Fray Luis de León - A Biographical Fragment by James Fitzmaurice-Kelly
page 39 of 185 (21%)
page 39 of 185 (21%)
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describes as an enemy notorious for his untruthfulness.[98] It would
appear that much of Montoya's second-hand information came from another Augustinian, Francisco de Arboleda,[99] who had once been a student of Luis de Leon's,[100] and had been entrusted by the prisoner with the delicate mission of collecting from certain theologians in Seville opinions favourable to Luis de Leon's views upon the Vulgate.[101] This very sensible precaution scandalized Montoya. It is open to criticism solely on the ground that Luis de Leon chose his agent badly. To this criticism the real answer is that Luis de Leon had to employ what agents he could, and that nobody but Arboleda, who was not above flattering his old master,[102] was available at the time of his mission to Seville. Arboleda's evidence was not damaging; it was ill-intentioned and impertinent, inasmuch as it repeated vague rumours of the Jewish descent of the accused;[103] the gravest fact the witness could allege was Luis de Leon's view that a friar, despite his vow of poverty, might spend a couple of coppers without mortal sin in buying an _Agnus Dei_.[104] Arboleda gives the impression of being a dullard, and this is pretty much the description of him by another member of the Augustinian order--Pedro de Rojas,[105] son of the Marqués de Pozas and afterwards Bishop of Astorga and Osuna. Luis de Leon apparently agreed with Rojas in his estimate of Arboleda's ability, and this may account for his comparative leniency to the poor numbskull. More severe treatment is meted out to another Augustinian, Diego de Zúñiga, whom Luis de Leon brands as a deliberate perjurer.[106] Who was this Zúñiga? He has generally been identified with the Zúñiga who was among the first in Spain to declare in favour of the Copernican theory;[107] this action needed courage and Zúñiga has had his reward. As he is respectfully quoted by Galileo, he has attained something like immortality.[108] There is, however, no conclusive evidence to show that this |
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