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The Politics of Limpieza de Sangre: Juan de Ovando and his Circle in the Reign of Philip II*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Stafford Poole C.M.
Stafford Poole C.M.*
Affiliation:
Los Angeles, California
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Extract

In 1575 Juan de Ovando, the president of the Council of the Indies, wrote to Mateo Vázquez de Lecca, Philip II's secretary, about the maestrescuelas (headmaster of the cathedral school) of Mexico City who was under consideration for a position as chaplain to the king. The Council of the Indies believed that he lacked the proper limpieza de sangre, that is, that he may have had a tainted lineage that disqualified him for the post. Ovando declared that this was not true. However, despite the fact that the candidate was indeed an “Old Christian” of unblemished stock, he was not to be given the position. Because it was a royal position, wrote Ovando, it should be given only to one whose purity of blood was “notorious.” In 1590 Vázquez de Lecca expressed a similar sentiment when he wrote of a candidate for the royal council that “It is a pity that Agustín Alvarez is not considered to be pure of blood because … I consider him the best of all possible candidates.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , January 1999 , pp. 359 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1999

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Footnotes

*

Research for this article was made possible by a grant from the Comité Conjunto para la Cooperación Cultural y Educativa, 1987-1988. I wish to express my thanks to Lisa Sousa of Occidental University for her suggestions which made the final form of this article possible after many years of frustration.

References

1 Ovando to Vázquez de Leca, from Madrid, 30 April 1575, Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, (hereinafter cited as IVDJ), envío 24, caja 37, f. 70.

2 Quoted in Kagan, Richard L., Students and Society in Early Modern Spain (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1974), p. 91.Google Scholar

3 For general treatments of the concept, see Ortiz, Antonio Domínguez, Los Judeoconversos en España y América, Colección Fundamentos 11 (Madrid: Ediciones ISTMO 1971);Google Scholar Sicroff, Albert A., Los estatutos de limpieza de sangre: controversias entre los siglos xv y xvii. Versión castellana de Mauro Armiño (Madrid: Taurus, 1979);Google Scholar Antón, Juan Monsalvo, Teoría y evolución de un conflicto social: El anti-semitismo en la corona de Castilla en la Baja Edad Media (Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1981);Google Scholar Kagan, , Students and Society, pp. 90–91;Google Scholar Kamen, Henry, Inquisition and Society in Spain in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1985);Google Scholar Batillon, Marcel, Erasmo y España: estudios sobre la historia espiritual del siglo xvi (Mexico-Madrid-Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1986), pp. 699–700,Google Scholar n. 2; Rábade Obradó, María del Pilar, Una élite de poder en la corte de los Reyes Católicos: los judeoconversos. Prólogo de Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada (Madrid: Sigilo, 1993);Google Scholar Roth, Norman, Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995);Google Scholar Baruque, Juan Valdeón, “Los orígenes de la Inquisición en Castilla” in Inquisición y conversos: Conferencias pronunciadas en el III Curso de Cultura Hispano-Judía y Sefardí de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha celebrado en Toledo del 6 al 9 de septiembre de 1993 (Madrid, CROMOGRAF, S.A. n.d.), pp. 35–45;Google Scholar Nieto, Juan Ignacio Gutiérrez, “La estructura castizo-estamental de la sociedad castellana en el siglo XVI” Hispania, 125 (1973), 519–63;Google Scholar Dedieu, Jean-Pierre, “¿Pecado original o pecado social? Reflexiones en torno a la constitución y la definición del grupo judeo-converso en Castilla,” Manuscrits: Revista d’História Moderna 10 (1992), 61–76;Google Scholar Dedieu, , “Limpieza, pouvoir et richesse: Conditions d’entrée dans le corps des ministres de l’Inquisition Tribunal de Tolède-XVIe-XVIIe siècles,” in Les sociétés fermées dans le monde Ibérique (XVIe–XVIIe s.) (Paris: Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1986), pp. 169–87.Google Scholar

4 Though the term converso could also include moriscos, it most commonly referred to converts of Jewish descent. That usage is followed in this article.

5 For a brief description, see Roth, , Conversos, pp. 9 and 10;Google Scholar for a longer one see Kamen, Henry, The Spanish inquisition: A Historical Revision (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1997), pp. 1–9.Google Scholar

6 Baruque, Valdeón, “Los orígenes,” p. 39.Google Scholar

7 The Spanish Inquisition, p. 4. Reprinted by permission of the Peters Fraser and Dunlop Group Ltd.

8 Roth rejects the widely accepted idea that these disturbances led to conversions through fear; rather, he believes that almost all conversions at this time were the result of sincere conviction (Conversos, pp. 34–35, 44 and 133–34). Monsalvo Antón accepts the more traditional interpretation that many of the conversions were the result of fear and force (Teoría y evolución, p. 280) as does Netanyahu (B[enzion] Netanyahu, , Toward the Inquisition: Essays on Jewish and Converso History in Late Medieval Spain [Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1997], p. 196).Google Scholar Domínguez Ortiz considered the disturbances to be true massacres that led to forced conversions (Los Judeoconversos, p. 15). Kamen believes that most conversions after the disturbances of 1391 were the result of fear, but that by the mid-fifteenth century most of the converts had settled into their new religion and were sincere Christians (The Spanish Inquisition, p. 36).

