YALE
DIVINITY SCHOOL
LIBRARY

Gift of
ROLAND H. BAINTON

Spanish Protestants in
the Sixteenth Century

Spanish Protestants in
the Sixteenth Century
Compiled from the German of
C. A. Wilkens ,
Doctor of Theology and Philosophy d .)
by Rachel Challice
With an Introduction by the late
Most Reverend Lord Plunket, D.D.
Archbishop of Dublin
And Preface by the
Rev. Canon Fleming, B.D.
Chaplain-in-Ordinary to the Queen

London
William Heinemann
l8Q7

All rights reserved

COMPILER'S NOTE

learned and deeply-interesting work,
entitled, Die Geschichte des Spanischen Pro-
testantismus im Sechszehnten Jahrhundert,
by C. A. Wilkens, Doctor of Theology and
Philosophy at Kalksburg, near Vienna, was
published at Giitersloh in 1888.
Seeing that the subject was little known
in England, and the material was chiefly
drawn from Spanish, Italian, and German
writers, it seemed a pity that it should be
a closed book to those interested in Pro
testantism, who are not conversant with the
German language.
It was, therefore, with the author's kind
permission that I entered on the two years'
labour neeessary for the translation of the
work into English. Unfortunately, when
completed, the book was considered too pon
derous for general readers, so the original
translation, although still intact, has never
V

COMPILER'S NOTE
been published. The interest now awakened
in the subject of Spanish Protestantism by
the present Church Reform movement in
the Peninsula made me feel that the valuable
information contained in Dr. Wilkens's work
was a light hidden under a bushel, so I have,
with the author's consent, reduced the trans
lation of the book to half its original size,
and compiled it in a form more adapted to
the general reader.
I can only trust that the fact of the work
having had to go through the double process
of translation and condensation will lead the
public to view its shortcomings with leniency.
I must not conclude without adding that I
am deeply indebted to the late Lord Plunket
for his revision of the manuscript, and I
shall always feel grateful for his Grace's
kind concession to add to this little book on
the Spanish Protestantism of the sixteenth
century some information as to the similar
movement in the nineteenth century, which
he so nobly supported.
RACHEL CHALLICE.

vi

3n fl&emorfam
The translator and compiler of this interesting
work asked me, some little time ago, to write
the Dedication of it to the late lamented Lord
Plunket, Archbishop of Dublin. He had not only
accepted her dedication of the work to him, but
enhanced his kind consent by the Introduction he
wrote fcr the book. His premature death has
come just after he had finished his words ; and
it may be said that he had hardly laid down his
hen when his summons came to lay down his life-
work at his Master's feet : for he was under his
last illness when he completed his chapter.
This sad event changes my words of Dedication
into words " In Memoriam."
In the famous record of Archbishops of Dublin,
Lord Plunket takes his own place, the Peer Arch
bishop, in the storied line of Magee, Whately,
and Trench. The Church in Ireland stands under
the shadow of a great sorrow by his irreparable
loss. It is not my province to attempt to delineate
the high, noble, and Christian qualities of his
character. Let this le done by those far better
qualified for the task. vii

IN MEMORIAM
He was an earnest, zealous, and laborious worker,
and it was often a wonder to many how he was
physically and mentally able to endure the strain
and weight of labour which he marked out for
himself, and so conscientiously strove to fulfil.
While men who are examples of untiring activity
are still with us, we admire them, but we fre
quently fail to measure the services they render
till the moment they are gone. Then we begin to
realise the loss we have sustained. He was a
marvellous worker : his labour never flagged.
The midnight oil was often burnt, and when
weary toilers were at rest, night frequently found
him laboriously at work. So great a strain must
have had an injurious effect on the health of one
never very strong ; but he acted out' the words of
his Lord, "I must work while it is day : the night
cometh, when no man can work." He was dis
tinguished by great earnestness of character, genial
kindness of heart, and strong tenacity of purpose,
so that what he undertook to do, he never left
half-done. This was evinced in a remarkable degree in his
Spanish work, which his dauntless and courageous
heart carried on almost single-handed and alone,
in the face of discouragement, difficulty, and oppo
sition. It is too close to us yet to he judged by
viii

IN MEMORIAM
results. Contemporaries are not impartial judges.
But though many eminent Churchmen differed
as to the wisdom of the course he pursued in the
case of the Spanish Episcopate, none differed as
to his dauntless courage and imperturbable good
temper at every point of the controversy. This
was the natural result of the Archbishop's liberal
spirit and large-hearted tolerance. He saw good
in all schools of thought, and in all shades of
Churchism. While he was unflinching in his
principles, he recognised the difference between
men's opinions and their principles. It would be
a wretched world if we all had the same political
and ecclesiastical opinions. It was because he re-
. cognised this that, while be was conscientious,
firm, and brave, he was also gentle, considerate,
and charitable.
The Most Reverend Primate of all Ireland,
Dr. Alexander — one of the brightest ornaments
of any Church — in his most eloquent words on the
death of Lord Plunket, in St. Patrick's Cathedral,
summed up the character of the late Archbishop
in a Trinity of wisdom —
" What a man says — is something :
What a man does — is more :
What a man is — that is most."
ix

IN MEMORIAM
I venture to say that no living divine but
Dr. Alexander could utter such an aphorism as
that — one which I predict will not die.
In writing these words, at the request of Miss
Rachel Challice, I feel how feeble a tribute they
are to departed worth, offered amid the activities
of a busy ministry. I covet for them only that
they may be a message of comfort to his sorrowing
family, and a memory of Lord Plunket to his
many friends.
JAMES FLEMING.

Easter, 1897.
St. Michael's Vicarage,
S.W.

INTRODUCTION
I have been asked by Miss Challice to prefix
a few words of introduction to this most
interesting and instructive volume, and most
gladly do I comply with her request.
I do so because, in the first place, it gives
me an opportunity of expressing, on the part
of myself and many others besides, the grati
tude with which we hail the publication of
this timely book. The noble deeds and cruel
sufferings of Spanish Reformers during the
sixteenth century have been hitherto only
dimly recognised in English-speaking lands ;
and in presenting to her readers this page of
history in a readable and accessible form,
Miss Challice has supplied a real want. Her
task has been one of no little difficulty. To
translate a work such as that of Dr. Wilkens
was in itself a formidable undertaking; but to
condense that translation into a popular shape
was more arduous still. In accomplishing
xi

INTRODUCTION
this object, and in doing her work so well,
she has entitled herself to a large meed of
praise. She has given to the world in a short
compass much valuable information, which
by a large circle of readers will, I venture
to say, be prized as something altogether
new. Many, it may be, will welcome that
information simply as an attractive record of
stirring events. But to some it will com
mend itself as a great deal more. To not a
few it will, I trust, bring comfort and help
as a fresh witness to the power of that Gospel
which they themselves have found so precious
to their souls. But it was not for the pur
pose of emphasising the merits of this work
that I was asked by Miss Challice to take up
my pen. Her desire was that I should sup
plement this record of the sixteenth-century
Reformation by a short statement respecting
a similar movement which has been manifest
ing itself in some parts of Spain and Portugal
during the last forty or fifty years, and of
which, in the providence of God, I have had
some opportunities of becoming personally
cognisant. With such a request I feel it my duty
xii

INTRODUCTION
to comply. But before supplementing the
story of the sixteenth century by its counter
part in the present day, it may, I think, help
to a clearer estimate of both these movements
if I may briefly recall some facts respecting
the history of religion in Spain during the
centuries that went before.
It is well known that Spain was one of the
first amongst the countries of Europe that
was reached by the message of Gospel truth.
It may have been that St. Paul fulfilled his
intention of visiting that land ; but be that
as it may, it is, I think, generally assumed
that Christianity found its way to the Spanish
Peninsula in apostolic times. It is also, of
course, well known to all that for many
subsequent centuries the ancient Church of
Spain occupied a commanding position among
the churches of Christendom. But it is not,
I believe, so generally understood that, for
some thousand years after the introduction
of Christianity into Spain, the Spanish Church
was in no sense under subjection to the papal
yoke. It was an independent National Church,
controlling its own organisation, electing its
own bishops, and using, moreover, through
out its several congregations, a liturgy of its
xiii

INTRODUCTION
own — known to scholars as the " Mozarabic
Rite." The last Church in Christendom to
surrender its independence to the Church of
Rome was the Church of Ireland. The last
but one was, I believe, the Church of Spain.
It was not till the twelfth century that the
former lost its freedom for the first time as
a National Church. It was just a century
before that the latter had succumbed to a
similar fate. When, therefore, the Reformers
of Spain, whether in the sixteenth or the nine
teenth century, are reproached as deserters
from the old faith, or as intruders within the
confines of ancient ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
it is well to bear in mind that the real in
truder in Spain is the Church of Rome. It
is Rome which has usurped the jurisdiction of
the ancient Spanish Sees. It is Rome which
has supplanted the ancient National Liturgy
by the introduction of the Latin use. They,
therefore, who have renounced allegiance to
the innovations of this alien Church have
not thereby forsaken the ancient faith, but
have in very truth returned to the old paths
wherein their fathers trod. But to return.
Well-nigh impenetrable were the mists
of error and superstition that overshadowed
xiv

INTRODUCTION
the Church of Spain during the five centuries
which followed her submission to the Church
of Rome. We meet, indeed, with isolated
examples of holiness and self-denial among
the votaries of that Church which claim our
admiration ; and from time to time is heard
the voice of some Baptist-like Reformer —
some vox clamantis in deserto — vainly pro
testing against the formalities and venalities
of his age; but as regards the Church at
large, the darkness was gross indeed, and
never more gross than just at the time when,
at the close of these five hundred years, the
movement described in the following pages
began to make itself felt. Then indeed
there burst forth from the rifted clouds a
bright gleam of hope, radiant with the
promise of coming dawn. Never was the
Gospel more faithfully proclaimed than by
the Spanish Reformers of the sixteenth cen
tury. Nowhere during those Reformation
days did a nobler band of martyrs witness
more bravely for the truth than those who
perished at the stake in Seville or Valladolid.
And for the strengthening of our own faith
in these latter days, when in times of
quietude and safety that faith is in danger
xv

INTRODUCTION
of becoming flaccid and cold, it is well to
be reminded, as we are in this volume, of the
noble deeds done for Christ in days gone by.
It was, as I have said, an interval of glorious
promise, a dream of splendid possibilities,
but it came apparently to naught. The re
morseless clouds gathered in again, and dark
ness once more overspread the land.
It is a tale of infinite pathos. How are
we to account for it ? Considered apart from
the over-ruling providence of God, what was
there, humanly speaking, in the movement
that prevented it from developing into success,
as was the case with similar movements in
our own and other lands ? Partly, no doubt,
because of the terrible foe with which, in the
person of the Inquisition, it had to contend.
But not only so. It had this great weak
ness — it never seemed to reach down to the
people of the land. Such, at least, is the
explanation which I heard given by the late
Archbishop Trench when presiding at a meet
ing on behalf of the Society whose object it
is to aid that more recent work of Reform
which has taken place during the present
century, and to which I have already briefly
referred. " This work," said the Archbishop,
xvi

INTRODUCTION
" suffers from an opposite weakness. It does
not seem to have as yet enrolled in its ranks
many of the noble or wealthy of the land,
but it is, perhaps, better that it should thus
beign with the people, for such a movement
is more likely to spread upwards from below
than to permeate downwards from above."
This leads me to speak of this latter move
ment, whose first beginnings may, I think, be
dated from some forty or fifty years ago.
The statistics of the progress made by this
movement during that interval are in them
selves sufficiently striking. They may be
stated thus.
In the year 1868, scarcely thirty years ago,
there was not, so far as I am aware, one Pro
testant native congregation throughout the
whole of Spain and Portugal. There are now
upwards of fifty, embracing amongst them
considerably more than 10,000 souls; and
of these about one-third (nearly 2500 in
Spain, and 1000 in Portugal) are represented
by two thoroughly organised churches, one
of which (the Reformed Church in Spain)
has a duly consecrated Bishop of its own.
But a question of still greater importance
than any statistical results has still to be
xvii b

INTRODUCTION
answered. To what was this movement
due ? The reply is a simple one. To the
power of God's Holy Word !
I have spoken of the movement of the
sixteenth century in Spain as an effort almost
crushed out beneath the iron heel of the
Inquisition. But it was only " almost."
Some of those who were exiled during those
days of terrible persecution employed their
hours of banishment in compiling a Spanish
version of the Bible. It is that translation
which has been mainly effectual in bringing
about and developing the present work of
Reform in Spain. So true is it that "the
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
Church ! "
As regards that movement, it has certainly
been my experience that we have only to trace
up to its source any one of the tributaries
that have helped to swell the tide of Reform
in order to find the Bible at the fountain-
head. From the shelf of some Spanish
student's library, or through the agency of
the Bible Society and its colporteurs, or as
a gift from some chance traveller, or in some
other way, a copy of Holy Scripture, or of a
portion of Holy Scripture, has found its way
xviii

INTRODUCTION
into the hands of an anxious inquirer, and
thence into the hands of his friends and neigh
bours, and thus a beginning has been made.
Then has followed what may be termed a
Bible-class or a Prayer-meeting, and then the
gathering together of a congregation under
the care of a minister — at first, it may be, of
a lay evangelist, and ultimately of an ordained
and duly-accredited Pastor. Such, roughly
speaking, has been the history of almost every
one of those congregations with which I have
personally come in contact. The Word of
God has in each case been the incorruptible
seed from whence the harvest has sprung.
While so saying, I am bound to add that
there has been a preparedness in the hearts
of those by whom the Word has been re
ceived. Those who have been most active
in their endeavours to further the work of
Reform in Spain will be the first, I am sure,
to confess that their function has been, not to
create a need for reform in any heart, but
to help in supplying a need already existing
there. In other words, the results which we
now witness are not due to the pressure of
aggressive controversy from without, but to
a craving on the part of these reformers
xix

INTRODUCTION
themselves for something more satisfying in
the way of spiritual food than the Church of
Rome can provide, and to a profound con
viction that in God's Holy Word they have
found the means whereby to meet that need.
Such is the nature of this movement. It
is a work of self -reform due to the action of
God the Holy Ghost preparing the hearts of
men to receive the seeds of truth ; and if any
thing be needed to make this clear, it may be
found in the fact that these congregations to
which I have referred have been formed with
out any preconcert or intercommunication
amongst themselves. Separated by long dis
tances the one from the other, few, if any, of
them have had opportunities of knowing what
was taking place elsewhere, and yet in each
case, under widely-different circumstances, the
same yearning has manifested itself, and the
same consequences have ensued.
What shall we say to these things ? Simply
this — that when contemplating this movement
we stand face to face with the operations of
that One and the self-same Spirit by whom
the whole body of the Church is sanctified
and governed, and that to Him and to the
Word of God, which He wieldeth as a
xx

INTRODUCTION
sword, these otherwise unaccountable results
are wholly due !
But here I must pause, and somewhat
abruptly bring this Introduction to a close.
When I began to write, it was my intention
to follow up the general remarks that I have
just made with respect to the origin and char
acter of this work of reform by some details
respecting its progress and present extent.
This, however, has been rendered unnecessary;
for, as some of my readers may perhaps be
aware, a little book entitled " Church Reform
in Spain and Portugal," by the Rev. Dr. Noyes
(British Chaplain at Paris), is just on the
point of publication by Messrs. Cassell,
London. This little volume, of, which I
have seen an advanced copy, will give all the
information that it would have been in my
power to supply, and will give it in more
detail, and in a more graphic form than, in
the space allotted to me, I could have hoped
to reach.
All, therefore, that I can say to those who
shall make themselves possessors of Miss
Challice's translation, for which I am now
writing this Introduction, is this : Do not
be satisfied with having read the thrilling
xxi

INTRODUCTION
account which that translation gives of the
work and sufferings of the Sixteenth-Century
Reformers. Purchase also a copy of the
volume in which Dr. Noyes tells of the work
and the brave endurance of the Reformers of
the Nineteenth Century. Read each book in
the light of the other ; and as you thus read
them, may God Himself accompany your
study of them with abundant blessing to
your own souls ! PLUNKET DUBLIN.
March 19, 189^.

xxii

CONTENTS

CHAP. I.

II.
III. IV. V.
VI.
VII.
VIII. IX. x.
XI.

DAWN OF SPANISH PROTESTANTISM : NEW
WORLDS' — XIMENES — LUTHER — ERAS
MUS — ALFONSO VALDES ... I
THE FIRST SPANISH PROTESTANT MARTYR 19
THE FIRST SPANISH TRANSLATION OF THE
NEW TESTAMENT . . . .29
A LAY PROTESTANT SPANISH PREACHER . 39
THE ABDICATION OF CHARLES V. . .42
FRANCISCO DE BORJA .... 49
PROTESTANTS IN VALLADOLID . 58
JUAN DE VALDES- ..... 65
PROTESTANT PREACHERS IN ANDALUSIA . 73
CONSTANTINO PONCE DE LA FUENTE . 8 1
A DISSEMINATOR OF SPANISH PROTESTANT
LITERATURE . . . . I 06
xxiii

CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
XII. JUAN PEREZ — CASSIODORO DE REINA —
ANTONIO DEL CORRO — CIPRIANO DE
VALERA . . . . . IIO
XIII. DEATH-BLOW TO SPANISH PROTESTANTISM Il8
XIV. THE INQUISITION  127
XV. ARCHBISHOP BARTOLOME DE CARRANZA . 148
XVI. " AUTOS-DA-FE " IN VALLADOLID, SEVILLE,
AND TOLEDO  162
INDEX OF NAMES  190

Spanish Protestants in
the Sixteenth Century
CHAPTER I
DAWN OF SPANISH PROTESTANTISM
NEW WORLDS  XIMENES  LUTHER 
ERASMUS  ALFONSO VALDES
That the seed of Protestantism should have
taken root and sprung up, even for a time,
in Spain during the sixteenth century is a
striking proof of the power of truth; for,
although essentially a religious country, the
Peninsula was in no way predisposed to
accept new lines of doctrine. Like a child
clinging to its mother, Spain clung to the
Church of Rome ; and as the new world of
America was at first believed in only by such
men as Vasco da Gama and Columbus, so the
new world of religious thought was at first

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
recognised in Spain only by such men as
Constantino Ponce de Leon, Juan Diaz,
Francisco de Enzinas, and the small num
ber of advanced thinkers who shared their
views. But there was this difference. Although
only Queen Isabella and a few others believed
at first in the reports of the transatlantic
voyagers, yet when the glitter of gold and
the sight of home-brought treasures proved
the fact that a new world had been found,
public opinion soon followed in the wake.
The king prostrated himself with thanks
giving before the Creator, in the presence
of the discoverers, and the cathedral rang
with the strains of the Te Deum !
On the other hand, as regards the new
world of thought, the golden treasures of
such a discovery not being patent to the
physical eye, its pioneers and their followers
received no immediate gratitude for bringing
such a blessing within the reach of Spain.
The national characteristics of Spain in
the sixteenth century were loyalty to the
King, faith in the Church, love of Catho
licism, and hatred of heretics. Crusades
against the Moors and Jews were regarded
2

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
as a religious duty, and beautiful cathedrals
like those of Avila, Segovia, Burgos, Toledo,
and Seville, glorious masterpieces of archi
tecture, sculpture, and carving, testify to the
power of the Roman Catholic Church in
Spain during that age.
This religious spirit was not only evinced
in crusades and cathedrals, but also in the
missionary enthusiasm of such travellers as
Alonzo de Ojeda, Las Casas, Juan de la
Cruz, and Alonzo de Borja. The primitive
Indian mind, however, is reported to have
detected the false ring in the doctrine taught
by these missionaries. A certain Bacca-
laureus Enciso, in imitation of Alonzo de
Ojeda's abrupt mode of conversion, having
read out to the inhabitants of some newly
discovered spot in America a proclamation
setting forth the claims of God, the Pope,
and the King, one of his hearers remarked,
" All that you have said of God, ruler of all
things both in heaven and earth, sounds
reasonable, but all that you tell us about the
Pope, who seems to wish to be the Master in
God's place, and to give away his land to the
King of Castile, is senseless, for how could
he give away what is not his to give ? The
3

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
king must be a fool to accept gifts that are
the property of others ! " *
Simple in superstitious submission to the
power of priestcraft, Spain, like other coun
tries, had added novel dogmas to the primi
tive teaching of the Founder of the Faith,
and the question, "What must I do to be
saved ? " was changed into "How can I make
myself worthy to be saved ? "
Ascetic Pharisaism had become confounded
with noble self-sacrifice, veneration for the
saints had degenerated into fantastic idolatry,
and spiritual communion with God had given
place to priest-imposed penances.
Cardinal Ximenes made a conscientious
crusade against the corruption of the Catho
lic Church in Spain. Full of zeal in the
cause, and wishing to be untrammelled in
his course, he was not pleased at his ap
pointment to the Archbishopric of Toledo ;
and is reported to have cast the announce
ment upon the ground with the remark that
such promotion was only fit for a woman.
Imbued with a hatred of all the enemies
of his country and his faith, he was remorse-
1 Irving, " The Voyages and Discoveries of the Com
panions of Columbus," p. 681. 4

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
less in his treatment of the Moors and Jews,
procuring their banishment, and holding,
meanwhile, his own followers fast in their
belief with the iron hand of the Inquisition.
Isabella, the large-hearted mother of her
country, the friend of Ximenes the re
former, as she had been that of Columbus
the discoverer, supported the cardinal in his
crusades against the priestly sins of simony,
licence, love of show, luxury, sloth, and
ignorance. But as, in medicine, a specialist
ignores the general condition of the patient,
and only puts his finger on one spot of the
ailing body, so this great priest, in his zeal
for the restitution of ill-gotten gains, and
his ardour for the re-establishment of order
in the monasteries, was blind to the errors
which had crept into the doctrine of the
Church.1 The results of Ximenes' efforts were very
great. In speaking of the nineteen colleges,
the eight and thirty churches in Spain, and
the thousands of students in Alcala de
Henares, Francis I. said, "A whole dynasty
could not have accomplished in France what
1 C. I. v. Hefele, Der Cardinal Ximenes und die Kirch-
lichen Zustande Spaniens im XVI. fahrhundert, 1851.
5

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
a single monk has done in Spain." The
Spanish cardinal was also a powerful patron
of literature, and he had the works of
Thomas a Kempis, Catherine of Siena, &c,
printed at his own expense. Whilst expung
ing, however, the outward corruption of the
church, Ximenes wished to maintain a form
of faith whereby the Pope should retain his
apostolate, clerical councils their supremacy,
traditions their influence, saints their patron
age, relics their miracles, pictures their wor
ship, purgatory its terror, and absolution its
price. The Franciscan strove by , every agency
of the holy office to withstand all advance
of thought that seemed to throw doubt on
the above questions.
It was whilst Ximenes was directing this
great advance of ecclesiasticism in Spain, with
a religious zeal elsewhere on the wane, that
the light of Truth, which was afterwards
to penetrate to the Peninsula, broke over
Germany through the teaching of Luther.
Whilst Ximenes was jealously guarding eccle
siastical pomps and ceremonies, Luther was
simply maintaining the biblical doctrine, that
salvation depends upon a God-given faith in

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
the merit of the All-Sufficient Sacrifice, and
that by the consequent surrender of the heart
to the Saviour, reconciliation and sonship are
assured. From a fear lest such teaching might deal
the deathblow to priestcraft in the Peninsula,
it was stamped as "anathema" by the head
of the Church, and hence ensued the struggle,
short but severe, between Protestantism and
Roman Catholicism in Spain.
Spanish pride clung to the efficacy of
the crusades, the infallibility of the Pope,
and the priestly power of absolution. The
national antipathy of Spaniards to eccle
siastical innovations made them reject with
horror anything that bore the mark of heresy.
It was, therefore, very easy for the clergy
to put Luther's opinion in a repellent form
before the people. They only had to lay
stress on the negative points, to misrepresent,
or say nothing about the positive, and to
attribute all the sins of false brethren to the
great German, in order that the hate, once
directed against Jews and Moors, should find
a new object for its exercise.
In Catholic fervour Charles V. resembled
his ideal, the Great Otto, and, like Ximenes,
7

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
he maintained the necessity of curing the
cankerous wound of Church corruption.
Hence his patronage of Erasmus, who was,
however, more versed in Attic learning than
in ecclesiastical doctrine. Superficial, clever,
puffed up with learning and worldly pros
perity, he had never known what it was for
body and soul to suffer in the struggle for
faith or for participation in the holiness of
Christ. The depths of spiritual life were
unknown to him. In his power of cynicism
he became the Lucian of the period. Quick
to espy what was contrary to apostolic doc
trine in the life, cult, and teaching of the
Church, he brought the demoralised state of
ecclesiastical life under the whip of his un
sparing satirical wit. Without, like Luther,
feeling any sorrow at these practices, the
Dutch Hogarth sought to convert the culti
vated by the wit and piquancy of writings
that were full of diluted dogma and useful
morality, but lacking in Christian principles.
His wisdom was as different from revelation
as Seneca from St. Paul.
At the same time, it cannot be denied that
Erasmus proved a boon to the cultured by
his translations of the New Testament, and
8

