Fray Luis de León

“ Annoyed at this piece of fussiness, Luis de Leon is stated to have left the room, remarking: 'No order of His Holiness can be carried out in Spain' [251] . This report, which comes down to us on the dubious authority of the Carmelite chronicler, Fray Francisco de Santa Maria, may, or may not, be correct. The impetuous Luis de{177} Leon was no doubt extremely capable of showing that he resented Philip II's interference in church matters. On the other hand, Santa Maria cannot have written with any personal knowledge of the facts, as he belonged to a much later generation. ”

“ His translations of Euripides, Pindar, Virgil and Horace are singularly happy; his original pieces, whether devout like the ode De la vida del cielo, or secular like the ode A Salinas, are instinct with a serene sublimity unsurpassed in any literature, and their form is impeccable. Absorbed by less worldly interests, Fray Luis de León refrained from printing his poems, which were not issued till 1631, when Quevedo published them as a counterblast to culteranismo. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 {146}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. ”

“ The mystic poet proved to be a formidable fighting-man. Before very long it must have dawned upon the Inquisitionary deputies at Valladolid that they had caught a Tartar. Unversed in the ways of the world, Luis de Leon came of a legal stock, and was thoroughly at home in a law-court. A master of dialectics, he was always alert, always prompt to criticize the evidence, always ready to deal with every point as it arose, always prepared to furnish elaborate written or verbal explanations as to every detail concerning which the tribunal could harbour a reasonable doubt. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At a later meeting in Salamanca, Fray Juan de Castañeda, a Benedictine, [219] advanced views very similar to those of Montemayor; Domingo Bañez, whose relations with Luis de Leon were never cordial, was even more emphatic than his brother-Dominican, Domingo de Guzman, and denounced Castañeda's views as savouring of Pelagianism. A sharp passage of arms followed between Bañez and Luis de Leon, [220] and, after some exchange of argument, Bañez professed to be satisfied with Castañeda's thesis, and therefore with Luis de Leon's explanations. [221] Others were less easily contented ”

“ An echo of the charge is faintly audible in Luis de Leon's own testimony. It is repeated with violence by Leon de Castro: '...enojado de la porfía el dicho fray Luis, despues le dijo á este declarante que le habia de hacer quemar un libro que imprimia sobre Exsahías, y este declarante le respondió que con la gracia de Dios que ni él, ni su libro no prenderia fuego, ni podia; que primero prenderia en sus orejas y linaje; y queste declarante no queria ir mas á las juntas' (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 12) . ”

“ Miguel Sanchez is the author of a beautiful Cancion de Cristo Crucificado, a poem which, though not published till 1605 with the real writer's name attached to it, has constantly been ascribed to Luis de Leon. [274] The Cancion is no doubt a composition of great charm and mystic unction; but it lacks the concentrated force of Luis de Leon. Luis de Leon has a lofty dignity of his own; he outstrips all rivalry by virtue of his nobility, by virtue of his intellectual vigour, by virtue of sheer excellence rather than by curious refinements of technique. ”

“ 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{vii} 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'. ”

“ It is not strange that the self-expression of a personality so fine, so complex, so rich, so rare, should produce the series of compositions which {232}entitle Luis de Leon to rank among the very greatest of Spanish poets, and beside the most glorious figures in the history of any literature. He stands a little apart from the rest of Spanish poets in a splendid solitude which befits him; he must perforce be solitary, dwelling as he most often does at altitudes inaccessible to ordinary mortals. ”

“ In the ensuing discussion his vanquished opponent, Domingo de Guzman, intervened, and with unnecessary acerbity declared that Montemayor's views were heretical. Nothing would have been easier than for Luis de Leon to keep out of the fray, especially as he himself held, and had always taught, opinions opposed to those advanced by Montemayor. If, as Pacheco reports, Luis de Leon was the most taciturn of men, he was chivalrous to the point of quixotism. ”

“ Somewhat later, while still suffering from fever, Luis de Leon begged that, on his providing satisfactory bail, he might be transferred from his prison-cell to some neighbouring monastery, where he could be detained till the end of his trial. So depressed was he at{50} this moment that he even welcomed the idea of being placed in a Dominican monastery; it was true that the Dominicans were hostile to him, yet if he died among them, he should be dying like a Christian, surrounded by religious—not like a heathen with a blackamoor at his bedside. ”

“ 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 {147}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. ”

“ By his contemporaries Luis de Leon was perhaps more esteemed as a theologian or a scholar than as a man of letters. This judgement has been reversed by posterity mainly on the strength of the Spanish poems which were little known during the author's lifetime beyond a small circle of his personal friends. [263] Experts tell us that as a theologian he ranks below his master Melchor Cano; and in the annals of scholarship Luis de Leon is less conspicuous than Benito Arias Montano and than Francisco Sanchez (el Brocense) . ”

