Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T05:29:30.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Pursuit of Spanish Heretics in the Low Countries: the activities of Alonso del Canto, 1561–1564

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

R. W. Truman  and
A. Gordon Kinder
R. W. Truman
Affiliation:
Student of Christ Church, Oxford
A. Gordon Kinder
Affiliation:
Sale, Cheshire
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The later 1550s in Sprain are remembered as the time of the discovery of ‘Lutheran’ groups in Valladolid and Seville and the ensuing reaction of the authorities: the autos de fe, as the Fernando de Valdés's Index librorum prohibitorum, the edict ordering all Spaniards (with few exceptions) studying or teaching abroad to return to Spain within four months. ‘Heresy’ was to be eradicated at home and Spain was to be preserved from contagion from beyond her frontiers. There was, however, a further subordinate aim: to capture and bring back to Spain those Spaniards who for reasons of religion had taken refuge in Northern Europe. When a dozen Hieronymite monks from San Isidro at Seville fled their monastery and their country in the late summer of 1557, one finds the Inquisitor General, in November of that year, sending a list of their names to the king in the Netherlands. Further lists of wanted heretics continued to be forwarded there when Philip had returned to Spain. Cardinal Granvelle, in a letter to the king of 18 October 1561, refers to ‘aquella escriptura que V. M. me embió venida de los inquisidores de Sevilla’. At the start of that year he had similarly referred to ‘un escripto venido de los inquisidores de Sevilla’ which the king had recently sent. In April 1562 the Margrave of Antwerp was replying to inquiries from Granvelle concerning persons named in the trials of Julian Hernandez (caught when in Seville, distributing Protestant literature, in 1557) and Fray Domingo de Guzmán.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , January 1979 , pp. 65 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Archivo General de Simancas (hereafter AGS), Estado, 121–165.

2 Ch. , Weiss, Papien d'état du cardinal de Granvelle d'après les maniuerits de la bibliothèque de Besançon (hereafter PCG), Paris 1841–1852, vi. 392–3.Google Scholar

3 Ibid., vi. 237.

4 AGS, Estado, 521–127.

5 Lovett, A. W., ‘Francisco de Lixalde: a Spanish Paymaster in the Netherlands (1567-1577)’. Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis, lxxxiv (1971), 15.Google Scholar

6 ‘El dicho contador Alonso del Canto: Relacion de los gastos que tiene hechos con las personas qu e han entendido en las cosas de los ereges espanoles y otros que handan por los estados de Flandres, Alemana, Gineva, Francia, Ingalaterra y otras partes desde el primero de abril del año de [1]561 hasta los so de agosto del aflo de [M]DLXIIII’, AGS, Consejo y junta s de Hacienda, 37 (moderno)/55 (antiguo), 174.

7 See Essen, Leon van der, ‘Episodes de l'histoire religieuse et commerciale d‘Anvers dans la seconde moitié du XVIe siècle’, Bulletin de la Commission royale d'histoire, lxxx (1911), 321–64Google Scholar. Curiel became Royal Factor in 1561. On his role in religious affairs, seeGoris, J. A., Étude sur les colonies merchandes méridionales (Portugais, Espagnols, Italiens) à Anvers de 1488 à 1567, Louvain 1925, 362-4, 594–7Google Scholar. As Goris indicates (642-3), Del Canto (together with Castellanos and Albert van Loo) continued to be reponsible for the auditing of certain accounts, at least in 1561-2. They were together instructed to examine the accounts of two Spanish factors at Antwerp, Juan López Gallo and ‘Juan Flemingo’, on the termination of their duties, with a view to releasing them from further financial liability.

8 See Mechoulan, Henri, Raison et altérité chez Fadrique Furió Ceriol, philosophe politique espagnol du XVIe siècle, Paris-The Hague 1973Google Scholar, ‘Introduction’. The further evidence provided by Del Canto concerning Furio's return to Spain will be studied separately.

9 See Kinder, A. Gordon, Casiodoro de Reina, Spanish Reformer of the Sixteenth Century, London 1975, 16, 19–20.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., 21–2,46–7.

11 Schäfer, E. H. J., Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus und der Inquisition imsechzehnten Jahrhundert, Gütersloh 1902, ii. 313, 358.Google Scholar

12 This episode in Reina's career is studied by , Kinder, Casiodoro de Reina, 27–37Google Scholar. Reina obtained clearance of these charges in 1578 from the archbishop of Canterbury, Grindal, who had previously dealt with die matter as bishop of London (Ibid., 63-5). (Del Canto's activities as regards the Spanish refugees in London will be the object of a separate study).

