It was inevitable that the labors of these evangelical men should arouse at Seville a lively opposition. The more the hearers of the three evangelists were rescued by their preaching from the darkness of ignorance, and the more they shook off the dust of the middle ages, so much the more they esteemed the noble men to whom they were indebted for the light, and the less respect they felt for the troop of hypocrites who had so long destroyed their souls by their teaching.[57] Consequently the palace of the Inquisition resounded with complaints, and nothing but threats was to be heard in the castle of Triana, situated in a suburb of Seville, in which the tribunal of the holy office was established. The evangelists, however, had friends so numerous and so powerful that the inquisitors did not dare at present to attack them. They turned their attention to the other preachers, endeavored to awaken them, and implored them to defend the faith of Rome, now so terribly shaken. And, in fact, the priests attached to ancient superstitions ere long arose as out of a long sleep and warmed their torpid zeal. The fire of Rome, well-nigh extinct, was rekindled. There were two camps in Seville. Over the cathedral floated the banner of the Gospel; in almost all the other churches was raised the flag of the papacy. A contemporary asserts that it was the flag of Epictetus, and he thinks that these priests were rather inferior to the Stoic philosopher.[58] 'Unstring your rosaries and your beads more frequently,' said the priests; 'get many masses said; abstain from meat; go on pilgrimage; have such and such dresses, such an aspect, and other poor things of the like kind.'[59] 'A fine mask of piety,' people used to say; 'but if you examine these things more closely, what do you find?' At the cathedral, on the contrary, the preachers urged their hearers to read the Holy Scriptures; they set forth the merits of a crucified Saviour and called upon men to place all their trust in him. The evangelical preachers were fewer in number than the others, but around them were gathered the best part of the population. Gradually the books of the Roman service were laid aside and gave place to the Gospel. Many hearts were attracted by the Word of God. The religion of form lost many of its adherents, and the religion of the spirit gained them. Among these were several inmates of the convent of the Hieronymites, in San Isidro del Campo. But for the Inquisition, the Reformation would have transformed Spain, and secured the prosperity and welfare of its people.
ELOQUENCE OF DE LA FUENTE.
Ponce de la Fuente, above all, charmed his hearers not only by the beauty of the doctrine which he proclaimed, but also by the purity and elegance of his language, and by the overpowering bursts of his eloquence. Those who heard it exclaimed, 'A miracle!'[60] Ponce was a great observer, and this both by nature and by choice. He took his stand as it were upon a height, and set himself to consider attentively all that presented itself to him—physical phenomena, moral affections, and human affairs.[61] By means of his learning, his experience, and his knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, he was able to contemplate as from an elevated position all things human and divine. He had also an accurate judgment, a quality of the first importance to a preacher. He had a sense of the just value of things; discretion not only guided him in all his actions, but also inspired all his words. This explains the popularity which he ere long enjoyed. In his view the tact of the orator should teach him to avoid whatever would uselessly shock the hearer, and to seek after every thing which could bring souls to salvation. On the days when he preached, Seville cathedral presented the finest spectacle. His service was usually at eight o'clock in the morning; and the concourse of people was so great that as early as four o'clock, frequently even at three, hardly a place in the church was left vacant.[62] It was openly asserted in Seville that Ponce de la Fuente surpassed the most illustrious orators of his own age and of the age which had preceded it.[63] In spite of the extraordinary popularity which he enjoyed, he had remained one of the simplest of men, free from the love of money, without ambition, satisfied with frugal diet, with a small library, and not caring for that wealth for the sake of which certain public pests, said one of his friends, ravaged the church of God. He had given proof of this by refusing the rich canonry of Toledo.
During many years Seville, more fortunate in this respect than any other town in Spain,[64] heard the pure Gospel of Christ proclaimed. Besides the service in the cathedral, there were meetings of a more private character in some of the houses. The abundant harvest which the fertile soil of Spain afterwards yielded was the fruit of these laborious sowings.[65] De la Fuente, Egidius, and Vargas, men as remarkable for their doctrine as for their life, were the first great sowers of the good seed in the Peninsula. 'They deserve,' said one of their good friends, 'to be held in perpetual remembrance.' Who can tell what might have happened in Spain if the work of these three associated Christians could have been longer carried on? But on a sudden Egidius found himself deprived of his two companions in arms, and this in most diverse ways.
