We have seen that the Gospel had been well received at Seville, in the south; it was likewise welcomed at Valladolid, in the north, the usual seat of the king. There was one man who at this epoch, by reason of his ability, the offices with which he was invested, the missions which were entrusted to him, and his religious character, played an important part in Spain. He passed for one of the most violent enemies of evangelical truth; and such indeed he was, but ultimately he became himself an evangelical, at least in essential points. This was Bartholomew Carranza, who was born in 1503, at Miranda, in Navarre, and was at this time teaching theology at Valladolid with great applause. He had completed his studies at the university of Alcala, and in 1520 had entered the Dominican order. While he was at the college of St. Gregory of Valladolid, in 1527, he had undertaken the defence of Erasmus, and had consequently been denounced to the Holy Office. At a still earlier period he had conversed with a Dominican older than himself, Professor Michael de Saint Martin, on matters pertaining to the conscience. The doctor found that the young monk greatly limited the power of the pope. For this he had been rebuked and ultimately denounced to the Holy Office (November 19, 1530). But these two denunciations came to nothing. It was found that the evidence was not sufficient to support an accusation. On the revival of the denunciations at a later period, Carranza, who by this time had become an archbishop, was placed under arrest. At an early age he had felt some relish for the truth. Had he lived in the midst of Gospel light he would have joyfully received it; but the darkness of Rome withheld him and for a long time led him astray. In 1534 he was appointed professor of theology at Valladolid, and in 1539 he was named a delegate to Rome to attend a chapter of his order. He maintained there some theses with so much success that Pope Paul III. gave him permission to read prohibited books. The reading of these was afterwards of advantage to him. At this time he enjoyed the reputation of a fervent Catholic. His opposition to heretics, his olive-colored complexion, and the sombre costume of his order, earned him the surname of the black monk. Nevertheless he displayed altogether a superior mind; and in consequence of this he was early distinguished by Charles the Fifth. If he were then strongly attached to Roman doctrines it was with sincerity, because he believed them to be true; and he was, moreover, a stranger to petty ecclesiastical superstitions.[180]
Carranza's teaching, perhaps, contributed to make the Gospel attractive to younger minds at Valladolid. At first they showed some timidity; but the cruel death of one of the most earnest Spanish Christians inspired them, about the middle of the century, with more zeal and courage. Among the disciples of Carranza was Don Domingo de Roxas, son of the marquis of Poza—a name rendered illustrious by a great poet—and whose mother was a daughter of the count of Selinas. This young man, who was destined by his parents for the church, was amiable, upright, a lover of truth, keenly susceptible and impressible, endowed likewise with courage, but not with that immovable firmness which belongs to powerful characters. He listened with enthusiasm to the lectures of Carranza, who in certain cases made use of the phrases of the reformers, while condemning their doctrines. The same was afterwards done by the Council of Trent, to which Carranza was sent as delegate by Charles the Fifth. He used to say that man, since his fall, could not be justified by the power of nature; but that he is justified by Jesus Christ. To these assertions, however, he added explanations which weakened them. 'The moral power of man,' he said, 'is indeed diminished but not destroyed; he is able to incline himself to righteousness, and faith justifies only so far as charity is added to it.'
Ere long Domingo showed less timidity than his master. He laid aside every thing that weakened the doctrine and embraced the pure faith drawn from the Word of God. At the same time that he listened to Carranza he was reading Luther and Melanchthon, and he thought their doctrines more evangelical and more powerful than those of his master. The professor trembled lest his disciple should become a heretic and should raise up others. What to Roxas appeared a friendly light, seemed to Carranza the signal of a conflagration. In vain he endeavored to prove to young de Roxas the mass and purgatory. The latter, understanding that the truth was the property of all, communicated it to those around him. He put into circulation the works of the reformers; he composed others himself. Among the latter was an 'Exposition of the Faith.' By these means he gained over to the Gospel several inhabitants of Valladolid. He encountered opposition on the part of some members of his own family; but he found access to others, as well as to several noble houses of Castile.[181]
AUGUSTINE CAZALLA.