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
of the works of Augustine and Jerome, into
Latin ; and the incense of flattery was fully
given to the great scholar.1
But a reaction from adulation set in when
the eyes of the Spaniards were opened to
the satire, veiled by classic culture, of the
humanist king's own writings. The attack
on " Spanish barbarism " was deeply resented.
" What right," it was said, " had the pane
gyrist of Dutch cheese and butter to mock
at them, because they had shed their blood
for their faith instead of reading Lucian and
Euripides ? " The next important thing
was to suppress the power of Erasmus at
court, where his chief admirer was the secre
tary, Alfonso de Valdes.
For centuries the family of Valdes had
commanded universal respect. Alfonso and
Juan, the twin sons of the Regidor Fer
nando, were born at Cuenca, when that town
was the centre of art, science, and industry.
Distinguished by superior minds, intellectual
gifts, amiability of character, and blameless
lives, they passed their youth in their native
town. Then through the influence of Gatti-
1 M. Menandez Pelayo, Historia de Ios Heterodoxos
Espanoles, 1880. 9

SPANISH PROTESTANTS <
nara, the Lord High Chancellor, Alfonso
held the post of Secretary of State from the
time of the coronation of the Emperor at
Aix until the peace of Nuremburg. It was
in attendance on this monarch, whom he so
strongly influenced, that he assisted at such
events as the Diet of Worms, the battle of
Pavia, the Peace of Cambray, the coronation
at Bologna, and the Diet of Regensburg.
Having translated the " Confession " into
Italian, he, in his diplomatic capacity, treated
with the author at Augsburg. He con
sidered Luther's motive for reform to be
spite against the Dominicans, his writings as
poisonous, and his work inimical to Germany,
and he regarded the policy of Frederick the
Wise as the result of political and financial
interests. For a wise and benevolent man to be so
mistaken as to the motives of the great
German Reformer, he must certainly have
seen through the spectacles of Erasmus,
whose avarice he gratified with grants of
money, enjoying and circulating such writ
ings of the scholars as " The Praise of Folly,"
"The Handbook of the Italian Athlete,"
and other similar works. 10

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
It was to Alfonso Valdes that Charles V.
owed the clever casuistical " Apology for the
Sacking of Rome." 1 That work marked an
epoch in the history of Europe, and in the
evolution of religious opinions ; for it was
then seen that, apart from religious party
feeling, Church corruption could not evade
an expression of disapproval, even from those
who were in the service of the State, an ex
pression which came, as we see, from the pen
of a Spaniard.
Clement VII., miserable in the entangle
ment of European affairs, wished to stem
the tide of the Reformation, and to retain
the power of the Medicis, the independence
of the papacy, and the freedom of Italy intact
from Charles V. and Francis I. Between
these two disputants the course of the Pope
was cunning, intriguing, and unprincipled.
No Medici ever more thoroughly realised
the truth of the old adage, " Honesty is the
best policy." He would assist the victor
with one hand, whilst holding out the other
to the vanquished. In fact, he acted accord
ing to the Jesuitical doctrine, that whatever
1 Dialogo en que particularmente se tratan las cosas
acaecicas en Roma el ano 1 527. II

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
favours the end is good, whatever hinders it
is bad. The Pope, whilst pretending to be
friends with Charles, was in treaty with
Francis to deprive him of Naples. Then
the Emperor's bloodthirsty, loot-loving sol
diers devastated Italy like a lava stream,
and, without leaders, pay, or discipline, and
fearing neither God nor man, they precipi
tated themselves upon poor, weak, defence
less Rome, laden with the sins of a corrupt
Church. Murder ran riot, churches, con
vents, and palaces were sacked and pillaged,
and the poor Pope fled for safety to the
Castle of St. Angelo, whence he gazed with
dismay on the burning houses, the corpse-
covered streets, and the groaning masses of
his people. The event struck every heart
with horror in Spain. From the prelate to
the peasant there was pity for the Pope,
whom the Emperor had sought to subdue
by the conquest of the Holy City.
It was to change the current of public
opinion that the secretary Valdes published
his celebrated "Apology for the Sacking of
Rome." It was written in the form of a
dialogue, supposed to have taken place in
Valladolid, between the knight Lactantio
12

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
and the archdeacon, disguised as a soldier.
To the priest's complaint of the rapacity,
ambition, and cruelty of the Emperor, Lac
tantio replies by drawing a picture of the
corruption of the city, and the deflection
of the Pope from his sacred duties. It
is interesting to see that a Spaniard of the
court of Charles V. puts in the mouth of his
imaginary knight the following words : —
" Rome is supposed to be the city of every
virtue ; but it has proved to be the resort of
crime, roguery, and swindling. The shame
less sale of offices, indulgences, bulls, and
dispensations, is a disgrace to the Italian
faith. Erasmus had eloquently, carefully,
and discreetly laid bare these wrongs ; but
dead to the sting of satire, the Church re
quired the power of physical force to awaken
her from her torpor."
It would take too much space to give the
dialogue in full, but among other condem
natory remarks, the knight says :¦ —
" The day of reckoning has come for the
traffic in such relics as the three heads of
St. Anna, the four and twenty heads of
the Apostles, the cartloads of portions of
the cross, the hose of St. Joseph, the shoes
13

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
of St. Christopher, &c. Is this the right
road to salvation ? If one asked the way to
the Church of Nuestra Senora in the El
Prado, would you not consider it cruel to
be directed to pass through the river with
danger of drowning, instead of being shown
the safe way of the bridge? Christ is the
safe way, and He is the bridge, all other
ways are through the water of danger."
Valdes certainly pointed to a close con
nection between the weal of the Church and
the conquest of Charles, and he opened a
vast perspective for the prosperity of this
new Constantine, who solemnly congratu
lated the Pope on his liberation from the
Castle of St. Angelo, and hoped he would
continue his reign over the bishops in the
city of the Caesars.
Baldassare Castiglione, the great Italian
statesman and writer, was filled with rage at
the secretary's want of sorrow at the great
disaster, and his lack of pity for the Pope's
trials. " The Inquisition," he said, " ought to
take in hand this new Lycurgus, this re
former of holy orders and religion. This
censor of manners and men, this corrector

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
of councils, should be decked in a san-benito J
for telling the Emperor that he is reform
ing the Church by taking the Pope and his
cardinals prisoners, as if iconoclasm and in
cendiarism could be justified by the reported
corruption of the priesthood.2
Having just managed to steer the half-
sinking craft of the Holy See into port,
through the nearly engulfing waves of trouble
and losses, the Pope in this time of need
had to yield to pressure, and — although the
heretical paradoxes, and attacks against the
Church of Rome, had been hitherto ignored,
so as not to drive the head of the humanists
into the arms of the Lutherans— professors,
abbots, and canons had now to appear before *
the Inquisition, and either forswear their
Erasmian opinions or suffer imprisonment..
The -court preacher Vernes had no peace for
four years from the fire of controversial in
quiry, until Paul III., pursuant to the Em
peror's wish, pronounced him innocent. The
Inquisition prohibited all Spanish translations
1 A yellow mantle, covered with flames and devils,
imposed by the Inquisition as a penance.
2 Reformislas antignos Espanoles, xv. p. 59-71. Stern,
Alfonso etfuan de Valdes, p. 32, &c.
J5

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
of Erasmian Writings, and the Latin originals
were revised so as to separate the tares from
the wheat.
But these injunctions could not bridge
over the gulf that separated the former
blind acceptance of priest-imposed opinions,
from the greater freedom of biblical doctrine.
True to his own ideas, Charles V. declared
at Worms that Luther would never make
a heretic of him. In fact for a considerable
period, seeing that the German Reformer laid
no claim to those miracles which are of such
weight in the Roman Catholic Church, the
Emperor did not think he could turn any
one to heresy — a crime which was attributed
to everybody who brought his own opinions
to bear upon the faith of the Church. He
did not understand that the power of Luther
was due to his assurance of salvation through
Christ, by whose righteousness he had be
come a just man instead of a sinner, a saver
of souls instead of a lost man, and a stead
fast soldier of Christ, instead of a down
trodden servant of man.
But when iconoclasm, desecration of
churches, peasant wars, and radicalism were
reported as originating from Luther, Charles
16

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
V. became vehement in his opposition to the
Reformer, and declared that he would not
take France and Italy as a price for the
toleration of heresy in such a shape.
After the publication of the "Confession
of Augsburg," Charles made a declaration of
war against Protestantism in a proclamation
to the following effect : " You all know that
I owe my descent to the German nation,
to the Catholic kings of Spain, to the
Austrian archdukes, and Burgundian dukes
who were all loyal till death, as sons of the
Catholic Church, to the honour of God, to
the increase of the faith, and to the salva
tion of souls ; and so, pursuant to their
example, I till now have, by God's help,
lived as it beseemeth a good emperor so to
do. But since it has now become patent to
all that a monk has been so deceived by his
own opinions as to put himself in opposition
to the whole of Christendom, and to main
tain that those who lived a thousand years
ago, as well as those of the present day, have
been in error, we have decided to spare neither
kingdoms, lands, peace, body, blood, life, nor
spirit, in getting this matter set to rest." 1
1 Baumgarten, Geschichte Karls V., i. p. 456 &c.
17 B

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Without being aware of the fact, the
Emperor, as champion of the infallibility of
the Church with all its errors, withstood the
champion of God who held aloft the true
light of biblical truth.

CHAPTER II
THE FIRST SPANISH PROTESTANT
MARTYR
Of all the kingdoms of the mighty Imperial
empire, Spain appeared the most secure from
the invasion of Lutheran thought. The
history of the country, the character of the
people, the influence of the priests, the cleri
cal power of the Crown, and the vigilance
of the Inquisition, all seemed impregnable
bulwarks of Catholicism.
But already in 1521, the Regent of Castile
had been warned by the Pope against any
influx of Lutheran literature, and Charles
V. made Alonso Manrique the Grand In
quisitor, because he knew he would most
effectually take steps for the arresting of
Protestantism. This opinion proved correct,
for Manrique gave orders to have every
D^k-store searched, and every work of an
heretical tendency destroyed. Two great
l9

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
casks of Lutheran literature, bound for Val
encia in a Flemish vessel, were discovered
and publicly burnt in the market-place of
San Sebastian, to the delight of the Roman
Catholics. But what was forbidden to
Spaniards at home could not be kept from
those who resorted to the Universities of
France and Germany.1
After leaving Cuenca, where he was born,
Juan Diaz spent thirteen years in Paris in
the study of the theology of Luther, Melanc
thon, and their fellow-Reformers.1 Thence
he went to Geneva, where he stayed with
his friends, two of the Senarcleus family, at
their residence on the Lake, and the enjoyment
of this period of his life was heightened by
the congenial companionship of, and com
munion with Calvin, to whom, no doubt,
was mainly due the revolt of the Spaniard
against the mere ceremonial worship of his
country— a land where the beauteous com
binations of Moorish and Gothic architec
ture in the cathedrals could not satisfy the
minds of those who craved to " worship God
in spirit and in truth."
1 Ranke, Deutsche Ceschichte, 3 Ausg. iv. 1852, p. 302
&c. ; Boehmer, "Spanish Reformers," i. p. 187.
20

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
On subsequently visiting Strasburg, Diaz
attended divine service at a Protestant church.
Before taking the Holy Sacrament it was then
the custom for each believer to make a con
fession of faith separately, instead of saying
it together with the whole congregation, as
in the present day. When the Spaniard
stood up in conformity with the rule, he
caught sight of a fellow-countryman who
had been driven from Paris by the plague,
and had entered the edifice out of curiosity.
Impelled by the presence of his old acquaint
ance to give additional emphasis to his state
ment of opinion, Diaz added these words :
"Every church is heretical that withholds
from the people the sacraments in both
kinds, keeps back the pure Word of God,
and does not find its centre in Christ as its
only Saviour, Sacrificer, and Justifier." By
this act Juan Diaz finally abjured the Roman
Catholic faith and joined the Protestant
Church. When alone with his fellow-countryman
after the service, Juan maintained that Provi
dence had led his friend's footsteps hither,
so that he might hear his testimony to the
truth, and be led to follow his example.
21

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
" When you return to Spain," he said, " and
talk of your foreign travels, you can say that
you came across a Spaniard who is a decided
Lutheran, and that you heard him make a
confession of the Lutheran, or, rather, the
Christian, faith."
With Butzer, Diaz attended the Diet of
Ratisbon, there to speak on behalf of the
reformed religion ; and Pedro Malvenda, the
great Catholic orator, afterwards declared
that he had found those six days spent in
Protestant territory longer than six years
would have been elsewhere. Juan visited
his fellow-countryman and oratorial op
ponent, and he was told by him that the
Protestants were prouder of having won him
over to their side than of gaining any num
ber of proselytes from Germany or other
countries. Malvenda then spared no entrea
ties, promises, or threats to try and turn
Diaz from his course, and to persuade him
to cast himself in penitence at the feet of
his father confessor before the arrival of the
Emperor. But Diaz turned a deaf ear to
all Malvenda's exhortations ; and when faced
with the argument of the infallibility of the
Pope, the Spanish Protestant declared that
22

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
he would find it difficult to believe in the
infallibility of a criminal such as Paul III.
The case of the defection of Diaz from
the Church of Rome was communicated in
due time to Domingo de Soto, the Confessor
of Charles V. This powerful priest had
once been nothing but a gardener's boy, then
he rose to be a sacristan, and finally became,
according to Covarrabia, a pillar of science
and theology.
The news was also soon brought by a
bearer of Spanish despatches to the brother
of Diaz, Alfonso, a cleric, and an official of
the Rota,1 and the priest was beside himself
with rage, horror, and resentment when he
learnt what he considered a disgrace to his
family and to his country. He determined
either to stamp out the so-called crime or
to avenge it, and with this purpose he pro
ceeded at once to Ratisbon, accompanied by
an executioner as a servant ; but he found
that Juan had left the town at the conclu
sion of the Diet, and had betaken himself
to Neuburg, on the Danube, where he was
1 Rota Romana, or sacra Rota, the Supreme Papal
tribunal at Rome instituted by Pope John XXII., a.d.
1326, and improved by Sixtus IV. and Benedict XIV.
23

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
busy revising Butzer's treatise on the Lord's
Supper, and arranging his own Christiance
religionis Summa.
Malvenda saw Alfonso, and confirmed the
intelligence about his brother; and Senar-
cleus, deceived by the assertion that Alfonso
wished to see Juan on some State business,
gave him his address; but hardly had he
done so than the Protestants began to dis
trust the inquiring stranger who so care
fully preserved his incognito, and they wrote
letters of warning, which they bade the
driver of the coach to put into Juan's
own hands. Alfonso, however, managed to
get possession of the missives, and, after
reading them with Malvenda, he promptly
destroyed them.
Arrived at last in the presence of his
brother, who was staying with one of the
Senarcleus family in his Protestant parson
age, Alfonso handed him a letter from Mal
venda, promising to use his influence with
Soto on his behalf if he would renounce
Protestantism, and to this Alfonso added
his own entreaties, threats, and upbraidings
to change the convert's mind. But all was
of no avail, and then the priest, finding his
24

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
errand of persuasion fruitless, determined to
resort to the alternative of murder under the
cloak of dissimulation.
With such a view, suddenly, to Juan's
delight, Alfonso changed his tactics : he
congratulated his brother on having followed
the dictates of conscience, and, saying that
such a convert was worthy of a larger circle
of influence, he counselled him to go forth
to Italy, which, he said, required men of
character like him, whereas Germany was
rich in preachers.
Pleased at the seeming sympathy of his
brother, Juan prepared for his journey over
the Alps ; but the plan was not pursued, as
the Protestants of Ratisbon did not receive
it favourably. Then the treacherous priest bade farewell
to Juan, and even counselled his continuance
in the path of the Reformed religion. In
order, moreover, to complete his brother's
deception, he presented him with a sum of
money, and then pretended to start for Augs
burg. But instead of proceeding to the
town, the cleric and his companion stopped
at the village of Potmes, between Neuburg
and Augsburg, there dined at a priest's,
25

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
bought a knife at a butcher's, and then spent
the night in the village of Feldkirchen.
In the early morning of March 27, 1546,
they reappeared at the gates of Neuburg,
leaving the horses and groom a little way off
to wait for them. Juan had passed the night
in prayer and meditation, and when he was
told that a messenger had come with a letter
from his brother, he cast a cloak about him,
and went into the neighbouring room, where
the servant was quenching his thirst with a
glass of water. Diaz took Alfonso's letter,
and, going to the window, he read, " You
are not safe in Neuburg, a plot is formed
against you, you ought to repair at once
to Augsburg in the greatest secrecy."
Whilst standing and reading these lines,
the young man did not notice that the ser
vant in the room crept cautiously and fur
tively behind him, and before Juan had time
to turn round the knife was plunged in his
back, and he sank silently to the ground.
The deed done, the assassin fled down
stairs, rejoined Alfonso, and, hastening to
the spot where the horses were waiting with
the groom, escaped swiftly away. When
Senarcleus entered the room which the mur-
26

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
derer had left, he found his friend lying with
the knife in his back.
So died the first Spanish Protestant martyr,
assassinated at the instigation of his own
brother.1 The Church and State, however, did not
view the deed with the horror it deserved,
for they deemed it had saved a soul from
damnation, and had spared the family the
disgrace of a trial.
This opinion was probably strengthened
by Malvenda and Soto, especially as Mal
venda had participated in the crime, in so
far as he had assisted at the destruction of
the letters warning Diaz of the danger await
ing him.
The criminals were, however, pursued by
Protestant indignation, and were overtaken
and captured at Innsbruck, and brought to
trial. Alfonso, as a priest, demanded the pro
tection of the cardinals of Augsburg and
Trent, and Charles V. — turning a deaf ear to
the entreaty of the Protestants from Augs-
1 Historia vera de morte sancti viri foannis Diazii
Hispani, per Claudium Senarcleum, 1546 ; Crocius,
Grosses Martyrbach, 1606. 27

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
burg asking him to act as the head and
defender of justice, and visit the inhuman
crime with the punishment it deserved —
passed the matter on to his brother Fer
dinand. The Pope also put his powerful word into
the scale of mercy, and his influence, com
bined with the will of the Emperor and the
drift of public opinion, led to the exculpa
tion of the criminals.
This conduct on the part of the Emperor,
cardinals, bishops, and theologians naturally
tempted the Protestants to think that the
crime had been aided and abetted by the
Church. However, no protection could save the
fratricide from the pangs of his own re
morse, and it was not long before he hanged
himself at Trent.
The pious Protestant martyr, though
silenced by death, still spoke eloquently to
his brethren in the faith by his example of
earnestness and fidelity.

28

CHAPTER III
THE FIRST SPANISH TRANSLATION OF
THE NEW TESTAMENT
After reading the story of the first Spanish
Protestant martyr, who suffered death for
devotion to biblical truth, it is interesting
to hear of the man who consecrated his time
and talents to the work of translating the
New Testament into Spanish. I speak of
Francisco de Enzinas, born in 1520, at
Burgos, of wealthy and illustrious parents.
At the age of nineteen he was sent to some
of his connections in the Netherlands, to
pursue his studies at the University of
Louvain. Influenced by some of the professors, and
the arguments of his brother James, who
was already a convert, Francisco adopted
the Reformed religion. After having been
summoned to Paris to the deathbed of his
uncle, Pedro de Lema, who had been exiled
29

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
from Spain because of his Protestant opinions,
the young Spaniard went to Wittenberg, and
whilst staying with Melancthon devoted
himself to translating the New Testament
into his mother tongue. This work was
completed coincidentally with the renewal of
the baneful edicts of 1529 and 1 53 1, which
prohibited the printing, sale, donation, or
possession of heretical writings.1 Whoso
ever remained in error was thereby doomed
to be burnt ; and yet, it was whilst the
Inquisition fires were blazing at Louvain,
that this brave Protestant boldly entered the
town, and laid his Spanish translation of the
New Testament before the University pro
fessors. They regarded it with suspicion.
They said that Ferdinand and Isabella had
certainly allowed the translation of the Old
Testament, but when it was found that the
Jews used it for the propagation of their
doctrine, it had been prohibited, with the
exception of copies for the colleges, monas
teries, and distinguished people of unexcep
tionable faith. Therefore the censors came
to the conclusion that their ignorance of the
1 J. L. Motley, "The Rise of the Dutch Republic,"
1858, vol. i. p. 233.
3°

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Spanish language made them incompetent to
give a final opinion on a work not under
Imperial patronage.
So Francisco proceeded to have this first
New Testament in Castilian printed at his
own expense by Mierdman at Antwerp, with
a dedication to the Emperor Charles V.,
in which he set forth that it was God's
command that His words should be placed
in the hands of kings ; that Spain with
the finest European language was the only
European country deprived of the New
Testament in the vernacular; and that no
power could prevent the propagation of the
truth.1 Without, however, reading the introduc
tion, the Emperor commanded the President
of the Secret Council at Brabant to forbid
the further printing and sale of the work.
Then the Margrave of Antwerp had the
book revised by Franciscan monks, who
declared that it was Erasmian in its style,
and not free from Gallicisms, but that it
1 El nuevo testamento de nuestro redemtory Salvador
fesu Christo, traducido de Griego in lengua castellana
por Franzisco de Enzinas, dedicado a la Cesarea Mage-
stad, 1543. 31

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
was characterised by a strict rendering of
the original, and was careful to preserve
traditional sacred expressions, save where
the very rare interpolation of a word or two
was necessary to make the meaning clear.
In fact, apart from some unimportant glos
sary words, they considered the translation
quite unexceptionable.
Francisco was unaware of this Cabinet cor
respondence concerning his Castilian Testa
ment, and finding himself in Brussels at
the same time as the Emperor, he prayed
Mendoza, the Bishop of Jaena, to procure
him an audience. This request was granted
by the priest, who was a learned and ex
emplary man; and on November 23, 1543,
the brave Protestant presented himself at the
palace with the sacred Book under his arm.
It was on a Sunday, after high mass, and
Charles with his imposing retinue of princes
and grandees entered the banqueting hall.
Francisco could not take his eyes from the
Emperor as, served by his court retainers,
he dined alone, so impressed was he by the
grandeur and majesty of his bearing and
features. Trembling at the thought of his
speech, Francisco mustered up his courage
32

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
by recollecting the justice and solemnity of
his cause. What if all the princes of the
world were there, would they not be made
to subserve, as instruments for his mission,
the Divine Word which he had to propagate ?
The table was at last withdrawn with great
ceremony, and the audience having begun,
Charles rose, and leaning on a cane, took
up a military report. Then the bishop,
leading Francisco forward by the hand, said,
" May it please your Majesty to accept the
dedication of this excellent book of my young
friend ? "
" What book do you wish to dedicate to
me ? " asked the Emperor of the author.
"Sire," was the reply, "it is a portion of
the Holy Scriptures which we call the New
Testament. I have faithfully translated it
into Spanish. It consists chiefly of the four
gospels and the Acts and Epistles of the
Apostles. I humbly beg your Majesty, as
protector of religion and of the true faith,
to be a gracious judge and censor of the
work, so that your Majesty's approval may
commend it to the Christian people under
your Imperial sway."
" Are you the author of the book ? "
33 c

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
"The Holy Spirit, Sire, is the author,"
returned Francisco. " Men of God have
handed down to all humanity these divine
oracles in the Greek language, and I have
translated the book into Spanish."
" Into Castilian?" demanded the Emperor.
" Yes, Sire, into Castilian, and I crave you
in your goodness to give the work your
patronage and protection."
" Your request is granted, on condition that
the work contains nothing questionable."
" Nothing, Sire, unless there is anything
questionable in the account of the salvation
of the world by the only-begotten Son of the
Eternal Father."
" Your wish is then granted, if the book
be really such as it is described by you and
the bishop."
Charles then took the proffered copy, and
retired to his private apartments.
The following day the bishop had orders
to submit it to Soto, and Mendoza informed
the translator at Antwerp that the Censor
seemed satisfied, although he had not finished
the perusal of the volume, and that he would
be glad to have a personal interview on the
subject. So Francisco went to Brussels, and
34

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
was received early in the morning like an old
friend by Soto, who had just returned from a
visit to Granvella, and who, being interested by
the report of his learning and court favour,
appointed four o'clock for the conference.
The translator kept his appointment punc
tually, but he had to attend a long lecture
in bad Spanish on the Acts of the Apostles,
and then wait in the cloisters till six o'clock.
At last he entered the cell of the Dominican,
adorned with many pictures, and Soto, after
opening Alfonso de Castro's work at the
page where their Catholic Majesties are com
mended for forbidding under heavy penalties
the publication and possession of Spanish
Bibles, withdrew and left Francisco to peruse
it alone. After some time the Censor re
turned. The father of theology at Trent,
the restorer of Catholicism under Mary, was,
of course, of De Castro's opinion. In the
course of conversation he remarked that
Francisco had visited Melancthon, that he
himself admired him personally, but that he
had recently edited an heretical book, which,
being contrary to the laws of the king, had
contaminated religion and patriotism in the
neighbourhood of Burgos, where there had
35

