(1542-1545.)
While these events were passing, Francis Enzinas was working at Wittenberg under the eye of Melanchthon at his translation of the New Testament. The work was at last completed, and there remained only to print it and send it to Spain. For this purpose Enzinas was to go to Antwerp. He set off, therefore, from Wittenberg in the month of January 1543, just after his friend San Romano had been confined in the dungeons of Valladolid. He first proceeded, by very bad roads, and in the midst of winter, to Embden, where he wished to see John Alasco. ‘We conferred on several matters, which he has no doubt communicated to you,’ wrote Francis to Melanchthon. Thence he went to the convent of Adnard, in the neighborhood of Groningen; where Hardenberg then was. This man’s regard for the gospel had abated, and he had determined to pass the rest of his days in peace in his convent. Enzinas endeavored to induce him openly to profess the doctrine of the gospel. In this he succeeded. Hardenberg left the convent and went to Cologne. Francis went to Louvain, where he arrived in March 1543. f105
The moment was not favorable. The Inquisition and the secular power itself were both preparing their terrors. There was an under-current of agitation in the city; hatred or fear was everywhere rife. Enzinas had many friends in the city; but knowing that he came from Wittenberg, and
pretending that he ‘smelt of sulfur,’ those with whom he was most intimate, far from lavishing on him marks of tender affection, as formerly, remained mute and trembled in his presence. He well understood the reason. The very day after his arrival, the Attorney-General, Peter du Fief, cast into prison, as we have seen elsewhere, f106 all of the evangelical party who fell into his hands. An uncle whom Enzinas had at Antwerp, Don Diego Ortega, invited him to go and see him, and he was received in that
town with open arms. At this period he was alternately at Antwerp, Brussels, and Louvain.
The persecution which had befallen a great number of his friends now absorbed all his thoughts; but when the storm had somewhat abated, his project of translating his Spanish translation of the New Testament again engaged his attention. Being modest, as distinguished men generally are, he felt some hesitation when he considered how great an enterprise it was, especially for a young man like himself. ‘I do not wish,’ he said, ‘to accomplish this work in obedience to my own impulse alone.’ He
therefore consulted several men belonging to different nations and eminent for their learning and wisdom. All of them approved his project, and begged him to hasten the printing. ‘Since the birth of Jesus Christ,’ say some of the monks, even among the superstitious, ‘so great a benefit has never been offered to the Spanish people.’ ‘I could wish,’ said another, ‘to see that book printed, were it even with my own blood.’ f106a Enzinas took another step even more humble, and which might have compromised him.
It was necessary that theological books should receive the sanction of the faculty of theology. ‘Assuredly,’ said Enzinas, ‘this was never required, nor ought to be required, for the Holy Scriptures. But no matter. He sent his translation to the dean of Louvain by a monk of his acquaintance. The members of the faculty, after conferring together, replied, ‘We do not know Spanish; but we know that every heresy in the Netherlands proceeded from reading the sacred book in the vulgar tongue. It would, therefore, be advisable not to furnish the common people in Spain with an opportunity of refuting the decrees of the Church by the words of Jesus Christ, the prophets, and the apostles. f107 But since the emperor has not forbidden it, we give neither permission nor prohibition.’ The reply was at least candid and ingenuous.
Enzinas did not pay much regard to the advice of the theologians of Louvain; but the work would have had a much larger circulation if it had been sent out under their sanction. Now both prudence and zeal incited him to do everything to ensure the success of his enterprise. Having met with this refusal, he contented himself with communicating his manuscript to Spanish scholars, who declared that they had collated the most
important passages, and had found the translation very faithful. They urged him, therefore, to hasten the publication of so beneficial a work. f108
He now went once more to Antwerp, intending to have his book printed there; but he was soon to discover that his application to the theologians of the university of Louvain, by spreading in a certain circle a report of his enterprise, sufficed to throw great obstacles in his way.
There were, in fact, at this time in the Low Countries dignitaries of the Spanish Church whose eyes were open and who would not fail to use every effort to hinder the printing of the Holy Scriptures in Spanish.
