and Frechilla seemed excessive to the Supreme Inquisition, which
curtly ordered its deputies at Valladolid to acquit Luis de Leon, to
reprimand him and warn him to be more careful in future, and to
confiscate the manuscript copy of his Spanish version of the _Song of
Solomon_.[184] These orders, dated at Madrid on December 7, 1576,
were, of course, obeyed.[185] As the senior member of the Court, Dr.
Guijano gave the reprimand to which Luis de Leon listened, standing up
while it was pronounced.[186] The date is not stated, but it cannot
have been later than December 15, 1576; for on this day Luis de Leon
applied in writing for an official certificate of acquittal, and for
an order on the accountant of Salamanca University instructing that
officer to pay him arrears of salary from the date of his arrest till
his chair was vacated owing to the lapse of his four years'
tenure.[187] Both applications were granted. But the Ethiopian cannot
change his skin, and it was not till August 13, 1577, that the
petitioner received full satisfaction.[188]




III


[Footnote 53: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, pp. 143-144.]

[Footnote 54: _Documentos inéditos_, vol. X, pp. 174-176.]

[Footnote 55: Luis de Leon administered a fund left by the late Doña
Ana Abarca de Sotomayor whose servant Almansa had been. Out of this
fund a life-pension was paid to Almansa (_Documentos inéditos_, vol.