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, Fray Juan de Castañeda, a Benedictine,[219] advanced views very similar to those of Montemayor; Domingo Bañez, whose relations with Luis de Leon were never cordial, was even more emphatic than his brother-Dominican, Domingo de Guzman, and denounced Castañeda's views as savouring of Pelagianism. A sharp passage of arms followed between Bañez and Luis de Leon,[220] and, after some exchange of argument, Bañez professed to be satisfied with Castañeda's thesis, and therefore with Luis de Leon's explanations.[221] Others were less easily contented; even some of the Augustinian professors at Salamanca were uneasy;[222] and finally the case came before the Inquisition of Valladolid, though the sittings of the court were held in Salamanca. The delator would appear to have been a Jeromite, Fray Joan de Santa Cruz, who took objection to some sixteen propositions which, as he alleged, were put forward by Luis de Leon.[223] Some exaggeration on the part of Santa Cruz is conceivable. As a Jeromite, he bore a grudge against Luis de Leon for his overt opposition to the candidature of Hector Pinto at Salamanca University and, as Francisco de Palacios deposed at Valladolid on February 5, 1573, Santa Cruz had been somewhat excited by the news of Grajal's arrest and was anxious to know if Luis de Leon had been apprehended at the same time.[224] This incident implies no great impartiality on the part of Santa Cruz. Still, a report made officially has to be met. On March 8, 1582, Luis de Leon, adopting the same procedure which he had followed at Valladolid, voluntarily presented himself before the Inquisitionary tribunal at Salamanca, and read his account of what had occurred.[225] In several particulars he was enabled to correct the version of Santa Cruz, which was admittedly second-hand in part.[226] He must have thought of 'old, unhappy, far-off things' as he entered the Court and recognized the Inquisitionary secretary with the singular name of Celedon Gustin; these remembrances probably led him to take additional precautions.
