three towns, he being married to the eldest sister of the archbishop. The governor they seized, and left him a prisoner with some of the guards ; the same thing was done to the other magistrates, THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 145 [alcaldes] and alguacils of the place. These en- gagements occupied them till daybreak. Kamirez being already apprised of the plan, now arrived with his people, and they all proceeded to the house of the archbishop, the doors of which they found open. The inquisitor on entering the fore-court, placed guards at the gates, also at the doors to the stairs and apartments of the lodge, with strict orders that no one should pass either in or out. " This done, Eamirez and De Castro, with the alguacil mayor, and a few of the assistants with wands, ascended the stairs, and knocking at the door of the room where the lego friar, Antonio Sanchez, was sleeping, a voice from within answered, 6 Who calls?' To which those without replied, 4 Open to the Holy Office? That door was opened immediately, and guards were placed at it. They then passed on to the chamber of the archbishop, where, having called, he himself answered, Who is it?' And they replied, < The Holy Office .' The archbishop rejoined, * Is Don Diego Ramirez there?'' Those without said ' Yes ; ' and immediately a page opened the door. The archbishop threw back the curtains and raised his head above the pillow in the bed. Kodrigo first entered, and then Diego, and the alguacil mayor with six or eight men. Eodrigo ap- proached the bed, and after making a low bow, knelt down on the floor upon one knee, and in tears thus addressed the archbishop : ' Most illustrious Senor, your reverence will give me your hand, and pardon me? The archbishop answered him, ' Why so, L 146 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. Don Rodrigo ? Pray rise.' Kodrigo continued, 6 Because I come to do a thing which your reverence may see in my face how much against my will I do it ; J and stepping back, he beckoned to the alguacil mayor to come forward. The latter approaching the bed, said, l Most illustrious Senor, I am commanded by the Holy Office to make you its prisoner? The archbishop (without change of colour or position,) answered, ' Have you orders to empower you to do that which you are now undertaking to do ? ' The alguacil answered in the affirmative, and pulling out a dispatch, he read the order of council of the In- quisition, which he had received to authorise the arrest. It was signed by those of the council, and by Don Fernando de Yaldes, Archbishop of Seville, who was then inquisitor-general. The archbishop replied, 4 Hut these gentlemen are not aware that they cannot be my judges, being as I am, by my dig- nity and consecration, immediately subject to the Pope, and to no other person? "Whereupon Don Diego, the inquisitor, advanced and said, i On this point your reverence shall have entire satisfaction ;' and drawing from his sotana a brief from the Pope, he proceeded to read to the effect that his Holiness had given commission to the inquisitor-general, and to those of the council who were or might be con- cerned in the cause against him. The archbishop, on hearing the mention of his own name in the brief, according to some, fell upon the bed with a degree of confusion ; but others deny it, and say that, on the contrary, he maintained the same firm- THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 147 ness and courage which he had done up to that time, (the effects, it might be, of his natural dispo- sition, or of the value of his sacred office, or of his innocence, or perhaps all of these put together, which is more probable.) When the reading of the brief was finished, he sat up in the bed, and looking at the inquisitor, said to him, i Senor Don Diego, let us le alone you, myself, and Don Eodrigo.^ All went out of the chamber, leaving these three alone for the space of an hour. The particulars of what then took place the parties themselves only know, for they never revealed them to anybody. " The politeness of Don Eodrigo on the occasion is enough to confirm the report that, seeing how long the archbishop loitered in Alcala, he said to him repeatedly in presence of many witnesses, ' For heaven's sake do make haste, it is not well for you to remain here ; ' and if his reverence had followed this advice, so private would have been his arrest, that very few would have been aware of it. But the prelate did not like to take that advice. He rather chose to rely on the judgment of those who persuaded him to procrastinate the journey until the king's arrival. Don Eodrigo also assured the archbishop that he had not come to arrest him, but merely as a messenger from the princess with her letter to call him, but that seeing he delayed to obey the message, subsequent orders had been sent to him to cause him to be apprehended. From the moment that Carranza was arrested, Don Eodrigo guarded the door of the antechamber, L 2 148 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. and allowed no one to enter. The Licenciate Saavedra, an intimate private friend of the arch- bishop, came out in his shirt and dressing-gown, and demanded to know why lie was to le deprived of seeing and speaking to his reverence. But Don Eodrigo ordered him, under the penalty of ten thousand ducats, and disobedience to the Holy Office, to quit Tordelaguna in three hours, and that for two months he should not enter the bounds of Old Castile. Friar Diego Ximenez, a companion of the archbishop, with all the servants and suite then came forward, and gave way to such violent sorrow, that neither Don Eodrigo nor Ramirez could refrain from being also moved to tears ; a plain indication how bitterly they felt for the prelate's misfortune. Eamirez afterwards went out with Friar Diego, to make an inventory and sequestration of the archbishop's property, and when they put down the things which were in the chamber, the latter turned to Don Eodrigo, and begged of him that a small writing desk, which he had there, might be well taken care of, because in it would be found all the proofs of his innocence and means of defence. This was promised. He after- wards wished that a page of Don Eodrigo' s might be called in, for, to this moment, none of his family had been permitted to serve him. " Don Eodrigo de Mendoza, canon of the Holy Church of Toledo, and of the council of the arch- bishop, entered a short time afterwards, and said to Don Eodrigo, as a servant of his reverence, I am THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. 149 a party interested in this affair, and as a lawyer, I ought to know what is necessary to the arrest of a prelate; therefore I require to be informed by you why and wherefore you have caused such violence to be done. Don Eodrigo answered him in the same way as he had the licenciate, and under the same penalties ; upon which Mendoza was silent, and immediately took himself off. " The dinner that day was in the following order : the dishes were brought by the alguacil mayor to the chamber, and there they were taken by the page of Don Eodrigo, who all day waited on the arch- bishop, and Don Eodrigo himself took them of the page, and put them on the table. He also after- wards removed them. Eamirez served the cup, and both of them treated their prisoner with the greatest respect. They then went out to dine by themselves in the outer room. " When the dinner hour was past, the archbishop began to be very uneasy and low spirited. Don Eodrigo being informed of this by his page, went to him with Eamirez, and both of them with much sympathy and politeness supported and consoled him. " After dinner, all the family were told that each might go where they pleased, provided none went to Valladolid ; but they said that most of them were from that city, and that their relatives resided there ; that all their clothes had been sent there, except what was necessary for the journey. In addition to these reasons, the influence of the 150 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAKTS. chamberlain, Don Pedro Manrique, a person of illustrious birth and great intelligence, gained per- mission for all the household to go to Valladolid ; but on condition that they should not start until the evening of the following day, and that they should go by the pass of the Somosierra, which is not a little about, and that they should not travel more than so many leagues per day. Don Tfcodrigo ordered to be given to them four hundred ducats for their journey. The butler only and the cook were ordered to remain for the service of those who were with the archbishop, and the mule-boys which were to take care of the cattle. " The archbishop was not permitted to go in a carriage, nor in a litter, but on a mule ; and all his property remained in Tordelaguna, deposited in the hands of Juan de Salinas, except the money which they carried with them, having found in his posses- sion ten thousand ducats, exclusive of what was in Valladolid, which amounted to ten thousand more. " In these preparations the whole day was spent. At nine o'clock at night, proclamation was made, that none of the inhabitants of the town should be out of doors, nor appear at the windows, until day- light, under the severest penalties. At midnight, the alguacils brought to the door of the prelate forty horsemen twenty of them with wands of justice. Eodrigo and Eamirez then descended with their prisoner, who was placed upon his mule, with- out any footman (for of this they were careless), until the alguacil mayor took upon him that post. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS, 151 The archbishop himself took his own hat from the saddle-bow, where they had placed it. A rare case to see the primate of all Spain reduced to so deplor- able and miserable a condition by the envy of his enemies, of whom he now bitterly complained ! " Thus did he leave Tordelaguna between twelve and one at night, travelling between the Inquisitor B/amirez and Don Rodrigo, with all the officers be- fore and the servants behind, in presence of Juan de Salinas, who was permitted to come down stairs and witness the departure, in order that he might shut the doors of his house, it being midnight. " In the same secret manner that Carranza left Tordelaguna, did he enter the prison of the Holy Office in Yalladolid ; indeed, for several days after- wards, he was not aware that he was in that prison. It is worthy of note, that two days prior to his entry into the city, he told Don Hodrigo, that on entering Yalladolid, it would be a great kindness and consolation to him if permitted to reside in the house of Pedro Gonzalez, because the rooms in it were good, and the situation was healthy. Rodrigo said he would willingly conduct him there ; but in this he conceded nothing ; for, in fact, strange as it may appear, that house had, only two months previously, been purchased by the Inquisition, and made into cells called new ones, and the order was to convey the archbishop to the new ones." Thus does Ambrosio de Morales refer to the arrest of Carranza. The circumstances, so little known in our day, evidently show how great were 152 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. the precautions, and how great the severity with which they perpetrated an act which filled Spain and foreign nations with consternation, and the results of which they anxiously awaited for many years afterwards. Among the' papers found in the power of the archbishop, some in his own and others in a strange handwriting, were a commentary on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, made with help from the six chapters which Martin Luther wrote upon it ; another on the Epistle to the Romans, with the doctrine taken also from that same Protestant ; another on the second Epistle of St. John, with sentences taken from the works of (Ecolampadius ; others on the prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, in which the writer availed himself of the same author ; some tracts of Spiritu et litera, de diferencia novi aut veteris testamenti et diferencia legis et evangelii, full of phrases and words which show they were taken directly from the works of Philip Melancthon ; other tracts upon some of the Evangelists, taken in the same way many of the doctrines are to be found in the homilies of Martin Luther; the book published by Brencio on Job, with a preface written and signed by the hand of Carranza, and drawn from GEcolampadius on the same book of Job, and with equal artifice. This Siniancas alludes to in his own life. THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 153 CHAPTER XI. THE Archbishop of Toledo having been arrested, he, considering the bad aspect of his affairs, and dreading all the fury with which the inquisitor- general would proceed in the affair, appealed to the Pope, refusing to be tried by the Archbishop of Seville, on the ground of that prelate not being well affected to his person, and was consequently not likely to act dispassionately in the cause. A thou- sand impediments and adverse opinions were brought to bear against the appeal ; but at last the Pope cut short the dispute, by giving to Philip II. the most ample faculties to name another judge, instead of the Sevillian prelate. The king was not tardy in availing himself of these powers. He signified his desire that Don Gaspar de Zuiiiga of Avellaneda, Archbishop of Santiago, should preside at the trial. But Graspar, from unknown motives, delegated his authority to two councillors of the Holy Office, viz : the Licen- ciate Cristobal Fernandez de Yaltodano and Doctor Diego de Simancas, creatures, both one and the other, of Don Fernando Valdes, and to whom Carranza equally objected. But, fearing greater evils from the nomination of other judges, he waived his objection, yielding to the advice of his legal advocate, the famous Doctor Martin de Azpilcueta 154 THE SPANISH PBOTE STARTS. of Navarre, and of Don Alonso Delgado, by whom he was defended. Azpilcneta was a man greatly renowned in his day. He was born at Varasoayu, about four leagues from Pamplona, in 1493. He studied grammar and philosophy in Alcala de Henares, and law in Tolosa in France, where he took his doctor's degree. He became a candidate in Salamanca for the Professor- ship of Canon Law, gained and exercised it in that university for four years. Called by the King of Portugal, Don Juan III., he took the same ap- pointment in Coimbra for sixteen years. By the law of the universities he was enabled to retire from all duties, and with the pension, he had enjoyed before, of a thousand ducats. He was confessor to Dona Juana of Austria, sister of Philip II., and mother of the unhappy king, Don Sebastian. So great was the fame and sanctity of Azpilcueta, that Alonso de Yillegas put him in his Flos Sanctorum. The doctor tenderly regarded Carranza. The two had known each other from infancy; both were JSTavarrese, and Azpilcueta had on different occasions manifested his affection for Toledo. One of these was in chapter xvn. of his Manual of Confessors and Penitents, printed in Coimbra in 1553, in which he called him " the much renowned, most religious, and most learned Friar Bartolome de Carranza, the great ornament to the order of Dominicans, our countryman of Navarre, who through great humility and piety declined to accept a great bishopric in passed times"* * Manual de Confessores y penitentes, que clara y brevtmente contiene la universal y particular decision de quasi todas las THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 155 This strange eulogy of Carranza by a man of such piety and wisdom as Azpilcueta, when his friend had not yet risen to the see of Toledo, cannot fail to be interesting and remarkable, on more than one account. Yet what is still more surprising, we find that this eulogy was blotted out of the two editions of the Manual of Confessors which were published in 1556 and 1557, long before the inquisitors had arrested Carranza.* Did Azpilcueta believe his friend to be unworthy of so much and of such distinguished praise ? Had the murmurs of the rivals of Carranza reached the dubdas que en las confessiones seulen occorrer de los pecados, absoluciones, restituciones, censuras, irregularidades, Qc., ; com- puesto antes por un religioso de la orden de St. Francisco de la promncia de la Piedad, y detpues visto y en algunos passos declarado por el antiquo y muyfamoso doctor Martin de Azpil- cueta^ Navarro, cathedrdtico jubilado de prima en cdnones en la Unitersidad de Coimbra. Y agora con summo cuidado, diligencia y estudio tan reformado y acrescentado por el mesmo doctor, en materials, sentencias, alegaciones y estilo que puede parecer otro. In inclyta Conimbrica Joannes Barrerius et Joannes Alvarez Regii typographi e-xcudebant Anno a Christo nato MDLIII. This Edition was unknown to Nicolas Antonio. * Manual de Confessores y penitentes que clara y brevemente contiene la universal y particular decision de quasi todas las dubdas que en las confessiones seulen ocurir de los pecados, abso- luciones, restituciones, censuras e irregularidades. Compuesto por el doctor Martin de Azpilcueta Navarro, cathedratico jubilado de prima en cdnones, por la orden de un pequeno que en por- tugues hizo un padre pio de la piisima provincia de la Piedad. Acrescentado agora por el mismo doctor en las decisiones de muchas dubdas, que despues de la otra edicion le han embiado. Im- presso en Salamanca en casa de Andrea de Portonariis, MD.LVI. This edition also was unknown to Nicolas Antonio. Id. id. MDLVII. 156 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. red ears of the doctor, who, afraid of them, was deterred from inserting such praises in other editions, against which encomiums, the voice of rancour, justice, or envy had been raised ? It is difficult, if not impossible to discover the true cause. But it always has happened that the de- fender of one before he is accused or even suspected of heretical crimes lauds to the skies his religion, his piety and his virtues, and immediately on such suspicion these praises were withdrawn, although up to that moment the authorities might not have arrested the object of such encomiums. Azpilcueta, nevertheless, was at once convinced of Carranza's innocence. We have a proof of this in a passage of a letter which he wrote to a friend after the trial was ended, and the sentence pro- nounced. In that letter he says: "I have not defended any heresy of his in the fifteen years that, by command of his said royal majesty, I have been his advocate, nor have I contravened the protest which I made to his reverence at the beginning, in which I reserved to myself full liberty to be the first to condemn him if I should find any heresy in him, and pledged myself until then, to serve him faith- fully, which protest pleased him so muck, that he told me I might be the first to carry the wood, if I found any heresy at all in him* Although these words quoted by Azpilcueta, might have had * Extract from a letter of Doctor Navarro to a certain friend after sentence was pronounced on the Archbishop DonFr. Bartolome, de Carranza. MS. Biblioteca Colombina. THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. 157 their force with his friend to whom he was writing, they ought not to have much weight with a faithful historian, nor be considered so Ml of sincerity as perhaps some people might imagine ; because in truth, the Archbishop of Toledo himself might in using them be guilty of duplicity, for the sake of expediency. The reason is very simple : in the instructions of the Holy Office, prepared in Toledo by the Inquisitor Valdes in 1561, we find under No. 36, speaking of the accused, these words : " Never let Mm com- municate with his lawyer, or with any other person but in presence of the inquisitors, and the notary who may certify all that takes place" Hence one may easily infer that those words directed by Carranza to his advocate, are not en- titled to the credit which the doctor attaches to them. Possibly the archbishop might have uttered them with the greatest sincerity ; yet still some of the inquisitors being present, and a notary as well, who can say they were not dictated by a desire on the part of the prisoner to shew that he was firm in the Catholic religion, and without fear that the scrutiny of the judges might discover some small stain on his conscience? About this time the catechism, the chief founda- tion of the archbishop's misfortunes, underwent the severe examination, and obtained the entire approbation of the deputies appointed by the Coun- cil of Trent, it being charged with the arrangement of the index of prohibited books. " The inquisitors 158 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. did not at all stomach this affair" says Gonzalez de Mendoza, Bishop of Salamanca, and with great truth, in his history of that council, and which history to the present day remains inedited.* The reason on which this learned prelate must have founded his right to say so, was, doubtless, the offence which that approbation was likely to give to the inqui- sitors, who, without regard to the erudition, and dignity of Carranza, and looking only to the Lutheran doctrines defended by him as Catholic, had placed his catechism in the expurgatorial index of pro- hibited books. Perhaps this consideration may have influenced the minds of some of those deputies who examined and approved the work ; for some of them doubted whether it would not be more expe- dient for the decorum and interest of the Holy Office, to retract their opinion in writing, before it should be declared in full synod, in which case the discredit and blot which would fall upon the inqui- sitors, would only be equal to the wickedness which caused them to stigmatise the works of a prelate, who had up to that time been held as Catholic, and had rendered great services to the Holy See. Men- doza in fact declares it in his history, when he says : " So much importance was made of this case, that some of those who had signed the accusation, vacil- lated and almost retracted, as did the Archbishop * " Historia del Concilia de Trento de la ultima celebration del Papa Pio IV.) escrita por el Seuor Don Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, obispo de la Santa iglesia de Salamanca" MS. Biblio- teca National. Another in possession of the author of the present work. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 159 of Palermo, and the Bishop of Columbria, a Spanish Augustine friar." The Bishop of Lerida, Don Antonio Augustin, represented to the council how dangerous it would be that this approbation should be ratified in full synod ; and at last he succeeded in prevailing upon the council to determine that no declaration should be made, favourable to the work. The Holy Council did not go so far as to ratify the opinion of the deputies, to whose charge the formation of the index of prohibited books had been committed. But in consequence of this favourable opinion as to the catechism of Carranza, all his adherents had come to the conclusion that its doc- trine was Catholic ; and yet still on account of the false delicacy of the inquisitors, it was determined that the work should not receive the approbation of the Council of Trent. Simancas tells us the reason, until then mysterious, for the opinion of the deputies in its favour, when he calls that appro- bation " a web which the partisans of the archbishop had woven." And it was, he continues, furtively contrived that some of the deputies appointed to examine bad books, without knowing the Castilian language, in which they were written, might be shown many favourable reports of them, printed in Spain, in consequence of which the books were approved, and then taking certified copies of these approbations, they published them in both Italy and Spain. Eleven fathers gave their opinion adverse to the 160 THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. prohibition of Carranza's work, which had been condemned by the Inquisition: these eleven were the Archbishop of Prague in Bohemia, president of the congregation of the Index; the Patriarch of Yenice ; the Archbishops of Bruga in Portugal, of Lauciano, of Palermo, and of Columbria; the Bishops of Chalons in France, of Ticinia, of Hun- gary, and of Nevers, and the General of Augustine friars. Of these, only two were Spaniards, viz., Don Juan de Salazar, Archbishop of Lauciano, and Don Diego de Leon, Archbishop of Columbria. The foreign prelates allowed themselves to be car- ried away by the great approbation of the Spanish divines, and the reasons they gave, which were deli- vered at the request of the archbishop, when he found himself at the height of his prosperity, although fearful of the fury of the Holy Office. These opinions of his friends and adherents were written in general and flattering terms, as with a view of exalting a work of the first ecclesiastical dignitary of Spain.* * " Friar Thomas Manrique . . . was bold enough to say that the catechism was not only approved in council ; but that a great number of Spanish divines and most learned prelates, had already approved it, and that only three and a-half had found in it any bad propositions. I answered that those who had found these bad passages, should point them out with the finger, that they might be submitted to the apostolical judge . . . and that many others had noted these bad propositions, .... and that they were bound by an oath, and that the others to whom he alluded were elected by the prisoner, before he was arrested, he being in his full authority, and they being his friends, and they sent to him their flattering and general approbation, not knowing from what authors he had taken his doctrine, and therefore on this account there was THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 161 There existed against the archbishop and to his discredit, besides the report of the censors of the Holy Office, one of Melchor Cano, and another of the confessor of Charles V., Friar Juan de Regla, in which the latter records that when Carranza assisted the emperor on his death-bed, he stated to him many propositions of so heretical a nature, that all present were scandalized at hearing them. The adherents of the archbishop spread a report throughout Spain, that Melchor Cano was his mortal enemy. This report we find was also entertained by Simancas. " The man who best tested this work (the catechism), and discovered in it the language of the Protestants, was Melchor Cano, a man of great judgment and sound doctrine, but who was at once discovered by the archbishop and his friends to be his mortal enemy. Referring to this, I asked Cano, what cause he had to be such an enemy, he declared to me that he had none whatever, save having judged that hook according to his conscience, and that if he had but judged it to the taste of the prisoner, they would have been as good friends as ever they were. And I believe it, for even he him- self excused the prisoner as much as he could."* no faith to Replaced in their opinion, whilst that of the three and a-half was entitled to full credit. I call the half of a divine Friar Joan de Ibarra, because he died without having finished the examination of the work." Don Diego de Simancas in his life already cited. MS. of the Colombina. * I am at a loss to discover the grounds for this enmity which some have supposed to exist between the Archbishop of Toledo and the Bishop-elect of the Canaries, if such really did exist. On M 162 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. There was even more in the affair of Carranza' s catechism being approved by the fathers who formed the deputation of the Council of Trent, with refe- rence to the index, than at first appears. The cele- brated Bishop of Lerida, Don Antonio Augustin, was of those who judged the archbishop to be a Protestant. As a deputy he ought to have assisted the junta, which was to give an opinion of this work of Carranza, but to the surprise of every one he was not summoned. On this account the council in one of its debates, affirmed that the opinion, favourable to the Archbishop of Toledo, and so much in derogation of the inquisitors, was given without consideration, and imprudently. The pre- sident of the deputation defended that opinion by saying, that it was formed and given on one of the days on which it was customary to consider books the contrary, however, we find that Carranza, shortly prior to the censure of Melchor Cano, of the catechism as a heretical work, gave, in 1558, his license to the publication of a new work of this learned divine, and in the document containing this license he says, " We, considering that the said work has been again printed, and that it is so Catholic a work of the author, and of such sound doctrine, that it will be very useful to those who study it, ap- prove it." The work of which Carranza speaks in that license, is one en- titled Relectio de pcenitentia habita in Academia Salmaticensis, Anno MDXLVIII. A /rate Melchiore Cano, ordinis Prcedir catorum. Compluti Ex officince Joannis Brocar, 1558. Hence, it must be deduced that Melchor Cano had no cause of hatred against Carranza when he censured his catechism. On the contrary, motives of gratitude for so flattering a manner in which the archbishop had given permission to print the Treatise on Penitence. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 163 which were to be approved or prohibited, and at the accustomed hour.* The approbation, then, of the catechism of Car- ranza was of no effect in the process against him. The legalised copy brought to Spain, was held to be null by the Holy Office, on the ground that it had not received complete ratification in full synod. The language with which the partial historians of Carranza speak of this affair, suffices to shew that in treating of the cause they wander far from the truth, either through malice or mistaken informa- tion received from the friends of the accused with considerable alterations. "When a historian shews such inaccuracy of information as to things adverse to him whom he holds innocent, and when he presents even that unfaithfully to those who are no parties to what he relates, he betrays much prejudice of mind, and much desire to meet with innocence, but none to discover the truth. He doubts all that is unfavourable to the delinquent, and holds as * The Bishop of Lerida has wished to take it so much to heart, that he said the other day in the debate, (for he was one of those who were not found on the day when it was signed, although he was one of the deputies) that it was given without consideration and imprudently. The Archbishop of Praga, who is the president of this deputation, maintained it then, as he had done at the accustomed hour and on the day of the deputation ; and he afterwards said he did not come there to be insulted by any one, and that he would tell the legates they might choose another president. A much more temperate answer than tJie remark deserved" Don Pedro Gronzalez de Mendoza, MS. before cited. M 2 164 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. absolutely false all circumstances which might indi- cate even the shadow of a crime. Simancas always, when speaking in his life of the archbishop, discovers the hatred which rankled in his breast against this unhappy prelate. Perhaps the hatred of the Counsellor of the Inquisition may have proceeded from the persuasion he had of the guilt of Carranza, for when that is believed to exist in the mind of a Catholic, motives of suspicion are easily found, even to the very beauty or ugliness of the face, and the mode of giving expression to thoughts by means of phrases more or less prolix. Simancas, always desirous of finding something to say against the archbishop, has this passage : " Don Antonio Pimentel, Count of Benavente, who was much attached to the prisoner, having a brother in his house, came to visit me, and among other conversation, (which was very discreet and proper) he told me that he would willingly give five hundred ducats to see the accused on his first hearing. I answered that his money would be ill spent to see an ugly face. He answered that he would not give it to see his face, (for that he had already seen) but to hear what he would say. And it is certain that the culprit wears a disagreeable aspect. Onufrio Camoyano, one of the consulters seeing him one day in Borne, said that Jie had a most unhappy facer "When Simancas affirms, speaking of the arch- bishop, that he was a man of mean countenance, of uneasy aspect, and of a most unhappy visage, he THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 165 makes me believe, without any doubt, that among the things which went to the prejudice of this prelate, may be reckoned the excessive ugliness of his coun- tenance. There are motives for thinking so, not only from the words of the inquisitor, but also from a popular proverb of that time, which in order to denote the ugliness and frightfulness of poverty, compared it to the face of a heretic. A man, who had a face so mean, so unhappy, and so uneasy, according to the notions of the inquisitors and the common people, must of necessity have opened the recesses of his heart to receive the re- formed doctrines ! Such a mode of reasoning is absurd ; but there are a thousand proofs that such a mode was in use, although engendered in malice, and fostered by the expediency of the inquisitors. Simancas, at every step shews the ill-will he bore to the archbishop. He says : " He was a culprit so prolix and confused, and tardy of resolve, and so sus- picious in every thing, that he gave us great an- noyance." To be weighty in the manifestation of his feeling to be confused in the mode of presenting his thoughts to be, in fine, tardy in replies on which depended his honour and his life, afforded to the judges motives to infer that the poor Archbishop of Toledo was even more than ever deserving their suspicions, that he was guilty of the crime of heresy ! If I were not aware that Simancas was a man of great erudition, and of good judgment in literary matters, and if I had not read his admirable works, Collectaneorum Republica, and Frimogenitis His- 166 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. pania,* with others of singular merit, I should, assuredly, live in the persuasion, that so many, and so wise were the things said by Carranza in his defence, that they were taken by his two judges as prolix and confused, because of the littleness and the ignorance of their own understanding. But in this case it was not so ; because the natural defects of the archbishop and proper caution to let no words escape him which might admit of divers interpreta- tions, gave more life and warmth to the suspicions of the Holy Office. On the other hand, Carranza who at another time discharged the duty of an in- quisitor, knew perfectly well the artifices with which, by means of words and actions, the judges contrived to bewilder the accused, and wring from them some confession proceeding from truth, fear, or flippancy ? or from the three together .f * Jacobi Simancae Civitatensis Episcopi, Jurisconsult! clarissiini ? collectaneorum di Republica, libri noyum. Opus studiosis omnibus utile : viris autem politicis necessarium. Valdoliti, Ex Typographia Adriani Ghemartij MDXV. Jacobi Simancae civitatensis Episcopi, de primogenitis Hispaniae- Libri quinque. Salmanticae. Apud Joannem Mariam a Terranova. MDLXVI. f Eymeric, in his Directory of Inquisitors, gives many of the tricks which they were to have recourse to, in order to obtain declarations from the accused, in the tribunal of the Holy Office.. One of these is as follows : " If you see that the heretic or the denounced is not willing to confess the truth, and knows that he is not to be convicted by witnesses, when by certain indications it appears that the charges against him are true, I say, when he denies this or that, let the inquisitor take up the process, and turn over the leaves, and immediately say to him : " It is quite clear, that you do not speak the truth, and that it was as I say. Give, THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 167 The Archbishop of Toledo knew perfectly the tricks and cunning which the inquisitors had re- course to, in order to draw expressions from the presumed culprit, upon which to found his ruin. "Why, then, should it be strange, that before giving an answer to his judges, he should be cautious in well considering again and again his words before he uttered them, and especially the influence they might be likely to have in the sentence to be pro- nounced in his cause ? Llorente, in his Historia critica de la Inquisition, endeavours to persuade his readers that the arch- bishop was intimidated by the iniquities committed every hour during his trial : that his judges were suspected by him, they being the creatures of his enemies ; because his accusation was divided into a multitude of parts, in order to double the charges, and make the crime appear more formidable ; be- then, a true account of this matter." Do this in such a manner, that he may think there is enough to be found in the process to convict him ... or take into your hand a leaf of paper with writing upon it ; and when the heretic or denounced, being questioned, denies this or that, let the inquisitor say to him, feigning surprise, " How can you deny it* Am I not looking at it 2" Then read in that leaf ; double it down ; read again, and say to him " It is precisely as I have said : declare it now, for you see that I know it all" But the inquisitor must be careful not to go into too minute particulars, in saying what he knows, lest the heretic should discover that he does not know anything about it ; but the inquisitor must speak in general terms, saying, It is well known inhere you were, at what time, and what you did gay. And then speak of any particular thing which is known, but as for the rest, the accused should be spoken to in very general terms. Fr. Nicolas Eymeric. Directorium Inquisitorium. 168 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS, cause the accusations accumulated with a view of confusing him, and leading him into contradiction ; because they put to him the next question just at the very last moment in which he could have answered the preceding ones, in order to induce him to ask for adjournments, by which means the trial was prolonged, or the accused might be hur- ried on to give unpremeditated answers ; because works were attributed to him which were not his, and they were ordered to be submitted to the cen- sors as such, when, in fact, they were the works of Protestants ; and, lastly, because the favourable opinion and approbation of the catechism given by the deputies of the Council of Trent, was not taken into account, although to that council had been intrusted the formation of the expurgatorial index, nor was there any probability of their coming to a decision upon it. All this, and even more, was alleged by the advocate of Carranza, not only in memorials addressed to Philip II., but viva voce to as many as thought fit to listen to him. But in making these charges against the Holy Office, there seems to have been in the mind of Azpilcueta more than was warranted by the truth and justice of the case. I am bound in candour to say so, and to clear away the errors, if not calum- nies of writers who, under pretence of defending Carranza, have attempted to libel the inquisitorial judges who were concerned in the trial, attributing to these the charge of delay in finishing the trial, but suppressing the fact, that the prisoner himself THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 169 contributed most to that delay. For he, fearful of the result, availed himself of every means which the love of life, and a desire to appear innocent before the world, presented to him to procrastinate the matter for a considerable period, in order that, at the hour of judgment, after some years of confine- ment, the hatred of his enemies might become weakened, as well as the suspicions of the inqui- sitors ; and, consequently, that there would be less desire to pronounce sentence in the cause. Don Diego de Simancas, one of the judges of the archbishop, clearly shows this when he says, " Meantime, two adjournments were asked, in order that the divines might finish their censorship ; but those who defended the prisoner had already thrown in the way so many obstacles, that only ten months for the two adjournments were conceded ; and there- fore, if we include the time of his imprisonment in Spain, it reduces the whole period to little more than three years, in ivhich it was possible to proceed in the business ; because two years were wasted in the challenges of the judges before we came to trial, and then the cause was suspended fourteen months in waiting for the adjournments ; and almost other two years passed away in questions and answers as to the place where the trial ought to be had, and sentence pronounced.* Enemy as I am to the Holy Office, yet still I love historical truth, and therefore I cannot allow even * Don Diego de Simancas. MS. before cited. 170 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. that hateful tribunal to be calumniated. The desire of the archbishop to get his trial taken out of the hands of the inquisitors, and the pains he took to delay it by all schemes imaginable, ought to be con- sidered as a set off against the oppression he was suffering, and against the risks which he feared he was liable to ; it being borne in mind that a sen- tence of the Holy Office, or its judges, must have ended in the death of the accused either by means of the garrote, or of the names. It does not appear to me at all reasonable to attribute tardiness in this trial, to the inquisitors, even admitting that their greatest desire was to see it followed by the capital punishment of the delinquent. I shall not detain my readers in referring minutely to every step during the time that Carranza was a recluse in the cells of the Inquisition : this would require great space, and does not correspond with my wish not to enlarge the present history, by a faithful account of things which would serve but little after all to make this part of it more clear. It must suffice to know, that although the Spanish prelates were divided in opinion touching Carranza' s guilt or innocence of protes- tantism, yet those who thought favourably of him, did not cease to work with all caution in Eome, in order to terminate his imprisonment and cause him to triumph over his enemies. The Spanish primate in due time denied the com- petency of all the bishops and archbishops of Spi to be his judges, on the ground that they were fear- ful of the Inquisition, and therefore incompetent to THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 171 give a free opinion in his cause. For this reason partly, and partly through compassion for the many miseries he had suffered, every body who from afar viewed dispassionately the procedure of the Holy Office against so distinguished and learned a man as Carranza, sympathised with him, and the result was, that Pius IY. determined to take the cause into his own hands. "With that view he dispatched orders to the apostolical mwcio, then residing in Spain. But Philip II. whose love to Carranza was changed into the most vehement hatred, solicited of the Pope that the cause might continue to proceed in his king- doms. Pius IY. then named three judges, one of them with the title of legate ad latere ; but the inquisitors threw great obstacles in the way, with a view of preventing the trial from being hastily pro- ceeded with, for they feared that in the end the sentence would bring about nothing honourable for themselves. At last they were compelled to succumb in spite of every thing, to the constancy and invincible spirit of the Pontiff, who succeeded Pius IY. Pius Y., moved to compassion, ordered the prisoner to be taken to Rome and there tried. This unexpected proceeding threw the enemies of Car- ranza into confusion. The inquisitors represented to King Philip, that the determination of the Pope was one step towards carrying out a mischievous desire to abridge the prerogatives of the crown ; and the Spanish monarch, yielding to the persuasions of his counsellors called the nuncio of his Holiness and told him verbally, that on no account would he con- 172 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS, sent to the archbishop being taken from the dungeons of the Holy Office : that if the Pontiff thought fit he might commit his jurisdiction to learned eccle- siastical persons, who he might believe had no preju- dice against the accused, in order that they might try the cause ; but that even these should be natives of Spain, and on no account foreigners ; and in fine, that otherwise the archbishop should finish his days in prison without seeing any termination of his trial. Pius V., thinking that to cede in so serious a case would be to inflict a great blow at the aposto- lical see, commenced immediately to repeat his commands; and sent to the nuncio strict orders, that without loss of a moment, he would present the most bitter complaints to Philip, and give him to understand, that if the court of Spain should persist in refusing to deliver up the person of the archbishop, the king would be in danger of experi- encing all the indignation of the Holy See. The counsellors of the king and the inquisitors still pertinacious, retorted upon his Holiness in the like fashion ; but Philip, afraid of losing in the world the fame of " the Catholic" knowing the resolve of the Pope, and fearing the evils which might come upon the kingdoms if he persisted, decided that both the archbishop and his process should be carried to Rome. On the 27th April, 1567, Carranza embarked at Carthagena, in custody of many inquisitors, and on the 25th of May, he arrived at Civita Vecchia, from whence he was conducted under a strong guard to THE SPANISH PKOTESTAtfTS. 