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
never been hitherto a sign of heresy. " It
would have been better for you," said Soto,
"never to have studied than to have used
your talent for the defence of heresy and
for the opposition of truth." Soto also ex
pressed astonishment that any one so young as
Francisco, on the very threshold of wisdom,
should be so depraved. Such a plant would
bear evil fruit for the Church and religion.
if it were not cut down. Francisco observed
that the printing of Bibles had not- been
forbidden by the Emperor, and that this was
the only book he had published. There was
no edict forbidding his speaking to Luther
and Melancthon. The Emperor had never
issued such an edict, nor could any human
law prevent the circulation of the' New Tes
tament, for was it not a duty to forward it ?
But all arguments were vain, and as Fran
cisco was leaving the cell, he was seized by
soldiers, and carried off to the prison of
Urunta, ironically called in Spanish el amigo.
The Reformer was somewhat sustained in
his captivity by Gil Tielman,1 his prison
companion, and when summoned before the
Secret Council to answer the accusation
1 Crocius, Grosses Martyrbuch, p. 253.
3^

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
lodged by Soto against him, he comported
himself bravely, maintaining his high opinion
of Melancthon, and affirming his statement
" that a man could be saved by faith without
works," contained in the introduction to his
Spanish New Testament.
His friends appealed in vain on his behalf
to the Bishop of Jaena, Soto, and Granvella.
The utmost that could be done was that
the matter should be determined in Belgium,
and so escape the jurisdiction of the Spanish
Inquisition. At last his accusation was for
mulated, to the effect that he had consorted
with heretics, that he was strongly suspected
of Lutheranism, that he had published the
New Testament in Spanish, that he had
eulogised Melancthon and his doctrine, that
he had written a pernicious book on Free
Will, and that he was in possession of here
tical books. These last facts the Spaniard
denied, so the sentence was delayed.
On ist February 1545, the young man
escaped from the prison, finding that his cell
door had been left unlocked, and that other
things favoured his flight.
Leaving Louvain, he went to Mechlin,
and afterwards spent some time in Antwerp.
37

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Pursuant to the advice of Melancthon, to
whom he went as soon as possible, he then
wrote his " Reminiscences," which still have
an important place in Spanish literature.
When the Emperor commanded his re
turn to Brussels, on penalty of loss of life
and property, and when Soto declared him
unfit for the inheritance of his paternal for
tune, he went to Italy — a living letter from
Melancthon. He there learnt that his brother
James had suffered a martyr's death for main
taining the criminality of taking from, or
adding to, the Word of God. He subse
quently went to England, where he was the
guest of Cranmer, who gave him the Greek
professorship at Cambridge, and who would
gladly have seen him tutor to the Duke of
Suffolk. The printing of his translations of Livy,
Florus, Plutarch, and Lucian having taken
him to Basle and Strasburg, he died at the
latter place from the plague on December 30,
1552. He devoted fifteen years to Biblical
work; but he never saw the fruit of his
labours, and it remained for posterity to
benefit by his sacrifices in the cause of Pro
testantism. 38

CHAPTER IV
A LAY PROTESTANT SPANISH PREACHER
Francisco de Enzinas numbered Francisco
de_San_Roman, of Burgos, among his chief
friends.1 He had been a well-to-do merchant
in Antwerp ; but going to Bremen on business,
he heard a sermon preached in the Church of
the Holy Virgin, by a pastor named Jacob
Probst, who was a follower and admirer of
Luther. The Spaniard, who had merely entered the
church from curiosity, was so much struck
with what he heard, that he paid Probst
a visit, and had the noteworthy phrases
repeated to him, until he knew them by
heart. Then despising the world, life, and every
thing for Christ's sake, Francisco de San Ro
man devoted his time to spreading the truth.
Strong in his sense of right, he wrote to
1 Crocius, Grosses Martyrbuch.
39

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
the Emperor, warning him of damnation for
his repudiation of the Gospel. Wishing to
testify to the truth of Protestantism, he set
out for Spain, but was arrested on the road
to his native country. Forbidden property
was found in his luggage, in the form of
certain writings of Luther, Melancthon, and
Oekolampad, with caricatures of the Pope as
a child of the devil, and as a ravening wolf.
The books and papers were burnt, and their
owner was taken to Louvain, and there suf
fered imprisonment for some time.
But on his release, the missionary spirit of
the Spaniard was shown by his preaching in
the streets, and propagating the Reformed
religion through every means in his power.
In Ratisbon the enthusiast made the Em
peror a long speech. He exhorted him to
turn Lutheran, to bring in the true religion,
and to leave Protestants in peace.
When the Spaniard at a fourth audience
repeated his advice, he was taken prisoner.
The guard who took him, threatened to throw
him into the Danube, and the Emperor, in
accordance with the law of his dominions,
gave orders for his trial.
In the meanwhile the Reformer, in bonds,
40

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
had to accompany Charles V. on his journey
to Italy and Africa, but his untrammelled
spirit was joyous and free. On his return
to Spain, the Inquisition found him immov
able as a rock in his opinions, and he was
burnt in Valladolid by the orders of the
Holy Office. It is stated that the English
ambassador of the time tried to gain some
accurate information about this Spanish
martyr.

4i

CHAPTER V
THE ABDICATION OF CHARLES V.
Charles V. seemed to try and realise the
ideal of his favourite poet Acuna, who de
scribed a period when the world should be
subject to one sovereign and one sword.
But in the execution of this gigantic un
dertaking, with all its accompanying wars,
danger, and overwhelming burden of busi
ness, the conqueror in Europe, Africa, and
America, found at nearly every step the
trace of Luther and Protestantism con
fronting him as an adder in his path; and
although he finally stood at—the German
Reformer's tomb, he could never regain the
hopes in regard to religion by which he
was once animated. Ecclesiastical diplo
macy, theological congresses, and wars, all
failed to win back or annihilate those who
had deserted from the faith, and at last
the mighty ruler had to concede to Germany
42

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
that liberty of religion which he himself
hated. This concession, combined with in
creasing ill -health, made this exhausted
player of political chess exclaim, " Ne plus
ultra ! " for he felt he could no longer rule
on the lines which he had considered to be
just and godly, and conducive to the good of
the Church. The broken-down king then
began to take a dislike to business, and would
not, in fact, hear it mentioned. Finally, he
determined to give up the crown, which to
him had lost its value.
This decision took shape in the public
abdication by him of the Imperial sceptre —
a ceremony solemn in its illustration of the
fleeting nature of all earthly grandeur.
On the 25th October 1555, Charles, after
mass, entered the richly-carpeted hall of his
magnificent palace in Brussels, and took
for the last time his seat on the throne
under the canopy adorned with the arms of
Burgundy. Near to him sat his son Philip, Queen
Maria of Hungary, and Queen Eleanor of
France. Around him, the knights of the
Golden Fleece, the officers of the court and
house, and the deputies from the provinces
43

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
made an imposing array in their picturesque
Burgundian and Spanish dresses. In the
centre of all this magnificence, the old
man, prematurely bent, and grey from work,
anxiety, and illness, supported himself on
a stick with one hand crooked with gout,
whilst the other hand rested on William of
Orange. His morning dress of black velvet
was only relieved by the jewels of the Order
of the Golden Fleece. Charles spoke of the
burdens which so many crowns had laid upon
his youth. He had conscientiously tried to
do his duty to the best of his ability. The
interests of his beloved fatherland, and, above
all, those of Christianity, had lain nearest
to his heart. His chief object had been to
protect the Church from apostasy. The
jealousy of neighbouring Powers and the
factions of heretical German princes had
stood in his way.
He had given no thought to his own
convenience. He had taken forty journeys
to England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,
and Flanders. Four times he had crossed
the Spanish Main, eight times the Mediter
ranean. He begged his faithful subjects to main-
44

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
tain the purity of the Faith. " If any one in
these unbridled times," he said, "has allowed
doubts to enter his mind, he should tear them
out by the roots."
He then implored forgiveness for any
errors that he might have unwittingly com
mitted. But this humble request for pardon
did not in any wise include his treatment of
those Christians whom he had persecuted,
beheaded, tortured, burnt, and buried alive,
merely because they claimed for themselves
the blessing of a confident faith in the blood
and merit of Christ.
He considered he had only acted in ac
cordance with the following injunction given
him by the archbishop at Aix as to wielding
the sword of Charlemagne : —
"Take this sword, by which right must
be maintained, wrong defeated, the Church
supported, and heretics withstood."
In conversation with Contarini, the Vene
tian ambassador, the Emperor once said, " I
am by nature obstinate in my opinions."
" Sire," was the reply, " to hold fast to good
opinions is not obstinacy, but firmness."
" But I sometimes hold fast to bad ones,"
was the reply ; and certainly no opinion
45

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
could have been more unfortunate than that
which prompted him to accept Leo X.'s bull
of excommunication against the Lutherans as
the final, infallible, irreparable sentence of
the Church.
The abdication of the Netherlands in
favour of his son Philip was succeeded by
the resignation of Spain in favour of Ferdi
nand in the following year, and a few months
later the surrender of the Imperial dignity
itself. But it was still in his capacity of Emperor
that on the 3rd of February 1557 Charles
was conducted to the monastery of San
Yuste, near the village of Quacos, in the
beautiful province of Estremadura, a spot
watered by the rivers Tietor and Tagus, and
rich in oak, chestnut, and mulberry planta
tions. Te Deums, processions, and addresses
celebrated the Emperor's reception at the
altar, ablaze with lights and decorations.
Thus, at last removed from the restless sea
of care and business, Charles strove to atone
for any past neglect of pious exercises. In
consideration, however, of his health, he still
pursued a few harmless occupations. He
had daily read aloud to him portions of
46

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
St. Augustine, of St. Jerome, and of that
part of the Bible which was allowed by the
Inquisition. The beautiful Flemish Bible,
brought by the doctor from the Nether
lands, was burnt in the presence of his father
confessor. He was fond of choral singing and organ
playing, and his time was much given to
church festivals and masses. He liked also
to work in the workshop of his watchmaker,
Giovanni Torriano, he grafted trees, tended
his flowers, shot wild does, walked in the
alleys, or meditated under the shade of an
old walnut-tree.
He still conferred by letter with the
crowned heads of France, Portugal, and
Navarre, and with Philip and Joanna on
matters of policy. His attention, mean
while, was especially directed to the in
creasing power of Lutheranism. Charles
maintained that he had allowed Luther full
course, so as to escape the censure of Emperor
Sigismund. But in so doing he maintained
that he had not done his duty, inasmuch
as he ought rather to have considered his
allegiance to the Divine Master, God Him
self, as compelling him to vindicate every-
47

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
thing that was harmful to His cause. If
Luther had only offended against him, the
Emperor, it would have been all very well
to be lenient to him ; but that was another
matter. By leaving him at liberty, the
evil which might have been exterminated
by his death had grown more and more
formidable.

48

CHAPTER VI
FRANCISCO DE BORJA
Velasquez painted a picture of Francisco
de Borja, Duke of Gandia, dismounting from
his horse at the gate of the Jesuit College,
accompanied by two young men. He is
depicted in a gorgeous court-attire, bowing
low before Loyola, whose fanatical, bold,
designing Roman Catholic spirit wrought
such incalculable harm to the good which
Luther had accomplished. This picture is
like a biography. Borja had the same bril
liant success in several capacities, which were
as varied as his talents, for we see him
shining as a cavalier, soldier, diplomatist,
mathematician, student, composer, author,
and regent.
When viceroy in Catalonia he showed his
powers of administration, and in Africa and
Italy his deeds testified to his military genius.
The same hand which could wield a sword
49 d

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
or curb a horse, could write masses which
were long used in the churches, as well as
other works in Latin and Spanish. But all
these things brought no satisfaction to a
soul which was full of thoughts on sin
and judgment. Meditation and discipline
coloured his life. Even when pursuing his
favourite pastime of hawking, he would ex
ercise the self-denial of closing his eyes, and
so miss the full pleasure of the sport.
It was the same spirit of self-mortification
that caused him to look upon the features of
Queen Isabella, when her body had been in
the coffin six days. Horror-struck, the duke
gazed long at the fearful sight of the decay
of the human frame, and determining never
again to serve a mortal master, he took
for his motto these words: "I came from
nothing, I shall become nothing; what I
am I know not ; if I am anything, I am
quite sure that hell is my home." He was
then only five-and-twenty years of age. /
Not that he cast himself upon the Lord in
despair of his own power, for he thought to do
penance sufficient to become worthy of Christ
by his own exertions. He scourged himself
three times a day, and lived a more ascetic
50

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
life than many monks, long before he became
one of them. All other orders but that of
the Jesuits dissatisfied him, and it was he
who built the first college of the order in
Gandia. As he could by rights do nothing
as a Jesuit, he was granted the privilege of
managing his dukedom until the majority
of his children was attained. He slept on
a plank of wood in his clothes, and prayed
all night long. When he was released from
the responsibilities of office, he embarked
on board a ship for Rome, and chanted the
psalm which the Israelites sang when they
left Egypt, rejoicing that their bonds were
broken, and that they were free in the name
of the Lord.
Five times he refused the purple. Un
mindful of the burning sun, he travelled
through Spain as " Francisco el pecador "
("Francis the sinner") preaching to the
poor and winning converts to the order.
He frequented the court in his new capa
city, and afforded comfort to the Queen
Joanna when she lay dying, after the long
period of her madness.
Charles V. was attracted by Borja's dis
regard of the world. In San Yuste, he said
51

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
to the Jesuit that God had so taken posses
sion of his heart, that no living creature had
power to unsettle or worry him. The earthly
affairs of his relations were nothing to him ;
he only prayed for their salvation. He even
had the Imperial arms taken from his rooms,
and ordered a new seal to be made without
a crown, eagle, or fleece, saying, " The name
is sufficient now, I own nothing more."
The Emperor let the Jesuit have an in
sight into his innermost heart, and availed
himself of his ministerial office. They both
supported each other in their hope that Spain
was still a stainless daughter of the Church,
as the Jesuit declared it remained compara
tively free from heresy. When Francisco
was appointed general of the order, he said :
" I have always wished for the death of the
cross, but I never contemplated such a heavy
one as this." Being asked, when expiring,
whether he wanted anything, he died with
the reply upon his lips, " I want Christ." In
what a roundabout way had he sought him !
How much simpler to have let himself be
blessed in accepting the simple all-sufficing
invitation of the Saviour to come unto Him
and find rest for his soul !
52

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
The Emperor had one last crushing blow
before Borja preached the funeral sermon at
the obsequies, which he ordered to be cele
brated at Valladolid a few weeks before his
death. He heard from the Regent Joanna that
congregations of heretics had been discovered
in Valladolid and Seville. That was too
much for the Emperor. The stolid de
meanour he had maintained when Francis I.
was in full power, and when, sorely pressed,
he had to flee before Maurice of Saxony,
now forsook him. He was enraged at the
possibility of such daring deeds under the
very eyes of the government, the bishops,
and the Inquisition. There was now no
room for that hesitation, indecision, and
procrastination which had become a second
nature to him. He saw danger ahead. " He
who hesitates is lost," was the burden of his
letters to the Regent, the Queen of Bavaria,
Philip, the Grand Inquisitor, and the Secre
tary Vasquez. He said that the salvation of
the Church, as well as the maintenance of the
kingdom, required extreme measures of de
fence for the insurance of unity and security,
and it seemed as if he were determined to
S3

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
atone for the momentary indulgence, wrung
from him before his abdication, by making
full use of his opportunity for redressing his
so-called weakness. He wrote to the Regent
saying that the whole affair had caused him
inexpressible anxiety and pain. He had seen
how whole kingdoms might sink under such
a misfortune, and now, just when he wished
to pass the rest of his life in the service of
the Lord, the same enormity had arisen in
Spain which had cost him so much trouble in
Germany, when he had been exposed to losing
his health, and driven to the expenditure of
immense sums of money. He now therefore
called upon them to act in that- prompt and
severe manner which befitted the gravity of
such an offence against the Church as well as
the State.
All possible steps, therefore, were to be
taken. He entreated the Regent, as forcibly
as he could, to command the Archbishop not
to quit the court, so that precautions might
be taken on every side. She was to impress
upon the Inquisitor and the Council of the
Inquisition, on behalf of the Emperor, the
necessary exertions to be made in the matter.
He trusted to her the task of preventing so
54

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
lamentable a misfortune. Joanna was to do
all in her power to inflame the zeal of the
community, in order that the guilty might
be punished, one and all, with the severity
due to their guilt. Did he not know from
experience that evil must be eradicated by the
roots ? And was it not certainly now, while
the movement was only at its commence
ment, without depth or strength, that the
promptest severity was required to prevent
it gaining ground ? The exigency of the
case was such as to make him almost think,
in spite of his physical sufferings, of coming
forward himself and using every effort in
the suppression of an evil cause which had
already given him so much trouble.
Scarcely had the Regent received and com
municated the first document to the Arch
bishop and the Council, when a second one,
still more impressive, arrived; Charles was
so full of care and trouble that he could
scarcely express himself. One must act quite
pitilessly, he wrote, even as they had been
obliged to do in the Netherlands. If the
proper means were not used now, at the
commencement of the trouble, neither the
king nor anybody else would have power
55

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
to do it later. He did not know whether
it would be sufficient to do what was usual
in such cases, namely, that the culprit, having
received punishment, should be vouchsafed
pardon on confessing his guilt, repenting,
and pleading for mercy. If liberated, would
he not be embittered by his punishment,
and encouraged to do the same harm again
out of revenge, and with the dignity of
one who could boast of having suffered?
In cases of such mischievous import, he did
not consider that the extermination of the
evil could be effected by mercy. It might be
confidently surmised that by mild jurisdiction
the Reformed doctrine would be publicly
and widely preached in a year. It should be
decided whether it was not justifiable to
withhold from these heretics all claim upon
mercy, and to proceed against them as in
surgents, mutineers, and disturbers of the
peace of the State, guilty, in fact, of the
crime of rebellion. In Flanders the Inquisi
tion had not been able to make way against
opposition, having to face the pretence that
there were no heretics there. However, by
means of strict laws, penalties of death,
and confiscations, he had been able to get
56

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
the upper hand. All minor questions should
be left out of sight ; for if so great an evil
were not exterminated in its infancy, it
would get beyond the power of the king
or anybody else. It was by such cruel
edicts, in the form of private letters, that
the man of prayer showed his sincere anxiety
for what he considered the welfare of the
throne and of the altar. His confidential
majordomo, Luis de Quijada, was sent off
to rouse, by word of mouth, to greater vigi
lance and activity the Princess, the Grand
Inquisitor de Valdes, the members of the
Castilian Council, and the Primate. Valdes
objected that too great precipitancy would
prevent them from getting to the root of
the matter. If the accused did not confess
to-day, they would do so to-morrow by
means of persuasion, threats, and, if need
be, by dint of torture. And Quijada was
told to tell his master that the people had
been delighted 'to hear that he entertained
the thought of coming to their assistance.

57

CHAPTER VII
PROTESTANTS IN VALLADOLID
The inhabitants of the beautiful city of Valla
dolid were considered particularly courteous,
polished, and pious. It was a town of great
trade. Venetian, Genoese, and Flemish mer
chants trafficked together ; and among those
who thirsted after righteousness, Lutheran
literature was the most valuable of the im
ported goods.
Agustin Cazalla became an enthusiastic
preacher of Protestantism.1 He was son of
the rich Lord of the Treasury, Pedro Cazalla.
Francisca Hernandez, the cheerful but deli
cate member of the tertiary order of Fran
ciscans, who was subsequently reproved by
the Grand Inquisitor for her bright eyes and
laughter, lived for some time in the house
of the Cazalla family, where she exercised a
powerful influence for Protestantism. Theo-
1 Menendez, Heterodoxos Espanoles, ii. p. 314.
58

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
logians learnt much from her lips, and the
light she threw on the doctrine of the Saviour
caused her to be summoned before the Secret
Council at Toledo and imprisoned. The
court preacher, Ortiz, who declared that
Francisca's arrest was a public sin, was soon
also taken prisoner, according to the wish of
his enemies.1
But to return to Agustin Cazalla. He
became chaplain and court preacher of
Charles V., whom he attended for nine
years in his travels in Germany and Flanders.
It was probably when he was abroad that
he first became interested in evangelical ques
tions; and Don Carlos de Seso, a nobleman,
who had served under the banner of the
Emperor in Italy, confirmed him in these
opinions at Logrono. It was in Italy that
Seso had heard sermons on the Epistle to
the Romans and Galatians, which are sealed
books to the Roman Church at the present
day ; and it was there that he found a willing
listener in Agustin Cazalla's brother, pastor
of Pedrosa. Seso talked of the Atoner in
stead of Atonement, trust instead of penance,
1 E. Boehmer, Franzisko Hernandez m. Fray Fran-
zisko Ortiz, 1865. 59

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
acceptance of a Person instead of acceptance
of a doctrine, and the worship of the risen
Christ instead of the worship of saints. He
maintained that Justification was so complete
through the Atonement that the doctrine of
purgatory, with its financial dealings, was
quite contrary to God's Word. To Pedro
Cazalla this was a new light ; for, according
to his Church, he had hitherto taught that
only inherited sin was pardoned through
Christ's Atonement, and that the pardon for
other sins could only be received through
penances in this world, or in the interme
diate place of purification. In view of the
doubts thus aroused respecting the dogma
of his Church, Pedro Cazalla begged Seso
to consult with Carranza, the archbishop of
Valladolid, on the subject.
The conversation was opened by Carranza
saying —
"You have said that you doubt the doctrine
of pu rgatory. On what ground may that be ? "
" Because," said Seso, " of the sufficiency
of the blood and suffering of our Lord Jesus
Christ." " No reasons," returned the archbishop,
" are strong enough to dispense with the
60

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
doctrine of the Mother Church, and it is
idle to discuss it."
The hint was obeyed, and when given the
post of corregidor of Toro, Seso avoided
further discussion with Pedro Cazalla.
But the seed of Protestantism, once sown
in the heart of his friend, could not be easily
eradicated. Pedro Cazalla could not banish
the idea of the sufferings of Golgotha afford
ing free pardon both here and hereafter to
the believing and faithful, and the more he
searched the Scriptures, the more he saw it
was the doctrine of the Gospel. At last he
finally renounced belief in purgatory as being
contrary to revelation. But with the with
drawal of this prop of his faith, other gaps
in the bulwark of dogma were revealed. The
Articles of belief relating to the power of
the Pope, indulgences, and oral confessions,
seemed to be also irreconcilable with full
pardon of sins, and so the pastor soon re
nounced these doctrines as well, and recom
mended his flock to read Juan de Avila's
letter on the Atonement of Christ.
After fourteen years of doubt, Domingo
de Rojas, a Dominican, also succumbed to
the power of the truth. 61

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
In the time of his indecision he said to
Carranza —
" I do not know how the Article on Justifi
cation is compatible with that of purgatory ! "
The archbishop is reported to have re
plied —
" People cannot grasp the philosophy of
the doctrine if they do not believe in the
Infallibility of the Church."
Rojas subsequently compiled an exposition
of the Creed from the view of Justification,
and circulated it at his own expense. He
even hoped to convert Louisa, Duchess of
Villahermosa, sister of Francisca de Borja ;
but she shut the palace against him from fear
of his heretical doctrines.
Seso meanwhile incessantly, but secretly —
not " for fear of the Jews," but for fear of the
Holy Office — continued to propagate Pro
testant doctrines, and his niece, after read
ing his manuscript on Justification through
Atonement, became one of his converts.
The result of Seso's teaching was also appa
rent in the sermons of Agustin Cazalla,
which were now full of evangelical doctrine.
Lutherans, drawn together by their search
after truth, met in the paternal house of the
62

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Cazalla family, where the mother and the
daughters (Constance and Beatrix) were Pro
testants. Their friends Ana Enriquez, the
beautiful young daughter of the Marquis
de Alcanizes, paid them a visit, and, being
much exercised about the doctrine of the
efficacy of works, she was told that works
were the outcome of gratitude, not the
means of grace. She also heard the Protes
tant statement respecting pardon through the
Atonement, and she was finally converted by
Domingo de Rojas, who explained to her
the value of Luther's teaching. She subse
quently ventured to maintain her disbelief
in purgatory when face to face with her
aunt, Maria de Rojas, a nun in the convent
of Santa Catalina.
Francisca de Zufiiga, daughter of the
royal official Alfonso de Baeza, was angry
with Juan Sanchez for denying purgatory,
but under the influence of Rojas and Pedro
de Cazalla she overcame her scruples. Thus
the society of Lutherans, now numbering
members of great families, such as the heir
of the marquisate of Poza, Pedro de Sar-
miento, &c, increased, and met in secrecy
in Valladolid. 63

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Spanish books began to come from Italy,
and helped to confirm the new knowledge
of these old truths. Luther's powerful com
mentary on the Epistle to the Galatians and
Carranza's catechism were also instrumental
in producing a like result.