Amongst others was the archbishop of Compostella, Don Gaspar d’Avalos, a man whom Spanish devotees considered, on account of the perfection of his ultramontane doctrine, as a divinity among mortals, f109 but whom men of sound judgment regarded as a fanatic. Filled with abhorrence for the holy doctrine of the gospel, he took every opportunity of contending against and uprooting it. He was the first to oppose the translation of Enzinas. ‘To publish the New Testament in Spanish,’ said he, ‘is a crime worthy of death.’ One day, when the archbishop and the translator were both at Antwerp, the former preached. The Spaniards, who were at this time numerous at Antwerp, were present, and many others came out of mere curiosity. Enzinas slipped into the church, and, wishing to hear well, succeeded in placing himself close to the illustrious preacher. The latter, according to the taste of the Romish priests, delivered a controversial sermon, and it must be confessed that he had reasons for doing so. He thundered against the books which set forth the doctrine of the gospel. He did not preach, said Enzinas, he vociferated, and strove by furious clamor to stir up his audience and excite the people to sedition. f110 He went even further. Without naming Enzinas, he hurled covert words at him, never suspecting that the man whom he was attacking was sitting close by him. f111
Francis, whether after or before this sermon we do not know, went to Stephen Meerdmann the printer, and the following conversation took place: —
Enzinas: ‘Are you willing to print a Spanish translation of the New Testament?’
Meerdmann: ‘Quite willing; such a work is desired by many.’
Enzinas: ‘Is there any need of a license?’
Meerdmann: ‘The emperor has never forbidden the printing of the Holy Scriptures, and the New Testament has been printed at Antwerp in almost every European language. If your translation is faithful it may be printed without permission.’
Enzinas: ‘Then prepare your presses; I take the responsibility of the translation; do you take that of the publication. Of course I bear the cost myself.’
There was nothing underhand in all this. The enterprise of Enzinas was well known, and so approved, while other blamed it. Anyone who wished was admitted to the translator’s house. One day, when he had some members of his family with him, and before he had sent the copy to the printer, an Old Dominican monk, who scented some heretical design underneath it all, presented himself at his door. After the customary salutations, he took up the first page which lay on the table in manuscript and contained the title and an epistle to the emperor. The monk read: The New Testament, that is, the New Covenant of our Redeemer and only Savior Jesus Christ. Francis had said Covenant because he had noticed that the word Testament was not well understood; and he had inserted the word only before the word Savior to dissipate the error so common among the Spaniards, of admitting other Saviors besides the Son of God.
‘Covenant,’ said the monk, ‘your translation if faithful and good, but the word Covenant grates on my ears; it is a completely Lutheran phrase.’
‘No, it is not a phrase of Luther’s,’ said Enzinas, ‘but of the prophets and apostles.’ ‘This is intolerable,’ resumed the monk; ‘a youth, born but yesterday or the day before, f112 claims to teach the wisest and oldest men what they have taught all their life long! I swear by my sacred cowl f113 that your design is to administer to men’s souls the poisonous beverages of Luther, craftily mixing them with the most holy words of the New Testament.’ Then turning to the relatives of Enzinas, he began to rail like a mad man, endeavoring by tragical words to excite his own family against him. Indeed, the monk had scarcely finished, when Francis was surrounded by his relatives, beseeching him, for the love of them. to erase the unlucky word. He did so, in order not to offend them, but he left standing the phrase only Savior, to which the monk did not object. He then sent the sheets to the printer, who put it to press and worked off a large number.
Having received this first printed sheet, Enzinas, though excess of caution, communicated it to a Spaniard of his acquaintance, an elderly, well-
informed, and influential man. ‘Only Savior,’ cried he, on seeing the title.
‘If you will be advised by me, omit the word only, which will give rise to grave suspicions. Enzinas explained his reasons. The Spaniard
acknowledged the truth of the doctrine, but denied the expediency of putting it so prominently forward. The word was omitted, and the sheet had to be reprinted. f114 The whole edition was some time after ready to appear.
