Chapter 8

[Footnote 184: The peremptory letter of the Supreme Inquisition to the Valladolid tribunal is printed in _Documentos inéditos_, vol. XI, p. 354: 'Aquí se ha visto el proceso contra fray Luis de Leon, de la órden de Sant Agustin, preso en esas cárceles, y va determinado como veréis por lo que al fin dél va asentado. Aquello se ejecutará. Y advertiréis á este reo que guarde mucho secreto de todo lo que con él ha pasado y toca á su proceso; y que no tenga pasion ni disensiones con persona alguna, sospechando que haya testificado contra él en esta su causa; porque de todo lo que á esto tocare se tratará en el Sancto Oficio, y no se podrá dejar de proveer en ello justicia con rigor. Hacerloéis, Señores, así. Guarde nuestro Señor vuestras muy Reverendas personas. En Madrid siete de diciembre 1576.'

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

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

[Footnote 185: It is unnecessary to reproduce the exact terms of the judgement (_Documentos inéditos_, vol. XI, pp. 354-357), for this closely follows the terms employed by the Supreme Inquisition.]

[Footnote 186: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. XI, p. 356.]

[Footnote 187: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. XI, pp. 357-358: 'El maestro fray Luis de Leon suplico á vuestras mercedes sean servidos mandar que me sea dado un testimonio en manera que haga fe, por donde conste al claustro de la universidad de Salamanca que yo por vuestras mercedes fuí absuelto de la instancia[A] que contra mí hizo el fiscal deste Santo Oficio delante de vuestras mercedes, y dado por libre, en manera que pueda ejercer cualquiera de las cosas que tocan á mis órdenes y oficio, y sin penitencia ni nota alguna.

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

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

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

[Footnote 188: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. XI, p. 358: 'En 13 de agosto de 1577 años, por mandado de los señores Inquisidores saqué esta sentencia de fray Luis, signada, é la entregué al Señor Inquisidor doctor Guijano. Sacóse para el maestrescuela de Salamanca.' This sentence is probably written by the secretary, Celedon Gustin.]

IV

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

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

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

Aqui la envidia y mentira me tuvieron encerrado--

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

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

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