Rodrigo de Valerio was made glad by the wonderful change which God had wrought through his ministry; and the victory which he had won raised still higher his burning zeal. He began to proclaim the Gospel not only in private meetings, but in public, in the streets and squares of the town, near the Giralda, the convent of Buena Vitta, the Alcazar, and on the banks of the Guadalquivir. He was denounced to the holy office, and when he appeared before the tribunal of the Inquisition he spoke earnestly about the real church of Christ, set forth its distinguishing marks, and especially insisted on the justification of man by faith. This took place a little while after the conversion of Egidius, whose new faith was not yet known, and who still enjoyed in society the reputation of a scholar and a good Catholic. Glad of an opportunity of repaying his great debt, he came before the tribunal and defended his friend. He thus exerted an influence over the judges, and they took into consideration the lowliness of Valerio's family and the rank which he held in society. Moreover, they said Valerio is tainted with insanity, and it can hardly be necessary to hand over a madman to the secular power. His goods were confiscated, he was exhorted to return to the right path, and was then set at liberty.
The astonishing change which had been effected in Egidius was soon remarked at Seville. Now fully persuaded of the need of repentance and faith, and possessing salvation by personal experience,[49] his preaching was henceforth as simple, affectionate, and fervent as it had before been cold, ignorant, and pedantic. Abstract propositions and fruitless disputations now gave place to powerful appeals to conscience and to entreaties full of charity. General attention was aroused. Once more a multitude thronged the noble cathedral, erected on the very spot on which the Arabs had formerly built a magnificent mosque, in which neither altar nor image was to be seen, but which was brilliant with marbles and lamps. The Christians were now summoned to hear the good news by bells in the summit of the Mohammedan tower, the Giralda, whence the muezzins had once called the people to prayer. This was the sole remnant of the mosque, and it gave its name to the church. Jesus Christ now took the place of the false prophet and the vain forms of the papacy; and many believed in the grace of the Son of God. In the discourses of Egidius there was a charm which was felt alike by the educated and the ignorant. He was the most animated and the most popular preacher who had ever appeared at Seville; and his history shows, better perhaps than that of any other preacher, that the first quality of an orator is a heart burning with love and with fervent emotion. Pectus facit oratorem. This man had received from God the excellent gift of penetrating the souls of those who heard him with a divine fire[50] which animated all their deeds of piety and fitted them to endure lovingly the cross with which they were threatened. Christ was with him in his ministry, says one of those who were converted by him; and this divine Master himself engraved, by the virtue of his Spirit, the words of his servant on the hearts of his hearers.[51] Valerio was the layman of the Reformation; Egidius became its minister.
PONCE DE LA FUENTE AND VARGAS.
He was not long alone. During his residence at Alcala, three students were observed to be united in close friendship with each other. These were John Egidius, Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, and Vargas. Now these two old fellow-students arrived at Seville. The Castilian, Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, was born at St. Clement, in the diocese of Cuença. The inhabitants of these districts concealed under an aspect of coldness a free and boisterous gaiety. Ponce de la Fuente was certainly one of these people. He had a caustic humor, was a lover of pleasure, and ardent in all that he did. His youth had been somewhat dissipated, and for this he was afterwards reproached by his enemies. But he possessed also good sense and a moral disposition, which soon led him to embrace a more regular life, even before he was acquainted with the Gospel. He never lost, however, his cheerfulness and his wit. He was animated by a strong desire to gain solid knowledge, and at the same time he felt great aversion to the pedantry and barbarism of the schools. In some respects he was like Erasmus. He was a son of the Renaissance, and, like his master, enjoyed ridiculing the ignorance of the monks, the fooleries of the preachers, and the hypocrisy of the pharisees. Although he had not the genius of the great man of letters, in some points he surpassed him. There was more depth in his faith and more decision in his character. Contradictory qualities met in his nature. He would hurl in all directions his satirical darts, and yet he was full of benevolence and generosity, and was always ready to give assistance to any one. It was, moreover, said of him that no one ever loved or hated him moderately. His acquaintance with the human heart, his knowledge of the egotism and the indifference which are found even in the best men, made him very scrupulous in the selection of his friends. But he deeply loved the few to whom he was attached; and with his great acquirements he combined a free and cordial manner.
