The Human Face of 16th-Century Spanish Protestantism

Apart from the principle of sola scriptura, the fundamental dogma of Protestantism is the doctrine of justification by faith and not by works or human merits. In this, all the churches that emerged from the Reformation were in complete agreement, including the relatively few Spanish Protestants, both in their homeland and in exile.

What was peculiar about a portion of the latter was their unanimous rejection of doctrines and interpretations that denied human freedom and exempted man from responsibility. Hence their criticism of the Lutherans (later extended to the Calvinists), which Servetus summarized in his De justitia regni Christi of 1532 in the following postulates:

a) The justification of the believer by faith is a real regeneration and not merely imputed, as Luther claims.

b) Responsibility and freedom of man against the doctrine of servum arbitrium.

c) The objective value of good works, including those of pagans.

d) The requirement of absolute freedom of speech within the Church so that God may be heard.

e) The living Gospel written in the hearts of men against the dead letter.

f) Tolerance towards those who think differently (‘quia grave mihi videbatur interfici homines, eo quod in quaestione aliqua circa intellectum scripturae sint in errores’) ¹.

Casiodoro de Reyna embraced all these postulates. An admirer of Sébastien Castellion, he composed for his Spanish church in London a confession of faith that was entirely free from the bitter inter-Protestant controversies of the time. In a commentary on the passage in Matthew concerning Christ’s temptations, he inserted an impressive ‘plaidoyer’ against the arrogance, intolerance, and thirst for power of churchmen, who were paving the way for a new ‘caesaropapism’, worse than the previous one under the Papacy.

Antonio del Corro, finally, was the most active propagandist of Castellion’s ideas, making generous use of his writings in his own works. In the Netherlands and England, he became the champion of the struggle against Calvinist predestination and its consequent denial of human freedom and the value of human actions.

The Castellionian International: Marcos Pérez de Segura

The two fugitives from the Monastery of San Isidoro in Seville, Casiodoro de Reyna and Antonio del Corro, were admirers and continuators of Castellion (as they were also of Erasmus). Both were protected in Antwerp by Marcos Pérez², the wealthy Sevillian merchant and head of the city’s Calvinist committee, in whose house Pedro Ximénez was allegedly ‘était après pour faire imprimer ung livre contre les trois rigoureuses peynes à l’endroict des sectaires’. (…was later to have a book printed against the three rigorous punishments regarding the sectarians.)

Pérez, who had set himself nothing less than the goal of purchasing religious freedom for the Netherlands from King Philip II for the sum of three million florins in gold³, was forced to flee Antwerp in April 1567 due to the imminent arrival of the Duke of Alba and took up residence in Basel. A wealthy businessman, cosmopolitan banker, and accomplished polyglot —described as such by Pierre Ramus in 1571— Marcos Pérez was fluent in five languages (Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish, and French) and had a love for literature, even expressing himself elegantly in Latin.⁴

In Basel, he immediately came into contact with the city’s prominent figures. Interested in finding a good preacher, his new friends, such as Basilius Amerbach and Theodor Zwinger, recommended Johann Brandmüller, pastor of the Church of St. Theodore on the northern bank of the Rhine and one of the two executors responsible for safeguarding Castellion’s unpublished manuscripts. This fact greatly outraged Guglielmo Grataroli, an Italian Calvinist physician residing in the city, who did not hesitate to reprimand Pérez for allowing himself to be deceived by the members and supporters of Castellion’s “sect”:

’Et iam pridem mihi dixit dominus Marcus Péres, civis Antuerpiensis et hic habitans, fuisse ex iis aliquis vel plures qui illi solum ac pro aliis commendarunt Brenmüllerum, concionatorem Transrhenanum. Ego illi domino Peres tunc respondi et monui ut debui. Satis scio me non placere iis qui illius, nempe Castalionis, sententiam (ne dicam sectam) sequuntur et extollunt.’⁵ (And previously, Mr. Marcos Pérez, a citizen of Antwerp and now a resident of this city, told me that one or more of these individuals approached him to recommend Pastor Johann Brandmüller from the other side of the Rhine as the sole preacher, preferable to all others. I then responded to Mr. Pérez and admonished him as I believed was my duty. I know all too well that I am not at all in favor with those who follow and exalt the doctrine (not to say sect) of that man, namely, Castellion.5