64

CHAPTER VIII
JUAN DE VALDES
Juan de Valdes, the twin brother of Alfonso
de Valdes, who wrote " The Apology for the
Sacking of Rome," went to court at eighteen
years of age.1
His first works were strongly imbued with
his brother's Erasmian opinions and style;
and his " Conversation between Mercury and
Charon, on the War of 1521 " might have
been written by the author of the " Dialogue
between Lactantio and the Priest." Through
the influence of the Emperor he went to
Italy in the service of Clement VII., but,
his sympathy with the temporary movement
of free thought and liberal policy bringing
him under the suspicion of the Inquisition,
he sought to avoid persecution by retiring to
Naples, where the " iron viceroy " Pedro de
1 B. B. Wiffen, " Life and Writings of Juan de Valdes,"
1865 ; Stern, Alfonso etfuan de Valdes, p. 504.
65 E

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Toledo organised a well-ordered subordinate
Spanish province during the one-and-twenty
years of his administration.1
As a Spaniard, Valdes was devoted to the
language and literature of his native land, to
which he gave much time and study. It was
a real pleasure to hear him speak in the
" divine language " — as Charles V. termed
the Castilian — and friends often met together
for this treat at his country house on the
Chiaja. It was there that the celebrated
congress took place, which was afterwards
embodied in the " Dialogue on the Spanish
Language " 2 by Juan Valdes. But the Spaniard
was rapidly changing from an Erasmian to a
Lutheran, from a worldly man to a converted
Christian, from a vassal of the Emperor to a
soldier of Christ.
Of attractive appearance and manners,
and endowed with a fascinating power of
conversation, he exercised a great influence
in those more cultured circles of society,
where many of the nobility, disgusted with
1 Reumont, Die Carafa von Maddalone, Neapel unter
spanischen Herrschaft, 185 1, p. 64.
2 Dialogo de la lengua tenido hdcia el ano 1533, y
publicado por primera vez el ano 1737.
66

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
the anti-Christian tendencies of the Renais
sance, were asking with fear and trembling,
" What shall I do to be saved ? " In reply,
they were led like sheep by the Spaniard to
the healthy and refreshing pastures of Holy
Writ. Luther's Gospel was the Alpha and Omega
of Juan Valdes.
His humility, resulting from a conscious
ness of his sin, conquered his pride, and his
adoration of Christ's gentleness overcame his
natural impetuosity and hastiness of temper ;
and so he became a man fitted to teach the
scions of a nobility brought low by the re
verses of war.
Theologians also came to learn the lan
guage, and among his congenial friends Valdes
counted Occhino, Benedetto de Mantova
(who, under the Spaniard, became a powerful
expounder of the Atonement of Christ),
Peter Martyr Vermigli, Marcantonio Flami-
nio, who translated the Psalms, and Vittoria
Colonna, the friend of Michael Angelo.
When weary of Parnassus and Delos (for
she was said to be inspired by Plato and
Petrarch), this last-mentioned illustrious lady
devoted her poetical talents to writing verses
67

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
addressed to Jesus as the inexhaustible fount
of eternal happiness.1 She was greatly affected
by Luther's anonymous version of the Psalms,
and she derived much help from Valdes,
whose spiritual sympathy in speaking of the
Atonement outweighed the bitterness of his
polemical writings against the hierarchy and
priestcraft. To the noble-hearted Duchess Guilia de
Gonzaga, widow of Vespasian Colonna, Juan
Valdes was also able to afford greater spiri
tual help with his evangelical opinions than
were Sales, St. Cyran, the duchesse de Gram
mont, the Princess de Guise, or Fenelon.
He continued to be her teacher, counsellor,
and friend, until she retired to the convent
of Santa Chiara, a model building of Nea
politan medievalism, where she determined
to devote her life to prayer and meditation
on the Word of God, being quite one in
spirit with those who witnessed a good
confession and suffered martyrdom for the
Gospel. Dying, she consigned her soul to
1 Reumont, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, iii.; Caballero
Conquenses illustres, iv. p. 195 j Menendez Pelayo, Hete-
rodoxis Espanoles, ii. p. 178 ; Rime e Lettere di Vittoria
Colonna, 1865.
68

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
the Saviour, in whose cause she "had herself
been cited to appear before the Inquisition.
It was especially for the enlightenment of
the illustrious Guilia Gonzaga that Juan
Valdes, between the years 1536 and 1540,
wrote the " Christian A B C."
In this "A B C " x Valdes gave , a clear
and practical picture of what was involved
in sin, conversion, salvation, Christian and
doctrinal perfection, heaven and hell. This
book proved a veritable lifeboat, rescuing
Guilia Gonzaga from the storm-tossed sea
of indecision and doubt in which she was
struggling; for, although roused by Occhino's
sermons to long for a conviction of sin and
a sense of pardon, she remained halting be
tween the "terror of public opinion if she
changed her faith, and the terror of dam
nation if she remained as she was. In his
"Exposition of the Psalms," Valdes showed
that his special study of the Scriptures had
relation to Salvation, and that he had thor
oughly thrown himself into the spirit of
David without regard to people or their
opinions. He saw that God's goodness,
1 Alfabeto christiano che insigna la vera via dacquis-
tare il lume dello spirito santo.
69

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
mercy, kindness, truth, and justice in the
order of the world, were evidenced in the
book of the psalmist, whilst it condemned
the depravity, instability, falsehood, godless-
ness, and wickedness of man. David's deal
ings with God afforded Valdes a mirror for
testing by examination the reality of his own
fear and love of God, and gave him an
opportunity for showing that the prophecies
of David were fulfilled in the person of
Christ, and that this evidence affords a bul
wark to the faith of those who accept God's
word and trust in His promises, and that it
stands as a pledge for the fulfilment of what
remains to be revealed.
Valdes' translation and commentary of the
Epistle of the Romans completed the work
which was begun with the Psalms. The right
interpretation of such portions of the Scrip
tures, he maintained, was attainable only by
the surrender of the heart to Christ, and not
by vanity and curiosity. His exposition is
largely elucidated by concise, striking defini
tions of such words as gospel, Spirit, faith,
hope, love, justice, grace, sin, flesh, and law.
If Valdes made more than 3000 converts
in Naples, it was mainly due to his " Con-
70

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
siderations," which his followers rated very
highly, for in them, with a natural gracious-
ness, eloquence, and authority, he opens the
eyes of inquirers to the glad tidings of the
great divine gift of pardon and reconcilia
tion. The author enters deeply into all
matters pertaining to this world and the
next, and enforces his remarks with such
clear, concise, and irrefutable references to
Scripture, and with such striking illustrations,
examples, comparisons, and parables, that he
carries his readers with him. He describes
in an exhaustive manner the union, through
conversion, of the Christian commonwealth
with Christ and the Holy Spirit ; and evinces
a deeper insight into Christianity than had
before been shown by any Protestant of the
Peninsula. The influence of Valdes became
powerful enough to attract the notice of the
Pope, and to stamp his opinions as those of
a leader in the Christian community to which
he belonged. In 1542 his teaching (under
the name of " Valdesianism ") was arraigned
in Naples by a special Inquisitor. Many of
his friends were proscribed and put to death,
and his writings narrowly escaped destruction.
He died in 1541, and shortly afterwards the
71

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
persecution of his followers began — for, the
powerful Viceroy having put down the Italian
nobility with an iron hand, it only wanted a
sign from the Emperor to have the same
energy turned against the Valdesians, and
this persecution preceded the laying waste of
the Protestant oases in Valladolid and Seville.

72

CHAPTER IX
PROTESTANT PREACHERS IN ANDALUSIA
Luther's opinions soon spread to Anda
lusia, reaching the city of Seville, whose
walls, with their sixty-six towers and fifteen
gates, formed an imposing environment, in
cluding within them the palaces of merchant-
princes, and more than a hundred churches
and monasteries.
Rodrigo de Valer was a man of property
at Lebrija. Hunting, gambling, and horses
were his great delight ; but a change of
opinions worked a revolution in his life, and
all his former amusements were abandoned.
He now lived like a Franciscan monk, read
the Latin Bible till he nearly knew it by
heart, and was thus able to compare the
doings of worldly priests with the divine
ideal of a spiritual life. He had scarcely
discovered the flagrant contradiction between
the Real and the Ideal, when he began openly
73

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
to expose it. He held up the mirror of truth
to religious orders, and he expressed in public
places his opinions as to the hopeless demo
ralisation of the Church.
From the steps of the cathedral he openly
declaimed as a messenger of Christ against
the priesthood for being idle, cunning, and
immoral. When he came in contact with
the priests, who, inflated with the authority
of their orders, asked how he, a layman,
dared to despise the lights and pillars of
the Church, from whence he had obtained
his knowledge and his power, he would
reply, " Not from the foul swamps of your
wisdom, but from the pure stream of grace
granted to the believing heart." The Holy
Spirit, he maintained, was limited to no
special caste, and certainly not to a depraved
one like that of their profession. Fishermen
were raised to be apostles, so as to put to
shame the whole blind synagogue; and Christ,
in whose name he worked, had sent him. In
this way he taught the necessity for the
conversion of a priest before he could fulfil
the duties of his office. At first this furor
divino was taken for lunacy, and the street-
preacher was let alone. But when the de-
74

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
v.
nunciations continued with unabated zeal, he
was summoned before the Inquisition, where
he gave an address on the ideal character of
the true Church and the doctrine of Justi
fication. The discourse was declared to be
that of a madman. His property was nearly
all confiscated for law expenses, and he was
left well-nigh penniless.
Some years later the accusation was re
peated, with the result that the accused had
to stand in the cathedral between the two
choirs with the san-benito, and was kept a
prisoner in the Monastery of San Lucas de
Barrameda ; the aged Christian was spared
the anguish of an auto-da-fe. He had to
attend mass in San Salvador every Sunday ;
and it once happened that he stood up and
gave the lie to the sermon that was being
preached. After his death there was an in
scription put in the sacristy of the cathedral
— "To the memory of Rodrigo de Valer,
born in Lebrija, apostate and pseudo-apostle
in Seville, who called himself an ambassador
of God." Rodrigo may not have been free
from error upon some points, but he was
certainly not mad. A man full of divine
energy, although a fool in the opinion of
75

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
the world, he could not have failed to in
fluence his contemporaries.
Juan Gil (Egidio), from Olvera in Arra-
gon, had pursued his studies in Alcala.
There, in the Roman Church, he was in
danger of neglecting that study of the Scrip
tures, which was considered secondary to a
recognition of the infallibility of clerical
power. They who held the latter doctrine
did not teach that divine revelation takes its
stand upon certain facts, and that without
the full acceptance of these facts, apart from
the ideas and representations they give rise
to, man's heart cannot be in harmony with
the full, lively, and saving acts of God. The
result was that those who spent their time
at the University in the long wearisome
study of a mass of idle questions which
turned the bread of God into stones, could
not attain to a real knowledge of the Word
of God. Gil left Alcala with the reputation
of a scholar of blameless life, and he became
a professor of theology in Siguenza. In 1 557
he was appointed Canon by the Chapter of
Seville, merely on the strength of his good
recommendations, and without any question
as to whether he was eloquent or not, for
76

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
the three canonries of every cathedral were
generally filled by the best men from the
best colleges. As soon as the new Doctor
went into the pulpit the oversight and mis
take were regretted. His rivals who had
been passed over were delighted to find that
he was a bad preacher. The Chapter was
reproved, and the church became empty. It
was in vain that Gil tried to acquire elo
quence from books. In despair he thought
of resigning his office. Then he came across
Rodrigo Valer, who spoke to him in a way to
which he had been quite unaccustomed in
Alcala. He told him that to be able to
preach well, he required books and studies
different from those which had hitherto sup
plied him with learning. Gil soon dis
covered that his adviser had obtained his
wisdom from prophets and apostles, rather
than from subtle teachers, and after follow
ing in the same path, he became quite a
different man himself.
His hearers soon noticed the difference in
the preacher, who now, instead of showing
off his own learning, tried to make his con
gregation acquainted with the knowledge of
the Lord. The cleric who had been formerly
77

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
scorned and despised, became so celebrated
by his powerful witness to the truth, that
the Emperor offered him the see of Tortosa,
the bishop of which had been elevated to
the papal chair.
Directly it seemed probable that Gil
might have a mitre, the Inquisition tried
to incriminate him and catch him in his
speech. They wanted to know whether he
opposed the worship of saints and pictures,
whether he denied purgatory and the merit
of good works, whether he taught the doc
trine of Justification and Sanctification, and
whether or not he upheld the Church as the
only ground of truth. He had certainly
removed from the Church a piece of the
true cross, and an image of the Virgin
which San Fernando had carried with him
in all his campaigns. The inquiry went
against him. The tribunal decreed im
prisonment. When confined in the old
Moorish castle of the Triana, a suburb of
the city of Seville, from which it is separ
ated by the Guadalquivir, Gil wrote his
" Apology." The Chapter appealed to the
Emperor on his behalf. Antonio de Corro
made a motion for a free defence, irrespec-
78

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
tive of his colleague, Pedro Diaz, and his
obstinate partisanship of Valer. The pri
soner wished to have Fuente and Carranza
as his advocates. In the absence of the
former, the Jeromite Garci-Arias took his
place, but no one was satisfied with his am
biguous defence. Domingo Soto came from
Salamanca, and managed so that on the 21st
of August 1552 Gil, in the presence of a
large congregation in the cathedral, forswore
ten articles, recanted eight, and declared seven
others to be Catholic. If the account of the
event be true, the accused was overreached
by artifice, for Soto recited a different formula
from that which had been prearranged ; and
Gil, ignorant of the fact, stationed in another
pulpit, gave signs of assent to points he had
not understood, and thereby greatly distressed
his audience.
The Auto of 1552 condemned him to
three years' imprisonment. He was for
bidden to quit Spain or, for a year, to read
mass, and for ten years he was inhibited from
preaching, hearing confessions, or taking part
in any doctrinal work. He was enjoined to
attend certain churches fifteen times, to con
fess once a month, to communicate at the
79

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
discretion of his father confessor, and to fast
every Friday.
Before this expiatory punishment was com
pleted, the Lutheran died at Valladolid in
1556. The Chapter had granted him an
income of 600 ducats while he was under
the sentence, and he was accorded a tomb,
and a funeral - sermon, in the cathedral.
Friends preserved the manuscripts that he
left, some of which were the outcome of his
prison leisure. These writings include expo
sitions of the book of Genesis, the Psalms,
the Song of Solomon, and the Epistle to the
Corinthians. Throughout all these exposi
tions the effect of his troubles finds expres
sion in an increased spiritual power, and his
own experience of what Christian consolation
means enables him to impart it to others.
These testimonies to his faith are sufficient
to cancel all his supposed recantations.

80

CHAPTER X
CONSTANTINO PONCE DE LA FUENTE
Constantino Ponce de la Fuente was
born in 1500, at San Clemente in La Mancha.
Having entered the University of Alcala, he
soon became the leader of a band of students,
whose pranks and peccadilloes were as pro
verbial as their hunger and their threadbare
cloaks. A student's life consisted of con
tinual change — amusements, studies, discus-'
sions, music, dancing, wrestling, friendship,
rivalries, entertainments, and feasts. They
sometimes wandered through the country as
beggars, improvising with their guitars and
tambourins, and travelling with one mule,
which carried each of them in turn. But a
time came when Constantino's frivolity was
exchanged for seriousness. Nothing thence
forward remained of the light-hearted student
but his enjoyment of a song, and his apti
tude for sharp answers and for biting anec-
81 F

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
dotes, which made people say that he had a
wasp's nest in his mouth — a tongue which
could annihilate his adversary. After a long
period of deep study of the Bible, he was ap
pointed by the Chapter of Seville as one of the
cathedral preachers, and was ordained priest
by the Bishop of Maruecas in the diocese of
the Archbishop Manrique. It was he who
preached the funeral sermon of the Empress,
upon which occasion the crowd was so great
that people went at four o'clock in the morn
ing to secure places for eight o'clock. The
biographer Borjas Cienfuegos,1 speaking of
Constantino, says : " His eloquence was mar
vellous. The power of his persuasions took
hold of the affections, gave food for thought,
and finally fascinated his audience." This
opinion is confirmed by his six sermons on
the ist Psalm.2
After preaching several sermons on the
Gospels, he took some other texts to show
how the Atonement of Christ is the converg
ing point of unity in all the seeming variety
1 Ticknor, "History of Spanish Literature," 3rd ed.,
iii. 99.
2 Exposicion del primer Psalmo de David, divido en
6 sermones por el doctor Constantino.
82

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
of the ways that lead to Truth. We must
flee to the fount of Christ's blood to attain
salvation. There we shall find forgiveness,
self-knowledge, horror of sin, strength for
conversion, eyes to see the grace of God,
faith to follow Him, and a heart to love
Him. Our weakness should not discourage
us, for the greater it is, the more earnestly
should we pray for the means of grace. And
then, having withdrawn every excuse from
his hearers, Fuente waxes warm with sym
pathy for the struggle before them. " O
brothers ! " he says, " your misery shows your
need ; your blindness testifies to your want
of light ; your restlessness demands the rest
which it is your duty to implore. I will
show what you require, I will give you more
than you dare to ask, I will teach you what
you are looking for. You wish to be holy,
and you do not know how to become so. In
a few words I will tell you the secret, with
full security for its verification."
It was said of Fuente that he seemed to
look down from a tower on the whirl and
confusion of man's sins, and that the Bible
was to him as the mirror of men's hearts.
He never glossed over the truth. He said
83

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
if there were no counsel of the ungodly,
there would not be, before their very eyes,
the baneful divisions, the shameless and in
famous conspiracies, the deceiving liars, the
scorn of the truth, the support of lies and
treachery, the fearful superstitions, and the
heavily-burdened consciences which brought
shame and disgrace on the name of Christ
ians. Fuente was as open in his condemna
tions as Juan de Sahagan, the baron who
publicly chastised his ill-conducted vassals.
Garcia de Toledo, Duke of Alba, called
Fuente to task on his boldness, saying, if he
were not more moderate in his language, he
would find himself taken up on the high
road. The brave monk replied : "I give
you my word, that if any one molests me
on the high-road, I will give him such a
blow with this breviary that he will be glad
to let me go again." When Alba laughed,
Fuente added : " Do I go up into the pulpit
to tell the truth, or lies ? Your Highness
knows that he who preaches must tell the
truth, and must be ready to die for it." 1
But other people besides Alba complained
of Constantino's severity. Was he not rather
1 Wilkens, Fray Luis de Leon, p. 16.
84

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
hard on the sinner and the ungodly ? If his
doctrine were true, who could go to heaven ?
If his words were as severe as they sounded,
God must be very hard. "But," said the
preacher, " one must recollect that one's in
capacity for good should not be an excuse
for love of sin. One's powerlessness should
not be a reason to reject God's help, and
so become hardened and rebellious sinners,
oblivious to the voice of conscience, the
threats of God's Word, and the fear of His
judgment. Pride and blindness must be in
the ascendant when it is expected that soft
and sweet words can foretell a good end to
a bad course, and that God can bless a teacher
who shows the wrong way whereby to reach
His mercy and goodness. If pride were not
so prevalent, severity would not be necessary;
but it becomes necessary when men resist so
stubbornly the confession of weakness, and
make such long tarrying in the valley of self-
sufficiency, before they surrender to the voice
of conscience and of God."
The following extract gives an idea of the
writer's opinions and power of expression : —
" When once the sinner acknowledges his
weakness, the penalty of his sin is withdrawn.
85

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
The righteous man says, ' If I have a horror
of my sin, it is Thou, Lord, who hast given
it me. If I advance on the path of right
eousness, it is Thou who wilt support me.
My weakness is caused by my wickedness.
If I give up trying to be holy of myself, and
if, in spite of Thy help, I am still wicked, it
is the harvest of my unregenerate nature, it
is the evil result of my former condition, it
is a proof of what I should be were I left by
Thee. Thy word, Lord, supports and com
forts me with the hope that Thy mercy will
hear and judge me at the last, that Thou
wilt intercede for me when I have nothing to
say ; that Thou, through the blood of Thy
Son, wilt do for me what I cannot do for
myself. Thou wilt purify what is impure ;
Thou wilt complete what is incomplete, and
so manifest what Thou art, and what Thou
givest.' Such are the arms which protect
the godly before a judgment-seat, where the
ungodly is defenceless. Such is the shield of
conscience, which may be broken but never
withdrawn. With this trust man does not fall
from despair, stiff-necked resistance, or the
concealment of his sin. He stands firm in
hope, for it is rooted in the mercy of God."
86

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
In his " Confession of a Sinner," x Fuente,
in a style that reminds one of Richard Baxter,
preaches with still greater earnestness on the
necessity of real confession to God in the
evangelical sense. It is a masterpiece of
theological writing : —
" O Thou only-begotten Son, delivered
by the Eternal Father to be the Ransom,
the Redemption, the Sacrifice, and the Judge
of mankind, I come, O Lord, that Thou
shouldest hear me tell, not of my righteous
ness, but of my sins ; not of my goodness,
but of my faults, and of the heinous offences
which I have committed, not only against
mankind, but against the majesty and good
ness and the mercy of Thy Father. On the
one hand — dragged and constrained by the
pains and torments of hell, that are inwardly
suggested by my misdeeds, and, on the other
hand, called by Thy mercy to know, although
too late, what Thou hast been to me, and
what I have been to Thee — I come accused
by my own conscience, condemned by it, con
strained by the tortures of self-knowledge,
to tell and confess before men, before angels,
in the presence of earth, and in the presence
1 La Confesion de un pecador penitents, 1556.
87

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
of Heaven, before the tribunal of Thy Ma
jesty and divine justice, that I justly deserve
to be condemned to perpetual banishment
from the joys of heaven, and to perpetual
misery in association with Satan as his
slave. " My Redeemer and my God, my suit
would be ended wert Thou to sentence and
condemn sinners. Woe were me ! If angels
had to judge me, if I had to judge myself;
if in confessing my transgressions and short
comings my creditor were at once to proceed
to execution ; if upon the knowledge of my
guilt no respite were granted me ; if, when
unable to reply, my adversary's accusation
were pronounced as just ; if, when unable
to pay, I were then cast into prison at my
enemy's discretion, then were my lot wretched
and disastrous indeed. It hath pleased Thee
that this should be earthly justice, in order
that we should be by it exposed to the loss
of earthly things. But as by such justice,
O Lord, we should run the risk of losing
heaven, and of losing Thee, Thy goodness,
in order to meet this exigency, hath ordained
new laws of justice, drawn from the great
ness of Thy mercy, by which Thy ways should

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
become as distinct from those of the world
as is Heaven from earth.
" Blessed art Thou, O Lord ! and may
those ever praise Thee who learn to know
that such is Thy judgment-seat, that Thou
earnest into the world not to condemn sin
ners, but to save them ; that, being just,
Thou art the Judge and Advocate of the
guilty, and the Adversary of his accuser ;
that Thou didst undergo such trials, and
wast tempted in various ways that we might
have greater pledges of Thy mercy ; that
Thou art holiness for the sinner, righteous
ness for the guilty, payment and satisfaction
for the poverty-stricken, and the Advocate
for him that knows not how to plead. This
knowledge of Thee, my Redeemer, draws me
to Thee. This knowledge of Thee has pre
vailed more with me than that knowledge of
myself which would have forbidden me to
dare to present myself before Thee.
" Where, Lord, shall I begin to enumerate
my sins ? what course shall I follow that the
miseries of my life may be better set forth ?
Well do I see, O . my Redeemer, that Thou
knowest my career thoroughly, but I had to
know myself in order the better to know
89

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Thee. Well do I know that the sum of
my sins is innumerable, for they exceed in
number the hairs of my head, or the sand
on the sea-shore. But at least I would
dwell awhile upon some of my wretched
doings, in order that just as I at one time
made a sport of my sins, so now my eyes
and heart may weep when contemplating
the extent to which I squandered away in
dissipation the blessings of Thy Providence.
Give me, O Lord, eyes that I may see my
self, and strength that I may bear up under
self-scrutiny. For my sins are so numerous
and so aggravated that I myself am ashamed
to recognise them as mine, and am tempted
to relieve myself by another sin, that of
disowning and denying myself as though
I could discover another self less guilty.
But with all this, Lord, I see Thy mercy is
such, that whilst I close my eyes, when
confronted by my sins, Thou keepest Thine
open and fixed upon them all ; for it is
clear, O Redeemer of the world, that Thou
lookest upon wounds in order to heal them,
that, however hideous they may be, they
do not disgust Thee, and that Thou con-
descendest to heal them with Thy hands.
90

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Guide me, O my Lord, and draw me to
Thyself, for alone I shall not attain to know
myself. Thy presence shall give me strength
to endure self-scrutiny. Hold me, that I
flee not from myself. Sustain me, that I
yield not to despair. Impose silence upon
Satan until Thou answerest for me."
The form of this work is in accordance
with the " Confessions " of St. Augustine,
and Anselm of Canterbury, and its ejacu
lations remind one of the Psalms. Then
follow the Ten Commandments and the
Articles of the Creed, which all take their
part in the accusation and the condemna
tion of the sinner. The sweet tones of the
Gospel are then heard bringing consolation
to the repentant heart, reduced almost to
despair by a deep conviction of sin.
All that Fuente says of mariolatry in his
Catechism1 is, that the purity of the Holy
Virgin is an example for us. The exposi
tion of the Decalogue is simple, compre
hensive, and illustrated by good examples.
In his explanations of the right doctrine of
the Holy Sacrament, as bearing upon the
1 Catechismo christiano compuesto por el doctor Con
stantino Ponce de la Fuente, 1546.
91

