XV.
The Great Sanbenito.
"The thousands that, uncheered by praise, Have made one offering of their days; For Truth's, for Heaven's, for Freedom's sake. Resigned the bitter cup to take."--Hemans
Young as was the Protestant Church in Seville, she already had herhistory. There was one name that Carlos had heard mentioned inconnection with her first origin, round which there gathered in histhoughts a peculiar interest, or rather fascination. He knew now thatthe monks of San Isodro had been largely indebted to the instructions ofDoctor Juan Gil, or Egidius. And he had been told previously thatEgidius himself had learned the truth from an earlier and bolderwitness, Rodrigo de Valer. This was the name that Losada once coupledin his hearing with that of his own father.
Why then had he not sought information, which might have proved sodeeply interesting to him, directly from Losada himself, his friend andteacher? Several causes contributed to his reluctance to broach thesubject. But by far the greatest was a kind of chivalrous, halfromantic tenderness for that absent brother, whom he could now truly saythat he loved best on earth. It is very difficult for us to putourselves in the position of Spaniards of the sixteenth century, so faras at all to understand the way in which they were accustomed to lookupon heresy. In their eyes it was not only a crime, infinitely moredreadful than that of murder; it was also a horrible disgrace, brandinga man's whole lineage up and down for generations, and extending itsbaleful influence to his remotest kindred. Carlos asked himself, day byday, how would the high-hearted Don Juan Alvarez, whose idol was glory,and his dearest pride a noble and venerated name, endure to hear thathis beloved and only brother was stained with that surpassing infamy?But at least it would be anguish enough to stab Juan once, as it were,with his own hand, without arming the dead hand of the father whosememory they both revered, and then driving home the weapon into hisbrother's heart. Rather would he let the matter remain in obscurity,even if (which was extremely doubtful) he could by any effort of his ownshed a ray of light upon it.
Still he took occasion one day to inquire of his friend Fray Fernando,who had received full information on these subjects from the oldermonks, "Was not that Rodrigo de Valer, whose sanbenito hangs in theCathedral, the first teacher of the pure faith in Seville?"
"True, senor, he taught many. While he himself, as I have heard,received the faith from none save God only."
"He must have been a remarkable man. Tell me all you know of him."
"Our Fray Cassiodoro has often heard Dr. Egidius speak of him; so that,though his lips were silenced long before your time or mine, senor, heseems still one of our company."
"Yes, already some of our number have joined the Church triumphant, butthey are still one with us in Christ."
"Don Rodrigo de Valer," continued the young monk, "was of a noblefamily, and very wealthy. He was born at Lebrixa, but came to reside inSeville, a gay, light-hearted, brilliant young caballero, who was soon aleader in all the folly and fashion of the great city. But suddenlythese things lost their charm for him. Much to the astonishment of thegay world, to which he had been such an ornament, he disappeared fromthe scenes of amusement and festivity he had been wont to love. Hiscompanions could not understand the change that came over him--but wecan understand it well. God's arrows of conviction were sharp in hisheart. And he led him to turn for comfort, not to penance andself-mortification, but to his own Word. Only in one form was that Wordaccessible to him. He gathered up the fragments of his old schoolstudies--little cared for at the time, and well-nigh forgottenafterwards--to enable him to read the Vulgate. There he foundjustification by faith, and, through it, peace to his troubledconscience. But he did not find, as I need scarcely say to you, DonCarlos, purgatory, the worship of Our Lady and the saints, and certainother things our fathers taught us."
"How long since was all this?" asked Carlos, who was listening with muchinterest, and at the same time comparing the narrative with that otherstory he had heard from Dolores.
"Long enough, senor. Twenty years ago or more. When God had thusenlightened him, he returned to the world. But he returned to it a newman, determined henceforth to know nothing save Christ and himcrucified. He addressed himself in the first instance to the priestsand monks, whom, with a boldness truly amazing, he accosted wherever hemet them, were it even in the most public places of the city, proving tothem from Scripture that their doctrines were not the truth of God."
"It was no hopeful soil in which to sow the Word."
"No, truly; but it seemed laid upon him as a burden from God to speakwhat he felt and knew, whether men would hear or whether they wouldforbear. He very soon aroused the bitter enmity of those who hate thelight because their deeds are evil. Had he been a poor man, he wouldhave been burned at the stake, as that brave, honest-hearted youngconvert, Francisco de San Romano, was burned at Valladolid not so longago, saying to those who offered him mercy at the last, 'Did you envy memy happiness?' But Don Rodrigo's rank and connections saved him fromthat fate. I have heard, too, that there were those in high places whoshared, or at least favoured his opinions in secret. Such intercededfor him."
"Then his words were received by some?" Carlos asked anxiously. "Haveyou ever heard the names of any of those who were his friends orpatrons?"
Fray Fernando shook his head. "Even amongst ourselves, senor," he said,"names are not mentioned oftener than is needful. For 'a bird of theair will carry the matter;' and when life depends on our silence, it isno wonder if at last we become a trifle over-silent. In the lapse ofyears, some names that ought to be remembered amongst us may well chanceto be forgotten, from this dread of breathing them, even in a whisper.Always excepting Dr. Egidius, Don Rodrigo's friends or converts areunknown to me. But I was about to say, the Inquisitors were prevailedupon, by those who interceded for him, to regard him as insane. Theydismissed him, therefore, with no more severe penalty than the loss ofhis property, and with many cautions as to his future behaviour."