173 the castle of St Angelo. There he remained in prison until the trial was finished. Pius V. was much attached to Carranza, and had no wish to believe him guilty of the crimes laid to his charge. In thinking thus kindly of his friend, he remembered how zealously he had laboured in England, to bring back Protestants to the Catholic faith, during the bloody reign of the cruel Mary Tudor, and of her consort and rival in religious in- tolerance, Philip II.* He bore in mind such ser- vices as the archbishop had afforded to the court of Home and the Spanish Inquisition, as well in ser- mons at the autos-de-fe as in the examination and destruction of Protestant books. In fine, he could not persuade himself that a man so zealous in the defence of Catholic doctrines, whilst he was a Dominican friar, could have abandoned them in the hour of receiving the crosier of an archbishop, and being appointed primate of the Spanish church. These reasons weighed much in the mind of Pius V., not considering that a true conviction of the mind is enough to undo, in a single day, those principles which have been gradually forming from * He (Carranza) procured for the monasteries and churches in England the return of the livings which had been alienated, and had got into the hands of the laity. He procured to be observed the decrees of a provincial council, which had met by order of Pope Julius III. He provided Catholic professors in the univer- sities. He commenced proceedings against the Protestant heretics, and more than thirty thousand were either burned, banished, or reconciled. Lib. I. of part 5 of the Historia de Santo Domingo y de su ordeu de predicadores, por Fr. Hernando del Castillo. 174 THE SPANISH PEG TEST ANTS. the earliest period of one's life. In how many in- stances does the example of men remarkable for their piety and genius, constrain one to follow doctrines which were before the subject of hatred and contempt. "Well might Carranza also forget what he had learned during the period of his youth in the Catholic universities ; what he had preached against the Protestants in England, in the Low Countries, and in Castile, and what he professed when attacking the writings of authors who were enemies to the power of the Pope and to the eccle- siastical ceremonies of the pontifical court. The catechism of the archbishop, a work coincid- ing with the opinions of Luther, CEcolampadius, and Melancthon, although disguised in part, and in part concealed by Catholic arguments, proves, in my opinion, that there was no longer that ardour in Carranza which, in the days of his youth, impelled him to maintain, not only by words, but by fire, the religious opinions of his protector Philip II. Pius Y. ordered the process to be translated into Latin, because many of the consultors named by the Apostolical See to act in the trial, were either altogether unacquainted with the Spanish tongue, or as foreigners, were ignorant, to a certain extent, of its true signification. This circumstance contri- buted to the further delay of the cause, although against the will of the Pope. Prom that time Pius Y. desired to vex the Spanish inquisitors who had gone to Rome commissioned by the Holy Office and by Philip II. to attend the trial. In the first THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 175 place, they were ordered to be on foot at the con- gregations, whilst he himself in his chair, and the cardinals on their benches, assisted at the reading of the process.* The inquisitors gave way to fami- liar murmurs, and especially the bishops, who in all public ceremonies were accustomed to be seated in the presence of the Pope. At last, Pius V., over- come by such complaints, gave orders that some benches should be brought for the inquisitors, but with the backs reversed, in order that on these the members of the Holy Office, and those who were in Eome named by the Pope to hear the trial, might recline in moments of fatigue, but not sit down. In this way, for three years did the congregation hold its sittings once a week, and for two or three hours at a time.f * " On the Monday following a congregation was called, in which was the Pope seated on his chair, and the four cardinals upon benches, and for us there were drawn out some footstools, which were afterwards taken from us by certain ceremonious cardinals who came to join the Pope, and made us stand on foot at the back of two cardinals." Don Diego de Simancas MS. cited. t " Afterwards we were particularly annoyed at the indecency with which we were treated, especially the bishops ; San Severino, although an Italian and very poor, said to me, that he knew not how it was suffered, for in the chapel of the Pope, he himself being there, and standing on his high throne, the bishops were always seated ; whilst here, and with closed doors too, they made its stand on foot. I said that the Catholic king, when with his vassals and servants in consultation, was quite at ease, and ordered them to be covered and seated ; whilst as to the bishops, who were the Pope's brothers, they were made to stand on foot and uncovered during so many and such long consultations, that I could not understand the reason for it. Our complaints had so hi effect that we were 176 THE SPANISH PKOTESTAOTS. Pius Y. was so convinced of the innocence of Carranza, insisted on by his advocate as well as by many friars of the order of St. Domingo, that on a certain occasion, he manifested his favourable opi- nion of the catechism, saying, I do not hold it as a book worthy of reprobation : on the contrary, if I am obliged to do so, I am ready, and shall approve it by a motu proprio.* This affection of Pius for Toledo shews that the Pontiff had not the least suspicion that the Spanish prelate could follow the reformed doctrines. Pius V. died without giving sentence in the cause ; and although there are not wanting authors who affirm that he both wrote and sent it to Philip, in confidence,! still there are reasons for believing the contrary. It is said that the substance of the sentence not pronounced, was to absolve the archbishop from the charges ' made by the inquisitors, and to order that provided with other benches behind those of the cardinals, turned the reverse way, so that we might recline but not sit down ; and with this cruelty we continued our congregations for three years, each of which generally lasted about two or three hours and more, once a week." Don Diego de Simancas MS. cited. * The Fiscal Salgado in presenting petitions to Pius V., pray- ing that orders might be given for the suppression of the sale of that work (the catechism) publicly, as it was then selling, the Pope was silent at the commencement, but the Fiscal insisting in the ordinary congregation of the Inquisition, the Pope answered with anger, that he did not hold that book worthy of reprobation, and that they had better not importune him lest he should approre it by a motu proprio. Don Diego de Simancas MS. Life. f Don Pedro Salazar de Mendoza, and Don Juan Antonio Llorente. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 177 the catechism, the origin of all his troubles, should be translated into Latin, and that his manuscripts should not be printed without corrections in those words and passages which might admit of interpre- tations in favour of the Protestant religion. It is further said, that this sentence was remitted to Philip II. in order to be pronounced in the cause, immediately that he should give it his consent ; and lastly, that the Spanish monarch, upon whose mind the judges of the Holy Office had so much influence, intimated that before writing such a sen- tence to the process, contrary to the ministers of the tribunal supported by the crown, it might have been as well if the Pope had seen certain docu- ments in no way profitable to Carranza. So the partisans of the archbishop affirm. But the judges of the Inquisition deny it, and contend that the Pontiff died without having finished the trial of this unhappy prelate. Pius V. did not permit himself to be overcome by the importunities of the archbishop's friends, who obstinately urged that sentence might be given. I do not wish to die with this load upon my conscience, answered the Pope to those who demanded with tears in their eyes the pardon of the archbishop.* * His Holiness died 1 May, Lxxij, without pronouncing sen- tence in the cause of the archbishop ; and although desired to finish it and set the prisoner free, at last, as he was a good soul, and wished to satisfy his conscience, the friends of the accused pressing him, it is affirmed that, he ultimately said, that he did not wish to die with tJiat load upon his conscience ; and so in effect it appeared, for he died of a severe attack of stone without passing sentence. Simancas MS. cited. 178 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. CHAPTEE XII. GREGORY XIII. successor of Pius V., saw himself surrounded with the partisans of Carranza, urging the publication of the sentence given, as they alleged, by the defunct pontiff. But to this he in- variably answered, that he had not the least know- ledge that any such document ever existed, save merely verbal report which was only accredited by the friends of the accused, and so obstinately did these persist in affirming that report to be true, that Gregory pledged his word to give twenty thousand ducats to any one who should produce to him the original sentence, so that he might examine it, and look into the process, which with finesse was called by the Italians, the Rudis indi- gestaque moles. The imaginary document never appeared; and therefore Gregory XIII. said at once, clearly and definitively in a public document, that his prede- cessor had ended his career, leaving the cause of the Archbishop of Toledo undecided.* * The friends of the archbishop then published a report, that Pius V. had given sentence ; and they affirmed it so stoutly as even to allege that there were witnesses to it ; and they went to the new Pope and entreated him to publish and pronounce it, but he answered, that if they would produce it he would give them 20,000 ducats for it, not having seen the process ; and even with all this they remained in error, and I believe they always would THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 179 The new pontiff commenced working in the cause. It is said that the inquisitors, even in Borne, had made a boast of their power in bringing forward embarrassments of every kind to operate in oppo- sition to the firm will of Pius V., carrying their influence and evil doings to such a pitch, as to keep back, in Spain, many documents referred to in the process, in order that they might not be examined ; meanwhile they pretended to be asking for them of the Holy Office, and really appeared as if waiting their arrivaL This was doubtless with a view of delaying the sentence from day to day, under a hope that either the Pope or the prisoner might die in the interim. But the delays of the process against Toledo, did not, as I shall presently show, derive their origin entirely in the desire, on the part of the judges, of procrastination, and with the view of preventing the sentence being pronounced in have remained so, if in the sentence which Gregory afterwards gave, he had not expressly said that, Pius V. died before giving any sentence, / believe, that part was deception and part caution, of those who propagated it, in order to accredit the business, saying, that Pope Pius had absolved the prisoner" Simancas MS. cited. In the sentence pronounced by Gregory XIII., of which I shall have occasion to speak, that Pope declared that Pius V. had given no judgment in the case. These are his words : " Being willing to arrive at the end of the cause, Pius V. asked the opinion of our venerable brothers, the cardinals and all the other functionaries in the cause ; and. all of them were given in writing. And the Pope having collected them, and wishing to see them all and examine and pass them very deliberately to enable him to deliver judgment. In this state God was pleased to call him to himself, and the cause remained undecided. Ambrosio de Morales, MS. cited, and in the possession of his excellency Don Jose Manuel de Vadillo IT 2 180 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. Home. Carranza, by various challenges, spun out his trial from day to day, fearful of its result, seeing the rigour with which the Holy Office was wont to punish those who deviated from the Catholic re- ligion. He knew that his friends, the Cardinal Polo, the Cardinal Moron, the Archbishop of Canter- bury, and the Bishop Prioli, had been deprived of their dignities by the pontiff, for harbouring in their minds the Protestant doctrines. So far/rom complicating the process, or the judges of the Holy Office desiring that the Pope should not give judgment, these functionaries used their endeavours to smooth down the obstacles which had been raised by the partisans of Carranza. See what Simancas says on the subject, -in his own life : "The process, and all the papers were delivered to Androbaldino, auditor of the Eota, a very good person, but most dilatory, and who never could make up his mind ; and he, according to the custom of the Eota, began to revive doubts upon doubts, as to the question whether he had in Spain used the form of the brief of Paul IV., and other things of a like nature. Cervantes and I went to speak to him, and the two inquisitors, Temino and Pazos, and we told him that by following that system the trial never would be ended. He answered us that we ought to advise him, for never in his life had he seen before, any thing of a trial in the Inquisition." Hence it is inferred that the delays and difficulties thrown in the way of the trial were not all the work of the Holy Office. The ignorance of the THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 181 Boman clergy in cases of the Spanish Inquisition, and the contrivances of the archbishop's friends to get him out of the affair, if not absolved, yet at least with mild punishment, was productive of the delay which modern writers have attributed to the hatred and malice of the iniquitous tribunal. It is certain that the inquisitors laboured^ much to gain the victory over the archbishop before the Pope. Antonio Perez, who was well versed in the secrets of the Spanish Nero, Philip II., says, speak- ing of the snares they were laying against the pre- late in Spain, and in Borne : " Because the informa- tions did not arrive in the first instance, they wrote to those who prosecuted the cause in Home, directing them to dictate the manner in whidlfHhese docu- ments ought to be prepared in Spain, and in fact, they then wrote from Borne, in answer, explaining the manner in which they ought to be written in order to produce the desired effect." But in spite of all those obstacles and iniquities, Pope G-regory XIII. determined on finishing the trial, and he finally delivered sentence on the 14th of April, 1576, which up to the present time has never been published by any Spanish historian. Ambrosio de Morales translated it into the Castilian language ; and although I have it before me, I do not like to give it in my work, for it is very long, and I do not wish to lengthen out this history. Let it suffice to observe, that Gregory XIII. said in the sentence, that Carranza had drawn bad doctrine from many condemned heretics, suck as Martin 182 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. Luther, Juan (Ecolampadius, Philip Melancthon, and others ; and that the books of the archbishop con- tained phrases and modes of expression used by those authors to prove their doctrines. He declared this prelate to be suspected in the Lutheran heresy, and ordered that, in his presence, he should abjure all the erroneous doctrines which were found in his writings, and particularly in the sixteen proposi- tions. He absolved him from all ecclesiastical cen- sures which he had incurred, and he imposed upon him, as a punishment, that he should be suspended from officiating in his church at Toledo ; (a suspen- sion which had to last so long as Gregory and his successors might think proper.) He appointed as his prison, the convent of the Dominicans, in the city of Orbieto, for the space of five years, and many penances, and among these, that of visiting the seven Basilicas of Borne.* Such is the sentence which Gregory XIII. pro- nounced upon the trial of the Archbishop of Toledo, as read in the MS. of Ambrosio Morales. "We observe that it differs from the relation given of it by Llorente, in his History of the Inquisition, when that * MS. of Ambrosio de Morales already cited. Simancas in his life, speaking of the sentence says : " The substance of it was that his holiness condemned him to abjure, as greatly suspicious, sixteen heretical propositions, and that he should be confined in a certain monastery of his order for five years, and longer if his holiness and his successors should think proper ; and to other spiritual penances. And it is certain that the intention of ike Pope was, that the confinement and suspension should be perpetual, for, considering the age ofCarranza, it was computed he could not live above five yea/rs" THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 183 writer affirms that Carranza was suspended in the administration of his See for five years, because the result of the decree as to suspension is, that it was for an indefinite time, at the will of the Holy See : a thing which appears more likely, if one attends to the desire of Philip and the Inquisition, that Carranza should appear as a delinquent. To give him autho- rity at the end of six years to govern his see, would be to adventure it in new dangers and greater scandal, for his enemies would take every occasion by means of other informations to reduce him again to the dungeons of the Holy Office. Be this as it might, as it does not pertain to this work to defend openly the opinion which I entertain touching the sentence given in this case, it may suffice to say, that the Archbishop of Toledo, in the presence of the Pope, the cardinals, and other prelates holding office in the Inquisition, made his abjurations, and remained thenceforth absolved from all crime. Carranza read his abjuration with much indiffer- ence if not with disdain, and as though it were con- cerning a writing that had nothing whatever to do with himself.* Being on his knees before Pope Gregory, that pontiff said, " Considering the length of time which you have been in prison, and your services in former times to the Catholic church, the sentence has not been more severe." t The Governor of Borgo was then ordered to take Carranza to the monastery of Minerva. As he passed the Cardinal Grambara, he begged of him, * Simancas. f Ibid. 184 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. with much gentility and coolness, that orders might be given for his wardrobe to be sent from the Castle of St. Angelo to his new habitation. This asto- nished both his friends and his enemies; 'the one attributing this serenity to innocence, the others to pertinacity in crime.* Tip to the present time none of the historians of Carranza have examined the sentence with severe criticism. From that moment it may be affirmed, that the prelate obtained a victory ; because his trial was decided contrary to the opinions and wishes of his enemies and judges ; because when these in- tended to have their victim excommunicated by the Bull " in ccena" and deprived of dignity and of life, the Pope declared to Carranza, that he was only suspected of some heresies ; and in fine, because from the moment he made his abjurations, he remained purged and free from them, and absolved from the censures imposed upon all who separate themselves, even in the smallest point, from the Catholic faith. The suspending him in the church of Toledo, and from the fruits of it, and putting him under many other grave penances, were chastisements for having defended Lutheran opinions both by parole and by his writings. The day after the abjuration (Palm Sunday,) Carranza said mass publicly, in presence of a great audience; and from that moment all the prelates and dignitaries of Eome addressed him as " most illustrious :" as an archbishop. After the second * Simancas. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. . 185 day in Easter, he visited the seven churches from morning till night. He went to them with so many carriages and such a retinue, that he gave good ground for saying, that he made his penance a triumph.* As a consequence of so much fatigue at his advanced age, he was seized with a bad fever, which increasing by degrees, terminated his life on the 2nd of May, 1576, in the seventy-third year of his age. The immediate cause of his death was disease of the bladder, in which were found three stones as large as filberts, and which by the unusual exercise of so much walking on the day of his penance, had been displaced and brought on inflammation. Before yielding up his last breath to his Creator, he made a protestation of his faith, declaring in pre- sence of the sacred Host, that he had never fallen into heresy of any kind. But it so happens, to the increase of doubts and confusions, in reference to the affair of Carranza, that it is affirmed of Melchor Cano, also, who was taken for his enemy, and most persecuted him in life, that when about to receive the sacrament, and asked by the provincial of St. Domingo, if he felt any remorse or load on his con- science in reference to the imprisonment of Car- ranza, and told that he had yet time to discharge his conscience, and to do a service to the presumed culprit, Cano replied " Reverend father, ~by this sacred Host, whom now I (although unworthy) am going to receive, and ly whom I am to be judged, I declare that * Simancas. 186 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. in that matter I have not the least scruple of con- science or sense of remorse, and a great consolation it is ; for if I had not accused and denounced his propositions to the Holy Office, I should now expect to go to perdition" This occurred two years before the archbishop made the like declaration of his own innocence.* The same pontiff, Gregory XIII., ordered an epitaph to be placed on his grave, in which he called him an illustrious man in family, in purity of life, in doctrine, in preaching, and in his charity to the afflicted. Such was the end of the Archbishop of Toledo, after having suffered constantly for sixteen years in the secret cells of the Inquisition and in the Castle of St. Angelo in Eome. " I never saw him sad (says Don Antonio de Fuenmayor, in his Vida de San Pio V.) ; he spoke temperately in his cause and reproached nobody, not even of those whom he believed to be his enemies." To which, adds Father Quint anaduenas in one of his works : "he mani- fested so generous a spirit and such a christianlike courage in his adverse fortunes, that he surprised Spain and astonished Italy. "f Some years after the death of the archbishop, various writers began to pour out eulogies over his tomb, calling him a man of great knowledge, virtue, and learning, but always with the caution which the just dread of the Holy Office would inspire. I * Ambrosio de Morales. MS. cited. f* Friar Antonio Quintanadnenas. Santos de la imperial Ciudad de Toledo. Madrid, 1651, by Pablo de Val. THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 187 ought to observe, that nearly all those authors whose opinion was favourable to the innocence of Carranza, were either of the order of preachers, or canons, or natives of Toledo persons who had a lively interest in honouring the memory of their colleague, or their archbishop. But if those same writers had not maintained their opinion in defence of that illustrious prelate, although it were merely for the sake of not seeing infamy brought upon the religion of St. Domingo, or the church and city of Toledo, by having among the professors of the former, a heretic for a friar of their own order, and in the latter, in the archbishop's chair, a pastor affected with the errors of the time, to what person or persons was reserved the power of writing on the subject, so as to put the truth in its proper light ? Historians ought to have been silent, or at least to have said something about the imprisonment of the archbishop without expressing an adverse or a favourable opinion, as did Luis Cabrera de Cordoba in his Vida de Felipe II. To them it was of no im- portance to augment the discredit of Carranza, so long as they did not subject themselves to be called to account for their words by the Holy Office. For this reason, only those who had an interest in de- fending the truth, in opposition to the enemies of the accused, would take up arms in the matter, and illustrate to coming generations the particulars of this long-pending and extraordinary cause. Yet still, some of them being of the same order with Carranza, and others as citizens of Toledo, being inte- 188 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. rested in defending their prelate, their opinion should be received with suspicion. In the case of the arch- bishop, was seen a man, distinguished for his learn- ing, deliberately approving the Lutheran doctrines which in those calamitous times disturbed the peace of the Catholics : a constant servant of the Holy See, changed in the eyes of the world into one of the enemies which threatened to destroy it : a man who by the arms of the Holy Office imposed punishments upon and even destroyed pertinacious heretics, converted into one of them himself : a man who denounced to the inquisitors the books of the Protestants, in order that they might be prohibited to Catholics and reduced to ashes, rendered infamous himself as the author of a work in which, it was believed, his pen was guided by the writings of Luther : and finally, a man who had thrown so many english persons and english prelates into prison, now himself miserably reduced to the secret cells of the Inquisition, in spite of his virtues, and to the disgrace of his office ; serving as a spectacle to the whole world, a scandal to the people, and a terror to other bishops, who saw themselves as in a mirror; bringing doubts into the minds of many illustrious men, who loved him and admired his praiseworthy character; and drawing down upon himself the suspicions of the Roman Pontiff. Nay, it seemed that Carranza, whose services in defence of the Apostolical See were such and so many, appeared at last not merely a heretic, but the pro- pagator of heresies, as well by means of his words as his writings. Fortune had shewn him a smiling THE SPANISH PBOTESTAtfTS. 189 face, when it is considered, that whilst he was but yet a mere friar, he was called on to execute the most important commissions, as well for the Pope as for the Emperor Charles and for Philip II. From one step to another, she raised him to the pinnacle of dignity, when it was least expected. But from that moment he began to fall; so that one might infer that there was no surer method of effecting his ruin, than by raising him to prosperity, in order that his fall might be the greater. What an ex- ample of the vanity of worldly glory, to those who venture to rise on the wings of speculation from one step to another, up to the very clouds, that their fall may be the greater into the abyss below ! Some Dominican friars and Toledian writers wish to make it appear, that Carranza was innocent of the crimes attributed to him by his enemies. Those who are of this opinion must deny the infallibility of the Pope ; seeing that Gregory XIII. declared the archbishop a culprit suspected of many heresies, for he made him abjure sixteen propositions of a Lutheran character, and imposed upon him the most grave penances. There is no manner of doubt that Carranza, once the implacable enemy of the Protestants, became in the end, a convert to their doctrines, overcome by his familiar intercourse with some of their sect, and by the continual perusal of their writings, which he read with a view of impugning them. Ey the testimony of Friar Juan de Regla, con- fessor of Charles V., it is proved that the archbishop, one day before the death of that hero, whose troops 190 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAOTS. were conquerors before the walls of Pavia, at the foot of the Capitol, in the plains of Tunis, and on the shores of the Elbe, absolved him without the sacrament of penitence, saying to him at the same time : Your majesty may Jiave the greatest confidence, for there is no sin, because the Hood of Christ cleanseth from it"* Don Luis de Avila y Zuniga, historian of the acts of Charles Y. during the war with the Duke John of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse, and grand favourite of the emperor, declared also that Carranza in the last moments of that monarch, taking up a crucifix, exclaimed, "Behold him who payed for all : there is no longer sin all is forgiven."^ These pro- positions, touching the justification of the soul with God, are reported as Lutheran. Moreover, Carranza declared at the end of his trial, that for such he held some of them. It is said that IViar Thomas Manrique, one of his parti- zans in Borne, said, " that the archbishop was a fool to confess as heretical, a catholic proposition. To which Doctor Simancas answered, that he would be as great a heretic in affirming that the catholic pro- position was heretical, as saying the contrary. J The Archbishop of Toledo, in his catechism, shows us how much he was attached, secretly, to the doctrines which he had, until then, persecuted to the death, as well in persons as in books. " My * Don Juan Antonio Llorente. Historia Critica de la Inqui- sition. t Idem. J Simancas MS. cited. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 191 intent" says he, "is to admit as a rule offaiihihe cate- chism which the church has had from its foundation . and to explain, if necessary, to the people . and to draw that explanation from the same sacred Scriptures, and from the ancient fathers, as they were wont to do, when instructing those who took upon them the profession of Christians" Llorente (canon of Toledo) affirmed, in his His- tory of the Holy Office, that none of the sixteen propositions abjured by Carranza are to be found in his writings. But prejudice put a veil over his eyes when he examined those works, or ignorance of them made him say what he desired and conjectured. The fifteenth proposition abjured was in this form : " The present church has not the same light nor authority as the primitive church" Now we have already seen that Carranza, in the preface to his cate- chism, has the following, which in toto resembles it. " 1 have endeavoured to resuscitate here the antiquity of our ancestors, and of the first church, because that was the most sound and the most pure" It is in this way, without examining the writings of famous authors, that people speak of their doc- trines, and they attribute to them that which desire or prejudice may dictate. The archbishop, according to what may be deduced from his words, held in his heart the Lutheran opinions ; and the Protestant arguments which we meet with at every step in his works, are sparks which discover the fire hidden through fear of falling under the indignation of the Holy Office, and the barbarous fanatic Philip II. 192 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. CHAPTER XIII. PHILIP II., as has already been remarked in this history, was, in his persecution of Protestants, equal to Nero tormenting the Christians. He was equal also to the ferocious son of Aggripina in the destruction of his friends and favourites, the moment he saw that they would no longer be the blind in- struments of that caprice and wickedness which both one and the other of these tyrants called state reasons. Nero took the lives of Burrus, and of the stoic Seneca. From the height of preferment he hurled them down to the grave ; a proper warning to those who natter tyrants, and represent their iniquities as meritorious sacrifices made for the public good. Philip II., by means of subordinate murderers, and with the violence of iron goads, silenced in the tomb many of his private friends, and among these Juan de Escovedo. Antonio Perez saved himself alive, through his dexterity in flying, and his astuteness in raising the Arragonese against Philip. Carranza, solely through the affection of Pius V., was saved from finishing his days in prison. Cardinal Espi- nosa cut short his own days, through fear of the king's anger, in return for his great services. Nero THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 193 in the first years of his reign was filled with horror, when he had to sign a sentence of death. Philip II., with the barbarous Mary of England, in the begin- ning of their reign, ordered the Protestants to be destroyed by the fire and the sword. Nero, when he began to indulge in cruelty and vice, performed as an actor in the theatres, singing in public, after having ordered the death of his victims. Philip II., an actor of religion, immediately after having ordered the execution of those of his vassals, whom he con- sidered enemies, retired to the chapel of the palace, or to the choir of the monastery of the Escurial to chant the Psalms of David, or the bitter lamen- tations of Jeremiah. Nero, for his vices, deserved to have presided in effigy, after his tragical end, and in memory of his deeds, over the bacchanalian fetes celebrated by ancient Rome. Philip II., also in effigy, ought to have been adored by the inqui- sitors, in the midst of the autos-de-fe, performed in the reigns of his successors, Philip III., Philip IV., and Charles II. Carranza paid the penalty of having enjoyed for some years the inconstant affection of Philip, the Spanish Nero, who was idolised only by the mali- cious, by the iniquitous, and by the ignorant. The archbishop of Toledo was at one time the terror of Protestants, as well in Spain as in England, and yet he afterwards came to follow the tenets of Luther, (Ecolampadius, Melancthon, and other writers, who preached, and were even then preaching reform in the church. 194 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Unhappy age for Spain, was the sixteenth century; with a monarch so cruel and superstitious, the sub- jects, in order to raise themselves to dignities, were obliged to become executioners : those who were lovers of liberty of conscience, and dared to manifest their opinions were marked as victims; and those who disguised their doctrines, or those who inclined their necks to the yoke from which they were by birth exempt, were obliged to pass for slaves. The king only breathed with the oppression of his sub- jects. The placemen and officials of the court, from the assistant of the Holy Office, down to the lowest lay-brother of the convents, delighted in oppressing their inferiors. These, who knew their own servile and degraded condition, were therefore bound hand and foot by the chains of a slavish fear, as well as by those fetters on their consciences, imposed by the king and the Inquisition. Nay, those poor slaves dared not even to bewail their own abject condition, but were compelled to offer up, on the altars of their misery, incense of adulation to the throne of Philip II., and to laud the oppressors of religious liberty. The religious intolerance of many ecclesiastics of the sixteenth century, monks of Tebaida in words, but satyrs in works, was inherited from the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The Catholic kings* forged the first chains which oppressed the genius of our country. They reduced to ashes more than * By this expression is understood Ferdinand and Isabella. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 195 twenty thousand persons, suspected of maintaining the Jewish religion, and appropriated to themselves the riches of which the accused were plundered by the Inquisition, which gave to the iniquity of theft, the judicial name of confiscation.* It w r as a com- mon saying in Europe that both of these monarchs were actuated by covetousness in persecuting the poor Hebrews, whose complaints against such rob- beries had reached the Vatican ; robberies begun indeed with a shew of formal proceedings, but end- ing in the increase of the royal patrimony, then weakened by the expenses of protracted wars ;t * In one of the letters attributed to Hernan Perez del Pulgar, an author cotemporary with the Catholic sovereigns, the writer speaks of dissensions which took place in Toledo, and we read respecting them as follows : " those who lived out of the town made war against the city ; the city also warred against them, and as those citizens were great inquisitors of the faith, they con- trived to find heresies in the property of the labourers of Fuensa- lida, ALL OP WHICH THEY STOLE and burned the owners ; they robbed also Guaidamur and other places. Those without the city, with the same zeal for the faith, burnt many houses at Burguillos. f " It would appear that you doubt whether, in beholding your zeal in castigating with severity those perfidious people, who, pretending to be christians, blaspheme Christ, crucify him with judaical infidelity, and are pertinacious in their apostacy, we shall think that you do it more through ambition and covetousness of temporal possessions than for zeal of the faith and Catholic truth or fear of God ; but you may rest assured that we have not entertained the slightest suspicion of it ; for although some persons have whispered something of the kind to cov^r the iniquities of the delinquents, we cannot believe in any injustice on the pir of yourself or your illustrious consort" So wrote Sixtus IV. to Isabella I. (Cantolla, continuacion de la Compilation de Bullas de Lumbreras.) This accounts for the opinion of many cotemporaries of the o 2 196 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. and, in short, they expelled from Spain four hun- dred thousand Jews, a political crime which the blind admirers of Ferdinand and Isabella qualify with the appellation of a heroic resolution to main- tain the only true religion in the kingdoms. This mode of expelling persons of a different sect was the invention of Torquemada, inquisitor- general, who had communicated it to the Catholic sovereigns. These sovereigns, guided by the coun- sels of the Holy Office, believed that they would thus, by what in the present day is called religious unity, secure the faith of Christ in their dominions. But even in Home herself, and in the other Italian states, nay, in almost all the polished nations of Europe, where Jews live and have lived as they did in Spain, do they not benefit the state by payment of its taxes ? And has the residence of Jews in this country endangered the Christian religion ? The prosperity of foreign nations in which that people are permitted to dwell, demonstrates better than the most powerful arguments, the folly of Catholic sovereigns in expelling them from Spain, for it cannot be doubted that such expulsion greatly operated against the nation's prosperity. Friar Thomas de Torquemada, inquisitor-general, the ecclesiastical Robespierre, who, instead of the phrygian-cap, wore the hood of the Dominican friar, catholic sovereigns touching their mode of dealing with the Jews. The Pope out of courtesy affirmed that he could not believe am- bition and covetousness were the pole-star of Isabella and Ferdinand in their persecutions of the Jews. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 197 aided by infamous assistants, preached the religion of Christ in the presence of the burning flames, and before the ashes of the Jews who had been roasted in the fire. His arguments were the scaffolds, his eloquence confiscation of property, his persecutions ignominy of character, his logic disinterred corpses, and the living bodies of unhappy Hebrews reduced to shapeless masses. Friar Francisco Ximenez de Cisneros, a cotem- porary and servant of the Catholic sovereigns, contri- buted in another manner, towards sowing the seeds of religious intolerance among their enslaved subjects. A true Mahomet in Franciscan attire, and with the cardinal's purple cloak, the Bible in one hand, and the inquisitor's torch in the other, he compelled the Moors of Granada to become converts to the Chris- tian faith.* * I know that many will be indignant at the liberty I take in designating the Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros as Mahomet in a Franciscan dress. I also know it will be said that I judge this celebrated man according to the manner of thinking, and to the opinions of the nineteenth century. But those who think so are greatly deceived. Juan Luis Vives, a celebrated sage born in Spain, and contemporary with Cisneros, in his book, De concordia et digcordia in hum/iano genere, (Antwerp, 1529), calls the friars of his time Turks with hoods. (" Qui se ita opressos vident in eamprce indignatione rabiem ac despertationem adducuntur, ut abrupta cupiant omnia et mutata, rebusque novis avidissime, studeant quo ingum illud et tyrannidem excutiant, adeo ut nee Turcce abominentur nomem, aperte Turca quam sub his eorum opinione Turcis in persona christianorum latentibus") Between Turks 'with hoods and Mahomet in a Franciscan dress and the cardinaPs purple attire there is but little difference. In my judgment of Cisneros, I do but follow the opinion of great 198 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. A friar of the order of St. Jerome, Don Hernando de Talavera, first Archbishop of Granada, a man superior to that age, resolved in order to instruct the Moors in the true Christian faith, to translate the sacred writings into Arabic. Ximenez de Cisneros opposed himself firmly and constantly to this resolution, and preferred to teach the con- quered what none of them could ever understand, in consequence of their ignorance of the Latin lan- guage.* In this way did Mahomet preach his doc- trines, as we are informed by the Christians : the Koran in one hand, and the sword in the other ; these were his arguments, and this was his motto, ' believe or perish.' But the Franciscan cardinal, not satisfied with preaching the faith of Christ in this manner, turned his indignation against the Arabic books found in Granada. Five thousand manuscripts (less three men who flourished in his own age, and who were not blinded by superstition. The passage cited from Juan Luis Vives escaped the blots and flames of the Holy Office, through a very simple cause, viz., the Latin of Vives is so good that probably the greater part of the inquisitors were unable to understand it * " In order that . . . those Moors recently converted might be well instructed in the Christian religion, the first Arch- bishop of Granada was of opinion that the sacred scriptures ought to be translated for them into Arabic To this pious intention Friar Francisco Ximenez, Archbishop of Toledo, who was all and in all in Spain, objected, alleging arguments not found in the word of God, nor in the works of holy divines, but deduced from the reason of man, and consequently repugnant to the word of God ; thus the translation which would have so much benefited those poor and ignorant Moors was not permitted to be made." Cipriano de Valera. Exhortation to the reading the Bible. THE SPANISH PBOTE STARTS. 199 thousand which treated of philosophy and medicine) were burnt to ashes by order of Cisneros, nor would lie permit to be first taken off the covers, clasps and ornaments of gold and of pearls with which they had been bound, although they were demanded, and the price of them was offered, viz., ten thousand ducats. He did not permit it, because they had been the instruments of this cursed sect.* Thus intolerance assisted slavery to annihilate the trea- sures of science. Thus were men of discretion, like Cardinal Cisneros, converted into more barbarous creatures than even those who came down from the north with Attila, to scourge mankind, destroy the arts, and degrade human reason. To men of this description, Spain (according to her apologists) owes her preservation from the horrors consequent on civil wars from religious causes. But what greater horror, what greater desolation, what greater vio- lence can there be than to burn to death in the flames twenty thousand Spaniards during the reign of Ferdinand Y. and of Isabella I. ? "What, than the like number of families being reduced to absolute penury by the confiscation of their property ? What, than so many branded with ignominy and wretched- ness ? What greater destruction can we imagine than four hundred thousand Spaniards driven out of their country for their observance of the Jewish religion ? Four hundred thousand inhabitants lost to the popu- lation, lost to commerce, lost to agriculture in the * Archetipo de virtudes y etpejo de perlados, by Father Quin- tanilla y Mendoza. Palermo, by Nicolas Bua. Ano 1653. 