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
teaching of transubstantiation, he says that
the celebration of High Mass only celebrates
the representation of the sufferings of Christ.
Such was the production of a book rich in
thought and concise in expression, helpful
to the understanding of sound doctrine and
to the reconciliation of many seemingly irre
concilable scriptural passages. Nothing was
said about papal supremacy, indulgences, or
purgatory. Its beautiful style and its in
comparable treatment of the subject with
which it dealt, gave it such a large circula
tion that in eight years it went through
four editions. It was dedicated to Garcia
de Loyasa, Archbishop of Seville.
Fuente, in spite of illness and other hind
rances, was always full of literary projects.
In his sermons he tried to give an exhaustive
treatise on sin, and Christian virtue, and he
arranged the extracts from the Epistles and
Gospels according to the order of the eccle
siastical year. Before that was completed,
it became evident that the Church required
a clear exposition of Christian doctrine. The
ignorance of the clergy in the provinces was
caused by the dearth of good books, and
so the mysteries of faith were often treated
92

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
according to ideas from their own heads.
When bishops ordained such pastors, it was
like sending forth soldiers against the enemy
unprovided with weapons for their defence,
or telling them to provide food for their
sheep when they were hungry themselves.
As Diogenes rolled his tub when he saw
everybody preparing for war, Fuente did
not wish to remain idle in the time of
need, and therefore proceeded to compile
the required Exposition of Christian Doc
trine.1 He was anxious to supply what was
necessary for the pastors and their flocks,
to the exclusion of all subtle and distract
ing questions of mere intellectual curiosity.
They were not to have stones instead of
bread, nor were the lukewarm to be shut
out from the effect of burning enthusiasm.
Beginners were to be shown the road to
the knowledge and practice of those higher
things which accrue to Christian life and
Christian thought and deed. The Creed, the
Decalogue, and the doctrine of prayer, fast-
1 Doctrina Christiana, en que esla comprehendida toda
la informacion, que pertenece al hombre que quiere servir
d Dios. Por el doctor Constantino. Parle primer a. De
Ios articulos de la fe", 1548, fol. 315a, &c.
93

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
ing, confession, and the sacraments are treated
in the three parts of the book, which was in
strumental in throwing light on difficulties,
administering counsel, and dispersing doubt.
It was also the means of indicating ways of
serving the Lord, who had done such great
things for them. An outline of sacred
history formed an introduction to the work.
It was deficient in deep learning, but striking
in fine thoughts.
Fuente explains the Apostles' Creed in
such a clear, concise, and practical manner
that his remarks, counsels, and ideas awaken
gratitude to the author.
The great object of the writer was to rid
the truth of error and misapprehension, and
to show the weakness of prejudices founded.
on half knowledge. Christianity was indeed
a knowledge unto salvation, and great was
the risk run by those who rejected articles
of faith treating of a doctrine so rich in
hope and comfort.
The circumstances of time and place made
him assiduous in pressing home the necessity
of maintaining the truth in the face of the
Jews and Moors, and the gist of Christian
doctrine is given in a concise, thoughtful,
94

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
and reverent form. He concludes with ex
haustive and eloquent remarks on the col
lective testimony to the truth of our Faith.
Such evidence, he said, could not be affected
by our opinions, neither could any fresh
arguments add to the weight of its autho
rity, which was of God. Christians did not
require additional proof to make them con
fess and practise the Christian doctrine ; it
was sufficient for their peace and joy to see
that, in the continual confirmation of His
work, God had left no excuse for the un
believing and the rebellious. His descrip
tion of the life, miracles, and parables of
our Lord is distinguished by its spirituality,
reverence, power, delicacy, and beauty. It
is verily a compass to guide us through the
storms of evil into the haven of peace ; it is
a thread to lead us through the labyrinth of
various opinions and doctrines, and it helps
us to close our ears to the din of the world.
Fuente dedicated the first part of the
Doctrina Christiana to Charles V., and this
first volume of the work was found in the
small collection of the Emperor's favourite
books at San Yuste.
Constantino Fuente was accustomed to
95

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
the opposition and the malignity of the
enemies of truth, and was unacquainted with
conciliatory methods.
The Inquisition had never authorised the
book, and it was subsequently forbidden,
not so much for what it contained as for
what the evidently "heretic" author had
omitted. The word " heretic " designated
an obstinate repudiator of those truths which
were supposed to be involved in the Christian
faith, but which Luther and his followers
ignored. Nothing was said of Mary by so-
called heretics, beyond that which was found
in the Bible. No mention was made of
the treasures of the Church, of indulgences,
pope, or masses. The baneful doctrine of
merit was omitted, for Fuente considered it
as rottenness at the very core of piety to
make God the debtor of the sinner, accord
ing to the sense of Aristotle and Pelagius,
rather than in the sense of God's Word, the
doctrine of Augustine, and the teaching of
Luther. There was no reference in the
work to traditions. It was quite sufficient
for the true Christian that a truth is clearly
set forth in the Holy Scriptures for him
to accept and believe it. To take fables
96

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
instead of the Bible, is to take the shadow
for the substance, to take the seeming for
the real. There is in such traditions little
corn amid much straw, and little fruit amid
many leaves. Amid such a variety of doc
trines it is difficult to find a safe resting-
place for the heart. Fuente draws all his
information from the clear springs of the
Bible. Instead of the dry bones of learning,
he takes the living truths of Scripture, and
he never tires of expounding the doctrine
of sin, and making his readers gaze into the
depths of the abyss. The Christian must
overcome his fears of the law by the thought
of that which not only affords justification
from guilt, but true grace for the fulfilment
of the law. Man's fall was so great that it
demanded the redemption of humanity as a
whole. God's great work had been spoilt
by the devil, and only God could set it right
again. Human nature had been turned to
evil, and only the Divine Saviour could
convert it back to good. He alone could
redeem mankind from its state of enmity to
God, and so completely fulfil the work of
reconciliation that men can be declared the
children of God and heirs of eternal life.
97 o

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
The work of remission of sins is so essen
tially the office of our Lord, that no creature
in heaven or earth can grant it. Fuente added
his Spanish translation of the Sermon on the
Mount to the second edition of the Suma
de doctrina Christiana. He calls this most
powerful sermon the sun amid stars, main
taining that it could only have emanated
from the Light of the World, the Saviour
of mankind. The value of the book is
enhanced by the remarks of the translator,
which form the introduction. He said it
was dissimulation and worldly wisdom that
distorted God's Word into a means for
affording false security to heart and con
science, and for letting people think they
can live as they like in this world without
their future state being affected. "Rightly
understood, the Sermon on the Mount brings
one to a true state of self-consciousness with
a low estimation of one's own strength. The
discovery of the gulf betwixt the Ideal of
the Lord and the wickedness of the heart,
drives one to the Fountain of mercy, and
teaches one that for all fulfilment of the law
one must fly for help and strength to the
Author of the Divine law. What the Lord
98

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
says is to be understood according to the
spirit, not according to a superstitious sub
servience to the letter of the law. The great
promises of the Saviour inspire man to great
' effort, and for this we must keep the eye of
faith fixed upon Him who is one with the
Father, who is the Forgiver of all sins, even
of all the wrong which the world wrought
Him, and who, in the ocean of His love,
embraces both friends and enemies. He
was persecuted for righteousness' sake that we
should have righteousness. He was afflicted
that we might have joy. He wept for our
sins that we should have atonement; the
Father made Him the Author and Founder
of Salvation that we, being like Him in obedi
ence, might share with Him the glory of
the reward."
Pedro Maxia, the Imperial historian, after
having heard the celebrated preacher, said,
"As true as God lives, that is no sound doc
trine, that is not what our fathers taught us."
The " Summary of Christian Doctrine," 1
1 Suma de doctrina en que se contiene todo lo principal
y necesario, que el hombre christiano debe sabe y obrar,
1544, 1545, 1550,1551. Reformistas antiguos Espanoles,
xix. 1863.
99

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
published before the " Confession of a Sin
ner," also excited suspicion. It showed how
the author understood the art of making
deep subjects comprehensible to children,
when directing their attention to the chief
points of doctrine.
The " Catechism for Beginners," which
appeared in 1 546, contains an outline of the
"Summary of Christian Doctrine." It was
Juan Fernandez Temino, Bishop of Leon,'
who asked Constantino to undertake this
task. He did so at the suggestion of his
friend Arias Montano, a great admirer of
Fuente's works, who had shown him how
difficult it was to resist an influence that had
proved so fruitful in the harvest of souls.
Fuente delayed at first to accede to the
request, as he feared that the simple light
of truth might pale under his interpreta
tion. However, his exposition of the second
article of faith showed that this fear was
groundless. " It is," he said, " the question of the Son
which is here treated, and we speak of Him
as equal with the Father in Godhead and
wisdom, begotten from eternity." We call
Him Jesus and Saviour, for He sanctifies
100

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
the world; Christ, because the Father has
anointed Him King of mankind ; and Lord,
because He is our Redeemer, Defender, and
Judge. He is called the Incarnate Son, for
He alone is the Divine Son of the Father,
and we mortals are only God's children by
adoption. We must rejoice at having such
a Master, and endeavour to follow His will,
and we must never cease to thank the Father
for giving us His only Son for the sake of
the inestimable benefits which are afforded to
us by such a gift."
Fuente was a person to whom nobody
could be indifferent. People either loved or
hated him. He had been of help to many, but
boasted few trusted friends, for men were en
vious of his gifts and success. He never made
attacks upon the stupid monks and wretched
preachers of the day, but that did not pre
vent ecclesiastical dignitaries taking umbrage
at the great theologian, the keen thinker and
mighty orator. Contented with his books
and frugal meals, poor without avarice or
ambition, he resigned his canonries of Cuenca
and Toledo. The Primate Cardinal Sileceo
had instituted a course of inquiry respecting
ancestral dignity, so as to have only men of
101

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
pure blood as dignitaries of the Church, and
to exclude "Jewish rabble," as he called
those of low degree — a term much resented
by men who knew that he himself had
come from the field and plough, and had
attained his position without either learning
or virtue.
An impending inquiry, according to the
Statute of Limpieza, made Fuente tremble
for the repose of his forefathers' ashes.
The Emperor, less anxious on the point,
and a friend of the good preacher's, took
him to Germany and the Netherlands as his
appointed chaplain. During this attendance
on Philip he made his mark in his Lent
sermons at Brussels in 1549. He went to
England and Trent ; tried to persuade
Enzinas to return to his native land ; and
after seven years' absence came back to
Seville. Here, under commission of the
Chapter, he preached his Lent sermons every
third day. Hardly recovered from a severe
illness, he had to be carried into the church,
and in the pulpit he had to take wine and
water during his discourse.
At the " College of the Children of
Truth," a sort of academical gymnasium,
102

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
he, as Gil's appointed successor, had to
expound the Old Testament books. The
Chapter wished Fuente to take Gil's stall
in the cathedral of Seville. Eight canonries
of every cathedral were for the most part
occupied by members of the great colleges.
Fuente looked upon the whole business as
a sort of jugglery trick. The candidates,
he said, were like hungry vultures, ready
to pounce upon their prey. He declared
that his delicacy of health precluded him
from preaching. The archbishop Fernando
de Valdes, a worldly, artificial, proud prelate,
inimical to Fuente, and jealous of his rights
in the Chapter, would grant no dispensation.
He announced through Francisco de Ovando,
his delegate in matters of jurisdiction, that
he required compliance with all the con
ditions whereby the purity of blood and of
doctrine had to be insured, and to avoid
the recurrence of heresies, like those of Gil,
no one was to be admitted to the Chapter
who was the least unorthodox, or whose
ancestors had been weak in the faith. Any
one who supported a candidate who could
not comply with all these conditions was
liable to the penalty of excommunication
103

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
and a fine of 500 ducats, which was to go
to the Imperial Exchequer for the Turkish
war. A rival of the name of Maguelo
accused Fuente of sins during his student
life, and of breaches of orthodoxy when a
priest and a doctor. Neither party would
yield, on the ground of rights and privileges.
The provisor was as inflexible as his arch
bishop, who wished to appeal to Rome.
Some of the bulls on the matter did not
hold good in Spain, and some were in
sufficient for the point. The law about
purity of blood was only for the purpose
of excluding sons, grandsons, and great-
grandsons of condemned heretics. For any
body, said Fuente, who had been during
twenty years a priest, preacher, and theo
logian of blameless life and calling, charges
of craft, artifice, and intrigue were super
fluous. If any of the accusations were true,
the members of the Chapter, under whose
eyes he worked, would have heard of them,
whilst it was noteworthy that the arch
bishop had authorised Fuente's position in
the pulpit ; and Philip had offered him the
dignity of Doctor of Divinity at Malaga.
After long controversy, arbitration was
104

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
suggested, and rejected by the provisor as
suspicious. But in spite of fears of ex
communication, Constantino Fuente was
unanimously elected.
Appealing from the archbishop to the
Pope, the deputy, Alfonso Guerrero, peti
tioned the king to confer the canonry on the
successful candidate. Ovando declared the
whole business null and void, and the Chapter
appealed against it through the procurators.
The provisor had Fuente imprisoned, but
he was soon released by permission of the
Chapter; and unconcerned about his elec
tion to the canonry, he held a discourse for
the pacification of the contending parties.
The prods went to Rome, the Rota con
firmed Fuente in his possession of the can
onry, and he was excused from the cathedral
service whenever he wished to preach, or had
to prepare himself for the pulpit. The In
quisition meanwhile waxed in power and per
tinacity, and it was not long before Fuente
had to suffer for the Protestant drift of his
opinions.

105

CHAPTER XI
A DISSEMINATOR OF SPANISH PROTES
TANT LITERATURE
In the sixteenth century Spain was indeed
like a darkened house. The blinds of bigotry
were drawn down, the doors of distrust were
shut, the portals of persecution frowned.
Julianillo Hernandez, a lad from Villa-
verde, near Campos, had seen the light of
truth when led by circumstances to Ger
many, and having once lived in that light,
he determined that his native land should
also bask in its rays. Poor, weak, and in
significant, hardly anything but skin and
bone, the historian tells us that he was rich,
strong, and capable in the power of his faith.
Clever men had been to Germany, and,
after feeding for a time on the food of truth,
they returned home to Spain to starve from
want of spiritual nourishment. The ports
were watched, the book-stores were con-
106

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
stantly searched by order of the Inquisition,
and steadfast souls had to relinquish in
despair the difficult task of importing the
Bible and Protestant works into Spain.
But it was the old story of the mouse and
the lion. Julianillo, in the face of such
tremendous obstacles, could do but little,
but that little was worth much; and the
colporteur's efforts in the cause of Pro
testantism resulted in providing the converts
with the intellectual and spiritual food from
which the net of superstition had kept them.
His fearless conduct reminds one of an old
Spanish story.
In the Alpujarras mountains there was a
narrow bridge over the Tablate. The Moors
had nearly destroyed it, and the remains hung
like a spider's web in the air, no soldier daring
to put his foot on it. Then the Franciscan
brother, Cristobal de Molina, took the cru
cifix in his left hand and his sword in his
right, and with a shield on his shoulder and
his garments girt about him, he ventured to
make the terrible passage. So Julianillo, his
heart filled with the Crucified One, and with
the shield and sword of God's Word, trod
the narrow path of difficulty over the chasm
107

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
of danger, to the joy and comfort of his
brethren in the faith. In order to avoid the
penalty of propagating Protestant books, he
secreted copies of the Scriptures, and works
of the Reformed faith, between the so-con
trived double sides of his chest and casks, of
which, as colporteur, he had the charge, and
thus he brought them to Spain.
It was in this way that Juan Ponce de
Leon's house was enriched with the posses
sion of New Testaments ; for, through the
influence of the Protestant Fuente, he, too,
had come to the knowledge of the truth, and
thankful for the discovery of "the pearl of
great price," had devoted his wealth to its
propagation. Thus Spanish gold was sent to Germany
for the translation of the works which the
colporteur contrived to bring into the
country from the Netherlands.
The young Dr. Cristobal de Lozada, with
his Lutheran bride, rivalled their friends in
enthusiasm for the Protestant cause; and
Fernando de San Juan, Rector of the Colegio
de la Doctrina, a much-respected teacher,
proclaimed the Gospel to his pupils, among
whom was Maria Bohorques, who imparted
108

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
her knowledge to Gil, with the result that
he became a fervent Protestant. One of the
striking features in the movement of the
sixteenth century was the great influence
exercised by the many clever women of the
age. Time and space fail me now to pur
sue the subject further, but I must mention
that Maria Bohorques, who could read the
Vulgate in the original, was only one of the
many cultivated women whose lives were
closed by the horrors of the auto-da-fe.

109

CHAPTER XII
JUAN PEREZ, CASSIODORO DE REINA,
ANTONIO DEL CORRO, CIPRIANO DE
VALERA.
Among the works propagated by the brave
colporteur Julianillo were those of Juan
Perez of Pinedo, from Montilla in Andalusia.1
He was at the sacking of Rome, and had
purchased his safety with 1 200 ducats. His
subsequent official position in the Colegio
de Doctrina in Seville ended with his depar
ture to Geneva to avoid the fate of Gil and
Valer. There, glad to devote his work to
the service of Christ, he printed his careful
and clever Spanish translation of the New
Testament.2 This was followed by a Catechism dedi
cated to the Queen Regent of the Nether-
1 Menendez Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, ii. p. 458.
2 El Testamento nuevo de nuestro Senor y Salvador
Jesu Christo. Nuevament y fielmente traducido del
original Griego en romance Castellano, 1556.
IIO

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
lands; and by an edition of "Valdes' Com
mentary on the Epistles to the Romans and
Corinthians," dedicated to King Maximilian.
The conflict between Spain and Rome de
cided Perez to try and awaken the conscience
of Philip II. by pointing out to him the
true state of affairs.
Cassiodoro de Reina was another Protestant
fugitive from Spain. From Genoa he went
to London, and there, for the benefit of
Spanish emigrants, he published his " Con
fession" in 1530. He left England when a
price was put upon his head by Philip II.
In want and suffering he worked in Germany
for nine years at the translation of the Bible
into Spanish, and had it printed in Basle in
I569- The Calvinists in Antwerp were bitter
against the Spanish Protestant because his
opinions were Lutheran with regard to the
Holy Sacrament, and Alexander of Parma
sent Reina and his followers to Frankfort-
on-the-Main. Here he formally renounced
connection with the Calvinists, and embodied
Luther's doctrine concerning the Lord's
Supper in a catechism which was gratefully
received by the Martinists. Reina spent the
m

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
last years of his life preaching the doctrines
of Protestantism in the German town, and
out of the 2600 copies that were printed of
his translation of the Bible he managed to
send several to his brethren in the faith in
Spain, who had always a warm place in his
heart. The life of Antonio del Corro was not less
stormy than that of Reina, after he left San
Isidro. As in the case of Gil, monks were called to
draw the line between heresy and truth ; and
this line was drawn in a spirit of malignity
against the man who preached God's Word,
and spent his income upon good works.
Corro took umbrage at the Bible being
forbidden, and at the representation of God
given by the Catholics and Inquisitors, which
seemed to him cruel and unjust. Accord
ingly, having withdrawn from Spain, and
undertaken duty as a pastor in Antwerp, he
wrote a very open letter to Philip IL, in
which he set forth the points of distinction
between Protestantism and Catholicism, add
ing thereto a description of the sufferings of
the Netherlanders, and suggesting the means
whereby to alleviate them. He told Philip
112

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
in this letter that freedom of faith should be
granted to the Protestants in Spain, together
with a right to possess the Bible. But Corro
only involved himself in a controversy un
productive of results. He complained of
the want of unity among Protestants, and in
this he was right, for, not being quite Cal
vinistic enough to please the Calvinists, he
had to leave Geneva because of the incessant
attacks to which he was subjected. Fortu
nately the Bishop of London looked kindly
on Corro, and the foreign pastor gave an
exposition of the Epistle to the Romans to
a large congregation at St. Paul's. As a
professor at Oxford he attained such celebrity
that it seemed at one time probable that
he might be raised to a bishopric. This,
however, never came to pass.
Cipriano de Valera1 took up arms against
the Catholic Church with all the antagonism
of an uncompromising Calvinist. Having
been a college friend of the polyglot of Ant
werp, he fled from San Isidro to England,
and by means of bold, witty, and popular
writings, conducted the campaign against
what he termed "Satan's Catholic Kingdom."
1 Menendez, Heterodoxos Espanoles, ii. p. 492.
113 H

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
In his Tract on the Pope1 he makes
history, Church doctrine, and councils sit in
judgment on the Holy See.
His Tract on High Mass 2 was an elabora
tion of that point in the Heidelberg Cate
chism, wherein it was stated that the Mass
was nothing but accursed idolatry. Valera
maintained that this ordinance of the Catholic
Church was an invention of the devil, a
profanation of the Holy Supper, and a mon
strous blasphemy of the sacrifice of Christ.
In the opinion of the author, the Mass
grossly distorted the original import of
the Christian rite, making no distinction be
tween real worship and false idolatry. The
Real Presence was contested by Calvin's
arguments, and enforced by rather broad
anecdotes. After an unknown Spaniard translated
Calvin's Catechism and Liturgy, Valera, in
1597, determined to translate Calvin's fnsti-
tution as a thank-offering for his own con
version. Mindful of the command, " When
thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren,"
1 Tratado del papa y de su autoridad, &c, 1588.
2 Tratado de la mesa, recopilado de Ios doctores y con-
ciliosy de la sagrada escritura, 1588.
II4

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
he was indefatigable in his efforts to supply
the want of Protestant literature in Spain.
The translation was preceded by an Intro
duction, addressed to all believers in the
Spanish nation who were anxious for the in
crease of God's kingdom. This Introduction
describes the value and use of a right know
ledge of God, which, judging from the history
of Israel and of the Church, is so easily
despoiled by tyranny, false doctrine, lies, and
other works of Satan. Calvin is spoken of
as the great opponent of false prophets, and
of the blind who lead the blind, inasmuch
as his fnstitution1 had treated the articles
of the Christian faith in such a masterly
fashion that it was now impossible to con
found them with heresies, or to refute the
scriptural authorities which he gave for all
his statements. Seeing that this work had
been a comfort to other nations, he was de
termined that Spain, groaning in the depths
of idolatry, ignorance, and superstition under
the tyranny of the Inquisition, should not be
neglected. It is doubtful, however, whether
1 Institution de la religion Christiana, compuesta en
cuatro libros por Calvino, y traduzida por Cipriano de
Valera, 1597.
H5

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Philip's fears as to the landing of shiploads
of this popular work were ever realised. It
is certain that his work for the confirmation
in the faith of Protestant slaves in Barbary
never reached its destination.
Valera, it should be remembered, was not
content with merely condemning papacy, the
worship of saints, holy water, bell consecra
tion, and purgatory. He insisted, at the
same time, on Bible reading, and expounded
the Creed and the first Epistle of St. Peter
in a very practical and touching form. There
are other sources of comfort, he says, besides
that of Salve reginas and Ave Marias ; and
he maintained that the teaching of the Scrip
tures by the theologians of his day was like
the turning of bees' honey into poison. With
regard to the doctrine of works, he strikingly
remarked that they are acceptable to God
for the sake of the person, and the person
is accepted for the sake of Christ. " It is
therefore," he said, " as impossible for works
alone to justify, as it is for a woman to be
her own grandmother." He concludes by a
defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, bring
ing prophecy to support those arguments on
the Divinity of Christ which were adduced
116

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
by him for the special edification of the Jews.
When Clement VIII. (1599) published a
" Jubelaum," Valera wrote an "Aviso," for
the purpose of awaking people from the
sleep of lies, and of destroying the market
for Roman wares.
The phrases of the Bull met with very
severe criticism from Valera, and the extra
vagance and licentiousness of the Papal See
were treated with stinging satire and rebuke.
Valera continued active in his efforts for
the publication of his Spanish Bible J — a
work in which he corrected Reina's transla
tion, condensed the summaries, and excluded
additions. In 1596 his translation of the New Testa
ment appeared, and in 1602 the whole Bible
was published — but not until the Spanish
Protestant communities had been annihilated
by the storm of persecution.
1 La Biblia, segunda edicion, revistay conferida con Ios
textos Hebreos y Griegos,y con diversas translaaones por
Cipriano Valera, 1602.