13 “… gastó treinta y quatro escudos en Anveres con personas que sabian que estava alli Casidoro y se le fue dicho al malgrave mostrándole la casa donde estava[;] y él avisó al dueño della que le quitase de allí porque sabían que alii estava y que no le podi dexar de le prendert;] y asi le llevaron de alii a otra pan e do le tuvieron hasta que se fue’ (fol. 4V.) See alsoHauben, Paul J., Three Spanish Heretics and the Reformation: Antonio del Corro, Cassiodoro de Reina, Cypriano de Valera, Geneva 1967, 89-90, 103 n. 30Google Scholar. Boehmer writes that ‘Reina's chief protector at Antwerp probably was Marcos Perez’ (seeBoehmer, Edward, Bibliotheca Wiffeniana: Spanish Reformers of Two Centuries from 1520, Strasbourg-London 1874–1904, ii. 172 n. 27Google Scholar. When Reina arrived in Basel from Frankfurt in June 1568 and became dangerously ill, Perez took him and his family into his own house there (Ibid., 173 n. 32, 222-3).

14 SeeDecavele, Johan, De dageraad van de reformatie in Vlaanderen (1520-1565), Brussels 1975. 14–31 (23-5 especially)Google Scholar.

15 The identity of ‘Jimenillos’ is not clear.

16 See Idigoras, J. I. Tellechea, ‘Españoles en Lovaina en 1551-8: primeras noticias sobre el bayanismo’, Revista española de leología, xxiii (1963), 37.Google Scholar

15 Moran, P. G., ‘De fratribus Laurentio de Villavicentio et Bartholomaeo de los Rios vitae curriculum et documenta’, Analecta augusdniana, xxiii (1953), 103.Google Scholar

18 , Moran, op. cit., 103Google Scholar. Carranza's own evidence on the point is given in J. Ignacio Tellechea Idigoras, Fray Bartolomé Carranza: documentor históricos, iii (Testificaciones de abonos, indirectas y tachas), Archivo documental espafiol publicado por la Real Academia de la Historia, xxii (1966), 32.

19 A summary of Villavicencio's activities in the Low Countries is given inGachard, L. P., Correspondance de Philippe II sur les affaires des Pays-Bos (hereafter CP), Brussels 1848–1879, ii. xvi–xxiiGoogle Scholar, together with extracts from his letters (xxiii-l). Morán, op. cit., gives a fuller account of Villavicencio's career as a whole but says little about the charges of heresy brought against him in Spain in the 1570s. As Moran points out, the biographical details provided in the posthumous vol. viii (316-21) ofVela, G. de Santiago, Ensayo de una Biblioteca ibero-amencana de la Order, de San Agustín, El Escorial 1913–1931Google Scholar, are unreliable. A survey of Villavicencio's career and correspondence is given byJournez, A., ‘Notice sur Fray Lorenço de Villavicencio, agent secret de Philippe II’. Travaux du cours pratique d'histoire nationale de Paul Frédéricq, 2efasc. Ghent-The Hague 1884, 44–77Google Scholar. Modern surveys are provided by, Decavele, op. cit., 152–3Google Scholar, and byBeuningen, P. Th. van, Wilhelrmu Lindanus als inquisiteur en bisschop, Assen 1966, 168–86Google Scholar.

20 A Captain Alonso Mufioz is mentioned in a royal instruction of 26 July 1564 which orders financial provision to be made for the daughter of a captain of this name, ‘ya difunto’, who had been in the royal service for thirty-two years, most recently in France as a captain of a company of infantry: Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (hereafter BNM), MS. 71 fol. 32r.

21 , Decavele, op. cit., 26–7.Google Scholar

22 These references corroborate the claim of bishop Quadra, Spanish ambassador in London, that Reina had attended this gathering. See, Kinder, Casiodoro de Reina, 24Google Scholar.

23 ACS, Consejo yjuntas de Hacienda, 52/78, 273–5.

24 In fact he had great difficulty in recovering the balance of the expenses of his journey, which was prolonged by the fact that he was delivering a quantity of powder and shot back to Spain: loc. cit.

25 Gachard, L. P., Correspondance de Marguérite d'Autriche, duchesse de Parme (hereafter CMP), Brussels 1867–1881, iii. 151–5 (=letterof 12 November 1563) (152).Google Scholar

26 See , Schafer, Beiträge zur Geschichte des Spanischen Protestantismus, i, 355Google Scholar; andBataillon, Marcel, Erasmo y España: estudios sobre la historia espiritual del siglo XVI, second Spanish edition, Mexico-Buenos Aires 1966, 522–40Google Scholar.

27 , Bataillon, op. cit., 527 n. 15.Google Scholar

28 SeeKinder, A. Gordon, ‘Juan Morillo-Catholic Theologian at Trent, Calvinist Elder in Frankfurt’, Bibliothèque d‘Humanisme et Renaissance, xxxviii (1976), 348Google Scholar.

29 SeeFenlon, Dermot, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Reformation, Cambridge 1972, 71-2, 171–2Google Scholar.

30 , Kinder, ‘Juan Morillo’, 348–9.Google Scholar

31 For the text of this deposition, seeIdigoras, Tellechea, ‘Españoles en Lovaina’, 34–45Google Scholar.

32 Ibid., 40.

33 Ibid.

34 Tellechea Idigoras, Fray Bartolomé Carranza: documentos históricos ii(2) (Testificaciones de cargo (segunda parte)), Archivo documental… Real Academia de la Historia, xix(2), 854.

35 Ibid. See alsoMcNair, Philip, Peter Martyr in Italy: an Anatomy of Apostasy, Oxford 1967, 42–3Google Scholar. Flaminio had been a disciple of Juan de Valdes.

36 Carranza: Documentos históricos, ii(2), 561. According to Fresneda's evidence, Fray Julián had been in the Netherlands for many years, had served-presumably as a chaplain-with the army and in army hospitals, and was very well known ‘aqui en esta Corte’. When Spanish students at Louvain were ordered to return to Spain and report to their local Inquisition authorities, FrayJulian was allegedly ill in the safety of Aachen.

37 Idigoras, Tellechea, ‘Españoles en Lovaina’, 40Google Scholar. See also Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, v. 530-1.

38 SeeIdigoras, Ignacio Tellechea, ‘Bartolomé Carranza en Flandes. El clima religioso en los Países Bajos (1557-1558)’, in Iserloh, Erwin and Repgen, Konrad, Reformata reformanda: Festgabe für HubertJedin…., Münster 1965, ii. 325Google Scholar.

39 Ibid., 330-1, 341-3.

40 , Schäfer, Beiträge, i. 355Google Scholar; ii. 358. See alsoLonghurst, John E., ‘Julian Hernández, Protestant Martyr’, BHR, xxii (1960), 94Google Scholar.

41 , Longhurst, op. cit., 95, 112Google Scholar; , Bataillon, Erasmoy España, 630 n. 30Google Scholar.

42 See Hauben, Paul J., ‘In pursuit of heresy: Spanish Diplomats versus Spanish Heretics in France and England during die Wars of Religion’ Historical Journal, ix (1966), 278–9.Google Scholar

43 AGS, Estado, 526–125. The passage is quoted byVermaseren, B. A., ‘De Antwerpse koopman Martin Lopez en zijn familie in de zestiende en het begin van de zeventiende eeuw’, Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis, lvi (1973), 45Google Scholar. López's role in maintaining relations with the Paris Huguenots for the Antwerp Calvinists was reported on by Álava two years later, in May 1566: seeHauben, Paul J., ‘Marcus Pérez and Marrano Calvinism in the Dutch Revolt and the Reformation’, BHR, xxix (1967), 124Google Scholar. Jerónimo de Curiel has a section on the Martín López's, father and son, in the report referred to in the text to note 7 above.

44 AGS, Estado, 121–165.

45 SeeKinder, A. Gordon, ‘Juan Pérez de Pineda (Pierius): a Spanish Calvinist minister of the Gospel in sixteenth-century Geneva’, Bulletin ofHispanic Studies, liii (1976), 283–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

46 The information concerning Quadra's letter is derived from Granvelle's reply: AGS, Estado, 521-53.

47 AGS, Estado, 523–52 (=letter to Eraso of 14 July 1563) and Estado, 526-97 (=undated ‘Memoria para la serenissima S2 Madama Margarita de Austria dada por frai Lorenço de Villavicencio’).

48 AGS, Estado, 526–97, 523–52.

49 CMP, iii, 1 53.

50 , Mechoulan, Raison et altérité chez Fadrique Furió Ceriol, 269.Google Scholar

51 AGS, Estado, 526–114 (=letter of 12 August 1564) (included in CMP, iii, 402-4).

52 AGS, Estado, 526–97 (‘Memoria …’).

53 AGS, Estado, 525–146 (=letter of 31 July 1564).

54 AGS, Estado, 526–115.

55 BNM, MS. 781 (fol. 35r-v).

56 , Mechoulan, op. cit., 269Google Scholar. The regent's instruction is dated 11 May 1563.

57 We owe this information to the valuable study byDr. Lagomarsino, P. D., ‘Court Factions and the Formulation of Spanish Policy towards the Netherlands (1559-67)’ (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1973), 48, II. 25Google Scholar.

58 CMP, iii, 151–2.

59 AGS, Estado, 141/2–148.

60 AGS, Estado, 816–137 (=letter of 23 April).

61 ACS, Estado, 523–53 (=letterof 26 July 1563).

62 The restriction may have been de facto rather than de jure. Villavicencio writes: ‘Hablamos con el ultimo y por no tener el senor contador favor no se prendieron’. He adds: ‘Suplico a v. m. [Eraso] que a estas cosas se dé favor porque se hace notable serviçio a dios y a su Magestad …’. His repeated complaint is that Del Canto has not received the ‘asistencia’ and ‘favor’ from Spain, and from Eraso in particular, that he has needed.

63 AGS, Consejo yJuntas de Hacienda, 37/55–175.

64 AGS, Estado, 523–52, 53.

65 ‘Éstos se havian de haver imbiado a Hespaña si Viglios huviera consentido y si su Magestad huviera provehido lo que allá se desea’.

66 AGS, Estado, 141/2–146.

67 Del Canto records in his accounts that ‘gastó otros ochenta escudos de 40 placas desde 31 de agosto que salió de Bruselas a Bruxas para enbiar al dicho fraire a España como lo avia acordado con su Alteza de Madamal;] para lo qual [ella] avía mandado escrevir una carta al presidente [Viglius] para los de Bruxas que le entregasen a la persona que el dicho Alonso del Canto nonbraset;] el qual la havia mandado enbiar primero que él fueset[,] y quando llegó[,] halló que por virtud de la dicha carta le avian soltado para que se fuese donde quisiese’ (fol. 41. )

68 AGS, Estado, 526–97 (‘Memoria …’).

69 AGS, Estado, 526–96.

70 CMP, iii, 152.

71 Here the situation described by Villavicencio four months earlier is presented from the other side.

72 Ibid., 153.

73 Ibid., 155–4.

74 Ibid., 152, 154

75 Ibid., 154–5: (‘Par où je ne puis délaisser de supplier Vostre Majesté qu'elle considère s'il ne vauldroit pas mieulx hoster ceste entreprise audict Alonso del Canto et de l'employer en quelque aultre chose’).

76 Ibid., 218: (‘… je luy faiz présentement escripre que de cy en avant il ne face chose quelconcque en cest endroit sans le vous communicquier premièrement en et avoir vostre expresse ordonnance, m'asseurant bien que vous ne fauldrez d'y avoir le regard tel que la matiére requérera, et comm'il importe à mon plus grand service’ [=letter of 20 January 1564 to the regent]).

77 An account of this episode is given in, Goris, Colonies marchandes méridionales à Anvers, 579–81Google Scholar.

78 CP, ii, 501–2.

79 CP, ii, 501–2,505.

80 His escape must have taken place some time before October, whe n the Seville Inquisition acknowledged the reply of the Council of th e Inquisition at Toledo to its original report. The Seville officials now wrote: ‘Sobre la fuga de Agustin Boacio se an fecho las diligencias que Vuestra Senoria manda y todas las otras que an parescido convenir, y s e procede y procederá contra los culpados y se hará justicia; y con el primero navío que aya para Nueva España se enbiará la carta de su Reverendísima y escrevirá al arçobispo de México’ (Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid, Inquisición, 4442-47 [=letter of 17 October 1560]). Boazio had been in Mexico; now he went to Antwerp.

81 CMP, iii, 297–9 (=lette r of 29 March 1564); PCG, vii, 369 (=letter of 25 February 1564).

82 CMP, iii, 310–11. In this letter the king admits that the case of Boazio had mattered to him a great deal.

83 AGS, Estado, 523–84 (=letter of 15 September 1563).

84 AGS, Estado, 586–125. The dating of this letter, where he speaks of the occasion, poses a problem. The date given at the end is ‘12 May 1564’; however, in the course of it, the contador speaks of having been called before Viglius ‘ayer viernes 9 de junio’. According to his accounts, on this latter date he was still away in Antwerp, where he records spending fifteen days from 28 May to 11 June. A solution is suggested by his reference in the letter to the arrival at Brussels ‘about a month ago’ (awa un mes) of the new Spanish ambassador to England on his way to take up his post. Since Guzman de Silva did not get as far as Paris until 25 April and then had official engagements there, it seems clear that the letter itself must date from June and not from May. This conclusion is supported by the fact that 9 June was, as Del Canto says, a Friday, whereas 9 May was a Tuesday.

85 AGS, Estado, 526–115. The Council's report is dated 20 May 1564.

86 AGS, Estado, 526–97 (‘Memoria…’).

87 We owe this information to the kindness of Dr. G. D. Ramsay, of St Edmund Hall, Oxford.

88 Some search has failed to uncover records of a further trial.

89 Del Canto on 1 July 1564 (AGS, Estado, 526–96), and Armenteros on 31 July (Estado, 585-146).

90 It seems clear that the Boazio episode, and the king's reaction to it, was still very much in her mind. As late as April 1565 she was assuring Philip that she had gone on thinking ‘quel que si potesse fare per che Vra Mta venisse servita di quanto desidera in questo particulare’; if any new opportunity offered itself for arresting che Genoese, the king could rely on her not to let it slip (AGS, Estado, 527-56, 57) (=letter of 11 April 1565).

91 ‘Todo esto causa el presidente Viglios que no quiere que se les haga nenguna molestia, de tal manera que todo lo que su Alteza manda que se haga, él lo deshaze y manda a todas las justicias de los pueblos que hagan al contrario, y lo mismo haze en todos los consejos, por manera que este públicamente tiene usurpado i tiraniçado el govierno i la justicia, que no se haze más de lo que él quiere. … Yo jamás me he engañado por que tengo entendida su mala intención y el fabor que haze a los ereges, y si no, véase por el firaile de Brujas español que mandó soltar, y por los otros ereges, que no basta con él que se sentencien, y él fue causa que se soltase en Anvers el Agustín Boasio’ (AGS, Estado, 526-96).

92 See Durme, M. van, El cardenal Granvela (1517-1586). Imperioy revolución bajo Carlos V y Felipe II, Barcelona 1957, 259.Google Scholar

93 See Verhofstad, K., S. J. De Regering der Nederlanden in dejaren 1555-1559, Nijmegen 1937. 87.Google Scholar

94 Dr. P. D. Lagomarsino examines in detail Eraso's efforts to bring about the discrediting of Granvelle and his removal from office (see above, note 57).

95 See Parker, Geoffrey, The Dutch Revolt, London 1977, 57–64.Google Scholar

96 AGS, Estado, 526–95 (=letter of 25 June 1564).

97 AGS, Estado, 526–97.

98 AGS, Estado, 531–87. (This document bears a note in the regent's hand indicating that Del Canto and Villavicencio are its authors. )

99 Velsius had been expelled from Frankfurt in 1560. After stays at Heidelberg, Basel, Zurich and Marburg, he arrived in London at the start of 1563, where his teaching soon got him imprisoned once again. He seems to have left London in April 1563 or shortly afterwards. In 1566 he was said to be at Groningen. SeeDenis, Philippe, ‘L'Envoyé de l'Esprit et les hommes d‘Église: Justus Velsius à Francfort et à Londres (1556-1563)’, Bulletin de la Société de I'Histoire du Protestantisme français, cxxi (1975), 184, 190Google Scholar.

100 AGS, Estado, 531–83, 85, 86 (summary in CP, i, 319-20).

101 See S., P. and Allen, H. M., Opus epistolarum Des. Erasmi Roterodami, Oxford 1906–1958. xi, 24, 77. 318–19Google Scholar; andPapendrecht, C. P. Hoynckvan, Analecta belgica. The Hague 1743, i, 8, 13Google Scholar. Brief outlines of Viglius‘s career are provided by, Allen, op. cit., viii, 56–7Google Scholar, and byBaelde, Michel, De Collateralc Raden onder Karel V en Filips II (1531-1575), Brussels 1965, 324–6 (see also 220-2)Google Scholar.

102 Lambert, J., ‘Viglius van Aytta et Érasme’, in Miscellanea historica in honorem Alberti Meyer, Louvain-Brussels 1946, 813–4Google Scholar; andVocht, Henry de, History of the Foundation and Rise ofthe Collegium trilingue lovaniense 1517-1550, Louvain 1951–1955, iii, 148–9Google Scholar.

103 The similar disposition of Baudouin in religious matters has been pointed out byStegman, Andre, ‘Un Thème majeur du second humanisme français (1540-70): l'Orateur et le Citoyen. De l‘humanisme à la réalité vécue’, in Sharratt, Peter (ed. ), French Renaissance Studies 1540-70: Humanism and the Encyclopaedia, Edinburgh 1976, 216, 217, 225Google Scholar.

104 AGS, Estado, 816–137 (=letter from Quadra to Granvelle of 24 April 1563).

105 For relevant information seeRam, F. X. de, ‘Lettres inédites adressées à Viglius par des docteurs de l'université de Louvain et par d'autres personnages’, Compte rendu des séances de la Commission royale d'histoire…, 2e série, ii (1851), 182–229CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and ‘Deux lettres l a faculte de theologie de Louvain, au sujet de Pierre Ximenius, 1561’, Ibid., iii (1852), 184-92.

106 AGS, Estado, 525–156(bis) (=letter of 8 October 1564).

107 This report of 1563 is referred to by Villavicencio in his letter of 25 June 1564. It could perhaps be the ‘Relacion para la Mag’ del Rey nuestro Sefior de las personas que tienen cargo de justicia y por favorescer a los hereges no la administran' (undated but in Villavicencio‘s hand): AGS, Estado, 526-131).

108 Pirenne, H., Histoire de Belgique, Brussels 1902–1932, iii, 384, 387Google Scholar; Geyl, P., The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1603, London 1932, 70Google Scholar; andKoenigsberger, H. G., ‘Western Europe and the Power of Spain’, in New Cambridge Moder History, iii, 271Google Scholar.

109 El cardenal Granvela, 227. Baelde (De collaterals Raden, 335) remarks that ‘les membres des Conseils centraux sont plutot des co-régnants et des co-régents que de simples fonctionnaires’.

110 The references are in the king's letter of 6 October 1564 to the regent, and in hers to him of 8 October and 29 November (AGS, Estado, 585-53, 531-82, 525-120(bis)). The regent's letter of 8 October is summarised in CP, i, 318-19.

111 AGS, Estado, 525–53.

112 ZAGS, Estado, 531–84, 525–156(bis).

113 AGS, Estado, 527–56, 57 (=letter of 11 April 1565). Summary in CP, i, 349-51.

114 AGS, Estado, 528–18, 7, 6 (=letters of 17 March, 26 April and 24 May 1565). Already i n October 1564 Granvelle had written to the king of Viglius's eagerness to retire from public life (AGS, Estado, 526-21, 24 (=letters of 8 and 12 October)). In the latter, addressed to Gonzalo Perez, he writes: ‘avisanme que ny au n el pobre presidente osa dezir palabra en contrario desto, sino que escrive lo que le mandan, y … representando el lo que se devria escrivir po r la verdad, le dizen que no es bien indignar a S. M. contra los estados, que seria hazerles mala obra’ {PCG, viii, 410). This gives a very different picture of Viglius from what Del Canto and Villavicencio had been writing of him only a few months before. They saw Viglius as prominent among those deliberately misleading the Regent by assuring her that the religious position in the Low Countries was satisfactory when it was not (see Villavicencio's letter of 25 June, and Del Canto's letters of 12 Jun e and 1 July 1564: AGS, Estado, 526-95, 125, 96). Granvelle's presentation of the case perhaps helps to explain the view that has commonly been taken of Viglius.

115 Vita Viglii…., 45.

116 See, for example, Villavicencio's letter of 26 November 1564 to Eraso (AGS, Estado, 526-100) and his ‘Relación’ mentioned in note 107 above.

117 Poullet, Edmond, Correspondence du Cardinal de Granvelle, 1565-1586, Brussels 1877–1881, i, 215–16.Google Scholar

118 Ibid., 262–3.

119 Ibid., 382.

120 Ibid., 356, 382,392.

121 Ibid., 446; CMP, iii, 433.