200 THE SPANISH PKOTESTAKTS. reigns of the two Catholic sovereigns ! "What greater damage can we look for than five hundred thousand Moors expelled from Spain by the same sovereigns in 1502 ? "What greater violence than that a hun- dred thousand Spaniards also of Moorish extraction should be for ever expatriated by Philip III. r Such, then, were the sovereigns who, it is said, saved Spain from religious wars. These might, it is true, have endured for many years ; but the fanatics, by a decree, the work of half an hour, caused their country more horrors and more losses, than could have resulted from long civil dissensions. Of what nation was it ever recorded, that in a re- ligious war four hundred thousand men perished in a single day ? In such cruelties, and in opinions so contrary to the dictates of sound state policy, were the Spanish monarchs who succeeded the two Catholic sovereigns, bred up and educated. The slaves of Cardinal Cisneros, as well those of the clerical as those of the secular order, made their sons and disciples drink at the poisonous streams of a religious into- lerance, which was alike the enemy of God and of man. In Seville, where already the Protestant doctrines had been promulgated by Eodrigo de Valero and Dr. Juan Gil, the reformation was ex- tending itself throughout the city, and had already established itself in the minds of many persons remarkable for their wisdom and holy lives. In 1555, Doctor Juan Perez de Pineda, whose writings have already been referred to, and who had been at THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 201 the head of the college of boys in Seville called the Doctrina, notwithstanding the infirmities of his advanced age, fled, with other six persons, men and women, to lands of liberty, in order to escape the inquisitorial fury. From these foreign lands he continued his intercourse with the undiscovered Protestants of Seville, to whom he transmitted many of his works, to be privately circulated among those who might have already acquired some knowledge of the Protestant views, and might be desirous of forwarding the reformation. A Summary of Christian Doctrine, written by Dr. Perez,* and persecuted by the inquisitors under the name of Catechism, served much to strengthen and comfort the minds of the Protestants then re- siding in Seville, under all the persecutions they were suffering at the instance of the infamous tri- bunal. * Venice by Pedro Daniel, ano 1557. 202 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. CHAPTEE XIV. THE vigilance of the inquisitors was ridiculed and entirely frustrated by the daring intrepidity, dis- cretion, and perseverance of a man of obscure birth, who contrived to bring into Spain the books of Dr. Perez and other Protestants. This man's name was JTJLIANILLO HERNANDEZ (JULIAN LE PETIT). He was one of the most notable Protestants of Spain, as well in regard to the services which he rendered to that sect as for the sharpness of his wit, the greatness of his erudition in the sacred Scriptures, and the courage he displayed at his death. Hernandez was born in Villaverde de tierra de Campos. In his childhood he passed over to G-ermany with his parents, where he was reared up in the faith and principles of the Protestants, from whom he received repeated marks of affection.* Desirous * In the Historia de la Compania de Jesus en esta provincial d-e Andalucia, a work of Padre Santivanez the Jesuit, (MS. in the Columbina Library,) we read as follows : He was a Spaniard, but bred up in Germany among heretics, where he drank the poisonous heresies, so that the principal here- siarchs elected him (in imitation of what we find related in the Acts of the Apostles) one of the seven deacons of their church, or, more correctly speaking, their synagogue of Satan. THE SPANISH PKOTE STARTS. 203 of assisting those in his country who attempted to spread the reform opinions, he determined to return to Spain, and circulate, cautiously, in the chief cities and among the higher classes of the people, those Castilian books of the Protestants which had been prohibited by the Holy Office, for containing doc- trines contrary to the Catholic religion. It was at that time extremely difficult to introduce Protestant works into Spain, seeing that the Inquisition with the eyes of Argus, and the watchfulness of Cerberus was guarding the entrance to the kingdom, in order to interrupt the pass of such like enemies as the presses of Germany were conspiring to send forth against the intolerance which at that time prevailed in our country. Hernandez, however, who had become celebrated among the Protestants, as well for his cunning as for his unconquerable determina- tion to extend the roots of their doctrines over the Peninsular, resolved to baffle all precautions on the part of the inquisitors. Whether Hernandez was, (as some say,) a mule- teer, or merely disguised himself in the dress of one to avoid suspicion, is not certainly known, but there is no doubt he introduced into Spain, on several distinct occasions, a considerable number of Pro- testant books, pretending to be a mere rustic, whose only occupation was to carry from kingdom to king- dom, and town to town, large parcels or bales of goods adapted to the wants of the merchants and working people. The spirit of the Protestant religion was diffused over the chief part of Castile and Andalucia, 204 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. by means of his tricks and contrivances, so great was the number of works that he circulated in both kingdoms.* He was well known in Spain, and even in other nations. From the extraordinary diminu- tiveness of his person, some called him Julian Hernandez, el chico, (the little) and others Julianilloj or little Julian. The French Protestants held him in great esteem, and called him Julian le Petit. Doctor Juan Perez de Pinada (of whom I have already spoken,) honoured Julian with his friend- ship. I do not know whether he saw him for the first time in Seville, or at Venice, when living there after his persecution by the judges of the Holy Office. The works of this Protestant doctor, pub- lished out of those kingdoms, including his transla- tion of the New Testament, were brought to Spain by Julian. Cipriano de Yalera,t said of him, " Doctor Juan Perez, of pious memory, in 1556, printed the New Testament, and one Julian Her- nandez, moved with a zeal to benefit his country, carried very many of those Testaments to Seville and distributed them in 1557." * He set out from Germany with the design of damning all Spain, and he ran through a great part of it, distributing many books in various places, containing perverse doctrine, and sowing the heresies of Luther among men and women, especially in Seville. He was beyond every thing astute and crafty, (as all heretics are.) He did great damage in all Castile and Andalucia. He came in and went out at all points with great security, with his tricks and lies,leaving fire behind him wherever he set his foot." Santivauez, MS. cited. f* Cipriano de Yalera. Exhortation, &c. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 205 It appears that Julian concealed the works of Perez in two great casks which he carried with him; and that assisted by his vivacity and industry, he brought them through Spain, and even to Seville, without the least molestation.* The books were deposited, according to some, with Juan Ponce de Leon, and according to others, in the monastery of St. Isidro.f The latter appears to me most pro- bable. Don Juan Ponce de Leon did not commence following the Protestant doctrines until March 1559; at least so says a document of the Holy Office, which in the life of this Protestant I shall copy in another place of the present history ; so that it is not at all probable that Hernandez, in 1557, deposited the works of Don Perez in the hands of Ponce de Leon, a person who had not at that time separated himself from the Catholic religion. There was not wanting a traitor to disclose to the Holy Office the cunning tricks which had served Julian to mock the vigilance of the justices and ministers of that tribunal, and to scatter the seeds of reform in all parts of Spain, and still more in * Julian Hernandez . . . succeeded in putting into Seville two casks full of those Spanish books which we say were printed at Geneva by Doctor Juan Perez. Valera Tratado de los Papas. f Reinaldo Gonzalez de Montes (Sanctce Inquisitiones His- panice artes aliquot delectce) affirms that they were deposited with Juan Ponce de Leon. Santivauez in his MS. already cited, says " Here (in the con- vent of Isidro) the little, knowing Julian, deposited his heretical books from Germany, and with them perverted a great number of friars. 206 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Seville. The results of the denouncement were terrible, not only for the ill-fated Julian, but many other persons, his accomplices and partisans. * In spite of all his vivacity and dexterity, he could not avoid all the snares which the inquisitors laid for him, and thus, notwithstanding the difficulties which they had in overcoming his astuteness, poor Julian was at last reduced to the narrow cells of the Holy Office.t He remained there, a prisoner, for three years. J In vain did his judges attempt even by tor- ture to draw from him the denouncement of his accomplices in the bringing and circulating the Lutheran books through Castile and Andalucia. IS"ot only did he refuse to do so in the very sight of the instruments, which awaited his body, to rack and torture it, but even the agonies he endured on their application, never overcame the fortitude of his mind, the constancy in his opinions, and a reso- lution never to sacrifice his companions, unknown as yet to the judges of the tribunal of the faith. He had long disputes with the inquisitorial censors, and although they contrived to answer and gainsay his opinions, yet still he always met them with new arguments, frequently silencing his adversaries, if not with the truth, yet with some new ingenious and unexpected arguments in support of his doc- trines^ * " The secret being sold by a Judas, and carried to the inqui- sitors, eight hundred persons were arrested." Cipriano de Valera. Tratado de los Papas. | Santivailez MS. J Reinaldo Gonzalez de Montes. Santivanez MS. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 207 As was to be expected, poor Julian Hernandez de- served of the inquisitors the appellation of heretic, apostate, and contumacious dogniatiser, and the penalty of dying in a public auto-de-fe on the 22nd of December, 1560. Never in that tribunal had so much pains been taken before to convince a Protes- tant that he was in error. Many of the Calificadores of the Holy Office, who in the private conferences had argued and disputed with him, were obliged at last to be silent ; not on account of the soundness of his reasoning, but the sharpness of his wit, and the manner in which these arguments were conveyed to the stupidity and ignorance of the inquisitors, who had determined that in his last moments they would completely overwhelm him, and claim that victory over his opinions which they had so eagerly, desired. Julian in going to the stake was gagged, but on arriving at the fatal spot they set his tongue at liberty, and in the presence of both the learned and illiterate, some of the Calificadores wished to resume their arguments. His hands and feet were tied to the stake, but even in that awful and bitter situa- tion, his courage and constancy did not forsake him. Desirous of dying quickly, he had contrived to place some portions of the faggots upon his head and shoulders. The licenciate Francisco Gomez, and Doctor Fernando Eodriguez, began in an excited manner to exhort him to abandon his doctrines. But Julian called them hypocrites, and told them that the creed of each of them was the same as his own, but that they concealed the fact through fear 210 THE SPANISH PEOTESTAtfTS. there was not one or more from this monastery."* So wrote Cipriano de Valera of the progress of reform among the friars of St. Isidro del Campo.f This convent owed its foundation, in 1301, to Don Alonzo Perez de Gruzman and his wife, Dona Maria Coronel, who erected it with a view of having their remains deposited in its church. The monks who first inhabited this edifice were of the order of Cister. In 1431, the depravity of manners, and the lascivious crimes of those friars, obliged the patron of the convent to expel these monks of Cister, and admit into it others of the order of St. Jerome, brought from the monastery of Buena Yista, situ- ated on the left bank of the Guadalquivir. On the right side of the river, and almost opposite to that monastery, is Santi-Ponce, and near to the ancient Italica is the monastery of San Isidro del Campo. Many Protestants fled, as well from Seville as from other cities, in order to escape the snares of the inquisitors, and live in the free enjoyment of their own religious opinions. England, heroic nation, the mother of strangers, and protector of the unfortunate, gave a hospitable reception to many of these unhappy Spaniards, who there sought a shelter against the adversities of * Tratado de los Papas. t Llorente calls this monastery, in his History of the Inquisi- tion, that of San Isidoro. He ought to have said, San Isidro del Campo. (Ortiz de Zufiiga. Anales delSevUla. Valera Tratado de los Papas.) THE SPANISH PBOTE STARTS. 211 fortune. Queen Elizabeth afforded them great succour : she assisted them with money, and facili- tated them in procuring chapels in which they might worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. The Spanish Protestants resident in England pub- lished, in 1559, a confession of their faith, contained in twenty-one chapters.^ Some of those unhappy beings fled to Frankfort, some to Basle, and others to Geneva. In this city, the Spaniards and Italians who had abandoned the Catholic religion founded a church, whose pastor or preacher was called Balbani.f Those who in their misfortunes had sought an asylum in Germany and Switzerland, wrote, in 1559, a small work, entitled Dos informaciones mwy utiles : la una dirigida a la Majestad del Emperador Carlos V. deste nombre, y la otra d los estados del imperio ; y aliora presentadas al catolico rey don Felipe su * This work is intitled Declaration 6 confesion de Fe, hecha par ciertosfieles espanoles que huyendo los abusos de la yglesia Romano, y la crueldad de la Inquisition de Espaua, hizieron d la yglesia de los fieles para ser recibidos por hermanos en Cristo. " Declaration or confession of faith, made by certain faithful Spaniards, who, flying the abuses of the Roman Church and the cruelty of the Inquisition in Spain ; fled to the church of the faith- ful in order to be received into it as brethren in Christ."* This work was prohibited in the index of Cardinal Quiroga, in 1583. (Index et catalogus librorum prohibitorum, mandate Illustriss. ac Eeverendiss. I). D. Grasparis a Quiroga, Cardinalis Archiepiscopis Toletani ac in regnis Hispaniarum Generalis Inqui- sitoris, Denuo editus. Martriti MDLXXXIII. t Don Juan Antonio Pellicer. Ensayo de una Biblioteca de Traductores. p 2 212 THE SPANISH PKOTE STARTS. hijo.* In these " informations" the Protestants said to that sovereign, " In Spain, that which is called Inquisition proceeds with such unexampled force and fury, and is so fierce and cruel, that nobody can venture to speak a single word of pure truth on account of it. In the mode of examining witnesses before it, the most wicked and barbarous practices are permitted. All this is so much the more dan- gerous and out of all reason and humanity, inas- much as those who are inquisitors presiding and governing that Inquisition are men unlearned, cruel, avaricious, destitute of the true knowledge of God, without any acquaintance of the Christian religion, or of Jesus Christ the author of it, and who live, like vultures, upon prey." Thus did those unhappy Spaniards send forth from lands of liberty their complaints against the tyrannies of the inquisitors, and thus did they pre- sent them to Charles V. and his son and successor Philip II. But both one and the other of these monarchs, persuaded by the counsels of fanatical flatterers and friars belonging to the Inquisition, refused to pay any regard to the remonstrances of those miserable Protestants. The many Lutheran and Calvinistic books written in Castilian, by the Protestant fugitives in Germany and Switzerland, were objects of terror to Philip II. This king, desirous of destroying those Spaniards who had thus escaped the fury of the Holy Office, * A vol. in 12mo. published in 1559, without name of author or place of printing. THE SPANISH PEOTESTAKTS. 213 gave orders to Er. Bartolome de Carranza (whose life is already given in the former part of this his- tory) to inquire as to the works they had written, the names and residences of the authors, and their friends and companions in the reformed doctrines . Carranza found many of such books which had been written by Protestants absent from their country, and which books had been secreted in the Palace of Brussels to be forwarded from thence to Spain on a fitting opportunity. Philip then lost no time in appointing Carranza and Don Francisco de Castilla, the alcalde of house and court,* \Casa y Corte] as commissioners for the persecution of Lutherans in Germany, upon whatever pretext they might happen to be travelling in lands within the Spanish juris- diction under feigned names and descriptions. These commissioners, Carranza and Castilla, sent Eriar Lorenzo de Villavieencio, of the order of St. Augustine, immediately to the fair at Erankfort, but in secular attire, to spy out the Protestant fugitives of Spain, and seize and burn the works which some of them had written. In the course of this under- taking it was ascertained that the entry of the Lutheran books into our country was by the moun- tains of Jaea in Arragon, and that many of them were then deposited in Erance, waiting a favourable opportunity of eluding the precautions taken by the Holy Office to intercept them. It was on this account that the Protestant Erancisco de * The title of the Judge constituting the Court of Appeal in criminal cases. 214 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. Euzinas (already, spoken of in the early part of this history,) was obliged to change his name in the various journeys and voyages which he undertook to different nations, sometimes calling himself Du Chesne, sometimes converting his surname into French, sometimes into Flemish Van _Zyc&, or Van der EycJc ; and sometimes, as before observed, into Greek, Dryander. And yet all this caution to escape the eye of the Inquisition and its ministers in foreign lands, was as nothing compared with the vigilance, the cautions, and stratagems adapted by the agents of the Spanish Inquisition. As a proof of the hatred of these people against the writings of the Protestants (I speak now of what happened to some of the works of Francisco de Euzinas, which did not in any way concern the Christian religion, as understood by the chiefs of the reformation.) Enzinas published in Argenton in 1551, the first volume of his Parallel Lives of Plutarch, and in order to give it free circulation in lands of liberty, it was not thought inconvenient to insert in the title-page the name of Francisco de Enzinas. Eut in order that the work might find a good reception in the Spanish dominions as well among learned persons who were firm in their devo- tion to the Apostolical See, as among the judges and Galificadores of the Inquisition he caused an- other title-page to be printed, in which the name of the translator was not given. In 1562, another editor (Arnold Byrkmann,) wished to publish the same work ; and in order to avoid persecution by THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 215 the inquisitors, he stated in the title-page that the name of the translator was Juan de Castro Salinas. Byrkmann printed, in 1553 a Castilian version of Titus Livius ; and Martin Nucio published also, at Antwerp, in 1553, a translation of the books of Flavius Josephus, which was prohibited by the Holy Office. Both one and the other of these per- formances appear to me, from the peculiarity of their style, to be the works of Enzinas, although in neither is the name of the translator given. In this manner did the Spanish Protestants see their works persecuted by the Inquisition ; and not only those in which matters of the faith were treated by a new mode, but even such of them as related to ancient Greek and Latin history. "What danger could the Catholic religion possibly sustain by the reading of Plutarch's Lives, or the decads of Titus Livius ? Did either the great Greek politician or the Latin historian defend in their works the doctrines of Luther and OEcolampadius ? Enzinas, in order to the free circulation of his works in Spain, either omitted his name in the title- page altogether, or had recourse to an assumed one, in order to teach the history of the Grecian and Eoman republics to his own countrymen, fettered and gagged as they were by an infamous tribunal. In this dreadful age there was no security in Spain for the lives of the virtuous and innocent. Iniquity and hypocrisy, supported by a popular fanaticism, busied themselves with inquiries into the most minute circumstances of human actions. 216 THE SPANISH FEOTESTAKTS, The domestic hearth, where love and virtue dwelt in peace, was cruelly invaded by traitors in disguise? under the sacred name of friendship, but with no other intent than to cause so many of the Spanish nobility, clergy, and gentry, to fall a prey to malice and tyranny. False denouncements, made to the Holy Office with the mischievous intent of getting rid of some enemy or rival, were received by it as true. The infamous use of such perverse measures increased in Spain with such daring rapidity, that a friar of that time, moved to compassion by the many deaths and injuries brought down upon the people, pro- posed a remedy, and indicated plainly the way to frustrate these false accusers in the execution of their designs. 1 * * Tractado de casos de consciencia, compuesta por el mny Referenda y doctissimo Padre fray Antonio de Cordova, de la orden Scrdphico Padre San Francisco. En Caragocja, en casa de Domingo de Portonarijs Ursino. Ano de 1584. In this work we read, " When in a town there are many wit- nesses who have falsely accused or testified in the Inquisition, what remedy shall there be ? And the confessors who know this, what shall they do to redress those who have been accused and are innocent ? And as to the false witnesses, what remedy are they to meet with ?" The author, after treating upon the inconveniences of revealing confessions to the Holy Office, says : " The best and most judi- cious way appears to me, that the inquisitors should examine those who depose, and the witnesses too, with great care as to all the circumstances of the time, and place, and manner : how they know, &c. &c." This proves that there were many false witnesses who iniqui- tously accused and denounced to the Inquisition persons who had committed no crime. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 217 The number of false and of true denouncements in the sixteenth century was very great. Philip II. then reigned; and, according to history, when a Dictator Sylla, when an Augustus, a Tiberius, a Nero, or a Caligula, oppressed the Romans, the denouncers paid no respect to honour, virtue, wis- dom, or innocence. They received riches and dig- nities as rewards for their treachery. Honour was a lively reprehension to those who, to their own profit, defamed and injured their fellow-citizens : virtue was the reproach of the mercenary agents of the atrocious executions committed by those who wore the imperial purple of Rome : learning was the contempt of the men who only knew how to dishonour and calumniate the righteous; and innocence had incessantly to complain of the wicked- ness and injustice of its persecutors. When Home was governed by emperors more friendly to virtue, secret accusations and accusers fled before the rigorous measures instituted against them, at the instance of the imperial power, for the public good. These accusers, fearful of perishing by the edge of the sword with which justice pur- sued them, sought to hide their shame and terror in caves, woods and mountains, or in foreign coun- tries having no intercourse with the Romans, traversing, in their ignominious flight, rivers, seas, and deserts, and beset with dangers and difficulties. Then, indeed, humanity was able to break off some of its fetters, and to rise in some degree superior to past misfortunes; but Philip II., the rival of 218 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. Tiberius, of Nero, and of Caligula in the art of governing kingdoms, encouraged accusations, and rewarded the accusers ; and thus the cells of the Holy Office were crowded with illustrious victims : inquisitorial fury delivered to the names, indis- criminately, the bodies of ecclesiastics, of the no- bility, the gentry, and principal people of Spain, whose ashes were ruthlessly scattered to the winds, although worthy of being preserved in urns of marble. THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 219 CHAPTER XV. DOCTOE CONSTANTINO PONCE DE LA FUENTE, the most famous of all the Spanish Protestants, was Magistral-canon of the Metropolitan Church of Seville. He was born in the city of St. Clemente de la Mancha, in the bishopric of Cuenca. He studied divinity in company with Doctor Juan Gil, in the University of Alcala de Henares. They commenced jointly, in Seville, to spread about the reformed doctrines, with all the secrecy which the case imperatively required, although in public they passed as good Catholics, which title indeed they justly merited, for they were men given to the exercise of every species of virtue. The fame of Constantino de la Fuente, for learn- ing and praiseworthy habits, induced some prelates to attempt to draw him into their dioceses. The Bishop of Cuenca wished to elect him to the office of Magistral-canon of his church, without the usual literary contest with opposing rivals, and with that view wrote to request his acceptance of a dignity for which he seemed so admirably adapted. But Constantino excused himself, alleging reasons more or less plausible ; for his attachment to the doctrines of Luther forbad him leaving Seville. In 220 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. like manner he refused the offer made to him by the Chapter of Toledo, of a vacant stall in that church. The celebrated divine, Benito Arias Montano, (editor of the Biblia Regia, published in Antwerp by Plantino, at the expense of Philip II.) was then in his juvenile years, and heard with much profit and pleasure the doctrine of the good preachers of Seville ; such as Doctor Constantino, Doctor JEgidius and similar others.* Such was the eloquence of these Protestants. Charles Y. gave to Constantino the title of his Honorary Chaplain, and afterwards of his Preacher; under which titles he travelled with him in Germany, where he resided some years. A contemporary Catholic author speaks of the understanding and erudition of this Protestant in the highest terms : " The Doctor Constantino is a very great philosopher, and a profound divine ; one of the most eloquent and remarkable men in the pulpit that we have had for a long time, as the works he has written clearly shew, and which are worthy of liis genius "^ but in the expurgatories of the Holy Office, (printed in the seventeenth and towards the beginning of the eighteenth centuries,) it was ordered that these words just quoted, in praise of * Cipriano de Valera. Exortacion al Oristiano lector d her la sagrada Escritura. See his Bible.) t Juan Cristobal Calvete de Estrella. El felicissimo viage del Emperador Carlos V. y de su hijo Felipe II.: a work already cited. THE SPAKISH PKOTESTANTS. 221 Constantino, should be blotted from the book in which they were written. On the doctor's return to Seville, the ecclesi- astical Chapter, attracted by the fame of his learn- ing, wished, as I have said, to nominate him, in a summary way, its magistral-canon. But at the instance of others who had pretensions to the office, and by a decree made in the case of Gil, (known as Doctor jiEgidiiis) prohibiting the election without the usual literary contest, those wishes were not complied with, for the contest actually took place, although there was only one opposer, viz., a resident of Malaga. The others, who had intended to oppose him, seeing themselves placed by the side of a man so learned in the Hebrew and Greek languages, and in sacred literature, did not wish to run the risk of losing their reputation by a trial with such a competitor. The conquest of Contantino was there- fore, to him, one comparatively easy of attainment. Elected magistral-c&non of Seville, Constantino began to preach there, drawing large congregations from among the nobility and principal people who dwelt in that city, and its neighbourhood. But never in his discourses did he exercise full liberty, although he mixed up with his Catholic propositions a considerable number of the tenets held by the reformers. When Father Francisco de Borja, formerly Duke of Grandia, afterwards a Jesuit, and now a saint, passed through Seville, he wished to hear from the mouth of Constantino some of those sermons 222 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. had made him so famous in Spain, and in foreign countries, and went to hear him preach; but he was struck with surprise at some of his phrases, which, in his opinion, had nothing of Catholicity in them, and he immediately said to those near him, Aut aliquis latet error equo ne credite Teucri.* Francisco de Borja, seeing the fruit that Constan- tino was reaping in Seville, advised Father Juan Suarez (who was the rector of Jesuits in Salamanca) to set out for that city, with all the diligence the case demanded, and to establish in it a house of the Company of Jesus, to cut short the flight which the Lutheran opinions were then taking ; for the sus- picions that Constantino was seeking, although cautiously, reform in the church, increased from day to day. A certain father, called Juan Bautista, heard the Protestant canon preach one morning, touching various matters of the faith, in a sense not very Catholic ; and desirous of destroying the seeds thus sown, he in the evening of that same day, ascended the pulpit in which Constantino had preached ; and he addressed to the audience a most vehe- ment discourse, with a view of vanquishing the arguments of the hidden Lutheran, but without naming the person from whom those arguments had proceeded ; this precaution was necessary because of the great reputation of Constantino, and the * There is some latent error. Do not believe him. Vida de San Francisco, de Borja, already cited in Book ii. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 223 dignity to which he had been promoted.* But there were not wanting some of the curious, who observed that the words of Father Juan Bantista ap- peared refutations of the harangues of the celebrated canon. Suspicions were, step by step, engendered in the minds of the Catholics, touching the doctrines which Constantino was anxious to conceal, and which showed that if he had the opportunity, he was desirous of making converts to the cause of reform. A learned man of Seville, called Pedro Mejia, (author of various works, chieny historical, written with little judgment,) once heard Constantino declare, from the pulpit, his religious opinions in terms very similar to those used by the followers of Luther. On leaving the church, Pedro said to some of his friends, who had also heard the sermon " As the Lord liveth, this is not good doctrine, nor that which our fathers have taught us."f These words from the mouth of a man so learned, and who had a high reputation in Seville, surprised many. They were repeated by one and another, and soon ran through the city, and led to the exami- nation of other sermons of Constantino, in which were found tenets not conformable to the belief and teaching of the Catholic church. After this, the * Historia de la Compama de Jesus en esta Provincia de Andalucia del padre Santiva/lez. MS. de Meraorias de la Santa Iglesia de Sevilla. (Biblioteca Colombina.) I have also a copy made during the last century. i* Santivaiiez. MS. before cited. 224 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Dominican friars, instigated by the Jesuits, always went and assisted at the cathedral whenever Con- stantino preached. The intention of those disciples of St. Thomas Aquinas was to keep in memory such words of the Protestant as they might con- sider heretical, and to forward them to the Holy Office ; but Constantino was aware of their design, and therefore in one of his discourses, he excused himself from enlarging on certain points, saying : that those Hoods [Capillas^] had roblted him of his speech, indicating the chapels of the church, in order that so the Catholics might believe ; but alluding to the hoods of the Dominican friars, whom he found present (like tigers waiting for their prey), and in order to indicate to his followers that caution was necessary.f This, however, was of little use, for the Dominican friars denounced many of his propositions to the Holy Office. The inquisitors, aware of the rank of the sus- pected culprit, his great reputation, and the esteem in which he was held by Charles V., were desirous of proceeding against him at the first in a mild manner, until coming events should confirm their suspicions as to his doctrines. They frequently called him to the Castle of Triana (where the In- quisition was) with a desire that he might exculpate himself from some of his propositions that had been * The word Capilla means, either a hood or a chapel, t Don Diego Ortiz de Zuniga. Anales de Sevttla. (Madrid 1677.) See what he says on treating of the year 1560, THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 225 noted by tlie Dominican friars. His friends and adherents, knowing of his visits to the castle, asked him the cause of his being cited before the inqui- sitors. To these inquiries he answered in a tone of humour, " They wish to burn me, but they find me yet too green"* Constantino, whether from a knowledge of his certain ruin, if he did not immediately prevent it, or with a view of attempting to convert the Jesuits, his greatest enemies, into a band of reformers, made great and persevering efforts to procure admission into their college at Seville. He visited Father Bartolome de Bustamente, the then provincial pre- sident, with a view of asking his advice on the disappointments which he said flowed from worldly vanity, and to declare his resolution to abandon everything for the opportunity of doing penance for his sins in the Company of Jesus, and to correct the exuberance of his sermons, in which he feared he had been more solicitous of gaining applause for himself than in winning souls to God.'f Father Santivanez, the Jesuit, speaking of Con- stantino's desire to enter the company, has the following passage : " Some days passed away ere they could agree, although the affair was frequently discussed. Constantino often repeated his visits and importunities, so that what he was wanting to keep secret soon became matter of public notoriety. . . . In the midst of so many difficulties the inquisitor Carpio found a way of providing against * Santivaiiez MS. t Ibid. Q 226 THE SPANISH PROTESTAKTS. the mischief with which we were menaced, without compromising the secret of his office. He sent for Father Juan Suarez, with whom he was accustomed to chat familiarly, and having invited him to dinner, turned the conversation upon the affairs of the Company of Jesuits, and from one thing to another began to talk of those whom it was about to receive. Suarez gave an account of some of these, but with- out making any allusion to Constantino, either because he was bound to secrecy, or because at that moment it did not occur to his recollection. Also (replied the inquisitor), I have heard it said that Doctor Constantino talks of entering the company. What is there in that ? said Suarez ; for although the matter is in a fair way, it is not yet concluded. He is, rejoined the inquisitor, a person of note and great authority for learning ; but I much doubt whe- ther a man of his aqe and so much at his own dis- / 7 posal could accommodate himself to the childishness of a noviciate, and to the perfection and to the nar- rowness of an institution so strict in its rules and observances, unless, in consideration of ivhat he is, you allow him some of those indulgences so odious in all kinds of religious communities which preserve only their purity l)y means of equality in duties and rights. Once entered, lie could not leave us, nor we dismiss him without scandal. To remain in the com- pany and be exempt from its requirements ivould be to remit the rigour of religious discipline, which the company holds inviolate, by which means the laws would lose their force, and many congregations the THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 227 integrity of their principles. Believe me, fathers, and see well to this affair, for, to me at least, the case presents these difficulties; and if it were a matter of my otvn I certainly should not do it. " These words had a great effect upon Suarez, who, concealing the suspicions which they had raised in his mind, said : You are quite right ; the thing requires counsel and deliberation, and it shall have both, according to your advice. The subject was changed, and Suarez soon afterwards returned home and related to the provincial Padre all that had " Constantino repeated his visits and importuned to be received, but the Padre Eustamente, receiving him with a degree of asperity, plainly refused what he asked, and in order to excuse himself in the eyes of those who had heard of or conjectured the object of his application, begged of him that as he had not succeeded in it, he might come as little as possible to our house. With this answer Constantino took leave and went away very thoughtfully, dreading the result which followed, for he was taken prisoner by the Inquisition."* So wrote Santivanez, a contemporary Jesuit. I do not know whether the object of Constantino in wishing to enter the company was in order to con- vert it into the friend instead of the most cruel per- secutor of the Lutherans ; nor whether he intended by that step to allay the suspicions of the inquisitors, nor, in fine, whether he wished to receive in his mis- * The words of Padre Santiranez MS. cited. 228 THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. fortunes the aid of those in Spain who most defended the Catholic religion by their preaching and example. "Whilst Constantino was taking those steps he came to be discovered as a Lutheran, by the follow- ing curious accident. A widow whose name was Isabel Martinez, was taken prisoner for heresy. The Inquisition, accord- ing to its custom with every culprit, ordered the confiscation of her property. It appeared, when seized, to be of small value, for her son, anticipating the sequestration, had concealed several coffers con- taining jewels of great value. But this precaution was vain, because an infamous servant betrayed the secret and gave information that the greatest and most valuable part of that lady's property was hid in the house of her son, Francisco Beltran. Upon this the inquisitors commissioned Lewis Sotelo, an alguacil of the Holy Office, to communicate with Beltran respecting the secreted property. No sooner had the alguacil arrived at the house than Beltran said to him, without waiting to be asked any question, What you in my house ? I fancy I can guess that you are come about the things hidden in my mothers house ; if you will promise me that I shall come to no damage by it, I will shew you what is there hidden. Without delay, Beltran took Sotelo to the house of his mother, and, taking a hammer, demolished a part of a lintel which was over a cellar containing a number of printed books and manu- scripts, the works of Luther, Calvin, and other re- formers, in the handwriting of Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 229 This learned man, foreseeing that the many in- formations given to the Holy Office against him would end in his being sent to its secret dungeons, had wished to prevent his books and papers falling into the hands of his persecutors, and he had there- fore delivered them over for safe custody to this notedly pious woman, who was a Lutheran. But the indiscretion of her son served to ruin them both, Sotelo was delighted to see the books, and on the spot received them at the hands of Beltran, at the same time intimating that his visit had not been with a view of discovering any such writings, but the jewels and money which his mother had con- cealed. Beltran was confounded at this announce- ment, and then saw, when it was too late, the evil he had committed by his haste and indiscretion. Eearful of being punished by the Inquisition if he retained any of his mother's property, he delivered, one by one, the coffers with the jewels and money they contained.* Sotelo carried them all off to the Inquisition. "When examined, it was found that those in the handwriting of Constantino contained nothing but Protestant doctrines in treating of the true church, which, he was persuaded, could not be that so called by the Pa/pists. In these works he had spoken of the eucharist, and sacrifice of the mass, of justification, of bulls and decrees of the Apostolical See, of indulgences, of the efficacy of man's merits to obtain grace and glory, of auricular * Reinaldo Gonzalez de Monies, already cited Don Juan Antonio LLorente. Historia de la Inquisition. 230 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. confession, and other articles on which the Lutherans differ widely from the Catholics. And, finally, Constantino affirmed as a Protestant, that purga- tory was nothing else than a bugbear invented by friars, in order to get something to eat* "With the discovery of such papers, the inquisitors determined at once to proceed to arrest Constantino, which caused the greatest consternation in Spain. "When the news of it arrived at the monastery of Yuste, where the Emperor Charles was living re- tired from the world, that monarch said to his son : If Constantino is a heretic, Tie is a great one. And when it became known that he had been made a prisoner by the Holy Office of Seville, Friar Domingo de G-uzman exclaimed, "he deserved to be taken for being such a fool."t When Constantino was a recluse of the Inquisi- tion, the books and manuscripts before alluded to were produced before him, and he acknowledged them to be his, adding, that in them was contained as much as he believed. The inquisitors urged him to declare who had been his disciples and accom- plices in spreading such doctrines through Seville, but he refused to give the least information which might prejudice his Protestant companions. They then shut him up in a subterranean cell, damp * Reinaldo Gonzalez de Montes, already cited Don Juan Antonio Llorente History of the Inquisition. The author of this history (Note Q-. G. to el Buscapie, and W. in the English translation by Miss Ross.) f* Don Fr Prudencio de Sandoval. Cronica de Cdrlos V. El Conde de la Roca. Epitome de la vida y hechos del emperador* THE SPANISH PKOTESTAKTS. 231 and pestiferous, and the bad air of which was in- creased necessarily from day to day, by reason of a refusal to permit anything to be done, even in re- gard to decency ; for nothing whatever was allowed to be removed from the spot in which he was con- fined. The result was, that he was seized with dysentery, and in his anguish he exclaimed, " O my God I are there not Scythians, cannibals, or other more cruel and inhuman creatures, into whose power thou canst put me, rather than into the hands of these barbarians ?^ At last he died in prison, worn out with illness brought on by such inhuman treat- ment.^ The rage of the inquisitors, on finding that death had snatched him from their clutches, so that the pride of fanaticism could not triumph over him in an auto-de-fe, had recourse to calumny. They caused it to be reported that Constantino had died by his own hands that so great were his crimes, that he had even married two wives, the first being alive when he married the second, and that he could not, effectually, ever have received holy orders.f But the Protestants, Eeinaldo Gronzalez de Montes and Cypriano de Valera,J friends of Constantino, * Gonzalez de Montes and Llorente, cited. f- This last charge is affirmed by Gfonzalez de Illescas in his Historia Pontifical, and is repeated by Luis Cabrera de Cordova (Vida de Felip II.}, and I know not by how many more authors of that time. J Cypriano de Valera in his Tratado de los Papas, says, " The Doctor Constantino .... shortly before had died of illness and bad treatment in the Castle of Triana, and respecting whom, 232 THE SPAKISH PKOTESTANTS. deny that he was a suicide, and attribute the report of his violent death to the judges of the Holy Office, and the keepers of its prison, whose inhuman treat- ment ended in his death, and who were anxious to excuse themselves as accessories to it, and to throw a shade of infamy on the name of their unhappy victim. His body was afterwards dragged from its grave, and in its coffin was reduced to ashes in a public auto-de-fe, on the 22nd December, 1560, The writings also of this learned man were held to deserve the same fate at the hands of the Inquisi- tion.