CHAPTER III.
SPAIN OUT OF SPAIN.
(1537-1545.)
The Spaniards who at this epoch distinguished themselves by the purest faith were those who, having been by various circumstances transported into Germany and the Netherlands, were there brought into contact with the Reformation and its most remarkable men. Thus it happens that respecting these we possess the most detailed information. We are, therefore, called to look in this chapter and the following ones at Spain out of Spain.
THE THREE ENZINAS.
While Seville was a great evangelical centre in the South, and the foremost town in Spain at the epoch of the Reformation, there were also cities in the north of the Peninsula, which were distinguished by some remarkable features, particularly Valladolid and Burgos. The latter town, situated in a fertile country, and once the capital of Castile, gave birth to four young men, who were afterwards noted for their devotion to the Gospel, but who spent most of their lives beyond the Pyrenees. These were James, Francis and John de Enzinas, sons of a respectable citizen of Burgos, who had kinsmen of noble rank and high connections, and Francis San Romano, of more humble origin, but whose parents were 'good honest people.' His father was alcalde of Bribiesca. These four young men, almost of the same age, were comrades at Burgos.[71] For various reasons they quitted the town in their youth. The father of the Enzinas, a man in his way ambitious for his children, and holding firmly by his authority as a father, continued to rule his sons even after they had attained their majority. He sent them to complete their education at the university of Louvain, partly because the course of study there was of a more liberal cast than in Spain, and partly because he had kinsmen settled in the Netherlands, some of whom were at the court and enjoyed the favor of Charles the Fifth. It appeared to him that a fine career was there open to their ambition, and that they would perhaps ultimately rise to the high position of their father. They were indeed to find a career, but one of a more noble and glorious kind.
The Enzinas, having arrived in the Netherlands before 1540, applied themselves zealously to their studies. They were all of them, and especially Francis, desirous of discovering all that was true and good, fully determined to communicate to others the truths which they had acquired, filled with courage to defend them against all attacks and with perseverance to continue in the face of danger faithful to their convictions.[72] They had the Spanish temperament, depth and fervor of soul, seriousness and reflectiveness of understanding; and some faults of their nature were corrected by Christian faith. Their language had not only stateliness but thought. The sense of honor did not in them degenerate into pride, as is so often the case; and their religious faith, by the influence of the Gospel, was preserved from superstition. They have been known under different names in different countries. Their family name, Enzinas, which in Spanish denotes a species of oak, was as usual hellenized in Germany, where they bore the name of Dryander, and was turned into French in France, where they were sometimes called Duchesne.
These three young men had a taste for literature, and made rapid progress in it. While the truly noble and liberal bent of their intellect separated them from the theologians who were virtually imprisoned within the walls of the Scholastic method and doctrine, their naturally religious disposition, the common characteristic of their countrymen, led them to seek out the pious men of their day. Two of these were the means of bringing them over from Roman Catholicism to evangelical Protestantism; both of them conciliatory men, who, though they belonged especially to one of the two categories, maintained at the same time some relations with the other. One of them stood on the Catholic side, the other on the Protestant; but they had both been desirous of bringing about a reconciliation between the Reformation and Catholicism. One of these men was George Cassander, born in 1515, probably in the island of Cassandria, at the mouth of the Scheldt. He was a good scholar, and was a perfect master of languages and literature, law and theology, and taught with great reputation in various universities in the Netherlands. Sincerely pious, he made it the purpose of his life to demonstrate the agreement of the two parties in essential doctrines and to endeavor to unite them. With this intent he published various works.[73] The emperor Ferdinand at a later time requested him to work for this end. The Enzinas associated themselves with him. An intimate friendship grew up between them; they had frequent conversations and wrote to each other when separated.[74] But while the Catholics thought that Cassander conceded too much to the Protestants, the latter, and especially Calvin, complained that he conceded too much to the Catholics. He did, in fact, remain always united with the Roman church, declared that he submitted to its judgment, and openly condemned schism and its authors.