CAUSES OF THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMED DOCTRINE IN SPAIN.

BEFORE proceeding farther with the narrative of the religious movement in Spain, it may be proper to give an account of some facts which happened without the kingdom. This will furnish the reader with interesting information respecting Spaniards who embraced the Reformation abroad, and whose pious and enlightened exertions, in publishing the scriptures and other books in their native tongue, had great influence in disseminating the knowledge of the truth among their countrymen at home.

About the year 1540, three brothers, Jayme, Francisco, and Juan, sons of a respectable citizen of Burgos in Old Castile, were sent to study at Louvain, a celebrated seat of education, to which the Spanish youth had long been accustomed to resort. The family name of the young men was Enzinas, though they were better known among the learned in Germany by their assumed name of Dryander. Polite letters had been for some time cultivated in the university of Louvain, and the students indulged in a freedom of opinion, which was not tolerated at Paris and other places where the old scholastic ideas and modes of teaching were rigidly preserved. Along with a taste for elegant literature, the young Spaniards acquired the knowledge of the reformed doctrines. They lived in terms of great intimacy with the celebrated George Cassander, who corresponded with the leading protestant divines, and afterwards distinguished himself by a fruitless attempt to reconcile the popish and reformed churches. Dissatisfied with the temporizing principles of this learned man, and the partial reforms in which he was disposed to rest, the three brothers entered with the most cordial zeal into the views of those who had formally separated from the church of Rome.

Juan Enzinas, or Dryander, the younger brother, chose the medical profession, and having settled in Germany, became a professor in the university of Marburg. He was the author of several works on medicine and astronomy, and acquired a reputation by the ingenuity which he displayed in the invention and improvement of instruments for advancing these sciences. f285 Jayme Enzinas, the elder brother, removed in 1541, by the direction of his father, to Paris. During his residence in that city he became confirmed in his attachment to the Reformation, and was successful in communicating his impressions to some of his countrymen who were prosecuting their studies along with him. The expectations which he had formed from the far-famed university of the French metropolis were miserably disappointed.

He found the professors to be generally pedants and bigots, and the students equally destitute of good manners and a love for liberal pursuits. It was with the deepest emotion that he beheld the Christian heroism shown by protestant martyrs under the cruel treatment to which they were exposed. There was something solemn, though appalling, in the composure with which a Spanish assembly witnessed the barbarous spectacle of an auto-de-fe; but the wanton ferocity with which a Parisian mob shouted, when the executioner, with his pincers, tore the tongue from the mouth of his victim, and struck him with it repeatedly in the face, before binding his body to the stake, was disgustingly horrible and fiendish. Unable to remain in a place where he could find neither learning nor humanity, Jayme Enzinas left Paris and returned to Louvain. Thence he went to Antwerp to superintend the printing of a catechism which he had drawn up in his native language for the benefit of his countrymen. Soon after this he received orders from his father, who entertained sanguine hopes of his advancement in the church, to visit Italy and spend some time in the capital of Christendom. Nothing could be more contrary to his inclinations; but yielding to the dictates of filial duty he set out, leaving his heart with his brothers and other friends in the Netherlands. To a delicate taste and generous independence of spirit, Jayme Enzinas added a tenderness of conscience and candor of disposition which exposed him to peculiar danger in Italy, at a time when the jealousy of the priests was roused by the recent discovery that the reformed tenets had spread extensively in that country.

After spending several years in great uneasiness of mind, without being able to procure liberty from his father to return, he resolved at last, in compliance with the urgent request of his brothers, to repair to Germany, and was preparing to quit Rome, when he was betrayed by one of his countrymen, who denounced him as a heretic to the Inquisition. The circumstance of a Spaniard being accused of Lutheranism, together with the character which he bore for learning, attracted much interest in Rome; and his examination was attended by the principal bishops and cardinals.

