Fray Luis de León: A Biographical Fragment

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—

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 manœuvres) 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:

The Valladolid Inquisitors had not treated him in such fashion as to make him desirous of meeting them again. This experience was, however, awaiting him.[216] On January 20 or 21, 1582,[217] his former opponent, the Mercenarian Fray Francisco Zumel, took the chair at a theological meeting in Salamanca. At this meeting a Jesuit named Prudencio de Montemayor put forward a thesis which opened up the difficulties connected with the reconciliation of the theological doctrines of predestination and free-will. Owing to some disturbance in the assembly, Montemayor's voice did not reach all who were present and, in the interest of the audience, Luis de Leon repeated Montemayor's arguments without lending them any support; his action was misunderstood, and many supposed that he was expressing his personal opinions. 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. In the circumstances silence was impossible for him. He was for as much liberty of thought as was compatible with orthodoxy; he was persuaded that much of the opposition of the Dominicans to Montemayor was due to the fact that the latter was a Jesuit;[218] and no doubt he was quite human enough to be annoyed at the intrusion of Domingo de Guzman as the champion of doctrinal intolerance.... Be this as it may, Luis de Leon took up the cudgels for Montemayor's views which, as he maintained, were perfectly tenable. 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; even some of the Augustinian professors at Salamanca were uneasy;[222] and finally the case came before the Inquisition of Valladolid, though the sittings of the court were held in Salamanca. The delator would appear to have been a Jeromite, Fray Joan de Santa Cruz, who took objection to some sixteen propositions which, as he alleged, were put forward by Luis de Leon.[223] Some exaggeration on the part of Santa Cruz is conceivable. As a Jeromite, he bore a grudge against Luis de Leon for his overt opposition to the candidature of Hector Pinto at Salamanca University and, as Francisco de Palacios deposed at Valladolid on February 5, 1573, Santa Cruz had been somewhat excited by the news of Grajal's arrest and was anxious to know if Luis de Leon had been apprehended at the same time.[224] This incident implies no great impartiality on the part of Santa Cruz. Still, a report made officially has to be met. On March 8, 1582, Luis de Leon, adopting the same procedure which he had followed at Valladolid, voluntarily presented himself before the Inquisitionary tribunal at Salamanca, and read his account of what had occurred.[225] In several particulars he was enabled to correct the version of Santa Cruz, which was admittedly second-hand in part.[226] He must have thought of 'old, unhappy, far-off things' as he entered the Court and recognized the Inquisitionary secretary with the singular name of Celedon Gustin; these remembrances probably led him to take additional precautions. On March 31 he appeared a second time before the Inquisitionary Court at Salamanca, and volunteered the statement that, though he still believed Montemayor's thesis to be free from heretical taint, reflection caused him to think that it was temerarious (inasmuch as it differed from the usual scholastic teaching on the subject); that its promulgation in a public assembly was regrettable; and that he was ready to make amends if he had in any way exceeded in his defence of Montemayor.[227] A little later three Augustinians, one of them a man of some prominence in the order, appeared with a view to disassociate themselves from Luis de Leon's action;[228] and a fourth witness came forward in the person of Fray Francisco Zumel, who produced fragments of a lecture on predestination delivered by Luis de Leon at Salamanca as far back as 1571.[229] One hardly knows whether to say that Luis de Leon was fortunate or unfortunate in his opponents. Zumel, as we have seen, was a defeated competitor for the chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Salamanca in 1578. Similarly, Domingo de Guzman was a defeated competitor for the Biblical Chair at the University of Salamanca in 1579. So, too, at the dawn of his professorial career, Luis de Leon had easily carried a substitucion de vísperas against Domingo Bañez.[230] These men were the soul of the opposition to Luis de Leon in his second encounter with the Inquisitionary tribunal; inasmuch as they had all three been beaten in open contest by Luis de Leon, their motives were not altogether free from some suspicion of personal animus; but their united hostility was undoubtedly formidable. Luis de Leon's foes were not, however, limited to the Dominicans and the Jeromite whom he had defeated for University Chairs. Some members of his own order had been rendered unhappy by his latest outbreak. Fray Pedro de Aragon, Fray Martin de Coscojales, and Fray Andrés de Solana were not alone.[231] This is obvious from a highly disagreeable letter written in Madrid on February 15, 1582, by the well-known Augustinian Fray Lorenzo de Villavicencio. In this letter, which was laid before the Inquisition by Luis de Leon, Villavicencio thought it his duty to tell his correspondent to mind his own business, to cease denouncing tyranny, and to understand that his action, while it did good to nobody, was a source of annoyance to many.[232] Manifestly Luis de Leon's passion for fair play was altogether incomprehensible to his opponents, and it may be that he made no great effort to win their support. If, however, his experience of the Inquisition had made him more cautious in his dealings with it, the Inquisition had learned a lesson from its previous experience with Luis de Leon. He was not arrested, but was allowed to go about his business as usual; no prosecuting counsel was appointed, and when the Supreme Inquisition at Madrid called upon the Valladolid judge to make a report,[233] Juan de Arresse confined himself to suggesting that Luis de Leon should be severely reprimanded, and should be called upon to express publicly from his University chair his regret for having described as heretical opinions which were not his.[234] This must have been signed shortly after August 7, 1582, the date on which the request of the Supreme Inquisition reached Valladolid. Mitigated as it was, the suggestion of the Valladolid judge seemed too severe to the Supreme Inquisition. For reasons which are unknown the case was not ended till February 3, 1584. On this date Luis de Leon was summoned to Toledo and was there privately reprimanded by the Grand Inquisitor, Cardinal Gaspar de Quiroga, to whom in 1580 he had dedicated his In Psalmum vigesimum sextum Explanatio, a work written during the tenth month of his imprisonment at Valladolid. Luis de Leon appears to have thought that he had a friend in Quiroga, but for whose intervention his imprisonment at Valladolid would have been still further prolonged. As Quiroga became Grand Inquisitor on April 20, 1573, and as the prisoner in the Valladolid cells was not released till the month of December 1576, Luis de Leon's gratitude has been thought excessive.[235] However, he knew the facts better than anybody else, and Quiroga's attitude at Toledo was benignant. Instead of giving the severe reprimand which was suggested by the Valladolid Inquisitors, Quiroga 'charitably and kindly' rebuked the Augustinian in private and dismissed him with a solemn warning not to uphold such views as he was alleged to have defended.[236] It has been held that the Inquisition proceeded against Luis de Leon a third time.[237] No evidence to support this view has been hitherto produced.

