Among the cultivated Spaniards assembled at the court of Charles V, Erasmus became for the time the fashion. His writings secured the approval even of some of the highest dignitaries of the Spanish Church. The Inquisitor-General, Manrique, declared Erasmus to be another Jerome and Augustine. The Archbishop of Toledo wrote, when Erasmus was under criticism, assuring him of the protection and good-will of the emperor. The _Colloquies_ were used as a schoolbook and the _Praise of Folly_ was in the hands of all Humanists. In March, 1527, Valdes wrote to Erasmus that his books were everywhere in Spain and that no merchandise was more salable.[223] In 1527 was published a Castilian version of the _Manual of the Christian Soldier_, and in the same year, under the leadership of Dr. Edward Lee, English ambassador in Spain, a session of the supreme council of the Inquisition was called to make thorough examination of the alleged heresies in the writings of Erasmus. A list of twenty-one such heresies was framed by the examiners. The charges were finally referred to an assembly of twenty theologians and nine friars who gave to the investigation months of debate, but who arrived at no conclusion. Charles V was persuaded to write an imperial missive in favour of Erasmus, and Clement VII issued, in 1527, a brief imposing silence on all who should attack the writings in so far as these concerned Luther. Manrique issued, on behalf of the Spanish Inquisition, an absolute prohibition of any writings against Erasmus. The influence of the antagonists of Erasmus finally, however, prevailed. In 1535, a year before the death of the author, Charles V made it a capital offence to use the _Colloquies_ in schools, and in 1538 he issued a prohibition covering the _Praise of Folly_ and most of the other works, excepting, however, the _Christian Soldier_. In the Spanish expurgatory Index of 1584, Erasmus occupies no less than fifty-five quarto pages. By 1640, the list of the errors of Erasmus calls for no less than fifty-nine folio pages in double columns. By this time he had come to be classed with the incorrigible heretics, and the words “_auctoris damnati_” are ordered to be inserted after his name on all title-pages. This was the final judgment of the Spanish Inquisition on Erasmus. A different view of the nature and value of the work done by Erasmus is taken by Catholic scholars of the twentieth century, although I do not venture to say that this view is general, even among the scholars of the Church. Father Shahan, of the Catholic University of America, for instance, says (in 1899) (speaking to be sure informally): “Erasmus rendered noteworthy service to the Church, to religion, and to scholarship. He was the counsellor of moderation, the upholder of scholarly standards, the pitiless critic and the courageous antagonist of fraud and of folly.”