Undaunted by the solemnity of the court, he avowed his sentiments, and defended them with such spirit that his judges, irritated at his boldness, condemned him instantly to the flames; a sentence which was loudly called for by such of his countrymen as were present. Attempts were afterwards made to induce him to recant, by the offer of reconciliation to the church upon his appearing publicly with the san-benito, according to the custom of his native country. But he refused to purchase his life on such conditions, and died at the stake with the utmost constancy and courage. His martyrdom happened in the year 1546. f288 About the same time that Enzinas suffered, one of his countrymen and intimate friends met with a still more tragical fate in Germany. Juan Diaz, a native of Cuenca, after he had studied for several years at Paris, was converted to the protestant religion by the private instructions of Jayme Enzinas. Being liberally educated, he had, previously to that event, conceived a disgust at the scholastic theology, and made himself master of the Hebrew language, that he might study the Bible in the original. With the view of enjoying the freedom of professing the faith which he had embraced, he left Paris in company with Matthew Bude and John Crespin, and went to Geneva, where he resided for some time in the house of his countryman Pedro Gales. Having removed to Strasburg in the beginning of the year 1546, his talents and suavity of manners recommended him so strongly to the celebrated Bucer, that he prevailed on the senate to join the Spanish stranger with himself in a deputation which they were about to send to a conference on the disputed points of religion to be held at Ratisbon. On going thither Diaz met with his countryman Pedro Malvenda, whom he had known at Paris, and was now to confront as an antagonist at the conference. To the pride and religious prejudices of his countrymen, Malvenda added the rudeness of a doctor of the Sorbonne, and the insolence of a minion of the court. When informed by Diaz of the change which had taken place in his sentiments, he expressed the utmost surprise and horror; saying, that the heretics would boast more of making a convert of a single Spaniard than of ten thousand Germans. Having labored in vain, at different interviews, to reclaim him to the catholic faith, he laid the matter before the emperor’s confessor. It is not known what consultations they had; but a Spaniard, named Marquina, who had transactions with them, repaired soon after to Rome, and communicated the facts to a brother of Diaz, Doctor Alfonso, who had long held the office of advocate in the sacred Rota. The pride and bigotry of Alfonso were inflamed to the highest degree by the intelligence of his brother’s defection; and taking along with him a suspicious attendant, he set out instantly for Germany, determined, in one way or other, to wipe off the infamy which had fallen on the hitherto spotless honor of his family. In the mean time, alarmed at some expressions of Malvenda, and knowing the inveteracy with which the Spaniards hated such of their countrymen as had become protestants, Bucer and the other friends of Juan Diaz had prevailed upon him to retire for a season to Neuburg, a small town in Bavaria situated on the Danube. On arriving at Ratisbon, Alfonso succeeded in discovering the place of his brother’s retreat, and after consulting with Malvenda, repaired to Neuburg. By every art of persuasion he sought during several days to bring back his brother to the church of Rome.

Disappointed in this, he altered his method,—professed that the arguments which he had heard had shaken his confidence, and listened with apparent eagerness and satisfaction to his brother while he explained to him the protestant doctrines, and the passages of scripture on which they rested.

