the like resolution, but God and himself only knew them, and he desires Valdesso to consider well of what he had said, but keep his purpose within his own breast till they two had another opportunity of a friendly discourse, which Valdesso promised. In the mean time, the emperor appoints privately a day for him and Valdesso to receive the sacrament publicly, and appointed an eloquent friar to preach a sermon on Contempt of the World, and the happiness and benefit of a quiet and contemplative life, which the friar did most affectionately. After which sermon the emperor declared openly, that the preacher had begot in him a resolution to lay down his dignities, to forsake the world, and to betake himself to a more monastic life. And he pretended he had persuaded John Valdesso to do the like; but this is most certain, that after the emperor had called his son Philip out of England, and resigned to him all his kingdoms, the emperor and John Valdesso did perform their resolution." This pleasant episode never happened. Nor was the genial angler much farther astray from the facts than most other writers down to the time of Dr. Thomas McCrie, whose brief notices of Juan Valdés are in the main correct. Several scholars have recently made Valdés the subject of earnest research, bringing to light facts long concealed, and recovering books supposed to be lost. Some of the results of their investigations may be of interest to the present circle of readers, especially as a Spaniard has been considered so rare among the Reformers of the sixteenth century. About the close of the twelfth century Hernando de Valdés founded the town of Cuenza, in New Castile, nearly half-way between Madrid and Valencia. Built on the terraces, tier above tier, this town grew into the capital of a mountainous district, peopled with traders, and thick with woollen mills. There also the higher arts and literature flourished. This land proprietor won the honors of nobility. He left behind him magnificent houses, a chapel, and entailed estates. One of his numerous descendants, in the latter part of the fifteenth century, bore his name, and sustained the reputation of the family. He sympathized with the popular party in a futile resistance to the policy of Charles V. in giving foreigners the chief offices in the church and state. He expressed his independent spirit in the following lines: "Ten marks of gold for the telling, And of silver I have nine score; Which pleases me more than all." Among other sons of this hidalgo and regidor, were the twin brothers, Alfonso and Juan, who were born near the beginning of the sixteenth century. Being twins, they have often been regarded as one person, or the deeds of one have been ascribed to the other. By two letters of the period their distinct personality and twinship are established. Erasmus, in 1528, wrote thus from Basle to Juan: "Most accomplished youth: Your brother, Alfonso Valdés, has conferred such obligations upon me, that I ought to love whoever in any way belongs to him. But [besides this] you, as I hear, are so like him both in personal appearance and readiness of mind, that you seem not be twins, but one individual. I think it very proper, therefore, to love you both alike. I hear that you are given to liberal studies, in order that you may embellish your naturally virtuous disposition with every sort of adornment. Why then should any one exhort you to study, when of your own accord you follow this excellent pursuit? It is more to the purpose to congratulate and praise you." Three years later the historian Sepulveda wrote from Rome to Alfonso; "You ask me to receive your brother, should he come to me, in the same manner as yourself. Can I receive him otherwise, when as I look at him-whether he is standing or sitting, speaking or silent, in action or doing nothing-I fancy that I am looking upon yourself? And, what is no less remarkable, he so closely represents you, not in features alone but also in talents, learning, manners, and even in pursuits, that again and again he appears to be your very self and not your brother." Upon the education of these twins, we have scarcely more certain light than these letters furnish. It is supposed that one of Juan's descriptions of a noble woman was intended to be that of his grandmother. In one of his Dialogues, she is 383 my made to say, "That which my parents left me was the abilito read, and some little knowledge of Latin. Such pleasure did I feel in reading sacred Scripture, that I learnt much of it by heart. Not satisfied with the mere knowledge of it, I endeavored to conform my life and conduct to it, losing no opportunity of instructing those of my female friends and companions who conversed with me in what God had taught me; but with so much modesty and moderation, that I could not be blamed, knowing what peril attached to my age and sex, and what caution I had to exercise in my personal carriage; for doubtless we women are constrained much more than men to hold any opinion we may favor with distrust, until it previously has been very strictly examined and discussed." Many of the Reformers received their bent of mind from mothers, who were obliged to be as cautious in teaching their doctrines as they were earnest in the study of the divine Word. Those who wish to study the anomalies of human character may find a rich subject in Cardinal Ximenes. In him the middle and modern ages met. He was the munificent patron of literature, and yet he made diligent use of the machinery of the Inquisition. He supplied the means for stimulating research and manly thought, but set the path of the student