PROTESTANTISM - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

That the government should feel keen anxiety at the unknown proportions of the portentous discovery
was natural. Charles V was nearing his end in the retirement of Yuste, and Philip was [433] in Flanders,
engrossed in the war with France. His sister, the Infanta Juana, the temporary ruler, was a woman of
very moderate capacity and she and her advisers, in view of the religious disquiet in France and
Germany, might reasonably view with dread the prospect of civil dissension which in that age was the
usual result of dissidence in faith. The outbreak in Seville had not excited much attention, but now this
one at the court, involving such personages, portended unknown evils and came just in time to save
Valdés from disgrace, as we have seen above (Vol. II, p. 47). On March 23, 1558 the Princess Juana
had written to her father that when he had ordered the body of his mother Juana to be transferred to
Granada, she had commanded Valdés to accompany it and then to visit his diocese of Seville; he had
endeavored to excuse himself at the moment but promised to arrange so as to obey shortly. Then, when
urged to do so some days later he raised further difficulties; it made no difference whether the body was
buried then or in September; everybody was endeavoring to drive him away; troubles with his chapter
required his presence at the court or in Rome; besides, he was occupied with some heresies which had
arisen in Seville and in Murcia, and was busy in endeavoring to get a subsidy from the Moriscos of
Granada. Evidently he was belittling the Seville heresies, lest they should serve as an excuse for
sending him thither and, when Juana referred his letter to the Council of State, it insisted that he could
be properly obliged to reside in his diocese. (43)
It can therefore be easily conceived how eagerly he grasped the opportune explosion in Valladolid and
how it was magnified so as to produce on the court a vastly greater impression than the more dangerous
one in Seville. In a letter of May 12th to Philip, the Suprema briefly announced the discovery; the
heretics were so numerous and the time had been so short that it could give no details, but it
suggestively insisted on the necessity of the presence of Valdés to urge the matter forward and it hoped
that, with the royal favor, action would be taken for the salvation of the delinquents and the example
and restraint of others. (44) As we have [434] seen this produced immediate effect, for Philip, who had
written June 5th that he must be relegated to his see, on the 14th countermanded the order. Charles had
already been induced to take the same position. As early as April 27th, Juan Vázquez reported to him
the arrest of Dr. Cazalla and the alarming outlook, adding that the remedy should be speedy and that the
inquisitor-general and Suprema were actively at work. (45) Charles was thoroughly aroused. He had
spent his strength and his life in combating heresy; it had baffled his policies and frustrated his
ambitions; it had been a thorn in the flesh, rankling and crippling him at every turn. It had fairly worn
him out and driven him to abdication, and now its spectre broke in upon the repose for which his
wearied soul and exhausted body had longed. He was appalled by the prospect of a renewal of the
struggle, in the only land as yet preserved from its influence, and his religious zeal was enkindled with
the conviction that only by the enforcement of unity of faith could public order and even the monarchy
itself be maintained.
Accordingly, on May 3 d , he wrote to Juana asking her most earnestly to order that Valdés should not
leave the court, where his presence was so necessary. She must give him and the Suprema all the
support requisite to enable them to suppress so great an evil by the rigorous punishment of the guilty.
Had he the bodily strength, he would himself come and share the labor. Juana sent for Valdés and
showed him the letter, which assured him that he had regained his position, and the work went on of
arresting the heretics, reports of which were duly sent to Charles. The more he pondered over the
situation, the more excited he grew. On May 25th, in a long letter to Juana, he magnified the danger
and the urgency of stern measures. "I do not know," he said,'' that in these cases it will suffice to follow
the common law that the guilty of a first offence can secure pardon by begging mercy and professing