Finding Juan delighted with this unexpected change, he proposed that he should accompany him to Italy, where there was a greater field of usefulness in disseminating the doctrines of the gospel than in Germany, which was already provided with an abundance of laborers. The guileless Juan promised to think seriously on this proposal, which he submitted to the judgment of his protestant friends. They were unanimously of opinion that he should reject it; and in particular Ochino, who had lately fled from Italy and was then at Augsburg, pointed out the danger and hopeless nature of the project. Alfonso did not yet desist. He insisted that his brother should accompany him at least as far as Augsburg, promising to acquiesce in the decision which Ochino should pronounce after they had conversed with him on the subject. His request appeared so reasonable that Juan agreed to it; but he was prevented from going by the arrival of Bucer and two other friends, who, having finished their business at Ratisbon, and fearing that Juan Diaz might be induced to act contrary to their late advice, had agreed to pay him a visit. Concealing the chagrin which he felt at this unexpected obstacle, Alfonso took an affectionate leave of his brother, after he had, in a private interview, forced a sum of money upon him, expressed warm gratitude for the spiritual benefit he had received from his conversation, and warned him to be on his guard against Malvenda. He proceeded to Augsburg on the road to Italy; but next day, after using various precautions to conceal his route, he returned, along with the man whom he had brought from Rome, and spent the night in a village at a small distance from Neuburg. Early next morning, being the 27th of March 1546, they came to the house where his brother lodged. Alfonso stood at the gate, while his attendant, knocking at the door and announcing that he was the bearer of a letter to Juan Diaz from his brother, was shown up stairs to an apartment. On hearing of a letter from his brother, Juan sprang from his bed, hastened to the apartment in an undress, took the letter from the hand of the bearer, and as it was still dark, went to the window to read it, when the ruffian, stepping softly behind him, despatched his unsuspecting victim with one stroke of an axe which he had concealed under his cloak. He then joined the more guilty murderer, who now stood at the stair-foot to prevent interruption, and ready, if necessary, to give assistance to the assassin whom he had hired to execute his purpose. f292 Alarmed by the noise which the assassin’s spurs made on the steps as he descended, the person who slept with Juan Diaz rose hastily, and going into the adjoining apartment beheld, with unutterable feelings, his friend stretched on the floor and weltering in his blood, with his hands clasped, and the instrument of death fixed in his head. The murderers were fled, and had provided a relay of horses to convey them quickly out of Germany; but the pursuit after them, which commenced as soon as the alarm could be given, was so hot, that they were overtaken at Inspruck, and secured in prison. Otho Henry, count palatine of the Rhine and duke of Bavaria, within whose territories the crime was perpetrated, lost no time in taking the necessary measures for having it judicially tried. Lawyers were sent from Neuburg with the night-cap of the deceased, the bloody axe, the letter of Alfonso, and other documents; but though the prisoners were arraigned before the criminal court at Inspruck, the trial was suspended through the influence of the cardinals of Trent and Augsburg, to whom the fratricide obtained liberty to write at the beginning of his imprisonment. When his plea for the benefit of clergy was set aside as contrary to the laws of Germany, various legal quirks were resorted to; and, at last, the judges produced an order from the emperor, prohibiting them from proceeding with the trial, and reserving the cause for the judgment of his brother Ferdinand, king of the Romans. When the protestant princes, at the subsequent diet of Ratisbon, demanded, first of the emperor and afterwards of his brother, that the murderers should be punished, their requests were evaded; and, in the issue, the murderers were allowed to escape untried and with impunity, to the outraging of humanity and justice, and the disgrace of the church of Rome, whose authorities were bound to see that the most rigorous scrutiny was made into the horrid deed, under the pain of being held responsible for it to heaven and to posterity. The liberated fratricide appeared openly at Trent, along with his bloody accomplice, without exciting a shudder in the breasts of the holy fathers met in council; he was welcomed back to Rome; and finally returned to his native country, where he has admitted to the society of men of rank and education, who listened to him while he coolly related the circumstances of his sanctified crime. Different persons published accounts, agreeing in every material point, of a murder which, all circumstances considered, has scarcely a parallel in the annals of blood since the time of the first fratricide, and affords a striking proof of the degree in which fanatical zeal will stifle the tenderest affections of the human breast, and stimulate to the perpetration of crimes the most atrocious and unnatural. The narrative which I have followed was drawn up and published at the time by Claude Senarcle, a noble young Savoyard, who was strongly attached to Juan Diaz, had accompanied him from the time he left Paris, and slept in the same bed with him on the night before his murder. Its accuracy is confirmed by the attestation of Bucer, who was personally acquainted with many of the facts, as well as with the character of the author. But indeed so far were the Roman catholics from denying the facts, that many of them, and especially the countrymen of Diaz, justified and even applauded the deed. Juan Ginez de Sepulveda, who professes to have received the facts from the mouth of the terrible hero of the tragedy, has given an account of them so completely in accordance with Senarcle’s, that we might suppose he had abridged that work, in the way of substituting the atrocious moral of fanaticism for the touching sentiments of friendship, charity, and piety, which pervade the whole narrative of the protestant historian. It is humbling to think that Sepulveda was one of the most elegant prose writers who flourished at that time in Spain.

