'Don Francis,' said the confessor, 'excuse me if I make you wait still longer. I have not yet finished my devotions; permit me to conclude them while I am walking. To while away the time, here is a book, and the Bible besides.' He went out. The book was entitled: 'On the Cause and Origin of all Heresies; by Alfonso de Castro, Franciscan.' The author was an ignorant monk of Burgos, whom Enzinas knew by report. However, he opened the book. The cause of heresies, it was asserted, was the reading of the Bible in the vulgar tongue; and the author exhorted the inquisitors to prevent the Spaniards from imbibing such poison. Enzinas, disturbed and agitated, could hardly refrain from tearing the pages. He threw the book from him. Then, on reflection, he began to wonder whether the confessor were not plotting some treason, and whether his comings and goings had any other aim than that of preparing to waylay him. In order to dissipate these gloomy ideas, he took the Latin Bible and read. After some time De Soto came in again, and taking up the New Testament which the emperor had sent to him, he requested Enzinas to sit down beside him. Then lowering his eyebrows, and wrinkling his forehead, as though to render his appearance the more formidable, he kept silence for a while. At last he began: 'Francis, we two have met here alone to confer upon the New Testament, in the presence of God, the angels, and the saints whom you behold on these altars. You regard the study of this book as profitable to piety, and I consider it injurious. Its prohibition has been the only means of preserving Spain from the contamination of sects. Francis, you have accomplished a most audacious enterprise, and done an impious deed in daring to publish a version of the New Testament in defiance of the laws of the emperor and your own duty to our holy religion. It is an atrocious crime which merits more than mere death. Further, you have been in Germany at the house of Philip Melanchthon; you extol his virtues and learning everywhere, and this alone is considered with us a proceeding worthy of capital punishment.[137] How deplorable it is that you, still so young, and only beginning your studies, should have fallen so low! It is my duty to consider the good of the church universal rather than the safety of a single man. Your crimes are so serious that I know not how you can escape the penalty with which you are threatened.' Enzinas was unspeakably grieved at this speech. So much superstition, impiety, and cruelty overwhelmed him. At the same time he knew that he could not escape the great dangers which were impending over him. In this Dominican house he breathed the heavy and deadly atmosphere of the Inquisition, and he seemed to behold around him its terrible features, its chains, and its instruments of torture. [Sidenote: THE MASK DROPPED.]