Pérez’s reaction was simply to ignore the advice of the intransigent Grataroli and instead financially support Castellion’s widow and children, even employing some of them in his service.⁶

In a letter written on April 28, 1570, from Basel, our ‘Castellionist’ merchant —as Guggisberg (1997) refers to Marcos Pérez— openly confessed to the French diplomat Hubert Languet what he considered to be the root cause of the greatest evils in the Church of God. Rather than stemming from doctrinal differences or the multiplicity of confessions of faith, the primary cause, according to Pérez, lay in the obstinacy and intolerance with which the leaders of all Churches imposed their personal convictions as infallible dogmas, binding for salvation:

‘Il me semble qu’une opinion que je voy enracinée aux cerveaux de tous Ministres d’Eglise, soit Romaine, Lutheriane ou refermée, ha esté tousiours et sera cause de grans maulx en l’Eglise de Dieu. Cest a scavoir, que ceux qui gouvernent l’Eglise ne peuvent errer. Car d’icy vient l’obstination que les ungs et les aultres ont a maintenir ce qu’une fois ha esté recen, sans vouloir ceder les ungs aux aultres au moyndre poinct du monde. Quant à moy, je ne scay si je pecheroye fort a croyre, que d’aultant que les Gouverneurs de l’Eglise sont hommes, ils ne peuvent laisser d’erver et que tant plus sercyt necessaire de tascher tousiours a apprendre et se corriger, tendant a la perfection. Mais quoi! Quelques ungs confessent bien que leur Eglise n’est point du tout pure et qu’il y a des faultes, mais se ne sont que des propos generaux, et quant on viendroit aux cas particuliers l’on y hanteroit tout aultrement […] Je croy que les bonnes gens craignent leur propre ombre.’ ⁷ (It seems to me that an opinion, which I see deeply rooted in the minds of all Church ministers —whether Roman, Lutheran, or Reformed— has always been and will continue to be the cause of great evils in the Church of God. That is to say, the belief that those who govern the Church cannot err. For from this belief arises the obstinacy with which each side holds onto what has once been received, refusing to yield even in the slightest matter. As for myself, I do not know if I would be sinning greatly by believing that, since the rulers of the Church are human, they cannot avoid making mistakes and that, for this reason, it would be all the more necessary for them to always strive to learn and correct themselves, aiming for perfection. But what happens in reality? Some do indeed admit that their own Church is far from pure and that it is full of faults, but these are nothing more than general declarations, for when it comes to specific cases, things are handled quite differently […] I believe that good people are afraid of their own shadow.)

Among those protected by Pérez in Basel, the most prominent was Casiodoro de Reyna, the translator of the Spanish Bible. Pérez had already protected Casiodoro in 1564 in Antwerp, after his flight from England⁸, and now, in Basel, he once again offered him shelter in his own residence (the Engelhof) during the year and a half leading up to the printing of the Bible⁹.

At the same time, Pérez defended Casiodoro against the rumors and accusations of Spanish Calvinists in Paris and Frankfurt¹⁰ and ultimately covered the printing costs at the Thomas Guarin press, where the printing was completed in the last week of June 1569.

The Struggle for Free Speech: Casiodoro de Reyna

In Basel, as previously in Strasbourg, Casiodoro found among university professors, refugees, and even theologians an intellectual environment highly receptive to his ideas. And when in 1570 he definitively decided to move with his family to Frankfurt, the philolutheran antistes of Basel, Simon Sulzer, warmly recommended Casiodoro to his colleagues in the city on the Main, describing him as a man dear to all (nobis certe charus et acceptus) for his sincere piety, his pure customs, his rejection of theological controversies, and his dedication to the study of the Scriptures—unlike so many other exiles, some of whom, being tainted by sinister dogmas (dogmatibus sinistris infectos), did nothing but cause disruption.¹¹

The Calvinist detractors in London, on the other hand, and in particular Calvin’s successor in Geneva, completely refused to extend to the Spaniard any kind of recommendation (‘je ne le vous accorderay jamais’), once again preventing him from pursuing any ecclesiastical career.¹²