It was now the beginning of November 1543. The emperor had just made war against the Duke of Cleves, had conquered him, and had obtained by the treaty of Venloo a portion of the states of that prince. The duke’s mother, the Princess Mary, a clever woman, had died of grief and indignation; f115 but the emperor was proud of his achievements, and thought only of following up his triumphs of every kind. It was to his Spanish troops in particular that Charles owed this victory. A great number of Spaniards of every rank accompanied him, and he had just appointed as his confessor a Dominican from the Peninsula, Pedro de Soto, who was afterwards the first theologian of Pius IV., in the third convocation of the Council of Trent. At this time Soto ranked, both in the Low Countries and in Germany, among the most zealous of the Romish priests. He sought to gain over ignorant minds, and knew how to insinuate himself into the good graces of the great. As he had the emperor’s
conscience at his disposal he ‘instilled into him his venom, f116 thus perverting the sentiments of a prince who was full of clemency,’ says Enzinas. But this supposed benignity on Charles’s part was an illusion.
Policy was his great guiding motive, and he was merciful or harsh,
according as the interests of his ambition required. It is, however, true that Soto endeavored both by his sermons and otherwise to inflame men’s minds, and especially that of Charles, against those whom he called heretics. Whenever the Dominican preached before Charles the Fifth and his court, he was to be seen entering the church in a lowly manner, his head sunk between his shoulders, his cowl pulled over his forehead, his eyes fixed on the ground, and his hands clasped. f117 One would have thought him a man dead to the world, who contemplated only heavenly things, and who would not harm a fly. f118 He mounted the pulpit, threw
back his cowl and gravely saluted the emperor, and the princes and lords who surrounded him. Then he began his sermon, speaking with a low voice and slow enunciation, but clearly and firmly, so that his words sank the more impressively into men’s hearts. He recalled with enthusiasm the religion of their ancestors and extolled the piety and zeal of Charles. Then, affecting to be more and more moved, he deplored with sighs and tears the ruin of religion and the attacks made upon the dignity of the priest, and conjured the emperor to tread in the way marked out for him by his predecessors. Having thus by feigned modesty insinuated himself into the hearts of his audience, he raised his head boldly, gave vent to the passion by which he was animated, and brought into play the powerful artifices suggested to him by the Evil One. f119 He hurled the thunders of his eloquence at his adversaries; he aimed a thousand shafts at them, and subdued his audience. But if his violence took the assembly by surprise, he shocked many, who thought with amazement: ‘We might fancy we were listening to a man who had descended from the abode of the gods on Olympus to announce the secrets he had learned from Jupiter.’ ‘He was seized,’ said one of his hearers, ‘with a diabolical fury, and seemed like a priest of the mysteries, gesticulating and leaping in a chorus of the Furies.’
f120 He laid siege to the mind of the emperor, and inflamed the princes with hatred of the divine doctrine. This he distorted and defamed; and he strove by all means to extinguish the salutary light of the gospel which God had rekindled in the midst of the darkness. Turning towards the emperor and the princes, he proclaimed in a prophetic voice, that God would not be favorable to them until they should have destroyed the apostates with fire and sword. He did not conclude his discourse till he thought he had
constrained his hearers by this thundering eloquence to burn all the Lutherans.
Nevertheless it was quite manifest that the emperor did not always use such diligence as De Soto demanded of him in his seditious discourses.