Charles the Fifth happened to be in Spain just at the time when Ponce de la Fuente was achieving the greatest success. The emperor came to Seville; and in consequence of the high praise of the preacher which reached him from all quarters he wished to hear him. Charles was delighted. He was fond of fine things, and the same doctrines which, when professed in Belgium, in some obscure conventicle by a cutler or a furrier, he punished as frightful heresies, did not offend him when they came from the lips of a great orator, and were proclaimed to an immense crowd in the most beautiful church in Spain. He almost believed that talent was orthodox. We have moreover remarked that one of the characteristics of de la Fuente was to preach the pure Gospel, avoiding every thing which might shock his hearers. The emperor sent for him to the palace. Charmed with his conversation, his intelligence, and his polished and agreeable manners, he named him one of his chaplains. To this appointment he soon added the office of almoner, and invited him to follow him beyond the Pyrenees. De la Fuente, being attached to Seville, would gladly have declined the call, as he had those from Cuença and Toledo. But this time it was his sovereign who called him. The will of Charles the Fifth was law, and there was no way of escape. Moreover this call, in his judgment, came from God himself. He, therefore, prepared for his departure. Strange to say, the emperor charged him to accompany his son Philip into the Netherlands and to England.[66] 'I intend,' he said, 'to show the Flemings that Spain is not without her amiable scholars and eminent orators.' De la Fuente, therefore, accompanied Philip. He afterwards rejoined Charles in Germany, discharged the duties of chaplain to him, and had the opportunity of making the acquaintance of some of the reformers.
DEATH OF VARGAS.
The departure of Ponce de la Fuente left the Roman party at Seville more at ease. They resolved now to get rid first of Vargas. This theologian, who perhaps had neither the tact of de la Fuente nor the fervor of Egidius, was just on the point of being cited before the tribunals when he died. Egidius thus left alone felt keenly the loss of his friends. He was to have no more intimate communion, no more familiar conversations. The illustrious preacher encountered everywhere hostile looks, and had no longer a friendly ear into which he could pour his sorrow. His singular openheartedness exposed him more than others to hatred. Simple and candid, when called to speak from the chief pulpit at Seville, he attacked the enemies of the light more openly and more frequently than his colleagues had done.[67] Consequently, his adversaries, full of anger against him, put into circulation the most unfavorable reports of his orthodoxy. They surrounded him with secret agents, who were instructed to pick up his sayings and to spy out his proceedings; and they schemed among themselves what course they must take to get rid of a man whom they detested. Egidius was left alone; but even alone he was a power in Seville. If his enemies could succeed in overthrowing him, the Inquisition would then reign without a rival. Unfortunately for these fanatical men, Egidius counted a large number of friends among all classes. After a careful examination of all the circumstances, they had not courage publicly to accuse him. There was need of the brilliant popularity of which he was subsequently the object to raise their irritation to such a pitch that they determined to proceed to extremities.
VALERIO CONDEMNED.
The inquisitors did not stop here. Rodrigo de Valerio, after having been set at liberty, on the ground, they said, that he was merely mad, had refrained, by the desire of his friends, from publicly preaching the Gospel. Unwilling, however, to do absolutely nothing, he had gathered together a certain number of his friends and had in a familiar way interpreted to them the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, that ocean, as Chrysostom called it, which meets us everywhere at the beginning of the awakenings.[68] Some of those who listened to him persevered in the faith; others, at a later time, rejected it. Among the latter in particular was Peter Diaz, who having forsaken the Gospel entered the Society of Jesuits and died at Mexico.[69] But the brave Rodrigo could not long submit to this restriction. Ought he to shrink, he said to himself, from exposing his liberty, or even his life, when the Gospel was at stake? Others had given their lives for a less object than this. He was in hope, moreover, of arousing by his own example other combatants who should finally win the victory. He, therefore, laid aside timid precautions and began again to point out publicly the errors and superstitions of Rome. He was once more denounced, and was arrested by the Inquisition, which was quite determined this time not to let slip the pretended madman. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life and to wear the san benito, a cloak of a yellow color, the usual garb of the victims of the Inquisition. Every Sunday and feast-day, Valerio was taken, as well as other penitents, by the familiars of the holy office to Saint Saviour's Church, at Seville, to hear both the sermon and the high mass. He appeared as a penitent without repentance. He could not listen to the doctrine of the monks without in some way showing his opposition to it. He would sometimes rise from his seat, and, while the whole assembly fixed their eyes on him, put questions to the preacher, refute his doctrines, and entreat his hearers to take care they did not receive them.[70] Rodrigo could not hear a doctrine contrary to the Gospel without his whole soul being stirred within him. The inquisitors, steadily persuaded of his madness, at first excused these interpellations, which to them seemed to be the clearest proof of his malady. But the discourses of this insane man were so reasonable that they produced an impression. The inquisitors at length confined him in a convent on the coast of San Lucar, where all society was forbidden him; and here he died at about the age of fifty. His san benito was exhibited in the metropolitan Church of Seville, with this inscription:—Rodrigo Valerio, a false apostle who gave out that he was sent of God. It was after the departure of de la Fuente from Seville that the final sentence was pronounced against Valerio.