In reality, what the French and Spanish Calvinists in London reproached Casiodoro for was his admiration for Servetus and the fact that he had said ‘that Servet was a great man and that if he had lived, he would have greatly benefited our nation’. He was also accused of having kissed Servetus’ book and declared that he had not understood the Trinity until reading him, of having opposed the founding of a Spanish Church in Geneva ‘because of the cruelty of the Magistrate’, of owning a printed book advocating that heretics should never be burned (qu’on ne debuoit point brusler les heretiques), and, among many other things, of having written a letter from Geneva to Sébastien Castellion, addressing him as a learned and pious man (qu’il a escript une letre a Castalio le suscript de laquelle estoit Docto et pio viro Sebastiano Castalioni […] laquelle Cassiodore envoyoit de Geneue).¹³

The most curious aspect of the case is that among Casiodoro’s accusers in London were two figures, Gaspar Zapata and Francisco de Ábrego, who were in fact on the payroll of the Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition, in reality, shared the same dual interest as the Calvinists under Geneva’s influence: to prevent Casiodoro at all costs from continuing his translation of the Bible and at the same time to sabotage the functioning of a Spanish Church in London, whether by placing at its head a ‘relapsed’ target of the Inquisition or an admirer of Castellion as pastor.¹⁴

There is not enough space here to analyze in detail the evident Castellionian influences in all of Casiodoro de Reyna’s writings, already traceable in the Hispanica Confessio fidei¹⁵, which he wrote in Latin in 1560 to obtain a Spanish-speaking church in London, and also present in its Spanish version, published in Frankfurt in 1577: Confesión de fe hecha por ciertos fieles españoles, que huyendo los abusos de la Iglesia Romana, y la crueldad de la Inquisición de España hicieron a la Iglesia de los fieles para ser en ella recibidos por hermanos en Cristo.¹⁶

But it can certainly be affirmed that both confessions deviate completely from the standard confession of faith in use among Protestants at the time, as I have demonstrated in my previous analysis of both documents.¹⁷

Unlike all other Evangelical and Reformed confessions, Casiodoro places the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer on the same level of authority as the Bible and proclaims absolute freedom in preaching the Word. It is therefore unsurprising that Casiodoro mentions the Bible only in passing and always in second place, that he accepts Church discipline only insofar as it does not contradict Christian freedom and charity, or that he warns the faithful against those who, instead of preaching the Gospel, seek to be tyrants of their consciences (‘tyrannidem in conscientiis corum exercere velint’).

In this Confessión de fe, it is further stated that the terms Trinity and Person, as well as the command to baptize infants, are not found in the Bible; that there is no mention of the eternal generation of the Word or of the hypostatic union of Christ’s two natures. Alongside Erasmus, but also with Servetus, the preeminence of the Father is emphasized as the origin and source of all divinity and of all that exists (‘qui origo et fons sit tum divinitatis tum etiam omnium quae in coelis ac terris sunt’). It is stated that ‘Jesus the Christ’ is merely a portrait and image of the Father, while the Holy Spirit is nothing more than the force and activity of the Deity, as it works in all creatures and especially in man.

Reyna closes the Confessión de fe solely with the Apostles’ Creed, which was not particularly unorthodox. However, following their experiences with anti-Trinitarian dissidents (Gribaldi, Gentile, Alciati, Biandrata), Geneva had decided in 1558 —while Casiodoro was still there— to declare this creed insufficient and to require the inclusion of the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds in all future confessions of faith. As the Italian heterodox thinker Iacopo Aconcio wrote in his Stratagemata Sathanae of 1565: ‘Extat quidem antiquissimum fidei symbolum apostolorum titulo, sed illud ita probant omnes, ut tamen eius usum non agnoscant.’ (There indeed exists a very ancient creed bearing the title of the Apostles, but while everyone approves of it, they do not acknowledge its use.)

Aconcio knew from personal experience what he was talking about, since Casiodoro had appointed him president of the consistory of the Spanish Church in London a few months after the drafting of this Confessión .¹⁸ This also explains why Casiodoro so easily transitioned from the Reformed Church to the Evangelical or Lutheran camp, giving no importance to the dogmatic differences that led to the secular rupture between the two churches when the Formula of Concord was published in 1578.

The most significant presence of Castellion in the works of Casiodoro de Reyna must, of course, be sought in his 1569 Bible translation and in his commentary on the Gospel of John, published in Frankfurt in 1573 under the title: Evangelium Ioannis, hoc est, Ivsta ac vetus apologia pro aeterna Christi divinitate.