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; in February Dr. Antonio de Solís, a learned lawyer, was dispatched to Madrid to give advice on legal points; Solís fell ill and was replaced by Doctor Diego de Sahagun. The business involved an interview with Philip II and, as the king was absent from the capital, Luis de Leon wrote to the University authorities explaining the situation, and suggesting that, in the interests of economy, the mission should be recalled. The University evidently acted upon this suggestion, for on August 1 Luis de Leon was back in Salamanca.[238] He was re-appointed to take up the same work again on November 22, 1586, and on January 17, 1588, he was able to report that the everlasting lawsuit was at an end, and that the contention of the University of Salamanca had been accepted.[239] The Claustro was so overjoyed that it authorized the fulfilment of its promise to pay Luis de Leon his salary and expenses. This elation and fit of generosity proved to be premature. On March 5, 1588, Luis de Leon was obliged to ask for the return of the original cédula and to state that no use could meanwhile be made of it.[240] The disappointment at Salamanca was great, and the Claustro showed its irritation by ordering the return of Luis de Leon and by voting that the payment of his salary be suspended after October 18, if he had not returned by that date. Owing to Luis de Leon's illness a prolongation of his absence was agreed to, later on; but this concession implied no change of mind on the part of the Claustro. A certain University Professor, Dr. Bernal, who had acted for several years as Regidor of Salamanca, and had been from the first hostile to Luis de Leon in this matter, moved that the absentee be ordered back to Salamanca at once with a view to avoiding the unnecessary expense of paying the salary of a substitute to deliver lectures. This was carried by an overwhelming majority on January 20, 1589,[241] and three days later it was resolved that Luis de Leon be instructed to return to his chair within a month. As Luis de Leon was plunged in important business which could not be broken off lightly, Philip II caused a letter to be written on March 7 in which he requested the Claustro to authorize Luis de Leon's absence from his chair till the end of August.[242] The royal request was refused and, as if to mark a want of confidence in Luis de Leon, another member was nominated to conduct the negotiations at Madrid. Luis de Leon's mission was really ended, for his delegated powers had expired; nevertheless, he acted as though they were still in force and with such effect that on August 23 he appeared before the Claustro with the royal warrant.[243] He was warmly complimented on his success, but the Claustro was less profuse of deeds than of words. On August 26 Luis de Leon made three requests:[244] (a) that his arrears of salary be paid for the time that he had represented the University in Madrid; (b) that some compensation be paid to his monastery for the time he had been engaged on University business after his mandate had expired; and (c) that he be given two years' leave of absence from his chair. As to the first point, Doctor Diego Henriquez was commissioned to examine vouchers and pay the petitioner what was due; as to the second point, the decision was referred to a group of professors who held their chairs by a life-tenure; it was agreed to grant the third request, if the King's approval was secured. This sounds like satisfactory treatment. In practice the concessions were not made. On December 20, 1589, the arrears of salary still remained unpaid; on October 20, 1589, it appeared that the Claustro had no power to grant leave of absence.[245] It had apparently the power to fine Luis de Leon for not lecturing, and it did so with such insistency that the Prior of the Augustinian monastery in Salamanca felt compelled to lodge a protest against this action, which, it was contended, was unconstitutional. This protest was set aside on March 9, 1590, and two professors—one of whom was the Jeromite Zumel—were appointed to defend the position taken up by the University of Salamanca.[246] It is impossible to deny that the behaviour of the University of Salamanca to Luis de Leon was most unhandsome, not to say shabby.