"I hold it scarce likely that he observed them."
"Very far otherwise, senor. For a short time, indeed, his friendsprevailed on him to express his sentiments more privately; and FrayCassiodoro says that during this interval he confirmed them in the faithby expounding the Epistle to the Romans. But he could not long hide thelight he held. To all remonstrances he answered, that he was a soldiersent on a forlorn hope, and must needs press forward to the breach. Ifhe fell, it mattered not; in his place God would raise up others, whosewould be the glory and the joy of victory. So, once again, the HolyOffice laid its grasp upon him. It was resolved that his voice shouldbe heard no more on earth; and he was therefore consigned to the livingdeath of perpetual imprisonment. And yet, in spite of all their care andall their malice, one more testimony for God and his truth was heardfrom his lips."
"How was that?"
"They led him, robed in that great sanbenito you have often seen, to theChurch of San Salvador, to sit and listen, with the other weepingpenitents, while some ignorant priest denounced their heresies andblasphemies. But he was not afraid after the sermon to stand up in hisplace, and warn the people against the preacher's erroneous doctrine,showing them where and how it differed from the Word of God. It ismarvellous they did not burn him; but God restrained the remainder oftheir wrath. They sent him at last to the monastery of San Lucar, wherehe remained in solitary confinement until his death."
Carlos mused a little. Then he said, "What a blessed change, fromsolitary confinement to the company of just men made perfect; from thegloom of a convent prison to the glory of God's house, eternal in theheavens!"
"Some of the elder brethren say _we_ may be called upon to pass throughtrials even more severe," remarked Fray Fernando. "I know not. Beingamongst the youngest here, I should speak my mind with humility; still Icannot help looking around me, and seeing that everywhere men arereceiving the Word of God with joy. Think of the learned and noble
menand women in the city who have joined our band already, and are eager togain others! New converts are won for us every day; not to speak ofthat great multitude among Fray Constantino's hearers who are really onour side, without dreaming it themselves. Moreover, your noble friend,Don Carlos de Seso, told us last summer that the signs in the north areequally encouraging. He thinks the Lutherans of Valladolid are morenumerous than those of Seville. In Toro and Logrono also the light isspreading rapidly. And throughout the districts near the Pyrenees theWord has free course, thanks to the Huguenot traders from Bearn."
"I have heard these things in Seville, and truly my heart rejoices atthem. But yet--" here Carlos broke off suddenly, and remained silent,gazing mournfully into the fire, near which, as it was now winter, theyhad seated themselves.
At last Fray Fernando asked, "What do _you_ think, senor?"
Carlos raised his dark blue eyes and fixed them on the questioner'sface.
"Of the future," he said slowly, "I think---nothing. I dare not thinkof it. It is in God's hand, and he thinks for us. Still, one thing Icannot choose but see. Where we are we cannot remain. We are bound toa great wheel that is turning--turning--and turn with it, even in spiteof ourselves, we must and do. But it is the wheel, not of chance, butof God's mighty purposes; that is all our comfort."
"And those purposes, are they not mercy and truth unto our belovedland?"
"They may be; but I know not. They are not revealed. 'Mercy and truthunto such as keep his covenant,' that indeed is written."
"We are they that keep his covenant."
Carlos sighed, and resumed the thread of his own thought,--
"The wheel turns round, and we with it. Even since I came here it hasturned perceptibly. And how it is to turn one step further withoutbringing us into contact with the solid frame of things as they are, andso crushing us, truly I see not. I see not; but I trust God."
"You allude to these discussions about the sacrifice of the mass nowgoing on so continually amongst us?"
"I do. Hitherto we have been able to work underground; but if doubtmust be thrown upon _that_, the thin shell of earth that has concealedand protected us, will break and fall in upon our heads. And then?"
"Already we are all asking, 'And then?'" said Fray Fernando. "Therewill be nothing before us but flight to some foreign land."
"And how, in God's name, is that to be accomplished? But God forgive methese words; and God keep me, and all of us, from the subtle snare ofmixing with the question, 'What is his will?' that other question, 'Whatwill be our fate if we try to do it?' As the noble De Seso said to me,all that matters to us is to be found amongst those who 'follow the Lambwhithersoever he goeth.' _But he went to Calvary_."
The last words were spoken in so low a tone that Fray Fernando heardthem not.
"What did you say?" he asked.
"No matter. Time enough to hear if God himself speaks it in our ears."
Their conversation was interrupted by the entrance of a lay brother, whoinformed Carlos that a visitor awaited him in the convent parlour. Asit was one of the hours during which the rules of the house (which werequite liberal enough, without being lax) permitted the entertainment ofvisitors, Carlos went to receive his without much delay.
He knew that if the guest had been one of "their own," their lovedbrethren in the faith, even the attendant would have been wellacquainted with his person, and would naturally have named him. Heentered the room, therefore, with no very lively anticipations;expecting, at most, to see one of his cousins, who might have paid himthe compliment of riding out from the city to visit him.
A tall, handsome, sunburnt man, who had his left arm in a sling, wasstanding with his back to the window. But in one moment more the otherarm was flung round the neck of Carlos, and heart pressed to heart, andlip to lip--the brothers stood together.
The Spanish Brothers: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century Page 15