In the Amonestación del intérprete al lector (Admonition of the Interpreter to the Reader), where Casiodoro discusses the various previous editions of the Bible that he relied upon as auxiliary sources for translation (Vulgata, Septuaginta, Pagnini, ‘old Spanish translation of Ferrara’), Castellion’s version is notably absent, as are the translations of Sebastian Münster, Zurich, and Geneva, as well as the New Testament translations of Francisco de Enzinas and Juan Pérez, which Casiodoro also occasionally consulted.

However, what immediately stands out is that Casiodoro maintains the traditional order of books in the canon, contrary to all Protestant Bibles, just as Castellion had done in his own version. The same applies to the inclusion of the deuterocanonical books, which had been preserved only in the Greek of the Septuagint or as additions to the Vulgate. This fact did not go unnoticed by the great 17th-century biblical scholar Richard Simon, who pointed out the identical approach of both translators in their respective versions.¹⁹

Another innovation by Casiodoro, borrowed from Castellion, was the introduction for the first time in a Bible in a vernacular language of the name Jehovah, instead of The Lord, der Herr, le Seigneur. As their mutual friend and protector in Basel, Theodor Zwinger, noted in his Theatrum vitae Humanae of 1565, Castellion had been the first to break with the Christian tradition of replacing the Hebrew name of God with Dominus.²⁰ .

However, Castellion had done this only in his Latin Bible (IOVA), not in his French version. Casiodoro, on the other hand, justified his decision with the following words:

’We have retained the name (Iehoua) not without very serious reasons. Firstly, because wherever it appears in our version, it is in the Hebrew text, and it seemed to us that we could not omit it or replace it with another without singular infidelity and sacrilege against the Law of God, in which it is commanded that nothing be added or removed.’²¹

Less visible are the Castellionian borrowings found in Casiodoro’s work, not in the annotations of his Bible —which had been prohibited— but rather in the descriptive chapter headings, where, in the form of argumenta, the content of each section is summarized. Thus, the interpretation of King Cyrus as a prefiguration of the Messiah’s person (Isa. 52:3), which Casiodoro’s detractors in London had deemed suspicious, does not appear in the margins where a Calvinist censor like Niccolò Balbani would have expected it, but instead in the innocuous chapter summary. The same occurs with the exegesis of Isaiah 66:9, also criticized by his London detractors, where Casiodoro affirms that the passage does not refer to the eternal generation of Christ but rather to the birth of the Church.²² Similarly, in Hebrews 3:14, he declares that the union of the believer with Christ consists of a real participation ‘in His divine nature, His body, and His gifts through His Spirit.’

However, what Casiodoro could not include as marginal notes in his 1569 Bible, he was able to partially recover in his commentaries on the Gospel of John and on Matthew 4, specifically in: In Evangelium Ioannis, hoc est, Iusta ac vetus apologia pro aeterna Christi divinitate, published in Frankfurt in 1573 and the Expositio primae partis capitis quarti Matthaei, commonefactoria ad Ecclesiam, De periculis Ministrorum Verbi in tempore cauendis, published jointly with the previous work. These writings provoked reprimands from Théodore de Bèze, particularly due to Casiodoro’s recklessness, though Bèze does not even deign to mention him by name (ex illius Hispani, cuius tamen nomini nunc parco, audacia).²³ Bèze’s criticism was not solely due to Casiodoro’s observation that the final chapters of the Gospel of John were altered in order since, like any other ancient book, they could have suffered losses over time. The Spaniard also stated here, in opposition to Calvinist predestination, the theme of the incomparable and, beyond all human understanding, sublime vastness of the Kingdom of God —’de amplitudine incomparabili et humanam omnem apprehensionem excedenti Paterni Regni’— and speaks of excommunication as a punishment more than sufficient among Christians, without the need to resort to long imprisonments or the barbaric burning of living men:

Et eiecerunt eum foras (John IX, 34); eum excomunicarunt […] Mitissima alioqui poena, si cum saevitia Pharisaeorum nostri temporis conferatur, qui hominem corum judicio sontem ad diuturna vincula, et squalorem morte ipsa duriorem, prius ablegassent: deinde, nisi dictorum poenituisset, et ad illorum praescriptum illa revocasset, inaudita crudelitate vivum combusissent. O tempora!²⁴

