20

ITS CONSEQUENCES.

learning over the slender talents of his friend; yet such was in fact the case.

"No slighter impulse than that of an ardent love of religious truth would have been sufficient to engage any man in the desperate undertaking of spreading protestant doctrines, under the watchful eye of the Inquisition, now doubly alert, from the animosity which their sovereign, Charles V., was showing against the Lutherans in Germany. But no danger could appal the enthusiastic Valér. Regardless of his personal safety, or what is still dearer to a man who has enjoyed the respect of his companions, his character for judgment and soundness of intellect, he appeared at the most. frequented places, addressing all that would stop to hear him, upon the necessity of studying the Scriptures, and making them the only rule of faith and conduct. The suspicions of his mental derangement, which had been afloat since the period of his retirement, were now fully confirmed, and saved Valér, for a time, from the hands of the Inquisition. This humane construction of his conduct did not last long; he was seized and confined to a solitary prison. His friend, Egidius, who was yet without any taint of suspicion, appeared before the judges as Valér's counsel: a dangerous, yet honourable proof of his friendship. The prisoner made no attempt to disguise his opinions, but charged the inquisitors themselves

with blindness and ignorance. Valér was twice imprisoned, and made to stand a trial. The first time he forfeited his fortune, the second his liberty for life. Public disgrace is one of the most powerful weapons used by the Inquisition. Accordingly Valér was conducted every Sunday, in a san benito, or coat of infamy, to the collegiate church of San Salvadore, to attend high mass, and hear a sermon, which he frequently interrupted, by contradicting the preacher. Under a strong doubt whether he was really a madman, or courted the suspicion to escape the punishment of fire, the inquisitors came to the final determination of confining him to a convent near the mouth of the Guadalquiver; where, deprived of all communication with the rest of the world, he died, about fifty years of age. He was of course deprived of his Bible; but we are told that he had committed a considerable portion of it to memory, so that he had still that consolation in his solitude,

The final sentence against Valér, which was passed in 1540, did not damp the zeal of his friends, though it made them more cautious. Egidius lived in habits of great intimacy with Constantine Perez de la Fuente and Dr. Vargas, two very learned and exemplarary priests, his early friends at the university of Alcalá de Henares. By the zeal of Valér many additions had been made to this knot of friends; for his proselytes in

22

PROGRESS OF PROTESTANTISM.

different parts of the town soon became known to each other. By the conversion to Protestantism of Dr. Arias, the rising church began to feel strong in the number of her learned men. Arias, in spite of his natural timidity, which afterwards, in the hour of persecution, betrayed him into the most odious duplicity, disclosed his new views in religion to one of the members of his convent. * This man was possessed of an open and ardent character, the very reverse of that of Arias; and through his agency, the whole community, including the prior, embraced the reformed doctrines. The concealed Protestants were mostly divines of great eminence for their learning and their virtue, and possessed an extensive influence in the town, especially through the confessional. That their efforts were much restrained by apprehensions of danger there can be no doubt; yet, in the space of ten years, two protestant churches were founded; one at Seville, and another at Valladolid, whose members, under the direction of appointed ministers, implored the blessing of Heaven on the religious work in which they had engaged, at the imminent peril of their lives. the head of the church of Seville was Dr. Egidius, its founder. It contained more than eight hundred members when it was extirpated. The house

Arias was a Hieronymite. Their convent is situated two miles from Seville, and is called San Isidro del Campo.

of Isabel de Varna, a lady of illustrious birth, was used as a place of worship."

"With what terror," said Ellen, "they must have gone there! and how unhappy the deceit they were compelled to practise must have made them!"

"True," said her father.

"But those who had gone on for some years unreproved, would be less susceptible of these agitating feelings: they would have acquired a habit of security; and those who were novices, would have less fear from seeing the courage of others."

"But persecution came at last, did it not?" said Edward

“Yes, it came like a whirlwind, and none of its victims escaped. Dr. Augustin Cazalla, canon of Salamanca, one of the king's chaplains and preachers, had been educated at Alcalá when Egidius, Vargas, and several protestant leaders had been there. Having attended the emperor into Germany, he is supposed to have learned there the principles of the reformation. Numerous females, many of them ladies of quality, embraced the Lutheran faith at Valladolid; and the meetings were held at the house of Leonor de Vibero, Cazalla's mother. The history of religious zeal hardly presents an instance of more heroic devotion, or greater disregard of danger, than appears in the Spanish Protestants. The fierce spirit of persecu

tion, which the nation had imbibed during the struggle for dominion with the Moors, was now directed against the German Lutherans; those new enemies of the faith, who, in the conception of the Spaniards, had been marshalled by the powers of darkness, to take up the interests of satan's kingdom. Their emperor, Charles V., had employed, for some years, the whole strength of his extensive influence to oppose the reformation in Germany. The Spaniards, by shedding their blood in that cause, had taken a double interest against it. Their honour was engaged to deliver up into the hands of justice, all such as might be found combining to spread heresy, in the most orthodox of all countries; and the mercenary feelings of the lower class engaged them to the performance of a lucrative duty, which entitled the informer to a share in the spoil of God's enemies."

66

Detection," said Edward, "was thus unavoidable, and must have been, I should think, foreseen by the Protestants."

"few precau

"If it were so," said Mr. Delville, tions were taken for their safety. Egidius first fell under the suspicion of heresy. He was confined in the solitary prisons of the Inquisition; and the slow process of his trial was embittered by the persecuting zeal of Peter Diaz, one of the inquisitors, who had formerly been his friend, and the base desertion of Arias, whom he had appointed