Chapter 1

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HISPANIC NOTES & MONOGRAPHS

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

I

FRAY LUIS DE LEON

A Biographical Fragment

BY

JAMES FITZMAURICE KELLY, F.B.A.

_With a Portrait from an engraving after Pacheco_.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS HUMPHREY MILFORD 1921

PRINTED IN ENGLAND AT THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS BY FREDERICK HALL

PREFACE

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

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

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

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

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

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

WORKS OF REFERENCE: _Proceso original que la Inquisicion de Valladolid hizo al maestro Fr. Luis de Leon, religioso del órden de S. Agustin_, ed. M. Salvá and P. Sainz de Baranda, in _Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la Historia de España_ (Madrid, 1847), vol. X, pp. 5-575, and vol. XI, pp. 5-358; J. Gonzalez de Tejada, _Vida de Fray Luis de Leon_ (Madrid, 1863); C.A. Wilkens, _Fray Luis de Leon_ (Halle, 1866); A. Arango y Escandon, _Frai Luis de Leon, ensayo histórico_, 2ª ed. (Mexico, 1866) [the first edition appeared in _La Cruz_ (Mexico, 1855-56)]; F.H. Reusch, _Luis de Leon und die spanische Inquisition_ (Bonn, 1873); M. Gutiérrez, _El misticismo ortodoxo_ (Valladolid, 1886); M. Gutiérrez, _Fray Luis de León y la filosofía española del siglo_ XVI, 2ª ed. aumentada (Madrid, 1891) [_Adiciones póstumas_ in _La Ciudad de Dios_ (1907), vol. LXXIII, pp. 391-399, 478-494, 662-667; vol. LXXIV, pp. 49-55, 303-414, 487-496, 628-643; in _La Ciudad de Dios_ (1908), vol. LXXV, pp. 34-47, 215-221, 291-303, 472-486]; J.M. Guardia, _Fray Luis de Leon ou la poésie dans le cloître_, in the _Revue germanique_ (1863), vol. XXIV, pp. 307-342; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Horacio en España, Solaces bibliográficas_ 2ª ed. (Madrid, 1885), vol. I, pp. 11-24, vol. II, pp. 26-36; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, _Estudios de crítica literaria_, 1ª serie (Madrid, 1893), pp. 1-72; F. Blanco García, _Segundo proceso instruído por la Inquisición de Valladolid contra Fray Luis de León_ (Madrid, 1896); F. Blanco García, _Fray Luis de León: rectificaciones biográficas_, in the _Homenaje a Menéndez y Pelayo_ (Madrid, 1899), vol. I, pp. 153-160; J.D.M. Ford, _Luis de León, the Spanish poet, humanist and mystic_, in the _Publications of the Modern Language Association of America_ (Baltimore, 1899), vol. XIV, pp. 267-278; F. Blanco García, _Fr. Luis de León: estudio biográfico del insigne poeta agustino_ (Madrid, 1904); _Acta de la reposición de Fray Luis de León en una cátedra de la Universidad de Salamanca_ in the _Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos_, Tercera época (1900), vol. IV, pp. 680-682; L.G. Alonso Getino, _La Causa de Fr. Luis de León ante la crítica y los nuevos documentos históricos_, in the _Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos_, Tercera época (1903), vol. IX, pp. 148-156, 268-279, 440-449; (1904), vol. XI, pp. 288-306, 380-397; C. Muiños Sáenz, _El 'Decíamos ayer' de Fray Luis de León_, (Madrid, 1905); L. Alonso Getino, _Vida y procesos del maestro Fr. Luis de León_ (Salamanca, 1907); C. Muiños Sáenz _El 'Decíamos ayer'... y otros excesos_, in _La Ciudad de Dios_ (1909), vol. LXXVIII, pp. 479-495, 544-560; vol. LXXIX, pp. 18-34, 107-124, 191-212, 353-374, 529-552; vol. LXXX pp. 99-125, 177-197; F. de Onís _Sobre la trasmisión de la obra literaria de Fray Luis de León_, in the _Revista de Filología Española_ (Madrid, 1915), vol. II pp. 217-257; R. Menéndez Pidal, _Una poesia inédita de Fray Luis de León_, in the _Revista de Filología Española_ (Madrid, 1917), vol. IV, pp. 389-390; C. Pérez Pastor, _Bibliografía madrileña_ (Madrid, 1891-1906-1907), parte ii, pp. 254-255, and parte iii, pp. 404-409; G. Vázquez Núñez, _El padre Francisco Zumel, general de la Merced y catedrático de Salamanca_ (1540-1607), in _Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos_, Tercera época (1918), vol. XXXVIII, pp. 1-19, 170-190; (1918), vol. XXXIX, pp. 53-67, 237-266; (1919), vol. XL, pp. 447-466, 562-594.

J. F-K.

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

I

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

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

II

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

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

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

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