And they cast him out (John IX, 34); they excommunicated him […] A very mild punishment, in reality, if compared with the cruelty of the Pharisees of our time, who, when a man is judged guilty of heresy, first subject him to prolonged imprisonment and to horrors more unbearable than death itself; and then, unless he repents of his words and revokes them according to their orders, they burn him alive with unheard-of cruelty. Oh, what times! (Reyna 1573)

Additionally, in another passage from this commentary on the Gospel of John, Casiodoro offers a reflection on the anti-Judaism of the Gospel that only a Spanish convert could have formulated: Why do the evangelists, being themselves Jews, always refer to the detractors as ‘the Jews,’ as if they did not consider themselves part of them?²⁵

From a ‘Castellionian’ perspective, this Apologia or commentary on the Gospel of John by Casiodoro is far surpassed by his later Expositio on the chapters of Matthew, where, in his commentary on Christ’s temptations in the desert, the Spaniard fiercely attacks the new caesaropapism that he saw advancing rapidly alongside the growing intolerance of the leaders of the Churches that emerged from the Reformation.

Here, Casiodoro wrote a powerful defense of freedom of expression within the Church—‘for our knowledge is only partial, and so is our teaching’ (sed ex parte modo est nostra cognitio, ex parte nostra prophetia)— while also delivering a severe critique of all forms of Inquisition, the politicization of the Gospel, and the ridiculous arrogance and pride of those who claim for themselves alone the right to supreme censorship (‘quam supremae censurae jus non tam superbe quam ridicule sibi usurpare’). From this usurpation of power, Casiodoro writes, arose countless struggles and controversies, sometimes over serious matters, but most often over trivial ones. From here stemmed, in the early Church, all heresies, all mutual excommunications, all depositions and reinstatements of bishops, and perhaps even all miracles. And yet, all of this, Casiodoro concludes, is insignificant compared to the persecutions, inquisitions, tyrannies, and condemnations that devastate so many countries in the name of religion.²⁶

It is no surprise, then, that one of Casiodoro’s most influential protectors, Johann Sturm, in a letter to Landgrave William of Hesse in 1575, recommended Casiodoro as the ideal intermediary to prevent the definitive rupture between the Lutheran and Calvinist confessions, which was being aggravated by the controversy over the Eucharist. Casiodoro himself, in a letter to the Landgrave, had described this conflict as a schism provoked by the truculent beast of the devil in order to destroy the Churches from within (‘truculentae huic belluae dissidio de coena domini ecclesias intus dissipanti’).

Sturm insisted that Casiodoro had successfully mediated between the Flemish refugee Churches in Frankfurt and the Lutheran theologians of that city, establishing concord between both parties. He then urged the Landgrave to consider sending Casiodoro to England as a negotiator to seek an agreement with the Queen and the Kingdom—an agreement that, if achieved, would greatly facilitate the consensus of the Churches in France and the Netherlands.

In his letter, Sturm also mentioned Casiodoro’s family —his three children and his wife, described as an excellent embroiderer and silk worker— and continued by emphasizing Casiodoro’s suitability for a position as a preacher (Hofprediger) in Kassel or as a professor of theology at the University of Marburg. But let us examine the recommendation, until now unpublished, in the original Latin:

Francofordienses constituunt quandam concordiam cum Belgica sua Ecclesia, de qua Celsitudo vestra ex Cassiodoro Rhemio audiat. Qui aliqua ex parte, huiusce actionis autor fuit, gratus et acceptus Francofordiensibus Theologis. Habet etiam alias rationes multas concordiae ineundae et pacandarum ecclesiarum, quas vt celsitudo vestra cognoscat, consuasuor fui ut istuc profiscerelur. Si ratio eius Celsitudini vestrae placebit, nullas magis idoneas esse<t>, qui apud Reginam Angliae eadem de re ageret, missus a Celsitudine vestra, vt si huic Reginae et Regno placeret, tota Gallia et Belgia in eandem consensionem facilius perducatur. Si ratio eius Celsitudini vestrae placebit, nullas magis idoneas esse<t>, qui apud Reginam Angliae eadem de re ageret, missus a Celsitudine vestra, vt si huic Reginae et Regno placeret, tota Gallia et Belgia in eandem consensionem facilius perducatur. Habet vxorem honestam et castam matronam, quae acu optime pingit, serici artificii non ignara, mater vt opinor trium liberorum. Si Garnerius placuit et honorificus fuit Celsitudini vestrae, vt gratus fuit et honestus, ita etiam Cassiodorus. Siue Celsitudo vestra eius opera vti velit Cassellae, ut Garnerii, siue Marpurgi in theologico officio et munere. Quorumque in loco Celsitudo vestra eo vtetur, aut quocumque mittet in negotiis theologicis ad Principes et Reges, ad Comitia et colloquia, quantum autoritatis Celsitudo vestra ei attribuet, tantum laudatissime poterit fieri: innocentia, doctrina, litteris, iudicio, et moderatione.²⁷