with terrors lest he should become too daring an inquirer and too independent a thinker. Under his patronage the University of Alcala rose to compete with the older universities of Europe. Intent upon rooting out "heresy" he strangely appears as the projector of a splendid Polyglot edition of the Bible, in six folios; and this only about ten years after the furious Torquemada made a bonfire of Hebrew Bibles at Seville, and then, at Salamanca, burned six thousand volumes of books which bore the heretical taint. It is curious to note that the last volume of the Polyglot was printed in 1517, the very year that Luther began to oppose the papal decrees and to direct the attention of Europe to the saving doctrines of the Word of God. It was also the year of the cardinal's death. Truth slumbered in those Complutensian folios, being closely watched lest it should waken and rise in its gigantic strength; it sprang forth with life-giving power from the popular editions of the Bible. chIt is thought that the brothers Valdés were enrolled at the cardinal's university. They caught his literary spirit, but discarded his bigotry. Their later employments and writings indicate that Alfonso studied Latin composition and jurispru dence, while Juan directed his studies to his native language and to the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures. Juan did not share in the puerile devotion to the Vulgate, thus expressed in the name of Ximenes, in one of the prefaces to the great Polyglot: "We have put the version of St. Jerome between the Hebrew and Septuagint, as between the synagogue and eastern church, which are like the two thieves-the one on the right, and the other on the left hand, and Jesus, that is the Roman Church, in the middle; for this alone being founded upon a solid rock, remains always immovable in the truth, while the others deviate from the proper sense of Scripture." A sentence worthy of triple exclamation points! Hebrew and Greek editions came to be regarded as Protestant "versions" of the Holy Scriptures, and full of heresy. Quite in the same spirit, it is now assumed in some quarters that our popular version "translated out of the original tongues, and with the former translations diligently compared and revised," is a sectarian book, unfit to hold the place in our common schools, which our very civilization has long conceded to it. The man who did most to mould the early character of the twin brothers was Peter Martyr of Angleria (Anghiera). He was an Italian, as was the later-born Peter Martyr Verneiglio. He was brought into Spain that he might educate the young nobles, "teaching them to love good studies and good books," rather than the follies of knight-errantry, the vices of gallantry, and the sports and spoils of marauders. Queen Isabella was his chief patron. He taught in various cities, and then he was transferred to the court in order to train the young princes in the ancient classics. He was the educator of nearly all the young nobles of Spain who won distinction by pen or sword, during the sway of Charles V. in Europe. His rightful boast was "My house all day long swarms with noble youth, reclaimed from ignoble pursuits to those of letters. . . . I earnestly inculcate in them that consummate excellence in any department, whether of war or peace, is unattainable without science." Certain young princes and dukes " remain under my roof during the whole day; an example which has been imitated by the principal cavaliers of the court, who, after attending my lectures in company with their private tutors, retire at evening to review them in their own quarters." His The professor was leading a host of vigorous students along the road toward a reformation. No wonder the Inquisition had so much work to do, and did it in such a horrible way, for young Spain must be terrified and tortured into submission. But we do not wonder that the brothers Valdés struck out into an independent path, and were quite the first of the nobility to grasp and bind to their souls the most powerful of all truths. Angleria started them upon their career. spirit was not servile to Rome, however indisposed to break from her communion. This is proved by his volume of eight hundred letters, written during thirty-seven years, and full of European history. From them Geddes, Gibbon, Herrera, Prescott, and Washington Irving drew very much of the life which renders their pages attractive. His unsparing criticisms of the vices of the popes, cardinals, and "lower clergy" must have shaken the faith of the young Spaniards in every sort of papal infallibility. Their sympathies for ecclesiastical reform must have been nurtured, if they read his letter to his patron Mendoza upon the martyrdom of Savonarola: "You already know that a certain friar of Ferrara, of the order of Preachers (as they are called), went on a long time condemning, from pulpits in the city of Florence, the bad life and evil manners of the cardinals and pope. This good man so irritated the pontiff [Alexander VI., the licentious], that he caused him to be burnt alive as a heretic by the apostolic judges. Notice in this occurrence the artifices with which he weaves his scheme when he wishes to effect a man's destruction, and be on your guard accordingly." The twin brothers might never have gone beyond their literary master had he not sent them out of their native country; the one to meet the German reformers, and the other to look inside the Vatican, noting what was foulest in the field of corruption. A quick discerner of talent and character, Angleria had nominated the Piedmontese Gatinara as grand |