Francisco Enzinas continued, after his brother’s departure to Italy, to reside at Louvain. But though he lived on good terms with the professors of the university, he found his situation becoming daily more irksome and painful. Among the learned protestants in the neighborhood with whom he carried on a confidential correspondence were Albert Hardenberg, preacher to the Cistercian monastery of Adwert, which, since the days of John Wessel, the Dutch Wicliffe, had resembled an academy more than a convent; and the celebrated Polish nobleman, John a Lasco, who had left his native country from attachment to the reformed faith, and was eminently successful in diffusing the knowledge of the truth in East Friesland. It would appear that the parents of Enzinas had intended him for the army, to which he was now decidedly averse. In a letter to A Lasco, accompanying the present of an ancient and richly-mounted sword, which he had received from a nobleman, he says: “All the world will, I know, be in arms against me on account of the resolution which, in opposition to the advice of some worthy men, I have now formed to devote myself to literary pursuits. But I will not suffer myself, from respect to the favor of men, to hold the truth in unrighteous-ness, or to treat unbecomingly those gifts which God in his free mercy has been pleased to confer on me, unworthy as I am. On the contrary, it shall be my endeavor, according to my ability, to propagate divine truth. That I may do this by the grace of God, I find that it will be necessary for me, in the first place, to fly from the Babylonian captivity, and to retire to a place in which I shall be at liberty to cultivate undefiled religion and true Christianity, along with liberal studies.

It is therefore my purpose to repair to Wittenberg, because that city contains an abundance of learned professors in all the sciences, and I entertain so high an esteem for the learning, judgment, and dexterity in teaching possessed by Philip Melanchthon in particular, that I would go to the end of the world to enjoy the company and instructions of such men. I therefore earnestly beg that, as your name has great weight, you will have the goodness to favor me with letters of introduction to Luther, Philip, and other learned men in that city. He accordingly paid a visit to Wittenberg, where he was warmly received by all, and especially by the individual for whom he had expressed so high a veneration. But he returned to the Low Countries, probably by the advice of Melanchthon, to labor in a work which promised to be of the greatest benefit to his native country. This was the translation of the New Testament into the Spanish language.