(The authorities in Frankfurt (Lutheran) managed to establish a concord with their citizens belonging to the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, as Your Highness may verify directly from Casiodoro de Reina, since he was partly the architect of this agreement, and is therefore highly esteemed by the theologians of this city. Casiodoro possesses many arguments for fostering concord and pacifying churches, which is why I persuaded him to travel to Your Highness to present them. If these arguments seem reasonable to Your Highness, it would be most appropriate for Casiodoro, as your envoy, to negotiate the matter with the Queen of England, since if an agreement is reached with the Queen and the Kingdom, then France and the Netherlands would more easily follow suit. As for Casiodoro, it must be said that he is married to an honest and modest woman who is highly skilled in embroidery and knowledgeable in the art of weaving silk, besides being the mother of three children, as far as I know. And since (the preacher Jean) Garnier was well received and greatly esteemed by Your Highness for his honesty and loyalty, the same must be said of Casiodoro. Whether Your Highness wishes to employ him as a preacher in Kassel, as was done with Garnier, or prefers to appoint him to a chair of theology in Marburg, in whichever position Your Highness chooses to place him—and especially in theological negotiations, whether before princes and kings, in councils, or in official colloquies—the more authority Your Highness grants to Casiodoro, the better he will fulfill his mission. For he is a man of outstanding virtue, learning, and scholarship, possessing sound judgment and a moderation that few can match. )

Sturm’s testimony about Reyna corroborates his unwavering irenicism and the little importance he placed on doctrinal differences between the Reformed and Evangelicals. However, for whatever reasons, Casiodoro did not receive either a chair at the university or a diplomatic assignment from the Landgrave at that time. Meanwhile, the complete rupture between the Churches of the Reformation would be definitively sealed three years later with the publication of the so-called ‘Formula of Concord’ (1578). However, from that point onward, Casiodoro did enter the service of the Landgrave, acting as a book procurer for the court of Kassel and later as a political informant from the Netherlands.²⁸

The Holy and Other Inquisitions Exposed: Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus

Observing the situation in his homeland, where the Spanish Inquisition was devastating everything in its path, Casiodoro de Reyna, along with one or two compatriots, composed a book against persecution and in favor of religious tolerance. This book would become as famous as Sébastien Castellion’s De haereticis an sint persequendi. It was the celebrated Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae artes detectae et palam traductae, which, after two failed printing attempts in Basel and Strasbourg, was finally published in 1567 in Heidelberg under the pseudonym Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus.²⁹ Casiodoro himself was the first, on September 27, writing from Strasbourg, to inform his compatriots about the book’s recent appearance: ‘The mysteries of the Inquisition are printed in Latin; I believe you will see them over there’.³⁰

I do not intend to restate here the evidence that has led me and other scholars to certify Casiodoro’s authorship (and at least that of Antonio del Corro) in the composition of this small book that profoundly shaped the historiography of the Inquisition for more than three centuries and still today retains its value—not as an impartial account, but as a first-hand source for the history of the Protestant movement in Seville. I merely wish to show the reader the imprint of Castellion’s texts and spirit in some of its formulations, especially in the preface of the original edition, which we attribute indisputably to Casiodoro³¹ and which immediately became a bestseller.³²

Casiodoro’s Calvinist detractors immediately sought to use this powerful anti-Inquisition work for their propaganda, but they were not particularly generous either to the author of the Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae artes or to his ideas. It is true that both the French edition, translated by Jacques Bienvenu and produced by Jean Crespin in 1568 in Geneva, and the Dutch edition, translated by Joris de Raedt and published by Petrus Dathenus in 1569 in Wesel, are enriched with a detailed ten-page index that provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the book’s content.