117

CHAPTER XIII
DEATH-BLOW TO SPANISH
PROTESTANTISM
"It is thought," said Luther, "that the
Gospel might very well be preached without
making an upset in the world. But this
is impossible," said the Reformer, "as the
doctrine of the Gospel is in direct anta
gonism to the opinions of the world, which
it regards as poison from hell. For when
I say that faith in Christ constitutes my sole
strength and support, I mean that the world
is dust and ashes to me. The doctrine of
Christ cannot be in harmony with the teach
ing of the world. One of the two must
fall."1 They should recollect that Christ
prophesied that Christians would be rejected
by those who considered themselves God's
1 Luther's Evangelienauslegung. Ein Kommentar zu
den vier Evangelien, aus seinen Werken gesammelt und
bearbeitet von Ch. G. Eberle, 1877.
Il8

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
servants and saints. "This," continued
Luther, " is a fearful saying, and one which
must strike terror in the hearts of the pious.
But such, in spite of the warning, is the
case ; and we see fulfilled the words, " Who
soever killeth you will think that he doeth
God service." And true it was that all
who came under the bann of the Church
were remorselessly put to death, and that
not secretly, or as if the execution of the
sentence were a deed of shame, but openly
and publicly, as if it were the will of God
that Christians should suffer and die as
impious insurrectionists in league with the
devil. The very people exclaimed, "Oh
what a righteous and holy work has this
Emperor done ! " and Te Deums were sung
as if the will of God had been fulfilled.
Such a Te Deum was first sung in Valla
dolid when a congregation of Reformers was
discovered as follows : —
In the street of the Goldsmiths, No. 13,
there lived a goldsmith, Juan Garcia, a zealous
frequenter of the house of Cazalla. His wife
noticed that he frequently got up at night and
went out. Full of suspicion, she once stole
after him, and slipped unnoticed into the house,
119

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
where the Protestant meeting was held. She
revealed her discovery to her father confessor,
through whom the intelligence soon reached
high quarters. The Grand Inquisitor, Valdes,
wished to ascertain how far the conspiracy had
spread before making a raid on it, and with
this object in view, he silently and cunningly
spread his net of detection. Those who had
taken part in the services, without being con
verted, were bidden to continue their attend
ance, and play the part of inquirers for the
truth. They were to visit and converse with
the speakers at the meetings, as if desirous
of further information, and, where it was
possible, they were to ask for written in
structions on the plea of it being useful to
others. By dint of such tactics, teachers and
taught were easily tracked and discovered,
without their having any suspicions that they
would be seized and annihilated at one stroke.
The leader of the plan explained his designs
to the Emperor, but they were cut short
before they were completed.
The Bishop of Zamora decreed, as usual,
in his orders for Lent of 1558, that he was
to be made acquainted with any notorious
sins or heretical tendencies. Then Pedro, de
120

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Sotelo and his wife said that Cristobal de
Padilla had spoken in a questionable manner
on matters of faith. The bishop soon had
him imprisoned, but allowed him to receive
visits and to conduct his correspondence,
hoping by these means to come across his
accomplices. Now was the time for Valdes
to act. He cast into prison both the Cazallas,
Pedro Sarmiento de Rojas, his wife, Frau Men-
cia de Figuerroa, Ana Enriquez, and many
other people both in Valladolid and Toro.
The frontiers and the ports were subjected
to rigorous surveillance when it was heard
that many of the heretics had taken flight.
Spies were as clever as Pedro Moro, who,
when in the service of Hernando de Soto, the
conqueror of Florida, could smell a fire three
miles off, and by scent alone could track
fugitive Indians through woods and caves.1
Carlos de Seso and Domingo de Rojas had
passports to France from the Viceroy of
Navarre, and letters of recommendation to
Johanna d'Albret, and the Mayor of Logrono
was also of great assistance to them, but it
was all in vain. Accompanied by an armed
escort, they had quietly to return to Valla-
1 Th. Irving, "The Conquest of Florida."
121

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
dolid. Wherever they passed, people ran to
see the heretics whom they would gladly have
burnt there and then ; and Rojas thought he
would have been murdered on the way by his
own relations. Night alone was their pro
tection against the rage of the people and
the stones of the mob.
Pedro Cazalla's servant, Juan Sanchez of
Astudillo, was the only one who escaped.
He travelled eight miles from port to port
before finally embarking with a Flemish
merchant at Castro Urdiales. In letters to
Catalina de Ortega, he said that "he was dying
for news of the catastrophe, which was the
work of the devil." However, he added, God
be praised ! the enemy would be conquered,
and in spite of present sufferings the elect
would finally triumph, " for Christ," he said,
"values His kingdom too highly to have
given it to us in vain." With the faith of
Abraham he would go forth into whatever
country it might please God to send him,
and if he should die upon the sea he would
be contented, and grateful to the Almighty,
for, as a Christian, he was ready to live or
die in the strength of a living faith. He
arrived safely in Flanders, but he was soon
122

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
obliged to leave Turlingen and go back to
Valladolid, where he found his brethren either
in the overcrowded prisons, or (for want of
room in the public jails) confined within
their own houses, where, even if the super
vision was strict, they had some chance of
escape. The Emperor now saw the wish of
his heart fulfilled — heresy in Spain had
received its deathblow !
After a requiem for his relations, Charles
asked Juan Regla, his father confessor, if he
could not take part in the solemnisation of
his own funeral, and so do for himself what
would soon have to be done for him by
others. The priest replied : " God grant that
your Majesty may still have many years to
live, and when the time does come, the service
will be celebrated with due observance and
respect." " But would it not be good for my soul?"
asked the Emperor.
" Certainly," was the reply, "good deeds are
of greater efficacy in life than after death."
Therefore, on August 30, the chapel of the
monastery was draped in black, and the Im
perial retinue of servants, dressed in mourning,
stood with the monks around the catafalque,
123

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
which was ablaze with lights. During the
mass for souls, Charles, clad in black, stepped
forward and handed the priest his candle as a
sign of having resigned all earthly longings.
A few days later the Emperor died in the
presence of Carranza.
In the archives at Simanca there is still to
be seen a codicil which the mighty Emperor,
who undoubtedly was a Saul of Tarsus, had
signed with trembling hand a few days before
his death. It contains a last injunction to
Philip : "I entreat and conjure thee most
earnestly, by thy duty to me as a father who
has so tenderly loved thee, and by the obedi
ence which is due to me as thy king, that thou
shouldst esteem it of the greatest importance
to quell and punish the heretics with promp
titude and severity, without exception, and
with disregard of petitions and with no re
spect of persons, for the Holy Office is to be
honoured and respected, whereby the Lord
will protect His kingdom, and give thee the
victory over His enemies."
No dying request was ever given with
a greater certainty of its fulfilment, or re
sponded to with more complete appreciation
and readiness. 124

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Philip's devotion to the Church must not
be confounded with hypocrisy. It was with
the deepest earnestness that he so often
confessed, communicated, scourged himself,
and craved absolution. His life was con
ducted according to the symbolism of the
"Cult," which he understood like a theo
logian. He used to accompany the sacrament
with bare head and feet. He considered the
duty of protecting the Romish Church as
one of the obligations involved in his royal
oath, and he fully believed that Church to
be all that she professed to be. Catholicism
was interwoven by a thousand threads in all
the political institutions of his kingdom,
and so, when he saw it threatened by a heresy,
which seemed likely to upheave social order,
he had no choice in the matter.1 Francisco
de Aldana 2 summoned the king, " the sun
of all Christian hearts," to arms. He told
him that wherever he looked he might see
the trail of the serpent. Pillaged cathedrals,
altars, and damaged reliques were proof of
1 Papiers d'dtat du Cardinal de Granvelle, cPapre's les
manuscrits de Besancon,par Ch. Weiss, 1847, p. 421.
2 N. Bohl de Faber, Floresta de rimas antiguas cas-
tellanas, 1821, p. 180. 125

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
the errors that were being taught, and
Philip, "the Atlas of Spain," was bound
to take the sacred edifices of his kingdom
under his royal protection, and, if so, the
militant, triumphant Church would ever after
sanctify and praise his name.
Philip willingly responded to this appeal,
and vowed he would sacrifice everything to
God and religion, or rather, as he should
have said, to the Pope and the Church !
Philip then knelt down before the cruci
fix, and prayed to the Divine Ordainer of all
things to keep him always in his present
state of mind, and to strengthen his resolve
never to be king of those who rejected Him,
to whom he prayed, as their Lord. It was
thus that he spoke of the heretics whom he
considered had been too leniently treated by
the late Emperor. He said he would rather
lose all his states, and a hundred lives, than
consent to any breach in the faith or its
divine services. It was in vain that his sister
Marguerite de Parma reminded him that
the more kings imitated God's goodness and
clemency, the greater and more godlike they
were. " They shall pay dearly for heresy ! "
was all his reply. 126

CHAPTER XIV
THE INQUISITION
Torquemada, as we know, wrote the laws
of the Inquisition in blood. All declension
from the Catholic faith was to be regarded
as high treason against the State. It was
to be visited with confiscation of property
and imprisonment, or with death by fire, in
the event of the accused being convicted
of heresy. Ximenes, in his support of the
Exchequer and the Crown, granted the Holy
Office the favour of his patronage in order
to intensify its catholic character ; and heresy
came to be regarded by that Institution from
so bigoted a standpoint, that death was con
sidered its just punishment. Having thus
entered into close confederacy with the
Crown, the Inquisition became an ecclesias
tical engine of the State, and the increase of
its power was such that the nobility, clergy,
people, Jews, " Maranen " (converted Jews),
127

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
and heretics came completely under its
dominion.1 The organisation of the society was
wonderful. Solemn forms, priestly judges,
involved procedures, devices for entrapping
guilty persons, varieties of torture, imprison
ments, severe sentences, and bands of assist
ants from every class, combined to provide the
elements with such a marvellous mechanism,
and such a perfect discipline, that it was
hardly possible to withstand it. So powerful
a tribunal could afford to be hated when,
according to Contarini, it was universally
feared. " Silence on the subject of the king and
the Inquisition " {Con el rey y con la In
quisition chitos!"). Never was a society so
productive of fear — a fear which was the
chief instrument of its efficacy. It has been
said that if the Inquisition had not existed,
Philip II. would have had to institute it.
He was quite aware of its value as a support
for his throne and for the suppression of all
elements contrary to his system of govern
ment. Hence, for the increase of its power
1 Ranke, Die Osmanen und die Spanische Monarchic,
p. 280. 128

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
as well as his own, he relegated all criminal
matters to its jurisdiction. He was con
vinced that by these means alone he could
be kept free from insurrections.
The French ambassador once complained
to him of the inquisitorial treatment of some
of the innocent French merchants who had
been accused merely out of spite. The king
replied in his soft, low tone, "The Inquisi
tion acts irrespective of nationality or rank."1
This society was the deathblow to the Luth
erans in Spain, and the horror of a danger
which was exaggerated by fear precipitated
events. A warning against the consequences
of this despotic power is given in the letter
of Perez de Pineda to Philip II.2 It was sent
more as a protest against the consequences
that might affect the present and future gene
rations than with any hope of loosening the
bond between the Inquisition and the crown.
It describes the hardships of the Spanish Pro
testants, and eulogises Luther as an instru
ment of divine mercy. " Nobody," says the
1 E. Alberi, Le Relazioni degli Ambasciatori Veneti, i.
vi. 1862, p. 411.
2 Suplicacion d la Magestad del Rey — Reformistas
antiguos Espanoles, xii. 1857. 129 I

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
writer, had ever before revealed in like
manner to the world the meaning of Christ's
atonement, whereby men might be saved.
This holy man," he added, "was a cause for
thanksgiving to the world; and Satan, there
fore, from his hatred to the truth, had done
what he could to oppose his teaching by
forging lies and producing false witnesses."
The Lutherans are not rebels," he said,
" but subjects of Christ ; not propagators of
a new doctrine, but of the old apostolic
truths. They did not bemoan the malig
nity manifested against themselves, but the
blindness and consequent damnation of those
enemies who set the Godhead of the Holy
Trinity and the Apostles' Creed at naught !
The Lutheran doctrine had been preached ;
but, instead of its being listened to, the In
quisitors seize upon the bishops like wolves,
making the lives of Christians of no more
account than those of sparrows sold at three
for a farthing, and stigmatising as heresy
the true knowledge of Christ and His Re
demption and the right understanding of
His Gospel. The king, therefore, should
not allow the enemies of Christ to judge
the witnesses for Christ. If he did, the
130

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Inquisition would rob him of his best sub
jects, and he would stand alone, without
the large-hearted and loyal vassals who, by
dint of virtue, knowledge, and the love and
fear of God, would have been able to help
him in framing a good and glorious code of
laws." Juan Perez de Pineda thus dealt with
the Inquisition in its inimical relation to the
Government, but he only lightly touched
upon the horrors of the prisons and the
cruelty of the methods used by the so-called
Holy Office. It is to the unknown Montes
that we must look for information on that
point. He certainly succeeded in partially
disclosing the crafty artifices of the Holy
Office. This he did in order to avenge the
death of his brethren in the faith, and to re
pudiate the calumnies, whereby it was hoped
to stain their memory. He also wrote for
the purpose of warning those in danger,
and of helping those who had fallen into the
clutches of the dreaded institution.
The introduction to this book1 describes
the genesis of the organisation which the
Fiscus (office of the Inquisition) enforced and
1 Inquisitores eos suis artibus perfidice ac defectionis in-
famarint. Reginaldo Gonsalvio Montano, authore, 1567.
131

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
rendered unassailable ; " but," says Montes,
" it was as vain to try to stop heresy by death
instead of God's Word, as it would be mad
ness for a physician to try and cure a patient
by poison."
Montes shows how the first thread of sus
picion soon became woven into a rope thick
enough to hang the suspected person : A
man goes to the tribunal of the Inquisition,
being invited hither by the intimation that
there is something of importance to be re
tailed to him ; and on his arrival, he is asked
whether he has anything on his conscience to
reveal. If any remark is made, the judges
look at each other in alarm, as if something
dreadful had been disclosed, and, after sharp
looks at the speaker, whisper one with another,
with intent to confuse him. If, on the con
trary, a man maintains that he has nothing to
reveal, he is let go with an apology, to the
effect that he is not the person they wanted.
After some months the process is repeated.
He has had converse, it is said, with suspected
heretics, and must take care ; and then nothing
would happen to him. But if not careful
then, spies are put upon his track to watch
what he says, where he goes, and with what
132

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
people he consorts, and when the material is
sufficient, then the accusation is made, the
vicar or the bishop having been communi
cated with, so as to avoid any controversy as
to jurisdiction. Then the die is cast, for
if even a gnat escapes the Inquisition, the
"familiars" (people in the employment of
the Inquisition) are sure to get hold of him
again ! Portraits of the suspected persons
are used in order to aid systems of espionage.
The prisoner has to give up all his keys.
An inventory is taken of everything in the
house, and put under the care of an influential
neighbour. Thus, in the event of the decree
of confiscation, the Office can speedily ap
propriate the property. Abnegation of the
Catholic faith, continues Montes, disqualifies
a man from being a legal possessor of pro
perty, and by papal decree the king takes
the proprietor's place.
In the narrow, dark, stinking dungeon the
master of the prison visits the accused, and
advises him to beg for a hearing as soon as
possible, promising him every- assistance in
extricating himself from his difficulties. In
pursuance of such counsel, he is told that
confession and recantation will lead to his
*33

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
speedy release. With the object of making
the accused betray himself, suspected points
are assumed to be ascertained facts. If
nothing be confessed, the inquiry is adjourned
till torture has been tried; or, if there be
not sufficient evidence to justify the sentence,
he has upon oath to make a confession of
faith, and give a general account of his life.
Advocates were supposed to protect the
accused against injustice when he was in the
right, but as a matter of fact, these supporters
were often nothing more than ordinary ser
vants, and were, therefore, incapable of speak
ing for their clients. In an emergency the
mule-driver of the Grand Inquisitor would
serve very well as Counsel for the whole
lot. The advocates were therefore frequently
rather hindrances than helps. They certainly
called attention to the time for defence in
due legal form, but they took care to avoid
pointing out to their clients the important
things that told in their favour, and they
never dared to consult with them save in the
presence of the Inquisitors and the notary.
The testimony of the witnesses was to the
point, but it was reported without name or
circumstances, so as to throw dust in the eyes
134

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
of the defendant, and he thus had no power
to repudiate false evidence. The accumula
tion of the evidence led to more people
becoming involved in the matter, and thus
the Court added to their victims. Favour
able testimony was declined as being foreign
to the case, but anything unfavourable, if
only hearsay, was duly reported. Two
hearsay retailers of news were deemed
equal to one who described what he had
seen, and one prison attendant was worth
more than two eye-witnesses. These sufficed
for accusation, as well as for condemna
tion. It had always in other courts been
considered a legal right for the advocate to
go through, with the accused, the evidence
which was written down. In the case of the
Inquisition this was not allowed. Above all,
no mention was made as to who had said
this or that. A persistence in denial only led
to torture, for which purpose the victims
had to go through many passages and rooms
to the dark underground torture-chambers
whence no sound could proceed.
There the bishop, the episcopal vicar, and
the secretary sat behind a table, while the
executioner stood ready for his work in black
135

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
scanty apparel, and a hood which covered all
his face but his eyes. It was declared to be
the fault of the accused if his limbs should
be torn or broken, for had he not only to
confess ? Then the unfortunate person being
strung up, the weight on his feet was steadily
increased until it brought him to the ground
with dislocated and torn wrists. The opera
tion was varied by exhortations to the heretic
not to speak of Christ, but to confess ; and
meanwhile questions were addressed to the
executioner as to whether the other instru
ments were ready, for if not, they were to
be so by the morrow. What had been done
was only a small beginning, and the truth
must be extorted unless the heretic should
prefer to die upon the rack. If a partial
confession should ensue, the tortured creature
was taken back to the Court for another hear
ing, through the severer torture-chambers, to
show what might be in store for him. On
the third day, when the pain in the dislocated
limbs was at its worst, thin strong cords
were tied round his arms and legs, and staves
rammed in between so that the ropes cut
right into the bone. Or else the heretic was
bound into a coffin-shaped chest, with his
136

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
mouth and nose tied up in a linen cloth.
Then water was poured in until the wretched
man was all but choked, and the cloth was
dragged out of his mouth soaked in blood.
Another plan was to place the prisoner with
oiled feet on red-hot coals, and then ask him
questions which involved so many points that
one "yes" signified as many as ten answers.
If torture were ineffectual, other means
were tried. The Inquisitor pretended to weep
for pity and benevolence, and proceeded to
give the prisoner counsel, such as he would
give his father, brother, or dearest friend. So
it would go on for weeks, while the Office was
supposed to be seeking the thread whereby
to bring secrets out of the labyrinth of diffi
culty, the suspected person becoming mean
while more and more involved- The seal of
confession was not without its use for the
Inquisition. The father confessor would put
certain questions on heresy to the sick pri
soner. " There is nothing to fear," he would
say, " for I have full power to absolve from
all sins." In such a case, the one condition of
absolution was the repetition of the confession
to the Secretary of the Inquisition. If the
accused should decline to do this, the point
137

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
was still gained; for the father confessor had
only to answer very loud, or repeat the replies
audibly enough for the secretary behind the
door to put them down, unless, indeed, he
should prefer to break in on the confession,
and tax the man with what he had said. If
such a course of confession should prove a
failure, a mosca1 was sent to the prisoner,
in the shape of a visitor purporting to be a
brother of the faith. With words of concern
and solicitude for his salvation, the supposed
Protestant visitor might succeed in getting a
good deal out of him. Monks frequently
took the part of moscas, and from zeal to
the Church, and for the extirpation of heresy,
they even went from one dungeon to another,
enduring the misery of prison life. A priest
sometimes undertook this decoy work to avoid
the suspicion of " sins of the flesh." Some
who were suspected of heresy hoped to save
their lives by this means. Common criminals
played the part of eavesdroppers, listening to
the heretics with whom they associated, and
the mosca circulated lies beyond the prisons.
It would, perhaps, be reported that a Lutheran
1 The Spanish for " fly "—a name given to the spies of
the Inquisition. 138

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
of position had been incarcerated and tortured,
that the very cries had been heard by such-and-
such a person, and so his companions were
advised that they had better give themselves
up of their own free will, seeing that other
wise many of their names would be sure to
come out.
The prisons of the Office were supposed to
be better than the generality of prisons. But
many of them were underground, and were
only ventilated by a small round hole like an
orange, or a narrow grated window.
Reckless of their money in the face of im
pending confiscation, people with means could
live better at their own expense than on the
allowed thirty maravedis 1 a day, which
was deducted from the high sums they had
to pay. The king made a grant of half a
real 2 a day on behalf of the washing, food,
and pourboires of the poorer prisoners. But
it so decreased in its passage through the
dishonest hands of the treasurer, caterer,
cook, and jailer, that it only sufficed in the
end to furnish black bread and water ; and
the poor wretched prisoners, deprived of their
due, had to pay a heavy bill themselves. The
1 A maravedi= i£d. 2 A real=& shilling.
139

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
pilfering, extortionate Gaspar Benavides sold
the prisoners' food, and appropriated their
washing-money, so that they had to be satis
fied with dirty linen. Any prisoners who
questioned his cruelty were thrown into an
empty cistern, where they had to remain a
whole day without food to eat, or straw to
lie on. Those who were exposed to this
punishment were thankful to return to their
old cells. Pity for the prisoners made the
old servant and young daughter of Bena
vides speak kindly to the inmates, as they
passed the cell-doors, sometimes bringing
them news of their brethren in the faith, and
often managing to get them a little food
which they saved from the master's pickings ;
but they were both arrested as aiders and
abetters of heretics, and their labour of love
was rewarded with two hundred lashes, a year's
imprisonment, and ten years' banishment.
Pedro de Herrera secretly tempered the sen
tence of a mother and daughter in different
cells under his care, by letting them see each
other for half-an-hour every day. When on
the rack they, in terror, betrayed his leniency,
and begged on his behalf for mercy. But no ;
he was sentenced to two hundred lashes, to
140

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
pass through the streets as a criminal, and to
spend six years in the galleys. As he was
being whipped round the second day, he
sprang half mad from the ass, precipitated
himself upon the executioner, and tore the
whip from his hand with intent to kill him.
The populace seized him, rebound him on the
ass, and the flogging proceeded. The attempt
on the life of the official increased his time in
the galleys to ten years. Psalm-singing or
quotations of the Scriptures, lest they might
form a means of correspondence between
brethren of the faith, were only allowed in
whispers. A twelve-year-old English boy on
board a ship, which, with its cargo, belonged
to his rich father, was taken prisoner by one
of the inspectors of the Inquisition for having
a psalm-book in his hand, and he was incar
cerated for six months. " That's a plucky
little heretic ! " said the overseer, when he
heard him saying his morning and evening
prayers, and singing the psalms. A baptized
converted Jew was heard to say, with regard
to Christian sins, that the law of the Father
was better than that of Christ, whereupon
the Inquisitor catechised him so closely and
made him suffer so much cruelty and in-
141

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
justice that he confessed in his cell that he
was sorry he had ever been baptized. The
prisoner had to be officially inspected twice
a month. An Inquisitor, the secretary, and
the governor of the prison formed the
dreaded committee of inquiry. The prisoner
was asked how he was ? whether he wanted
anything ? whether the jailer treated him
well or badly? and whether his food and
washing were all right? In the summer
these inspectors would ask if there were any
complaints about bad beds and clothes ? and
in winter they would say, "It is certainly
cold now, but there has been so much rain
that it will soon be warm again. Only see
that you have a warm covering for your
soul by confessing the truth and easing
your conscience before the Holy Tribunal."
If a prisoner of cultivated mind should ask
for books, or for a Bible, they would say,
" The true book is to tell the truth, and to
ease the conscience ; use that diligently, and
think of your misery, and you will not want
any other occupation." If the request were
repeated they would make the final remark,
" You have the liberty to ask what you like,
and we have the liberty to deny what we like."
142

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
The Inquisitor in Seville took the English
man Nicholas Burton prisoner because he
had given vent to suspicious remarks in San
Lucar de Barrameda and Seville. Not only
was his own property confiscated, but also
the goods of an English house of business
of which he was the manager. The agent,
John Fronton, came from Bristol bringing
all the necessary documents for the reclama
tion of the property on behalf of the firm.
The Inquisition demanded written communi
cation by means of their advocate, who, sure of
an income meanwhile of six reals a day, wrote
at his leisure. The affair dragged on for a
month. With English pertinacity, Fronton
appealed twice a day for the completion of
the business. At last other documents were
declared necessary from England. They
came, but they entailed so much work that
four months more elapsed. The procurist
kept spending money, so Fronton pressed on
the matter, and was referred to the Bishop
of Tarragona, who said he had no power to
act without the co-operation of the other
Inquisitors. Then came the news that the
verdict was imminent, and that he could go
and talk business with Burton in his prison.
H3

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
On his entrance to the cell he found nobody,
and was taken captive himself and brought to
trial after four days' incarceration. He was
accused of being a heretic for merely saying
the Creed, and the confiscation of the pro
perty of his firm was decreed. He had to
recant, and endure a year's imprisonment.
The Holy Office made a good thing out of
this, for it thereby took possession of a finer
ship than any in the kingdom of Granada.
The page of a Sevillan Inquisitor, whom the
Bishop of Tarragona frequently visited, was
playing one day with the three-year-old child
of the gardener, and took away a reed-pipe
from him. The cries of the child brought
the father to his assistance. He asked for
the reed-pipe back, and tried to take it by
force from the boy. A dispute and struggle
ensued, in which the page had his hand hurt
by the reed-pipe. The gardener was put in
irons for nine months, whilst his family en
dured hunger and need in his absence.
A priest made off with the wife of a day-
labourer. Complaints to the Inquisition were
in vain. One day the man had a discussion
with his companion about purgatory, and the
poor fellow said he considered he had had
144