Though Spain was the only nation which at that time did not possess the scriptures in the vulgar language, it had not always labored under that deficiency. In the year 1233, Juan I. of Aragon, by a public edict, prohibited the use of any part of the Old or New Testament in the vernacular tongue, and commanded all, whether laity or clergy, who possessed such books, to deliver them to their ordinaries to be burnt, on the pain of being held suspected of heresy. On the other hand, Alfonso X. of Castile caused the sacred scriptures to be translated into Castilian, with the view of improving the native language of his people; and a copy of that translation, executed in the year 1260, is still preserved in manuscript. Other ancient versions of the scriptures into the Limosin, or Catanolian, and Castilian dialects, are still to be seen, in whole or in part, among the manuscripts in the public libraries of Spain and France. f303 Bonifacio Ferrer, brother of St. Vincente Ferrer, and prior of the Carthusian monastery of Portaceli in Valencia, who died in the year 1417, translated the whole scriptures into the Valencian or Catalonian dialect of Spain. His translation was printed at Valencia in the year 1478, at the expense of Philip Vizlant, a merchant of Isny in Germany, by Alfonso Fernandez, a Spaniard of Cordova, and Lambert Philomar, a German. But, although it was the production of a catholic author, and underwent the examination and correction of the inquisitor James Borrell, it had scarcely made its appearance when it was suppressed by the Inquisition, who ordered the whole impression to be devoured by the flames. So strictly was this order carried into execution, that scarcely a single copy appears to have escaped. Long after the era of the Reformation, it was taken for granted by all true Spaniards, that their language had never been made the unhallowed instrument of exposing the Bible to vulgar eyes; and with the exception of two incidental allusions, the translation of Ferrer remained unnoticed for nearly two hundred years after its publication. At length, in 1645, the last four leaves of a copy of this edition were discovered in the library belonging to the monastery of Portaceli. The number was reduced within a short time to one leaf; but happily this contained the imprint, or final epigraph, indicating the names of the translator and printers, together with the place and year of the impression. According to some authors, the version of Ferrar underwent, about the year 1515, a second impression, which shared the same fate as its predecessor; but of this statement the evidence is less complete and satisfactory. f307 Apparently ignorant that his native country had once possessed such a treasure, and anxious that they should be supplied with it, Francisco de Enzinas undertook a translation of the New Testament into the Castilian tongue. Having finished his task, he submitted the work to the judgment of the divines of Louvain. They allowed that there was no law of the state prohibiting the printing of translations of the scriptures, but expressed their fears that such works would lead to the spread of heresy and disturbance of the peace of the church, and excused themselves from either sanctioning or censuring the undertaking, on the ground of their ignorance of the Spanish tongue. The private friends of the translator, who were acquainted with both languages, gave it as their opinion, after examining the work that it would be a great honor as well as benefit to Spain. It was accordingly printed at Antwerp in the year 1543, under the title of “The New Testament, that is, the New Covenant of our only Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ, translated from Greek into the Castilian language.” The purblind monks, to whom it was submitted before publication, could not proceed farther than the title-page. One of them, whose pretensions to learning were not the least among those of his order, smelled Lutheranism in “the new covenant.” The leaf was cancelled, and the suspicious phrase struck out. He next pointed out the palpable heresy in the expression “our only Redeemer.” Recourse was again had to the operation of cancelling, and the obnoxious particle expelled. But his success in discovery only served to quicken the censorial organ of the monk; so that the author, despairing to see an end of the process, gave directions for putting the work into the hands of the booksellers. f309 The emperor having soon after arrived at Brussels, the author presented a copy of the work to him, and requested his permission to circulate it among his countrymen. Charles received it graciously, and promising his patronage, if it were found to contain nothing contrary to the faith, gave it to his confessor Pedro de Soto to examine. After various delays, Enzinas, having waited on the confessor, was upbraided by him as an enemy to religion, who had tarnished the honor of his native country; and refusing to acknowledge a fault, was seized by the officers of justice and thrown into prison. Besides the crime of translating the scriptures, he was charged with having made a translation of a work of Luther, and visiting Melanchthon. To add to his distress, his father and uncles, hearing of his imprisonment, paid him a visit, and participating in the common prejudices of their countrymen, reproached him for bringing calamity on himself, and dishonor on his kindred. He continued however to possess his soul in patience, employed his time in translating the Psalms, and received many marks of sympathy from the citizens of Brussels, of whom he knew far more than four hundred warmly attached to the protestant faith. After a confinement of fifteen months, he one day found his prison doors open, and walking out without the slightest opposition, escaped from Brussels and arrived safely at Wittenberg; an escape the more remarkable that a hot persecution raged at that time throughout the Netherlands, and the portraits of the protestant preachers, accompanied with the offer of a reward for their apprehension, were to be seen affixed to the gates of all the principal cities. The following extract shows the steps taken against him after his flight. “The inquisitors in Belgium have summoned my guest, the wise, upright and pious Spaniard, in his absence; and from the day fixed for his appearance, we conclude that sentence has already been pronounced against him. He sets out for your town to ascertain the fact, and to learn if there are any letters for him from that quarter. I have given him a letter to you, both that I may acquaint you with the cause of his journey, and because I know you feel for the calamities of all good men. He evinces great fortitude, though he evidently sees that his return to his parents and native country is now cut off. The thought of the anguish which this will give to his parents distresses him. These inquisitors are as cruel to us as the thirty tyrants were of old to their fellow-citizens at Athens; but God will preserve the remnant of his church, and provide an asylum for the truth somewhere.” In another letter, written in the year 1546, the same individual says, “Franciscus the Spaniard has resolved to go to Italy, that he may assuage the grief of his mother.” Whether he accomplished that journey or not, is uncertain; but in 1548 he went to England, on which occasion he was warmly recommended by Melanchthon to Edward VI. and archbishop Cranmer, as a person of excellent endowments and learning, averse to all fanatical and seditious tenets, and distinguished by his piety and grave manners. He obtained a situation at Oxford; but returning soon after to the continent, he resided sometimes at Strasburg and sometimes at Basle, where he spent his time in literary pursuits, and in the society of the wise and good. f316 In the same year in which the New Testament of Enzinas came from the press, a Spanish translation of the seven penitential Psalms, the Song of Solomon, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, was printed at Antwerp by Ferdinand Jarava, who, three years before, had printed the Book of Job, and the Psalms for the office of the dead, in the same language and at the same place. There exists also a copy of a Spanish psalter in Gothic letter, without date, but apparently ancient. f317 The Jews appear to have early had translations of the Old Testament, or parts of it, in Spanish. In 1497, only five years after their expulsion from the peninsula, they printed the Pentateuch in that language at Venice. In 1547 this work was printed at Constantinople in Hebrew characters, and in 1552 it was reprinted at the same place in Roman characters. In they printed at Ferrara two editions of the Old Testament in Spanish; the one edited by Abraham Usque, and the other by Duarte Pinel.

