His habitual intemperance of speech was stimulated by a custom in the Salamanca lecture-rooms of students handing up questions for the lecturer to answer, and it would appear that malicious pleasure was felt in thus provoking him to exhibit his well-known idiosyncrasies. It was an occasion of this kind that prompted the first denunciation, January 7, 1584, by Juan Fernández, a priest attending the lectures. Others followed, and the character of his utterances appears in the propositions submitted to the calificadores:--That Christ was not circumcised by St. Simeon but by his mother the Virgin.--That there ought to be no images and, but for apparent imitation of the heretics, they would have been abolished.--That those were fools who, at the procession of Corpus Christi, knelt in the streets to adore the images, for only Christ and his cross were to be adored.--Only saints in heaven were to be adored and not images, which were but wood and plaster.--Christ was not born in a stable, but in a house where the Virgin was staying.--That the eleven thousand virgins were only eleven.--Doubts whether the Three Kings were kings, as Scripture speaks only of Magi.--That the Magian kings did not come at Christ's birth, but two years after, and found him playing with a ball.--That theologians know nothing.--That many Dominicans thought the faith was based on St. Thomas Aquinas; this was not so and he did not care a ---- for St. Thomas.--When asked why St. Lucia was painted without eyes, he said that she had not torn them out, but she was reckoned the patron saint of eyes from her name--Lucia _a lucere_. That these free-spoken propositions should be duly characterized by the calificadores as heretical, rash, erroneous, insulting and so forth was a matter of course and, on May 18th, the consulta de fe voted for imprisonment in the secret prison with sequestration, subject to confirmation by the Suprema. The latter delayed action until August 29th and then manifested unusual consideration for the eccentricities of Sánchez, which were doubtless well known. He was merely to be summoned before the tribunal, to be closely examined and to be severely reprimanded, with a warning to give no further occasion for scandal, as otherwise he would be treated with all rigor.[360]