* In many expurgatorial indexes we find them thus spoken of : Constantino is a condemned author and all his works are prohibited, especially his Con- fessions of a Sinner. the authors of falsehood, in order to discredit his reputation, pro- pagated a report that he had died by his own hands. * Nicolas Antonio in his Biblioteca JVb'pa, enumerates the fol- lowing works of Constantino : Summa Christiance Doctrince, Anvers, 1 vol. 8vo. The same work in Castilian Suma de Doctrina Cristiana, con el Sermon de Cristo nuestro Redemptor en el monte, traducido por el mismo autor con declaraciones, dedicated to the Cardinal Grarcia de Loaysa, confessor of Charles V. Antwerp, by Martin Nucio, without date of impression ; a work prohibited in the before cited index of Don Fernando Valdes, 1559. Expositionem in Psalmum I Davidis, in VI contiones distri- butum. Antwerp, same printer, 1556, prohibited by Valdes. Hominis pecatoris Confessionem. Prohibited by do. Magnum Cathecismum. Do. do. Commentaria in Proverbia Salomonis, in ecclesiasten, in cantica canticorum et tandem in Job. He also wrote Un didlogo de doctrina Cristiana entre maestro y discipulos, prohibited by Valdes, and translated into Italian ac- cording to Alonso de Ulloainhis Vidade Carlos V. (Venice,! 589.) THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 233 Constantino was also held worthy of being carried in entire effigy to an auto-de-fe in the attire of a preacher, and not in the usual ridiculous figure. In the moment the flames reached the bones of this poor Protestant, one of those ridiculous figures was thrown into the burning pile, while that one which so much resembled Constantino was taken to the Castle of Triana, there to be kept as a memorial. Thus ended the career of this celebrated eccle- siastic, the surprise and admiration of all Flanders and Seville, as well on account of his pulpit-elo- quence, as for the great wisdom shewn in his writings. Cazalla and Constantino, the one in Castile, the other in Andalusia, were the leaders of Protestantism in Spain.* Both were imprisoned by the Holy Office, and paid, each in a distinct manner, for attempting to spread in our country the opinion that reform was necessary in the church. The flames of the Inquisition consumed the bodies of both, and almost all the writings of one of these Protestants. Nay, the judges of the Inquisition were desirous of erasing from the memory of the people the very names of Cazalla and Constantino. But both one and the other live in the pages of history. It even appears that mankind, desirous of humbling the foolish pride of the inquisitors, perpetuated, in the midst of the barbarous oppression which for the space of three * Fray Diego Murillo. Fundacion angelica y apostolica de la Madre de Dios del Pilar y excellencias de la imperial Ciudad de Caragofa. Barcelona ,1616. 234 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. centuries domineered over Spain, two towns of the names of those two martyrs to liberty of conscience, sacrificed as the two chiefs of the Lutheran religion in the Spanish dominions. These are called CAZALLA and CONSTANTINA, two towns in the Sierra-Morena, only three leagues distant from each other; they existed in the sixteenth century, and still exist. Doubtless the inquisitors did not advert to this co- incidence, which was to perpetuate, in two towns, the names of CAZALLA and CONSTANTINO, unhappy ecclesiastics who flourished in a time when, in order to convince those who wandered from the Catholic faith, no other means were had recourse to but the flames.* Calumny and hatred joined together not only in public ceremonies, but in the works of contemporary writers to libel the memory of Const antino.f * At the fetes celebrated at Alcala de Henares on the canoni- zation of Saint Diego, on the 16th of April, 1589, among the number of hieroglyphics which adorned the altars in the streets, and in the cloisters of the convents, there was one representing the two towns of Cazalla and Constantino,, and between them the small village of St. Nicholas, the country of the saint. In this hieroglyphic was the Latin motto, Si non Credideritis, non permanebitis, and one in Spanish, viz., " Derrib6 su sciencia vana a Cacalla y Constantino, y Diego su humilde tino le did alteza soberana." See la Vida, Muerte y milagros de San Diego de Alcala, en octava rima, por Fray Gabriel de Mata. Madrid, by the Licen- tiate Castro, 1598. t Illescas in his Historia Pontifical y Catolica, says : " It was discovered of a truth that Constantino was twice married, the two THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 235 wives both living at the same time, and that he being in this state was ordained a priest, and being abominably carnal and vicious, he knew how to feign holiness, for which, with his unexampled hypoorisy, he was held in the nation as a saint. Luis Cabrera de Cordoba, confirms this in his Historia de Felipe II. Such were the funeral eulogies of Constantino by the Catholics of his time. 230 THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. CHAPTEE XVI. 1)ON JUAN PONCE DE LEON, the second son of Don Rodrigo, Count of Bailen, was one of the most noted of the Seville Protestants. The circumstance of his having been bred in the society of the Spanish nobility, of whom may be named in particular the Duke of Arcos and the Duchess of Bejar, was not enough to save him from the clutches of the inquisitors tigers in the forms of men, although attired in the sacerdotal garments. He was an intimate friend of the Doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, whose learning and wisdom he admired. He followed the reform doctrines from March, 1559. He underwent the torture ordered by the judges of the Holy Office, with a view of making him declare who were his companions ; but very little resulted from that cruel proceeding, for he persisted in withholding the desired information, and if in the moments of his anguish and the terrible sufferings which he endured, any thing escaped his lips, his fellow-disciples in the new doctrines were not in the least compromised by it. The inquisitors, finding him firm in the principles of his faith and in his determination to withhold the names of his companions, discontinued their violent THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 237 treatment, and artfully endeavoured to obtain their object by another mode of proceeding. They sought out some of his ecclesiastical friends, and secretly engaged them to endeavour, by subtilty and decep- tion, to draw out of the prisoner's own mouth the information so eagerly desired. These ecclesiastics, faithful servants of the Holy Office, saw Ponce de Leon, and advised him to con- fess his own crimes and denounce those of his com- panions, in order to the salvation of his body as well as his soul. Overcome by these false friends, the slaves of the iniquitous tribunal, he desired a special hearing, and gave a minute explanation of the tenets held by himself and his Protestant companions in Seville ; nay, he even desired to be admitted into a recon- ciliation with the Catholic church. Until the 23rd of September, 1559, the eve of an auto-de-fe in Seville, Ponce de Leon was not aware of the mean and villanous deception practised upon him by these perfidious ecclesiastics. When brought to the stake he declared before the assembled mul- titude, that he firmly believed in the Protestant religion, and he derided as unscriptural, vain and foolish, all the arguments resorted to by a host of friars in order to make him abandon the principles of his faith. The following was the sentence pronounced on this unhappy gentleman : " By the most Eeverend Lord Bishop of Tarrazona, the Licenciate Andres Grasco, the Licenciate Carpio, and the Licenciate Ovando ; Don Juan Ponce de 238 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. Leon was declared an apostate heretic, Lutheran dogmatizer, and teacher of the sect of Luther and his followers. For which reason we have delivered him over to the secular power in the hands of the most magnificent Licenciate Lope de Leon, assis- tente of this city. And we have declared his male children incapable of succeeding to all those public offices of which such condemned criminals are deprived.* Ponce de Leon left four sons, viz., Don Manuel, aged eleven, Don Pedro, nine, Don Rodrigo, seven, and another whose name is unknown, and who was born whilst his father was in prison of the Holy Office ; and one daughter, Dona Blanca, then four years old. Thus did these unhappy children at a tender age see themselves branded with infamy, and deprived of the care and experience of a father who had been taken from them by a violent and bar- barous death.f Ponce de Leon died by the garrote, after having * MS. in folio, which contains the relation of some autos-de-fe. Siblioteca Colombina. t The eldest brother of Juan Ponce de Leon dying without heirs, the title of Count of Bailen descended to Don Pedro, son of this ill-fated Protestant. But in his stead, it was taken by one Don Luis Ponce de Leon, a more distant relation. Don Pedro commenced proceedings to obtain his right, and the Council of Castile decreed that the property of the entail [ M ayorazgo] should be given to him, but prohibited him enjoying the title of Count, because he was incapable, through the sentence on his father, of inheriting dignities. In the Chancery of Granada, to which Don Pedro appealed, he had no better success. At last Philip II. conceded to him the use of the title which he so much desired, THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 239 confessed, in order to avoid perishing alive in the flames.* Cypriano de Valera, a Sevillian Protestant, states Juan Ponce de Leon to have been truly illustrious in goodness and piety. Such was the funeral oration pronounced on this ill-fated man, by one of his companions, f / DOCTOR CRISTOBAL DE XOSADA, was a surgeon in Seville. He became devotedly attached to a young lady of high birth, great per- sonal attractions and mental accomplishments. Losada, who was a Roman Catholic, asked the father of the lady for her hand in marriage ; but this gentleman, not wishing to give his daughter to any but one whose heart was firmly fixed in the faith and doctrines of Luther, excused himself, in the best way he could, for refusing his consent. Losada was sincere in his attachment, and was not disposed to abandon his pretensions. He therefore renewed his entreaties with such importunity and effect, that at length the Protestant was inclined to entertain his proposals, but declared that he had and he then became known as the fourth Count of Bailen. (Salazar de Mendoza. Cronica de los Ponce de Leon. Llorente Historia Critica del Santo Ojficio.) * Reinaldo Gonzalez de Montes, a cotemporary Protestant, in his work already cited, affirms that he died in the flames. But Llorente, in his History, follows the account of a certain author of a description of that auto-de-fe, in which it is narrated that Ponce de Leon confessed at the very stake for fear of the flames. t Tralado de los Papas. 240 THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. resolved to give the hand of his daughter only to a person well instructed in the Bible, and who could explain its doctrines in the same sense as that in which they were understood by the Protestant Doctor Juan Gil, then a canon of the Cathedral of Seville. Losada, desirous of being taught in the sacred scriptures, in order to obtain the happy fulfilment of his wishes, went and conferred with Gil on the sub- ject of becoming his pupil, in order to be instructed in the new interpretations of the Eible. Gil received him kindly, and made him his disciple. So well did Losada progress in the interpretations of the holy book, that he soon won the approbation and esteem of his master, who did not hesitate to certify, on his behalf, to the father of the damsel, and she shortly afterwards became the wife of Losada. In thus qualifying himself to obtain the object of his affections, Losada at first only intended to become a Lutheran in name, but such was the con- viction in his mind as to the soundness of the reform doctrines, that he not merely became a sincere Protestant, but a secret minister of the gospel in the Church of Seville* This was soon, however, discovered. Losada having been arrested by the Inquisition, refused to denounce his companions, or to retract his opinions. He died with singular constancy and courage in the midst of the flames, nor did the cruelties attending his martyrdom in * Cypriano de Valera. Tratado de los Papas. Eeinaldo Gonzalez de Montes. THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 241 the least degree shake the firmness of his faith in the gospel of Christ, in which he died. ISABEL DE BAENA was a lady of good family in Seville. In her house the Protestants were accustomed to assemble to hear the sermons of Cristobal de Losada, and other Lutheran preachers, and to join in their worship. She was arrested by the Holy Office, on the in- formation given by some of her companions relative to the tenets she held, and for having given the gratuitous use of her house to the church of the reformers in Seville ; she was rewarded by the Inquisition with being burnt at the stake. Her house was rased to the ground ; salt was scattered over its foundations, and in the middle of the spot where the edifice had stood, a column of marble was erected which served as a perpetual memorial of the place where the Protestants had used to meet for prayer and to hear the preaching of the gospel.* She suffered in a public auto-de-fe, celebrated in Seville, on the 24th of September, 1559. THE LICENCIATE JTJAN GONZALEZ was a presbyter in Seville, and the famous preacher in Andalucia. He was descended from the Moors, and at the age of twelve years, was reconciled with * Cipriano de Valera. Tratado de las Papa*. 242 THE SPANISH PEOTE STA1STS, light penances by the Inquisition of Cordoba, in consequence of having, at that early age, manifested an attachment to the religion of Mahomet. He wa^ a friend of Doctor Gil, of Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, and followed the reform principles. But at last the Inquisition of Seville threw him into its castle of Triana, and there put him to the torture in a variety of forms, in order to induce him to abandon his views, and denounce his Protestant associates in Andalucia. But neither the subtilty of the judges, nor the rigour of his tortures was of any avail. His faith and constancy were superior to all the machinations of his persecutors. He was brought out in a public auto-de-fe, on the 24th of September, 1559. and died in the flames without being induced to retract his opinions, either by exhortations or vio- lence, or even by the example of some Protestants, who had done so through dread of the stake, and in order to die by the garrote. Two sisters of the Licenciate Gonzalez were brought out at the same auto for being followers of the reform doctrines. The inquisitors urged them both to confess their errors publicly at the stake, in order that they might have, as the reward of their unfeigned repentance, the benefit of dying by the garrote, before their bodies should be consigned to the flames. These two girls were devotedly attached to their brother, whom they venerated, and esteemed to be a wise and holy man. They therefore, in their ex- tremity, told the friars and clergy, who were exhort- THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 243 ing them to repent, that they would abjure their principles, provided their brother would first autho- rise them to do so by setting the example. The Licenciate however, instead of persuading them to abandon, confirmed them in, their faith, and sternly forbad them to yield to the clamours or menaces of the inquisitors, or even to the horrors of that awful death they were about to suffer. Gonzalez, during the whole of the auto, had his mouth stopped with a gag, but which was taken out on his arrival at the stake, and then it was that he exhorted his sisters to die in the doctrines and hope of the gospel. At the fatal moment, he began with a firm voice to chant the 109th Psalm: Deus laudem meam ne tacueris* His sisters repeated it : the executioners approached 'the pile with their lighted torches ; the wood was quickly ignited, and the flames soon destroyed the bodies of these three Christians. Clouds of smoke for a time rendered them invisible, but when these were dispersed, the eye of the spectator could discern, on the ground, three heaps of bones and ashes, the remains of the Licenciate G-onzalez, and his two sisters, martyrs to the truth, and to liberty of conscience. TEENANDO DE SAN JTTAN,t master of the school of the Christian religion * Hold not thy peace, G-od, of my praise, &c. ^ The Jesuit Santivaiiez in his MS. cited, calls him the master of children in the school of the Christian doctrine, an idiot, and most pertinacious heretic. E 2 244 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. \JDoctrina Christiana^ in Seville, imbibed the Pro- testant doctrines from the works of his tutor, Juan Perez de Pineda, at that time a Spanish fugitive. Fernando taught boys the articles of the faith, and of the creed, in such a manner as appeared to him best adapted for permitting, as he called it, " the light of the gospel" to enter the minds of his pupils. The Inquisition, hearing of the mode in which he was instructing the children, arrested and sent him to its dungeons. Apprehensive of the punishment he was about to undergo at the hands of his persecutors, he was induced to make a decla- ration, confessing his own errors, and denouncing those of other persons. But, repenting of having done this act, he desired a re-hearing retracted much of what he had before said declared that his former confession was made entirely through fear, and contrary to the truth, and in short, he offered to die in the Protestant faith. He was carried to a public auto-de-fe, on the 24th of September, 1559, with a gag in his mouth, and perished in the flames, despising alike the exhortations of the confessors by whom he was surrounded, and the brutal conduct of his judges and executioners. "When it became known that Fernando de San Juan had instructed the children in the Lutheran doctrines, and no other, there was a complete tumult among the gentry of Seville ; and the majo- rity of them, fearing the like mischief in future, were doubtful whether to confide the education of their children to secular or ecclesiastical masters ; THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 245 for among both one and the other class of teachers, were to be found the partizans of the Information. At length the Jesuits, who had begun to domineer over the conscience by means of devoted women [devotas], gained the confidence of parents, and received their children, to train them up in their own maxims and according to their own way of thinking. The city of Cordoba had, before this event, set the example ; for some of its nobility had handed over their sons to the Company of Jesus, in order to be instructed in the Catholic faith.* The practice of Seville was soon adopted in other parts of Spain, and it became customary that the years of childhood and of youth should be spent among the Jesuits, in order to the acquirement of instruction in divinity and philosophy. The case of Fernando de St. Juan was the origin of the power of the Jesuits in Spain. From the time that the general education was committed to the hands of * The Jesuit Santivaiiez, in his cited MS., says : " With this view the citizens of Seville, afraid the mischief that had hap- pened to others might also fall upon their own children, and lest they should confide in masters of less knowledge and experience of matters of faith and religion, agreed with the Company, that it should take the charge of, and bring up and instruct their sons in learning and virtue, as it had done those of Cordoba The city offered two thousand ducats ; and with these and other perquisites they (the Jesuits) then commenced to teach grammar with like success and a concourse of students, which, in a few years, viz. , from 1560 until 1564, reached nine hundred, and it became necessary to add another professor of literature, and a course of arts and of philosophy. 246 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. these men, the bravery of the Spanish character declined, eloquence was silenced, liberty was banished, and the people groaned in bondage for the space of two centuries. GABCI AEIAS (EL MAESTRO BLANCO), a monk of St. Isidro del Campo, was a great friend of Doctors Juan Gil and Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. His intercourse with these two Protes- tants induced him to abandon the Catholic faith, and to secretly declare himself one among the chief reformers of Seville. His caution in concealing his opinions so far deceived the Holy Office, that al- though more than one denouncement of his doc- trines had been made to that tribunal, he was never molested by its ministers. Those ministers heard his sermons in the churches of Seville, compositions which discovered, on the part of the preacher, a determined hatred against the Protestants and a desire to maintain, in the Spanish dominions, obe- dience to the Holy See.* Garci-Arias was commonly called Master or Doctor Blanco, from the colour of his hair, which was quite white. Gregory Euiz, a friend of Blanco, was called upon * The Jesuit Santivanez (MS. cited) says : Master Blanco was a great preacher and lawyer, and held in his living, to be a saint in his preaching, an apostle ; but he was a great hypocrite, a sanguinary devouring wolf in sheep's clothing, a heretic in will and understanding. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 247 by the judges of the Inquisition to defend some propositions, suspected of being Lutheran, in oppo- sition to several Catholic divines, who were going to impugn them publicly in the Cathedral of Seville. Ruiz, in this extremity, had recourse to Blanco for explanations of those propositions, in a Catholic sense, which the Lutheran doctor furnished, and with apparent good faith and sincerity. Ruiz, relying on these arguments furnished by his friend, a man so wise and learned in divine literature, and a Protestant to boot, presented himself at the time and place appointed, and defended his tenets, dis- guising them with arguments taken from Catholic authors ; but what was his surprise when, among the divines prepared to dispute them by order of the Inquisition, he saw Master Blanco ! His sur- prise, however, was still greater when he heard his false Lutheran friend demolish, one by one, the very defences he himself had prepared to aid and assist [Ruiz in his discussion. The indignation of Euiz was great on perceiving the perfidious deceit practised upon him. Doctors Gil and Constantino threw this base action in Blanco' s teeth, and told him he was unworthy the name of a Protestant. Blanco simply adverted to the great danger they were all in of being burnt by the Holy Office, and alleged, that in his conduct to Ruiz, he had merely looked to his own security and that of his fellow- reformers in Seville. Gil, Constantino, and another Protestant, named Doctor Vargas, replied that the dissimulation of his opinions would avail him little 248 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. if they should all be discovered, and were to find themselves shut up as recluses in the apartments of the Inquisition. From that moment Blanco be- came converted into one of the most cruel perse- cutors of the Protestants. This change of opinion or conduct was through fear of the Inquisition and of the Jesuits, who were then labouring diligently to discover all those who belonged to the band of reformers. Doctor Hernando Rodriguez, a Protestant friend of Blanco, imitated his example, and became the Protestants' greatest enemy.* In a short time, Blanco returned to the reform doctrines, and began to teach them to the monks of St. Isidro del Campo. It is recorded of him, by the Catholics of his time, that in the refectory he ate with extreme abstinence, but afterwards in secret, lie regaled himself sumptuously . . . he pretended to the penance of a hermit, and used the tables of his ante-cell as his bed, but in the interior retreat he reposed on the softest cushions.^ But his cautions and deceptions were of little use in the end, in blinding the inquisitors to suspicions, and to the informations they had received relative to his mode of discussing religious topics. To such an extent did these informations increase that the inquisitors were at last induced to make him their prisoner. On being arrested, however, he did not betray the least weakness of mind : on the contrary, he avowed * Yalera. t Santivanez. THE SPANISH PKOTE STARTS. 249 his Lutheran principles and offered to die in their defence. It appears incredible that a man, so fearful of the Inquisition as to be forced on several occasions to become the adversary and persecutor of his own friends and followers, should convert that fear into courage the moment he saw himself a prisoner in the Castle of Triana, and was given to understand that a horrible death awaited him. But it cannot be denied that the want of a remedy for our mis- fortunes frequently inspires us with courage to endure them. In the examinations of Blanco before the council, he freely stated his opinions, and when others attempted to convince him that they were erroneous, his reply to them was : that they were much more jit to be the drovers of a company of asses than to sit themselves down there to judge matters of the faith, which they did not understand. lie was ultimately condemned to be burnt as a contumacious heretic, and perished at the stake, on the 24th of September, 1559. His countenance was joyous, even whilst the fire was consuming his body in the presence of a host of Catholic divines, who were fruitlessly endea- vouring, in this last hour of his existence, to draw from him some sign of repentance. 250 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. CHAPTEB XVII. THE MONKS OF ISIDKO DEL COMPO. Friar Casidoro, a disciple of Blanco, and Friar Cristobal de Arellano* a very learned man, were the leaders who taught the doctrines of the reformation to the monks of their convent of San Isidro. Both of them were burnt alive in September, 1559. Friar Juan de Leon had fled from Seville in 1557, From Frankfort he passed over to G-eneva, from whence he wished to proceed to England, Queen Elizabeth having then commenced her reign in that powerful nation. But as the inquisitors had secret agents in G-ermany, Italy and Flanders, for the purpose of seizing such of the Spanish Pro- testants as were attempting to abandon their coun- try for others in which they might live in the free enjoyment of their own opinions, and without fear of the Holy Office, it happened that some of the fugitives who did not observe the greatest caution in their travels occasionally fell into prison. For, in going from one state to another, and when they least expected danger, they were taken and sent under safeguard to Spain, there to die in the public auto-de-fe. Friar Leon fell into the hands of some * Valera. THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 251 of those agents residing in Zealand, and, together with Juan Sanchez, servant of Pedro Cazalla, was brought back to Spain, followed by the ministers of the ecclesiastical tribunal. Sanchez remained in the Inquisition of Valladolid, where he was finally burnt, and Leon was brought to Seville. On his journey his feet were loaded with fetters ; he was handcuffed and wore a sort of machine of iron, which entirely covered his head from its crown down to the chin ; and besides this, there was a kind of tongue of the same material in- troduced into his mouth to prevent him speaking. When before the Holy Office, he avowed his reli- gious convictions, and was condemned to be burnt for them. He was brought out at the auto of September, 1559, with a gag in his mouth. The paleness of his complexion and the weakness of his frame, consequent on the inhuman treatment he had recently experienced, together with his unshaven beard and wild appearance, excited the attention and sympathy of many who beheld him. When placed in the Quemadero, and before setting fire to the pile of wood, one of his friends, a monk of St. Isidro, attempted to persuade him to give up his principles for the sake of dying by the garrote instead of the flames, but Leon despised his entreaties, and re- mained at the stake until the fire put an end to his life. Father Morcillo perished by the garrote, for at the last moment he failed of that firmness which had never before forsaken him in all his misfortunes. 252 THE SPANISH PROTESTAKTS. He had been confined in the same cell with Fernando St. Juan, master of the boys' school in Seville, at a time when the prisoners were so numerous as to render it necessary that two and even three should be thrust into one cell. San Juan, suspecting that Morcillo would yield to the artifices of persecution, and at last retract his opinions, prevailed on him to promise that he never would make a surrender of the principles of his faith. Friar Fernando died in the same cell as that where Constantino de la Puente finished his exist- ence. They were joint tenants of the same filthy and pestilential dungeon, and no doubt Constantino breathed his last sigh in the arms of his fellow- sufferer. Friar Diego Lopez, a native of Tendilla, Friar Bernardino de Valdes, a native of Guadalajara, Friar Domingo de Churruca, a native of Azcoitia, Friar Gaspar de Porsas, a native of Seville, Friar Bernardo de San Geronomio, a native of Burgos, all monks of San Isidro, were admitted to reconciliation and penance, in the auto-de-fe of 22nd December, 1560. The entire monastery of San Isidro (according to some Protestant writers) were Lutherans, and to such an extreme did matters go, that there was even a cessation of the regular and ordinary devo- tions during the canonical hours. In the confes- sionals, instead of hearing of the sins of penitents, the monks were exhorting the faithful, in an under- tone of voice, to observe and follow the doctrines of THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 253 the reformation. There may be some exaggeration in the assertion as to suppressing the devotions in canonical hours, for that was almost always done in public ; and besides, as there were other friars who remained constant to the Catholic faith, one would suppose they could not have permitted so great a scandal. Those who remained firm in their obedi- ence to the Eoman Pontiff were surprised at the conduct of their companions, and fearful of the ex- amples already made of some by the Inquisition, resolved on restoring the reputation of the monas- tery, which had suffered considerably in the esti- mation of the fanatical populace, who had seen such severe punishments inflicted on a great number of the clergy. They entreated the Jesuits, as to whom there was no suspicion in matters of the faith, that they would preach in the monastery of San Isidro, and both by their precept and example maintain the integrity of Catholicism. Those of the Jesuits who had gained great credit for virtue in the minds of the inquisitors, of the gentry, and of the common people, were not deaf to these entreaties ; and for the space of two years they addressed their spiritual discourses from the pulpit, not only to the religious brothers but to the nobility and others who con- stantly formed a numerous part of the audience.* / DONA MAEIA DE BOHOEQTJES was a daughter of Don Pedro G-arcia de Xerez, one * Santivanez. 254 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. of the principal persons in Seville, and related to some of the Spanish nobility, among others, the Marquis de Euchena. She was scarcely twenty- one when betrayed and sent prisoner to the In- quisition as a Lutheran. Doctor Gil had been her instructor in these tenets as w r ell as in Greek and Latin. She had studied the works of Juan Perez, Constantino, and other Protestant writers. Her erudition and understanding was of the highest order, especially in the sacred scriptures and divinity. She was brought to the stake on the 24th of September, 1559. At the fatal spot she was urged by Don Juan Ponce de Leon to confess, and to disregard the exhortations of the Friar Casiodoro, who, from the flames which were consuming his own body, was encouraging her to be firm in her opinions. She however told Ponce de Leon that he was an ignorant and a foolish chatter er, and re- fused to listen to him. The clergy and friars who were in attendance to receive the confession of those who might ask for absolution were touched with compassion for Maria, and desired to save her from the horrors of being burnt alive. Seeing that their efforts were in vain to bring her back to the Catholic faith, they begged of her only to repeat the Creed, which she at last rehearsed in a clear and firm voice, but adding, at the end of each article, her own Lutheran sense in which she understood and believed them. This however, was sufficient to procure for her at their hands the milder death by the garrote. THE SPAKISH PROTESTANTS. 255 DONA JUAKA BOHORQTJES was the wife of Francisco de Vargas, Lord of Higuera, and sister of Maria Bohorques. Suspected of entertaining the Lutheran doctrines she was ar- rested and imprisoned for three months in the castle of Triana, but not in its dungeons. It having been ascertained that she was enceinte, the inquisitors de- termined onnot molesting her until after her accouche- ment. In due time that took place. She brought forth a son, which at the end of eight days, was torn from her, and, after the lapse of other seven, she was thrown into the dismal dungeons of that place. Her trial immediately commenced. Charges were made which she utterly denied. She was put to the torture. Her delicate frame still labouring under the weakness incident to it, from her recent con- finement, was unable to resist the severity of the torture, and the executioners, drawing the cords across her breast with more than the usual force, caused an internal rupture, upon which blood ran from her mouth. These ministers then ordered her to be taken back to her cell, in which she ex- pired on the eighth day. Over her dead body those inquisitors, who caused her to die by the torture, proclaimed her to be innocent of the crimes laid to her charge ; an honour which they thought their victim might be grateful to them for in her tomb. 256 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. DONA FRANCISCA DE CHAVES was a professed nun of the order of San Francisco de Asis, in the convent of Santa Isabel, of Seville. She was a disciple of Doctor Juan Gil, and followed his opinions. The inquisitors were informed of it, arrested her, brought her to trial, and attempted to convince her that her views were erroneous, but on her examinations, she told them, as Jesus Christ had told the Pharisees, that they were a generation of vipers. This unhappy woman was burnt alive at the auto of December, 1560. It would be but swelling out, needlessly, the length of the present work, even to record the names and principal incidents of the lives of those who perished in the flames at Seville, so great was the number during these persecutions. It must suffice to state, that Olmedo, and Dr. Yargas the friend of Gril and of Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, were among those whose bones were reduced to ashes. The Licenciate Francisco de Zafara, a parish priest of St. Vincent, in Seville, fled from these per- secutions. Anna de Eivera, the widow of Fernando San Juan (before mentioned,) Maria Cornel and Maria de Virues, and many other ladies shared the same fate. I ought to observe that the inquisitors were accustomed to sacrifice to their lascivious lusts the chastity of matrons as well as virgins, who were recluses in the secret cells under charges of heresy. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 257 These unhappy creatures, frightened by the ill usage they suffered, and the still more terrible fate that awaited them, some deluded by the promised hope of saving their lives and liberty, and some through dread of violation, fell victims to the most brutal and dishonourable passions. The veil of female virtue was ruthlessly torn away; whilst modesty and even decency were chased from those loathsome dungeons, by lewdness and monstrocity. " And worse than this, ye evil doers (exclaimed Miguel de Monserrate, a Spanish Jew of the sixteenth cen- tury.) What ! have you neither honour nor shame? That, after having seduced matrons and maidens, entrapped into your power, ye should consign them to the flames ! Oh, ye impious wretches : your con- duct is worse than that of the elders to Susannah."* So great was the multitude of Protestants de- nounced and burnt in Seville, that Doctor Juan Perez was overwhelmed with mourning and anguish of heart on account of them. On the one hand, he contemplated the disasters brought upon his friends, and those who, by his works, had acquired a know- ledge of the Reformation ; and, on the other, he * Miguel de Monserrate ; see his rare work In Cwna Domini. Cipriano de Valera confirms Monserrate as to the iniquitous lewdness of the. ministers of the Holy Office. In his Tratado de I os Papas, he says, referring to a certain inquisitor : " with great grace and wit, he told one of his companions que no se contentaha con aporear el pulpo, sino con comerlo ; porque haviendo hecho azotar, a una hermosa moza, que estaba presa por judia, durmid despues con ella, y luego la quemo." Decency forbids the transla- tion of this note. Translator. 258 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS, desired, most ardently, to strengthen within them their wearied spirits, broken down by that sangui- nary persecution, which the inquisitors were carry- ing on against all those who had been instructed in the new religion. In this state of affliction he wrote An Epistle to console the faitliful in Jesus Christ who suffer persecution for the confession of his name, and he printed it in Greneva in 1560.* In this scarce work Perez exhorts his Protestant companions to continue faithful to the doctrines of the Reformation. These are his words : " By the especial mercy of Grod, we believe in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, and wish to be conformed to him. "We desire to lead a life of piety and virtue, which he has taught us by his word and spirit ; and because he has sealed us for his with the mark of his chosen, those who persecute us, dis- own us, and take us for strangers and pilgrims. The world cannot tolerate us, for neither could it tolerate Jesus Christ, who has shown us mercy so worthy of himself. .... The holy Simeon prophesied that Jesus Christ is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Already we see the ful- filling of this prophecy in our day ; for immediately the word of the Gospel was announced among us, ty which Jesus Christ is revealed, those effects were seen. * I believe that, in 1849, it was reprinted in London at the instance of the celebrated Quaker, Benjamin Wiffen, brother of the English translator of the Lusiadas de Camoens, and a man eminent for his knowledge of the literature of the south of Europe. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 259 The condemnation of some it aggravates the more, in proportion as they furiously resist, persecute, and condemn it. Others, viz., all those that believe, are edified and saved by Sim for whose love they are crucified and held in detestation by the world." At the proper time the Spanish fugitives turned their eyes to their beloved country ; and, desirous, as well of demonstrating to it that the principles they professed should prevail in spite of the opposi- tion of Philip and the inquisitors, as of returning to the places of their birth and childhood and finding a tomb in their native soil, they began to labour in the translation of the Scriptures, of catechisms of the Christian doctrines, and satires against the tri- bunal which had banished them from Spain. The number of these absent Protestants was very great ; some of them had sought refuge in England, some in Germany, some in Holland, and others in Sweden. CASIODOEO DE REYNA, a native of Seville,* and student in its university, fled from Spain in 1557, at the commencement of the great persecution against the Protestants. England was the country of his refuge, and London the place of his residence for many years. In that city he lived with his parents, who also were Pro- testants and did not abandon him in his adversity. Queen Elizabeth, through the Duke of Bedford, * So he himself says. Nicholas Antonio, in his B'Mwteca Nova, says, erroneously, that he was born in Reyna, in Estemadura. s 2 260 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. relieved not only Casiodoro, with supplies of money in his necessities, but also his parents and the many other Protestant refugees from Spain, and the authors of the Confession of Faith, published in London, and already spoken of. A large and com- modious house of the Bishop of London was placed at the disposal of the Spaniards, in which they met to hear preaching thrice a week. Philip's ambas- sador, Alvaro de la Cuadra, thus complained to his master of these indulgences shown by Elizabeth. " I have written to say, that there has been given to the Spanish heretics who are here, a very large house of the Bishop of London, in which they preach thrice a week. This is quite true, and it is equally so, that they are also favoured by the queen, and that a large sum of money has been given to Casiodoro, who went to the junta of Poissy to pay his expenses on the road ; and that in Poissy, where he was taken ill, he was supplied with money by the ambassador Frogmorton (Fragmarten) . The Duke of Bedford has supplied money to not only him but his father and mother, who are here ; and to all the others, are given entertainments." Des- cargos de don Alvaro de la Cuadra. Archivo de Simancas. (Vide the appendix of the work Espana y el vizconde Palmerston, by Don Adrian Grarcia Hernandez. Madrid, 1848.) From London, Casiodoro went to Basle, where he printed La Biblia, que es los sacros libros del viejo y nuevo Testamento. Trasladada en Espanol, ano del Senor MDLXIX. en setiembre. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 261 Although the name of the translator is suppressed in this work, as well as the place of publication, we find both, in a note of his own handwriting, in the copy presented by him to the University of Basle, which note, translated, is to the following effect : " Casiodoro de Eeyna, a Spaniard, native of Seville, and a student of its university, author of this Spanish version of the sacred scriptures, on which he laboured for five years, and which with the help of the pious ministers of the church of Basle, he has now completed and printed by decree of the Senate, at the printing establishment of Thomas Gruarino, presents it to that university as a per- petual monument of his acknowledgment and grati- tude. June, 1570.=* From Basle he proceeded to Frankfort, where he resided some time. The senate of this city, aware of his learning and high reputation, presented to him its freedom, and he, in return, gave them a copy of his Bible with a note in his own handwriting similar in effect to that just cited, but under the date of January 1575 : from which time I have not been able to learn any thing respecting him. This Protestant, about the time he quitted Spain, to escape from the Inquisition, commenced his trans- lation of the sacred scriptures.f In his exhortation, which precedes his Bible, he says : " The work has been in hand twelve entire * Casiadorus de Reyna, Hyspanus, &G., &c. David Clement, Biblioteque curie/ise historique. Pellicer Bibliotea de traductores. f Cipriano de Valera. Exhortation de la Blblia. 262 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. years. JBut, taking out of these the time spent in sickness, travelling and other necessary occupations attendant on our exile and poverty, we can affirm that the number has scarcely amounted to nine, during which we have not laid down the pen from the hand, nor relaxed study, so far as strength of body and mind would permit. Casiodoro de Reyna was an excellent Latin, Greek, and Hebrew scholar, and his Castilian trans- lation of the Bible is in good language and no mean style, although we now and then find the use of hebraisms. He was greatly admired and protected by the nations which had denied obedience to the pontiff, and I regret not being able to give any further particulars respecting him. I do not even know where he died. It is extraordinary that whilst the Inqui- sition of Spain was using every caution to seize him, and whilst that nation was branding his repu- tation with infamy in their edicts and autos-de-fe, he was protected and esteemed by foreign nations, and received great proofs of veneration and esteem from their sovereigns and citizens. Two thousand seven hundred copies of his Bible were printed, and circulated in various kingdoms. Of his New Testa- ment a new edition was published in 1599. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 263 CHAPTER XVIII. CYPRIANO DE YALEEA (THE SPANISH HEEETIC) was born in Seville, according to very probable con- jectures, in 1532. He studied divinity under Benito Arias Montano, in the university of that city, and there he frequently heard the preaching of Gil and of Constantino Ponce de la Puente, his equal in learning, in doctrine and in death: the bodies of each were exhumed and made a public spectacle of, in the names, by order of the Holy Office. Valera was also a fugitive from Spain, through fear of the Inquisition and its ministers, whom he used to call Inquinadores, that is, polluters of the faith, from an old Spanish word inquina which signified to stain or pollute. He resided some time in London as a Protestant clergyman, and there he married an English lady. He afterwards went, it is said, to Geneva, where he dwelt for many years, and printed and published many of his works. I have seen the following : Dos tratados ; el primero es del Papa y de sit, autoridad, colegido de su mda y doctrina y de lo gue los doctores y concilios antiguos y la misma Sagrada Escritura ensena. El segundo es de la misa, recopilado de los Doctores y concilios y de la Sagrada Escriptura. En casa de Arnoldo 264 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Hatfildo, ano de 1588. Tin tomo en octavo* Neither the name of the author, nor place of pub- lication is given, but it is believed that it was printed at Hamburg. It was afterwards corrected by Valera who put many important additions to it with this title : Dos tr at ados : el primer o es del Papa de su y autoridad, colegido de su vida y doctrina . el segundo es de la Misa : por Oypriano de Valera. En casa de Hicardo del Campo (Richard Meld.) 1599. 