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
purgatory enough by being robbed of his
wife by an insolent rogue. For this the man
had to undergo two years' imprisonment,
three years' surveillance, confiscation of goods,
and the san-benito. The priest all the while
retained possession of the wife.
A man who said it would be better if the
money spent on Church festivals were given
to poor women and children, was obliged to
recant under suspicion of heresy.
A foreigner had lived for twenty years in
Cadiz as a recluse. When the Inquisition
promised grace by confession, he said that in
Genoa twenty years before, he had heard a
monk speak of justification through faith
and purgatory, that it had not seemed a bad
thing to him then, but that since then he had
thought no more about it. The punishment
for this remark was three months' incarcera
tion, confiscation, and the san-benito.
A man from Acija said he could not believe
that God was in the sacrament under the hands
of a licentious priest. For this he had to en
dure a year's imprisonment, and had to recant.
A student copied four verses from an un
known author, which were so written that
they could be interpreted either to the praise
145 K

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
or blame, of Luther ; but the student was
condemned to a year's imprisonment, recanta
tion, the process of an Auto, and banishment
from Seville for three years. Another colle
gian had the like punishment for copying the
same verses, save only that he paid a fine of a
hundred ducats instead of being exiled.
One can understand Montes' indignation at
such acts of injustice. Imprisonment in any
case was never conducted in a just way, but
the Holy Office was supposed to be an ex
ception to the rule. Instead of that, torture,
which was a common thing in criminal prisons,
was increased tenfold when one was punished
not as a prisoner, murderer, or robber, but
merely for advocating justification by faith.
The Inquisition was entirely responsible for
the disaffection of the Spaniards to their faith
and to their country.
Paul IV. instituted a highly-finished tor
ture-chamber as a necessary instrument for
powerful government. He authorised the
Grand Inquisitor to hand over to the lay
branch all dogmatic heretics, and those who
only recanted out of fear. To defray the
cost of these proceedings, he devoted the
income of a canonry of each metropolitan
146

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
and cathedral church, together with 100,000
ducats from the ecclesiastical exchequer.
How little this royal Inquisition, so despotic
in power and authority, paid any respect to
the dignity of individuals, may be seen by the
treatment of Carranza, the Primate of Spain.
Ximenes had a splendid winter refectory
built for the Chapter of Toledo. The walls
of the hall are decorated with pictures of
the old archbishops; of Rodrigo who led
armies, of Tenorio who built bridges, and of
Fonseca, who founded the colleges of Tavera
and Lorenzana, and hospitals and almshouses
for the poor. The portrait of Bartolome'
Carranza de Miranda has its place among
them. And yet this Carranza was made a
heretic in spite of himself, and was given by
the Pope a prison and grave in Rome, in
order to withdraw him from the resentment
of Philip and of the Inquisition, and thus
to put an end to a gigantic lawsuit which
involved documents of 22 folios and over
20,000 pages.1
1 Documentos refer entes d la causa del Arzobispo D.
Fr. B. Carranza de Miranda — Florente, Histoire critique
de V Inquisition, iii.
H7

CHAPTER XV
ARCHBISHOP BARTOLOME DE CARRANZA
Bartolome de Carranza was born in 1503,
in Miranda del rio Argo. In early years a
young Dominican, he became a professor of
theology at San Gregorio, where he distin
guished himself as a theorist. During an
epidemic and famine in Valladolid, he took
the poor and sick into his house, and begged
alms for them. As Imperial theologian at
Trent, he was as strictly Catholic as it be
hoved one who worked on behalf of the
Inquisition. His knowledge and eloquence
were of much account; and when Queen
Mary tried to reinstate the custom of Peter's
pence for the good of the Mother Church
(after the defalcation of that Church under
a tyrant and a child) Carranza worked zea
lously in the cause of the royal wishes. He
cleared the way for Cardinal Pole, he re
claimed churches and monastic property, and
148

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
gave his support to the converts of the Domi
nican, Carthusian, and Benedictine orders.
He • often preached before the queen, the
severe avenger of her mother and her Church.
Obedient to the commands of his monarch in
England, he took part in the bloody deeds of
anti-Reformation, attending the martyrdoms
of Cranmer and the Bishop of London. This
black-robed friar, so hated by the Evangelists,
had the body of the wife of Martyr Vermigli
thrown out of her grave at Oxford, and the
bones of the disinterred Butzer burnt at
Cambridge, in order that the recovered col
leges of England might not be contaminated
with heretical dust. As for English Bibles
and books, it was a repetition of the Fire
edict of Trent. In Flanders he hunted out
heretics, and destroyed their writings. In
Louvain he disowned suspicious fugitive
countrymen from Seville, who were distri
buting forbidden literature before the gates
of the royal palace. It was at his instigation
that the Augustine monk, Lorenzo de Villa-
vicencio, went disguised to spy out heretics
at the masses at Frankfort, and buy up their
books to burn them. He presented to the
king a list of fugitive Lutheran-Sevillans,
149

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
whose writings were being circulated by
agents in Germany, and from him the In
quisitors at Calahorra and Zaragosa obtained
information about people suspected of heresy.
He could thus certainly pride himself upon
having done more for the extermination of
heresy than any of his colleagues. Hence it
was that in 1557, after the death of Siliceo,
he was offered the archbishopric of Toledo.
Three times he declined the honour, but at
the last he was prevailed on to accept it.
Paul IV., approving the choice of the man
of his heart, dispensed with the formality of
the usual inquiries, and in December he was
nominated archbishop-designate by the papal
consistory. The consecration of the arch
bishop took place at Brussels in the follow
ing May, and Cardinal Granvella officiated at
the ceremony.
In his new dignity, Carranza urged the
king to adopt the severest measures against
the Netherlanders, and as a member of the
Royal Council he carried out the same plan
of action as that in vogue in Seville and
Valladolid. He visited the Emperor at San
Yuste as Philip's emissary, praying with the
dying man, and performing the last rites.
150

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
He then devoted eleven months to the
visitation of his diocese in a conscientious
single-minded spirit. He was ruthless in his
severities towards unworthy priests, and was
unflagging in the work of his office. He
preached every Sunday. The archbishop
seemed quite secure in his position, and
thought he was one in mind with Cano,
Soto, Valentin, Mendoza, &c. But this anti-
Lutheran and heretic-exterminator was not
quite pure in the eyes of the Inquisition.
He was already considered half an Eras
mian ; and as envy sharpens the power of
criticism, Melchor Cano, the Grand Inquisi
tor, revengeful, proud, and hard, could not
calmly see his rival's success. When Carranza
was elected a "provincial," Cano tried in
vain to have the election annulled in Rome,
and thus began the long war between the two
dignitaries. The gauntlet was finally thrown
down in 1558, when Carranza published his
expositions of the Christian Catechism at
Antwerp. It had already been whispered that the
primate was contaminated by his acquaintance
with heretical books, and by his association
with people in England and Germany.
*S*

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
His work was stamped with the Pauline-
Lutheran doctrine of Justification. It was
free from the errors of scholasticism, and
the diplomatic formulas of Trent. " Faith
without works is dead," said Carranza, " be
cause works are a sure sign of the existence
of faith. Our good works are only of value
when done for Christ's sake, and apart from
Him they are of no account or worth. The
Gospel, which God has given us in His Son,
supports us in life, and that alone can com
fort us at the hour of death. Christ's
sufferings were full and sufficient salvation
for all sins, God Himself is the Mediator,
making His Son the propitiation for our
sins. All our sins are laid on Him, and we
are free." "Christ," wrote the priest, " loved
me and died for me, that is my soul's great
est comfort; certain of this fact, the Christian
fears neither devil nor sin. The chief instru
ment of Justification is faith, in which all
other things concur. God has promised
salvation through faith in Christ. For, as
the body is dead without the soul, so is the
soul dead without the Holy Spirit, being
incapable by itself of a single Christian im
pulse." Carranza could neither see nor grant
152

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
that these truths were in opposition to the
doctrine of Rome, and, unconscious of the
progress he had made in Protestantism, de
ceived himself by the plea that he would not
willingly side with any form of Lutheranism
which was antagonistic to the Romish Church.
The authority for his opinions he considered
rather biblical than Lutheran.
But his opponents had made the matter
quite clear to themselves. In his commu
nication to the Grand Inquisitor, the Bishop
of Cuenca called attention to Carranza's
opinions concerning the Atonement of Christ,
justification by faith, and the doctrine that
good works were only necessary as a proof
of faith. The book in question certainly
did not point out the negative consequences
of the thesis, and what was strictly Catholic
was so interwoven with what was strictly Lu
theran that confusion was inevitable. It could
easily form subjects of dispute to either party.
An old private communication to Juan
Valdes in Naples was produced, wherein
Carranza asked the heretical lay preacher
for a list of good publications for reading in
San Gregorio. In his sermons many passages
were discovered from Okolampad's Exposi-
J53

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
tion of the Prophets. His conduct at the
Emperor's deathbed was also well looked
into. The primate had frequently absolved
Charles without confession, saying, "It is
quite sufficient for your sins that you trust
in Christ's atonement." Kneeling, he had
raised the crucifix with the words, " That is
what has atoned for all, now your sins are
expiated and forgiven." Holding up a
picture of the crucifixion to the dying man,
he had said, "Look at Him who has suffered
for our redemption." These Lutheranisms
tallied with his Catechism sentences, and with
his remark to Fernando de Sotelo, that when
he came to die, he would send for a notary
to attest his belief in Christ's atonement,
apart from any act of his own.
The Marquesa de Alcanizes, a penitent of
Carranza's, had to try and recollect any sus
picious expressions of the prelate. The ser
mons in London were pronounced Lutheran,
and his letters on private matters to Pedro
Cazalla and to Herrera had a touch of heresy
in them. From such sources did the Grand
Inquisitor draw up a case against his rival.
Pedro Guerrero, the Bishop of Almeria, and
the Bishop of Leo declared that Carranza's
154

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Exposition of the Catechism was Lutheran,
and thus began the long, tedious inquiry on
the orthodoxy of the archbishop, involving
questions as to the retention of his episcopate.
Cano brought forward one hundred and
forty-one sentences of the Catechism which
he represented as aggressive, dangerous, and
heretical. Carranza tried to get permission to con
duct his own case.
Philip was provisionally neutral, without
putting any check on the Office, to which
a papal bull gave full power to act. The
fiscal1 decreed imprisonment and confisca
tion of property, because the archbishop had
preached and written many Lutheran heresies.
To avoid a scandal in the execution of the
sentence, the king's sister sent for the arch
bishop from Toledo to Valladolid on the
pretence of business of importance ; and on
the road at Torrelaguna the archbishop was
taken prisoner by the Inquisition, a watch of
eighteen armed " familiars " 2 having been
stationed at the door of the inn at which
the archbishop had alighted.
1 An act of the Inquisition.
" Officers of the Inquisition.
155

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
" Who knocks ? " asked a servant.
" Open to the Holy Office ! " was the reply.
"Is Diego Ramirez there?" asked Car
ranza, and the Inquisitor entered. At the
foot of the bed, in which lay the prelate
supporting his elbow on the pillow, Diego
knelt and spoke with tears —
" May it please your most reverend Grace
to give me your hand in pardon, for I have
to do something which is much against my
will, as your most reverend Grace can see
in my face."
Then the Inquisitor continued, "Hon
oured sir, I have orders to arrest you in name
of the Holy Office."
" Have you the requisite authority ? "
asked the archbishop, without changing
colour or moving a muscle.
Then drawing forth a document, Ramirez
returned, "That will convince your most
reverend Grace," and handed him the bull
of Paul IV.
The archbishop's retinue stood silently
weeping as the officials of the Holy Office
proceeded in their task. It was like death
to those who had to take their primate pri
soner. Ramirez took possession of his per-
156

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
sonal property, which consisted of a writing
case and a box full of letters and papers. He
made an inventory of everything, and told
the dismissed servants not to set foot in
Valladolid again. At midnight Carranza
rode forth, escorted by forty outriders and
twenty "familiars," with Ramirez and Castro
on either side of him. Thus he entered the
new prison, where he was allowed two rooms,
a corridor, his own furniture, a page, and
five servants.
Then commenced the monster lawsuit.
The first inquiry into the case lasted two
years ; and the primate must have daily felt
that he was in the hands of the stronger
party, for gradually the governor of the
prison, Diego Gonzalez, made his life a bur
den to him. He had the windows so barred
that they hardly admitted light or air, and
kept him guarded not only by men, but also
by arms and dogs. He had the table laid with
sheets, the food dished on broken plates, and
the fruit served on an old book-cover, in a
wretched room. His former friend Mendoza1
took an especially active part against him.
1 Carranza's Summa Conciliorum was dedicated to
Mendoza. 157

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Alfonso Valdes so influenced the king that
he came to regard his former favourite as a
double-faced hypocrite and heretic. When
the Council of the Index did not condemn Car
ranza's Catechism, it affected the question as to
whether literature that was allowed elsewhere,
might not also be permitted in Spain. For
the king told the Council of Trent that the
idea of his not having despotic power in pro
hibiting books would be insupportable to him.
Works allowed in one country might be most
pernicious in another, and so he took his stand
on the insufficiency of the Index as applied to
Spain, and withstood Pius IV. on the point.
When the priesthood decided to ask the
Pope to force the king and the Inquisition
to have the case sent to Rome, it became
a question not only of disputed power be
tween the Grand Inquisitor and primate, the
king and episcopacy, conscious and uncon
scious Lutheranism, but also a question affect
ing the influence of Philip in the Council, and
betokening a struggle between royal and papal
power. Philip, who kissed the hands of the
monks, would have them hanged in case of
disobedience, and asserted his power in the
Inquisition, maintaining the supremacy of the
158

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Office over all Spaniards without exception in
the case of heresy. The See took its stand
on ecclesiastical power, according to which it
was not the king, but the Pope, who should
be the supreme judge of an archbishop. Car
ranza and the procds were finally summoned
to Rome by Pius V., and the Grand Inquisitor
was ordered to give up the case. Philip, en
raged at this defeat, withstood the blow aimed
against his power, for he was a stanch sup
porter of Valdes. A conflict seemed immi
nent, and the Grand Inquisitor did not resign
in favour of Diego de Espinosa, until the Pope
threatened to put Spain under an interdict.
After an imprisonment of six years, the
primate left Valladolid on 5 th December
1566. Accompanied by the Inquisitor Gon
zalez, he travelled in a sedan chair to Carta
gena, where he embarked, and he and his
" Acts " were seen off by councillors, fiscals,
secretaries, Azpilcueta Delgado, Diego de
Simancas, and many others. The ambas
sador Luis de Requesens received the prisoner
at Civita Vecchia, and on 29th May 1566 he
was handed over to the papal officers, by
whom he was taken to the Castle of St.
Angelo, where he was visited by Cespedes.
*59

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Pius deputed fifteen " consultors " to in
quire into the case, among whom were the
Cardinals Reinon, Pacheco, Gamboyo, Chiesa,
and the Bishop of Santa Agata Peretti. The
Spaniards, Simancas, the Bishop of Ciudad
Rodrigo, Pedro Fernandez, Temino, after
wards Bishop of Leon, and Rodrigo de
Vadillo, were angry at having to sit behind
the cardinals, where they had seats without
backs, and where, only when they were quite
exhausted, did they dare to lean against a wall.
The Committee sat every week, sometimes for
three hours, and Pius was always present.
The translation of the "Acts" took up a
whole year. Then some parts were found to
be missing, and had to be sent for from Spain.
This took as much time as sending for the
books and manuscripts of Carranza, and when
the documents did arrive they were all in
confusion, and much that was important was
missing. At last, on April 14, 1576, Gregory XIII.,
the successor of Pius V., formally gave a sen
tence of judgment which disappointed all the
hopes which Pius V. had raised in the minds
of the prisoner and his friends. Carranza was
said to have imbibed the doctrine of the con-
160

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
demned heretics, Luther, Melancthon, and
Okolampad, and to have adopted many of the
errors, forms, and expressions which had been
used by them in the statement of their tenets.
He was, therefore, convicted of heresy, for
all the legal lore, brought to bear by Azpil-
cueta, could not reason away the Protestant
doctrines of Carranza's Catechism.
The papal decree obliged the archbishop
to forswear sixteen articles of Protestant
faith, he was to be suspended five years from
office, he was to visit the seven churches
of Rome, assist at certain masses, and his
condemned Catechism was forbidden in all
languages. The archbishop heard the sentence with
tears, and died less than three weeks later
at the monastery of Minerva, receiving the
absolution sent by Pope Gregory, and re
canting in presence of several Spaniards and
Italians. There can be no doubt as to the intrinsic
integrity of his last confession, but self-
deception and confusion of ideas are appa
rent throughout it.

161

CHAPTER XVI
AUTOS-DA-FE IN VALLADOLID, SEVILLE,
AND TOLEDO
There is a great lack of information with
reference to the little evangelical circles of
Valladolid and Seville, and particulars are
wanting as to some obscure points concern
ing the recantations that there took place.
Montes does not give sufficient details to
solve the psychological problems. One must
mention that all who came under the juris
diction of the Inquisition were bound over
to silence as to all that they had seen, heard,
said, experienced, or suffered, so that nothing
could be reported concerning the Inquisitors,
advocates, familiars, servants, jailers, cells,
prisons, racks, or trials. No information in
the shape either of written or verbal accounts
was allowed. Hence the official reports of
the autos-da-fe" are the only source of in
formation. 162

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
No doubt many accounts of recantations
were mere fabrications. Anyhow, even an
Inquisitor could not think that the Lutherans
only simulated their opinions and convic
tions, and that this simulation was revealed
by the recantation. One does not simulate
in order to be tortured and burnt, and un
doubtedly the conversions due to the doctrine
of salvation were bona-fide. But we know
from the words of our Lord that even " they
who have received the seed of the word of
truth with gladness fall away when affliction
or persecution ariseth."
The storm of persecution was too violent
for the new roots of doctrine. Where they
had taken deeper hold upon the soil, they
were not torn up without a struggle ; but
fear, the rack, and the instruments of torture
were weapons too powerful to be withstood.
As Luther said, " When they see that all
the world hates the faithful, and those who
call themselves the true Church, is it a
wonder that they are tempted either to
doubt, or to deny that faith and doctrine
are true ? When tortured and worried, they
are tempted to think, 'I shall at any rate
have peace if I think like other people ! ' "
163

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
The hope of saving one's life, and escaping
a fearful death by fire, is enough to tame
any one's courage as a martyr, and to weaken
any one's hold of faith. We have not been
allowed to know what means were used to
enforce a recantation, nor how long, or with
what energy resistance was attempted, nor
with what means it was at last overcome.
Death agonies in flames often resulted in
recantation of the lips, but not of the heart ;
and we have no clear account as to the par
ticulars of recantation in the official reports,
where there is only mention of certain clauses,
expressions, &c.
In view of the misery wrought in the con
quest of Spanish Protestantism, Juan Perez
de Pineda draws a picture of the comfort
afforded by the Creator to those who did
not fall away in time of temptation. " By
suffering they became one with the Head of
the Church. By His strength, our weak
ness is made strong ; by His wisdom, our
ignorance is counteracted ; by His right
eousness, our wickedness is atoned; by His
light, our darkness is lightened ; by His bless
ing, our curse is expiated. We are sanctified
by His holiness, we are made rich by His
164

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
grace. Excommunications and condemna
tions are of no avail. God has absolved the
believers in Christ, and has made them par
take of His kingdom, of which no confisca
tions can rob them. If their bodies are taken
prisoners, their hearts are free in the love of
Christ. They may be burnt or killed, but
immortal life still remains. God in His
love permits persecutions so that we may be
purified from all sin, and thus recollect His
solemn warning against backsliding. Confes
sors of the truth must wear the san-benito.
It shows that God knows His own, however
much the world may misconstrue them. For
as Christ was clad in the garments of shame
in life, He still lives in those who bear shame
and disgrace for His sake." Perez speaks with
compassion of the sufferings of the prisoners.
"Robbers, murderers, and sacrilegists have
people to speak for them. They are visited,
and mercy is shown to them. They are
helped, comforted, and supported. But when
the children of God are thrown into prison
they are seen by nobody, and nobody speaks
kindly or sympathetically to them. Always
alone, and separated from each other, they
are treated with more than Turkish cruelty.
165

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
At the trials the judges are as fierce as lions,
trying to catch them in their words, and to
induce them to make matters worse than
they are. Nevertheless your long unkempt
beards, your torn neglected clothing, the
cords with which you are bound, are all,
under God's grace, instruments for the testi
mony of the glory and honour of Christ, to
whose truth and justice you gladly witness."
The author refers his readers to the martyr
doms of Agatha, Vincentius, and Ignatius as
encouragements to scorn the fear of death.
" We have seen men go to the stake, when
they have testified to the truth of the Gospel,
as cheerfully as if they were going to a festival.
We have seen women and girls go as joyfully
to their martyrdom as if they were going to
their marriages with the first princes or nobles
in the land. Yes — even to death by fire ! If
hell cannot prevail against us, what harm can
the fire do us ? Only let us keep from the
service of Baal, whereby we should lose sight
of the Cross."1
1 Juan Perez de Pineda, Epistola para consolar a Ios
fieles de fesu Christo, que padicen persecucion para la
confesion de su nombre, 1560. Reformistas antiguos
Espanoles, ii. 1848.
166

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
The scenes of recantation which the
Catholics thought so much of took place
in Valladolid. Dr. Cazalla was the first
instance of weakness and want of faith
under torture.
When Herrezuelo saw the first signs of
weakness in his fellow-prisoner, he said as
he was being taken away, "Doctor, doctor,
now is the time for courage, more than ever
it was ! "
Seso also wavered at first and tried to save
himself by prevarications ; but at last he did
honour to the truth, and made a bold de
claration of his faith in justification through
Christ. He subsequently refused to suffer
death by hanging instead of by fire, which
after the denial of his faith he considered a
fitting death.
Juan Gonzalez, another martyr for the
truth of Protestantism, was firm in his de
fence of that for which he suffered, and,
despite the tortures of the rack, declined to
give the names of others who shared his
opinions. The certainty of death seemed to
give new courage to the intimidated Garci-
Arias, the propagator of Protestantism in
his monastery of San Isidro in Seville.
167

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
The Jeronomite Morcillo encouraged Fer
nando de San Juan1 to keep firm. Maria
Bohorques was put upon the rack because
she would not save even her sister by lies.
Dominicans and Jesuits tried to turn her,
but she knew in Whom she believed, and
feared Him more than men.
The sisters of Juan Gonzalez were as brave
as their brother in silence and in speech.
Juan Ponce de Leon, at whose house in
Seville the Protestant meetings had been held,
was imprisoned for months. Weakened by
adversity and tempted by priests, who, under
pretence of friendship, implored him to give
in, he at last signed a recantation. On hear
ing his sentence of death he cancelled his
recantation and repeated his confession of
faith, declining to confess to a priest. The
Office replied by excommunicating him as a
Lutheran heretic, apostate, follower of the
sect of Luther, and as one who had taken
part in secret assemblies against the Holy
Catholic Faith.
The Office had never lost sight of Dr.
Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. He was
1 As Professor at the Theological College in Seville,
he had inculcated Lutheran opinions.
168

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
frequently summoned to explain equivocal
passages in his sermons. His friends asked
him what took him to the Triana. " They
want to burn me," was the reply* " but they
find me still too green." Francisco de Borja
once heard him preach, and the sharp intelli
gence of the Jesuit soon detected the signs of
unorthodoxy under the brilliant eloquence
of the preacher. He criticised the sermon
by quoting the line of the iEneid, " Trust
not the horse, O Trojans ! " and the turn of
affairs in Seville occasioned him grave anxiety.
The struggle had already commenced when
Hernando Ponce de Leon, whose widow was
subsequently condemned as a Lutheran, be
queathed a house to some of the Jesuit
Fathers, and many Lutheran manuscripts thus
fell into the hands of the Order.
Constantino preached against the asceti
cism which Loyola introduced, and which he
practised as an antidote to the sufficiency of
faith, maintaining that great mortification
was necessary for the fulfilment of the Law.
The Doctor also laid stress on the necessity
of prayer and purity of life, and he ventured
to attack the doctrine of the founder of the
order on the ground of false mysticism.
169

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
He went so far as to call the propagators
of such doctrine false prophets, who tried to
deceive the world with their pious manners
and cadaverous faces. The polemic was so
piquant and drastic, that it was the talk of
all Seville, and other preachers took up the
theme with additional improvements. , One
evening, the Jesuit Bautista heard Fuente
preach, and when he had finished, he went
up into the same pulpit and delivered a
contradictory address, which was not without
its effect, for it began to be whispered that
Fuente was a heretic.
The proofs of the fact were now in the
hands of the Office in the form of writings
discovered in Fuente's house whilst he was
under arrest, and the prisoner was not long
left in ignorance of the state of affairs. It
is sad to relate that he tried to deny his own
handwriting. At last, seeing that there was
no help for him, he said, "Yes, I wrote it
all, and it contains my full convictions. You
need not seek for further proofs; do with
me what you think right." He was con
demned to two years' imprisonment in a
dungeon. He caught a chill and died in
fourteen days. His fellow-prisoner, Fer-
170

