Constantino de la Fuente (San Clemente, 1502–Seville, 1560): From acclaimed cathedral preacher to condemned "Lutheran" heretic [1 ed.] 9783666565021, 9783525565025

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Frances Luttikhuizen

Constantino de la Fuente (San Clemente, 1502 — ­ Seville, 1560) From acclaimed cathedral preacher to condemned “Lutheran” heretic

Academic Studies

88

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Refo500 Academic Studies Edited by Herman J. Selderhuis In co-operation with Christopher B. Brown (Boston), Günter Frank (Bretten), Barbara Mahlmann-Bauer (Bern), Tarald Rasmussen (Oslo), Violet Soen (Leuven), Zsombor Tóth (Budapest), Günther Wassilowsky (Frankfurt), Siegrid Westphal (Osnabrück).

Volume 88

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Frances Luttikhuizen

Constantino de la Fuente (San Clemente, 1502 – Seville, 1560) From acclaimed cathedral preacher to condemned “Lutheran” heretic

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

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Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data available online: https://dnb.de. © 2022 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Theaterstraße 13, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, an imprint of the Brill-Group (Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands; Brill USA Inc., Boston MA, USA; Brill Asia Pte Ltd, Singapore; Brill Deutschland GmbH, Paderborn, Germany; Brill Österreich GmbH, Vienna, Austria) Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Hotei, Brill Schöningh, Brill Fink, Brill mentis, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Böhlau, V&R unipress.

All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Cover design: SchwabScantechnik, Göttingen Typesetting: le-tex publishing services, Leipzig

Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Verlage | www.vandenhoeck-ruprecht-verlage.com ISSN 2197–0165 ISBN 978–3–666–56502–1

Contents

Foreword..............................................................................................

7

Acknowledgements...............................................................................

9

Constantino de la Fuente (ca. 1502–1560). From acclaimed cathedral preacher to condemned “Lutheran” heretic............................. 1. Introduction ................................................................................. 2. Biographical Sketch ....................................................................... 2.1 Family background ................................................................ 2.2 Education ............................................................................ 2.3 Preaching Career ................................................................... 2.4 His European Tour ................................................................ 2.5 Portuguese Connections......................................................... 2.6 Back in Seville ....................................................................... 2.7 His Journey to England ......................................................... 2.8 His Post as Canon Preacher .................................................... 2.9 Growing Opposition ............................................................. 2.10 Constantino’s Library ............................................................. 2.11 His Clandestine Library.......................................................... 2.12 Imprisonment and Death ....................................................... 2.13 His Name Defamed ............................................................... 3. Published Works ........................................................................... 3.1 Editions................................................................................ 3.2 Readership and Reprints......................................................... 3.3 Unpublished Work................................................................. 3.4 Translations .......................................................................... 4. Constantino’s Theology .................................................................. 5. General Bibliography and Further Reading.......................................

11 11 14 14 18 27 33 40 43 50 53 57 60 66 68 81 83 84 86 102 105 107 118

Appendix A—Confiscated books collected by the Inquisition in Seville (Undated, but presumably 1563) ................................................ 139 Appendix B—An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons by Doctor Constantino de la Fuente (Printer’s device) CON PRIVILEGIO/1546 ......... 159 General Index ....................................................................................... 287

Foreword

One of the fascinating aspects of the religious changes in 16thC Europe is their apparent failure to take root in Mediterranean countries such as Spain. In reality, as diligent researchers have pointed out, there was no “failure”. In that generation, many educated people, among them Spaniards, were sympathetic to the early principles of the Reformation. At the Imperial Diet of 1521, when Luther had to defend himself publicly, one of the Spaniards who was present, the humanist Juan de Vergara, reported: “everybody, especially the Spaniards, went to see him.” “At the beginning everybody agreed with him,” Vergara went on, “and even those who now write against him confess that at the beginning they were in favour of him.” The new trends were not of course “Lutheran”, even though the Inquisition in Spain found it convenient to pin that label on those who were seen to be dissenters. As in other countries, the Reformation released a chaos of ideas. There had also been other trends in Spain, such as the “illuminist” groups in Castile that the Inquisition suspected of heresy, and the impressive influence of Erasmian humanism among some intellectuals. Contact with Europe further promoted the spread of ideas, and the first Spaniards to come into contact with Erasmian teachings were those who accompanied the emperor to Germany. Among the Spaniards were clergy whom Charles V had chosen as court preachers, but who attracted the suspicion of the inquisitors. One such preacher was Alonso de Virués; another, a few years after him, was Constantino de la Fuente. The present study touches on the history of some of these Spaniards who shared the new trends and participated in the complex world of spiritual thinking in Reformation Europe. Constantino de la Fuente was during his lifetime never formally denounced for his ideas, though he ended his days unhappily, in the cells of the Inquisition. The campaign denouncing him as a heretic began only after his death. Frances Luttikhuizen offers a reassessment presenting him not as a Protestant who sought to break with the Church, but as an “evangelical” who used the strategy of inward dissent (“Nicodemism”) to give expression to his spiritual views. A lonely man in his life and career, Constantino has remained almost unknown to posterity, unlike the Jeronimite friars from Seville who fled from Spain and its Inquisition and took an active part in the changes of the European Reform movement. This study helps bring to life an almost forgotten Spaniard who played an active part in the new role that his country was playing in the affairs of Europe. Henry Kamen Barcelona, Spain 10 March 2022

Acknowledgements

It is impossible to remember, and much less credit, all the people I am indebted to for this study of Constantino’s life and work. I must begin by thanking Rady Roldan-Figueroa for inviting me to participate on a panel he organized at the Renaissance Society of America conference held in Venice in 2010. I would like to thank the American professor who introduced himself to me after my talk as a specialist in the Spanish Golden Age but had never heard of an evangelical movement or persecution of protestants in sixteenth century Spain. Next my gratitude goes to Peter Lillback, who overheard the conversation, and turned to me and said, “Write a book. The English-speaking world needs to be better informed.” This was a real challenge. Although I had attended the conferences organized by Emilio Monjo in Seville on the activities of the Inquisition in sixteenth century Spain, and he had named me international coordinator of CIMPE (Centro de Investigación y Memoria del Protestantismo Español), my academic background was applied linguistics and history of translation. Despite this, I found the need to put into the hands of English-speaking readers material regarding the arrival and suppression of Reformation ideas and practices in what many people considered a solid Catholic country too great to be disregarded. The outcome was the publication of Underground Protestantism in Sixteenth Century Spain, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2016. Constantino de la Fuente (ca. 1502–1560). From acclaimed cathedral preacher to condemned ”Lutheran” heretic, provides the English-speaking reader with another piece of Spanish history regarding dissident activity suppressed by the Inquisition. The reader will find the appended translation into English of Constantino’s sermons on Psalm 1, together with the list of confiscated books, helpful for further study. For the publication of this volume, I again wish to thank Herman Selderhuis for his willingness to include my work in his Refo500 Academic Studies series, as well as the staff at Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, and especially editor Izaak de Hulster. I wish to extend a special thanks to Henry Kamen for so generously taking time out to write the Foreword. Last but not least, I must thank Juan Sanchez-Naffziger for allowing me to include his translation of Constantino’s sermons in this volume. In sum, I wish to express my deepest gratitude to all of those who made this volume possible.

Constantino de la Fuente (ca. 1502–1560). From acclaimed cathedral preacher to condemned “Lutheran” heretic

1.

Introduction

Whereas the lives and works of those evangelical-minded men who fled Spain in the mid sixteenth century to avoid being imprisoned by the Inquisition are fairly well known, the lives and works of those who remained and were victims of the institution are less familiar. This volume is an endeavour to rescue from oblivion the memory of Constantino de la Fuente, one of the most accomplished and acclaimed sixteenth century Spanish cathedral preachers, condemned by the Spanish Inquisition as a Lutheran heretic. The earliest information concerning Constantino de la Fuente is found in Sanctae Inquisitionis hispanicae artes aliquot detecte (1567), referred to hereafter as The Arts,1 a first-hand account of the activities of the Spanish Inquisition with brief biographical sketches of several of the most prominent members of the sixteenth century underground evangelical movement in Seville. The book was immediately translated into English, French and Dutch, but soon forgotten.2 Several hundred years later the Scottish preacher-historian Thomas M’Crie found a copy of The Arts in French, as well as a French translation of one of Constantino’s works in Jean Crespin’s 1608 edition of Histoire des Martyrs. Being a dissenter himself, M’Crie was especially interested in persecuted minorities. His History of the progress and suppression of the Reformation in Spain in the XVI century (Edinburgh, 1829) became the standard text in English-speaking Protestant circles regarding the Spanish scene until the American historian Henry Charles Lea produced his four-volume seminal work History of the Inquisition in Spain (1906–07). The general public became aware of the activities of the Spanish Inquisition and its ban on things Protestant through the work of Juan Antonio Llorente, ex-secretary

1 Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus: The Arts of the Spanish Inquisition: a critical edition of the Sanctae inquisitionis Hispanicae artes aliquot (1567) with a modern English translation, Marcos J. Herráiz Pareja, Ignacio J. García Pinilla and Jonathan L. Nelson (eds, trans), Leiden: Brill, 2019. 2 Excerpts from The Arts appeared in several re-editions of John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments as well as in Michael Geddes’s Spanish Protestant Martyrology (1705), Philipp von Limborch’s The History of the Inquisition (1731), Johann Lorenz Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History (1782), Joseph Lavallée’s Histoire des inquisitions religieuses d’Italie, d’Espagne et de Portugal (1809) and John Joseph Stockdale’s The History of the Inquisitions [1810].

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of the Inquisition exiled in France. Llorente, who had direct access to authentic Spanish documents, published his work in Paris, and in French, when he went into exile.3 His work was immediately translated into Dutch, German, Spanish and English.4 At about the same time some 30 crates of documents recovered by Andrew Thorndike when the Inquisition palace in Barcelona was stormed by the angry mobs in 1820 were sent to Boston. Several of these documents were translated into English and printed in 1828 under the title Records of the Spanish Inquisition.5 Following Thomas M’Crie’s History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain (1829), John Stoughton published Spanish reformers, their Memories and Dwelling-Places (London, 1883), basically a “romanticized” travelbook rewrite of the information found in The Arts and in Llorente’s work. By mid-nineteenth century researchers were beginning to have access to the National Historical Archives (ANH) in Simancas and more information became available thanks to the tireless efforts of Luis Usoz y Río and Ernst H.J. Schäfer.6 Ernst H.J. Schäfer’s three-volume Beiträge (Gütersloh, 1902),7 in which he transcribed into German hundreds of trial documents found in the archives in Simancas, became source material for the American historian Henry Ch. Lea’s four-volume seminal work History of the Inquisition in Spain (New York, 1906–07). Though all of the above-mentioned works add to our knowledge of the doings of the Spanish Inquisition, information regarding Constantino de la Fuente did not go

3 Juan Antonio Llorente, Histoire critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne, depuis l’epoque de son établissement par Fedinand V, jusqu’ au régine de Ferdinand VII, tirée des pieces originales des archives du Conseil de la Supreme, et de celles des tribunaux subalternes du Saint-office [1817–1818]. 4 Juan Antonio Llorente, A Critical History of the Inquisition of Spain: From the Period of Its Establishment by Ferdinand V to the Reign of Ferdinand VII [1827]; The History of the Inquisition of Spain: From the Time of Its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII. Composed from the Original Documents of the Archives of the Supreme Council, and from Those of Subordinate Tribunals of the Holy Office. Abridged and Translated from the Original Works of D. Jean Antoine Llorente. [London, 1826; Philadelphia, 1843, 1845]. References to Llorente’s work are taken from the 1843 Philadelphia edition. 5 See Frances Luttikhuizen, “La noticia de l’asalt al palau de la Inquisició de Barcelona arriba a Boston” [2020: 63–76]. A 2015 reprint of Records of the Spanish Inquisition by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform erroneously attributed the authorship of these documents to the American historian and educator Andrew Dickson White. This error has been perpetuated and must be corrected. 6 Luis Usoz y Río and B.B. Wiffen, eds., Reformistas antiguos españoles, 20 vols, 1847–1865, reprint, Barcelona 1982–83; Eduard Boehmer, Bibliotheca Wiffeniana. Spanish Reformers of two Centuries from 1520: their Lives and Writings, 3 vols, 1874–1904, reprint, Pamplona 2007; Ernst H.J. Schäfer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des spanischen Protestantismus und der Inquisition im sechzehnten Jahrhundert, 3 vols, Gütersloh, 1902, tran. Francisco Ruiz de Pablos as Protestantismo Español e Inquisición en el Siglo XVI, 4 vols, Seville 2014. 7 There now exists a Spanish translation by Francisco Ruiz de Pablos: Ernst H.J. Schafer, Protestantismo Español e Inquisicion en el Siglo XVI [2014]. References to Schäfer’s work are taken from Ruiz de Pablos’s Spanish edition unless otherwise indicated.

Introduction

beyond that already found in Montes’s The Arts until fairly recently. Current Historical Memory Studies have renewed interest in the activities of the Spanish Inquisition and its efforts to suppress all forms of unorthodoxy. Essential for the present survey are the contributions of María Paz Aspe Ansa, Michel Boeglin, Ignacio J. Garcia Pinilla, Stafford Poole, Klaus Wagner and Tomás López Muñoz. The corpus of authentic documents—reports, instructions, edicts, sentences, correspondence between the inquisitors in Seville and the Supreme Council, etc.—published by López Muñoz8 has been most helpful in clarifying, contrasting and substantiating information regarding Constantino and his imprisonment. Indeed, documents that at the time were used as instruments of tyranny, now, in the hands of investigators, have become witnesses of the tyranny that created them. If Juan Antonio Llorente, Andrew Thorndike and Tomás López Muñoz are credited for rescuing many original Inquisition trial records, Luis Usoz y Río must be credited for rescuing the writings of many of the forgotten sixteenth century Spanish Reformers. Usoz y Río’s interest in Inquisition documents and the Spanish Reformers goes back to his stay in London (1839–1841) and his acquaintance with a group of Quakers. While in England, he acquired a copy of M’Crie’s History, which included an extract from Constantino’s Confession of a Sinner, translated into English from the French version found in Jean Crespin’s Histoire des Martyrs (1608). On his return to Madrid, Usoz spent many hours in Simancas paging through the archives and the Index of Prohibited Books where he found much of the information that became the groundwork of his 20-volume series of Reformistas Antiguos Españoles.9 Following Usoz’s death in 1865, Eduard Boehmer continued the task in Germany, where he compiled what became the three-volume Bibliotheca Wiffeniana,10 a detailed catalogue of all the editions Usoz had found up until then of the writings of the Spanish Reformers, together with his notes and a brief biography of each writer. To Usoz’s collection, Boehmer added Juan de Valdés’s El Salterio [1550] (Bonn: C. Georgi, 1880) and Trataditos [1545] (Bonn, C. Georgi, 1880).11

8 Tomás López Muñoz, La Reforma en la Sevilla del siglo XVI [2011: II]. The English translations of these documents are mine except otherwise indicated. 9 See Frances Luttikhuizen, Underground Protestantism, [2016] Appendix C. 10 Eduard Boehmer, Biblioteca Wiffeniana. Spanish Reformers of two Centuries from 1520 [2007]. For a detailed description of Constantino de la Fuente’s works, see Boehmer, Bibliotheca … [2007: II, 30–40]. 11 Boehmer would continue to publish more works by Juan de Valdés with English translations by John T. Betts and his wife Mary.

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2.

Biographical Sketch

Specific bibliographical data concerning Constantino de la Fuente is scanty. To begin with, we must also point out a misconception regarding the family name. The name Ponce de la Fuente, by which he is often referred to, is not correct. A recent study by Michel Boeglin clarifies the error.12 Neither Eduard Boehmer, in his meticulous biography of Constantino, nor Ernst Schäfer in his documented work of those accused of Lutheranism in Castile, noticed this blunder. This introductory essay, and the appended sample of one of Constantino’s writings, is an endeavour to bring to light the life and wealth of acquaintances and experiences this forgotten Spanish cathedral preacher met with, and at the same time to right certain wrongs attributed to him. The biographical section includes his family background and education, his career as preacher, his library and his conflict with the Inquisition. In a separate section we deal at length with his published works. 2.1

Family background

Constantino de la Fuente was born in San Clemente, in the province of Cuenca. The exact date of his birth is uncertain because no baptismal records remain from before 1584. That year the records, that until then had been kept in the vicar’s house, were destroyed by a flood. Traditionally, 1502 has been accepted as his year of birth, though 1505 could also be a likely date. Constantino was the son of Pedro de la Fuente; his mother was a Zapata, a family that originated from El Provencia, a village some 15 km to the west of San Clemente.13 Pedro de la Fuente, had arrived in San Clemente from Fuente el Carnero in the province of Zamora at the turn of the sixteenth century. The move from Fuente el Carnero to San Clemente may have been due to a combination of both demographic and political motives. Originally the Ruta de la Plata, the

12 In 1568, in the French rendering of The Artes by Jacques Bienvenu referred to Constantino as “Fontius”. In 1582, Simon Goulart, the editor of Jean Crespin’s Histoire des Martyrs, changed it to Fonce. Later, Louis Mayeul Chaudon, in his Nouveau dictionnaire historique (1766), inserted the double patronymic: Fontius Pontius (Ponce de la Fuente). Half a century later, Juan Antonio Llorente in Histoire critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne (1817) repeated the double patronymic, fixing it for another two centuries. See Michel Boeglin, ‘Irenismo y herejía a mediados del siglo XVI en Castilla. El caso de Constantino de la Fuente’, in Ignacio Javier García Pinilla (ed), Disidencia religiosa en Castilla la Nueva en el siglo XVI [2013, 223–249]. 13 According to oral tradition, at the end of the 15th century Alonso Sánchez de Calatayud, VI lord of El Provencio, arrived in San Clemente accompanied by a servant named Teresa Zapata who married Fernán Martínez, another of his servants. The couple settled in San Clemente. See Ignacio de la Rosa Ferrer, “Hidalgos de la Villa de San Clemente” [2018].

Biographical Sketch

route that connected Salamanca with Zamora, ran through Fuente el Carnero, but towards the end of the fifteenth century a change in the layout of the road took the Ruta de la Plata closer to the neighbouring village of Corrales del Vino. As the importance of Fuente el Carnero gradually declined so did opportunities for advancement for young men. One of the fastest growing villages at the time was San Clemente in the province of Cuenca. This was basically due to political reasons. San Clemente had taken sides with Isabel I in her dispute with her niece Juanna la Beltraneja for the throne of Castile. With Isabel’s victory, the village was granted numerous privileges, which attracted many newcomers looking for a better future. It is calculated that in the sixteenth century more than 80 noble families lived in the town, which earned it the nickname ”The Little Court of La Mancha.” Pedro de la Fuente was the first of three brothers to arrive in San Clemente. Antonio and Cristobal came shortly afterwards. There were strong socio-political reasons for starting a new life. Both their father, Francisco de la Fuente, and their grandfather, Benito de la Fuente, had been squires to Pedro de Ledesma, commanding officer of the Zamora forces in the Battle of Toro (1476), one of the first civil wars between Isabel I and her niece Juanna.14 The civil wars had changed society. Military operations had ruined crops as soldiers marched across the fields, leaving farmers with no means of livelihood; the plight of muleteers was similar since large numbers of mules had been required to transport military supplies. Farmland was abandoned and vagrancy became rampant. In order to find a vital space in this new society, some nobles looked for opportunities in new villages, exchanging the sword for the plough, creating vineyards, turning farmland into pastures for sheep farming, etc.; others learned letters in makeshift grammar schools.15 This was the case with the de la Fuente family. Whereas Pedro de la Fuente found his opportunity as public notary, a profession he seems to have practiced before moving to San Clemente,16 his brothers turned to the land. They had come to San Clemente in the service of Martín Ruiz de Villamediana, a wealthy silk merchant who as a young man, in the service of his future father-in-law had come to San Clemente to buy wool,17 rapidly increased his fortune with the purchase of land for sheep farming and vineyards. The de la Fuente brothers benefited from Villamediana’s example and soon accumulated small fortunes. This, however, created a problem: how to avoid paying taxes. One

14 Benito de la Fuente died in the Battle of Albuera (1479), the last of the wars that put Isabel on the throne. 15 See De la Rosa Ferrer, El año mil quinientos … [2020]. 16 In 1501 Pedro de la Fuente was officially named notary public of the town of San Clemente (Archivo General de Simancas. Registro General del Sello, Leg. 150111, 27). I. de la Rosa Ferrer, ”Hidalgos de la Villa de San Clemente” [2018: 37]. 17 De la Rosa Ferrer, “Hidalgos de la Villa de San Clemente” [2018: 9].

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way was by declaring themselves knights. The clergy and the nobility—the two privileged classes—were exempt from paying taxes. Being newcomers, the city authorities of San Clemente doubted the brothers’ claim and insisted on considering them “pecheros.”18 Members of the city council travelled as far as Fuente el Carnero to find proof of their nobility. There they were informed that “a certain ixosdalgo [knight] with little distinction in the nobility, who did not pay taxes, more or less a hundred years ago had left the town.” The city council needed more proof and in 1526 Antonio and Cristobal de la Fuente appealed to the High Court in Granada for an official letter certifying their status as nobles. It took twenty years of endless lawsuits for the Granada court to decide. Finally, the court ruled in their favour; their claim was certified in 1547, and confirmed in 1550. Constantino’s father never bothered about obtaining a certificate of nobility. He may very well have understood that times were changing and that the future was in education, not in titles of nobility. When Ferdinand and Isabel came to the throne there was a certain professionalization of the apparatus of the state. Bureaucrats and lawyers—men with university degrees—were in great demand. No members of the de la Fuente family figure among the educated elite of San Clemente, except for a certain Antonio de la Fuente, ”a native of San Clemente,” studying at the universitycollege of San Antonio de Porta Coeli in Sigüenza in 1549.19 This Antonio de la Fuente may be the lawyer cited as a witness in 1571: “Lic. de la Fuente, lawyer of the villa, 45 years of age.”20 One proof of nobility was to claim that a person was of ”old Christian” stock. In other words, that he or she had no Jewish or Moorish ancestry. Being a member of a cofradía (brotherhood) was one way to prove this. Whether for this reason or because they were very devout, around 1530 Constantino’s uncles applied for membership into the Cofradía de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción of San Clemente.21 The same procedure would be followed by a great-grandson, Francisco de la Fuente Zapata in 1629 to obtain the habit of the Order of Santiago, by claiming that his ancestors had entered this brotherhood in 1531. The archives of the cofradia, in which the names of the two brothers appear, with a confirmation 30 years later, read thus: The books of the aforementioned brotherhood (Nuestra Señora de la Conzepción y Natividad de Septembre) were seen, where the early members are registered, particularly

18 Pechero = taxpayer. 19 José de Rújula y de Ochotorena, Índice de los colegiales del Mayor de San Ildefonso y Menores de Alcalá [1946: 264]. 20 De la Rosa Ferrer, “Las tiendas de San Clemente hacia 1570: la ruptura de la moral y sociedad tradicionales” [2017]. 21 De la Rosa Ferrer, “La cofradía de Nuestra Señora de Septiembre: unas noticias breves” [2017].

Biographical Sketch

those of the year 1531 and in each of the books were found the names and surnames of: de la Fuente, Simón, and Valera. That is, antonio de la fuente; jorxe simón; diego simón el viexo; diego de valera; francisco de la fuente; francisco simón; antonio de la fuente. This is a list of the oldest living members of the oldest book, that of the year of 1560. Signed: Antonio de la Fuente Simon; Diego Simon el viejo; Diego de Valera; Francisco de la Fuente Pallares; Francisco de la Fuente Comeño; El Lizenciado Antonio de la Fuente,22 with no membership fee, being a lawyer of the Cabildo.23

The cofradia had a strong reputation for admitting only “old Christians” as members. This brings us to seriously doubt the assertion that the de la Fuentes were of Jewish origin as many authors claim, an assertion based on Constantino’s response to an invitation to occupy a post in Toledo. As an excuse for not accepting the post, he had remarked—alluding to the strict application of the statutes of cleansing of blood in effect in Toledo—that “the bones of his parents and grandparents had been in their graves for many years, and he did not wish to accept any position which might cause their holy repose to be disturbed.”24 A less ascertainable argument in favour of Constantino’s converso origin is reported by Claudio Guillen, who found the name of a certain Alonso de la Fuente in a census compiled in 1510 of converso families in Seville (Fol. 129, Núm. 188) and took for granted it applied to Constantino’s family.25 More recently, Michel Boeglin bases this assertion on instructions found in Inquisition archives dating 22 January 1558 in which the Supreme Council states: “In this Council there is evidence that Lic. Melchor de León has said that Constantino is a confeso (converted Jew).”26 In addition, we cannot ignore Constantino’s father’s profession, that of notary. Many families with aspirations to move up the social ladder had Jewish origins, and profession such as auditor, secretary, and notary public was closely related to this social group.27 Despite this seemingly convincing evidence,28 there are also authors who hold the opposite view. Eduard Boehmer felt that Constantino’s words refusing the post in 22 Very likely the Antonio de la Fuente who was a student at the university college of San Antonio de Porta Coeli in Sigüenza in 1549. 23 De la Rosa Ferrer, “La cofradía de Nuestra Señora de Septiembre: unas noticias breves” [2017]. 24 Montanus, The Arts …, [2018: 405]. 25 Claudio Guillén, “Un padrón de conversos sevillanos (1510)” [1963: 78]. Guillén found the following reference: De la Fuente (Núm. 188). 26 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 575, ff. 57r.-57v. 27 Miguel A. Extremera Extremera, “Los escribanos de Castilla en la Edad Moderna. Nuevas líneas de investigación” [2001: 174–75]; Alicia Marchant Rivera, “Aspectos sociales, prácticas y funciones de los escribanos públicos castellanos del siglo de oro” [2010: 201–221]. 28 William B. Jones devotes a whole chapter to the defence of Constantino’s Jewish ancestry based on a phrase found in The Artes [2018: 405]. William B. Jones, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente [1964: 417].

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Toledo responded more to an expression of his disagreement with the archbishop’s policy than an allusion to his Jewish ancestry. Boehmer states: ”We have no reason to conclude from that refusal that there was Jewish blood in Constantino. He could not but dislike a bishop who cared so little about the genealogy of the Christian, which was the capital question for Constantino.”29 The converso problem was very present in lawsuits regarding claims of nobility. Had the city council of San Clemente suspected that the de la Fuente brothers were conversos, and therefore unworthy of nobility, they would not have travelled all the way to Fuente el Carnero for proof of their nobility. The archives of the Cofradía de Nuestra Señora at San Clemente are emphatic regarding “old Christian” membership: The said names of the said cofrades (brothers) are written and set in the said books on different pages and I hereby attest that the said brotherhood is founded on the statute of cleansing of blood and that prior to being received as a member, investigation was made, by order of the officials of the said brotherhood, regarding cleanliness of blood as appears from many of them that are in the said file.” Signed: Diego de Llanos, notary.30

2.2

Education

Most of the young boys of San Clemente learned to read and write in the rectory of the Santiago Apostol Church, but it appears that Constantino was sent to the grammar school in the recently founded Franciscan convent. From the start, the old grammar school met with opposition from the Church. There were constant complaints regarding the lack of regular teachers. Education was mainly in the hands of the town’s priests. A certain Alonso del Castillo served as private tutor for wealthy families. Ignacio de la Rosa Ferrer describes the situation in San Clemente at the beginning of the sixteenth century thus: In order to train the new elite, the town began to equip itself with its own grammar school to form cadres for the local administration. San Clemente opened a grammar school in 1494 despite the opposition of the provisor (ecclesiastical judge) of the Bishopric of Cuenca. In any case, teaching youngsters at the end of 1500 was overwhelmingly in the hands of clergymen, including sacristans. It is this monopoly that explains the bishop’s rejection of the grammar school in 1494. It is not that the city council viewed clerical teaching badly, but rather that the professor, a converted Jew named bachelor Alonso del Castillo, imparted ‘secular grammar and

29 Boehmer, Bibiliotheca… [2007: II, 10]. 30 De la Rosa Ferrer, “El doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente y sus allegados, unos zamoranos asentados en San Clemente” [2017].

Biographical Sketch

logic’. Indeed, up to four converts served in the church of Santiago Apostol de San Clemente in 1506. Material taught by Alonso del Castillo corresponded to a higher degree, which prepared future graduates for the universities of Alcalá or Salamanca. Towards 1490 in San Clemente there were two primary teachers: the sacristan Lope González, in the church, and Gonzalo Gallego who had his own schools in houses belonging to Miguel Sánchez de los Herreros, who would later become mayor of the town.31 After grammar school, Constantino was sent to Francisco de Cisneros’s recently founded university at Alcalá de Henares instead of the old, well-established University of Salamanca. Alonso del Castillo, who ran the grammar school at the Franciscan convent may have influenced that choice. A Bull of Pope Eugene IV (1446) granted permission to found fifteen Franciscan Observance Convents in Spain. One was founded in San Clemente in 1503 on a plot of land donated by Alonso del Castillo.32 The convent became a centre for primary Latin studies for the children of San Clemente. It was also an example of the rivalry existing between the pecheros and the noble families of San Clemente, who claimed the Church of Santiago as theirs. The affinity between Alonso del Castillo, the tenets of the Observant Franciscans and Francisco de Cisneros, an Observant Franciscan himself, strongly suggests that if Constantino went to Alcalá instead of Salamanca, it was Alonso del Castillo’s doings. At Alcalá, first-year students entered one of the colegios menores, where Latin was the main subject, before being allowed to enter one of the faculties in the Colegio Mayor San Ildefonso, where a mastery of Latin was required for access to the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy.33 There were seven colegios menores, each one housing students of a particular discipline: Madre de Dios, for students of theology and medicine; San Pedro y San Pablo, for the Franciscans; Santa Balbina, for students of philosophy and logic; Santa Catalina, for students of physics and metaphysics; San Eugenio for students of Latin, Greek and Hebrew; San Isidoro, for students specializing in Latin; and San Lucas, for sick students. Whereas most students lived in these colegios menores, some lived in pupilajes, small boarding-houses subject to university rules and inspection.34 Constantino would very likely have lodged, and

31 De la Rosa Ferrer, El año mil quinientos … [2020: 512, 513]. 32 I. de la Rosa Ferrer, “El convento de frailes franciscanos de Nuestra Señora de Gracia de San Clemente (Cuenca),” in El convento de Nuestra Señora de Gracia de la villa de San Clemente : la pervivencia del franciscanismo en el Obispado de Cuenca, Zaragoza: I. de la Rosa Ferrer, 2022. 33 This was a single faculty, not two separate faculties. Gonzalo Gómez García, “La necesidad de una apertura en la historiografía de la Universidad de Alcalá” [2020: 251, n45]. 34 No resident could spend the night outside the colegio: the doors were locked at sunset. There was reading at table, and only Latin could be spoken, even in ordinary conversation. Stafford Poole, Juan de Ovando: Governing the Spanish Empire in the Reign of Phillip II [2004: 60].

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initiated his studies of Greek, in the Colegio de San Eugenio. In addition to lodging and meals, these colegios menores also had classrooms. This takes us back to reconsider Constantino’s birth date. If he entered university around 1522 he would have done so at age twenty, a bit late considering that most young men entered the university around age sixteen or earlier. On the other hand, if the minimum age of admission into one of the faculties in the colegio mayor was twenty,35 a birth year of 1502 is probably more accurate than 1505. If we take into account certain preferences in admitting beginning students—good results on entrance exams, preference for poor students and for young students—“because they learn languages better and faster”—,36 we can assume that Constantino would have entered the university around 1517, when he was fifteen. If so, the outbreak of the Revolt of the Comuneros in 1520 would have interrupted his studies. The revolt also had significant repercussions in Alcalá. Whereas the majority of the faculty took the side of the Comuneros,37 students from Andalusia supported the new King—young Charles V—while those from Castile opposed him. News of these events must have reached San Clemente and perhaps Constantino’s father would have been reluctant to send his young son to Alcalá in 1520 or 1521. It appears that the de la Fuentes were contrary to the revolt and participated in its repression.38 Whoever Constantino’s teacher was at the grammar school in San Clemente, he arrived in Alcalá with a good foundation in Latin. His teacher may also have initiated him in the subjects of the Trivium: Latin literature, rhetoric and dialectics. This, together with his own talent, enabled him already in his early years at Alcalá to compose a laudatory poem in honour of Lorenzo Balbo de Lillo, his Latin professor, that was considered worthy enough to be included in Balbo’s edition of Valerio Flaco’s Argonautica (Alcalá de Henares, 1524).39 It stands to reason, therefore, that Constantino had completed his primary studies before the Revolt and that in 1522, at the age of twenty, entered the Faculty of Arts where Balbo was teaching. Lorenzo Balbo de Lillo taught Latin literature together with Pedro de la Mota. For teaching material, they used Valerio Flaco’s Argonautica, Silius Italicus’s Punic Wars, Ciceron’s Philippians and by Quintus Curtius Rufus’s History of Alexander the Great. Given the scarcity of copies for their students, it was decided that Mota would edit

35 Poole, Juan de Ovando …, [2004: 60]. 36 AHN, Universidades, lib. 525-F, fol. 56 rº, in Antonio Alvar Ezquerra, “El Colegio Trilingüe de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares” [1999: 520]. Antonio Alvar Ezquerra, “La Universidad de Alcalá a principios del siglo XVI” [2016: 64–73]. 37 In September 1522 Emperor Charles V returned to Castile and on October 1 a letter of royal pardon was read publicly in Valladolid for the participants in the revolt with which all the faculty members of Alcala were officially pardoned. 38 Ignacio de la Rosa Ferrer, personal communication. 39 José Luis Gonzalo Sánchez-Molero, El erasmismo y la educación de Felipe II (1527–1557) [2003: 368].

Biographical Sketch

a new edition of Italicus’s work and Balbo would edit Flaco’s. An outbreak of tertian fever prevented Mota from carrying out his part of the project. Balbo, who had not contracted the fever, published an annotated edition of both Flaco’s, and Curtius’s work. That Balbo, who had a brilliant future awaiting him, published nothing else after 1524 suggests that he may have died prematurely as was first suggested by Andrés Escoto.40 However, this can hardly have been the case since in October of 1529 his name appears (shortened to Lorenzo de Lillo) as having received both a Licentiate degree and a Master’s degree in Arts at the hands of Pedro de Lerma.41 Balbo may have left Alcala in the early 1530s together with other like-minded Erasmian humanists. The frequent outbreaks of tertian fevers in Alcalá may have motivated Pedro de la Mota to take up a teaching post at the grammar school belonging to the Cathedral of Granada in 1525. In 1532, Mota earned the title of bachelor and master of Arts and became part of the faculty of the recently founded University of Granada, a position he held until 1556. At least two of Mota’s companions from Alcalá followed him to Granada: Juan Clemente and Martin Perez de Ayala. Some students may have become ill or left at that time also. Alcala was indeed an unhealthy locality. In 1528 Francisco de Vergara, Contantino’s Greek professor, took a year’s leave of absence to recuperate from some fevers and finally had to give up teaching altogether in 1541. In his De rebus gestis, Alvar Gómez, Cardenal Cisneros’s biographer, attributes the premature death of Francisco de Vergara, as well as numerous students, to malaria.42 Did Constantino interrupt his studies in 1528 due to illness? Constantino did not stay long enough at Alcalá to master both Greek and Hebrew, nevertheless, commenting on his knowledge of classical languages, Reginaldo Gonzalo de Montes, his first biographer, is emphatic: He was the only one, or at least one of only a few, who, in the midst of general ignorance, knew the three languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He had acquired them without a teacher, and to such a level of perfection that he alone could have brought about their renaissance. With these aids he entered on the study of Holy Scripture, and even in his youth he had become so erudite that, when he gave his opinion on sacred matters or words, it seemed to everyone—except perhaps those who suffered from the disease of extreme ignorance—that there was nothing at all wanting in his words.43

40 Andrea Schott, Hispaniae Bibliotheca, seu de academiis ac bibliothecis [1608: 569–570]. 41 Rafael Ramis Barceló and Pedro Ramis Serra, Actos y Grados de la Universidad de Alcalá (1523–1544) [2020: 188]. 42 Alvar Gómez de Castro, De rebvs gestis a Francisco Ximenio Cisnerio: archiepiscopo Toletano, libri octo (1569) in Pedro Urbano González de la Calle, “Francisco de Vergara y la pronunciación de la Z griega” [1948: 263]. 43 Montanus, The Arts … [2018: 403].

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That he was “the only one, or at least one of only a few, who knew the three languages” may have been an exaggeration, but Montes’s next claim—”he had acquired them without a teacher”—strongly suggests some form of self-study. As stated, Constantino had an excellent command of Latin, but how did he acquire such an excellent knowledge of Hebrew and Greek? Knowing that one of the strong points at Alcalá was the emphasis on biblical languages, his main reason for attending could have been his interest in philology. Some of the professors, such as the famous Greek scholar Demetrio Ducas, who helped compile the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, had already left, but some of Ducas’s best students had stayed on. For example, Francisco de Vergara, who appears first as a substitute and after 1522 as a full professor of Greek,44 taught from 1521 to 1541. He occupied the chair left vacant by Hernán Nuñez, the “Pinciano,”45 in 1522 when Nuñez left for Salamanca. The classes were small. In 1524 Vergara only had a dozen students and in 1527 there were still only twenty registered.46 In 1525 he published a reader for his students titled: Graecorum characterum, apicum et abreviationum explicado cum nonnullis (Alcala, 1525). With a copy of this publication, but not Vergara’s Greek grammar—De Graecae linguae grammaúca—, which did not appear until 1537, and a copy of Erasmus’s parallel Greek-Latin edition of the New Testament, Constantino could make good progress on his own. As for Hebrew, there were several excellent Hebraists at Alcalá: Alfonso de Alcalá, Alfonso de Zamora and Pablo de Coronel. All three were conversos and had trained to be rabbis in their youth. Pablo de Coronel was probably no longer in Alcala when Constantino arrived. Once his duties regarding the Complutensian Bible were ended, he left for Salamanca to take over Alfonso de Zamora’s chair of Hebrew. Although it was Cardinal Cisnero’s initial intention that both #Greek and Hebrew be taught in the Colegio Menor San Eugenio, it seems that Hebrew did not become an official subject with a chaired professor until 1528, when the Colegio de San Jeronimo (the Trilingual College) was created by Mateo Pascual to endow the University with a college specifically destined to the study of the Bible, both from a philological point of view and as a previous step to theological reflection, reserved for the Faculty of Theology.47 The Trilingual College opened in 1528 but the following academic year it was closed by Diego de la Puente due to inadequate sanitary conditions.48 There may have been another outbreak of tertian fever or

44 45 46 47

Urbano González de la Calle, “Francisco de Vergara … ” [1948: 252]. Responsible for the Greek version of the New Testament of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible. Urbano González de la Calle, “Francisco de Vergara …” [1948: 255]. The groups were very small: AHN, Universities, book 525-F, fol. 56 vº states that the students should be divided into groups of five - two Latin, two Greek, and one Hebrew. Alvar Ezquerra, “El Colegio Trilingue …”, [2016: 519, n23]. 48 Ramis Barcelo and Ramis Serra, Actos y Grados … [2020: 64].

Biographical Sketch

malaria. Unfortunately, registered information regarding the school is scarce and late, only beginning in 1613.49 Constantino may have left Alcalá around 1528 and with the basic knowledge he had acquired, he could also go on to master Hebrew on his own with the help of a Hebrew Bible—very likely Santi Pagnini’s interlinear Hebrew/Latin translation: Veteris et Novi Testamenti nova translatio (Lyons, 1528)—and Alfonso de Zamora’s Introductionis artis Grammaticae hebraica (Alcalá de Henares, 1526). Furthermore, there would have been no lack of conversos in San Clemente willing and able to help him with his Hebrew. In any case, as Montes states, “With these aids he entered on the study of Holy Scripture, and even in his youth he had become so erudite that, when he gave his opinion on sacred matters or words, it seemed to everyone that there was nothing at all wanting in his words.”50 A word about Francisco de Vergara and his brother Juan. Both men were accomplished Hellenist scholars and admirers of Erasmus. Juan de Vergara had been secretary to the archbishop of Toledo, Cardinal Cisneros, upon whose death in 1517 he became secretary to the next archbishop, 17-year-old William of Croy, nephew of William of Croy, Charles V’s tutor and advisor. This obliged him to move to Flanders, where he met Erasmus personally. Juan de Vergara returned to Spain in 1521 after the premature death of the young cardinal.51 In 1523 he became secretary to the next archbishop of Toledo and primate of Spain, Alfonso de Fonseca. By then, Toledo had become a stronghold of Erasmus’s supporters. Fonseca’s death in 1534 was a serious blow to Spanish Erasmians, for it came at a time when the Inquisition had already arrested Bernardino Tovar and Juan de Vergara on suspicion of heresy and would soon begin proceedings against Alonso Ruiz de Virués and others.52 While the Supreme Council was busy trying to stop Lutheran literature from entering Spain, Erasmian views were having a heyday in Alcalá. Cardinal Cisneros’s emphasis on biblical studies and ancient languages brought with it an interest in Christian Humanism and, as a result, enthusiasm among the faculty and students for Erasmus and his attacks on clerical abuse and lay ignorance.

49 Alvar Ezquerra, “El Colegio Trilingue …” [2016: 517]. 50 Montanus, The Arts …, [2018: 403]. 51 In 1530, Juan de Vergara found himself involved in a trial (proceso) in which he was accused of heretical opinions regarding indulgences, the nature of the sacraments, the teaching of the church on oral pray; his Lutheran inclination, his close friendship with Erasmus, the purchase abroad of suspicious books, etc. At the auto-da-fe held in Toledo on 21 December 1535, he was sentenced to abjure his errors de vehementi, to pay a fine of 1,500 ducats and to spend a year in the Monastery of San Agustín. On 27 February 1537, he regained full freedom after four years of confinement, but his trial and his imprisonment had destroyed his career and undermined his health. 52 Peter G. Bietenholz and Thomas Brian Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation [2003: II, 43].

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Between 1522 and 1525, the prestige of Erasmus reached its highest level in Alcala thanks to the Vergara brothers. This was the time Constantino arrived. Was it through Francisco de Vergara that Constantino came in contact with Christian Humanism for the first time? Or was it through Lorenzo Balbo de Lillo, his Latin literature professor? Both Vergara and Balbo had studied under the Greek scholar Hernán Nunez, el “Pinciano”, but what really united the two men was their enthusiasm for Erasmus.53 “El Roterdamo” became a household word among both students and professors at Alcalá. His call for a purified Christianity found a willing audience in the intellectual and spiritual ferment of the time. As Marcel Bataillon points out, “Erasmianism was much more than a simple movement of protest against the abuses of the unworthy clergy and some ignorant friars, it was a positive movement of spiritual renovation.”54 Apart from Balbo and the Vergara brothers, among Erasmus’s followers were the most prestigious humanists of the day: Bernardino Tovar,55 Mateo Pascual,56 Pedro de Lerma,57 Alonso Ruiz de Virués, and many more. Despite this enthusiasm, there were those who opposed Erasmus and accused him of heresy. In the summer of 1527, Inquisitor General Alonso Manrique summoned scholars from Salamanca, Alcalá and Valladolid to a conference in order to judge certain suspicious passages. All the delegates from Salamanca and Valladolid, except one, declared themselves anti-Erasmians. In contrast, all those from Alcalá, except Pedro Sanchez Ciruelo, were pro-Erasmian. It basically came down to a dispute between scholastics and biblical humanists. No agreement was reached at the conference in the summer of 1527, but it was a turning point. Despite Inquisitor General Manrique’s seemingly favourable attitude towards Erasmus, a wave of

53 Bietenholz and Deutscher, Contemporaries of Erasmus …, [2003: II, 383]. 54 Bataillon, Erasmo y España [1966: 339]. 55 In 1525 Bernardino de Tovar was proposed to the admiral of Castile, Fadrique Enríquez, to evangelize his territory around Medina de Rioseco, but he preferred to continue in Alcalá, as part of a group of clergymen who would eventually be accused of being Erasmians or Lutherans. Tovar was imprisoned by the Inquisition of Toledo in September 1530. The cause was reopened in 1541. He was forced to abjure de vehementi and was sentenced to pay a heavy fine, a sentence similar to that imposed on his brother Juan de Vergara 56 Mateo Pascual was a declared Erasmian. Ramis Barcelo, [2020: 30]. In 1527, Mateo Pascual entered the Colegio Mayor de San Ildefonso. The following year he was chosen rector and founded the Colegio Trilingüe. For having expressed doubts regarding purgatory in public, he was imprisoned from 1533 to 1537 and his goods confiscated. He spent the rest of his life in Rome, where he died in 1562. Francisco Fernández Serrano, Obispos auxiliares de Zaragoza en tiempos de los arzobispos de la Casa Real de Aragón (1460–1575) [1969: 95]. 57 Pedro de Lerma was the first chancellor of the university and a staunch Erasmian. In 1537 he was called upon to abjure eleven Erasmian propositions. To avoid trouble, he left for Paris later that year, where he became dean of the faculty of theology at the Sorbonne. He never returned to Spain.

Biographical Sketch

persecution began. Among the first victims were Juan de Vergara and his brother Bernardino Tovar,58 for their criticism of the translation of the Vulgate Bible. A remarkable case was that against the Benedictine monk Alonso Ruiz de Virués, who had translated Erasmus’s Colloquies familiares into Spanish in 1529. Based on the fact that he possessed a large library, he was accused of being a Lutheran, sent to Seville and imprisoned for four years.59 Wary of this growing anti-Erasmian spirit, Constantino may have chosen to abandon his studies in Alcalá out of sheer concern for his own safety. These were times of confusion, and, although it is true that the Inquisition did not burn anyone for being a follower of Erasmus, several eminent Erasmians did end up with their bones in prison, and Constantino was not going to take that chance. There are still two other possible explanations, though remote, for Constantino’s departure from Alcalá. Scholarships lasted eight years.60 Did he have to leave due to financial difficulties? An even more unlikely reason could have been his conduct. Was he expelled? During the competitive examinations that he sat for years later to fill the vacancy of magisterial canon in Seville, the jurist and legal expert of the archdiocese, Juan de Ovando, brought up the objections of “all the frivolities of his youthful failings.”61 Ovando insisted on his having been married before taking orders, but were there other “frivolities”? Be that as it may, for some unknown reason Constantino left Alcalá and looked for another more convenient place to continue his studies. Whatever the motives, on leaving the classrooms of Alcalá, the scriptural, humanist and Erasmian training he had acquired would constitute the substratum of his life and work. Although some scholars suggest that his choice of Maese Rodrigo’s university-college in Seville was due to the fact that Dr. Francisco de Vargas and Dr. Egidio were already there—which is highly unlikely—, there could have also been more prosaic reasons. For one thing, the climate was much better and the academic—and religious—atmosphere was more charitable. Erasmus’s works were still bestsellers in Seville. As Michel Boeglin observes:

58 Juan de Vergara and Bernardino de Tovar were brothers, not half-brothers. They had different surnames because in some families a younger son took the surname of the father (“Vergara”) and the older son would take the name of the paternal grandmother (“Tovar”). Mª del Carmen Vaquero Serrano, “La familia de Juan de Vergara, canónigo erasmista toledano” [2019: 42]. 59 In 1527 Ruiz de Virués had been part of the commission called upon to examine Erasmus’s works. In 1533 his name appeared among those suspected of Lutheranism in the process against Juan de Vergara. Accused of being a Lutheran and a follower of Erasmus, he was imprisoned in Seville by the Inquisition from December 1534 to May 1538. In August of that year he was named bishop of the Canary Islands, taking possession of his see 27 March 1539. V. Beltrán de Heredia, “El proceso del erasmiano D. Alonso Ruiz de VIrués, teólogo salmantino y obispo de Canarias” [1971: 339–353]. 60 Poole, Juan de Ovando …, [2004: 60]. 61 Montanus, The Arts … [2018: 415].

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The Sevillian diocese appeared as a refuge for those that defended a return to the spirit of Early Christianity, the Church Fathers, that advocated a more spiritual Christianity, a freer Church, in reaction to the intellectualism of the scholastics. The Seville movement vividly defended justification by faith, in a strict Pauline sense, relativizing the role of good works.62

At the time Constantino’s arrival in Seville, Martín Navarro, one of the cathedral preachers,63 was also closely associated with the Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella’s university-college. When Santaella passed away in 1509, Navarro was given Santaella’s prebend, which included the post as canon and also as visitador (inspector, superintendent) of the school. In other words, since Santaella died before the school opened, it was Navarro who ran the school for the first ten years. His influence was felt not only in the school, but also as an enthusiastic Erasmian; from the pulpit he contributed effectively to disseminate the renovating airs that characterized a good part of the Sevillian cultured circles of the time, including not a few members of the cathedral chapter.64 Navarro was known as an eloquent speaker. Did Constantino sit under his preaching? Did he know him personally? If so, Constantino’s arrival in Seville must have been late 1527 because Navarro died in 1528. The fact that years later Constantino would insert Navarro’s translation from Latin to Spanish of Saint Bernard’s letters in a publication of his own65 suggests more than a simple fondness for Saint Bernard’s work but admiration for the translator. Navarro is remembered for having modified the school’s constitutions, or by-laws, regarding blood cleansing. Santaella did not contemplate the cleansing of blood as a requirement; he explicitly stated that no distinctions should be made between the candidates for being ”Canaries, Indians, Gentiles, pagans, Jews, Saracens, nobles, non-nobles, rich, poor, good or bad, urban or rural, free or slave, or of any lineage to be descended,” as long as one was a Christian or there was no canonical impediment in the case of priests (Constitución XV).66 To what point this was modified or how if at all it affected Constantino is unsure. Navarro also modified other stipulations. For example, the original constitutions stated that applicants had to be under 16 years of age and had to be priests; access was prohibited to lay people, monks and members of military orders. The demand for clerical dedication was eliminated by Navarro. Constantino would certainly have benefited from this modification

62 Boeglin, Irenism and herejía [2013: 233]. 63 Gian Claudio Civale, “Conflictos de poder entre la Inquisición y el cabildo de la Catedral de Sevilla a mediados del siglo xvi” [2002: II, 299, n132]. 64 Gonzalo Díaz Díaz, Hombres y documentos de la filosofía española [1995: 771]. 65 See section 3.2.1. 66 Alfonso Pozo Ruiz, “Los primeros ‘Estatutos’ del Colegio Santa María de Jesús” [2005].

Biographical Sketch

because he was not officially ordained until 1534. A full course of studies at the college took eight years. Considering that Constantino was a transfer student he may have needed only five or six years to graduate, hence a suggested arrival date in Seville of 1527 is plausible. 2.3

Preaching Career

Coinciding with these early years of Constantino’s arrival in Seville, Bishop Baltasar del Río, who had spent many years in Italy, instituted a series of literary tournaments—a sort of poetic contest where, like a knightly tournament, the participants confronted each other through poems with a common theme and certain rules for all. Prizes were twelve pairs of gloves for the best, two pairs for the second, and one for the third.67 The poems could be either in Latin or Spanish.68 Between 1532 and 1534, Bishop Baltasar presided over these literary events. The first was held in June 1532; the second, held on 1 December 1532, took place in Archbishop Manrique’s palace with the attendance of the archbishop himself. The next contest was held in the palace of Alvaro de Zuñiga, Duke of Béjar, on the second Sunday of January 1533.69 Most of the participants were students from the various university colleges: Colegio de Santo Tomás, College of San Miguel, Santa María de Jesús,70 but there were also men who were part of the humanist circles of Seville, such as Jac the Genovese merchant and the poet Franco Leardo,71 as well as the historian Luis de Peraza, the future royal chronicler Pedro Mexia and others. The tournaments had three parts. In addition to the Latin poems, there was a section for short speeches or sermons, in Latin, and a third for verses in Spanish. The juries were made up of theologians, mostly Dominicans, reputed to be the most zealous guardians of Catholic orthodoxy. The purpose of these literary contests was to encourage young students who, in addition to seeing their merits recognized, could demonstrate their talents before the authorities and attending nobility. There is no factual evidence that Constantino participated. Nevertheless, considering that ten years earlier one of his Latin poems was deemed laudable enough to appear

67 Joaquín Pascual Barea, “La diversa presencia de Ovidio en nueve epigramas latinos de estudiantes para unas justas celebradas en Sevilla hacia 1554–1558” [2009: III, 1667]; Luis Miguel Godoy Gómez, Justas poéticas en la Sevilla del Siglo de Oro [2000]; Santiago Montoto, Justas poéticas sevillanas del siglo XVI (1531–1542) [1955]. 68 See Inmaculada Osuna, “Las justas poéticas en el siglo XVI” [2008: 257–296]. 69 Álvaro de Zúñiga y Guzmán, II duke of Bejar, passed away in September of 1531. His niece, Teresa de Zúñiga Guzmán y Manrique, inherited the palace. 70 Pascual Barea, “La diversa presencia de Ovidio …” [2009: III, 1666]. 71 See José Solís de los Santos, “El humanismo en Sevilla en la época de Diego López de Cortegana” [2012: 59].

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in Balbo’s edition of Flaco’s Argonautica, he would certainly have had sufficient self-confidence to submit an entry. In any case, it was an opportunity to rub elbows with the local humanists and Erasmians72 and the great patron of the arts Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera.73 Was it during these literary contests that members of the cathedral chapter took notice of Constantino? William Jones believes that it was probably Sancho Carranza de Miranda,74 secretary of Archbishop Manrique, who introduced him to members of the chapter.75 Undoubtedly, Sancho Carranza de Miranda would have welcomed Constantino, but most probably it was Juan Fernndez Temiño, a person closer to Archbishop Manrique, who became Constantino’s advocate. In 1524 Alonso Manrique, archbishop of Seville and Inquisitor General, called Juan Fernández Temiño, who at that time was teaching Civil Law at the University College of San Salvador (University of Salamanca), to be vicar general of the archdiocese of Seville. In 1528 he was named canon and ten years later provisor (ecclesiastic judge). In 1534 Manrique asked Temiño to revise the Breviary.76 The new version eliminated references to the number of candles required for mass, the number of masses to be said on different occasions, and references to several “superstitious practices.”77 In short, a revision described by Jesus Moya as a work “done by a humanist, though it might be more accurate to say by an Erasmian.”78

72 “The tendency of many historians to suppose that humanism and Erasmianism were the same thing displays, it is true, a serious misunderstanding of both movements. The impact of Erasmianism in Iberia was due not to humanism but to the desire for religious reform, a desire which had its roots in antecedents very different from Renaissance philology.” Jeremy N. H. Lawrance, “Humanism in the Iberian Peninsula” [2015]. 73 See Juan Gil Fernández, “Una carta de Rodrigo Tous de Monsalve a Erasmo” [1990: 79–90]. 74 Sancho Carranza de Miranda, uncle of Bartolomé de Carranza, was one of the first professors at Alcalá. He taught Philosophy (1510–1514) and Theology (1514–1518). From Alcalá he went to Rome as a delegate of the Spanish Church to Pope Leo X. When the anti-Erasmus controversy broke out in Alcalá, he first sided with the anti-Erasmians. On his return to Spain around 1526 or 27, he had changed his opinion and had become a passionate Erasmian and settled in Seville. 75 William B. Jones, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, The Problem of Protestant Influence in SixteenthCentury Spain [1964: 198]. 76 This may have been an adaptation of the breviary known as the Breviary of Quiñones, or the Breviarium Sanctae Crucis, promulgated by Clement VII in 1534, which reestablished the recitation of the entire Psalter. Quiñones distributed the reading of the psalter to the days of the week and reduced matinees to one nocturn with the reading of three psalms and three lessons, arranged in such a way that the Sacred Scripture could be read in its entirety during the liturgical year. The breviary met exceptional editorial success and enjoyed more than 100 editions between 1535 and 1556, when its use was prohibited by Pius V. 77 José Luis González Novalín, El inquisidor general Fernando de Valdés (1483–1568). Su vida y su obra [2008: 176]. 78 Jesus Moya, “Pedro Temiño († 1590): De Inquisidor a Obispo, pasando por Carranza” [2008: 704].

Biographical Sketch

Sharing intellectual persuasions, Constantino and Temiño may have become close friends, evidenced in 1546 when Constantino dedicated his Catecismo to Temiño. Constantino’s literary genius was recognized early on. In a letter to Pedro Mexía and his brother Cristófal written in 1533, Erasmus, who had received a letter from Constantino, described his style as ”marvellously clever and witty. How much he accomplishes in a few words!”79 The Mexía brothers had been corresponding with Erasmus since 1530. In a lengthy reply, written from Freiburg and dated 24 December 1533, Erasmus speaks of letters (in plural)—“your letters are not only pleasing but also delightful.” He adds, “In your last missive, which I received a few days ago, you indicated that through a bookseller you had received my letters.” Correspondence travelled slowly and could also get lost. The business networks of merchant-bankers such as Konrad Joham or the Fuggers often acted as couriers. Erasmus also depended on the services of professional messengers such as Anton Bletz, who regularly carried letters between Basel, Freiburg and Paris, or bookdealers and publishers such as Konrad Resch, or printers whose shops served as addresses. It was very likely through the network of agents working for the Fuggers in Seville that correspondence for and from Erasmus came and went. Erasmus had adversaries throughout Europe, but the aforementioned 1533 letter deals particularly with one in Seville, namely, the Franciscan theologian Luis de Carvajal.80 Carvajal considered Erasmus a scourge to Christendom and a murderer of Christ on account of his “poisonous criticism” of the Christian religion.81 Erasmus called this “shameless slander,” and in the letter he reproduces some of Carvajal’s false accusations: Erasmus makes confession optional, he condemns all ceremonies, he mocks veneration of the saints, he mocks ecclesiastical ceremonies, he rejects Christian fasting, he condemns abstinence from food, he dissolves the celibacy of priests, he eliminates the vows and ceremonies of monks, he condemns human regulations. Why say more? He paved the way for Luther. […] He says he has seen with his own eyes and read a letter of mine in which I openly write that “no greater evil could be found in the Christian religion than the invention of those religious orders.”82

79 Desiderius Erasmus, The Correspondence of Erasmus … [2020: Letter 2892, 210]. 80 In 1528, Luis de Carvajal published Apologia monasticae religionis diluens nugas Erasmi (Salamanca, 1528; Paris, 1529). Erasmus replied immediately with Responsio ad cujusdam febricitantis libellum (Basel, 1529). Rebuttals and counterrebuttals followed: Carvajal’s Dulcoratio amarulentiarum Erasmicae responsionis (Paris, 1530) received a reply by Erasmus in an open letter to the Franciscans and several epistles to the Mexia brothers which he published in Epistolae floridae (Basel, 1531). 81 Raul Manchón Gómez, “Christimastix y los compuestos en –mastix, en el latín humanístico” [2013: 141–143]. 82 Erasmus, The Correspondence of Erasmus … [2020: Letter 2892, 207].

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The Mexía brothers tried hard to be diplomatic, as they seem to have had two goals in mind: to be on friendly terms with Erasmus and at the same time to somehow excuse their fellow countrymen. They wanted to “save Erasmus from the attacks of his enemies, the barbari, the enemies of good literature, those gloomy friars, fanatics and obscurantists (tenebriones), who could not understand Erasmus’s reasoning because they were said in pure and correct Latin, a language that exceeded their ability to understand.”83 Constantino also found himself drawn into the ErasmusCarvajal controversy, as is evidenced in the letter from Erasmus addressed to Pedro and Cristóbal Mexia in 1533: I have also received the letter of Christophorus Fontanus, which is marvellously clever and witty. How much he accomplishes in a few words! I greatly admired the man’s intelligence, but I would wish that he had expended his energy on a more worthwhile topic. And so I am glad that this document was not published. He gave the Franciscan’s book greater honour than I did; it seems he devoured the whole thing. I sampled some pages of it, but only in snatches and I soon sent the little book to Alfonso de Valdés. Valdés, a most honourable friend whom the envy of the Fates, it seems, took from me.84

The phrase “I have also received the letter of…” suggests that either the two missives arrived together or that the Mexias asked Erasmus if he had received Constantino’s letter. Erasmus ends his epistle thus: “Cordial greetings to Christophorus Fontanus,” which suggests warm relations and a certain comaraderie between the three Spaniards. Nevertheless, the friendship would not last. The Mexia brothers shared Erasmus’s interest in philology, but not necessarily his zeal for religious reforms. They were well aware which way the wind was blowing and were not going to be caught on the wrong side of history. Did they also, like Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, ask themselves whether it might have been the case that the study of eloquence and letters had “brought this pernicious plague of heresy upon our heads?”85 On 13 June 1533, Constantino was admitted as preacher of the cathedral. This would have required his having resided in Seville for several years already as well as his having preached in public numerous times before being given a salaried appointment.86 Constantino had not yet completed his studies so he was allowed to combine his preaching duties with his theological studies at Maese Rodrigo’s

83 Juan Gil Fernández, “Una carta de Rodrigo Tous …” [1990: 82]. 84 Erasmus, The Correspondence of Erasmus … [2020: Letter 2892, 207]. Alfonso de Valdés died of the plague in Vienna in October 1532. 85 Luis Gil Fernández, Panorama social del humanismo español (1500–1800) [1997: 209–213]. 86 He was given the same salary as Master Ramírez. (Actas capitulares)

Biographical Sketch

Colegio de Santa Maria de Jesús,87 from where he graduated with a licenciate degree the following year. On 22 May 1535, he was ordained in the Church of San Salvador by the newly consecrated Bishop of Morocco, Sebastián de Obregón, with the blessing of Archbishop Manrique.88 By 1533–34, both Dr. Francisco de Vargas and Juan Gil (Dr. Egidio) had also arrived in Seville. Francisco de Vargas was still in Alcalá during the academic year 1532–33.89 In 1532 Vargas gave up his Duns Escotus chair, which was taken over in July by Dr. Diego de Naveros, in order to occupy the chair of Morals on 16 December. Shortly afterwards he left Alcalá. Certain events may have motivated Vargas’s decision such as the adverse reaction of the faculty to Juan de Valdés’s Dialogue on Christian Doctrine in 1529 and the imprisonment of Juan de Vergara.90 In February of 1535, Francisco de Vargas was granted the Chair of Theology in the Colegio de Santa María de Jesús de Maese Rodrigo, which he held until his death in 1546. Dr. Egidio had taught mathematics at Alcalá in 1526 and was a chair professor in the Faculty of Arts from 1528 to 1531.91 In 1532 he left Alcalá to occupy the recently established chair of Theology in Sigüenza, but on learning of his colleague Vargas’s move, and that of his like-minded friend and colleague Pedro Alejandro, Egidio may also have decided to go to Seville. As mentioned earlier, whereas Erasmianism was on the decline in Alcalá, in Seville it was still alive and well thanks to archbishop Alonso de Manrique who, with the approval of the cathedral chapter, had offered the post of canon preacher to Pedro Alejandro. Alejandro died unexpectedly the following year and Egidio was asked to take his place.92

87 The university-college Santa Maria de Jesús, founded in 1517 by Maese Rodrigo de Santaella, was the first Spanish university to offer both ecclesiastical and civil degrees. From the beginning it offered degrees in theology, canon law, medicine, philosophy, liberal arts and logic. Two contemporary and rival school were the Colegio de Santo Tomas, founded by archbishop Diego de Deza in 1515, and the Estudio de San Miguel (a sort of grammar school) founded by the cathedral chapter earlier primarily for the training of clergy. 88 Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles [2003: Book 4, Ch9, 60]. 89 Klaus Wagner, “La biblioteca del Dr. Francisco de Vargas, compañero de Egidio y Constantino” [1976: 313, n3]. 90 Wagner, “La biblioteca del Dr. Francisco de Vargas …” [1976: 315]. 91 Treasurer’s Accounts Book 1526–1528, AHN, Universities, Lib. 652, folio 32r. 92 I would like to correct an error that appears in Underground Protestantism (2016: 188). The statement: “Unable to occupy the post in Seville because he was sent to the Netherlands as chaplain of Charles V’s sister Mary of Austria, governess of the Netherlands, he invited Egidio to take his place” is not correct. There were two Peter Alejandros, one Spanish and the other French (Pierre Alexandre). Regarding the French Pedro Alexander see Philipe Denis, “Pierre Alexandre et la discipline Ecclésiastique” [1977: 551–560]. I wish to thank Ignacio García Pinilla and Gonzalo Gómez García for drawing my attention to this error.

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For his part, Constantino quickly made a name for himself as a preacher. When Seville celebrated the memorial services held for the Empress Isabella of Portugal, wife of Charles V, Constantino was asked to deliver the funeral sermon. While in Toledo, in the palace of the Counts of Fuensalida, Empress Isabella gave birth to her seventh child, a still-born baby. Two weeks later, on 1 May 1539, she died due to puerperal fever and severe haemorrhages. The following day the body was lowered to the ground floor of the palace where a solemn funeral was held and her body began its long journey to Granada, where she was laid to rest in the Royal pantheon on 17 May. Twelve-year-old prince Philip accompanied his mother’s casket to Granada.93 The commotion the death of the Empress caused throughout the kingdom was especially felt in Seville, a city that had witnessed her marriage thirteen years earlier. On Monday 5 May members of the cathedral chapter—Archdeacon, Luis de la Puerta, Canon Pedro Pinelo, Lic. Antonio of Corro, Bishop Baltasar del Río and Mayordomo Juan de Moguer—met with the city deputies to prepare the ceremony. An elaborate allegorical burial tumulus was erected in the central nave of the Cathedral. Canon Pedro Pinelo, who had participated in the organization of the Emperor’s wedding in 1526, and Bishop Baltasar del Río were responsible for the final arrangements. The funeral began on the afternoon of Sunday 18 May and continued on into the next day. The climax of the event, and that of maximum expectation, took place on Monday with a solemn mass and an outstanding sermon pronounced by Dr. Constantino de la Fuente.94 It is significant that Bishop Baltasar del Río was responsible for the final arrangements and that Constantino, who was not yet a canon preacher, was asked to preach the funeral sermon instead of Dr. Egidio, who held that position. Perhaps the answer can be found in Montes’s account of Egidio’s experience as a preacher: Egidio was considered very eminent in the sort of theology that at that time predominated in the whole Christian world, but he had not preached in public nor had ha ever handled the holy scriptures. So then, when he ascended the pulpit and it became clear that, against what everyone expected, he was most incompetent for that responsibility, […] The feeling grew with each passing day and those who had imprudently nominated him in the beginning as well as Egidio himself, who, no less imprudently had accepted an appointment for which he was wholly inept, began to feel such regret that more than once he thought of

93 Prince Philip began the journey but he came down with a fever and was confined to bed, so he could not go to Granada. In 1573, he had her remains transferred to the royal pantheon in El Escorial. See Inmaculada Arias de Saavedra Alías, “Exequias granadinas por reinas hispano-portuguesas. La emperatriz Isabel, la princesa María y la reina Bárbara de Braganza” [2008: 2045–2055]. 94 Antonio Joaquín Santos Márquez, “Exequias y túmulo de la emperatriz doña Isabel de Portugal en la Catedral de Sevilla” [2009: 28–41].

Biographical Sketch

voluntarily abandoning the post. […] After a few years in this uncertain situation, Egidio came upon a certain suitable counsellor, who within a few hours fully taught him the office of a Christian preacher.95

This counsellor was Rodrigo Valer, and their encounter must have taken place sometime in 1540. Constantino, on the other hand, had already acquired a strong reputation as a formidable Scripture-based preacher. 2.4

His European Tour

In 1558, Emperor Charles V decided it was time to introduce his son prince Philip, his successor, to his non-Spanish subjects. Before leaving Spain, however, drastic modifications were made regarding the prince’s royal household with the introduction of the Burgundian Etiquette, that is, rules, regulations and services Burgundian style. This meant eliminating certain archaic offices and adding new ones.96 There were significant changes regarding chaplains and preachers. For example, Martínez de Silíceo, the inquisitor whose policy of “cleanliness of blood” may have been the reason many scholars left the University of Alcalá, who had been prince Philip’s head sacristan, was replaced by Pedro de Castro, bishop of Salamanca. In all likelihood the last-minute choice of Constantino de la Fuente for preacher was Bishop de Castro’s doings.97 Indeed, the three best preachers of the realm were chosen: Dr. Agustín de Cazalla, Bernardo de Alvarado de Fresneda and Dr. Constantino de la Fuente.98 In his Historia Pontifical (1568), Gonzalo de Illescas described Dr. Cazalla as “the most eloquent preacher in Spain at the time.” Juan Cristobal Calvete de Estrella, the prince’s Latin tutor who took it upon himself to record the journey, describes Constantino as “muy gran filosofo y profundo teólogo, de los mas señalados hombres en el pulpito y elocuencia que ha habido de grande tiempos acá, como lo muestan bien claramente las obras que ha escrito dignas de su ingenio” (a great philosopher and profound theologian, and one of the most notorious and eloquent men in the 95 Montanus, The Artes…, [2018: 377]. 96 Felix Labrador Arroyo and Eloy Hortal Muñoz, “The Entourage of Prince Philip in Connection with the Felicissimo Viaje”: in Charles V, Prince Philip, and the Politics of Succession, [2020, 79–100]. 97 It is worth noting that In 1554, after his return to Salamanca, Pedro de Castro signed the “Approval” that gave Fray Luis de Granada authorization to publish his Book of Prayer and Meditations, which included Constantino’s Sermon on the Mount. 98 Agustín de Cazalla had been court preacher and personal chaplain to Charles V since 1543. Bernardo Alvarado de Freneda, a Franciscan friar, was prince Philip’s confessor. Although all three preachers were ex-alumni from Alcalá, their years there did not coincide. Agustin de Cazalla entered the service of Charles V in 1543 as court preacher and remained in the emperor’s entourage for nearly ten years.

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pulpit that there has been in a long time, as his works, which match his ingenuity, clearly show).99 Constantino’s contract was signed in September 1548,100 only a month before the tour began. This suggests that it was a last-minute decision. By mid-October he had made his way from Seville to the Catalan port of Rosas, near the French border, to begin the tour. On 19 October prince Philip arrived to inspect the galley ships. The 58 ships, manned by Andrea Doria, who had brought the Emperor’s nephew Archduke Maximilian to Spain for his betrothal with his cousin, the Emperor’s daughter María, and his post as deputy governor while prince Philip was abroad, had been waiting there for a month. As weather conditions got worse, boarding was delayed. Calvete de Estrella, who chronicled the voyage, tells us that the retinue of nobles and household members was so large ”that it seemed that there were not enough ships”; among the personalities was ”the organist Antonio de Cabezón, as well as many chaplains and priests.101 Alfonso de Ulloa, another chronicler, offers a few more details: Captain Francisco Duarte boarded the galley ship Divitia belonging to prince Doria. With him came Doctor Constantino, Don Diego Lasso de Castilla, ambassador of [Fernando I, brother of Charles V] in Rome, Christofo Ortega, head butler. They all sailed with captain Francisco Duarte. On 1 November, All Saints Day, the prince attended mass in the church of Castelló d’Empurias, near the French border. The mass was celebrated with great solemnity and doctor Constantino preached with that excellence of doctrine that characterizes him.102

Unfortunately, Constantino left no information regarding the places they stopped, and we must rely on the chronicles of Alfonso de Ulloa and Calvete de Estrella. The royal tour began with high mass in the nearby village of Castelló d’Empurias on

99 Juan Cristóbal Calvete de Estrella, El Felicísimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso príncipe Don Felipe [1552: I, f.7v]. Once Constantino was declared a heretic by the Inquisition in 1559, all references to him in Calvete’s book were expurgated. Curiously enough the copy housed in Philip II’s library in El Escorial escaped censorship. 100 On September 1, the prince signed an order whereby Constantino was to receive 15,000 maravedís per year. Four days later he sent another order: “in addition to the 11,000 maravedís of his regular yearly salary as chaplain, pay him another 25,000 maravedís a year besides.” (AGS, C. y S. Reales, leg. 107, ff. 490–491). Prices were quoted in ducados and paid in escudos; one escudo = 400 maravedis. Prince Philip assigned Constantino a yearly salary of 37.5 escudos, which was not exceptional because an ordinary chaplain of a convent earned 50 escudos, and a university professor earned 100. Perhaps that is why he added the extra 62.5 escudos. 101 See José Martínez Millán, La corte de Carlos V [2000: 213]. 102 Alfonso de Ulloa, Vita dell’inuittissimo e sacratissimo imperator Carlo V (Venice, 1574) [1581: IV, 245].

Biographical Sketch

1 November and the following day, in the middle of a great storm, they all embarked in the ships and sailed off for Genoa, where they arrived a month later due to the bad seas. From Genoa they journeyed up to Milan, where they spent the Christmas and New Year holidays and were entertained royally. From Milan they slowly made their way through ice and snow and mountainous terrain to Cremona and Mantua and from there on to Trent, where they arrived on 24 January 1549. From Trent they travelled to Munich, Augsburg, Ulm,103 Heidelberg, Spire, arriving in Brussels on 1 April 1549 where they were greeted by the Emperor. Philip and his court spent the next six months travelling throughout the Low Countries and Flanders. They were back in Brussels by the end of October, where they stayed until the following spring. Calvete describes in detail the ceremonies, the tournaments, the festivities, the banquets, the masquerade balls, etc. He also relates several curious events. For example, in Dordrecht on 25 September prince Philip was given a hearty welcome by: Five hundred very well armed soldiers, with their batons, fifes and drums. They were wearing crimson satin doublets and breeches, one white and coral, and the other yellow, with these letters very well embroidered on them: V. D. M. I. AE., which mean: The word of the Lord remains forever. One must believe that this was written out of very good and Catholic zeal, very different and contrary to the zeal with which the Lutherans commonly hold it, giving it a meaning to their own likings and erroneous purpose.”104

Although Calvete was well versed in Latin, and may well have known what the letters stood for, how did he know how the Lutherans interpreted the phrase? Another mention of Luther is found in a text related to a performance in Lille. The text states: Beneath two temples—Virtue and Honesty—there was a path, which went around many times, until it reached a window with a difficult staircase, in which there were puppets of the Apostate Julian, Nero, Tarquin the Proud, Emperor Flavius Valens, Arius, Luther and other tyrants and heretics, who wanted to enter through the window, but were being thrown into the depths of hell. […] The ancient Captains were barely able to climb from the temple of Virtue to that of Honor, but some such as Hector, Cyrus, and Julius Caesar could; Luther also strove to enter, but he was thrown out of one temple and then the

103 We find this comment in Calvete: “[In Ulm] the Prince ordered to repair a chapel and gave it a chalices and a tabernacle for the sacristy, where the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist should be, with the cleanliness required, because there are some Catholics, who, for fear of the Lutherans, did not have it with the proper decency.” Felicissimo viaje [1552: II, f. 55v]. 104 Calvette, Felicissimo viaje, [1552: IV, f. 276].

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other and fell into the waters of the river Phlegeton,105 which flows and casts out flames of fire.106

When they reached Rotterdam on 27 September 1549, they were greeted by a figure with a pen in one hand and a notebook in the other that read: “I am Erasmus of Rotterdam, o serene prince…” This was certainly a curious way to greet the prince and must have delighted Constantino. That day, many members of Philip’s retinue—the leading gentlemen of the court, among them the Duke of Alba—107 paid their respects to the great Dutch humanism. Calvete tells us that back in Brussels, the following Lent season, they spent many hours listening to sermons by the great preachers that were at court, especially three, which were “El Doctor Constantino, el Comissario Fray Bernardo de Fresneda, el Doctor Agustin de Cazalla, predicador del ….”108 Calvete ends his chronical 7 June 1550, when the Emperor, the prince and the court left for Augsburg. Calvete did not join them, but left for Antwerp where he would have his chronicle printed. During the journey Constantino had the opportunity to meet many local dignitaries, bishops, canons, etc., especially during the long stop over at Augsburg—from July 1550 to May 1551—, which coincided with the sessions of the diet. The Emperor, his brother Ferdinand, prince Philip and members of his entourage attended the opening session held on July 13, 1550, where there were over 200 delegates, between Catholics and Protestants. In 1548, after his victory in Mühlberg over the Protestants, Emperor Charles V had imposed an “Interim”, which established Catholic reconversion of the entire Empire and the reform of the Church. The idea of an “interim” was in part the doings of his brother Ferdinand who strongly recommended that the theologians draft an interim, which would expire once the Council of Trent found a compromise between the rival theologies.109 As a concession to the Protestants, the final text included the possibility of communion under both kinds and the ability for priests to marry. The teachings of the sacraments, justification, and the general infrastructure of the Catholic hierarchy remained untouched, although some slight concessions were made on each of these points. […] The measures met with serious opposition in both Protestant and Catholic territories. Nevertheless, Charles V continued to

105 In Greek mythology, the river Phlegethon was one of the five rivers in the infernal regions of the underworld, 106 Calvete, Felicissimo viaje, [1552: III, f. 144v–145]. 107 Henry Kamen, The Duke of Alba, [2004: 37] 108 The rest of the sentence is crossed out in thick black ink and impossible to read. Calvete, Felicissimo viaje [1552: IV, f. 325v]. 109 Violet Soen, “From the Interim of Augsburg until the Treaty of Augsburg (1548–1555)”, [2017: 6, 7, 9]. https://www.mwpweb.eu/1/8/resources/publication_3060_1.pdf. Accessed 10.03.2022.

Biographical Sketch

implement his policy of Interim.110 The Diet in Augsburg in 1550 dealt with two basic issues: the implementation of the Interim—as it had in 1548—and Charles V’s plan to enforce the election of his son Philip as Roman-German king over all the Hapsburg territories. His brother Ferdinand and the Protestant electors, who formed a coalition, opposed the emperor strongly in the latter. Constantino’s time at Augsburg was eventful. In early October he met with Caspar von Nidbruck, a diplomat in the service of prince Philip’s uncle Ferdinand I and his cousin Archduke Maximilian. Being a member of the Habsburg court, Nidbruck had accompanied Ferdinand I to the diet at Augsburg. The diet was an excellent place to interact with delegates from other cities and regions. Through the delegates from Strasbourg Nidbruck had learned that Francisco de Enzinas was then back in Strasburg after a short time in England.111 The friendship between Nidbruck and Enzinas dated back nearly ten years, to their student days at Wittenberg while studying under Philip Melanchthon. It was in Melanchthon’s house that Enzinas finished his translation of the New Testament into Spanish, the result of which was his imprisonment and the confiscations of his Bible. In February 1545 he escaped and made his way back to Wittenberg, then to Basel and finally, fearing for his life, to Strasbourg. In his letter to Enzinas, dated Spires, 26 August, Nidbruck states that he would gladly acquaint Constantino with Enzinas’s personal situation, but that would be best done once he had ascertained Constantino’s stand “towards pure Evangelical doctrine” as well as his opinion of Enzinas and his situation. Nidbruck assured him that he would diligently “fish out” (expiscabor) all these things, and would take care to have them transmitted to him at Strasburg through the Strasburg delegates.112 Nidbruck also advised Enzinas to avoid any mention of religion in his letters to Constantino as a measure of caution to protect all three of them in case the letters were sequestrated. This is my advice, which notwithstanding I submit to your judgment, that in the letters you send to me, you do not speak over-precisely or definitely about religion to Dr. Constantino (as is becoming to you and all pious persons), but that you write to him only in a friendly commendation of me, according to your usual kindness, and doubt not that you will always find in me a faithful and diligent correspondent.113

110 Soen, “From the Interim of Augsburg…”, [2017: 8]. 111 Francisco de Enzinas followed Martin Bucer to England in 1548 after the imposing of the Interim, but had returned to the Strasbourg a year later to print his Spanish translation of Lucian, Livy and Plutarach. 112 Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, The Confession of a Sinner. With a biographical sketch by Benjamin B. Wiffen, [1869, 15]. Wiffen states that “The intercourse between Enzinas and Dr. Constantino is shown by two unpublished autograph letters in the archives of the Protestant seminary, Strasburg.” 113 Ibid.

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Both Nidbruck and Constantino were fully aware that they had to watch their words carefully. Charles V had just published a severe anti-heretic edict while both men were in Augsburg in September of 1550, the “Edicto Perpetuo de Ausburgo”, that declared: Anyone, of whatsoever rank or condition, who shall print, transcribe, copy, or knowingly receive, carry, keep, conceal, have in his possession, sell, buy, give, distribute, scatter, or let fall in churches, or on the street, or in other places, any books or writings composed by Martin Luther, John Oecolampadius, Ulrich Zwingli, Martin Bucer, John Calvin, or other heretics or promoters of their sects.114

Being the “undercover Protestant with a vital influence at the Habsburg court,”115 all precautions were few for Nidbruck. How long it took for letters to go back and forth from Augburg to Strasburg would have depended on the courier employed. In his letter of gratitude to Enzinas for having arranged the meeting with Constantino, dated 8 October, Nidbruck states: “If you write again, send the letter to the Legate of Strasburg by a sure messenger. I will ask the Legate to place the letters in my hands, or that he cause them to be delivered to Dr. Constantino himself; sending them to him by his servant; should I have already left this place.”116 Their conversation may have centred on the diplomat-turned-historian Johann Sleidan, who represented Strasbourg at the diets. Indeed, as Strasbourg was the main motor in trying to unite the defeated—and divided—Protestants in their stand regarding the Interim, Sleidan was sent as a legate to the diets of 1548 and 1550, and to Trent the following year.117 Nidbruck knew Sleidan well. Johann Sleidan had been commissioned by the Schmalkaldic League as the official historian of the Reformation. Besides being a relative through marriage, for years Nidbruck had been—and continued to be—Sleidan’s undercover agent, supplying him with the books he needed for his projects.

114 Leandro Martínez Peñas, “La Legislación de Carlos V contra la herejía en Los Países Bajos” [2012: 51]. 115 Alexandra Kess, Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History [2008: 119]. 116 Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, The Confession of a Sinner [1869: 16]. 117 “In a letter to the XIII of Strasbourg from 20 November 1551 Sleidan described a typical session of the Council: “The theologians, for the majority monks, announce the articles, which then are ratified in the following session by the word ‘placet’. Nobody is asked, nobody has a vote, expect for the bishops who sit around with their white, pointed hats, and the legate with a golden one. The legates of king and emperor are present, but they are not asked, nor are the abbots or other prelates. [...] To sum up, they do whatever they want to, they say that the Scripture does not have voice but needed a judge who reads it and interprets its meaning; this indeed was what the Council did and everybody had to accept this.” Alexandra Kess, Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History [2008: 81].

Biographical Sketch

Sleidan began his main work, De statu religionis et reipublicae Carolo Quinto Caesare commentarii (Commentaries on religion and the state under Emperor Charles V) in June 1545. By the outbreak of the Schmalkaldic War in 1546, he had finished 4 books; by 1554 the work (25 books) was completed.118 Nidbruck also supplied Matthias Flacius, also a former student of Melanchthon, who became professor of Hebrew at Wittenberg in 1544 but soon turned his attention to church history and the need to provide a church history from a Protestant point of view. Nidbruck used all his connections to find material for their projects. He was in the fortunate position of collecting books and manuscripts for the Vienna court library, the ‘Hofbibliothek’, which allowed him to employ various people to travel across Europe and purchase material on his behalf.119 With this in mind, we can safely assume that, knowing the restrictions and difficulties for Spaniards to acquire certain authors, Nidbruck generously offered his services to Constantino. Nidbruck could easily use a diplomatic courier to send books to Seville without anyone suspecting him.120 Another interesting personality that Constantino met was the preacher Jacob Schöpper from Dortmund.121 Alexandra Kess describes Schöpper as belonging to the “via media” group of German preachers in the Catholic church who tried to reform it from within.122 They may have talk about the Erasmian Church Ordinance (1536) of which Schöpper was the main author. Besides being a popular preacher, 118 This work appears among those confiscated by the Inquisition in Seville. AHN, Inquisicion, leg. 2073, doc. See Appendix A. 119 As professor Kess suggests, “We cannot but speculate about the role of Archduke Maximilian in this whole process. There were rumours for a time about his indulgence towards Protestants, a policy which increased even more since the official toleration of Protestantism in the peace of Augsburg in 1555. This did not escape the pope either, who is said to have criticised Maximilian for his ‘Lutheran’ library.” Kess, Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History [2008: 115]. 120 “Printed books were frequently smuggled across frontiers. By the early 1550s, there were regular clandestine routes from Switzerland to Venice along which heretical books travelled. Again, in the early seventeenth century, prohibited books, usually unbound, were being smuggled into Spain, the large bibles hidden in bolts of cloth and the small catechisms disguised as packs of playing cards.” Peter Burke and Asa Briggs, A Social History of the Media [2002: 44]. 121 Both Thomas McCrie and Eduard Bohemer confirm this encounter. M’Crie found his information in Oratio de vita et obitu Johannis Hochmanni, recitata in Acad.Altorphina.Cui accessit historica narratio,de vita et obit.Jacobi Schopperi conscripta a Jacobo Schoppero. Tubingae: Cellianis, 1605, 26–28. According to Eduard Boehmer, it was through conversations between Agustín de Cazalla and Schöpper’s uncle (“old Schopper”) during Lent of 1547 that Cazalla was drawn towards Protestant views. Boehmer, Bibliotheca Wiffiana, [2007: II, 19]. He may have been drawn towards Protestant views, but he remained within the Catholic camp and was one of the representatives of German “via media”. The reference to Schopper as a “Protestant preacher”is misleading. 122 Others include Johannes Tauler, Girolamo Savonarola, Henricus Helmesius, Joannes Royardus (Royaert), Johann Justus, Johannes Hoffmeister, Johannes Wild, Giovanni Folengo, Georg Witzel (Wicelius)]. Constantino had the works of several of these men in his library. Whether he purchased them while in Germany or whether they were sent to him later is uncertain.

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Schöpper was known as a dramatist.123 Very likely their conversation gravitated around some of his neo-Latin dramas on biblical subjects which were used in the Latin schools.124 We can glean from later events that they must have talked about the Catechism Schopper had just published in 1548125 and the criticism it was receiving for statements on the sacraments and justification, which were too close to Evangelical positions.126 Those were difficult and perilous times for men who publicly associated themselves with the evangelical cause, whether in France, Germany or Spain. Constantino must have preached often while in Augsburg. We know he preached on 1 December 1550, festivity of the Golden Fleece, with the bishop of Arrás officiating.127 On 14 February 1551, the Emperor closed the Diet, which had begun on 26 July the previous year, but they were all still in Augsburg in May, when they attended the yearly mass said for the Empress. At the end of May prince Philip and his entourage left Augsburg for Spain. They arrived in Barcelona early July128 and went straight to Monzón, where court was in session. While there, prince Philip made more modifications in his household, especially in the chapel, and by September Constantino was allowed to return to Seville. He had been gone for four years. 2.5

Portuguese Connections

Michel Boeglin suggests that Constantino may have spent some time between 1533 and 1543 in Portugal invited by Henry, Cardinal-King of Portugal and archbishop of Evora.129 He may also have paid a short visit to Evora in the spring of 1554, on his way to England, which could explain why one of his works—Confession of a

123 Jacob Schopper (1514?-1554), not to be confused with his uncle Jacob Schopper the Elder, or a nephew by the same name. 124 Jacob Schöpper, Monomachia Davidis et Goliae, tragicomoedia nova simul et sacra, authore Jacobo Schocppero. (Tremoniae: 1550.) 125 This assumption is based on the fact that after Constantino’s return one of Schöpper’s works would appear translated into Spanish and printed in Portugal. 126 Philip J. Secker, “James Schopper: ‘Catholic and Evangelical’,” The Sixteenth Century Journal 4.2 [1973: 99–107]. 127 This is mentioned in passing by Manuel de Foronda y Aguilera, Estancias y viajes del emperador Carlos V, [s.l, s.n.]: 1914. The reference states: “predicó un doctor español llamado Constantino” (a Spanish doctor by the name of Constantino preached). 128 Andrea Doria had been instructed to be in Barcelona by mid-July to carry archduke Maximilian and his wife back to Genoa. 129 Boeglin, “Irenismo y herejía” [2013: 231]. Also see Vicente Beltrán de Heredia, Las corrientes de espiritualidad entre los dominicos de Castilla durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI [1941]; and Urbano Alonso del Campo, Vida y obra de Fray Luis de Granada [2005: 237].

Biographical Sketch

penitent sinner—was reprinted there that year. To Confession of a penitent sinner were appended two meditations by Fray Luis de Granada, who had been living in Evora since 1551. The printer, Andrés de Burgos, who had been invited by Cardinal Henrique to settle in Evora,130 dedicated the work to the ”Christian reader” with these words: “Many serious Christian readers are of the opinion that among all the writings that have come to light in the Spanish language, there has not been another more elegant, nor more devout, nor more profound than this Confession by Dr. Constantino.”131 The two meditations by Fray Luis, which were to be read before partaking of communion, were taken from his Libro de oración y meditación (Book of Prayer and Meditation) printed that same year in Salamanca with the nihil obstat of Bishop Pedro de Castro.132 On the other hand, we cannot discard another link between Constantino and Portugal, that is, his friendship with the two Portuguese chaplains—Pero Núñez y Pero Fernández de la Serna—who were members of prince Philip’s official household and were dismissed in September 1552, along with Constantino, once they returned to Spain.133 These two men had heard Constantino preach many times and may well have had copies of his books, in particular Confesión de un pecador, which they took back with them to Portugal. Spiritual literature written in Spanish was welcomed in Portugal.134 Even Portuguese authors living in Portugal published books in Spanish.135 Whether the two acclaimed preachers—Constantino and Fray Luis de Granada—actually met personally, is unsure but they were men of a kin spirit.136

130 See Vicente Beltrán de Heredia, Las corrientes de espiritualidad entre los dominicos de Castilla durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI [1941]; Urbano Alonso del Campo, Vida y obra de Fray Luis de Granada [2005: 237]. 131 Confission de un pecador delante de Jesu Christo, redemptor y juez de los hombres compuesta por el Doctor Constantino. Añadiéronse dos meditaciones para antes de la sagrada comunión compuestas por el padre frey luiis de granada [1554: ii]. 132 Libro de oración y meditación (Salamanca: Andrea de Portonariis, 1554). 133 José Martínez Millán and Santiago Fernández Conti, La Corte del Príncipe Felipe (1535–1556). [2001: 71] 134 Interest in Spanish works published in Portugal in the sixteenth century served as a clue centuries later in the search for lost forbidden works. In 1843 Luis de Usoz y Río found a copy of Constantino’s Suma de Doctrina in Lisbon and in 1925 the French historian Marcel Bataillon discovered a copy of Juan de Valdés’s Dialogue on Christian doctrine in the Royal Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, near Lisbon. 135 Eduardo Javier Alonso Romo, “La obra portuguesa de Fray Luis de Granada” [2009: 65]. 136 It appears that Fray Luis was sent to Portugal by his superiors to evade being interrogated by the Inquisition, who suspected influences of the Protestant Reformation in his sermons. See M. Ruiza, T. Fernández, and E. Tamaro, “Biografía de Fray Luis de Granada,” in Biografías y Vidas. La enciclopedia biográfica en línea. https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/g/granada.htm Accessed 21/05/2021.