1 tomo en 8vo. The Treatise on the Pope is a recompilation, in a reform sense, of what Roman Catholic authors had written touching the pontiffs. In his notes he follows Pineda and Gronzalo de Illescas, great Spanish defenders of the Roman See. He gave a circumstantial account of many of the Spanish Pro- testants, who flourished in the sixteenth century, especially those of Seville. He also published ano- nymously, " The New Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ. Luke ii. 10. Behold 1 give you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Richard Field,) MDXCVI, 1 vol. 8vo.f This work is copied from that of Casiodoro de Reyna, with some slight but happy corrections. He translated and published, at Geneva, in 1597, " The institution of the Christian religion," the work of John Calvin. Jointly with the German * See Expurgatorial Index of 1667- t El testamento nuevo de mestro sefior Jesu-Crlsto. Luc.ii. Iff. He aqui os doy nuevas de gran gozo que sera a todo el pueblo. En casa da Ricardo del Campo. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 265 Protestant William Massan, he published " The Catholic reformed, or a declaration which proves in what respects we are able to conform to the jRoman church, as it is in tlie present day, on divers points of religion, and on which points we ought never to agree, but always to be separated from it. Also, a warning to those attached to the Roman church, that proves the said Roman religion to be contrary to the Catholic rudiments, and the foundations of the Catechism. Composed by William Perquino, licen- ciate in sacred divinity, and translated into Castilian verse, by William Massan, gentleman, and printed at his cost. 1599. 1 vol. 800."* At the beginning is an epistle to the Christian reader, signed thus : Your most affectionate brother in Christ. C. D. V. I believe that Yalera also wrote some advice to the Roman church on the proclamation of Jubilee, by the Bull of Pope Clement VIII. This advice was printed in 1600. f He never ceased publishing works in Castilian * El cathdlico reformado 6 una declaracion que muestra quanto nos podamos conformar con la Iglesia Romana tal qual es el dia de hoy en diversos puntosde la religion, y en quepuntos devamos nunca jamas convenir sino para siempre apartarnos della. Item, un aviso a los affieionados a la Iglesia Romana que muestra la dicta religion romana ser contra los cat61icos rudimentos y fundamentos del Cathecismo. Compuesto por Guiliermo Per- quino, licenciado en sancta theologia y trasladado en romance castellano, por Ghrillermo Massan, gentil hombre, y a su costa imprimido. En casa de Ricardo del Compo 1599. Un torn 8vo. "f* Avisos a la Iglesia Romana Sobre la indiccion del Jubileo por la bula del Papa Clemente Octavo. Impresos por Ricardo del Campo, Ano de 1600. 266 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. to spread his opinions throughout Spain. From Geneva he went to Amsterdam, and there he pub- lished a second edition of his Bible, with this text for its motto " the word of God endureth for ever" Is. xl. 8. MDCII. The work is preceded by an exhortation to the Christian reader as to reading the sacred scriptures. Valera went, in company with Lorenzo Jacobi, to Leyden, to present his Bible to the Count Maurice of Nassau and the states of Holland, with a view of raising funds to pay the expenses of returning to England with his wife. He was the bearer of the following letter of introduction from Jacob Arminius, the head of Remonstrants in Amsterdam, to Juan Vittenbogaert, a divine at Leyden. " Cypriano de Valera and Lorenzo Jacobi, are going to present to the Conde and states-general, some copies of the Spanish Bible, which they have just printed. There is between them some dissension which you must settle, provided they both will refer the case to you. It is a matter of small moment, and you can easily settle it, and make them at peace ; and particularly as both of them are friends, who until now, with great harmony, and directing their efforts to the same end, have promoted that work ; and they are resolved not to sacrifice that friendship for all the world contains. You will do all you can on your part, in order that Valera may return to England with his wife, well provided with proper help as to expenses. I have done for him here what I was able : and, in truth, he has a claim to THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 267 pass the little time which remains of his life, with the least possible inconvenience. Amsterdam, November 1602."* In 1602, lie was seventy years old. His works were the surprise and annoyance of the inquisitors, who, in reference to his constancy and perseverance, called him the Spanish heretic. The long life of Valera, given entirely to the reading and teaching of divinity, and the composition of books to guide the Spaniards in the reformed opinions, especially those of Calvin, whom he most followed, shews the constancy and indefatigable zeal with which he laid the foundation of the reforma- tion of the church. He was, next to Enzinas, the Spanish Protestant who contributed and printed more works than the rest. I believe the greater part of his works were not known as such during his lifetime. Probably he had not, like Perez, a Julian Hernandez to carry out his publications in skins and casks of champagne and Burgundy. In the early expurgatorial indexes, I have only seen his Calvinistic institutions prohibited. It was not until 1640, that all his works .were prohibited : I therefore infer, that till that time, his works had not obtained much circulation in Spain : and this would seem to be confirmed by the eulogium passed upon him by Juseppe Antonio Gonzalez de Salas, who called him the doctissimo herbaizante, in 1644, and * Prcestantinm ac eruditorum Virorum Epistolas. Pelicer. Biblioteca de Traductores. 268 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. transferred to one of his works a passage from Valera's Eible published at Amsterdam.* I do not know whether to attribute to Valera, or to one of his disciples, a little book published at Geneva in 1630, under the title of Decdlogo y Sytnbolo de los Apostoles y peyueno Catecismo. KEINALDO GONZALES DE MONTE S was a Sevillian, and follower of Luther. He had been converted to the opinions of that reformer by the example and instruction of Doctor Gil, commonly called, as I have already said, Doctor jtEgidius, and soon found himself a prisoner in the Inquisition, in the company of his master. He was a great admirer and panegyrist of Gil, of de la Fuenda, of Zafra, of Maria Bohorques, and of the principal chiefs of the Reformation in Seville. Fortunately he escaped from the Inquisition in 1558, and fled to London, where he found an asylum. From thence he pro- ceeded to Germany, where he formed the plan of writing a treatise on the iniquities perpetrated by the Holy Office on the persons of Protestants in Spain, and touching the tragical and lamentable end of many of his friends in Seville. He brought his work to a close ; and printed, in Heidelberg, in 1567, a work entitled Sanctce Inquisitionis Hispanic artes * Compendia Geographico i historico de el orbe antiguo i description de el sitio de la tierra, escripta por Pomponio Mela. Translated by de Salas. Madrid, 1644. THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 269 aliquot detectcB ac palam traducta. In 1558, it was translated into French, and in 1569, an English- man, named V. Skinner, gave an English translation of it in London. THOMAS CAEEASCON, a Spanish friar of the order of St. Augustine, could no longer remain in his convent ; and under fear of the Inquisition, fled to London, and gave full scope to his Protestant views. He was a man of profound learning, and particularly in divinity. His fame reaching the ears of James I., that monarch recom- mended to him the translation of the English Liturgy into Castilian. The merit of that under- taking was acknowledged and appreciated in England ; and King James, desirous of rewarding him for his talents and erudition, promoted him to a stall in Hereford Cathedral. Carrascon composed a burlesque work, written in a familiar style, and entitled De las Cortes y Medrano en Cintruenigo, which was printed in Flanders, in 1633. This work was directed against the Catholic Church, and especially against the religious orders in Spain. To such an extreme did the ferocity of some Catholics arrive, in the destruction of Lutherans, that one gentleman of Valladolid, in 1581, de- nounced to the Holy Office his own two daughters as professors of the reformed religion. Desirous of converting them to Catholicism, he contrived, through the great confidence the inquisitors had 270 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. in his blindness, that both these young creatures should be removed from the dungeons of the In- quisition to the paternal roof. There the fanatical father, assisted by various of the clergy and friars, attempted to turn away the minds of his daughters from what he believed to be erroneous principles. Both, however, were unmoveable in the true Protes- tant faith, and his efforts were abortive. Burning with rage to see that his entreaties were in vain, as well as his threatenings and persecutions, he took them back to the Inquisition, and informed the judges that both of them still defended reform with the greatest pertinacity. In fine, on the solicitation of their father, both of these unhappy women were condemned to be burnt. This pom- pous old man, indignant that his blood should be stained by Lutheran principles, and overcome by a fanatical monomania, went to a certain forest on his own estate, in search of branches from some of the largest trees, and trunks of smaller ones, and cut them into suitable pieces, in order to kindle the flames which were to devour the bodies of his own children. This barbarous fellow, worthy to have been born among cannibals, then returned to Valladolid with these spoils from his woods, and presented them to the Holy Office. The inquisitors praised his greatness of mind, and set him forth, to the patricians and to the plebeians, as an example worthy the imitation of all who would increase and serve that faith which they imagined they were defending by the flames. But the man was not even satisfied with having THE SPANISH PKOTESTAtfTS. 271 cut the wood ; for, probably incited by the applause of his friends both secular and ecclesiastic, and with a view of spreading greater consternation through Valladolid, he actually petitioned to be the murderer of his own flesh and blood. After becoming his own enemy and throwing his daughters into the loath- some cells of the Inquisition, nay, bringing his own wood to construct the burning pile, he asked per- mission of the inquisitors, to set light, with his own hand, in a public auto-de-fe, to that same heap which was to reduce to ashes the delicate frames of these his unhappy girls, unhappier still in having known such a father. The inquisitors who saw in this barbarous wretch a model of slaves, received most graciously his peti- tion ; and in order to the exaltation of the Catholic faith, proclaimed with cymbals and trumpets, not only the inhuman demand, but their permission to comply with it. The two unfortunate girls accordingly perished at Valladolid in 1581.* At that period all was oppression, fanaticism, iniquity, and contempt for laws as well human as divine. The celebrated Cazalla once said to the inquisitors at one of his hearings : "If you will but stay your persecutions for four months, we shall at the end of that time be equal in numbers to yourselves."^ The terror which these words carried with them to * Yalera, Tratado de los Papas. t The letter of Kibera to Philip III. See the life of that king by Gonzalez Davila. 272 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. the minds of the judges and ministers of the Inquisition and to the Spanish clergy, lasted for a length of time ; and on that account persecutions were multiplied, so that those who wished to avert a violent death fled for shelter to foreign lands. Juan Luis Vives lamented these persecutions, when in 1534, he thus wrote to his friend : " "We feel that we have no power to help you, for, unfor- tunately we run a great risk. But why do I speak of such tyranny to a Spaniard who knows it as well as I do myself. We live in such calamitous times that we can neither proffer a single word nor yet hold our tongues without danger"* If in 1534, when the rigours of the Inquisition commenced, they were trifling, compared with those which it afterwards executed, to what an extreme must they have arrived in 1559 and 1560, after the Spanish Lutherans were discovered and burnt at Yalladolid, Seville, Toledo, Logrono, and other cities ? When precaution became punishment and the public weal fled with alarm from the Peninsula, the cells and the flames were filled with illustrious victims, and neither innocence nor excellence was of any avail in saving from the horrors of so unjust and infamous a tribunal. The sad and miser- able state of slavery in which Spaniards were living was aptly described by Vives in the single sentence above cited. John Man, the second dignitary in Gloucester * Luis Vives Collection of his works. Vol. vii. edition of Valencia. THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 273 Cathedral, and ambassador of the Queen of England to the court of Philip II., was expelled from Madrid in 1568, for a grave offence, in the eyes of that sus- picious and fanatical monarch. Some would ima- gine that the english ecclesiastic had violated in public acts, the decorum due to the Spanish sovereign ; or that he had, by printed works, expressed a desire to see the Lutherans triumph in the heart of Castile; or that he assisted the afflicted Protes- tants ; or furnished them with arms to rebel against their king ; or that he not only helped them secretly with money, but urged the utility of the seditious ob- taining the victory. But no : of none of these nor of any similar crimes was John Man guilty ; all his fault consisted in having spoken, in familiar conversation, to the displeasure of Philip touching religious matters . "When this and that procession was perambulating the Spanish court for the health of the Queen Isabel de Valois, Man, with some of his friends, foreigners as well as Spaniards, made light of them. At the same moment this news was carried like a shot to the palace of Philip by the offended pride of the inquisitors. The king, as a perfect fanatic, was of a violent and rancorous disposition, and believing, that in this frolic of John Man, he saw the greatest offence against his dignity, sent him a message by the Duke of Alba, ordering Mm to moderate Ms manner of speaking. A notable action on the part of Philip, and which shews how much the 'prudent* monarch was given up to the petty intrigues of friars, and how ready he was to bridle the tongues T 274 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. of those who did not choose to flatter or to fear him : it showed more ; it proved how little com- mand he had over his own angry temper. But at last his anger broke beyond all bounds which a respect for the Queen of England had pre- scribed him, in reference to the treatment of Man, Dean of Gloucester. At a banquet at which many nobles, as well Spanish as those of other nations, were present, Man said that Philip II. enjoyed, solely in Europe, the privilege of defending the Homan Pontiff, in contradiction to the rest of the sovereigns.* When the Spanish monarch was informed of the expressions uttered by Man, he became greatly en- raged, for he considered the occasion merited all the regal anger of the successor of Charles Y. The words of Elizabeth's minister were, in Philip's esti- mation, a heinous offence. What sovereign with greatness of mind, or even without, but would have * " A he has an evil intention, and a mischievous heart in these matters of religion, he has not been able to repress his wicked mind from letting out its most pernicious and daring demonstra- tions. . . . For among other things, he lately, at a dinner where many persons, as well Spaniards as those of other nations were present, he suffered himself, publicly and shamelessly, to say, that I only defended the sect of the Pope, . . . and that the Pope was a silly friar and a hypocrite, and other similar words, for which he richly deserves the chastisement the Inquisition would give him, were it not for the respect I have to a public person and minister of his most serene queen, with whom I am so good a friend and neighbour." Letter of Philip II. to Guzman de Silva^ his ambassador in London, dated llth May, 1568. Archive ofSimancas See the work of Adrian Garcia Hernandez, already cited. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 275 laughed at the speech of the Dean of Gloucester, or treated it with contempt ? Certainly all other sovereigns of that time would have done so, although the appellation of "prudent" might not be affixed to their names. But Philip, all prudent, according to his apologists, felt that the studied pomp of myste- rious grandeur, with which he was wont to accom- pany his most trifling actions, could not tolerate, in Spain, and in his court above all places, the exist- ence of the man who would dare to speak of his person, unless to say that he was the most just and holy monarch, and the best and most discreet poli- tician in Europe of his own time, times past, or times to come. He ordered Man to quit the court, and to await the commands of his queen in a neighbouring town, at the same time admonishing him not to shock the pious and sincere with his speeches. Philip sent to his ambassador in London a long letter, in which he recapitulated the dean's conversation, in order to its being brought before Elizabeth, that she might avenge Philip, by sending another minister to Spain. From that moment, Philip, like a petulant child, determined to see this insolent ambassador no more.* Probably, Elizabeth, a woman of good sense, had a hearty laugh at Philip for his folly. * " I have resolved to have nothing more to do with him, and that he shall not appear before me, nor even in my court ; but I have desired that he be told to take himself off from hence to some neighbouring place, with an admonition that he live there without T 2 276 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. If the dean for simply speaking in a manner dis- pleasing to Philip, although in familiar conver- sations, was expelled from the court, he being the ambassador of a powerful queen, what Spaniard could be expected to follow his example without fear of being burnt by the Inquisition for his temerity ? Philip achieved over Spaniards an easy victory in religious and political affairs. But still the oppressed, even in that century, had some glimpses of hope and consolation in all their troubles and adversities. The prince, Don Carlos of Austria, son of Philip II., a partisan of reform in the church, and a friend of religious tolerance, saw and regarded with horror, the punishments executed by the ini- quitous tribunal of the Holy Office under the auspices of his father. But this unhappy prince was himself made a pri- soner and perished in his youth, if not by the vio- lence, at least through the neglect of his father, who suffered him to fall a prey to the ravages of an acute disease, which prostrated his strength and brought him to an untimely death. Thus it is ; oppression begins with the destruc- tion of the common people ; next with persons in constituted dignities, and at last with those who, from their higher position, are looked up to and scandalizing anybody, and without daring to say similar things to those which he has already said." Philip's Letter, cited in the last note. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 277 expected to provide a remedy for national misfor- tunes. Tyranny, when opposed by a formidable power, makes a firm resistance, even against those who attempt to mitigate the miseries of the op- pressed and the rage of the oppressors. Tyrants are like tempests : they spare nothing : not even the reed for its weakness : the flower for its humi- lity : the oak for its strength, nor the cedar for its majesty. 278 THE SPANISH PROTESTANT S. CHAPTER XIX. THE PRINCE, DON CARLOS OE AUSTRIA, persecuted, almost in the dawn of his existence, by his father, King Philip II., on account of his attachment to the Protestant doctrines, is a striking example offered in history, to demonstrate that the wicked who natter tyrants have no respect for virtue, no fear in putting a stain upon innocence, nor hesi- tation to tarnish the memory of one of the most unfortunate princes that empires or kingdoms have known. Various have been the opinions of authors who have attempted to write the life of Don Carlos. Foreigners have defamed his memory under pre- tence of defending it, and have even gone the length of saying, that his misfortunes had their origin in an incestuous passion entertained towards him by his step-mother. Spaniards depict him as a monster of a prince in whose breast dwelt all the vices. They even venture to allege that he was mad; that there was nothing in him but wickedness, and that his mind was rude and ignorant. Jacques de Thou, Gregory Leti, and the abbot of St. Rheal, M. Langle, Mercier, and other writers, inform us, that one of the preliminaries of the peace THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 279 between Caesar Charles V. and King Henry II. of France, during the five years' truce, was the mar- riage of the Prince Don Carlos with Elizabeth of Valois, daughter of the latter monarch; but that Philip II., having become a widower on the death of Mary Tudor, Queen of England, determined that the treaty for the nuptials of his son should be held void, in order that Philip might reserve the hand of that princess for himself: that this resolution was so productive of rage in the mind of Don Carlos, and of love in that of the queen, as to excite against them both the father's jealousy, and an ardent desire to be revenged for his wounded honour, for which reason, and because Philip knew that his son contemplated quitting the kingdom and putting himself at the head of the Protestants in Flanders, then rebels against the Spanish crown, he contrived to keep him in prison, and that the Inquisition should commence a process against him as one suspected of failing in the Catholic faith : that sentence was pronounced in that cause, and that Carlos was condemned to death by poison, accord- ing to some, or according to others, by the garrote, or by bleeding in a bath, like Seneca. Spanish historians of that time advert to the fact that the prince was proud and ignorant that a good education and the study of letters never had place in his mind that he maltreated, by words and deeds, his tutor, his servants, and persons of great rank and virtue that he attempted to quit the kingdom, in order that with the assistance of 280 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. liis uncle, the Emperor Maximillian of Germany, he might draw the Flemings to his side, and make war against his father that the latter, taking him for a madman, determined to shut him up that in prison his insanity increased and, finally, that his health being ruined through the excessive drinking of iced- water before breakfast, and through saturating the pillows of his bed with it at nights, he breathed his last, but not without having sincerely sought the forgiveness of Philip, his father. Now, in order to show the error and injustice of these assertions, I shall call to my aid most im- portant and valuable documents ; and by these I shall prove, that if foreign writers, in speaking of the imprisonment and death of the prince to degrade Philip II., were not only prejudiced men, but propagators of untruths, no less so, ought those- Spaniards to be considered, who converted the wrongs and outrages committed on Carlos into occasions and pretexts for flattering his father, King Philip, and his successor, Philip III. I know very well that there prevails among us an opinion adverse to the prince; but I have also learned by experience, that opinions based on false or slight foundations soon fall to the ground when fairly examined.* * Llorente, in his History of the Inquisition of Spain, speaks of the Prince Don Carlos with great want of judgment as well as of accurate information from pure sources. Wishing to defame this young prince, he excuses, as much as he can, Philip's severity in regard to the imprisonment, and even death of his son. Salvador Bennudez de Castro, in his book entitled Antonio THE SPANISH PKOTE STARTS. 281 The prince was born in the city of Yalladolid in 1545. He seems in every way to have been truly unfortunate. Four days after he came into the world, he lost, for ever, the tender cares of his mother, Dona Maria of Portugal, who then passed to a better world. Charles V., occupied by the wars in Germany, Prance, Italy, and Flanders, could not be attentive to the education of the new scion which his descendant Philip had given to the crown of Castile, much ]ess did his grave political cares be- tween the intervals of battles afford him leisure to direct the first steps of his grandson. Desirous that Don Carlos, his equal in name, should not be unequal in greatness to his progeni- tors, he named in 1554, among other tutors who were to have charge of him, Don Honorato Juan, a Yalencian gentleman of noble mind and principles, one of the most learned men of the age. Some historians wish to make it appear that the natural disposition of the prince was violent and ferocious ; and in proof of this, they allege that when a child he took great pleasure in beheading, with his own hands, the young rabbits which were brought to him from the chase. It is even said, that this was the subject of a letter written by the Venetian ambassador in Spain, to the senators of his country, Perez, secretcvrio del Hey Felipe II., followed the opinion of Llorente touching the prince. Evaristo San Miguel, in his Historia del Rey Felipe II., avails himself also of many arguments from the same author against the unhappy Don Carlos. 282 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. to shew the cruelty to be expected from him who was to succeed the great Philip II.* If such a letter was sent by the ambassador, the act was enough to stamp him as a blockhead, although I believe the whole story was a pure fabrication of the enemies of Carlos, with a view of making him odious to coming generations. The accusation, however, shews the bad spirit with which the prince was regarded, and an anxiety to discover faults even in the actions of his childhood. It is a common practice with children to torment small animals which have not power to defend themselves. Eut children who act thus inconside- rately, admit of comparison with men who, know- ing what they are about, and out of pure recreation, go into the fields deliberately, to deprive of life a multitude of innocent birds. If the prince, being a child, had complacency in killing and witnessing the death of small animals, and thence was to be in- ferred the cruelty of his nature, might not the same argument apply to those who hunt and shoot for their amusement ? And if so, the result of such nonsense would be, that, not only Don Carlos in his infancy, but a great portion of the human race in years of discretion, might lie under the same impu- tation. But when trifling actions are magnified into great crimes, it is because rancour and malice cannot find what they desire. Dona Juana of Austria, Queen of Portugal, and Maximillian of Bohemia, who afterwards became * Guerras de Flandes, by Father Famiano Estrada, a Jesuit. THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 283 emperor, had, jointly with the government of the Spanish states, the direction and guidance of the life and manners of Carlos during Philip's absence, and they were much attached to the child, as they proved on many occasions by their conduct ; and this shews that his disposition was neither perverse nor odious, as asserted by some writers whose pens seem to have been guided either by gross flattery or cowardly fear. One of the secret preliminaries of the peace be- tween France and Spain was, as has been stated, the marriage of Don Carlos with Elizabeth of Yalois, eldest daughter of King Henry II. The tender age of the parties made it very unlikely that any flame of affection could exist in the hearts of these children towards each other, as some foreign writers have affirmed, for the prince was but thirteen, and the princess only twelve years old.* About this time Queen Mary Tudor, of England, died, leaving Philip II. a widower, who, considering the tender age of his son, or rather his own ambi- * Llorente, in order to negative any amorous inclination be- tween Carlos and Elizabeth, makes use of an argument very notable for its rarity. He says that after the marriage of Philip with the French Princess, she could not love Carlos, because he was thin, weak, and pale, the results of the fevers from which he suffered. Llorente here makes a great physiological discovery, viz., that a man, thin, weak, and pale, never can inspire love in a woman, and that no man can be enamoured of a woman if she discovers him to be thin, weak, and pale. It is no wonder that such foolishness should have been written, but that it should have been copied and re-copied as irrefragible truth, by persons of sense and learning, is truly astonishing. 284 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. tion, was willing to consider the treaty for the mar- riage of Carlos as of none effect, and to reserve the hand of Isabel of Valois, for himself; and they were accordingly married on the 2nd of February, 1560, he being three and thirty years old, and Don Carlos being one of the fathers, or bridegroom's men, \Padrinos\ at the wedding, notwithstanding lie was then afflicted with intermitting fevers.* On the 22nd of the same February, Don Carlos was sworn, in the cortes, as hereditary prince of those kingdoms. Philip, seeing that the fevers did not yield to the medical treatment afforded to his son by the most eminent practitioners of Spain, ordered that he should go, with his uncle Don Juan of Austria and his cousin Alexander Earnesse, and attended by his tutor and servants, to reside at Alcala de Henares, a place where the air was pure and where he might recover his health, and at the same time make pro- gress in his studies. Some have said that all the knowledge which the prince did acquire was learned from Castilian works, for that his master, Honorato Juan, could not, with all his efforts, teach him the Latin tongue ; such was the aversion of Carlos to study. Hence they infer that the rudeness of his understanding is to be seen in his dislike to speak of Virgil. But, on the one hand, his bodily affliction which hindered application to grave studies, and on the other, the disgusting * Doctor Francisco de Villalobos in his libra de los Problems (Zamora, 1543.) THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 285 mode then in use in teaching the Latin language, in Spain, should prevent us concluding that he had no aptitude for learning. Don Martin Perez de Ayala, Archbishop of Valencia, a man of the greatest understanding and erudition, and the astonishment of the council of Trent, complained of the hateful manner in which the masters of his time taught that language. In the library of Seville Cathedral there is an ancient MS copy of Discourse de la vida del Illustrissimo y Reverendissimo Senor Don Martin Perez de Ayala, del Tidbito de Santiago, Arzobispo de Valencia liasta ocko dias antes que nuestro Senor le llevase para si. In this work, written by the prelate himself, we read as follows : " I learned the rudi- ments of the grammar with such ease and facility, passing by my companions, that, had it not been for the stupid and barbarous mode of teaching the art of Nebrixa, which was then adopted in Spain by com- mitting much to memory, which so much fatigued the minds of children as to make learning odious to them I should in two years have known all that was necessary of grammar." When a man so wise and celebrated in Europe, complains of the odiousness the Latin student had to endure, owing to the mode of teaching, no wonder that Don Carlos, always harassed by intermitting fevers, should have greater cause to hate the study of that language. Llorente, who in speaking of the prince, gathered together, with great care but little judgment, all the calumnies which had been invented , against him, says : " He was so backward (in study) 286 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. that he did not even know Latin, for seeing a want of inclination to study any other idiom, all that was taught him by Honorato Juanez was in Castilian." The prince was not, as alleged by both ancient and modern historians, a youth of rude and ignorant mind, for he always gave signs of the contrary by his just observations and reasoning. The learned Doctor Juan Huarte de San Juan, printed in 1575, (Don Carlos being then dead, to the disgrace of his father) the celebrated work, intitled Exdmen de Ingenios. In it he introduces a colloquy, "very clever" which passed between the prince and Doctor Suarez of Toledo, he being the prince's alcalde in his court at Alcala de Henares ; and, as it is my desire to expose the error in which Spaniards live with respect to Don Carlos, I shall give a passage of that dialogue, because it will serve to enlighten the understandings of many persons on the subject of the prince's mind and intellect. PRINCE. "What king among my forefathers gave to your family the title of Hidalgo ? DOCTOR. None ; because your highness kno^s that there are two kinds of Hidalgos in Spain ; one in which they are so by blood, and others by privi- lege. Those who are so by blood, as I am, do not receive their nobility from the hand of the king, but those by privilege do. PRINCE. This is, to me, very difficult to under- stand, and I wish that you would put it to me in clearer terms ; because my royal blood counts in me, THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 287 and then back to my father, and after him to my grandfather, and so on according to their order, till we come to finish with Pelayo, who by the death of Don Eodrigo was elected as king, he not being king. If you will thus recount to me your lineage, shall we not come to stop at some one who was not a Hidalgo ? DOCTOR. That cannot be denied, because all things had a beginning. PRINCE. "Well, then, I now ask : where had that first one his hidalguia from, who gave a beginning to your nobility ? He could not enfranchise himself, nor exempt himself from those imposts which till then, his forefathers had paid to the king, for that would be a robbery, and to run off by force with the royal patrimony : and it is not reasonable to suppose that hidalgos by blood could have so mean a beginning as that. Now, then, it is clear that the king must have enfranchised and made a present to him of that liidalguia ; or tell me where he took it from. DOCTOR. Your Highness concludes very pro- perly ; for the truth is, that there is no Tiidalguia that has not been made by the king. But we call hidalgos by blood those of whose beginning there is no recollection, nor even any writing to shew at what time it commenced, nor what king granted the favour. The republic has the same obscurity of origin, which is considered more honourable than to know distinctly the contrary.* * Exdmen de ingenios para las ciencias . . . Com- puesto por el Doctor Juan Huarte de San Juan. En Baefa, por Juan Bautista Montoya. A. o, 1575. t 288 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. The words of this dialogue, referred to by so grave and learned a writer as Huarte de San Juan, give clearly to understand that the reasoning faculties of the prince were not impaired, even in prison, by rudeness and ignorance : on the contrary, that he could discuss freely, political matters, and with the precision too, of a man accustomed to govern his understanding. This then answers, in part, those false accusations brought against Carlos by the apologists of Philip, and by modern authors who have followed their steps in error or in falsehood. It is a great misfortune to the human race that man's reputation should be subject to the malice of unjust detractors, who, contrary to the truth, are wont to sacrifice that reputation through ambition or an infamous desire to serve the tyrants of the earth. But although malice may ; by its deceits, artfully conceal or suppress the truth, it always seems to forget or overlook some small circum- stance, by which in the end it comes to be discovered that all is not that truth which is presented to the eye, and that behind many specious appearances may be discovered by a little attention, sufficient to guide us to the proper conclusion. Don Carlos was a prince beloved by the Spaniards for the virtues which were known to dwell in his mind, for the courage which he was known to possess, and for the clearness, not meanness, of his understanding. Juan Martin Cordero, a learned man, the Castiliaii translator of the works of Flavius Josephus, and author of many histories, wrote, in September, 1558, THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 289 in a Promptuary of Medals, the following words : " This Prince, (Don Carlos) instructed no less in letters than in arms, gives of himself such signs as cause the greatest suprise to all who see and con- verse with him. For as to arms, there is no kind or description of them which he does not use in a manner worthy the valour of his forefathers. So much so, that whatever was in Frederick the Emperor, and Maximillian and Philip, his great grandfather, and Charles his grandfather, and Philip his father, seems to be centred in him, accord- ing to the signs he has already given, and those which they lead us, of right, to expect. I forbear to recount the surprising grace and wit which characterise his conversation, for these are current in the mouth of every body. I am content with recounting what he does, in order to prove what he says, and how much he did in the absence of his father; for, if I were obliged to describe them accurately in writing, neither my hand nor my mind would dare to make the attempt.* Finally : Salazar de Mendoza, who in Las Digni- dades Seglares de Castilla y Leon, shewed himself in no way devoted to Don Carlos, after saying that his disposition was turbulent, and his habits cor- rupt, is obliged at last to tell a part of the truth, when he declares of the prince " that he was ex- * First part of the Promptuary of Medals of all the most dis- tinguished men that there have been from the beginning of the world) with their lives briefly recounted, translated by Juan Martin Cordero. Lyons, Guillerino Rovillo. 1561. 290 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. tremely friendly to truth and justice: so much so, that if a servant once failed in either, he never again confided in him, nor admitted him to his presence. He favoured much, people of noble principles, and had no other about him."* Now if Huarte de San Juan, after the death of Don Carlos, eulogised the conversations which that unhappy youth had with various persons : if Juan Martin Cordero affirmed that his admirable sayings / 7 were circulated from mouth to mouth (which was confirmed by the author of the Examination of Jlen of Genius); and that in fine, if such a historian as Mendoza, who speaks against his disposition and habits, finishes by describing him as a lover of the truth, and a friend of those who entertain it, and the adversary of those who do not admit it in all their actions, upon what evidence can historians accuse him of rudeness of mind, and of being a prince who gave no flattering hopes of happily governing the kingdoms, when he should come to inherit them on the death of his father ? Shall the false opinions given by the paid chroniclers of Philip II., the enemy of his son, and by Philip III., who could by no means consent to have censured the memory of his parent, prevail against sound cri- ticism ? Had historians at that time sufficient liberty to speak well of those who died in disgrace with kings, and whose actions they were obliged to narrate in a manner pleasing to those who were * Origin of Secular Dignities of Castile and Leon. By Dr. Salazar de Mendoza Toledo, 1618. THE SPANISH PSOTESTAtfTS. 291 the favourites of kings ? The eulogies of Carlos, which we find in various works of that time, were not given by chroniclers who treated on the lives of Philip II., and Don Carlos his son, but by philo- sophers and antiquaries, who had not for their object the formation of a history of those personages. Mendoza, in a few lines, declares the truth and gives the just measure of praise to an unfortunate prince. The flatterers of Philip II. have treated the memory of Don Carlos as the Greeks did that of Hector. They dragged about the dead body of him they feared when alive ; and if such testimonies are not sufficient to dissipate the shades which certain his- torians have thrown upon the disposition of Carlos, and the hopes which Spaniards placed in that illus- trious prince, still there exist in the writings of cotemporary authors more proofs in defence of the truth and opposition to those opinions, which were originated in fraud, and are maintained even in our own day by ignorance. TT 2 292 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. CHAPTER XX. FIFTY days having elapsed without the prince having had any return of the intermitting fevers, when, on Sunday, the 12th of April, 1562, after having dined at noon, "he descended a staircase, which was very dark, and the steps of which were very bad. Before he had reached the bottom, by five steps, he slipped his foot and fell headlong with great force against a closed door." So the Licen- ciate Dionisio Daza Chacon, refers to the event in one of his works.* This medical man was the first to discover the wound occasioned by the fall, and to apply remedies. Afterwards, and by order of the king, other doctors were in attendance. When Chacon revisited the prince, the latter said to him, " I/icenciate, it will please me to be attended by the Portuguese Doctor, do not you be offended at that. To which," adds Chacon, "I, seeing it my duty to so great a prince, answered that I should be honoured by it, since it was his highnesses pleasure, that it should be so :" words which prove that the disposi- tion of Carlos was not so impetuous as the friends of Philip II. say it was. * Prdctica y Teorica de Cirujia en romance y en Latin: primera y segunda parte, compuesta por el licenciado Dionisio Daza Chacon, Medico y Cirujano de S. M. el Rey Don Felipe II. Valladolid en casa de Ana Velazquez, 1609. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 293 Many other famous doctors were called in to the case, and among them Andres Yesalio. The illness increased to such an alarming extent, that it was believed the hour was arrived at which the prince was about to die. His father visited him on various occasions, and ordered prayers to be offered up for him in his states : he presided at some of the medical consultations, and showed for his firstborn the most vehement attachment, and a desire to save him from death. The council of Alcala carried even to the prince's bedchamber the body of St. James \_San Diego}, that under his auspices a cure should be effected. Thanks to the good attentions of the faculty, Don Carlos, after some ninety days of suffering, was restored to health. For the satisfaction of those who accuse the prince of a naturally proud and indomitable dis- position, it may be well to give a passage from Daza (one of the doctors who attended him during his illness), who, speaking of the cure, says, " His highness evinced the greatest obedience and respect to the Icing ; for there was nothing which the Duke of Alba, or Don Garcia de Toledo said to him, in the name of his majesty, but what he attended to with the greatest willingness, even in the days of his delirium. So also in regard to his health ; he was equally ivilling to submit to the remedies prescribed ; for, to the surprise of every one, however strong or severe these remedies might be, he never refused to comply with them ; on the contrary, during the whole time he was conscious, he asked for their application. 