9 According to Kamen “The evidence suggests that possibly half of all the Jews of Spain preferred conversion to expulsion” (ibid., 24). Reprinted by permission of the Peters Fraser and Dunlop Group Ltd.

10 Sicroff, , Los estatutos, pp. .43,Google Scholar 47 and 51; Roth, , Conversos, pp. 133–50.Google Scholar Kamen believes that most morisco conversions were feigned and that the majority were openly or secretly muslim (The Spanish Inquisition, pp. 219–22).

11 According to Rábade Obradó, most contemporaries of Fernando and Isabel believed that there was danger from the Jews and conversos. Even those who were sincere Christians were suspected of insincerity (Una élite de poder, p. 21). Roth, in contrast, says, “It must be understood once and for all: conversos were not ‘crypto-Jews’; they were Christians, who chose completely to separate themselves from the Jewish people, and not just from the Jewish ‘faith,’ ” (Conversos, p. 320.)

12 Sicroff, , Los estatutos, pp. 51–56;Google Scholar Roth, , Conversos, pp. 88–92.Google Scholar According to Domínguez Ortiz, the statute never received royal approval (Los Judeoconversos, p. 81), while Kamen says that Enrique IV confirmed in office all holders of posts formerly held by conversos and permitted the city of Ciudad Real to exclude conversos from municipal offices (The Spanish Inquisition, p. 35). For a discussion of the legal basis of the statute, see Netanyahu, , Toward the Inquisition, pp. 76–98.Google Scholar

13 For examples, see Kamen, , The Spanish Inquisition, pp. 28–35.Google Scholar

14 Kamen, , Inquisition and Society, pp. 18–30.Google Scholar See also Historia de la Inquisición en España y América, obra dirigida por Joaquín Pérez Villanueva y Bartolomé Escandell Bonet (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos: Centro de Estudios Inquisitoriales, 1984), throughout; Villanueva, Joaquín Pérez, ed., La Inquisición Española: nueva visión, nuevos horizontes (Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1980), throughout.Google Scholar

15 Netanyahu rejects the idea that the Inquisition was founded to achieve religious unity in Spain, since in its earliest days it made no moves against Moors or Moriscos. Rather, he sees the origins in the fear of a “Jewish heresy” (Toward the Inquisition, p. 194–95).

16 Obradó, Rábade, Una élite de poder, p. 21.Google Scholar

17 See note 7 above. Netanyahu believes that once the conversos became part of Spanish Christian society, they wanted to remain there (Toward the Inquisition, p. 196).

18 Nieto, Gutiérrez, “La estructura,” pp. 524–25.Google Scholar

19 Kamen believes that the statutes had fallen out of style by the mid-sixteenth century and were generally ignored ( Kamen, Henry, Philip of Spain [New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1997], p. 33).Google Scholar On the contrary, the reign of Charles V (1516-1556) seems to have been characterized by a strong anti-converso feeling in Castile.

20 Ortiz, Domínguez, Los judeoconversos, p. 94;Google Scholar Kamen, , The Spanish Inquisition, p. 234.Google Scholar

21 Sicroff, , Los estatutos, p. 120.Google Scholar

22 Ortiz, Domínguez, Los judeoconversos, p. 96.Google Scholar

23 A man of violent and choleric personality whose parents had been poor peasants, Silíceo obtained a modest reputation as a philosopher and mathematician. He intensely disliked the Jesuits both for their spirituality and because they admitted conversos to their ranks. According to Lea, Silíceo outmaneuvered the converso members of the chapter and engineered the enactment of the statute by devious means ( Charles Lea, Henry, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, 4 vols. [New York: The Macmillan Company, 1906], 2:Google Scholar 290 –92). Kamen states that Silíceo and a majority of the canons voted for it (Philip of Spain, p. 33). Domínguez Ortiz says that the vote was twenty-four to ten (Los judeoconversos, p. 84), as does Kamen (The Spanish Inquisition, p. 236). The alumni records of San Bartolomé said of him, “He enacted a statute in the church of Toledo that no one of Moorish or Jewish descent be admitted to it over great opposition by very many on the chapter” ( Delgado, Buenaventura, El colegio de San Bartolomé de Salamanca: Privilegios, bienes, pleitos, deudas y catálogo biográfico de colegiales, según un manuscrito de principios del XVIII. Acta Salmanticensia: Historia de la Universidad 41, [Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca: Excma. Diputación de Salamanca, 1986], p. 96.)Google Scholar For a detailed account of how a statute was implemented in Córdoba, see Vázquez Lesmes, R., Córdoba y su cabildo catedralicio en la modernidad (Córdoba: Publicaciones del Monte de Piedad y Caja de Ahorros de Córdoba, 1987), pp. 49–60.Google Scholar

24 Kamen, , Inquisition and Society, p. 120.Google Scholar

25 Quoted in Kamen, , Philip of Spain, pp. 33–34.Google Scholar The original reads, “Fomentaban los Consejos y Ministros con razones y avisos contra el Cardenal, muchos de su cabildo y del reino en ódio inmortal por haberles metido el estatuto de las cofradías de España… siendo aborrecido de los que dan reglas de buen gobierno, ver los ciegos por los ojos de sus abuelos” (Cabrera de Córdoba, Historia de Felipe II, rey de España, 4 vols. [Madrid: Aribau y C.a, 1976-1977]), 1: 47.

