PROTESTANTISM - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

examined and authorized its publication; its success was immediate, and it was universally read. From
the standpoint of scholastic theology, however, it was too vulnerable not to invite attack from the
religious Orders. The pulpits, which they virtually monopolized, resounded with their denunciations
until Manrique felt obliged to interfere. Many prominent frailes were summoned before the Suprema
and sharply reproved for exciting the people against Erasmus, in defiance of repeated edicts; if they
found errors in the book, they should denounce them to the Inquisition. The challenge was promptly
accepted and, with the assistance of the English Ambassador, Edward Lee, subsequently Archbishop of
York, a list of twenty-one articles was drawn up, ranging from Arianism to irreverence towards the
Virgin and the denial of various essentials of sacerdotalism. These were submitted to an assembly of
twenty theologians and nine frailes, who disputed for a month over the first two articles; the debate
promised to be interminable, and Manrique suspended it, at the same time issuing an absolute
prohibition to write against Erasmus. As we have seen, however, he fell into disgrace in 1529 and was
relegated to his see of Seville; Charles left Spain the same year, carrying with him some of the most
powerful protectors of the Erasmists, and the inquisitors, who were largely [415] frailes, were eager to
detect the heresy latent in the latitude of speech which had become common among those who prided
themselves on culture. (5)
A typical case of this kind is that of Diego de Uceda, to which allusion has already been made on other
accounts (supra, p. 68). He was an hidalgo of Córdova of unblemished Old Christian stock. Although a
courtier, he was studious and deeply religious, even entertaining thoughts of entering the Geronimite
Order. Greatly admiring Erasmus, the failure of the effort to condemn him by the Inquisition gave
assurance that his works were approved, and Diego earned some reproof by constantly quoting his
opinions and endeavoring to impress them on others. In February, 1528, he was journeying from
Burgos to Córdova and, one evening at Corezo, he fell into discussion with a man named Rodrigo
Duran who, with his servant, Juan de Avella, was on his way to Seville to embark for the West Indies.
The talk fell upon confession and then upon images, in which Diego quoted the views of Erasmus; then
upon miracles, when he expressed disbelief in a story of a Christian slave in Africa who prayed for
deliverance to Our Lady of Guadalupe; his master overheard him, placed him in a chest, made his own
bed on top and slept there, with the result that next morning the chest was in Guadalupe with the master
inside and the Christian on top. Something also was said about Luther, whose name got mixed up with
that of Erasmus. Duran, on reaching Toledo, denounced Diego to the tribunal, his serving-man
furnishing the necessary conteste, and went on his way to the Indies. Diego was tracked to Córdova and
was sent back as a prisoner to Toledo, where he vainly protested his orthodoxy and offered submission
to the Church, although his frequent allusions to Erasmus probably did his case no good. He proved by
witnesses that he habitually confessed four times a year, that he took all indulgences and that he was a
man of blameless life and strong religious convictions, but it was all in vain. I have already shown how
he was tortured, confessed and then revoked, and how he was condemned to a humiliating penance,
July 22, 1529, ruining his career and leaving an indelible stain on a family that had boasted of its
limpieza. (6)
[416] The danger impending over Erasmists is still more forcibly illustrated by the case of one who was
regarded as perhaps the foremost among them in Spain. No man stood higher for learning and culture
than Doctor Juan de Vergara. He had been secretary of Ximenes as Archbishop of Toledo, and
subsequently to Fonseca, who succeeded to the primatial dignity in 1524. Ximenes had made him
professor of Philosophy at Alcalá, where he translated the Wisdom of Solomon for the Complutensian
Polyglot, and the treatises de Anima, de Physica and de Metaphysica for the projected edition of
Aristotle. He was an elegant Latin poet, and Menéndez y Pelayo tells us that he was the father of
historical criticism. He was regarded with favor by Manrique and was a warm defender of Erasmus in