“ Luis de Leon was not in a position to counteract the manœuvres of his opponents. It is not certain that he could have done so, had he been continuously in Salamanca at this time: as it happened, he was absent at Belmonte from the beginning of 1571 till the month of March, and on his return he fell ill. All this while, Medina and Castro were free to go about sowing tares, making damaging suggestions, and collecting such corroborative evidence as could be gleaned from ill-disposed colleagues and garrulous or slow-witted students. ”

“ His titles to remembrance are that he was learned, and that he may rank with Miguel Sanchez, with Alonso de Espinosa, and with Benito Arias Montano as among the least unsuccessful of Luis de Leon's followers. They often follow his lead with undeniable adroitness. ”

“ These positive qualities defy reproduction by even the most accomplished of imitators. It has been said that Luis de Leon's verse, as well as his prose, has noticeable roughnesses; but let us not derive a wrong impression from this assertion. Luis de Leon is not 'finicking'. Withal he is a master of his art. ”

“ Pacheco, indeed, regarded Luis de Leon as something of a universal genius: an expert in mathematics, in jurisprudence, in medicine—and, though self-taught as a painter—an artist of considerable skill. ”

“ The name of Luis de Leon's maternal grandmother was Mencía Alvarez Osorio. From these circumstances, it appears possible that some relationship existed between the dedicatee of La Perfecta Casada and the author of that treatise. Luis de Leon had four maternal uncles, three of whom were laymen—Francisco de Valera, Bernardino de Valera, and Cristóbal de Alarcon, 'capitan que fué en Italia'. All three had died before April 15, 1572 (Documentos inéditos, vol. X, p. 181) . ”

“ The fact that there is scarcely one flash of humour in the interminable record of the Valladolid{80} trial confirms Pacheco's report of the prisoner's habitual gravity. No doubt the tragic circumstances in which he found himself were not conducive to displays of humour. When being tried for his life, the merriest of men does not dwell on the innate absurdity of things. Humour was, however, one of the few gifts which nature had denied to Luis de Leon. ”

“ Neither Luis de Leon nor Ortiz de Funes seemed to have guessed that the Valladolid judges were acting on instructions from the Supreme Inquisition at Madrid. [133] For a moment the step taken by Ortiz de Funes and his client appeared to have some slight effect. Luis de Leon was informed that he would be allowed to appoint Perez as his patrono but on two conditions: (1) he must undertake to pay all the travelling expenses of his patrono, and (2) an inquiry must be held to establish the limpieza of Perez. ”

“ It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, as the case developed, the attitude of the Valladolid judges became less and less favourable to Luis de Leon. Judges are mortals and liable to error. The very pertinacity of the prisoner may have impressed them badly. ”

“ Meanwhile in 1583 appeared Los nombres de Cristo and La perfecta casada. The theologian, philosopher, and poet was also a man of affairs. That he was so esteemed by his colleagues is proved by the fact that he was nominated by them to take in hand, and settle, a long-standing suit between the University of Salamanca and the Colegios Mayores which had secured from Rome two concessions that were held to be injurious to the interests of the University. This suit, begun in 1549, was taken charge of by Luis de Leon in January 1585 ”

“ Even in his lifetime Luis de Leon was recognized by men of exceptional genius as one of themselves. His poems, which were not published till forty years after his death, must have been handed about in manuscript long before. In 1585 Cervantes in his Galatea introduced Luis de Leon into the Canto de Caliope. It cannot well be maintained that Cervantes had been impressed by Luis de Leon's Latin treatises, by De los nombres de Cristo, and by La perfecta casada. ”

“ To all who saw Luis de Leon at this time it must have occurred that his career was drawing to a close. He had never been robust; his sedentary habits, his ascetic practices, and his prolonged imprisonment combined to wear him down. His last years were packed with troubles. The Inquisition {179}watched him with suspicious eyes; he had always regarded the Dominicans and Jeromites as his enemies; he had contrived to increase the forces hostile to him by alienating the Carmelites. Doria was not without the power to make his resentment felt ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is strange that it should have been thought{76} necessary to use this formula in the case of Luis de Leon—a highly-strung, sensitive man, with an almost morbid passion for truth. The sole excuse for the Inquisitors is that this warning was given at the first sitting. But, at the second sitting, the warning was repeated in almost identical terms. [155] It seems scarcely possible to show less tact in the conduct of a difficult case. ”