Bibliographers have generally held that the first of these was intended for the use of Jews, and the last for the use of Christians; an opinion which does not seem to rest on good grounds. f320 At the time that Egidius was thrown into prison, several of his religious friends became alarmed for their safety, and took refuge in Germany and Switzerland. Among these were Juan Perez, Cassiodoro de Reyna, and Cypriano de Valera, who were industriously employed during their exile, in providing the means of religious instruction for their countrymen. Juan Perez was born at Montilla, a town of Andalusia. He was sent to Rome in 1527, as charge d’affaires of Charles V., and procured from the pope a suspension of the decree by which the Spanish divines had condemned the writings of Erasmus. Subsequently he was placed at the head of the College of Doctrine, an endowed school at Seville, where he contracted an intimacy with Egidius and other favorers of the reformed opinions. He received the degree of doctor of divinity in his native country; and his talents and probity secured him a high place in the esteem of the foreigners among whom he resided, first at Geneva and afterwards in France. The works which he composed in his native tongue were of the most valuable kind. His version of the New Testament came from the press in 1556; f323 his version of the Book of Psalms followed in the course of the subsequent year; and his Catechism, and Summary of Christian doctrine, appeared about the same time. They were all printed at Venice. Besides these, he published in Spanish several of the works of his countryman Juan Valdez. Being called from Geneva, and having officiated as a preacher at Blois, and as chaplain to Renee, duchess of Ferrara, in the castle of Montargis, he died of the stone at Paris, after he had bequeathed all his fortune to the printing of the Bible in his native tongue. The task which he left unfinished was continued by Cassiodoro de Reyna, who, after ten years’ labor, produced a translation of the whole Bible, which was printed in 1569 at Basle. It was revised and corrected by Cypriano de Valera, who published the New Testament in 1596 at London, and both Testaments in 1602 at Amsterdam. It is no slight proof of the zeal with which the Spanish protestants sought to disseminate the scriptures among their countrymen, that Juan Lizzarago published, in 1571, a translation of the New Testament in Basque, or the language of Biscay, which differs widely from the other dialects spoken in the Peninsula. The versions of the three writers last mentioned did not appear until the Reformation was suppressed in Spain; but they were of great utility to many individuals, and the reprinting of De Valera’s translation at a recent period was the means of provoking the Spanish clergy to make the dangerous experiment of translating the scriptures into their native tongue. f331 All these versions were accompanied with vindications of the practice of translating the scriptures into vernacular languages, and the right of the people to read them. This formed one of the points most warmly contested between the Romanists and reformers. The Spanish divines distinguished themselves by their intemperate support of the illiberal side of the question; and the determination of Alfonso de Castro, “that the translation of the scriptures into the vernacular tongues, with the reading of them by the vulgar, is the true fountain of all heresies,” continued long to be the standard of orthodoxy in Spain. There was, however, one honorable exception. Frederico Furio, a learned native of Valencia, defended the cause of biblical translation intrepidly and ably, first, in an academical dispute with John de Bononima, rector of the university of Louvain, and afterwards from the press. This raised against him a host of enemies, and his book was strictly prohibited; but he was protected by Charles V., and what is singular, continued during life about the person of Philip II., that most determined patron of ignorance and the Inquisition. f336 The versions of the scriptures by which the Reformation was promoted in Spain, were those of Enzinas and Perez. In spite of the suppression of the former in the Low Countries, copies of it were conveyed to the Peninsula.

Accordingly pope Julius III. states in a bill addressed to the inquisitors in 1550, that he was informed that there were in the possession of booksellers and private persons a great number of heretical books, including Spanish Bibles, marked in the catalogue of prohibited books which the university of Louvain, at the desire of the emperor, had drawn up in the preceding year.