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
nando, a monk of San Isidro, closed Con
stantino's eyes in the summer of 1560. The
report that he opened one of his veins with a
piece of wine-glass, or that he cut his throat,
is not confirmed by any official statement.
The Siete Partidas x decreed that not only
were the heretic preachers to be burnt, but
that their followers should also be brought
to the stake. Thus the actions against the
Lutherans, involving their freedom, honour,
property, and lives, culminated in the autos-
da-fe". The first was held in Valladolid on 20th
May 1559. The Plaza Mayor is the great
square where Alvaro de Luna was executed,
and where Charles V. from his throne granted
pardon to the vanquished Comuneros.
There a great scaffold was erected, in
the form of a V. Its front faced the court
house, and its back was towards" the mon
astery of San Francisco. Two desks faced
each other, one for the preacher of the oc
casion, the other for the deliverance of the
sentences. A lower triangular scaffold was
erected for the accommodation of the inqui
sitorial officials. The courthouse was at the
1 Laws of Castile.
171

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
disposal of the Court and the grandees. Two
hundred galleries were provided for the popu
lace, who thronged the town and pressed for
places. Seats were sold at high prices, and
thousands swarmed on the roofs and at the
windows. Everybody over fourteen years of
age was to appear, and forty days' indulgence
was the reward for attendance. It was consi
dered good to see the Church mourn, and con
demn and sentence her disobedient children.
The spectators, in order to make sure of
good places, arrived when it was dark, and
awaited the dawn by torchlight. Masses in
church and cloisters commenced at one o'clock.
The Regent Joanna appeared at five o'clock,
clad in black serge, with a long crape veil
borne by Garcia de Toledo and Montesa, and
the Princess carried a black fan in her white-
gloved hand. Don Carlos stood near her, look
ing white, weak, and worn. He wore serge
and velvet, a cloth baretta, sword, and gloves.
The suite of their Highnesses appeared in the
dress of the order of the Golden Fleece. The
Constable of Castile, the Admiral, the Marquis
of Astorga and Denia, the Counts of Miranda,
Andreda, Monteagudo, Modica, the Duke of
Lerma, and the tutor of the Prince Garcia of
172

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Toledo were in attendance. Then came the
Archbishops of San Jago and Seville, the
Bishops of Palencia and Ciudad Rodrigo,
the Councillors of Castile, the grandees, and
the ladies of the court in mourning. Two
marshals with golden staves, and four heralds
in red velvet embroidered with the royal arms
completed the procession. When their High
nesses, preceded by the Count of Buendia with
a drawn sword, had taken their places under
the canopy of gold and silver, the retinue
ranged itself about them. Buendia stood in
front of them, the prelates and Inquisitors
beside them, and the grandees of high and
low degree seated behind them.
A banner of crimson velvet, headed by a
glittering golden cross, followed by a second
embroidered with the royal arms, and sur
mounted by a cross to show the union be
tween the crown and the Inquisition, came
in sight. Then the fiscal, with the banner
of the Holy Office, preceded the procession
of the Lutherans. Those who had been con
demned to punishment were informed of the
ordeal the previous night. Each one who had
sentence of death was put in a separate cell,
where a monk told him of the fact, and
173

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
admonished him to confess. "Familiars" and
servants went in the early dawn to clothe
them with the san-benito, new ropes were
put round their necks, their hands were bound
crossways, and the preparation also comprised
a repast of roast fowl. The procession of
Protestants was preceded by a choir of boys
singing Ora pro illis. Thirty recanters fol
lowed, coatless, and with bare heads, carrying
candles and green crosses as signs of grace.
Each of those condemned to death walked
between two monks.
Then the town council, with its officials
and noblemen, preceded the clergy, the digni
taries of the Chapter, and the monks. Sixty
"familiars" walked in the procession. After
all had taken their places, Melchor Cano,
the Bishop of the Canaries, went up into
the pulpit, before which stood the flower-
bedecked cross of the parish of San Salvador,
and preached for an hour from Matt. vii. 15,
" Beware of false prophets, which come to
you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are
ravening wolves." After the " amen," the
Grand Inquisitor Valdes, the Inquisitor Fran
cisco Vaca, and a secretary, approached their
Highnesses to make them take an oath on
174

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
the picture of the Crucifixion in the Missal,
that they would defend with their power and
life the Catholic faith as it was embodied in
the holy apostolic Romish Mother Church,
and exterminate all heretics.
A clerk then called upon all present to
swear that they would live and die in the
Romish Church, and that with their goods,
and body, and life, they would support it
against all enemies ; that they would repudi
ate and deny whatever was contrary to the
Roman Catholic doctrine ; and that they
would maintain and defend the Office and
its officials. Many thousand voices crying
" Yes ! we swear," then filled the air, as they
all sank upon their knees. After this mani
festation, in which those who took part felt
that they were the Elect of the Catholic
faith, the execution of justice commenced,
in discharging which, the judges seemed
very like "the wolves in sheep's clothing" of
the text. The sentences were read. The
procession of those condemned to death was
headed by Dr. Agustin Cazalla, the sup
porter and defender of the Lutheran sect.
His fate was shared by his brother Francisco
and his sister Beatrix de Vibora, Alonso
175

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Perez, a cleric from Palencia, Juan Garcia,
the goldsmith of Valladolid, Cristobal de
Ocampo from Zamora, Cristobal de Padilla
from Zamora, Licentiate Herrezuelo from
Toro, Catalina Roman, Isabel de Estrada,
Juan Velasquez, Catalina de Ortega, and
Licentiate Herrera. Cazalla's other brother,
Juan de Vibora, and his sister Constanza,
widow of Hernando Ortez, and mother of
thirteen children, were both condemned to
lifelong imprisonment in the garb of the
san-benito. Francisca de Zufiiga, and Men-
cia de Figueroa, wife of Pedro Sarmiento de
Rojas, Knight of the Order of Santiago, were
condemned to a term of imprisonment, and
they had to wear the san-benito for the rest
of their lives. Juan de Ulloa Pereyra, Knight
of the Order of San Juan de Jerusalem, lost
his rank and property. In 1564 he was
exempted from the rest of his punishment,
delivered from the san-benito, and then, in
consideration of the services he rendered to
Christendom in the expedition against the
pirates off Malta, was reinstated by the
Pope. Juana de Silva, wife of Juan de Vi
bora, Leonor de Toro, the Minguez, and
Daniel de la Quadra lost their property and
176

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
were condemned to a term of imprisonment
with the san-benito. Antonio Asil, page of
the Marquis of Poza, was ordered to wear
the san-benito the rest of his life. Pedro
de Sarmiento was commanded to abjure silk,
jewels, gold, and silver, and to be perpetually
clad in the san-benito. He was to keep no
horses, and was to attend mass every Sunday,
communicating three times a year. Antonio
Dominguez de Pedrosa was doomed to suffer
confiscation of property and three years' im
prisonment. Luis de Rojas, son and heir of
the Marquis of Poza, young in years but ad
vanced in Lutheranism, lost his rank and was
banished from the court. Ana Enriquez,
married to Juan Alonso de Fonseca, was com
pelled to don the san-benito, and stand on the
scaffold with a candle in her hand. She had
to fast three days, and return to the prison in
the penitential garb — then she was to be free.
The daughter of the Marquis of Poza, a nun
of Santa Catalina de Siena, had to wear the
san-benito and carry a candle during the
auto-da-fe", and she had to sit in a penitential
posture in the convent. The sentences of life
long san-benitos and imprisonment could be
modified by the purchase of exemptions from
177 M

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
those who had the king's authority to sell
them. The list of sentences was concluded
by the order for the disinterment of the bones
of the mother of so many heretics, Leonor de
Vibora, and the burning of the coffin which
bore her picture. Her property was confis
cated, and the house where the conventicles had
been held was to be pulled down. A marble
monument was to be erected on the spot as
a warning to posterity. At the mention of
the name of Sarmiento, his uncle, the admiral,
turned his back upon him. The ladies-in-
waiting did the same at the sentence on bis
wife, their former Court companion ; whilst
the Regent bowed her head, and, deeply
moved, kept her fan before her eyes. Ana
Enriquez excited sympathy by her beauty,
distress, and misfortune. The Archbishop
of Seville absolved the pardoned prisoners
in canonical form. The Bishop of Palencia,
dressed in black serge, with the white mitre
on his head, and the cross in his hand, had
to unfrock the condemned priests, which
must have been a fearful ceremony. Clad
in mourning garb, these priests knelt before
him. He took the chalice from them, and
they had to resign their insignia of office,
178

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
until they were only left with the san-benito.
Their lips, head, and hands were symboli
cally deprived of the gifts of consecration,
and the pointed cap of the san-benito was
placed upon their bald bare heads. The
prelate wept as he performed the office on
Dr. Cazalla.
At four o'clock in the afternoon the first
auto-da-fe patronised by royalty came to an
end, and the horror, mourning, and pity
which it occasioned struck terror into the
hearts of the spectators. It is quite a mis
take to think that the executions took place
in the midst of the assembly ; but of course
many people went to the place of execution
at the Puerta del Campo. Whilst those
condemned to punishment were taken back
to the convents, and to the prisons of the
court and Inquisition, those sentenced to
death were attended by guards, officials, and
monks, to the place of execution. When
Cazalla mounted the scaffold he begged for
the blessing of the Archbishop of San Jago,
and took leave of his sister.
The beautiful Beatrix de Vibora and
Cristobal de Ocampo were first strangled.
Cazalla, who had publicly confessed his am-
179

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
bitious designs of being a second Luther,
whose followers would be called Cazallists,
sat upon the block with the cap in his hand.
"That is the mitre," he said, "which their
Majesties should have given me, the reward
of those who spend their youth in the service
of the world and the devil." Then he cast
himself upon the ground, kissed the crucifix,
saying, "This must release me from Satan's
bondage. Now Ihope God will be merciful
to my soul. Come on, my brother ! " he
said to the executioner, as he put the iron
ring round him. Then he kissed the cruci
fix, and died after saying, "I believe, I
believe." The body of the strangled man
was subsequently burnt. His glance and
features testifying to the power of his faith,
and his mouth shut by a gag, Herrezuelo
ended his life in the flames.
The absence of the king from the first auto-
da-fe" detracted from its full splendour. But
on October 8,1559, Philip II.1 took part in the
second, at Valladolid. He had just returned
from the Netherlands, and a shipwreck had
cost him all the furniture, carpets, collections,
pictures, statues, and gems of Charles V.
1 Don Carlos, by Gachard, ii. p. 54.
180

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Some of the condemned heretics were kept
back in order to gratify the king by a spec
tacle so after his own heart.1 Although
Philip's household was generally conducted
on the economical principles of a poor noble
man, no pomp was spared on this occasion.
He was accompanied by Don Carlos, Princess
Juana, the highest dignitaries of the king
dom, and the court all bedecked with orders
and jewels. The Count of Oropesa went
first as a sword-bearer. After the sermon
by the Archbishop of Cuenca, the king took
the oath according to the aforesaid form of
Valdes, swearing to support the Catholic
faith and the Christian religion, to assist the
Inquisition, and to be one with the Church
with all its proceedings against heretics, apos
tates, and all who were opposed to the work
ings of the Holy Office. Philip's oath was
said to be taken in the presence of 200,000
witnesses. Those who were condemned to
death were Seso, Rojas, Pedro Cazalla, Juan
Sanchez, Pedro Sotelo, Francisco de Al-
morza, Licentiate Domingo Sanchez, priests
and followers of Seso the " scholar." Eufro-
sina Rios, the Cistercian of the Convent of
1 Prescott, " History of Philip II.," i. p. 246.
l8l

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
Belen, Catalina de Reinoso, daughter of the
Senor de Astudillo de Campos, sister of the
Bishop of Cordova, Margarite de Santisteban,
Marina de Guevara, and Maria de Miranda,
all beautiful nuns of the same convent, had
also to die. The family interceded for
Marina, as she was a near relation of the
Bishop of Mondonedo, and the Grand In
quisitor would have been willing to save her,
but the convert would not make the neces
sary recantations, and all the preaching of
the Jesuits and Dominicans in the prison
could not rob her of her martyr's crown.
Juana Sanchez, who cut her throat with the
scissors in prison, and who had died some
days later without confession, was burnt in
effigy with her corpse. Isabel de Castille,
the wife of Seso, was sentenced to lifelong
imprisonment with the san-benito. The
Cistercian nuns, Francisca de Zuniga, Felipa
de Heredia, and Catalina de Alcaraz of
Belen, may be said to have forfeited their
lives in the convent, being condemned to
lifelong imprisonment with the garb of the
san-benito. Philip is reported to have said to Seso,
who begged to be burnt instead of being
182

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
hanged, "I would carry the wood to burn
my own son if he were as bad as you."
Rojas had permission to speak to the
king in case he wished to recant. Then he
said, " If according to public opinion I am a
heretic, it is because I believe in Almighty
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. I be
lieve in the efficacy of Christ's sufferings for
the salvation of the world and for the justifi
cation of the soul before God, and in this
faith I hope to become holy."
After this good confession he was silenced
by a blow on the mouth, and taken off under
escort of more than a hundred brothers of
the order, who, in spite of his repeated noes,
continually tried to change his opinions.
He was strangled, like Cazalla, after saying,
" Now let me have the anguish that you have
prepared for me ! "
Juan Sanchez, the long-sought-for fugitive,
whose existence was supposed to endanger the
peace of the kingdom, tore himself, half-burnt,
from one stake to another, and shrieked for
mercy. The monks ran near, and begged him
to recant. Then Sanchez, looking at the fire
and repenting his momentary weakness, sprang
into the flames. As the funeral pile burned
183

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
down, and the flames died out, Lutheranism
came to an end in Valladolid, having numbered
many important people among its followers,
and having given many instances of courage
in those who preferred to face death rather
than deny their faith. The last instance of
such fortitude was Leonor de Cisneros, wife
of Herrezuelo, who died at the stake on 26th
September 1568.
In Seville, the Bishop of Tarragona fixed
the auto-da-fe" on the 24th September 1559,
in the Great Square.
Four archbishops were present, and the
Royal Court of Chief Justice, the Cathedral
Chapter, and the rest of the clergy, with many
of the grandees and knights, the Duchess of
Bejor, and many ladies of high degree also
took part in the ceremony. The Quemadero, a
high-walled space adorned with statues of the
four Apostles, was on the Prado of San Sebas
tian, outside the town. Here the Prior Garcia-
Arias of San Isidro, with his four monks,
Cristobal de Avellano, Juan Cris6stomo, Juan
de Leon, and Cassiodoro, met their end. The
prior, quite undaunted, walked, leaning on his
stick, to the stake. Cristoforo de Lozada
disputed at the funeral pile in elegant Latin.
184

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
Juan Gonzalez, in front of the stake, ex
horted his sister to courage when the gag
was taken from his mouth. Juan Ponce de
Leon had wavered and begged Maria Bo
horques to recant, and not to listen to
Cassiodoro, but she rebuked his instability.
Although he did not believe in confession,
he consented to it for the sake of escaping
the flames, and Morcillo, the monk of San
Isidro, did the same at the last moment.
Leon's son had to forfeit the title of Count
of Baile, which went to another branch of
the family. Isabel de Baena, Maria de
Virues, Maria Coronel, and Maria Bohor
ques were first strangled and then burnt, with
twenty others. Francisco de Zafra was burnt
in effigy. The house of Baena was pulled
down, and the place of the martyred rich
Dona was marked by a sort of gallows.
The final auto-da-fe" of December 22, 1560,
put an end to either the lives or the faith of
the rest of the imprisoned Lutherans. Death
was the fate of fourteen ; imprisonment with
confiscation of property was the punishment
of thirty-four, and four made their peace with
the Church. Among the first lot we find
lulianillo Hernandez, Nicolas Burton, the
185

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
lay-brother of San Isidro, Juan Sastre, Fran
cisca de Chaves, Ana de Ribera, the widow
of Hernando de San Juan, the wife of the
Alguacil Francisco Duran, Francisca Ruiz,
the widow of the apothecary of Lepe,
Hernan Nunez, Maria Gomez, the once mad
informer of Zafra,1 her sister Leonor Nunez,
wife of a doctor, her daughters Leonor,
Teresa, and Lucia, and the nuns of Santa
Isabel. Amongst the second class were Ponce
de Leon, Maria and Luisa Manuel, the monks
of San Isidro, Lopez de Tendilla, Bernardino
Valdes from Guadalajara, Domingo Chur-
ricca from Ascortia, Gaspar de Porres from
Seville, Bernardo de San Geronimo from
Burgos, &c.
After having been exposed to sufferings
which caused her death, Juana Bohorques
was pronounced innocent.2 Her sister had
been made to confess upon the rack that
she had talked with her about evangelical
truths. At first she was not so badly
treated, but fifteen days after the birth of
a child, she was again imprisoned, and was
1 During her madness her betrayal of Zafra and his
followers led to 800 persons being taken to the Triana.
2 Menendez, Reformistas Espanoles, ii. p. 449.
186

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
put under the care of a fellow - prisoner,
but she was unable to help her, for she
herself had just been brought out of the
torture-chamber. To return to our Protestant colporteur,
mentioned in Chapter XI. We hear that
he was captured by emissaries of the Inqui
sition in the Sierras de Cordova, and that
his zeal for the propagation of the Gospel
was punished by three years' imprison
ment. It was thought that tortures of
body and mind would quell his valiant
spirit, but his opponents had not counted
on his sense of support in the Truth, and
he disappointed the hopes entertained by
his persecutors that he would be crushed
by his miseries.
He was endowed with such eloquence and
wisdom that, to use the Spanish proverb,
"A word from his mouth was as weighty
as a stone from a sling " (" Palabra de boca,
piedra de honda"). He seemed to rejoice in
being able to suffer for Christ's sake, and
when he frequently passed under the prison
windows of his brethren in the faith, on
his return from the inquisitorial court of
inquiry, he showed his friends that he was
187

SPANISH PROTESTANTS
still of a good courage by cheerfully singing
the doggerel lines —
" The monks how they fly, for they met a defeat,
The wolves how they howl, for they have nothing to eat;
The lambs by the dogs may be hunted and harried,
But, lo ! to the rescue relief has not tarried."
At the auto-da-fe", Julianillo Hernandez,
the brave pioneer of Protestantism, said,
"Now is the time to show ourselves valiant
soldiers of Christ. Let us be true wit
nesses of Him and His truth, and we shall
soon receive the sign of his approval, and
triumph with Him in heaven." But here
the gag placed in his mouth prevented
further preaching, except that conveyed by
his eyes and gestures.
He kissed the instruments of torture, and
placed a bundle on his head as a sign of his
readiness to quit this world.
Francisco Gomez had been deputed by the
Inquisition to bring Julianillo to reason,
but as that would have been to make God's
truth foolish, the brave little man was found
obdurate in his opinions. He declined either
to renounce his faith or to confess himself
wrong, in spite of menaces and tortures.
1 88

IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
He certainly was unable to refute the learned
arguments of his opponents in scholarly
fashion, and, bound hand and foot, he
seemed to have exhausted his power of pro
fessing the truth.
Then Gomez, thinking the Protestant was
vanquished, told him the hour had arrived
for confession. At this, the old fire of the
colporteur flamed forth, and he declared the
priest was a blasphemer, and must be speak
ing contrary to his convictions, whereupon
the soldiers, enraged at the martyr's persistent
adherence to the truth he professed, pierced
him with their halberds, and thus his suffer
ings were shortened by death.
Juan Gil, Juan Perez de Pineda, and Con
stantino de la Fuente could only be burnt in
effigy, as Gil and Fuente had escaped the
power of the Office by death, and Perez by
his long residence abroad.
The king, Queen Isabel, and Don Carlos
also took part in the auto-da-fe" at Toledo,
February 25, 1560. The others which fol- .
lowed on March 9, 1561, July 17, 1566,
June 4, 1571, and December 18, 1580,
proved the final death-blows to Spanish
Protestantism in the sixteenth century.
189

INDEX OF NAMES

Alba, Duke of, 84
Alcaraz, Catalina de, 182
Aldana, Francisco de, 125
Almorza, Francisco de, 181
Asil, Antonio, 176
Arellano, Cristobal de, 184
Azpilcueta, 159, 161
Baena, Isabel de, 185
Bautista, Jean, 176
Benavides, Caspar, 139
Bohorques, Juana, 187
Bohorques, Maria, 108, 109, 184
Borja, Francisco de, 49-53, 169
Burton, Nicholas, 143, 185
Butzer, 22, 24, 149
Calvin, 114
Cano, Melchor, 151, 155, 174
Carlos, Don, 181, 188
Carranza, Archbishop Bartolome
de, 60, 62, 79, 148-162
Casscodoro, 184
Castiglione, Baldassare, 14
Cazalla, Dr. Agustin, 58, 59, 62,
121, 167, 175, 178, 179
Cazalla, Pedro, 59-61, 121, 154
Charles V., 7, 17, 31, 32, 42-48,
51-57, 123, 124, 154
Churrica, Domingo, 186

Cienfuegos, Borjas, 82
Cisneros, Leonor de, 184
Clement VII., n, 65
Clement VIII., 117
Colonna Vittoria, 67
Contarini, 45
Corro, Antonio de, 78, 110-117
Cranmer, 38, 149
Diaz, Alfonso, 23, 25, 27, 28
Diaz, Juan, 2, 19-28
Diaz, Pedro, 79
Eleanor of France, 43
Enciso, Baccalaureus, 3
Enriquez, Ana, 63, 121, 177,
178
Enzinas, Francisco de, 2, 29-38,
102
Erasmus, 8, 9, 10, 13
Estrada, Isabel de, 175
Ferdinand, King, 30, 46
Fernando, San Juan de,
Figuerra, Mercia de, 176
Fonseca, Juan Alonso de, 177
Fronton, John, 143
Fuente, Constantino Ponce de
la, 79, 81, 106, 108, 168, 169,
189

INDEX OF NAMES

Garci-Arias, 167, 184
Gil, Juan, 76-80, 103, 189
Gomez, Francisco, 188
Gomez, Maria, 185
Gonzalez, Juan, 167, 168, 184
Gonzaga, Duchess of, 68, 69
Granvella, 37, 150
Guerrero, Alfonso, 105
Guerrero, Pedro, 154
Guevara, Marina de, 181
Heredia, Felipa de, 182
Hernandez, Francisca, 58
Hernandez, Julianillo, 106-1 10,
187
Herrera, 154, 176
Herrera, Pedro de, 140
Herrezuelo, 175, 180, 184
Isabel de Castilla, 182
Isabella, Queen, 30, 50
Joanna, the Regent, 47, 51, 53,
54, SS, 172
Leon, Constantino Ponce de,
2, 81-106
Leon, Hernando Ponce de, 169
Leon, Juan Ponce de, 108, 168,
184
Loyasa, Garcia de, 92
Loyola, 49
Lozada, Dr. Cristobal de, 108
Luther, Martin, 6, 8, 10, 16, 40,
42, 47, 48, 64, 73
Maguelo, 104
Malvenda, Pedro, 22, 24, 27
Manrique, Alonzo, 19
Mantova, Benedetto de, 67

Manuel, Maria and Luisa, 186
Maria, Queen of Hungary, 43
Mary, Queen, 148
Maxia, Pedro, 99
Melancthon, 20, 30, 35, 37, 40
Mendoza, 32, 34, 151
Miranda, Maria de, 181
Montes, 131, 162
Morcillo, 168, 185
Nonez, Leonor, 185
Ocampo, Cristobal de, 175, 179
Occhino, 67, 69
Ortega, Catalina de, 176
Ortiz, 59
Ovando, Francesco de, 103, 105
Padilla, Cristobal de, 121, 175
Paul III., 15, 23
Paul IV., 150, 156, 159
Pedrosa, Antonio Dorringuez de,
177
Perez, Juan, III
Perez, Alonso, 175
Philip II., 43, 46, 47/ S3, I",
112, 124-126, 158, 180, 181,
182I
Pineda, Juan Perez de, 129-13 1
164, 189
Pius IV., 158
Pius V., 159
Porres, Gaspar de, 186
Probst, Jacob, 39
Quijada, 57
Ramirez, Diego, 156
Regla, Juan, 123
Reina, Cassiodoro, 110-117, '84

191

Rojas, Domingo de, 61, 63
Rojas, Francisca, 185
Rojas, Luis de, 177
Rojas, Maria de, 63
Sanchez, Juan, 63, 122, 181,
183
San Geronimo, Bernardo de, 186
San Juan, Fernando, 167
San Roman, Francisco de, 39-41
Santisteban, Margarita de, 181
Sarmiento, Pedro de, 63, 176,
178
Senarcleus, 20, 24, 26
Seso, Carlos de, 59, 60, 61, 62,
167, 182
Siliceo, 101, 150
Sotelo, Pedro de, 120, 181
Soto, Domingo de, 23, 27, 34,
35, 36, 79, IS'
Torquemada, 127
Torriano, Giovanni, 47

INDEX OF NAMES
Ulloa Pereyra, Juan, 176

Valdes, Alfonso, 57, 120, 157
Valdes, Bernardino, 186
Valdes, Juan de, 65-72, 153
Valentin, 151
Valer, Rodrigo de, 73-75, 77
Valera, Cipriano, no
Vasquez, 53
Velasquez, Juan, 175
Vemes, 15
Vibora, Beatrix de, 179"^ , ,
Vibora, Constance, 63 I „ „
,r, _ . ' J J-Cazalla
Vibora, Francisco, 175 j femil
Vibora, Juan de, 176 J
William of Orange, 44
Ximenes, 4, 6, 127, 147
Zafra, Francisco de, 185
Zufiiga, Francisca de, 63, 176,
182

THE END

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