Another young Castilian, Augustine Cazalla, a contemporary of Roxas, at the age of seventeen had had Carranza as his confessor; and he attended, at the same time as Domingo, the lectures of this illustrious master at the college of St. Gregory at Valladolid. His father was director of the royal finances, and his mother Leonora (whose maiden name was de Vibero), a friend of the friends of the Gospel, opened her house to them, and freely welcomed the refugees who were driven by persecution from their own abodes. On this account the house of Leonora was afterwards razed, and on its ruins fanaticism erected a monumental stone, which remained there till our own days.[182] Cazalla completed his studies at Alcala, became canon of Salamanca, and attained a position in the first rank of Spanish preachers. The circumstances in which he was placed, and particularly the hospitality of his mother, prepared him to receive the Gospel. He was even accused of having 'openly taught in the Lutheran conventicles of Valladolid.' It appears, however, that he did not publicly declare himself for the Word of God until the emperor, having nominated him his preacher and almoner, took him with him into Germany, where he had frequent intercourse with the Lutherans.[183]
Even before Cazalla decided for the Gospel Don Domingo de Roxas had found a powerful assistant in the evangelization of Valladolid and its neighborhood. An Italian noble, Don Carlos de Seso, born at Verona, of one of the first families of the country, had distinguished himself in the service of the emperor, and had, it seems, learnt something at an early age of the doctrine of the Reformation. He settled in Spain, and during his residence at Valladolid became intimate with the evangelical Christians of that city. He had a cultivated mind, great nobility of character, gentlemanly manners, and much zeal for the truth. Having become a Spaniard, he discharged in his adopted country certain civil functions; and this afforded him opportunities of diffusing with more freedom the knowledge of the Gospel. He did this zealously in some towns situated to the east of Valladolid, on the banks of the Douro; at Toro, where this river is spanned by the numerous arches of an immense bridge, and where Seso was corregidor; and, somewhat further eastward, in the melancholy and sombre Zamora, which the Cid had reconquered from the Moors, and where the ruins of his palace were to be seen. His active exertions were next put forth in another quarter. We find him proclaiming the love of God in Jesus Christ at Valencia, to the north of Valladolid, and under the very walls of its beautiful cathedral. He afterwards married Doña Isabella de Castilla, niece of the bishop of Calahorra, and a descendant of King Pedro the Cruel, and took up his abode at Villa Mediana. Here he became very successful in the evangelization of Logroño, and the rich and fertile districts lying around, which are watered by the Ebro. Don Carlos de Seso was remarkable for the energy of his faith, the vigor of his language, and the devotion of his whole being to Jesus Christ. He was to give evidence of his courage at the time of his death, by apostrophizing the cruel Philip II. himself, whose fanatical answer became celebrated.[184]
DE ROXAS.
Don Domingo de Roxas had a sister, the marchioness of Alcagnices, whose character bore much resemblance to his own, and who, like him, attached herself to Carranza, but with still more enthusiasm. She found in him a faithful, pious, and disinterested guide; not a director, but a Christian friend. She as well as her brother had frequent conversations with Carranza. Domingo on one occasion was speaking with joy about the complete justification of the sinner by the grace of Christ. 'But,' he added, 'I do not see how this truth is to be reconciled with purgatory.' 'It would be no great harm,' said Carranza, 'if there were no purgatory.' Domingo was astonished, and replied by citing the decisions of the church. His master then closed the discussion by saying: 'You are not at present capable of thoroughly understanding this matter.' In a little while, Domingo, convinced that the justification of man is the essence of Christianity, returned to the subject; and Carranza told him that he did not see in Holy Scripture any clear proofs of the existence of purgatory.[185] De Roxas rejoiced to hear this, for he desired above all things that his master should unreservedly accept the doctrines of the Gospel. But this was not so easy as he thought, and whenever he made a timid attempt to induce him to adopt them, Carranza at once checked him. 'Beware,' said he, 'lest you allow yourself to be carried away by your talents.' The disciple then withdrew disheartened. Carranza's refusal to follow him in all the evangelical doctrines 'excited his deepest compassion,' and also occasioned him the greatest grief. 'For,' he said, 'if Don Bartholomew entirely received the true faith, he would induce my sister to adopt it, so completely does the marchioness yield to his opinion.' Filled with confidence, Roxas added: 'I am still in hope of seeing this change effected;' and allured still further and further by his hopes he exclaimed: 'If so great a change as this be wrought in Carranza, the king and all Spain will embrace this religion.'[186]
The faith of Carranza seemed in fact to become brighter and more real, so that the fine castles in the air which the young and ardent De Roxas was building were not altogether unfounded. One day, not long afterwards, Carranza, when preaching at Valladolid in Passion week, was suddenly carried away by the liveliness of his faith and the warmth of his love for the Saviour; and speaking as if he saw heaven opened, as if he discerned not only the image of the Saviour, but the Saviour himself crucified, he spoke with enthusiasm of the unutterable blessedness of such contemplation for faithful souls, and extolled with all his power the justification of men by a living faith in the passion and the death of Jesus Christ. 'Really,' said the bishop Peter de Castro, who was present, 'Carranza preached to-day as Philip Melanchthon might have done.' The bishop informed the illustrious orator of his own way of thinking; the latter replied only by keeping profound silence.[187] Carranza afterwards preached a sermon of a similar kind before Philip II. in London, whither he had accompanied the king, and where he prosecuted the evangelical teachers of Oxford and other places, while sometimes preaching the same doctrines as they did. The fanaticism of Catholic unity and universality stifled in his soul the claims of Christian faith. The new man, formed within by divine grace, was in his case kept down by the natural man, whose instincts had been rendered more cruel by the influence of Rome and the Inquisition.