Fray Luis de León | Page 4

Luis de Leon's great-grandfather married a Leonor de Villanueva,
who is reported to have confessed to practising Jewish rites and to have
been duly condemned by the Inquisition in 1513 or thereabouts.[6] This
does not go to the root of the matter, for Leonor de Villanueva is
alleged to have been Lope de Leon's second wife. His first wife is
stated to have been Leonor Sanchez de Olivares, a lady of unquestioned
orthodoxy, and mother of Gomez de Leon,[7] the future grandfather of
the Luis de Leon with whom we are concerned here. If this statement
be correct,[8] obviously there can be no ground for asserting that Luis

de Leon was of Jewish blood. But it must in candour be admitted that
the point is not wholly clear from doubt.[9]
It is now established that Luis de Leon was born at Belmonte in the
province of Cuenca: 'Belmonte de la Mancha de Aragon' as he calls
it.[10] When was he born? On his tombstone, he was stated to be
sixty-four years old when he died on August 23, 1591.[11] This is
almost the only scrap of evidence available, for no baptismal registers
dating back to the third decade of the sixteenth century are preserved at
Belmonte.[12] Did the inscription on Luis de Leon's tomb mean that he
had completed his sixty-fourth year, or did it mean that, at the time of
his death, he had entered upon his sixty-fourth year? According to the
answer given to these questions, the date of Luis de Leon's birth must
be fixed either in 1527 or 1528.
Apart from the fact that Luis de Leon was taught singing,[13] as
became the future friend of Salinas, we know next to nothing of his
early youth. From himself we learn that he was taken from Belmonte to
Madrid when he was five or six, that at the age of fourteen he was
entered at Salamanca University, where one of his uncles--Francisco de
Leon--was lecturer on Canon Law, and that shortly afterwards he
resolved to enter a religious order.[14] The eldest son of a judge,[15]
Luis de Leon renounced most of his share of the paternal estate,[16]
and gave it up to one--or both--of his younger brothers Cristóbal and
Miguel, each of whom had been veinticuatro of Granada at some date
previous to April 15, 1572.[17] On January 29, 1544, Luis de Leon was
formally professed in the Augustinian order.[18] In his monastery we
may plausibly conjecture that he led a solitary and bookish existence,
poring over his texts and attending lectures assiduously. As early as
1546-1547 his name appears on the list of students of theology at
Salamanca; the registers of theological students covering the years
1547-1548 to 1550-1551 are missing; Luis de Leon's name does not
appear in the register for the academic year 1551-1552, but it recurs in
the University books for the years 1552-1553 and 1554-1555. He there
figures still as a student of theology.[19] He would seem, therefore, to
have shown no amazing precocity in the schools; but his application,
we may be sure, was intense, and there is nothing rash in assuming that
during part of the two years that he was absent, as he tells us,[20] from
Salamanca, he was lecturing at Soria. The remaining eighteen months

he probably devoted to exegetical studies at Alcalá de Henares, where
he matriculated in 1556.[21] He was about thirty when he rather
unexpectedly graduated as a bachelor of Arts at the University of
Toledo.[22] Why he preferred to take his degree at Toledo instead of at
Salamanca is not clear; it is plausibly conjectured that economy may
have been his motive, as the obtaining of a bachelor's degree at
Salamanca was an expensive business.[23] Confirmation of this
conjecture is afforded by the fact that he speedily returned to his
allegiance, was 'incorporated' as a bachelor at Salamanca in 1588,
graduated there as a licentiate of theology in May 1560, and in the
following month became a master of theology.[24] It soon became
clear that he did not regard a University degree as a mere distinction.
The retirement of Gregorio Gallo caused a vacancy in the chair of
Biblical Exegesis at Salamanca. Luis de Leon, though but a master of a
few months' standing, presented himself as a candidate for the post. He
failed to obtain it, being defeated by Gaspar de Grajal, a future ally and
fellow victim:[25] so far as can be ascertained, this was Luis de Leon's
sole academic check. Manifestly he was not daunted. He claimed, and
established, his right to take part in certain examinations in his
faculty,[26] and 'con mucho exceso' thwarted the designs of the famous
Domingo Bañez, whom he afterwards described as 'enemigo
capital'.[27] His combativeness did him no immediate harm, for, in
December 1561, he was elected