As his life drew to a close, and as his fame increased, constant demands were made upon him. Apparently he refused the invitation of Sixtus V and Philip II to join a committee appointed to revise the Vulgate; it is not clear that he altogether approved of the project, nor of the plan on which the revision was to be carried out.[247] Not only was his scholarship held in honour; his rigorous, valiant righteousness was universally recognized. On April 13, 1588, the papal nuncio signed a brief naming Luis de Leon one of two commissaries who were entrusted with the delicate task of inquiring into the administration of certain funds by the Provincial of the Augustinians in Castile. The result of this inquiry seems not to be recorded, but a passage in an extant autograph letter of Luis de Leon's suggests that his conclusions were unfavourable to his official superior.[248] Luis de Leon's zeal led him to champion (perhaps inopportunely) a change in the constitution of his order.[249] In 1588 appeared his edition of Saint Theresa; and as the letter dedicatory to Madre Ana de Jesús is dated September 15, 1587, it may perhaps be inferred that the editor before this date was personally acquainted with the great saint's successor. If not a judge of scholarship, Ana de Jesús was an excellent judge of character. She had shown uncommon insight in choosing Luis de Leon as editor of her great friend's writings; she esteemed him for his eminent sanctity; he proved worthy of her confidence, and upheld her plans for reform against Nicolás de Jesús Maria Doria, the Provincial of the Barefooted Carmelites in Spain. Doria was supported by Philip II and, to some extent, by Sixtus V. The proceedings of the Carmelite nuns were conducted from this point onwards with supreme ability. Doctor Bernabé del Mármol was sent to Rome on a secret mission. His object was to obtain the papal sanction for reforms which had been advocated by Saint Theresa herself. Mármol succeeded to admiration. His antagonists had no suspicion of his errand. A papal brief, dated June 5, 1590, granted the desired sanction; and a second brief, dated June 27, appointed Teutonio de Braganza, Archbishop of Evora, and Luis de Leon to carry the first brief into effect. Braganza was too busy to do the necessary work, and authorized Luis de Leon to act for him. Luis de Leon begged the University of Salamanca to grant him some days' leave to attend to the business. This petition was rejected. But the indomitable man went on. Taken aback and irritated, Doria hastened to the Prado and easily induced Philip II[250] (who was, in fact, already won over to approval of Doria's scheme) to obtain from the papal nuncio an order suspending the delegate's instructions. After a reasonable time had elapsed Luis de Leon returned to the charge, and called a meeting of those immediately concerned; the papal nuncio made no sign, as the King had not spoken to him again on the subject. Meanwhile Doria, who was better informed as to what was afoot in Madrid than as to what was afoot in Rome, once more interviewed Philip II and urged him to stop Luis de Leon's proceedings. Philip took action. As Luis de Leon's supporters were filing into the room where they were to discuss the situation, they were approached by a member of the royal household who informed them that he had it in command from the King to bid them suspend the execution of the brief till fresh orders came from Rome. 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 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. Even had he been an exact contemporary,[252] Santa Maria's statements would call for careful examination, for he does not appear to have had a critical intelligence, since he commits himself to two assertions, one of which is certainly false and the other—intrinsically unlikely—is without a shred of corroboration. Santa Maria avers that Philip II showed his displeasure by forbidding the Augustinians of Castile to elect Luis de Leon as their Provincial. It is on record, however, that Luis de Leon was elected Provincial of the Augustinians of Castile on the earliest opportunity (August 14, 1591) that presented itself. Santa Maria further states that Luis de Leon took the King's annoyance so much to heart that his death was hastened in consequence. No evidence is produced to support a story so innately improbable. This legend evidently throve in credulous opposition circles, for something of the same sort had been set about earlier by Fray José de Jesús y Maria, a Carmelite historian who, unaware that Luis de Leon had declined an archbishopric, added a calumnious insinuation that the editor of Saint Theresa's works was a disappointed aspirant to episcopal honours.[253] Santa Maria, not knowing that Philip II highly esteemed Luis de Leon, seems to have been content to report such gossip as filtered down to him.