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Motivated by mutual respect and admiration, Constantino appended Fray Luis’s work to his 1554 publication, and Fray Luis inserted a work by Constantino in the second edition of his Book of Prayer and Meditation (Salamanca, 1554). Fray Luis’s book was divided into two parts. A third part, which appeared the following year and included Constantino’s Sermon on the Mount, was actually a draft for Fray Luis’s Guía de pecadores (Sinners’ Guide), printed in 1556.137 Both the Book of Prayer and the Sinners’ Guide enjoyed several reprints until they were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books.138 After years of litigation, Fray Luis managed to obtain permission to reprint “corrected” versions. As a result, the Book of Prayer appeared with a totally new third part in 1566, and the 1567 edition of Sinners’ Guide was a complete rewrite.139 It is significant that the Bishop of Salamanca, Pedro de Castro, signed the “Approval” that gave Fray Luis de Granada authorization to publish his Book of Prayer and Meditations, which included Constantino’s Sermon on the Mount and that Fray Luis’s former professor, Bartolomé de Carranza, praised the work in his Catecismo Cristiano (1558).140 Considering that Carranza’s Catechism was printed in 1558, Carranza would have necessarily seen Fray Luis’s early editions, which included Constantino’s Sermon on the Mount. Like Constantino, Fray Luis de Granada promoted books on doctrine for lay people. For this, he commissioned Fray Juan de la Cruz to translate Jacob Schöpper’s Institutionis christianae praecipueque doctrinae summa (Cologne, 1554), which was printed in Spanish under the title: Thirty-two sermons , in which the commandments of the law, articles of faith and sacraments are declared with other things (Lisbon: Juan Blavio de Colonia, 1558). Fray Luis de Granada wrote a lengthy dedication to Cardinal-Prince Henry: You have often told me that because in your church and throughout your kingdom there are many villages and churches hidden away in the countryside, where there are few preachers, and to remedy this it would be good to write a homily of plain, simple doctrine so that on Sundays it could be read instead of a sermon, and if this was not being done, a short catechism should be read so that the people could be clearly taught the summary of Christian doctrine, for it is a great pity to see the ignorance of the people who live in these places, where they spend most of their lives without being catechized. I wish I had the ability and time to serve Your Highness in this matter, but while our Lord does not

137 Fray Luis de Granada, Guía de pecadores (Lisbon: Ioannes Blauio de Colonia, 1556). 138 Rafael García, “El horizonte de expectativas y las comunidades interpretativas en Fray Luis de Granada: El Libro de oración y meditación, la Guía de pecadores y la Introducción del símbolo de la fe” [2003 : 39] 139 Rafael García, “El horizonte de expectativas…” [2003: 45]. 140 Bartolomé de Carranza, Catecismo Cristiano [1972: I, 111–112]

Biographical Sketch

provide otherwise, it seemed to me that I could take advantage of this brief catechism that a very learned and Catholic preacher wrote for the purpose, which I had the Reverend Father Fray Juan de la Cruz translate into Spanish (for this he has special grace), with the license to remove what seemed somewhat difficult and add from other authors (although this was rare) what seemed necessary, so that Your Highness could meet this need through him, ordering to have it read in your churches or where it seemed most necessary. […] There are other catechisms in Spanish that could serve this purpose, but some seemed too long to me, others too short, others, although they had good doctrine, lacked the effects and authority of Sacred Scripture (which are two things necessary for good doctrine), others were written in the manner of dialogues,141 which is sweet style, but not suitable for reading in churches. This one alone seemed to me to lack all these drawbacks, because it is not too short or too long, and it has together with the doctrine (which is very scholarly) its affections and feelings interwoven in its places, and above all it is written in the style of a sermon, speaking generally to all the people, with exhortations, epilogues and examples, which is the style best fitted for this purpose. And what is more to be appreciated, all matters are dealt with are backed with very selected authorities of divine Scripture, both from the Old and New Testament, which are the deepest, sweetest, most profitable, and most authoritative and effective words that exist, because they are words that come from the bosom of God himself.”142

María Idalina Resina Rodrigues sees a parallel with Constantino Suma de doctrina christiana.143 Did Constantino have a hand in this? When Constantino was in Brussels again in 1555, after accompanying prince Philip to London for his nuptials with Mary Tudor, he may well have acquired a copy of Schöpper’s Institutionis christianae (1554), and taken it back with him to Spain or Portugal. The SchöpperConstantino-Carranza-Luis de Granada connection needs further study. 2.6

Back in Seville

While Constantino was away several disturbing events had taken place in Seville: a trunk of “Lutheran” books had arrived and had been confiscated by the inquisitors; Dr. Egidio had been imprisoned in 1550 on charges of Lutheran heresy (sentenced

141 A reference to Juan de Valdés’s Dialogue and Constantino’s Summary. 142 Álvaro Huerga Teruelo, “Fray Luis de Granada, promotor y testigo de la evangelización portuguesa”, [1993: I, 303–311]. 143 María Idalina Resina Rodrigues, Fray Luis de Granada y la literatura de espiritualidad en Portugal (1554–1632), [1988: 817–832]

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in August of 1552144 ) and; the inquisitors had discovered an incriminating booklet entitled Diálogo consolatorio entre la Iglesia Chiquita que está en Sevilla y Jesucristo. In the autum of 1550, a large trunk of ”Lutheran” books had arrived in Seville from Brussels. The books were smuggled in along with the belongings of Antonio de Zúñiga Guzman, Charles V’s ambassador in Augsburg, returning to Seville. The books were immediately seized and a letter from the Supreme Council was sent to Brussels with the following instructions: First, let Gaspar Zapata, servant of Fadrique Enriquez, brother of the Marquis of Tarifa, who lives in His Majesty’s court, be examined under oath… [He] should also be asked if he delivered a trunk of Lutheran books to Antonio de Guzman when Guzman left Brussels. These books have been seized by the Inquisitors at Seville. Have him declare who the books were for and if he sent them in his own name or in the name of another, and who wrote to him asking him to send them, and who he bought them from and anything else related to this business. Ask him what he told Antonio de Guzman when he delivered the books and what he was told to do with them before he embarked, that is, ask him anything and everything that might shed light on the case. Once you have the information, it should be carefully and secretly sealed in an envelope and sent to the Inquisitor General or to the Supreme Council of this kingdom of Spain.145

The arrival of the clandestine shipment came before the interview between Gaspar Nidbruck and Constantino at Augsburg. It is uncertain who sent the books or who was to receive them, or what books the trunk contained. Could Francisco de Enzinas, who was back on the Continent in 1550, have been the sender? It is difficult to believe that Constantino could amass a personal library of hundreds of Protestant books without the help of others. The insistence on secrecy makes us think that the inquisitors in Seville strongly suspected that the recipient of the books was Constantino. Zapata was examined and the results were sent from Augsburg to the Supreme Council on August 10.146 Only an acknowledgement of the letter remains, not the results. On his return to Seville in 1552, Constantino was greeted by the unpleasant surprise that his close friend Dr. Egidio had been imprisoned. In 1549, Charles V had proposed Dr. Egidio for the bishopric of Tortosa, but his appointment was cut short by allegations that surfaced regarding elements of Lutheran doctrine in his 144 In November 1552, Egidio petitioned to be sent to another place because he was not comfortable in the cell assigned him in the prison in Triana, as it was detrimental to his health. The Inquisitors suggested el monasterio de la Cartuja de Caçalla de la Sierra (80 kilometros de Sevilla) o el de la Cartuja de Jerez de la Frontera, near Cadiz. (AHN, Inquisición, lib. 574, f. 296r). 145 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 574, f. 216r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 53, doc.12]. 146 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 323, f. 118r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 55, doc.13].

Biographical Sketch

preaching. Already in April of 1542, the inquisitors at Seville had sent the Supreme Council information regarding Dr. Egidio and his connections with Rodrigo Valer, the lay nobleman who, according to Montes, opened Egidio’s eyes to true biblical preaching.147 In a letter to the Supreme Council, dated 7 December 1541, the inquisitors at Seville wrote: At the time that the Council was examining the trial records of Rodrigo Valer, it appeared that Dr. Egidio and Dr. Vargas and other people approved and authorized the things of said Rodrigo Valer and the opprobriums and infamous things that he had said against the ministers of the Holy Office, from where the said Valer could take the boldness to say what he said against the Holy Office, and it is good that against the said persons who gave him this occasion, some legal proceedings should be carried out in accordance with the law, and they are punished according to the quality of their persons and ranks. 148

From what follows in Montes’ account, Constantino may have been among the like-minded persons who “approved and authorized the things said by Rodrigo Valer”:149 After [Valer’s] salutary warning, Egidio developed a familiar relationship and close friendship with Constantino de la Fuente, a man whose learning bordered on the miraculous. Through sharing their studies Egidio began to be instructed from better books and to read better authors.150 And, finally, to make substantial progress in true theology.151

In a dispatch dated 29 July 1550, the Supreme Council asked Charles V for advice because many of Egidio’s followers were leaving the county for fear they would also be arrested: The Inquisitors of Seville have written to this Council how that, at the time the aforementioned business [Egidio’s trial] began, certain people who were friends of Dr. Egidio were leaving the city for fear of the Inquisition. One who called himself bachelor Luis Fernández, or by another name, Luis Castillo, who currently resides in the city of Paris, and that against him there is much information about holding Lutheran errors.152

147 148 149 150

Montanus, The Artes… [2018: 377–385]. AHN, Inquisición, lib. 574, f. 104v, in López Muñoz, La Reforma … [2011: II, 48, doc.9]. This suspicion is also suggested by Michel Boeglin, Irenismo y herejía.. [2013: 231]. Aretius Benedictus (Martin Bucer’s pseudonym), Sacrorum psalmorum libri 5; Benedictus Aretius. Psalmi: libri quinque (Strasbourg: Ulricher, 1529). 151 Montanus, The Artes.. [2018: 385–867]. 152 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 574, f. 216r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma… [2011: II, 52, doc.12].

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Two years later the Emperor had still not replied and Inquisitor General Valdés wrote to him again concerning the case. The Emperor seemed to be playing for time. Meanwhile, Dr. Egidio had already spent nearly two years in the Inquisition prison in Triana. Finally, the Supreme Council sent instructions to Seville urging the inquisitors to conclude the case as quickly as possible, “considering the long time the doctor has been imprisoned.”153 Finally, the Emperor proposed his confessor the Dominican Domingo de Soto as arbitrator in the case against Dr. Egidio.154 Egidio had initially requested that Bartolomé de Carranza be his lawyer, but Carranza was abroad attending the sessions at Trent. A date was set for a public disputation—midAugust 1552155 —in which de Soto was to read certain propositions, presumably agreed on previously by Egidio, which would acquit him. Whereas Montes accused de Soto of reading a text different from the one they had agreed on,156 José C. Nieto defends de Soto: From our perspective we want to believe Egidio—we sympathize with his suffering. But conscience prevails and I believe that the balance tips in favour of Soto. Following this interpretation, the events proceeded in this way: Soto read the very declaration that the two had agreed upon by means of a compromise that had as its main objective a lighter sentence. Soto accomplished his goal. I believe that all this helps us to fill in and clarify some of the vague details in Reinaldo’s account.157

Dr. Egidio was absolved and got away with the minimum sentence: three years imprisonment—two of which he had already served—and ten years removal from his clerical duties. In September of 1553, the cathedral chapter resumed payment of his salary. Although he was not allowed to preach or impart religious teaching, he was free nevertheless to exercise other administrative duties in the cathedral. In the summer of 1555, he travelled to Valladolid to negotiate a special donation requested by the cathedral of Seville. While at Valladolid, Egidio met with the leaders of the evangelical movement. There—the Italian Carlo de Sesso,158 Bachiller Herrezuelo and Pedro de Cazalla, brother of Charles V’s court preacher Augustin de Cazalla. They discussed issues such as justification by faith159 and, among other matters,

153 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 574, f. 282r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma … [2011: II, 86, doc.17]. 154 Domingo de Soto was a scholar of great renown in several fields. In 1520, he was appointed professor of philosophy at Alcala and from 1532 on he held the chair of theology at Salamanca. He intervened at the Council of Trent (1545–1547) and was Charles V’s chaplain from 1547 to 1550. 155 Constantino did not return to Seville until September, hence he was not present. 156 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 393]. 157 José C. Nieto, El Renacimiento y la otra Espana. Vision cultural socioespiritual [1997: 200]. 158 See F. Luttikhuizen, Underground Protestantism … [2016: 105–110] 159 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 5353, n. 1, in Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: III, 532].

Biographical Sketch

according to the confession Fray Domingo de Rojas made before the Inquisitors, Egidio told them that he, Constantino and Vargas read prohibited literature and that when they spoke about Luther or the other reformers in front of other people, they would refer to them by nicknames: Luther was “el doctor,” Philip Melanchthon was “el negro,” etc.160 The long journey to Valladolid was exhausting. Dr. Egidio’s health weakened and he died shortly after his return. Constantino’s travels had also had an adverse effect on his health also and he was unwell for several months. Once recovered, however, he took up his preaching obligations at the cathedral again. One of his tasks was to preach every Monday during Lent. In addition, Dr. Alonso de Escobar,161 headmaster of the Casa de los Niños de la Doctrina,162 asked Constantino and canon Hernán Ruiz de Hojeda163 to become lecturers at his school. Constantino expounded the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, and part of the Book of Job.164 As a token of gratitude for his services during the European tour, prince Philip had made arrangements for Constantino to occupy an ecclesiastical post in Malaga that seems to have become vacant. In the words of Menéndez y Pelayo, “King Philip II provided him with the maestrescolía of Malaga,165 and gave him a salary as his preacher, and while in the service of His Majesty this post was offered him 160 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 5353, n. 1, in Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: III, 375]. 161 Dr. Alonso de Escobar was the first to occupy the lectureship of Sacred Scripture at the Casa de los Niños de la Doctrina in Seville. In 1552 his uncle, Gil de Fuentes, had left an endowment for this purpose. See Klaus Wagner, “Los maestros Gil de Fuentes y Alonso de Escobar y el círculo de ‘Luteranos’ de Sevilla” [1975: 239–247]. 162 The Colegio de Niños de la Doctrina, also called the Casa de la Doctrina, took in orphans, foundlings, and abandoned boys between 6 and 20 years of age. The boys were taught the catechism, reading, good manners, elementary notions of Latin, geometry, drawing, as well as certain skills, such as tailoring, carpentry, carding, weaving, knitting, etc. There was also a school for orphan girls: la Casa de la Doctrina de las Niñas. Catalina de San Esteban, daughter of the headmistress, was arrested for teaching heresy and in the auto-da-fe of 28 October 1562 sentenced to house arrest and prohibited to enter the school again or to teach. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075, doc. (2); AGS, Estado, leg. 137, doc. 3, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 226, doc.101]. 163 Canon Hojeda was arrested for heresy in 1559 and sentenced to ten years confinement in the House of the Jesuits, deprived of his office, forbidden to teach for the rest of his life and fined 3,000 ducats. 164 Montaus, The Artes … [2018: 411]. 165 A maestrescuela had to be a man of letters and a university graduate. His occupations included that of correcting the altar and choir books, ensuring the proper functioning of the cathedral schools and being responsible for the correspondence of the cathedral chapter. He had the keys to the arch of the Sacristy where the most important documents were kept; he was in charge of the cathedral archives, the grammar school and the Scriptorium. Likewise, he was the chapter’s Latin secretary, in charge of drafting their letters, taking notes at their meetings, as well as correcting the Latin of the priests’ sermons and their chants. He was exempt from attending daytime religious services except maitines, His work had to be carried out in broad daylight, in an appropriate and bright place in the cathedral, where was obliged to comply with a schedule and could not be absent, under

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again without a public examination (oposición), but he did not want to accept it, which is all notorious.”166 As in many instances, Menéndez y Pelayo is careless in transcribing his sources. This unreferenced quotation actually corresponds to the cabildo’s defence of Constantino against the accusations made by Juan de Ovando during his examination for the post of canon in Seville.167 María Paz Aspe Ansa clarifies the quotation: Just as I was correcting galley proofs, an interesting document came to my attention discovered by J. Ignacio Tellechea Idógoras in the Simancas Archives: Libros de Cámara o Células Reales, n. 321, f. 2 v. In it two things are clear: Doctor Constantino did not have a commitment with any Church nor was he a Maestrescuela in Malaga. He begged the Prince Philip to grant him permission to forgo it in favour of his nephew Constantino de Carvajal. Tellechea reproduces the document in Salmanticensis 17 (1960), 224–5, and states: ‘The Prince to Doctor Constantino de la Fuente, my preacher. I saw your letter dated the 23rd of last month and Juan Vázquez told me what you wrote to him about the resignation that you want to make of the maestrescolía in Malaga on behalf of Constantino de Carvajal, your nephew, and the causes that have moved you to request this. And taking into consideration that, as you say, being unengaged you can better serve Our Lord and that your nephew has the qualities that are required for this post, we consider your reasons valid and hence have sent licence for this to be done. Sent from Madrid, the 17th of February (1553).”168

The archives of the Cathedral of Malaga, to which the post was attached, show no evidence that Constantino ever occupied the position in Malaga and later resigned. A certain Maestro Rodrigo appears as the first candidate to occupy the office of maestrescuela. This Maestro Rodrigo was actually Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella, who in 1501 traded the post in Malaga for Francisco de Melgar’s beneficiary in Ronda169 and in 1517 would found his famous university-college, Santa Maria de Jesús, which was to become the University of Seville. Francisco de Melgar died in 1514. According to the records in 1536 the post was occupied by Constantino de

166 167 168

169

financial penalty. See Alfonso Sánchez Mairena, “El Archivo de la Catedral de Málaga. Su primera organización a partir del inventario de 1523” [2007: 8]. Menéndez y Pelayo, Heterodoxos … [2003: IV, Ch9, 68]. AHN, Inquisición, libro 23, fol. 53. María Paz Aspe Ansa, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. El hombre y su lenguaje [1975: 70, n58]. Michel Boeglin collaborates this information. Michel Boeglin, “Le docteur Constantino et Cuenca. Notes pour une biographie d’un humaniste au temps de l’Empereur” [2011: 13]. Mª Victoria García Ruiz, “El cabildo catedralicio de Málaga a fines de la Edad Media: contribución a su estudio” [2010: 261].

Biographical Sketch

Carvajal.170 Had he been occupying the position as interim since 1536? Does the entry in 1560 that mentions the last will of “canon D. Constantino de Caravajal, maestrescuela,” (Leg. 2, #93) correspond to Constantino’s cousin?171 Besides the post in Malaga, that year Constantino also received an invitation from the cathedral chapter in Toledo. Much has been speculated regarding Constantino’s rejecting the proposal. Following the death of canon Pedro del Campoin 1551,172 the Toledo council was so anxious to hire Constantino that they decided to call him without having him sit for the required oposición (public examination). According to Montes, Constantino dismissed the offer saying that he was “very grateful for such an honour and that he would do his best to show that they had not honoured an ungrateful man. As to the rest: the bones of his parents and grandparents had been in their graves for many years, and he did not wish to accept any position which might cause their holy repose to be disturbed.”173 In our opinion, this was just another of his witty sarcastic remarks. Those were the days of Archbishop Juan Martínez Silíceo’s strict implementation of the statutes of limpieza de sangre (blood cleansing) in Toledo.174 The concept of “blood cleansing” dates back to the anti-

170 AHN, Ministerio de Hacienda, Leg. 7303–1, exp. 7. Alfonso Sánchez Mairena, “El Archivo de la Catedral de Málaga….” [2007: 8, n74]. 171 Another Constantino de Carvajal appears in a document dated 1594 in the Archivo Histórico de la Santa Iglesia Catedral de Málaga. The document states: “Report of a discussion that took place in the Choir between the Archdean of Málaga D. Pedro de Anda and D. Constantino de Carvajal, maestrescuela. Málaga, January, 1594”. Catálogo General de Documentación (Malaga, 2007), Legajo 357, #12. 172 Pedro del Campo, bishop of Útica (1537–1551) and canon preacher of the Cathedral at Toledo. Utica, better known as Bizerte, a city located on the northernmost coast of Tunisia, came under Spanish control when it was conquered by Charles V in 1535 and came under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of archbishop of Toledo. 173 Montanus, The Arts … [2018: 405]. 174 Juan Martínez Silíceo was prince Philip’s preceptor. He was made Archbishop of Toledo and later cardinal. In 1550 he launched a fierce attack on the exemptions enjoyed by the staff at Alcalá, imprisoning a number of them, including the abbot Luis de la Cadena. Montes describes the situation in Toledo thus: “During the same period there had been very bitter confrontations between Archbishop Silíceo, (of pious memory, naturally!) and the cathedral chapter. The Archbishop was extremely hostile to the principal members of the chapter, publicly branding them as (so he claimed) descendants of Jews on one or the other side. They, for their part, impatient in the face of this stinging injustice (being otherwise honest men and outstanding because of their wealth), set in motion terrible mischief against their stolid bishop, the disturber of the public peace, who had risen from plow and soil to the highest dignity in all Spain after the king, without virtue or learning, but rather (if I may be permitted to say it thus) by a fluke of fortune. On this occasion, with no respect for those who had been a hundred years in their graves, the bad archbishop made enquires—doing it, indeed, in the name of religion—about the parents, grandparents and great grandparents of the canons, perversely calling them from their graves to give an account of the race.” Montanus, The Arts … [2018: 405].

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converso Toledo revolt of 1449 led by Pedro Sarmiento. As early as 1480, the Colegio de San Clemente in Bologna excluded ”those who had fled Seville for not being old Christians.” Although other academic institutions also adopted discriminatory statutes—for example, Santa Cruz in Valladolid (1488), San Ildefonso in Alcalá (1516)—, few episcopal sees imposed ordinances requiring limpieza de sangre, with the exception of Toledo, where they were strictly implemented in July 1547. Persons requesting official positions had to prove that they had no Jewish or Muslim blood. If the genealogical evidence presented was not considered sufficient, a commission was appointed to visit the localities where information could be obtained and to take sworn statements from witnesses regarding the applicant’s ancestry. 2.7

His Journey to England

During the spring of 1554 Constantino was ill again, but he continued to preach.175 By July however he had recovered sufficiently to join the impressive number of dukes, marquesses, counts and clergymen that accompanied prince Philip to England for his wedding with Mary Tudor, which would take place at Winchester Cathedral on 25 July 1554.176 The ships left La Coruña on 12 July and dropped anchor off Southampton seven days later. To impress the English, one hundred ships carried a retinue of three thousand men, in addition to four thousand soldiers.177 This time, the Dominican theologian and professor at the College of St. Gregory, at Valladolid, Bartolomé de Carranza was also part of Philip’s entourage.178 He

175 Montanus, The Arts … [2018: 409, n156]. 176 Miguel Boegin is of the opinion that Constantino did not accompany Philip to England (Boeglin, Irenismo and herejía… [2013: 228]). Boegin contends that there is no written evidence for this. A statement found in Boehmer, quoting a letter written by Juan de Ribero, archbishop of Valencia, indicates the contrary. In the letter, the archbishop remarks in passing that when Constantino returned from England in 1556 he met with his father in Barcelona. Boehmer, Bibliotheca… [2007: II, 11 n30]. 177 According to a report sent on 5 July by Marc Antonio Damula, Venetian Ambassador with the Emperor, to the Doge, “By merchants from Spain, who have come from Spain on board a ship which has arrived at Antwerp, it is heard that they saw the Prince’s fleet sailing from Spain hitherwards, so that by this time he may be in England; and that he is bringing upwards of seven thousand infantry, and money to an enormous amount; both of which will arrive very opportunely.” Foreign Calendar, ”Venice: July 1554,” [1534–1554: V, doc. 910]. On 22 July another missive by Marc’ Antonio Damula to the Doge reads: “His coming is said to have been delayed on account of the money he brings, and which is said to be 3,000,000 of ducats: thus, 300,000 for the Queen of England, 1,000,000 for the merchants, and the rest for the Emperor. The infantry are in number about 4,500.” Foreign Calendar, ”Venice: July 1554,” [1534–1554: V, doc. 922]. The soldiers were not allowed to disembark. Charles V had given specific orders that the soldiers were to remain in the ships. 178 In 1548 Charles V had asked him to accompany Prince Philip to Flanders as his confessor, but Carranza declined the position.

Biographical Sketch

was being sent to England to restore Catholicism to a land that had been heavily penetrated by Protestantism during the previous reign.179 During the voyage and their stay in England, Carranza and Constantino had many things to talk about: Carranza’s recent conversation with Carlo de Sesso in Valladolid,180 Constantino’s experience at the Diet of Augsburg, Carranza’s experience at the sessions of Trent.181 The relations between Bernardo de Fresneda, Philip’s confessor, and Bartolomé de Carranza, however, became tense, leading finally to open confrontation. Fresneda suspected that the opinions of Carranza were having more credit in the ears of the prince than his own, which he considered very detrimental to his own interests. The final rupture occurred when rumours escalated that Carranza would replace him as Philip’s confessor.182 They became bitter enemies.183 Fresneda may even have been behind Carranza’s arrest in August of 1559. After over a year in England—with the exception of Bartolome de Carranza, who stayed on, and others who had returned to Spain—, prince Philip and his entourage arrived in Brussels.184 In September 1555 Charles V announced his intention to abdicate and on 16 January 1556, Philip was declared king. Charles V returned to Spain to retire in the Monastery of Yuste, in Extremadura, but Philip II remained in the Low Countries until 1559, ruling his domains from Brussels. While in England, Constantino would have witnessed the hostility that arose between Philip’s large Spanish household and the English servants provided by his wife.185 Neither the servants nor the nobles that accompanied Philip were welcome. The Anglican bishop, John Jewel, compared the Spaniards who came to English

179 See: John Edwards and Ronald Truman, Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor : the achievement of Friar Bartolomé Carranza [2005]; and J.I.Tellechea Idigoras, Fray Bartolome Carranza y el Cardenal Pole: Un navarro en la restauracion catolica de Inglaterra (1554–1558) [1977]. 180 See Luttikhuizen, Underground Protestantism… [2016: 109–110]. 181 Ibid., 131–132, 182 For details regarding Fresneda, see Henar Pizarro Llorente, “Bernardo de Alvarado” [2021]. 183 Besides Fresneda, one of Carranza’s greatest enemies was Melchor Cano, Inquisitor General Valdés’s right hand man. In a letter plosted shortly after Carranza’s arrest, Domingo de Soto related how Valdés and Melchore Cano tried to force him to conspire with them in their plan to ruin Carranza. Soto says: “On the 15 November 1558 they called me to their audience room and they ordered me, under oath, to declare things against you, as well as against Fray Luis de Granada and Constantino: and for greater dissimulation, they put the three together.» [D. SOTO, Letter to Carranza, Valladolid, November 20, 1558: Library of the Royal Academy of History, Process of Carranza, ms. 9/1812, f. 68 r]. 184 Among those who accompanied prince Philip to Brussels was Calvete de la Estrella, an admirer of Constantino. The coincidence of the printing of Constantino’s books in Antwerp in 1556 suggests that once in Flanders again, Calvete may have gone to Antwerp where he would have encouraged Guillermo Simón to print them. 185 One of the stipulations in Philip’s marrage contract was that he as not to use his own servants. David Loades, “Philip II and the English” [1998: 487].

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in the retinue of Philip II in 1554 with their exiled Protestant countrymen who arrived in 1559: These are few, those were many; these are poor and miserable, those were lofty and proud; these are naked, those were armed; these are spoiled by others, those came to spoil us; these are driven from their country, those came to drive us from our country; these came to save their lives, those came to have our lives. If we were content to bear those then, let us not grieve not to bear these.186

The British historian David M. Loades points out that by the end of August most of the Spanish and Italian noblemen who had graced Philip’s nuptials had been encouraged to leave and to join the Emperor’s army in the Low Countries, and the unauthorised “hangers on”, had been expelled.187 Not having been well earlier in the year, Constantino may have asked for permission to return to Spain at that time. In a long despatch from Cardinal Juan de Figueroa to the Emperor, dated Winchester 26 July 1554, Figueroa mentions that the Cardinal of Burgos had requested leave to visit his church for certain specified reasons, but there is no mention of anyone else asking for leave.188 Constantino’s return to Seville would have coincided with Dr. Egidio’s return from Valladolid.189 Egidio would have been all too anxious to retell the conversations

186 Thomas M’Crie, History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain [1829: 370–371]. 187 David Loades, “Philip II and the English” [1998: 489]. Brackets mine. The soldiers were not allowed to disembark. Charles V had given specific orders that the soldiers were to remain in the ships. In a note dated 28 July, Marc’ Antonio Damula, Venetian Ambassador with the Emperor, to Doge Francesco Venier, describes these “unauthorised hangers on”: Some of the Spaniards commenced disembarking either because they were ordered to do so, or because they were tired of being on ship-board, but the English government made them go back, and hastened the despatch of victuals to the seaside for the return of the fleet as soon as possible, and to send the Spaniards hitherwards immediately, it being said that they do not exceed 4,000, and that they are being supplied with clothes and arms of every sort, as they are nearly all destitute. They are expected to land at Dunkirk, and march through Flanders to join the army. It is understood that the Prince’s coming was delayed owing, in great measure, to the difficulty he experienced in bringing this infantry out of Spain, as besides the dislike of “questi Signori” [the Spanish Government?] to the removal from their territory of so many men, few of whom return, there must be added the evil report taken to Spain last winter by the Spaniards who were disbanded here for the sake of economy, and proclaimed that their nation was very ill treated in these parts, both by the Imperial ministers and by the people likewise. Calendar of State Papers, ”Venice: July 1554,” [1534–1554: Vol.V, doc. 923]. 188 “Spain: July 1554,” Calendar of State Papers, [1554: Vol.12]. 189 If Constantino stayed on in England with Philip after the wedding, in July 1554, and later accompanied him to Brussels and was present at Charles V’s official abdication on 25 October 1555, this encounter with Dr. Egidio would have been impossible. We know that Bernardo de Fresneda, Philip’s personal confessor, remained in England because he wrote a letter from London to Ruy

Biographical Sketch

he had had with Carlo de Sesso and the other evangelical leaders and how, at a three-party meeting in 1554 between Bartolomé de Carranza, Pedro de Cazalla and Carlo de Sesso, shortly before Carranza left for England, the future archbishop had rapidly dismissed the topic of purgatory and had ended the meeting talking about German theologians.190 2.8

His Post as Canon Preacher

On his return to Seville in 1556, Constantino found a situation of enormous tension between the cathedral chapter and archbishop of Seville and Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés. Dr. Egidio died soon after his return to Seville and plans to fill the canonry left vacant by his death began, but this required a public examination, something that had been dispensed with when choosing Dr. Egidio.191 On 15 February 1556 the post of canon preacher was announced throughout the kingdom. Seven candidates signed up for the exam: Francisco Sanchez, Pedro Zumel, Miguel Majuelo, Miguel de Palacios, Francisco Moratilla, Francisco Melendez and Constantino de la Fuente.192 On 22 April, provisor (ecclesiastical judge) Juan de Ovando announced his intention to participate as juror. This was not normal procedure. Whereas Ovando had a degree in civil law, the other chapter members were highly qualified theologians.193 Nevertheless, Ovando had managed to become a member of the chapter, which put him in a privileged position.194 The first thing Ovando required was to see the papal bulls that stipulated the conditions and procedures for the election. On 24 April a committee was appointed

190 191

192 193 194

Gómez, Philip’s advisor, dated 10 November (AGS, Consejos y juntas de Hacienda, 34/482). In the summer of 1557 Fresneda was in Flanders with Philip, now king Philip II, overseeing the experiments of the Italian alchemist, Tiberio della Rocea, in his attempt to produce alchemical silver. See Mar Rey Bueno, “La Mayson pour Distiller des Eaües at El Escorial: Alchemy and Medicine at the Court of Philip II, 1556–1598” [2009: 26–39] AHN, Inquisición, leg. 5353, no.1, fol. 84–85, in Schäfer, Protestantismo Español [2014: III, 479–480]. Oposiciones are public examinations that applicants for tenured public-sector jobs must pass in order to occupy the post. These exams must be given ample publicity in order to ensure impartiality. In the case of Egidio, the chapter had been so anxious to have him that they had waived this requisite. Ollero Pina, “Clérigos, universitarios y herejes …” [ 2007: 151–152]. Poole, Juan de Ovando … [2004: 31]. Ecclesiastical judges were often chosen by the archbishop from among friends. They wielded immense power in the absence of the archbishop. Thanks to Cayetano Fernández, member of the cathedral chapter at Seville, who Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo commissioned to copy the minutes of the council meetings related to the appointment of Constantino’s canonry, we have a rather complete picture of the tension that arose between provisor Juan de Ovando and the cathedral chapter. Menéndez y Pelayo, Heterodoxos … [2003: IV, Ch9, 67–70].

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to examine the academic credentials of the candidates and to assign them topics and days to give their demonstration sermons. Although Montes states that “the more intelligent candidates were frightened away from that contest by Constantino’s prestige and that the only ones who persevered were Majuelo and a certain fellow from Malaga,”195 it appears that all the candidates, except Constantino, gave their public lectures between 30 April and 7 May.196 On 8 May, Miguel Majuelo proposed that candidates with a doctorate from a recognized University should not be obliged to engage in public disputation. Put to a vote, the majority of the jury agreed that no one should be obliged to dispute if he did not want to, since the rules did not stipulate this. Ovando would soon challenge their decision. In addition, on 11 May Constantino’s lawyer brought the chapter a certificate, signed by Dr. Nicolas Monardes, Dr. Cabra and Lic. Olivares, stating that Constantino was too ill to speak in public and being forced to do so would imply a serious risk for his health.197 With this in mind, the canons decided to dispense with the public sermons and simply proceed with the election. When it came Ovando’s turn to vote, he began by citing numerous papal bulls regulating the election of canonries that demanded a rigorous public examination. He then went on to say that the chapter statutes stipulated that no one “descended from parents or grandparents, suspect in the holy Catholic faith, can be admitted to this holy church.”198 He insisted that the canons follow prescribed procedure; if not, he would proclaim the oposiciones null and would appeal to Rome. He even went so far as to threaten them with excommunication and a heavy fine if they chose someone who failed to provide the information he specified. Ovando fiercely opposed Constantino’s election. Besides claiming that Constantino was a descendant of Jews, he also claimed that he had reliable information that Constantino was married, and therefore ineligible to be the recipient of ecclesiastical benefit as long as he had a wife and no document certifying a dispensation. Likewise, Ovando also accused him of not having been ordained in accordance with the sacraments199 and not having received his master’s or doctor’s degree in the correct way or in the right order.200 195 Montanus, The Arts … [2018: 413]. This was Pedro Zumel. 196 Poole, Juan de Ovando … [2004: 38]. 197 Joaquín Olmedilla y Puig, Estudio histórico de la vida y escritos del sabio médico español del siglo XVI, Nicolás Monardes [1897: 26]. 198 Poole, Juan de Ovando .. [2004: 39]. 199 Erasmus had also been accused of not fulfilling the requirements. In the eyes of the Paris theologians, Erasmus was merely a “theologizing humanist” as Noël Beda put it. See Erika Rummel und Eric MacPhail, “Desiderius Erasmus,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2021/entries/erasmus/>. 200 Montanus, The Arts … [2018: 415]. Fraudulent certificates seem to have been the order of the day. In 1512 Archbishop Diego de Deza denounced cases of clergy applying for positions as chaplains

Biographical Sketch

In response to Ovando’s accusations, Fernando de Sauceda y Ojeda answered that Constantino was a man of a very good life and exemplary conduct; he had for more than twenty years been a priest and was a very eminent preacher and theologian, and for being who he was king Philip had him in his service and he confessed to him and provided him with the maestrescolía of Malaga and a salary as his preacher, all of which was well known.201 When Ovando realized that his threats were getting nowhere and that Constantino was clearly the favourite candidate, he kept insisting on the aforementioned accusations. The chapter responded by commissioning four of its members to examine Ovando’s claims and to report back the following day, 12 May. The commission’s report stated that the bulls of popes Innocent VIII and Leo X, on which Ovando based his arguments, did not apply to Spain and that the bull of Sixtus IV only demanded of the candidates the title of doctor or teacher from a recognized university. Furthermore, the statue of blood cleansing did not apply to any of the candidates since none of them had been convicted by, or reconciled to, the Spanish Inquisition.202 Consequently, all the accusations were deemed false and, if Ovando took any steps against the election of Constantino, they would appeal to Rome. Contention escalated when the canons said they would proceed with the election and meet “grievance with grievance, force with force, appeal with appeal.”203 Ovando retorted by excommunicating all of them and appointing Pedro Zumel, canon from Malaga and Valdés’s candidate, to the post. At this point, Alonso Guerrero, Constantino’s attorney and spokesman, requested that he be given the canonry in Constantino’s name, indicating a seat in the choir and complying with all the other formalities such cases required. After solemnly swearing by the statutes of the Church, Alonso Guerrero, assisted by canons Juan de Urbina and Pedro de Valdés as attorneys of the council, took possession of the canonry at five o’clock that afternoon despite Ovando’s election of Zumel. Constantino’s health began to improve and by the end of May he informed the chapter that in order to avoid problems or lawsuits he would give his public lecture. The subject selected was Distinction 30, Book 2, of Peter Lombard’s The Sentences, which deals with original sin, a subject that offered a good opportunity to detect Lutheran sympathies.204 The time appointed was the afternoon of 20 May.

201 202 203 204

for the 96 existing chapels in the cathedral and the various parishes throughout the city: ”It has been reported to us that many with false certificates receive orders from any prelate and most are so ignorant of Latin that they can’t even read it.” Antonio Moreno de la Fuente, “El Estudio de San Miguel de Sevilla en la primera mitad del siglo XVI” [1995: 349]. Menéndez y Pelayo, Heterodoxos… [2003: IV, Ch.9, 68]. Had Constantino been of converso stock this would certainly have surface here. Poole, Juan de Ovando … [2004: 40] Ibid., 41.

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Not knowing what measures archbishop and Inquisitor General Valdés, and in his name Ovando, would take regarding Alonso Guerrero provisionally taking possession of the canonry, the chapter sent a full report to Rome. Finally, a year later, on 7 June 1557, the chapter was notified that Rome had decided in favour of Constantino.205 Constantino and a select few of the chapter had won the day, but his adversaries were still busy gathering incriminating evidence against him both from his preaching and his publications. Constantino had been carrying out his duties as canon preacher in Seville for over a year when he received an invitation from the cathedral chapter in Cuenca to occupy the post of canon in that diocese. A letter has been found in the Cuenca archives, dated 2 December 1557, in which Constantino granted the episcopal notary Cristóbal de Morillas power of attorney to accept the position and to take possession of it in his name. Between 2 December and 29 December, however, Constantino may have had misgivings regarding his decision considering it overlapped with his canonry in Seville. Although it appeared to have been only an honorary appointment, it would have been unethical on his part to accept it, mainly because besides giving him a right to a place (and a vote) in the chapter it also gave him a right to a portion of its revenues. Consequently, in a letter dated 29 December, he excused himself from accepting the canonry and prebends offered to him. Despite his rejection, Pedro de Castro, the bishop who called him to be prince Philip’s preacher in 1548 and was now bishop of Cuenca, submitted Constantino’s name to the council for the post of electoral canon (canonjía ”de lectura”), and they went ahead and appointed him; a few days later—on 10 January 1558—notary Cristóbal de Morillas took possession “on behalf of Dr. Constantino Fontano, canon of Seville.”206 This reflects the long-lasting friendship between like-minded men that began during their time together travelling throughout Europe in prince Philip’s entourage. On the other hand, word must have gone around regarding the insulting way Constantino was treated during the public exam for the post of canon at Seville and Bishop de Castro may have wanted to offer him a post far from the intrigues and power-struggles of Seville. The record books of 1558, 1559 and 1560 kept by the Cuenca chapter list Constantino among the canons. His name is crossed out, however, in 1560, presumably because at the beginning of March of that year news had reached Cuenca of Constantino’s death.207

205 Menéndez y Pelayo, Heterodoxos … [2003: IV, Ch.9, 68]. 206 Dimas Pérez Ramírez, “Cuenca y las corrientes espirituales de la Edad de Oro: El Doctor Fontano y su ”Beatus Vir” [1989: 171]. 207 Bishop Pedro de Castro died the following year.

Biographical Sketch

2.9

Growing Opposition

Already in February 1557, with Constantino officially installed as canon preacher, inquisitor Carpio informed the Supreme Council that, following their instructions, “Many of Constantino’s books have been collected and more are being collected every day.”208 Nevertheless, Constantino continued to preach undisturbed. Both friends and foes flocked to hear him. Fully aware that his adversaries were constantly watching both his conduct and his preaching, Constantino often tried to confuse them with witty puns and conceits. Montes tells us that there were in circulation several of his witty sayings which, “if one looks at them seriously could be classified as wise apothegms more than humorous bons mots. These cannot possibly be translated into another language and still retain all their charm. His saltiest and most frequent mockery was reserved for hypocritical monks or churchmen swollen with sanctimonious pride.”209 Examples of Constantino’s clever word play have been recorded for posterity by several authors.210 For example, Martín de Roa recounts that one day, while preaching from the Gospel regarding false prophets, Constantino spoke, “so clearly against the Company [Society of Jesus] and those who trusted in it, albeit using codes and artifices, that for many days afterwards one heard nothing else spoken of in discussion groups and conversations. He said, among other things: Where has the quarry of new hypocrisy come from? Would you say they are humble? They appear so. So, then, do they seem humble to you? You have very large eyes and you have acquired acute vision; it is shrunken humility. How can you see it? They preach extraordinarily harsh things to you. Go to! That [humility] which the law gives has already been given; and so, you should take them for lost souls.211

On another occasion, while preaching about the five loaves, Constantino noticed that “the Canary”, a Dominican friar, and his companion were in the audience. When Constantino came to the point in the story where it says that there were twelve full baskets of bread left over, pondering over who had brought them there empty in the first place, he turned to the Dominican friars and said: ”Who brought these cestos here?” Cestos means baskets, and also rude or ignorant persons.212

208 209 210 211

AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2942, doc. 54–1, in Schäfer, Protestantismo Español [2014: II, 490, doc.305]. Monantus, The Artes … [2018: 401] Several are found in Antonio Paz y Melia, Sales españolas [1902: II, 105]. Martín de Roa, Historia d’esta provincia la Compañía de Jesús de Andaluzía [2005: 104]; Montanus, The Artes…, [2018: 402, n144]. 212 Ignacio J. García Pinilla, “La «providencia diabólica»: el lenguaje codificado del Doctor Constantino” [2020: 352].

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Another example of Constantino’s witty word play is found in Ortiz de Zuñiga. Some days, when he would see Dominican monks listening to his sermon, whom he suspected to be spies, he would stop speaking and, looking around, would say, “those capillas rob me of my voice.” Capillas means chapels, and also monk’s cowls or hoods.213 Constantino not only relished clever puns and conceits, but also what Ignacio García Pinilla identifies as coded language, which he used in such a way that “his followers were able to understand a subversive message behind apparently innocuous words.”214 García Pinilla draws a parallel between Constantino’s coded language and a couplet Sebastian Martinez put in circulation, where several phrases are decoded. The couplet speaks of a trinity (dragon, king and Antichrist) in which the dragon is the father, the king is the son and the pope—the antichrist—is the evil spirit. This trinity, adored by the vulgo to avoid death, and baptized with the name of “Holy Office,” swallows up everything, men and estates alike. Martinez may have heard these cryptic metaphors in some of Constantino’s sermons. The anonymous author of The Arts also uses the word “dragon” and refers to the Holy Office in basically the same terms: Let the whole Christian world now open its eyes, snatch from off the Inquisition’s face the mask of piety and sanctity which has allowed it to enjoy such great commendation; and recognize and expel beyond its borders these fierce wolves, lions, dragons and this brood of vipers, who until now have received veneration in exchange for their cruelty and monstrousness, as though they were heavenly gods, resulting in so much evil for the Christian commonwealth.215

With so few of Constantino’s sermons surviving, it is difficult to establish a systematic key explanation of the symbols he used. They did, nevertheless, intrigue Gonzalo González, who, narrating what took place at the auto da fe held on 22 December 1560 in which Constantino’s bones were burned, states: “Some of the many subtleties that Constantino used in preaching to his sect were discovered, which only they understood, and not the others.”216 Constantino was well aware of the intrigues brooding over him for he was often called before the inquisitors. He knew that sooner or later they would not let him go scot free and that he would be imprisoned. In this context of imminent danger, in early 1558—barely two years after his election as magisterial canon—Constantino 213 Diego Ortiz de Zuñiga, Annales eclesiásticos y seculares de la muy noble y muy leal Ciudad de Sevilla [1988: IV, 15]. 214 See García Pinilla, “La «providencia diabólica» …” [2020: 351–361]. 215 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 275]. 216 García Pinilla, “La «providencia diabólica» …” [2020: 353, n16].

Biographical Sketch

made the surprising decision to apply for membership into the Society of Jesus. This step, which has been thoroughly investigated by William B. Jones,217 is most disconcerting. It appears that at first the reaction of the Jesuits was receptive, but in the face of the growing evidence of heresy that was accumulating against Constantino, they chose to delay the matter. Finally, they rejected the request. Jones believes that Constantino was sincere in his request; David Estrada believes that Constantino’s attempt to enter the Society of Jesus must be seen in the general context of Nicodemism, which the majority of Spanish evangelicals of that time practised.218 Adolfo de Castro reproduced the following passage that he claimed he found in Juan de Santibañez’s Historia de la Compañía de Jesús related to Constantino’s contact with the Jesuits: Shortly after this Constantino made a formal application to be admitted as a member of the College which the brotherhood had established in Seville. Whether he took this step with the view of evading the danger of rapidly increasing suspicion; or whether he had conceived the design of attempting to convert the Jesuits to Protestantism, it is impossible to determine, but it can scarcely be imagined he was sincere in his wish to join the fraternity. Father Santibañez, in his Historia de la Compañía de Jesús, furnishes the following particulars relating to Constantino’s application and its result. “Constantino came to our college and discoursed with Padre Bartolomé de Bustamante, then exercising the functions of Provincial. He declared that his mind was beginning to be disabused of the world and its vanities; at the same time, he feigned the utmost contempt for all mundane concerns, and expressed his wish to retire wholly from them. He declared his resolution to devote himself to religion, to do penance for his sins, and to correct the vanity and presumption of his sermons, by which he said he had gained more applause to himself than souls to God.—Several days elapsed, during which the Fathers discussed together Constantino’s proposition, but without coming to any agreement on the question. In the meanwhile, Constantino’s frequent visits to our college were observed, and it began to be reported about that some secret scheme was in agitation. These reports reached the ears of the Inquisitor Carpio, and he desired to make himself acquainted with the facts of the case. He thought it best to address himself privately to Father Juan Suárez, with whom he was on friendly terms. Accordingly, he invited Suárez to dinner, and during the repast he turned the conversation on matters concerning the Jesuits. He asked several questions

217 Jones, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente… [1964: 447–473]. 218 The term ‘Nicodemite’ was coined by John Calvin to designate those Christians who inwardly professed non-Catholic religious convictions, but outwardly failed to speak publicly and openly against the Catholic Church. See D. Estrada Herrero, “Introducción,” Exposición del Primer Salmo [2009: 24–28].

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respecting some of the probationers; which questions Suárez answered; and thereupon the Inquisitor said— “‘I have heard that Doctor Constantino proposes to join the society.’ “‘He has,’ replied the Padre; ‘but what of that, señor, though his proposition has been listened to and entertained, yet we have come to no decision upon it.’ “‘He is,’ resumed the Inquisitor, ‘a person of weight and influence, and much looked up to by reason of his great learning;—yet I doubt whether a man at his age, and one who has always been accustomed to think and act according to his own will and pleasure, could easily submit to the restraints of a noviciate, and to the rigour of monastic rules. Instead of conforming to the regulations of your society he will, on the plea of his own superior merit, lay claim to, and possibly obtain some of those dispensations so odious in religious communities, whose high character can be maintained only by the perfect equality of duties and privileges. Believe me, when Constantino has fairly entered your college, he will give much to get out of it, and to bid you all farewell. To permit him to remain there with exemptions, would be a dangerous relaxation of the religious discipline so inviolably maintained by your society. It is by this sort of relaxation that monastic laws lose their force, and thereby many congregations suffer in the integrity of their principles. I assure you,’ pursued the Inquisitor, ‘that it gives me pain to communicate these doubts; but if the affair concerned me as it does you, I would decline Constantino’s proposition.’ “These words made a deep impression on Father Juan Suárez, and they excited in his mind suspicions which however he very artfully concealed, and he calmly replied to Carpio— “‘Your observations are perfectly just, most reverend señor; the affair demands serious counsel and deliberation. I shall think well on what you have said.’ “Suárez then took leave of the Inquisitor, and on his return to the College he related to the Father Provincial (Bustamente) what had taken place. The next time that Constantino came to visit the College, Father Bustamente gave a decided denial to his application for admittance, and to check any unpleasant rumours that might be spread by those who either knew or suspected his object, the Father Provincial begged that he would come to our college as seldom as possible. Constantino departed much disappointed and mortified, and shortly after he was arrested by order of the Inquisition.”219

2.10 Constantino’s Library Constantino’s income allowed him to build a substantial library. His salary as canon preacher at the cathedral was quite significant. To this must be added the annual amount of 700 ducats assigned to him as court preacher by Philip II and the income from the canonry of Cuenca. The inventory of his property gives an idea of the

219 Adolfo de Castro, El buscapié [1848: 133–139], trans. Thomasina Ross, El Buscapié, with the Illustrative Notes of Don Adolfo de Castro, London: Richard Bentley [1849].

Biographical Sketch

magnificent his library.220 Klaus Wagner believes that most of Constantino’s income was spent on books. Montes corroborates this: “And yet, for his great popularity with everyone (except for the malicious hypocrites) he took nothing more, in terms of material wealth, than a moderate means of life and a decently provisioned library.”221 According to Klaus Wagner, Constantino’s library consisted of nearly a thousand volumes, which included the six-volume Complutensian Polyglot Bible, a copy of the Septuagint, two Hebrew Bibles,222 six Latin Bibles,223 separate volumes of the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms,224 ten different editions of the New Testament,225 several copies of Epistles and Gospels for the Liturgical Year,226 sermons by

220 Klaus Wagner, El Doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente— El Hombre y su Biblioteca [1979]; Pedro Manuel Piñeiro-Ramírez, “Algunas consideraciones sobre la biblioteca del Dr. Constantino” [1980: 301–312]. Titles of books, as well as other inventoried goods, are kept in the Archivo de Protocolos in Seville: Oficio IX, of Mateo de Almonacid, Libro 3 of 1558, folios 1109 to 1130 of register 41. 221 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 405]. 222 One was very likely a copy of Daniel Bomberg’s Hebrew Bible (Venice, 1546–1548). Another could have been the Ebraica Biblia Sebastiani Munsteri (Basel, 1546), which appeared in the inventory of prohibited books complied by Dr. Herredia in 1583 (AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4426, doc. 31). 223 One of these may have been Santi Pagnini’s interlinear Hebrew/Latin translation: Veteris et Novi Testamenti nova translatio (Lyon, 1528) or even more likely Miguel Servetus’s revision of Pagnini’s Bible (Lyon: Hugo de la Porte, 1542). Others could have been one of the Latin Bibles printed by Robert Estienne in Paris in 1540 or 1545, as well as any one of the many Latin Bibles printed in Lyon in 1536, 1540, 1541, 1542, 1544, 1546 or 1549, or in Antwerp in 1541, and sold throughout the country before the decree prohibiting Latin Bibles printed outside Spain went into effect. One could also have been the Latin Bible printed in Salamanca by Andrea de Portonariis in 1555, a replica of Robert Estienne’s Biblia de Vatablo (Paris, 1545), which Portonariis printed to bypass the prohibition edict and to fulfill the growing demand for Latin Bibles. See F. Luttikhuizen, “Los avatares de la Biblia de Vatablo” [2019: 25–44]. 224 There was a copy of Lefèvre d’Etaples’s Quincuplex Psalterium (Paris: H. Estienne, 1509). Klaus Wagner, Constantino, El Hombre y su Biblioteca [1979: 55]. 225 Some of these would have included one of Erasmus’s (1516, 1519, 1522, 1527 or 1535) and one of Robert Estienne’s (1546, 1549, 1550). Estienne’s 1550 edition is also called the Editio Regia (Royal Edition) because of the elegant Greek font he used. 226 Epístolas y Evangelios por todo el año litúrgico (Epistles and Gospels for the Liturgical Year) was a translation into Spanish of the passages of Scripture read in Latin in the churches each Sunday, to which was added commentaries and short sermons by Hugo de Prato, Johann Herolt, Walafrid Strabo, or Nicholas of Lyra. It served as a sort of manual of pastoral theology for priests, as well as for devout lay persons who wanted to meditate on them in private—and in a language familiar to them. Epistles and Gospels enjoyed many reprints— Toledo, 1512; Sevilla, 1526; Toledo, 1532, 1535; Sevilla, 1536; Amberes, 1538; Sevilla, 1543; Amberes, 1542, 1544; Toledo, 1549; Amberes, 1550; Zaragoza, 1550, 1555; Amberes, 1558— until it was put on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559 as a result of the decree that prohibited the printing of Scripture in the vulgar tongue. After 1586 the work was again reprinted but with “corrections”. It seems that the censorship was directed mainly to Herolt’s sermons. A long passage that was completely erased refers to the Virgin Mary. In

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Johannes Tauler, Girolamo Savonarola, Henricus Helmesius, Joannes Royardus, Johann Justus, Johannes Hoffmeister, Johannes Wild, Giovanni Folengo, Georg Witzel (Wicelius) and others.227 It appears that Constantino was particularly interest in Witzel, as there are nine titles of his works. There were medieval authors—Thomas Aquinas, Saint Bernard, Peter Lombard, Duns Scotus—as well as contemporary Spanish authors: Johannes Driedo, Bartolomé de Carranza, Domingo de Soto, Alonso de Virués, Augustinus Steuchus, etc.228 There were also classics—Catullus, Cicero (18 titles), Plutarch, Quintilian, Virgil, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Heliodorus, Juvenal, Livy, Pindar, Pliny, Aesop and others—, humanists—Pietro Bembo, Nicholas of Cusa, Giovanni Boccaccio, Petrarch, G. Battista Guarini, Antonio de Nebrija, Luis Vives, Giovanni Pontano, Jacopo Sannazaro, Antonio Brucioli—, as well as books on world history, cosmology, mathematics and various other topics. The author that appears most often, however, with a total of seventeen works, is Erasmus.229 The volumes that were part of Constantino’s open library were not doctrinally dangerous. In the inventory of the library of Joan de Vic, bishop of Mallorca, several of the same titles appear.230 Most of them could have been purchased—or ordered—without difficulty in the bookshops of Seville, where a flourishing trade existed nurtured by booksellers both foreign and local. This would change drastically after Valdés’s 1559 Index was published. In the course of his research in the Archivo de Protocolos, related to the book trade in Seville, Klaus Wagner found a number of inventories of bookshops in which appeared many of the same titles as those of Constantino’s library.231 Constantino’s interest in the German theologians of the via media—Tauler, Helmesius, Royardus, Justus, Hoffmeister, Wild, Folengo, Witzel—is significant. Johannes Wild (Latinized Ferus) was a renowned Franciscan preacher. His Biblical commentaries enjoyed great prestige in Germany, the Netherlands and Louvain until they were put on the list of prohibited books. Wild sought to explain step by step the stages of justification and the various types of gratia at work in each. He used “Protestant-sounding” statements such as “all Christians are priests” in his

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228 229 230 231

the margins there are two notes, one says ”a lie” and the second one says ”he lies again, Mary was conceived without original sin.” These notes suggest that the original text stated the contrary. It is important to note that these authors—Johannes Tauler, Girolamo Savonarola, Henricus Helmesius, Joannes Royardus (Royaert), Johann Justus, Johannes Hoffmeister, Johannes Wild, Giovanni Folengo, Georg Witzel (Wicelius)]—were prominente Catholic theologians belonging to the reformminded German via media. Wagner, Constantino, El Hombre y su Biblioteca [1979: 34]. In addition to several miscellaneous works, Constantino possessed Erasmus’s 9-volume Opera Omnia, edited by Beatus Rhenanus in Basel in 1540. J. Enric Mut i Ruiz, “La biblioteca de don Joan de Vic, bisbe de Mallorca,” [2001: 339–368]. Klaus Wagner, Constantino, El Hombre y su Biblioteca [1979: 24].

Biographical Sketch

sermons and his own translations from the Greek instead of the Vulgate. For Wild, good works that did not proceed from faith were “dead works, that did no good”.232 These authors were part of a renovating current within the Catholic Church that emphasized a genuine and personal religious experience, an “inner Christianity” that gave prominence to the doctrine of justification by faith and downplayed external rites and the invocation of saints. Constantino’s theology shows strong parallels with this renovating, evangelical current. Constantino was also acquainted with “heretical” authors. During Dr. Egidio’s brief stay in Valladolid in the summer of 1555, he told Carlo de Sesso, Bachiller Herrezuelo and Pedro de Cazalla that he, Constantino and Vargas read prohibited literature.233 Considering that Francisco de Vargas died in 1546, this suggests that already in the early 1540s Constantino had access to these authors. Who owned these books or how they had access to then is unsure. In March of 1521, Pope Leo X addressed a brief to the Spanish authorities warning them against the introduction of Luther’s books. On 7 April, even before the Diet of Worms had concluded, Inquisitor General Adrian published the first directive against the writings of Martin Luther: We have been informed that some persons, with evil intent and in order to sow cockles in the Church of God and to rend the seamless tunic of Christ our Redeemer, have extended their efforts to bring into Spain the works recently written by Martin Luther, of the order of Saint Augustine, which works are said to be printed in Spanish for publication and sale in this kingdom. It is eminently proper for the honour and service of God and the exalting of our holy Catholic faith that such works not be published or sold, nor appear anywhere in this kingdom, because they contain heretical errors and many other suspect things about the faith. We therefore direct you to order, under pain of grave censures, as well as civil and criminal punishment, that nobody dare to own, sell, or permit to be sold in public or in private, any such books or any parts of them, and that within three days of the publication of your order such books, in both Latin and Spanish, be brought and presented before you. When this is done you will then burn them all in public, directing the notary of your Holy Office to record the names of all persons who possess, sell, publish and bring before you such books, and the records of their burning, including the number of books burned.234

In April 1525 Inquisitor General Alonso Manrique had issued an edict that required citizens to “denounce any persons whom they knew or suspected of having such

232 See John M. Frymire, The Primacy of the Postils: Catholics, Protestants, and the Dissemination of Ideas in Early Modern Germany, [2010: 333–334, 366]. 233 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 5353, n. 1, in Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: III, 546]. 234 John E. Longhurst, Luther’s Ghost in Spain (1517–1546) [1969: 14].

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accursed books of that perverse heretic.”235 Despite these edicts against the possession of heretical literature, by June 1530, the Supreme Council began to realize that Protestant literature was not only brought into the country by persons who had been abroad, but was actually being sold in the shops. All tribunals were ordered to obtain from booksellers in their district a list of all books in their shops so that the books by authors whose names were unfamiliar might be examined for theological errors.236 On 28 March 1534, the Supreme Council sent out another circular letter: As you know, some time ago we wrote you telling you to find a way that those that have books or writings or tracts of that evil heretic Marin Luther or of any of his followers or adherents should hand them over to you; and those that know of others who have them should inform you. We believe this measure has been very successful. But because, as you know, many people from this country have gone to Germany in service of the Emperor, where those evil heresies are very widespread and observed, they could have brought back some book, or books, containing that perverse doctrine and errors; hence, it would be good to publish the edicts anew and to add more books and other authors that contain new errors and doctrines contrary to our holy Catholic faith and against the Holy Apostolic See.237

As the century moved on, many of those who had declared themselves Erasmians had turned to the German reformers. This is evidenced by the wide range of authors listed in the inventory of confiscated books kept in the secret chambers of the Inquisition in Seville.238 The decade of greatest import activity seems to have been the 1540s, with 75 confiscated works published that decade. The authors most cited are Erasmus Sarcerius (15 titles), Johann Brenz (12 titles), John Calvin (10 titles), Philip Melanchthon (10 titles), Joannes Oecolampadius (9 titles), Heinrich Bullinger (8 titles), Joannes Bugenhagen (7 titles) and so forth. Though the number of bookdealers selling “Lutheran” literature under the counter had to be relatively small, it was nevertheless possible to acquire nearly any title. The list of more than 400 “heretical” books confiscated, published in 1563 by the Inquisition,239 suggests that dealing in such literature was a thriving business. One of the titles that appears on the list and very likely had been part of

235 AHN, Inquisicion de Toledo, Proceso contra Juan de Vergara, Legajo 223, no. 42, fols. 15r-v; AHN, Inquisicion de Toledo, Proceso contra Luis de Beteta, Legajo 102, no. 3, fol. 26r. 236 AHN, Inquisición, Libro 320, fols. 321v–322r and 343r-v. 237 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 573, f. 14. 238 See F. Luttikhuizen, “Clandestine Protestant Literature Reaches Spain” [2019: 129–146]. Surprisingly, there is only one work by Luther: Omnium Operum tomus primus, secundus, tertius, quartus et sextus (Wittenberg: J. Lufft, 1551). 239 See Appendix A.

Biographical Sketch

Constantino’s “secret” library is Comentarium hebraycum Rabi Kimchi in decem psalmos (Strasbourg, 1544) by the Hebrew scholar Paul Fagius, which Constantino may have used when preparing his sermons on Psalm 1.240 A letter from inquisitor Juan González de Munebrega to the Supreme Council, dated 14 September 1561, is illustrative of how some clandestine literature was introduced: Yesterday, I heard a witness say that four or five years ago, when boxes or merchandise was released at customs, so that the guards would not open them, it was stated on the official customs note attached that they did not contain books, and, so that the guards would not open the said boxes or bundles, they came certified with Luis Sotelo the bailiff ’s seal, and with this they let them pass and did not open them. Whether this is true or not, it does not seem right to me, even if it is done by commission of the Inquisitors. The inquisitors must find out how it happens that Luis Sotelo’s seal has such authority that with it the guards do not open trunks and let them pass, where so much poison can enter and spread. This was done before 1558, but whether it continued later, the witness did not know.241

The arrival of Protestant literature smuggled into Seville by the colporteur Julián Hernández (“Julianillo”) in the summer of 1557—part of which was meant for Constantino—led to the discovery and arrest of the underground circle of “Lutheran” sympathizers. In November, the Supreme Council sent the following report to Philip II, who was still in Brussels: We have been told that a great number of books have arrived [in Seville] that contain many heresies. These books have been found in the hands of prominent citizens both in the city and in the surrounding areas who have correspondence with Juan Perez [de Pineda], resident in Frankfort and a good friend of Dr. Egidio, who left Seville when he was about to be arrested. He wrote the books and sent them with a Spaniard turned Lutheran [Julian Hernandez, who had brought them to Seville in July] and who is now incarcerated. They have proceeded to examine the prisoner and to investigate the persons who received the books. We will continue to inform Your Majesty on this matter.242

Later that same year, Inquisitor General Valdés sent a letter to the Pope in which he stated that everything possible had been done to stop the sale and the entrance into Spain of prohibited books, which “is the main cause of this disaster. Nevertheless,

240 See Michel Boeglin, “Salterios y comentarios al Salmo en el Quinientos en Castilla. Entre herencia conversa y sensibilidad evangélica: el Beatus Vir (1546) del doctor Constantino” [2017]. 241 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2942, doc. 40. 242 AGS, Estado, leg.121, doc. 165.

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heretics in Germany and other places, who have correspondence with persons here, find ways to introduce them.”243 One of the largest libraries containing forbidden literature in Seville belonged to Fray Domingo de Guzmán. When Guzman was arrested early in 1558, he was first questioned regarding certain heretical books that he had brought with him from Flanders and had shared with others.244 When the inquisitors discovered that he was one of the recipients of the books smuggled in by Julianillo, orders were given to confine him to his rooms while his books and papers were taken to Triana for examination.245 It took the inquisitors over a month to classify his large library. His books were put in secret keeping with instructions that no one should have access to them. Because Inquisitor General Valdés had not yet published his Index of Prohibited Books in order to legally support this action, the inquisitors had to resort to the Pragmatic Sanction, published in September of 1558 that regulated the introduction, production and sale of books in Castile, which stated: No bookseller or book dealer or any other person of whatever profession he be is allowed to bring in or smuggle [into the country] or sell any book or work printed, or in manuscript form, of those prohibited by the Holy Office of the Inquisition, in any language, be the work or book of any sort, under penalty of death, and the loss of all his goods, and all such books should be burned publicly.246

2.11 His Clandestine Library As stated earlier, there was nothing particularly incriminating about Constantino’s library, but the existence of clandestine literature implies a clandestine library. Indeed, Constantino kept two libraries, one in his official residence and a secret library in the house of a wealthy widow, Isabel Martinez de Alvo. Isabel was arrested in the summer of 1557 and taken to Triana for questioning regarding some books Julianillo had delivered to her. As was the case with all those taken to Triana, Isabel’s goods were immediately sequestrated and inventoried.247 When Luis Sotelo, the aguacil (bailiff), came to the house a second time for some chests of jewels they had left behind, Isabel’s son Franciso de Beltran, suspecting his mother had disclosed details regarding Constantino’s secret library, took the aguacil straight to the part

243 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 245, f. 230r. 244 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075, doc. 3, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 307, doc.148]. 245 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 575, ff. 57r–57v, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 117, doc.39]. On 3 March 1558 Domingo de Guzmán was taken to Triana, where he remained for five years. 246 María del Carmen Utrera Bonet, “La Pragmática del 1558 sobre impresión y circulación de libros en Castilla” [2013: 278]. 247 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075 (1), doc. 2, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 274, doc.129].

Biographical Sketch

of the house where Constantino’s books were kept. Dumbstruck by this unexpected turn of events, the bailiff took both the books and Francisco back with him to the inquisitors. Thus, “in the end, all of Constantino’s works that were of any value came out of their hiding place into the light of day and into the inquisitors‘hands.”248 Because Isabel’s children also knew about the books and had not denounced Constantino, the whole family was punished. They all remained in prison for several years until their sentences were pronounced and confirmed by the Supreme Council.249 Isabel Martinez de Alvo was sentenced to the confiscation of half her goods and ten years of house arrest in the home of a widow who lived near the monastery of Nuestra Señora de la Victoria, in Triana, and obliged to hear mass every Sunday.250 Her daughters Elvira and Leonor and her son Francisco received lighter sentences.251 Francisco was sentenced to public whipping and was prohibited to leave the city without permission under penalty of being sent to the galley ships for life. He was obliged to go daily to the House of the Jesuits for instruction and to pay 500 ducats for expenses incurred in by the Holy Office.252 Elvira was sentenced to two years of house arrest and a fine of 200 ducats.253 Leonor was allowed to hear her sentence in the chapel of the Triana prison where she abjured de levi—admitted a minor error—and was also sentenced to pay a fine of 200 ducats for expenses incurred in while in prison. Even though the veracity of Montes’s narrative has often been questioned—and even ridiculed as novelesque—,254 in recent years scholars have found trustworthy documents that corroborate Montes’s account.255 For example, a letter dated 23 August 1559 from Father Suárez to Superior General Diego Laínez, states: “They found, in the house of a woman, more than 2,000 prohibited books walled up in two panels and she and they have been taken to the Inquisition.”256

248 249 250 251 252

253 254 255 256

Montanus, The Artes… [2018: 417–419]. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2944, doc. 62. In March of 1573, Isabel’s reclusion was commuted to fastings, pilgrimages, etc. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075 (1), doc. 2, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 222, doc.103]. Francisco de Beltran may have been sentenced to the stake at the auto da fe held on 11 July 1563. In Pedro de Morga’s account book there is an entry, dated 1564, that begins: “Francisco de Beltrán, relajado (burned).” AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4683 (3). Elvira’s husband, the merchant Pedro Ramírez, was burned at the stake on 26 Abril 1562. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4683 (3). Marcel Bataillon refers to Montes’ narrative as “un buen capítulo de novela, una piadosa leyenda” (a good chapter for a novel, a pious legend). Bataillon, Erasmo y España [1966: 528]. See Boeglin, Reforme et dissidence religieuse en Castille au temps de Charles Quint [2016: 307–315]. Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 417, n170].

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2.12 Imprisonment and Death The hopes the Erasmian scholars had set on crown prince Philip during his 1548 European tour were shattered when Philip returned to Spain ten years later. In a letter to his sister Juana, dated 16 October 1558, Philip, now king Philip II and still in Flanders, informed her that he had received news from friends saying that in Seville Constantino and Maestro Blanco, prior of the San Isidoro Monastery in Santiponce, had been imprisoned for heresy. Philip added, “It appears that this heresy [Lutheranism] is becoming widespread, hence a remedy must be found before it is too late.” Two months later, he wrote to her again showing his greatest displeasure that in all the correspondence arriving from Spain in the past months not a word was mentioned about this matter, and he again insisted that the most severe punishment must be imposed on the offenders.257 His first public appearance on his return was to preside over the second auto-da-fe in Valladolid. Finally, on 22 November 1559 he gave the final blow to Spanish humanism by promulgating a royal Pragmatica sanction that prohibited the subjects of the Crown of Castile from studying abroad. With the exception of doing it in the universities of the Crown of Aragon, including Naples, Coimbra in Portugal and Rome and Bologna in Italy. A few years later, in 1568 he extended the law of the Crown of Aragon. Nevertheless, there were students who continued to study abroad. Opposition to Constantino’s preaching was also growing. According to Martín de Roa, Pedro Mexía, who twenty years earlier had shared Constantino’s enthusiasm for Erasmus, precipitated Constantino’s fall: It happened one day that when Constantino had just preached, Pedro Mexía, coming out of the church, said: ”As the Lord lives, this doctrine is not good, nor is this what our parents taught us!” This, said by a man so grave and esteemed, caused a great deal of uproar, and gave others audacity so that others also resolved to express the suspicions that they had in their hearts that Constantino was a heretic.258

Allegations of preaching “false” doctrine came from Dominican friars—Nicolas de Salas, Juan de Burgoa Juan de Ochoa259 —as well as the Jesuits—Juan Baptista Sánchez and Antonio de Madrid.260 In view of the many accusations brought

257 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 1267, fol. 19r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 122, doc.45]. 258 Martín de Roa, Historia d’esta provincia la Compañía de Jesús … [2005: ms.331/23, fol.48v]. 259 Armando Cotarelo y Valledor, Fray Diego De Deza, Ensayo Biográfico [1902: 277]. On 19 September 1562 Salas and Ochoa received from the Inquisition a bonus of 6000 maravedis. Juan Gil Fernández, Los conversos … [2000: II, 351]. 260 García Pinilla, “Escritura y reescritura del relato de la orden dominica sobre el doctor Constantino de la Fuente” [2018].

Biographical Sketch

against Constantino’s preaching, and the increasing number of proselytes he was gaining, Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés—“the most inflexible of the inquisitors”—,261 with the full power of attorney granted him by Pope Paul IV, set in motion what Bataillon describes as “the new method of repression, based on the terror of example.”262 On 1 August 1558 Constantino preached his last sermon in the cathedral of Seville; fifteen days later, on 16 August, he was imprisoned. The power struggle did not catch him by surprise, but the tables had turned faster than he expected. Almost immediately his goods were seized. To carry out the sequestration, the bailiff, the treasurer, the notary and the depositary (the person to whom these goods were entrusted) were present. In the case of Constantino, Diego Muñoz, prosecutor (fiscal), commissioned by inquisitor Miguel del Carpio,263 would have given the order and Luis Sotelo, bailiff,264 Domingo de Azpeitia, notary,265 and Diego Díaz Becerril, depositary,266 would have been present at his detention. Once the inventory was drawn up, a copy was given to the depositary, another remained with the inquisitors in Seville and a third was sent to the Supreme Council. While the accused was in prison awaiting trial, his/her assets would be administered by the treasurer, who kept an account of the expenses so that, once the trial was held and the sentence announced, the goods would be returned if the accused was found innocent. If the accused was found guilty, his/her assets were handed over to the Inquisition and from that moment on became part of the royal treasury. If the goods seized were considered penance and not confiscation, they went to the local Holy Office and not to the royal treasury.267

261 Bataillon, Erasmo y España [1966: 701]. 262 Ibid., 709. 263 As the workload began to pile up for only two inquisitors—Andres Gasco and Miguel del Carpio—, in September of 1558, Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés sent for the Bishop of Tarazona, Juan Gonzalez de Munebrega, to join them. (Inquisitor Francisco de Soto arrived two years later, in the summer of 1560.) Gonzalez de Munebrega had been inquisitor in Sardinia, Sicily, Cuenca, Valencia, Valladolid, and visiting inquisitor in Catalonia. He was Inquisitor Extraordinary and vice Inquisitor General under Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés from 1558 to 1562. 264 Sotelo was the bailiff that discovered Constantino’s secret library when he went to Isabel Martinez’s house for her jewels. 265 This could have also been any one of the notaries of sequestered goods: Pablo García, Bartolomé de Alendín [Alberdin], Nuño de Herrera or Eusebio de Arrieta. Nuño de Herrera accompanied inquisitor Andres Gasco when he arrested Julianillo after he escaped. Eusebio de Arrieta’s illness in the summer of 1559 was the reason the auto da fe had to be postponed until 24 September. 266 The wealthy merchant Diego Díaz Becerril was the depositary of Constantino’s confiscated goods. Juan Gil Fernández, Los conversos y la Inquisición sevillana [2000: V, 19]. 267 María Rosa Eva Martín López, et al, “El Real Fisco de la Inquisición en el Archivo Histórico de Granada” [2015: 4–5].

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Domingo de Azpeitia was active already as notary in charge of documenting Egidio’s trial in 1550. He would have been present at the arrest and crossexamination of nearly all the leaders of the evangelical movement: Juan Ponce de León, Juan Gonzólez, María de Bohorquez, María de Virues, María de Cornejo, Isabel de Baena, Francisca de Chaves, Cristobal Losada, etc. Azpeitia was promoted to the office of receptor (treasurer) on 10 August 1558, five days before Constantino was arrested. Considering that he did not take possession of his new post until the end of October,268 he would have been the notary documenting Constantino’s entry into prison and the initial interrogations.269 Constantino’s possessions remained in the hands of Diego Díaz Becerril until after his death because Constantino died before his trial had come up. According to receptor Pedro de Morga, whose job it was to keep an inventory of all confiscated goods in his account book, Constantino’s assets were valued as follows. Constantino had received an annual salary from Philip II since 1548 that came up to some 100,000 maravedís. Likewise, among his possessions there was a small printing press and riggings (aparejos) valued at 30,000 maravedís,270 as well as books sold at public auction in September 1562. This, according to Morga, adequately covered the expenses incurred in during Constantino’s imprisonment, which came up to 30,672 maravedís.271 The printing material produced a good price, but Morga complained that many of the smaller books were either lost or stolen, and that in general they brought in little money because “there was little interest in that type of book.” Were these some books he had in his ordinary library? In all probability Constantino’s collection of “prohibited” books was kept in the secret vaults in Triana and may have been among those inventoried in 1563. Morga’s claim that there was little interest in the books is surprising because one of the books brought out at the public auction was a copy of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, purchased by Fray Lucas de la Sal, who later sold it to Fray Martin de Abrego, who in turn bequeathed it to the St. Augustine monastery in Jerez

268 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 575, f. LXVIIIºv; AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2942, doc. 51–1. 269 In a letter dated 12 August 1560, González de Munebrega informed the Supreme Council of the treasurer’s bad health. Azpeitia may have died in October or November of 1560. In January of 1561 the new treasurer, Pedro de Morga, was busy informing the inquisitors of goods confiscated. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2479, doc. 307–1; AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 4. For Azpeitia’s humane dealings with Elvira Núñez, the woman who gave birth while in prison, see F. Luttikhuizen, Underground… [2016: 174–176]. 270 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4683 (3), in López Muñoz [2011: II, 330, doc.158]. 271 Slightly contradictory figures appear in another document: “Valió el secuestro de sus bienes, sacadas las costas hechas en sus alimentos y en otras diligençias necesarias, desde el dicho día hasta veinte y dos de diciembre de quinientos e sesenta años, que salió relajado en estatua: quinientas mil e dosçientas e cuarenta maravedís y medio.” AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 144–2 in Schäfer, Protestantismo Español [2014: II, 353]

Biographical Sketch

de la Frontera.272 Years later, in September 1575, the Supreme Council asked the inquisitors at Seville to recover it.273 Whether this was achieved or not is unsure. Among Constantino’s papers was also found a receipt, dated 17 September 1548, signed by the printer Martin Montesdoca for 400 gold escudos.274 This was a large sum to deposit with a printer. Was it advance payment for a book, or books, that was never printed?275 Before Constantino left Seville to accompany prince Philip on his European tour, he had requested a new royal privilege to reprint his works. The privilege was forthcoming and was inserted in the preliminary matter of the fourth edition of Summa de Doctrina Christiana (Seville, 1551). It reads: Inasmuch as on your part, Dr. Constantino, a native of the city of Seville, I was informed, saying that you, for the service of God our Lord, compiled and ordered five books, entitled, the one Confession of a Sinner; another Doctrina Christiana; another Exposizion of the first psalm of David, Beatus vir; another Summary of Doctrina Christiana; and another Catechism Christiano, to instruct the children, which are very profitable works for these kingdoms. These books were seen and examined by the Inquisitors and they have approved them and you printed them at your own expense, as appears, …276

In 1554, at the height of his printing career, a change seems to have occurred in Martin Montesdoca’s life. From then on, he stopped printing profane literature and only produced religious material: books by the Franciscan mystic Francisco de Osuna, followed by Luz del Alma (1555) by the Dominican friar Felipe de Meneses. Despite Felipe de Meneses’s strong Erasmian leanings, his work continued to be printed. Even Miguel de Cervantes praised it (DQ II, 62). Besides several works by Fray Domingo de Baltanás,277 in 1556 Montesdoca printed Berdardino de Rierol’s

272 Lucas de la Sal is also listed as the owner of three confiscated Bibles in 1552. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4426, doc. 32, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 55–80, doc.15]. 273 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2946, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 422, doc.228]. 274 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4683 (3), in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 335, doc.158]. In 1566 Philip II established the value of the escudo at 400 maravedís, and the ducat at 340 maravedís. There were 270 maravedís to a peso, and 2 pesos to an escudo. Two golden escudos were equivalent to the thaler and thus it was easy to convert other values. See Francis Turner, “Money and exchange rates in 1632” macrocoin.net/profiles/blogs/money-and-exchange-rates-in-1632-by-francis-turner. Accessed 15 November 2019, 275 There is a document stating that permission was granted to print Exposición del Primer Psalmo de David and Doctrina Christiana. AGS, Cámara de Castilla. Libro de Relaciones 8, fol. 305 in Anastasio Rojo Vega, “Licencias de impresión de libros.” https://investigadoresrb.patrimonionacional.es/ uploads/2013/07/LICENCIAS-LIBROS-XVI.pdf, Accessed 06/12/2020. 276 Boehmer, Bibliotheca …, [2007: II, 27]. 277 Julián Solana Pujalte, “Ediciones desconocidas del impresor sevillano Martín de Montesdoca” [2019: 251–253].

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Alabanza de la pobreza (Praise of Poverty), an imitation of Erasmus’s Moria,278 but by 1557 he was beginning to have serious financial problems. The following year, Constantino deposited 400 gold escudos with him.279 In November of 1559, Montesdoca, now a widower, sold his shop in Seville and his possessions in Utrera and bought passages for his two young children, his sister Marina and himself on the ship “Nuestra Señora de la Antigua” and on 22 January 1561, they sailed for the Americas. No doubt events such as Constantino’s imprisonment hastened Montesdoca’s departure. In another financial report, dated 1564,280 Pedro de Morga specifies that part of Constantino’s possessions were sold at public auction in December of 1562, except for 367 “prohibited” books that had been sold in September,281 the rest in 1564. Several boxes of books still remaining in the secret vaults the castle, belonging to Francisco de Beltran (Isabel Martinez de Alvo’s son), and had been overlooked when he was imprisoned, brought the handsome price of 6,254 maravedís.282 Would these have been part of Constantino’s secret library? Montes relates that among the volumes hidden away in Isabel Martinez de Alvo’s house was a large book written entirely in Constantino’s own hand, in which: He openly spoke—as if he were writing for himself alone—about the following topics: on the state of the church; on the true church and the pope’s church, whom he called Antichrist; on the sacrament of the Eucharist and the contrivance of the Mass asserting that the world was bewitched by it because of its ignorance of Holy Scripture; on human justification; on Purgatory, which he called a wolf ’s head and an invention of monks on account of their stomachs; about bulls and papal indulgences; on human merit; on confession; and finally, about all the other principal topics of the Christian religion.283

This refers to what Montes heard the inquisitors say the day of the auto, not that he himself had seen the manuscript. Montes’s account is corroborated by Gonzalo González who, transcribing what he heard pronounced at the auto da fe on 22 December 1560, relates the same information, but in greater detail: The greatest of [Constantino’s subtleties] which they discovered was that they found he had hidden all the works of Luther, Oecolampadius, Zwingli, Calvin, and many other

278 279 280 281

Jorge Ledo, Moria de Erasmo Roterodamo [2014: 4]. Klaus Wagner, Martín de Montesdoca y su prensa [1982: 26]. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4683 (3). This sale of prohibited literature may seem contradictory, but not necessarily because Valdés had not yet published his Index of Prohibited Books. 282 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4683 (3) 283 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 421].

Biographical Sketch

heretics. And especially a chief of papers bound together written in his own hand, which showed well who he was, from which they reported a few things, omitting the rest so as not to offend the pious ears of Catholics. He called the Roman Church a papistical kingdom, a tyrannical government, and gave the pope such names as one would expect from him. He said that ‘merit’ should be called ‘pride’ and was invented by monks, that the married state was more pure and chaste than any other, and that everyone could and should marry. In a tract called De infelicitate regum he said horrible things against the Holy Office, and in another de victoria Jesu Christi,—I do not know what title he gave it—he said many other things, calling the church’s stories false, and things unworthy to be written or thought, which not even Luther thought; among which were that he said the most holy Sacrament of the Altar was only a mere offering made of bread and wine.284

The inquisitors must not have found this manuscript immediately, for Montes relates that “he had for a long time availed himself of subterfuges in order to evade their attempts [to accuse him].”285 It was the discovery of this single incriminating hand-written volume, which he dutifully acknowledged to be his own, not the many volumes in his secret library that indicted him. The manuscript was not immediately destroyed. Shortly after Constantino’s death, the Supreme Council requested a copy: These past days we wrote you that we would like to see the tracts of Doctor Constantino that were found, and [that] he acknowledged before he died. Unless it involves a great deal of writing, you should send a copy. Send it to us the safest and best way you can and also inform us concerning Doctor Constantino’s death, how he died and whether he made any final declaration or sign of repentance.286

Not satisfied with Constantino’s acknowledging his “doctrinal offence,” the inquisitors began looking into his past life. Ovando’s accusation that Constantino was married had not fallen on deaf ears. At that time, nearly any indiscretion could be fixed by obtaining a dispensation. “Ecclesiastical celibacy was a light burden and an easy yoke that did not hurt anyone’s shoulders, if they knew how to deal with it.”287 It was a different matter if one was labelled a Jew, a Moor or had at one time been called before the Holy Office. The fact that the inquisitors were more concerned

284 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 417, n170]. Also see García Pinilla, “La «providencia diabólica» …” [2020: 353, n16]. 285 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 421]. 286 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2942, doc. 113. 287 Jesús Moya, “Pedro Temiño († 1590) …” [2008: 703].

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about Constantino’s celibacy than his Jewish ancestry constitutes another argument in favour of his non-converso lineage. A letter from the Supreme Council, dated 19 May 1558, which included a copy of a previous missive the inquisitors at Granada had sent them regarding Constantino’s supposed marriage(s), urged the inquisitors in Seville to make further inquiries.288 A year later, with Constantino in prison, the Supreme Council sent another report in which they urged the inquisitors in Granada to interrogate one María González, wife of Joan de Segovia, living in Malaga, regarding this matter. The letter included a copy of the statements made by the nun Elvira de Payares (Pallares) to María González regarding Constantino.289 Unfortunately, the document containing the results of these investigations has been lost. This takes us back to San Clemente. Was the nun Elvira de Pallares a member of the Francisco de la Fuente Pallares family of San Clemente? The name Francisco de la Fuente Pallares appears in the list of the oldest living members of the cofradía of Nuestra Señora de Septiembre in 1560.290 One of Constantino’s uncles had married a daughter of García de Pallares, warden of the castle of Chinchilla.291 Their offspring would have carried the name “de la Fuente Pallares,” hence Elvira may have been Constantino’s cousin. On the other hand, she could also have been the daughter of Velasco de Pallares, Garcia’s son—and brother-in-law to Constantino’s uncle—, a relationship a bit more distant but close enough to know about Constantino’s affairs. It appears that no conclusive information was obtained from the Granada contact. The next option was to discreetly interrogate Constantino’s servant Francisco de Mendoza, a young man from San Clemente. While in prison, Constantino was not alone in his cell. From the time he entered Triana in August of 1558 until the end of that year he was accompanied by his servant Francisco de Mendoza. Towards the end of the year, Mendoza left secretly, very likely to questioning at the hands of the inquisitors. In a letter dated 3 January 1559 the inquisitors of Seville ask the Supreme Council to capture Mendoza, who they

288 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 714, doc. 49–3, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 121, doc.44]. 289 ADC, Inquisición, Miscelánea de Breves, L-224, f. 183r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 137, doc.53]. 290 “List of the oldest living members in the oldest book, that of the year of 1560: Antonio de la Fuente Simon = Diego Simon el viejo = Diego de Valera = Francisco de la Fuente Pallares = Francisco de la Fuente Comeño = El Lizenciado Antonio de la Fuente, with no membership fee, being a lawyer of the Cabildo.” (signed: Diego de Llanos, notary). Ignacio de la Rosa Ferrer, “El doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente y sus allegados, ….” [2017] 291 After the death of his first wife, Maria de Sotomayor, Garcia de Pallares, with his four childen—Velasco de Pallarés, Diego, who died before 1521, Catalina de Pallarés and Isabel de Monroy, who took her maternal grandmother’s name—moved from Chinchilla to San Clemente, where he died in 1523. Ignacio de la Rosa Ferrer, “Notas sobre la capilla de San José o de Pallarés de la Iglesia parroquial de Santiago en San Clemente” [2017].

Biographical Sketch

suspected had gone to San Clemente. This should be done “with the greatest secrecy possible, and if possible, in a way that no one [in San Clemente] hears that they are there, because news should not reach Granada.” It appears that the inquisitors had a written statement by María González regarding Constantino’s marriage, and they were convinced Mendoza knew more, for he was to be questioned “with all caution and dissimulation regarding what María González wrote.” Likewise, he was to be “brought back to Seville and securely imprisoned without anyone communicating with him or he being able to write to anyone. The reason for this diligence would be explained in due time; for the time being it was “very important that it be done this way.”292 The inquisitors did not find Constantino’s servant in San Clemente. In the spring of 1559 he was in Barcelona about to set sail for Italy in the company of Per Afán Enriquez de Ribera, who was going to Naples to take up the post of viceroy there. When they were about to embark, the Barcelona inquisitors received orders from the Supreme Council to arrest a certain Francisco de Mendoza,293 “for it has been reported that he is planning to sail with the duke.”294 The report describing the results of the search in Barcelona in 1559 reads: In a letter addressed to the Supreme Council dated 15 May 1559, prosecutor Pedro Villa reports that a page of the duke of Alcalá, called Francisco Lasso, has been caught. He has the same description as that given by the inquisitors of Seville for Francisco de Mendoza. I think he is the same person, because he is very well known and because at the Duke’s house some call him Mendoça. The capture was made as quietly as possible and, in a way, that nothing was perceived by the Duke. But the Commissioner treated him very badly and then he went to tell the Duke, and wanted me to go too, but I refused. He was alone in a cell with the jail keeper. Later the commissioner put him in with three others; today they are playing skittles in the gardens of the jail. I think the same aguazil that takes señora Zapata down to Seville will take him with him. I hope to God that few servants of the duke will have to appear in this court because this has been very upsetting for me.295

Somehow, Mendoza managed to escape, but five years later, in the spring of 1564, he voluntarily surrendered to the inquisitors in Seville. It appears that he left Seville in 1559 because he was afraid he would be punished for not denouncing the jail keeper Pedro de la Haya for breaking the rules. During the trial, Mendoza declared

292 ADC, Inquisición, Miscelánea de Breves, L-224, f. 183r. 293 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 575, f. LXXIIIIv; leg. 2942, doc. 63, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 146, doc.63]. 294 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 736, f. 374r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 143, doc.59]. 295 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 736, f. 416r–v.

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that “Doña Ana de Deza296 and Isabel Martinez de Alvo communicated with Dr. Constantino while in prison by way of letters and notes and the help of Pedro de la Haya, the deceased warden, who they bribed.”297 Mendoza, who may have been one of the errand boys or may have acted as a cover-up for the warden, but now that de la Haya was dead, dared denounce him. Mendoza abjured and was sentenced in the auto da fe held on March 19, 1564. His punishment read thus: Francisco de Mendoza, a native of the town of San Clemente, in the Marquisate of Villena, a servant who belonged to Dr. Constantino. Condemned for disturbing and impeding the Holy Office; he carried errands and messages for the prisoners, and tried to bribe the warden of the prisons; condemned to appear on the scaffold wearing a sanbenito298 with a noose around his neck and holding a candle, and to be given two hundred lashes through the streets of Seville, and confined in the place and the length of time that seems fit to the inquisitors.299

The connection between Francisco de Mendoza and Per Afán Enriquez de Ribera strongly suggests the intervention of his sister, Mariana Enriquez de Rivera,300 a devout follower of Constantino. In November of 1561 Mariana had been seen going to the Triana prison to bring “alms” to prisoners. This was reported nearly a year after Constantino died, but was certainly not the first time she brought provisions to the prisoners. Together with the “alms” she could have delivered secret messages and could easily have arranged for Francisco de Mendoza to join her brother Per Afán’s household and escape to Italy. Mariana Enriquez de Rivera was never imprisoned, but she was carefully watched:

296 When Dr. Egidio was imprisoned in Triana, Ana de Deza bribed the wife of the notary Domingo de Azpeitia to allow her to speak with him through a small window that communicated with his cell. Later, when Constantino was imprisoned, she and Isabel Martinez de Alvo communicated with him by letter thanks to little gifts they gave Pedro de la Haya. Ana de Deza was sentenced at the auto-da-fe held 26 April 1562 to six years of house arrest, with the confiscation of her library and a third of all her goods. See F. Luttikhuizen, Underground… [2016: 254–256]. 297 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 127–1, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 318, doc.155]. 298 A knee-length garment consisting of two rectangle panels of cloth joined at the shoulders with an opening for the head worn over the clothes. It bore a St. Andrew’s Cross on each panel and could either be red or yellow in colour. It was considered a mark of infamy. 299 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075, doc. 4, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 321, doc.156]. 300 Mariana Enriquez de Ribera, niece of Fadrique Enriquez de Ribera, mentioned earlier, was one of the recipients of the books smuggled into Seville by “Julianillo” in the summer of 1557. Mariana’s brother Per Afan de Enriquez Ribera, duke of Alcala de los Gazules and marquis of Tarifa, was viceroy of Naples from 1559 to 1571. See F. Luttikhuizen, Underground… [2016: 253–254].

Biographical Sketch

We commissioned the warden of the perpetual prison [Juan de Zamora] that, with great dissimulation, he would take note of those people who came to the prison to communicate and provide for the prisoners, and how they did it, so that, if there is anything that might seem suspicions, he should let us know. On Sunday 16 of the present [November 1561] the said warden [Juan de Zamora] appeared and said that he had information that one night the Marchioness of Villanueva [Mariana Enriquez de Ribera], with other women, had gone to the said jail and brought alms. That, together with previous information we have, arouses great suspicion.301

Pedro de la Haya and Andrés de Huerta were wardens (alcaides) during the time Constantino was in prison. Pedro de la Haya, as we have seen in Francisco de Mendoza’s confession, carried messages back and forth. If Mendoza waited until 1563 or 64 to surrender to the inquisitors, when Pedro de la Haya was dead, it may have been to save face, or out of sheer good will to not incriminate the man. Another warden who very likely had contact with Constantino, Pedro de Herrera, was sentenced at the auto da fe held on 22 December 1560 to receive 200 lashes and be sent to the galleys for ten years for having been negligent in his duties by letting prisoners communicate with one another and giving them avisos (information) in exchange for promises and gifts they gave him.302 There is no information involving warden Andrés de Huerta with Constantino, but a sentenced pronounced on 28 October 1562 gives an account of his brother’s, his assistant’s and his brother-in-law’s doings and why they were removed from office: Andrés de Huerta, warden of the Inquisition in Córdoba, who served as warden in the prisons of this Holy Office, due to carelessness and negligence that he had in the exercise of his office during the time he served in it, was reprimanded by the Inquisitors in the presence of all the officers, and warned that, not making amends, he would be punished in an exemplary manner. He was deprived of the office of warden of the prisons of the Holy Office of the Inquisition of Seville. Pedro de Huerta, his brother, who was his assistant in the prisons of this Holy Office at that time, for having received things from the prisoners, was exiled from this district for ten years and deprived of his office of warden or assistant in the Holy Office, and before he leaves he must restore what he received from

301 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 43. Mariana may have gone to Triana to bring supplies to Cristobal de Losada, her personal physician and leader of the “evangelical” movement. He had been imprisoned in October 1557 as one of the recipients of Julianillo’s books. Four years later, on 2 October 1561, it was decided that he be sent to the torture chamber; finally, on 23 January 1562, the inquisitors voted unanimously to send him to the stake, which occurred on 26 April 1562. In all, Losada spent nearly five years in prison. 302 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075, doc. 1 (2).

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the prisoners. Ramón de la Huerta, the warden’s servant, was also sentenced in 1560 for carrying messages from one prisoner to another: one hundred lashes and exiled from Seville. Pedro Hurtado, brother-in-law of the said Andrés de Huerta, warden, because, having spent a few days in the company of the said warden without permission, he took certain books and other things out secretly from this castle. He was given a hundred lashes through the streets of Seville, and banished from the district for as long as the inquisitors wished; and should he break the sentence he will be sent to the galleys of his majesty without pay.303

During Constantino’s final months in prison, a certain Fray Hernando de San Jerónimo, a lay brother from the Monastery of San Isidoro in Santiponce, shared the cell with him, assisting him in his final illnesses. It was not unusual to put prisoners together when one required assistance. Elvira de Alvo, the daughter of Isabel Martinez de Alvo who kept Constantino’s books, shared a cell with Elvira Núñez during the last months of her pregnancy.304 Fray Domingo de Guzman, another recipient of the books smuggled in by Julianillo, who spent five years in Triana before his trial came up, complained to the inquisitors that his cellmate, Guillermo Gilmermeson, was a terrible cook and that he wanted his servant Juan Guzmán back.305 Fray Hernando de San Jerónimo was one of the monks from the Monastery of San Isidoro that did not flee with the others in 1557 and was taken prisoner. At the auto da fe held on 22 December 1560, the same auto at which Constantino’s sentence was read, he appeared on the scaffold in the Plaza of San Francisco without his hood and with a candle in his hand. He abjured de vehementi ”for matters regarding the Lutheran sect” and was sentenced to perpetual confinement in a monastery.306 Fray Hernando had remained with Constantino until he expired, which may have occurred unexpectedly between 3 and 5 January 1560. We base this supposition on

303 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075 (1), doc. 2. The rules regulating the office of warden were very strict. See Bibiana Candela Oliver, Prácticas del procedimiento jurídico para inquisidores [2015: 193–197]. 304 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 12. 305 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 105–2, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 305, doc.145]. The inquisitors must have complied with his wishes because Juan Guzman was returned to his service. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 89–2, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 317, doc.154]. 306 AGS, Estado, leg. 137, doc. 3. According to Juan Antonio Llorente, Hernandez died in prison: “Another prisoner died in the dungeons of the Inquisition. He was (according to Gonzalez de Montes) a monk of the Convent of St. Isidoro, named Ferdinand. The same author affirms, that one Olmedo, a Lutheran, was likewise carried off by an epidemic disease which ravaged the prisons, and that he uttered groans similar to those of Constantino when he was dying. I have not found that any Inquisition in Spain has, of late years, condemned any person to this sort of dungeon, unless the torture was decreed; the inquisitors of that time cannot be pardoned for making them a common prison.” Llorente, History of the Inquisition [1826: 222].

Biographical Sketch

the fact that on 3 January 1560 the Supreme Council sent out a search warrant for Francisco de Mendoza, “servant of Dr. Constantino imprisoned in the Inquisition of Seville,”307 in order to question him regarding Constantino’s marriage. A letter sent by the Supreme Council the inquisitors at Seville only three days later, on 5 January, states: “As for what you write about Dr. Constantino we have nothing to say, because in this Court it is already known that he is dead; nevertheless, proceed with his cause and do justice.”308 Six weeks later, on 20 February 1560, the Supreme Council replied to a letter sent to them by Pedro Zumel regarding a certificate that he had requested of Constantino’s death which would allow him to officially, and legally, occupy the now vacant canonry.309 Constantino’s remains were brought out at the auto-da-fe held on 22 December 1560, and were burned in effigy.310 His sentence, read by the notary of the Holy Office—very likely notary Pablo García—, declared him ”an apostate heretic, instigator and concealer of heretics, excommunicated to ‘major’ excommunication.” The sentence concluded: ”that there be no memory of said Constantino on earth, except for our justice and the execution that which we order.”311 Another entry in the Inquisition documents simply states: “Box containing Dr. Constantino’s bones. His statue with a sanbenito, painted with demons.”312 Another is more explicit: “Dr. Constantino de la Fuente, canon of the magisterial canonry of the Cathedral, deceased, a native of San Clemente. His memory and fame condemned, and his statue and bones burned as a Lutheran heretic with confiscation of his property.”313 The reference to “his statue” is developed further by Montes: In the place where the dead man would have stood, they put a straw-man in a pulpit, one hand raised and the other grasping the pulpit, made with such artifice, exactly the way Constantino habitually stood while preaching, that it seemed to be alive. No doubt that empty effigy preached to many souls that day just as effectively as when Constantino was alive, though it was created to mock him.314

307 308 309 310 311

312 313 314

ADC, Inquisición, Miscelánea de Breves, L-224, f. 183r. AHN, Inquisición, lib. 575, f. 91v. AHN, Inquisición, lib. 575, f. XCVv. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075, doc. 1 (2); AGS, Estado, leg. 137, doc. 3, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 214, doc.101]. Aspe Ansa, Constantino …. El hombre y su lenguaje [1975: 8]. There were two degrees of excommunication: one major and one minor; the lesser implied the exclusion of the sacrament of the Eucharist and of the privileges of the Church. Major excommunication applied to stubborn sinners, persistent apostates, and heretics. AHN, Inquisición, leg. (1), doc. 2. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075, doc. 1 (2); AGS, Estado, leg. 137, doc. 3. Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 425].

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Juan Antonio Llorente, who basically followed Montes’s narrative, but may have taken it from another source, describes the scene in even greater detail: His trial was as celebrated as his person. […] The effigy of Constantino was not like those of the other condemned persons (which were an unformed mass surmounted by a head; it was an entire figure with the arms spread, as Constantino was accustomed to do when preaching, and was clothed in garments which appeared to have belonged to him. After the auto da fe, this figure was taken back to the Holy Office, and a common effigy was burnt with the bones of the condemned.315

Not even the public reading of the accusations against Constantino was without controversy. Montes relates that, When the sentence was to be read, which was the sole reason that many people from different parts of Spain had come to Seville, the inquisitors ordered that it should not be made public from the scaffold where other sentences were usually read, but that the effigy should be conveyed to the inquisitor’s bench, and the sentence read from there. This was a high place, and the people could not hear what was being read. This seemed to Calderón, the chief warden,316 to be fraudulent or at least unjust; therefore, he cried out that the sentence should be read loudly from the accustomed place so the people would know with certainty the causes of the man’s condemnation. Nevertheless, the inquisitors, paying no attention, continued doing what they had planned, and a great murmur arose from the crowd, which was not about to allow this injustice calmly. Indeed, they apparently would not have stood for it had not the inquisitors, after Calderón had admonished them about their duty in even more severe tones, restored the effigy to its previous location and ordered the sentence to be read in a loud voice from the usual place so that the whole crowd that had asked for this was satisfied.317

The auto da fe held on 22 December would have been held earlier but processing information and voting on so many the pending causes required time. Already in mid-August 1559 the Supreme Council urged the inquisitors in Seville to organize the auto da fe as soon as possible with the 33 cases that had already been voted on,

315 Llorente, History of The Inquisition [1826: 221–222]. 316 Chief warden (asistente) was highest position of the city council of Seville. He could not be a citizen of Seville. His function, in addition to presiding over the meetings of the city council, was to monitor, on behalf of the King, the way justice was administered and imparted in the city. He was appointed directly by the King, who always chose people of the nobility. The chief warden came to accumulate enormous power and influence, because in addition to being well paid for the job, he was the person who ruled the most in the city. 317 Montanus, The Artes… [2018: 425].

Biographical Sketch

and “not to wait for more people, in order to leave the cells vacant.”318 They were especially interested in seeing the cases of Egidio, Vargas and Constantino and Fray Domingo de Guzmán included in those that should appear at the next auto da fe.319 As detentions, sequestrations and procesos (trial procedures) grew in number, more personnel were needed. Pablo García was appointed ”notary of the secret” of the Court of Seville on 27 August 1560 with an annual salary of 30,000 maravedís, to dispatch all the causes that would appear at the auto da fe of 22 December that year. For this task each member of the tribunal received an extraordinary compensation of 50 ducats (18,750 maravedís), more than half the salary of 30,000 maravedís that they received annually.320 2.13 His Name Defamed At first the news of Constantino’s death was kept secret, but as it became known the Supreme Council urged the inquisitors in Seville “to proceed against his memory and reputation.”321 Rumours were spread that he had taken his own life. It took several centuries for this error to be amended. Finally, at the end of the nineteenth century, Antonio Benítez de Lugo admitted that “the most trustworthy data we have proves that his death was totally natural.”322 Constantino’s name was erased whenever and wherever possible, even from the marble pulpit located in the Patio de los Naranjos of the cathedral from which he had preached for so many years. The Index published by Inquisitor General Bernardo de Sandoval y Rojas in 1612 (f. 5) reads: ”that everything that is in praise of Constantino de la Fuente, condemned author, be removed.” Instructions in the Índice último (Last Index of Prohibited Books), edited by Agustín Rubin de Cevallos and printed in Madrid by Antonio de Sancha in 1790, remained unchanged. The official policy of expurgation became a welcome alternative to total prohibition. It legalized the reading of certain works after objectionable passages were deleted. The person responsible for introducing a policy of expurgation was Benito Arias Montano, Philip II’s chaplain and librarian. In 1569 Aria Montano began work 318 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2942, doc. 86. Complying with the Council’s orders, the inquisitors of Seville resolved as many trials as possible by 22 December; nevertheless, some 60 cases still remained unresolved. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075 (1), doc. 2. 319 Vargas and Egidio had been dead for several years and Constantino for several months; all three would be burned in effigy. Domingo de Guzmán remained in prison. His sentence was finally pronounced at the auto da fe held 11 July 1563. 320 Felipe Lorenzana de la Puente and Francisco J. Mateos Ascacíbar, Inquisición. Historia en Llerena, [2014: 113]. 321 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 575, f. XCVv. 322 Antonio Benítez de Lugo, ”Constantino Ponce de la Fuente y la Inquisición de Sevilla” [1885: 193–197].

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on an Expurgatory Index, published in 1571,323 though the practice of “emending and amending” literature had begun somewhat earlier. One example is Calvete de Estrella’s account of prince Philip’s European tour in which he praised Constantino as “a great philosopher and profound theologian, and one of the most notorious and eloquent men in the pulpit, as the works he has written, worthy of his ingenuity, clearly show.”324 Indeed, after the autos da fe that condemned Constantino and Cazalla, all mention of these two “famous preachers” was erased. Instructions given in the Index of Prohibited Books read: Calvete de Estrella (Juan Christov.). In his book, Viage del Principe [The Prince’s Travels], Book 1, sec. “Embarkation,” fol. 5, page 2, and fol. 7, page 2, remove all that is in praise of Constantino de la Fuente. In Book 4, fol. 325, remove all that is in praise of Constantino and Agustin de Cazalla.325

A century later, Diego Ortiz de Zúñiga, who narrated the important events that took place in Seville from 1246 to 1671, reluctantly restored Constantino’s name, but with the following reservations: The prince set sail from Rosas on November 2, accompanied by many grandees, noblemen and knights, in whose company also went Doctor Constantino de la Fuente, applauded then for being a great theologian and preacher, condemned later for being a perverse heretic, whose pride and presumption were a restraint on him, but being so far from being suspected, he preached for the prince in Barcelona on All Saints’ Day.326

None of the Spanish historians of renown writing at that time—Ortiz de Zúñiga (1677), Prudencio de Sandoval (1634) or Luis Cabrera de Córdoba (1619)—mention the writings of Doctor Constantino. In their works he appears as a Lutheran heretic who had to be severely punished. Cabrera adds that Constantino was a bigamist and that he committed suicide in jail.327 Sandoval’s narrative is another example of censorship. The Scottish historian William S. Maxwell states that one of [Constantino’s] books was on the imperial bookshelf at Yuste.328 In an appendix Maxwell lists the thirty-one volumes the Emperor had on his shelf, among which was Doctrina Cristiana. Maxwell found this information in Sandoval [ii, 829]. A 323 324 325 326

Ironically, several of Arias Montano’s own works were expurgated in 1607. Calvete, El felicissimo viaje [1552, f.5v]. Agustín Rubín de Cevallos, Indice último de los libros prohibidos y mandados expurgar [1790]. Ortiz de Zuñiga, Annales eclesiasticos, y secvlares, de la civdad de Sevilla. Desde el año de 1246 hasta el de 1671 [1677: III, 402]. 327 Luis Cabrera de Córdoba, Filipe Segundo Rey de España [1876: I, 276]. 328 William Stirling Maxwell, The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles the Fifth [1853: 208].

Published Works

thorough search of Sandoval’s 1634 Pamplona edition of Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V, part II, does not substantiate Maxwell’s assertion. On the contrary. Sandoval’s text reads: “When they arrested Constantino, canon preacher of Seville, [the Emperor] said: ‘If Constantino is a heretic, he must be a great heretic,’ and that is how it came out. Later one of the inquisitors who condemned him, said that he had been one of the greatest heretics in the world.”329 As we have seen in other cases, a reference to Constantino’s Doctrina Cristiana did actually appear in the first edition (Valladolid, 1606), but was expurgated in later editions. Another example of this type of procedure is pointed out by Luis Alburquerque in his brief biography of Pedro Mexía,330 where all of Mexia’s praiseworthy references of Erasmus in the first editions of Silva were suppressed in later editions. One would expect to find information regarding such an illustrious preacher as Constantino in Fermin Arana de Variflora’s 400-page Hijos de Sevilla ilustres en santidad, letras, armas, artes, ò dignidad (Sons of Seville, Famous for their Holiness, Learning, Arms, Arts, and Dignity), published in 1791, but there is no mention of Constantino among the distinguished sons of Seville. The Inquisition had won the day. It would take another half century, and the efforts of Luis Usoz y Río to rescue Constantino’s name and his works from oblivion. As a curiosity, we must mention a somewhat puzzling reference to Constantino in an anonymous seventeenth century pseudo book of chivalry. The phrase reads: “A certain enchanter, a foe to virtue and knight-errantry, and one whom all accounts describe to have been more malignant than Arcalaus, and a greater heretic than Constantino, had taken refuge in Gallia Belgica.”331 This phrase appears in a longlost work attributed to Cervantes and supposedly rediscovered by Adolfo de Castro in the nineteenth century. The phrase “a greater heretic than Constantino” is not in itself peculiar, but totally out of place in this context. If, as most critics affirm, this little work is a political satire on Charles V, the phrase could echo the words he presumably uttered when he heard that Constantino had been arrested by the Inquisition: “If Constantino is a heretic, a great heretic he must be.”332

3.

Published Works

People flocked to hear Constantino de la Fuente preach, but his writings were equally popular. Between 1543 and 1547 he published six works, reprinted several 329 330 331 332

P. de Sandoval, Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V [1634: II, 829]. Luis Alburquerque García, «Pedro Mexia», Diccionario Biográfico electrónico [2018]. Cervantes, El Buscapié … [1849: 139]. P. de Sandoval, Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V (Valladolid, 1606), [1634: II, 829].

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times within his lifetime.333 Three of these works were of a catechetical nature—one a brief summary in dialogue form, another a detailed commentary, and another for children—covering a range of topics found in the official Christian Doctrine: the creed, the articles of faith, etc. The other three publications include a translation from the Greek of the Sermon on the Mount with comments, the prayer of a penitent sinner, and a series of six sermons on Psalm 1 preached at the cathedral of Seville around 1545. These three latter works—The Sermon on the Mount, Beatus vir, and Confession of a Sinner—make up a sort of trilogy. The recurring theme is the fulfilment of the Law through justification by faith. For Constantine, the Sermon on the Mount is a “living declaration of the Law,” a doctrine that continually emerges in both the Old and New Testaments. “It invites man to know himself, to scorn his own strength and to see how different it is from what the Lord demands of the vanity of his heart and with this knowledge he flees to the source of mercy.”334 In the prologue to his Exposition of the First Psalm of David he again insists on the doctrinal unity of the two testaments: In the first psalm is summed up in so few words, the entire doctrine of the Holy Scripture, all that the Christian should know and do, all man’s good and evil deeds, all the harm and all the remedy, all the favour shown the righteous, all the adversities of the wicked, all the works divine mercy confers upon the righteous and justice on the evil doers. I always admired this brevity. It is like a looking glass in which both the righteous and the sinner must put in order their conscience and recognize their faults, the one with great effort, and the other with great fear. I always admired this brevity, seeing that it is like a mirror with which the just and the sinner must order their conscience.335

3.1

Editions

3.1.1 Suma de doctrina christiana en que se contiene todo lo principal y necesario que el hombre christiano deue saber y obrar

1st edition. Seville: J. Cromberger, 1543. 2nd edition. Seville: J. Cromberger, 1544. 3rd edition. Seville: Juan de León, 1545. 4th edition. Seville: Juan de León, 1547. 5th edition. Seville: Cristóbal Alvarez, 1551. 333 Summary of Christian Doctrine was reprinted six times; Sermon on the Mount four times; Confession of a Sinner, Exposition of the first Psalm and Christian Doctrine, three times each, and Christian Catechism twice. 334 Constantino de la Fuente, Suma de doctrina…[1863: 243]. 335 Constantino de la Fuente, Beatus vir, [1546, f. a.iij v].

Published Works

6th edition. Antwerp: Martín Núncio, 1551. 7th edition. Antwerp: Guillermo Simon, 1556. 8th edition. Madrid: Martín Alegría, 1863. 3.1.2 Sermon de Christo nuestro Redemptor en el monte

1st edition. Seville: Juan de León, 1545. 2nd edition. Seville: Juan de León, 1547. 3rd edition. Seville: Cristóbal Alvarez, 1551. 4th edition. Antwerp: Martín Núncio, 1551. 5th edition. Antwerp: Guillermo Simón, 1556. 6th edition. Madrid: Martín Alegría, 1863. 3.1.3

Exposición del primer psalmo de David cuyo principio es Beatus vir diuidida en seys sermones

1st edition. Seville: Juan de León, 1546. [?reprints. 1547, 1548]. 2nd edition. Antwerp: Gillermo Simón, 1556. 3rd edition. Bonn: Carlos Georgi, 1881.336 3.1.4 Confession de un pecador delante de lesu-Chrísto redemptor y juez de los hombres

1st edition. Seville: Juan de León, 1547. 2nd edition. Evora: Andrés de Burgos, 1554. 3rd edition. Antwerp: Guillermo Simón, 1556. 4th edition. Madrid: Martín Alegría, 1863. 3.1.5 Catecismo christiano para instruir a los niños

1st edition. Seville: Juan de León, 1547. 2nd edition. Antwerp: Guillermo Simon, 1556. 3rd edition. Madrid: Martín Alegría, 1863.

336 The edition that appears in WorldCat.org as “Bonn, 1885,” housed in the library of the GeorgeAugust-Universität in Göttingen, Germany, (shelf number 8 TH BIB 760/60) was mistakenly catalogued. It is actually another copy of E. Boehmer’s Bonn 1881 edition.

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3.1.6 Doctrina Christiana, en que está comprehendida toda la información que pertenece al hombre que quiere servir a Dios. Parte primera. De los artículos de la fe

1st edition. Seville: Juan Canalla, 1548. 2nd edition. Seville: Juan Canalla, 1549. 3rd edition. Antwerp: Juan Steelsio, 1554, 1555. 3.2

Readership and Reprints

3.2.1

Suma de Doctrina christiana en que se contiene todo lo principal y necesario que el hombre christiano debe saber y obrar (Summary of Christian Doctrine, which contains all the main and necessary things that the Christian man must know and do)

This was Constantino’s most widely read and most often reprinted work. The first and second editions were printed in Seville by Juan Cromberger.337 In the Dedicatory to the Christian reader, Constantino relates that he was persuaded to write the book ”by some friends who are zealous of the glory of God and for the salvation of men; they believe that it would be beneficial for such a book to be in the hands of the people.” Summary of Christian Doctrine came to fill a long-felt need to promulgate Christian doctrine. This had been the concern of all the early synods from the fourteenth century onward, preoccupied with the doctrinal ignorance of both the general population and the clergy. All the synods held after 1480 showed a growing concern for the theological training of the clergy and for the need to preach the basic doctrines of the Catholic faith—Doctrina Christiana—from the pulpit.338 Indeed, the Synod of Toledo (1536) was still insisting that clerics know Christian doctrine before receiving sacred orders. With this publication, Constantino had a broad spectrum of readers in mind. The third and fourth editions of Summary of Christian Doctrine were printed by Juan de León (or Lyon), a French printer who had settled in Seville around 1545.339 Instead of the short texts by Saint Bernard that Cromberger had included, to León´s edition was appended Constantino’s Sermon on the Mount. A fifth edition, which followed Juan de Leòn’s text, was printed by Cristóbal Alvarez. It was common 337 Joan Cromberger died in 1540, but his son Jacobo renewed the privilege in 1542, for a period of ten years. Cromberger’s second edition included two short texts by Saint Bernardo. 338 See F. Luttikhuizen, Underground Protestantism … [2016: 32–35]. 339 Was there a connection between Juan de León and the Grande Compagnie Lyonnaise des Libraires created in 1530, with agents in Medina del Campo?

Published Works

practice for one printer to lend another fonts and ornamented letters. That Alvarez employed Juan de León’s special fonts to print Constantino’s Summary is suggested by a statement found in the contract Martin de Montesdoca signed to print Pedro de Cieza’s Historia del Peru (1552), where he was instructed to use the special font that were used to print Constantino’s “Doctrina grande.” At first sight, this reference to Constantino’s “Large Doctrine” seems to refer to his Christian doctrine printed in 1548, nevertheless, Klaus Wagner identified it as the small Summary, printed in 1551 by Cristóbal Alvarez.340 That same year, 1551, a sixth edition was printed in Antwerp by Martin Nucio,341 who used as his basic text Cromberger’s second edition (1544), with the text by Saint Bernard translated by Maestro Navarro, to which he also appended Constantino’s translation of the Sermon on the Mount.342 A seventh edition of Constantino’s Summary of Christian Doctrine—based on Juan de León’s 1545 edition—was published by the Spanish philanthropist Luis Usoz y Río.343 In 1863 Usoz found a copy of the Summary in Lisbon. Though the copy he discovered was a 1551 edition, for his edition he used an even older edition that one of his agents found for him in the Royal Library of Brussels.344 Between 1981 and 1984, the Catalan editor-book dealer, Diego Gómez Flores, printed a

340 María del Carmen Álvarez Márquez, La impresión y el comercio de libros en la Sevilla del quinientos [2007: 80]. 341 The following year, 1552, Nucio would print Calvete de Estrella’s Felicissimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso principe don Philippe. It is very possibile that Calvete, who had stayed in Flandes after the long European tour and was living in Antwerp, was behind Nucio’s printing Constantino’s book. 342 Puso se tambien ala fin vna dotrina, que muestra como cada vno deue regir y gouernar su casa, ordenada por san Bernardo. Note the small letter in “san Bernardo”. It was recently pointed out to me by Josep-Lluis Carod-Rovira that one way Protestant sympathizers were detected by the inquisitors was by checking whether they wrote the word “saint” or “san” with a capital or small “s”. In 1563, when Jeroni Conques, the translator into Catalan of the Book of Job (1557), was arrested, the inquisitors found incriminating manuscripts where he wrote “saint” with a small letter “s”. 343 Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Summa de doctrina Cristiana. Sermón de Nuestro Redentor en el Monte. Catezismo Cristiano. Confesión del pecador: Cuatro libros compuestos por el Doctór Constantino Ponze de la Fuente [1545]. De la perfección de la vida. Del gobierno de la casa. Dos epistolas de S. Bernardo, romanzadas por el maestro Martín Navarro [1547], in L. Usoz y Rio/B.B. Wiffen, eds., Reformistas antiguos españoles, Vol. XX (Madrid: J. Martín Alegría, 1863). 344 Boehmer, Bibliotheca … [2007: II, 31]. Once the volumes were located they had to be sent to Madrid. For this, Usoz found sympathizing officers willing to see that they passed custom controls unmolested. In Madrid he could count on Jose Sanchez Balsa and in San Sebastian on Fernando de Brunet. But Usoz also used other means and persons: agents belonging to the British Foreign Bible Society, the British diplomatic service, British railway engineers (many of whom were Quakers), the colporteur James Thomson, the Methodist minister W.H. Rule, etc. Even the Catalan printerprofessor—and Quaker sympathizer—, Antonio Bergnes de las Casas, on his travels to and from London served at times as a courier. Luttikhuizen, Underground … [2016: 339].

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facsimile edition—a print-run of 300 numbered sets—of Usoz’s entire Reformistas Antiguos Españoles series, including Boehmer’s volumes.345 The fame of Constantino’s Summary of Christian Doctrine even reached Mexico. Bishop Juan de Zumarraga, who showed great interest in catechizing the Indians, was especially interested in books on Christian Doctrine that were easy to read and understand. In 1540 Juan Pablos,346 the Cromberger agent in Mexico, printed Doctrina christiana en la lengua mexicana e castellana (Christian Doctrine in the Mexican and Castilian Language) for the bishop. Three years later, Bishop Zumarraga asked him to print Doctrina breve muy provechosa de las cosas que pertenecen a la fe catholica y nuestra cristiandad: en estilo llano, para comun inteligēcia. Compuesta por el Reverendissimo señor fray Juan Zamarraga primer obispo de Mexico (Brief Doctrine, very useful for things pertaining to the Catholic faith and our Christianity; in a plain style, for common intelligence. Written by the Most Reverend Fray Juan de Zamarraga, first bishop of Mexico). This Brief Doctrine was actually a rewrite of Constantino’s Summary in prose instead of dialogue form. In those days it was not obligatory to cite the name of the first author, especially for religious use. Indeed, it was widespread custom to use fragments of texts of other writers. The text required the approval of the authorities, but there was no copyright for authors.347 In 1546 a second edition of Brief Doctrine came off the Cromberger press in Mexico with a slightly different title: Doctrina cristiana: más cierta y verdadera para gente sin erudicion y letras: en q se contiene el catecismo o informacion para indios con todo lo principal y necessario q el christiano deue saber y obrar (Christian Doctrine, most certain and true, for people with no education or learning, which contains the catechism and information for the Indians with all the main and necessary things that the Christian must know and do). In 1559, after Archbishop Alonso de Montufar learned that Constantino had been accused of heresy, he ordered copies of the books to be collected. Instead of prohibiting the work, after certain “corrections” were made, the work was allowed to be read again after 1573. Bishop Zumárraga had died in 1548, when Constantino was at the peak of his fame, and did not see his Brief Doctrine or his Doctrina cristiana: más cierta y verdadera expurgated.348

345 In 2011 Nabu Press, Charleston, North Carolina, reprinted Constantino’s Summary of Christian Doctrine. The catalogue describes the volume as a work originally published in Seville in 1545, but it is actually a reprint of Volume XIX of Luis de Usoz’s Reformistas antinguos españoles, [1863]. 346 In 1539 Juan Cromberger obtained a royal privilege to set up a printing shop in Mexico, which Juan Pablos supervised. 347 Araceli Aguirre Aguirre, “Bibliofilia e investigación histórica: la Suma de doctrina de Constantino Ponce y la Doctrina cristiana: cierta y verdadera de Juan de Zumárraga” [2010: 113]. 348 Luis González Obregon, Libros y Libreros en el siglo XVI [1914: 543].

Published Works

3.2.2 Sermon de Christo nuestro Redemptor en el monte (Sermon on the Mount by Christ our Redeemer)

For Constantino, of all those sermons that our Redeemer preached, “the Sermon on the Mount shines like the sun among the stars.” In this publication he did not limit himself to offer a simple translation of the sermon, but added comments as he would have done from the pulpit. Sermon on the Mount was not printed as a separate volume, but appended to Juan de León’s 1545 edition of the Summary. The incorporation of a passage of Scripture is reminiscent of the format of Juan de Valdés’s Dialogue on Christian Doctrine (1529). that is, a three-party dialogue to which is appended the author’s translation from the Greek of a passage from Scripture. Although Constantino left Alcalá slightly before Valdés’s book was printed, he may very well have had a copy thanks to Francisco de Vargas, who was on the examining board before it was printed, or Dr. Egidio, who was still in Alcalá when the book was banned. Apart from the basic dialogue format, which in itself is not conclusive, several passages suggest a strong correlation of spiritual concerns.349 As we have seen earlier, Constantino’s Sermon on the Mount was also appended to the third part of Fray Luis de Granada’s Book of Prayer and Meditation (1555) and the following year to his Sinners’ Guide. It appears that one of the reasons Fray Luis’s two books were placed on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1559 was because they contained a text by Constantino, whose writings had been officially banned. 3.2.3 Exposición del primer psalmo de David cuyo principio es Beatus vir diuidida en seys sermones (An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, the Principle of which is Beatus Vir. Divided in Six Sermons)350

Constantino published only one volume of sermones, but manuscript copies of other of his sermons circulated. We have, for example, the testimony of Ana de Illescas, who in a statement before the inquisitors declared that she “had read Dr. Constantino’s small Summary, and had listened to sermons of Constantino that Francisca de Chaves had taken down in her own handwriting.”351 Montes relates that Constantino’s lectures on Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and Job at the Casa de la Doctrina “are extant in manuscript, gathered up by the efforts of […], one of the most diligent of his hearers.”352 Among the confiscated goods of several of the men remaining in prison after the auto da fe held 28 October 1562, were 349 350 351 352

See, for example, Beatus vir (fol. cxij v) on idleness, on feigned prayers (fol. cxvj v), etc. Referred to hereafter in its shortened form as Beatus vir. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4519, doc. 10 (d). Montantus, The Artes… [2018: 411]. The name of the scribe, which appears in the 1567 original as “Bab.”, seems to be an abbreviation.

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handwritten sermons. The document does not specify whose manuscripts they were, or what they contained, but they could have been Constantino’s sermons or some of his lectures.353 Likwise, members of the evangelical circle in Valladolid were well acquainted with Constantino’s sermons. In her confession, made before inquisitor Guijelmo on 19 April 1558, Juana de Fonseca stated: Francisco de Viuero (Bibero)354 said that he would give me a small book of six sermons by Constantino. I told him that I had already read it six years ago …; and that I should read another book by Constantino, his large Doctrina, which is for sale.355

A month later, Francisco de Bibero confessed that the only book he remembered reading was Constantino’s Beatus Vir,356 and he remembered that he had told Juana de Fonseca to read Constantino’s Beatus Vir and his Doctrina.357 On 25 April 1558, Luis de Rojas declared that his uncle Pedro de Sarmiento had burned two books of his that were by Constantino on the psalm Beatus vir and Confesión de vn pecador.358 Another witness, Ana Enriquez, declared that Luis de Rojas had written her asking her to send him a copy of Constantino’s Beatus Vir.359 Maria del Carmen Álvarez Márquez, who has studied the content of sixteenth century libraries, points out that Constantino’s Beatus Vir and his small Summary were especially popular among the women in Seville. Among the religious books that formed part of many of their libraries, Constantino’s small Summary rated second after Erasmus’s Manual del soldado Cristiano.360 All three of these works are listed in an inventory taken of Elvira de Guzman’s library in 1548.361

353 Dr. Lorenço de Santiago de la Sal, canon in Alcalá de Henares, who was still in prison five years later; Dr. Jerónimo de Herrera, administrator of the Hospital de las Bubas and preacher, absolved, among whose good were “ciertos sermones escritos de su mano” (sermons written in his own hand); Juan López, clergy, prohibited to preach, teach, or write anything related to religion; Fray Gerónimo Caro, teacher, whose trial had still not come up in August 1567. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2075 (1), doc. 2; AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2944, doc. 57; AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2943, doc. 149–2. Also see J.I. García Pinilla, “Lectores y lectura clandestina en el grupo protestante sevillano del siglo xvi” [2012: 50]. 354 Brother to Agustn y Pedro de Cazalla. 355 Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: IV, 688]. 356 Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: IV, 823]. 357 Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: IV, 931]. 358 Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: IV, 666]. 359 Schäfer, Protestantismo Español … [2014: IV, 925]. 360 The Spanish translation of Enchiridion militis christiani (Handbook of a Christian Knight), translated by Alfonso Fernandez de Madrid in 1527. 361 Maria del Carmen Álvarez Márquez, “Mujeres lectoras en el siglo XVI en Sevilla” [2004: 36].

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The fact that the printer’s name does not appear on the title page of the first edition of Beatus vir (Seville, 1546) has caused some confusion. Instead of his name, the printer inserted an emblem—his printer’s mark—that served to identify his work. It was not uncommon for early printers to identify themselves with these personalized emblems. The device found on the 1546 edition of Beatus vir fully contradicts William Roberts’s statement that “The Printers’ Marks of Spain need not detain us long. They cannot in any case be described as other than archaic, and they are for the most part striking on account of the coarseness of their design.”362 The printer’s device that appears on the 1546 edition of Beatus vir is a large welldefined, full 6-cm. free-standing illustration depicting Hercules with his club, a lion’s skin over his shoulder, a bow and carcass at his feet.363 It summarizes the story of Hercules and the Lion: King Eurystheus decided that Hercules’ first task was to bring him the skin of a fierce lion that terrorized the hills around Nemea. This printer’s device belonged to Juan de León, who printed Constantino’s Summary in 1545. Although early emblems often included the printer’s initials, as time went by they became more enigmatic. Illustrations were used as puns on the printer’s name. For example, Samuel Apiarius, who printed Casiodoro de Reina’s Biblia del Oso (Basel, 1569) used a bear discovering a bee’s nest in the hollow of a tree—an obvious pun on his surname: Apiarius (“the bee-keeper”).364 Juan de León’s mark is highly symbolic. He was just beginning his printing career in Seville and was challenged with printing a work by one of the most outstanding and forceful preachers. León had already printed Constantino’s Summary the previous year and would print the Catechism and the Confession of a Sinner the following year. Another important part of León’s device was the motif : Labor omnia vincit (Work conquers all). Did this correspond to a work ethic he had inherited from his Calvinist-minded printer colleagues in Lyon? Beatus Vir was as popular as the Summary, but reprints were fewer. Whereas the Summary (1543) was reprinted in 1544, 1545, 1547 and 1551, it took ten years for Beatus Vir to be reprinted. Recent research published by Alexander S. Wilkinson, however, lists two reprints found in Aurora Dominguez Guzman’s El libro Sevillano durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI (Sevilla, 1975): # 15061. “Exposicion del salmo ‘Beatus vir’. Sevilla, s.n. 1547; and # 15063. Exposicion del primer psalmo de

362 William Roberts, Printers’ Marks. A Chapter in the History of Typography (1893):eBook edition [2010: 230]. 363 See: “Marques d’impressors des del 1476 fins al 1907,” Universidad de Barcelona. Online: https:// marques.crai.ub.edu/en/printer/a11618899 Accessed 10.05.2021. 364 See Liz Broadwell, The Bears and the Bees: Woodcut Devices of Mathias Apiarius. Posted 15 July 2020. https://pennrare.wordpress.com/2020/07/15/the-bears-and-the-bees-woodcut-devices-ofmathias-apiarius/ Accessed 10.07.2021.

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David, cuyo principio es beatus vir, dividida en seis sermones. Sevilla, s.n., 1548.”365 No copies of these reprints exist today. However, evidence of their existence is reflected in the lack of correlation between the errata detected by Eduard Boehmer in the 1546 Seville edition and the 1556 Antwerp edition, and those detected in the 1546 Seville digitized copy posted online through the Münchener Digitalisierungs Zentrum Digitale Bibliothek.366 We owe the rediscovery of Beatus Vir to Eduard Boehmer, professor at the University of Strasbourg and corresponding member of the Royal Spanish Academy.367 This tireless German bibliophile discovered a copy of the first edition of Beatus Vir, printed in Seville in 1546, in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek of Munich, as well as a copy of the second edition printed in Antwerp in Vienna in 1556.368 After carefully collating these two early editions, Boehmer published a third, corrected and slightly modernized edition in Bohn in 1881, which served as the basic text for the edition published in Nashville, Tenn., in 1902 by the Methodist Episcopal Church South: Vol. I, Exposición del primer salmo dividida en seis sermones; Vol. II, Confesión de un pecador, Sermón de Nuestro Redentor en el monte, Suma de Doctrina Cristiana. The publication was dedicated to ”the preachers of the Gospel in the countries where the beautiful language of Cervantes and Valera is spoken.” Although Dr. Boehmer

365 Alexander S. Wilkinson, Iberian Books/Libros ibéricos (IB): Books Published in Spanish or Portuguese or on the Iberian Peninsula before 1601 [2010: 588]. 366 A dozen dozen erratas were detected during our process of collating. 367 Eduard Boehmer’s involvement in the publication of the Spanish reformers goes back to 1851, when he accompanied the elderly German theologian Dr. Friedrich August Tholuck to London to attend a meeting of the Evangelical Alliance. While there, Juan Calderón, an exiled Spanish philologist and a friend of Luis Usoz y Río, brought Dr. Tholuck a copy of Adolfo de Castro’s The Spanish Protestants and Their Persecution by Philip II (London, 1851). After reading Castro’s work, Boehmer became interested in Spain and in 1858 travelled to Cadiz to meet Adolfo de Castro. On his return trip he passed through Madrid where he purchased volumes I, III, IX, X, XI, and XII of Usoz’s series. In an appendix of one of the volumes he found Benjamin Wiffen’s address. Boehmer wrote to him asking where he could purchase a copy of volume IV, which was Alfonso de Valdés’s Two Dialogues. Although the two men never met personally, a strong friendship was established. It had been Wiffen’s desire to compile a catalogue that would include all the information that he and Usoz had collected over the years regarding the Spanish Reformers “in order to serve as a manual for scholarly reference and to establish them as a class of writers,” but he died shortly afterwards. It was then that John and Mary Betts, collaborators of Wiffen and translators of several of Valdés’s works into English, sent all of Wiffen’s papers to Eduard Boehmer for him to undertake the completion of the work. To Usoz’s twenty-volume collection Boehmer added Juan de Valdés’s El Salterio (1880) and Trataditos (1880), and a new edition of Constantino’s sermons on the first Psalm (1881) and Valdés’s Spiritual Milk (1882). Boehmer contributed to making known the works of the Spanish Reformers in Germany with over twenty articles published in prestigious journals between 1861 and 1902. 368 Boehmer, Exposicion del Primer Salmo… [1881: 238]

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had given them permission to reproduce his text, they acknowledge that they did not reproduce it literally: To facilitate its reading and sale, we made changes in many places, updating archaic forms of language for modern ones. We also thought it convenient to divide the sermons into paragraphs, and to verify and correct the quotations from Sacred Scripture. The punctuation is ours, but for the spelling we have followed the latest edition of the Diccionario de la Academia.369

Boehmer’s 1881 edition also served as the basic text for Emilia Navarro de Kelley in 1977.370 To Constantino’s text, Kelley added Ten Lamentations by Fray Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, a spiritual director of the Discalced Carmelites, who was expelled from the Order and as a result fell in disgrace with Philip II, but was eventually restored to his former position by Pope Clement VIII. Emilio Monjo applied the same editing criteria as the Methodist Episcopal Church South editors in modernizing the spelling and the grammar in his 2009 edition of Constantino’s Beatus Vir and Confesión de un pecador.371 The introduction by David Estrada Herrero highlights the theological implications of the two works. As suggested earlier, Constantino would have had among his collection of Hebrew Bibles a copy of Santi Pagnini’s interlinear Hebrew/Latin translation: Veteris et Novi Testamenti nova translatio (Lyons, 1528). At a time before the edict prohibiting the purchase of bibles printed outside Spain,372 when many bibles were being sent to Spain through the Grande Compagnie Lyonnaise bookdealers, Constantino may have acquired a copy of the revision made in 1542. Several coincidences with Miguel Servetus’s revision of Pagnini’s Bible (Lyon: Hugo de la Porte, 1542) strongly suggest that the basic text used by Constantino to prepare these sermons on Psalm 1 was precisely Servetus’s 1542 revision. For example, the initiative to insert headings at the beginning of each chapter was a real novelty. Constantino’s comment that the first psalm has no title “as other Psalms have” (f. ij. v) suggests that he was familiar with these headings, which until then were only found in Servetus’s revision. Likewise, Servetus also introduced brief comments of an historical nature, relating the text to specific characters in the history of Israel. For example, in Psalm I,1, where Pagnini translates: Beatus vir qui non ambulavit in consilium impiorum, Servet adds: impium

369 Ponce de la Fuente, Exposición del primer salmo [1902: xvii]. 370 Carne de hoguera. Exposición del primer Salmo, seguido de Diez lamentaciones del miserable estado de los ateístas de nuestros tiempos. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1977–78. 371 Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Doctrina Christiana. Parte primera, in E. Monjo Bellido, ed., Obras de los reformadores españoles del siglo XVI, Vol. X [ 2019]. 372 Following the 1552 edict, which prohibited the import of bibles printed outside Spain, the authorities seized a good number of Hugo de la Porte’s 1542 Lyon edition. AHN, Inquisición, leg. 4426, doc. 32.

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Achitophelis consilium huius psalmi fuit occasio, sicut quinque sequentium.373 Was Constantino’s choice of Achitophel as an extreme example of bad council (f. xxiij) taken from Servetus’s note? Of all his works, Constantino seems to have had a predilection for Beatus Vir. In his own words, the six short verses of the first Psalm sum up in only a few words “the entire doctrine of the Holy Scripture… It is like a mirror in which the righteous and the sinner must put in order their conscience.”374 The work, in the words of Montes, contains both theological depth and beauty of expression: “from it the more educated will understand the man’s unusual theological learning wedded to unmatched skills of expression.” Although Constantino apologizes to the reader for the fact that the language is not as polished as he would have liked it to be, “for it was written down the way it was preached,” his literary—and oratory—skills become self-evident in these sermons with his profuse use of rhetorical devices. Psalm 1 is essentially a metaphor in itself: ”the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. …The ungodly are like the chaff which the wind driveth away”(KJV). Constantino elaborates on these metaphors and also adds a few of his own: The Psalm is like a mirror… it serves like a lamp; The Law of God is like a sword that cuts asunder and like a fire that consumes.375 Well aware that the use of rhetorical tools was extremely effective for consolidating mental focus and strengthening adherence to a thesis,376 Constantino employed them masterfully. His copious use of alliteration,377 doublets,378 and antithetical pairs379 play a key role in the creation of the rich poetic texture of these sermons, making them a delight to read. The use of antithetical pairs in parallel grammatical structures highlights the contrasts he wishes to convey. It also allows for the

373 Fernández Marcos, “Pagnino, Servet y Arias Montano” [2003: 297]. 374 “Siempre me puso admiracion esta brevedad, viendo que es como un espejo con quien el justo y el pecador deven de ordenar su conciencia y conocer los defectos de ella.” (Beatus vir, Al lector). 375 “El salmo] es como un espejo […] que sirva de una como luz” (Al lector); “[La Ley de Dios], cuchillo es, que lo corta y fuego que lo consume” (Sermon 2). 376 Neil R. Leroux, “Luther’s Use of Doublets,” RSQ: Rhetoric Society Quarterly 30.3 (2000), 35–54. 377 reverdece y resucita; promesas y prendas; acompanan y adornan; manifestar y mantener; trabajos y tentaciones; palabras y platicas (Sermon 3). 378 temores y sobresaltos; pobre y miserable; favorece y sustenta; claras y limpias; linage y sucession; possession y riquezas; trabajos y adversidades; artes y manas; muestras y senales; verdadero y cierto (Sermon 3). 379 Note the parallel structures: “no el mandamiento divino, sino su propio interesse; no obediencia del senor, sino su contentamiento; no verdadero amor de su proximo, sino su carnal aficion; no la gloria del cielo, sino la suya propia; no la humildad y silencio de la caridad, sino el pregon y la placa de su vanidad y de su sobervia” (f. cxx v).)

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introduction of ellipsis,380 a linguistic resource that contributes greatly to brevity and textual cohesion. Another noteworthy aspect of his vocabulary is the broad semantic field from which he draws when listing some twenty different types of evildoers. Indeed, Constantino had a great command of the language. In addition to his profound humanistic and theological training, his aesthetic sensitivity also surfaces with his frequent use of terms such as “beauty”, “beautiful”, or “ugly” and “ugliness” when referring to sin or evil and ungodliness.381 Ugliness in the Christian tradition has two sources of inspiration: the Bible and the Greek and Roman philosophical tradition.382 It provokes negative feelings of shame, affront, dishonour and rejection. Within the general context of the aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, ugliness is found in forms lacking distinctive notes of beauty, that is, in the absence of integrity or perfection, proportion or harmony. Saint Augustine viewed ugliness from the double perspective of his philosophical and religious journey. Beauty and ugliness, good and bad, truth and error, are manifestations of two eternal principles: that of light and darkness. Whereas beauty is related to reason, truth, and goodness; ugliness is related to evil, error, and irrational tendencies. In The City of God, Augustine deals with the ugly and the beautiful in an eschatological dimension. At the end of time a new humanity will be reborn in a new world, where the resurrected, dressed in perfect body—both in soul and body—, will enjoy full happiness contemplating God, the supreme beauty. Constantino also takes special care to explain cultural references unfamiliar to his reader by incorporating clarifications. For example, aware that the majority of his listeners were city dwellers unfamiliar with agricultural activities, he clarifies the meaning of “chaff.”383 Furthermore, whenever he suspects that his reader might not understand a given reference, he inserts a more familiar one.384 He also clarifies meanings by resorting to etymological explanations of the original Hebrew term,385

380 “como no ay remedio en la tierra para castigar sus maldades, tampoco lo ha de auer en el cielo” [f. xxxij v]. 381 He also uses these aesthetical categories profusely in Confession of a sinner. 382 For an historical survey of Christian aesthetics, see: David Estrada Herrero, The History of European Aesthetics, London: Bloomsbury, 2022. 383 “Este polvo de que aqui haze mencion nuestro Psalmo, segun la propia significacion del vocablo es una cosa menuda que se haze de las aristas del pan quando lo trillan, o de las vainitas y coberturas del grano; los labradores pienso que lo llaman tamo.” (f. cvij v) 384 “Este vocablo conocer, muchas vezes en la divina escritura se toma por aprovar, y por favorecer. A las virgines locas se les responde en el evangelio: No os conozco, no sé quien sois.” ([f. clxv]). 385 “Esto quiere decir tambien alli, por presuposicion, el vocablo hebraico. La hoja que no se marchita ni se descolora no se cae.” (f. xciij]).

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as well as the various Latin renderings of certain words.386 In short, Constantino’s rhetoric can be described as an artistic balance between poetry and prose. Beatus Vir epitomizes Constantino’s theology, his style and his cosmovision. It is the piece that best illustrates his savoir faire and his talent as a gifted speaker. As he unfolds the profound meaning of the verses of the psalm he carries his reader/ listener to realms of self-examination that leaves no one indifferent. He is emphatic; there is no taking things for granted. Everyone, including those who call themselves Christians, must examine themselves to see if they really are Christians. Being the only example we have of his preaching, we have appended it—by way of English translation—to this volume. 3.2.4 Confesión de un pecador delante de lesu-Chrísto redemptor y juez de los hombres (Confession of a Sinner before Jesus Christ, redeemer and judge)

Despite being such a small booklet—almost a tract—, Confession of a Sinner was initially printed as a separate volume. The first edition was printed anonymously, without the printer’s or the author’s name. In 1554 a second edition was printed in Evora (Portugal) together with two meditations by Fray Luis de Granada. In 1556, Guillermo Simon printed a third edition in Antwerp to which he added Constantino’s Catecismo cristiano. Only three years later Simon‘s volume was on Valdés’s Index of Prohibited Books. The Antwerp edition may have escaped the edict of the Supreme Council until then, but already in 1558 orders were sent out to collect the Seville editions of Exposición del psalmo (1546), Cathecismo christiano (1547) and Confesion de vn pecador delante de Jhesu Christo, (1547).387 Confession of a Sinner seems to be the only publication that remained on the Index. In the 1790 edition of the Último Índice we still read: “Fuente (Constantino de la). I. cl. Especialmente su Confesion del Pecador.”388 The one extant copy of the 1554 Antwerp edition housed in the library at Munich disappeared after World War II. Fortunately, Usoz y Río had reprinted it in 1863.389

386 “Tres nombres estan en este verso, que son, maluados, peccadores, cathedra de pestilencia, o como despues diremos, escarnidores, que es lo mismo. Acerca de los dos primeros, se trabajan mucho los interpretes todos, por hallar la propria differencia que ay entre ellos: quales son propriamente los maluados, quales propriamente los peccadores.” (f. xv v- f. xvj) 387 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 323, f. 146 in Schäfer, Protestantismo Español [2014: III, 137]. 388 Rubin de Cevallos, Indice ultimo … [1790: 109] 389 From Usoz’s 1863 edition, María Paz Aspe Ansa edited a fourth edition of Confession of a Sinner in 1988.

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He had also commissioned John T. Betts to translate the work into English.390 The content of Confession of a Sinner is beautifully expressed by Montes: But of all these works, which are the most erudite and godly of any that Spain has read until now, nothing is [comparable?] to the Confession of a sinner (a work of two or three folios), whether one considers its godliness, or skill in sacred matters, or that river of Christian eloquence foaming with Christian feeling because of the nature of the subject. For he summons a man before God’s judgement seat through the ministry of the Law, meditating, with eyes wide open, on his rottenness and depravity, and deploring them with intense feelings. And the he rejects whatever is of human origin or is produced from a man’s natural powers, and the hard work which the hypocrites who flatter themselves on their own righteousness habitually use to cover their depraved nakedness. And as he speaks of this he runs through the points of the Law one by one, after he has accused himself, and brings forth (in that briefest of compendia) an explanation of the whole Law so brilliant and full that, up to now (we say it without ill feeling towards anyone), we have not seen another done as clearly yet as unaffectedly. Then at last, he wraps the man in those wedding garments of Christ’s justification by faith, and in this alone he displays him before God, as high-spirited as he was dejected when he described him before, on account of that true and intimate self-knowledge.391

John T. Betts, the nineteenth century English translator, describes the work thus: Of all his works, which surely were as learnedly written and as godly as anie that ever were read in Spaine, the Confession of a Sinner not passing two or three sheets long, exceeded all the rest, both for zeale, learning, and eloquence uttered therein, most lively expressing the affections of a Christian man, incident to such an argument. First he bringeth in a man before the Judgment seat of God, making him to see, and lively to lament his owne filthiness and abomination, to cast off all whatsoever these pharisees, flattering themselves with their own righteousnesse, were wont to cover our nakednesse withall, being eyther devised or established by man, and therein he peruseth the Ten Commandments orderly, confessing him guiltie of the breach thereof and therewithal! maketh so plaine and absolute an exposition of the whole Law in that short summarie, that in such a breviat (be it spoken without offence to any) I have not hitherto seene any so lightsome. In the end hee clotheth them with the wedding garment of Christ’s righteousnesse by faith, wherewith alonely he encourageth and emboldeneth man before the face of God, as much as he discomforted him before, when as he brought him to the

390 Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, The Confession of a Sinner. With a biographical sketch by Benjamin B. Wiffen [1869]. 391 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 429].

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perfect knowledge of himselfe, and the consideration of his own case and estate. Finally there is no one iot that concerneth the Christian religion, but he hath touched it, referring it to some purpose in that briefe table : nor any affection that can be in a man, from the very first letter of the Law till the last end of the Gospel, and the fruition of the heavenly habitation, but he hath most lively expressed it. Neither had he been ever able to devise such a peece of worke, notwithstanding his passing gifts of nature and helps of art, except he had first learned them by often experience in himself.392

The French historian Marcel Bataillon defines the content even more concisely: Perhaps never have the combat that the law of sin and the divine law wage in the soul, and the awakening of the conscience through the revelation of the law, and the awakening of the sinner through conscience, been more vigorously painted in the Spanish language.393 3.2.5 Catecismo Christiano, para instruir a los niños (Christian catechism for children)

This brief catechism is a compendium of the Summary of Christian Doctrine designed to instruct children. It expounds the creed, the twelve articles of faith, the ten commandments, the Lord’s prayer and the sacraments. Constantino had a special interest in children’s religious education. Already Chapter 4 of the Summary bears the subtitle: “De cuan mal son enseñados los niños en nuetro tiempo” (How poorly the children a taught in our days). This concern for the proper instruction given to the children is what motivated Juan de Valdés to write his Dialogue on Christian Doctrine. It appears that Fernández Temiño, Bishop of León, to whom the Catechism is dedicated, also had a burden for the instruction of children, for in the lengthy dedicatory Constantino observes that it was Temiño who had so often urged him to write it.394 Regarding this small catechism, Montes comments: “He also published a catechism, which would have been of no great consequence in freer lands, but which, under the more than Babylonian tyranny and in that Egyptian darkness, shed a great deal of light.”395 As the fifteenth century ended, more emphasis was put on the instruction of children. The Synods of Jaen (1492) and Zaragoza (1495) were the first to speak of the obligation of parents, godparents and tutors to have their children learn the basic tenets of the Doctrina Christiana. In 1497, Francisco de Cisneros called a

392 393 394 395

Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, The Confession of a Sinner. [1869: 41–42]. Bataillon, Erasmo y España [1966: 530] Constantino, Suma de Doctrina…, [1863: 280] Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 429].

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synod in Alcalá, and another in Talavera de la Reina the following year, in which he addressed the issue of religious education. One specific constitution required that priests teach children the Doctrina Christiana according to a catechism that he himself had written.396 The Synod of Badajoz (1501) required each church to have someone on hand willing and able to teach the children and that parents were obliged to send “all the children in their household—both theirs and those of their servants—under the age of twelve” to be instructed.397 Valdés’s Dialog on Christian Doctrine (1529) opens with precisely this scenario: the well-intentioned efforts of a rural priest to catechize a group of children and the concern of a better informed priest for the doctrinal instruction of the rural priest. The Catechism for children is dedicated to Juan Fernández Temiño, bishop of León.398 Temiño had come to Seville in 1524 when Alonso Manrique, archbishop of Seville and Inquisitor General, called him to be vicar general of the archdiocese of Seville. He is remembered for his revision of the Breviary, for which Manrique rewarded him generously and in 1546 Charles V named him bishop of León. In September of 1546, Fernando de Valdés sent Temiño to Seville for a short visit in order to take possession, in his name, of his new post as archbishop of Seville.399 Constantino may have wanted to dedicate his Summary of Christian Doctrine (1544) to Temiño, but it was politically more appropriate to dedicate his first publication to Juan Garcia de Loaysa y Mendoza, archbishop of Seville.400 In the preliminary material of his multi-volume reprint of four of Constantino’s works—Suma, Sermón en el monte, Confesión del pecador and the Catechism—, Usoz y Rio inserted the following quotation by Constantino: “since our lives depend on it, each one must look to his own, and not think that the guilt of another’s downfall is one’s remedy, for no one is without guilt. We all complain about those who are in charge of making us upright persons, as if we were not obliged to be so. Each one must know whom he follows, and he will not be left without a comforter.”401

396 Cisneros’s catechism for children did not include the sacraments, which pertain to the catechism for adults. José García Oro, El Cardenal Cisneros: vida y empresas [1992: II, 57]. 397 For a full account of the decrees of these and more synods regarding Doctrina Christiana, see Jose Sánchez Herrero, “La literatura catequética en la Península Ibérica, 1236–1553” [1986: 1051–1118]. 398 Not to be confused with Juan Fernández Temiño, bishop of Ávila. 399 Fernando de Valdés would be named Inquisitor General several months later when Garcia de Loaysa, who had become inquisitor general that year, died unexpectedly. 400 From 1523 to 1530 García de Loaysa was imperial confessor. In 1530 he was invested cardinal and in 1532 Carlos V appointed him bishop of Sigüenza. García de Loaysa was also bishop of Osma, but like so many other ecclesiastics did not reside in his diocese. In 1539 he was transferred to the see of Seville with the dignity of archbishop to fill the vacancy left by Alfonso de Manriquez, who had died the previous year, and in 1546 he was also named Inquisitor General . He died that same year in Madrid. 401 Constantino, Suma de Doctrina, … [1983: contra portada]. Translation mine.

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3.2.6 Doctrina Christiana, en que está comprehendida toda la información que pertenece al hombre que quiere servir a Dios. Parte primera. De los artículos de la fe. (Christian Doctrine, in which is comprehended all that is needed for that man to know who wants to serve God. Part I. The articles of faith)

The first two editions of Christian Doctrine (1548, 1549) came off Juan Canalla’s press in Seville. Canalla had just opened a shop the previous year. When Juan de León left Seville, many of his fonts and ornamental engravings were passed on to Sebastián Trujillo and to Juan Canalla.402 The next two editions (1554, 1555) were printed in Antwerp by Juan Steelsio, who had a network of commercial contacts in Seville and Medina del Campo. His factor in Spain was his relative Pedro Bellero (Petrus Bellerus), who in Seville had worked with Antonio del Corro and Diego de Santa Cruz. Steelsio printed many religious books in Spanish in the 1550s, but his thriving business was seriously affected in 1559 by Valdés’s Index of Prohibited Books, which reduced his Spanish repertoire to zero.403 Usoz y Río did not include Christian Doctrine in his Reformistas Antiguos Españoles series. Menéndez y Pelayo took for granted that this omission was due to the fact that in essence it was so similar to Suma de doctrina.404 The real reason was probably because Usoz was either unable to find a copy or too ill to embark on another major project. The copy used by David Estrada Herrero for his 2018 critical edition—Doctrina Christiana, Antwerp: Juan Steelsio, 1554—is found in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. Similar to Eduard Boehmer’s experience, Estrada found typographical errors, non-consecutive pages, as well as mistaken biblical references. For example, Juan Canalla’s typesetters in Seville as well as the typesetters in Antwerp printed “Psalm 102” when it should read “Psalm 133” or “Matthew 7” when it should read “Matthew 25”.405 As the title of the book indicates, it is the first part of an in-depth study of the articles of faith. Montes corroborates this:

402 Ma. del Carmen Alvarez Márquez, La impresión y el comercio de libros en Sevilla s. XVI [2007: 75]. 403 According to Eduard Boehmer: Concerning the trade in heretical books between Germany and Spain, a bookseller, who was examined by the Inquisition of the Netherlands, gave interesting details, in the beginning of the year 1558. This man, Peter Veller, who was engaged in the extensive business of Steelsio at Antwerp, testified that some Antwerp booksellers fetched, twice a year from the fairs at Frankfort on the Main, the new works which were published by the heretics in Latin and in Spanish. Boehmer, Bibliotheca… [2007: II, 64]. 404 Menéndez y Pelayo, Heterodoxos… [2003: II, 430, n1]. Cf. Nicolás Castrillo Benito, El ‘Reginaldo Montano’ Primer Libro Polemico … [1991: 77]. 405 Estrada Herrero, “Introducción”, Doctrina Christiana … [2018: 425, n404].

Published Works

There are a great many of his writings in print. There is a Short Summary of Christian Doctrine, there is also a Large Summary, though this was only half finished, for he had planned two volumes which would transmit the whole corpus of Christian doctrine. In the first volume he discussed faith, and in the second he would have treated of the Creeds, works, and finally, the whole duty of the Christian believer. He had published the first part several years before, but he had not openly abused the Lutheran heresies when speaking about the Faith, and moreover had attributed nothing to the Roman Pontifex; and besides this, though he did not denounce indulgences, Purgatory, human merits and other such trifles, he minimized them.”406

In his scholarly introduction, Estrada points out a parallel between the way the themes of Doctrina Cristiana are developed and the theological treatises of the Protestant Reformers.407 Chapter 1 deals with the knowledge the individual must have of God and of himself. The second chapter broadens the theme by addressing “the knowledge of God and man according to the work of creation.” Next, Constantino deals with the biblical narrative of sin and the promise of salvation, the teachings of the Early Church, an extensive analysis of each of the articles of the Apostolic Creed, beginning with ”I believe in God the Father” and all the way to the word ”Amen.” Christian Doctrine concludes with 18 Testimonies in favour of Christianity, which Constantino includes as “a rebuttal of three sects: the Jewish, the Gentile and the Moorish.”408 A half century later, in his Tratado para confirmar los pobres cautivos de Berberia (1594), Cipriano de Valera, best remembered for his revision of Casiodoro de Reina’s Biblia del Oso, warned his readers, “As evangelical Christians, as long as you live in this land of Barbary, you will necessarily have disputes with three sorts of people: with anti-Christians, with Jews and with Moors.”409 Valera defines the expression: “anti-Christians, your fellow Catholic countrymen.” Are those the unbeliervers—“gentiles”—Constantino had in mind? Was Constantino’s reference to “gentiles” an euphemism for “non-practicing Catholics”?

406 Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 428]. Bracets mine. 407 Among the volumes in his library confiscated by the Inquisition was a copy of Justus Jones’s Cathecismus pro pueris in ecclesiis (Wittenberg, 1543). Did Constantino use this as his model? 408 These 18 chapters constitute the part referred to in the Preface that reads “at the end of this first part [Volume One]” [2018: 92]. Later he states, “In the second part of Doctrina, we will deal with the Ten commandments…”. This is corroborated by Montes: “in the second he would have treated of the Creeds, works, and finally, the whole duty of the Christian believer”. Montanus, The Artes … [2018: 427]. 409 Cipriano de Valera, Tratado para confirmar los pobres cautivos de Berberia [1872: 40–41]

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3.3

Unpublished Work

At one point between the European tour and his journey to England for prince Philip’s wedding, Constantino submitted a request for approval to print a new manuscript—Espejo del estado del hombre en esta presente vida (A Reflection on Man’s State in this Present Life). The request also included permission to reprint Beatus Vir and the Catechism.410 A careful reading of the correspondence between Seville and the Supreme Council indicates that the new manuscript was first sent to Alcalá for qualification, then back to Seville with the recommendation that all the places referring to the “faith of the sinners as false” should be amended.411 On 28 September 1553 the Supreme Council wrote to Seville again regarding the manuscript: As soon as you sent us the manuscript by Dr. Constantino entitled Espejo del estado del hombre en esta presente vida, we had the same doctors of Alcalá that had given the first opinion of the book of the six sermons see it together with Lic. Carlos, so that they could qualify it and see if it responded to and satisfied all the things that were voted on regarding the book of the six sermons. Seen by them, Lic. Carlos wrote a letter that goes with this one to His Most Reverend Honora, and, having seen his reply, it seemed best to send you again both books and the opinion of those from Alcalá, and the letter from Lic. Carlos, and the other qualifications that had been sent from there, so that you can see them and, once seen, you make him amend in the book “The Mirror of the State of Man” the places where he calls the faith of sinners false;412 in the book of the six sermons you can do what the said doctors of Alcala think best.413

In the spring of 1554 the Supreme Council asked the inquisitors in Seville to “very astutely call on Constantino—if he is in the city or when he comes414 —to see how he reacts to the criticisms made of his books. The letter states: After receiving in this Council the book sent to you hereby from Dr. Constantino, the Sermons on the first psalm of David as well as the Christian Catechism, the qualifications

410 Francisco Meléndez, with whom Constantino would share the pulpit during Lent in 1556, and the Dominican friar Gonzalo de Arciniega examined the two works. Ollero Pina, “Clérigos, universitarios y herejes …” [2007: 187]. 411 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 574, f. 392r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 101, doc.26]. 412 Constantino deals with the topic of false faith, or dead faith, in Sermon II (f. xlij v; xlvij; lx v) and in chapter 33 of Doctina Cristiana [f. 79v] [2018: 214]. He may have dealt more extensively with the topic in “The Mirror of the State of Man.” 413 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 5741, f. 392r, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 101, doc.26]. 414 This suggests that Constantino was not in Seville during the spring of 1554. Was he in Portugal?

Published Works

made by Fray Gonçalo de Arciniega and Dr. Meléndez regarding certain propositions and places that in the said books they seemed to have some suspicions, it was agreed that at the University of Alcalá men of letters and conscience should see the said books. And so it was done, and they saw them and made the qualification you will see. And all seen and consulted with his Most Reverend Lordship, it would be convenient for the said Dr. Constantino to declare how he feels and what he means by these said propositions and books. And that for this purpose, without showing him the qualifications, he be told all the places that are noted as suspects in the said books, and that he be told that some people have scruples regarding what is contained in the said places. And he should be asked, and declare in writing, how he feels about this so that, given his answer, we can know how to proceed.415

The missive of 28 September 1553 refers to the new manuscript; the second one, sent sometime during the spring of 1554, refers to the second part of Constantino’s petition, that is, the request for ecclesiastical approval to reprint Beatus Vir and the Catechism. Unfortunately, both Constantino’s reply and the censors’ observations have been lost.416 This was not the first time Constantino requested permission to reprint his works. Before leaving on the European tour, he submitted a request for a royal Privilegio to reprint the small Summary, Confession of a Sinner, Beatus vir, the Catechism and Doctrina Christiana. The royal privilege, dated 22 August 1548 and signed by prince Philip, giving him exclusive rights to print and sell all of his books was granted and inserted in the preliminary matter of the 1551 Seville edition of Suma de Doctrina Christiana. Considering the date—1548, the year Doctrina Christiana was printed—this may have been initially a request to print only Doctrina Christiana, to which he added the others. It reads: Inasmuch as on your part, Dr. Constantino, a native of the city of Seville, was made a report to me, saying that you, for the service of God our Lord, wrote and compiled five books, entitled, the one Confession of a Sinner, another Doctrina Christiana, another Exposizion of the first psalm of David, Beatus vir; another Summary of Doctrina Christiana, and another Catechism Christiano to instruct the children, which are very profitable works for these kingdoms. These books, which were seen and examined by the inquisitors and approved by them, and you have printed them at your own expense, as appears; [now] you request of me begging me to do you pleasure, in charging no person to sell or print

415 AHN, Inquisición, lib. 574, f. 374v, in López Muñoz, La Reforma [2011: II, 99, doc.24]. 416 The severe floods in January 1554 when many of the inquisition records kept in the castle of Saint Jorge on the banks of the Guadalquivir river prior to that date were lost, would not have affected these missives.

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them for the time stipulated, without your consent and good will, and taking into account the great amount of work that you had put into it, to have each printed sheet appraised, which, seen and examined by those of the council of the Emperor, the King, my Lord, abiding by what they have said, for being gracious to you, I had this done. I hereby give you licence and power for you, or whoever you designate, to print and sell for the next ten years from the date of this my cédula (certificate) onwards, the aforesaid five books during which time, I command and defend that any person, without your consent, cannot print or sell them, under penalty of losing every books that he has printed, or sold in these our kingdoms. I command that this my written order be printed with each of the said books, that each printed sheet be priced at two maravedís and no more. And I command those of the Council of his Majesty, presidents, judges, mayors, and bailiffs of his house and court, and chancelleries and all the corregidores, assistants, governors, mayors, bailiffs and any other justices and judges of all the cities, towns, and villages of our kingdoms, and lordships, each one of them, both those who now hold these posts as well as those who will hold them in the future, that they heed you and comply with your wishes and put into effect this my cédula, as a favour I grant you; that they neither disregard nor consent to it in any way, under penalty of losing our favour, and a fine of ten thousand maravedís for our treasury to be imposed on anyone who does otherwise. Written in the town of Valladolid on 22 August 1548. [signed] I the Prince.417

It is a bit disconcerting that Constantino should request another Aprovación (ecclesiastical approval) for Beatus Vir and the Catechism in 1553 if he had already received a Privilegio from prince Philip in 1548 to print them, which was good for ten years. Regulations regarding printing that appeared in the Recopilacion (Laws of the Kingdom), decreed by the Catholic monarchs in 1480 and enlarged by a bull issued by Pope Alexander VI in 1501, were expanded in 1539 by Pope Paul III at the request of Charles V. The law imposed three basic stipulations, that is, all publications had to include an ecclesiastic licence, or censored approval of both the printed page and the illustrations, an entitlement (Privilegio) and a price per printed sheet (tasa) calculated according to the quantity of paper employed, which at that time was a state monopoly. Despite the lack of documents to verify our supposition, it appears that neither the authorization requested in 1553 to publish the new manuscript, nor to reprint the other two books, was not given straightaway, but both works required some “corrections”. Constantino may not have wanted to incorporate any of the changes suggested—or required—by the inquisitors, which may have delayed the Aprovación or even disqualified him from receiving it. In any case, there were no reprints of

417 Constantino, Suma de doctrina cristiana [1983: XX, i]. Translation mine.

Published Works

Constantino’s works in Seville after 1551. Does this imply that the reprints produced in Antwerp were somewhat fraudulent? Juan Steelsio printed Constantino’s large Doctrina in 1554, and again in 1555; in 1556 Guillermo Simón printed three separate volumes of Constantino’s works: Confession of a Sinner + the Catechism; the small Summary + the Sermon on the Mount; and Beatus Vir. If Constantino only requested permission to reprint Beatus Vir and the Catechism, can we take for granted that Steelsio simply appropriated the Privilegio granted in 1548 inserted in the 1551 Seville edition of the Summary to print the large Doctrina? On the other hand, Steelsio’s editions carry an ecclesiastic licence signed by Fray Ángel de Castilla.418 What about Guillermo Simon? One matter Simón infringed upon was the obligation, specified in the 1548 Privilegio, to insert prince Philip’s Privilegio “in each of the said books.” Did he simply print these books on his own accord or did he borrow Constantino’s Privilegio?419 3.4

Translations

Excerpts of Confession of a Sinner were translated into French and appeared in early editions of Jean Crespin’s Histoire des Martyrs. In the enlarged 1608 edition of Crespin’s Histoire, Simon Goulart inserted a complete translation of Confession of a Sinner, together with Jacques Bienvenu’s abridged 1568 French rendering of Artes,420 and an account of the auto da fe held in Valladolid on 25 May 1559.421 The French translation has recently been reedited by Dominique de Courcelles, using the 1554 Evora edition, and published with an extensive introduction.422 In an appendix to his History of the progress and suppression of the reformation in Spain, the Scottish church historian Thomas M’Crie inserted an excerpt of the Confession of a Sinner that he translated from the French version he found in a

418 Estrada Herrero, “Introduction”, Doctrina Cristiana… [2018: 55, n155] 419 This was no uncommon practice, as Arturo Rodríquez López-Abadía points out [2016: 100]. 420 Within a year of its publication in Latin, Sanctae Inqvisitionis hispanicae artes (Heidelberg, 1567), was translated ito English—A Discovery and playne Declaration (London, 1568)— and French—Histoire de l’Inquisition d’Espagne (s.l.: s.n., 1568). 421 Constantino de la Fuente, Confession d’un pecheur devant Jesus Christ Sauver et Juge du Monde, trans. Jaques Bienvenu, in Jean Crespin, Histoire des martyrs (Geneva: héritiers d’Eustache Vignon, fols. 551–566]. For some unknown reason, the Bible references on the title pages differ. Whereas the English rendering has “Psalm 74:22”—the same as the Latin text—, the French title-page has Psalm 14:4 and Isaiah 59:6–7. Likewise, the French rendering omits the story of Garcia Arias (Maestro Blanco). 422 Dominique de Courcelles, La confession d’un pécheur devant Jésus Christ rédempteur et juge des hommes, 1547: précédé de ‘Le procès du doute et de la subjectivité dans l’Espagne du XVIe siècle’ [2000].

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1597 edition of Crespin’s History of Martyrs.423 Shortly after that, Gustav Plieninger translated M’Crie’s excerpts into German,424 and Willem Nicolaas Munting did the same into Dutch.425 Confession of a Sinner has recently been translated into Catalan by Josep-Lluis Carod-Rovira.426 Apart from John T. Betts and his wife Mary‘s 1869 English translation of Confession of a Sinner,427 which was reprinted in Australia in 1880,428 none other of Constantino’s books have been translated into English. It appears that John T. Betts began work on an English translation of Beatus vir,429 but unfortunately either he never finished it. Hence it is of utmost urgency that the work of this celebrated Spanish preacher be translated into today’s lingua franca as a sample of evangelical preaching in southern Europe. There may have been an Italian translation of Doctrina Christiana. Alfonso de Ulloa, a Spanish historian who settled in Venice in the mid-1540s, praised Constantino’s writings in his Vita dell’inuittissimo e sacratissimo imperator Carlo V (1575), particularly Doctrina Christiana, which he says he translated into Italian: El Dottor Constantino, great philosopher and very profound theologian, whose presence in the pulpit and eloquence the world has not seen for a long time, as can be seen clearly from the works that he wrote worthy of his divine genius, especially Christian doctrine, in which he deals with the articles of faith, and which we have translated into this language.430

423 Th. M’Crie, History of the progress and suppression of the reformation in Spain [1829: Appendix III, 407–412; 1842: Appendix III, 302–309]. 424 Geschichte der Ausbreitung und Unterdrückung der Reformation in Spanien im sechzehnten Jahrhundert/aus dem Englischen des Dr. Thomas M’Crie übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen begleitet von Gustav Plieninger ; nebst einer Vorrede von F.C. Baur (Stuttgart: F. Brodhag’sche Buchhandlung, 1835). 425 Willem Nicolaas Munting, trans., Geschiedenis der uitbreiding en onderdrukking van de Hervorming in Spanje in de zestiende eeuw (Amsterdam: W. Brave, 1839). 426 Constantino de la Fuente, Confessió d’un pecador, Josep-Lluis Carod-Rovira (trans), Seville: Almendralejo S.L., [2022]. 427 In 1865, John and Mary Betts travelled to Spain to meet Luis Usoz y Rio, who was seriously ill with tuberculosis. During their brief stay, Usoz asked them to translate into English Constantino’s Confesión de un pecador. For this, the couple moved to Seville to more fully immerse themselves in the culture of the city in which Constantino had lived and worked. They never met Usoz again for he died within a few months. On their return to England, they published their translation: Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, The Confession of a Sinner. With a biographical sketch by Benjamin B. Wiffen (London: Bell and Daldy, 1869). 428 Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Confession of a Sinner, Collingwood, Victoria: J. Wing. 429 “My friend John T. Betts, who is tireless in his cooperation to resurrect the evangelical Spanish literature of the sixteenth century, and is now finishing the printing of some works by Juan de Valdés, translated into English, is preparing an English translation of these sermons by Constantino.” E. Boehmer, Exposicion del Primer Salmo… [1881: 242] 430 Ulloa, Vita dell’inuittissimo e sacratissimo imperator Carlo V [1581: IV, 243].

Constantino’s Theology

In later editions this mention of Constantino was deleted. In the Indice último de los libros prohibidos y mandados expurgar, printed en 1790, there is an entry that reads: “Ulloa (Alonso de). Vida del Emper. Carlos V. Venet. 1573. Casi a la 3. Par. Libro 4. Quita de dos lugares las alabanzas de Constantino de la Fuente: y lo mismo en la impresión italiana en 1566. fol. 243 y 245. Y en toda otra parte y lengua.”431 Juan Antonio Llorente also refers to this translation, but quotes it from a 1589 edition of Ulloa’s Vita, which implies that the reference was deleted after that date. Llorente’s text reads: “Alphonso de Ulloa, in his Life of Charles V, gives the highest praise to the works of Constantino, particularly his Treatise on the Christian Doctrine, which was translated into Italian.”432 Whether Ulloa’s Italian translation remained in manuscript form and was never printed or whether all copies were confiscated is unsure. Ulloa’s passing comment is the only source we have of this translation.

4.

Constantino’s Theology

Whereas there is total agreement regarding the artistic quality of Constantino’s rhetoric, his theology has raised contradictory judgements in relation to his alleged Protestantism. Constantino lived in troubled times. He experienced intensely the renewal of Christian humanism, which he applied to his preaching and his written work. He achieved both public and royal favour, but eventually the Inquisition condemned him as a ”Lutheran heretic.” A consensus exists that Constantino arrived in Seville as a resolute Erasmian hailed by many. Marcel Bataillon contends that Constantino remained an Erasmian all his life.433 For others this is not so clear. Both William B. Jones and José C. Nieto hold that his was a case of ”Catholic evangelism” or ”evangelical Catholicism.”434 María Paz Aspe Ansa classified him as an “orthodox exponent of evangelism.”435 Stefania Pastore, on the other hand, qualifies him as a ”Catholic Nicodemite”436 while Michel Boeglin describes him as a ”non-denominational Catholic.”437 David Estrada Herrero, who points out numerous parallels between Constantino’s theology and that of the early Protestant Reformers, qualifies him as a “crypto-Protestant

431 432 433 434 435 436

Rubín de Cevallos, Indice último … [1790: 286]. Llorente inserts the following footnote: “Ulloa, Vita di Carlos V. Venice, 1589, p. 237” [1826: 221). Bataillon, Erasmo y España … [1966: 522–541] Nieto, El Renacimiento y la otra Espana. … [1997: 274]. María Paz Aspe Ansa, “Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, escritor Evangelista” [1980: 76]. Stefania Pastore, “Un’eresia Spagnola. Spiritualità conversa, alumbradismo e Inquisizione (1449–1559)” [2004: 245]. 437 Michel Boeglin, Reforme et dissidence religieuse en Castille au temps de Charles Quint: l’affaire Constantino de la Fuente (1505?-1559) [2016: 342–343].

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Nicodemite.”438 It is not our intention here to add another label to this list, but to show that although these descriptions may at first sight seem contradictory, they have common denominators: evangelicalism and Nicodemism. Indeed, it is within the historical context of sixteenth century Nicodemite evangelicalism that we must examine Constantino’s theology. Efforts towards reform within the Church were underway throughout Europe during the early years of the sixteenth century instigated by Christian humanists and reform-minded men such as John Colet in England, Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples in France, Juan de Valdés in Naples, and Johannes Wild in Germany. Many Catholics welcomed the call for reform, and borders between Catholics and Protestants were fluent.439 Erasmus’s influence was strongly felt in humanist circles in Spain. It is beyond the scope of this introduction to elaborate on the bearing Erasmus had on European humanist scholars, but rather to enlarge our vision of early “Erasmian Evangelicalism” in the Spanish context. Professor Bruce Hindmarch summarizes the term evangelical within the sixteenth century evangelical movement, thus: Evangelicalism emerged on Christendom’s trailing edge and modernity’s leading edge as a spiritual movement concerned to spread “real Christianity” among a populace that thought of itself as Christian… The first generation of evangelicals saw themselves in continuity with earlier generations of Christians in their concern for true religion… “Evangelical” identified the churches of the Protestant Reformation and their teaching, especially the Lutheran evangelische church, but the origins of modern evangelicalism, as understood in the English-speaking world, are found more in the popular spiritual awakening of the following centuries in the North Atlantic region. Seventeenth-century movements of devotion such as Pietism, Puritanism, and the Anglican “holy living” tradition fused to generate a general spiritual awakening first in central Europe and Germany, then throughout the Anglo-sphere… Evangelicalism has always drawn on the resources of a wider and deeper Christianity. For all their adaptations to modernity, evangelicals from earliest days drew deeply from wells of earlier Protestant and Catholic spirituality, and they have continued to identify with “true religion” wherever it is found, whether in the “experimental godliness” of the Puritans or the “real Christianity” of Thomas à Kempis.440

The French historian Pierre Imbart de la Tour (1860–1931) coined the term Evangélisme to distinguish a movement of reform from the Protestantism of the

438 Estrada Herrero, “Introdución” Doctrina Cristiana [2018: 27–38]. 439 Kess, Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History [2008: 20]. 440 Bruce Hindmarch, “What is Evangeliscalism?” Christianity Today (March 14, 2018). Excerpted from Evangelical Dictionary of Theology.

Constantino’s Theology

Reformation, with which it was contemporary, as well as from the Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation, which succeeded it. Imbart de la Tour limited his analysis to the French humanists belonging to the Circle of Meaux and a period of influence between 1521 and 1538 in which various movements emerged that were a sort of via media, or middle way, between Protestants and Catholics. The intellectuals involved, who called themselves “evangelicals,” accepted many aspects of the Protestant Reformation but did not wish to formally separate from the Catholic Church.441 Although Imbart de la Tour’s definition describes the movement well, the term evangelical can be found earlier. “In Italy also,” says the Venetian historian Pietro Paolo Sarpi, “on account of the corruptions of the government, many listened avidly to the Reformation; in several cities, and particularly at Florence, sermons were delivered in private houses against the church of Rome; and the number of those named Lutherans, or, as they called themselves, Evangelicals, increased every day.”442 Recent studies show that the desire to return to a strong Christocentric Christianity can already be found in Nicholás de Lyra (d. 1349), a Franciscan teacher at the University of Paris and an important biblical commentator whose works influenced generations of scholars including Luther. Large segments of the Spanish population were familiar with Nicolas de Lyra through his comments—“Postillas”—inserted in the Epistles and Gospels for the Liturgical Year. Lyra’s Christianity was deeply “evangelical,” in the literal sense of the word, and as a friar, his special task was to take the Gospel to the world.443 His comments on the book of Psalms are significant. He wrote: “If this book is retained in our heart and fulfilled in our actions, we shall have in this world God’s grace and in the world to come, glory.”444 Because it is easy to be led astray by modern concepts and connotations of the term evangelism, or evangelicalism, in order to discuss Constantino’s theology, we must look at it within the framework of the socio-political-religious atmosphere of the time. As professor Nieto observes, one has to be familiar with not only Roman

441 Members of this reform movement in Italy were known as the Spirituali. See: Elizabeth Gleason, “On the Nature of Sixteenth Century Italian Evangelism: Scholarship, 1953–1978,” [1978: 3 –25]. Members of this reform movement in Spain are generally referred to as Erasmians, but this is somewhat limiting and misleading. 442 Fra Paolo Sarpi (1686), Histoire du Concile de Trente, Amsterdam: G.P. & J. Blaeu, Vol. I, 87, in Thomas M’Crie, History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Italy [1833: 84]. 443 Lesley Smith, “The Rewards of Faith: Nicholas de Lyra on Ruth” [2000: 56]. 444 Theresa Gross-Diaz, “What’s a good soldier to do? Scholarship and revelation in the postils of the Psalms” [2000: 120–121].

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Catholic theology, but also Reformed theology in order to understand Constantino’s theological convictions.445 Sixteenth century “Catholic evangelism” was characterized by a strong Christocentrism; special attention was given to the doctrine of justification by faith alone, the Holy Scriptures as the supreme authority and a detachment from the cult of saints, relics and indulgences. The message also implied that the true Church of Christ was the invisible Church, the body of Christ, that is, the faithful who meet to read, pray and share the Word of God. Constantino shared the idea of an invisible Church. He writes, “We establish a double distinction within the Church: that of living members and that of dead members; that of some who by grace are united to the Redeemer, and that of others who, with dead faith, are only externally united.”446 As these “evangelicals” moved further and further from the official doctrines and practices of the Church, they had to make a choice. Some chose to break from the Church of Rome, as was the case with the monks from the San Isidoro Monastery near Seville, and others,447 whilst others—Dr. Egidio, Constantino and colleagues—opted to work for reform from within. This leads us to consider Constantino’s concept of the office of preacher. His writings reveal a man seriously committed to his task as preacher of the Word, desirous of transmitting Christian doctrine in a clear and direct way. For Constantino the office of preaching was worthy of the highest esteem. In various passages of his works he manifests this respect for the ministry of preaching and the need to carry it out conscientiously. In the Catechism for children he begins his dedicatory to Fernández Temiño, Bishop of León, congratulating him for his promotion and the wonderful opportunity this gives him to preside over the Church through the noble office of bishop—”an office so greatly sought after by the world, but understood by so very few—to produce448 sheep for the Great Shepherd, Jesus Christ.”449 In Summary of Christian Doctrine, referring to sins against the eighth commandment, Constantino declares: ”Preachers who distort the truth in the pulpit sin.”450 Elsewhere he writes, ”Ministers are to distribute this bread wisely: not corrupted, nor mixed with the leaven of human vanities: whose diligence, whose zeal, and works, awaken us and admonish us, for the fulfilment of what we owe.”451 Commenting on the Lord’s prayer, he explains that by praying for ”our daily bread” we

445 José Nieto, “In Memoriam Luis Usoz Y Río” [2004: 57]. Also see: Nieto, El Renacimiento y la otra Espana … [1997: 271–307]. 446 Constantino, Doctrina Christiana [1548: f. 321v], [2018: 487] 447 See F. Luttrikhuizen, Underground Protestantism… [2016: 261–302] 448 The term in the original—hacer— has the connotation of nurture, bring up, educate, rear, etc. 449 Constantino, Suma de Doctrina Cristiana, Catecismo [1546: f. 2] [1863: 279]. 450 Constantino, Suma de Doctrina Cristiana [1863: 138]. 451 Ibid., 195.

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also pray for spiritual bread, which is communicated to us through the Word of God, and by those who preach it. But how was the preacher to expound the most controversial doctrinal topics of the time—justification by faith alone, faith and works, predestination, law, etc.—and yet remain within the established Church? This required resorting to Nicodemism. The term ‘Nicodemite’ was coined by John Calvin to designate those Christians who inwardly professed non-Catholic religious convictions, but outwardly failed to speak publicly and openly against the Catholic Church.452 Calvin took a stand against Nicodemism after his visit to the Court of Ferrara in 1536, where he encountered a group of Calvinistic-minded people among the circle of the Duchess Renée’s associates, who hid their beliefs while participating outwardly in Roman Catholic ceremonies. Calvin could not find sufficient warrant for an evangelical believer to decide to live in a Catholic country; for him this was like wanting to serve two masters. The ambiguity that the censors attributed to Constantino and his preaching was a Nicodemite strategy he employed in order to conceal, wherever possible, the points of doctrinal controversy conflicting with Roman Catholic doctrine. To do so, he focused his energies on the exposition of the Biblical text. These “dissenting silences” were important survival strategies in order to evade dangerous suspicions of heresy. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, a staunch Catholic, observes: More than the doctrine, what is so offensive here is the nature of the language, and the concealed, veiled intention of the author. The book is much more dangerous for what is left unsaid than for what is said. He skilfully evaded all points of contention. It is ambiguous regarding the doctrine of the Catholic Church and when he speaks of the Head, he seems always to be referring to Christ. Not once does he allude to the bishopric of the Pope, nor does he even mention him, neither does he mention purgatory or indulgencies.453

Several passages in The Arts concerning García Arias, one of the monks at the San Isidoro monastery in Santiponce, illustrate the profound sense of spiritual Nicodemism practised by these dissidents: [García] Arias worked to completely overturn the monastic rule be means of penetrating and frequent sermons, for which there was an opportunity during the day and also at night, often after matins, from two o’clock until four in the morning. He did not do it openly, but covertly, bringing water from far-away springs.454 […] When the affair had been carried

452 See: David Estrada Herrero, “Introducción” Diálogo de Doctrina Cristiana [2008: 76–77]. 453 Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos [1956: II, 72]. 454 Montanus, The Artes… [2018: 361]

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to the point where almost nothing was left to be eradicated except the extremely resistant idol of the Mass and the mask of monasticism—consisting of habit and tonsure—, which they could not continue to tolerate without falling into clear ungodliness, yet could not eliminate without clear danger and—the majority thought—with little profit, they began to consider abandoning their nest and emigrating to Germany, where there would be more freedom to practise their religion.455

Another passage illustrates how, by not faithfully observing Nicodemite norms, García Arias was endangering the other leaders. The veil of Nicodemism was tenuous and was easily rent by the threatening winds of intolerance:456 Arias was invited to dine with Constantino, with Egidio and Vargas also in attendance, in order for them to reprimand him in a more appropriate and more severe way for his deplorable lack of loyalty, since he had on several previous occasions laughed at their more benevolent warnings. In the midst of the discussion, Arias let slip what sounded like a threat: that he feared one day he would be obliged to watch the bulls run in a public spectacle, using this riddle to prophesy—in fact, not very obscurely—the inquisitorial theatre. Constantino replied: “I call God to witness that you will not watch the games then from on high, as you suppose, but instead you will be in the arena itself.”457

Nicodemism also entailed a great deal of loneliness for those who practised it. Montes tells us that “in his whole life [Constantino] hardly had more than one of two whom he esteemed as true friends.”458 In Beatus Vir Constantino emphasizes the loneliness of the believer in a world hostile to the Gospel: God has put the righteous man in great loneliness… In the example of Abraham, we see the loneliness of God’s chosen…exiled from his friends and relatives, carried off into the land of Canaan, a place populated with the enemies of God, of an idolatrous people, abominable, and corrupted with all the world’s evils… The Redeemer of life, who recovered for men the blessedness that was lost and with his own Word taught the way to attain it, was not only content with just leaving the example of His own person, but He

455 Ibid., 365. 456 As José Nieto observes, “This episode is like a mirror that clearly reflects the four people in the drama and the states of their consciences; consciences that were undoubtedly heretical inwardly while outwardly feigning or concealing orthodoxy.” J. Nieto, El Renacimiento y la otra Espana … [1997: 194]. 457 Montanus, The Artes… [2018: 369–371]. 458 Ibid., 401.

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warned his disciples of the travail and the weariness and the great loneliness of the path they should walk.459

Note that he develops his message exclusively from the Bible. The return to a more spiritual Christianity, an authentically Christocentric life without traditional adhesions that would hinder genuine godliness, constituted his approach. Juan de Valdés, Fray Luis de Granada, Constantino de la Fuente and many others in sixteenth century Spain longed for a profound renewal of the Christian life, and to achieve it they turned to the Scriptures. Citations from the Bible are numerous in their writings. With the publication of Confession of a sinner Constantino had several concerns in mind. First and foremost, his purpose was to avail his readers with a proper understanding the biblical doctrine of confession. This was also Juan de Valdés’s concern.460 Furthermore, because the doctrine of sin and repentance was new to many of his hearers, Confession of a sinner was meant to be an example, a pedagogical tool, a mirror of what true biblical confession involved, not the sort of confession made before a priest. Indeed, the Confession of a sinner declares the requirements of the Law and discloses the awakening of the sinner’s conscience and his pressing need for mercy. Constantino energetically rejects resorting to the sacraments for salvation, or to the intercession of the Virgin Mary or the saints for mercy: Woe to me if men had to judge me, if angels had to judge me, if I had to judge myself.[…] Blessed are you, Lord, and to be praised forever by those who know how to know you. Such is your judgement that you came into this world, not to condemn sinners, but to save sinners. And being Just, you are judge and advocate for the guilty, and enemy of those who accuse them; […] you are holiness for the evil doer, justice for the guilty, satisfaction for those who have nothing, wisdom for the deceived and the response for those who have no answer.”461 In the Summary he writes: ”The Redeemer of the world tells us to ask for forgiveness of our sins and faults, a sign is, then, that the door is always open for those who really ask.462

The repentant sinner ends his confession paraphrasing Psalm 51: “Create a new heart in me, renew in my inward parts a spirit of true wisdom, a desire to serve

459 Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon II (f. c) 460 See Juan de Valdés, Dialog on Christian Doctrine, trans. William B. Jones and Carol D. Jones, in J.C. Nieto, ed., Two catechisms: the Dialogue on Christian Doctrine and The Christian Instruction for Children. [1980, fol. 64r–65v]. 461 Constantino, Confesión del pecador [1863: 360, 361] 462 Constantino, Suma de Doctrina Cristiana [1863: 200].

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you, to overcome my enemies, to make light of my losses, for I can lose no good being in your service. Convert me, Lord, and I will truly be converted.”463 As seen earlier, Constantino uses both ethical and aesthetical judgements to arouse the sinner to the reality of sin. He associates ugliness with ungodliness. In his exposition of Psalm 1, he does not resort to sophisms or human philosophies but associates the spiritual fall of humanity with ugliness, a term all his readers/ hearers understood. In Sermon 1 he states: “Bad counsel guarantees and brings home evil interests. Where you see the one, you can be sure that the other is also there. Take away this bad companion, and I offer to remove from the world much of what is most hideous and shameful.”464 He closes his exhortation announcing what to expect in the following sermons: “Comparing the one with the other, we shall plainly see the repulsiveness of that which seems so good in the eyes of insane men, and the beauty and greatness of that which the Divine Word has promised and assured those who turn to its counsel.”465 In his exposition of Psalm 1, Constantino repeatedly addresses the ugliness of worldly pleasures and sin: “[the sinner] is inclined to vile, mean and fleeting things”;466 “[he] should not change his peace of conscience or his zeal for God’s glory for the pleasures and contentment that can come through sin. Let him see his delight as true pleasure and the Devil’s as ugly, false and deadly.”467 “I am not like the Stoics who said that all sins were equal. I know very well that some are more abominable and heinous than others.”468 Indeed, there is no resorting to euphemisms when referring to sin and evil: Things will happen here after you have departed whereby the lacerations of your avarice, of your pride, your theft, your envy and your gross and ugly pleasures shall be aggravated a thousand times.469 […] The lot of the wicked is confusion: eating they are yet hungry, envious yet tormented, wealthy yet unhappy wretched misers, haughty yet insignificant, tyrants yet fearful, overflowing with luxuries yet consumed and devastated by the vileness and repulsiveness of their wrongdoings.470

Constantino’s evangelizing zeal is evident in all his works, but the core of his theology can be found in Beatus Vir, where he deals with the doctrines of sin and pardon,

463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470

Constantino, Confesión del pecador [1863: 390–391] Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon 1, (f. xxiij v). Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon 1, (f. xlj). Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon 2, (f. lxix). Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon 3, (f. lxxxvj v). Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon 4, (f. cxxvij). Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon 6, (f. clxxxij). Constantino, Beatus vir, Sermon 5, (f. clxxix v).

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free grace, providence, predestination and the relationship between faith and works. The first sermon reveals the state of the sinner as he stands before the Divine Law. In the second sermon he affirms that, although Man was created in the likeness of God, he actually represents ”the image of his enemy the Devil.” With this appeal to the image of the Devil, he touches on the Calvinist doctrine of total depravity, that is, the total impossibility of Man to achieve by himself a return to the original state of creation through works. This doctrine, which appears throughout his writings, was considered “Lutheran heresy.” Constantino’s insistence that Man can do nothing on his own and desperately needs the help of the Creator is seen in Sermon 3, where he states: “It specifically says that this tree has been planted without man’s hands or artifice, not born of its own will, as other plants the earth produces are. This ‘being planted’ is divine election, which is the true foundation of the righteous and the true surety of his blessedness.”471 The fourth verse describes the false believer, one who has neither faith, nor charity, nor loves God or his neighbours. The fifth sermon describes those who confide in their supposed good works, prayers, sacrifices, etc. The sixth sermon addresses the topic of the righteous man, “who knows that he is redeemed from his sin, that he is heir of great benefits and is preserved for the great glory of the one who freed him.”472 He pursued an inner Christianity based on living faith. Indeed, for Constantino living faith is the starting point of all spirituality: The righteous man has faith as his prime and principal root, and therefore faith is the first fruit he brings forth.473 […] With faith we must hear his word, with faith we must enter into his knowledge, with faith we must receive news of his wonders, with faith we must follow his promises, with faith we must appear before his presence, proposing our needs and asking remedy for all of them; with faith we must give glory to him for who He is, with faith we must taste and savour his works, find joy in our labours, relief in our distress, sweetness in his commandments, firmness and security in following him and in fulfilling his will.474

According to Constantino, true Christians must worship God in spirit rather than in unwarranted external manifestations. Works are secondary elements, and can even be sinful if: We commit ourselves to our own efforts, thinking that because of our [works] and our industry and our worth we are better and we have more part with God than others; that

471 472 473 474

Constantino, Beatus Vir, Sermon III, (f. lxxvij). Constantino, Beatus Vir, Sermon 6 (f. clxviij v). Constantino, Beatus Vir, Sermon 3 (lxxxij). Constantino, Doctrina Cristiana [1548: f. 79v], [2018: 214].

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with them we are saints, that through our own strength we can please God, that by them he considers us just and gives us heaven. That is not entering through Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God.475

In the prologue to Christian Doctrine, his last published work, he declares his mission: My purpose is to offer the Christian Church a general and fulfilled doctrine, taken from the Divine Scriptures and declared with the comprehension the Church has always held and which in the beginning was taught by great and holy ministers, and with this doctrine to understand everything that is convenient for the Christian Man, for the fulfilment and integrity of his faith, to keep it free of all errors, as well as for the instruction of his heart and works in all that pertains to a true Christian.476

Constantino’s theological position evolved from a strong Erasmian position on his arrival in Seville in the early 1530s towards a firm Christocentric, proto-Protestant “evangelical” position in the mid 1540s. The evangelistic tenets of his theology are undisputed. His life and work must be seen in the historical-religious coordinates of his time, that is, in the light of Christian humanism and the broad European evangelistic movement of which he was part. Any attempt to pigeonhole Constantino in one single movement is restricting and discrediting. He was not an idealist, but he may have been overwhelmed by the way events turned. During the first half of the sixteenth century the Spanish Inquisition fought ”Lutheranism” in a benign way, but as time passed the power struggle between those that favoured reform and the detractors intensified, until persecution became relentless under the mandate of Inquisitor General Fernando de Valdés. As Usoz y Río observes: When the Inquisitors did not consider Constantino unorthodox, they approved of his writings and praised them highly; but later, when they burned his bones and slandered his memory, then they condemned the very same writings as loathsome which they had formerly found so wholesome. What infallibility is this? You can be sure that if our Lord had made Christians all over the world accountable to the domain and scrutiny of a Head of the Church with the same sort of infallibility, he would have imposed on one man greater obligations than one hundred could comply with, and he would have chosen one of the worst forms of government imaginable.477

475 Constantino, Suma de doctrina cristiana [1863: 45) 476 Constantino, Doctrina Cristiana [1548: f. 70r], [2018: 201] 477 Usoz y Río, “Observaciones,” Suma de doctrina cristiana [1863: 40].

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Dr. Constantino experienced both fame and fury, greatness and abasement. Faithful to his thological convictions, he became victim of the unflinching repression carried out by the Spanish Inquisition. This volume is an attempt to rescue one of his most representative works from oblivion and to place the man and his work alongside those other acclaimed European cathedral preachers whose aspiration was to reform the Church and society through the faithful preaching of the Word, but whose pursuits were thwarted by the inflexible opposition of those in high places, both in church and state.

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5.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

AGTEN, ELS (2018), Las traducciones de la Biblia al castellano y la Reforma. Una empresa transfronteriza, in: Michel Boeglin/Ignasi Fernández Terricabras/David Kahn (ed.), Reforma y disidencia religiosa: La recepción de las doctrinas reformadas en la península ibérica en el siglo XVI, Madrid: Casa de Velázquez, 95–110. AGUIRRE AGUIRRE, ARACELI (2010), Bibliografía e investigación histórica: La Suma de doctrina cristiana de Constantino Ponce y la Doctrina cristiana cierta y verdadera de Juan de Zumárraga, La Colmena 67/68, 111–114. ALATORRE, ANTONIO (1953), Quevedo, Erasmo y el Doctor Constantino, Nueva Revista de Filología Hispánica 7.3/4, 673–685. ALBURQUERQUE GARCÍA, LUIS (2018), Article «Pedro Mexia», Real Academia de la Historia, Diccionario Biográfico electrónico. ALCALÁ, ANGEL, ed. (1987), The Spanish Inquisition and the Inquisitorial Mind, Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs. ALCINA ROVIRA, JUAN FRANCISCO (1995), Dos notas sobre Benito Arias Montano (1527–1598), Salina: revista de lletres 9, 37–44. ALEGRE PAYRÓN, JOSÉ MA (1990), La censura literaria en España en el siglo XVI, Revue Romane 25, 428–441. ALONSO DEL CAMPO, URBANO (2005), Vida y obra de Fray Luis de Granada, Salamanca: San Esteban. ALONSO ROMO, EDUARDO JAVIER (2009), La obra portuguesa de Fray Luis de Granada, Cuadernos para investigación de la literatura hispánica 29, 63–80. ALVAR EZQUERRA, ANTONIO (1999), El Colegio Trilingüe de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, in: María Consuelo Álvarez Morán, et al (ed.), Contemporaneidad de los clásicos en el umbral del tercer milenio : actas del congreso internacional de los clásicos, Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, ALVAR EZQUERRA, ANTONIO, ed. (2016), La Biblia Poliglota Complutense en su contexto, Alcalá de Henares: Universidad de Alcalá. ÁLVAREZ MÁRQUEZ, MARÍA DEL CARMEN (1986), La Biblioteca de Don Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera, I Marqués de Tarifa (1532), Historia, Instituciones, Documentos 13, 1–40. ÁLVAREZ MÁRQUEZ, MARÍA DEL CARMEN (2004), Mujeres lectoras en el siglo XVI en Sevilla, Historia, Instituciones, Documentos 31, 19–40. ÁLVAREZ MÁRQUEZ, MARÍA DEL CARMEN (2007), La impresión y el comercio de libros en Sevilla s. XVI, Seville: Universidad de Sevilla. ÁLVAREZ, FRRANCISCO (1957), El movimiento bíblico en Sevilla durante el siglo xvi, Archivo Hispalense 26, 9–45. ARBOUSSET, BENJAMIN (1907), Le docteur Constantino, un precursor de la reforme en Espagne, La leberté chretiane 10.1, 38–43; 10.2, 72–96.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

ARIAS DE SAAVEDRA ALÍAS, INMACULADA (2008), Exequias granadinas por reinas hispano-portuguesas. La emperatriz Isabel, la princesa María y la reina Bárbara de Braganza, in: José Martínez Millán, et al (ed.), Las relaciones discretas entre las Monarquías Hispana y Portuguesa Las Casas de las Reinas (siglos XV-XIX), Madrid: Editorial Polifemo, 2043–2084. ARIAS MONTANO, BENITO (1571), Indice Expurgatorio, Antwerp: Plantin. ASPE ANSA, Mª PAZ (1975), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. El hombre y su lenguaje, Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española. ASPE ANSA, Mª PAZ (1979), La Confesión de un pecador del Dr. Constantino: una autobiografía del siglo XVI, in: M. Criado de Val (ed.), La picaresca: orígenes, textos y estructuras: Actas del I Congreso Internacional sobre la Picaresca, Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, II, 781–790. ASPE ANSA„ Mª PAZ (1980), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, escritor ‘Evangelista’ del siglo XVI, in: Alan M. Gordon/Evelyn Rugg (ed.), Actas del Sexto Congreso Internacional de Hispanistas, Toronto: University of Toronto, 73–76. ASPE ANSA, Mª PAZ (1988), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Confesión de un pecador y Escritos devocionales de Fray Luis de Granada, Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española. AVENOZA, GEMMA (2011), Biblias castellanas medievales, San Millán de la Cogolla, La Rioja: CiLengua. BATAILLON, MARCEL (1966), Erasmo y España: estudios sobre la historia espiritual del siglo XVI, Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica. BAUDRIER, JULIEN (1913), Michel Servet, ses relations avec les libraires et les imprimeurs lyonnais, Paris: Rahir. BELTRÁN DE HEREDIA, VICENTE (1941), Las corrientes de espiritualidad entre los dominicos de Castilla durante la primera mitad del siglo XVI, Salamanca: Biblioteca de Teólogos Españoles. BELTRÁN DE HEREDIA, VICENTE (1971–1973), Miscelánea Beltrán de Heredia, Salamanca: Ope, 4 vols. BENÍTEZ DE LUGO, ANTONIO (1885), Constantino Ponce y la Inquisición de Sevilla, Revista de España 104, 5–26; 180–200. BENITO RUANO, ELOY (2003), Literatura denigrante y apologética sobre Felipe II, in: Fco. Ruiz Martín (ed.), La monarquía de Felipe II, Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 439–454. BERTOMÉU FERNÁNDEZ, JUAN ANTONIO (2014), Privilegios y Querellas en la Sevilla Barroca, Seville: Editorial Cultiva. BETTS, JOHN T., trans. (1869), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, The confession of a sinner. With a biographical sketch by Benjamin B. Wiffen, London: Bell & Daldy. BIETENHOLZ, PETER G./THOMAS BRIAN DEUTSCHER, ed. (2003), Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation, Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 3 vols.

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BOEGLIN, MICHEL (2005), Evangelismo y sensibilidad religiosa en la Sevilla del quinientos: consideraciones acerca de la represion de los luteranos sevillanos, Studuia historica, Historia moderna 27, 163–189. BOEGLIN, MICHEL (2006), Contribution à l’étude des protestants de Séville (1557–1565): sociabilités et sensibilité religieuses, Hispanic Bulletin 108.2, 343–376. BOEGLIN, MICHEL (2007), J.A. Llorente: España y la Inquisición: Memoria histórica acerca del tribunal de la Inquisición, seguida de Carta al Señor Clausel de Coussergues sobre la Inquisición española, Seville: Renacimiento. BOEGLIN, MICHEL (2013), Irenismo y herejía a mediados del siglo XVI en Castilla. El caso de Constantino de la Fuente, in: Ignacio Javier García Pinilla (ed.), Disidencia religiosa en Castilla la Nueva en el siglo XVI, Ciudad Real: Almud, 223–249. BOEGLIN, MICHEL (2016), Reforme et dissidence religieuse en Castille au temps de Charles Quint: l’affaire Constantino de la Fuente (1505?-1559), Paris: Honoré Champion. BOEGLIN, MICHEL (2017), Salterios y comentarios al Salmo en el Quinientos en Castilla. Entre herencia conversa y sensibilidad evangélica: el Beatus Vir (1546) del doctor Constantino, CECIL 3, 59–73. BOEGLIN, MICHEL (2018), El doctor Egidio y la Reforma en Sevilla: Redes y proselitismo religioso, in: M. Boeglin/ I. Fernández Terricabras/ D. Kahn (ed.), Reforma y disidencia religiosa: La recepción de las doctrinas reformadas en la península ibérica en el siglo xvi, Madrid: Casa de Velázquez. BOEHMER, EDUARD (1881), Exposicion del Primer Salmo. Dividida en seis sermones por Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. Tercera edicion, Bohn: Carlos Georgi. BOEHMER, EDUARD (2007), Bibliotheca Wiffeniana. Spanish Reformers of two Centuries from 1520: their Lives and Writings, According to the Late Benjamin B. Wiffen’s Plan and With the Use of His Materials, 3 vols. [1874–1904], Pamplona: Analecta Editorial. BURKE, PETERE/ASA BRIGGS (2002), A Social History of the Media: From Gutenberg to the Internet, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. CABRERA DE CÓRDOBA, LUIS (1876), Filipe Segundo Rey de España [1619], Madrid: Aribau. 4 vols. CALENDAR OF STATE PAPERS, Spain, Volume 12, 1554, Royall Tyler (ed.), London, 1949, 312–322. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/spain/ vol12/pp312-322. Accessed 26/06/2021. CALVETE DE ESTRELLA, JUAN CRISTÓBAL (1930), El felicissimo viaje del muy alto y muy poderoso principe don Philippe, hijo del emperador don Carlos Quinto Maximo, desde España a sus tierras de la baxa Alemaña, con la descripcion de todos los estados de Brabante y Flandes [1552], Madrid: Sociedad de Bibliófilos Españoles. CÁRCELES DE LA INQUISICIÓN, (2014), Historia de Sevilla en el Siglo XVI, Universidad de Sevilla, personal.us.es/alporu/histsevilla/inquisicion_carceles.htm. Accessed 23/10/ 2019. CAROD-ROVIRA, JOSEP-LLUIS (trans.) (2022), Constantino de la Fuente, Confessió d’un pecador, Seville: Almendralejo S.L.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

CARRANZA, BARTOLOMÉ DE (1972), Catecismo Cristiano [1558], J.I. Tellechea Idígoras (ed.), Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos. 2 vols. CASTRILLO BENITO, NICOLÁS (1991), Estudio preliminar, El ‘Reginaldo Montano’ Primer Libro Polemico Contra la Inquisición Española, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 23–138. CASTRO, ADOLFO DE (1848), El buscapié, Cádiz: Revista Médica. CASTRO, ADOLFO DE (1851), The Spanish Protestants and their Persecution by Philip II, a Historical Work, Thomas Parker (trans.), London: Charles Gilpin. CATEDRA, PEDRO M. (2005), El Salterio bilingüe prealfonsi, in: L. Santos Río et al (ed.), Norma, Discurso en memoria de Fernando Lázaro Carreter, Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 291–306. CERVANTES, MIGUEL DE (1849), El Buscapié, with the Illustrative Notes of Don Adolfo de Castro, Thomasina Ross (trans.), London: Richard Bentley. CIVALE, GIAN CLAUDIO (2002), Conflictos de poder entre la Inquisición y el cabildo de la Catedral de Sevilla a mediados del siglo XVI, in: Jesús Bravo Lozano (ed.), Actas del Congreso Internacional ”Espacios de poder: Cortes, ciudades y villas (s-XVI-XVIII), Madrid: Universidad Autónoma, II, 269–324. CIVALE, GIAN CLAUDIO (2007), Con secreto y disimulación: Inquizuisizione ed erasia nella Siviglia del secolo XVI, Naples: Edizioni Scienifiche Italiane. CONQUES, JEROONI (1976), Llibre de Job [1557], Jaume Riera i Sans (ed.), Barcelona: Institut d’Estudis Catalans. CONTRERAS, JAIME (1987), The impact of Protestantism in Spain 1520–1600, in: S. Haliczer (ed.), Inquisition and Society in early modern Europe, London: Croom Helm, 47–63. CONTRERAS, JAIME/GUSTAV HENNINGSEN (1986), Forty-four Thousand Cases of the Spanish Inquisition (1540–1700): Analysis of a Historical Data Bank, in: G. Henningsen/ J. Tedeschi/ C. Amiel (ed.), The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe: Studies on Sources and Methods, Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 100–129. COROLEU, ALEJANDRO (2008), Anti-Erasmianism in Spain, in: Erika Rummel (ed.), Biblical Humanism and Scholasticism in the Age of Erasmus, Leiden: Brill, 73–92. COROLEU, ALEJANDRO/BARRY TAYLOR (2010), Humanism and Christian Letters in Early Modern Iberia (1480–1630), Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars. COURCELLES, DOMINIQUE DE (1998), Le Livre, Le Feu, et le Temps, La Confesion de un pecador du Sevillan Constantino Ponce de la Fuente Brulee en 1560 et L Histoire des Martyrs du Genoveis Jean Crespin (1608), in: Le pouvoir des livres a la Renaissance: actes de la journee d’etude, Volumen 3 de Etudes et rencontres de l’Ecole des chartes, Paris: Librairie Droz, 143–156. COURCELLES, DOMINIQUE DE (2000), La confession d’un pécheur devant Jésus Christ rédempteur et juge des hommes, 1547: précédé de ‘Le procès du doute et de la subjectivité dans l’Espagne du XVIe siècle, Grenoble: J. Millon. COVARRUBIAS, SEBASTIAN DE (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez.

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CRESPIN, JEAN (1608), Confession d’un pour Pecheur, in: Histoire des martyrs Geneva: héritiers d’Eustache Vignon, fols. 551–566. DE LA CRUZ, FRAY JUAN (1558), Treynta y dos sermones en los quales se declaran los mandamientos de la Ley artículos de Fe y Sacramentos con otras cosas provechosas sacadas de Latín en Romance, Lisbon: Joannes Blauio de Colonia. DENIS, PHILIPPE (1977), Pierre Alexandre et la discipline Ecclésiastique, Bibliothèque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 39.3, 551–560. DIAZ DE LA GUARDIA Y LOPEZ, LUIS (2014), Judios, pecheros e hidalgos. Documentos procedentes de un pleito de hidalguia sustanciado ante la Real Chancilleria de Granada (1502–1540), Anuario de Historia del Derecho Español 84, 745–788. DÍAZ PINEDA, MANUEL (2016), Historia, filosofía y praxis del movimiento evangélico en España, (siglo XVI), Doctoral Thesis, Madrid: Universidad Complutense de Madrid. DÍAZ PINEDA, MANUEL (2017), Reforma en España (S. XVI-XVIII): Origen, naturaleza y creencias, Barcelona: CLIE. DIEGO LOBEJÓN, Mª WENCESLADA DE (1997), Los Salmos en la literatura española, Valladolid, Universidad. DUFOUR, GÉRARD (1983), Juan Antonio Llorente, de servidor a crítico de la Inquisición, Historia 16, 13–20. DYKEMA, BOBBI (2014), Reading Visual Rhetoric: Strategies of Piety and Propaganda in Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Passional Christi und Antichristi, in: James Romaine (ed.), ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art, Cascade Books, 225–240. EDWARDS, JOHN/RONALD TRUMAN (2005), Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor : the achievement of Friar Bartolomé Carranza, Aldershot: Ashgate. ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS (1531), Exposicion y sermon sobre dos Psalmos el vno (Beatus vir) y el otro (Cū inuocarē) q[ue] expuso en latin el excellēte varō Erasmo Roterodamo trasladados agora en Romāce, s.l., s. n. ERASMUS, DESIDERIUS (2020), The Correspondence of Erasmus: Letters 2803 to 2939, J.M. Estes (ed.)/Clarence H. Miller (trans.), Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 20 vols. ESPINOSA, AURELIO (2009), The Empire of the Cities: Emperor Charles V, the Comunero Revolt, and the Transformation of the Spanish System, Leiden: Brill. ESTRADA, DAVID (2008), Introducción a Juan de Valdés, Diálogo de Doctrina Cristiana de, Seville: Editorial MAD, 7–82. ESTRADA HERRERO, DAVID (2009), Introducción, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Exposición del Primer Salmo dividida en seis sermones, Seville: Editorial MAD, 7–133. ESTRADA HERRERO, DAVID, ed. (2018), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Doctrina christiana, Barcelona: Clie. ESTRADA HERRERO, DAVID (2022), The History of European Aesthetics, London: Bloomsbury. EVANGELICAL DICTIONARY of Theology (2017), Daniel J. Trier/Walter A. Elwell (ed.), 3rd ed. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group.

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EXTREMERA EXTREMERA, MIGUEL ANGEL (2001), Los escribanos de Castilla en la Edad Moderna. Nuevas líneas de investigacion, Chronica Nova 28, 159–184. FERNÁNDEZ, TOMÁS/ELENA TAMARO (2004), Biografía de Fray Luis de Granada, in: Biografías y Vidas. La enciclopedia biográfica en línea. https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/ biografia/g/granada.htm Accessed 10/06/2021. FERNÁNDEZ CAVA, SALVADOR (2007), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente [1505–1559]. El camino de la verdad, Ciudad Real: Almud. FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS, NATAUO/EMILIA FERNÁNDEZ TEJERO (2003), Pagnino, Servet y Arias Montano. Avatares de una traducción latina de la Biblia Hebrea, Sefarad 63, 283–832 FERNÁNDEZ MARCOS, NATAUO/EMILIA FERNÁNDEZ TEJERO (1986), Biblismo y erasmismo en la España del siglo XVI, in: M. Revuelta Sanudo/C. Moron Arroyo (ed.), Erasmismo en España: Ponencias del Coloquio Celebrado en La Biblioteca de Menéndez Pelayo del 10 al 14 de Junio de 1985, Santander: Soc. Menéndez Pelayo. FIRPO, MASSIMO (2007), Reform of the Church and Heresy in the Age of Charles V: Reflections of Spain, in: T.J. Dandelet/J.A. Marino (ed.), Italy, Spain in Italy: Politics, Society, and Religion 1500–1700, Leiden: Brill, 457–480. FRYMIRE, JOHN M. (2010), The Primacy of the Postils: Catholics, Protestants, and the Dissemination of Ideas in Early Modern Germany, Leiden: Brill. GARCÍA ORO, JOSÉ (1992), El Cardenal Cisneros: vida y empresas, Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos. GARCÍA PINILLA, IGNACIO JAVIER (1995), El doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente visto a través de un Parecer de la Biblioteca Vaticana, Archivo Hispalense 78, 65–102. GARCÍA PINILLA, IGNACIO JAVIER (1999), Más sobre Constantino Ponce de la Fuente y el Parecer de la Vaticana (Ms. Ottob. Lat. 789), Cuadernos de Investigación Histórica 17, 191–225. GARCÍA PINILLA, IGNACIO JAVIER (2012), Lectores y lectura clandestina en el grupo protestante sevillano del siglo XXVI, in: J.J. Vega/I. Nakládalová (ed.), Lectura y culpa en el siglo XVI, Barcelona: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 45–62. GARCÍA PINILLA, IGNACIO JAVIER (2013), Constantino de la Fuente. Irenismo y herejía a mediados del siglo XVI en Castilla, in: I.J. García Pinilla (ed.), Aspectos de la disidencia religiosa en Castilla-La Mancha en el siglo XVI, Almud, Toledo, 223–249. GARCÍA PINILLA, IGNACIO JAVIER (2018), Escritura y reescritura del relato de la orden dominica sobre el doctor Constantino de la Fuente, in: Michel Bœglin (ed.), Dossier thématique: La fabrique de l’hérésie. L’hérétique et ses représentations à l’époque moderne: Espagne, Portugal, Amérique (XVIe-XVIIe s.), CICEL 4, 127–150. GARCÍA PINILLA, IGNACIO JAVIER (2020), La «providencia diabolica»: el lenguaje codificado del Doctor Constantino, Hispania Sacra LXXII 146, 351–361. GARCÍA PINILLA, IGNACIO JAVIER (2020), The Debates Surrounding Lay Bible Reading in Spain in the Sixteenth Century, in: Erminia Ardissino/Elise Boillet (ed.), Lay Readings of the Bible in Early Modern Europe, Leiden: Brill, 65–85.

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GARCÍA RUIZ, Mª VICTORIA (2010), El cabildo catedralicio de Málaga a fines de la Edad Media: contribución a su estudio, Baetica, Estudios de Arte, Geografía e Historia 32, 253–270. GARCÍA VILLOSLADA, RICARDO (1976), Raíces históricas del luteranismo, Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos. GARCÍA, RAFAEL (2003), El horizonte de expectativas y las comunidades interpretativas en Fray Luis de Granada: El Libro de oración y meditación, la Guía de pecadores y la Introducción del símbolo de la fe, Tesis de Licenciatura, Universidad de Valladolid. GIESEN, CHRISTINE (2017), Audacia y precaucion: Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, defensor del protestantismo, Res publica 20.2, 227–241. GIESEN, CHRISTINE (2018), Imágenes del anticristo. Exilio y literatura confesional hispana en el quinientos, Madrid: Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. GIL FERNÁNDEZ, JUAN (1990), Una carta de Rodrigo Tous de Monsalve a Erasmo, in: Los humanistas españoles y el humanismo europeo. IV Simposio de Filología Clásica, Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 79–90. GIL FERNÁNDEZ, JUAN (2000), Los conversos y la Inquisición sevillana, Seville: Universidad de Sevilla. 8 vols. GIL FERNÁNDEZ, JUAN (2005), Nuevos documentos sobre Rodrigo de Valer, in: P.M. Pinero Ramirez (ed.), Dejar hablar a los textos. Homenaje a Francisco Marquez Villanueva, Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, II, 739–773. GIL FERNÁNDEZ, LUIS (1997), Panorama social del humanismo español (1500–1800), Madrid: Tecnos, 209–213. GILLY, CARLOS (1985), Spanien und der Basler Buchdruck bis 1600: ein Querschnitt durch die spanische Geistesgeschichte aus der Sicht einer europäischen Buchdruckerstadt, Basel/ Frankfurt am Main: Helbing & Lichtenhahn. GILLY, CARLOS (2005), Erasmo, la reforma radical y los heterodoxos españoles, in: T. Martínez Romero/J. Martí Mestre (ed.), Les lletres hispàniques als segles XVI i XVIII, Castellló de la Plana: Universitat Jaume I, 225–376. GLEASON, ELISABETH G. (1978), On the Nature of Sixteenth Century Italian Evangelism: Scholarship, 1953–1978, Sixteenth Century Journal 9, 3–25. GODOY GÓMEZ, LUIS MIGUEL (2000), Justas poéticas en la Sevilla del Siglo de Oro, Doctoral Thesis, Universidad de Sevilla. GÓMEZ GARCÍA, GONZALO (2017), Los Caminos del Humanismo en La Universidad de Alcalá (1517–1545), Tesis Doctoral, Universidad de Alcalá. GÓMEZ GARCÍA, GONZALO (2017), Lutero y la cátedra de Biblia de la Universidad de Alcalá, in: Congresso Um construtor da Modernidade: Lutero-Teses-500 anos, Lisbon. GÓMEZ GARCÍA, GONZALO (2019), La Facultad de Teología de la Universidad de Alcalá: visitas y estado de cátedras entre 1524 Y 1545, Hispania Sacra LXXI 144, 439–454. GÓMEZ GARCÍA, GONZALO (2020), La necesidad de una apertura en la historiografía de la Universidad de Alcalá, Revista de historiografía 33, 241–258.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

GÓNGORA, DIEGO IGNACIO DE (1890), Historia del Colegio Mayor de Santo Tomás de Sevilla, Seville: E. Rasco. GONZÁLEZ NOVALÍN, JOSÉ LUIS (1994), La Inquisición y la Compañía de Jesús (1483–1615), Anthologica Annua 41, 77–102. GONZÁLEZ NOVALÍN, JOSÉ LUIS (2008), El inquisidor general Fernando de Valdés (1483–1568). Su vida y su obra, Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo. 2 vols. GONZÁLEZ OBREGON, LUIS (1914), Libros y Libreros en el siglo xvi, Mexico City: Publicaciones del Archivo General de la Nación. GONZALO SÁNCHEZ-MOLERO, JOSÉ LUIS (2009), Biblioteca Erasmiana Hispánica, Pecia Complutense 10. GONZALO SÁNCHEZ-MOLERO, JOSÉ LUIS (2003), El erasmismo y la educación de Felipe II (1527–1557), Madrid: Universidad Complutense. GOÑI GAZTAMBIDE, JOSÉ (1986), El erasmismo en España, Scripta Theologica 18, 117–155. GOOD, JAMES I. (1914), The Heidelberg Catechism In Its Newest Light, Philadelphia: Publication and Sunday School Board of The Reformed Church in The United States. GRELL, OLE PETER (2011), Brethren in Christ: A Calvinist Network in Reformation Europe, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. GRIMM, HAROLD J. (1954), The Reformation Era, 1500–1650, New York: Macmillan. GROSS-DIAZ, THERESA (2000), What’s a good soldier to do? Scholarship and revelation in the postils of the Psalms, in: Philip D. W. Krey/Lesley J. Smith (ed.), Nicholas of Lyra: The Senses of Scripture, Leiden: Brill, 111–130. GUERRERO, JOSÉ RAMÓN (1969), Catecismos españoles del siglo XVI: la obra catequética del Dr Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Madrid: Instituto Superior de Pastoral. GUILLLÉN, CLAUDIO (1963), Un padrón de conversos sevillanos (1510), Bulletin Hispanique 65.1–2, 49–98 HASBROUCK, PETER W. (1998), Free will and predestination in the writings of three Spanish Reformers of the sixteenth century: Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, Juan Pérez de Pineda, and Casiodoro de Reina, Unpublished Master’s Thesis. Wheaton College, Chicago. HAUBEN, PAUL J. (1967), Three Spanish Heretics and the Reformation: Antonio del Corro, Cassiodoro de Reina, Cypriano de Valera, Geneva: Droz. HAZAÑAS Y LA RUA, JOAQUÍN (1909), Actas de la Catedral de Sevilla referente al Dr Egidio and Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, in: J. Hazañas y La Rua (ed.), Maese Rodrigo 1444–1509, Seville: Izquierdo, 370–428. HEGARTY, ANDREW (2005), Carranza and the English Universities,”in: J. Edwards/R.W. Truman (ed.), Reforming Catholicism in the England of Mary Tudor: the Achievement of Friar Bartolomé Carranza, Aldershot: Ashgate, 153–172. HENNINGSEN, GUSTAV (1989), La legislación secreta del Santo Oficio, in: . J.A. Escudero (ed.), Perfiles jurídicos de la Inquisición española, Madrid: Instituto de Historia de la Inquisición, 163–172.

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HENNINGSEN, GUSTAV/JOHN A. TEDESCHI/CHARLES AMIEL (1986), The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe. Studies on Sources and Methods, Dekalb, Ill: Northern Illinois University Press. HINDMARCH, BRUCE (2018), What is Evangeliscalism? Christianity Today, March 14. HOMZA, LU ANN (1997), Erasmus as Hero, or Heretic? Spanish Humanism and the Valladolid Assembly of 1527, Renaissance Quarterly 50.1, 78–118. HOMZA, LU ANN (2006), The Spanish Inquisition, 1478–1614: An Anthology of Sources, Indianapolis: Hackett. HUERGA TERUELO, ÁLVARO (1972), Article “Esbarroya, Agustín”, in: Q. Aldea Vaquero, et al (ed.), Diccionario de Historia Eclesiástica de España, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, II, 804–805. HUERGA TERUELO, ÁLVARO (1973), Predicadores, alumbrados e Inquisición en el siglo XVI, Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española. HUERGA TERUELO, ÁLVARO (1984), ¿Luteranismo, erasmismo o alumbradismo sevillano?, Revista Española de Teología 44.2, 465–514. HUERGA TERUELO, ÁLVARO (1989), Procesos de la Inquisición a los herejes de Sevilla, 1557–1562, in: Manuel J. Peláez (ed.), Historia de la Iglesia y de las Instituciones eclesiásticas. Trabajos en homenaje a Ferrán Valls y Tabener, Malaga: Universidad de Málaga. HUERGA TERUELO, ÁLVARO (1993), Fray Luis de Granada, promotor y testigo de la evangelización portuguesa”, en: Actas do Congresso Internacional de História. Missionação Portuguesa e Encontro de Culturas, Braga: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, I, 303–311. ILIC, LUKA (2016), Calvin, Flacius, Nidbruck and Lutheran Historiolgraphy, in: H. Selderhuis/A. Huijgen (ed.), Calvinus Pastor Ecclesiae: Papers of the Eleventh International Congress on Calvin Research, Gronigen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 319–332. IMBART DE LA TOUR, PIERRE (1914), L’Evangelisme (1521–1538), in: Les Origines de la Réforme, (1521–1538), Vol. III, Paris: Hachette. 4 vols. JIMÉNEZ MONTESERÍN, MIGUEL (1995), Introduction, Conquenses Ilustres by Fermín Caballero [1875], Cuenca: Ayuntamiento de Cuenca. JONES, WILLIAM B. (1964), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente. The Problem of Protestant Influence in Sixteenth-Century Spain, unpublished Doctoral Thesis. Nashville, Tenn., Universidad de Vanderbuilt. 2 vols. JUNG, EVA-MARIA (1953), On the Nature of Evangelism in Sixteenth-Century Italy, Journal of the History of Ideas 14.4, 511–527. KAGAN, RICHARD L. (1991), Political, Prophecy, and the Inquisition in Late SixteenthCentury Spain, in: M.E. Perry/A.J. Cruz, (ed.), Cultural Encounters: The Impact of the Inquisition in Spain and the New World, Berkeley: University of California Press, 105–120. KAGAN, RICHARD L. (2010), Clio and the Crown: The Politics of History in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University. KAMEN, HENRY (1988), Toleration and Dissent in Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Alternative Tradition, The Sixteenth Century Journal 19.1, 3–23. KAMEN, HENRY (2004), The Duke of Alba, New Haven: Yale University Press.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

KAMEN, HENRY (2014), The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, 4th ed., New Haven: Yale University Press. KARLIKOWSKI, TOMASZ (2013), Inquisizione spagnola: numero di vittime, Dizionario di eretici, dissidenti e inquisitori nel mondo mediterraneo, Florence: CLORI. KESS, ALEXANDRA (2008), Johann Sleidan and the Protestant Vision of History, Aldershot: Ashgate. KETTELL, SAMUEL, ed. (1828), Records of the Spanish Inquisition, translated from the Original Manuscripts, Boston: S. Goodrich. KINDER, ARTHUR G. (1982), Reformadores sevillanos del siglo XVI, Archivos Hispalense 65, 87–105. KINDER, ARTHUR G. (1985), A Hitherto Unknown Group of Protestants in SixteenthCentury Aragon, Cuadernos de Historia Jerónimo Zurita 51/52, 131–160. KINDER, ARTHUR G. (1990), Un documento interesante sobre la persecución de herejes españoles en Flandes: los gastos del contador Alonso del Canto entre 1561 y 1564, Diálogo Ecuménico 25, 67–86. LABRADOR ARROYO, FELIX/ELOY HORTAL MUNOZ (2020), The Entourage of Prince Philip in Connection with the Felicissimo Viaje: Τhe Beginning of Burgundian Etiquette at the Spanish Court? in: M. McGowan/M. Shewring (ed.), Charles V, Prince Philip, and the Politics of Succession, , Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 79–100. LARIOS RAMOS, ANTONIO (2005), Los Dominicos y la Inquisición, Clío & Crimen 11, 116–126. LASPERAS, JEAN MICHEL (1976), Librería del doctor Juan Vergara, Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos 79.2, 337–352. LAVALLÉE, J. (1809), Histoire des inquisitions religieuses d’Italie, d’Espagne et de Portugal, Paris: Capelle et Renard. LAWRANCE, JEREMY N.H. (2015), Humanism in the Iberian Peninsula, http://www. cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/humanism-in-the-iberian-peninsula/html/5140c676fb03-4956-805a-f56cccf16a90_10.html. Accessed 04 /02/ 2021. LEA, HENRY CH. (1906–1907), A History of the Inquisition of Spain, New York: Macmillan. 4 vols. LEA, HENRY CH. (1967), Chapters from the Religious History of Spain Connected with the Inquisition [1890], New York: Burt Franklin. LEDO, JORGE (2018), Which Praise of Folly Did the Spanish Censors Read?, The Moria de Erasmo Roterodamo (c. 1532–1535) and the Libro del muy illustre y doctíssimo Señor Alberto Pio (1536) on the Eve of Erasmus’ Inclusion in the Spanish Index, Erasmus Studies 38.1, 64–108. LEDO, JORGE/HARM DEN BOER, ed. (2014), Moria de Erasmo Roterodamo. A Critical Edition of the Early Modern Spanish Translation of Erasmus’s Encomium Moriae, Leiden/ Boston: Brill. LEÓN DE LA VEGA, MANUEL DE (2012), Los protestantes y la espiritualidad evangélica en la España del siglo XVI, Madrid: Fundación Pluralismo y Convivencia. 2 vols.

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LEONI, ARON DI LEONE (2001), A Hitherto Unknown Edition of the Spanish Psalter by Abraham Usque (Ferrara 1554), Sefarad 61.1, 127–136. LEROUX, NEIL R. (2000), Luther’s Use of Doublets, RSQ: Rhetoric Society Quarterly 30.3, 35–54. LIMBORCH, PHILIPPUS VAN (1816), History of the Inquisition, London: Simpkin and Marshall. LLORENTE, JUAN ANTONIO (1816), Histoire critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne, depuis l’epoque de son établissement par Fedinand V, jusqu’au régime de Ferdinand VII, Alexis Pellier (trans.), Paris: Treuttel & Würtz. 4 vols. LLORENTE, JUAN ANTONIO (1826), History of the Spanish Inquisition: abridged from the original work of M. Llorente, late secretary of that institution by Leonard Gallois, New York: G.C. Morgan, John P. Haven, and Gray and Bunce. LLORENTE, JUAN ANTONIO (1827), A Critical History of the Inquisition of Spain: From the Period of its Establishment by Ferdinand V to the Reign of Ferdinand VII, Composed from the Original Documents of the Archives of the Supreme Council and from those of Subordinate Tribunals of the Holy Office, London: G.B. Whittaker. LLORENTE, JUAN ANTONIO (1843), A Critical History of the Inquisition of Spain: From the Period of Its Establishment by Ferdinand V to the Reign of Ferdinand VII, Philadelphia: James M. Campbell. LOADES, DAVID (1998), Philip II and the English, Congreso Internacional Felipe II (1598–1998), Europa dividida, la monarquía católica de Felipe II (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 20–23 abril 1998), Madrid: Parteluz, I, 485–495. LONGHURST, JOHN E. (1950), Erasmus and the Spanish Inquisition: the Case of Juan de Valdés, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. LONGHURST, JOHN E. (1959), Luther in Spain: 1520–1540, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 103.1, 66–93. LONGHURST, JOHN E. (1969), Luther’s Ghost in Spain (1517–1546), Lawrence, KS: Coronado Press. LÓPEZ MUÑOZ, TOMÁS (2011), La Reforma en la Sevilla del siglo XVI, Seville: Editorial MAD. 2 vols. LÓPEZ MUÑOZ, TOMÁS (2013), Juan de Vergara, in: Ignacio Javier García Pinilla (ed.),Disidencia religiosa en Castilla la Nueva en el siglo XVI, Ciudad Real: Almud. LOVETT, GABRIEL H. (1967), Introduction to A Critical History of the Inquisition of Spain by Juan Antonio Llorente, Williamstown, Mass: John Lilburne Co. LUTTIKHUIZEN, FRANCES (2016), The Ximenez Polyglot, Unio cum Christo 2.1, 83–98. LUTTIKHUIZEN, FRANCES (2016), Underground Protestantism in Sixteenth Century Spain, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. LUTTIKHUIZEN, FRANCES (2017), Luther and the Spanish Reformers, Unio cum Christo 3.1, 109–125. LUTTIKHUIZEN, FRANCES (2018), Constantino de la Fuente (1502–1560), de predicador aclamado a hereje olvidado, Hispania Sacra 141, 29–38.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

LUTTIKHUIZEN, FRANCES (2019), Clandestine Protestant Literature Reaches Spain, in: S. Burton/M. Choptiany/P. Wilczek (ed.), Protestant Majorities and Minorities in Early Modern Europe: Confessional Boundaries and Contested Identities, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 129–146. LUTTIKHUIZEN, FRANCES (2019), La noticia de l’asalt al palau de la Inquisició de Barcelona arriba a Boston, in: Un dia de furia. Barcelona, 10 de març de 1820, Barcelona: Publicaciones de l’Abadia de Montserrat, 63–76. LUTTIKHUIZEN, FRANCES (2019), Los avatares de la Biblia de Vatablo, Aletheia 56.2, 25–44. LYELL, JAMES P.R. (1914), Cardinal Ximenes, Statesman, Ecclesiastic, Soldier and Man of Letters, with an Account of the Complutensian Polyglot Bible, London: Grafton & Co. M’CRIE, THOMAS (1829), History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain in the Sixteenth Century, Edinburgh: W. Blackwood. M’CRIE, THOMAS (2008), Historia de la reforma en España en el siglo XVI, Adam F. Sosa (trans.) [1950], Seville: Renacimiento. MACKENZIE, ANNA L., ed. (1997), Spain and Its Literature: Essays in Memory of E. Allison Peers, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. MAESTRE MAESTRE, JOSÉ MARÍA (2001), La censura de Constantino Ponce de la Fuente en la De asserenda Hispanorum eruditione siue de uiris Hispaniae doctis narratio apologetica de Alfonso García Matamoros, Revista de estudios latinos RELat 1, 155–168. MAESTRE MAESTRE, JOSÉ MARÍA, et al (2015), Humanismo y Pervivencia del Mundo Clásico. Homenaje al Profesor Juan Gil, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. 2 vols. MANCHÓN GÓMEZ, RAÚL (2013), Christimastix y los compuestos en –mastix, en el latín humanístico, Revista de Estudios Latinos (RELat) 13, 137–154. MARCHANT RIVERA, ALICIA (2010 ), Aspectos sociales, prácticas y funciones de los escribanos públicos castellanos del siglo de oro, in: E. Villalba/E. Torné (ed.), El nervio de la República: El oficio de escribano en el Siglo de Oro, Madrid: Calambur Editorial, 201–221. MARTÍN LÓPEZ, MARÍA ROSA EVA, et al (2015), El Real Fisco de la Inquisición en el Archivo Histórico de Granada, Actas. III Simpósio Internacional de Estudos Inquisitoriales, Alcalá de Henares, 1–19. MARTÍN RAMOS, NICASIO (2005), Cristo, sacramento de Dios en Fray Luis de Granada, Salamanca: San Esteban. MARTÍNEZ MILLÁN, JOSÉ (1984), La Hacienda de la Inquisicion (1478–1700), Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. MARTÍNEZ MILLÁN, JOSÉ (2000), La corte de Carlos V, Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V. 3 vols. MARTÍNEZ PEÑAS, LEANDRO (2012), La Legislación de Carlos V contra la herejía en Los Países Bajos, Revista de la Inquisición 16, 27–61.

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MAXWELL, WILLIAM (1853), The Cloister Life of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, London: J.W. Parker and Son. MENDOZA GARCIA, LETICIA (2017), La iglesia metodista episcopal del sur en Michoacán. 1880–1919, Tzintzun. Revista de Estudios Históricos 66, 107–136. MENÉNDEZ Y PELAYO, MARCELINO (1910), Procesos de protestantes españoles en el siglo XVI, Revista de Archivos, Bibliotecas y Museos. MENÉNDEZ Y PELAYO, MARCELINO (1956), Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Madrid: Biblioteca de autores cristianos. MENÉNDEZ Y PELAYO, MARCELINO (2009), A History of the Spanish Heterodox. Book One, Eladia Gomez-Posthill (trans.), London: Saint Austin Press. MESEGUER FERNÁNDEZ, JUAN (1947), Sobre el erasmismo de Pedro Mexía, cronista de Carlos V, Archivo Iberoamericano 7, 394–413. MIRA GÓMEZ DE MERCADO, MARIA DOLORES (2012), Actualización, estudio y edición del Diálogo sobre la necesidad de la oración vocal, obras virtuosas y santas ceremonias de fray Juan de la Cruz (1555), Almeria: Universidad de Almería. MOLL, JAIME (1999), Gaspar Zapata, impresor sevillano condenado por la Inquisición en 1562, Pliegos de Bibliofilia 7, 5–10. MOLL, JAIME (2013), Amberes y el mundo hispano del libro, Alicante: Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes. MONTANUS, REGINALDO GONSALVIUS (1569), A Discovery and playne Declaration of sundry subtill practices of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne, Vincent Skinner (trans.), London: J. Daye. MONTANUS, REGINALDO GONSALVIUS (1982), Artes de la Inquisizion española: Primer traduczion castellana de la obra escrita en latin por el español Raimundo Gonzalez de Montes, Santiago Usoz (trans.), in: L. Usoz y Río/B.B. Wiffen (ed.), Reformistas Antiguos Españoles, Vol. V, (1851); Reprint, Barcelona: Diego Gómez Flores. MONTANUS, REGINALDO GONSALVIUS (2008), Artes de la Santa Inquisición Española [1567], Fco. Ruiz de Pablos (trans.), in: E. Monjo (ed.), Obras de los Reformadores españoles del siglo XVI, Vol. IV, Seville: Editorial MAD. MONTANUS, REGINALDO GONSALVIUS (2018), The Arts of the Spanish Inquisition: a critical edition of the Sanctae inquisitionis Hispanicae artes aliquot (1567) with a modern English translation, M.J. Herráiz Parej/I.J. García Pinilla/J.L. Nelson (ed./trans), Leiden/ Boston: Brill. MONTER, E. WILLIAM (1984), The New Social History and the Spanish Inquisition, Journal of Social History 17.4, 705–713. MONTES ROMERO-CAMACHO, ISABEL (2020), Los archivos catedralicios y su importancia para los estudios prosopograficos. El dean don Aparicio Sanchez, en el Archivo de la Catedral de Sevilla, Espacio, Tiempo y Forma 33, 365–434. MONTOTO, SANTIAGO (1955), Justas poéticas sevillanas del siglo XVI (1531–1542), Valencia: Castalia.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

MORALES PADRÓN, FRANCISCO (1989), Historia de Sevilla. La ciudad del quinientos, Seville: Universidad de Sevilla. MORENO DE LA FUENTE, ANTONIO (1995), El Estudio de San Miguel de Sevilla en la primera mitad del siglo XVI, Historia, Instituciones, Documentos 22, 329–370. MORENO MARTÍNEZ, DORIS (2001), Carlos V y la Inquisición, in: F. Sánchez-Montes/J.L. Castellano (ed.), Carlos V europeísmo y universalidad: Actas del congreso internacional, Granada 2000, Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, II, 421–436. MORENO MARTÍNEZ, DORIS (2008), Introducción, La reforma en España en el siglo XVI de Thomas M’Crie, Seville: Renacimiento. MORENO MARTÍNEZ, DORIS (2015), Los jesuitas, la Inquisición y la frontera espiritual de 1559, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 92.5, 655–675. MORREALE, MARGHERITA (1958–59), Los Evangelios y Epístolas de Gonzalo García de Santa María y las Biblias romanceadas de la Edad Media, Archivo de Filología Aragonesa 10–11, 277–290. MOYA, JESÚS (2008), Pedro Temiño († 1590): De Inquisidor a Obispo, pasando por Carranza, Boletín de la Real Sociedad Bascongada de Amigos del País 64.2, 697–722. MUÑOZ SEMPERE, DANIEL (2008), La Inquisición española como tema literario: política, historia y ficción en la crisis del antiguo régimen, Rochester, NY: Tamesis. MUÑOZ SEMPERE, DANIEL (2010), The Abolition of the Inquisition and the Creation of a Historical Myth, Hispanic Research Journal 11, 71–81. MUT I RUIZ, J. ENRIC (2001), La biblioteca de don Joan de Vic, bisbe de Mallorca, Bolleti de la Societat Arqueologica Lul·liana 57, 339–368. NALLE, SARA T. (1992), God in La Mancha: Religious Reform and the People of Cuenca. 1500–1650, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. NAVARRO DE KELLEY, EMILIA, ed. (1977), Constantino Ponce de la Fuente y Jerónimo Gracián de la Madre de Dios, Beatus vir: carne de hoguera. Exposición del primer Salmo seguido de diez lamentaciones del miserable estado de los ateístas de nuestros tiempos, Madrid: Editora Nacional. NELSON, JONATHAN (2013), El protestantismo frente a la Inquisición, in: I.J. García Pinilla (ed.), Disidencia religiosa en Castilla la Nueva en el siglo XVI, Ciudad Real: Almud, 83–130. NIETO, JOSÉ C. (1997), El Renacimiento y la otra Espana. Vision cultural socioespiritual, Geneva: Droz. NIETO, JOSÉ C. (2001), Herejía en la Capilla Imperial: Constantino Ponce de la Fuente y ‘la imagen del Diablo’, en: J. Martínez Millán (ed.), Carlos V y la quiebra del humanismo político en Europa (1530–1558), Madrid: Sociedad Estatal para la conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, IV, 213–224. NIETO, JOSÉ C. (2004), In memoriam Luis Usoz y Río, 1805–1865. Constantino Ponce de la Fuente, ‘De la Iglesia y sacramentos’: Constantino Ponce de la Fuente reformador conquense, Bibliotheque d’ humanisme et renaissance: travaux et documents 66.1, 39–68.

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NÚÑEZ RIVERA, VALENTÍN (2010), Poesía y Biblia en el Siglo de Oro : estudios sobre los Salmos y el Cantar de los Cantares, Madrid: Vervuert. OLLERO PINA, JOSÉ ANTONIO (1993), La Universidad de Sevilla en los siglos XVI y XVII, Seville: Universidad de Sevilla. OLLERO PINA, JOSÉ ANTONIO (2007), Clérigos, universitarios y herejes: La Universidad de Sevilla y la formación académica del cabildo eclesiástico, in: L.E. Rodríguez San PedroBézares, et al (ed.), Universidades Hispánicas. Modelos territoriales en la Edad Moderna (I), Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, II, 107–195. OLMEDILLA Y PUIG, JOAQUÍN (1897), Estudio histórico de la vida y escritos del sabio médico español del siglo XVI, Nicolás Monardes, Madrid: Hernández. ORTIZ DE ZÚÑIGA, DIEGO (1988), Annales eclesiásticos y seculares de la muy noble y muy leal Ciudad de Sevilla, metropoli de Andalucia: Que contienen sus mas principales memorias desde el año de 1246 en que emprendio conquistarla S. Fernando Tercero de Castilla y León hasta el de 1671 en que la Iglesia Católica le concedió el culto y título de bienaventurado [1677], Seville: Guadalquivir. 4 vols. OSUNA RODRÍGUEZ, INMACULADA (2008), Las justas poéticas en el siglo XVI, in: B. López Bueno (ed.), El canon poético en el siglo XVI. VIII Encuentro Internacional sobre Poesía del Siglo de Oro, Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 257–296. OTTE SANDER, ENRIQUE (2008), Sevilla, siglo XVI: materiales para su historia económica, Seville: Centro de Estudios Andaluces. PASTORE, STEFANIA (2004), Un’eresia Spagnola. Spiritualità conversa, alumbradismo e Inquisizione (1449–1559), Florencia: Leo S. Olschki. PASTORE, STEFANIA (2010), Una herejía española. Conversos, alumbrados e Inquisición (1449–1559), Madrid: Marcial Pons. PAZ Y MELIA, ANTONIO (1902), Sales españolas ó Agudezas del ingenio nacional, Madrid: M. Tello. 2 vols. PEGO PUIGBÓ, ARMANDO (2004), El renacimiento espiritual: introducción literaria a los tratados de oración españoles, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. PÉREZ GARCÍA, RAFAEL M. (2006), La imprenta y la literatura espiritual castellana en la España del Renacimiento, 1470–1560: historia y estructura de una emisión cultural, Gijón: Trea. PÉREZ RAMÍREZ, DIMAS (1989), Cuenca y las corrientes espirituales de la Edad de Oro: El Doctor Fontano y su ‘Beatus Vir’, Edad de Oro, Madrid: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, VIII, 167–180. PEREZ, JOSEPH (2005), The Spanish Inquisition: A History, Janet Lloyd (trans.), New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. PETERS, EDWARD M. (1989), Inquisition, Berkeley: University of California Press. PETTEGREE, ANDREW (1986), Foreign Protestant Communities in Sixteenth-Century London, Oxford: Clarendon Press. PINTA LLORENTE, MIGUEL DE LA (1945), El erasmismo del Dr. Juan de Vergara y otras interpretaciones, Madrid: Sánchez.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

PINTA LLORENTE, MIGUEL DE LA (1952), Aportaciones para la historia externa de los índices expurgativos españoles, Hispania I.2, 253–300. PINTO CRESPO, VIRGILIO (1977), El proceso de elaboración y la configuración del Índice y Expurgatorio de 1583–84 en relación con los otros índices del s. XVI, Hispania Sacra 30, 201–254. PIÑERO RAMÍREZ, PEDRO MANUEL (1980), Algunas consideraciones sobre la biblioteca del Dr. Constantino, Archivo Hispalense 192, 301–312. PIZARRO LLORENTE, HENAR (2021), Article “Bernardo de Alvarado” http://dbe.rah.es/ biografias/16792/bernardo-de-alvarado. Accessed 01/03/ 2021. POOLE, STAFFORD (2004), Juan de Ovando: Governing the Spanish Empire in the Reign of Phillip II, Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. POZO RUIZ, A. (2005), Los primeros Estatutos del Colegio Santa María de Jesús, https:// personal.us.es/alporu/historia/estatutos_1.htm. Accessed 04/04/2020 PRESTON, PATRICK/ALLAN K. JENKINS (2007), Biblical Scholarship and the Church: A Sixteenth-Century Crisis of Authority, Aldershot: Ashgate. RAMIS BARCELÓ, RAFAEL/PEDRO RAMIS SERRA, ed. (2020), Actos y Grados de la Universidad de Alcalá (1523–1544), Madrid: Dikynson. RAWLINGS, HELEN (2006), The Spanish Inquisition, Malden, MA: Blackwell. REDONDO, AGUSTÍN (2001), El doctor Egidio y la predicación evangelista en Sevilla durante los años 1535–1549, in: J.L. Castellano/F. Sánchez-Montes González (ed.), Carlos V europeísmo y universalidad : [congreso internacional, Granada mayo 2000, Granada: Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, V, 577–598. RESINA RODRÍGUES, MARIA DE IDALINA (1988), Fray Luis de Granada y la literatura de Espiritualidad en Portugal (1554–1632), M. Victoria Navas (trans.), Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española. REY BUENO, MAR (2009), La Mayson pour Distiller des Eaües at El Escorial: Alchemy and Medicine at the Court of Philip II, 1556–1598, Medical History. Supplement 53(29), 26–39. RICHER-ROSSI, FRANÇOISE (2018), Alfonso de Ulloa, historiographe: discours politiques et traductions, Paris: Michel Houdiard. ROA, MARTIN DE (2005), Historia de la Compañía de Jesús de la Provincia de Andalucía (1553–1662), A. Martín Pradas/I. Carrasco Cómez (ed.), Écija: Asociación de Amigos de Écija. RODRÍGUEZ-PANTOJA MÁRQUEZ, MIGUEL (2015), Versiones de Erasmo al castellano en el siglo XVI: los coloquios Pietas puerilis y Funus, in: José Mª Maestre Maestre, et al (ed.), Humanismo y Pervivencia del Mundo Clásico, homenaje al profesor Juan Gil, V, 937–970. ROLDÁN-FIGUEROA, RADY (2008), Ponce de la Fuente, Constantino (1502–1559), in: Robert Benedetto (ed.), New Westminster Dictionary of Church History, Louisville/ London: Westminster John Knox Press.

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ROMERO TABARES, MARIA ISABEL (1994), El pensamiento erasmista. Su aportación a la cultura y sociedad españolas del siglo XVI, Cuadernos sobre Vico 4, 149–166. ROSA FERRER, IGNACIO DE LA (2017), El doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente y sus allegados, unos zamoranos asentados en San Clemente. https://historiadelcorregimientodesanclemente.blogspot.com/2017/08/el-doctor-constantino-ponce-de-la.html. Accessed 10/11/2020. ROSA FERRER, IGNACIO DE LA (2017), Notas sobre la capilla de San José o de Pallarés de la Iglesia parroquial de Santiago en San Clemente, https://historiadelcorregimientodesanclemente.blogspot.com/2017/08/notas-sobre-la-capilla-de-san-jose-o-de.html. Accessed 28/11/2020. ROSA FERRER, IGNACIO DE LA (2017), La cofradía de Nuestra Señora de Septiembre: unas noticias breves. https://historiadelcorregimientodesanclemente.blogspot.com/2017/01/lacofradia-de-nuestra-senora-de.html. Accessed 26/06/2020. ROSA FERRER, IGNACIO DE LA (2017), Las tiendas de San Clemente hacia 1570: la ruptura de la moral y sociedad tradicionales. https://historiadelcorregimientodesanclemente. blogspot.com.es. Accessed 06/12/2021. ROSA FERRER, IGNACIO DE LA (2018), Hidalgos de la Villa de San Clemente, https:// www.academia.edu/36999295/HIDALGOS_DE_LA_VILLA_DE_SAN_CLEMENTE. Accessed 16/01/2021. ROSA FERRER, IGNACIO DE LA (2020), El año mil quinientos de la mancha conquense, Zaragoza: I. de la Rosa Ferrer. ROSA FERRER, IGNACIO DE LA (2022), El convento de frailes franciscanos de Nuestra Señora de Gracia de San Clemente (Cuenca), in: El convento de Nuestra Señora de Gracia de la villa de San Clemente: la pervivencia del franciscanismo en el Obispado de Cuenca [2022]. RUBÍN DE CEVALLOS, AGUSTIN, ed. (1790), Índice Último de los Libros Prohibidos y mandados expurgar para todos los reynos y señoríos del católico rey de las Españas, don Carlos IV. Contiene en resumen todos los libros puestos en el Índice Expurgatorio del ano 1747, y en los Edictos posteriores, hasta fin de Diciembre de 1789, Madrid: Antonio de Sancha. RUIZ DE PABLOS, FRANCISCO, trans. ed. (2008), Introducción, Artes de la Santa Inquisición Española de Reginaldo Gonzalez de Montes, Seville: Editorial MAD. RUIZ DE PABLOS, FRANCISCO, trans. ed. (2014), Introducción, Ernest H.J. Schäfer, Protestantismo Español e Inquisición en el Siglo XVI, Seville: Editorial MAD. 4 vols. RUIZ DE PABLOS, FRANCISCO (2018), Carlos V y su persecución del Protestantismo, Cuadernos de Historia Moderna 43.2, 505–518. RÚJULA Y DE OCHOTORENA, JOSÉ DE (1946), Índice de los colegiales del Mayor de San Ildefonso y Menores de Alcalá, Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. RUMMEL, ERIKA (2008), Biblical Humanism and Scholasticism in the Age of Erasmus, Leiden: Brill.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

RUMMEL, ERIKA (2017), Article “Desiderius Erasmus”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford University. (Winter Edition). SAN JOSÉ LERA, JAVIER (2003), Fray Luis de León, Salmo 1: traducción, poesía y hermenéutica, Bulletin Hispanique 105, 51–97. SÁNCHEZ HERRERO, JOSÉ (1986), La literatura catequética en la Península Ibérica, 1236–1553, En la España Medieval 5, 1051–1118. SÁNCHEZ MAIRENA, ALFONSO (2007), El Archivo de la Catedral de Málaga. Su primera organización a partir del inventario de 1523, E-Spania 4. SANDOVAL, PRUDENCIO DE (1634), Historia de la vida y hechos del Emperador Carlos V [1606], Pamplona: Bartolomé Paris. SANTOS MÁRQUEZ, ANTONIO JOAQUÍN (2009), Exequias y túmulo de la emperatriz doña Isabel de Portugal en la Catedral de Sevilla, Reales Sitios: Revista del Patrimonio Nacional 181, 28–41. SCHÄFER, ERNST H.J. (1902), Beiträge zur Geschichte des spanischen Protestantismus und der Inquisition im sechzehnten Jahrhundert, Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann. 3 vols. SCHÄFER, ERNST H.J. (2014), Protestantismo Español e Inquisición en el Siglo XVI, Fco. Ruiz de Pablos (trans.), Seville: Editorial MAD. 4 vols. SCHOTT, ANDREAS (1608), Hispaniae Bibliotheca, seu de academiis ac bibliothecis, Frankfort: Marnius. SECKER, PHILIP J. (1973), James Schopper: ‘Catholic and Evangelical’, The Sixteenth Century Journal 4.2, 99–107. SERRANO Y SANZ, MANUEL (1901, 1902), Juan de Vergara y la Inquisición de Toledo, Revista de archivos, bibliotecas y museos 5, 896–912; 6, 29–42, 466–486. SICROFF, ALBERT A. (1985), Los estatutos de limpieza de sangre, Madrid: Taurus. SIERRA CORELLA, ANTONIO (1947), La censura de libros y papeles en España y los índices y catálogos españoles de los prohibidos y expurgados, Madrid: Archiveros, bibliotecarios y arqueólogos. SMITH, LESLEY (2000), The Rewards of Faith: Nicholas de Lyra on Ruth, in: Philip D.W. Krey/Lesley J. Smith (ed.), Nicholas of Lyra: The Senses of Scripture, Leiden: Brill, 45–70. SOEN, VIOLET (2017), From the Interim of Augsburg until the Treaty of Augsburg (1548–1555), [2017: 6, 7, 9]. https://www.mwpweb.eu/1/8/resources/publication_3060_1. pdf. Also in A. Melloni (ed.), Martin Luther. A Christian between Reforms and Modernity (1517–2017), 3 vols., Berlin: De Gruyter, [2017: I, 549–564]. SOLANA PUJALTE, JULIÁN (2019), Ediciones desconocidas del impresor sevillano Martín de Montesdoca, in: K. Hedwig/D. Riel (ed.), Sed ipsa novitas crescat. Themen der Eschatologie, Transformation und Innovation, Münster: Aschendorff, 235–258. SOLÍS DE LOS SANTOS, JOSÉ (2012), El humanismo en Sevilla en la época de Diego López de Cortegana, in: F. J. Escobar Borrego, et al (ed.), La Metamorfosis de un Inquisidor: El Humanista Diego López de Cortegana (1455–1524), Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 13–59.

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SPACH, R.C. (1993), The Life and Thought of Juan Gil, Founder of Sixteenth-Century Spanish Protestantism, unpublished Master’s Thesis, Princeton, NJ: Princeton Theological Seminary. STOUGHTON, JOHN (2013), The Spanish Reformers. Their Memories and Dwelling-Places [1883]; Reprint. London: Forgotten Books. TELLECHEA IDÍGORAS, JOSÉ IGNACIO (1962), Biblias publicadas fuera de España secuestradas por la Inquisición de Sevilla en 1552, Bulletin Hispanique 64.3, 236–247. TELLECHEA IDÍGORAS, JOSÉ IGNACIO (1962), La Censura inquisitorial de Biblias de 1554, Antología Annua, 10. TELLECHEA IDÍGORAS, JOSÉ IGNACIO (1971), La reacción española ante el luteranismo, Diálogo ecuménico 6, Extra 23.24, 325–342. TELLECHEA IDÍGORAS, JOSÉ IGNACIO (1977), La reacción ante el luteranismo (1520–1559), Tiempos recios. Inquisición y heterodoxias, Salamanca: Sígueme, 23–32. TELLECHEA IDÍGORAS, JOSÉ IGNACIO (1977), Fray Bartolome Carranza y el Cardenal Pole: Un navarro en la restauracion catolica de Inglaterra (1554–1558), Pamplona: Aranzadi. 2 vols. THOMAS, WERNER (2001), La represión del protestantismo en España, 1517–1648, Louvain: Leuven University Press. THOMAS, WERNER (2001), Los protestantes y la Inquisición en España en tiempos de Reforma y Contrarreforma, Louvain: Leuven University Press. THOMSETT, MICHAEL C. (2010), The Inquisition. A History, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. ULLOA, ALFONSO DE (1581), Vita dell’inuittissimo e sacratissimo imperator Carlo V. Venice: Heredi di Francesco Rampazetto. URBANO GONZÁLEZ DE LA CALLE, PEDRO (1948), Francisco de Vergara y la pronunciación de la Z griega, Boletin del Instituto Caro y Cuervo 4.2, 249–320. USOZ Y RÍO, LUIS/BENJAMIN B. WIFFEN, ed. (1847–1865), Reformistas antiguos españoles, San Sebastián: Ignacio R. Baroja/Madrid: J. Alegre. 20 vols. Reprint, Barcelona: Diego Gómez Flores, 1982–83. UTRERA BONET, MARÍA DEL CARMEN (2013), La Pragmática del 1558 sobre impresión y circulación de libros en Castilla a través de los fondos de la biblioteca de la Universidad de Sevilla, in: Funciones y prácticas de la escritura. I Congreso de Investigadores Noveles en Ciencias Documentales, 277–281. VALDÉS, JUAN DE (1894), Commentary On the First Book of the Psalms: Now for the First Time Translated From the Spanish, Having Never Been Published In English, E. Boehmer (ed.), John T. Betts (trans.), Edinburgh: Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. VALDÉS, JUAN DE (1529), Diálogo de doctrina cristiana, Alcalá de Henares: Miguel de Eguía. VALDÉS, JUAN DE (1880), El salterio traduzido del hebreo en romance castellano por Juan de Valdes. E. Boehmer (ed.), Bonn: C. Georgi.

General Bibliography and Further Reading

VALDÉS, JUAN DE (1946), Diálogo de doctrina cristiana, B. Foster Stockwell (ed.), Buenos Aires: La Aurora/Mexico City: Casa Unida de Publicaciones. VALDÉS, JUAN DE (1980), Dialogue on Christian Doctrine, William B. Jones/Carol D. Jones (trans.), in: J.C. Nieto (ed.), Two catechisms: the Dialogue on Christian Doctrine and The Christian Instruction for Children, Lawrence, KS: Coronado Press. VALDÉS, JUAN DE (2008), Diálogo de Doctrina Cristiana [1529], Seville: Editorial MAD. VALERA, CIPRIANO DE (1982), Tratado para confirmar en la fe cristiana a los cautivos de Berbería [1598], in: L. Usoz y Río/B.B. Wiffen (ed.), Reformistas Antiguos Españoles, Vol. VIII, [1854]. Reprint, Barcelona: Diego Gómez Flores. VAN DER GRIJP, KLAUS (2005), Bibliografia de la Historia del Protestantismo Español, Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca. VANCE, JACOB (2014), Secrets: Humanism, Mysticism, and Evangelism in Erasmus of Rotterdam, Bishop Guillaume Briçonnet, and Marguerite de Navarre, Leiden: Brill. VAQUERO SERRANO, Mª DEL CARMEN (2019), La familia de Juan de Vergara, canonigo erasmista toledano, Lemir 23, 9–96. VÁZQUEZ DE PRADA, VALENTÍN (1970), La Inquisición y los libros sospechosos en la época de Valdés-Salas (1547–1566), in: Actas del Simposio Valdés-Salas conmemorativo del IV Centenario de la muerte de su fundador. Don Fernando de Valdés (1483–1568). Su personalidad. Su obra. Su tiempo, Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo, 147–155. VILAR, JUAN BAUTISTA (1994), La formación de una biblioteca de libros prohibidos en la España isabelina: Luis Usoz y Río, importador clandestino de libros protestantes (1841–1850), Bulletin Hispanique 96.2, 397–416. WAGNER, CHRISTINE (1994), Los luteranos ante la Inquisición de Toledo en el siglo XVI, Hispania Sacra XLVI (94), 473–507. WAGNER, KLAUS (1975), Los maestros Gil de Fuentes y Alonso de Escobar y el círculo de ‘Luteranos’ de Sevilla, Hispania Sacra 28, 239–247. WAGNER, KLAUS (1976), La biblioteca del Dr Francisco de Vargas, compañero de Egidio y Constantino, Bulletin Hispanique 78, 313–324. WAGNER, KLAUS (1979), Gaspar Baptista Vilar, ‘hereje luterano’, amigo de Constantino y de Egidio, Archivo Hispalense 187, 107–118. WAGNER, KLAUS (1979), El Doctor Constantino Ponce de la Fuente: el hombre y su biblioteca, Seville: Diputación Provincial de Sevilla. WAGNER, KLAUS (1982), Martín de Montesdoca y su prensa: contribución al estudio de la imprenta y de la bibliografía sevillanas del siglo XVI, Seville: Universidad de Sevilla. WAGNER, KLAUS (1983), El arzobispo Alonso Manrique, protector del Erasmismo y de los reformistas en Sevilla, Bibliothéque d’Humanisme et Renaissance 45.2, 349–350. WATSON, DAVID (1997), The Martyrology of Jean Crespin and the Early French Evangelical Movement, Doctoral Thesis. University of Saint Andrews. WILKENS, CORNELIUS AUGUST (1897), Spanish Protestants in the Sixteenth Century, Rachel Challice (trans.), London: William Heinemann.

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WILKINSON, ALEXANDER S., ed. (2010), Iberian Books: Books Published in Spanish or Portuguese or on the Iberian Peninsula before 1601, Leiden: Brill.

Appendix A—Confiscated books collected by the Inquisition in Seville (Undated, but presumably 1563)1

Antonius Corvinus = Anthony Corvinus (1501–1553) — Colloquia Theologica, libri 22 — Colloquia Theologica, libri 33 — Postilla in evangelia et espistolas4 — Idem de Sanctus5 — Theologia ex Augustino et Crisóstomo deprompta6 Andrea Osiandro = Andreas Osiander (1498–1552) — Armonía evangelica cum annotationes7 Andreas Hyperius = Andreas Gerhard Hyperius (1511–1564) — In epistolam ad Romanos exegeta8 — De causis escecationes multorum9 — De honorandis magistratibus conmmentarius10 Andreas Althamerus = Andreas Althamer (1500–1539) — Conciliationes locorum11 — Sylva biblicorum nominum12

1 AHN, Inquisición, leg. 2073, doc. 5. 2 Antonius Corvinus, Colloquiorum Theologicorum Libri duo, in cŏmodum Theologiae candidatorum, Iam primum aeditist (Strasbourg: W. Köpfel, 1537). 3 Antonius Corvinus, Colloqvia Theologica, Qvibus Iam Tertivs Liber accessit, antehac non æditus (Strasbourg: W. Köpfel, 1540). 4 Antonius Corvinus, Postilla in Euangelia dominicalia, cum additione locorum, in Epistolas & Euangelia, cum de tempore tum de Sanctis, totius anni (Strasbourg: W. Köpfel, 1540). 5 Idem. 6 Antonius Corvinus, Augustini et Chrysostomi theologia: ex libris eorundem depromta; inque communes locos digesta (Halle, 1539). 7 Andreas Osiander, Harmoniae Evangelicae Libri IIII: Graece Et Latine, In quibus Evangelica historia ex quatuor Evangelistis ita in unum est contexta (Basel: Froben, 1537). 8 Andreas Hyperius, In Pauli ad Romanis Epistolam Exegema (Marburg, 1549). 9 Wrongly attributed. Franciscus Lambertus, De causis excaecationis multorum seculorum commentarius (Nuremberg: J. Petreius, 1525). 10 Andreas Hyperius, De honorandis magistratibus commentarius in quo Psalmus 20 enarratur, ej. in Psalmum 12 paraphrasis (Marburg: C. Egenolph, 1542). 11 Andreas Althamerus, Conciliationes Locorum scripturae, qui specie tenus inter se pugnare uidentur: Centuriae duae (Nuremberg: Petreius, 1548). 12 Andreas Althamerus. Sylva biblicorum nominum (Basel: Thomam Wolphium, 1535).

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Appendix A

Antonii Melisii (unidentified) — Liber sententiarum et fatismi dicritionis contra grecos13 Aretius Benedictus = (Martin Bucer’s pseudonym) — Sacrorum psalmorum libri 514 Arsacio Schofer = Arsacius Seehofer (1503–1545) — Enrratio evangeliorum dominicalium15 Abatís Urspergensis = Burchard of Ursberg (c.1177–c.1231) — Chronicon16 Bartholomeus Westhemerus = Bartholomäus Westheimer/Vesthemerus (1504–1550) — Farrago concordantium bibliae17 — Frases sacrae scripturae18 — Conciliacionum hac consensum sacrosanctae scripturae19 Bernardinus Ochinus Senensis = Bernardino Ochino (1487–1564) — La quarta parte de le prediche en toscano20 — Expositio epistolae Pauli ad Romanos21 Conradus Lagus = Konrad Lagus (1500–1546) — Methodica iuris universi22 Constantino de la Fuente = Constantino Ponce de la Fuente (1502–1560) — Doctrina Christiana Grande23

13 Is this part of Peter Lombard’s Liber Sententiarum (Paris, 1518)? 14 Benedictus Aretius. Psalmi: libri quinque (Strasbourg: Ulricher, 1529). 15 Arsatius Schofer. Enarrartiones Evangeliorum Dominicalium ad dialecticam Methodum, & Rhetoricam dispositionem accommodatae (Augsburg, 1539). 16 Burchardus Urspergensis, Chronicum abbatis Urspergensis, continens historiam rerum memorabilium, a Nino Assyriorum rege ad tempora Friderici II [1515] (Strasbourg: C. Mylium, 1552). 17 Bartholomeus Westhemerus. Farrago concordantium insignium totius Bibliae (Basel: T. Wolff, 1528). 18 Bartholomeus Westhemerus, Phrases seu modi loquendi divinae scripturae, ex sanctis et orthodoxis scriptoribus (Antwerp, 1536). 19 Bartholomäus Westheimer, En damus lector Conciliationem ae consensum sacrosanctae scripturae et patrum orthodoxorum (Zurich: Gesner et Wyssenbach, 1552). 20 Bernardino Ochino, Prediche (Geneva, 1550). 21 Bernhardini Ochini Senensis, Expositio Epistolæ diui Pauli ad Romanos (Augsburg: P. Ulhardus, 1550). 22 Conradus Lagus, Methodica Juris Utriusque Traditio, Omnem Omnium Titulorum, Tam Pontificii, Quam Cæsarei, Juris Materiam Et Genus Complectens, etc. (Paris, 1545). 23 Constantino [Ponce] de la Fuente, Doctrina Christiana, en que está comprehendida toda la información que pertenece al hombre que quiere servir a Dios. Parte primera (Seville: Juan Canalla, 1548, 1549; Antwerp: Juan Steelsio [Latio], 1554, 1555).

Appendix A

— Suma de la doctrina christiana24 — Exposición sobre el psalmo “Beatus Vir” 25 — Catecismo Christiano26 — Confesión de un pecador 27 Conradus Gesnerus = Conrad Gessner (1516–1565) — Biblioteca universalis, 1 et 2 tomi28 Conradus Clauserus = Konrad Klauser (1515–1567) — De oratione liber 29 Christophorus Hofman = Christoph Hoffmann (–1553) — De penitentia commentariorum, libri 330 — Comentaria in epistolam ad Philippenses31 Celii Segundi Curionis = Celio Secundo Curione (1503–1569) — Familiar y paterna instrucción de la cristiana religión, en francés32 — Selectarum espistolarum, libri 233 — Quatro lettere christiane, con uno paradoso, en toscano34

24 Constantino [Ponce] de la Fuente, Summa de doctrina Cristiana compuesta por el muy reverendo señor el Doctor Constantino en que se contiene todo lo principal y necessario que el hombre christiano deue saber y obrar (Seville: Juan Cromberger, 1543, 1544). 25 Constantino [Ponce] de la Fuente, Exposición del primer psalmo de David: cuyo principio es «Beatus Vir» dividida en seys sermones (Seville: Juan de León, 1546; Seville: C. Alvarez, 1551; Antwerp: G. Simón, 1556). 26 Constantino [Ponce] de la Fuente, Cathecismo Christiano, para instruir a los niños (Seville: Juan de León, 1547; Antwerp: G. Simón, 1556). 27 Constantino [Ponce] de la Fuente, Confesión de un pecador penitente delante de Jesucristo, redemptor y juez de los hombres (Seville: Juan de León, 1547; Évora: Andrés de Burgos, 1554; Antwerp: G. Simón, 1556). 28 Conrad Gesner, Bibliotheca universalis: sive Catalogus omnium scriptorum locupletissimus, in tribus linguis, Latina, Graeca, & Hebraica extantium (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1555). 29 Conrad Clauserus, De oratione liber ad illustrissimi principis & ducis Suffolchiae, regis Angliae consilarii, filias (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1553). 30 Christophorus Hoffman, De Poenitentia Commentariorvm Libri Tres. Avtore Christophoro Hoffman, Concionatore Ihenensi (Frankfurt: P. Brubach, 1540). 31 Christophorus Hoffman, Commentarius in epistolam Pauli ad Philippenses (Frankfurt: P. Brubach, 1541). 32 Celio Secondo Curione., Una familiare et paterna institutio della Christiana religione (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1550). 33 Celio Secondo Curione, Selectarum epistolarum libri duo (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1553). 34 Celio Secondo Curione, Quatro lettere Christiane, con uno paradosso, sopra quel detto Beati quegli che piangono & un sermone, o uer discorso del’orazione (Bologna: M. Pietro & Paulo Perusini fratelli, 1552).

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Christophorus Hegendorfius = Christophorus Hegendorfius (1500–1540) — Annotationes in evangelium Marci35 Conradus Pellicanus = Conradus Pellicanus (1478–1556) — Omnia opera, en 6 tomos36 — Index bibliorum37 — In omnes epistolas Pauli et Canonicas38 Erasmus Rotherodamus = Desiderius Erasmus (1469–1536) — Moria encomium con comento39 — Eclesiastés sive modus concionandi40 — Exmologesis41 — Colloquios, en romance42 — Enquiridion del caballero cristiano, en romance43 Erasmus Sarcerius = Erasmus Sarcerius (1501–1559) — In evangelia dominicalia postilla44 — In epistolas Pauli ad Philippenses, Colossenses, Thesalonicenses45 — In epsitolas Pauli ad Corintios46 — Retorica plena exemplis47

35 Christoph Hegendorphius, In omnia Marci capita, adnotationes recognitae (Haguenau: J. Secerium, 1526). 36 Could this refer to Conrad Pellicanus’s Commentaria Bibliorum (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1538)? 37 Conrad Pellicanus, Index Bibliorum (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1537). 38 Conrad Pellicanus, In omnes apostolicas epistolas, Pauli, Petri, Jacobi, Joannis et Judae. Commentarij (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1539). 39 Desiderius Erasmus, Moriae Encomium (Lyons: S. Gryphius, 1540; Basel: H. Froben & N. Episcopium, 1540, 1551). 40 Desiderius Erasmus, Ecclesiastae sive de ratione concionandi. Libri IV (Basel: Froben, 1544). 41 Desiderius Erasmus, Exomologesis, sive modus Confitendi per Erasmum Roterodamum (Basel, 1530). 42 Desiderius Erasmus, Colloquios de Erasmo traduzidos [del] latin en romance: porque los que no entiēden la lengua latina gozen assi mismo [de] doctrina de tan alto varon (Seville: J. Cromberger, 1529; Toledo: C. Damián, 1530; Zaragoza: J. Coci, 1530; Toledo: Juan de Ayala, 1532). 43 Desiderius Erasmus, Enchiridion o Manual del Cauallero Christiano de D. Erasmo Roterodamo en romance (Alcalá: Miguel de Eguía, 1526, 1527, 1529, 1533; Zaragoza, 1528; Valencia: Jorge Costilla, 1528; Valencia: Juan Joffre, 1528; Seville: Jacobo Cromberger, 1528). 44 Erasmus Sarcerius, In Euangelia Festivalia Postilla, Ad Methodi Formam expedita (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1539, 1540, 1544. 45 Erasmus Sarcerius, In Epistolas ad Philipp., Coloss. et Thessalonic. pia et erudita scholia (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1542. 46 Erasmus Sarcerius, In D. Pauli Epistolas ad Corinthios eruditae ac piae meditationes (Strasbourg: Rihelius, 1544). 47 Erasmus Sarcerius, Rhetorica Plena ac referta exemplis, quae succinctarum declamationum loco esse possunt (Marburg: Eucharius, 1537).

Appendix A

— Catechismus48 — In epistolas Pauli ad Galatas et Ephesios49 — In Matheum et Marcum scholia50 — In epistolas dominicales51 — In Iessum Syrach52 — In Evangelium Ioannis53 — Loccorum comuni ex consensus divinae scripturae54 — Exposiciones in evangelia festivalia55 — Dictionarium ecclesiasticae doctrinae56 — Dialectica multis exemplis illustrata57 — Nova methodus in precipuos scripturae divine locos58 Fridericus Furias Coeriolanus = Fadrique Furió Ceriol (1527–1592) — Bolonia sive de libris in vernaculam lingua vertendis libri 259 Franciscus Lambertus = Franz Lambert (1486–1530) — In regulam Minoritarum et contra universas perditionis sectas60 — In Micheam Naum Abacuch61

48 Erasmus Sarcerius, Catechismus. plane nouus, per omnes ferè quaestiones & circumstantias, quae in iustam tractationem incidere possunt, in usum scholarum & templorum (Leipzig: W. Günther, 1550). 49 Erasmus Sarcerius, In epistolas D. Pauli, ad Galatas et Ephesios, piae atque eruditae annotationes, pro rhetorica dispositione (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1542). 50 Erasmus Sarcerius, In Marcum evangelistam iusta scholia (Basel: Bartholomäus Westheimer, 1541; In Matthaeum Evangelistam iusta et docta scholia, per omnes rhetoricae artis cirumstantias methodice conscripta et locupletata (Basel: B. Westhemerum, 1544. 51 Erasmus Sarcerius, Erasmi Sarverii In evangelia dominicalia postilla (Marburg: C. Egenolff, 1541). 52 Erasmus Sarcerius, In Jesum Sirach integra scholia (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1543). 53 Erasmus Sarcerius, In Ioannem Euangelistam Iusta Scholia summa diligentia, ad perpetuae textus cohaerentiae filium (Basel: B. Westhemerum, 1540. 54 Erasmus Sarcerius, Locorum communium ex consensu diversae scripturae (Basel: J. Bebel, 1547. 55 Erasmus Sarcerius, Expositiones in epistolas dominicales ac festivales, ad methodiformam ferè absolutae (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1540). 56 Erasmus Sarcerius, Dictionarium scholasticae doctrinae, in quo et horrendos abusus, et multa alia ad sacram scripturam rectè intelligendam non inutilia, cernere licebit. (Basel: J. Bebel, 1546). 57 Erasmus Sarcerius, Dialectica multis ac uariis exemplis illustrata, una cum facilima syllogismorum expositoriorum, enthymematum, exemplorum, inductionum, & soritum dispositione (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1551). 58 Erasmus Sarcerius, Nova methodus in praecipuos Scripturae divinae locos, antea ea fide & illo ordine, nec edita, nec visa: quare is tandem credat se integru habere Methodi Sarcerianae exemplar, qui postremam hanc editione sibi comparaverit (Basel: M. Isingrin, 1546. 59 Fadrique Furió Ceriol, Bolonia sive de libris sacris in vernaculam linguam convertendis, ibri duo (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1556). 60 Franciscus Lambertus, In regvlam Minoritarvm, et contra uniuersas perditionis sectas, Francisci Lamberti commentarii vere Evangelici (Strasbourg: Herwagen, 1525). 61 Franciscus Lambertus, Commentarii, in Micheam, Naum, et Abacuc (Strasbourg: Hervagius, 1525).

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Appendix A

— In quatuor ultimis minores profetas62 — In Amos Abdiam et Ionam profetas63 — In Evangelium Luca comentarius64 Georgius Aemilius = Georgius Aemilius/Oemmel/Emilius/Öhmler/Oemler (1517–1569) — Hystoria seu lectionum evangelicarum explicatio65 Guillermus Postellus = Guillaume Postel (1510–1581) — De orbis térrea concordia libri 466 Gaspar Cruçigero = Caspar Creuziger/Cruciger, (1504–1548) — Enarrationes Symboli Niceni libri 267 — In Evangelium Ioannis ennarratio68 Gaspar Megandro = Caspar Megander (1495–1545) — In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios69 — In Epistolam Pauli ad Thimoteum et Titum70 Henricus Bulingerus = Heinrich Bullinger (1504–1575) — In quatuor evangelia, en dos cuerpos71 — In Epistolas Pauli et Canonicas72 — De gratia Dei iustificante73

62 Franciscus Lambertus, Commentarii in quatuor ultimos Prophetas, nempe Sophoniam, Aggeum, Zachariam et Malachiam (Strasbourg: Hervagius, 1526). 63 Franciscus Lambertus, In Amos, Abddiam, et Ionam Prophetas, Commentarij Francisci Lamberti (Strasbourg: Hervagius, 1525). 64 Franciscus Lambertus, In divi Lucae Evangelium commentarii (Strasbourg: Hervagius, 1525). 65 Georgius Aemilius, Historiarvm Sev Lectionvm Euangelicarum, quæ ueteri more Dominicis atque Festis diebus in Ecclesia tractari solent, Explicatio diligens & noua (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1551). 66 Guillaume Postel, De orbis terrae concordia libri quatuor: multiiuga eruditione ac pietate referti, quibus nihil hoc tam perturbato rerum statu uel utilius, uel accommodatius potuisse in publicum edi (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1544). 67 Caspar Creutziger, Enarratio Symboli Niceni Complectens ordine doctrinam Ecclesiae Dei fideliter recitatam; Accesserunt priori editioni plures Symboli partes (1550). 68 Caspar Creutziger, In Evangelivm Iohannis Apostoli Enarratio Caspari Crucigeri recens edita (Strasbourg: C. Mylius, 1546). 69 Caspar Megander, Gasparis Megandri Tigurini, in epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios commentarius: unà cum Ioannis Rhellicani epistola monitoria (Basel: H. Petrus, 1534). 70 Caspar Megander, In diui Pauli epistolas tres, ad Timotheum & Titum, Gasparis Megandri, Bernensis ecclesiastae, diligens ac breuis expositio, recens aedita (Basel: T. Platterum, & B. Lasium, 1535). 71 This seems to be wrongly attributed and could refer to Johannes Oecolampadius, In quatuor Evangelia enarratione (Cologne: Quentel, 1536). 72 Heinrich Bullinger, In epistolas apostolorum canonicas septem commentarii Heinrychi Bullingeri (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1537). 73 Heinrich Bullinger, De Gratia Dei iustificante (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1554).

Appendix A

— De scripturae sancte autoritate74 — Brevis Antiboaci sive secunda responsio75 — Sermones decades due tomus primus76 — De origine herroris77 — Quo pacto cum aegrotantibus agendum sit 78 — Adversus omnia catabatistarum prava dogmata79 Hermanus Bodius = (Martin Bucer’s pseudonyms) — Unio dessidentium80 Henricus Cornelius Agripa = Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim (1486–1535) — De oculta philosophia81 — De vanitate scientiarum82 Hermanus Bonnus = Herman Bonnus (1504–1548) — Fárrago precipuorum exemplorum de Apostolis et Martiribus83 Hieronimus Vuclerus = Hieronymus (Jerome) Weller (1499–1572) — De officio ecclesiastico politico et economico84 — Ennarratio epistolarum dominicalium85

74 Heinrich Bullinger, De Scripturæ Sanctæ authoritate: certitudine, firmitate et absoluta perfectione, deque episcoporum institutione & functione, contra superstitionis tyrannidisque Romanæ antistites (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1538). 75 Heinrich Bullinger, Brevis anti Bole, sive, Responsio secunda Heinrychi Bullingeri ad maledicam implicatamque Ioannis Cochlei de Scripturae & ecclesiae authoritate replicam uná cum expositione de sancta Christi catholica ecclesia (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1544). 76 Heinrich Bullinger, Sermonum decades duae accesserunt ex quarta decade sermones duo, De Evangelio et De poenitentia (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1549). 77 Heinrich Bullinger, De origine erroris, in divorum ac simulachrorum cultu (Basel: T. Wolff, 1529). 78 Heinrich Bullinger, Quo pacto cum Aegrotantibus...agendu sit (Zurich: A. Frysius, 1540). 79 Heinrich Bullinger, Adversus omnia catabaptistarum prava dogmata (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1535). 80 Hermanus Bodius, Unio dissidentium, libellus omnibus unitatis ac pacis amatoribus utilissimus: ex praecipuis Ecclesiae Christiane Doctoribus (Basel: N. Bryling, 1551). 81 Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, De occulta Philosophia libri tres (Köln: Soter, 1533). 82 Henricus Cornelius Agrippa, De incertitudine et Vanitate scientiarum declamatio inuectiua, denuo ab autore recognita et marginalibus Annotationibus aucta (Cologne, 1536). 83 Hermann Bonnus. Farrago praecipvorvm exemplorum de apostolis, martyribus, episcopis, et sanctis patribus veteris ecclesiae (Halle: P. Braubach, 1539). 84 Hieronymus Weller [Vuellero], De officio ecclesiastico, politico, et oeconomico: libellvs pivs et ervditvs (Nuremberg: J. Montani & U. Neuberi, 1552). 85 Hieronimus Wellerus, Enarratio epistolarum dominicalium recens Edita, et locupletata (Nuremberg: Montanus & Neuberus, 1551).

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Appendix A

Huldericus Zwinglius = Ulrich Zwingli (1484–1531) — Omnium operum tomus primus tertius et quartus86 Iacobus Fabrus Stapulensis = Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples (1455–1536) — In evangelia87 — In Epistolas Pauli88 Ioannes Calvinus = John Calvin (1509–1564) — Libellus de Cena Domini89 — In Esaiam Prophetam90 — In Pulum et canonicas et acta apostolorum91 — In Genessim92 — Interim adulter Germanorum93 — Brevis instructio contra Anabatistas94 — Istituio christianae religionis95 — Harmonia evangelica96 — In Epistola Prima ad Corinthios, en francés97

86 Huldrychus Zwingli, Opera D. Hvldrychi Zvinglii, uigilantissimi Tigurinæ ecclesiæ Antistitis: partim quidem ab ipso Latine conscripta, partim uerò è uernaculo sermone in Latinum translata (Zürich: C. Frosch, 1545). 87 Jacobus Fabrus Stapulensis, Commentariee initiatorii in quatuos evangelia (Meaux: S. Colinaeus, 1522). 88 Jacobus Fabrus Stapulensis, Iacobi Fabri Stapvlensis, theologi celeberrimi, commentarij in epistolas catholicas. Iacobi I. Petri II. Ioannis III. Ivdae I (Antwerp: J. Gymnicum, 1540). 89 Jean Calvin, Consensio mutua in re sacramentaria ministrorum Tigurinae ecclesiae, et D. Joannis Calvini ministri Genevensis ecclesiae, jam nunc ab ipsis authoribus edita (Zurich: R. Vuissenbachij, 1551). 90 Jean Calvin, In Esaiam Prophetam (Geneva: Adam & Jean Riveriz, 1552). 91 Jean Calvin, Commentarii integri in Acta apostolorum; Commentarii integri in epístolas canonicas (Geneva: Crispin, 1551). 92 Jean Calvin, Commentaire de M. Jean Calvin sur le pemier livre de Moyse, dit Genese (Geneva: J. Gerard, 1554). 93 Jean Calvin, Interim adultero—germanum: cui adjecta est, vera christianæ pacicationis, et Ecclesiæ reformandæ ratio (Geneva: J. Girard, 1549). 94 Jean Calvin, Brevis instructio muniendis fidelibus adversus errores sectae Anabaptistarum: item adversus fanaticam et furiosam sectam Libertinorum, qui se spirituales vocant (Strasbourg: W. Ribelius, 1546). 95 Jean Calvin, Institvtio Totivs Christianae Religionis, Nvnc Ex Postrema Avthoris Recognitione Qvibusdam Locis Avctior, Infinitis Verò Castigatior (Geneva: J. Gerard, 1550). 96 Jean Calvin, In evangelium secundum Matthaeum, Marcum et Lucam commentarii: Harmonia Evangelica (Geneva: R. Stephanus, 1553). 97 Jean Calvin, Commentaire de M. Iean Calvin, sur La Seconde Epistre aux Corinthiens traduit de Latin en François (Geneva: J. Girard, 1547).

Appendix A

— Provisión hecha sobre las diferencias de la religión, en francés98 — Prefacio in exemplum memorabile in desperationes cuiusdam99 Ioannes Draconitem = Johannes Draconites (1494–1566) — Comentariorum evangeliorum libri 2100 — In Danielem prophetam101 Ioannes Spangebergo Herdosiani = Johann Spangenberg (1484–1550) — Margarita theologica102 — In acta apostolorum103 — In epistolas dominicales104 — In evangelia et epistolas dominacales et de Sanctus105 Ioannes Oecolampadius = Johannes Oecolampadius (1482–1531) — In Epistolas Pauli ad Romanos et Hebreos106 — Annotationes in evangelium Ioannis107 — In epistolam ad Colosenses conciones108

98 Jean Calvin, L’Interim, c’est à dire provision faicte sur les differens de la religion en quelques villes & pais d’Allemagne. Avec la vraye façon de réformer l’Eglise chrestienne. (Geneva: J. Bourgeois, 1549). 99 Francisci Spieræ, Qui quod susceptam semel Evangelice veritatis professionem abnegasset, damnassetque, in horrendam incidit desperationem, Historia, a’ quatuor summis viris, summa fide conscripta: cum clariss. virorum Præfationibus, Cælii S.C.& Io. Calvini, & Petri Pauli Vergerii Apologia (Basel: J. Herwagen, 1550). 100 Johannes Draconites, Commentariorum evangelicorum de Jesu Christo filio Dei libri duo: Catechismus praeterea adiectus est (Basel: Rob. Winter, 1545). 101 Johann Draconites, Commentarius In Danielem Ex Ebraeo uersum. Cum Oratione & Indice (Marburg: A. Kolbe, 1544). 102 Johann Spangenberg, Margarita theologica, continens praecipuos locos doctrinae christianae, per quaestiones breviter et ordine explicatos, omnibus Pastoribus, verbi preconibus et ecclesiae ministris summe utilis et necessaria (Wittenberg: Ĝeorg Rhau, 1541). 103 Johann Spangenberg, Acta apostolorum breviter enarrata et in dilucidas quaestiones redacta (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1546). 104 Johann Spangenberg. Evangelia Dominicalia in versiculos extemporaliter versa. Wittenberg, 1539; Epistolae, per totum annum Dominicis diebus in ecclesia legi solitae, per quaestiones explicatae, & illustratae (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1545). 105 Johann Spangenberg, Explicationes Evangeliorvm Et Epistolarvm, Qvae Dominicis Diebvs More Vsitato Proponi In Ecclesia Popvlo Solent: In Tabvlas Svccinctas, Et Ad Memoriam Admodum utiles, redactae: unà cum Tabulis Euangeliorum de Sanctis [1544]. 106 Joannes Oecolampadius, In epistolam B. Pauli Apost. ad Rhomanos adnotationes a Ioanne Oecolampadio Basileae praelectae, cum indice (Basel: A. Cratander, 1525). 107 Joannes Oecolampadius, Annotationes piae ac doctae in Euangeliū Ioannis, D. Ioanne Oecolampadio autore (Basel: A. Cratander & J. Bebel, 1533). 108 Joannes Oecolampadius, In epistolam d. Pauli ad Collossenses. Conciones aliquot piae ac doctae ad tempora nostra valde accomodae, nunc primum in lucem aeditae (Bern: Apiarius, 1546).

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— In Iob et Danielem prophetam109 — In Ezechielem prophetam110 — In Evangelium Mathei111 — In Genessim112 — Annotationes in Osseam, Ioelem, Amos et Abdian prophetas113 Ioannes Bugenhagius Pomeranus = Ioannes Bugenhagen (1485–1558) — In quatuor capita priores Epistole ad Corinthios114 — Idem in epistolas Pauli ad Galatas, Ephesios, Philippenses, Colosenses, Thesalonicenses duas, Thimoteum duas, Titum, Pholomenum et denique Hebreros115 — Ennarrationes in Ieremiam prophetam116 — In Deuteronomium et Samuelem hoc est, in 29 libris117 — In Iob118 — In Psalmos119 — In Evangelia Dominicalia120

109 Joannes Oecolampadius, In librum Job exegemata; ejusdem In Danielem prophetam libri duo. (Geneva: J. Crispin, 1553). 110 Joannes Oecolampadius, In Prophetam Ezechielem Commentarivs D. Ioan. Oecolampadij, per Vuolfgangum Capitonem ditus (Strasbourg: Apiarius, 1534). 111 Joannes Oecolampadius, Enarratio in Euangelium Matthaei D. Io. Oecolampadio autore: & alia nonnulla quae sequens pagella indicabit (Basel: A. Cratander & J. Bebel, 1536). 112 Joannes Oecolampadius, Homilias in Genesin LXVI (Ioanne Oecolampadio interprete) et alia quaedam (Basel: H. Froben, J. Hervagium & N. Episcopium, 1530). 113 Joannes Oecolampadius, In minores quos vocant, prophetas Joannis Oecolampadii lucubrationes quaecunque ab ipso editae, et post decessum ex ipsius praelectionibus colectae et publicae factae extant; Commentarii omnes in libros Prophetarum (Geneva: J. Crispin, 1558). 114 Johannes Bugenhagius, Ioannis Bvgenhagii Pomerani commentarius, In quatuor capita prioris Epistolæ ad Corinthios, de sapientia & iusticia dei quæ Christus est, et de autoritate sacræ scripturæ & doctrinæ Apostolicæ in ecclesia Christi (Wittenberg: Lufft, 1530). 115 Johannes Bugenhagius, Annotationes Io. Bugenhagij Pomerani in epistolas Pauli, ad Galatas, Ephesios, Philippenses, Colossenses, Thessalonicenses primam & secundam. Timotheum primam et secundam. Titum. Philemonem, Hebraeos (Nuremberg: Petreius, 1524). 116 Joannes Bugenhagen, Psalterium Davidis, et Integri Loci sacr doctrin, ex omnibus Prophetis, cum quibusdam aliis piis canticis (Wittenberg: P. Seitz, 1544). 117 Johannes Bugenhagius, Annotationes In Deuteronomium, In Samuëlem prophetam, id est, duos libros Regum. Ab eodem prterea conciliata ex Euangelistis historia passi Christi & glorificati (Strasbourg: Knobloch, 1524). 118 Johannes Bugenhagius, In Hiob annotationis (Altenburg: Gab. Kantz, 1527). 119 Johannes Bugenhagius, Pomerani Bugenhagii In librum psalmorum interpretatio: Wittembergæ publice lecta (Nuremberg: Petreius, 1524); Psalterium Davidis, Et integri loci sacrae doctrinae: ex omnibus Prophetis. Cum quibusdam alijs pijs Canticis (Wittenberg: P. Seitz, 1544). 120 Johannes Bugenhagius, Indices quidam Ioannis Bugenhagii Pomerani in Evangelia (ut vocant) Dominicalia, Insuper usui temporum et sanctorum totius anni servientia (Wittenberg: Lufft, 1523).

Appendix A

Ioachimus Vadianus = Joachim Vadian (1484–1551) — Aphorismorum libri 6 de consideratione Eucharistiae121 Ioannes Gastius = Johannes Gast (1505–1552) — In orationem dominicam122 — Protevangelion de natalibus Iesu Christi et ipsius matris123 — Tomus secundus convivalium sermonum124 Ioannes Yndagine = Joannes Indagine (1467–1537) — Chiromantia125 Ioannes Valdesius = Juan de Valdés (1500?–1541) — Comentario sobre la Epístola de San Pablo a los Romanos en romance126 Iuan Pérez de Pineda = Juan Pérez de Pineda (1500–1556) — Comentario sobre los salmos de David en romance127 Ioannes Sleydanus = Johannes Sleidan (1506–1556) — De statu religiones128 Iustus Ionas = Justus Jonas (1493–1555) — Cathecismus pro pueris in ecclesiis, etc.129 — Prefacio methodica scripture totius130

121 Joachim Vadianus, Aphorismorum libri 6 de consideratione eucharistiae (Zurich: Frosch, 1536). 122 Johann Gast, In Orationem Dominicam Salvberrimae ac sanctissimæ meditationes ex libris Catholicorum Patrum selectæ (Basel: R. Winter, 1543). 123 This work is mistakenly attributed. Guillaume Postel et Theodorus Bibliander, Protevangelion, sive de natalibus Jesu Christi, & ipsius matris Virginis Mariæ, sermo historicus divi Jacobi minoris: Evangelica historia, quam scripsit beatus Marcus. Vita Joannis Marci evangelistæ (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1552. 124 Johann Gast, Tomvs. Convivalivm Sermonvm, Vtilibvs Ac Ivcvndis Historijs, & sentenijs, omni ferè de re, quae in sermonem, apud amicos in dulci conuiuiolo, incidere potest, refertus (Basel: N. Brylinger, 1548). 125 Ioannes Indagine, Chiromantia (Strasbourg: Schottus, 1522, 1531, 1534). 126 Juan de Valdés, Comentario o declarazion breve i compendiosa sobre la epístola de San Pablo apóstol á los Romanos, muy util para todos los amadores de la piedad christiana (Venice: Iuan Philadelpho [Geneva: Crespin], 1557). 127 Juan Pérez de Pineda, Los Psalmos de David con sus Sumarios, en que se declara con brevedad la contenido en cada Psalmo, agora nueva y fielmente traducidos en romance Castellano por el doctor Juan Pérez, conforme a la verdad de la lengua Sancta (Venice: Pedro Daniel [Geneva: Crespin], 1557). 128 Johannes Sleidanus, De statu religionis & reipublicæ, Carolo Quinto, Caesare, commentarij (Strasbourg: J. Rihelium, 1556). 129 Justus Jonas, Catechismus propueris et juventute, in ecclesiis & ditione illustriss. principium, Marchionum Brandeborgensium (Wittenberg: P. Seitz, 1543). 130 Justus Jonas, Praefatio in epistolas divi Pauli apostoli ad Corynthios (Erphordia, 1520).

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Ioannes Piscatorius = Joannes Piscator (1500?–1555?) — Epitome operum Augustini131 Iodovicus Wilichius = Jodocus Willich/Vuillichius (1501–1552) — In Ioanem, in Abdian prophetas132 — In Evangelia dominicalia133 Ioannes Rivius = Joannes Rivius (1500–1553) — Quo se pactum iuventus in hisce religiones disidiis severe devere134 — De conciencia, libri 3135 — De admirabili dei consilio136 — De disciplinis quae de sermone agunt ut de gramatica, dialetica de Rethorica137 Ioannes Puperus = Johann Pupper (1400–1475) — De libertate christiana138 Iodoco Rimhisio (unidentified) — In epistolam Pauli ed Philipensis Ioannes Agrícola = Johannes Agricola (1494–1566) — Annotationes in Evangelium Lucae139 Iosephus Iudeus = Flavius Josephus (c.37–c.100) — De antiquitatibus, en romançe140 Ioannes Brentius = Johann Brentius, or Brenz, (1499–1570) — In Evangelium Ioannis, dos tomos141

131 Johannes Piscatorius. [Johannes Pessellius] Omnium operum Divi Avrelii Avgvstini, episcopi hipponensis, Epitome (Augsburg: H. Steiner, 1537). 132 Jodocus Willich, In Abdiam Commentaria Rhetoricorum More Conscripta. Frankfurt, 1550. 133 Jodocus Willich, Dispositio in evangelia dominicalia omnibus declamatoribus, tam ecclesiasticis quàm scholasticis utilissima (Basel: Westheimer, 1542). 134 Joannes Rivius, Quo se pacto juventus in hisce religionis dissidiis gerere debeat ll. II. (Basel, 1546). 135 Joannes Rivius, Joannis Rivii de conscientia libri III. Ejusdem de spectris et apparitionibus umbrarum, seu de veteri superstitione, liber I (Leipzig: N. Wolrab, 1541). 136 Joannes Rivius, De admirabili Dei consilio, in celando mysterio redemptionis humanae libri tres Ioanne Rivio (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1545). 137 Joannes Rivius, De iis Disciplinis, quae de sermone agunt, ut sunt grammatica, dialectica, rhetorica: libri XVIII (Leipzig: N. Wolrab, 1543). 138 Johann Pupper von Goch, Dialogus de quatuor erroribus circa evangelicam legem exortis, etc. (Zwolle: S. Corver, 1521). 139 Joannes Agricola, In Evangelivm Lvcae Annotationes Ioannis agricolæ Islebij, summa scripturarum fide tractatæ (Nuremberg: J. Petreius, 1525). 140 Josephus Judeus Flavius, Josephi Judei historici prclara opera nō parua accuratiōe & diligentia recēter ipressa de antiquitatib’ libri viginti de Judaico bello libri septem de antiqua Judeorū origine (Paris, 1519). 141 Joannes Brentius, Evangelion qvod inscribitvr, secvndvm Ioannem, centvm qvinqvagintaqvatvor homiliis explicatum (Frankfurt: P. Brubach, 1551).

Appendix A

— In Esaiam Prophetam142 — In libros Iudicum143 — In Amos et Iob Prophetam et Acta Apostolorum144 — In Essodum145 — In Evangelium Lucae, dos tomos146 — In Samuelem — Explicatio Epistolae ad Galatas147 — In Ecclesiastem Salomonis148 — Cathecismus149 — In Epistolam Paulii ad Philemonem150 — Index copiosus omnium homiliarum151 — In Iosué — Ennarratio in Evagelia Dominicalia152 Luccas Lossius = Lucas Lossius (1508–1582) — In Novum Testamentum annotationes153 — Eiusdem cathecismus154 — Tomus secundos in Lucas et Iohannem155 — Cantica Sacra veteris ecclesie Selene156

142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153

154 155 156

Joannes Brentius, Esaias, Propheta: Commentariis explicatus (Frankfurt: P. Brubach, 1550). Joannes Brentius, In Librvm Ivdicvm et Rvth Commentarii (Halle: P. Brubach, 1544). Joannes Brentius, In Prophetam Amos. Expositio (Frankfurt: P. Braubach, 1545). Joannes Brentius, In Exodvm Mosi Commentarii (Frankfurt: P. Brubach, 1544). Joannes Brentius, In Evangelii quod inscribitur secundum Lucam, duodecim priora capita, Lucam, duodecim priora capita, homiliæ centum & decem (Frankfurt: P. Brubach, 1551). Joannes Brentius, Explicatio Epistolae Pavli ad Galatas (Frankfurt: P. Brubach, 1550). Joannes Brentius, Ecclesiastes Salomonis, cum commentarijs Ioannis Brentij (Haguenau, 1529). Joannes Brentius, Catechesis puerilis (Halle: Brubach, 1540). Joannes Brentius, In Epistolam Pavli Ad Philemonem, Et In Historiam Esther Commentarioli (Halle: Brubach, 1543). Joannes Brentius, Index copiosus omnium homiliarum, centum videlicet, & nonaginta D. Iohannis Brentij in evangelion quod secundum Lucam inscribitur (Halle: Brubach, 1540). Joannes Brentius, Enarrationum evangeliorum dominicalium (Erfurt: W. Stürmer & G. Stürmer, 1550). Lucas Lossius, Annotationum Lucae Lossii, in Novum Testamentum Jesu Christi Nazareni, ueri promissi & exhibiti Messiae &c. Continens narrationem Actorum apostolicorum, eorumque explicationem (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1552). Lucas Lossius, Catechismvs, hoc est, Christianae Doctrinae Methodvs: in qua non solum vera & Catholica Ecclesiae sententia proponitur, sed & argumentorum (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1554). Lucas Lossius, In quo continentur duo Euangelistae, Lvcas & Ioannes (Frankfurt: C. Egenolff, 1562). Lucas Lossius, Psalmodia, hoc est, Cantica Sacra Veteris Ecclesiae Selecta: Quo ordine, & Melodijs per totius anni curriculum (Nuremberg: G. Hayn, J. Petreius, 1553).

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Leonardo Culmanus = Leonhard Culmann (1497–1562) — Thesaurus locorum ex Viteri et Novo Testamento157 — Breve formula examinandorum158 — Quomodo aficti agroti [sic] sunt consolandi159 Marsilius Patavinus = Marsilius of Padua (c.1280–1342) — Opus insigne qui Tutulion fecit auctor Deffensoren pacis160 Martinus Bucerus = Martin Bucer (Butzer) (1491–1551) — Ennarrato in Evangelium Ioannis161 — Scripta duo adversaria Bartholomei Latomi et Buceri162 Martinus Lutherus = Martin Luther (1483–1546) — Omnium Operum tomus primus, secundus, tertius, quartus et sextus163 Melchioris Kling = Melchior Kling/Clingius (1504–1571) — Super Instituta164 Michael Servetius = Miguel Servet (1511–1553) — Tractatus contra Trininatem165 Nicolaus Gallus = Nicolaus Gallus/Hahn (1516–1570) — Disputatio de diaphoris et mutaciones presentis status166

157 Leonhard Culmann, Thesaurus Locorum Communium Copiosissimus: Ex Veteri et nouo Testamento, cum fideli ac perspicua interpretation (Nuremberg: Daubmannus, 1551). 158 Leonhard Culmann, Breues Aliquot Formulae Examinandorum Sacerdotum, Ecclesiasticum munus subire cupientium (Nuremberg: J. Montanum, & V. Neuberum, 1552). 159 Leonhard Culmann, Qvomodo Afflicti Ægroti et Moritvri sunt instituendi atque consclandi, quomodo tentationes Satanæ & mors uincenda, breuis instructio ex uerbo Dei collecta (Nuremberg: V. Neuberum, 1550). 160 Marsilius Patavinus, Opus insigne cui titulum fecit autor defensorem pacis, quod questionem illam jam olim controversam, de potestate papae et imperatoris excussissime tractet (1522). 161 Martin Bucer, Enarratio In Euangelion Iohannis, Praefatio, Summam Disputationis & Reformationis Bern. complectens (Strasbourg: J. Hervagium, 1528). 162 Martin Bucer, Scripta duo aduersaria D. Bartholomaei Latomi et Martini Buceri De Dispensatione sacramenti Eucharistiae. Inuocatione diuorum. Coelibatu clericorum (Strasbourg: W. Rihelij, 1544). 163 Martin Luther. Tomus primus [—septimus] omnium operum (Wittenberg: J. Lufft, 1551). 164 Melchior Kling, Melchioris Kling Ivreconsvlti clarissimi in quatuor Institutionum Iuris Principis Iustiniani libros Enarrationes de integro in gratiam Studiosorum & praxim forensem sectantium (Lyon: Rovillius, 1546). 165 Michael Servetus, De Trinitatis Erroribvs Libri Septem. Per Michaelem Serueto, aliâs Reues ab Aragonia Hispanum (Haguenau: J. Setzer, 1531). 166 Nikolaus Gallus, Dispvtatio De Adiaphoris & mutatione praesentis status pie constitutarum ecclesiarum: Cvm Praefatione (Magdeburg: Rhodius, 1550).

Appendix A

Othonis Prumfelsii = Otto Brunfels (1488–1534) — Annotationes theologis trium linguarum167 — Pandete scripturarum168 Othone Wermulero = Otto Werdmüller (1511–1552) — De dignitate usu et método philosophis morales169 Petrus Viretus = Pierre Viret (1511–1571) — Diálogo de la desorden que está al presente en el mundo, en francés170 — De la virtud y uso de la palabra de Dios, en francés171 — Exposición sobre la oraçión dominical, en francés172 — Epístola enviada a los fieles que conversan entre los Papistas, en francés173 — De vero verbi Dei, Sacramentorum et ecclesie ministerio174 — Admonición y consolación a los fieles que se determinan de salir de entre los papistas175 Petrus Martir Vermilio = Pietro Martire Vermigli (1499–1562) — In selectissimam Epistolam Prioris ad Corinthios176 — Disputatio de eucharistiae sacramento177

167 Otto Brunfels, Annotationes Othonis Brunfelsii, rei medices doctoris peritissimi, theologiae, trium linguarum, variarumque artium insignite eruditi, in quatuor evangelia et acta apostolorum (Strasbourg: G. Ulrich, 1535). 168 Otto Brunfels, Pandectae Scripturarum Veteris & Noui Testamenti (Strasbourg: J. Schott, 1535). 169 Otho Werdmüller, De ministro ecclesiae, sermones III in solennibus coetibus ecclesiastarum urbis et agri Tigurini (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1551). 170 Pierre Viret, Dialogues du desordre qui est a present au monde, et des causes d iceluy, & du moyen pour y remedier: desquelz l’ordre & le tiltre sensuit, 1. Le monde à l’empire. 2. L’homme difformé. 3. La metamorphose. 4. La reformation (Geneva: J. Gerard, 1545). 171 Pierre Viret, De la vertu, et usage du ministere de la parolle de Dieu, & des sacremens, dependans d’icelle & des differens qui sont en la chrestienté, à cause d’iceux (Geneva: J. Girard, 1548). 172 Pierre Viret, Exposition familière de l’oraison de notre Seigneur Jésus—Christ et des choses dignes de considérer sur icelle (Geneva: J. Gerard, 1548). 173 Pierre Viret, Admonition et consolation aux fideles qui deliberent de sortir d’entre les Papistes, pour eviter idolatrie, contre les tentations qui leur peuvent advenir (Geneva: J. Girard, 1547). 174 Pierre Viret, De vero verbi Dei, sacramentorum, & ecclesiæ ministerio, lib. II. De adulterinis sacramentis, lib I. De adulterato Baptismi sacramento, & de sanctorum oleorum vsu & consecrationibus, lib. I. De adultera cœna Domini, & de tremendis sacræ missæ mysteriis, lib VI (Geneva: R. Stephani, 1553). 175 Spanish translation of Pierre Viret: Admonition et consolation aux fideles qui deliberent de sortir d’entre les Papistes (Geneva: J. Girard, 1547). 176 Pietro Martire Vermigli, In selectissimam D. Pavli priorem ad Corinthios epistolam, D. Petri Martyris Vermilii Florentini, ad sereniss. regem Angliae, &c. Edvardvm VI. commentarii doctissimi. Editio secunda, priori longe emendatior (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1567). 177 Pietro Martire Vermigli, Defensio Doctrinæ veteris & Apostolicæ de sacrosancto Eucharistiæ Sacramento (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1559).

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Paulus Constantinus Phrigionis = Paulo Fagius/Phrygio (1483–1543) — In leviticum explanation178 Paulo Faggio = Paulo Fagius/Phrygio (1483–1543) — Comentarium hebraycum Rabi Kimchi in decem psalmos179 — Targum hoc est paraphrasis, etc.180 — Exegesis sive exposition dictionum hebraicorum181 Petrus Artopeius = Petrus Artoaeus/Peter Becker (1491–1563) — De prima rerum origine aphorismi182 — Engeliçe conçiones183 Philypus Melanchton = Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560) — Omnium operum tomus primus et tertius184 — Selectissimarum orationum tomus tertius185 — In Danielem Prophetam186 — Erothemata dialectics187 — Annotationes in Epistolas ad Corinthios188 — Initia doctrinae physicae189 — De coniugio comonefaçiones collecti190 — De penitençia doctrina 178 Paulus Constantinus Phrygio, In Leviticvm Explanatio Pavli Constantini Phrygionis, Omnia eius operis mysteria, quæ multa pulcherrimaque sunt, ita explicans, ut cuiuis doctori Ecclesiastico ad ædificationem maximopere sint usui futura (Basel: Petrus, 1543). 179 Paul Fagius, Commentarium Hebraicum Rabbi D. Kimhi in decem primos Psalmos Davidicos (1544). 180 Paul Fagius, Thargum, hoc est, Paraphrasis Onkeli chaldaica in Sacra Biblia: ex chaldaeo in latinum fidelissime versa, additis in singula fere capita succinctis annotationibus (Strasbourg: G. Machaeropoeum, 1546). 181 Paul Fagius, Exegesis sive expositio dictionum hebraicorum literalis et simplex in quatuor capita Geneseos (1542). 182 Petrus Atropaeus, De prima rerum origine, ex libro Geneseos, breves aphorismi (Basel: H. Petrus, 1546). 183 Petrus Artopaeus, Postilla Evangeliorum et epistolarum Dominicarum et praecipuorum Testorum totius anni pro sholasticis et novellis Praevicatoribus breves annotateines Petri Artopaei (vulgo Becker) (Basel: H. Petrus, 1550). 184 Philipp Melanchthon, Operum tomi quinque (Basel: Heruagium, 1541). 185 Philipp Melanchthon, Orationes aliquot lectu dignissimae (Haguenau: Kobian, 1533). 186 Philipp Melanchthon, In Danielem Prophetam Commentarius in quo seculi nostri status corruptissimus, & Turcicae crudelitatis finis describitur (Basel: Westhemerus, 1543). 187 Philipp Melanchthon. Erotemata Dialectices Continentia ferè integram artem, Ita scripta, ut iuuentuti utiliter proponi poßint (Wittenberg, 1552). 188 Philipp Melanchthon, Annotationes in Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos unam, & ad Corinthios duas diligentiß. recognitae (Nuremberg: Petreius, 1524). 189 Philipp Melanchthon, Initia doctrinae physicae, dictata in academia Vuitebergensi ... iterum edita. (Wittenberg: J. Lufft, 1550). 190 Philipp Melanchthon, De coniugio piae commonefactiones (Wittenberg: J. Crato, 1551).

Appendix A

— Selectarum declamationum, tomus primus191 — Hystoria de victa et actis Martini Lutheri192 Polydorus Vergilius = Polidoro Virgili/Vergilius/Vergil of Urbino (c.1470–1555) — De inventoribus rerum193 Reinaldus Lorichius Adamarus = Reinhard Lorich/Reinhardus Hadamarius (1510–1561) — Funebris conçiones quindecim mediçinalium194 Sebastianus Munstherus = Sebastian Münster (1488–1552) — Cathalogus omnium preçeptorum legis Mosaicae195 — In Evangelium Mathei hebraiçe scripto196 — In utraque Pauli epistolam ad Corinthios197 — Mesias Christianorum et Iudeorum etc.198 — Cosmographia universalis199 Sebastianus Meyer = Sebastian Meyer (1465–1545) — In Apocalipsim Ioannis200 — In utramque divi Pauli Epistolam ad Corinthios201 Sebastianus Castaliom = Sebastian Castellio/Castellión/Castello (1515–1563) — Salterium reliquaque sacrarum litterarum carmina202 191 Philipp Melanchthon, Dialectices Philippi Melanchthonis, Libri quatuor ab autore nuper ipso deintegro in lucem conscripti ac editi (1529). 192 Philipp Melanchthon, Historia de vita et actis Martini Lutheri (Frankfurt: Zöpfel, 1557). 193 Polydorus Vergilius, De inventoribus rerum libri tres: M. Sabellici de artium inventoribus ad Baffum carmen (Strasbourg: M. Schurer, 1509). 194 Reinhard Lorich, Funebres contiones quindecim (Frankfurt, 1548). 195 Sebastian Münster, Catalogus omnium praeceptorum legis Mosaicae, quae ab Hebraeis sexcenta et tredecim numerantur: cum succincta Rabbinorum expositione & additione traditionum, quibus irrita fecerunt mandata dei (Basel: H. Petrus, 1533). 196 Sebastian Münster, Evangelium secundum Matthaeum in lingua Hebraica: cum versione Latina atque succinctis annotationibus (Basel: H. Petrus, 1537). 197 Wrongly attributed. Unknown. 198 Sebastian Münster, Messias christianorum et Judaeorum hebraice & latine (Basel: H. Petrus, 1539). 199 Sebastian Münster, Cosmographiæ uniuersalis Lib. VI. in quibus, iuxta certioris fidei scriptorum traditionem describuntur, Omniũ habitabilis orbis partiũ situs, propriæque dotes. Regionum Topographicæ effigies. Terræ ingenia, quibus fit ut tam differentes & uarias specie res, & animatas & inanimatas, ferat (Basel: H. Petrus, 1552). 200 Sebastian Meyer, In Apocalypsim Iohannis Apostoli D. Sebastiani Meyer Ecclesiastae Bernen[sis] Commentarius, nostro huic sæculo accommodus, natus, & æditus (Zurich: Frosch, 1539). 201 Sebastian Meyer, In Vtranque D. Pavli Epistolam Ad Corinthios, Commentarii D. Sebastiani Meieri, ad expostionem Patrum orthodoxorum D. Chrysostomi, Augustini, Ambrosii (Frankfurt: Brubach, 1546). 202 Sebastianus Castellio, Psalterium, reliquaque sacrarum literarum Carmina et Precationes, cum argumentis, et brevi difficiliorum locorum declaratione; Sebast. Gastalione interprete (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1547).

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Theodorus Bibliandrus = Theodore Bibliander (1509–1564) — De ratione temporum etc.203 — De legitima bindicatione christianismi — Protevangelion sive de natalibus Iesu Christi204 — Oratio ad enarrationem Esaye205 Thomas Venator = Thomas Venatorius (1488–1551) — De virtute Christiana206 Urbanus Regius = Urbanus Henricus Rhegius/Urban Rieger (1489–1541) — Propheçie Veteris Testamenti de Christo collecte207 Victo Teodoro = Veit Dietrich, also Vitus Theodorus, (1506–1549) — In simples explicatio sententiarum ex Ioanne Evangelista collectarum208 Vincentius Obsopeius = Vincentius Opsopoeus (–1539) — Epigramata greca209 Wolphangus Lacius = Wolfgang Laz (1514–1565) — Liber de passione domini nostril Iesu Christi cum aliis210 — Examerom Dei opus211 — Responsio de missa, matrimonio et iure magistratus in religione212 Wolphgangus Musculus = Wolfgang Musculus (1497–1563) — In Psalterium comentarii213 — In Epistolam Pauli ad Romanos214

203 Theodorus Bibliander, De ratione temporum, Christianis rebus & cognoscendis & explicandis accommodata Liber unus (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1551). 204 Theodorus Bibliandrus, Protevangelion: sive de natalibus Iesu Christi, & ipsius matris Virginis Mariae, sermo historicus divi Iacobi minoris, consobrini & fratris Domini Iesu, apostoli primarij, & episcopi Christianorum primi Hierosolymis (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1552). 205 Theodorus Bibliandrus, Oratio Theodori Bibliandri ad enarrationem Esaiae prophetarum principis dicta Tiguri III idus ianuarij à natali Christi Domini anno MDXXXII (Zurich: C. Frosch, 1532). 206 Thomas Venatorius, Thomae Venatorii de virtute christiana: libri III; praeterea index additus praecipuas sententias complectens (Nuremberg: Peypus, 1529). 207 Urbanus Regius, Prophetiae Veteris Testamenti de Christo (Frankfurt: P. Brubachii, 1542). 208 Theodorus Vitus, Simplex et perspicua explicatio, insignium et iucundissimarum sententiarum ex johanne Evangelista collectarum à Vito Theodoro. Cum praefatione D. Philippi Melanthonis (Leipzig: Günther, 1551). 209 Vincentius Opsopeus, Epistolae Graecae (Haguenau: Secerius, 1528). 210 Wolfgang Lazius, Liber de passione Domini nostri Jesu Christi, carmine hexametro, incerto autore ad Donatum episcopum scriptus (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1552). 211 Wrongly attributed. Wolfgang Capito, Hexemeron Dei opus (Strasbourg: Vu. Rihelius, 1539). 212 Wrongly attributed. Wolfgang Capito, Responsio de missa matrimonio & iure magistratus in religionem (Strasbourg: Vu. Rihelium, 1537). 213 Wolfgang Musculus, In sacrosanctum Dauidis Psalterium commentarij (Basel: J. Herwagen, 1551). 214 Wolfgang Musculus, In epistolam apostoli Pauli ad Romanos (Basel: J. Herwagen, 1555).

Appendix A

— In Genessim215 — In Evangelium Ioannis216 — In Evangelium Mathei217 Wolphangus Ubisembergius, theologus = Wolfgang Wissenburg (1496–1575) — Antilogia papae hoc est de corrumpto ecclesiae statu218 Otros libros que permanecen en el Secreto del Santo Oficio son: [Other books that remain in the secret chambers of the Holy Office are:] — Derecho canónico con annotaciones, de Carlo Molineo [Charles Du Moulin]219 — Colloquio de Damas220 — Nuevo Testamento, en romançe, de Francisco Encinas221 — Belial de consolación222 — Carta enviada a nuestro agustísimo señor príncipe don Felipe II, rey de España, por Juan Pérez de Pineda223 — La Primera Epístola de San Pablo a los Corintios, en romançe, por Juan de Valdés224 — Diálogo de Mercurio et Charon, de Juan de Valdés225 — Revelación de San Pablo, en romançe

215 Wolfgang Musculus, In Mosis Genesim plenissimi Commentarii (Basel: J. Herwagen, 1554). 216 Wolfgang Musculus, In Divi Ioannis Apostoli Evangelium Wolfgangi Musculi Dusani Commentarii In tres Heptadas digesti, castigati, locupletati (Basel: J. Herwagen, 1555). 217 Wolfgang Musculus, In Evangelistam Matthaeum Commentarii (Basel: Johann Herwagen, 1548). 218 Matthias Flacius [preface, Wolfgang Wissenburg], Antilogia Papae: hoc est, de corrupto Ecclesiae statu & totius cleri papistici perversitate scripta aliquot veterum authorum; ante annos plus minus CCC & interea, nunc primum in lucem eruta & ab interitu vindicata (Basel: J. Oporinus, 1555). 219 Carolus Molinaeus, Tractatus commerciorum et usurarum, redituumque pecunia constitutorum et monetarum, cum explicatione L. Eos. C. de usur. l periculi precium (Paris: A. Parvus, 1555). 220 Pietro Aretino, Colloquio de damas (Seville, 1547; Zaragoza, 1548). 221 Francisco de Enzinas, El Testamento Nueuo de nuestro Senor y Saluador Iesu Christo nueua y fielmente traduzido del original Griego en romance Castellano (Venecia: Juan Philadelpho [Geneva: Jean Crespin], 1556). 222 Jacobus de Theramo, Consolatio peccatorum seu Processus Belial [French:] La consolacion des poures pecheurs, ou Le proces de Belial (Lyons: M. Huss & J. Schabler, 1487). 223 Juan Pérez de Pineda, Carta embiada a nuestro augustissimo senor principe Don Philippe, Rey de España, de Inglaterra, de Napoles, y de las Indias del Peru, &c. en que se declaran las causas de las guerras y calamidades presentes, y se descubren los medios y artes con que son robados los españoles, y las mas vezes muertos quanto al cuerpo, y quanto al anima. (Geneva: J. Crespin, 1557). 224 Juan de Valdés, Comentario ó declaracion familiar y compendiosa sobre la primera epístola de San Pablo apóstol á los Corintios, muy útil para todos los amadores de la piedad cristiana/compuesto por Juan Valdesio (Venezia: Juan Philadelpho [Geneva: Jean Crespin], 1557). 225 Wrongly attributed. Alfonso de Valdés, Dialogo de Mercurio y Caron (Venice: Antonio Bruccioli, 1543).

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Appendix B—An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons by Doctor Constantino de la Fuente (Printer’s device) CON PRIVILEGIO/15461

TO THE READER How necessary the preaching of the Divine Word is, Christian reader: besides declaring our many and continuous sins for which it is the true and only medicine. The testimony it gives for this purpose is enough for us to understand this to be so. No one can know us better than the very One who made us, and tolerates us and awaits us; nor can we imagine a better remedy to save us from perdition than the One who warns us that He wants to save us and is the only one who can save us. Considering that I have spent some years now in this highly authorized and esteemed office, with the desire to take the greatest advantage of it, though with the indignity that God knows, it often seemed to me that it would be good, along with the study of the Gospels [pliego s.n./(f. a.ij v)] that we have undertaken to interpolate some other parts of Scripture, so that, seeing the diversity and conformity of it, the listeners would have a greater desire to follow the path of truth, and to see how the benefit of Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, shines throughout. The reasons why I did this, and I think it should be done, I do not want to go into them now, they will remain for another time. Suffice for the present, that I have the example and authority of all the gravest and most esteemed doctors of the church to do so. Among the passages I chose for this purpose were some psalms, the exposition of which I will try to deal with to the best of my ability. The prophet David has such deep perceptions; he discovers in so many different ways the mysteries and secrets of divine goodness; he is such an admirable connoisseur of His works; he scrutinizes and penetrates both the hearts of the righteous and the evil doer, of the lukewarm and those afire; [pliego s.n/(f. a.iij)] he so clearly teaches the remedies for everyone that it seems that through this instrument the Holy Spirit wished to give the world a sample of the treasures of heaven. I don’t want to deal specifically with this either, because it would take more time than we dispose of. I only say it to show what motivated me. Among the sacred books, none is so familiar or

1 Translated by Juan Sanchez-Naffziger, Seville, 2009. With permission.

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so often found in the hands of everyone as is the psaltery.2 Indeed, the psalms comprise the greatest part of the liturgy.3 Of all sorts of people, I cannot conceive of anyone who does not read or recite the psalms. There could be no better thing to do, and I have often pondered over this. But the more recommendable it is, the more pitiful it is to see how coldly people read through them, how unresponsive and ignorant of the great things they hold.4 I am sure that if, with the reading of the

2 The relatively frequent reading of the Psalms is evidenced in the trials of converts in the late 1400s. In the second half of the 15th century the comments and parodies, sometimes made by poets of convert origin, show the attention given to this biblical text as well as its common consultation. We have, for example, Guillén de Segovia’s Seven Glossed Penitential Psalms or Mosén Gaçull’s satirical De profundis. The arrival of modern devotion thought to the Peninsula, widely supported by figures such as Cardinal Cisneros, had fostered a greater impulse to the reading of the Scriptures and in particular of the Psalms. See: Michel Boeglin, “Salterios y comentarios al Salmo en el Quinientos en Castilla” [2017: 59–73]. The first printed editions were those of Juan Cromberger (Seville, 1538, 1540), Juan de Ayala (Toledo, 1538), and Jorge Coci (Zaragoza, 1539). See: Alexander S. Wilkinson, Iberian Books: Books Published in Spanish or Portuguese or in the Iberian Peninsula before 1601 [2010: 72]. The Psalms were also part of the foreign-printed Latin Bibles that circulated in Spain between 1530 and 1550, until they were banned. As for translations into Spanish, the translations by Gómez de Santo Fimia in 1529 and Benito Villa in 1540 stand out. See: Els Agten, “The translations of the Bible into Spanish and the Reformation. A cross-border company” [2018: 96], as well as the seven penitential psalms and the fifteen gradual psalms translated by Hernando Jarava, chaplain of Queen Eleanor of France, sister of Charles V, and printed in Antwerp by Martin Nucio in 1543 and In 1545. Joannes Steelsio published, also in Antwerp, a translation of the psalms into Spanish, but the translation has been lost. See: M. Morreale, ”The Gospels and Epistles of Gonzalo García de Santa María and the Romance Bibles of the Middle Ages” [1958: 277]. The inventory made of Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera’s library in 1532 shows that among the religious books there was a copy of Vita Christi, four handwritten Bibles—two in Spanish, one in Italian, and one in Latin— various editions of Gospels and Epistles for the liturgical year and a Psalter. See: : Maria del Carmen Alvarez Márquez, “La Biblioteca de Don Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera, I Marqués de Tarifa” [1986: 6]. 3 Liturgy of the Hours. The Breviary of Quiñones, also known as the Breviarium Sanctae Crucis, promulgated in 1536 by order of Clement VII and then in force. The revision took up the recitation of the entire Psalter. Aided by Diego de Meila, Juan Ginés Sepúlveda and the canon of Salamanca Gaspar de Castro, Quiñones distributed the reading of the psalter for the days of the week and reduced matinees to a nocturnal one with three psalms and three lessons, these arranged in such a way that they could read Sacred Scripture in its entirety during the liturgical year. The new breviary, intended for private recitation by secular clergy, was also adopted by some cathedral chapters. In Seville, Archbishop Alonso Manrique, commissioned the Provisor Juan Fernández Temiño to revise it again, eliminating references to the number of candles required for Masses, etc. Quinones had almost entirely suppressed the choral parts of the Divine Office (antiphons, responses, etc.). The Quiñones breviary met with exceptional editorial success and reached more than 100 editions between 1535 and 1556, when its use was forbidden by Pius V. See: I. García, “Francisco de los Ángeles Quiñones” [1973: III, 2037–2038]. 4 Juan de Valdés also regrets this generalized ignorance: “The same can be said of those who carry to church prayer books and rosaries and spend the time reciting prayers all the while Mass is being

TO THE READER

Psalms being so common, there were also a guidebook for their true interpretation, it would be a means to achieve remarkable fruit and many of those whose office it is,5 or [pliego s.n (f. a.iij v)] devout habit, to read them, would feel in their hearts great consolation from the hand of God regarding both spiritual and corporal toil. Among the psalms I have preached on for this purpose, one is the first psalm. It offers itself for this, on the one hand because of its brevity, making it appropriate for the time allotted us, and on the other hand, having often considered while reading it, that in it, summed up in so few words, is the entire doctrine of the Holy Scripture, all that the Christian should know and do, all man’s good and evil deeds, all the harm and all the remedy, all the favour shown the righteous, all the adversities of the wicked, all the works divine mercy confers upon the righteous and justice on the evil doers. I always admired this brevity. It is like a looking glass in which both the righteous and the sinner must put in order their conscience and recognize their faults, the one with great effort, and the other with great fear. It seemed to me [pliego s.n./(f. a.iiij)] that if the listeners were helped with a copious exhortation of the psalm, they could make better use of it since every day they could have it in their hands and read it. The same reason that moved me to preach on it, later persuaded me to publish the sermons. These things easily fall from memory, few make it home and fewer last very long. Unfortunately, few are those who remember the true doctrine they hear in sermons. If things remain, they are things of little profit and no real contentment, they are things more pleasant to the ear than true or useful.6 Hence it is necessary to encourage them in writing so that the labor is not in vain, and those who are looking for solid things and safe medicines have something with which to amend their memory. As I preached, so it was written down,7 therefore it is not as polished or as clear or well formulated as I would have liked. The exposition grew and became very long, but, however lengthy it may be, the book itself is small, and each person [pliego s.a./(f. a.iiij v)] can choose what best suits his or her needs. What the psalm states in brief sentences, is what is explained,

chanted; and the more Psalms and Lord’s prayers they can recite, the holier they consider themselves, (Isa. 1) and the greater service they think they have done to God. I would not dare to judge the benefit of their prayers, for if you ask them, when they leave the church, what Gospel was chanted during Mass or what Epistle was read, they couldn’t tell you any more than if they had been a thousand miles away.” Juan de Valdés, Dialogue on Christian Doctrine, trans. William B. Jones and Carol D. Jones, [1980: fol. 16v]. 5 Those whose obligation it is to officiate, monks or clergy. 6 Despite the effort to train the clergy in the basic doctrines, popular religious literature continued to center on the lives of saints and the miracles of the Virgin Mary. 7 Although some authors are of the opinion that the name ”Bab.”—“one of the most diligent disciples of Constantine who collected his comments in writing in the House of Doctrine” [Montanus: The Arts of the Spanish Inquisition [2018: 411]— it is the printer’s error, I am of the opinion that ”Bab” refers to an individual and may some day still be deciphered.

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confirmed and defended. The central point of the psalm and the sermons is one. In all of them I tried to exhort men not to be content with having dead faith, a faith that believes but does not act; (James 2)8 the devils also have this sort of faith, but it benefits them very little, and the Christian will find himself in the same situation if he does not go a step further; a big step for the rest, especially for the infidel9 , who is far off course and therefore with no light. The faith that has to save us must be accompanied and fired up with charity, it must be alive and the author of good works, content and assured by everything that God says, and a practitioner of what one confesses. Our psalm requires this and our exhortation calls for it. I also labored to persuade the listeners to practice genuine and true charity, and simplicity of heart towards their neighbours, patience in [pliego s.n. / (f. a.v)] hardships, firm and joyful hope of what God has promised, humble knowledge of themselves, penance for their sins, mortification of their evil desires, prayer for all things, teaching them as best as I know how, true fear and reverence for Divine Majesty, fear and trembling of the magnitude of His judgments and His wrath against sin. The psalm is summarized in these two basic points and I tried to expound and declare them the best and easiest way I could. We strive to help the righteous persevere, and to frighten the wicked so that they return. We treat the former with kindness, the latter with harshness; the ones with love, the others with threats. We did not keep anything back so that, on the one hand, fondness might be aroused, and on the other, fear would be engendered; so that the evil doers would not continue in their ways and, by some means they might begin to look for a remedy. This I have done as simply as possible, so that it may serve as a light for the understanding [pliego s.n. / (f. a.v v)] of this exhortation, because, with this purpose in mind, without a doubt the reader will find the clearest, most uncluttered way to better understand it. If some times we seem very soft and long-winded in favour of the righteous, if at other times very sharp against the evil doers and very unravelling of their ways and their hopes, it is so he will understand that it is the right way to describe each one’s end. Those who are healthy and those who are sick want to be treated differently. Not all sick people want to be cured with the same medicine. What appears to be diversity is nothing but great conformity. The psalm does not allow us to explain it any other way if we do not want to be manifest offenders. In the psalm it is very easy to recognize this diversity and great conformity for it is that which the Holy Spirit, the true author of sacred writ, shows in all its doings, and which confirms everything that we deal with here. My carelessness regarding [pliego s.n. / (f. a.vj)] order or lack of clarity and other similar defects, which I cannot excuse because

8 James 2:19–20. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? KJV 9 Jews, Muslems and pagans

First Psalm of David in Latin

they are natural to my weakness, can be amended by the hand of others or by mine. There may be some things so evident, in the judgment of many, that their repetition becomes monotonous, other things, due to their brevity, will seem very difficult, and this cannot be otherwise, from what I have already said. I am fully aware that the greatest difficulty regarding such subjects, and the darkest images they evoke, is found in how grim they seem to us, how distasteful they are to us, and how little we are used to hearing them. We never put the pleasant to the test; the harsh and hurtful we avoid; we look for doctrine that does not distress us, doctrine that gives us pleasure, as in everything else. It would be easy for me to please you this way, because no one is so poor that he is not full of vanity when he wants to make use of it. But nothing can be too weighty to avoid being dealt with, and with exactitude of [pliego s.n. / (f. a.vij)] conscience. If we knew our diseases, and we truly want to be freed from them, then we would understand the medicines, because we would feel their benefit. If we had a taste of health, it would not seem so strange to us what causes us so much disgust. We see with blind eyes, and complain about the light; we like darkness, and we claim that there is light when we do not want to be enlightened. Be this as a warning for the lesson from the present Scripture and for that of others like it, if it pleases God that they come to light.10 Through His infinite mercy, He wants His Holy Word to truly prosper. May He grant it efficacy so it may bear fruit, that in the hearts of sinners it may awaken an awareness of their perdition, so they may ask for the remedy that was earned for them, and that, with new life, with a new spirit and new works they may bear witness to how they are redeemed by the blood of the One who came to earth from heaven to seek them and that, as members of his holy church11 , they may serve Him in everything they do and give Him glory. [pliego s.n. / (f. a.viij)]

First Psalm of David in Latin Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, & in via peccatorum non stetit, & in cathedra pestilentiæ non sedit. Sed in Lege Domini voluntas eius, & in Lege eius meditabitur die ac nocte.

10 Here he refers to the publication of more of his sermons. 11 Is this an allusion to the invisible church? Constantine shared the idea of a visible Church, the body of Christ, that is, the faithful who meet to read, pray and share the Word of God. He writes, “We establish a double distinction within the Church: that of living members and that of dead members; that of some who by grace are united to the Redeemer, and that of others who, with dead faith, are only externally united. Doctrina Christiana [1548: f. 321v], [2018: 487]

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Et erit tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus de cursus aquarum, quod fructum suum dabit in tempore suo: & folium eius non defluet, & omnia quæcunque faciet prosperabuntur. Non sic impij, sed tanquam puluis quem proijcit ventus a facie terræ. Ideo non resurgunt impij in iudicio, neque peccatores in consilio Iustorum. Quoniam nouit Dominus viam Iustorum, & iter impiorum peribit. [pliego s.n. / (f. a.viij v)]

First Psalm of David in English (DRBO)12 1. Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. 2. But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night. 3. And he shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit, in due season. And his leaf shall not fall off: and all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. 4. Not so the wicked, not so: but like the dust, which the wind driveth from the face of the earth. 5. Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just. 6. For the Lord knoweth the way of the just: and the way of the wicked shall perish. [f. j]

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons SERMON I This Psalm, which, among all the others by king (and prophet) David, is placed at the beginning and forefront of them all, though short in words, in doctrine and spirit it is long and copious, for it contains all the teachings concerning what that

12 Quotations here are taken from the Douay-Rheims Bible, a translation from the Latin Vulgate into English, revised and compared with the Latin Vulgate by Bishop Richard Challoner in 1749–1752. (Online: http://www.drbo.org/aboutus.htm). Protestant Bibles follow the Hebrew numbering, in which the numbering of Psalms 10 through 146 differs by one. So if you are looking for Psalm 23 in the King James Version, it is actually Psalm 22 in the Douay-Rheims Bible.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

man must do who would serve God and become truly blessed. It likewise warns him of those things he must turn away from lest anything should hinder him from attaining so great an end. [f. j v] It shows the reward and favour the righteous hope to receive from God, and the judgment that awaits the wicked. So much is He in favour of the former as He is against the latter. Rightly considered, this is the sum of all the doctrine man needs that he may not perish and that he may be certain and assured of what is promised by God. Although all this is summed up in but a few sentences in the Psalm, it is fitting that we deal with it and declare it in many. The Divine Scripture, though written by the hands of men, was in fact the inducement and activity of the Spirit of heaven; and although its authors wrote and expressed themselves in but a few brief words, great and bountiful reflections remained in their hearts. What we, and every teacher, must do is to apply to the brevity of their words the exposition and reflections that were harbored in their spirit. In so doing, and as far as our strength allows us, and the Lord grants us help, let us imitate them in this; that is, having but a few words in this exhortation we may [f. ij] have a long and copious lesson for the soul, much light for our understanding, much on which our memory might dwell and that our will may be enthralled. In this the books of the Divine Scripture are far above the rest in the world; they are light in weight and brief in words, for they convey all their strength—all the worth and weight of what is said—to the spirit of man so that he may elaborate on it, dwell upon it, and declare it; and being strengthened from heaven, he may put it into practice. The office of the teacher is to help the hearer toward this end and gradually show him the main places and stages along the way and warn him so that he may be guarded from those places which could cause him to perish. This cannot truly be done unless God bestows His favour on both the teacher and the hearer. This is what we need and this is the petition you must have in your hearts if you want to understand as you ought and [f. ij v] do as you ought. Because this Psalm contains, in so few words, the main purpose and goal, not only of the whole book but of the Divine Scripture, some people think that prophet David (or whoever assembled the Psalms afterwards) placed it at the beginning to be a preface or introduction to the rest of the Psalms. Note that it has no title above it as other Psalms do; most of them, though they may have nothing else, at least have this title: ‘Psalm’. This is of little concern to us here, although learned and educated men take it into consideration, for whether David or some other compiler wished to convey some mystery in the order of the Psalms (one being first, another second, another third, etc.), or whether they were arranged at random or as the compiler deemed fit, without intending the mysteries some say they hold, [f. iij] it matters little to the present doctrine or any other that we may pursue. It is clear and certain that this first Psalm, in only six verses, contains the sum of all the doctrine of Christian religion, of faith, of deeds, and the expectations that a man should have

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if he would truly appropriate the redemption and sacrifice of Christ our Redeemer in order that the everlasting Father may shelter, love, and favour him and make him blessed. With this in mind, we will begin now to deal with the meaning of the Psalm. May God grant us a measure of the faith, the spirit and the perseverance He gave the prophet to write it and experience it, so that we may likewise have part of the blessing it teaches. For, not only did he want to attain such knowledge and such experience for himself, but he wanted to leave it ordered and written down as advice and doctrine for us all to follow. And the same Lord that gave him that light is willing to give it to us [f. iij v] and to everyone who will not reject it, by whose providence and mercy these Scriptures have been preserved and will remain preserved to the end of the world. I have already said that this Psalm has no title, though if you have been attentive you may well have understood that its true and proper title should be: A brief definition of the righteous man; several signs by which he can be known; some brief instructions regarding the way to achieve the blessing; an assurance and promise of the good-will and provision of God; and the woeful end and destiny of the wicked so the righteous may guard himself from following such a path. This is the title and essence of the Psalm. One thing now remains, that is, to follow it with a more copious explanation. [f. iiij] Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.13 The first thing we must comment on is the word blessed. Not a single nation in the world has a language so different from all the rest that it does not have a word by which is meant and understood what we understand by the word ‘blessing’. Because just as the desire is one, and the same thing is understood, so do people everywhere

13 Scripture taken from the New King James Version (NKJV), Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. [Translator’s note: Constantino published this work in 1546 and the Bible he used was the Latin Vulgate, firstly because the Spanish translation had not yet appeared, and secondly, even though a Spanish version of the Bible had existed he would probably not have had access to it because vernacular versions were prohibited in Spain at that time. The editorial committee has decided that at the heading of each sermon the text from the New King James Version should appear. For clarification, other versions referred to include: The Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible (DRCB), Copyright © DRBO.ORG 2001–2011, a translation from the Latin Vulgate into English, first made in 1610 and revised in 1749–52 by Richard Challoner, and the Hebrew-English text (JPS 1917) taken from the 1917 edition of the Jewish Publication Society Bible: JPS Electronic Edition, Copyright © 1998 by Larry Nelson. Finally, in keeping with the original, Bible references within the text are limited to the book and the chapter. The Vulgate text Constantino used had not yet been divided into verses, which explains why only the chapters appear.]

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

manifest through words what they have in their heart. There is no man that does not desire to prosper in all things, do well, find no [f. iiij v] hindrances on his way, or that anything may happen contrary to his interests and happiness. Imagine, then, a state in which a man can attain all this; that is what we mean by this word ‘blessing’. This desire, that we say is in man, has its origin in the greatness of his dignity and the great ability that God put in his soul, from whence comes that great inclination and natural desire to be treated according to the state for which he was made and for which he was given such a great disposition. Hence, although he does not manage to ask precisely for, nor point to, that particular thing that will satisfy his yearning, still he seeks anything, no matter what, to fulfil and satisfy it. This inability to know how to ask aright, or where to go to satisfy his desires, has sin as its cause. Sin put him in such a great state of ignorance that he will never have right judgment nor right knowledge of the good [f. v] for which he was created. Therefore, since in matters relating to his desires he takes counsel from his own judgment and from the lust of his flesh, he seeks things that are contradictory. Some things he wants for his soul, others for his body; each shouts out demanding the things that seem right, and for this reason he groans. And since he wants to please all, one thing takes him one way, the other another way, making it impossible for the sinner to be at one with himself, because he lets himself be attacked by all these winds. As a result, if a man were asked what it is he desires (and how he perceives his state of blessing), he would answer with all sorts of aspirations which he harbors in his heart, part of which would seem wise and the other part foolish. In some he would appear sane and in others out of his mind for he would confess that his desire is to satisfy all his senses, never to hear or see anything that would vex him [f. v v] but rather things that give him great pleasure and delight; never to be mistaken nor deceived; to attain the greatest honour, the greatest profit, the greatest riches he can imagine; never to suffer illness, nor death to have any power over him. He would want be immortal like God and have the certainty that he would never be poor nor would there be any changes in his state or any diminishing of his goods. This is his notion, which we have here expressed in just a few words, though he would have said it with many more, and we have spared him many other vanities that he would manifest in his confession. And because man’s sin and blindness are the reason why these desires are heeded with such a mixture of folly, at least it is clear that this desire, so natural and common to every man, shows that a more or less perfect state can be reached and it is this state that he seeks after and desires. This same argument persuaded many ancient savants to judge the state and condition of man to be [f. vj] wonderful and to assert that he had a distinct end and destiny, different from that of other creatures, prepared especially for him and in which he would be blessed. And it seemed to them that it was not in vain or without a purpose that man sought after this because in all his ways he shows signs of a great lord and seems to have been born for great power. What he does know is that he

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could know much more; he discovers that there is within him a capacity for higher knowledge and, above all, he discovers great signs of immortality. From this it can be clearly surmised that there is a state of blessedness appointed for him, if he does not forfeit it by going astray. This argument would not be altogether nonsense if the lack of true light had not thwarted those savants and placed before them multitude of opinions, great confusion and uncertainty. Whence it followed that some said it was impossible for man to attain such blessedness in this world [f. vj v] while others said it was not. Of the latter, some asserted blessedness was found in acquiring much knowledge, so that in reaching that stage man would be happy and content, in accord with the happiness of the blessing; others placed this blessed state in great delights; others said it depended on still other things; and so each one went his own way. This diversity of opinions was born from the diversity of human desires. For, though there are many and they all defy one another, some predominate over others in certain men. He who is desirous of knowledge gives way to his appetite, for it seems to him that it is a most natural thing for man to seek knowledge and that in this way he moves toward that state in which his bliss consisted. Those who love pleasures more that anything else believe that in indulging in these consists the proper end of man. It would take too long to continue with so many absurdities. If there were no other thing by which the corruption of the [f. vij] nature of man and his blindness could be known, this great diversity of desires and opinions concerning such an important matter for man would suffice to discover it. For had men not this inherited blindness, their appetites would not be so contradictory and rash, nor would each make his own particular desire a general rule to establish the end and perfect state of all mankind. Let us now bring all of these men together and concede that all their longings are the thoughts of an honest man, granted they will confess that it is great madness to think that they can find the fulfilment of their desires in this life in the way they propose. And if they will not admit this, let them tell us when and how the one who covets riches will attain a state of blessedness in this world through his riches. Let the one who seeks pleasures also, answer regarding earthly pleasures, and the one who desires knowledge, about knowledge; let them tell us how and by what means [f. vij v] they will attain so much of it and have it so safe and sure, so without contradiction or unpleasantness, that it will make them happy. They cannot reply to this except with great and blatant madness, for they want to fill so large a house and so great a space with things so small and insignificant. It seems to me that these people do much the same as those who have a sweet tooth, or as the unadvised fool. Those with a great longing for sweets say they will be content with only a little, and they do not see that it is foolish to think they are satisfying their hunger, which they say is great, with something that will only arouse and increase it even more. This is the attitude of those men who think they can satisfy and fulfil their longings in this world. And it befalls them as it did the man who,

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

being extremely thirsty, wasted his time drinking from many different cups, taking one and then another, never finding one that could quench his thirst. [f. viij] But the cup that had the beverage that could satisfy him was far away where his eye could not see it. That man would be lost unless another guided him. As foolish, and even worse, is the one who from experience knows and cannot ignore the dearth and insufficiency of the things of this world and yet does not keep himself away from it or abandon it. Let him turn away from his vanities and search for a remedy for his longings in a different direction, seeking light to see where he is, asking Him who has it and offers it to him, for he is blind to find it himself. I have spent long on this so that you may better understand and regard the mercy that God bestows upon the Christian, giving him light from His word and laying before him the path he must follow and which will lead him to the blessing, and giving him assurance that he will find it if he will not forsake it or draw back, and from that very moment he can have [f. viij v] the surety that he is blessed. The completeness and fulfilment of the blessing is given to the righteous in heaven. Indeed, the Word of God, where the promise is found, is so faithful, that He already calls the person who believes the promise blessed. Hence, he who on earth does the will of the Lord is blessed here already. Let him not worry about the blessing in heaven, for he who has the first blessing is never denied the other, and he that has it not here will never be given it there. That great treasure of knowing the secret to discern the right path where a man may please God and have the blessing promised in his Word certain and sure is what the prophet David presents in the Psalm we have before us. Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. The first word pronounces a blessing. From this, we can clearly see that the prophet cleverly [f. ix] began with this word in order to catch men’s attention and arouse in them a desire to know what would follow in the discourse, by putting ‘blessed’ first. As if to say: “Man, I know you well, your very destitution reveals your need, your blindness shows the light you lack, and your distress the rest that befits you, though you do not know how to ask for it. I want to come to your rescue and give you some advice on the very thing you desire. I want to bestow upon you more than you dare ask for; show you where you will surely and abundantly find that which you aimlessly and doubtingly search for. You long to be blessed and do not even understand what you long for, nor do you know where it is or how to attain to it. I will show in a few words this great secret and will assure you of it: Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence. This word “blessing” [f. ix v] in the Hebrew language, in which the Psalm was originally written, or its equivalent has no singular form. In Hebrew, one cannot say “a blessing” but must say “blessings”. The reason for this, it is said, is that this

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blessing consists of many things. Man desires to be blessed by longing to be rid of every manner of sorrow and be possessed of every manner of good. And because God alone is sufficient to make man blessed in this way, and in Him are found all the abundant blessings and all evil is banished, the word by which this is signified must be a word expressing multitude of blessings. Hence, what is meant is none other than all the multitude and accumulation of the goods that God created and placed in this world; and only He can bestow them so that man can attain his true end and blessing, which he says [f. x] belongs to the man “who hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, etc.” It says specifically “blessed is that man” not because only one man is, or can be, blessed in this way, but to signify with greater clarity the quality of this blessing and the nature and conduct of those that are to attain it. When the Holy Scripture (as well as other forms of discourse) refers to the chief thing concerning an important matter, it is to be understood as referring to the whole. So we find it in this instance; in saying “blessed is the man” we are to understand all human beings, both men and women,14 in whom the condition the Psalm mentions is found, are all blessed alike. This is the general rule and in these cases we need not bring up other subtleties which, apart from being unwarranted, are of little concern. It is true, on the other hand, that here a significant and particular note is struck whereby is meant not just any [f. x v] ordinary man, but an extraordinary, steadfast man, pointing out and warning that whoever seeks and wants to attain this blessing must be outstanding and prominent among the rest. This is what is meant by ‘that man.’ There are many other examples of this way of speaking in Scripture, where ‘man’ is used to refer to one who is eminent. David rebuked Abner with the words: “Are you not a man?” because, being the distinguished captain he was, he had not diligently guarded the life of King Saul (1 Samuel 26).15 And “do manfully”16 is a very ordinary way of saying, as Paul exhorts the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 16) that they should be strong and behave in a manly way. Hence, in this particular meaning two things are taught and demanded of us. One is that we may know the eminence of the one who is to be blessed in observing the conditions specified by the Psalm for that end; the other is the great difficulty there is in putting [f. xj] into practice what is required for attaining this blessing, in other words, how manly must the man be,

14 In his commentary on the Psalms, dedicated to Julia Gonzaga, Juan de Valdés is also careful to point out that ‘man’ is a generic term here: “In saying ‘the man’ he means any one.” Juán De Valdés’ Commentary On the First Book of the Psalms: Now for the First Time Translated From the Spanish, Having Never Been Published In English, trans. John T. Betts, [1894: 31]. 15 Throughout the text, Constantino includes Scriptural references in the margin to substantiate his statement. 16 “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, do manfully, and be strengthened” (DRCB); “Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (NKJV).

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

what diligence and strength must he display, how noble and outstanding must his spirit be to overcome these obstacles and finally have the victory. Let us leave this at present, for much more will be offered us in what follows, when we declare the conditions and laws of this blessing. To this we shall now proceed, according to the order of the Psalm. Up to this point, in just these two words ‘blessed’ and ‘man’ the prophet arouses men’s attention; he arouses a great longing in the hearts of those who walk through this world distressed by reason of wanting to reach this state of blessedness and a firm and certain assurance of it. By beginning in this way and showing them that he wants to teach them the way to the blessed state they so much long for. He also pointed out who they are that [f. xj v] he is writing this for: men of a dignity and excellence above all the rest; men with such a disposition, with such perseverance in their deeds that they may be able to overcome every obstacle that might hinder them from reaching such a great goal. Now it becomes us to hearken to this secret, this new doctrine that reveals to men the way to find such great good, a thing so much longed for and sought after by everyone, but attained by none of those who have followed men’s philosophy and have tasted all manner of good and evil that the world offers. The prophet David reveals the secret in few words: that man, who hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked, nor stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of pestilence, will be blessed; he will attain all the good that the heart of any sensible man could ever desire, more than his heart can ever long for, and will be lord of all the good that God has poured out on heaven and earth; he will be prince among all men. [f. xij] Much is promised here by the prophet when he promises this blessing. He is quite clear as to what sort of person he must be who would contend for this jewel. At least you will not say that he has respect to persons, or that he points to a path that only the wise of the world can tread, only the powerful and the princes. My friend, there is no such thing here. That sort of partiality may be found in the blessing of Aristotle, or similar dreamers and deceivers of people. Because since Aristotle’s blessing is vain and fraudulent and was never found nor ever will be found, it is fit to be offered only to vain and dishonest men, men having deceitful wisdom and unlawful power, whose doom will be seen in the world to come. And even in this world enough of it is seen, for the world itself is witness that there have been none so deceived in their desires, or more wretched in what they followed, than the [f. xij v] wise and powerful and those esteemed as such. Here we teach a way to walk by; men need not grow weary seeking the wisdom of the flesh nor things invented by human craftiness. The person who trusts least in these is the most apt for this knowledge. We call the poor and the powerful. The poor will have the power to conquer this province if he only comes with a true desire and true obedience. The rich and the rulers of the world cannot achieve this any more than those despised by the world; first they must banish from their hearts the vain

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imagination of their power; the wise must become ignorant and the rich poor in order to have a share in true happiness. The conditions for becoming this blessed man are very different from the ones the philosophers of the world imagined, much briefer and much less elaborate: not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, etc. This is the way the divine Scripture is wont to teach: [f. xiij] to put negative commandments before positive ones; to warn about what must not be done before declaring what must be done. This way of teaching is much easier to understand and more fitting for man due to his wickedness and his blindness. It is much easier for him to understand how to do evil than to learn the way he must act to do good. This comes from the experience within his own heart, which much sooner prompts him to do evil than to do good. Hence, to talk to him about evil and how he has done wrong is to talk to him about something he is very familiar with and knows much about; but to talk to him about good is to tell him about something foreign to him and that he only knows by hearsay. This proceeds, as I began to say, from the wickedness man is naturally inclined to. “Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil” from the beginning, says the Lord in the Divine Scripture (Genesis 6), and this is the witness that is borne by Him [f. xiij v] who created him and knows him. Thus, the first fruits and first things that begin to flow from man’s heart are sinful. His first actions and his first inclinations will be toward evil, as something natural to him. Therefore, the best way to teach him will be by starting with what he understands best, and calling his own heart to witness. When evil has been rooted out, then good can be planted and he can be taught the works he is required to do, for his own conscience condemns the deeds he did formerly and the wickedness of his heart. “Depart from evil and do good”, says our prophet elsewhere (Psalm 34), and this same order of doctrine is followed here, putting first the thing that man must turn away from and then what he must pursue in order to be blessed. The first condition that is demanded is not to walk in the counsel of the wicked. And it is spoken of as a past event—“he that hath not walked”17 —to indicate the enduring and continuous [f. xiiij] aspect of the action. For we must here imagine that the man is on trial and that we are examining his thoughts and deeds, which must be done in virtue of the requirements for the blessing, for he says he desires and longs to be blessed. Hence, it must necessarily say: he hath not walked in the counsel of the wicked. By this, it is not meant that this man must perforce never have sinned—for we have already explained how contemptible his origins are—, but that it must be as though that sin were now destroyed. It should be as though that sin had never existed, that there be a steadfastness, constancy and resolution

17 Both the DRCB and the JPS text use the past tense here but the KJV and the NJKV use the present tense.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

to walk that path no more. This is what is meant by this way of speaking in the past: “hath not walked, nor stood, nor sat”. To walk in the counsel of the wicked, to walk in the way of sinners are ways of speaking in the Hebrew language for which we would say “to commit sin, to participate with and be a companion of sinners, follow and [f. xiiij v] imitate them”; the Hebrew infers “to walk in the path of sin and walk in the way or course of sinners”. The expression used in the Hebrew denotes the worst (and most dangerous) characteristic of the sinner, namely, that of habit, because ‘to travel the way’ implies something done over a period of time. Whence we should understand that just as traveling or following a certain course requires many steps, and takes time, resolution and determination on the part of the person who pursues it, so the greatest mischief and the sinner’s greatest injury is the resolution in his heart toward evil, his continuing and lingering in it, his forgetting about the rebellion and the offence that is being committed, and his becoming accustomed to, befriending and being a companion of such great wickedness. Now to him who occasionally and unfortunately falls but afterwards, acknowledging his lost state, mourns over his sin and cries for mercy from the Lord he has offended, confessing how great his wickedness and ingratitude have been, and comes out having learned how never again to find himself in danger of losing so great a good and fall into such woe, to such a person [f. xv] the Divine Scripture does not bring bad tidings or cast him out. Rather, it says that Lord knows our weakness, (“For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust”, Psalm 103), the wretched inclination of our flesh, the great diligence and power of the devil. And He, moved with compassion, awakens that same sinner so that he may understand his misfortune, mourn over it and ask for forgiveness. He comes to his rescue and grants him this pardon in order to receive him cheerfully and to strengthen and guard him from that moment on. Such were the sins of many of the patriarchs and prophets and other great friends of God, and such was their repentance, so that we may know that although they were weak enough to fall as we are, they did not have the malice to think so little of sin and persevere in it as we do. But that sort of sinner who is daily, and increasingly, feeding on and delighting in his sin, and who takes no heed to himself, he it is that walks on this path and is so much rebuked and reprimanded [f. xv v] by the Holy Scripture, and he will scarcely forsake his evil ways. In this manner we find that the Lord, through the prophet Jeremiah, answers the people of Israel, who walked so blithely in the way of their sins: “And if you say in your heart, ‘Why have these things come upon me?’ For the greatness of your iniquity your skirts have been uncovered, your heels made bare. Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.” (Jeremiah 13). Let us move on, for this will be dealt with in due course. Let us continue with the exposition of the verse, saying who they are that walk in the counsel of the wicked in order that, being informed about this, we may endeavor to avoid such

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bad company, which is the first condition required for being blessed. Three are mentioned in this verse: the wicked, sinners, the chair of pestilence or, as we shall later explain, [f. xvj] scoffers, which is the same thing. Concerning the first two, all interpreters make great efforts to find the difference between them: those who are, properly speaking, wicked and those who are, properly speaking, sinners. Those I render ‘wicked’ are called ‘impious’ in Latin; the other term is clearly best translated as ‘sinners’. These ungodly and wicked men here mentioned are called in Hebrew, in this particular instance, reshaim, and so the question is raised: what kind and sort of wicked people are these reshaim? (That they are indeed very wicked, we have no doubt). I would not spend too much time on this, except to say briefly what seems to me to be the appropriate meaning in this given context. These ungodly men are in a strict sense those who have exceeding and supreme wickedness in their hearts, which they try to hide as best they can [f. xvj v] and, although they by no means restrain from exerting it, they try to avoid being exposed or judged as such. I do not imply that this is, without exception, the meaning of the term in the entire Holy Scripture, but I say that this is what it means in the case we are now dealing with. Wherefore the action with which they are identified, and in which they are chiefly involved, is counsel: not public counsel, but rather covert counsel, attended with secrecy. As a result of our sins, the world is full of these wicked men, all of whom engage in some sort of hypocrisy for they are always on their guard lest they should finally be exposed before the world. Hence they must endeavor to maintain a feigned appearance that will disguise or excuse them. How many of these are not to be found, and at every step! How many greedy evildoers, how many vicious murderers, how many tyrants, how many judges and [f. xvij] officers of the republic, how many of those within the clergy, how many thieves, how many adulterers, how many deceivers of the world! And how, from this great number and such certain and near at hand peril—especially that of the multitude—our Psalm says that he was kept who did not walk in their counsel. They are known for their counsel and deceit, and for accompanying all their deeds and words with deceitfulness and hidden intentions; about these, the prophet says in another Psalm (Psalm 28) that “they speak peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts”. And the prophet Jeremiah clearly describes them pointing out their great number, their condition and their deeds. “Oh that I had in the wilderness—says the prophet—a lodging place for travelers; that I might leave my people, and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. ‘And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. [f. xvij v] For they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me,’ says the Lord. ‘Everyone take heed to his neighbour, and do not trust any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanderers’.” (Jeremiah 9). And in another Psalm: “Who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

shoot their arrows—bitter words, that they may shoot in secret at the blameless; suddenly they shoot at him and do not fear. They encourage themselves in an evil matter; they talk of laying snares secretly; they say, ‘Who will see them?’” (Psalm 64). And because one wicked man alone cannot gather as much strength as he would wish in order to accomplish this, his skill consists in having companions and partakers in the deception so that he may more easily put it into practice and delight in its fruit. There is never a true friendship between one wicked man and another; because each one’s goal is his own interest. He would rather, if it were possible, have no associates at all. The thing that binds the one with another is need, [f. xviij] and this is what keeps them in their feigned loyalty. The same reason that makes them love each other makes them hate each other. They cover up each other’s deeds that they may not all be discovered. They tolerate each other so that the world may tolerate them. They divide up their interests so that harm may not come upon them all. Likewise, they are such friends of wickedness that they oftentimes serve it and rejoice in it, without further consideration, simply because they are happy to know they are so many. Such manner of wickedness exists, such sort of wicked men, men that are so dominated by the wickedness in their hearts that they consider its gain their own gain. The province we have ventured to enter into is very large and many people dwell therein; some as counselors, others to be counseled. Some speak and others believe what they hear, some guide and others follow, some instruct and others yield, some rule and others obey. And with this mischief every place is filled: governments and the hearts of those who according to the world’s judgment are the most blessed. How many are there not who remain in the houses of the princes and rulers [f. xviij v] of the world, and who obtain great riches and power for no other reason than that they avail themselves of wicked counsel, and they walk in the way of the counsel of other evil men like themselves! From their persuasion and consent come unjust laws, affronts and injustice are permitted, because they are the counselors of these unjust laws and it is they who invent and promote them. In the tyrant’s house there must necessarily be many tyrants in whose counsel he walks. And there are so many that participate in those evil councils, so many are found who follow their leadership and opinion and whose judgments they in turn yield to, that the world is ensnared and entangled in this despicable web of wicked counselors and wicked counsels. Even before the one has conceived some wicked deed, another, standing a hundred leagues18 away, is resolved to carry it out. Such is the case. They are blasphemers and offenders of the divine providence and there is no better way of describing them than this. Although this comparison may seem somewhat extreme to you, [f. xix] if you pay attention you will see that there is not a more appropriate one.

18 One league = 3 miles.

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Sometimes the worst things in the world have some resemblance to the best, as is with lies, which are sometimes very similar to the truth, or hypocrisy, which can imitate holiness. The greatest wonder that divine providence shows us, and which dazzled and overwhelmed many of the world’s wise men, is that while it governs the heavens and things of great authority and importance, it also stoops to govern the menial and neglected things of the earth. Hence it follows that the same care and harmony that there is in the movement of the sun, which produces and directs the fertility of the earth; the same that guides and upholds the world’s great empires, that changes and destroys them; that same care and harmony directs the activity of ants, and descends to the widow’s house and looks after her hens and breeds her little chicks, sustains them [f. xix v] and she benefits from them, and there is nothing so small that can move apart from providence’s counsel. The tyrants we are speaking of behave in this same manner. Having their seat up in earth’s heaven, and ruling over great matters and exercising divers tyrannies from up there, they are so prudent and so caring that they humble themselves to enter the tiny abode of your personal concerns, you who are but a poor man living two hundred leagues away. Indeed, when you thought the world had long forgotten about you, there comes providence—not divine but diabolical—and descending from its magnificence enters the cave of your misery and steals your cloak, causes you great harm and injury, depriving you of what you deserve and what is rightfully yours. It makes what is unworthy appear desirable to you; it justifies what should not even be uttered; it causes those who harm the world to prosper and advance, and those who bring benefit to be despised. And since it is a matter of ‘providence’, you are so perplexed and so out of your wits that [f. xx] you do not understand. This providence deals with you like a ghost that makes things move but is invisible. There is nothing further from your imagination than to think that he who is occupied with things so great should come down to set his authority over and provide for an ant’s nest. But it all comes from and is directed by that ‘providence’. If you do not comprehend it, it is only because it is guided by and results from secondary causes19 , as in the case of divine providence. In the same way that divine providence needs to do nothing but command what it will, and at once it is obeyed by the heavens, and the heavens are obeyed by the air, the air by the water, the water by the earth, and the earth by those worms which the chicks in the widow’s house feed on without her understanding this sequence, so it is with one of those tyrants, who needs do nothing more than inform others of his counsel and immediately that machine of wicked counselors and of persons who obey their counsel is set in motion, and passing from one hand to another finally crawls into your little corner, where it takes away [f. xx v] your

19 A reference to Aristotle’s philosophical terminology of causes and principles. The First Cause, or prime mover, is a term he used in his cosmological argument for the existence of God.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

property or your rights or other things of that sort, leaving you dazzled and afraid of the person responsible for that act and the source of your grief. Yet, if you were a good philosopher you would follow its trail, and starting with the worms you would go from one secondary cause to the next, and you could cleverly surmise what that primary cause was from whence everything flowed and from whence that influence came: from Jupiter, from Mercury or Saturn, because those from whom came your disaster are more like these gods20 . It is also true that if you were an inexperienced philosopher you would be astonished at the possibility of a providence that, being employed in so many lofty matters, would take heed of your small affairs so far away; one so lofty, would not (you would think) even know you existed or that you had been born into the world. And in this you are not deceived, for they do not trouble themselves about people such as yourself or your small concerns. [f. xxj] It is sufficient for them to move their eyes like divine providence for the entire sphere of the counsel of the wicked to obey them and set in motion the clockwork of tyranny, until the blows of their hammer fall upon your head. And the power of this wicked providence is such that to put all this in motion simultaneously it needs nothing more than a sheet of paper. These things cannot be sustained with less, because he who gives bad counsel and wants others to follow it, must follow it himself when it be given to him. This is a necessary norm in the policy of the wicked: that no matter how bad the counsel may seem to them, they must give their consent and allow it (for they consented and allowed for that of others). This rule must be followed unless he wants to be evicted from the company and be affronted by them, reminding him of the things he is wont to advise when his interests are at stake. In this way, though they tyrannize others, they are also tyrannized by others. And secret agreements are made between wicked companions, between wicked superiors and tyrants, [f. xxj v] so that in due time they may have a favour in return, and that in saying and wishing one thing, they obey and wish for another. The counsel of these wicked men is the source of evil in the world. And from this agreement, of each one seeking his own interests and then hiding the other’s mischief (so that in due time the other may hide his) come and originate unjust and despotic laws. These are the ministers of greed, the inspirers of cruelty, those who serve to spread slander, the teachers of vices and of all destruction in the world. Some take up one office, others take up another, and some take them all. Is there not a more abominable counselor than the flatterer? Well, the houses of the great, and even of the lowly, are crowded and filled with them. And the world has so canonized this appalling state of things (considering it so great a blessing)

20 In Roman mythology, Saturn was the god of reaping and harvest, Mercury the god of merchants, and Jupiter was the ruler of all the gods.

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that it shamelessly proclaims that he who does not walk along this path cannot live in it; if you do not think this is so, let someone try never to give [f. xxij] nor to seek bad counsel, and he will see what happens. Wretched world, how much better it is to die than to live in such conditions! And he who knows and understands your laws must be prepared to die and be banished from you, for, on the one hand, wicked as you are, you know the mischief you cause and, on the other, you are so wicked that you knowingly tolerate and favour wickedness, saying that you cannot exist without it. So prevalent is the evil counsel, that if someone takes it upon himself to do some good, some service for God, some virtuous deed, they slam the door in his face and banish him for being a fool and a lunatic for entertaining such thoughts. If, on the contrary, someone comes up with some new form of tyranny or some other stratagem of similar interest, he is welcomed and rewarded and, even if they know him (for no one knows the ungodly man better than his companion), they will still pay him for his despicable advice. They know him by the counsel he brings, [f. xxij v] but since they realize that he also knows all of them, and that the most ardent supporter and the greatest hypocrite among them approved of his counsel by remaining silent and not reproaching him for it, they dare not banish him from their society nor withhold payment. I am lingering too long on this, so it will be good to sum up what remains to be said concerning wicked counsel. And the sum of it is that you may be assured that it is one of the chief rulers and tyrants of the world’s evils. If there were no counsel of the wicked, there would not be so many and such pernicious partialities as exist nowadays, neither would there be such wanton and debased restrainers, nor deceivers with so much cunning causing so much disorder, nor such deceitful flatterers, nor such destructive hypocrites, nor so much favouring lies and betrayals, nor such bad companies, nor so much insincerity, nor such unjust legal disputes, nor such vain superstitions, nor consciences so deceived, nor such erroneous doctrines; lastly, the name ‘Christian’ would not be so wronged and slandered. This plague [f. xxiij] has not only reached the houses of kings and great lords, not only the city councils and the chapters of the churches, not only the assemblies of nuns and friars, but there is hardly a house that remains undisturbed by wicked counsel. If there were no Ahithophels21 there would be no wicked Absaloms to grow proud and rebel. If there were no ‘dens of thieves’ for such consultations there would be no such contentions among the rulers of the republic, which are so hurtful and detrimental to it. Pray tell me, who makes the church prelate choose from the earth’s dung those who are to be the guides and light of the world? Is it not wicked counsel, given by one and taken by another, and

21 2 Samuel, 16,23

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

the binding obligation that comes with it? For he who gives bad counsel must also accept it. The root of bad counsel is evil self-interest. Bad counsel guarantees and brings home evil interests. Where you see the one, you can be sure that the other is also there. Take away this bad companion, [f. xxiij v] and I offer to remove from the world much of what is most hideous and shameful. At least hideousness and shamefulness would not walk so loosely and freely, as we see them, in the streets and squares, in the churches and monasteries and on their altars. Tell me, who supports the company and circles of such abominable men and keeps them so united and friendly towards each other, but the counsel that one gives and the other takes? Pray tell me also, how does the lawyer, whose door is open to receive without distinction any case that comes to him, make a living but by giving evil counsel? Whence comes so much vain superstition in which people trust, but from bad counsels? Whence come such different convictions, that some would be saved through one Jesus Christ, and others through another, but from bad counsels? Where does the miser find the path to be avaricious and die in that condition; the knight to be arrogant and rash, Christian by name but Epicurean in his way of life; [f. xxiiij] and others to be revengeful, if it be not in evil counsels? Who defrauds the simple man’s aspirations and causes those seeking God to end up in the house of their enemy, but the hypocrite and deceiver dressed and disguised with false skin? Who harms your children and traps them with awful vices, but the bad counsels of bad companies? Who perverts the mind of the honest woman but the counsel of the dishonest one? I am sure you have understood me in everything regarding the harm that comes from bad counsel and how evil the man is from whom bad counsel comes. But you will say: What can be done, for there is no other way to live in this world? I can only answer what the Psalm says: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly.” The prophet understood well what a difficult thing this was and for that reason he pointed out that he who would put it into practice must be ‘a man’, and a great man at that. He knew very well that the state of blessedness the world seeks after [f. xxiiij v] for the most part comes from the things that have their origin in bad counsels, so he set forth a sentence against it and affirmed that one of the highest degrees of true blessing is not to participate in, nor comply with, the counsel of the wicked. “O my people, says the Lord (Isaiah 3), those who lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths” through which you were to attain the blessing, and they open and reveal to you other ways which lead to sorrow. The main disloyalty that false prophets are accused of (Jeremiah 23) is that they teach the people the ‘broad ways’ of the law, flattering and blessing them as if they obeyed it. From these, we are told, proceeded all the evil and the going astray of the rest of the people. We are not taught here that the way to blessedness is exceedingly broad and wide; on the contrary, we warn you and tell you that the first thing you must know is that it is straight and narrow, [f. xxv] and that as such, and being so

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laborious, there are few that follow it. Both of these are doctrines of Christ, our Redeemer, the true teacher of the beatitudes (Matthew 7). When the way is narrow and cumbersome it is clear what he who would walk in it must do and expect. What he must do is to prepare himself and be resolved to work. He must expect that he is bound to walk alone because when the way is laborious and hard, it is a sure sign that few conform to it. It is needful for the prince who would not walk in the counsel of the wicked to be extremely watchful and to be a decided enemy of evil counsel and evil counselors. Such was the prophet David, and thus he put into practice the doctrine that he teaches us. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy loving-kindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth. I have not sat with vain persons, [f. xxv v] neither will I go in with dissemblers. “I have hated the assembly of evildoers; and will not sit with the wicked” (Psalm 26). And in another place: “I will sing of mercy and justice; to You, O Lord, I will sing praises. I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbour, him I will destroy; the one who has a haughty look and a proud heart, him I will not endure. My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in a perfect way, he shall serve me. He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all [f. xxvj] the evildoers from the city of the Lord.” (Psalm 101). Let no one think that he can avoid the counsel of the wicked or the way of sinners without being extremely watchful not to fall into their snares, of which the world is so full. Aware of so great a peril, so sure and so near at hand, the Christian must walk so warily of it, constantly begging God for deliverance from that which is beyond human ability and strength. This is what our prophet asks for in many places: “Do not take me away with the wicked and with the workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts” (Psalm 28). And in Psalm 141: “The just shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.”22 [Translator’s note: Constantino puts it this way: let not my head be smeared with the oil of the sinner.]23 He calls the counsel of the wicked ‘oil’ because it most often comes disguised with tenderness, cunningly concealing the

22 In the DRCB, where this psalm is number 140, the phrase ‘oil of the sinner’ has a note: the flattery, or deceitful praise. 23 Here we find contrasting renderings. The Catholic Bible interprets ‘oil’ as the flattery of the sinners, while both the Protestant and Jewish Bibles interprets ‘oil’ as the kindness of the righteous: “Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; it shall be as excellent oil; let my

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

evil it holds. Great is the delicacy evil uses to draw [f. xxvj v] the hearts of others to itself. Great and powerful is its persuasion because it offers itself through the desire that the world is most inclined to, and with the things that the world most highly esteems. “My son, says the wise man, if sinners entice you, do not consent. If they say, ‘Come with us, let us lie in wait to shed blood; let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; let us swallow them alive like Sheol, and whole, like those who go down to the Pit; we shall find all kinds of precious possessions, we shall fill our houses with spoil; cast in your lot among us, let us all have one purse.’ My son, do not walk in the way with them, keep your foot from their path (Proverbs 1). The world is always full of these invitations and offers, some more manifest and others more veiled. Life is full of this counsel of the wicked and way of sinners; one cannot escape from them without the utmost vigilance and care, and without living in a kind of solitude though he live in the midst of the world. [f. xxvij] One must not trust in the friendship of the world, nor in one’s own kin, nor brother, nor father, nor mother, neither should a wife trust her husband or a husband his wife because evil counsel and evil ways can come from these as well as from others. If we start with the high ranks of society, the more wealthy families, and we go down till we reach the poor shepherds, the religious and the profane are all corrupted alike by evil counsel, whether given or taken. It would not be so natural to give it if it were not natural to take it, or vice versa. How much oppression and how many evil laws are passed and introduced by evil counsel and thus preserved! Let each one search his own heart and bring to mind his relatives and friends, his defenders and those who loved him most (according to the world’s love), and he shall see how much bad counsel he has been given, and how much he has been reproved, insulted and forsaken because he did not follow it. How many have also sought bad counsel and favours from him, with an appearance of good, and have forsaken him because he did not give it. [f. xxvij v] We have said but a little. Man must also be guarded from himself because in his heart also dwells evil counsel and the way of sinners. When he hears this doctrine, that the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the way of sinners is blessed, the first thing he must do is search his own heart. For there he will find abundant inclination to despicable counsels, many deeds he has carried out and which he has laid in a destructive path by setting a very bad example for his brother. He shall find so much wretchedness and weakness that he will understand how great the need is to guard himself from himself as his own enemy, his own bad counselor and bad example. He is greatly deceived who thinks he can guard

head not refuse it” (NKJV); “Let the righteous smite me in kindness, and correct me; oil so choice let not my head refuse” (JPS 1917).

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himself from others without guarding himself from himself. He must watch out for both inner and outer enemies if he truly wants to be blessed. [f. xxviij] The avaricious man is a bad counselor and he distorts things with many colours to justify his intentions and deeds, and to deceive men in such a way that they are convinced they are not being deceived. The counsel of pride is no less dangerous, for it first blinds the eyes of him who gives counsel that he may not see the deceit and the vain and foolish foundations on which he wants to establish the edifice he fancies and his heart imagines. How many counsels have not anger and the longing for vengeance given in the world, and deceived and caused great loss to many who had attained a great measure of the world’s wisdom! Futile and foolish delights and everything in this world that gives brief and deceitful contentment; what great folly is committed by their evil counsels! They cast such a spell on the minds of those who are careless and do not guard themselves from them that they keep them from seeing the manifest bitterness that is mixed therein and the gloomy abode where the path they follow will end. [f. xxviij v] It would take too long to pursue all the great mischief that arises from the counsel of ambition and from all the other secret enemies that are hidden in our own flesh and within our own houses. From these, not even those can escape who are reputed by the world to be wise and prudent. Instead, these are the very ones who are deceived and deceive with such counsels; and many are so greatly deceived that with all their wisdom they judge death to be life, what is bitter they suppose to be sweet, darkness they consider light, cliffs are thought to be flat ground, hell is thought to be heaven. And their madness and confusion reaches such an extreme that believing and swearing that they are heading for the best of these places, they hastily end up in the other. This is the greatest punishment that the wicked receive from God, and particularly this sort of wicked people. As a retribution for the great temerity they show in wanting to content themselves with lies by making them look like truth, and making such an effort to turn them into truth, [f. xxix] the Lord gives them over to a reprobate mind with which they might believe a lie, and He prevents the knowledge and discernment of truth from abiding in them. Only those escape from these dangers who not only keep away from the evil counsel of their wicked neighbour, but watch over their own heart so that it may not deceive them; they deny themselves, pursue a true mortification of the flesh, of their appetites and lusts, placing all their wisdom in the advice and counsel of the Word of God. And in this manner they attain the first condition for the blessing, for it is impossible by any other way. The next condition that is required in order to be blessed is as follows: not to be, not to stand in the way of sinners. He first said not to walk, now he says not to stand. The difference between the former and the latter is noteworthy and it will be easily understood if we consider two words which are found in the latter, [f. xxix v] namely: ‘sinners’ and ‘stand’. First, he said ‘ungodly’ or ‘wicked’; now he says ‘sinners’. Before, he said ‘walk’; here he says ‘to be’ or ‘to stand’, which mean

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

the same. In this regard, I say that just as in the first condition the prophet used the term ‘wicked’, according to a particular meaning whereby he understood and referred to those who harbor great evil in their hearts, but try to hide it and distort it with some false disguise, now he uses the term ‘sinners’, according to another specific meaning, referring to those men who are openly evil and are not ashamed to be considered as such. It is plainly seen in many places in the gospel that the term ‘sinners’ sometimes has this meaning. The woman who was a sinner referred to by this word, whereby it is understood that hers was a notorious and open sin. “She is a sinner”, said the Pharisee (Luke 7). They also accused Christ, our Redeemer, [f. xxx] of going to eat with a sinner when he sat with Zacchaeus, chief among the publicans (Luke 19). And many a time they reproved him for receiving sinners and associating with them (Matthew 9 and 11; Mark 2; Luke 15). In all these instances it must be understood that they had publicly disgraceful occupations for all men are sinners and there was no reason to point a finger at anyone. This is the meaning the prophet uses here. To the first group he ascribed ‘counsel’, as a more secret and hidden thing, and to the latter he ascribes a ‘way’ or ‘course’, as something public. Of the former he said ‘walk’, but of the latter he says ‘to be’ or ‘stand’ because he that walks and makes his way through cannot be as easily known as he who is stands still. All this shows what I have said: that just as the first group were wicked, cunning, and hypocrites to the highest degree, conducting their business through concealment and betrayals, maintaining an appearance of good with which they presented themselves before other men, [f. xxx v] so the latter are those who so relentlessly crave after their own self-interests that they care not about the disgrace that can come as a consequence, and would rather be known for what they are than to suffer the slightest loss of what their appetites long for, or restrain them in any way. The world is, if not as full of these as it is of the former, at least more than is expedient for God’s glory and man’s welfare. How many will you not find who are so rashly and shamelessly evil, absolutely without a care of their being known or not as such, who will by no means give up doing what their malice proposes! Solomon says that when the sinner sinks deep in sin, there also comes contempt (Proverbs 18). At first he despised God’s judgment in his heart; next he ends up publicly despising men’s judgment. Great is the power that Satan has over the hearts of those who [f. xxxj] belong to him, for he brings them to such a state that, shameful though sin be, they feel no shame. There are even those who deem this their honour and who boast before the eyes of men about being what they are and being considered as such. This number includes many who in their countenance, their words and their deeds plainly show that you must not upset them in any point, nor hinder their evil deeds, unless you would receive your full reward. And for this they need no occasion, neither a shade of justice on their part or of guilt on yours. It is enough

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for them to want to, and to be able to, treat you as they wish, and so they do, and flatter themselves by doing so. These are described by the prophet in another Psalm where he tells of their conditions, that they and their deeds may be known: “Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction, like a sharp razor, [f. xxxj v] working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, lying rather than speaking righteousness” (Psalm 52). If there were justice on earth (I mean human justice, which makes men accountable) there would not be as many of these as there are, because inasmuch as punishment from heaven is delayed, they would at least be restrained by earth’s justice. But because of our great iniquities we see daily that the people we are speaking of are excused and favoured, and at the same time despisers of the very justice that so often favours or hides them, and which in turn also fears them. How wretched and abominable it is that sin should reign in the world to such an extent that to the thing that men fear and esteem most, while shunning God, (which is other men’s opinion of them), should be added scorn for God’s opinion of them, so that neither respect for heaven, nor for earth, can hide our wickedness. And the person who, with such disobedience, so much audacity and contempt, is so evil in men’s opinion [f. xxxij] that he contents himself with it and boasts in it, believe me, implies that in his heart he does not believe that God’s justice or His providence truly exist. These are the men that cause this scandal in the world, as the very prophet testifies when he tells us what they think and what they make others think of them:24 “An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, when he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; he has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not abhor evil. Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O Lord, You preserve man and beast.” (Psalm 36). With these words the prophet appeals to divine justice [f. xxxij v] to remedy what human justice permits; he declares how deceived these hapless men are who think that because there is no way on earth to punish their transgressions there will be no way in heaven either. Of these men, and such as these, the words in the verse speak when it warns that the man who would be blessed must not stand in the way of sinners. He that stands in a path does two things: First, he is publicly exposed to be seen and known by everyone; secondly, he is willing to go along with those who take this

24 This phrase must be seen in the light of the DRCB text: “The transgression of the wicked hath said, and it causes others thus to say, that there is no fear of God before his eyes.”

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

path and to walk with them. The prophet is admonishing us to keep ourselves from this conduct and from this society. And in the same manner, in another Psalm, he rebukes those who do: “When you saw a thief, you consented with him, and have been a partaker with adulterers.” (Psalm 50). In this second category of wicked men, a new quality of evil is added to the first. Because, as I began saying, instead of ‘counsel’, which is secret, it now says ‘way’, which is public; [f. xxxiij] and instead of ‘walk’, it says ‘stand’, which is also public but more constant and firm. And although the wickedness of the first group is great because they despise God’s judgment, the second group adds the new circumstance of also despising the judgment of men. In the Divine Scripture this shamelessness and indulgence is very conspicuous and is dealt with by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 3), pondering the children of Israel’s evil: “The look on their countenance witnesses against them”. Hereby is meant that they are so utterly shameless that in their very faces their contempt for virtue and their contentment in wickedness will be known. “They declare their sin as Sodom, they do not hide it.” And through Jeremiah, rebuking his people, the Lord says (Jeremiah 3): “You have had a harlot’s forehead; you refuse to be ashamed.” Here Jeremiah gives occasion to consider the world’s shamelessness and how justly God is provoked in his wrath against us. [f. xxxiij v] In what heathen republic would be tolerated what is favoured in ours? There are in our streets and squares, and next to the sacred temples, public houses of debauchery and brothels with people in them who openly and diligently show evidence of how they make a living; they are so happy and proud of it that they unveil themselves to announce what they are to the young and the old, to the sane and the insane, and to all who would or would not know it! There is so much enjoyment in these things and the like that we can find them at every turn among the people that bear the name ‘Christian’, even in temples and religious services, their dress, their conversations and behaviour one towards another, and even more so that of women, whereby nothing other can be surmised but sheer vanity, and not only vanity, for they are not ashamed, but rejoice in it and [f. xxxiiij] beg people to come to see it and acknowledge it! What else, then, can it mean to stand in the way of sinners? Standing in this way is everyone who leads a scandalous life, everyone who, through evil company, wrong dealing or conduct, gives occasion to judgment and scandal in the hearts and mouths of the people standing round. And there is no excuse, for he stands in the way and stops where he can be easily seen by everyone; he acts in a way so that onlookers can see how he despise those who see him and judge him because he likes being on that path. It would take too long to deal here with all those that are included in this ‘standing in the way of sinners’, because it includes all who are so controlled by their passions and self-interests that they care not if they are seen and found in that path. The avaricious man, from the first category, fulfils his desires through craftiness, deceit and secret dealings; those from the second category are public profiteers and thieves. The tyrants of

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the former group are cautious, these are shameless. [f. xxxiiij v] The murderers kill in their hearts, with snares and secret ways; these boast publicly of their revenge. The adulterers of the first group act at night and on their own; these make a public scandal of their contemptible life. Blessed is he that belongs to neither group; who is not found in the counsel, nor follows the enticings of the wicked, nor will ever be found in the public way of sinners. We have given a very brief account of the first two conditions despite how much could really be said and would be necessary to say, but that would be too long for the time we have and for the hearers’ patience. There is still one thing more to say, the third condition: not to sit in the ‘chair of pestilence’. The interpreter25 deliberately translated in this case the force of the sentence rather than the accurate meaning of the word. The Hebrew original says the chair or seat of “scornful.”26 The interpreter rendered it the chair or seat of ‘pestilence’ (and rightly so) [f. xxxv] because no pestilence can compare with the hearts of those sinners that are here referred to and the harm they do to the world. And not only was it translated thus in the Septuagint, signifying by this term the vice and evil of scoffers, but Saint Jerome did the same in many places. To this last sort of wicked men the prophet ascribes ‘seated’, because it is common practice for scoffers to gather in each other’s company and to take a seat from whence they can see and judge the lives and deeds of their brethren, and to turn everything into mockery and derision, spending their time this way and counting it their chief contentment and happiness. The prophet elsewhere (Psalm 69) says, in the name of Christ our Redeemer: “Those who sit in the gate—which means a public and open place—speak against me, and I am the song of the drunkards.” [f. xxxv v] These are the ones that our Psalm speaks of: they are idle people of an exceedingly mischievous idleness, whose aim in this world is none other than to seek after their own pleasure by any means they may attain it, though it be at other people’s expense and very detrimental to them all. We need not give many examples of this. The world is full of these vagabonds, though many do not appear to be vagabonds. As it is usually said of envy, that it feeds on others’ mischief, and therewith fattens and goes about content, so these scoffers have as their chief occupation to envy and fix their eyes on their neighbours’ goods and lives, assessing them and bringing it all under mockery and derision, and obtaining great contentment and pleasure in this. Many of them, having gone through the first two categories that we have mentioned above, end up in this third one. And if among them there be some who do not put into effect the same deeds, none there are who do not share the same spirit and disposition.

25 Constantino, writing in 1546, refers to the Latin translation by St. Jerome. The Challoner revision of the Vulgate maintains this rendering. 26 Some modern renderings include: ‘scoffers’ (ESV), ‘mockers’ (NIV).

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

[f. xxxvj] He who mocks and scoffs at his neighbour’s mischief or good has the disposition to do him any other sort of harm if occasion or opportunity arises. You must not make light of our reflections regarding these sinners and their works, because you will see that their number is greater than you think; their sin is greater than either you or I can measure. So pitiful are our lives, that they have become a subject of mockery and entertainment, and scorning us has become the world’s most popular sport. The first two, the wicked and the sinners, seemed to seek some self-interests and goal in their deeds, though evil as they themselves are, but these are such that, though they may gain nothing but mere entertainment, they take great pleasure in inventing or seeing other people’s misfortunes. The jests and tales that make them laugh cause others to cry. They turn another man’s sorrows into tall tales and jesting. They make a mockery of other people’s poverty and their wealth; they scoff at both reproach and honour; [f. xxxvj v] they scoff at sadness and at pleasure; they mock death and they scoff at life; they make a mockery of vice and of virtue. If they were to choose, they would rather see mischief and misfortune in other people’s houses than virtue and happiness. When they can add nothing else, they treat everything—success and failure, gain and loss, good and bad—in the same way; they interpret everything in a way that serves their purpose. You are right in thinking that those who are in the habit of doing these things must have such pestilence and such poison in their hearts (as is seen in their deeds) that in order to turn things into mockery and derision they must perforce always add things or take things away, and their conversation is impossible without lies and false witness. For them it is not enough to scoff at men. They also scoff at sacred things and even at God himself. This is one of the chief sources of their popular sayings and witty proverbs. Nothing else can be expected from him who finds so much pleasure and such relish in sin merely for sin’s sake. Solomon describes them this way [f. xxxvij] (this is not my own invention), saying (Proverbs 2) that such is their malice that they “rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked”. And in another place (Proverbs 14) he says that the fool who follows this foolishness, which is truly from the Devil’s hand, considers sin to be amusing and something to be mocked: “the folly of fools is deceit Fools mock at sin”. Moreover, it is as sport to him to practice mischief (Proverbs 10). This is the sort of idleness the world is most proud of, and which, as a teacher of much evil, in the words of Ecclesiasticus (“For idleness hath taught much evil” Ch. 33), in the end teaches its disciples. They are so content and so satisfied with their position, so lacking the fear and reverence of God, so lacking shame and so lawless that they are almost forsaken by divine justice. And they are, in a sense, presented as hopeless, as men for whom one can hardly expect forgiveness or remedy, so that they should not be dealt with even to give them advice. Reprove not a scorner, says the wise man in Proverbs (Ch. 9), because he will not benefit [f. xxxvij v] and you will do an injury to yourself: “Do not correct a

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scoffer, lest he hate you.” From great roots of wickedness, large and abundant evil fruit must necessarily grow, as we can for the most part see in these scoffers. Most of them are branches grown out of the first two groups: the wicked and sinners. Parents who are daily engaged in the first two activities beget and rear children of the latter sort. To achieve this, they offer them properties and build them houses that they may have space to sit in the chair of scoffers, and from thence may mock everything God does, and what the Devil does. And it is not only the rich that live this way and know about this, but they also have many among the poor who are disciples of their good doctrine, who, leaving their work aside, make a living as vagabonds, collecting rumors and news, and finding more firewood to cast into the fire of other people’s derision. I would like to conclude by observing [f. xxxviij] just two things so that we may wholly understand the verse. The first thing is that by using these three categories of sins, the order they follow, and the words they were expressed in, the prophet is pointing out the manner in which man becomes so abominable and so evil. He first says ‘walk’, then he says ‘be or stand’, and finally he says ‘sit’. First he mentions ‘counsel’, then he mentions ‘way’, and finally ‘chair’ or ‘seat’. This is the order and rule by which sinners progress and grow in their wickedness. First they have evil in their heart; they counsel themselves with it; they deal with it, as far as they are able, secretly; they act shadily; they try with all their might to maintain a veneer of hypocrisy with which they may excuse and justify themselves before other men. But when in this way they are unable to accomplish their ends and interests, there are many who break free from this restraint and cover and, despising all shame, [f. xxxviij v] they resolve to achieve satisfaction for their appetites, regardless of public opinion, as long as they can secure the power and authority they need to achieve what they desire. The third level they rise to is rejecting every law of humanity and inclination we are all born with, not only lacking sorrow and sensitivity for the poverty and ordeals of other men, but finding pleasure in them and adding to them and increasing them with clever sayings, and with immoralities and subtleties. They scoff at family ancestry27 and the misfortunes of others, they scoff at poverty, at the pursuits and labor of the poor, at the slander suffered by those who are insulted, at the ignorance of the simple who are not as evil as they are, at the simplicity of the virtuous, the faithfulness of the loyal, the sincerity of the truthful, at the little ambition of him who is not covetous and a usurer, at the alms of the merciful, at the Christian’s religion, the virtue of him that pursues it, the devotion of the righteous, the prayer of him who prays. Finally, there is neither good nor 27 This alludes to the Spanish concept of pureza de sangre (purity of bood). Pure, or ”Old,” Christians had no Jewish or Muslim ancestors and were considered first class citizens. Converts, or “New Christians,” were always under suspicion of apostasy. Religious and military orders, guilds and other organizations incorporated in their bylaws clauses demanding proof of purity of blood.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

bad, [f. xxxix] just nor unjust, happiness nor unhappiness that this gathering of scoffers will not censure and mock at. They are placed at the end of the verse as the most perverse sort of sinners and most evil of all because, rightly considered, their chief occupation is to mock divine providence; to have the same sort of pride Lucifer had, and worse if that were possible. They scoff at the states in which God has put each person, at what his justice and mercy allow, at the cross He places on the righteous, at the poverty and ways through which He calls many to repentance, at the gifts He distributes among men. They consider, and persuade themselves, that they are superior and above everyone else; they are not of that low condition or that misfortune; they are not subject to those cases, nor that poverty or reproach; they are above ignorance or any sort of calamity. And, since they are certain that nothing like this can befall them, [f. xxxix v] they laugh at God’s judgment and thus they live in the world without showing any sign of fearing Him. All these, and there are more than you think (and let each one search his own heart that he may not be found among them), are not only not Christian, but do not even possess the human condition and nature of men, for they are lawless and cruel. Not only do they not know they are like other men; not only do they not mitigate the hardships and needs of others, as the laws of men demands, but they become idols on earth; they want to be new gods, doing as they please, free from all adversity. They scoff at human calamities and from thence obtain their pleasure and contentment, they magnify them with their deeds, they renew them with their lies, they revile them with their subtleties, they exaggerate them with hearsay. And, seated comfortably in their chairs, joined in conversation, without weapons in their hands, not being the kind of murderers the world judges, they exercise over the whole human race the [f. xl] most brutal kind of cruelty that any wild beast could possibly carry out. A beast would only take life away and there its fierceness would end. But these take away honour, they take away religion, they take away the truth; with their derision they multiply the tears and sorrows of the afflicted. They forgive not even the dead for they treat them the same way they do the living28 ; they raise back the dead to hurt the living. The first group—the wicked—received a certain degree of punishment in hiding the malice of their hearts as far as they could; they walked in evil counsels. The second group—the sinners—, though not subject to less tribulations, were still subject to great difficulties and were in the middle of the way, inviting others to participate with them through their bad example and evil perseverance. It was not always easy to walk or to stand. But this latter group has a seat to sit on. Their evil is the pleasure they derive and if this is lacking they lack all their entertainment. They are lawless

28 This refers to the practice of exhuming the bodies of converso relatives of those condemned by the Inquisition and burning them.

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and have no humanity. They blaspheme not only against [f. xl v] God, but also against nature. Everything they can judge they place under their feet if for no other reason than to simply take pleasure in knowing it had not escaped their attention. Blessed is that man who did not sit in their chair, nor kept company with them, nor had their disposition. The other thing I said that was convenient to remember is that by the three actions we have named we include all of man’s actions. For, rightly considered, every man is normally either walking or standing or sitting. Wherefore we must understand that the prophet here teaches us that a man will be blessed when none of his deeds be evil nor he participate or keep company with the wicked. In other words, when he has no evil in his heart, or follows examples of evil deeds, or takes pleasure in sin, or despises divine providence or the judgment of men or of God, which is what man’s wickedness ultimately leads to, as we saw [f. xlj] in the latter sort of evil people who sit in the chair of pestilence, of derision and of blasphemy. And since we have dealt with carnal bliss and warned men to turn away from it as from exceeding great unhappiness and misery, it is fitting that we now proceed with the true blessedness that God wants His own to have. Comparing the one with the other we shall plainly see the repulsiveness of that which seems so good in the eyes of insane men, and the beauty and greatness of that which the Divine Word has promised and assured those who turn to its counsel. We shall see how deceitful and ephemeral is the world’s glory and pomp, and how sure and everlasting is the glory that the Lord has prepared for those who serve Him. SERMON II But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. The prophet showed us in the first verse of the Psalm the things that man must flee from in order to be blessed. In this second verse he teaches us what man must pursue and put into practice for a complete and true fulfilment of his blessing. It is not only required that man turn away from evil, but also that he perform the good whereby he might serve God and be counted among His own. Man was not created to be idle. Activity must exist in his life, as becomes the creature and workmanship of the hands of such a Lord. “Cease to do evil, learn to do good” [f. xlij] says the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 1,15–16). The reason why he put that which we must flee from before that which we must do, we already explained in the first verse. We will now explain the latter as we did the former. We read that the blessed man has his will in the law of the Lord, and day and night he meditates and is exercised in it. The source of the blessing is God and for this reason everything that brings us close to Him can in some way be called ‘blessing’, as the Divine Scripture calls it. That which most draws us towards Him

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

and brings us closest to Him, that which gives us full assurance that we shall be with Him forever and in possession of His blessings, is obedience to His law. By law we do not here mean the religion that each one invents,29 nor things without the 29 On this point, see Constantino’s forerunner Juan de Valdés in his Dialogue on Christian Doctrine (1529): ARCHBISHOP: I’ve observed that, too, and it grieves me deeply. It is true that the Jews were also prohibited from doing those menial activities that, though intrinsically good, were nevertheless metaphorical of sinful activities. And that is how Christians must understand it, that is, God commands that especially on holy days we refrain from sinning. That is what, properly speaking, ‘sanctify the holy days’ means: to refrain from doing sinful acts those days. This is badly observed among Christians, needless to say. When on holy days I see [fol. 26r] groups of gossipers, which David rightly calls ‘to sit in the chair of pestilence’ (Ps. 1), or gamblers, some in the public square and others outside the city walls, I burn with such indignation that I would like to cry out loud. Wouldn’t it be better for each one of them to work in the fields than to offend God? All I can say is that the customs of the Christians have degenerated to such a point and they have become so indifferent that when we think we were keeping the holy days, we break them. And on the very days God asks us to refrain from sinning and give ourselves wholly and entirely to Him, on those very days we act sinfully and give ourselves wholly to Satan. EUSEBIO : But if you think this is so awful, why don’t you, being an ecclesiastical dignitary, remedy it? ARCHBISHOP : What can I say? These things need a general remedy and what I regret is the meager interest there is in applying a remedy. If it depended on me, I promise you I would remedy it rapidly. In my dioceses I am beginning to apply a solution and, if God spare me, I’ll set things moving in another direction. But, back to our subject. The good Christian must regard every day a holy day, complying with this precept and sanctifying every day. I mean, he must improve his habits and way of life until he reaches full perfection (Eph. 4), and especially on Sundays and holidays. But I want you to know that in order to keep all the Commandments to the point that by them one can attain eternal life, it is needful that he be free from mortal sin and that he have charity, which is the perfect love of God (I Cor. 13), for where this is lacking, though one keep all the Commandments outwardly, he does not keep them in the manner they were instituted, for in order to attain this love, we must ask God for it. And this is my argument: he who would keep the Commandments as required must do so through prayer. Prayer will bring the best results (James 5). Hence, it is only reasonable that we say something here about the activities a Christian ought to engage in on those days and how he should hear mass and the sermon, and other things, but we will leave that for another day. EUSEBIO : Rightly said. But I’m amazed at how lightly you pass over the attitude of the common people regarding holy days, for they think they keep them by not hoeing and sewing (Isa. 5) and yet they spend the whole day gambling and doing similar or even worse things. ARCHBISHOP : Since this is such a widespread practice, especially among the common people, there is no more to be said than what has been said. ANTRONIO : To illustrate this, I want to tell you an amusing incident that happened in my hometown when I was a young boy and which came to my mind as I was hearing you talk. It happened that on one Transfiguration Daythere was a very bad hail storm and it so happened that on that same day a certain farm laborer, a very simple man, planted some turnips in his field. Some neighbors of his who saw it told others, and it went from mouth to mouth until the whole village knew about it. They all came to the conclusion that the reason for the hail storm was that the man

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Spirit or light of heaven, but the commandments that God has given to man, those which He wants him to have written on his heart and, assisted by His grace, to carry out and put into practice without hypocrisy or deceit. Man has no greater treasure in the world than the law of the Lord; For since His divine will is the most precious, the most just, and the most holy thing, to know that law is the greatest gift that comes from His merciful hand and which, in turn, gives us reliable instructions and norms to learn and to know His will. The greatest likeness, the closest resemblance, that which gives us the surest signs of who God is, is His commandments and His law. Because just as He is exceedingly beautiful, pure and immaculate, full of goodness and power, of righteousness and mercy, so His law is the quintessence of purity and a mirror of beauty, a path of goodness, of righteousness and mercy. His commandments are like weapons that make him who keeps them exceedingly powerful and help him overcome all the world’s dangers and adversities. The surest sign that one is in the way of blessedness, and that he is blessed already, is having a great longing to know what the Lord demands of him and how [f. xliij] He wants to use him, and what things he must occupy himself in. And the most definite proof that one is deceived is that he rejects the true knowledge of what God demands, claiming or desiring ignorance, not wanting to attain full knowledge of such instruction. Just as he walks falsely and feignedly before the Lord, so his blessedness is false and feigned. We know that this longing for and keeping the law of heaven characterized all the saints of old. Because for the person who knows there is only one way that will lead him to a state of blessedness it is impossible to keep him from longing for it, with all the details and duties this entails, if he truly wants to reach that end. “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes, and I shall keep it to the end. Give me understanding, and I shall keep Your law; indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.” (Psalm 119).30

had planted turnips and had broken the feast day. The cathedral chapter met and sentenced him to pay for the candle wax for several masses and to offer a dinner to all the members of his guild, all of which cost the poor man a lot of money. ARCHBISHOP : Amusing story! This sounds more like a sentence his guild would impose. And you can be sure that there must have been in the town many who spent the day playing cards and playing dice and going after women, others telling lies, gossiping, doing business, and other similar things, and no one blamed them for the hail, but only the poor farmer. Oh, blessed be God! He is so patient to tolerate so much evil and such blindness. I tell you, of a truth, that it makes my heart break to think of it. I’m not saying the farmer was not wrong, but I lament the little respect people have for God’s commandments and I lament the false and deceitful judgment with which we judge these things. Juan de Valdés, Dialogue on Christian Doctrine, trans. William B. Jones and Carol D. Jones, [1980: fol. 26r–27v]. 30 In the margin there is a reference to Psalm 118. We have corrected nearly all the references to the Psalms that appear in the margins. In the Septuagint and the Vulgate Psalm 9 and 10 formed one, therefore, from Psalm 11 on, all the psalms have a number less than in the Hebrew numbering. That

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

David purposely sets these two things opposite one another: the way of the ungodly, of the sinners and the scoffers, [f. xliij v] over against the commandments and law of the Lord. Because just as from the former comes man’s unhappiness and destruction, so true happiness comes from the latter. And as the former has its origin in the evil intent of man’s heart and is the fruit of it, so the latter comes from divine counsel and mercy. As the deeds of the former offended God’s goodness and justice, so these other deeds serve and honour Him, and point to the Lord and master who created man. As the doers of the former had secret evil and wicked counsel in their hearts, notorious deeds in the way, mockery and derision on the seat, so those that follow God’s law have a clean soul, do deeds that are an example and keep godly company and conversation with other men. If we said earlier that by the first three activities—to walk, to stand and to sit—all of man’s actions were described, when we say that he must meditate day and [f. xliiij] night in the law of the Lord, we must understand that all the acts of that man who would be blessed must be rooted in God’s law and conform to it. The first thing required here is that man’s delight must be in the law of the Lord. In vain will he labor who thinks that he is blessed because he uses his possessions or his hands or his eyes or any other thing in activities and occupations called ‘service to God’ if first his will is not given entirely to and devoted to His law. As we said before, that all the wickedness and multitude of evils we dealt with in the first verse have their source in the heart of man. Walking in evil counsel is the fruit of the wickedness that is found there; standing in the way of sinners is another fruit thereof; from thence come envy, mockery and the lack of compassion towards our neighbour. “Out of the heart, says our Redeemer, proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15). This being the case, we will proceed to [f. xliiij v] explain this verse declaring that the whole source of blessing rests on the fact that the law of the Lord dwell in man’s heart, for if it is found there, we can be sure there will be neither evil counsel, nor evil ways, nor an evil seat. Instead, the opposite will be found there: holy counsel, holy ways and a holy seat. God’s law is the chief enemy of those three evil things. They cannot dwell together in the heart; when the law comes in, everything else has to go and is cast out. God’s law is a knife that carves it out and a fire that consumes it. “The law of the Lord, says our prophet elsewhere, is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19). is, 11 is 10, 12 is 11, 119 is 118 etc ... until Psalm 146, which is divided into two and, since Hebrew does not divide that Psalm, from 148 the two numbers are equal and they remain the same until 150. Since Constantine uses a Hebrew Bible for the Psalms, the numbers in the margin are one number less.

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It is obvious, therefore, that God’s law and the things the ungodly are employed in cannot make good companions in the heart of a man. Now we must deal with what it means [f. xlv] to ‘delight in the law of the Lord.’ We shall explain this briefly and then proceed to explain its fruits and the blessing that come from it. For a man to have his will employed in the law of the Lord simply means to have a great desire to put into practice what that law commands, and great contentment in carrying it out. Man must find these signs in his heart in order to know that he is on the way to be blessed. Deceived and mistaken is he who thinks he can take other ways, whatever they may be, and who would persuade himself that therein he will reach a sure state of blessedness. This was the saints’ conviction and this must be the Christian’s conviction also. He must endeavor to reach this goal, and as long as he is far from it, he is far from God. “More to be desired are [Your laws] than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb” (Psalm 19). The first thing necessary [f. xlv v] is to have a great desire to carry out God’s commandments. This desire springs from a knowledge of the righteousness and beauty of the divine will, when man, aided by heavenly grace, truly understands that from such a holy and righteous will can come nothing but the holiest and most righteous commandment. How can a will so outstretched and bountiful demand from man anything but that which is not a great and incomparable treasure for him; how can it not give exhortations that are not full of great mercy and profound wisdom; how can it not show us but the safest path; how can it not give us the most faithful counsel, giving us full assurance and certainty that it will never fail! In short, we cannot aspire to a higher dignity, nor do anything more outstanding and significant, more honourable, more magnificent, nor more satisfying than to have such a close friendship with God so as to desire one and the same thing as He does; that though there be such a great distance [f. xlvj] between the Creator and us creatures, we might reach such a state and partake of His exceeding goodness to such a degree, that we may resemble Him in our judgment and desires. You, O Lord, say that something is good, and we say the same. You say what you want and we also want it. When man has considered all this, and the light of divine grace has awakened and instructed him in order to understand it, then a great desire to obey God’s commandments is kindled in his heart. And when he carries them out, from this same desire gives him great contentment. In the way, says David, “I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, as much as in all riches” (Psalm 119). Every time man puts into practice what God commands, he must ponder over what we have just said; he can, and must, say in his heart: Help me, O Lord, to carry this out, for I am sure that this way leads to You; that there is no [f. xlvj v] danger or snare in this path; in any other path I would perish and only in this one I am safe. I follow that counsel whereby it is impossible to be deceived. I have a promise that will never fail. I keep company with those with whom I am safe. Your wisdom accompanies

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

me to instruct me, your power to defend me. No matter how many enemies and perils there be, there is nothing to fear. You, O Lord, have all them for enemies but me for a friend. What I put my hands to, You have Your eyes on. You look upon it as something in which you are content and served. What more can I desire, or what else can I ask for, but to want what You want? We have explained briefly what it means for a man to have his desire in the law of the Lord, nevertheless it takes time to reach this state; it requires much hard work and perseverance, and cannot be attained without the intervention of God’s hand, which is ready to assist us if we call upon Him with [f. xlvij] true faith and acknowledging our weakness. Let us proceed with the differences between the state of blessedness of the wicked and that of the righteous, so that we may better understand how counterfeit and deceitful the former is and how sure and true is the latter. The former, as we have already seen, is the carnal bliss of men subject to the law and tyranny of sin; the other is that of the Spirit and of those who have been set free by the blood of Jesus Christ and through that freedom have received strength and power to fulfil the law of the Lord. The carnal man seeks and obtains the things that constitute his happiness from walking in the counsel of the wicked, from standing in the way of sinners, and from sitting in the seat of scoffers. The greedy man is not at peace while he sees there are others richer that himself and, tormented by that envy, he seeks counsel whereby he may obtain greater possessions, or at least equal to those of his neighbour. As a result, [f. xlvij v] he seeks after counsel and companions, favours and conspiracies, cunning and artful schemes whereby his longings may be fulfiled. The carnal man, the murderer and the vengeful do likewise. He who is notoriously evil and whose appetites and lustful desires are so completely unbridled that he cannot help being what he is, comforts and excuses himself by seeing that many follow his same path, and that the world not only tolerates them but favours them. Those that mock both the good and the evil they see in others and in their neighbours’ households, as men without God or reason or human affection, place their happiness not in the others’ benefit, but his misfortunes, and the pleasure they receive from this. And in order to enjoy the more fully what they consider their blessed state, they look for a seat, for companions to assist them, for the sort of leisure that will enable them to relish their pleasure by scrutinizing, exaggerating, slandering, and commending that which gives them contentment [f. xlviij] and that which is most annoying and hurtful to their neighbour. The frenzied flesh of wretched men places its happiness in the things we have just listed, and they seek it through the counsel and cunning of the wicked, through the way of sinners and in the seat of scoffers. The blessedness of the Spirit (that which God wants His own to have in this world as a sign and surety of the blessing they shall have in the world to come) is found in the counsel of the godly, in the way and example of the righteous, in perseverance, and in the exercise of charity; all which is found and assumed in the Word and law of the Lord. For this reason our verse says that he will be a truly

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blessed man whose heart is devoted to this law, and who is exercised in it day and night. Such a man will not only shun and turn away from the evil counsel and evil way and evil chair of the former, but he will seek a new counsel, a new way and new affairs to be occupied in. This counsel [f. xlviij v] is found in the law of the Lord, the law He gave to His servant Abraham so that through it he would be blessed. “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless” (Genesis 17). This is the true counsel, given by a true friend, the very Lord who created man, and in whose hands and desire it is to make him blessed, and for which end He made him. And since He tells us that the true way to attain the blessing is to be pleasing in His sight and do His will, we can confidently take His exhortation and, if we would follow it, from this moment on we know our blessing is sure. Divine mercy announced this counsel much earlier in the two tables of the law, written with God’s finger and given to Moses that he should preach it and teach it to the people. On the tables were written the Ten Commandments, which are none other than a more extended and copious explanation of that which the Lord Himself commanded Abraham [f. xlix] when He told him to be perfect and walk before Him, pleasing and serving Him. Since man’s blindness increased day by day and his evil deeds and bad examples were daily becoming more steadfast, divine mercy saw fit to provide him with a more detailed and enlightening explanation of His commandments and law. The Scripture (Exodus 31) says that these commandments were written with the finger of God, which is to say they came from His hand; and, as they are sealed and signed with His name, they inform all men that what is written there is His law and how He wants to be served and that therein consists man’s perfection and goodness and blessedness. Here we see how much better is the counsel of the man who walks in the way of these commandments follows than the counsel followed by the ungodly. For God informs man of His will for no other reason than the love He has for him, [f. xlix v] that he may put it into practice and be blessed. “For the word of the Lord is right, says Psalm 33, and all His work is done in truth. He loves righteousness and justice the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap; He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast”. ‘The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord’ means that there is so much at stake for man in this, in finding out what God’s will is and how He would be served, that He made it public and manifested it to everyone and signed it with His own hand. He is the fountain of infinite mercy. He cannot manifest more clearly who He is, nor act more in accordance with who He is, than by informing men of His will, of how they must come to Him, and of how to acquire a true knowledge of His commandments and law.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

We have spoken about the counsel the blessed find [f. l] in the law of the Lord. It is expedient that we now speak of the ‘way’ of the law how man can stand in it and persevere in it. You already heard how there is a way of sinners where many stop and linger, of the bad examples and the licentious life publicly exposed in the roads and squares for the contemplation and provocation of other men. They were those, as we said, whose love for wickedness is so great that they leave aside all shame and fear of men and make a public and manifest exhibition of their evil thoughts and deeds. In the same manner, he who takes the Lord’s counsel, if he truly does, has his will so steadfastly predisposed towards Him that he is not content with just having His counsel in his heart, or keeping it to himself, but he announces it abroad and manifests it through his deeds. Moreover, whenever called upon to do so, he makes known God’s commandments by persevering and being steadfast in them, imitating [f. l v] those who followed that path before him and inviting and causing others to follow him by his example. The chief end for which God’s hand placed man on earth is that he would be a demonstration and reflection of Himself and that in his deeds and works he bear witness of Him who created him; and that after he has carried out this office he should be taken up and placed where he may perpetually share in His immortality, His glory, His lordship and His blessedness. Men became so depraved and went so far astray from the end for which they were created that, judging from their deeds, they seem to better represent the serpent that deceived them than the Master and Lord who made them. The more widespread this depravation and the greater man’s vileness (due to his own wickedness) in the sight of God who formed him and gave him being, the greater diligence and effort the righteous man ought to exercise in being a [f. lj] true and holy example of his Maker and Lord in all his deeds. This is the path he must tread, the example he must set for others, this must be his perseverance and steadfastness. It is true that the multitude of sinners is so great, so broad their pathway and so great the shamelessness and resolution with which they linger in it that it is a very arduous task for anyone who would take another path, and it requires much constancy and steadfastness. Great strength and great effort is required for the force and number of the others not to defeat him and carry him away with them. The Redeemer of the world tells us that the way is narrow that leads to heaven and few there be that walk it; He says that narrow is the gate and there are few who enter by it, and we must “strive to enter, for many will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13). In the same way that we warned men about the one way, so also do we warn them about the other. In the same way that God shows man the way to the state of blessedness, He also tells him of the inconveniencies and travail [f. lj v] he will meet along the way and how these must be dealt with if he would reach the end. One of the greatest difficulties (and we could well say it is the greatest of all for those who would follow the way of truth and stand firm and persevere) is the strength and the great number of those who go the opposite way. It is not at all

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easy for man’s weakness to see that his neighbours’ path is broad and flat while his is narrow and steep, to see that theirs is easy and his is laborious, to see that for others it offers gain and pleasure while he suffers loss and sorrow, that they receive honour, but he reproach, that they enjoy company, while he suffers solitude. This dire temptation not only defeats and entices the weak and ignorant, but we know it also thwarts the good intentions of men who have been better instructed and have a stronger determination, and with resolution start to walk [f. lij] on the path of righteousness. The tyranny and the forcefulness of the multitude is great in all things and we can see that the majority are ruled and governed by it, but nowhere does it cause more damage and wreak more havoc than in the things belonging to the way of God’s law. Their tyranny legitimizes and condemns at will, as it deems right in its own rash judgment. It destroys and reproves the good and old customs, the just and holy laws, introducing and passing evil ones. It capriciously establishes or brings to naught things of religion and every sort of virtue, it banishes God’s law from the world, depriving it of its title of justice, giving this title to the Devil’s law and to whoever it pleases. Evil conduct not only reigns through evil habits and evil deeds, but it subdues through force. Evil habits are sufficient to do great harm to human weakness and frailty without having to resort to force; yet, by joining the two—evil habits and evil deeds—we see what results from this evil for we [f. lij v] experience it every day. Man wants companions of his own kind; his vanity wants applause; his madness demands esteem and the divulging of his act, approval by those who see or hear about them; he wants the world’s good cheer and approval. Consider, therefore, on the one hand, the world’s broad open way, so peaceful and so sanctioned by its habits and laws, so widened by the multitude, so trodden, so praised by its own loud voices and confusion, so privileged and exempt of those very exemptions it takes, so abounding in unrestrained ostentation and sensual appetites! And consider, on the other hand, the meager steep narrow path, lonely and so little trodden, neglected due to its abandonment, full of thorns due to its disuse, having no resting place, subject to dangers and plunder, full of inconveniencies and sorrows. Imagine a man who ventures to enter upon this path in the presence [f. liij] of the rest of the world that goes on the other path, finding himself alone. If he lifts up his eyes he sees that the way is rough. If he turns his eyes inward to his own inclinations, he finds that they are prone towards the ease and things of the other path. If he ponders on the examples set by others, he sees the whole multitude on the other side. And, in addition to this, the others call to him with loud voices, making mockery of his madness; they add to his inclinations by pointing out the pleasures and spaciousness of their squares and the misery of the small path he is on; they tempt him with a thousand alternative paths and provoke him in a thousand ways. Believe me when I tell you that it is a wonder that this little man does not turn back but that,

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

notwithstanding the loud jeering and mockery, he goes forward despite the travails, the narrowness, and the perils of his way. We have said much about this but it is the least we can say. This treacherous world is not content with following its own path and letting the other man go his way, but angrily sends for him and brutally brings him before it, tramples on him and beats him. It pours out on him a thousand sorts of [f. liij v] injustices, killing him in a thousand ways, because it cannot tolerate anyone not joining in on its merrymaking, or leaving its path, or not serving and obeying its vanity, or pursuing the virtues the world does not pursue, or approving of and endorsing that which its customs have forbidden, esteemed and counted as insignificant. Hereby we affirm the man who would be blessed must not only turn away from the counsel of the ungodly, and not only he have the counsel of God’s law in his heart, but he must enter the path, remain there and persevere; he must climb the hills alone, and alone, if there is no one else there, he must fight against himself and against others, resisting their force, remaining hungry in the midst of that wicked abundance. He must say ‘yes’ though everyone says ‘no’, he must lose his life in that path if needs be rather than turn back, for he is ascending while others are descending, he is walking towards a state of blessedness, the others towards a state of wretchedness; he seeks firm ground, the others the precipice. The toils [f. liiij] of his narrow way last only a short time, his resting place will have no end; the delights and contentment that lure the others will shortly end and the torments of their calamity will neither diminish nor come to an end as long as God is God. It may seem to you that I have set the blessed man in great loneliness and that I lead him through a very narrow and barren path. This is not an invention of mine and there is no exaggeration in my words, it is what experience tells us. And since you seldom see in these cases what is clearly set before your eyes and you never know the certainty of your perdition until there is no possible redress, let the Lord Himself, the Giver and Warrantor of the blessing we hereby promise, tell you through the law and counsel we are speaking of.  As you remember, we said God had spoken to Abraham and had shown him the way He wanted to be served and how He wanted to bless him, saying: [f. liiij v] Walk before me and be blameless. The very moment He put this law and this counsel in Abraham’s heart, He set him on his way: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father’s house, and come into the land which I shall show thee and there I will make of thee a great nation. Here we have the loneliness of God’s chosen one, driven out of his natural environment, banished from his family and his acquaintances, taken to the land of Canaan which was inhabited by God’s enemies, an idolatrous people, abominable and corrupted with all the world’s evils. This loneliness would suffice to make the path extremely rough. But it was God’s will to make it even more narrow by trying him through famine, through new and sudden exiles, and through many and divers sorts of persecutions. I could easily continue by giving you many examples in this regard, but time will not allow

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for it so the one example I shall give you will suffice to prove what I have said. The Redeemer of life, who recovered for men the blessedness that was lost, and [f. lv] with His own Word taught the way to attain it, was not only content with just leaving the example of His own person, but He alerted His disciples of the travail and the weariness and the great loneliness of the path they should walk. What greater loneliness can one imagine than being driven out in such a manner, being alienated from other men in such a way that the world itself neither recognizes nor treats you as its own? “If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, says He, therefore the world hates you” (John 15). Therefore, you must not wonder that the world should treat you as strangers for truly you are not of the world; nor should you wonder that it treat you as a stepmother would, for you are not her child but belong to another. The only favour and approval you will find in it is the accusation of being deceivers and the one thing the world will consider most just and a service to God will be to take your life away. Saint Paul and others bear witness to this [f. lv v] and how the world treated them. “We are made, Paul says, as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now” (1 Corinthians 4). So despicable are we in its eyes that it cannot tolerate us and in order to cleanse itself from us, it banishes us. And for you to see the great blindness and foolishness of this miserable world, it does everything we have just said as a routine, without thinking, and even swearing it does not do it. Caught in the very act, it will claim it is simply doing its duty. If you catch it with stolen property in its hands, it pretends it is you giving it your possessions. While it cuts off your head it says it is healing your wounds. See how blind and how wicked the world is! Its blindness makes it so wicked, and its wickedness blinds it all the more. We have explained the cause of this. Have you understood it? The world is a friend of the straight broad way, of the law of the majority; it is a friend of large companies and flees from solitude. And because it is foolish, it thinks God is like that too, that He loves abundance and despises frugality. The world thinks it impossible and unlikely [f. lvj] that God’s contentment be satisfied by caring for a handful of despised lonely little men, and whom He himself has denied so many of the things He created, and that He would want to bestow His blessing and His bliss on such insignificant people while there is such a great part of the world to whom He has granted so many goods and in whom His works shine so brightly and for whom the state of blessedness and heaven seem to have been especially designed, since they are so numerous and so great. How or why would God, being so great and such a mighty Lord, who also created the world for His service, be content and satisfied with so few and be discontent and not want the society of so many? I will answer with an example. We read in the book of Job (Ch. 1) that Satan appeared before God and was asked from whence he came. He answered he came from walking through the earth and going round about it and pursuing his profession. God replied: “Have

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him [f. lvj v] on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” Why, Lord, do you challenge the Devil when he has conquered so many thousands and so great a part of the earth already belongs to him, when You only have righteous Job on Your side? You can see here how the Lord is content with only a few while the majority do not wish to belong to Him. For the time being, we will put aside the reason for this because we lack the time, but one day I will, with God’s help, prove to you that this is completely reasonable, if not according to your norms, at least according to God’s. We have already expounded what is meant by the counsel of the ungodly and the way of sinners, now it remains that we talk about the third thing found in the law of the Lord: the seat of pestilence. In the same way that we find in God’s law good holy counsel to counteract the evil counsel, a good holy way and a sound [f. lvij] holy example, so we find a virtuous occupation to counteract the evil seat and evil repose of the scornful and mockers. It is the exercise of love which not only does not delight in other people’s mischief and affront, but covers a multitude of sins (Proverbs 10; 1 Peter 4) and is a cloak and covering of one’s neighbour’s faults. It says that it covers a multitude of sins because there are none of which love does not have compassion; none which love will not at least try to cover or conceal so that, since his neighbour is already judged by God, he may not be judged by men. How different is this diligence from the evil pleasure of him who is seated in the idleness of mockery, in the scorner’s chair! The latter does not only insult and publicize sins, but he scoffs at virtues; he scoffs not only at guilt but also at natural defects; and he even scoffs at God’s works and that of which his neighbour is not guilty. This scoffing goes even further: where there is only a little guilt, it is increased; where guilt is slight, [f. lvij v] it is exaggerated; where there is none, it is invented. Where good prevails, it wants it to be judged as evil and to make it appear as such. In God’s law there is nothing but love towards friends and enemies alike, towards the righteous and the sinner. There is aversion to sin but charity towards the sinner. He that loves his neighbour has fulfiled the law; he has fulfiled it completely (Romans 13). How contrary to the scoffers and mockers are the conditions of God’s law! Let it testify of itself when it expressly commands, “You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind, but shall fear your God: I am the Lord…You shall rise before the gray headed and honour the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the Lord” (Leviticus 19). You must not ignore the entreaty of this law and this love, the respect it shows towards the frailty of the aged who everyone mocks. And here we are all told to honour the deaf who cannot hear or respond, the blind that cannot see. From these [f. lviij] particular cases you can draw the general rule of the earnestness and exercise of charity that counteracts the third sort of sinners who settle themselves and take pleasure in the seat of the scornful.

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We have fully proclaimed man’s blessing by declaring how he must find in God’s law the remedy for all the obstacles that might hinder his being blessed. Let us now proceed further with the explanation to make it more comprehensible and for you to know how to attain that remedy in order to put it into effect. Our verse says that the blessed man’s delight is in the law of the Lord and he meditates on it day and night. This ‘meditating’ does not refer only to the exercise of the mind but also putting it into practice and revealing it in the work of his hands. It would be vain contemplation to spend one’s time just considering God’s law and its great wonders, and to content oneself with this without carrying it out diligently. Contemplation [f. lviij v] serves to instruct us in the law and to show us what it commands or forbids. And this leads us to action, the lack of which makes all previous endeavors vain. But more on this later. Let us now explain what ‘day and night’ means. This must be understood the same way as we understand what the apostle teaches when he tells us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5; Luke 18), which is to turn to God’s law in all our needs and all our deeds; to draw lessons and take advice from it, applying it as a general principle for our entire lives, in word and deed. As we said of the first verse that walking, standing and sitting encompassed all of man’s actions, so here the same thing is meant by ‘day and night’. Whereas walking, standing and sitting referred to the evil deeds man must turn away from, here we see the good deeds he must pursue so that in everything he may first be instructed by God’s law and put into practice whatever it commands; [f. lix] that is, to endure adversity with patience, to forgive slander with the forbearance commanded in the law, to receive prosperity with temperance and sobriety, as demanded therein. Finally, he must remember that it is written (Deuteronomy 4 and 12) that none of those who set out to obey God should do what their own judgment and opinion tells them, but what the law commands. Man must count his own judgment as vain, his opinion as false and mistaken, and deny his own wisdom, thus becoming his own enemy. And he should also judge and consider himself blind, unable to hit the target, having no other light or guide than the Word of God. “Your word, says the prophet, is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Psalm 119). The ungodly gave and took evil counsel, and through it they pursued their deeds and walked their own ways. Let the righteous man, in order to be blessed, take the counsel that God’s law gives him; let him counsel others through it and guide both their deeds and his own. “And these words, says the law, [f. lix v] which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6). Thus is what is meant by meditating in God’s law day and night.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

The inclination of our heart is towards evil continually (Genesis 6); “the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8), which is the time of his going astray. Hence, it is necessary that an equally all-embracing remedy be used for a counsel so evil and so widespread, based on this holy, pure, and trustworthy law which secures our blessing. The devil is always waging war against us, and as the apostle says: “your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5). We can only resist him through the strength of faith. And we cannot have faith but by the Word of God and by exercising our obedience, [f. lx] our heart and our will therein. The prophet includes beautifully in this verse all the blessedness that can be attained by man in this life and assurance for the next. For this is, in sum, the fullness of the law of the Lord. He teaches us faith, he teaches us charity, he teaches us how our heart must be disposed, what our deeds must be, what our attitude should be towards God, towards ourselves and towards our fellow men. The prophet first places the law in our will; he puts it in our heart, where true faith is conceived and inflamed; he then asks that it be exercised day and night, which involves, as we already said, all our actions. All this is in counter-position to the three things of the first verse—evil counsel, evil deeds, seat of the scornful—and from whence all the doctrine of the second verse, which we are dealing with at present, can be inferred. False and deceitful are the deeds [f. lx v] that do not come from the heart. The heart that does not put good works into practice is lukewarm and false. Faith and charity are not partial and prejudiced; they never end nor cease in him that possesses them; they long to serve everyone. Faith and love are a sacrifice unto God, they purify the heart, they enlarge it and make it act generously towards one’s neighbour. This is the ultimate proof. And if this is lacking, it is a sure sign that all the rest is false and wasted, however rich it may be. And since it is not for his brethren’s benefit, it will not benefit him that has it either. If I speak with the tongues of men, says the apostle, and with the tongues of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. “Though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burnt, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13). [f. lxj] That is how necessary this gift is for men to be blessed. Everything we have said is the complete opposite of the three things the blessed man must avoid; these must be present and not the others. All this will be genuine if the root and foundation of it be sure and true; it shall be sure and true if God’s law be in his heart. The holy prophet did not say: Blessed is the man that hath God’s law written down somewhere or that boasteth or speaketh about it, but rather: Blessed be the man whose will is in love with the law of the Lord, because if this be so, it is a sign that he knows it; and if he knows it, this love will be so effectual and

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powerful, so content and satisfied with its beloved that it will necessarily bear fruit. The prophet says elsewhere, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way.” (Psalm 37). He that has God’s law in his heart [f. lxj v] firmly and constantly establishes his feet in it. Whoever attains this, has attained all. But who is this man that we may cheer him on? This path is harder than one can imagine, and many are lost trying to attain it; some are too daring and others too cowardly because they both measure their progress by their own strength. The one who trusts in himself is full of pride; when he thinks he is right, he is mistaken and when he thinks he rises, he falls. The other, who thought there was no other strength but his own, lost heart and fell behind. If he knew where the strength was, and where the courage was and how to ask for it, his plea would be answered; and he would be delivered more readily for having thought so little of himself rather than the former, who exalted himself. Now I want you to understand how difficult and how impossible it is for a man to have God’s law in his heart merely by human strength, so that you become faint-hearted, distrusting yourselves, and pay attention to the second part, in which [f. lxij] we will show where to find the possibility and opportunity, the courage, the strength and the fulfilment to obtain the victory. Man, as a descendant of Adam, is sentenced to be a slave to sin. In his flesh and in his heart dwells the law of him to whom he subjected himself: the law of sin, the fruit of which is a fruit of death, unpleasing to God and enemy of His righteousness. Seeing that man is under such a law and is subject to it in such a manner, and his flesh is so delighted and overwhelmed by that law, what will it profit to bring him God’s law in writing, or inform him of all its demands and tell him about the service his Creator requires of him? This would certainly cause him much sorrow and would be of little assistance because it would only serve to awaken him to see his wickedness, to make him anxious and to grieve at the sight of it, and to give his wickedness the opportunity to distress him and weary him even more. “I would not have known sin, says the apostle Paul in Romans 7, except through the law. [f. lxij v] For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. [f. lxiij] For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Those who never experience this struggle are ruthless (indeed they cannot be otherwise); they are mindless of God and mindless of themselves. They are nothing but clay and flesh and all their care is to satisfy and provide for their body. Their soul, [f. lxiij v] they ignore; they leave it to ‘come what may’. But the wicked man whose wickedness is such that he pursues both his body’s and his soul’s well-being, who tries to trick God with all his sagacity, who wants to please himself as well as God, despite his wickedness, will necessarily experience the struggle God’s law maintains with his conscience and his sin. But the man who experiments this struggle above all is the one who truly and in his innermost strength and mind hears what God’s law requires of him and sets out to do it. Because where he thought he was honest and straightforward he finds himself to be feigned and false, and under the torment of the law and his conscience he confesses that it is beyond his strength to say ‘no’. Surely, some will say we have confronted him with the truth but left him without a remedy, because he confesses that God’s law is just and he who does not observe it is justly condemned. When this person sets out to put the law into practice and keep it in his heart, [f. lxiiij] he finds the door shut, an aversion toward it and an inclination to the contrary that is so strong and steadfast that, though he would deceive himself and be persuaded that he does what God commands in His law, his own conscience, on the one hand, and experience, on the other, do not let him take rest in what he desired. Hence, this struggle must necessarily cause him great distress and he rages against the law. In the same way that he finds it just, he also finds it harsh; he would long to appeal to it if he could; he receives this news coldly from the person who informs him of this and puts part of the blame of his own condemnation on Him who is guilty of nothing, but he must tell him about the law of heaven plainly and simply as it must be known. What has been said so far, will serve man to understand how exceedingly difficult, how far beyond his strength and ability it is to have God’s law in his heart and his will be enthralled by it; how different this is from that of pretending to observe God’s law in word or deed with false hands, [f. lxiiij v] deceiving himself and trying to deceive God by saying he keeps the law.

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We must now say what the remedy for all this is. Let it be a general rule that all the observance of the law, and all the blessings man receives through its observance, presupposes the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the true Son of God, Redeemer and Liberator of mankind. This is not only applicable after the preaching and proclamation of the holy gospel but to every moment from the time of man’s fall. In the same way that there was always a need for particular grace and power from heaven to enable men to serve God and follow His commandments, and be restored to the grace and friendship from which they were separated due to their sin, so there has always been a remedy to attain it. The remedy was the passion of the Redeemer of the world, which is a sufficient and perfect sacrifice to reconcile men to God and also [f. lxv] to obtain for them forgiveness for their former sin. And that from then on, they would be renewed in such a way that their hearts would be so changed that they would be endowed with a new nature and, as it were, a new being whereby they would be strengthened to serve the Lord joyfully and put His commandments into practice. So pleasing was the death of God’s Son to his Father even before it took place, that from the time it was promised it accomplished in the elect what we have here described. Hence it must be understood that Christians existed not only after the Redeemer suffered but also before that. That through one and the same faith, and with the same Spirit, the righteous were saved then, acting and serving God by the same grace as those that serve Him now and who have always served Him. Returning, therefore, to the difficulty we found for a man who would be blessed to put his delight in the law of the Lord, and to be [f. lxv v] exercised in it day and night, we must say that not only he, but the very prophet who wrote this and put it into practice, was by nature a carnal man, subject to the law of sin, unable and without strength to do what he writes about. He was justified through Jesus Christ, the justifier of men, freed from that bondage, strengthened and renewed with the Spirit of heaven through the Son of God, in whom he put his trust, and in his heart offered the sacrifice of His blood before the Father’s eyes. To this fountain we must also come if we would take part in this blessing. Herein we shall find forgiveness for our sins, knowledge to know ourselves, abhorrence and enmity towards our evil deeds, strength for what lies ahead, eyes to contemplate God’s beauty, confidence to follow Him, a heart to love Him, charity towards our neighbours, and everything else that is required for that on which our blessing so much depends. [f. lxvj] Let us not faint in our weakness, but, rather, the greater our weakness the greater let our cry be for a remedy, and if it be delayed, let us not despair. The remedy is not withheld in order that we perish but that we may feel our need more and, feeling it, we may ask more earnestly and be more grateful when our prayer is heard. What was impossible for man (namely, to be justified and be a friend of God), due to the weakness and rebellion of his flesh, was easy for the Son of God who, taking upon himself our flesh, “condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

the law might be fulfiled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8). This teaching is great indeed; and not only great, but so necessary for man’s remedy that it is impossible to achieve it any other way, for such is God’s design; and what [f. lxvj v] He has designed in this case is an irrevocable sentence for which there is no appeal or excuse or privilege, for His Word is unchanging and eternal. We have said this many times and it must be repeated many more because man, besides being deaf to this doctrine, makes himself even more deaf in the hope that he can hide behind this excuse, which is the sole or the chief cause of his destruction. As a result, man must deal with God’s law in such a manner that he have it written in his heart with letters of great love, with his spirit in love with it, with the eyes of his will enthralled by its beauty, being awake and heedful to obey it in every way and whenever it demands. There is no short cut or byway through which he can escape if he would be blessed; nor will it be of any avail to him to exceed all the prophets and patriarchs in good works and outward signs, hence it is reasonable that he now learn the way whereby the love of this holy law is attained [f. lxvij] and that he be extremely diligent to remember this teaching and put it into practice in such a way that he may obtain the victory. Out with the Pharisee who thought that with his outward works alone he could obey heaven’s commandments! Out with the Mohammedan who bases all his holiness on particular ceremonies! Out with the hypocrite who thinks that because he bears the name ‘Christian’ and a good outward appearance, God will, when He calls him to account, overlook the state of his heart and will make light of it because his hands appear to be clean! I speak to Christians now, from whom are demanded both things: to have a pure heart before God and to be enamored of the Divine Law; and to have a holy testimony, not only before heaven, but also before men. We have briefly summed up here one of the chief considerations that have been dealt with in this sermon. And from the many facts and arguments presented here, a sort of [f. lxvij v] summary must be drawn up in order to make it easier for you to commend it to memory and to ponder over it in private. I shall do the same in what remains to be said. And let this not be burdensome to you but when dealing with such important things and such essential doctrines it is necessary that there be much repetition, or meticulousness if you will, so that those who would make the most of it can do so without difficulty, and that the sheer quantity of arguments may not hinder their ability to remember. To sum up, then, the second consideration, and in order that the first things we have dealt with (man’s need to embrace the law of the Lord in his heart) might be useful to the hearer, it is necessary that he be told briefly the method whereby he must attain it, for it is the only sure guarantee of the blessing. Think not that this method is an invention of man, because if it were it would hardly be of any profit. It is the method taught by divine mercy and the [f. lxviij] Scriptures themselves, which tell us how God’s law must dwell in us and how we must let it in. We have already

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dealt with man’s inability to accomplish this and how he becomes indifferent to heaven’s commands soon after he is informed that without them he cannot go to heaven. Pay attention, then, because in just a few words I shall teach you how this must be attained, if you would attain it. Man must take it upon himself to be extremely watchful, exhorting himself, arousing himself and disputing with himself regarding this love for God’s law. And since in his present state and the blindness in which his sin has left him he can understand God’s works better than God’s law, and he can understand the world’s beauty and harmony better than the beauty and harmony of the divine law, from this he must draw a lasting reflection: given that God’s works are so full of [f. lxviij v] beauty, of wisdom, and of so much mercy and justice, and through them He created man, sustains him and provides a remedy for him, His law can be no less beautiful, His commandments no less just, no less full of mercy or wisdom, nor can they be less of a remedy for endless time than His other works have been for the short time we live here. He must contend that the law’s excellence is necessarily much greater than that of His works because the latter were appointed for a short time but the former will make him blessed as long as God is God. This same argument is set forth by our prophet (Psalm 19), concluding from the beauty of [f. lxix] God’s works that His law is also exceedingly beautiful and perfect: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork”. And after announcing this, he concludes: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; etc”. Once a man believes this and has persuaded himself of the beauty and goodness of the divine law, he must with all diligence stimulate his heart to fervently love a thing so beautiful, so powerful, so just and good. This will move him to make a great effort to please so great a Lord, to reach the great end for which he was created. When he grows weary, not duly esteeming a task so great, unable to fully apprehend such great benefits, having contrary desires, being inclined to vile, mean and fleeting things, then he must understand that this is not caused by any defect in the divine law or in what it commands and promises but that this plight comes from within his own heart; that his sin has so corrupted him that he loves not its own remedy; that he is blind to see such beauty, deaf to hear its good tidings, too foolish to rightly consider it, too debased and corrupt to be exercised in it, and, finally, that the Devil and his own sin, the world and his own flesh envy and [f. lxix v] betray him, trying with all their might to prevent him from attaining so much good. As a result, he must develop an enmity against himself and against everything that keeps him from seeking this great end. He must understand that he harbors another self within, a very treacherous one, very flattering, very sensual and deceitful; this self, convincing him that he and it are one and the same person, and that he is as much a friend as anyone could be, seeking only his well-being, is, in fact, his chief enemy and seeks his ruin and woe in all things.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

This man must endeavor to defeat all this. He must endeavor to defeat and put to death the other self he carries within because he is a sower of discord and an accomplice of all that the world uses against him. The weapons he is to employ in order to obtain this victory are: all possible study, all possible diligence, all manner of mortification; he must revenge himself of that evil companion, causing him great distress, he must bear whatever cross be cast upon him and punish himself rigorously because with that punishment he torments the traitor within. If [f. lxx] reproach, poverty, persecution and travail increase by reason of this diligence, let him know that these are the weapons with which his enemies are defeated, let him pursue victory and never grow weary, for his enemies are mighty and numerous. Let him not grow too confident, and when they appear to be put to death, let him think they besiege him more intently than they did at the beginning. He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved (Matthew 10). Let him not slacken in his war against them. Let him remember that it is they who hinder the love for such exceeding beauty and want to deprive him of such great benefits. He may say that these weapons are too heavy for him to wield (and so they are). The Spirit of heaven is the one who must command them, who can effectively defeat and kill with them, and none other can do it. How this was accomplished through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord, we have already explained above. It shall be bestowed on us if we ask, yea, if we ask acknowledging the excellence of such a great gift and the need [f. lxx v] that we have for it; if our craving be truly sincere, our prayer constant, our petition contrite; if we confess that we are in great need because of our enemies’ and our own opposition. In this way the eyes of the Christian begin to be opened to contemplate at least a glimpse of the beauty of God’s law. Herein lies the beginning of its sweetness and the sense of peace and quiet that accompanies it. Knowing this, it is then easy to understand how faithful a friend God’s law is, how right its counsel is both in prosperity and in adversity, regarding both friends and enemies, and how sure a companion it is to enable us to remain on the right path. He who, trusting not in himself and being his own enemy because of sin, seeks righteousness here, and seeks it earnestly, let him know assuredly that he shall find a new heart, a new will and desire with which he may put God’s will into practice. [f. lxxj] This law shall be his meditation day and night; it shall be for him a hiding-place where he may withdraw from the world’s storms, where he may retire to enjoy secret pleasures which men who have not heaven’s commandments in their hearts can neither know nor taste, though their houses be filled with all earth’s riches. It shall be repose for his fatigue, balm for his wounds, relief for his pain. Here, if he wants, he shall find advise when in doubt, comfort in his hardships, faith to help him be steadfast, hope to make him glad, love to bring him closer to God and make him as if he were one spirit with the Lord whom he serves. And striving towards his blessing, when the

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travails of this wretched life are over, he shall find the fullness and fulfilment of a life that has no imperfection or end. SERMON III He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper. The things that are found in the Divine Scripture, the great benefits and great favours that are promised to man are so exceedingly wonderful, so contrary to human judgment and the opinion of the flesh that this alone would make every soul lose heart, partly due to a lack of faith and partly for lack of strength. This is readily understood if we consider how far mankind is from the practice, the knowledge, the experience and discernment [f. lxxij] of the things of heaven. Man is poor and miserable and, being entreated to enjoy such great riches, when he examines himself he finds he is incapable of grasping them, and inadequate to receive them. The substance of these things and the way they are offered to him are totally different from what he is used to having and desiring. Accustomed to his rude and uncouth ways, he cannot properly esteem such excellent things nor apply his mind and will to them. He is offered the things of the Spirit, but he is flesh. He is called from heaven, but he is earthy. He is told to fly, but he has no wings. Life is offered to him, but he always walks with death. He is called to blessedness, yet he is nothing but wretchedness and wants nothing but wretchedness. Righteousness is demanded of him, but he is a slave to sin and is at ease with it. He is commanded to overcome the world, to strive against all its appearances and dangers, but he deems himself weak and defenceless. Since he understands none of these things, he has no inclination for them; he considers them absurd and idle talk. His thoughts are drawn and his eyes turned to the village [f. lxxij v] where he was born, to his humble linage, to the flesh that nurtured him, to the wretched earth that he is made of. It is necessary that this man be awakened with loud voices and that he be compelled with a great compelling; he must be taught to know himself so that he may rightly and justly esteem himself; he must be informed of his linage, the state from whence he fell, the greatness of his inheritance, and the path to his remedy, that he may be drawn to it and long for it. For this to be possible, it is necessary that a sure guarantee intervene for him to stand firm and be certain that what is promised him is true. This guarantee is the Word of God which He has established and sealed for men; and it is so often repeated, so often affirmed and confirmed by so many certainties, so much earnestness, so many pledges, so asserted and sworn, because divine mercy knows man’s exceeding weakness and how he is estranged from Him [f. lxxiij] and His things. I shall go no further with this point but I wish to apply it to what we are

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

presently dealing with. We promise man a state of blessedness and that, from this moment on, his blessing shall begin. We tell him to turn away from the counsel of the ungodly, the way of sinners, the seat of scornful, to become enamored of God’s law, to be exercised in it day and night. To all this he will answer that he finds no way to be blessed; that he gets evil counsel from his neighbours, from his friends and from his own heart; that the way of sinners is well-trodden and he sees no other; that if he does not sit in the seat of scoffers he will become weary and will have to remain standing and be mocked at by others. He will say that the law of the Lord is severe and that ‘day and night’ is too much time to spend on it; that meanwhile he would miss out on things that are very important to him. And, above all, if he should decide to do these things, who can guarantee his success and the ability to carry them out? [f. lxxiij v] If he does not follow the counsel of the wicked, the wicked will badly mistreat him; if he does not follow the course of sinners, his path will be very laborious and he will encounter great dangers; if he flees from the seats of pestilence, there is no pleasure left for him in the world, he will perforce live very unhappily; if he follows the Lord’s will, he will find many enemies who will persecute and ill-treat him. He will encounter manifest dangers by day, ghosts and shadows to frighten and scare him by night. He will lose his possessions, his honour, his life, what he now has he will not have at the end; misfortunes will follow him and he will lose this world and the next. For man to be sure that if he wants to succeed, he will, and if he fails it will be his own fault, the prophet sets forth God’s promise, proceeding from Him and with His Spirit, wherein he asserts that there is a remedy for all this and He offers and guarantees it through something as firm and sure as God’s justice and truth are firm and sure. This man shall be like [f. lxxiiij] a tree planted near the running waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season, whose leaf shall not fall off nor wither, and everything he shall do shall have a prosperous end. While we live on earth and are so familiar with its ways and so accustomed to its things, divine mercy condescends to speak to us and teach us through images and comparisons of things that belong to the earth. Only one condition is required of us: that since these simple images are given to us because of our sluggish judgment, our faith may thereby be awakened and rise to consider the greatness of the promises, raising them from earthly smallness to heavenly greatness, from this present poverty to heaven’s richness, and from what men and other creatures give or can give to what God, the creator and Lord of all, gives and can give. This comparison, in which the righteous man is likened to a tree that is green and beautiful, is quite frequent in the Divine Scripture. “The righteous shall flourish like a [f. lxxiiij v] palm tree, he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.” (Psalm 92). And in the Song of Solomon (Chapter 7) it is said that the stature of the bride is like that of a palm tree, and many other instances could be given. Let us now explain the reason for this comparison

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and then we will apply it to the blessed man who, because he is righteous, is here already given the name and calling of blessed. On earth, a tree is something of exceeding beauty and there is no one who is not made glad by the sight of a tree and will not turn to look at it. Imagine, then, a tree whose roots are near running waters that flow abundantly all year long, a tree that is very green, very healthy, with abundant leaves. It will surely be acknowledged that such a tree is bound to give good fruit. We are describing the tree’s condition in this way so that the comparison may be better understood. We say it is planted near running waters; it is one of those trees that has leaves all year long. These [f. lxxv] require much water. Such a tree has a great advantage over the rest because the others are uncertain if they will receive water or not. It is uncertain whether it will rain; indeed, they cannot know when or if it will rain at all. During one season they may have leaves but not the next. Sometimes they will be green but other times dry or withered. One year they may bear fruit but fail the next; first they may bear good fruit, but later bad fruit. And you will surely find them with one blight today and another tomorrow, and when you think it has recovered, you find it dried up. The other tree’s condition is quite the opposite. Its water supply is guaranteed whether it rains or not, it does not lack good soil, running waters flow near its roots, its leaf never falls off because it is an evergreen tree; it never lacks water to keep it green and beautiful. Its fruit is guaranteed because nothing from heaven or [f. lxxv v] earth can damage it. Such is the man, according to our prophet, who, turning away from evil counsel and the evil way, and all other sorts of wickedness, is enamored of the law of the Lord and exercises in it day and night. He shall be like a tree, which, though planted in the earth, receives perpetual streams from heaven’s grace. And just as the tree that is planted in the country near flowing streams has water when it needs it most and where it is most beneficial (under the roots), so he has the suitable streams of grace from heaven to strengthen and support the roots that sustain him, which are faith and hope and love and all other gifts from above. ‘Water’ here means the favour of God’s Spirit, which in the Divine Scripture is signified by water just as the righteous man is signified by the tree. The earth’s greatest need is water; without it, the land becomes dry and barren, everything wastes away and is lost, there is no nourishment for [f. lxxvj] plants, animals, or men; from parched land nothing is to be expected but venomous things, disease and pestilence. On the other hand, water refreshes and restores everything; it causes plants to blossom and revive, it gives new life and new being to things. There is not a more suitable analogy in the world for the Spirit and grace of heaven brought to man through Jesus Christ, liberator and Lord of mankind, for his remedy and renewal. Thus, in order to announce the good that would come through the Redeemer, the prophet Isaiah says (Isaiah 35) that “The parched ground shall become a pool,

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

and the thirsty land springs of water; in the habitation of jackals31 , where each lay, there shall be grass with reeds and rushes.” And in another place: “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.” (Isaiah 44). In inviting and exhorting the faithful to come and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, he tells them [f. lxxvj v] to come to the waters (Isaiah 55), denoting both the exceedingly wretched state those men were in and the greatness of the remedy they were to receive. They are as dry soil, without fruit and without life. What they are to receive is renewal, refreshment and abundance. Going back to our verse, it says that such a man shall be as a tree planted near running waters, meaning the great generosity of the Lord’s hand towards him. It does not say it will be given water that has been taken from another place or brought from afar, nor that it will be watered by someone (if this were the case he might fret about lacking supply); it is not appointed that the tree receive water in some seasons and not in others but, rather, that there will be running waters at all times and abundantly. It becomes us to deal with this somewhat slowly. We will begin by saying that the righteous man’s roots are established in God’s law and in obedience to His commandments; and that the roots are faith, hope, love and all those other gifts which are needed to counteract and resist everything that opposes [f. lxxvij] and is at war with divine law and justice, and man’s blessedness. These roots are a grace from heaven; they are heaven’s Spirit and are sustained by it. By ‘running waters’ is also meant God’s providence and His care for the righteous man in keeping him and freeing him from all the world’s travails and perils, so that he will not perish in them or be injured by them, nor find any hindrance to becoming blessed. It specifically says that this tree has been planted without man’s hands or artifice, not born of its own will, as other plants the earth produces are. This ‘being planted’ is divine election, which is the true foundation of the righteous and the true surety of his blessedness. This blessing has no foundation or rationale other than divine will, which does as it pleases with His creatures because God is their Lord and maker and as such He can deal with the work of His hands. You were not [f. lxxvij v] chosen for what you were; you were only born yesterday and, nevertheless, your election was decreed from eternity; not by reason of what you were to become, for the Lord who chose you knew you would be born His enemy, in sin and under condemnation. He chose you in Jesus Christ to be redeemed by Him, transformed and restored to the grace that you had lost. This should make you mindful of how little you have to boast for having been chosen, for you were chosen long before you

31 Curiously, here Constantino uses the term ‘thieves’, whereas the DRCB reads ‘dragons’ and the JSC ‘jackels’.

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existed. How exceedingly grateful must you be to the Lord for not having chosen you according to the works you would do, for your very first deed, from birth, was performed in sin. Likewise, you must be thankful every day of your life because the Lord who created you did not leave up to you what was to become of you, for you would have lost both your life and your soul on account of your great enemies. He secured us by choosing us Himself, by taking us under His charge, by keeping us in His hands, out of which [f. lxxviij] not even all the power of hell will be able to snatch us. What is left to us is that, in order to be more certain and have more peace of conscience and a full assurance of our being chosen by God, we be fruitful in good works as is reasonable for him that is chosen of God and is planted in His election. (2 Peter 1). In everything we have said so far we have declared the signs and deeds of the blessed and righteous man, and in what manner heaven favours and assists him. For he would neither perform such deeds without receiving this grace and these running waters, nor would he have such grace if he did not apply himself to it and did not take every opportunity to attain and retain it, to bear fruit and to perform deeds answerable to such a succor. It is easy to know, from what has been said, that the first and chief condition of the righteous is humility and true self-knowledge. He did not plant himself but was planted by another. He would be fruitless and wasted if he had no running waters, and these do not flow from themselves but [f. lxxviij v] proceed from afar. This consideration is extremely necessary for the man who would serve God, for he must know that before he could do any good or evil he was chosen and marked so that he should be righteous and, being righteous, he should become blessed. This was not because of his works or his own merit, for he was chosen long before he could do anything. This election would not take place if it were not attended with the heavenly grace that causes it to be effectual and produce works. The same One who chose him is He that justifies him, that favours and keeps him, so that he may, according to election, carry out deeds similar to those of His only begotten Son, for he was chosen in order to be conformed to His image. (Romans 8 and 9). Hence, it is clear that the first thing a man must do, and this with great diligence and frequently, is to give thanks to God who chose him out of sheer bounty and mercy. But he will reply that he knows not whether he is chosen, indeed, he doubts it very much; he is [f. lxxix] strongly tempted to believe the contrary, and his deeds bear an appalling witness. We will later speak of deeds but let us now speak about the former. He must commit all these things to divine goodness and justice, relying on this goodness and justice with great confidence, and firmly believing that nothing more upright can exist or be imagined than that which the divine will has determined. Everything else points towards God’s great goodness, His having chosen him, His having procured his salvation with great diligence. The evidence that must convince him of this, and what must persuade him and help him resist

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

temptations, is the very thing the Psalm sets forth, namely, to see himself as planted and born near the running waters. This is the story. Divine mercy ordained that I be born amongst Christians, amongst people who have the true message of God where even before I could discern or know good from evil, before I knew whether I was a man or something else, I was baptized, cleansed from the sin in which I was born, [f. lxxix v] my condemnation cancelled, freed from bondage, strengthened with God’s gifts, received into His friendship and grace, numbered among His children. So that if I had then departed from the world, I would surely have been granted heaven and the state of blessedness. But since the Lord did not take me then, it is a sign that he left me here to have me serve Him, if I flee not from His service. When I grew up and gained knowledge I found myself near running waters, in a Christian church illumined with heaven’s light and counsel, where God’s revealed Word and the sacraments are, and where His promises and pledges are contained. I found teachers of everything that is fitting, requiring nothing but my willingness to listen; someone to dispense the sacraments, as long as I was willing to prepare myself to receive them. I am daily called, daily exhorted, encouraged and reproved by the Divine Word. All these are running waters and streams [f. lxxx] from heaven. What remains is that I not flee from them. That they were placed so near to me is a sign that they were intended for me; the bad sign is that I turn away of my own accord. If I reach out to them, everything is secure; and because they are close at hand, I can reach out to them. I am the judge of my deeds, and I must come to terms with them; I see that I can do good deeds but I do evil instead. I want to change my ways because God says He will judge me. I see I am favoured. The Divine Word, which has promised to help me to do good and to defend me from evil, cannot fail me. I want to ask for this help, for I will surely receive it and benefit from it in order to do the things I am called to do. This is the Christian’s story, and all the other secrets he must commit to God’s wisdom and entrust to His goodness and mercy, and with a strengthened and joyful spirit he must endeavor to drink from the waters that run so close to him. Remember, however, that all the fruit he bears and [f. lxxx v] all his capacity to bear it is a favour received from another, for he neither planted himself, created water nor guided its streams. He knows he is lacking in himself, even to have a good thought whereby God may be served. He was conceived in sin and enmity against heaven, subject to a law of perversion and evil inclinations. If he were left to himself he would be as a tree in a barren and dry land, planted only by man’s hand and bearing no fruit other than thorns and worms of the Devil and of his own treacherous nature. If he is anything other than this it is by another’s bounty, namely, the Lord’s, whom he has seriously offended and who has no need of him or his fruits and leaves. If there is any profit to be had, it is for man, for he only is in need and in danger. “And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did

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indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” (1 Corinthians 4). Behold the danger you are in; no matter how abundant your [f. lxxxj] possessions may be, the day you begin to consider them your own and not to thank their rightful owner, that very day you shall lose them; and if anything be left of them it is only a shadow, because the true fruit and profit that could be had was made void by your pride (Jude). You are so blind and so ignorant of your linage, of the sin you live in, of the madness and disease that was found in you and in which you are rooted, that you are still haunted by vain thoughts of your own and by a raving pride that leads you to boast of being what you are not, of being worth more than you are, of deserving what you were given, that you are irreplaceable and that others are under obligation to you. All these are relics of your old lost state. You must fight against these weaknesses, for no matter how free from them you may think you are, you can’t live without them. The more you struggle against these weaknesses and guard your heart from them, the greater the need to resist and oppose them. You are not guiltless just because you do not know exactly and precisely what it is [f. lxxxj v] you ought to know is wrong. Your eyes are guilty, otherwise you would see clearly. Endeavor, therefore, to open them and if you carefully scrutinize your good deeds and your mischief, you will see that mischief comes from you while good comes from another. Look back at what you once were and you shall see what an evil sort of tree you were and how wicked your fruit was. See how the worm of your pernicious inclinations persecutes you and you will understand that if there are any flaws in the fruit, they come from this. And you must realize that the fruit itself comes from heaven, that the waters are clear and pure, and that only as they pass through you they come out stained and wrinkled. Consider your fruit, how scarce it is due to your own faults, your shortcomings and misery. Consider that the hand that planted you is generous and the water with which you are watered is poured abundantly. Acknowledge that if you are not so well provided for, it is not because you were not planted near the running waters but because of the obstacles you yourself produce and the slothfulness that prevents you from drawing near to them. All these arguments (and many more [f. lxxxij] that you will find if you are willing to search within), considered sincerely without a mixture of your self-flattering notions, will ultimately accuse you. They will manifest your many faults and will help you to see and know what your defects are; they will lead you to live in greater watchfulness and to understand the blessings you have and recognize the hand from whence they come. They will serve also to chastise your pride, banish your slothfulness and kindle your desire and zeal. Thus far we have explained that first part of the verse where it says that the righteous shall be like a tree planted near running waters. Let us now move on and say what the fruits of this tree are, which must be very much like its roots and answerable to the grace with which the tree is watered and cared for. We said that the roots were faith and hope and love and the other gifts that accompany and

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

adorn these virtues. The graces and the watering are consistent with the roots, and so must the fruit be consistent with the grace and the roots. Therefore, bringing forth fruit in due season is said to be a sign of the [f. lxxxij v] righteous and blessed man. Just as it is expected that the good, healthy and well planted tree, being good in nature, watered with pure water and diligently cared for, will certainly yield fruit in due season, so this blessed man will bring forth fruit in due season. What is the fruit? The fruit of faith, hope and love. When is the season? The time that the One who planted it designates. The sinners, of whom we dealt with first, decide for themselves the right time for their evil fruits. Their wicked deeds become fruitful when their mad judgment and vain wisdom move them. In this they follow the whims of their pride, their anger, their greed, their delight and their foolishness. The season of the righteous man’s fruit is that which divine justice demands. Human wisdom, being self-confident and trusting its own experience and precepts, the enemy of the simplicity of faith, measures and attempts to calculate its seasons, thinking that this way he will succeed. In some, this is an act of great pride, in others [f. lxxxiij] great weakness. This happens when human wisdom is free and impartial regarding what is at stake. When it is controlled by the passions and emotions we mentioned (pride and all the others) it has no seasons other than those dictated by these affections. The righteous man has faith as his prime and principal root, and therefore faith is the first fruit he brings forth, which is to entrust the time of all his works to divine law and providence. Whenever he is told to go, he goes; he does not give excuses, nor claim better judgment; by day and by night his only light or rule is the law of the Lord. We have an example of such fruit in Abraham when he was commanded to sacrifice his son. What excuses would human wisdom not have given! That it was not meet for him to kill his own son; that it was against the law of nature, against all human inclination; what sort of service to God could the death of an innocent child be! Unfaithfulness would spring up under the false colour of faith, [f. lxxxiij v] saying that this would hinder the Lord’s truth and the fulfilment of His word through which He had promised that out of Isaac’s offspring would come the world’s remedy. How could this be if he died without offspring? Human wisdom would have dared to interpret what the Lord was commanding in a different way and to respond by some hypocrisy that would not be so costly. Self-interest and fatherly affection would jointly resist. Isaac was wanted as the heir and author of God’s promised favour. Hope had blossomed in lawful matrimony and was born in old age. In all this Abraham kept quiet and held his peace because the faith in which he was anchored prevailed; this faith taught him there was no other time for his fruits and deeds except that which the Lord and author of all blessings should appoint. Hope bore fruit because he ceased not to wait and expect and to be assured that the child’s linage and offspring would be multiplied more than the stars of heaven,

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as the sand of the sea; that from him would come the blessing [f. lxxxiiij] of all peoples. Against hope he believed in hope and that which, on the one hand, was denied by human reason, on the other, was confirmed by the Word and truth of God. Just as at the beginning, when a son was promised him, he did not consider his old age or Sarah’s barrenness and her ninety years of age, but was assured that the Lord’s promise was true; hence, neither did he doubt his son’s succession nor the world’s blessing, though he was told to sacrifice him at such a young age (Romans 4). Neither was love fruitless on this occasion, for it also bore its natural fruit. Self-love and the love for his own son were subordinated to the love that was owed to God, and thus, he willingly resolved to kill him. This love also bore true fruit for his son and it guided him on the right path of love toward him, because he understood how much better it was for the child to die as a sacrifice according to God’s will and in obedience to Him than to live long and prosperous years possessing the world’s riches. [f. lxxxiiij v] What you have heard, and the way you have heard it, is the time and season wherein the righteous man bears fruit. There are trees that bear fruit in the winter but not in the summer; others bear it in the summer but lack fruit in winter. Here we compare the righteous to a tree that never lacks water and always has leaves so that he may be furnished and enabled to bring forth fruit at all times. We read in the gospel (Matthew 21) that as the Redeemer walked near a fig tree which was very much adorned and covered in leaves, he approached it to pick some figs, but seeing that it only had leaves he cursed it and it withered, though it was not the season when fig trees are wont to have fruit. This is startling to many who try to find the reason why our Redeemer cursed the tree which had no fruit in a time when it was not supposed to have it, according to the rule of nature. The reason is what you have already heard. In that tree, which had neither feelings nor was capable of injury or punishment, the Son of God taught men [f. lxxxv] how they should have fruit at all times when He required it, and threatened them with the chastisement that would follow if they did not. Mercy provides an example of punishment through that which cannot feel the evil of punishment. Divine mercy punishes a senseless tree and provides man with an opportunity and time that he may turn to Him. It is, then, the general rule that this tree of the righteous has no opinion of its own, nor chooses the season in which to bear fruit, but must bear it according to the Lord’s will. In the same way we taught him to turn away from the counsel of the wicked, from standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of pestilence, by declaring that by these three things were understood all evil actions; and then we exhorted him to have his will set upon God’s law and to be employed in it day and night, which means at all times and in all his deeds, so now we tell him to take the Lord’s will and law as the guide for his decisions, and [f. lxxxv v] to be prepared to yield fruit in all seasons since he is constantly being watered and running waters are

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

always available to him for this end. All fruit is similar to its origins and lineage, and answerable to the virtue and principle that is found in the roots. This is applicable to the fruit we are here asking for. The roots are of faith and so, if they are real, they will bear the fruit of faith. No adversity, no privation, no hardship, no offence will be enough to cause the righteous to turn back from the confession of God’s name, from manifesting and keeping His truth, from following His righteousness and commandments, from abiding and standing firm in them, from growing and having the certainty that what God says is true and that not one of His promises will fail. He greatly favours him; He leads him on a good path; He will bring him to a prosperous end; He will raise him in victory and bestow great mercies and rewards upon him. Let none of the former things, or any others that might be thought of, have the strength or be [f. lxxxvj] sufficient to thwart the joy that is begotten by hope. Let him who is in the midst of hardships and torments be comforted by the pleasurable thought that one day he will see God, that he shall rejoice in His company and service forevermore, that He will happily deliver him from all the trials and temptations he might meet with. Let no hardship or affiliation hinder him from loving his neighbour. May his brother always find him with an open heart ready to forgive him and love him and pray to God for him; may he ever find a tongue willing to honour him, hands to favour him, and let the need of others be the pattern and springtime of his fruitfulness. Let him defeat the Devil and sin with these same weapons. Let his faith be so steadfast in what God demands that all the interests the Devil promises him be of no avail to shake him. Let him be so content in his hope that he would never change his delight or his peace of conscience or his zeal for God’s glory for the [f. lxxxvj v] pleasures and contentment that can come through sin. Let him see his delight as true pleasure and the Devil’s as ugly, false and deadly. Let him so exceedingly love his neighbour that the Devil may not, with all his cunning and tricks, cause him to raise his hand or his eyes against his good name, against his honour, against his possessions, against his wife, his daughter or any other thing. We have spoken about the roots, hear now about the fruit and the season when it must germinate. Let us speak of the leaves. As you know, there are some trees that lose their leaves when they yield their fruit. There are others that, though they may have stopped bearing fruit, always keep their leaves as a token and promise of the fruit that they will bear again. Here the prophet is pointing to the latter sort by comparing the righteous to the tree whose leaf, though it has already brought forth fruit, does not fall off or wither. Through this same comparison [f. lxxxvij] God threatens the wicked in Isaiah (Isaiah 1): “For you shall be as a terebinth32

32 The DHCB reads “oak”; the JPS, “terebinth”. Constantino’s text simply reads “tree.” The terebinth is a small southern European tree of the cashew family that was formerly a source of turpentine.

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whose leaf fades, and as a garden that has no water.” Leaves make a tree beautiful; they give pleasure and contentment to those who look at it; they show that it is well watered and taken care of; they are a refuge and shelter for the fruit. That is how the righteous man has his leaves; they are holy signs and holy examples, offending nobody. One of the things that most becomes the Christian is to have such a demeanor and harmony in his life, his words, his habits and all other signs, that he may edify his neighbour by his good example, so that there can never be seen in him the slightest shadow of resentment towards his brother. For this, he must show much forbearance towards others’ weaknesses, though the matter may be of little concern to him. Many trees have leaves but no fruit, like the fig tree at the time our Redeemer [f. lxxxvij v] came to it. So there are men having much outward appearance and who want to make us believe they have fruit though they have none. Some of these have just enough leaves to deceive men. But they cannot deceive Jesus Christ, as the fig tree did not deceive Him. His wrath against these people He manifested in cursing it and having it wither away at that very moment. A tree that has fruit but no leaf is absurd. The fruit from a tree without leaves is not tasty; it is always discarded. Another sort of men (no less vain that the first sort) are represented by such trees, who want to give as an excuse for their scandalous life, for their sinful interests and the liberties they take, a certain spirit they harbor within, a certain intimacy with God, a certain holy and good aspiration—so they say—whereby they will not be judged but can themselves judge others. They make excuses and despise what is demanded of them, and what reason requires, pretending not no [f. lxxxviij] to be like the rest and to have a special licence to remain as they are. Many such people are found in God’s church, and always will be. Against these the apostle Paul writes in many places, teaching that in everything God’s law tolerates and is not contrary to the truth and glory of the gospel we be at peace with all men. He could freely eat meat without offending God in the slightest and he knew that it mattered little whether it had been sacrificed or not (1 Corinthians 10), and yet he says (1 Corinthians 8) that if by doing this he saw that his brother was offended, he would totally abstain from it. It is good, he says, not to eat flesh and not to drink wine, and to give up doing anything whereby one’s brother might stumble, be scandalized or made weak. You say that you have faith and that you know what is necessary and what is not, what is relevant and what is not. You are right, keep that faith and that certainty to yourself and God, but in your outward behaviour bear in mind and consider [f. lxxxviij v] your neighbour’s weakness (Romans 14). Regarding obedience to the commandment of God that externally compels us, there is no respect of men, be they powerful or not so powerful, wise or unwise, there is neither life nor death that should lead anyone to forsake it. As for all other things, there must be great concern for the ease and peace of our brother’s conscience;

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

and in many instances a man must be willing to give up his own contentment and freedom for the sake of other people’s consciences and opinions. Great was the apostle’s freedom, for he had it both from the gospel and from the spirit of the gospel, and this freedom he understood very well. And yet he says (1 Corinthians 9) that many a time he subjected himself to things of the law, not being subject to it. To the Jews he became a Jew, to the weak he became weak; finally, he became all things to all men that he might be profitable to all. Great is the freedom the gospel allows, but a great scrutiny is likewise necessary lest under a facade of spiritual freedom, we follow the freedom of the flesh, [f. lxxxvix] for such deception has always been exceedingly harmful and damaging to the Christian church. Continuing with the leaves of our tree, I say that each person, in his state and calling, is to continually have not only fruit but also leaves, and green and beautiful ones. And it is a great mockery and deception to justify one’s freedom or whimsical desires by claiming that there exists the fruit of true and faithful deeds, but that leaves are not necessary. The difference in each person’s calling means that, though the fruit may resemble everyone else’s, the leaf will be somewhat different; nevertheless, they all must have fruit and they all must have leaves. He who is called to the office of God’s Word must not be content with merely doing the works required of him, as everyone else does, which is nevertheless a fruit that he stands in great need of, but his leaf must be manifest and profitable to all, and if he lacks this it will be no excuse to say that he bore fruit for himself and nothing more is needed. If I preach the gospel, says the apostle (1 Corinthians 9), “For if I preach the gospel, [f. lxxxvix v] I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!” For such a person, the leaf will be the doctrine and all the diligence that he must give to his life and to the Word, according to his office. The prophet Ezekiel (Ch. 47) mentions this sort of tree in the vision where he was shown the city of Jerusalem, symbolizing the Church. Of the numerous things he saw therein, one was the streams of water that issued from the sanctuary and gradually increased toward the East. On both sides of this stream we are told there were trees bearing much fruit, that every month they bore fruit and their leaves were a medicine. This stream is the same as those running waters we described above, which come from the sanctuary, namely, from God’s presence. The constant increase of the stream is the abundance of mercy and bounty that is communicated to us through it. The trees on the river’s banks are the righteous. The fact that they grow on both sides [f. xc] means that the Divine Word and mercy are not fruitless but find in man a subject for their great power and efficacy. The fruits are good works and the keeping of God’s law. And the latter are food; the food that Christ our Redeemer said he hungered for after he spoke to the Samaritan woman, telling his disciples that he had a food they did not know about (John 4). The leaves are the signs and good example that we already said are as medicine to the sick.

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There is no better medicine for the proud than the example of the humble; none better for the slanderer than the patience of him who is slandered. Nothing is more offencive or more chastening for the deceiver than the goodness and simplicity of the righteous. If thy enemy be hungry, “If your enemy is hungry, says Solomon, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink; for so you will heap coals of fire on his head” (Proverbs 25); you make him ashamed through your response, stirring him up to follow virtue by your example. For the heathen and [f. xc] foreign nations the leaves of the Christians are medicine, if they are what they ought to be. Yet, because of our sin, if an Moor or Turk were to come now, being ignorant of our doctrine and wanting to judge the truth of the law we follow by what he sees, what medicine would he find in our leaves when he sees our pride, hears our madness, experiences our revenge, knows our superstition, comes to understand our use and practice of lying, our dishonesties, our covetousness and our thefts, the desecrating of holy things, the blasphemy and the belittling of the very religion we profess to follow? No doubt he would judge erroneously the great truth that God has revealed to us. He would be deceived himself and would deceive others. And it would be (and is) our own fault. And it is clear from the punishments we have received from the divine hand, [f. xcj] that we have greatly offended His Majesty through this sin, by giving such a bad impression to the world of the good and the mercy He has shown to us above all other men. Let us leave this now, and go on to consider our debt to others and how we repay one another, since we do not seem to pay much attention to foreign nations. In every state our leaf will be that which all of us, in general or individually, owe one another and must offer as signs and evidence. If this rule be true, how inexcusable will many who pretend they are Christians be, even if we do not judge them by their deeds and their keeping of the commandments but simply by the effort they make (and we know they do) in not having good leaves! Words are leaves, habits are leaves, people’s garments and adornments are leaves, and so are many other things and ways of living. There is such wantonness in all these things, laxity and excess have reached such extremes, that you will find no [f. xcj v] leaf of the kind our Psalm demands neither nearby nor afar; there is no beauty or colour but only unfruitful and pitiful trees (Jude) that even claim they are full of fruit and they need nothing else. If we will just stop to think of the majority of words and expressions we use, some are full of haughtiness, all of them are threats, violence, vanity, and conceit; the rest are dishonest and shameful. And if this is not clear to the blind, it is nevertheless clear to those who see a bit thought they are short-sighted. This is what is heard on the streets, what is uttered in conversations; the least improper and the best are idle words. What conversation is there that that does not contain words harmful to the neighbour of him that hears them, or that shows the foolishness and madness of him that utters them? Or which expressions are not an occasion for destructive

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

thoughts, rash and vain opinions and wicked practices? The Christian’s behaviour [f. xcij] must be holy in every respect. All his dealings must be attended with great humility. He must exhort with words. If his tongue does not speak, there must be a strong reproof in his outward signs against those that walk unruly. Finally, in everything that his brethren can judge externally, he must conduct himself in a way that testifies that he is God’s creature and workmanship, illumined by the Word of His only begotten Son and zealous for His glory. These are the leaves we are speaking of, others perceive them and they serve as examples for them when speaking of good fruit. The owner of the tree will probably be satisfied if his plant simply bears good fruit and is not spoiled because of the leaves. But a passerby wants a good shade and a beautiful sight. The owner of the tree is God who knows your heart, and to some extent you yourself also know it. Between you and Him, as far as fruit goes, your account is settled; He is a witness of your faith, of your simplicity of heart and the purity [f. xcij v] of your deeds. But by mentioning the leaves He is telling us He did not plant us only for Himself, because if it were so He would plant you in a corner where only He could see you and enjoy you. Notice that he put you in an open field, in the public garden of the world, and that He did not want the fruit for Himself only but intended you to provide recreation, pleasure and contentment for those who see you with your leaves and shade; and He intended that you should, on account of this, cause them to bless the Lord who planted you. I have lingered much over this point, insisting and repeating the same arguments, because I know that even after all these repetitions you will not understand it, or you may not want to understand it. But since I have done what I think I am required to do, it is fitting that we leave this so we may continue with the exposition of the rest of the verse. Nevertheless, before we leave this place, it behooves you to know the characteristics of the leaves that sprout from our tree: it is not just that they do not fall off, but they do not wither. [f. xciij] This is also meant (by presupposition) in the Hebrew term. The leaf that does not wither does not lose its colour nor fall off. What does this mean? It means that the zeal and care to maintain a good colour must not wax or wane in the good Christian. As there is diligence to obtain fruit, so there must be in this also. It means even more: that the tree we are dealing with is always the same. What is fitting for the true Christian, regarding his fruit and leaves, in one season, in keeping with his state and calling, the same is fitting in other seasons, if love should not show him otherwise. It would take too long to go through each particular state and declare what leaves each person must have, according to his profession, and how they must not fall or lose their colour. However, anyone who truly longs to subordinate his will to the law of the Lord will find enough guidance in that very desire to teach him all the things that, due to the lack of time, [f. xciij v] is here left unsaid. In one thing we must all concur, which is a general rule and doctrine for everyone, namely, the outward

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obedience of the church that is prescribed for the harmony and unity of the faithful, for the conformity to and teaching of its doctrine, for the example they must set for one another and for the ungodly, and for the dispensation and participation of the sacraments. These are the leaves of true and holy religion which assume the bearing of genuine fruit in the true Christian, and the same fruit requires and needs them for its keeping and preservation. Among these there are some that are more necessary and more important than others, but none are so trivial that we should not be exceedingly careful not to scandalize our neighbour and to show the necessary signs of obedience. You must not take this to mean that Christians are to follow the inventions some might devise or might want to introduce. It is the church we must [f. xciiij] reckon with because she is our mother and our teacher, and to her alone do we owe particular obedience; and no one must be so bold as to take up, through his own inventions and his mind’s imagination, the authority of the church, demanding and teaching new obligations to the faithful; neither should the latter receive them as valid. To conclude with our verse I proclaim that just as no contradiction or adversity will suffice to hinder the true Christian from bringing forth fruit in due season (being impelled from his heart to yield it), so there is nothing that will cause the leaf of his outward profession, and the example he must set as a tree that has genuine and true fruit, to fall off. Moreover, not only must this leaf not fall off but it must not wither or change its colour either. This means it must never show signs of weakness, of going back on that which God commands him. This leaf always accompanied [f. xciiij v] the holy martyrs and holy professors of the faith; it always blossomed upon those great men who were tried and exercised with many and divers hardships and divers temptations. God wills not only that they bear fruit or that they simply serve Him, but that they bear it and serve him joyfully. There is no reason for the leaf to wither or fall off from the holy tree of the righteous; if it always has water, shelter and favour, why should it not always have leaves, even beautiful leaves? It is no wonder that trees that lack water should be downcast and without leaves or fruit for a season, but the tree that is always, and in the same measure favoured, will never lack fruit. You should now realize that together with what we have said there is a promise from God and a part the righteous man must perform. The words “he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water” etc., is a promise God makes to [f. xcv] man and also the obligation man has toward God. The Lord says that He shall favour and take care of him so that he may always have the resources to bear fruit whenever it be required of him, and that he may never lack leaves nor let them wither. And He demands a response such that he might never be found without fruit or without leaf. The graces from God are, as we already said, faith, hope and love, and these are also the roots of the tree. The fruit and leaves are what is demanded from the

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

roots, which is the outworking of faith and hope and love. And in requiring this, God confers a great favour since He helps him to achieve it. These roots God plants in the elect, in him who feels the need for them and seeks them with great longing and anguish, asking Him who has them. These roots are constantly nurtured with streams of grace in him who does not want to lose them. He knows that in having them he has a blessing, and that the day he should lack them he would become a slave of [f. xcv v] destruction and misfortune. The best way the favour is maintained is by the exercise of the roots. The opportunities to exercise them are favours from God. Each time this man is prompted, or forced, to put his faith into practice lest he should go astray, to reaffirm and strengthen himself in hope, to share and let others benefit from his love is a stream that come down from heaven for the nurturing of his roots, for the growth of his fruit and for the beauty and multiplying of his leaves. Many terrestrial plants are affected by bad weather. Winter is their adversity and there is no power within them to avoid being hurt and deprived of all they have. There is one characteristic about the trees of our righteousness. What seems, on the one hand, to be an adversity is in fact for their benefit and nutrition. The Devil may labors to cast him down but he asks for help from God, who is the Lord of the garden and who first planted him there and to whom he owes his fruit, and He [f. xcvj] so favours him that his winter becomes his spring. He comes out of the trial having stronger roots, more abundant fruit, a more beautiful leaf, furnished and strengthened to be better hereafter. Because it is not him that the Devil encounters but the Lord, who favours him, sends him streams, and shall never fail His own when they call on Him. “The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145). He who knows how weak he really is must call on Him earnestly, and must steadfastly and firmly place his trust in the Divine Word and promise. If men were employed day and night, as our Psalm says, in God’s Word and law, they would have His counsels within their grasp, His examples always present, His wonders acknowledged, His mysteries constantly in mind, so that it would be impossible for this man not to be greatly taken up by it; he would so understand divine mercy and goodness that in his labors and adversities he would recognize God’s favour and mighty hand [f. xcvj v] and the ways through which He guides him to the state of blessedness. For such men, slander is no adversity, neither poverty, nor persecution, nor sickness, nor death. These things, that come from the world and the Devil (who is always engaged in this), are sterile against the good trees; they are frost sent to destroy them and to leave no fruit or leaf. But these trials, insofar as they come from the God who cares for them and has promised to favour them, are compost to their roots and to make them prosper. “But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10). He is so lovingly faithful that He does not

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measure temptation by our strength alone, but by the strength He himself puts in us. It flows abundantly from Him and we benefit from it. And He receives honour in favouring us and making us conquerors, if we in turn seek His glory in obeying His commandments. Nothing [f. xcvij] in the world can befall a man who walks in God’s law that he will not interpret or experience as streams sent from heaven to make him more fruitful and to treasure up more gain in his blessedness. The poor who need your goods, the persecuted who need your favour, the truth for which you suffer, the travails that you bear are all trials for your roots, an occasion for you to blossom and, if you do, they are streams from heaven. There is no reason to avoid trials because they demand of you what they gave you, they give you what was promised you, they require what you promised and they add to what you already possess. In this world the cross is the most common companion of the righteous. The world is wont to punish the righteousness it abhors, by taking revenge on the truth it is offended by. This is the Devil’s ultimate effort with which he intends to uproot the good from obedience and from the Lord’s inheritance. And because he and the world are so united in this business (and are such great artificers), the hardships [f. xcvij v] in which the righteous find themselves, if they will remain righteous while they are in the world, are also exceedingly great. But God delivers them from it all; they come out having such a victory that they are more blessed, and the world and the Devil are more defeated and offended because this is the great sort of injury the Lord wishes for them. The means and instrument whereby God affronts the Devil and the world are the righteous when they are victoriously delivered from adversity and temptation. We have an example of this in Job, whom God set against all of Satan’s victory and forces (Job 1). Thus, the Devil, as one who counts himself affronted in being defeated by the righteous, flees from him having lost all confidence in his strength; as the apostle says: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4). It now remains that we declare the last characteristic of the tree. That is, that all whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. A great [f. xcviij] promise this is, in which David by the Spirit of heaven, by God’s word and in His name, asserts that everything to which the righteous should set their hands will have a prosperous end. The world’s judgment can neither understand nor know this prosperity. We must grasp and understand it with the eyes of faith, for which it is very clear. The hour our heart becomes assured that God’s power is with us to assist us, that His wisdom guides us and His mercy seeks us, we can be sure that everything we do will have a prosperous end and great gain. Of the former, he who follows God’s law must be assured; from whence it follows that the latter is an infallible and unfailing rule. If man were the one who dealt with his own affairs he could understandably doubt whether or not they would have a prosperous end. But since God is the one who deals with them, how can there be any doubt? “If God is for us, who can be

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

against us?” (Romans 8). Imagine there existed a [f. xcviij v] product whose profit were guaranteed no matter how it was handled, and that the benefit could in no way be lost or endangered. If it sank in the sea, the owner would benefit from its loss; if it arrived safely at the fair, he would make great profits; if enemies stole it, if it wasted away or was damaged in any other way, its profit would increase all the more. Whatever news the merchant received, he would rejoice and reward the messenger, being assured that great treasures were to be received as a consequence. So it happens with the business that the righteous places in God’s hands. “My Lord and my God, says our prophet elsewhere, my times33 are in Thy hands.” (Psalm 31). If they were in other hands, even in my own, I would live with great distrust as to whether my business should go well or badly; but, being in Your power, Your wisdom and mercy, I am certain of a good outcome. My joy [f. xcix] is none other than to put my ways in Your hands and to be content, knowing that in everything that takes place I will surely be blessed. Sickness comes from Your hand. If I will acknowledge that it comes from You, and thus receive it, great are the riches and blessedness my sickness shall bring me; if I have good health, this will bring riches. If You, Lord, be served by my being poor, the treasures that are hidden in that poverty are exceedingly great; if you allow that I become wealthy in the way of Your commandments, the treasures of poverty are transferred to wealth. If You set me in a place of honour, I can live trusting that through this path I am guided towards great and prosperous goals; if I live affronted and persecuted in the world, there is my gain found. The earth yields food, I shall benefit from it; I die of famine, I have the same benefit. If I die due to my sickness, the riches that are hidden in this death are great; if You allow me, Lord, to live, it must be in order to attain [f. xcix v] great good. In the end, he that commits his ways to the Lord’s hands cannot be left without gain. One puts one’s ways in His hands is by keeping His commandments, by having a sure and steadfast faith that divine providence and mercy will lead him to a prosperous end. In these hands the apostle Saint Paul put his lot; he adapted to every situation and considered it all good. “Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4). We must not marvel that God’s greatest friends, whom the Divine Scripture mentions, should receive great blessings in this life and the next and should obtain such good report from the mouth of the same Lord who favoured them: such great examples they set for us by entrusting their businesses to God’s will and hand, having the surest conviction that by not straying from obedience [f. xcix v] to His commandments, having their hearts exercised therein, never following other paths or other counsels,

33 Constantino, following the Vulgate, renders the term “lots”; the DRCB also reads “lots.”

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everything they did would have great success. The events and blessings of Abraham’s life proceeded from this root. He never doubted his happiness or the happy issue of his labors although he was in a foreign land, persecuted by the Canaanites, having to flee and being in exile again due to a great famine, deprived of his wife, without legitimate offspring for the inheritance of his possessions and the great hope of his linage. Since he committed everything to divine goodness, mercy and promise, he always saw a favourable outcome. The great poverty and dearth he suffered for many years in the land of Canaan was followed by great power and great abundance of riches and goods in the same land. His wife was restored to him, God having put great fear in those who took her; he achieves victory over his enemies; in his extremely old age and despite Sarah’s barrenness he received [f. c v] the son of the promise from whom the blessing to all peoples would come. Jacob’s prosperity was directed in this same way: in Syria his children and possessions were multiplied; he happily and victoriously escaped from Laban’s persecution; his brother Esau’s wrath was appeased and he found peace and favour with him. At the end of his travails he died with prosperity and honour in Egypt, surrounded by his children, by the great multitude of his offspring and linage. Out of this same root was born the great nation and power of Joseph who, after the peril of death his brothers willingly caused him, after they themselves had sold him, and having suffered persecutions and imprisonment in Egypt, became an extremely mighty prince and the sustainer of the whole land and of his own people. The same path was followed by Job whose lost possessions were restored to him twofold; whom God gave outstanding sons and daughters; who was made to stand out remarkably in the Eastern regions and lived exceedingly [f. cj] long years. Likewise our prophet David had a favourable outcome to his labors and affronts, being delivered on so many occasions from the hand and persecutions of Saul. He obtained numerous victories over his enemies, was restored to his kingdom, and peacefully confirmed therein. So valuable, even after his death, is his memory before the Lord in whom he put his trust, that despite having such evil descendants (who were severely punished for it) God says in the midst of His punishments that he will not utterly cut off their linage for David’s sake nor take the kingdom away from them; that His will is that there always remain a burning candle, a man from that offspring to be king and sit upon David’s throne, as a token in remembrance of the great trust and friendship God had with him. These holy men were greatly tempted, tried with great rigor, burdened with extremely hard crosses, their prosperity had great beginnings, great resources and great adversities. [f. cj v] Yet, in all this they had a faith so great and such perseverance that they never turned away from God’s commandments; rather, they were reaffirmed in them and showed great repentance in any occasion when they slightly wavered. They were assured that if they did not stray from the Lord’s will, He would never cease to do unto them according to whom He is. Adversity they

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

blamed on their own faults. The punishment seemed too light to them, considering the greatness of their sin. They knew that it was all the compassionate discipline of a merciful father who wanted to correct them and set them some kind of boundaries that they should not perish. Their flesh felt the bitter hardships and persecutions, it desired things more pleasing; but their spirit was strengthened and experienced great joy and contentment in seeing that the Lord’s will was done, in committing everything to His care, and waiting always for the solution His mercy would give them, knowing that from such [f. cij] a good hand nothing but good fortune could come. It was not so much what they received (inherent in great undertakings) that made them happy, but rather that through their prosperity men would know what a good Lord He was whom they followed, what a good friend towards His friends, how trustworthy and truthful in what He promised, and that by cherishing these gifts they would begin to attain some knowledge of His greatness and, little by little, be awakened to understand how wise it was to entrust themselves to Him. For this reason the Divine Scripture sets them as an example of how men must walk before God, and of who God is for men. He that would imitate them in the faith must not ask for a situation in this world embellished with prosperity; he must not expect David’s kingdom, nor Abraham’s riches, nor Job’s multiplied goods. The day he tries to imitate them in this, he will not be imitating their faith. For they would never have stopped being faithful [f. cij v] though they had never reached that situation. And not all the faithful reached the same end, neither was their prosperity in this life balanced according to the crosses and torments they experienced. A completely different feeling must be harbored within the spiritual man concerning these examples. The Lord will grant us time to deal with this another day. It will now suffice to sum up with a lesson from this for the man who would be a Christian and for a faithful exposition of the verse. The first thing such a man must do is to accept as a sure and universal principle of his blessedness the keeping of God’s law and obedience to His will. While in this life, as a remedy for himself and for those who are under his care, he must make improvement of the means this very law and divine providence teach and allow him. He must avoid tempting God and must continually remember that he lives in a land of thorns and thistles, and that the sentence against him [f. ciij] has been pronounced that by the sweat of his brow he shall eat his bread (Genesis 3). Let him never admit any help or counsel that is not in accordance with the Divine Word, nay, not for life nor death, nor for all the good or evil that might befall a man in this life. Once this has taken root in his heart and he has asked God’s favour to carry it out, he must then have real faith and firm hope that all will be well and that everything will come to a prosperous and happy end; that by drawing near to God, the fountain of all good, good fortune cannot flee from him. The third thing he must do, which is the key to everything else, is not to set himself up as judge over his own prosperity or adversity or over his well-being or misfortune. He must

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only be concerned with studying and diligently keeping the law of the Lord; let him ponder how much he values it in his own heart; how much his soul’s eyes are enthralled by its beauty. [f. ciij v] In order to do this he must enter into judgment with his own conscience and hear from it how much love for, or enmity against, sin it has. Let him measure all his deeds and thoughts by this law. The rest he must not meddle with. Let him entrust everything to God’s will, taking His commandments as his only light. Great is the pride of the wretched man who dares to set limits on such a great Lord as to his prosperity, who dares to show Him the amount of possessions he needs, so that God should provide according to that measure. Foolish man, what wisdom have you that you should counsel God? What good can you suggest to Him that will not be poor and meager for the One who is the fountain of such immense goods? What can your lowly estate ask for when you have already drawn in advance so much from the treasure house of that infinite power? What can you desire or want for yourself that is not already and most abundantly offered in the merciful hands of the Lord who created and redeemed you, [f. ciiij] and wants to show you who He is through His treatment of you? How much more sensible would you be if, distrusting yourself, you fled from your own notions and kept silent so your foolishness and narrowness would not destroy your blessings, entrusting every matter to Him who wants to use His wisdom to guide you, His power to favour you, His treasures to make you rich, His goodness to bestow upon you, His righteousness to cleanse you, and His mercy to give you the victory over all your enemies! Since by nature man finds a great contradiction in all this, and a great resistance to seek mercy from heaven, he must be asking for it constantly and it will not be withheld. When he feels God’s mighty hand is with him, let him make good use of such help in order to achieve a great victory. The world despises men such as these. No doubt, it considers them foolish and helpless. But how much more reason have they to consider the world to be lost in utter perdition without remedy! I would like to ask you something. Imagine [f. ciiij v] you were dealing with some business transaction of great importance, and at the same time you knew nothing about currency or exchange or bookkeeping or financial discernment; and you had as rivals exceedingly shrewd men who were against your making profit and increasing your estate, and who would employ every manner of tricks and fraud. Let us imagine also that you had a father who loved you beyond measure, who greatly desired you to do well in your business and did everything he could to help you in this, and who was a real expert and was well-informed in everything; that he was notably superior to your opponents in all knowledge, and not only superior to them but to the rest of the world, and that he secretly took care of all your business and bookkeeping and everything you needed. Don’t you think you could walk confidently and sleep, as they say, “a sound sleep” and have a well-grounded laugh

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

[f. cv] at those who laugh at you? Well, this is a suitable analogy of what we are now considering. This foolish world thinks that nobody is taking care of the affairs of God’s servants; they think that they can intrude and do anything to them as though they were alone and had no master, that simplicity has no protection, justice no judge, long-suffering no one to avenge it, and truth no one to vindicate it. In this, the world deceives itself, for there is a Lord over all these things. An exceedingly mighty Lord, who loves them, jealously watches over them, and pursues them. Christians can sleep completely assured that their affairs are in good hands and will have a favourable outcome. “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep, says our prophet, for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4)34 . Everything is in favour of the Christian and for his great gain, if he would recognize it and apply himself to it. It will not bring him prosperity, but in the midst of persecutions and temptations of the Devil, as we said above, he comes out fortified, with better advice and greater mercies. This prosperity increases. Even from sin can the sinner profit if he will forsake it. God’s glory is all the more magnified by forgiving him, for what God delights in most is forgiving the sinner who seeks Him. He attains greater humility and self-knowledge; he is more careful to call upon God; he has greater aversion towards and watchfulness over his sin, as one who has seen its effects and heinousness; and he becomes more grateful to the Lord who delivered him from so much evil. Hence, there is nothing from which the man who seeks God does not obtain a prosperous end. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God.” (Romans 8). The abomination and great evil of man’s offence to God cannot be overemphasized. Yet it is the very same offended Lord who leads the sinner to repentance; He awakens him and shows him favour; He [f. cvj] receives his tears and groans, forgives his sin, restores him to the former friendship; He bestows mercy upon him as though he had never made Him angry. The sinner who comes to know this, what great profit is his! How profitable the punishment that woke him from his sleep, that informed him of God’s wrath against the sinner, warning him and teaching him how to live thereafter! “Before I was afflicted, says David (Psalm 119), I went astray, but now I keep Your word. You are good, and do good; teach me Your statutes”. For if the sinner can profit from something as evil and ruinous as sin, merely by returning to God’s hands, from whence every good thing proceeds, how can we doubt the blessing that will be bestowed on us if we keep His commandments? What will be withheld by One who does not withhold forgiveness from us after

34 Constantino has a slightly different rendering—“…for You, Lord, have granted me the great privilege of a sure and firm hope—“ (“For thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope.” (DRCB)

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we have despised Him? How shall we be forsaken in this life by Him who does so much to give us the other? It then remains that if we have a [cvj v] spark of faith, or if under the name of ‘Christians’ we have no other religion than that of the lost, if we place our blessedness in that which they place theirs, and continue so to do, let us truly repent of our sins, knowing that they are nothing but sorrow and woe and lead to eternal perdition; their sole commitment is to turn us away from God. They provoke His anger and are the reason why creatures made in His likeness become the image of His enemy, the Devil, in whose company those who imitate his works and do not hearken to the voices of those who warn them lest they perish shall dwell eternally. Let us acknowledge, therefore, how much we are obliged to serve that goodness, that immeasurable meekness and mercy of the Lord who seeks us for our own great good. Let us cause His commandments to abide in our hearts, knowing that everything shall most certainly prosper for our good, both in earthly as well as heavenly goods. SERMON IV    [f. cvij] The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. In the preceding verse we dealt with the similitude and comparison of the righteous man and the tree that is planted near the running waters. We said that in the same words were included the signs of the tree and the promise of heaven’s favours and of everything that is required to be such a man. In the next verse a comparison is made of the wicked, the signs they show in this world, the quality of their deeds, and the threat of being forsaken by divine grace if they persist in their ways. The good tree was planted by God’s hand; it had perpetual running waters, it bore fruit in due season, its leaf did not fall and [f. cvij v] everything it did had a prosperous end. The wicked man is like the dust that the wind drives from off the face of the earth. The dust our Psalm is speaking of, according to the exact meaning of the term, is a fine powder that comes from the ear of the wheat or the little husks covering of the grain when it is threshed. I believe husbandmen call it the chaff.35 This, as you know, is easily carried away by the wind. And so the prophet took his simile from something that was formerly green and had a good appearance (when the ear was in the field) but, shortly after, it dried up and turned into dust and was driven by the wind. We must proceed, then, with the differences between the former tree and the dust we are now speaking of, that you may thereby understand the great difference that exists between the righteous and the wicked; the difference between the righteous

35 “… they are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.” (JPS)

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

and the sinful man who follows evil counsel and evil examples and sits in the seat of pestilence. The tree was planted by God’s hand, with deep roots. This other one is planted [f. cviij] by another hand, with shallow roots, being green for a very short time, drying up and swiftly turning into dust and being scattered by the wind. That man who is chosen eternally for heaven and he who is predestined as a reprobate for hell is a great secret of divine wisdom. Nor can any man (nor must he) sentence anyone in this respect. But as we said earlier that the characteristics of the tree were signs of having been planted and chosen by God, so now we affirm that the evil deeds of the wicked, turning away from God’s law, going always from bad to worse, not wanting to hear the Divine Word nor allowing it abide in their souls, are signs and evidence of their reprobation. The good man puts all his trust and hope in that he is in God’s hand, that he is sustained and favoured by it. Everything else he considers fleeting and perishable. He knows that all earthly things are subject to great changes and so he does not put his trust in them, nor is he startled or in despair when he sees that changes take place. The wicked and the lost cling to the earth. [f. cviij v] The deeper their roots are in it, the safer their state appears to them. Hence, in it they plant their honour, their riches, their pleasures and their delights. The children of Hagar, says the prophet, sought the wisdom that is of the earth (Baruch 3); as slaves and plebeians, they placed their aspirations in the hardships and bondage of the world; they did not rightly understand nor value the liberty of the children of God.36 The ears of the wheat look green and beautiful for a few short days, but since its root is weak and the summer comes upon it, they dry up and fall to the ground. And being trampled on and turned into dust, the faintest wind carries them away leaving no memory of them behind. The roots cannot last any longer than the foundation that sustains them. What is there on the earth that in a man’s lifetime, short and miserable as it is, does not suffer a thousand changes? (Ecclesiastes 1 and 3). The roots of the wicked man are of the same quality as the water with which they are watered. This unhappy man lacks running streams; all his hope is dependent on the whimsical course of the clouds. And not of the clouds that are sent by divine mercy, [f. cix] but of those from his vain imagination. No matter how well things go for him or how prosperous his days may be, the summer will come swiftly when he shall be separated from all fruit and shall be as the dust in the wind. These are the miserable waters with which the wicked man is nourished: murky, scanty and deceitful, and lacking when most needed. It has no streams from heaven, not because they are not sent down but because he will not receive them and he is

36 “The children of Agar also, that search after the wisdom that is of the earth, the merchants of Merrha, and of The man, and the tellers of fables, and searchers of prudence and understanding: but the way of wisdom they have not known, neither have they remembered her paths.” Baruch 3,23 (DRCB)

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unfit for them. Regarding the righteous man we said that he opened the channels through which his heart was to receive the graces and streams from heaven. The wicked man shuts them up so they cannot enter. The former opened them because he knew his need and, feeling a great want, he besought God for a remedy. The latter has no sense of his unhappy state or how important it is for him to seek a remedy. He is like the man Solomon describes as one sleeping in the midst of the sea, who is mistreated in his dreams and later remembers, saying: “They have struck me, but I was not hurt; They have beaten me, but I did not feel it” (Proverbs 23). Such is the fortune [f. cix v] of those who, living in the midst of great perils and being surrounded by their sins, remain in an unsafe sleep as the one who sleeps in the midst of the sea in a time of storm and jeopardy. So sluggish and drunk is their pitiful conscience with the wine of their delights, their interests and their passions, that they despise and forget God’s judgment. They are punished with severe grief and they feel it not. What greater grief can be imagined in this world than that of being such a blind and heedless sinner that one cannot feel the scourge of God, who allows him to remain in that state? God gives them life that they may be converted; He lengthens their days, waiting for them and calling them. And they take advantage of all this to go on in their unhappy state and drink the wine of their sleep and their destruction. No matter how much God may shout at them, how many ways He may employ in calling and inviting them, they are so stubborn that with their wickedness they defeat God’s holy repeated pleadings. They do what the [f. cx] prophet says about them: “They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear, which will not heed the voice of charmers, charming ever so skillfuly” (Psalm 58). Here the diligence and power wherewith God calls and seeks sinners is compared with the words and the charms of the charmer who confuses and binds serpents, without the slightest impediment. And the sinner’s evil reaction is comparable to that of the serpent, which resolves in covering his ears lest it hear the charm. This is the resistance the wicked shows against the Word of God, against the opportunities, against heaven’s graces and inspirations. He causes his deafness himself. He himself puts obstacles to his attention. He blinds his own mind not wanting to understand what he understands, always misleading it to other very different goals and hardening his own conscience lest he feel the voices or the gifts or the punishments that come to him from God’s hand. [f. cx v] Here you see how such a man is deprived of God’s favour; he is dry and barren soil without nourishment or virtue to produce any good thing. We said that for the righteous every occasion became channels of watering from whence he greatly benefited and his roots were strengthened. The wicked and hardened man receives no benefit from any of these things nor does he desire to make the most of them; he postpones it all, finds an excuse for everything and is blind to all these things. Being so dry and lacking in nourishment, it necessarily follows that he has no roots. He has no sound faith, he has neither love nor hope, he has neither fruit nor

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

leaf. Everything he has is counterfeit, feigned and false, as will clearly appear when we get to the test. You will ask yourselves, how does it happen that such a sinner, being dust as the prophet says, appears in his own eyes and in the foolish eyes of the world to be a green tree that has roots and bears fruit and leaves? To this I have already answered that this is all fantasy [f. cxj] and the mere imagination of the very person who thinks he is a tree and of those who reckon he is such, when he is merely dust that is driven by the wind as we shall later see. It now remains that we give a longer and more copious explanation of our answer. The world has a water of its own wherewith it waters its wicked and deceitful plants giving them a false being. Hence the fact that those people who have no more discernment than that which they have received from the world deceive themselves and deceive others, believing that what is merely dust and has no good in it is a beautiful tree planted near good running waters and bearing much fruit. The waters of the world are compared by the prophet Isaiah to those of Egypt, whom the Lord threatens that “the waters will fail from the sea, and the river will be wasted and dried up. The rivers will turn foul; the brooks of defence will be emptied and dried up; the reeds and rushes will wither. The papyrus reeds by the River37 , by the mouth of the River, and everything sown by the River, will wither, be driven away, and be no more. The fishermen also will mourn; all those will lament who cast hooks into the River, and they will languish who spread nets on the waters. Moreover those who work in fine flax and those who weave fine fabric will be ashamed; And its foundations will be broken. All who make wages will be troubled of soul” (Isaiah 19)38 . [f. cxj v] These are the waters of Egypt: waters of human wisdom and human confidence, of man’s counsel and contrivance and made by their own hands. With these are the wicked watered and receive that false vitality whereby they are thought to be trees. The first root of the righteous we said was faith. The first and chief root of the wicked man is his own wisdom. Thereby he governs himself in all his thoughts and all his deeds. With it, he measures and calculates the seasons when he must do or stop doing his works. Thereby he manages his prosperity and refrains from his labors. The first and chief danger of the wicked man is that he is not willing to believe that everything is truly guided and well managed by God’s hand. He continually reproaches providence. He thinks there is carelessness in God and that

37 The Nile 38 Though the following comment does not modify Constantino’s exhortation, yet it is curious to note how the wording varies from one version to another: “… all who make wages will be troubled of soul” (NKJV); “…and they that weave networks, shall be confounded. And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all that make sluices and ponds for fish” (KJV); “And its watery places shall be dry, all they shall mourn that made pools to take fishes”. (DRCB); “And her foundations shall be crushed, all they that make dams shall be grieved in soul”. (JPS 1917).

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if he does not resolve matters by his own counsel, or provide a remedy through his own evil inventions, there will be [f. cxij] no good outcome leaving it merely to heaven and God’s rule. Hence, when things do not turn out in accordance with his appetites, he seeks the counsel of the wicked and the example of sinners. All heavenly streams he puts aside and rejects; he will only be helped by the pools of Egypt. When God gives the poor the opportunity of doing well and being helped whenever He allows and puts riches before him, and a possibility of earning them, he becomes more greedy, he pretends to be suffering more need and greater plights, his covetousness is kindled and he assumes more obligations in order to claim his treasures. When God makes him poor so that by this stream from heaven he may humble himself and suffer the cross and bear abundant and fine fruit unto God, he turns blasphemous against the divine work, impatient to bear the cross, a thief, a liar and deceiver, full of a thousand duplicities to remedy his poverty. He is granted good health so that, being [f. cxij v] admonished and watered by this water from the Lord’s hand, he may work in this world and lawfully provide for his needs and provide for others’ as well so that in the pathway of the calling and state where God has put him he may be a fruitful and profitable tree for humanity; yet he uses this health in becoming a beggar, in living idly (and the more idle he becomes, the more dissolute he is), in brutish delights, in malice, in occupations and activities abominable to God’s glory and to other men.39 If sickness comes his way, whether by his

39 Juan de Valdés also denounces idleness: “God commands that especially on holy days we refrain from sinning. That is what, properly speaking, ‘sanctify the holy days’ means: to refrain from doing sinful acts those days. This is badly observed among Christians, needless to say. When on holy days I see groups of gossipers, which David rightly calls ‘to sit in the chair of pestilence’ (Ps. 1), or gamblers, some in the public square and others outside the city walls, I burn with such indignation that I would like to cry out loud. Wouldn’t it be better for each one of them to work in the fields than to offend God? All I can say is that the customs of the Christians have degenerated to such a point and they have become so indifferent that when we think we were keeping the holy days, we break them. And on the very days God asks us to refrain from sinning and give ourselves wholly and entirely to Him, on those very days we act sinfully and give ourselves wholly to Satan. EUSEBIO : But if you think this is so awful, why don’t you, being an ecclesiastical dignitary, remedy it? ARCHBISHOP : What can I say? These things need a general remedy and what I regret is the meager interest there is in applying a remedy. If it depended on me, I promise you I would remedy it rapidly. In my dioceses I am beginning to apply a solution and, if God spare me, I’ll set things moving in another direction. But, back to our subject. The good Christian must regard every day a holy day, complying with this precept and sanctifying every day. I mean, he must improve his habits and way of life until he reaches full perfection (Eph. 4), and especially on Sundays and holidays. But I want you to know that in order to keep all the Commandments to the point that by them one can attain eternal life, it is needful that he be free from mortal sin and that he have charity, which is the perfect love of God (I Cor. 13), for where this is lacking, though one keep all the Commandments

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

sins or by the hand of God he is called by this stream to be patient to acknowledge his great guilt, to abstain from sinning, and to bring to mind heavenly things, he takes all possible care in procuring the world’s remedies, forgetting who he is and God’s hand upon him, cursing Him. Placed in a state of honour or a state of dignity so that considering this condition and acknowledging divine providence he should use his position and power [f. cxiij] in providing protection for and being favourable to the needy, the lonely and the disadvantaged, he becomes filled with conceit and tyrannizes the world. Neither can the great tolerate him, nor can the poor. If, on the other hand, it is God’s will that he be placed in a lesser state, intending to humble him and make him understand that this is a way of preventing the dangers of pride and evildoing, then he turns to the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners, and with great treachery and harm to his neighbours and great offence against God, he tries to climb higher and higher above what God willed or His Word allowed him. If persecuted by the world, affronted and reviled, instead of drinking from

outwardly, he does not keep them in the manner they were instituted, for in order to attain this love, we must ask God for it. And this is my argument: he who would keep the Commandments as required must do so through prayer. Prayer will bring the best results (James 5). Hence, it is only reasonable that we say something here about the activities a Christian ought to engage in on those days and how he should hear mass and the sermon, and other things, but we will leave that for another day. EUSEBIO : Rightly said. But I’m amazed at how lightly you pass over the attitude of the common people regarding holy days, for they think they keep them by not hoeing and sewing (Isa. 5) and yet they spend the whole day gambling and doing similar or even worse things. ARCHBISHOP : Since this is such a widespread practice, especially among the common people, there is no more to be said than what has been said. ANTRONIO : To illustrate this, I want to tell you an amusing incident that happened in my hometown when I was a young boy and which came to my mind as I was hearing you talk. It happened that on one Transfiguration Daythere was a very bad hail storm and it so happened that on that same day a certain farm laborer, a very simple man, planted some turnips in his field. Some neighbors of his who saw it told others, and it went from mouth to mouth until the whole village knew about it. They all came to the conclusion that the reason for the hail storm was that the man had planted turnips and had broken the feast day. The cathedral chapter met and sentenced him to pay for the candle wax for several masses and to offer a dinner to all the members of his guild, all of which cost the poor man a lot of money. ARCHBISHOP : Amusing story! This sounds more like a sentence his guild would impose. And you can be sure that there must have been in the town many who spent the day playing cards and playing dice and going after women, others telling lies, gossiping, doing business, and other similar things, and no one blamed them for the hail, but only the poor farmer. Oh, blessed be God! He is so patient to tolerate so much evil and such blindness. I tell you, of a truth, that it makes my heart break to think of it. I’m not saying the farmer was not wrong, but I lament the little respect people have for God’s commandments and I lament the false and deceitful judgment with which we judge these things. Juan de Valdés, Dialogue on Christian Doctrine, trans. William B. Jones and Carol D. Jones, [1980: fol. 26r–fol. 27v].

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such running waters, enduring it patiently, forgiving his enemy, acknowledging how many greater things have been forgiven him by divine mercy, he retaliates in anger and turns into a violent beast carrying out his vengeance through all possible means in order to harm his neighbour. His life is spent in laying sins upon sins, and yet [f. cxiij v] God’s goodness still awaits him. But, since he gains nothing from it, he does not want to acknowledge the fact that he is only given those years out of great mercy to call him to repentance. He resorts to old age or to the time when he reckons he will be so full of vice that he will not be able to pile up any more and that, weary of his sins, he will forsake them or they will forsake him. He puts off all opportunities, shuns all good works; he is quick to do all kinds of evil but for every good thing he finds pretexts and excuses; his appetite is eager and his feet are swift to do evil. And just as he speaks irreverently against God’s providence and mercy, so he does against His justice. With deceitfulness and hypocrisies he offers things of no value and vain sacrifices, daring to think that divine goodness is such that it can be satisfied with his deceitful deeds. This is the first root of the wicked; this is what he has instead of faith. And if he says that he has true faith, such as God wants His children to have, by his fruits we shall convince him that he is lying [f. cxiiij] (when we deal with the fruits) and this can be demonstrated by his confession. Come forth, lost man, you who are so lost, so bold and so shameless, whom do you say you believe in? What is the first article of your religion? If you reply that you believe in Almighty God, Creator of heaven and earth, can you not see that you are lying? If He is almighty, how is it that you dare to be His enemy and contradict His commandments? If He is almighty He must also be all-wise, all-good and all-just. Then, why, pray tell, do you blaspheme about His goodness, mock His wisdom and want to satisfy His justice with deeds so false that they would not even satisfy your own, being evil as you are? “For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified” (Romans 2). Why do you show no sign of what you say you believe? Why do you not walk humbly with the One you say is so able? Why do you not follow the counsel of Him who knows so much? Why do you not try to please Him who is so good? [f. cxiiij v] These wicked men forsake what they profess to be good; they follow what they affirm to be evil. Therefore, we must conclude that they utterly lack true faith, they obstruct heaven’s streams, they willingly receive the Egyptian waters of their own wisdom, of their appetites’ satisfaction and of the blessedness, which the world so deceitfully offers them. They also lack the second root, which is love, because they love neither God nor do they love their neighbour. That they love not God is clear, for they do not trust in Him. And they deceive themselves when they think they love Him. To prove this, let us ask them to honestly say if they would be content with another man who swore that he loved them, but that experience showed that this man was betraying them; that he had fellowship with their enemies; that he did the opposite

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

of what they asked; that he took possession of the estate they had entrusted him with; that he administered it in a way contrary to what they had commanded; that he reviled their honour and their faithfulness, and that he wanted to make it up to them [f. cxv] through feigned words and deeds. Would they believe such a man loved them? Well, such men they are before God. We have clearly shown, I believe, that the sinner has no love for God. Neither does he have love for his neighbour. Because all love that he has towards him is directed and ultimately leads to his own contentment. The evidence is clear; he so desperately seeks his own benefit at his brothers’ expense, that whenever he does not achieve it he becomes his enemy, or at least a false friend. Thus, if he has any love for those he calls his friends it is only because of the interest and the pleasure that results from their friendship. If he loves his own child it is not because God gave it to him or because he would want his child to be saved and obey God’s law but, rather, because he is a piece of his own flesh. And the same way he loves the flesh he still has left, and he relishes its honour, its pleasures and its happiness, so in the same manner [f. cxv v] he loves the part that is in his child and relishes the same things in him. Therefore, whom shall this man genuinely love if he does not love his own child? We have evidenced how sinners lack the second root, which is love. They also lack the third root, which is hope. The same fear they have of lacking material goods, which guides them so contrary to what God commands, takes away the faintest sense of true hope. Even in the midst of their prosperity and in the spring of their delights the dread of lacking something terrifies them. They can trust nothing with sure confidence because they themselves have experienced that those things they trust in are subject to great hazards. For no reason other than this are they so heedful and so sleepless; their diligence is born out of nothing but their own distrust and their fear. Whence comes the fact that the wicked can never be truly happy; they can never have true peace or true security. The wicked have no peace, says the Lord (Isaiah 48). If [f. cxvj] what they love, what they work for and what they desire were a surety (which is impossible), the very struggle of their conscience, the testimony of God’s law would suffice to cause a great war, more so when all these join together. In the very abundance and possession of their interests, they fear the dearth that may be ahead. In their want, they despair and are never sure they shall receive any interests. Fainting in their labor, fretting in prosperity, good tidings never enter their hearts without some bad company; the complete opposite of this is what accompanies the hope that the righteous have in God. And the Lord does not allow that the vain confidence with which the wicked proceed should have the signs and effects of the trust which is put in Him, nor that they should achieve through their foolishness what is attained by the righteous through the confidence they have in divine goodness and mercy. We have proved, it seems to me, how the wicked man has no roots (nor is it possible that he have them) for he does not have, nor does he want to have, running

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waters from heaven. Let us move forward [f. cxvj v] and see what fruit he has. Any sound person will judge that the plant which has no roots can have no fruit; and if it should appear to have fruit it must be feigned and obtained as though by magic, of no value or consequence. Instead of faith he will have his own judgment and wisdom; instead of love, his own interests; instead of hope, his own confidence. The roots are feigned and vain, consequently, the fruits will be feigned and vain.40 The righteous man bore fruit not when he chose to (he did not really have or want to have a choice), but he yielded it according to the time God indicated. The wicked man never does when God commands, but in the time he himself decides, and that time never comes. The sinner never knows the time or season when God demands the fruit. [f. cxvij] The time the evildoer chooses will never arrive, nor is it possible that it should come, because the season when he wants to bear fruit is winter and God asks for it in the spring, and only God knows or estimates the right time to

40 Regarding feigned devotion, Juan de Valdés observes: “ARCHBISHOP : Yes, it is a commandment of God, but I see the great devotion some persons place in certain fastings and other things God does not command. You should teach the children to put that devotion in fulfilling God’s commandments. That way, their devotion will be so great that they will voluntarily do that which is of perception, gladly keeping it and fulfilling it with enthusiasm and love. (Rom. 12; Gal. 4; I Tim. 1) ANTRONIO : Very well. I’m not asking you about that sort of devout practice, but the popular type. ARCHBISHOP : Well, I’m interested in that type because the person who does not practice this kind, the other avails him little. And he who practices this kind of devotion has no need for anyone to tell him what he should practice of the other kind. Believe me, father priest, the main foundation you must lay in the hearts of children is love for righteousness and abhorrence for evil; next, that the Law of God be fixed in their hearts to the point that it can never be removed. (James 1; Ps. 33) As for those other practices of reciting prayers and fastings, and other similar things, they are all extras. Since they are all things people practice on their own, with no obligation, let each one do as he pleases. Nevertheless, always insist that the prayers of those you catechize be very discrete and that they only ask Him for things that redound in His glory and the salvation of their souls. And this should not always be done by repetition of this or that prayer, but in words that proceed from the heart, in conformity with their needs, (I Cor. 14; Mat. 6) for I want you to know that the burning desire of the heart, and not the thundering of many words, reaches God’s ears. ANTRONIO : Then, according to this, you wouldn’t have us repeat the prayers of the rosary or prayer books since that is not an obligation. ARCHBISHOP : That’s not what I’m saying. Let the person who wants to do it that way, do so to his heart’s content. But to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t hold it against him who does not follow the rosary or the prayer book, not being that a requirement, if I see he lives a holy life. (Ps. 1) Nor would I think better of the person who repeats the established prayers if that were the only sign of Christianity I saw in him. I say this because I know many who, if you see them in church with their prayer books and beads, you’d thing they were Hieronymites, and once outside, and even inside, once they’ve ended the required number of Lord’s prayers and Psalms, they are so quick to gossip about their neighbor and to tell lies, wickedness and meanness, that it is most shameful. Juan de Valdés, Dialogue on Christian Doctrine, trans. William B. Jones and Carol D. Jones, [1980: fol. 74r–75r]

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

bear good fruit. The wicked man knows no occasion, no season in which he is demanded to be fruitful. He appeals to wealth, he appeals to poverty. He hides behind his honour, or his affront. He excuses himself due to health or to illness. The time of pleasure is not a good time for him, nor is the time of sorrow. Each of these seasons is God’s time if we consider His justice and His mercy. None of them are the right time for the wicked if we consider their plan. When will it be spring for this man to bear fruit? The season he suggests, since it is feigned, is a useless time, incapable of fruitfulness. If he allows God’s time to go by, he must remain barren. In this manner God reproves the people of Israel through Jeremiah: “Even the stork in the heavens knows her appointed times; and the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow observe the time [f. cxvij v] of their coming and going. But My people do not know the judgment of the Lord;” etc. (Jeremiah 8). Here the great blindness and the wickedness of sinners coincide, because, while fowls know by the signs of the seasons when they must go and when they must return, and they profit from this knowledge delaying neither their going nor their return; these sinners, having God’s law which declares the times and seasons they must bear fruit, will not acknowledge it, yielding no fruit unto the Lord and themselves deceived. Wherefore, Christ our Redeemer weeps over Jerusalem, prophesying her destruction, for she did not know the time of her visitation (Luke 19). This is what the wicked are to expect and what may justly come upon them, for they usurp the place of another in estimating and deciding the time when God wants to be served. Since they are mistaken about the season, they are also wrong about the fruit. Since they have not the real roots, their fruit is not genuine either. We shall see it more clearly by examining the fruits although it is clear enough from what we have said about the roots. This repetition will be useful for you to better understand and remember it, if you would benefit from it. When the fruit of faith is required of the sinner, [f. cxviij] as demanded by God’s law and whereby He is served, no matter how small it may seem to the world, it is indeed great and of high esteem before His eyes. The sinner must not let such an opportunity pass him by because he will lose much in doing so; no evil can befall him because God takes him under His charge. If the path seem rough to him, He is by his side; if he meets hardships, God will give a good repose. The wicked man responds to this by choosing other means of his own invention, fearing adversity, rejecting travails, fearing what he should not fear and undertaking and underestimating the dangers involved. He is offered the pleasures of heaven but, since he has no faith, he neither feels them nor relishes them; he neither tries them nor desires them. He is pleased with nothing but the world’s ugliness and its obscenities. As he has no purity of heart, nothing of a noble spirit finds room to abide in him. All this is a sign of his being devoid of true faith and true knowledge. [f. cxviij v] For he neither apprehends who the Lord that created him really is nor what the ways are by which He calls him and wants to lead him.

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By another sort of fruit we shall know that he is without the root of love and that instead he has his own evil interests, and a false and feigned love toward God and toward his neighbour. Observe carefully his dealings with other men and let us see what motivates these dealings. He is so bent on seeking his own benefit in everything, that he will shamelessly tell us there is nothing wrong with seeking one’s own good and avoiding one’s own damage, though it be at other people´s great expense. He wants others to lose so he may profit. He wants others to have less so he may appear the richer; he wants others’ honour to decrease so his may increase. His pleasures increase with the grief of others. The sins of the wicked we are speaking of appear to be less evil than those of the wicked who openly, [f. cxix] and as men lacking both reason and law, steal the honour and possessions of others; for without the slightest fear of God or of man they are clearly and manifestly the destruction and dissipation of other men. Whence it follows that they no longer seem so wicked who in all their affairs and in everything they undertake seek their own benefit and interests at their neighbours’ expense, because they do not assault them on the roads or things like that. To try to make them understand that these are not the works of God’s law but that they must strive to do far more for their fellow men leads nowhere because in their heart there is no root of love. And since they lack this root they will necessarily not only not bear good fruit but they will never even relish the thought of bearing it. Forgiving their neighbour’s reproach seems foolishness to them. Doing good to their enemy [f. cxix v] they deem impossible, nor does the thought of it even appeal to them. Give alms to the poor, how rarely they do it, and how painful it is for them to give what is their duty to give, how slowly and slothfully they do it, how in accordance with their own carnal preferences and judgment; how much more they do it for their own satisfaction than for others, for in the end their own satisfaction and contentment is above all others! And what evidences their blindness the most and shows that they lack genuine roots is that they are sure that when they have done these things they have truly performed acts of charity. Since such a man has not the law of God in his heart, nor will he take counsel from it, he does not test his own deeds lest he should stop deluding himself and see how mistaken they are. He gives with sorrow, God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9). He is slow and stingy; God wills that he assist him immediately and not that he leave it to his neighbour to buy the remedy with difficulty. But, why waste our time? He is lacking the root of faith, [f. cxx] so how else could he be but without love? He does not entrust anything to God, how could he entrust it to men? He thinks he will lack heavenly things, how can you expect him not to think he will lack earthly things? He understands not that the Lord cares for him, how should he care for others? He is not thankful for God’s benefits nor acknowledges that they come from His hand, how can he be generous in giving them away? He would not consider how, being such an evil man, divine goodness gives him time to repent and

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

to receive forgiveness of his sins, how can he have a heart to forgive his neighbour? He has no humility nor does he know what it is or how much he owes; how, then, can he do what he does with true humility and true knowledge? If he does anything at all for his neighbour or if any deed coming from his hands looks like charity, it has a false name and false colour. God’s law is not demonstrated therein, but his own judgment; not God’s divine commandment, but his own interest; not obedience to the Lord, but his own happiness; [f. cxx v] not genuine love for his neighbour, but his own carnal desire; not the glory of heaven, but his own glory; not the humility and silence of love, but the declaration and public proclamation of his vanity and his pride. These are the fruits he yields, when he yields any. And as the roots are, so are the fruits. This is no less true regarding the fruits of hope, because in the same way that he lacks hope, so also he lacks the fruits of hope. We began saying, if you remember, and we shall now declare it more clearly, that the affection of hope is a joy accompanying works, diligence in labor, a glimpse, though from afar, of its destination, the tidings of certainty that it must all have an end of great prosperity and a fulfilment of what has been promised. The wicked man is lacking all this, and it must needs be so. No matter how happy the world may make him, those changes he is so afraid of continue to trouble him. And he gives great diligence to his business for no other reason than this: because he is exceedingly fearful. The more he advances, the more his fear grows. If he calls God to mind, [f. cxxj] he can see how He eludes him; if he looks at the world he trusts in, it also frightens him; if he looks at his age, he sees his days coming to an end; if he considers his betrayals, he fears that they should be discovered; if he thinks about the account he must give, he knows what remedy he has; if he considers repentance from his sins, he finds them deep inside his heart and he is still lost because of them. These are the fruits that the wicked man bears for himself and for his owner. Let us proceed further and deal with the leaves, because just as the fruits are, so shall the leaves be. They can’t help but have a very bad colour. And if they should look good, it is only hypocrisy and pretence. Of what use can the wicked be in the world but an insult to their Maker, a reproach to the law of God, an obstacle for all good things, an invitation to evildoing, harming men and deceiving the world? This is the work of his pride; it is the work of his envy, of his greed, of his betrayal, of his delights and blunders, and of [f. cxxj v] his pretense and his false colour of goodness. He is a pestilence upon the earth and as such he infects others, ruining their health. One haughty person makes a thousand haughty people, one greedy man a thousand greedy men, one envious person another thousand, a carnal man ten thousand more, and so does the hypocrite. He is not just harmed by his vices but infects others with the same vices. A sin kills the subject it falls upon, and contaminates the rest. They are all each other’s enemies and jointly the enemies of good. While the leaves of the righteous are medicine, those of the wicked are

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disease. The former are for the glory of God, the latter are contempt and blasphemy of His majesty. The righteous tree was completely full of good, full of fruit, full of leaves, happy with itself and making others happy. This other tree is full of evil, dry and unhappy with itself, and also dry and displeasing for others. Everything the former does has a prosperous end. With this one, everything goes from bad to worse and from one disaster to another. It has evil roots and an evil foundation and so it will have a [f. cxxij] bad outcome. What remains to the wicked that can have a good outcome? For what they judge to go well must go wrong in the end. The things he is most confident about are his sacrifices and those deeds he calls ‘good’, whereby he thinks he shall redress his wickedness and oblige God to cause all his affairs to prosper. Concerning his sacrifices, a sentence has already been passed where it says that “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord” (Proverbs 15), because everything they do is without fulfilment and without the true fire of faith; they have neither love nor hope. Therefore, deeds that are good in themselves are nor rejected or disapproved of on account of the deeds themselves, but because of the hand that carries them out. The deeds he performs are feigned before men, feigned before God, and they are feigned even for him that does them. In the end, they are the outworking of a bad conscience and they have not as their light or guide the will of the Lord whom they claim to serve. It is justly said that “the hope of the hypocrite shall perish” (Job 8), for it is vain and has [f. cxxij v] no foundation. Let such a sinner try to obtain whatever benefits he will, let him defeat all the world’s servants in the covetous pursuit of his interests; we shall not linger to argue with him about this for, in effect, he will not deny that he does not do the works God’s will demands of him, that he is not His servant or a subject of His kingdom, and that he has nothing with which to appear before His justice. If he means that he could be much worse, he is surely right. If he wills that God pay him accordingly and give him heaven because his deeds could be worse, let him present his allegations. If he is satisfied because he moves among the dead, because in the world’s eyes he is green (because compared with others who are a lot more evil he seems to be a fruitful tree), let him not be deceived by the world’s opinion or compare himself with those he deems so much worse than himself. Let him view himself as he is seen in God’s eyes, who is the true judge and Lord of the land; let him measure himself against the righteous and hear the divine sentence which asserts that the good are as [f. cxxiij] trees planted near the running waters, who bring forth fruit in due season and whose leaf does not fall, and whatsoever they do shall be prospered. He is like such fine dust and so insignificant that the wind drives him from the face of the earth. As the tree is, so is the fruit it bears: “every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7). He is eaten up within by disobedience to God, by not responding to the effect or to the end for

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

which he was created, by the lack of righteousness required to appear before the presence of divine goodness, by contempt for His commandments, by audacity to challenge His might, and at times especially by a rash confidence in what he does, by pride because he is not worse. Do I hear the phrase I am so accustomed to, ‘that this is a great disadvantage for sinners, a great discomfort for the wicked. How can they go to heaven if this be true? These sentences cannot possibly be so harsh as they sound, nor can God be so strict with sinners’, and things of the like. The day of our last sermon was a celebration of the favour of the righteous. [f. cxxiij v] Today it is that of the condemnation of the wicked. The Divine Scripture shows no partiality, nor does it respect persons. As the former was true, so the latter is also true. You are horrified by what we have said because your conscience knows that it has the deadly wounds of great sins. You cannot stop knowing that you are evil and you are so frightened by the sentence you hear that if it were up to you, you would stop the ears of your very conscience. Well, my friend, if you think the sentence is so terrible, seek an escape. If you would not be such wretched dust, give up wanting to be such a wicked man. Behold, it is exceedingly wicked of you, more than all your wickedness, to want to be so evil before the Lord who created you and redeemed you and waits for you, and yet expect Him not to be so just as to punish you and to honour His goodness. If you say you would escape from your misfortune (and you really mean it) we shall later bring you good news, for that is what the Divine Word does. If you claim that you are incapable, that you lack the strength and that your sin is exceedingly [f. cxxiiij] powerful, you are right. The smaller you think you are for this great task, the more you know your own weakness, the better you will judge and the more willingly and confidently you will ask God for his grace, and He will bestow it fully. Confess your misery and your little ability, and He will not fail to give you such great strength and such great courage that all the devil’s power, which is the mightiest in the whole earth, will not suffice to resist you. Be resolved to ask, for there is plenty to be given to you. Start to turn from your ways, because you are already being favoured. Open your hands and your heart, for your needs are being supplied and provided for. Endeavor to open your doors, for they are being knocked on. Go out on the path, for they are coming for you and they are waiting and hoping for you to come out. But if you claim to be incapable merely as an excuse and a warrant to remain in your sins, if you confess [f. cxxiiij v] that your strength fails simply to avoid benefiting from the strength God gives, if you are stubborn and rebellious sinners who want to continue sleeping on the bed of your own destruction, who are not awakened from your sleep by your conscience’s accusations nor by how much you owe the Lord who created you, nor by the threat of His Word, nor His dreadful judgment, then, you are exceedingly blind and haughty because, notwithstanding all this, you want to be flattered, to be told sweet words, to hear that there is a good outcome to such

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a lost path and that God should flatter His enemy, the despiser of His goodness and power, and give him a kind of licence to persevere in such evil conduct. Rightly considered, a sinner such as this is asking for nothing other than encouragement to go on his way, hope to uphold him in the midst of evil. It seems to him that his sin lacks relish if there is not added to it the pleasure of being informed or assured that after [f. cxxv] being fully satisfied by the savor of his wickedness in the world, he shall have a prosperous end and suddenly appear in heaven. Of this evil sort of men we cannot speak well when He that knows them and is to judge them speaks so harshly of them. What will the sinner’s end be? Will he show repentance before he parts from this world or not? Will he take advantage or not of the mercy which divine goodness uses with him? This we cannot know, nor must our curiosity venture to judge this secret. Only God knows, by whose compassion and mighty hand many that led a bad life reached a holy death. But while the sinner perseveres in his wickedness, while he despises the mercy of the God who calls him and he continues to add to or remain firmly in his sinful deeds, the Holy Scripture treats him harshly; he is accused and sentenced as an enemy of divine goodness; it brings him bad tidings; [f. cxxv v] it shows great enmity against all his things and predicts a ruinous fate for him. A dwelling is made known to him which accords with his path. And since this is the treatment he receives from God’s Word, it is sufficient evidence that this is the most convenient medicine for his wounds. By these cauterizations he must be healed, by such sentences his hardness must be tried in order to break it, with this balance he must estimate the worth of his desires, with this sound he must be awakened from that pernicious sleep and repose which his doomed conscience ventures to fall into. And since this is what God does what He says and what He commands, this will therefore be the most accurate way to treat him, and there is no reason for me or for anyone else to go astray by trying another way or treating him in a different manner than the very Lord, who is to judge him, does. Hearken carefully and consider if anything harsher can be said against sinners whom we have declared to be rebellious and stubborn, than what the Spirit of the Lord says today [f. cxxvj] through our prophet: they are as fine dust which the wind drives from off the face of the earth. Ponder and try to understand the nature and worth of that dust with respect to and compared with the trees that are planted by the running waters, that we already dealt with, and you shall see that nothing greater can be stored up against the wicked. This sentence does not stand alone in the Divine Scripture. All the others that speak about this matter and in these circumstances sound the same note. You will not find some softer so that you might appeal to them over against the others. Perhaps it will seem to you that in these places God speaks of a kind of sinner that has never been seen around here, of men who existed in ages past and faraway lands, whose demeanor and judgments were monstrous, very different from all others; who committed unheard-of and

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

unthinkable sins, who died long ago and whose memory is no more. Well, you are greatly deceived , [f. cxxvj v] because those whom the Divine Scripture threatens in this manner are much more common and more easily found than you think. If you would examine in depth what you are saying, you are right in one respect. A sinner is a monstrous thing, for he is utterly contrary to what God demands that he be. And inasmuch as he is so ugly and monstrous a thing, he should be exceedingly rare in the world; he should hardly ever be found; all men should flee from him and he from them. But according to the fashion and judgment of the world in their treatment of these things, the truth is that the sinners we are speaking of are not so monstrous or dreadful as you imagine. Their demeanor is like yours; and if you looked in a good mirror you would find that they look much like you, as though they were your siblings or your exact image. They know what you know, they speak in the same way you do and their reasoning is like yours. If you saw them at midnight you would not flee from them or be suspicious [f. cxxvij] because among these people there happen to be some of such good appearance, that you will judge them to be saints and think they will be taken up to heaven straightway. You have heard about the sins of these people; it is likely that you will find them on the streets and, who knows, maybe even in your own house. I am not like the Stoics who said that all sins were equal. I know very well that some are more abominable and heinous than others. But for the monsters we are dealing with, ordinary and everyday wickedness is sufficient and, I daresay, excessive. Does it not seem to you that to break God’s commandments, wherein He has declared His will, His beauty and His justice and declares the threat of eternal hell for those who despise all this is not enough to understand what is said in the Divine Scripture about such sinners? Do you not think it is enough just to be greedy, or to be a thief, a deceiver of his neighbour, a perjurer, an adulterer, fornicator, a false witness, a murderer [f. cxxvij v] in deed or in the heart, scandalous and a bad example, an obstacle to God’s glory and a despiser of His mercy and His justice? Is this not sufficient that it be said of them that they are like dust, driven by the wind from the face of the earth? Must they be Pharaohs, Sardanapaluses41 and Judases? Must they perforce be worse than beasts for God to be angry with them and for His Word to treat them with wrath? More so since these have the persistence and obstinacy we have said, being so at ease in their wickedness, so heedless of what they should do and yet so mindful of persisting in the evil they do. Against these, divine justice shows itself so severe; as for the others, we have already dealt with them as the Scriptures do, offering them good hope.

41 The king of Assyria. In Ezra (4, 10) he is called Asnappar (KJV); Osnapper (NKJV); Asenaphar (DRCB); Asenappar (JPS 1917); etc.

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Christian charity and the greatness of the Lord’s mercy and goodness invite us all, and compel us to trust that His hand will reach out to any sinner, though it may seem [f. cxxviij] to us an abominable and heinous thing. But we also know that if man is so rebellious as to refuse the benefits of what this supreme goodness does in his favour, that which the very Lord’s justice has ordained against those who despise it shall be executed upon him. Notwithstanding, such is the blindness of many sinners that they cannot understand it is on their behalf that such harsh things are said. They always insist that their sins are not so great that they should be treated in this manner. They imagine there are other greater evils than to break God’s commandments. I have already said how there are some sins greater than others and also that to trespass the commandments we all know by heart, in the way I have declared, is sufficient reason to apply these threats to those who so relish their sin that they desire to continue in it. I thought there was only one kind of perfection: that which [f. cxxviij v] belongs to those who not only keep the commandments but also keep the counsel. They say that if they do not wish to be perfect, nobody forces them to; they can leave the counsels and take the commandments. Well, I think there exists another form of perfection; and if it is not practiced in words, at least it is practiced in deeds. You will readily find people who consider themselves Christians while not keeping the commandments, at least as they should be kept. They must somehow think that this is also counsel; that it is their freedom to take it or leave it. They infer that to keep the commandments the way their observance demands is something that belongs to supreme holiness, to extraordinary perfection, that is to say, it is for those who are very upright and very spiritual. For those who would not be so holy, but simply enter heaven, other holy practices will suffice, other devotions and things with which they canonize themselves, with which (it seems to them) they can get by and live pleasantly. It is not said as bluntly as I say it, [f. cxxviiij] but you must concede that it is put into practice as clearly as I say it. Who do you think brought about this digression, whose voices did I think I heard complaining that we made the way too narrow for them, that we shut every door, and that we made them despair with the threats from the Holy Scripture? They are none other than these same people. Because those who truly know themselves and apply to themselves what God says, do not say such things. For we require nothing else from them but that they keep and observe the commandments. We ask not that men become monks or that they go off to sleep in deserts, much less that they work miracles or that they speak to angels. Ten commandments you must keep, O man, if you would not be God’s enemy. This exhortation, that you now laugh at as though it were something you’ve known from childhood, is what offends you, what you consider so harsh and so weighty and such a hard obligation; this is the sentence you want to appeal against and the yoke your conscience labors so hard to rid itself of. [f. cxxviiij v] You do not say that God’s commandments seem wrong

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

to you; you abhor such blasphemy, yet you would like them to be much softer so you could retain the pride of your vanity, vengeance against your neighbour, your little fear of God, frauds in your business. You would like holy water to wash away your laxity and your blunders; that bearing the cross were not demanded of you, nor fighting a war against yourself, nor genuine mortification. And since the very commandments this man professes are what demand all this of him, he will not (or, better said, he dare not) complain about them but complains about me, or others of the same office, because we do not temper them so that they may not pierce his heart so deeply. Yet it behooves us to settle our account with these people so you may see how sin blinds those whom the world deems wisest and how rightly it is said that carnal wisdom is absurd and vain, touching God’s things, and how exceedingly foolish the things of God seem if they be examined by human wisdom (Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 2). Tell me, my friend, you that consider [f. cxxix] this sentence harsh: if you are wicked and a sinner and be as the dust that is driven by the wind from the face of the earth; what, pray, seems so wrong to you about this? Is it declared in obscure terms or poorly expressed? It is absolutely clear, and even clearer if you make good use of the comparison in the preceding verse where it says that the righteous is like a tree planted by the running waters, etc. Who, pray tell, do you complain about, God or me? You would not dare to say the former, and I can understand that. About me, then. But why? Because my words are earnest, because I do not soften them or mix them in a way that they may hurt you less, leave you in peace, more at ease and with hope? Have I guessed correctly? I think I have. I will not tell you now how I would betray you if I did that. I want to go a different way. Let us imagine I were so good in your opinion (and so vile in mine) that I should do what you want; tell me now, for your own sake, would you believe me? [f. cxxix v] Can you not see that there is God on one side and I am on the other? He says you are dust, the smallest and most insignificant thing that can be imagined. I, in order to please you or due to my vanity, flatter you making you believe you are something better. And do you believe me? As for my earnestness, how can I trivialize the matter? Can you not see what was said of the righteous: fruitful tree, full of leaves, whatsoever he does shall prosper? Well, put together the complete opposite of this, and you will see what you are. And you must needs see it this way, for the former is God’s friend and you are His enemy. What is left for me to do here? God heals you with cauterizations, and should I heal you with animal fat42 ? He speaks from the mindfulness of His wisdom and has sworn that in all the Scriptures and in His law

42 Organic sources such as plant parts, animal fat, and honey were used as wound covers in ancient times to facilitate the healing process; cauterizing a wound is the process of literally burning it, or branding it with a hot iron, in order to seal it off and prevent blood loss.

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there is no glimpse of untruth or anything that shall not be fulfiled (Matthew 5), and you would have me affirm that He is mocking you and that what His Word says is not true? If you would rightly consider, this is what you are asking me to do though you swear you are not. [f. cxxx] But in this you are not truthful because you are so deceived that you bestow on me such great authority and credit that you would sooner believe my craftiness and vanities to explain things to your taste, than to explain the clarity and simplicity of the Divine Word which so bluntly says you are like the dust that the wind drives from off the face of the earth. It would be like giving me the authority to judge whether snow is cold. You are so blind and deceived with regard to this that you are more inclined to believe me than to believe God. And so that you may see I am telling the truth, you are a witness that, if I told you the things you wanted to hear, you would be ready to give much greater credit to me than to your own conscience. This is said here (because we are dealing with the threats of divine justice against the sinner, and shall in the remainder of our sermon) so that the sinner may know he has nothing to complain about but himself, unless he would complain about God. And he must accept being thus treated; he must be persuaded that there is no mitigation of the misery or privation of the good that can compare with [f. cxxx v] a mischief so great as being an enemy of the Lord and wanting to continue in that enmity. Returning then to our point, we were dealing with how the sinner was so ruined and so devoid of any virtue, so lacking in roots and true faith, true love and true hope, that he bore no fruit for God, for his neighbour or for himself, and had no resemblance to a tree, but rather was like dust that is carried away and scattered by the wind. In the same comparison, as you have already heard, this is all clearly stated. Because in the kind of fine dust our prophet refers to there is no root, no soil, no fruit, no leaf, and no strength to stop the wind from taking it away and scattering it abroad where there shall be no sign or memory left of it. Finally, this is the complete opposite, as we said above, of what is said in the other verse regarding the righteous, who is like a tree that is prospered in all its undertakings. There is yet another secret in this comparison that declares more than what has been said thus far and puts the sinner in an even worse situation. Summertime is the most appropriate season for trees. When the scorching heat comes, then are they more beautiful, having fresh leaves and being in season to bear fruit. [f. cxxxj] The contrary happens to the ears and husks of the wheat because, its kernels being ripe, they dry up and are threshed and trampled on, and turned into such fine dust that the slightest wind blows it away. And so it happens that the driest and hottest weather is the most prosperous for trees, while the same hot weather discovers the fleeting greenery of the ears of wheat showed, and in a short time it treats them in such a way that they are turned into mere dust wherewith the whirlwind amuses itself. Divine providence ordained that the part of the year which to us would seem to allow no green thing to live, should be the most appropriate time

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

for the greater number of the world’s trees and the time when the most beautiful fruits and leaves are displayed, manifesting the great care God has for us and how He orders everything in His wisdom. This should also lead us to realize that our wellbeing and favours depend on Him only and that if we set our hope in Him there is no weather [f. cxxxij v] or adversity that can take it away. This I have explained so you may see how the same simile used in the Psalm uncovers in many ways the wretchedness of the wicked. When the righteous enjoy the summer of their fruitfulness and all the dryness of the world does not suffice to prevent it (rather, it seems to help them), then is when sinners undergo the winter of their destruction and the end of that fine colour they had shown in the past. We began to deal with the sacrifices and good works of the wicked man who is obstinate in his wickedness, which caused us to digress considerably in several directions, though not aimlessly. It is fitting that we now proceed with what we began, that is, to see whether these threats, that the sinner calls discomforting, discomfort him enough to make him give some diligence to quitting such a bad life. If you would but consider what the summer of the wicked man we are dealing with is, no other can be found but that which he himself chooses and confesses: his good works and sacrifices. By good works, as you have already heard, he means, on the one hand, that he could be worse. [f. cxxxiij] That is to say, if he ever steals your cloak, he will spare your shirt; if he tramples on you and kicks you, he won’t leave you for dead; though he may speak great evil against you, he will not bear false witness before the judge; though he be an adulterer, he is not a thief; if he be a thief, he is not a murdered; if he be a murderer, at least he does not deny it; if he deny it, he is not a traitor; if he took your wife, he left you a daughter. And so you could endlessly go on tracing the path of his good works: “Is it not worse to be even worse?” I won’t deny that. If you aspire to do no more than this and will be thus satisfied, we must confess that he who walks in all the mischief we have mentioned is much worse and more abominable and is farther from God than he who practices only half of those things. If you will be satisfied with not being the worst of all or among the worst, you may even be right and we shall not quarrel about this. What I began to say was that ‘good deeds’ for such wicked men only mean not being worse than they are, and they themselves acknowledge it. [f. cxxxiij v] I shall say more: their good deeds mean that after having blasphemed they quickly make the sign of the cross with little more effort than their offence had required. I confess that many of these wicked sinners are generous towards other men; they are very austere and lead an orderly life. In short, they often have many of those things we call moral virtues and are in a sense religious; they say their prayers

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and hear mass, and so we could go on.43 “And you call those evil deeds?” We are not dealing with your deeds but with you. I do not say that those deeds are evil, but that you are evil. And they do not at all excuse you from being like the dust that the wind carries away, if you are like the sinners we have described. Are you content? I then say that these deeds, however good they be, lose so much of their virtue in your hands that when, becoming proud in them, you think that the summer of your fruitfulness is come and that you are like the other trees, then is [f. cxxxv] your true winter come. And the truth is that you are like the dust that is blown away by the wind. What do you think the fruit and the branches and the chaff are that are found in the whirlwinds? That is what you are. If what you cling to so effusively and so rashly is not the dust that is carried away by the wind, what do you think the verse from our Psalm is talking about? The other evil deeds, which are devilish in themselves, are snatched away by a thousand winds. Those never had any greenness, either feigned or genuine, in the likeness of the good or the likeness of the wicked. Have I not told you already that the end of our verse is the opposite of what we declared in our last sermon? All the things of the righteous, every one of them, have a prosperous end. I ask you again to consider the opposite of this and you will see that all the things pertaining to the wicked have adversity. The righteous so hated their evil deeds (if they ever fell) that they made good use of their sins, not [f. cxxxv v] because there is any good in sin, but because such is the artifice of God’s mercy. You are so evil because you relish in your wickedness, due to your being hardened in them, that the deeds which were good in themselves lose their worth in you. If you content yourselves with something less worthy than pleasing God and you deem yourselves exceedingly rich, continuing to be His enemies and being sentenced to be dust in the presence of His great wrath, you may value them as much as you please and sell them to whom you will, for I have told you we shall never argue about that. As long as you do not deny what the Lord says about the deeds performed by sinners and the friends of sin, rejoice (if you can) in whatever else you attempt to do and keep the benefits in a safe place. Great is the unhappiness that issues from your rebellion, affecting your good deeds, because for this reason they do not attain a perfect fruit. You would be even worse off if you did not do them, nevertheless, you remain God’s enemy. Lacking the real, true fruit [f. cxxxvj] I know not why you are

43 This is a reference in passing to certain articles found in the official Doctrina crisitana, namely, the four cardinal virtues—prudence, justice, courage and temperance—, the three theological virtues—faith, hope, and love— and the five precepts of the Church—to keep the prescribed fasts, to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days, to confess once a year, to receive Holy Communion during the Easter Season and to help to provide for the needs of the Church. Regarding the compliance of these requisits, see Juan de Valdés, Dialogue on Christian Doctrine, trans. William B. Jones and Carol D. Jones, [1980: f. 51r; f. 60v]

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

so content with the other fruits you want to bear. This is the reason why the Holy Scripture treats this as such a great evil, because the sinner fails to attain that which his works should attain and searches for a feigned and poor substitute, losing the true and rich original. What does God say about the sacrifices of the wicked? “For what purpose to Me comes frankincense from Sheba, and sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.” (Jeremiah 6). The cause of the displeasure the Lord shows against such deeds is not in the law He commanded, for His law is holy and His commandment is “holy and just and good.” (Romans 7). It is not in the sacrifices themselves (which are works of His law) whereby He wanted to be served and honoured among men. His disdain for acts such as these comes from elsewhere; it comes from nothing but the wickedness of the sinner’s heart, from the falseness with which he offers them and the foolish confidence he places in them in order to relish his sin more and to be at ease with it, for on the one hand he says he will not forsake it, and on the other that he will please God in the season when he fancies. [f. cxxxvj v] Nothing can help us fully understand how exceedingly wicked these sinners are who so relish and persevere in their sins than what we are now speaking of, that is, that the virtue of good deeds disappears in their hands so that the Lord does not accept them as coming from His servants but affirms He abhors them. “To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled.” (1 Timothy 1)44 . The wicked might lift up prayers thinking they are bearing fruit and that for this reason they are trees; yet, we wonder how they can think God hears them, since they do not hear His commandments. “He who turns away his ear from hearing the law, says Solomon, even his prayer is an abomination.” (Proverbs 28). If being distressed over the wickedness his sin causes him results in his asking for a remedy, let him hasten to forsake it and his prayer shall profit him. But if he will still remain at ease with his wickedness and reject the yoke of Jesus Christ because it seems burdensome to him, while the Devil’s seems light, [f. cxxxvij] let us inquire and have him tell us what benefit he thinks there is in his prayers, since he would not give credit to what the Divine Scripture teaches concerning this. I could continue with this much longer, persuading the sinner that all the threats the Word of God pronounces against him are true, and I could declare to him the soundness of the things we have said, but I deem it wiser to leave it for the next sermon which is as suitable a place as this, where, by the Lord’s grace, we shall answer all those things the sinner might retaliate (if he still judges there is room for any retaliation) and we shall further expound what we are talking about. In what remains before us we shall merely remind ourselves of the unhappiness and

44 This should read Titus 1.

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misery that, through the prophet David, the Holy Spirit says belong to the wicked. That while the righteous are trees of exceeding beauty as we have depicted them, finding nothing but prosperity in everything they do, the sinner is dust, so wanting in virtue and so unprofitable that the wind snatches him up and drives him from the face of the earth. It rightly says, “from the face of the earth,” because he has no roots whatsoever, though he may keenly try to hold fast to it. His faith is full of distrust; his love toward God consists in disobeying Him; toward men he shows nothing more than self-interest and a carnal fondness; [f. cxxxvij v] his hope is nothing but vain dreams; his remedies and medicines are without virtue and to no effect. Where there are no genuine roots no genuine fruits can spring up. Let him judge what kind of love for God can exist in him who daily disobeys Him; what love can there be where there is no God, what hope can exist that is not strengthened by His Word. If all this does not fill him with awe, if it does not cause him to tremble or awaken him from such an evil and deep sleep, let him continue in his unhappy course and he shall someday see the truth. But if this frightens him and startles his mind, which is to be expected and is the very design and purpose of God’s Word, let him give it all diligence, begging the Lord for a remedy and let him take hold of it. And as one who seeks to save his own life in the midst of a thick forest that is full of perils when night approaches, let him not grow weary nor rest until he find it. Let him earnestly seek to bear not false but true fruits of repentance, for God is mighty enough to turn dust into exceedingly fruitful soil, [f. cxxxviij] and to plant the lifeless husks and give them long roots from whence gorgeous trees may grow, bearing fruit that may enthrall angels and the Lord himself. Nothing has diminished in divine power nor has divine goodness been narrowed, that He should not do now what He promised so long ago to idolatrous and lost peoples, declaring that the desolate places and the wilderness would flourish like lilies, that He would pour out waters and streams upon the dry land that was never watered (Isaiah 35 and 44). God is the great husbandman who knows how to graft the branches that were cut off and dried and cause them to bear fruit again. Let the sinner humble himself and, being frightened by the wrath shown against him by so mighty a Lord (who is so entitled to be angry), let him begin to seek a remedy. Let him labor to know himself and to know the One that waits for him, that he may fear Him in a way that will make him love Him also. Let him forget his foolish confidence and cease to give credit to his vain dreams. Let him realize that from paths of perdition no glad tidings can come, [f. cxxxviij v] and that the more one walks along them the more inevitable the dangers of arriving at a grievous destination are. If repentance seems hard to him, let him understand that when God promises a good end, no importance must be ascribed to the travails of the pathway. If the medicine is strong, it is because the disease requires it. It will not be hidden from him that searches for it, nor will it be withheld from those to whom it has been offered. He has a guide to

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

accompany him. Health will be given for his sickness. He shall be healed that he may bear good fruit. He that was dead will rise so that he may live and hereafter attain an everlasting and exceedingly great reward. SERMON V Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. This verse contains a weighty sentence, worthy of great consideration and very dreadful for the wicked. It stems from what we dealt with in the foregoing verse and describes the judgment of sinners, what befalls them in this world and what will befall them after they depart from it. We described how the wicked are as the dust that is carried away by the wind. Now is added that, as a result, they shall not rise again in judgment nor in the council of the just. This provides a fuller explanation of what was first said about the righteous and also about sinners, namely, that the former are like well-planted and well-watered trees prospering in everything they do, and the latter like the [f. cxxxix] chaff and the dust that are blown away by the wind. In order that all this might be seen more plainly, it is fitting that we first interpret the words and then the sentence, explaining how it is inferred from the former. The first term here is ‘to rise’,45 for it says that the wicked shall not rise again in judgment. Here, ‘to rise’ is as much as to say to resist, to abide or to stand firm. This meaning is very often used in the Scripture as a metaphor taken from its primary meaning: “O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.” (Joshua 7). The word used in this sentence and the one in our verse is one and the same. In both cases the word used is ‘to rise’.46 ‘Shall not stand’ means to remain standing in the face of the enemy. There are many places in the Scripture where this might be shown, but I shall not [f. cxxxix v] expound them here as there is no need for it. This form is also very much used in the Spanish tongue, as when a person resists another, we say ‘he rose against him’. Applying it, therefore, to our present purposes, our verse means and declares this: that the wicked cannot remain standing up, cannot abide or be firm in judgment, nor can sinners in the presence and the congregation of the righteous.

45 We must remember that Constantino uses the Vulgate: “Therefore the wicked shall not rise again in judgment: nor sinners in the council of the just”. (DRCB) 46 Both the English Vulgate rendering and the Hebrew-English rendering use the term ‘to stand’: “O Israel: thou canst not stand before thy enemies, …” (DRCB); “O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, …” (JPS 1917).

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We must now explain the term ‘judgment’ so we may fully understand our verse. ‘Judgment’ here means the account God requires of men when He visits them, when He comes to reason with them, when He returns for justice and manifests the wrath he has against the wicked and His favour towards the righteous. In this hearing our prophet says the wicked are not present (do not exist) amongst the congregation of the righteous. The reason is, we are told, that the wicked are like the dust, which the wind [f. cxl] carries away and is scattered abroad. This, as I already said, clarifies further the two foregoing verses and contains an allusion or an addition to both comparisons: the righteous, who are as trees; sinners, who are like dust. Trees stand firmly while the dust is blown away. We are also informed in these words about the difference there is between God’s judgment and the world’s judgment; about His reckoning and man’s reckoning. In the world’s opinion, as we said in our last sermon, sinners often appear to be exceedingly beautiful trees, very well planted, having many leaves and much fruit. Whence it follows that they are much desired and highly esteemed. In contrast, the righteous47 are like the husks, like dust, who have no one to water them or take care of them, to defend them or gather fruit from them. But when God calls them to account, when He makes inquiries and tests these matters, then is the fraud brought to light. The wicked are carried away like the dust [f. cxl v] they really were and only the righteous abide firmly like well-planted trees. And if both looked like trees, and men’s judgment and calculations esteemed both to be equally favoured by God and to be His friends, this deception is also undone. The trees remain and the dust vanishes. And so God’s judgment is here compared to an exceedingly impetuous and stormy wind before which everything that is not well rooted and has no steadiness is blown away. Our prophet thus compares it in another place: “So pursue them with Your tempest, and frighten them with Your storm.” (Psalm 83)48 . This similitude is commonly found in the Holy Scripture. It is now fitting that we speak of this judgment and explain, insofar as we are able, the way in which the wicked are scattered and the righteous prevail. God tests men in three ways. I mean, there are three ways in which, taking into account the justice of His Word, [f. cxlj] He tests how they stand before Him regarding their serving Him or not. And in all three cases it is truthful to say that the righteous resist and, as trees with good deep roots, they remain steadfastly and abide; the wicked are taken from their midst and carried away with a mighty force, as the dust is driven from the trees when the storm comes. The main judgment mentioned in Scripture is the final judgment. There Christ, our Redeemer, the Lord and Judge of all men, must finally bring everyone to give

47 This is an obvious misprint in the original and should read “unrighteous”. 48 “So shalt thou pursue them with thy tempest: and shalt trouble them in thy wrath.” (DRCB)

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

an account of what he or she thought and did, with such a precise scrutiny that even idle words must then be searched to find the reason why time was wasted in uttering them. In this judgment everything our psalm says will come to pass. The righteous and the wicked shall be separated from each other, as the good shepherd separates the goats and the sheep (Matthew 25). Before the separation, this herd walks together and it is difficult to know which are sheep and which are goats. [f. cxlj v] The full knowledge of this belongs to the great shepherd alone. That judgment is a rigorous one, but finally the righteous shall prevail in it and, as brave and well-rooted trees, they shall obtain God’s perpetual friendship, being heirs of the kingdom of heaven forevermore. The wicked try to resist, and being mere chaff and dust they try to defend themselves as though they were trees: Lord, we never saw you hungry, we never saw you naked. But in the end, the sentence is passed over them: Depart from me, you cursed of my Father, into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. As Luke says of Christ our Redeemer (Luke, 3): “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.” I would not deal now with this judgment, for you have heard it many a time. Would to God you heed it. For our present purpose it is enough to know that what our psalm says is true, namely, that the wicked do not prevail in judgment nor do they stand in the council of the just. Let us talk about the other two [f. cxlj v] judgments which are no less often mentioned in Scripture and about which it is fitting that you be fully informed if you would understand yourselves and understand what God requires. I take the second judgment to be when the Lord through His Word comes to deal with man, to search his heart and to judge his very conscience through the witness of the Word. Of this judgment it is also right to say that it defeats the wicked (in the same way we said it carried away the dust) and leaves the righteous standing firmly, without that evil company, as do well-rooted trees. It is fitting that we explain this, for it is very necessary. The more inappropriate it seems to the sinner, the more certain we may be that this medicine is beneficial for him, if he will but take it. I have often repeated that every wicked man, who, persisting in his wickedness and being at ease with it, thinks he will be saved and will have a prosperous end to all his affairs, is a hypocrite to a degree. [f. cxlj v] All his conduct is a fake and a fraud for God and for himself. Such a man persuades himself that he is a tree, that he has roots, that he has leaves and fruit. He cannot quite understand what the dust we have dealt with is like. This illusion lasts for some time, God allows it and his sin deceives him, causing him to walk in this neglect and foolish contentment, but when the divine Word comes to him, sent through a minister truly sent by Him, who with a truthful handling of the Word causes it to enter the heart of that sinner, then he enters into true discernment, discovering he was a counterfeit tree and clearly recognizes that he cannot come out victorious, as opposed to the righteous

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who abide steadfastly and remain standing in that judgment. Let us explain both things: how the wicked do not remain standing while the righteous do. Sinners have a fickle conscience; they are never consistent; they conduct themselves in many different ways. As they have no root and [f. cxliij] cannot stand firm, they are sometimes confident and at other times quickly faint for no other reason than what their own conscience dictates to them. At times they think God does not know them, according to what they say through Isaiah: “They say, ‘Who sees us?’ and, ‘Who knows us?’ Surely you have things turned around! Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay; for shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” (Isaiah 29). They stand on careless and foolish illusions; these are the waves of their repose and delight. The Lord allows them to imagine that they are in darkness, that they are so hidden that their deeds cannot be known. After this period there comes another wherein the same wicked men faint and lose all that vain happiness they had formerly dreamt of. Thus, through Jeremiah they say: “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.” (Jeremiah 18). They speak as those who, coming to give [f. cxliij] an account before God, seem to think there is no remedy for them if they must undergo such a trial. Here we see what great distress the Word of the Lord produces in the heart of the obstinate sinner when its rigorous judgment shows him what he must do in order not to perish. The reason for this inconstancy is that the wicked man has a great yearning and relish for his sin. Out of this same longing sometimes a confident madness and audacity is born whereby he flatters himself thinking he is well off, assuring himself a happy ending and a happy outcome to all his undertakings. Out of the same longing sometimes comes the fear of losing what he so yearns for. Whence comes his fear and his despair, for he fears being known and treated according to what he is. “The wicked flee, says Solomon, when no one pursues.” (Proverbs 28). In Isaiah we are told they are like the raging sea whose waves sometimes go one way, and other times the opposite way (Isaiah 57). This wavering and uneasiness of conscience goes on and on las [f. cxliiij] in the hearts of these great sinners. The mindlessness in which the wicked man lives while he slumbers in his wickedness, the confidence wherewith he moves ahead inventing such tall tales, such mischievous lies and the way he shapes his own destruction as though it will never be undone, the drinking of what tastes good to him as though it should never have a bitter taste; all this is no more than a vain pretence that there is no God (Psalm 53) and no hell, and that he shall not be judged as the gospel says. This pretence is so concealed, so hidden in the caves of his wickedness, that he would swear it does not exist, but it is easy to discover that it really does. On the other hand, even when he is convicted by his conscience and confesses that there is a God, that His Word is true, that there must be a judgment of the righteous

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

and the unrighteous, that there is a reward for the former and punishment for the latter, he still often tries to retain, and indeed does retain, his foolish confidence. He confesses there is a law from God but he alters it at his own convenience; [f. cxliiij v] he shapes and trims it to his advantage. If he knew himself, he would understand that he is setting himself up as the author of that law, for he establishes it and measures it, narrowing it or broadening it according to his mind’s folly. Next comes God’s judgment when His Word is taught by His true ministers in all its weightiness and strength, as He wills. After the Word produces its effect you shall see there is war in the heart of the wicked. He tries to resist but he cannot. All of which is clearly made manifest through the sorrow, the offence and scandal he receives as a result of his fleeing from the remedy and his rejecting the Word, as a result of his being burdened for having heard it and his endeavoring to make it vanish into thin air as the sorcerers do with the tempests. This is how Amaziah described the land that could not bear the preaching of Amos (Amos 7). And so the wicked are overcome by the Word, and for this reason they are scandalized, because they see themselves defeated and have no branches to hold on to. This is the judgment and power of Christ, [f. cxlv] through His Word and His ministers, according to what is said by Isaiah: “He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.” (Isaiah 11). We have explained how the wicked man, while he acts according to his own judgment, he thinks everything is going well, but when God’s judgment enters his heart, then he is defeated and cast down by his own fear. And that fear is wrought by God’s judgment and the chastisement of His hand, a witness of the law the sinner breaks, a forewarning of the condemnation that awaits him for daring to contradict the mighty hand of Him who created him and has bestowed upon him so many mercies. So it is said in Deuteronomy: “Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.” (Deuteronomy 28)49 . This must accompany the conscience of the wicked who persists in his wicked ways in the hour when he is convicted by God’s judgment through the power of His Word. You will understand all this more clearly through an example, namely, that of Cain, who is (as it were) a vestige of the state of sinners and of what is wrought in them by God’s judgment. [f. cxlv v] Cain, though he had killed his brother, trusted in his sacrifices and was confident (vainly confident) that he would not perish, attempting to deceive both God and himself. When God first calls him to account, he shamelessly replies: Am I my brother’s keeper? (Genesis 4). These words plainly show the foolish and vain confidence he displayed. But since God’s

49 “For the Lord will give thee a fearful heart, and languishing eyes, and a soul consumed with pensiveness” (DRCB).

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judgment entreats further and goes beyond this, demanding a clearer account and letting him know how he is known, then he falls on his knees and despairs. I already said how the first thing—attempting to hide from God—is a characteristic of the wicked, as they themselves testify or, better said, the divine Word causes them to testify according to the demonstration found in Psalm 94: “Yet they say, ‘The Lord does not see, nor does the God of Jacob understand’.” Some may say there can be no one so foolish as to try to hide his heart from God. To which I reply that there are many fools affected by this folly, [f. cxlvj] and this is easy to prove. And if you were paying attention, we just verified it when we spoke of the offence and scandal they receive when what the Word of God demands of them does not agree with their purposes or coincide with their interests, when it brings down the conceit of their foolish penitence, when it asks of them genuine works and purity of heart. They, of course, do not understand their own madness, but God does, for He declares it. What do you say, good man, shall we give more credit to what the Divine Scripture says about the sinner or to what the sinner says about himself? We need not insist too much on this point, for in order to contradict these vain arguments we have a clear witness in two responses: one is when sinners are convicted and repent; the other is when they are convicted but do not repent. The wicked man who in the past found repose in his evil life, endeavoring to lighten the load of his own sin, taking delight in efforts, atoning for his guilt through offerings that seemed sufficient to him, being the [f. cxlvj v] referee and judge of his own affairs and of their outcome, and who then came to a true knowledge and understanding of his lost state and of how much he erred in his estimations, forsook all his mad illusions subjecting himself truly to God’s will, grievously longing to fulfil it. Such a man, I say, is a suitable judge of what we are saying. Let him speak out and confess whether it be true that he kept such mad thoughts in his heart, which he did not know until he was brought down and convinced by God’s judgment. Let our prophet, David, be an example of such a sinner as we have depicted, who came to understand himself so well at one point when he was convicted in God’s judgment that he acknowledged he had carelessly and for a long time remained in sin, considering that he was not so lost as he later found himself to be. He even asks forgiveness for what he does not understand about himself (Psalm 19). But what will become of the other great sinners, who never repented as he did, or come anywhere near repenting? [f. cxlvij] About the other sinners we gave the example of Cain who, though he was convicted of his sin, would not repent. Nevertheless, it is plainly seen what manner of madness and ravings he was subject to: he confesses the greatness of his sin, is filled with terror, flees from God’s presence, fears that everyone he comes across might kill him, all of which is no more than the effect of knowing his own wickedness. This madman should be asked what had caused him to flee, being so filled with fears and so startled, when formerly he had wandered around so carelessly, so secure and so confident. He could not reply by saying that

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

at the beginning he did not know that to murder his brother, to kill him out of envy, treacherously, and to kill an innocent man was something so terribly wicked. When he spoke with God at first he was quite bold, as though he had a good case. Then, what happened? How was this great change brought about? It was because God’s judgment completed [f. cxlvij v] its work in him, revealed his folly and uncovered his wicked deeds. Cain obtained knowledge of his sin but did not obtain knowledge of divine mercy. Had he understood the latter as he did the former, he would have been set free. Whether they like it or not, sinners will acknowledge their sin. Woe to those who put it off, when after this knowledge comes despair50 as we know it shall be for the wicked on judgment day! How much better is it not to flee from understanding ourselves! Because no matter how great the wickedness we acknowledge, greater is the compassion and gentleness of that Judge and He wills that we come to know ourselves so we may not be lost. Whether he be of one kind or the other, we have shown that the sinner is overcome in God’s judgment, carried away like dust, without resistance, if he does not experience so great and so marvellous a change that takes the chaff, which cannot even be perceived, and turns it into a great tree, beautiful [f. cxlviij] and full of fruit. In the previous sermon, if you remember, we already began to deal with this very matter because these ideas are all intertwined and some sentences lead to others and are dependent one upon another. We then promised that in this verse we would put an end to the madness and vanity which cause sinners to forget that they are indeed dust, giving many arguments that in their opinion are sufficient to deliver them from this danger. There is no one so proud of his good deeds as the wicked man. We cannot estimate the price of one ounce of good works if we accept the value he ascribes to them. He not only sells them at a high price to men, but he even sets a high price for God, to whom he offers them as an apology and to balance the scale of the evil deeds he so loves and harbors in his heart. We said that whatever value the wicked may imagine his affairs to have, whatever way he may contrive to profit from them, what we intended to do, and what was clearly established, was that they were not sufficient [f. cxlviij v] to excuse him or to stop him from becoming like the dust that is blown away and scattered without anything to prevent it. Now, we say that, for the same reason, this is all an exceedingly weak and futile resistance against the judgment of conscience when God is the judge; and this will not excuse him when he is defeated and vanishes in the judgment and is utterly excluded from the council of the righteous. And since the measuring device whereby this judgment is meted out is the truthful Word of God, faithfully handled and accompanied with that efficacy and power, which is “sharper than any

50 ‘To despair’ had a double meaning in 16th century Spanish: to lose heart and to take one’s life.

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two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4), and since this Word is the advocate in all these tests, it behooves us to use it to shut the mouths of audacious sinners. Let us address them now. Come here, lost man, you who lack days to revel in your sin, and you intend to enjoy them ‘with God’s help’, as the saying goes: How can you [f. cxlix] sleep confidently? What is your conscience’s answer to its own accusation and to that which comes through the Word of the Lord? “My good deeds are my answer, and my prayers and sacrifices. For if it were not for these, think not that I would be so foolish as to sleep confidently. If I were like other wicked people who have not these good deeds I would not rest one single moment.” Do you think you will prevail in God’s judgment where your own conscience is a witness? How you betray and delude yourself! By what standard do you think God so esteems your contributions, that they should be a sufficient means to sustain you in His judgment, when He enters your conscience accusing you of evildoing and of persevering in such a vile state? This is only possible if you dare to imagine He stands in need of your services, and you dare also to try deceiving Him by selling Him lead as though it were gold. If you can find something else wherein your confidence lies, make it public, invent it, and I will show it to be even more vain [f. cxlix v] than these two. With respect to the first thing, let us see what great need God has of the good offered by the godly, and thus we will be able to judge what need He has of the goods offered by the wicked. In order to this we turn to no witness other than our very prophet. “You are my Lord, he says, my goodness is nothing apart from You.” (Psalm 16)51 . Hence, if that which most impels the saint and causes him to commend divine greatness, and to understand how right it is to employ oneself wholly in His service, is to apprehend that He is such a rich and mighty Lord that He has not, nor can have, any need of the goods of another, what becomes of the services that the wicked can offer, or the need God might have of them? Who, O man, gave you your possessions that you should think God is in need of them? Your riches come from His hand, and if you are poor it is your own fault and it is because you are too lazy to take what He offers; and you still want to contend to see who has more? Rightly considered, [f. cl] to think that the Lord must be content with your wicked offerings because He needs them is the same as becoming so foolish as to dream that you possess more than Him. How can the sinner who justifies himself by his works now mock and scoff at me and at the vain illusion wherewith I condemn him! How can he be so foolish or rash as to imagine that God can be

51 Psalm 16,2 has various renderings: “You are my Lord and my God you have no need of my goods” (DRCB); “Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee” (KJV): “Thou art my L-rd; I have no good but in Thee” (JPS 1917).

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

hungry and that he must feed him, nor that He can be in debt and he must give or lend Him money, nor anything of that sort! He will say that such frivolities are mine, not his. Surely he cannot be that foolish! But we will show that he is even more insane. He cannot deny that there is pride associated with his good works. For if this pride did not dwell in his heart, our present dispute with him would be futile, a dispute that has been brought about by his conceit, his refusal to humble himself, his refusing to confess that he is dust and his obstinate self-defence in avoiding God’s judgment in his conscience lest he be overcome by it. If he would [f. cl v] surrender and openly confess how wretched he is, it would be very much to his own advantage and he would spare us the trouble of tormenting him and dissecting his delusions. Granted that he confessed that his goods make him proud, let us ask him just one more thing: what is that pride founded on? He will insist that it is not vainglory and that God does not declare it to be. We can make that concession and call it trust or hope if you like, we can call the coloured man white; we can give him this satisfaction, though it will not last long. This hope, my friend, who is it sustained by? This candle wherewith you light your path, what wax or oil makes it burn? Why should God be satisfied with your goods as you think He is? Not by reason of any need of food or supplies He might have; we already agreed on that. There must be some other need left in your imagination, namely, that of being honoured, obeyed and served by you. You deem Him to be needy and you think that from amongst such a great multitude of wicked men (and they are extremely wicked) ex [f. clj] God greatly appreciates it that you bow before Him and make known in the public square that He is your Lord. You are not the first person who has fallen in this folly. The fact that it has been practiced for a long time does not make it less faulty. The path wherein you are going astray is the same path those people walked who said: “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.” (Jeremiah 7). They thought that because there was not in the whole land another temple devoted to the name of the true Lord except the one where they met and worshipped and offered sacrifices, God (as though He needed this honour) would have to forgive them all their other sins and not allow that they be punished according to what was said by the prophets. Your madness and your neighbours’ are the same. And in order for you to see how this madness is not inferior to the one you ridiculed earlier, I tell you in earnest that God is as little in need of your service to be honoured as He is of your goods to be fed. The former [f. clj v] does not diminish and belittle His magnificence less than does the latter. I would very much wish you could understand how secure the Lord’s glory and honour are. In wanting to be served and glorified by you He grants you a great favour, He reveals to you the means whereby you may profit all the more. It is His rightful due because of who He is and because of the great mercy He grants to men. The

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way this is brought about lies in the fact that He formed you in order to show in you a resemblance of Himself; in order that the works of your hands should communicate the knowledge of who your Creator is. This is part of the image the Scripture speaks about when it says that God created man in His image and likeness (Genesis 1). This is the reason why the works of the righteous are so acceptable, because they comply with their intended goal and have their origin in the image and representation of the Lord, which is preserved in the soul of the righteous as the root and true foundation of genuine goodness, so that divine [f. clij] mercy may guide us to receive great mercies from the hand of Him whom we serve. Apart from this, God has little need of our possessions or our service. So secure is His glory that there is no power in the world that can steal it from Him or thwart it. Decide what you will choose: whether to give Him honour and glory by way of His mercy, for your benefit, or to glorify Him as a result of His justice, for your ruin. Fear not that His glory is something that can dwindle, for whatever you take away from Him in one way must be returned in another. Nor ought you to think that you can deceive Him by giving Him false things as though they were genuine, however hard you try. Because the harder you try to deceive yourself, you really end up deceiving Him. You are grossly mistaken and if you want to know why, hearken to what our prophet says. “You thought that I was altogether like you; but I will rebuke you.” You hypocrite, he means, [f. clij v] you liar and vain creature, you deceiver of others and yourself, am I like you? “Hear, O my people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God! I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are continually before Me” (Psalm 50). I think this suffices to convince the wicked of their vain confidence, when they trust in themselves and go their way, becoming more foolish than they were formerly with the works of their hands. The folly of such people as these is no less when they rise up and become exceedingly proud because of their petitions and prayers, which we will deal with now, as we already began to say and promised elsewhere. Pray respond, and we shall see whether you think you have anything to be content about: What prayer do you pray? If you pray the Lord’s Prayer as the Redeemer of the World taught and commanded us, we have caught you. What do you say?52 “Our Father who art in

52 Juan de Valdés’s observations are similar: “ARCHBISHOP : I will begin by saying that everyone should know and understand the Lord’s Prayer in the following way. First of all, every Christian should realize that it was Jesus Christ our Redeemer who composed this prayer. (Mat. 6; Luke 11) It happened like this: His disciples, coming to Him, asked Him to teach them to pray. Then, after He had told them that when they pray they should not multiply their words, He taught them this prayer. For that reason, it should be valued far above all written prayers. In it, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us how we must pray. He teaches us that prayer should be brief but meaningful—short in words but long in feeling. (Rom. 1) That is

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

what a Christian’s prayer is like. Besides, prayer should be more filled with spirit than with words. We are living in the time that Jesus Christ said would come when the true worshippers would adore the Father in spirit and in truth, for with this kind of worshiper, He said, the eternal heavenly Father rejoices. (John 4) It is also necessary that prayer be said with care and very great zeal, with full and firm faith, and with constant perseverance; and finally, with a full knowledge of God and of ourselves. We see here briefly what the Christian’s prayer should be like. We also see what we are to ask, that is, that which pertains to the glory of God and the salvation of our souls and of the souls of our fellow men. Having said that, let us consider what it is each Christian should bear in mind when he recites this prayer. With that, I will have explained the way you should teach it because I also have given instructions in my archbishopric that it be taught in this manner. The prayer is divided into seven petitions, which we will point out as we go along. Hence, when the Christian says “Father”, after having considered the supreme goodness of God, with which He desires to be called father of His enemies, that is, those who every day offend Him to His face, he should consider whether his works are those of a true son. If he does not find them to be so, he should humble himself before God and be confounded and recognize his littleness and shamefulness. When he says, “our”, he should remember that by this word he shows that all who call on this name, and can call on it, are his brethren. He should then search his soul to see if he interacts with them as a brother and if he loves them with all his heart. If he should find himself lacking in this, with a flood of tears—not only from his eyes, but from his heart—, he should beseech God to give him a loving spirit to love his brethren. When he says, “who is in heaven”, he should remember the exile he is in, and should long with all his heart for his celestial country to enjoy the delightful vision of the eternal and sovereign God, where joy and rest are perfect and eternal, and enjoyed without fear of losing them. Even in this world, God imparts certain foretastes of this joy to the soul so that enamored of their sweetness, he despises all the things of this world and holds its pleasures and delights as false and vain. When he says, “Hallowed be thy name”, he must consider that what he asks God here is not to permit him, or anyone, to think, say, do, have, or propose, anything but that which is directed toward the glory of God. In all things, by God’s grace, he be guided to love and fear, because by our becoming holy, God is sanctified. This is the first petition. I’m explaining it as briefly as I can because that way it is easier for everyone to remember. It must be declared to the people, and especially to the children, often and in that way, that is, in only a few words. EUSEBIO : I think the way you explain this could not be better. Therefore, please proceed. ARCHBISHOP : Good. But you must listen carefully because God’s name cannot be hallowed if His spirit does not live and reign in our hearts. For that reason, the second petition follows, where we say, “Thy kingdom come”, and where every Christian should know that with these words he beseeches God to liberate all men from that cruel tyranny the devil, the world, and the flesh hold over everyone and draws them to follow their desires—often, as it were, by the hairs of their head—. With this petition, the Christian desires that the Holy Spirit reign and rule as absolute Lord over all of us. He must also know that this kingdom of God in our souls is our voluntary subjection and complete obedience to God Himself, a true peace, an amazing rest and perfect contentment. He should know also that the reason he asks this of God is so that, having broken Satan’s tyranny and with sin cast far away, their soul becomes free and pleasing before His majesty and thus becomes a living temple of God, where only God reigns. Hence, through outward obedience and inward obedience, God reigns in this kingdom. (I Cor. 6) This is a very great truth. If we could only know what an immense and valuable blessing the soul has when it has God for king and lord, we would pronounce these words with such burning desire and such intense zeal that our bowels would rend and our hearts would burst with the desire that these words be fulfilled. For the love of the only God,

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heaven, hallowed be thy name?” [f. cliij] Are you mocking Him, or do you say it in earnest? Do you truly desire that, or is it a mere formality? If the latter is true, you are fooling Him. Hereby you are fallen into our trap, and you prove we are more right than we would wish to be. If the former be true, how is it possible that you really desire God’s honour and glory and obedience to His commandments while you behave so contrary to it? Why do you not ponder carefully to see if it flows from your heart? Or do you plainly confess: “Lord, I say it for others, not for myself; let them hallow your name, but I will dishonour you?” Let us proceed further: “Thy kingdom come, Lord.” Explain what you mean; otherwise I shall declare it, if you trust me. “Thy kingdom come, Lord, but when it comes I shall flee away in order not to be found in it yet for then it would be coming for me”. What do you say to what remains? “Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven?” Compare this man’s words with his deeds. [f. cliij v] If he be referring to himself, and as a rotten limb will not remove himself from his prayer and we must heed his deeds and the confession of his hands, the sentence he is uttering says: “Thus, Lord, may Your will be broken in heaven as I break it on earth, that just as I live opposing Your commandments, so may I enter your kingdom opposing Your laws of justice.” Indeed, he will raise his voice and claim that he never said such a thing, but that we are making it up. Then, you neither pray in earnest nor with your whole heart. You would want the divine will to be done in some respects but not in others: justice, but not full justice. He may also answer that he does not pray this prayer, because it is dangerous, but that he prays other prayers that fit his purposes better and have great virtue instead of so much outward show. I will not linger on this any longer, not for lack of things to say or because there is no need to deal with it, but because we are running out of time and it seems to me we have sufficiently proved that when [f. cliiij] God’s judgment enters the conscience of a wicked man, he is convicted and falls into his own snare. If he deny it, we must not believe him because the stubbornness of his defence, the anger of his heart, the excuses he looks for, his

I charge you, father priest, that you commend everyone very fervently to search into these things because their life and much more than their life is at stake here. Therefore, because Go only reigns in our hearts when we are outwardly and inwardly obedient, and because it is necessary to do God’s will to attain this kingdom, Jesus Christ our Lord, taught us to say, in the third petition, “ Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”. Here the Christian must consider that because by nature he is inclined to evil and to be disobedient to God and is grieved when they are corrected and chastised, as a result, he asks God to give him grace, so that gladly he may consent to God’s will being fulfilled in him, as if he were saying, “Eternal father, even though my weak flesh feels it, don’t stop giving me the punishment You consider just; may Your will be done and not mine, which in no wise do I want done, for it is always contrary to Yours, which alone is good, as You only are good; for my will is always evil though it seems good to me. (Mat. 9; Mark 10; Luke 18). Juan de Valdés, Dialogue on Christian Doctrine, trans. William B. Jones and Carol D. Jones, [1980: fol. 75v–78v]

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

appeals, his attempt not to undergo trial, all this is in our favour and it is nothing else but the signing of his own confession. There is still a greater danger, though this last one was enough. It is the anger that is kindled in many when they find themselves defeated, the fury they use as a last resort, thinking that their outcome will be all the better if they become more enraged with God. Then they say: if this be true, if I really have nothing to defend myself with, if the things I do for my own good will not make Him who is to judge me my friend, if they will not compensate nor serve as an excuse, I am resolved not to do them. What do I want them for if they will not serve that end? These answers are more widespread than you think and they are also old. Thus speak the wicked in Jeremiah, regarding this same matter: “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, [f. cliiij v] and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart” (Jeremiah 18)53 . Does it seem like a good solution to you to despair as a remedy and to despair in order to become worse? Just because you will not be counted good while you are evil, will you resolve to be all the more wicked, to become so enraged with God or with His Word—whether it be one or the other is indifferent—that you make Him more angry by carrying out this sort of vengeance bringing more mischief upon yourself? My friend, do not even say such things! It is quite enough to be like Cain in the first regard, namely, in being blind and stubborn and in attempting to defend yourself from the Lord. But be not like him in the second regard, which is to be driven to despair! The worse you reckon yourself to be, the more you must refrain your heart from going any further. Our desire is that you ignore the vain remedy to seek the true remedy. May God keep us from taking the liberty of becoming more evil! What has been said is a great truth, yea, [f. clv] it is a heavenly truth. But if your sin has so conquered you that you cannot forsake it, cease not to do the good you can, as much as you can. I warn you, there are different degrees of God’s wrath, as there are wicked men and exceedingly wicked men. What we have dealt with hitherto regarding your judgment has many applications. Firstly, it helps you understand the truth about your affairs so you may not deceive yourselves nor be deceived by anyone. Secondly, for you to know that God requires clean hands and a clean heart, and that wherever this is not fulfiled with the fulfilment required by the law, there is no excuse, no remedy, no reward, for all this world’s goods cannot deliver us or defend us from the wrath of His judgment, and so that we may not be defeated and overcome therein. Thirdly, that you may not, in any way, become proud or confident in the good deeds you say you do, nor think

53 Note the various renderings. “There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will ever one do the imagination of his evil heart” (KJV); “We have no hopes: for we will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart” (DRCB); “There is no hope; but we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart” (JPS 1917).

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that thereby you keep a balanced account with God. Even the good deeds [f. clv v] of the righteous would be lost this way, so how can you think yours will not be lost? Beware, lest those things you claim to do for your benefit become an impediment. We said that the despair of the wicked is seen in the value they put on their good deeds, for, seeing that God does not accept them as an apology, they would give them up completely and do nothing but evil. This despair is borne very secretly, very meekly and very disguisedly, but I tell you that many such ‘self-destructive persons’ may be found in many houses. This is a mischievous path. Do not follow it! Be not overwhelmed by falling in God’s judgment, by being defeated and convinced of your evil condition. It is a good thing if by seeing yourselves fallen you attempt to rise. That is the end for which you are overcome. He who had the power to cast you on the ground also has it to lift you up from it; and through the former He invites you to the latter. “For He bruises, but He binds up;He wounds, but His hands make whole.” (Job 5). Since we have taught what the remedy is for the defeated (if they would obtain victory) and have brought to their knees the rebellious and the obstinate by persuading them [f. clvj] through the Divine Word that they cannot prevail when God’s wrath judges them but are rather carried away like dust, having no more resistance than the dust, let us now declare how the righteous prevail, abiding safely and mightily just as the great and mighty trees abide when shaken by the wind. The righteous remain standing firm in the judgment because they have a glad and peaceful conscience. These are the main weapons whereby they resist, very unlike those of the wicked. “He who is of a merry heart, says Solomon, has a continual feast.” (Proverbs 15). There is no distress, no famine or sorrow that can cause despair. It is a great thing to have a spirit that is enthralled by God’s goodness and an upright heart. This [f. clvj v] peaceful conscience shall preserve you in God’s judgment. We have already explained how little you will profit from endeavoring to shake off your evil deeds. Strive to obtain those things the Lord himself would have you defend yourself with when He calls you to account. The wicked will now say that we take great offence at his pride in his works while we sanction it in the righteous, and that this peace and confidence of conscience we demand is no more than a licence to become proud and to settle accounts with God as any man would do with another. We must respond to this objection because it will shed much light and a better understanding of the matter wherein lies the principle and the key to the Christian’s salvation. [f. clvij] The angel of darkness often transforms himself into an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11) and instead of hope he causes pride, instead of faith, audacity, vain dreams instead of peace. We have already seen not a few who, having received instruction and teaching regarding this holy testimony of conscience, and being glad that they found it, then conclude that their teachers and themselves had done nothing else but to open the door for the spirit of vanity and make it more obscure and more difficult to discern the way to destruction.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

Christian peace requires Christian mortification. It has a deep knowledge of sin and there is no pride in righteousness. We shall speak of this briefly and only that which serves our purposes; the rest can be left for another occasion. Saint Paul shows us all this in a few words: “In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this.” (1 Corinthians 4)54 . If we combine these [f. clvij v] two arguments from a single author (and an author such as this one), this one and the one we claimed earlier (that the witness of our conscience is our glory), we are on the right path to understanding what we are dealing with. The chief value of all this, what the Christian is to strive for and must never change for all the world’s treasures and businesses, is to call on God earnestly, to invoke Him with all steadfastness, without deceit, obeying His commandments, having no intention of breaking a single one of them, whatever it may cost him. Man’s greatest worldly possession is to be able to call on God. His being able to call on Him and be heard implies that when he turns his eyes towards his heart he will not find there the enemies of the very Lord he invokes, not having to cast them away from him but retaining and loving them. Herein we have taken one step forward, that is, that God hears those who thus call on Him and hears them by reason of His mercy, because He has promised it. Finally, the righteousness of such a man depends on his being heard and being tried [f. clviij] in the tribunal of mercy. The righteous has no pride and has no reason to have it but, rather, he shouts: “Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for in Your sight no one living is righteous.“ (Psalm 143). The contentment and peace of the righteous is to await his being judged with mercy. The court of justice where the wicked shall be judged is immutable. There is no defence or assistance for them. There they will be utterly destroyed, and so they are now, for they are witnesses of how they love their unfaithfulness. The righteous man says: Lord, if I loath my sin, You put this loathing in me. If I have endeavored to cast it from my heart, your weapons have done it. If I am preserved, it is because you sustain me. If I am tempted, it is from my own baseness. If I am weak, it comes from me. If I am not wholly clean, it is I who hinders it. If there is so much in me that makes it necessary for Your hand to intervene every hour, and still I am not clean, it is my base heart’s doings, relics of my [f. clviij v] old deeds, evidence of what I would be if You should leave me. Your Word, O Lord, sustains me and keeps me in the hope that when I come to be judged, I will be heard and judged by Your mercy; where, when I have nothing to say, You shall answer for me; where the blood of Your Son will answer for what I could not do; You will polish the rough; You will cleanse what ought to be much cleaner; You will lend to

54 “But neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of any thing, yet am I not hereby justified” (DRCB).

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the poor; You will give to him that already has (Luke 19); You will cause what is not quite full to overflow and You will show who You are and how valuable Your gifts to us are. These are the weapons that make the righteous man prevail in the judgment where the wicked fall. This is the defence of his conscience, the strength whereby he is sustained; whereby, though he be attacked, he is not carried away; whereby, even if shaken, he is not defeated. He does not faint due to despair nor does he resist with pride or because he hides his sin. He abides through confession, he is steadfast through hope because he is rooted in God’s mercy. [f. clix] Let us now declare the third judgment whereby God in this world also reckons with the good and the wicked, and makes known His justice, His truth and the faithfulness of His Word, that is, when He punishes some and rewards others in this life; when through travails, through crosses, through altering events contrary to the world’s judgment, He calls men to repentance and tries those who are His and those who are not. In this third judgment, as in the first two, the wicked are carried away like dust and the righteous abide like trees. There are plenty of instances of this way of God’s judging in the prophets. Micah summons the mountains and the hills and the foundations of the earth to be present in the reckoning God holds with His people. First He argues with them, then follow some threats (Micah 6). Isaiah says (Isaiah 3) that the Lord will enter into judgment [f. clix v] with the honourable men and the princes of His people to punish them as they deserved. And David in many a place deals with this same judgment (Psalms 9 and 76). Out of these three judgments, the one that is least understood and least believed by the world is the one we are now talking about. It seems that the prosperity of the wicked has lasted so long, that in order to obtain what men long for in this world (riches, status, honour, advantages, pleasures and contentment), without a doubt, the surest way to acquire it is through wickedness, whether public or concealed, and it can hardly be reached by what we call virtue and being a Christian. We could all find a way to agree with Him on this if only we had a sure rule for acquiring these goods, but the Word says that this is much more certain if we persevere and proceed on our way. The Divine Scripture threatens to destroy the ungodly, but promises a good outcome for the godly. But worldly men trouble themselves very little about believing what the Word says in this case. They deem their own rule to be true; they say [f. clx] experience teaches them that, and these other things must come from a different type of knowledge, one they are not interested in. The faith of the righteous holds fast to the Word of God, placing all its hope in it. The covetousness and wisdom of the wicked follow the rule that best suits the intensity and madness of their ruinous lusts. I do not deny that through evildoing many of the futilities that vain men covet can be attained in this life, or that, in the same way, possessions and honour are obtained which would belong to the righteous if the world walked uprightly. But I do say, and I think the Holy Scripture says in this case, that God reckons with sinners and when they least expect it He cuts the thread that

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

holds their possessions and casts them down, carrying them away as the dust is driven by the storm. They know not when or how this may come about, nor think it can possibly happen, yet God knows it must come to pass and He chooses the time and season. [f. clx] Notwithstanding all his adversity, Job was of this same mind and he says (Job 21) he knew and was persuaded that the wicked, with all their prosperity, were “like straw before the wind,and like chaff that a storm carries away.” In this same judgment, the righteous are prospered for, although the ignorance of wickedness considered them forgotten and lacking a foundation, they are of a truth the strong, well-rooted trees that prevail in the last judgment; the others are the chaff that cannot offer resistance. I began by saying that this is a matter of faith because only the faithful come to know it. The rest are lost and do not understand the path of their destruction. I wish to explain this further in order to show more plainly how God upholds His truth and in what manner we must conduct ourselves in order not to go astray and perish. All the difference lies in that the wicked man does not see beyond the present; in it he attempts to prosper and lays the [f. clxj] foundations for what is to come. He thinks that what he does today is the rule for what is to come; he thinks the present determines the course and prosperity of the future. He has no more hope than this nor greater faith than you have already heard, because if he did, his endeavors would take a different course. But since he is so short-sighted for understanding God’s judgments, there is nothing for him but what he has before him and thereby he sets a rule, as we have said, by which he infers the future from the present. He never learns from the past, he neither understands it nor acknowledges it, neither does he reap from it exhortations regarding faith or the knowledge of divine truth and justice. If you understand this you will clearly see the state of the wicked man, who only acknowledges the present, limiting everything to it and making it the general rule for all. The case of the righteous man is different. His hope is in the future, which he knows is in God’s hand. For the present he has patience, knowing his own sin. He nourishes and strengthens his faith by remembering [f. clxj v] the past, looking closely at the awesome judgments of God, the friendship His beloved enjoyed and the punishment that befell the wicked. Sinners mock all this and in their opinion it is but sheer madness. They do not learn from the past. They neither think about what the future holds nor whether they can attain it; and if there be anything they might still fear, they deal with it by increasing their wickedness. They pursue the present; the future does not exist for them. And if it does, they think it will be determined, as we have said, by what they do now. These people’s chief delusion is to set limits on God’s power and to believe there is a way and a time to escape from His hands. Their second delusion is like the first, that is, to calculate what can hurt them and how much it can hurt them, believing that God’s hand will not find a way to punish them unless they allow it and that, ultimately, they will be safe. The third delusion is not to acknowledge, from things

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past, how zealous the Lord was in [f. clxij] restoring His friends and punishing His enemies. God’s wrath has always manifested great signs of displeasure against the wicked and great favour towards the godly, giving the latter a prosperous end and to the former a grievous end. This is seen in the fall of Babylon, of Nineveh and Egypt and of other great empires of the world; this is what the punishment of so many tyrants shows, the ends and fates of many evil men; and this is also seen in the sudden prosperous turn of events of many righteous men, in the face of all the earth’s opposition and wisdom. We need not go back to ancient times. Our own days and the lives of each one of us testify to this very truth and will leave us without excuse and without any pretext of ignorance when God calls us to account. But since our eyes are blinded by our great unfaithfulness, infected with our delusions, full of self-esteem, aroused by our covetousness and our pride, we don’t fully believe that God’s hand brought about [f. clxij v] past events, as well as the present, or that His perfect justice pays as much attention as it ought to carrying out what His Word says. We never pay attention to those small things where we would see this daily, but we always have our eyes set on I know not what heights and things of high standing where their futility and their scarcity perplex us and deceive us all the more. Hence, when our punishment comes we are taken by surprise and unprepared, we take the shame but not the warning, we find ourselves punished but not recovered, wounded without knowing by what hand or for what end. In conclusion: the Word of God asserts that the wicked will surely fall and be defeated both in the final judgment and the things pertaining to this world, while the righteous are favoured, and prevail. This is exceedingly hard for the sinner to understand. To whom shall we give greater credit? What the Scripture says lacks no evidence, instead, it is the wicked who lack the eyes to see it and the discernment to understand it. We said that in this case also there [f. clxiij] was a separation, as with the trees and the chaff and dust. Have we not great examples of this given for this very end and for a confirmation of this great truth? When God would destroy Sodom, did He not send the angel to take out Lot and those of his household before the fire came? (Genesis 19). When He would drown the world with the waters of the flood, did He not separate Noah and his whole family, warning him to make the ark of deliverance? (Genesis 6). Some may reply that one swallow does not make a summer. These and all the other examples that can be dealt with are but few and happened on a few occasions. On the other hand, those that argue the contrary are without number: wicked men whose prosperity increased continually and who withstood the world’s tempests, and righteous men that were, as it were, consumed and utterly forgotten. Their answer requires a reply, and it must not come from our own wisdom or fancy, because it would be very futile. Since the Holy Scripture is the teacher of this doctrine, it is fitting [f. clxiij] that the answer should come from the Scripture and shed true light on the path of the faithful, strengthening them for the travail. Part of the answer has already been given in the little that was said

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

about examples of God’s mercy and wrath and the fulfilment of His Word. It was implicit in what we began to explain regarding the blindness of the wicked and their assessment of the times and the ways they put themselves on guard by never taking notice of those things that exist to counsel and teach them, but set their eyes on what conforms to their appetites and blind lusts. Whence the following happens: that what is clear seems dark to them; familiar things seem unfamiliar to them; and, on the contrary, what is humble and low-born is raised high; what never had a grain of truth becomes most authentic. What remains to be answered and the explanation of what has here been summarized briefly will be left for the next sermon, wherein we will deal with this same subject. One reason is that it would take too long to include it all here; the other is because it is as suitable for the next sermon as it is for this one, for the two verses are so entwined that they clarify each other and the one helps to explain the other. What suffices and is necessary to understand and profit from what has been said, is to believe with a firm conviction that God knows more about our good and our mischief than we do. That what His Word says in this regard is true and cannot fail. The execution and fulfilment of all things must be left to His infinite wisdom. And with great hope, and asking the Lord for grace, we must endeavor with all our might to stand firm when judging our conscience, for in everything else we are sure that He who awaits us in the final judgment to take us with Him will not be unfavourable to us in this life. SERMON VI For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. This last verse, which is a continuation of the same sentence that was dealt with in the foregoing verse, states the final and concluding reason for everything that has been said. As well as being the end of the Psalm, it is the climax and conclusion that David uses to awaken us and clarify everything that was said before with the offer of a refuge where we may find shelter and strength to understand all these things and to resist temptation. We explained how the wicked do not rise or prevail in God’s judgment but how that the faithful stand firm and upright in it. We spoke of three kinds of judgment and in each one we confirmed and showed that our prophet’s sentence is absolutely sure. Now follows an argument [f. clxv] which encompasses all and teaches the secret and artifice whereby everything is guided: “For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish.” Everything depends on the favour that the former enjoy and the disapproval the latter earn by persevering in evildoing.

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There is nothing that escapes God’s knowledge nor can anything be hidden from His infinite wisdom. Man’s heart harbors the most inaccessible and secret thing and yet there can be no thought or vice in it that is not manifest in God’s eyes from eternity (Jeremiah 17; Psalm 139). Although in the Divine Scripture the term ‘know’ often carries a connotation of approval or favour, the foolish virgins are told in the gospel: “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you” (Matthew 25). In contrast, by the prophet Amos, God tells the people of Israel: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth.” (Amos 3). In these and many other places that could be mentioned it is clear what ‘to know’ means. In our [f. clxv v] verse it is as though it said: God favours the way of the righteous and protects him, but the way of the wicked is hindered. Hence, the meaning of what David wishes to convey in the conclusion of this Psalm is, in plain simple words, as follows: For the Lord is in control of the way, of the affairs and of the end of the righteous; but all things pertaining to the wicked, since they are abandoned and forsaken of God, shall have a fatal end. This is the reason and cause of everything that has been said in favour of the former and against the latter. You cannot deny that it is a sufficient cause. No one will be so foolish as to deny that those whom God favours and takes care of shall be delivered, and those He forsakes will have an unfavourable end. It remains, then, that we show how God in truth does one thing as well as the other; that He is an ally of the godly and their affairs and an enemy to the wicked and their undertakings. If a sinner confessed these two truths, [f. clxvj] and confessed them from his heart, then he would abandon his dissolute life and his depraved thoughts. But sinners will not recognize this and if they admit anything at all, it will be the first thing only, that is, that he whom God guards diligently is secure and he whom He pursues is without remedy. The latter he will deny, that is, that the Lord is steadfast in both things. How sinners deny this, and how they respond, we have already dealt with. It now remains that we demonstrate what has been stated. The wicked have mighty arguments to not believe that God is as much against them as He is in favour of the godly. Their arguments are so forceful that they startle even the righteous, and they confess that this is doubtless the most serious temptation they undergo, among the very many that grieve them in this life. Let us not spend too much time in turning to the divers places in the Holy Scripture that can be mentioned. One belonging to our very prophet will suffice, where what we have said is perfectly clear. “My feet, says he, had almost stumbled; [f. clxvj v] my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” (Psalm 73)55 . If this knowledge grieved such a great saint, such a great friend of God who had a full grasp of His secrets, what will it do to those who are far from such perfection? And if this thought so assails all sorts of saints—the

55 Our author wrongly assumes that this Psalm was written by David. Psalm 73 is “a Psalm of Asaph”.

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

most perfect and the least perfect—, where shall the blind and lost end up, who know no other possessions than the possessions of this world? The righteous do not grieve so much for themselves as they do for others. Each one is made to bear his own cross, but love and care for his neighbour makes him grieve exceedingly. The wicked are so blinded by self-love that they have an unrestrained greed and desire to have everything for themselves, whence we can easily tell how devoid of judgment they will be when considering what we are now dealing with. Since the text is so blunt, it must needs be true that great prosperity and great contentment are oftentimes attained through evildoing, and [f. clxvij] that the greater part of those who are prosperous and happy in this world are wicked. For if it were otherwise, this temptation would not be so serious for the godly nor would sinners find the evil way so readily endorsed and easy in order to fulfil their desires. We will now show the truth of what the prophet and the Holy Spirit say, namely, that God is in control of the way of the righteous and that the way of the wicked shall perish, thus answering those who believe the contrary. We will do well to begin with what is held in lowest esteem, that is, spiritual prosperity, the welfare of the soul, its righteousness and goodness, whereby eternal and blessed life is to be achieved. After this, we shall deal with the next thing in order of importance (if we hearken to the world’s opinion): well being, possessions, tyrannies, successions, memory and fame, dishonesty, delights, pleasures, or, in a word, so much violent behaviour. [f. clxvij v] If we were to talk with the wicked only, we would readily dismiss the former because they will confess, convincingly or hesitantly, that prosperity in afterlife is attained through goodness and righteousness, though they will still insist that the way is shorter and more certain for the rich, which we shall deal with later. But since we must be exceedingly mindful of the godly and those who endeavor to be godly, it becomes us to linger here a little bit so that they may be confirmed in the truth and know how much God cares about their salvation, giving thanks to Him for it and serving Him. There are righteous men in the Scriptures (and we find them every day) who grow weary and are defeated and led astray from the great friendship there once was between the Lord and them. At the time of their fall (and while they remain cast down) they lose the name ‘righteous’. If we look at it strictly, this name is not appropriate for them. If they are called ‘righteous’ it is only with reference to the long period when they were righteous before and the time they will be so in the future when, after remaining for a short while in sin, [f. clxviij] they thoroughly repent of it and forsake it with deep regret. God is particularly careful to draw such men out of sin. They are His elect. He knows they were formerly very faithful. He knows what they will be. He awakens them powerfully. He chastises them severely. He opens before them wide ways for their deliverance. We have an example of this in David, in Saint Peter and in a great multitude of saints. I know not how else to urge this upon you but through what is said in the book of Wisdom, that God is wont to

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draw His own to Himself at an early and untimely age, in man’s opinion, so they might not be harmed in this world. “He was taken away, it is said, lest wickedness should alter him, or deceit beguile his soul.” (Wisdom 4). Is there any mind, O Lord, that can grasp the diligence and mercy You show towards Your own, reaping their fruit early, as a wise husbandman does, so the weather may not damage it? Can anything compare with this? [f. clxviij v] The Lord threatens His people through the prophet Hosea to hedge up the way with thorns and to lay obstacles so they may not go forward (Hosea 2). Therefore, if behind those things, which seem to be a punishment and a scourge from His hand, there is hidden such grace, if what tastes bitter at first is mixed with such sweetness, how much more when benefits and gifts are manifestly and openly granted! This is the way and design God uses when He deals with His own, and these are His displeasures. What, then will the rest be like? Let us consider the sinners. Does God not seek them? Does He not call them to keep them from perishing? He most certainly does. But just as we understand the righteous man to be one who, realizing his fall, has felt it and mourned for his lost state and has benefited from grace in order to forsake that evil way and return to his former state, so we take the sinner and the wicked man to be one who loves his fallen condition, who wants to remain in it, who looks for excuses and idle entertainments, who remains unmoved when you hold out your hand to him, who lets himself fall when assistance is offered, [f. clxix] who closes his eyes when light is shed around him and will not listen when you call him. To such people divine justice oftentimes grants one of those favours which the world considers favours, those which sinners themselves long for and which they ask for in their prayers and their sacrifices, so they may not claim they are being deceived. The path they want flat is made flat for them. They do not want to find a cross on this path because it is a bad omen, like facing the gallows, which they would certainly not want to face. And so it is expressed in Psalm 81: “So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart, to walk in their own counsels.” God warns them, by Hosea, that He will not visit or “punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your brides when they commit adultery.” (Hosea 4). This is the ultimate punishment that can come upon them in this world. These are the favours sought by the wicked; the bliss they so long for. This is what they ask God for and that is precisely why they deny it. They regard it to be a great benefit: the Divine Scripture considers it a great punishment. We declared earlier that behind the scourge and cross [f. clxix v] of the righteous great tenderness and a marvellous gift was concealed. In the prosperity of sinners the Lord asserts that there is a subtle poison, the most dangerous and fatal poison that can be imagined. For people who have some knowledge of real good and real evil, what we have said is sufficient to count this a certain and unmistakable fact: that the righteous are prospered in everything in this world, that God is in control of all their affairs; and that the way of the wicked is totally rejected and nothing good can possibly befall them in it. Because if the hardships and adversities of

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

the former are the means whereby they do not perish in this life and they obtain everlasting life hereafter, and the comfort and abundance of counterfeit goods so blind the latter, causing them to slumber and to daily forget their lost condition and become more entangled with it, who in his right mind can bear to have the former called mischief or misfortune and the latter called prosperity or blessing? Who would be so vain [f. clxx] as to consider evil practice that of a wise doctor who dispenses bitter medicine, but of undoubted benefit for his patient’s health, or to consider good practice that of the foolish mother who to satisfy her child’s whims gives him everything he demands? But since it would be too great an effort to speak to them regarding this and the obstinacy of their raving desires, together with the opinions they hold on the subject, which testify to how they understand and view the matter, we shall leave it for now and deal with those goods with which their hearts are so engaged and whence they stubbornly draw their measure of divine favour and disapproval, of good and evil in this world. Therefore, I affirm—speaking bluntly so they may understand these matters—that the wicked are prospered in this life but at the same time defeated and treated for who they are. I have startled you with such a daring sentence because you seem to think everything depends on the first part, while you readily ignore the rest. And so that you do not dismiss the matter thinking it is merely my imagination (and therefore a vain thing), I would have you know that it is God who says it and it is His just purpose. [f. clxix v] To remove all stumbling blocks and any occasion for error from the way of the godly, it is fitting that they first understand that what we are now asserting does not make void the cross that the gospel and the whole Scripture announce to those who would follow the truth. The cross is endured and prosperity is achieved simultaneously, and the poverty and reproaches and travails and death of the former do not prevent the latter. The world’s judgment cannot understand how these two are to be borne together, but faith can achieve it and faith knows that it is certain, as we will show later. Let us begin with the most obvious, showing through examples the great truth of what has been said. No one will deny the great favour God showed towards Abraham, Jacob, Job and many others, as we already stated in previous sermons. Nor can anyone deny the falls of Pharaoh, of Nebuchadnezzar, [f. clxxj] of the Assyrian king Sennacherib and others without number. It was clearly manifest in these examples how in this world divine justice desires to strip the wicked of those possessions they so much cherish, and cause them to be evil. It wants to punish them through that which truly hurts them and make them pay for the great evil they committed against the godly. At the same time, Divine justice wants to tenderly comfort the righteous by freeing them from the tyranny of sinners, showing them and giving them evidence of what is prepared in heaven for them, for it does not deprive them of their role in earthly matters. Examples of this are not as scarce as the wicked say, nor those that side with them want us to believe. Rather, it is just

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the opposite because they have not a single example with which to undo what is affirmed by the Word. And the examples we have, as a confirmation of this great truth, cannot be understood. It is now fitting that we explain what we have pointed out several times, namely, that the knowledge and discernment of this comes by faith and faith alone [f. clxxj v] can attain it. The blindness of the wicked does not play a part in this. God does not fulfil His truth in accordance with the lust and weakness of the flesh, for it would be irrational for Him to be bound to the judgment and opinion of such foolishness, nor for the scheme of His great justice and the wonders of His mercy to be undermined; neither would it be right for the trial of the righteous to be hindered, nor the scrutiny and cleansing of good deeds, nor the great achievements of those who serve Him, nor the confusion of the wicked. All this would be the opposite if each and every time one carried out a good deed he would become rich, receive honour, and be delivered from all perils and all discomforts, while the evildoer, on the other hand, would become poor, receive a thousand humiliations, be rejected by the world and find that everything he put his hands to had a negative result. Many have demanded of God this rule of recompense. And, since they did not find it to turn out like that, or as perceptible as they would have liked, they were led into gross errors and corrupt opinions. [f. clxxij] In order to properly understand this it is necessary to know how sin reigns over all men, the wrath God shows against it, the state of penitence and exile we live in, the cross to which the righteous and the unrighteous are subject. We must bear in mind the need we all have to be punished, to have our desires restrained, to be kept away from occasions when we might go astray, to have the remaining relics of our sin constantly mortified. We must also consider the devil’s constant vigilance against us and how the largest entrance he could ever find is the excessive security and carelessness our pride is so easily led to. Let no one think that our evil root is so shallow that all these interests would be enough to prevent us from sinning as we know Adam did. God wills, above all, that His own be tried and that true faith be the means by which they experience the works of His loving kindness; and that the unfaithfulness and rebelliousness of the wicked are the grounds for the justice by which they are to be punished. Consequently, when the righteous man sees the examples we have given, [f. clxxij v] he judges and measures them by his faith. He knows God is truthful. In what manner His truth is to be fulfiled, he leaves to God. The wicked man cannot discern this, and thus he walks towards his destruction without knowing where he is heading until he is finally lost. The people of Sodom were far from thinking that those guests whom Lot received in his house were angels who had come to deliver him from the fire that was to descend upon the city. But in the end, he was delivered and they were killed and made a perpetual example of God’s awesome wrath (Genesis 19).

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

In order that you may understand this better and remember it more easily, we will follow this order: we will collate the sentence of our Psalm with others taken from the same Scriptures, for they are from one and the same Spirit and there can be no contradiction between them, but only perfect harmony. Then, we will continue with what was begun above by explaining the way the righteous perceive this and the way the wicked see it, because everything depends on this. Let us speak first of the favour [f. clxxiij] towards the righteous, for our verse puts them in the first place and affirms that God knows their way and is in control; after that, we will deal with sinners and the evil way they follow to reach their proper end. In many other places David says the same thing as he does here because, since it is a thing of great importance, he must repeat it many times. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down; for the Lord upholds him with his hand.” (Psalm 37). The sorrows that befall the righteous in this life take place in this manner: though they fall, their fall is stopped by God’s mighty and powerful hand, from whence follows the little harm that the fall causes them and their being restored and lifted up at the most suitable time. Solomon in the Proverbs says: “He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honour.” (Proverbs 21). The Ecclesiasticus says: “No evils shall happen to him that feareth the Lord, but in temptation God will keep him and deliver him from all evils.” (Ecclesiasticus 33). I shall not quote more authorities [f. clxxiij v] because for some these are enough and for others there are never enough. Let us proceed and deal with the wicked and see what is said of them, in comparison to the righteous. “I have seen the wicked, says David, in great power, and spreading himself like a native green tree. Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more; indeed, I sought him, but he could not be found” (Psalm 37). Solomon says: “The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the just.” (Proverbs 3). It now remains that we clarify all this and that we explaining how the godly receive their due and how the wicked receive theirs; how the godly understand it and now the wicked understand it. We must discuss many points which in this and foregoing sermons were purposely only briefly mentioned in order to explain them more fully here. We have already stated how we are bound to bear our cross in this world, the reason for this and the benefits that are thereby bestowed upon us. [f. clxxiiij] This is the main foundation of the righteous man and the greatest light in all his affairs. He knows he is in need of restraint and he deserves punishment. He understands that everything is guided by God’s hand and that His chief aim is mercy and grace unto those who turn to Him and do not wish to perish. Hence, he bears this cross with great patience and resists temptation, not forsaking the law of the Lord because of it but embracing it as his remedy. All his travails are mixed with joy and with the hope that it will all have a favourable outcome because the hand of Him who

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sends them is sufficient and powerful to bestow innumerable gifts and favours. The wicked man perceives all this in a different way. He does not savor or appreciate any benefit or any good consequence from adversity. He admits it is all guided by God’s hand but he says it and feels it as indifferently as his deeds manifest. He is so content with satisfying his carnal appetites that, as abominable as it may seem, he cannot conceive [f. clxxiiij v] that as much good as he finds in them should come from the devil’s hand. He ascribes the cross and tribulations to the devil, not to God. See how flawed his discernment is by reason of his covetousness! This the wicked man cannot deny; his very words reveal it. When hardships come his way you will hear nothing but cursing and swearing from him; when the consequence of his wickedness comes upon him and he is trapped in his own snare, he will never praise the God who ordained it or entrust his future to Him. And, being in the midst of judgment, he becomes so utterly disconcerted that what he considers to be good for him he thanks the devil for, while blaming God for the mischief. If you don’t think so, look at whom he serves and whose ways he follows. From this first difference between the righteous man and the sinner another directly follows. The godly man recognizes prosperity immediately and makes the most of it though it be accompanied by a thousand travails and a thousand crosses. The wicked man cannot recognize it unless it be given him straightway and free from all vexation. [f. clxxv] The former has the sight to recognize prosperity; the latter sees through such flawed and deceptive spectacles that he can discern nothing but very large objects. The righteous man measures favours with a yardstick that finds them all to be appropriate and more than sufficient; he measures them with his needs in view, with the brevity of life in view, with repentance and the cross he knows his sins require and deserve; he measures them with God’s mercy which knows very well what it does, with the hope that the same Lord who gives favours will also provide a remedy for what is to come, for He will continue to be as powerful and wise, as merciful and providential, as He now is. This was Tobias’s way of measuring when he told his son: “Fear not, my son: we lead indeed a poor life, but we shall have many good things if we fear God.” (Tobias 4). This is how Saint Paul expresses it when writing to Timothy: “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.” (1 Timothy 6). If we consider the pleasures of the righteous these are also very [f. clxxv v] abundant, for the mere knowledge of God’s works brings him such joy that no power in this world can take it away from him. Rest makes him glad, and so does labor. In one as well as the other he knows he is in the hands of such a Lord that no greater good can be sought after or desired in this world. Whatever his thoughts and his faith gaze upon, he recognizes divine wisdom, goodness, might and mercy. He knows himself to be redeemed from sin, an heir of great blessings who is preserved for the great glory of Him that delivered him. He humbles himself; he distrusts himself and he asks for grace lest he should

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

perish. He rejoices in this hope; it accompanies him when he sleeps and when he is awake. Finally, he who loves God cannot but rejoice exceedingly because it is enough to know who He is that he loves, how great and how mighty He is, how rich and full of infinite blessings and how assured he is that these blessings will not diminish, how abounding He is in love, how good it is to [f. clxxvj] serve Him, how confident he is that he is loved by Him, that he partakes in His blessings, and that he will be in His presence forever. Imagine a kind of love, like the love of a mother for her child, that could manage to imitate this (however dimly) and consider what great delight this is for the mother; and then turn again and consider in this other case the delight it is for the one that loves. While in this world, man will go through plenty of hardships but these will not be so hard as to deprive the godly man of joy. The flesh will be aware of them, since they belong to the flesh, but they will not manage to vanquish spiritual strength and virtue. We have described the way the righteous measures his prosperity and his delights and we have found him to be exceedingly rich. Let us do the same with the sinner and you will see how blind he is. The wicked man measures with a limitless measuringstick56 . Consider how things must multiply if there is no limit, or when the person who measures will ever be satisfied. He measures with his pride. He measures with his ambition. [f. clxxvj v] He measures with his envy. He measures with his tyranny. He measures with his madness and his blindness and never thinks that the end will eventually come. All this is true and if you do not believe it, let us ask him: Why, sir, do you want so many possessions? Why do you hoard so many goods? Is, by chance, your stomach larger than everyone else’s? Are you taller? Why do you so rashly, without fear of the laws of God or of men, want to accumulate so much? If we measure according to your needs, you have much too much. What do you measure with? He can give no reply except to admit it is his pride. Is there a limit to it? There is no limit. Shall I show you how this is true? Common sense will tell you. How can we know whether a vessel has a bottom or not? We know if when we pour water into it, no matter how much we pour in, it never fills up but remains empty despite all our attempts to fill it. The wicked man’s pride will always strive forward, against God and against justice; it will be just as [f. clxxvij] dissatisfied when it has ten as when it had five. It has more capacity now than it did at first, and the more we pour into it the more it will take in. Does his pride have a limit, then? Indeed not. If what ought to make it shrink makes it swell, if what ought to satisfy it makes it all the hungrier, if what should quench it sets it on fire, it has no limits. For, who can satisfy such a man? No one. Not even all of God’s creation can satisfy him. Even if it were all his, he would still want more, due to his depravity.

56 The author uses the expression “sin suelo”, limitless, without a bottom. In Spanish this expression also carries the connotation of haughtiness and arrogance.

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He has more than enough for his physical needs. To achieve his ambitions, all his businesses and worldly dealings seem too meager. He lacks much understanding to govern himself, but for tyranny sake he is capable of taking over and ruling the whole earth. His real needs are clearly limited no matter how long he may live, yet, [f. clxxvij v] since he does not measure in this way, but measures by his envy and would bring to his own house everything he likes from other people’s houses, he would like everything that is not his to shrink so that his own things might appear bigger. And if there is no limit to his pride, to his ambition, his tyranny or his envy, and he measures all things with these, when will this man be satisfied? Yet, he will go even further. He not only wants to measure his interests with his own madness but he also wants to measure them with the madness of others. On the one hand, he is determined to provoke the envy of all his neighbours and, on the other, he wants to satisfy the vanity of their eyes and the strategies and pleasures of his own ravings. You foolish man, you not only want to follow the impulse of your folly but you also labor and are determined that I do the same. We could accept it if such a man wanted only to measure his own affairs with his limitless measuring-stick, but he also wants to measure the affairs of the poor innocent man who is sitting in the corner, content with the state and condition God has determined for him. Wicked man, be content with measuring your own interests and pleasures with your pride and your ambition [f. clxxviij] and your brutishness; let the others measure their fortune and their pleasures with their own heart. For the end the godly man pursues and has in view, he is rich enough. For the discernment God has given him, he has plenty of reasons to be happy. Your measurements have no bounds. Who made you a tyrant that you can enter into another man’s house to measure his interests with your standards? Your measurements cannot even assess all the things you embrace with your pride and your envy, and you want your neighbour’s possessions to be assessed in the same way? If you did not assess your neighbour’s achievements with your measuring-stick, you would not hold him in such low esteem, nor trample on him so hard; neither would you detest so strongly the path he follows, nor would you remain so far from God by remaining so far away from him. You have no contentment in anything but imitating beasts. Your appetite is satiated with nothing but the licence and debauchery of your instincts. Your appetite is only satisfies with the gross pleasures your body demands and you insist on measuring what God has been pleased to put in the heart of others by these standards? You think that all the world’s goods are not enough for someone like you. [f. clxxviij v The godly man has such a deep knowledge of his sins that all the travails of this life seem light in proportion to what his guilt deserves. You have seen the first difference between the righteous man and the sinner; indeed, it is so great and striking that we should not marvel at the fact that it produces such different effects in each of them and such different delights. The

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

former shows charity, the latter envy. One knows that what he is given is not only for him but that he must share it with his brother; the other would like to keep for himself what belongs to everyone else. One shows humility, the other pride. One thinks daily about death and the end of his journey; the other thinks he will never die. One has God as his judge; the other seeks to satisfy the world’s foolish judgment. The spirit of the former is wont to relish holy pleasures; the latter knows no good but that which his debauched and brutish senses can experience. One is long-suffering in hardships, [f. clxxix] knowing that they encourage patience and repentance from sin; the other is enraged and seeks a remedy by adding treachery upon treachery. The former measures himself by what he sees himself to be, which is sufficient for him; the latter measures himself with the dreams of the unattainable. This is a summary of the difference, a brief recapitulation to help you to understand it better. Herein is clearly seen how the wicked man deceives himself when he assures us that there are very few good people whom God favours in this world. If we measure by his standards, it is true; neither a good person nor an evil person is favoured by God according to the sinner’s way of thinking or wishing. But if we apply the standard of truth, of what is really necessary and sufficient, of what will bring true rest and free our hearts to enjoy true blessings and flee from innumerable occasions for evil, we will find that there are many who are favoured by God, while the lot of the wicked is [f. clxxix v] confusion: eating they are yet hungry, envious yet tormented, wealthy yet unhappy wretched misers, haughty yet insignificant, tyrants yet fearful, overflowing with luxuries yet consumed and devastated by the vileness and repulsiveness of their wrongdoings. Let us move on to consider the vexation of the sinner and deal with what is promised, that is, how they are punished and rejected in this world and how this is no mystery for those who have the light of faith. We will also talk about other differences that exist between the sinners and the righteous. Sinners reign and flourish for a season with their vain imagination and that of the people who contemplate them, but a day is appointed when it shall become evident how much they are abhorred by God. When my day comes, says the Lord through our prophet, “When I choose the proper time, I will judge uprightly.” (Psalm 75). Sinners in this world are like corrupt authorities who think they shall never be called to account57 , or think that, if they are, [f. clxxx] they will readily reach an agreement with whoever calls them into question, for he will be like themselves. God says there will come a time when He himself will take up the rod as an upright prince and good lord and he shall dispense true justice, and those who go against it shall not escape. “For the scepter of wickedness, says another Psalm, shall not rest on the land allotted to the righteous,

57 The term employed here (“haber residencia”) refers to a legal mechanism whereby members of the judiciary remained accountable to one another.

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lest the righteous reach out their hands to iniquity.” (Psalm 125). As the Divine Word declares, so it will come to pass. Just as we showed that in truth the righteous who are favoured and protected are many, it is also true that the wicked who are rejected, and will be rejected, are also many. Earlier we saw that the wicked were deceived because they measured with evil and false standards, and now we have already shown how they deceive themselves because they have no faith concerning what is past or present or what is to come. For if sinners had this faith, or if they were not so delirious with the fancy of their lusts, [f. clxxx v] it would be impossible for them not to see clearly what God’s hand has done to all the wicked of the world in all times and in all age. Who, of all those wicked men, is not remembered for their fall and their punishment? Although, as the prophet says, “others are risen up in their place” (Baruch 3), is the Lord’s hand less mighty now than it was then? Is He more tolerant and content with iniquity? Have the laws of His justice changed? Does He love the godly less? These wicked men are an example for all others. We already began to deal with the reply of the wicked and we will now say it even more plainly. God punishes the wicked in general but not each one in particular. He punishes some so that others may take notice of it and tremble. His justice comes by seasons, but between each dispensation there are some who escape. This is how things are and they must accept. You are most unfortunate if you are in the group that has to live fretfully and anxiously, if in your season pestilence should come, [f. clxxxj]whether you were one of those who are warned or those who become examples. In the second instance, if during your days punishment should not come, leading you to murmur in your fatal peace, who can guarantee that it will not come after you are dead? This seems great foolishness to the sinner. He lives as he wishes and dies unmindful of his state, and thinks after death come what may. He says that punishment can only come during one’s lifetime and that after that no one really knows for sure what’s in store. Well, we believe it to be quite the opposite. You certainly fantasize about afterlife. Let the narcissism of your memoirs speak, of your descent and your lineage, for whom you have so widened your nets and you daily continue to widen them. But since not all fools are demented to the same degree, it becomes them all to know that what they think will not happen after death (that is, the pain they did not suffer in this life) will most certainly come to pass. Did we not say in our last sermon that one of the foolish fancies of sinners - [f. clxxxj v was to establish the time when God must punish them and how and in what manner and where it must hurt? There is little hope for you, evil man, if you think your time can somehow escape God’s hands. If you know not where it must hurt, He knows where it must hurt. If you can only conceive of one kind of punishment, He can think of many. He might answer that it is true that the sinner who departs from this world without true repentance from sin shall be punished for what he did, but how can what happened here in this world hurt him after he is dead? He

An Exposition of David’s First Psalm, The Principle of Which is Beatus Vir. Divided into Six Sermons

will pay once, and that is all. I reply, evildoer, that you are in no position to regulate God’s punishment and that your case will be dealt with in such a way that your pain will be as though you were alive and even more so. No matter how many excuses you make, or time spent, don’t think that the payment of your doom will end so quickly, nor the news of your perdition. Things will happen here after you have departed [f. clxxxij] whereby the lacerations of your avarice, of your pride, your theft, your envy and your gross and ugly pleasures shall be aggravated a thousand times. Not in vain are the wicked so often warned in the Divine Scripture about how unexpectedly their evil intentions will return to them, or how much torment they will reap in the world to come from what they have sown in this one. Do you not remember the greedy rich man, how that wretched man tried in vain to negotiate, asking that his brothers be told by someone risen from the dead or through some vision not to come to where he was? (Luke 16). He clearly sees once he is there (only too late) that he still has many payments of his debt to make. Concluding, then, I repeat what I have already stated: the wicked are punished in their very own prosperity and contentment, either directly or in the affairs pertaining to this life, by what they most feared, that is, the loss and setback thereof, which lasts until their very death. All this is undeniable. And if it seems otherwise to them, let the time come when all things be brought to light and they will understand who is declaring the truth. clxxxij v] In this life, some sinners seem to undergo more grief than others, yet their wickedness is the same. But believe me—or rather, believe God—there is a way in which their differences become similar. It is precisely the answer our prophet gives when replying to the question he himself posed concerning the good fortune of evildoers: This vexed me exceedingly, says he, “When I thought how to understand this, it was too painful for me—until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end. Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awakes, so, Lord, when You awake, You shall despise their image.” (Psalm 73). If sinful man only took heed he would see how true and how evident the sentence we set forth earlier is, namely, that no matter how well things may go for him, he is both prospered in this life and overcome and undone by his own prosperity. His fear puts an end to it, his hunger robs him of it; the very attainment of it is like wood for the fire, setting him ablaze and, being more on fire, his thirst increases. Look at how he is tormented by his conscience in [f. clxxxiij] his sleep even during a good season despite his efforts to defend it and benumb it, and you will see in what state his possessions leave him. The very same pleasures that cause his perdition defy him in his heart, hoping to pass unnoticed in the eyes of the world; this is the knowledge he has of himself and, above all, of the account he will have to give in the life hereafter. How different is the righteous man’s case! How exceedingly prosperous is he in this life due to the hope he has in God; how numerous are his

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possessions and the good reports he receives each day regarding the fulfilment of his pure yearnings, and even of earthly goods, when he finally departs! But how could this be otherwise if it were not God who is in charge of all his affairs? He entrusts all his circumstances to the very Lord that governs them and is mindful of all. How can he doubt or be deceived? There is only one remedy for the sinner: to turn to God with true repentance. However rebellious he may be, He is waiting for him. [f. clxxxiij v] However far he may have strayed, he will not lack grace to be brought near. Let him be assured that the Lord created him and is seeking him to make him blessed and rich in priceless goods. What is the way? To flee from evil counsel, from the pathway of sinners and from the seat of pestilence. Let him ponder and consider whether God will refuse to grant him so little to guide and direct him, when He does not withhold from others such great and privileged things as the Kingdom of Heaven, being a child of God, applying the blood of the Redeemer of the world. His own deeds and faults—if he will rightly understand them—will make him stop deluding himself and will tell him that the way of the cross is much more secure and a better remedy for them. The law of God will give him strength and light in all this. Let him harbor it in his heart as a rare treasure where all blessings are relished and valued, even the greatest blessings man can ever dream of. There he will find all the riches he can desire, free from all uncertainty and from all the torments of a wounded conscience, [f. clxxxiiij] not gathered or found in the world’s malice and misery, not fretting about fortune and its changes, not limited to a few years of existence, but lavished freely by the Lord who by His sole Word created everything and governs everything. These riches are given to that person whom He loves so much that he gave His only beloved Son for him; stored in His promises that heaven and earth shall pass away but His word will remain; and backed by Him whose power cannot be resisted. Here he will find unblemished pleasures, delights not marred with imperfections or a bitter aftertaste. He will likewise find wisdom that will not lead him astray or allow him to be deceived. He shall be like a tree planted near perpetual running waters, which shall not be moved despite the attacks of the world and all the devil’s kingdom, nor will they hinder him from bringing forth fruit in due season because the Lord of all time is in control of all his affairs. And He will preserve him and make him prosper that he may reign with Him forevermore. Amen.

General Index

A adversaries 29, 56 aesthetic sensitivity 95 aesthetical judgements 114 aguacil (bailiff) 66 Alburquerque, Luis 83 Alcalá 19–25, 31, 33 Alcalá de Henares 19 Alejandro, Pedro 31 Alfonso de Zamora 23 Alvarado de Fresneda 33 Álvarez Márquez, María del Carmen 90 ambiguity 111 ancestry 50 Andrea Doria 34 Andrés de Burgos 41 Anglican bishop John Jewel 51 anti-Erasmian 24, 25 Antwerp 87, 92, 96, 100 Apiarius, Samuel 91 Aprovación (ecclesiastical approval) 104 Arana de Variflora, Fermin 83 Archbishop Manrique 27, 28 Archbishop Montufar 88 Archduke Maximilian 34, 37 Arias Montano, Benito 81 Aspe Ansa, María Paz 13, 48, 107 Augsburg 35, 36, 38, 40 auto da fe 68, 78–81 Azpeitia, Domingo de 70 B Bachiller Herrezuelo 46 Balbo de Lillo, Lorenzo 20, 24, 28 Barcelona 75 Basel 37

Bataillon, Marcel 24, 69, 98, 107 Beatus Vir 84, 89–91, 94, 96, 106, 112, 114 Beltran, Francisco de 66, 67, 72 Benítez de Lugo, Antonio 81 Betts, John T. 97, 106 Bibero, Francisco de 90 Biblia del Oso 91 Bibliotheca Wiffeniana 13 birth date 20 Bishop Baltasar del Río 27, 32 Bishop Fernández Temiño 98, 99, 110 Bishop Joan de Vic 62 Bishop Juan de Zumarraga 88 Bishop Pedro de Castro 33, 41, 42, 56 blood cleansing 17, 26, 55 Boeglin, Michel 13, 14, 17, 25, 40, 107 Boehmer, Eduard 13, 17, 92 Bohn 92 book of chivalry 83 Boston 12 Brenz, Johann 64 Breviary 28, 99 Brussels 35, 36, 43, 51, 65 C Cabrera de Córdoba, Luis 82 Calvete de Estrella 33, 34, 82 Calvin, John 64, 111 Campo, Pedro del 49 Canalla, Juan 100 Cardinal Cisneros 22, 23, 98 Cardinal Juan de Figueroa 52 Carod-Rovira, Josep-Lluis 106 Carranza de Miranda, Sancho 28 Carranza, Bartolomé de 42, 46, 50, 51, 53 Carvajal, Constantino de 49

288

General Index

Carvajal, Luis de 29 Casa de los Niños de la Doctrina 47 Castelló d’Empurias 34 Castillo, Alonso del 18, 19 Castro, Adolfo de 59 catechism 98 cathedral chapter 28, 31, 32, 46, 53, 55 Catholic evangelism 110 Cazalla, Agustín de 33 Cazalla, Pedro de 46 Charles V 20, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 40, 44, 46, 51, 83, 99, 104 Chaves, Francisca de 89 Christian Doctrine 84 Christian Humanism 23, 24, 107, 108, 116 Christocentric 113, 116 Christocentric Christianity 109 Christophorus Fontanus 30 Circle of Meaux 109 Cisneros, Francisco de 19 civil wars 15 cleansing of blood 33 coded language 58 cofradía 16, 17 Cofradía de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción 16 Colegio de Santa María de Jesús 27, 31, 48 Colegio de Santo Tomás 27 colegio menor 19, 22 Colet, John 108 Collegio de San Miguel 27 Complutensian Polyglot 22, 61, 70 Comuneros 20 confession 113 Confession of a Sinner 96, 105 converso 18, 74 Council of Trent 36 Courcelles, Dominique de 105 Crespin, Jean 11, 13 Cristóbal Alvarez 86

Cromberger, John 86 Cuenca 14, 56, 60 D death 81 Deza, Ana de 76 Diálogo consolatorio 44 Diet of Augsburg, 1550 37, 51 dissidents 111 Domingo de Soto 46 Dominican friars 57, 68 Dordrecht 35 Dr. Egidio 25, 31, 32, 43–47, 52, 53, 63, 81 Dr. Nicolas Monardes 54 Duchess Renée 111 E Edicto Perpetuo 38 educated elite 16 Elvira de Pallares 74 Empress Isabella of Portugal 32 England 51 Enríquez de Ribera, Fadrique 28 Enriquez de Ribera, Per Afán 75, 76 Enriquez de Rivera, Mariana 76 Enriquez, Ana 90 Enzinas, Francisco de 37, 44 Epistles and Gospels 61, 109 Erasmian 23, 26, 64, 68 Erasmianism 24, 31, 116 Erasmus 22–24, 29, 30, 36, 62, 90, 108 Erasmus-Carvajal controversy 30 Estrada Herrero, David 59, 93, 100, 101, 107 evangelical cause 40 evangelical current 63 Evangelical doctrine 37 evangelical movement 11, 70, 108, 116 evangelicalism 108, 109 Evangelicals 109 evangelistic tenets 116

General Index

Evora 40, 96 Exposition of the First Psalm expurgation 81

84

F Fagius, Paul 65 faith and works 111, 115 false faith 115 Flacius, Matthias 39 Flanders 23 Florence 109 Fonseca, Alfonso de 23 Fonseca, Juana de 90 Fray Ángel de Castilla 105 Fray Domingo de Baltanás 71 Fray Domingo de Guzmán 66, 78, 81 Fray Domingo de Rojas 47 Fray Hernando de San Jerónimo 78 Fray Juan de la Cruz 42 Fray Lucas de la Sal 70 Fray Luis de Granada 41, 42, 89, 96, 113 Fresneda, Bernardo de 51 Fuente el Carnero 14, 16, 18 Fuente, Antonio de la 15, 16 Fuente, Pedro de la 14, 15 Fuggers 29 G García Arias 112 García Pinilla, Ignacio J. 13, 58 Genoa 35 Germany 62, 66 Ginés de Sepúlveda, Juan 30 Gómez Flores, Diego 87 Gonzalez, Gonzalo 58, 72 grammar school 15, 18, 20 Granada 16, 21, 32, 74 Grande Compagnie Lyonnaise 93 Greek 20–22 Guerrero, Alonso 55, 56 Guillen, Claudio 17

H Hebrew 21, 22 Hebrew Bible 23 Henry, Cardinal-King of Portugal heresy 24 heretic 11, 79 Hindmarch, Bruce 108 Holy Scriptures 21, 23, 110, 113 humanists 21, 24

40, 42

I Illescas, Ana de 89 Illescas, Gonzalo de 33 Imbart de la Tour, Pierre 108 imprisonment 13 Index of Prohibited Books 13, 42, 62, 66, 89, 100 Indians 88 Índice último 81 Inquisition 11, 12, 23, 25, 58, 67, 69, 73, 79, 107, 116, 117 Inquisitor General Manrique 24, 63 Inquisitor General Sandoval y Rojas 81 Inquisitor General Valdés 46, 53, 56, 65, 69, 116 inquisitor Juan González de Munebrega 65 Interim 36, 38 Invisible Church 110 Isabel I 15 J Jesuits 57, 59, 68 Jewish origin 17 Jones, William B. 28, 59, 107 Juan Gil (Dr. Egidio) 31 Julianillo 65, 66 justification by faith 46, 62, 63, 84, 110, 111 K Kess, Alexandra

39

289

290

General Index

L Labor omnia vincit 91 Latin 19–21 Law 84, 111, 113 Lea, Henry Ch. 11, 12 Lefèvre d’Etaples, Jacques 108 León, Juan de 86, 91 Lerma, Pedro de 21, 24 library 61, 66 limpieza de sangre (blood cleansing) 49 Lisbon 87 literary skills 94 literary tournaments 27 living faith 115 Llorente, Juan Antonio 11, 13, 80, 107 Loades, David M. 52 Lombard, Peter 55 London 13 loneliness 112 López Muñoz, Tomás 13 Luther 35, 47, 63 Lutheran 25 M Maese Rodrigo 25 maestrescuela 48 Maestro Blanco 68 Maestro Navarro 87 Majuelo, Miguel 53, 54 Malaga 47–49, 55 manuscript 73, 102–104 marriage 54, 73, 75 Martinez de Alvo, Isabel 66, 67, 76 Martínez de Silíceo 33 Mary Tudor 43, 50 Maxwell, William S. 82 Medina del Campo 100 Melanchthon, Philip 37, 39, 47, 64 Mendoza, Francisco de 74, 76 Menéndez y Pelayo, Marcelino 47, 100, 111

Meneses, Felipe de 71 Methodist Episcopal Church South: 92 Mexía, Pedro 29, 68, 83 Mexico 88 Milan 35 minorities 11 Monjo, Emilio 93 Montes 45, 46 Montes, Reginaldo Gonzalo de 21, 23, 32, 54, 67, 72, 79, 80, 94, 97, 100, 111, 112 Montesdoca, Martin 71 Monzón 40 Morga, Pedro de 70, 72 Mota, Pedro de la 20 Moya, Jesus 28 Mühlberg 36 Munich 96 M’Crie, Thomas 11–13, 105 N Navarro de Kelley, Emilia 93 Navarro, Martín 26 Nicholás de Lyra 109 Nicodemism 59, 108, 111 Nidbruck, Caspar von 37, 38 Nieto, José C. 46, 107, 109 nobility 16 Nucio, Martin 87 O Oecolampadius, Joannes 64 old Christian 16–18 oposición 49, 53 ordained 31 orthodoxy 27 Ortiz de Zúñiga, Diego 58, 82 Ovando, Juan de 25, 48, 53–55, 73 P Pascual, Mateo 22, 24 Pastore, Stefania 107 Patio de los Naranjos 81

General Index

Payares, Elvira de 74 pedagogical tool 113 Pedro de la Haya 75–77 persecution 25 Philip II 51, 68 philology 30 Poole, Stafford 13 Pope Alexander VI 104 Pope Clement VIII 93 Pope Innocent VIII 55 Pope Leo X 55, 63 Pope Paul III 104 Pope Paul IV 69 Pope Sixtus IV 55 Portugal 41 Portuguese chaplains 41 power struggle 69, 116 Pragmatic Sanction 66 Pragmatica 68 preacher 11, 14, 30, 32, 33, 47, 55, 60, 82, 110, 117 predestination 111 prince Philip 33, 34, 36, 40, 47, 50, 68 printer’s mark 91 printing press 70 Privilegio 103 Protestantism 107 provisor 28, 53 public notary 15 puns 57, 91 Q Quakers

13

R Recopilacion 104 Reformistas Antiguos Españoles 13, 88, 100 religious education 98 reprints 104 Resina Rodrigues, Maria Idalina 43

rhetorical devices 94, 95, 107 Rierol, Berdardino de 71 Roa, Martín de 57, 68 Roberts, William 91 Rojas, Luis de 90 Rome 54–56 Rosa Ferrer, Ignacio de la 18 Rotterdam 36 royal privilege 71 Ruiz de Hojeda, Hernán 47 Ruiz de Virués, Alonso 23–25 Ruta de la Plata 14 S sacraments 113 Saint Augustine 95 Saint Bernard 26, 86 Salamanca 22, 24, 28 salary 60, 70 San Clemente 14, 15, 19, 23, 74 San Isidoro, Santiponce 78 Sandoval, Prudencio de 82 Santaella, Rodrigo Fernández de 26 Santi Pagnini 23, 93 Santibañez, Juan de 59 Sarcerius, Erasmus 64 Sarpi, Pietro Paolo 109 Sauceda y Ojeda, Fernando de 55 Schäfer, Ernst H.J. 12 Schmalkaldic League 38 Schmalkaldic War 39 scholastics 24 Schöpper, Jacob 39, 40, 42, 43 Sebastian Martinez 58 secret library 66 self-examination 96 self-study 22 semantic field 95 Septuagint 61 sequestration 37, 69 Sermon on the Mount 84, 86, 89

291

292

General Index

sermons (handwritten) 90 Servetus, Miguel 93 Sesso, Carlo de 46, 51, 63 Seville 11, 17, 25–27, 31, 40, 43, 56, 65, 68, 75, 90 Sigüenza 16, 31 Simancas 12, 13 Sleidan, Johann 38 Society of Jesus 59 Sotelo, Luis 66 statue of Constantino 79 Steelsio, Juan 105 Stoughton, John 12 Strasbourg 37, 38 Suma de Doctrina Christiana 103 Summary of Christian Doctrine 86, 88 Supreme Council 13, 17, 44–46, 57, 64, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73–75, 79–81, 96, 102 Synod of Badajoz (1501) 99 Synod of Jaen (1492) 98 Synod of Toledo (1536) 86 Synon of Zaragoza (1495) 98 T Tauler, Johannes 62 Temiño, Juan Fernández 28 tertian fever 21, 22 The Arts 11, 13, 58 theology 107, 114 Thomas Aquinas 95 Thorndike, Andrew 12, 13 Toledo 17, 18, 23, 49 Tortosa 44 total depravity 115 Tovar, Bernardino 23–25 Trent 35 Triana 46, 66, 74 Trilingual College 22

U ugliness 95, 114 Ulloa, Alfonso de 34, 106 Último Índice 96 Usoz y Río, Luis 12, 13, 87, 99, 100, 116 V Valdés, Juan de 13, 31, 89, 98, 99, 108, 113 Valer, Rodrigo 33, 45 Valera, Cipriano de 101 Valerio Flaco 20 Valladolid 24, 46, 63, 90 Varga, Francisco de 89 Vargas, Francisco de 25, 31, 63, 81 Vergara, Francisco de 21–24 Vergara, Juan de 23, 25, 31 via media 39, 62 Vienna 39 Vulgate 25, 63 W Wagner, Klaus 13, 61, 62, 87 warden 77 Wild, Johannes 62, 108 Wilkinson, Alexander S. 91 William of Croy 23 Wittenberg 37 Witzel, Georg 62 writings 83 Y Yuste

51, 82

Z Zumel, Pedro 53, 55, 79 Zúñiga Guzman, Antonio de

44