Disquieted, therefore, and saddened because the monarch appeared
‘backward to persecution,’ he appealed to him in private, urging him to make confession; and it was in the retired chamber in which he received as a penitent the mater of the world that he sought, by striking great blows, to drive Charles on to persecution. ‘Most sacred Majesty,’ he said, ‘you are the monarch whom God has raised to the highest pitch of honor, in
order that you may defend the Church and take vengeance on impiety, and I am the man whom God has appointed to govern your conscience. Power has been given me, as your majesty is aware, to remit and to retain sins. If your majesty does not purify the Church from pollution, I cannot absolve you, ego non possum te absolvere.’ He even menaced him with the anger of God and the pains of hell. Charles, who was easily intimidated — even, as we know, by the approach of a comet — ‘imagined himself already plunged into the abyss of hell.’ f121 The monk, perceiving this, pressed his point, and did not pronounce absolution until he had extorted from the sovereign a promise to put the heretics to death. This narrative by a contemporary appears to us perfectly authentic. There is, however, on point on which we cannot follow it. We do not believe that De Soto was a hypocrite and employed fraud and treason, as this author seems to think.
Charles’s confessor was, we believe, a fanatic, but a sincere fanatic; he really believed himself to be prosecuting error.
No sooner had De Soto obtained the promise of Charles than he hastened to Granvella. It was said at court that these two personages had made a compact, by virtue of which the first minister never thwarted the
confessor in matters of religion. It might be so; but we believe that Charles did not lightly submit his designs to the fanaticism of the priests, nor would he, we repeat, give them the rein unless it suited his policy.
On November 24, 1543, Charles the Fifth, after having signed the treaty of Venloo, entered Brussels, probably by the Louvain gate. Another
personage entered the city at the same time, but by the Antwerp gate.
This was Francis Enzinas. He had, as we have said, dedicated his translation to the emperor. ‘Most sacred majesty,’ said he in this
dedication, ‘owing to version of the Holy Scriptures, all men can now hear Jesus Christ and his apostles speak in their own languages of the
mysteries of our redemption, on which the salvation and the consolation of our souls depend. New versions are now continually being published in every kingdom of Christendom, in Italy, in Flanders, and in Germany, which is flooded with them. Spain alone remains isolated in her corner at the extremity of Europe. My desire is to be useful, according to my abilities, to my country. I hope that your majesty will approve of my work and protect it with your royal authority.’ This dedication was dated from Antwerp, October 1, 1543.
Enzinas did not wish his book to be offered for sale until he had presented it to the emperor; and he had come to Brussels to confer with his friends as to where he would have to go and how he should proceed. As soon as he had arrived he directed his steps towards the palace, where, no doubt, one of his acquaintances resided. On approaching, he saw to his great surprise the emperor himself just arriving at court, surrounded by a numerous suite. f122 At this sight Francis greatly rejoiced. ‘What a happy augury!’ though he; ‘this opportune meeting should certainly give me hope that my business will succeed.’ The question now was, how to get access to Charles. Francis de Enzinas, whose family occupied an honorable position, had several distinguished kinsmen and friends at court, f123 to whom he could apply. He went, therefore, to their houses, but learned to his great disappointment that some of them had not yet arrived at
Brussels; and having visited the others, he found that these great
personages were infidels who scoffed at religion as something far beneath them. For them it was only an instrument of government, and they were not at all inclined to compromise themselves with the emperor by
becoming patrons of Lutheranism. Enzinas withdrew, disappointed in his expectations. ‘Certainly,’ said he, ‘I will not ask them to use their
influence in favor of a work which they detest. Moreover, as I am connected with them either by friendship or by blood, I am unwilling to annoy them, or do them harm.’ What, then, was to be done?
There was one bishop at court who was in high favor with the emperor.
This was Don Francisco de Mendoza, son of the first marquis of
Mondejar, bishop of Jaen, a town not far from Granada and Cordova. He was a man in the prime of life, grave, candid, and open-hearted, pure in life, and a lover of piety. Enzinas went one Saturday to the palace in which the bishop lived. The latter received his young and noble fellow- countryman affectionately, and on learning that he came to speak with him about his translation of the New Testament he displayed the liveliest interest in the work. f124 ‘I offer you my services in the matter,’ said he,
‘and I will use all my influence with the emperor, to induce him to receive your work favorably. Return to me tomorrow, and we will then see his majesty.’ The next day was Sunday. A great crowd was stirring in the palace, and magnificent preparations were being made for a high mass which was to be celebrated before the emperor. There was a considerable