The correspondence connected with the papal brief dragged on till January or February 1591.[254] 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 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; a few well-meaning Augustinians did Luis de Leon more harm than good by suggesting that he had extorted from the Inquisition the admission that his doctrinal teachings were correct;[255] he was deeply affected by the enmity of other Augustinians whom he (perhaps too hastily) denounced by name to the Inquisitors.[256] Many of his colleagues at Salamanca stood aloof from him; some were openly opposed to him; one or two carried their spite so far as to suggest that he should be deprived of his University chair. His constant absence from Salamanca gave his foes a handle; it is conceivable that they might have succeeded in ousting him from his chair had his life been prolonged. Apart from public business, connected with his own order and with the proposed reform of the Carmelite nuns, Luis de Leon was retained in Madrid by his failing health. On January 11, 1591, he was examined by Doctor Estrada, who reported that his patient was suffering from a cystic tumour of the kidney.[257] This is a malady which might last many years. No doubt Luis de Leon had had the tumour for a long while; it is extremely likely that at the end the growth became malignant and that he died from it. It has been alleged that Luis de Leon's end came suddenly.[258] This is not so. His death was lingering. For all but himself this was fortunate, and, even for himself the pause before the end was convenient, for it enabled him to discharge certain duties. As editor, he was naturally in possession of many of Saint Theresa's papers; these he had time to make over to Doctor Sobrino, Professor of Theology in the University of Valladolid, and to Fray Agustin Antolinez, a future bishop, with instructions to return them to Madre Ana de Jesús. Nevertheless the saint's papers were not destined to reach Madre Ana de Jesús, for Philip II asked both the trustees to give him the holograph copies to be deposited in the Library at the Escorial. The trustees complied, and the papers are now stored in the Camarín de Santa Teresa.[259] Assiduous to the last in the discharge of his duties, Luis de Leon dragged himself to Madrigal, where a Chapter of the Augustinian Order was to be held in August 1591. The effort was too much for him. He had to take to his bed, and was still there on August 14 when he was elected Provincial[260]. He did not enjoy the honour long, for he died on August 23.

Though most people who are interested in Luis de Leon at all are familiar with Pacheco's portrait of him, Pacheco's character-sketch is so apt to be overlooked that it may be briefly summarized here.[261] Pacheco reports Luis de Leon as having a special gift of silence, as being the most taciturn of men though one of the wittiest; as being a man most trustworthy, truthful and upright, precise in speech and in the keeping of promises, reserved, not given to smiling; in the gravity of his countenance his nobility of soul and, still more, his deep humility were obvious; most cleanly, chaste, and reflective, he was a great monk and a close observer of laws; so marked was his devotion to the Blessed Virgin that he fasted on the eve of feasts, dined at three, and ate no supper; in her honour he wrote the lovely hymn Virgen que el Sol mas pura, very spiritually-minded and greatly given to prayer, at the time of his severest trials God hearkened to him. Though by nature hasty, he was very long-suffering and gentle to those with whom he had to deal; he was most abstemious in matters of food, drink, and sleep; indeed with regard to sleep (as was stated to Pacheco by Fray Luis Moreno de Bohorquez, who had lived in the same monastery as Luis de Leon for four years) he carried mortification so far that he seldom lay down, and the monk who had to make his bed would often find that it had not been slept in. So great were his intellectual gifts that he seemed more meet to teach every one than to learn things from anybody. On matters concerning government his judgement was sound; he was highly esteemed by prominent men both in Spain and out of it; Philip II was wont to consult him in difficult cases, and would send messengers from Madrid to Salamanca; when he visited Madrid on University business he was admitted to private audience and received signal marks of royal favour; with respect to offers of bishoprics and the Archbishopric of Mexico he displayed his courage and magnanimous spirits not only by stripping himself of rank (a thing seldom done) but of all he had in the world; a man of truly evangelical temper. In those holy exercises, and in fitting sequel to his life, he piously ended his course as Provincial of Castile, leaving all in great affliction, but with a still greater certainty of his glory.

This estimate was printed in 1599, eight years after Luis de Leon's death and one year after Philip II's death. Making some allowance for the partiality of an admirer, Pacheco's description may stand. A dry contemporary chronicler, like Luis Cabrera de Córdoba,[262] after paying tribute to Luis de Leon's intellectual gifts and heroic courage in adversity, speaks of his death as a national loss. 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. The Canto de Caliope records the names of those only whom Cervantes considered to be eminent poets—masters en la alegre sciencia dela poesia—and hence it is to the poet that he refers when he writes in his 84th stanza: