later the General Inquisition wrote to the same judges, hinting that a
decision might be given shortly.[150] The Valladolid Court was stirred
into temporary activity. A sitting was held on March 30; Mancio was
present; a consultation took place between him and his client;[151]
and henceforth we hear no more of difficulties in connexion with Luis
de Leon's _patrono_. Nearly six months had been wasted owing to want
of tact on the part of the Inquisitionary officials.

As the event proved, the prisoner's protests in this matter were
thoroughly justified. It is easy to perceive this now. We cannot be
sure that we should have taken the same view had we been contemporary
spectators. If appearances were not actually against Luis de Leon,
they combined to reveal him in his least attractive posture. His
comparative promptitude in accepting Mancio as _patrono_, his
unwillingness to abide by his choice, his sudden hostility to Mancio,
his final acceptance of Mancio, are all explicable variations.
Nevertheless they showed a disregard for superficial consistency which
might easily be misinterpreted as caprice. The bias of the court had
been veering away from the prisoner for some time. His series of
actions with respect to Mancio lost him all judicial favour. His
judges considered him as an unreasonable man, a gifted sophist fertile
in inventing objections in and out of season, a hair-splitter
perpetually arguing for argument's sake. Luis de Leon was, as a rule,
so unaccommodating that some of his judges may have begun to think
they understood why he was not universally popular with members of his
own order. Nor did Luis de Leon's demeanour in court serve to
dissipate the atmosphere of almost arrogant rectitude which enveloped
him. He felt bound to criticize the machinery of the Inquisition. He
may easily have seemed to be criticizing those engaged in working the
machinery. At the best of times the procedure of the Court was not