Fray Luis de León: A Biographical FragmentFitzmaurice-Kelly, James
History
Fray Luis de León: A Biographical Fragment
Fitzmaurice-Kelly, James
León, Luis de, 1527-1591
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
enlightened writer is the Zúñiga who came under Luis de Leon's lash.
The correctness of the current identification is, at least, doubtful.
The fact that Diego de Zúñiga is a frequent combination of names in
Spain is an embarrassment to the investigator. It is noticeable that
Luis de Leon's references seem to imply some doubt as to his
opponent's real name; he is obviously uncertain whether his accuser
should be called Zúñiga or Rodriguez,[109] and in this uncertainty he
is not alone.[110] It appears that there were at least two
Augustinians known as Diego de Zúñiga in Luis de Leon's time; it
further appears that neither of the two inherited from his father the
surname which he habitually used. Both men claimed relationship with
the Duque de Béjar--it was to the seventh Duque de Béjar that
Cervantes dedicated the First Part of _Don Quixote_ in 1605--and both
assumed the family name of that illustrious stock.[111] The original
name of the more celebrated of these Zúñigas was Diego Arias;[112] the
original name of the less celebrated was Rodriguez.[113] This is not
decisive, but it may well be one of those small facts which speak
volumes. Chronology confirms the conclusion to be drawn from these
considerations. The Zúñiga who appeared against Luis de Leon at
Valladolid was evidently professed as early as 1559 or 1560;[114] the
more celebrated Zúñiga was not professed till 1566.[115] General
considerations point in the same direction. The views of Zúñiga
(_alias_ Arias) were approximately those of Luis de Leon;[116] he
viewed matters from the same standpoint, was himself a university
professor,[117] and had something of Luis de Leon's fearlessness.[118]
Zúñiga (_alias_ Rodriguez) was a man of a very different type:
pedantically attached to the letter of the law, morbidly scrupulous on
points of discipline. There seems to be no touch of burlesque
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Fray Luis de León: A Biographical Fragment — John Shaqi
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