26 On the history of San Bartolomé see de Roxas, Joseph y Contreras, , Historia del Colegio Viejo de S. Bartolomé mayor de la celebre universidad de Salamanca, segunda parte, tomo tercero (Madrid: Andres Ortega, 1770);Google Scholar Ana, M. a Torres, Carabias, Colegios mayores: centros de poder; los colegios mayores de Salamanca durante el siglo XVI, 3 vols. (Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca: Diputación Provincial de Salamanca, 1986), 2: 392–421;Google Scholar Delgado, El colegio de San Bartolomé de Salamanca.

27 The wording of the original statute 14 was ex puro sanguine procedentes, “descending from a pure blood line,” but it is not clear that this meant limpieza de sangre in the later sense of the term. Carabias Torres speculates that these words were interpolated into the papal bull of approval of the colegio (Colegios mayores, 2: 512–13), a conclusion also reached by Netanyahu, who compared the printed version of the bulls with the originals in the Vatican Archive (B[en-zion] Netanyahu, , The Origins of the Inquisition in Fifteenth Century Spain [New York: Random House, 1995], pp. 1103–05).Google Scholar Anaya may have added the more explicit prohibition of conversos when he revised the statutes in 1435—he then claimed that it had always been his intention to reject conversos. Kamen dates the exclusion in 1482 (The Spanish Inquisition, p. 233). For a fascinating discussion of the question, see Sicroff, , Los estatutos, p. 117,Google Scholar n. 101. See also Révah, S.I., “La controverse sur les statuts de pureté de sang: un document inédit,” Bulletin Hispanique 73 (1971), 263–306,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Netanyahu, , Origins, pp. 272–73.Google Scholar Anaya’s statute was renewed on 15 July 1507, adding moriscos to the forbidden category. Later it was extended to those who made the annual visitas or inspections of the colegio ( Roxas, y Contreras, , Historia, 44, statute 14).Google Scholar

28 See Stafford Poole, CM., “Juan de Ovando’s Reform of the University of Alcalá de Henares, 1564–1566,” Sixteenth Century Journal 21: 4 (1990), 596–98.Google Scholar

29 Torres, Carabias, Colegios mayores, 2: 514–15.Google Scholar For a contrary opinion, see Kamen, , The Spanish Inquisition, p. 252.Google Scholar

30 Among the bartolomicos who played roles in Ovando’s life were Pedro de Alderete (whom Ovando succeeded as a canon of the Seville cathedral chapter), Pedro Farfán, Fernando de Valdés, and two presidents of the Council of the Indies, Francisco Tello de Sandoval and Hernando de Vega.

31 See Maltby, William, Alba: A Biography of Fernando Alvarez de Toledo, Third Duke of Alba (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), pp. 73–75.Google Scholar

32 Kamen indicates that doubts about the justice of statutes of limpieza de sangre lasted well into the reign of Philip II (Philip of Spain, p. 310).

33 This matter is well treated by Sicroff, , Los estatutos, pp. 102–22,Google Scholar and Ortiz, Domínguez, Los judeoconversos, pp. 99–104.Google Scholar

34 Kamen States that “In practice exclusion was never the policy of either order” (The Spanish Inquisition, p. 235). Reprinted by permission of the Peters Fraser and Dunlop Group Ltd.

35 On converso bishops, see Roth, , Conversos, 135–36.Google Scholar Netanyahu, says “By the time Siliceo [sic] began his campaign, no converso served as bishop, archbishop, or cardinal” (Origins, p. 1066).Google Scholar Perhaps it would be more accurate to say no known converse He adds, “nor, with rare exceptions, could conversos be found in high posts of the royal administrations, such as those of royal councillors, major judges, governors, or corregidores” (Ibid.) These statements should be contrasted with the opposing opinion of Kamen, Henry (Philip of Spain, pp. 84,Google Scholar 33). In another work Netanyahu erroneously states that conversos could not be ordained priests (Toward the Inquisition, 8).