However, it is also true that both editions completely omit even the author’s pseudonym and reduce to just four pages the twenty-eight that made up the original preface by Montanus-Casiodoro.³³ These four Calvinists, all of whom were old acquaintances of Casiodoro, knew exactly what they were doing in carrying out such a drastic trimming, as that preface contained a grand manifesto for religious tolerance, partially drawn from Castellion’s writings, such as De haereticis an sint persequendi and Conseil à la France désolée³⁴:

‘To eradicate heresy, there is no need for sword or fire, but only for the Word of God, as the Apostle Paul says in his letter to Titus […]. For just as true faith can never be instilled by force or through torture, neither can heresies be uprooted, not even through the death of heretics. Therefore, the most suitable means for both objectives is the Word of God, the only instrument that engenders and increases faith and, by its own light, immediately exposes all that is error. Thus, one must carefully consult the Holy Scriptures and see what penalties they establish against the stubborn and those who obstinately resist the truth. Do they mention whippings or the cruelest torture of all, being burned at the stake? Or those infamous confiscations of property—so greedy, so iniquitous, so absurd, and so foreign to Christianity? More than that, with what reasonable words could we describe that type of penance (not to mention the permanent ignominy they entail) even for those who have recanted their error? The Apostle says not a single word about such punishments […]; instead, he commands that a heretic be admonished once or twice and that this be done by a bishop, not that he be dragged before a judge, nor that he immediately suffer the gravest punishments for that same error. And if the admonition does not succeed […] he orders that the heretic be excommunicated, that is, separated and excluded from the congregation of the faithful—not as revenge for his error or obstinacy, but as a remedy.’

This is the doctrine of Paul in his letter to Titus, Montanus-Casiodoro continues, and that doctrine is confirmed by the precept of his Master, as stated in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18 [15-17]: ‘And if he refuses to listen even to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.’ That is, he shall be considered as no longer belonging to the congregation of believers and to the kingdom of Christ, no more than those who have never received the faith. This degree of severity, quite rigorous when properly weighed, is the limit that Christian discipline must not exceed: ’In hoc severitatis gradu, eoque si bene perpendatur satis severo, sistit gressum Christiana disciplina.’³⁵

This argument about the limits of ecclesiastical control, or Christiana disciplina, had previously been formulated by Castellion as one of the two reasons that led him to write De haereticis an sint persequendi in 1554.³⁶ Casiodoro would use this same argument again in his Spanish Bible, specifically in the heading of the chapter from Matthew mentioned above: ’It indicates the remedy that will be applied by ecclesiastical discipline when one brother offends another; and what severity will be used against the one who remains obstinate toward the Church.’³⁷

The preface of Montanus-Casiodoro also contains echoes of Castellion’s Conseil à la France désolée, such as the well-known example of the prudent physician: Un sage médecin ayme mieux laisser estre la maladie que de tuer le malade³⁸, which, in Casiodoro’s Spanish adaptation, is reversed:

Errores vero errantium morte qui vellet extirpare, perinde sane fecerit ac prudens scilicet medicus, qui aegrotos malo quopiam morbo liberare cupiens dedita opera extinxerit.³⁹ (But whoever seeks to eradicate errors by killing those who err will certainly act like a prudent physician who, wishing to cure the sick of some illness, ends up killing them instead.)

Casiodoro then concludes: ‘Furthermore, those who claim that by this method they eradicate heresies, apart from failing in their goal (since falsehood continues to operate under the mask of truth), by eliminating the errant, they deprive him of all possibility of salvation.’ With the exception of the irreversible punishments and disgrace represented by the sanbenitos, which were specific to Spain, Montanus-Casiodoro’s entire argument against the persecution of heretics by the Inquisition was also valid and applicable to the situation in other European countries at the time. This explains why the editors of the Geneva edition of 1568 largely suppressed this preface, limiting themselves to translating only a few paragraphs concerning the persecution of Moors and Jews who had been forcibly converted into ‘New Christians’ rather than by their own free will —les dits Maures et Juifs nouveaux Chrestiens amenez à ce titre plustot par contrainte que de bonne vueille⁴⁰— and dedicating only a few lines at the end to mention ‘les enfants de Lumière’, that is, their fellow believers.

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