de Leon, Zúñiga (_alias_ Rodriguez) was half-crazed with vanity, much
given to boasting of the esteem in which he was held at the Papal
Court. On one occasion, the fatuous Zúñiga produced a short treatise
entitled _Manera para aprender todas las ciencias_, and, stating that
he proposed sending this pamphlet to the Pope, made bold to ask what
his interlocutor thought of it. Can he have been vain enough to expect
a favourable verdict? If so, he did not know his man. Luis de Leon
drily expressed his regret that a work destined for the Pope should be
so slight and should contain a number of rather commonplace passages
such as might be found in any current book of reference--though, as he
added politely, he assumed that these passages were the fruit of
independent reading. This courteous assumption, which Zúñiga hastily
assured Luis de Leon was exact,[119] could not alter the fact that the
ambitious author had been severely snubbed, and this snub may well
have rankled in the mind of a man who is described as 'vindictive'.
Zúñiga had another grievance against Luis de Leon, who had taken a
severe view of his companion's insolence to an official superior at a
Provincial Chapter, and had joined in making representations the
upshot of which was that the culprit was publicly and ignominiously
punished.[120] It is well-nigh incredible that the Zúñiga who
championed Copernicus, and displays vigilant self-restraint in his
writings, should have been guilty of such flightiness as is brought
home to his namesake; it is by no means inconceivable that the Zúñiga
who deposed against Luis de Leon should have been guilty of occasional
lapses. He is said to have been impetuous as well as vindictive;[121]
he had the dangerous gift of pulpit eloquence[122] and may have
acquired the trick of saying rather more than he meant. His evidence
against Luis de Leon, though fluent and clear, is not what we should
expect from a man of talent, who recognized the gravity of the charges
against the prisoner. His testimony, such as it is, has less