Ponce de la Fuente was apparently detained at Seville by the report of the conversion of Egidius and of the great sensation which his discourses were producing in that town. Like Vargas, he hungered and thirsted for a truth which should satisfy all his wants, and which was as yet unknown to him. That which these two were still in search of, they learnt that the third had found. They hastened to his presence. They found Egidius convinced that the knowledge of Christ surpasses every thing besides, so that in order to obtain it there is nothing which ought not to be given up. He had found it the chief good. He had gained it by faith, and he was prepared for the sake of keeping it to lose all that he possessed. The communion of the three friends became more and more intimate, their friendship sweeter and sweeter.[52] In their intercourse with each other they found so much solace and so much profit to their souls that when they were parted they sighed for the moment when they should meet again. Their souls were one. Egidius made known evangelical truth to his old fellow-students; and on their part Vargas, and still more de la Fuente, 'the extent of whose knowledge was marvellous,'[53] gave him a wholesome impulse, under the influence of which he made rapid progress both in sound literature and true theology. The brotherly affection which united them filled their hearts with joy; and this joy, says a reformer, was perfumed with the sweet odor of the service of God.
HARMONIOUS ACTION.
The three friends formed a plan, and combined their efforts to spread true piety around them. Egidius and de la Fuente divided between them the work of preaching. Their manner of speaking differed. While Egidius had much openness of heart, de la Fuente had much openness of intellect. In the discourses of Egidius there was more fire; more light in those of de la Fuente. The former took souls captive; the latter enlightened understandings, and obtained, says a historian,[54] as much and even more applause than his master. This means doubtless that his influence was still more powerful. Vargas had undertaken another department, that of practical exegesis. At first he explained in the church the Gospel according to St. Matthew, as Zwingli had done at Zurich; and afterwards the Psalms.[55] These three evangelists spoke with a sacred authority, and with admirable unity. 'What harmony,' people said, 'prevails between Egidius, Constantine, and Vargas!' But nobody suspected that the word spoken by these three powerful teachers was the evangelical doctrine then being preached by Luther, Farel, and the other reformers. There was no more reference to them in the discourses of the Spaniards than if they had not existed. All those souls which thirsted for the truth would have been alarmed at the names of these men, heretics in their eyes; but they were attracted by the words full of grace and truth which were those of John, Peter, and Paul, nay, rather of Jesus himself. The sheep entered into the fold in which were already those who were elsewhere called by Melanchthon and by Calvin, without in the least suspecting the fact. Their strong but invisible bond of union was Christ, whose grace operated silently but with the same efficacy on the banks of the Elbe, the Rhone, and the Guadalquivir.
The reputation of Ponce de la Fuente was ere long as widespread as that of Egidius. There was one feature in his character which doubled, nay, which multiplied a hundredfold the force and result of his preaching. He was free from vanity. This besetting sin of the orator, a vice which paralyses his influence, had no place in him. He was quite exempt from that exalted opinion of himself which is so natural to the human heart, and especially to the public speaker. He had recovered the first of all loves—the love of God; and this so filled his soul that it left no room for any other. He was indifferent to the praises of his hearers, and his only thought was how to win their hearts for God. His reputation procured him several calls. The chapter of Cuença unanimously invited him to be preacher at the cathedral. By accepting the invitation he would have gained an honorable position in his own province; but he chose rather to remain the curate of Egidius. Some time afterwards a deputation arrived at Seville, commissioned to announce to de la Fuente that he was called to succeed the titular bishop of Utica as preacher at the metropolitan church of Toledo, an office of high honor and very much sought after.[56] No one doubted that he would accept a place which was the object of ambition to so many men. De la Fuente, having no wish to leave Seville, where a great door was opened to him, declined the offer. The canons persisted in their application, pressed him and seemed bent on compelling him. In order to get rid of their importunity, Ponce availed himself of an objection which was certainly in character with the turn of his mind. In the church of Toledo a dispute was at this time going on between several members of the chapter and the cardinalarchbishop John de Martinez Siliceo, who had decreed that the candidates elected by the chapter should be bound to prove that they were descended from blameless ancestors. Now de la Fuente had no reason to fear this rule more than any other; but being driven to extremities, he replied to the deputies with an arch smile that 'the bones of his ancestors had rested in peace for many years, and that he would not disturb their repose.'
OPPOSITION.