sought to make amends for it by paying a sum of 8,000 _reales_ into the Dominican chest.[214] Meanwhile Luis de Leon (who, like Domingo de Guzman, was perfectly innocent of any share in these clandestine manoeuvres) had taken possession of the Biblical Chair at Salamanca by reading himself in on December 7, 1579. Hitherto his reputation, great as it was, had been more or less local: that is to say, it depended mainly on his University lectures, which were exploited by certain unscrupulous persons. It was not till 1580 that, at the express command of his superior, Fray Pedro Suarez,[215] he issued his first book: a Latin commentary on the _Song of Songs_. On the title-page stood a characteristic motto from his favourite Horace: _ab ipso ferro_. Possibly at this moment Luis de Leon looked forward to a period of learned leisure: O ya seguro puerto de mi tan luengo error! o deseado para reparo cierto del grave mal pasado, reposo dulce, alegre, reposado! If the author of this opening stanza of _Al apartamiento_ were optimistic enough to assume that these verses might be applied to his own case, he was destined to be speedily disillusioned. The Valladolid Inquisitors had not treated him in such fashion as to make him desirous of meeting them again. This experience was, however, awaiting him.[216] On January 20 or 21, 1582,[217] his former opponent, the Mercenarian Fray Francisco Zumel, took the chair at a theological meeting in Salamanca. At this meeting a Jesuit named Prudencio de Montemayor put forward a thesis which opened up the difficulties connected with the reconciliation of the theological doctrines of predestination and free-will. Owing to some disturbance in the assembly, Montemayor's voice did not reach all who were present and, in the interest of the audience, Luis de Leon repeated Montemayor's arguments without lending them any support; his action was misunderstood, and many supposed that he was expressing his personal opinions. In the ensuing discussion his vanquished opponent, Domingo de Guzman, intervened, and with unnecessary acerbity declared that Montemayor's views were heretical. Nothing would have been easier than for Luis de Leon to keep out of the fray, especially as he himself held, and had always taught, opinions opposed to those advanced by Montemayor. If, as Pacheco reports, Luis de Leon was the most taciturn of men, he was chivalrous to the point of quixotism. In the circumstances silence was impossible for him. He was for as much liberty of thought as was compatible with orthodoxy; he was persuaded that much of the opposition of the Dominicans to Montemayor was due to the fact that the latter was a Jesuit;[218] and no doubt he was quite human enough to be annoyed at the intrusion of Domingo de Guzman as the champion of doctrinal intolerance.... Be this as it may, Luis de Leon took up the cudgels for Montemayor's views which, as he maintained, were perfectly tenable. At a later meeting in Salamanca,