Before long matters began to take a graver aspect. A definite
charge[61] emerged that some ten or eleven years earlier[62] Luis de
Leon had translated from the Hebrew into Spanish the _Song of
Solomon_, to which he appended a commentary, also in Spanish. This he
did at the request of a nun whose name is incidentally revealed as
'Doña Isabel Osorio, monja de Sancti Espíritu de Salamanca'.[63] That
Luis de Leon's proceeding was most imprudent is undeniable. With
characteristic courage and candour, in his first _confesion_ of March
6, he volunteered the admission that he had made such a rendering.[64]
At this moment he was apparently unaware that the existence of this
rendering had been already brought to the notice of the Inquisition by
Medina.[65] Nobody questions Luis de Leon's good faith. Nevertheless
one gets the impression that he felt this to be a weak point in his
case. It was. He had committed a serious indiscretion by infringing
the general prohibition of vernacular versions of any part of
Scripture. No doubt it might be contended that his rendering of the
_Song of Solomon_, and his commentary on it, were originally meant to
be used by only one private person; that the prohibition referred to
the circulation of vernacular versions; that this particular version,
made for the exclusive use of Doña Isabel Osorio, did not amount to
circulation (within the four corners of the general prohibition); and
that such circulation as had taken place had occurred against the will
of the translator. This is not mere sophistry. What seems to have
happened was this. It appears that a lay brother, named Diego de Leon,
part of whose business it was to tidy Luis de Leon's cell, stumbled
one day upon the original manuscript of the vernacular version of the
_Song of Solomon_, copied it without leave or licence, and allowed so
many transcriptions of his copy to be made that it became absolutely
impossible for the translator to control or recall them
afterwards.[66] Manifestly Diego de Leon did not venture to remove the