36 Sicroff, , Los estatutos, p. 188,Google Scholar n. 101. The Inquisition’s regulations excluded the children and grandchildren only of those penanced by the Holy Office ( Kamen, , The Spanish Inquisition, p. 234).Google Scholar

37 Escandell Bonet, B., “La consolidación del Santo Oficio (1517–1569),” in Historia de la Inquisición, p. 609.Google Scholar The rules of 1513 required that familiares be Old Christians. See Dedieu, , “Limpieza, pouvoir et richesse,” p. 171.Google Scholar

38 Bonet, Escandell, “La consolidación del Santo Oficio,” p. 747.Google Scholar

39 Dedieu, , “¿Pecado original o pecado social?” pp. 73–74.Google Scholar

40 History of the Inquisition, 2: 294, 295.

41 Dedieu, , “¿Pecado original o pecado social?” p. 63.Google Scholar

42 Roth, , Conversos, p. 230.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., p. 314; Obradó, Rábade, Una élite de poder, p. 23.Google Scholar See Gutiérrez Nieto, J.I., “La estructura castizo-estamental de la sociedad castellana en el siglo XVI” Hispania, 125 (1973): 519–63.Google Scholar On p. 553 he says that the proliferation of the statutes was a direct result of the failure of the comunero revolts, becoming especially virulent in the 1540s. See also “Los humanistas castellanos ante la limpieza de sangre. Algunas manifestaciones,” in Homenaje a Américo Castro (Madrid: 1987), pp. 77–89. Also, “Los conversos y el movimiento comunero,” in Hornick, M.P., ed., Collected Studies in Honor of Americo Castro’s 80th Year (Oxford: 1975), 2nd ed., pp. 199–220.Google Scholar A more benign opinion is that of Kamen, who rejects claim, Netanyahu’s (The Origins of the Inquisition, p. 1063)Google Scholar that the limpieza movement had spread through most Spanish institutions and was supported by a major part of public opinion. Rather, he views it as confined to “a few institutions in a limited number of regions” (The Spanish Inquisition, p. 235).

44 The laws of limpieza of the order of Santiago, 1480, mentioned “infamy” (Roth, Conversos, p. 231). The same concept lay behind the prohibition against ordaining Indians and castas to the priesthood in New Spain. See Stafford Poole, CM., “Church Law on the Ordination of Indians and Castas in New Spain,” Hispanic American Historical Review 61 (November 1981), pp. 637–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

45 Millán, José Martínez, “En busca de la ortodoxía: el Inquisidor General Diego de Espinosa,” in La corte de Felipe II, Bajo la dirección de José Martínez Millán (Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1994), p. 192.Google Scholar

46 Ortiz, Domínguez, Los judeoconversos, p. 59;Google Scholar Contreras, Jaime Contreras, “Linajes y cambio social: la manipulación de la memoria,” Historia Social, 21 (1995), 118,120.Google Scholar The latter quotes the famed saying of Saint Teresa of Avila that honors and riches always go together.

47 Parker, Geoffrey, Philip 2 (Cardinal: Sphere Books, 1988), pp. 193–94.Google Scholar

48 Kamen, , Philip of Spain, p. 33.Google Scholar

49 Ibid., p. 24.

50 Ibid., p. 310.

51 Ibid., pp. 310–11.

52 Ortiz, , Los judeoconversos, p. 60.Google Scholar On the inconsistent application of the statutes, see Kamen, , The Spanish Inquisition, p. 240.Google Scholar

53 Padden, Robert, “The Ordenanza del Patronazgo, 1574: an Interpretive Essay,” The Americas, 12 (April 1956), 345, n. 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

54 The year of his birth is usually given as 1514. However, in a report to Philip II, dated 25 March 1575, he clearly stated that he “is approaching sixty” (anda ya al pie de sesenta años) (IVDJ, envío 24, caja 37, f. 103). The information on his family background is taken from the investigation into his limpieza de sangre, January 1546 in the Archivo de la Universidad de Salamanca, unnumbered, Colegio de San Bartolomé: expedientes de alumnos, 1546–1552: Juan de Ovando, ff. 34r–58r.

55 The literature on Valdés, his career, and his fall is abundant. See González Novalín, J.L., “El Inquisidor general don Fernando de Valdés,” in Bonet, Pérez Villanueva-Escandell, Historia de la Inquisición, pp. 538–56;Google Scholar González, , “Reforma de las leyes, competencia y actividades del Santo Oficio durante la presidencia del inquisidor general don Fernando de Valdés (1547–1566),” Ibid., pp. 193–217;Google Scholar Millán, José Martínez, “Grupos de poder en la corte durante el reinado de Felipe II: la facción ebolista, 1554–1573,” in Instituciones y élites de poder en la Monarquía hispana durante el siglo XVI, Millán, José Martínez, ed. (Madrid: Ediciones de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 1992), pp. 137–97;Google Scholar Llorente, Henar Pizarro, “Las relaciones de patronazgo a través de los inquisidores de Valladolid durante el siglo XVI,” Ibid., pp. 226–39.Google Scholar

56 Valdés’s correspondence with Ovando on the day-to-day administration of the archdiocese of Seville can be found in IVDJ, envío 91, caja 130. On the Constantino affair the two basic, though opposed, works are Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus (Reinaldo González de Montes), Sanctae inquisitionis hispanicae artes aliquot detectae, ac palam traductae. Exempla aliquot, praeter ea quae suo quoque loco in ipso opere sparsa sunt, seorsum reposita, in quibus easdem inquisitorias artes veluti in tabulis quibusdam in ipso porro exercitio intueri licet. Addidimus appendice vice piorum quorumdam martyrum Christi elogia, qui cum mortis supplicium ob fidei confessionem Christiana constantia tulerint, inquisitores eos suis artibus perfidiae ac defectionis inflamarint (Heidelberg: Michael Schirat, 1567), (Spanish translation, Artes de la Inquisition española. Translated by Santiago Usoz y Río. Reformistas antiguos españoles 5. Luis de Usoz y Río, ed. [Madrid: 1851]); and Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, Historia de los heterodoxos españoles, Segunda edición refundida por el Doctor Don Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo. Edición ordenada y dirigida por Don Miguel Artigas, 6 vols. (Madrid: Librería General de Victoriano Suárez, 1911–1930), vol. 5. Both are tendentious and at times unreliable. On the Montes book see Benito, Nicolás Castrillo, El “Reginaldo Montano” primer libro polémico contra la Inquisición Española. (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas: Centro de Estudios Inquisitoriales, 1991).Google Scholar He deals with Constantino, pp. 72–77. Other references are Boehmer, Edward, Biblioteca Wiffeniana. Spanish reformers of two centuries from 1520, 3 vols. (Strassburg: 1874–1904), 2: 3–40;Google Scholar Bataillon, Marcel, Erasmo y España, pp. 529–45;Google Scholar Ansa, María Paz Aspe, Constantino Ponce de la Fuente: el hombre y su lenguaje (Salamanca: Editores Universidad Pontifica de Salamanca, Fundación Universitaria Española, 1975).Google Scholar The papers on the case can be found in the Archive of the metropolitan cathedral, Seville, (hereinafter cited as ASIC), Actas Capitulares, libro 23, ff. 28r-76v.

57 The minutes of the cathedral chapter of Seville, 12 May 1556, say that the offer was the canongía magistral of Seville (esta prebenda) without any competitors. See ASIC, Actas Capitulares, libro 23, f. 55; Menéndez, y Pelayo, , Historia de los heterodoxos, appendix 2:13.Google Scholar González de Montes says that it was in Toledo (Artes, p. 303), as does Bataillon (Erasmo y España, p. 523). Boehmer says that Constantino also refused a canonry in his home diocese of Cuenca, (Spanish Reformers, 2:10).Google Scholar

58 de Montes, González, Artes, p. 309.Google Scholar

59 Bataillon, , Erasmo y España, p. 523.Google Scholar Only Boehmer says that Constantino was not talking about his lineage, Jewish (Spanish Reformers, 2:10).Google Scholar

60 ASIC, Actas Capitulares, libro 23, f. 51v; Menéndez, y Pelayo, , Historia de los heterodoxos, appendix 2:10.Google Scholar

61 It is in IVDJ, envío 90, caja 127, unfoliated. The use of the term raça in this context is problematical for modern readers. It does not mean race in the contemporary sense but has more the meaning of people. As used in statutes of limpieza its meaning is closer to that of lineage or descent but in a pejorative sense.

62 Rodríguez, Agueda María, “Pedro Farfán,” Revista de Indias 21 (July-December 1971), p. 249.Google Scholar

63 Ibid., pp. 244, 265.

64 Ibid., pp. 265.

65 Ibid., p. 176. On Farfán’s career in Mexico, see Stafford Poole, CM., “Institutionalized Corruption in the Letrado Bureaucracy: The Case of Pedro Farfán, 1568–1586,” The Americas 38 (October 1981), 149–71;Google Scholar Poole, , Pedro Moya de Contreras: Catholic Reform and Royal Power in New Spain, 1571–1591 (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 1987), pp. 95–96,Google Scholar 97, 111–12, 110 and 140.

66 Rodríguez, , “Pedro Farfán,” p. 239.Google Scholar

67 Unfortunately, it appears that the minutes of the cathedral chapter were not kept for six months, including the date that Ovando entered the chapter. These would undoubtedly have yielded some valuable information.

68 For an account of this by a participating inquisitor, see the autobiography of de Simancas, Diego in “Autobiografías y Memorias coleccionados é ilustradas por M. Serrano Sanz,” in Nueva Biblioteca de Autores Españoles bajo la dirección del Excmo. Sr. D. Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo. 29 vols. (Madrid: Librería Editorial de Bailley/Bailliére é Hijos, 1905–1928), 2: 154–58.Google Scholar

69 Millán, José Martínez and Javier de Carlos Morales, C., “La administración de la gracia real: Los miembros de la cámara de Castilla (1543–1575),” in Instituciones y élites de poder, pp. 30–31,Google Scholar 34 and 39; de Carlos Morales, Carlos Javier, “Grupos de poder en el Consejo de Hacienda de Castilla: 1555–1566,” (Ibid.), pp. 110,Google Scholar 111, 117; Millán, José Martínez. “Grupos de poder en la corte durante el reinado de Felipe II: la facción ebolista, 1554–1573,” (Ibid.), pp. 140,Google Scholar 161 and 169–72; Llorente, Henar Pizarro. “Las relaciones de patronazgo a través de los inquisidores de Valladolid durante el siglo XVI,” (Ibid.), 226–27, 230.Google Scholar

70 The chronology of Espinosa’s early years is not clear. The best summary of it as well as an excellent summary of his career is Millán, José Martínez, “En busca de la ortodoxía: el Inquisidor General Diego de Espinosa,” in La corte de Felipe II, pp. 189–228.Google Scholar Some brief biographical data can be found in the report that Espinosa commissioned on the alumni of the universities of Spain, IVDJ, envío 90, caja 127. Data on his life can also be found in the British Museum, Additional Manuscript 28,351.

71 The testimony of his first tonsure, together with other documents on his ecclesiastical advancement, can be found in González Novalín, José Luis, “El cardenal Espinosa (1572): Proceso informativo para su consagración episcopal,” Anthologica Anua 15 (1967), 470.Google Scholar The ceremony was conducted in Avila, the diocese to which he belonged.

72 This information can be found in the biographical information cited in note 74. It says that he competed for the second time on 2 August 1542 and adds pasose sin information.

73 José Martínez Millán accepts that Espinosa was of untainted limpieza and an old Christian ( Millán, José Martínez, “Grupos de poder en la corte durante el reinado de Felipe II: la facción ebolista, 1554–1573,” p. 184, note 251).Google Scholar In another article, however, he refers to the investigation into the cardinal’s lineage in 1566 when the cardinal’s nephew sought entrance into the order of Calatrava. The scarcity of available data has caused some modern historians to question his limpieza. ( Millán, Martínez, “En busca de la ortodoxía: el Inquisidor General Diego de Espinosa,” p. 192.)Google Scholar

74 On the Colegio mayor de Cuenca, see Torres, Carabias, Colegios mayores, 2: 422–32.Google Scholar It had been founded in 1500 by Diego Ramírez de Villaescusa, bishop of Málaga and a bartolomico. It enacted a statute of limpieza de sangre in 1537.

75 A transcription of the examination and awarding of this degree, dated 28 June 1547, can be found in Novalín, González, “El cardenal Espinosa,” pp. 469–70.Google Scholar There is no documentation as to how this came about. Martínez Millán theorizes that it was arranged by Francisco de Montalvo, a member of the Council of Castile, who had been born in Martinmuñoz de las Posadas and may haved been related to Espinosa. He was also a friend of Niño. (“En busca de la ortodoxía,” p. 193.)

76 Novalín, González, “El cardenal Espinosa,” p. 467.Google Scholar

77 This may also have been true of his post as oidor in Seville.

78 The dispensation can be found in Novalín, González, “El cardenal Espinosa,” pp. 471–72.Google Scholar The document is dated at Rome 5 February 1560. Added to it is a dimissorial from the administrator of the archdiocese of Toledo, dated 20 January 1564, granting permission to any bishop to administer minor orders to Espinosa.

79 The attestation of his ordination to the various orders can be found Ibid., 472–73.

80 Lovett, A.W., “Juan de Ovando and the Council of Finance (1573–1575),” Historical Journal 15: 1 (1972),CrossRefGoogle Scholar 3, n. 10. He cites British Museum, Additional Manuscript 28,351, f. 65, for the date. He also says that Espinosa was named president of the Inquisition, though he was actually coadjutor, that is, he administered the Inquisition because of Valdés’s infirmities and had the right of succession.

81 Ibid., pp. 467–68, n.15.

82 Ibid., pp. 466, 474–81.

83 Vega later became president of the Council of the Indies (1584-1591) and bishop of Córdoba.

84 Kamen accepts the traditional story that Epinosa died as a result of being rebuked by the king, (Philip of Spain, p. 148).Google Scholar He draws this from de Córdoba, Cabrera, Historia, 2: 125–26.Google Scholar Martínez Millán says that before his death Espinosa had lost the confidence of Philip II (“Introducción: La investigación sobre las élites del poder” in Instituciones y élites de poder, p. 41).

85 See Poole, , “Ovando’s Reform,” pp. 575–606.Google ScholarPubMed

86 Valdés to Ovando, from Madrid, 8 June 1564, IVDJ, envío 91, caja 130, f. 242. Ibargüen to Ovando, from Madrid, 11 May 1564, Ibid., f. 247.

87 Important sources and references for the history of the university are Juan Urriza, S.J., La preclara facultad de artes y filosofía de la universidad de Alcalá de Henares en el siglo de oro, 1509–1621 (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Jerónimo Zurita, 1942);Google Scholar de Heredia, Vicente Beltrán, “La teología en la universidad de Alcalá,” Revista Española de Teología 5, cuaderno 1 (January-March 1945), 145–78;Google Scholar Constantino Lascaris Comneno-Luis Aler, Bescansa, Colegios mayores (Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica, Editorial Magisterio Español, 1952);Google Scholar Hernández, Francisco Martín, La formación clerical en los colegios universitarios españoles (1371–1563) (Vitoria: Publicaciones del Seminario de Vitoria, Editorial Eset, 1961);Google Scholar Navarro, Ramón González, Universidad Complutense: constituciones originales cisnerianas. Edición bilingüe y comentario. Estudios de los textos legislativos, su evolución y sus reformas posteriores, durante el siglo XVI. Traducción textos latinos: Antonio Larios y Bernaldo de Quirós (Alcalá de Henares: Ediciones Alcalá, S. A., 1984).Google Scholar

88 Poole, , “Ovando’s Reform,” p. 579.Google ScholarPubMed See also García, Angel Gil, “La Universidad de Alcalá de Henares en el siglo XVII,” in La ciudad del título y el título de la ciudad (Alcalá de Henares: Edición de Institución de Estudios Complutenses, 1987), pp. 16–17, 20.Google Scholar

89 Sicroff, , Los Estatutos, p. 119.Google Scholar He cites as a source de Rújula, José y de Ochotorena, , Indice de los colegiales del Mayor de San Ildefonso y menores de Alcalá (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Jerónimo Zurita, 1946), p. 34.Google Scholar

90 Cited in Sicroff, , Los Estatutos, p. 134.Google Scholar

91 de Simancas, Archivo General, Patronato Real, leg. 59, f. 147.Google Scholar Note again the concept of infamy, which was extended to include both ecclesiastical and civil tribunals.

92 Archivo Histórico Nacional, Madrid (hereinafter cited as AHN), Universidades, leg. 525F, f. 49v.

93 Ibid., ff. 52v–54r, 56r.

94 Ibid., ff. 141v–142r.

95 Ibid., f. 143v.

96 Ibid., ff. 142v–143v. He may have based this on the statutes of San Bartolomé.

97 Ibid., f. 152r. It was an addition to title 56 of the Constitutions.

98 Ibid., f. 183v.

99 Ibid., ff. 173r–174r. There is a document with similar contents on ff. 175r–177v. Unfortunately, the documents are both in bad condition and large parts of them have been lost in the binding of the legajo so that it is almost impossible to read them.

100 Ibid., ff. 116v–123v; Navarro, González, Universidad Complutense, pp. 260–67.Google Scholar

101 AHN, Universidades, 525F, f. 183v.

102 Lovett, A.W., “A cardinal’s papers: the rise of Mateo Vázquez de Leca,” The English Historical Review, no. 347 (April 1973), 243.Google Scholar See also the same author’s Philip II and Mateo Vázquez de Leca: The Government of Spain (1572–1592), Travaux d’Humanisme et Renaissance, no. 155 (Geneva: Librairie Droz, 1977), p. 14.

103 ASIC, Libro de Entradas, sesión secretum, 382, f. 26v.

104 Vázquez de Leca to Espinosa, from Alcalá de Henares, 9 August 1565, IVDJ, envío 57, caja 70, unfoliated.

105 Lovett, , “A Cardinal’s Papers,” p. 243.Google Scholar

106 His official genealogy can be found in IVDJ, envío 77, caja 102, f. 610r. Other data can be found in Lovett, , “A cardinal’s papers,” pp. 241–43.Google Scholar The account of Mateo Vázquez given by de Cesari Rocca, Colonna, “Un Ministre de Philippe II, Auteur d’une Histoire de la Corse,” Revue Historique 126 (1917), 61–70,Google Scholar is garbled and almost totally unreliable.

107 Hazañas, Joaquín y la Rúa, , Mateo Vázquez de Leca, 1573–1649 (Seville: Imprenta y Librería de Sobrinos de Izquierdo, 1918), p. 4.Google Scholar This is a biography of the secretary’s nephew, who bore the same name, not the secretary himself.

108 Ibid., p. 4; Lovett, , Philip II and Mateo Vázquez de Leca, p. 11.Google Scholar Lovett says that Isabel Luchiano had entered Vázquez de Alderete’s service and was mentioned in his will, but he bases this on the identification of Isabel de Luchiano with Isabel Pérez.

109 Lovett, , Philip II and Mateo Vázquez de Leca, p. 9.Google Scholar

110 Hazañas, y la Rua, , Mateo Vázquez de Leca, p. 5;Google Scholar Lovett, , “A cardinal’s papers,” p. 241.Google Scholar

111 Kamen, , Philip of Spain, p. 148.Google Scholar

112 Quoted in Lovett, , “A cardinal’s papers,” p. 242.Google Scholar

113 IVDJ, envío 54, caja 70, f. 352r.

114 IVDJ, envío 54, caja 71, f. 353r. The words omitted are lost in the binding.

115 IVDJ, envío 54, caja 71, f. 353v. This document makes Mateo two years younger than others do.

116 Those mentioned in the will are: Pedro de Alderete, the canon's nephew; Isabel Pérez, his housekeeper, María, a black servant; Gaspar, a black slave who was freed; Rodrigo Vázquez de Alderete, another nephew who inherited the bulk of the estate, and other, unnamed servants who were paid what they were owed plus three ducados. Isabel Pérez was left 100 ducados as a dowry for her legitimate daughter, orphaned of a father. She also received most of the household goods.

117 Testimony given in July 1561, IVDJ, envío 77, caja 102, f. 608r. The witnesses were named Damián Corso and Catalina Corso, who was apparently his sister-in-law. Damián claimed to have been captured in Corsica four months after Isabel and to have been imprisoned with her. He testified that at that time the boy was two or three months old and that he was two or three at the time of the ransom. Damián Corso said that he was ransomed after three years, came to Seville, and then settled in Cádiz. Catalina Corso testified that she was captured four years after Isabel and saw her raising the boy, who was about four years old.

118 IVDJ, envío 54, caja 70, ff. 367r-370r.

119 Lovett, , Philip II and Mateo Vázquez, p. 4.Google Scholar

120 The inquisitors in Seville were the licenciado Miguel de Carpio and the licenciado Soto Salazar. Carpio, who was the uncle of the famed playwright Lope de Vega Carpio, had served with Ovando in the Inquisition of Seville. At the time of this investigation Soto Salazar and Ovando were members of the Suprema. There is room for questioning the objectivity of this inquiry.

121 The summary of the investigation is in IVDJ, envío 77, caja 102, f. 610r-v.

122 There is an interesting draft of a dimissorial letter (a letter granting permission for an individual to be ordained to the priesthood by a bishop other than his own) in IVDJ, envío 57, caja 70. Originally, the letter was to have been issued in the name of Archbishop Valdés, but his name has been erased and Ovando’s substituted in his capacity as provisor and vicar general. The letter is garbled, especially since it gives the date for ordination to the diaconate as coming before minor orders and subdiaconate. Probably the only thing that can be said for sure is that Vázquez de Leca was ordained in 1569.

123 Antonio Pérez (El hombre, el drama, la época), 2 vols. (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1948), 1: 376. He added that Vázquez de Alderete in his will provided for Mateo and his sister “with suspicious tenderness.” The sister, however, was not mentioned in the will, and it is difficult to see any special tenderness in the references to Mateo. Juan Antonio Escudero is the only author who speculates that Mateo Vázquez was the illegitimate son of de Alderete, Diego Vázquez (Los secretarios de estado y del despacho [1474–1724], 4 vols. [Madrid: Instituto de Estudios Administrativos, 1969), 1: 188.Google Scholar

124 Isabel de Luchiano to Mateo Vázquez de Leca, from Seville, undated, IVDJ, envío 54, caja 70, tomo 2, f. 734–77.

125 It is interesting that this María de Luchiano used her mother’s maiden name rather than that of her father or the Leccas.

126 Andrea Barrasi to Mateo Vázquez de Lecca, 14 August, 1577, IVDJ, envío 54, caja 70; Hazañas, y la Rúa, , Mateo Vázquez, p. 5.Google Scholar

127 The baptismal records refer to his grandmother as Isabel de Luchiano ( Hazañas, y la Rúa, , Mateo Vázquez, p. 5).Google Scholar

128 Lovett, , Philip II and Mateo Vázquez de Lecca, p. 12.Google Scholar

129 The salutation Muy magnífico was used for members of the cathedral chapter. Mateo Vázquez took possession of his position on the chapter on 20 September 1578 (Archivo de la Santa Iglesia Catedral, Seville: Libro de entradas, 382, canongía 29, f. 41v).

130 Ovando to Vázquez, from Alcalá de Henares, 9 October 1565, IVDJ, envío, caja 70, unfo-liated.

131 Ovando to Vázquez, from Alcalá de Henares, 21 October 1565, IVDJ, envío 57, caja 70, unfoliated.

132 Ovando to Espinosa, from Alcalá de Henares, 11 August and 27 September 1565, IVDJ, envío 57, caja 70, no foliation.

133 Ovando to Vázquez, from Alcalá de Henares, 28 September 1565, IVDJ, envío 57, caja 70, no foliation. Ovando’s gift was a sotana, which can also mean a cassock, but since he indicates that it was to be worn over Vázquez’s clothes, it probably refers to a gown or cloak.

134 Ovando to Vázquez, from Seville, 15 January 1566, IVDJ, envío 57, caja 70, unfoliated. He told him literally to “sew up his mouth.”

135 Some of Vázquez’s correspondence with Philip II has been published in Correspondencia privada de Felipe II con su secretorio, Mateo Vázquez, 1567–1591, ed. García, Carlos Riba (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto “Jerónimo Zurita,” 1959).Google Scholar

136 On 16 January 1574 he wrote to the king about the work and the health that “I have sacrificed in Your Majesty’s service because it is the same as God’s” (IVDJ envío 24, caja 37, unfoliated).