Fray Luis de León | Page 7

the other four members was in sympathy with Luis de Leon, the general tenor of the committee's findings might readily be predicted. These findings were somewhat hastily adopted by the local Inquisition at Valladolid on January 26, 1572, when the arrest of Grajal and Martinez de Cantalapiedra was recommended.[48] Up to this point Luis de Leon would seem not to have been officially implicated by name, though he was clearly aimed at, especially by Castro who appeared before the Inquisitionary Commissary at Salamanca, and reiterated Medina's charges with some wealth of rancorous detail.[49]
With significant promptitude effect was given to the recommendation of the local Inquisition: Grajal was apprehended on March 1; shortly afterwards Martinez de Cantalapiedra was likewise apprehended; and, as these measures seemed to arouse no feeling more dangerous than surprise in Salamanca, it was conceivably thought safe to fly at higher game. Manifestly, Luis de Leon must have known that something perilous was afoot when he handed in a most respectfully-worded written statement on March 6, 1572.[50] By about this time there had arrived in Salamanca Diego Gonzalez--an experienced official, whose conduct of the Inquisitionary case against Bartolomé de Carranza, the Archbishop of Toledo, has earned him an unenviable repute.[51] Under the presidency of Gonzalez, who might be trusted to keep the weaker brethren, if there were any, up to the mark, the local Inquisition on March 15 resolved to recommend the arrest of Luis de Leon. Apparently the gravity of this step was recognized. Another sitting was held on March 19, and a vote was taken with the result that the previous decision was confirmed by four votes to two. It should not, however, be assumed that the vote of the two implied any marked personal sympathy with Luis de Leon. On the contrary: the difference between the majority and the minority was concerned solely with a question of procedure. The minority suggested that it would cause less fuss and less scandal to seize Luis de Leon, Grajal, and Martinez de Cantalapiedra, to place each of them in solitary confinement for a short while in a Valladolid monastery, and thence to remove them, without trial, to the secret prison of the Inquisition.[52] It is difficult to detect the humanitarian motive of this alternative proposal.

II
[Footnote 1: Revista Agustiniana (Madrid, 1882), vol. III, p. 127. 'Lope Alvarez Ponce de Leon, Regidor de Segovia... casó dos veces: la primera con Do?a Leonor Sánchez de Olivares, hija de Díez Sánchez de Olivares y hermana de aquel valiente caballero Don Pedro de Olivares, comendador del Olmo, del orden de Calatrava en tiempo del Maestro D. Rodrigo Téllez Girón. De este matrimonio tuvieron tres hijos. En segundas nupcias casó con Do?a Leonor de Villanueva, y tuvieron dos hijos; pero no declaran quienes fueron del primer matrimonio, y quienes del segundo. Solo de D. Gómez consta que es del primer matrimonio.']
[Footnote 2: _Proceso original que la Inquisicion de Valladolid hizo al maestro Fr. Luis de Leon, religioso del orden de S. Agustin._ This proceso, edited by D. Miguel Salvá and D. Pedro Sainz de Baranda, occupies the tenth volume and pp. 5-358 of the eleventh volume of the _Coleccion de Documentos inéditos para la historia de Espa?a_ (Madrid, 1847).]
[Footnote 3: Ex. gr. _Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, pp. 96-97, 184-185, 255-256; vol. XI, pp. 38, 131, 350.]
[Footnote 4: It is established beyond doubt, however, that some members of the family used the name Ponce. The works of Luis de Leon's eminent nephew, Basilio, an Augustinian like himself, bear on their title-pages the words 'Basilius Pontius Legionensis'.]
[Footnote 5: This assertion is made emphatically by Diego de Haedo, the prosecuting counsel on behalf of the Inquisition; he calls Luis de Leon a 'descendiente de generacion de judíos' (_Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, p. 206). 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).]
[Footnote 6: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, p. 157.]
[Footnote 7: See note 1.]
[Footnote 8: Luis de Leon apparently took no special interest in his family history. Before the Inquisitionary Tribunal at Valladolid on April 15, 1572, he traced his descent no further back than his grandparents, adding that, as he entered religion when he was fourteen years old, 'no tiene entera noticia de qué casta vienen los dichos sus padres y agüelos, mas de haber oido decir que ciertos contrarios que