294 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. This greatly assisted in that recovery of health which God was pleased to give"* From this, modern writers may see, that in cor- rupting or suppressing the truth, they have defamed the prince by depicting him as a ferocious and in- corrigible youth. I am well aware that they sustain their opinions by the testimony of the historians of Philip II., whose pens were guided by vile flattery or fear of damaging the memory of that monarch, when they unjustly stained the reputation of the son in order to exculpate the father for that son's imprisonment, and even his death. But they should also advert to the fact, that medical men, philoso- phers, antiquarians, and poets of that age, are loud in their praises of the courage and virtue of that young prince ; that those writers were not obliged, as were our chroniclers, to say only what kings wished them to say ; that they have not suppressed any good actions of the father likely to exalt the son ; and in fine, that their opinion on the matter ought to be valued only as it is dispassionate and free, and as it approaches the nearer to reason and justice ; rare qualifications to find in the works of that century which treat of the life and manners of Don Carlos. The authors who were paid to write according to the pleasure of kings, defame the prince : a variety of others who had nothing to do with the history of that time, praise and eulogise his memory. Which ought to be credited ? The * Prdctica y Teorica de Cirugta, en romance, <&c. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 295 men who were obliged to follow the dictation of kings, or those who treated the subject according to their own feelings, and without fear, favour, or affection ? False accusations may be made : they may be supported, and even assume an air of truth ; but sooner or later they will vanish by the hand of time, which alone, in many instances, can heal the wounds inflicted by falsehood upon a man's reputation.* The concord and goodwill, which up to about this period had existed between Philip and Carlos, came to be destroyed for ever on the occasion to which I am now going to refer. When Philip left the low countries to return to Spain, he entrusted the government of those pro- vinces to the Duchess of Parma, William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, Lamoral, Count of Egmont, Philip de Montmorency, Count of Home, the Marquis of Bergues, the Count of Hoochstrate, the Count of * One of those who have most libelled the Prince Don Carlos, was Luis Cabrera de Cordoba, in his Vida de Felipe II., dedi- cado d su Mjo Felipe III. In this work, he says, speaking of the death of that unhappy youth, " Spain may well call herself lucky in escaping from the great misfortune of being without a hereditary male heir ; for such was the king our Lord Don Philip III., in whom the celestial bounty shed with liberal hands its re- ligious, fast, liberal, constant, beneficent, faithful, magnificent gifts, worthy the greatest empire, and, in fine, the son of his father's more mature and judicious years ; a rare example to all ages of virtue and obedience. Thus did Cabrera, to vituperate Carlos, exalt, with all the meanness of a palace-going flatterer, the stupid Philip III. From this specimen, we may see how little faith is to be attached to his opinions respecting the natural disposition of the prince. 296 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Berghe, the Lord of Vianen, the Lord of Montigny, and other Belgian noblemen of great valour and reputation. All of them were Protestants, although by their exterior actions they appeared to be the contrary. In the king's absence, they did not in- terfere with any man's religion, much less did they attempt to punish any one who publicly declared himself an enemy of the Catholic faith. Nay, in a short time they were not able to tolerate Cardinal Granvelle, a favourite of the Duchess of Parma, for he began to afflict the natives of that country with all sorts of persecutions, and took steps with the in- tention of introducing the office of the Inquisition among the people, who had been accustomed to en- joy liberty of conscience. In 1559, Egmont, the Prince of Orange, and Philip de Montmorency, wrote to Philip II., representing that, in order to the conservation of those countries, it was absolutely necessary to recall Granvelle, against whom both the nobility and plebeians had conceived in their minds the greatest hatred. Philip answered, that since so many evils had arisen to his subjects there, in consequence of the private conduct of that favourite, and by means of the tyranny shewn by the government, it would be desirable that one of them should come over to Spain and inform the court what remedies would be most acceptable for the gravity and urgency of the case. The com- plaining parties named Egmont for that undertak- ing, but he was in no haste about taking the journey; on the contrary, he deferred it for so many months, THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 297 that Philip, hearing of the disorders that in the low countries were daily increasing, and that delay in putting a stop to them would end in their ruin, wrote to Egmont, expressing great anxiety to know how affairs stood, and expressing a great wish to see and speak with a man of such knowledge and experience in state matters, and who was, more- over, an eye-witness of everything that was passing there. Egmont read this letter to his friends and adhe- rents, who advised him, as so favourable an oppor- tunity seemed to present itself for remedying all the evils of which they had to complain, to proceed at once to Spain, where his dexterous policy would probably induce Philip to incline to measures likely to promote the welfare of those countries and liberty of conscience. Egmont at last set out and reached the Spanish court, where he was well received by Philip. On different occasions they spoke of the mis- chiefs which, through the uncertain policy of Grran- velle, threatened to desolate or to destroy the low countries ; the count even urged upon the king the necessity of proceeding in person to see and hear for himself the extremes to which matters hud been brought, and at the same time told his Majesty how prejudicial it was, not to concede liberty of con- science to so many men ; and that to compel them to entertain the Catholic religion would, if not alto- gether impossible, at least be the origin of the per- dition and ruin of such powerful countries. Philip did not lend a willing ear to these reason- 298 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. ings, and although he then, as he had before, treated Egmont with the greatest courtesy, he shewed no disposition to grant what these states so anxiously wished. Egmont, whilst residing in the court, had occa- sion to converse with the Prince, Don Carlos, and kindled in his mind an ardent desire to alleviate the oppression under which the Flemings were suffer- ing. He described to Carlos in deep colours the infelicitous condition of those people, and lamented to see a prince who, on account of the neglect of his father and pride of his favourites, was reduced to the condition of a vassal, without having any share in political affairs, and without learning from the author of his being, and from experience, that art of govern- ing which, as yet, he only knew from the works of the excellent authors he had read. Words like these were enough to awaken the mind of Carlos, and to move him to solicit his father that, on behalf of the low countries, he himself might be permitted to enter on the acquirement of know- ledge of public affairs : in fact, in the same way that the firstborn son and sworn successor of the Spanish monarchy, had been permitted to act by his grandfather Charles Y. From that moment, Carlos and Egmont corre- sponded by letters, for the latter was obliged to return to Flanders, to give an account of the chagrin with which the king beheld the hatred of that people to the Apostolical See. The prince did not suffer much time to elapse THE SPANISH PEOTESTA1STS. 299 before he addressed his father with the freedom proper to his position, representing to him the bad condition of affairs in the low countries, and point- ing out how useful it would be to provide the remedy which circumstances so urgently demanded; stating also, that since necessity had arrived at the utmost extreme, he ought not to force those people to admit the Holy Office, and abandon the reformed religion; and, in short, that instead of so many favourites ruling in those kingdoms, it would appear more just in the eyes of the world, if the hereditary prince were to be learning, at the side of his father, the art of good government aided by the light of wise councils and every- day experience. Philip was not pleased with these observations : on the contrary, they raised a thousand suspicions in his mind against his son, seeing that he took upon him so warmly the defence of the Protestants and sought so earnestly a knowledge of state affairs. His answers were therefore not conformable to the wishes of Carlos. The fears of the father took fresh force at the new entreaties of the son : the favourites of the king began to look with an evil eye on the prince, as a powerful competitor who might destroy those plans they had made for a defence against the inconstancy of fortune. Be this as it might, there is not the least doubt that Philip, from that time, began to shew less affection to Carlos. This ripened into disdain, and by degrees that gave place to hatred. The prince on his part did not observe with con- 300 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. tempt the little or no regard which the king shewed to his person, but turned all his hatred against the favourites of his father, whom he always accused as the authors of his misfortunes. These men, con- fiding sometimes in the power they enjoyed about Philip, and sometimes in his anger against Carlos, treated the latter haughtily, believing that in doing so they were serving and nattering the king, and gaining more favour with him, so as to be the better able to maintain their high positions. Carlos, who in 1564 had returned to Madrid, and was entirely freed from tutors and masters, was the object of the perverse policy of these men. It was usual for some people to say : how can they act so inconsiderately, and with so little respect to the prince, without dread that, when Philip should be no more, the new king will avenge himself for the repeated offences and insults he had suffered in his person and dignity ? But, it is extremely easy to answer such a question. Philip was but forty, and suffered from no ailment which prognosticated his early death, whilst Carlos, though young, was afflicted constantly with intermitting fevers and promised but a short existence. The self-interest of a courtier has eyes like a lynx, and albeit he is occasionally mistaken, he is always near the mark, and even in many instances quite accurate in his calculations. Again, he looks more to the enjoyment of things present than to the dread of those of the future, relative to which, the human understanding knows nothing certain. THE SPANISH PKOTESTAKTS. 301 All kinds of calumnies were invented by the para- sites of Philip against the unhappy Don Carlos. They said that so impetuous and proud was his natural disposition, that he put in danger the life of a poor shoemaker, who had made him a tight pair of boots : for that he ordered them to be boiled in pieces, and compelled the poor man to eat them.* It appears impossible that such an accusation should have been made against the prince ; and yet more so, that modern authors should give currency to so unlikelv a story, and argue with their learning against the few who defend the courage and virtues of that young prince. Setting aside the order for imposing so grave a punishment, for so slight a fault, who would have been so foolish as to believe that the shoemaker had no more discretion than to eat so undigestible a mess ? Some people are accused of crimes so atrocious, that their very atro- city leads to the inference that the charges are false. So said Tacitus,f in a similar case and so he might repeat in the present, and in reference to other crimes, which partial or designedly false historians have attributed to the Prince Don Carlos. There can be no doubt that on some occasions Carlos did manifest, vehemently, his displeasure against the ministers of his father, but it does not follow that in doing so he did it without consi- * Llorente. History of the Inquisition. ^ " Adeo atrociora alicui objiciuntur crimina ut solum ex atrocitate pateaea esse falsa. Tacitus. 302 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. deration, or like a man wit lion t reason. But if we scrutinize the causes by which his actions were set in motion, we shall find that a sense of his own offended dignity and honour, raised in his mind a desire that such offences should not go un- punished. One of these offences could not do less than put in imminent peril the life of its author, Cardinal Espinosa. The circumstances are these. A celebrated performer of that age, whose name was Alonso de Cisneros, mitigated by the liveliness of his wit, and his genius, the dulness of the prince, occasioned by the neglect of his father, and by the pride with which he was treated by the favourites of the palace. The cardinal, who was then Presi- dent of Castile, banished this Cisneros from the court, on pretence that he had, without respect to his person, about the time of his after-dinner-naps, (siestas,) made a practice of calling together, with the great noise of a tambourine, the people passing in the street where Espinosa' s house was situate, to hear him perform one of his comedies, and that too, at the very hour when his eminence, overcome by the fatigues of political life, was enjoying a pro- found sleep, or desirous that his dinner should have quiet repose in his stomach. This was the version going the round of the fashionable circles of Madrid at the time ; but I think it was more likely that the cardinal wished to rid the prince of the fellow's amusing company, holding it, perhaps, to be un- worthy the successor of the Spanish crown. Don Carlos knew of the banishment of Cisneros, THE SPANISH PKOTESTA^TS. 303 and also the cause of it : and he ordered the car- dinal to suspend the execution of his purpose. This, however, Espinosa was not willing to listen to, in order to shew the prince how little he valued either his friendship or authority. Cisneros had been summoned to the palace to perform before Carlos, who awaited his coming, and was disap- pointed : but, seeing the cardinal in the palace, the enraged prince seized him by his robe [roquete,] and said : " You bit of a priest, how dare you to pre- vent Cisneros coming to serve me ? By the life of my father, I shall kill you /" And sad indeed would have been the fate of Espinosa, if some of the grandees of Spain had not come to his relief at the moment. Now, much has been said and written against Don Carlos on account of this event. His enemies have founded upon it his proud and violent disposi- tion, his want of reason, and the little respect he had for ecclesiastical dignitaries ; but if we stop to inquire, without prejudice, into the causes of that action, we shall see how excusable he was in the eyes of an impartial observer. Put the most easy, good-tempered man in the world in the position of Don Carlos ; the sworn hereditary prince in suc- cession to the crown; his orders mocked in a matter from which neither the peace of Christen- dom nor of the state was in danger, nay, from which nobody could sustain the slightest injury; con- verted into a mere subject, with less power and favour than those who ruled and governed so many 304 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. places in the name of his father; and lastly, wounded in his honour by the haughtiness of a private individual, who looked upon obedience to his prince as a breach of trust, as a contempt of his dignity, and as a want of spirit. If Don Carlos had been permitted to lay his complaints before Philip, and these complaints were likely to have met with due attention, the prince would have been without excuse in the eyes of the world in attempting to be the avenger of his own offences. But he well knew that the king, instead of reprehending or punishing those who were want- ing in proper respect to his son, would have despised the quarrel as arising out of some ridiculous trifle. But Don Carlos, in order to make himself respected by the councillors of Philip, had no one to whom he could turn his eyes. His only confidence was in his own mind and courage ; and hence, when any of his father's favourites opposed him in his designs, with that pride and arrogance peculiar to those who feel themselves on the very summit of fortune, there remained no other resource than he found within himself to combat those obstacles thrown in his way. A single case will suffice to show the miserable state to which this young prince was reduced. He loved most tenderly Doctor Hernan Suarez of Toledo, his tutor, a man who was distinguished as well for his bravery as for his learning. In 1567, he wished to pay him, for his faithful services, a certain num- ber of ducats, as portions for three daughters which THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 305 the doctor was about to marry. But Carlos, for want of the money at that time, was not able to carry out his wishes ; and therefore, as a pledge of his word in case of death, he wrote with his own hand the following bond: I, the Prince, Don Carlos, by this bond, signed with my name and sealed with my seal, promise to give to you, Doctor Suarez, my greatest friend, ten thousand ducats as soon as I am able, for the marriage of your three daughters. Wit- ness my hand at Madrid, the twelfth of August, 1557. I, THE PRINCE. This document proves that the hereditary prince of the Spanish monarchy, and son of the powerful King Philip II., was reduced to such poverty, that he had not at his disposition the paltry sum of ten thousand ducats ;* and that he was obliged to ask the indulgence of those who had faithfully served him, to take his bond in payment when he should be able. In the Low Countries all was fear, confusion, and apprehension, and every one seemed ready to defend liberty of conscience by force of arms, in case the obstinacy of Philip should drive matters to that extremity. But the chiefs of that rebellion, in order to divert the king's attention, sent discord into all parts of his dominions ; and the better to do so, it was found convenient that the fire of * About one thousand pounds sterling. X 306 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Protestantism, which had been partly subdued but not extinguished, should be revived. Twelve Protestant ministers, men of great tact and perseverance, were charged with conveying, cautiously, into Spain, about thirty thousand Cal- vinistic books, and circulating them, in various towns and cities, among persons who were not firm in the Catholic faith, and especially among those of Seville, that populous place in which the leaders of the reformed religion had already spread its doctrines wide and deep among their relations and friends. This work was aided considerably by the assistance of the Protestant families of those who had been banished to other countries, and prohibited, under pain of death, from setting their foot in the Penin- sula. The Flemings entrusted this great operation to a certain merchant at Antwerp devoted to Pro- testant principles, and very successful in introducing to the Spanish dominions all kinds of books prohi- bited by the inquisitors. The governess of the king- dom was aware of this intended design, for it appears not to have been set about with due caution; and she wrote to Philip warning him of the mischief about to happen, if a prompt remedy were notapplied. In due time, Pius V., the then pontiff, was informed that, in Leon and Tortosa in France, were to be met with, many of the catechisms of Calvin trans- lated into the Castilian language ; and that if their entry into Castile were not prevented, the result might be the perdition of the Catholic faith in that vast monarchy. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 307 The pontiff did not despise this information : he communicated it to Philip and the inquisitors, in order that both might, with prompt measures, dis- pute the passage of so many enemies of the Holy See. The proposition of the Flemings to engender this discord in Spain, and remove the horrors of war from their own territories, was a good stroke of policy, and succeeded very well. On the one hand, the inquisitors, with their constant vigilance, closed the gates of the kingdoms to the doctrines of Luther and other reformers, and persecuted, without yielding to the fatigue of doing so, all those persons who appeared in their eyes even suspicious, or likely to entertain them. On the other hand, the authors of the movement were stirring up, against the judges of the Inquisition, the hearts of the surviving relatives and friends of those who had perished by the flames ; of those who were then groaning in the dungeons of the Inquisition; of those who were loaded with penances ; and, of those who, flying about in foreign nations, were deploring the loss of their country and the want of protection. And although terror can do much in the minds of men, yet sometimes the desire of vengeance con- quers all fear, and furnishes even the hands of the timid with weapons. Tragical examples, it is true, are wont to cool and* to suppress courage, but the want of a remedy for present evils, and the fear of others which are approaching, raises to the highest pitch, the intrepidity of the brave, and gives courage even to cowards. x 2 308 THE SPANISH PKOTE STARTS. The Flemings, therefore, placed great reliance on the families of the Spanish Protestants, who were either burnt, parroted, imprisoned, or banished, and even greater still in the Prince, Don Carlos. What politician in Europe could be ignorant of the dis- agreement between the king and his son, when it was so well known that the former despised the latter, and that Carlos could not bear the sight of Philip ?* If ths Spanish Lutherans, in this second attempt, had contrived to keep secret their first steps so that the Inquisition might have known nothing of them until it should have felt the death-blow to its power, there can be no doubt that the Protestant chiefs would have elected the prince for their protector, then for their leader, and finally, for their king, in opposition to Philip II. But the Flemings were attacked in the middle of their enterprise. Their plans had become notorious, and they resolved to proceed no further in their execu- tion. Thus, leaving all politics apart, they determined on obtaining their liberties and exemptions, and, in order to do so, were prepared to profit by all pre- texts that came to hand. Some of the higher people, incited by the voice of the populace, declared war against the King of Spain. The governors of the states in Flanders demanded instant relief, and requested Philip's personal pre- sence to put down the faction which was gaining strength from day to day. Two Flemish deputies, Montmorency and Bergues, * Fabiano de Estrada De Bella Belgico. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 309 came to Spain to represent to the king the danger of losing those countries, if he did not either take vigorous means or come in person to dispel the dissensions of the people. But Philip gave them to understand that he was not in the least dismayed by the picture they drew of these disorders ; yet whilst he appeared careless about them, he was, in his heart, entertaining another war of doubts and fears. For, to refuse to sooth, by his personal pre- sence, those wounds which his ministers had made in the hearts of the Flemings, appeared like aban- doning them to the same, or even worse hands : and to think of leaving Spain, without knowing what to do with his son, Don Carlos, was to put in jeopardy the head of the monarchy in order to succour one of its members. To take Carlos with him, when every body knew him to be, in part, the author of the dissensions in Flanders, and the proposer of a remedy for them, was still more dangerous. These doubts perplexed the mind of Philip for some time; but at last he determined on a con- ference with men of experience in political affairs, and that before them there should be a free discus- sion as to the propriety of his departure for Flanders. Philip took a part in this conference, as also did the Duke of Alba, Eboli, Feria, Lara, Perez, and other great politicians. Only one person dared to suggest that Don Carlos alone would be able to calm the disturbances in Flanders. Juan Manrique de Lara, a man noted for his sagacity, put the example 310 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. of Tiberius Caesar, who was accustomed to restore order and peace to the provinces by his sons. But Silva cut short the proposal by inducing the con- ference to believe, that neither the presence of the king nor Don Carlos was necessary on the pre- sent occasion ; for the danger, he said, had not yet arrived at such an extremity as to require that ultimate remedy. Yet still Philip declared his resolution to go, but deferred his departure to some more opportune occasion. He appointed the Duke of Alba to undertake the enterprise of taming the rebels, and so vanished the hopes of Carlos and the eiforts of Lara to serve his wishes. It is said, that when the duke went to kiss the hand of the prince, before setting out for Flanders, the latter ordered him not to quit Spain ; that Alba courteously answered, he must obey the king, par- ticularly when he had conferred on him the honour and confidence of putting an end to the rebellion ; and that thereupon the young prince, laying his hand on his poignard, attempted to thrust it through the duke ; and, it is added, that the duke owed his escape to the arrival of some of the courtiers about the palace. Now, there is reason to suspect that Alba, a man of proud disposition, and the enemy of all the enemies of his Icing and master, may have spoken harshly to the prince whenever he interceded for the Flemings. It is well known that Alba never respected the sovereigns who had been engaged in war, or had been at enmity with Philip, and that THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 311 when Paul IV. was not friendly with Spain, the duke wrote him an insolent letter from Naples announcing his entry, with troops, into the ponti- fical states. I believe there is not to be found in history an example of such daring letters written to a pontiff.* * See ante p. 47. 312 THE SPANISH PKOTESTAtfTS. CHAPTEE XXI. THE duke set out for Planders, and the prince re- mained with that discontent natural to a man in his position who dreaded the magnates of the govern- ment. The Emperor Maximillian was anxiously desiring to celebrate the marriage of his daughter, Ann of Austria, with Carlos, his nephew, whom he tenderly loved ; and he also was equally desirous that the nuptials might be solemnized, as it was his intention to leave the kingdom, and get rid of Philip's power over him. But Philip delayed the marriage, under the pretence that his son was not then quite fit to enter upon such an engagement. This was the excuse he gave to the public, but secretly he was actuated by other motives. He dreaded the inten- tion of the prince was to protect the rebels, and put in hazard the Catholic religion throughout the Spanish monarchy. Carlos, offended by these delays, pressed by his uncle, and wishing to give relief to the Flemings, who had placed all their hopes of deliverance in him, resolved to quit Spain without either the con- sent of the king or even asking it. But he was without funds for the occasion, and in his necessity applied to the grandees for assistance. All pro- THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 313 mised their aid, some of them upon condition that it might not be in any way contrary to the wishes of his father. The Admiral of Castile fearing some evil, and in order to show his devotion to Philip, did not hesitate to show to him the prince's letter. The king, thus advised of his son's designs, as well by the letter to the admiral, as by the informa- tion of Don Juan, of Austria, (the conqueror of the Turks, at the battle of Lepanto,) the only person of his family to whom the prince had confided the secret. The king summoned a council to consider what remedies to adopt under the circumstances. He assisted at the council. His intention was not to ask it to come to the resolution of arresting the prince, but simply to obtain, from all who took a part in that council, an assent to such a course, founded on due consideration, so that he might stand excused in the eyes of the world for the scandalous proceeding he was meditating, of shut- ting up in prison the sworn successor to the Spanish dominions.* The only legal opinion submitted on that occa- sion was that of the famous Doctor Martin de Azpilcueta the narvaese juris-consult. In that docu- ment are manifest the fears entertained that the Flemings might petition him whom they were about to receive voluntarily as sovereign for measures against the Catholic religion. Azpilcueta says, " And this would be the more serious, because his * Antonio Perez. 314 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. highness has not jet given any proof of being so obedient, quiet, and prudent, a soldier, as it is neces- sary he should be, but on the contrary, he has shewn a vehement desire to be entirely free and to command; and consequently, if he reigned, he would be likely to concede that, which if he were wise and noble, he would not grant .... Therefore his majesty ought to avert those mischiefs, dangers, expenses, offences against Grod, disobediences and inquietudes of his government, AND THE OPPORTUNITY FOB HERETICS OBTAINING THEIR LIBERTY."* Such was this most remarkable opinion of Azpil- cueta. The document confirms the view I am taking in defence of Don Carlos. All the crimes attributed to him result in this : that he was about to give liberty of conscience to the Flemings, and desired to enter upon the government of those states, which detested alike the Catholic religion, and the government of Philip II. Foreign writers have said, that the cause of the prince's imprisonment was no other than his having meditated the death of his father. If he had con- templated any such thing, it was in his power to have perpetrated the deed with the greatest facility, before Philip could have had the least warning or suspicion, and who then would have taken up arms to avenge the crime ? "What grandees of Spain would have refused obedience to the sworn here- ditary prince ? The sovereigns of Europe, who * Luis Cabrera de (Mrdoba. History of Philip II. lib. VII. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 315 hated Philip, would certainly not have regarded the iniquitous patricide with horror; on the contrary, they would have been but too happy to entertain treaties and conditions by which they might no longer fear the power of the Spanish arms.* Those same authors affirm that the reason for the prince's confinement had its origin in the affec- tion he bore to his step-mother, Elizabeth, of Yalois, a reason, which if true, would have cost both of them their lives. But that reason does not even appear probable, otherwise why would he have been so anxious to be married to his cousin Ann of Austria, and to leave Spain, not to return till after Philip's death ? If attached to the queen, why be anxious to fly from her ? Surely his conduct does not prove him to have had any such regard for her. Those, however, who think otherwise, may quote the au- thority of a Spanish writer who hints obscurely that such was the cause of the prince's imprisonment. Manuel de Faria y Souza, in his Epitome of Portuguese History, published in Madrid, 1628, speaking of the descendants of Philip II., says of Carlos, that his father, (LIKE THE EMPEBOE, CON- STANTINE WITH HIS SON CRISPUS,) caught him in an apartment of his palace and for very just causes put the youth to death. But this comparison, if it holds * It must be borne in mind that when Philip wrote to friendly sovereigns, and to the cities and grandees of his kingdoms, to inform them of the imprisonment of his son, he ordered that at foot of each letter should be stated that the report of Carlos having attempted to murder his father was without foundation. 316 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. good at all, does not lay the prince under any imputa- tion, but shews his virtue and innocence. Crispus, a noble young man, was accused by Eausta, his step- mother, in the presence of the emperor, of having solicited her to commit incest. The father ordered him to be put in prison, and, afterwards, to death. It was subsequently proved that the youth was innocent, and that the whole was purely the inven- tion of Eausta, out of revenge for the refusal of Crispus to dishonour his father by so abominable a crime. If then we are to credit Earia y Souza that the two were parallel cases, it would appear that Carlos owed his misfortunes to his stepmother. But as the testimony of Earia y Souza stands alone, and with- out any kind of corroboration, we are bound to respect the honour of the queen, and to draw off our minds from so unfavourable a conclusion. Erom the time that Philip had obtained the approbation of various learned men as to arresting his son, if a necessity should arise for such a step, he never ceased to watch him circumspectly. Carlos continued to preserve, if he could not increase, the flame of discord in Elanders; and, in order to this, he wrote to the principal magnates, offering to go in person and rescue them from the fury of the Duke of Alba. Doubtless, the Prince of Orange found in the letters of Carlos, sufficient motives to induce him to say, which he did, vaunt- ingly, that not a word escaped the lips of Philip in reference to the civil dissensions of the Low THE SPANISH PKOTESTA2TTS. 317 Countries but came to his ears like lightning. Margaret of Parma complained, repeatedly, that letters, sent by her to Spain, were transcribed, secretly, by some friend of the heretics, by whom copies were placed in the hands of the rebellious chiefs.* The Duke of Alba commenced his government in the Low Countries by arresting the Counts of Egmont and of Home, who, ultimately, paid with their lives, for their blind confidence in the services they lent to the Spanish crown. The Prince of Orange, a man noted for his sagacity, observing the clouds in the horizon, foresaw the storm, and prudently put himself into a place of security, but not without first saying to Egmont : " This clemency of the king, ivhich so much elevates you, will be your destruction : and, as far as I can prognosticate, you will be the bridge over which the Spaniards will pass to Flanders. "^ Carlos, disquieted by the bad condition of those states, by the imprisonment of the two counts, by the sudden and suspicious death of the Marquis of Bergnes, one of the gentlemen sent by the governess to Spain, and above all, by the confine- ment of the Baron Montigny in the palace of Segovia for having had several secret communica- tions with the prince,J resolved unhesitatingly to * Fabiano Estrada. Guerras de Flandes. f Idem. J Diego de Colmenares. Historia de Segovia. 318 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. set out for Flanders, that, by his presence, he might put a stop to the barbarous measures of the Duke of Alba. Garci Alvarez Osorio, the master of the robes, had returned from Seville to the court, with a com- mission from Carlos to procure sufficient funds for the journey. The necessary sum was six hundred thousand escudos, but he was only able to procure, in ready money, one hundred and fifty thousand. The rest was to be remitted in paper money after the prince should have made his departure. Don Carlos spoke to his uncle, Don Juan of Austria, and disclosed to him his intentions, hoping that he would accompany him, as he had promised to do so. Don Juan pledged his word anew to Carlos, and went out and immediately betrayed him to the king.* Philip was greatly disconcerted : he saw the hour was arrived when he thought it expe- dient to place his son under arrest before he could execute his designs ; and, accordingly, in the night of the 18th of February, 1568, whilst the prince was asleep, his chamber was entered by the king, the Duke of Feria, Buy Gromez de Silva, Antonio de Toledo, prior of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, Luis Quijada, and twelve guards. Carlos, on seeing his father at that unseasonable hour and so attended, exclaimed : Does your majesty wish to murder me ? The king having answered that he was only about to shut him up as a madman, * Fabiano Estrada De Bello Belgico. Dec. 1. Lib. VII. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 319 Carlos replied: I am not mad but driven to despair* They took away his arms and papers, although it is believed, that some of the latter were secretly burnt by the prior, Antonio. The king committed his person to the custody of, first, the Duke of Feria, and then of Silva, with strict orders not to let him communicate with any person save those in attend- ance upon him. This arrest gave rise to many observations and conjectures in Spain, some attributing the act to excessive rigour on the part of the king, others to prudence ; and, many more, among the rest Luis Cabrera de Cordoba, observed that kings were wont to be very jealous of their successors, and displeased to perceive genius, gallantry, generosity, and great- ness, in their sons.^ But there is no document extant which more clearly shews the motives of the prince in his intended expedition to Flanders than one of the letters written by the Nuncio Eossano to the Car- dinal Alexander, dated Madrid, the 2nd of March, 1568, in which the writer says : " It appearing to the prince that in many things he was not treated as he desired, he had conceived a great hatred to the king, and all those whom he suspected of being especial favourites of his Majesty. On the other hand, the king was greatly offended * Antonio de Herrera. - His. genl del mundo, S[C. Madrid,! 601 and 1612. f Luis Cabrera de Cordoba Historia del Rey, Don Felipe II. Lib. VII. 320 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. at the prince's manner of speaking and conducting himself in reference to his desire to quit the paternal kingdom, being almost beside himself, and having disclosed his intentions to his uncle, Don Juan of Austria, the Marquis of Pescara, and others. " The king, knowing the prince's thoughts, and what he had said and written in various letters (of which we shall speak presently,) and that the time of his proposed departure was approaching, and wishing to put in execution what had so much occupied his mind, reflected deeply, and even ordered prayers to be offered up, but at last re- solved to arrest him if he did not change his inten- tion. Seeing ultimately that all persuasions to turn him from his object were vain, and that already he had in his power a sum of money and had solicited his uncle to be of his party, it was considered better and more secure to detain him in the palace than in any other place ; and therefore he was arrested as I have already said. His papers being examined, there were found many letters, several unopened, which were to have been dispatched after his depar- ture : one for the king, his father ; another for his Holiness ; another for the emperor ; and in short, for all the Catholic sovereigns and princes of Italy, and to the kingdoms and states of his majesty, all the grandees of Spain, the councils and chanceries, and the principal corporations. " That addressed to the king contained a minute enumeration of the many wrongs which, in past years, the prince pretended to have suffered at the THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 321 instance of his majesty, and stated that Carlos was quitting his kingdoms because he was not able longer to tolerate the ill-treatment he had received. " What he wrote to the grandees of Spain, coun- cils, and corporations, was to the like effect ; and he reminded them of the oath they had taken to him as their hereditary prince, from which oath they were not free, and that he now looked to them for their advice. To those who remained faithful, among the grandees, he promised grace and favour, and to return to them the feudal contributions which the king had abolished. To the corporations he pro- mised relief from the many burdens which had been imposed on them ; and, in fine, he offered to each and to all that which he considered would in his opinion be most acceptable. " To the subsidiary princes he stated that he was compelled to take the measure he was pursuing, and he entreated them to put a favourable construction on his motives. Thus with kind words and fair promises did Carlos attempt to make friends to his cause. " I saw also a list, written with his own hand, of his friends and his enemies. Among the latter stood first the name of his father, then that of Buy G-omez de Silva and his wife ; the President, the Duke of Alba, and some others. In the number of his friends he placed conspicuously the Queen (who it was said was in love with him), Don Juan of Austria, his dearly beloved uncle, Don Luis Quijada, and, if I remember rightly, Don Pedro Fajardo, T 322 . THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. who was then in Borne, and several others, unknown to me. "It is now known that he frequently let slip words to inflame the minds of his friends : for example, if speaking with any one about Arragon, he said it was very wrong not to give honourable offices to the men of that kingdom. As to people of title who had no corresponding place of residence, he complained that they were not treated so well as they ought to be. He grieved himself for the injustice which the nation suffered, and for other similar things."* Thus wrote the Nuncio Eossano, to the Cardinal Alexandri, respecting the measures taken by Don Carlos to justify to the world the part he took and his mode of proceeding with the grandees of the kingdom, and from his actions every one must admit that he was not at all deranged in his under- standing. His words and actions were those of a dexterous politician, and not of a madman. Those, however, who judge of measures by the results, will consider the attempt of Carlos to be founded in folly, seeing that it was so likely to be discovered. Eut it must be remembered, before we accuse him of want of ability, that he relied on the promise of his uncle, in whom he expected to find a friend and not an enemy. The reputation of Don Juan was not compromised by his treachery to his nephew, * Spanish translation of a letter from the Nuncio Rossano to Cardinal Alexandri. This was furnished me from the original Italian, by Senor Don Pasqual de Grayangos. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 323 though it will, I am aware, be said that he broke his word to prevent civil wars in the Spanish dominions. Surely his double dealing with the prince cannot be designated services to religion, to the king and to the state, though it may have been the tarnishing his honour and the occasion of absolute ruin to Carlos. Evils might have been the result of the prince's enterprise, but every body did not think so. Philip was apprehensive that the malcontents and the partisans of Carlos would break the doors of his prison and set him at liberty ;* a proof that he was not unpopular, and that the oppressed had put their hopes in him for their liberty. The grandees of Spain, the Pope and other sove- reigns of Europe, had Philip's own version of this affair. But Maximillian was greatly incensed at the king's conduct, and did not hesitate to characterise it as owing to the perverse counsel of his ministers. t He earnestly entreated that Carlos should be set at liberty : nay more : he demanded the immediate return of his own two sons, Eudolph and Ernest, who were then resident in the Spanish court, to which Philip had invited them before proceeding to extremities against his son. But Philip artfully answered that he was about to declare Carlos inca- pable of the succession, and that the two Austrian princes were his heirs so soon as formal proofs could be given of Carlos' inability, and that the Pope should absolve the people and nobles of * Luis Cabrera de Cordoba Vida del Rey Felipe II. f Antonia Hererra. T2 324 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. Castile from the oaths they had taken in his favour. In order to institute proceedings to this end, he formed a junta, composed of the Cardinal Espinosa, inquisitor-general, (hence the false notion that Carlos was tried by the Inquisition,) Silva, and the Licenciate Birbiesca, enemies of the supposed delin- quent. This court, however, was relieved from giving judgment on the case before it, by the death of the prince, which put a stop to its proceedings ; the minutes of which were sealed up in a green coffer, and, by order of the king, deposited in the archive of Simancas by Christoval de Mora.* * Luis Cabrera de C6rdoba. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 325 CHAPTER XXII. HITHEETO we have not stated the greatest crime of which Carlos was held by his father, the palace favourites, and the inquisitors, to be guilty ; viz., that of entertaining the Protestant doctrines. This was the report, both in and out of Spain, in those as well as in later times ; and that report was confirmed by the acts of Carlos himself. When Alba seized upon the two Flemish counts, he had in his hands, among the papers of Egmont, a letter in the hand writing of Don Carlos of Austria. By that letter the prince bound himself to concede liberty of conscience to the Low Coun- tries the instant he should take upon himself the government of those states, in opposition to the king his father.* No one who had been educated in the principles of hating and exterminating the Protestants, or those who preached reform in the church, would have considered religious tolerance useful or neces- sary to the preservation of the kingdoms ; nor would a son of Philip II. have given his hand to those called heretics, if he had not believed in the same Protestant doctrines. Don Carlos was either a Catholic or a Protestant. If a Catholic, he would * Gregoris Leti. 326 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. have detested the enemies of the Pope, for the blood of Philip circulated in his veins. But if a Protes- tant, the desire not to oppress the reformers, and his aifection to those who professed the new doctrines, would easily have been discovered in a youth, who, to his honour be it said, had not yet learned the art of dissembling, nor to act the hypocrite in matters either religious or political. When Philip reduced his son to the state of a prisoner, he caused various letters to be directed to sovereigns in Europe, with a view of explaining the cause of so rigorous a proceeding. In that which he sent to the Queen of Portugal, dated the 21st of January, 1568, is to be found the following remark- able passage : " The conduct of the prince had reached such an extreme, that, in order to comply with my obligation to God, as a Christian Prince, and the states and kingdoms he has been pleased to entrust to my charge, I could not forbear taking and shutting him up .... in fine, I have wished to make a sacrifice to God, of my own flesh and Hood, and prefer his service and the public good to all other human considerations* Now, when Philip speaks of making a sacrifice to God of his own flesh and,.blood, and of preferring his service to all other considerations, surely there was something of a religious question mixed up in the affair of the prince, which, at that particular time, must have had its origin in the attachment of Carlos to Protestant doctrines ; and the suspicion of it gains * Luis Cabrera de Cordoba. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 327 great force against the prince, by his peremptorily refusing in prison to confess, or to receive the sacrament of the eucharist. All the entreaties of those about him, to induce him to do so, were in vain ; and at last, Doctor Suarez of Toledo, his favourite friend, wrote him a letter, (it is believed by order of the king) in menacing language. The date of it was 18th of March, 1568. In this letter Suarez says : your affairs are in so dangerous a state, and you have so much compromised your condition, which I would fain improve, that I fear the worst event that can happen You have begun with so bad a sign as not to confess yourself, that no event can come of it but that of the very worst kind, and you know it very well. What will every body think and say and do, when they hear that you refuse to confess, and other terrible things are discovered, which are of such a kind, that the Holy Office will take the matter into their hands, to see whether you are a Christian or not ?* These words of Suarez lead to the inevitable con- clusion that the prince was a convert to the reform doctrines. The terrible things verified in other persons by that tribunal, joined to the affection of Carlos for the Flemish Protestants, his desire to put himself at the head of that sect in Spain, together with his refusal to receive the sacrament, are sufficient to confirm the popular opinion that he was a firm adherent of those who demanded refor- mation in the Church. * MS., National Library of Madrid. 328 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. But there are more proofs in confirmation of this opinion. The Nuncio Rossano wrote to the Cardinal Alexandri, 24th of January, 1568, giving a long account of the causes alleged by the court for the severity of its measures. He also quotes the words used in private conversation by Espinosa, the Pre- sident of Castile, which were these : "He desired that I might understand that the cause of such a step was only a wish on the part of his majesty, with all possible haste to take greater care of the service of God AND OF THE CONSERVATION OF THE RELIGION of his subjects, than of his own flesh and blood; and. he wished almost to sacrifice in that service his only son, 'because lie could not do less to show that he was not ungrateful for the benefits God was con- tinually showing him. This is, in effect, what the president has told me. On my asking him if it were true that the prince had attempted the death of his father, he answered that would have been nothing if he had not occasioned greater dangers than those towards the Icing's person, for these required another remedy ; but he had done worse, if worse it could be, that which his majesty had been endea- vouring to amend for two successive years."* * Vole ancora che io sappia che la causa per la quale s'e mossa di fare quest 'effetto, e solo Phaver sua maestd volutopiu presto haver riguardo al servitio di Dio, alia conservatione della religions et delli Regni et vasalli sui, che alia carne et sangue suo proprio, et che ha voluto quasi sacrificare per il predetto servitio Punico suo figlivolo perche non poteva far altro, se non voleva esser troppo ingrato delli benefitij che nostro signore Dio li fa di continue .... Questo mi ha detto in somma il presidente, et dicendogli io, che THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 329 There can be no doubt that the words of the President to Eossano, implied that Carlos had abandoned the Catholic religion ; otherwise the not depriving him of liberty could not have been hurtful to the conservation of the faith ; and if his crimes were worse than that of attempting to take the life of his father, what could they be if not a disbelief in Catholic doctrines ? The celebrated poet and erudite German, Schiller, in his drama of The Prince, Don Carlos, clearly adopts the opinion that this prince was a Protestant. Sir James Mackintosh, in his History of the Revolution ofL688, chap. 19, refers to the fact, that, in 1689, the jurisconsult Maynard, speaking in the House of Commons on the subject of the sufferings of the Protestants by the Catholic persecutions, said : " There is not a single Catholic sovereign in Europe who does not desire to destroy the very last Protestant, without respect even to his own family, in the same way as the gallant prince, Don Carlos, was barbarously delivered to the Inqui- sition by the master of the ferocious Alba, not for his love to the queen, as the papists say, but for his devotion to the reformation, as I can prove." Although Maynard was misled as to what he says mi par straua cosa quello che si va dicendo tutto, cive che questo giovane havesse pensato etiasu contra la persona del Re suo Padre, respose che questo saria il manco perche se no n fosse stato altro pericolo che della persona si saria guardata et remediate altra- mente : ma che ci era peggio si peggio puo essere al che suo maesta ha cercato per ogni via di rimediare due anni continui.'* Original letter of the Nuncio Rossano to Alexander, of which Senor Gbyangos has favoured me with a copy. 330 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. of the Inquisition, looking no doubt at the fact that the inquisitor-general was the president of the junta formed to judge Carlos, yet I believe that he was quite right in attributing to that prince a warm desire for the success of the reformation. The intermitting fevers began about this period to return, but with greater severity than at other times, and greatly debilitated the frame of the prince. Historians in the interest of Philip relate that, during these attacks, Carlos drank off copious draughts of iced water whilst fasting, and had the same poured over the pillows of his bed. This act leads modern authors Llorente, Bermudez, De Castro, and San Miguel, in their works already cited to infer that, by such indiscretions, he ruined his health, and affected his understanding; but this only shews their ignorance of what had been written on the subject by medical men of the sixteenth century, for the practice, so far from being consi- dered dangerous or objectionable, had positively been recommended by the faculty, as extremely salutary in all such cases. The enemies of Carlos found, in the use of iced- water, with which he was wont to cool himself during the fevers, a pretext for spreading the report among the vulgar that he was bereft of his reason. Modern authors, trusting only to what they have seen written by ancient and prejudiced historians, have the temerity to repeat the calumnies of these apologists of Philip II. But in defence of the prince there exist works of even medical Spaniards THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 331 of that age which prove that the use of ice for the cure of fevers was a remedy known, advised, and efficaciously adopted, by men who then taught in our country the mode of restoring health by those appliances which, at every step, are offered to us by nature. The remedies, however, which were applied to Carlos, did not succeed in recovering him : on the contrary, with them, according to what they say, his malady increased. From this, one may infer that the attempts to perform a cure came too late ; for the king imagined, either that his son was not so ill as he appeared to be, and that almost the whole of it was a mere feint to get rid of his con- finement, as is related by the Nuncio Bossano,* or that he did not attach danger to the case, dreading greater danger in preserving the life of the unhappy prince : a most hazardous proposition to make in treating of any father, except Philip II. ; but which has the appearance of truth, when we call to mind the natural disposition of that monarch, so great a destroyer was he of every thing which, in his esti- mation, was adverse to the peace of his kingdom, or to the conservation of the Catholic faith. The fever, however, began to increase rapidly, and the king called in Santiago de Olivares. He was the only medical man permitted to enter the apart- ment. He saw the patient, and held his consulta- tions with the other doctors in an adjoining room. * Credo che da principio (Philip II.) non credesse veramente U male; ma pensasse che fosse finto per esser largato et liber ato dalla prigione. Letter of Rossano, before referred to. 332 THE SPANISH PROTEST ANTS. In the present day it is believed that the prince died in consequence of a mysterious purge given him by Dr. Olivares at the command of Philip. This belief is founded on a passage in the life of this king by Lorenzo Yander-Hamen relative to the .treatment of Carlos. He says, " He (Olivares) purged him without any good effect, but not with- out orders or license ; and the malady then appeared mortal."* Now leaving apart the fact that this author did nothing more than copy (adding a few words in order not to be accused of theft) what Cabrera had said, that the doctor purged, the prince without good effect, because it appeared that the malady was mortal^ malice cannot discover here the least foundation for accusing Philip of poisoning Carlos. All the charge which Llorente J makes against the king had its origin in the words which inform us that the purge was not given to this illustrious and brave young prince without orders or without license; since from these it may be inferred that the monarch contrived to accelerate his death by means of a poisonous draught, or one inconsistent with the remedies applied to relieve his unhappy son from the malignant fevers with which he was afflicted. But as the order was given by the council (junta) of medical men of the chamber, to Doctor Olivares, the only one permitted to enter the prince's apart- ment, and as the license to apply such remedies as * Don Lorenzo Vander-Hamen. Historia de Felipe II. f Luis Cabrera de C6rdoba. Historia de Felipe II. J Bon Juan Antonio Llorente. Historia critica de la Inqui- sition de Espana. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 333 were prescribed by all was given by Philip, the vain arguments of Llorente and his followers amount to nothing. Don Carlos passed to a better world, at four o'clock in the morning of the 24th of July, 1568. They say that he confessed, but did not receive the eucharist in consequence of a disposition to vomit which never left him. This report was credited in the court ; but my own belief is, that he remained firm in the Protestant faith until the last hour of his existence. For this reason it was considered by Philip and his council useful to spread a report that Carlos died giving great signs and proofs of devotion, and submitted to the sacrament of peni- tence : an act which must, of necessity, have been one of an individual and private character, and not one of administration, which of course would have required many witnesses, in order to accompany, with burning tapers, the body of Christ to the bed of the dying prince.* It was also said that he forgave all who had conspired against him. Among these, his father who had deprived him of his liberty, Euy Gomez de Silva, the Cardinal Espinosa, the Doctor Velasco, and all those, who by perfidious councils, had incited his father to the act of reducing to a close prison this hereditary prince of the Spanish monarchy. Philip never would, during the whole period of * The Nuncio Rossano wrote to Rome saying that the prince confessed, but that he did not receive the communion through his being in a vomiting state in his last moments. 334 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. his son's illness, nor even in the hour of his death, permit either the queen, or the princess Dona Juana, to visit Carlos ; so much did he fear that the com- plaints of his son might escape beyond the bounds of his prison. But, worse than this, Philip himself never wished to see him in his last moments. Remorse at having occasioned the premature death of his firstborn son deprived him of courage to appear in his presence. It was contrived, however, that the confessor Diego de Chaves should warn him how dangerous it would be that an interview should take place, and especially as the prince was so well prepared to die. Philip therefore contented himself by throwing his benediction in at one of the doors of the apartment, over the shoulders of two of his courtiers. Foreign writers accuse Philip of the murder of his son, but none of them agree in the manner in which that murder was committed. Some say it was by poison; others by bleeding to death in a bath, in the same way that Seneca was deprived of his life ; while others affirm that he was beheaded. Spaniards, however, anxious for the honour of Philip, contend that the cause of his son's death was the excessive drinking of iced- water, as already stated. Only Antonio Perez in his Itelaciones, speaking of Chaves, the king's confessor, and one of those who assisted the prince in his last and tra- gical end, has the following : " He (the confessor) was offended by B/uy Glomez, who had once put him in an embarrassing situation, secretly, when he was THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 335 confessor to Don Carlos. The cause of this was that Buy Gomez had accused the confessor of his obstinacy in approving the execution of the prince. This fact is worthy of remark, as shewing in how relaxed a condition was the conscience of the monk. I forbear to mention, here, the manner in which that prince suffered. I have related this in my memo- rials of executions of that nature. There the secret may be discovered." The memorials were never printed : but these words of Perez shew that he, at least, held, and re- ferred to, as an indisputable fact, that the death of Carlos was the result of violence. In a letter also, which he addressed to a certain gentleman, he says, that in order to probe those who esteemed themselves as good politicians in that time, it was only necessary to ask them a few doubtful ques- tions. In the number of these he puts this : Whether they knew the origin of the imprisonment of Don Carlos, respecting which there were so many accounts the witnesses the counsellors their opinions the resolution of the king the execu- tion of the whole ? Whether they knew of other deaths, and the causes or no causes of them ?* These hints, coming from an enemy of Philip II., may seem worthy of being received with suspicion, although his position of a favourite in the palace let him into the secrets of that monarch. But we have the confirmation of a cotemporary author, one * Letters of Antonio Perez. 336 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. of Philip's flatterers too, who exclaims against the hard things said respecting him in foreign kingdoms. " The king ought to be well pleased with this emu- lation ; and he may wish well to his enemies for the great praise which comes from them. They have said of Mm what is said of the Eternal Father that he spared not his own son : and of Abraham, in the sacrifice of his only son, Isaac. The glory resulting from this exceeds that arising from every human case ; and there is none to compare with it, whether it may have been for religion, for justice, or for the public good. This event will leave far behind all those which we may read of in profane history"* The author who so wrote, was Salazar de Mendoza in his Origin de las Dignidades Seglares de Castilla y Leon (Toledo, 1618). But then, knowing the evil which he was doing in discovering the secrets of kings, he deviated from the point, saying : " Sed magis arnica veritas. The prince died of his malady; and his imprisonment was to reform and correct him.' 9 But these words never can blot out those which, in praise of Philip, "for an act which will leave behind all that can be read of in profane history" he put into his work, allowing himself to be carried away by a partiality for the king on the one hand, and a desire to present the naked truth on the other, when he held himself bound by state reasons to suppress it on this subject. Philip shut up that * Salazar de Mendoza. Origin of the Secular Dignities of Castile and Leon, &c. (Toledo, 1618.) THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 337 truth in darkness ; for, having offered, in respect to the imprisonment of his son, to give to all the sove- reigns of Europe, and the grandees and the cities of Spain, a particular account of the causes which induced him to the step, yet no sooner had Carlos passed to a better world, than he declined to proffer a single word about them. He appears to have been ashamed of his conduct towards the prince. The testimony, for the most part, of Spanish his- torians, as to the death of Carlos, is not entitled to the credit which some attach to it, because they had to please the taste of the court, or were in- fluenced by palace favour ; and, besides, if they had been desirous of making patent to the world the real truth, they dared not, in times of so much oppression and persecution, to refer to acts as they were, but were obliged to represent them as kings wished to have them appear in the eyes of their subjects. There is one circumstance which confirms the opinion that Carlos was murdered, viz., that the Marquis de Bergnes died in the court under sus- picions of having been poisoned ; the Baron Mon- tigny was secretly beheaded in the palace of Segovia, and the Counts of Egmont and Home perished on a scaffold before the populace of Brussels all of them for their secret correspondence with Don Carlos. This makes it credible that in order to complete the punishment of those who were held to be delinquents, Philip, and those around him, brought about the death of his son. z 338 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. Suarez de Toledo was on the very point of losing Ms life, " at the time they took that of the prince" according to the testimony of one of our ancient historians,* for the many favours he owed to Don Carlos, had not Philip discovered, among that prince's papers, a letter from Suarez inculcating parental obedience. t * In the annotations of the MS. Historia de Talavera, by Don Francisco Soto, which is to be found in the library of the bishopric of Toledo, chap. xix. page 488, we read as follows : " Dr. Hernan Suarez de Toledo .... was tutor to the Prince, Don Carlos, of whom he was much favoured ; and those favours were sufficient to have caused him to lose his life, when they took away that of the prince, if among the papers of that youth there had not been found a letter, which was the only thing that rescued him from shipwreck." t In the same work we find a copy of the letter of Suarez to Carlos : which, because it is long and inelegantly written, I forbear to give in extenso. The substance of it is as follows : In that letter Suarez attempted with many and grave reasons to separate Carlos from the way of perdition and ruin : he brought to mind the example of Icarus, who, not wishing to obey the counsel of his father, Daedalus, ascended in his flight almost to the sun, but whose intrepidity was rewarded with falling headlong into the sea : he reminded him of that ancient stanza : " Es proverbio senalado, dd Salomon nos corrige, que quieu los padres afflige sera mal aventurado." He advised Don Carlos to follow his father's example, who so tenderly loved his father, Charles V. ; and finally, he shews him the painful impression made on the public by the discovery of his intercourse with the procuradores (meaning the Flemish commis- sioners.) There is no date to the letter, but I infer from its con- tents that it was written at the end of December, 1577. I know of the existence of the document, through the great orientalist, Seiior de Grayangos. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 339 Presuming that Carlos, as has been sufficiently- shewn, was a Protestant, Philip seems in his destruction but to have put in execution the sen- tence of death pronounced against him at the auto- de-fe celebrated in Yalladolid, when he addressed to Don Carlos de Seso these memorable words : " If my son were as lad as you, I would carry the wood myself to burn him." The reason why this execution was not public may be found in the consideration that Philip, the great Spanish Catholic, shrunk from the shame and disgrace which he would have brought upon his own blood, by admitting that his descendant was tainted with the heresies of the times. Supposing it were true that the drinking copi- ously of iced-water was the cause of death, Philip and his courtiers could have prevented it, but did not. Philip, so far from prohibiting to be given to Carlos the iced-water he desired, authorised it secretly to be given ; or, he pretended to be igno- rant of the abuse his son made of the remedies pre- scribed for him in his illness. Philip ordered to be taken away from Carlos all the books of profane history, in the perusal of which the unhappy prisoner found some consolation, because Philip feared his son might find in them, opinions and political examples to excite him to ambitious projects of liberty and glory. He ordered in their stead a quantity of ascetic books, to teach the prince patience in misfortune and humility z 2 340 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. under oppression, when he felt prone to revolt against his father. The malice of Philip appears in this conduct. It is possible that his villainous dissimulation induced him not to kill Carlos, because such an act would have produced great scandal among the nobility and the nation at large ; but that his bad conscience, misled by the flattery of the divines, persuaded him not to oppose any measure tending to the suicide of his son, in case the unhappy prince should not otherwise find relief for his misfortunes. Philip might possibly be able to say, I have not killed my son, although his conscience might well reply, But you allowed Mm to die. Surrounded by his father and his father's favourites, betrayed by the false friendship of one of his near relatives, Don Carlos fell a victim to his desires to banish from Flanders the horrors of the Inquisition, and set all men's consciences free in matters of religion. Once the heroes of Spain were conquerors at the foot of the capitol, in the fields of Italy, France, and Flanders ; upon the waves of the ocean, and on the parched deserts of Africa, and finally, in America, they maintained the military glory of their country, but not of their political liberty. The enterprise of defending the public weal in Spain, was reserved for a youth of twenty-three, the descendant of Charles V. His was the glory of an action, truly noble in the estimation of the THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 341 oppressed, whatever it may have appeared in the judgment of the oppressors. Philip's eyes were opened to his own deception the moment his armies were routed in his wars with Flanders. The Dutch, the defenders of their republic and liberty, were invincible before the troops of the King of Spain. He, after having lost money, people, and reputation, in the undertaking to tame the Flemings, did that, at the close of his life, which the prince Don Carlos had determined on to pacify those civil discords. Carlos, at the age of twenty- three, without the great political experience which flattery had discovered in his father, knew how to put an end to the rebellion in Flanders by means of a member of the house of Austria, with the title of sovereign of the low countries, and not by governors, the creatures of Philip's cruelty. But, with the death of Carlos, the oppressed Spaniards were overwhelmed with terror ; and the Flemings found only in the force of their arms any hope of recovering their liberties. Philip did not give to the Flemings the liberty which they desired. What he did give to them was only a prince of his dynasty, in order that the seignory of Flanders might remain in his family. But Philip, the calumniator of his son, canonized his memory by the act of placing, at last, in Flanders, a sovereign of the house of Austria, as suggested by that unfortunate prince before the armies and revenues of Spain were ignominiously destroyed in useless conflicts. 342 THE SPANISH PROTE STARTS. CHAPTEK XXIII. THE pride of the people, when flattered by tyrants, is the greatest enemy of the political liberty of nations. People favoured by a constant succession of military glories, achieved in foreign wars, are apt to allow their liberties to be trodden down by tyranny, without adverting to the change, and without resisting it. They think of nothing but the triumph of their own country's arms, the routed hosts of the enemy in flight before their pursuers, and the cities which have surrendered to their well- directed assaults. Every victory increases the vanity of the victors, and lights up in their minds the most ardent affection to the person who rules the state under whose banner they fight. Tyrants profit by the delight with which the multitude applauds military enterprises happily terminated ; for while the attention of the people is fixed on the incidents of war, liberty is by degrees enslaved, and a care for the public good is allowed, imperceptibly, to die away. Sparta alone saved herself from tyranny in the midst of her martial glories ; because, in that virtuous republic, the love of civil liberty exceeded the pride of conquest, and, consequently, made the people more formidable to tyrants. But when the ancient THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. 343 [Romans were extending their territory by repeated victories over foreign enemies, virtue disappeared in proportion to their conquests ; and their love of liberty became exchanged for that of military glory. The people bowed themselves, in humble admiration, to the conquerors ; and offered in sacrifice the public good as a return for the trophies of war. Contempt for civil liberty succeeded the vehement desire to preserve it against tyrants. Pride was preferred to virtue: a vain and useless glory to one of the greatest of human felicities. Thus it was that Sylla domineered over the republic : thus did Caesar, by his conquests, usurp the sovereignty of his country : and, if Brutus restored to Borne her liber- ties, they were again surrendered, by Augustus, through the flattered pride and vanity of the people, for those military glories which had made him the arbiter of the world. This vanity, unhappily for the people, also domineered over Spain for many centuries. Each triumph of the Spanish arms was a new cause of our pride ; and whilst we greeted our victorious monarch with applause, he was drawing the yoke further over our necks. This exaggerated love of military glory takes, even now, entire possession of our minds ; and we are apt, in the present day, in judging of the horrid deeds of Philip II., to recur to the battles of St. Quintin and Lepanto rather than turn to the inte- rior tyranny and destruction of the monarchy. The deeds of Philip II. are, in our day, shaded by a stupid philosophy which pretends to give to this 344 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS, monster of cruelty the title of tlie Great Father of his country a title with which Rome honoured Trajan, or rather herself, in acknowledging the magnanimity of that illustrious emperor born for the good of the people. Trajan, at the commence- ment of his imperium, entered Home, in which city there was not found a father who had not to lament the death of a son a brother his brother or a wife her husband.* Philip also, at the beginning of his reign, entered Spain, and Spain, in her turn, wept the untimely deaths of many Protestants whom he caused to perish in the flames. It is said, in praise of Philip, and as an excuse for his sanguinary deeds, that, in the destruction of , Protestants, he only looked to the preservation of : the unity of religion in his kingdoms ; and that, in the secret punishments ordered by him to be exe- cuted on men opposed to his policy, he was but securing the internal tranquillity of the country. In this way are the iniquitous crimes of tyrants canonized, in this way the vulgar are deceived by false reasoning, and in this way a kind of ignorance, which pretends to a profound knowledge of the human heart, would erect her altars to the wicked. Those who find in the actions of Philip II. great- ness of soul, and a zeal for the common good, worthy the greatest praise, would also say that Nero was a monarch superior to his age, that he knew the times in which he lived, that, in attempt- * Pliny, junior Panegyricum Trajani. THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 345 ing the destruction of Christians by torture and persecution, he only wished to conserve unity of religion, and that, in short, the destruction of the flower of the Eoman nobility was merely to save the empire from those who were struggling for the liberty of the Republic. By this mode of reasoning, Spanish historians of Phillip II., in palliating his faults, do but eulogize the crimes of Nero and Dioclesian, men who are allowed to have been the scourges of humanity. A preacher once dared to say, before Philip, that kings had absolute power over the persons and pos- sessions of their subjects. This proposition, the offspring of slavery, although it flattered the pride and desires of Philip, was not well received by him. He knew that in his heart he believed it to be true, but he saw the danger of asserting it, and therefore, to deceive the people, he ordered the same preacher to retract it publicly, and to declare in' its stead, "that a king had no more power over his subjects than what the right Divine and human permitted, and not that which of his free and absolute will lie might think Jit to command"* The people fell into the snare. They could not do less than believe that a king who could not tolerate such a proposition was far from likely to follow the steps of tyranny. Spain, in the sixteenth century, was noted for its learned men in every branch of literature, but the fear of the Holy Office induced them to conceal their thoughts and feelings if these did not har- * Antonio Perez. Rdaclones. 346 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. monize with the notions of divines who treated on philosophical subjects. He is so learned that lie is in danger of l>eing a Lutheran, was said by the divines when speaking of a very learned man. In the Spanish schools they continued to teach scholastic divinity, simply because Protestants regarded the practice with contempt. The man who dared to speak in derogation of Aristotle and his logic was considered, by the inquisitors, as a heretic. Whoever, in treating of geometry, happened to say more than was advanced by Euclid, soon found a stupid califi- cador of the Holy Office at his heels, bold enough to deny mathematical verities, and accuse him of necromancy or witchcraft. And whoever had gained a respectable knowledge of the oriental tongues was designated by the Inquisition, and punished as, a Jew, a Moor, or a schismatic. The man, in short, who had the misfortune to know more than the inqui- sitorial divines, was apt to fall into the snares and traps of these tigers. If he met with a doubtful passage in the works of Tully, even though it might have occurred through the inaccuracy of the copyist or the printer, he could not correct it ; for those of the Holy Office or its ecclesiastical adherents con- sidered the curious as a suspicious criminal in matters of the faith ; because it was considered, that, if the writings of a profane author might be amended, persons might be found bold enough to amend texts of the Bible. So if a learned man spoke against the commentaries of Aristotle, the barbarous divines of the day contended, that he who would speak in THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. 347 disparagement of those commentaries would do the like in reference to commentaries on the Bible.* And if any learned man, in order to protect himself against such accusations, dedicated his labours to the judges of the Inquisition, these would not even deign to notice the author, much less shew their gratitude to him for it. Hernan Nunez, known as the Greek Commander, dedicated a correct edition of the works of Seneca to the Cardinal Tabera, in- quisitor-general, but no notice was taken of either his trouble or the respect he showed to that func- tionary.f Divines induced the Inquisition to prohibit, not only the books of authors whose doctrines were suspicious, such as those of Savonarola and Erasmus, but they even sent out other anathemas against the * The learned Pedro Juan Nunez, in a letter which he addressed to Geronimo de Zurita from Valencia, 17 September, 1566 (vide Las Adiciones de Don Diego Jose, Dormer a los progresses de la Hitioria de Uztarroz), says, " If I had not your approbation, I should despair of getting on further in my studies, not having in this city any one who dares communicate a good correction, or ex- planation, or exposition : not for want of learned persons here, but they follow different studies ; and the worst of this is, they desire that nobody may be attached to literary pursuits, on account of the dangers which, it is pretended, belong to them ; for if a person would correct a passage in Cicero, he would correct one in the sacred Scriptures, or if he speak evil of the commentators of Aristotle, lie will do the like of the doctors of the church. These and other similar stupidities unhinge my mind so much, that I am prevented from making any progress at all." f Fernan Nunez Annotationes in Senecce philosophi opera. Venitiis, 1536. The author complains of the Cardinal Tabera, in another work, entitled Observations in Pomponium Melam. Salamanticce, 1543. 348 THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. Castilian translations of the general history of the world, written by Justin, the abbreviator of Pom- peius ; against the history of Josephus ; against the book of Poly dor e Virgil on the inventors of things ; against the novels of Bocaccio ; and, in short, against many other similar works of ancient Greece and Rome. In this way was reason persecuted in the times of Philip II. Philosophy was converted into theo- logical disputations ; medicine wished to escape, but shared the same fate ; and the mathematics became reduced to the same miserable condition. In fact, Spain could only reckon one philosopher worthy of being so called, in the sixteenth century, viz., Juan Luis Vives ; and he, in order to think and write with freedom, was obliged to quit his country, never to return. His work on the cause of the corruption of the arts and sciences,* discovered, on the part of its author, such penetration and profound genius, that the fanatics of Spain regarded it as nothing less than a fountain of impiety and heresy. Some Spanish medical men of that age treated freely on their knowledge of diseases, and even ren- dered important services in anatomical discoveries- But even these labours were superintended and controlled by the inquisitorial divines. History, reduced to the bare relation of events, was written with but little judgment ; and al- though Hurtado de Mendoza and Mariana came near, in point of diction, but only in some passages the former to Sallust and Tacitus, the latter to * De Causis corruptarum art'ium. THE SPANISH PEOTE STARTS. 349 Titus Livius, yet, it was not permitted to historians, who flourished during the reign of the most intoler- able of tyrants, to write with that love of liberty, or desire to instruct the people how to meet the subtilties of tyrants, nor with that acumen, which the world expects to meet with in the works of faithful historians. Poetry, which at one time celebrated the heroic death of Cato in the Arena of Utica, could, at another, sing hymns of praise to Caesar, the usurper of the Roman sovereignty. The same muse ex- tolled alike the chastity of the fabulous Lucrecia, and that of the real one, the insolent, shameless, incorrigible, lascivious, and adulterous, wife of the stupid Claudius. Yes, poetry can readily adapt itself to events. It can find beauties to celebrate in every possible state of circumstances. Liberty has beauties for poetry, if liberty happens to be mistress of the world ; so has tyranny, if it be dominant over the people ; so has patriotism, so has national misfortune, so has virtue, and so even has vice. A century after Philip II. had established his tyranny, and the continuation of it by his successors, the sciences in Spain were reduced to the mere repetition of popular follies. In divinity alone were premiums obtained. The works calculated to teach men to think were looked upon with disdain, if not as mischievous and heretical.* * Libra de las cinco Excelencias del EspaZol que despueblan a Espanapara su mayor potencia y dilation. Pamplona, 1629. 350 THE SPANISH PBOTESTAtfTS. Our country, in those infelicitous times, did not produce a Newton, a Leibnitz, or a Descartes ; but, in exchange for the labours of such men, the Spanish divines published works in which, with laboured arguments, they discussed the question whether elves had, or had not, the sense of touching!* They also contended, with all imaginable gravity, that Martin Luther was the son of the devil himself, who came into the world to engender, in a brothel, that famous Protestant reformer.f But these divines went further. They were guilty of blasphemy to Grod himself, and declared themselves to be interpreters of the Divine will. They dared even to say, " It is true, that Christ neither used, nor wished that his followers should use, rigour against heretics ; it is true that the Word in flesh said, Know ye not that ye are my chil- dren^ and that I came not to destroy lut to save men's lives ? But although Christ said this, he did so to deceive us ; for I, who know what God thinks, can affirm that his will is no other than that heretics should be persecuted to the death, and that the Holy Office should deprive them of their vital breath without respect to persons. "J Such was the manner in which these frenetic divines, these partizans of political and religious * Vide El Ente dilucidado. f Martin Antonio del Rio, Disquisitionum maglcarum. J Vol. i. De la Conveniencia de las dos Monarquias Catolicas, la de la lylesia Romana y la del Imperio Espauol. Autor el maestro Fray Juan de la Puente. Madrid. 1612. THE SPANISH PBOTESTAKTS. 351 tyrants, were accustomed to discuss matters of this nature. Philip II., with a view of extirpating Protes- tantism in Spain, and to impede, with an army of friars, the entry of reformed doctrines into his king- doms, increased the number of those who were to defend both his civil and religious policy ; and the Caliphs of the House of Austria, who succeeded to his crown, followed the example. In spite of the complaints of some Spanish philo- sophers for license to uphold oratories and churches which had no revenues to repair them, they were allowed to fall to the ground.* The order of priest- hood was conferred on men, who, having neither benefices nor patrimony enough for subsistence, became vagabonds, and prowled about the streets as mendicants. t Religious communities bought and acquired extensive possessions, which were exempt from taxes, so that these fell more heavily upon the laity, who were greatly inferior in point of numbers. J The population in the cities and hamlets was remarkably diminished by the retirement in that age, of so many persons who sought in the con- * Bartolome de Albornoz. Arte de los Contratos. Valencia. 1573. f Discursos politicos, by Pedro Fernandez Navarrete. Bar- celona. 1621. J Discourses y apuntamientos de Don Mateo de Lison y Biedma, SeZor del Lugar de Algarinijo, veynticuatro de la Ciudad de Granada y su Procurator de Corles en las que se cele- braron el auo pasado de 1621 . 352 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. vents, a maintenance, respect and personal security, rather than their spiritual benefit.* Under the name of devotion, they wrung alms from the poor labourers already oppressed with the royal tributes, and compelled these alms to be given through fear of false accusations, t The ecclesiastics added not a little to these dis- orders and oppressions, by the counsels which they gave to the rich, whose estates were not entailed. They nattered the vanity of the laity and described in glowing colours the honour they would be sure to derive, by founding with their property after death, many colleges, monasteries, and other such institutions. Those who yielded to such perse- cutions, excluded their families from numerous in- heritances, to satisfy a proud and foolish desire to gain a posthumous reputation, if not for works of charity done in their life time, yet for those which they ordered to be performed after their death. J * " In the fifty years that people have quitted Spain for the Indies and other parts, the religious persons and clergy have mul- tiplied so exceedingly, that seven out of ten at least are wanting : and I consider this a moderate calculation. Burgos had upwardi of seven thousand inhabitants, and now there are scarcely nine hundred. So with Soria and other large towns. The small ones are depopulated entirely ; and the middle-sized ones are on the same road to it." Socorro que el Eclesidstico de E&paua podia liazer cd Rey N . S. con proxecho mayor suyo y del Reyno. Fr. Angel Manrique (a monk of St. Bernard) Salamanca, 1624. (This writer died in 1649, being then Bishop of Badajoz.) t Conservation de las Monarquias. Pedro Fernandez Navar- rete. Madrid, 1626. J It is Grod's will that a man should deprive himself of part of THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 353 In this way may be accounted for the fact, that many relatives of rich people were constrained to shut up their sons in monasteries, and their daughters in convents, that the name of some one of their blood might be celebrated in the charters, of livings, col- leges, and other ecclesiastical edifices, as a generous founder of works of so much piety and zeal for the extension of divine culture. " Only the eldest son who is to succeed to the inheritance is ever married; the rest become friars or clergymen, and the daughters or sisters are made nuns .... And all those younger children, which sore throats, fevers, and pains in the side, spare from the grave, are killed, what lie has, in order that the now poor may be relieved ; for, in this way, a man truly gives what is his own ; but he, who puts off such works of charity till after his death, gives in fact that which does not belong to him ; for it is the property of the survivors. Such are, for example, foundations of colleges, hospitals, monas- teries, livings, marriage portions of orphans, and other like things. Is it not laughable that we leave the present poor to die, in order to provide for those yet unborn? If God can create them without me, is he not also able to sustain them ? To think and act otherwise is to make each of us a counsellor of the Almighty, who has not commended to us the unborn poor, but those who are already in beirg : and of these the rich will have to give an account to God ; so that when God may please to create others, he may also know how many rich ones to create to sustain them. And as the rich to be created at a future time are not obligated to give an account of the present poor, so neither will the present rich be obliged to give an account of the future poor. This is not my doctrine, but that of the same God who says : sell that thou hast, and give to the poor. He does not say : Entail, nor pur- chase to entail, but give that which you have, and you shall make treasures in heaven. Arte de los contratos por Bartolome de Albornoz, estudiante de Talavera. Valencia, 1573 2 A 354 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. afterwards, by the very father who begat them putting them out as friars and nuns, not having the means of placing them in life, seeing that the eldest; carries off the entailed property. Carta yue escribe a V. M. don Gaspar de Griales y Arce, Arqobispo de Rijoles, conde de la ciudad de Bova, senor de Castellaje, Sfc. y de su Consejo. Rijoles. En el A^obispal pala9io. For Jacobo Mattel de Me9ina, M.DCXLVI. The rich and powerful ecclesiastics, not satisfied with devastating the fields by the ruin of the pea- santry, and with enriching themselves by another's living, sought by all possible means to profit by the grain they had heaped together, without any trouble, care, or risk of their own, and endeavoured to raise the price of those commodities which they had acquired from the people as a kind of alms due to their dignity.* * Much less will this manner of dealing by the clergy, who avail themselves of Jesus Christ against Jesus Christ, be any answer to God ; it is being a clergyman, in order not to be one, but a huckster of bread. Just look at our Saviour, Jesus Christ, with his disciples, (blind, cold, and incredulous as they were) in the house at Emmaus. They only knew him in his breaking and giving them bread : in this Jesus Christ is known, and not in hoarding it up. The true hoards and granaries of the bishops and the clergy, and of all ecclesiastics, are the stomachs of the poor : there let them stow away their bread, and not in dead gra- naries. " B. de Albornoz. " The moment that those renters collect the tithe and ecclesiastical fruits .... they hide them, and put them in their barns and granaries to keep them .... and they are the cause of raising the price." Veriloquium en reglas de estado segun derecho divino, natural, canonico y civil y leyes de castilla. . . . compuesto por el doctor Tomds Cerdan de Tallada, Valencia, 16C4. THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 355 The ills of our country increased : no one was found prepared to make a firm resistance to them. All was ignorance, confusion, and ruin. Wisdom was silenced by pride and folly. Learned men were rewarded for their studies with the title of heretics. Malice threw its chains and fetters upon innocence. Iniquity was canonized. Even slavery was not permitted to bewail the horrors of its wretched condition. Those who adjudged to them- selves all the glory of conquerors afflicted and in- sulted, not only the conquered, but those who had assisted in obtaining the victory. "When nations arrive at such an extremity when subjects on their knees, and with their faces inclined to the ground, listen to the commands of a haughty tyrant, who gives the name of veneration to the dread which his very appearance and the recollection of his abomi- nable crimes inspire, what signifies the strength of his armies, the courage of his vassals, the amount of his riches, or the extent of his possessions ? Valour itself shall fall prostrate at his feet. His hosts shall disappear like clouds. His treasures shall pitifully waste away. The bowels of the earth shall hide the precious metals from his view. His ill-acquired territories shall, one by one, be taken from him by strangers ; and his ships, driven by the tempests, shall find no secure, no friendly port : for he shall be made the sport and the plaything of those who, at other times, would have fled at his very approach. This has been, and ever will be, the end of a tyrant's policy. 2 A 2 356 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. CHAPTEE XXIV. PHILIP II., fearful that the doctrines of the Pro- testant religion would take deep root in his king- doms, applied the most terrible remedies for their extermination, under a belief that thereby he would secure the interior peace of the country ; but he knew not the best, the simplest, and most likely course, to attain it, viz., the abandonment of reli- gious intolerance. The ruin of Spain was the work of this monarch. His fear of the Protestants induced him to make the clergy, the Mars, and the Jesuits, so numerous and powerful, that although some of his successors, yielding to the universal clamour, wished to put an end to the mischief, they had not the power to attempt it. The Jesuits maintained in their writ- ings the detestable doctrine, that it was lawful, useful, and necessary, to take the life of sovereigns who separated themselves from the Eoman Catholic religion, or attempted to interfere with the tempo- ralities of the church. The Jesuit Juan de Mariana, in a treatise written to instruct princes and subjects,* speaking on this * Joannis Marianae Hispani, e societate Jesu. 'J)e Rege et regis institutione, libri III., ad Philipum, tertium Hispanise Regem Catholicum. Anno 1599 Toleti, apud Fetruin Rodericum. THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. 357 subject, and particularly the question as to whether it is or not lawful to kill a tyrant, paints in vivid colours the end of Henry III. of France, who died in consequence of a wound inflicted, by the hand of a friar, with a poisoned dagger. A horrible spectacle, and yet the most worthy of remembrance ! exclaimed this Jesuit. "That king," says he, "not having a successor of his blood, intended to leave the crown to the Prince of Beam, Henry of Bourbon, who, although of slender age, had already become attached to the doctrines of Calvin, and, as such, had been excommunicated by the Pope, and deposed from the right of succession. This becoming known, many of the Catholic nobles determined, by force of arms? to defend their religion and their country. The principal of these was the Duke of Guise. Henry, desirous of frustrating the intentions of these nobles, called the Duke of Guise to Paris, with a view of having him treacherously murdered in the palace ; but the people, discovering the infamous plot, rose against the monarch, who fled secretly from Paris, and pretended that he wished, with mature con- sideration, to examine and discuss the matter in public, with a view of ascertaining the most eligible way of nominating a successor worthy of the crown of France. Many of the nobility and gentry assembled together in a neighbouring hamlet, and there perished the Duke of Guise and his brother, the cardinal, in the royal palace. These being killed, Henry pretended that a crime of treason had been committed, and determined to visit his enemies 358 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. compromised in the affair with similar punishment, and among the rest, the Cardinal de Bourbon, who, although of great age, was the right heir to the French crown." " People's minds became excited at such events. Many of the citizens, and, among others, those of Paris, rose against Henry. The fury of the people somewhat appeased, Henry resolved to approach this city ; but the audacity of a young man gave an aspect more agreeable to things which before had been very sad." " A man, called James Clement, a native of a village of the Sorbone, who was at that time study- ing divinity in a college of the order of preachers, having learned from his masters that it was per- mitted to take the life of tyrants, determined on taking that of King Henry. He, therefore, pre- tending to have in his hands letters containing most important secrets of those who were of Henry's band in Paris, set out for the camp of that monarch, 31st of July, 1589. He was received in the camp without any difficulty," (observe the words of Mariana.) " As one having to discover matters of state, it was ordered that on the follow- ing day he should appear before the king. On that day, the feast of St. Peter Advincula, after having celebrated mass, he (the regicide,) entered the royal chamber early in the morning; and, when Henry had just risen from his bed, but was not at all dressed, Clement delivered some letters, and, pretending to take out others, with the greatest THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. 359 serenity of mind, and without the least perturba- tion, thrust into the king's bowels a sharp poignard which was poisoned with the juice of certain herbs. Admirable confidence of soul ! an exploit worthy to be had in remembrance !* The instant the king felt himself wounded, he cried out with the violence of his suffering, " you treacherous parricide :" and, seizing with his hand the same poignard, he drave it into Clement, leaving him almost dead. The courtiers, alarmed at the cries of Henry, ran to his chamberj and on beholding the spectacle, were desirous of dispatching the friar, who lay weltering in his blood ; but he was already breathing his last. In the midst of his agonies Clement said nothing : On the contrary, his face, serene and even cheerful, as if proud of his exploit, .... the unhappy creature perished at the age of twenty-four; a youth of simple understanding, and stature not at all robust, but of the strongest mind."f In our own times, now that liberty has made so much progress in Europe, we may fancy we can see, in these words of Mariana, advising subjects to compass the death of tyrants, a proof of his being a lover of democracy. But in this there is a palpable error. This famous Jesuit, Mariana, in eulogising James Clement, describes him to our imagination as a young man, prudent, and very zealous for the salva- tion of his soul, so much so, that solely with that * Insignem animi confidential!!, facinus memorabile ! f Simplici juvenis ingenio, neque robusto corpore : sed major vires et animam ! 360 THE SPANISH .PROTESTAKTS. view and to ask the divine aid, he said mass before committing a sacrilegious murder ; which ought to have filled our historian with the greatest horror, not only because he was by profession an eccle- siastic, but also because from the fact of his being simply a Christian, he would not be likely to write in that style for love of a republic. His real inten- tion was, in a book for the instruction of princes, to shew, by the death of Henry III., that the king who departs from the Catholic faith may, and ought to, perish by the dagger ; and in due time to terrify monarchs, by implanting in the hearts of their sub- jects, a desire to deprive of life those sovereigns who allow themselves to be conquered by heretical doc- trines. Indeed, he confirms this, when he says : " If the king vexes the republic and abandons to plunder the fortune of every body, and despises the laws and the sacred religion, if Jiis pride, arrogance, and impiety shall dare to insult God himself, then he ought not to be tolerated." Thus did Mariana defend regicide, provided the deed was committed on the person of a leader of heresy in his own dominions. Thus did the Spanish Jesuits proclaim doctrines dangerous to the people, who, hurried on by such wicked counsels, attempted to murder their princes. Whenever t^ere is a mutiny of the populace, it generally follows the most mischievous examples. I have no wish, in order to abominate the act of regicide, to take up either space or time to prove that it is a crime ; rather let us glance at the evils THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 361 which nations have drawn upon themselves by the commission of such a lamentable offence. Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, oppressed his vassals beyond all right and reason. They, wearied of bearing the yoke, rebelled against the author of their miseries, and expelled him from his kingdom. He, who had cruelly ruled a powerful people, saw himself reduced to the necessity of earning his daily bread, as a schoolmaster at Corinth. Liberty secured itself in Syracuse ; and the miserable end of Dionysius served as an instruction and a salutary example to others who attempted to govern the world by tyranny. "When Philip, King of Macedon, wished to invade Sparta, its inhabitants addressed to him an epistle containing these two short lines : " The Lacedemonians, to Philip : Dionysius at Corinth." This laconic expression conveyed to him the following information : " Dionysius, who was as famous a tyrant as thou, is now a master of school- boys at Corinth. Eemember thou, that he was like thee, and that thou, proceeding in thy usurpations, must bow down from thy greatness and rule chil- dren instead of men." Not only was liberty secured in Syracuse, but in all Sicihr, without the people having stained their hands m the blood of Dionysius. Eut what were the results in other places where kings were put to death by violence ? Victory remained with the people, though it was but 362 THE SPANISH PEOTESTANTS. nominal and evanescent ; for, having destroyed a tyrant, they with the very blood of his veins stimu- lated the root of tyranny itself, and caused it to shoot up afresh with new vigour. The dictator Caius Julius Caesar, dying by the hands of Brutus and Casius, and other conspirators, was no lesson to tyrants. The triumph of those who by such means procured liberty for their coun- try was but momentary, for the greatest of all tyrannies then returned upon Rome. The hypo- critical Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, were more cruel emperors than their pre- decessor Julius Caesar, whose death in the Senate neither served as an example nor a warning to those who subsequently became the rulers of the world. On the one hand the Jesuits nattered the popular pride by their approval of regicide, and filled the minds of sovereigns with terror to deter them from falling away, even in thought, from the Eoman Catholic faith, and from daring to touch the tem- poral possessions of the clergy : on the other hand, the artful company of these Jesuits entirely governed the consciences of the people. It preached and ex- tolled, as greatness of soul, the most abject and infamous abasement ; to the most villanous and mean dissimulation it gave the name of zeal for the divine service ; it held the love of liberty and country as a passion unworthy and seditious in the eyes of Grod and all sincere and pious men to the most flagrant hypocrisy, the cloak of indecent vices and most execrable crimes, it gave the name of THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 363 sovereign virtue while the most servile and wretched slavery was designated by it as a condition the most happy, providential, and glorious. ~No wonder that Spanish valour fell before such perversity ; or that men's understandings became turned topsy turvy, by that designing society which banished virtue as well as science, from our soil. This lamentable destruction of the Spanish nation had been foretold a century before, by the great divine, Melchor Cano, who in a letter to Friar Juan de Regla, confessor of Charles V., dated 25th of September, 1557, speaking of the Jesuits, made use of the following quaint but remarkable words : " One of the things which move me to discontent with those fathers is, that as to all the gentlemen they take in hand, instead of making them lions they make them hens And if the Turk had but sent to Spain, by post, men for the express purpose of taking away her energies, making our soldiers women, and our gentlemen merchants, he could not have sent us others more adapted to the purpose I see evils coming in shoals, and destruction as clear as the sun, as well of all religion as of all sound policy and vigour in these kingdoms, and I cannot conceal from my view the fire which I see coming to light up a general con- flagration in the world. But I am like Cassander, who never was believed until Troy perished without remedy.* * Vida de San Francisco de Borja, written by Cardinal Cienfuegos. 364 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. This prophecy of Melchor Cano was soon fulfilled. A century after the reign of the tyrant Philip II., neither valour, virtue, nor science, was to be found in unhappy Spain ; for the subsequent monarchs of the house of Austria who succeeded to his crown, followed in his footsteps. Philip II., afraid of the Protestants, threw himself into the arms of the Jesuits and clergy, whose only knowledge of virtue may be inferred from their devotion to every species of vice. Philip ruined his states by the severe measures he used to extinguish Lutheranism. By calling to his aid the enemies of the Protestants, he gave such encouragement to the former by flatter- ing their pride of victory, and their belief in his superior power, that he converted them into de- stroyers of their own country. He followed, and in every thing imitated, those who preceded him in the true road to tyranny. The wicked ecclesiastics, who had served the policy of Philip II., had no sooner obtained their victory over the Protestants, than they began to violate the chastity of an incredible number of the most distinguished maidens and matrons in Seville. In 1563, two years after the famous autos-de-fe celebrated in that city against the poor Protestants, those ecclesiastics commenced the abominable and profane practice of making love to the women who came to the confessional. Doubtless these wicked men themselves used the most terrible threatenings in order to effect their base designs. Maidens and matrons of great families and good reputation, THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 365 fearful of falling under the indignation of those monsters of iniquity, and of renewing those spectacles of burning unhappy victims at the stake, ceded to the dishonourable proposals of these men, who it would appear had taken upon them the name and garb of God's holy ministers, in order to serve as an excuse for committing all kinds of sin. Thus they abused that fear which their victory over the Pro- testants had inspired : thus were fathers and hus- bands dishonoured : all laws, human as well as divine, were violated : and the seat and sacrament of penitence were converted, the first, into a stall of lewdness, the second, into a source of the most dis- honourable vices. But there were not wanting some, even in those degenerate times, who had the courage to denounce to the Holy Office the infamous procedure of those men, satyrs in the estimation of those who knew their lewdness, but men of sanctity, in the eyes of the poor deluded victims of hypocrisy many of whom confided in them, because they feared their power to inflict, or to save them from, temporal as well as eternal punishment, The Inquisition commanded that all who had been subjected to such gross mis- conduct on the part of their confessors should at once denounce them to the tribunal of the faith, on pain of excommunication. An edict was issued to the effect that these de- nouncements should be made and verified within thirty days : but so great was the number of them, that the Holy Office thought it necessary to extend 366 THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. the time to other thirty, and afterwards again to more, for to such an extent did these denounce- ments increase, that although two secretaries were continually employed in taking the declarations, they were unable to get through the duties committed to their charge. To the scandal of Seville, the edict was published. The heads and faces of these matrons and maidens were concealed and covered with cloaks, as they went to and returned from the Inquisition, in order that they might not be discovered by their fathers and husbands, who went about on the alert, pain- fully anxious to learn whether vice and dishonour might not possibly have entered their thresholds. The inquisitors found that so much publicity was likely to bring about serious evils to themselves ; and therefore, pretending that the proceedings in- stituted against so many ecclesiastics would result in the hatred of both fathers and husbands to the priesthood, and also in fear on the part of women, in future, to confess, put a stop to the business, leaving the crimes of those lascivious friars and clergymen to escape with impunity ; although they had, in their turn, reduced so many martyrs of liberty of conscience to ashes in the flames.* * " On the other hand it was really strange to see the father- confessors, friars, and clergy, going about sad, mute, and crest- fallen, from the effects of a bad conscience ; expecting, every hour and every moment, that a familiar of the Inquisition was coming to lay hold of them ; nay, many alleged that a great persecution, even worse than that against the Lutherans, was coming upon them. But all this fear ended in wind and smoke ; for the THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 367 The men who had led such scandalous lives, when they found that their crimes went unpunished, nay, protected, for the good of Catholics, remained the same, and continued their vices. They pre- tended to be saints, and proclaimed conversations which they professed to have had with invisible spirits, and taught men and women the horrible doctrine that in order to work out the glories and favours which heaven was about to concede to mortals, it was only necessary to raise the thoughts up to Grod, maintain them in that sublime altitude, and leave the body to submerge itself in the sen- sual appetites.* Such is the depravity of the human heart, and such are the allurements of vice, that even this doctrine found followers in all classes of society. There is not recorded in history a more striking instance of vice taking the name of holiness in this infamous manner. The Inquisition, adverting to the mis- chiefs which lewdness disguised with the mask of sincerity occasioned, began to imprison the delin- quents in such crimes as were contrary to modesty, inquisitors saw by experience the great mischief that would result to the Roman church from such proceedings ; for the clergy would be despised, and pointed at with the finger of scorn, and the sacra- ment of confession would neither be esteemed nor appreciated as before : and, therefore, they declined to proceed any further in the matter ; but, interposing their authority, they put a perpetual silence on all that had passed, as though it had never happened ; so that none of the confessors suffered, no not even those whose profligate conduct had been sufficiently proved." Valera, Tratado de los Papas. * Ortiz de Zuiiiga Annals of Seville. 368 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. chastity, and decency, and to the increase of the Christian religion. But whilst they pretended to punish these evil doers, who thus insulted good manners by their pernicious examples, they never thought of reducing them to ashes for such delin- quencies. The penalty solely consisted in the abju- ration of the culprit in a public auto-de-fe, the loss of property, and perpetual or temporary seclusion in some monastery inhabited by men of sound doc- trine and laudable conduct : with those alumbrados (a name given to the lewd ecclesiastics, and the people who followed their infamous sect) the Holy Office was not only humane but indulgent. Those who call Philip II. the upright and con- stant defender of the laws against Protestants have no right to speak of the cruelties of Domitian and other emperors who strove with sanguinary pertinacity to exterminate the Christians ; for these monarchs only imitated the example set them by the infamous son of the haughty Agrippina. When a great politician, a man of an upright mind, a sincere lover of the well-being of those he governs, wishes to put down obstacles which oppose themselves to his power, or to the happiness of his kingdom, he disdains having recourse to those punishments resorted to by people of low and vulgar minds, who vainly endeavour by the ferocity of their actions to hide their cowardice, preserve their power, and carry out their violence, rely- ing on the popular alarm, and on the false name of bravery, by which title the most revolting cruelties THE SPANISH PKOTESTANTS. 369 are designated by the ignorance of the vulgar. Of this we have an example in the Emperor Julian, the apostate. Before occupying the throne of the Caesars, he had studied the histories of Greece and Eome, the lives of Alexander, of Alcibiades, of Thrasybulus, and of Timoleon, of Fabricius, of Metel- lus, of the Scipios, of Caesar, and of Marcus Brutus ; and he attributed the daring bravery of these famous captains, and of their soldiers, to the heathen re- ligion, which assisted to kindle the fire of heroism, taught the philosophy of despising death, and of constancy in adversities. Julian believed that the Christian faith was, in his day, enfeebling the courage of the mind, and that patience in misfor- tunes, preached by the apostles and first fathers of the new religion, was not so heroic as that of the heathen, but a humiliation of the dignity of man, and an instrument to bring about the ruin of the empire, For this reason, Julian abjured Christianity as soon as he threw over his shoulders the purple mantle, and had placed on his temples the diadem . of the Caesars. But he did not follow the sangui- nary examples of his predecessors in the persecution of the Christians. With these he was tolerant ; and instead of slaying with the fire and the sword, he contrived to conquer, with caresses, gifts, and honours, those who imitated him in the road of apostacy ; whilst, on the other hand, he visited with contempt, and incapacity to exercise any office or charge in the army or government, those who per- 2 B 370 THE SPANISH PBOTESTANTS. sisted, by words or actions, in defending the Chris- tian religion. No emperor occasioned so much damage to the Church ; for many of the Christians, who, through cruelties and martyrdom, never would have sur- rendered their faith, fell prostrate before a bland and artful generosity.* Philip II. hunted the Protestants of England to death ; and yet these increased in such a manner under his persecutions, that scarcely were they able to contemplate their freedom from the yoke with which he had oppressed them, than they destroyed all the measures with which they had been oppressed by the ferocious consort of Mary Tudor. Philip did not undeceive himself with the ill success of his policy in England. Never does a tyrant learn by experience: he always ardently follows the dictates of his own ignorance and un- bridled love of oppression. The name of Philip II. is not worthy to be named with those who persecute mankind in order to establish the laws of a selfish policy, but rather to be placed by the side of those who use all sorts of cruel means to attain the same object. Nor does he deserve to be placed on the same footing in history with the Julians ; but with the Neros and other Caesars, the ferocious and con- stant persecutors of liberty of conscience. Philip II. has received praises and encomiums, subsequently to the age in which he lived, from some who imagined there were benefits to be derived by * St. Gregory Nacianzeno Epistle XVII. THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 371 reducing the understanding to a state of absolute slavery. Nero, with all his faults, found a senate infamous enough, for the space of many years after his death, to laud and bless his memory, and hold him up as the model of princes. Tyrants know and feel that it is impossible to blot out the recollections of their infamous deeds from the pages of history ; and, for this reason, they construct the most sumptuous public edifices as some counterpoise against that load of execration and contumely which coming ages will heap upon their memory : for they vainly imagine that the respect which the contemplation of such fabrics is likely to inspire may sway the mind and judgment of the impartial historian ; just as though the de- struction of the kingdom alone did not testify against such proud foundations ; or, the light of reason did not declare such edifices to be monu- ments of the devices and stratagems with which tyrants deceive the world. Thus Philip II. erected the monastery of the Escurial, a sumptuous fabric, the wonder of art, while the ruin of Spain was owing entirely to his wicked and inconsiderate policy. So Nero, also, built a proud palace in Eome ; and it was hard to say which caused most admiration: the gold, the precious stones, the gardens, the basins, and ex- tended shrubberies were formed with such ingenuity and boldness, that even nature itself was outdone by art. 2 B 2 372 THE SPAKISH PBOTESTAtfTS. Pliilip II., a suspicious, dissimulating, andferocious ? monarch, an inconsiderate politician, and a stupid legislator of his country, thought to save it from the disasters of civil discord arising from religious causes, by destroying the Protestants with fire and sword, and by bringing human reason into bondage. He wished to be a legislator of his country ; but he knew not how to form the laws of which his coun- try had need. He contented himself with being a foolish compiler of the good, middling, bad, and even worst of, laws which his ancestors had given. The results of the Nueva Recopilacion were truly unfortunate ; for so confused did Philip make his work, that in some parts it appeared that certain ancient laws were abolished, whilst in other parts these were taken to be still in force. There is no other instance of so foolish a code. It is no excuse for Philip to say that his counsellors alone formed this compilation ; for, in truth, he was so suspicious, that he trusted nobody ; every thing was obliged to pass his own personal examination and receive his approval. All science, valour, virtue, greatness of mind, prosperity, nobleness of sentiment, and true sense of honour in the once illustrious and generous Spain, fell prostrate at his feet. When a private offender against the laws of his country suffers the penalty due to his crimes, our feeling of a just indignation ought to be changed for that of a silent respect when we approach the spot which contains his miserable remains. But when a tyrant wraps himself in the mantle of a THE SPANISH PROTESTANTS. 373 false reputation for virtue when by his example of escaping with impunity the punishment due to his political crimes, he is in danger of drawing down upon the world new ravages, new desolations, and new ruins when he has stigmatised the noblest of actions as crimes when he has insulted reason when he has conspired with vice, ignorance, and malice, against the best interests of his country when, by his persecutions, he has banished learning from his states when he has enslaved liberty of conscience when he has wasted the valour of his subjects by his foolish policy and useless feats of arms when he has cursed the unoffending and out- raged humanity and, in fine, when he has em- brued his hands in the blood of the innocent, there cannot exist with the recollections of such turpitude, no, not even in presence of the marble that guards his tomb, the least compassion or the least respect. History, as a just avenger of such crimes committed by a haughty and bloody tyrant, is bound to exhibit them in their true light and to hold them up to the lasting scorn and execration of the ages. APPENDIX. Works in Castilian prohibited ~by the Holy Office in the sixteenth century, according to the expurga- torial index of Cardinal Don Gfaspar de Quiroga, Archbishop of Toledo and Inquisitor-general of Spain (Madrid, 1583.) Ayuntamientos doze de los apostoles. Alberto Pio, Conde Carpense, contra Erasmo. Apologia en defensa de la doctrina del padre fray Hieronymo Savonarolas. Aquilana, comedia. Arte amandi, de Ovidio, en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Arte de bien morir, sin nombre de autor. Artes de confessar: una compuesba por un reli- gioso de la orden de sant Benito : y otra por un religiose de sant Hieronymo. Aviso breve para rescebir la comunion a menudo, traduzido de toscano por el maestro Ber- nardino. Aviso y reglas Christianas del maestro Avila, sobre el verso de David, Audi filia, &c., impreso antes del ano de 1574. Auto de la Eesurrection de Christo, sin nombre de autor. Auto hecho nuevamente por Gil Vicente, sobre los muy altos y muy dulces amores de Amadis de (raula con la princesa Oriana, hija del rey Lisuarte. 376 APPENDIX. Baltasar Diaz, glosa, Retrayda estd, &c. Bartolome de Torres Naharro, su Propaladia : no siendo de las corregidas e impresas el ano de 1573, a esta parte. Belial, procurador de Lucifer, contra Moysen, procurador de lesu Christo. Breve j compendiosa instruction de la religion Christiana : con otro libro intitulado de la libertad Christiana, impreso 6 de mano. Cancionero general : no estando quitadas del las obras de burlas. Carta embiada a nuestro Augustisimo senor Prin- cipe don Phelippo, Bey de Espana : sin nombre de autor ni impressor. Catherina de Geneva. Catechismo, compuesto por el doctor luan Perez, aunque falsamente dize que fue visto por los inqui- sidores de Espana. Catechismo de don fray Bartolome Carranea de Miranda, Ar9obispo de Toledo. Catholica impugn acion del heretico libelo que en el ano passado de 1480 fue divulgado en la ciudad de Sevilla por el licenciado Fr. Hernando de Tala- vera, Prior que fue de Nuestra Senora de Prado. Cavalleria celestial (por otro nombre Pie de la Eosa fragante) l. a y 2. a parte. Christiados de Hieronimo Yida. Chronica de Juan Carrion y todas sus obras. Circe de Juan Bautista del Grelo. Coloquio de Damas. Combite gracioso de las gracias del Sancto Sacra- mento. Comedia llamada Aquilana, hecha por Bartholome APPENDIX. 377 de Torres Naharro, no siendo de las enmendadas, corregidas e impresas del ano 1573, a esta parte. Comedia llamada Jacinta. Comedia llamada Josefina. Comedia 6 acaecimiento llamada Orfea dirigida al muy illustre y assi magnifico seiior don Pedro de Arellano, conde de Aguilar. Comedia la Sancta, impressa en Yenecia. Comedia llamada Tesorina, hecha nuevamente por Jay me de Huete. Comedia llamada Tidea, compuesta por Francisco de las Natas. Comedias, tragedias, farsas, 6 autos donde se reprende y dize mal de las personas que frecuentan los Sacramentos 6 templos, 6 se haze injuria a alguna drden 6 estado aprovado por la yglesia. Comentario breve, 6 declaracion compendiosa sobre la epistola de Sant Pablo a los Eomanos: compuesto por luan Yaldesio. Comentario 6 declaracion familiar y compendiosa sobre la primera epistola de Sant Pablo apostol a los Corinthios, muy util para todos los amadores de la piedad Christiana : compuesto por luan Y. Y. pio y sincero theologo. Comentario en romance sobre la epistola primera de Sant Pablo ad Corinthios : traducida de griego en romance : sin autor. Comentarios de don fray Bartolome Carrara de Miranda, Arcobispo de Toledo, sobre el cathecismo christiano : divididos en cuatro partes. Constantino, doctor de Sevilla : todas sus obras. Confession del pecador del mesmo doctor Con- stantino, 6 sin nombre de autor. Consuelo de la vejez. 378 APPENDIX. Consuelo y oratorio espiritual de obras muy devotas j contemplativas para exercitarse el buen christiano : sin nombre de autor. Contemplaciones del Idiota en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Cruz de Christo : compuesto por un frayle de la Orden de los Menores, impresso en Medina por Gruillermo Millis. Cruz de Christo sin nombre de autor. Cruz del Christiano. Custodia, farsa. Despertador del alma. Dialogo de doctrina Christiana : compuesto nueva- mente por un cierto religioso : sin nombre del autor. Dialogo de Mercurio y Caronte. Dialogo donde hablan Lactancio y un Arcediano sobre lo que acontecio en Eoma en el ano de 1527. Dialogos christianos contra la Secta Mahometica y pertinacia de los ludios : en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Dialogos de la union del alma con Dios. Dionysio Eichel, cartuxano, de los quatro pos- trimeros tranzes : traduzido por un religioso de la drden de la Cartuxa, en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Discurso de la muerte de la Eeyna de Navarra. Discursos de Machiavelo. Egloga nuevamente trobada por luan del Enzina, en la qual se introduzen dos enamorados, llamados Plazido y Victoriano. Erasmo, todas sus obras en romance. Espejo de perfection: llamado por otro nombre theologia mystica, de Henrico Herpio. APPENDIX. 379 Espejo de la vida humana sin nombre de autor. Espejo de bien vivir : sin nombre de autor. Examen de ingenios : compuesto por el doctor Juan Huarte de Sant luan, no se emendando y corrigiendo. Exercitatorio de la vida spiritual : sin nombre de autor. Exposicion del Pater noster de Savonarolas. Exposicion sobre los cantares de Salomon en octava rima, 6 en prosa, en romance 6 en otra len- gua vulgar solamente. Exemplario de la Sancta fe catholica : sin nombre de autor. Exposicion muy devota del psalmo De profundis, y anotaciones en materia de la oracion sobre el evangelio de la Cananea. Compuesto por un reli- gioso de la orden de Sancto Domingo : impresso en Sevilla por Martin de Montesdoca: impresor de libros. Earsa de dos enamorados. Earsa llamada Custodia. Earsa llamada losefina. Easciculus Myrrae. Elor de virtudes. Elores B/omanas. Elos Sanctorum: impresso en Zarago9a ano de 1556. Gamaliel. Garci Sanchez de Badajoz, las lectiones de lob, aplicadas a amor prophano. Genesis Alphonsi. Glosa nuevamente hecha por Balthasar Diaz, con el romance que dize " Betray da est& la Infanta." 380 APPENDIX. Harpa de David. Fr. Hernando de Talavera de la orden de Sant Hieronymo, un su libro intitulado Catholica impug- nacion, &c., como se contiene arriba en la letra C. Hieronymo Vida, Christiados. 3?r. Hieronymo Roman, de la orden de Sant Augustin, su nistoria de la misma orden y los libros de Repiiblicas, no se enmendando y corrigiendo. Historia de los Sanctos Padres del testamento viejo, compuesta por Fr. Domingo Baltanas. Historia Pontifical compuesta por el doctor Gon- alo de Illescas, impressa antes del ano de 1573. Horas en romance todas quedando las de latin, salvo aquellas que espresamente estan prohibidas. lacinta, comedia. larava Maestro : los psalmos Penitenciales, Can- ticum graduum, y lamentaciones. Imagen del Antichristo : traduzido de Toscano en Eomance por Alonso de Pena-Fuerte. Institucion de la religion Christiana : impresa en Witemberga. Instituciones de Taulero. lorge de Montemayor : sus obras tocantes a de- vocion y religion. losefina: comedia. losefo de las Antigiiedades Judaicas, en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Itinerario de la oracion. luan del Enzina, Egloga de Placido y Victoriano. luan Perez, doctor, un su cathecismo y psalmos traduzidos y sumarios de doctrina Christiana. lubileo de plenissima remision de peccados, con- cedido antiguamente. En el fin del qual dize : APPENDIX. 381 " Dado en la corte celestial del parayso desde el origen del mundo con privilegio eterno, firmado y sellado con la sangre del unigenito hijo de Dios lesu Christo, nuestro unico y verdadero Eedemptor y Senor." lustino, historiador, en romance, 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Lamentaciones de Pedro. La Sancta, comedia impresa en Venecia. Lazarillo de Tonnes, l. a y 2. a parte, no siendo de los corregidos e impresses del ano de 1573 a esta parte. Leehe de la Fe. Lectiones de lob de G-arci Sanchez de Badajoz aplicadas a amor prophano. Libro de la verdad de la fe : hecho por el maestro fray luan Suarez. Libro de suertes. Libro en el qual se prohibe que ninguno de consejo a otro que no se case ni sea sacerdote, ni entre en religion, ni se arete a consejo de nadie : sino que siga en ello su propria inclinacion. Libro intitulado Declaracion 6 Confession de Fe, hecha por ciertos fieles espaiioles que, huyendo los abusos de la yglesia Homana y la crueldad de la Inquisicion de Espaiia, hizieron a la yglesia de los fieles para ser en ella recebidos por herrnanos en Christo. Libro que comien9a : "En este tratadillo se tratan- cinco cosas substanciales." Libro intitulado el Kecogimiento de las figuras comunes de le sagrada Scriptura. Libro que se intitula Tratado en que se contienen 382 APPENDIX. las gracias e indulgencias concedidas a los que devo- tamente son acostumbrados a oyr missa. Libro intitulado : Orden de Naciones segun el uso hebreo, como abaxo en la letra O se contiene. Libro llamado del Asno : de fray Anselmo Tur- meda. Pray Luys de Granada de la drden de Santo Domingo, de la oracion y meditacion y devocion y Guia de peccadores en tres partes : impresso en qualquier tiempo y lugar antes del ano de 1561. Lucero de la vida Christiana. Manipulus curatorum. Manual de doctrina Christiana: el qual esta im- presso en principio de unas horas de Nuestra Senora, en romance impressas en Medina del Canto ano de 1556, 6 de otra cualquiera impression. Manual para la eterna salvacion, sin autor. Manual de diversas oraciones espirituales exer- cicios, sacados por la mayor parte del libro llamado, Guia de pecadores que compuso Pray Luys de Granada. Medicina del anima assi para sanos como para enfermos : traducida de latin en romance. Memoria de nuestra redempcion que trata de los mysterios de la missa : sin nombre de autor. Mucio Justinopolitano, su selva odorifera, en romance 6 en otra cualquier lengua vulgar sola- mente. Novelas de luan Boccacio. Obra espiritual de don luan del Bene Yerones. Obra impressa en Valladolid por maestro Nicolas Tierry, ano de 1528. APPENDIX. 383 Obra muy provechosa, como se alcan$a la gracia divina : compuesta por Hierdnimo Sirino. Obras de burlas y materias profanas sobre lugares de la sagrada escriptura, donde quiera que se hallen. Obras del Christiano, compuestas por don Fran- cisco de Borja, duque de Gandia, en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Obras que se escribieron contra la Dieta imperial celebrada por su Magestad en Batisbona, ano de 1541, assi en verso como en prosa. Oracion de los angeles por si pequena. Oracion de la emparedada. Oracion de la emperatriz. Oracion del conde. Oracion del lusto luez, quanto dize despues del mundo redemido. Oracion de Sant Christoval por si pequena. Oracion de Sant Cypriano por si pequena. Oracion de Sant Leon Papa. Oracion del Testamento de lesu Christo. Oracion de Sancta Marina por si pequena. Oracion de Sant Pedro. Oratorio y consuelo espiritual sin nombre de autor. Orden de Oraciones segun el uso hebreo en lengua hebraica y vulgar espanola, traduzido por el doctor Isac, hijo de don Sem lob, caballero en Venecia. Orfea, comedia. Ovidio de arte amandi en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Paradoxas 6 sentencias fuera del comun parecer, traducidas de Italiano en Castellano. Pedro Eauios Veromanduo, todas sus obras. 384 APPENDIX. Peregrinacion de Hierusalem compuesta por don Pedro deUrrea. Peregrine j Ginebra. Perla preciosa. Pie de la rosa fragante, 6 por otro nombre Caval- leria Celestial. Polydoro Virgilio, de los inventores de las cosas en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Predicas de fray Bernardino Ochino 6 Onichino. Preguntas del Emperador al Infante Epitus. Preparatio mortis : kecha por fray Francisco de Evia. Propaladia de Bartolome de Torres Naharro, no siendo de las corregidas e impressas del ano de 1573 a esta parte. Proverbios de Salomon y espejo de peccadores. Psalmos de David en romance, con sus sumarios traducidos por el doctor luan Perez. Psalmos penitenciales y el Canticum graduum y las lamentaciones romane9adas por el maestro larava. Psalmos de Boffense. Psalterio de Eaynerio. Becogimiento de las figuras comunes de la Sagrada Escriptura. Resurrection de Celestina. Betraymiento del alma : sin nombre de autor. Bevelaciones de Sant Pablo. Bomances sacados al pie de la letra del Evangelio. El 1. la resurrection de Lazaro. El 2. el juyzio de Salomon sobrelas dosmujeres que pedian elnino. El 3. del hijo prodigo. T un romance de la Nati- vidad de Ntro. Senor lesu Christo que todos se contienen en un librillo. APPENDIX. 385 Romance que comiei^a " con rabia esta el Key David." Eosa fragante assi el pie como las hojas, que son dos cuerpos. Rosario de Ntra. Sra. teniendo sumarios 6 ru- bricas vanas, supersticiosas 6 temerarias. Sacramental de Clemente Sanchez de Vercial. Selva Odorifera de Mucio Justinopolitano, en romance 6 en otra lengua vulgar solamente. Serafin de Fermo en lengua vulgar solamente . Sumina Cayetana, en romance 6 otra lengua vulgar solamente. Summa y compendio de todas las historias 6 chronicas del mundo, traducida por el bachiller Tamara. Summario de doctrina Christiana, compuesto por el doctor luan Perez. Theologia mystica, por otro noinbre Espejo de perfection de Henrico Herpio. Tesorina, comedia. Tesoro de los Angeles. Testamento de Nuestro Senor, que es un librillo apocryfo sin verdad ni fundamento. Tidea, comedia. Tratado de la vida de lesu Christo con los miste- rios del Rosario, en metro. Tratado utilisimo del beneficio de lesu Christo. Tratado de los estados eclesiasticos y seculares, escripto de mano e impresso : autor Diego de Saa. Tratado llamado Excelencia de la fe : sin nombre de autor. 2 c 386 APPENDIX. Tratados en que se aprueban y favorecen los desafios. Triumphos de Petrarcha, impresos en Valladolic ario de 1541. Vergel de Nuestra Seiiora. Via spiritus. Vida de JSTuestra Senora, en prosa y en verso, qu es uii libro apdcrypho. Vida de Sancta Catalina de Fiesco 6 de Genova natural de Genova. Vida del Emperador Carlos quinto, compiles por Alonso de Ulloa ; no siendo corregida y emeu dada. Violeta del animo. Vitas patrum, en romance 6 en otra lengua vulga solamente. LONDON : RICHARD BARRETT, PRINTER MARK LANE. THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 5O CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. '.;(< f/v i 1 JHN 20 1944 _. _ crn 7 1^70 9 <* i bi . |Uv JPM2 6 1955 ! [; in Ul IM~ H ? -.w -J C.O tJ FEB 2 8 197D *".*""n t * ir A ii jnr: "*M/t % CtC 1 9*64-6 J M '*, Ji//y j[ : .g .- RECEIVED ^ Ktiv^ u ^ ( A JA- H r IT -i V\u D U ^^1 4 \/ s ,r\ *-VS U. C. BERKELEY LIBRARIES THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY