resolved to enter a religious order.[14] The eldest son of a
judge,[15] Luis de Leon renounced most of his share of the paternal
estate,[16] and gave it up to one--or both--of his younger brothers
Cristóbal and Miguel, each of whom had been _veinticuatro_ of Granada
at some date previous to April 15, 1572.[17] On January 29, 1544, Luis
de Leon was formally professed in the Augustinian order.[18] In his
monastery we may plausibly conjecture that he led a solitary and
bookish existence, poring over his texts and attending lectures
assiduously. As early as 1546-1547 his name appears on the list of
students of theology at Salamanca; the registers of theological
students covering the years 1547-1548 to 1550-1551 are missing; Luis
de Leon's name does not appear in the register for the academic year
1551-1552, but it recurs in the University books for the years
1552-1553 and 1554-1555. He there figures still as a student of
theology.[19] He would seem, therefore, to have shown no amazing
precocity in the schools; but his application, we may be sure, was
intense, and there is nothing rash in assuming that during part of
the two years that he was absent, as he tells us,[20] from Salamanca,
he was lecturing at Soria. The remaining eighteen months he probably
devoted to exegetical studies at Alcalá de Henares, where he
matriculated in 1556.[21] He was about thirty when he rather
unexpectedly graduated as a bachelor of Arts at the University of
Toledo.[22] Why he preferred to take his degree at Toledo instead of
at Salamanca is not clear; it is plausibly conjectured that economy
may have been his motive, as the obtaining of a bachelor's degree at
Salamanca was an expensive business.[23] Confirmation of this
conjecture is afforded by the fact that he speedily returned to his
allegiance, was 'incorporated' as a bachelor at Salamanca in 1588,
graduated there as a licentiate of theology in May 1560, and in the
following month became a master of theology.[24] It soon became clear