14 January 1529 A.D. Valdes, the Spanish Reformation, &
Romanist Inquisitors
The sixteenth century in Europe was a century of
church reform. Using the newly-invented printing press, many called the church
to clean up its act. Martin Luther set reform blazing in Germany with pamphlets
and a German Bible. William Tyndale issued the Bible and many booklets in
English and died for it. John Calvin published a powerful theological work that
won millions of followers. The very air seemed charged with new learning.
Spain, too, had its champion of reformation--a freshman at the University of
Alcalá.
Juan Valdés was just eighteen
years old on this day January
14, 1529 when he published his Dialogue on Christian Doctrine . The
work was not quite as he had planned. One of his professors cautioned him to make
some changes so that he would not rouse the wrath of the Inquisition. Valdés
agreed. Even so, the book was strongly Protestant in tone.
What is more, the Dialogue
was arranged on a new plan. It was the first popular Protestant catechism.
Luther did not issue his long and short catechisms until later the same year.
The Dialogue caught on
in Spain. The inquisitor of Navarre, Sancho Carranza de Miranda, was so
impressed with the book, he bought several copies and distributed them among
his friends. But in 1531, the book fell under suspicion of heresy. It was
placed on the Catholic Index of Prohibited Books. Every copy
was ordered confiscated and the inquisition gathered them up. Valdés ran for
his life. Soon the Dialogue could not be found in Spain, or anywhere else, for
that matter, except a single copy, which fortunately reached Portugal before
the recall. If that had not survived, we would not know what the Dialogue
said.
Valdés lamented the deep
doctrinal ignorance of the priests and the Dialogue set out to remedy that. It is
written as a conversation. According to its story line, a friend invites a
simple, ignorant priest to visit the well-known historical archbishop, Don Fray
Pedro de Alba. Fray Pedro will answer the priest's questions and explain doctrine
to him, he is told. The simple priest, his friend, and Fray Pedro talk to each
other. Their many questions and repetitions make the book seem rather stilted.
Valdés has Fray Pedro hold faith
high--like the reformers. "The faith and trust that we put in Jesus Christ
throws out all trust in our own wisdom, justice, and virtue, because it shows
us that if Jesus Christ would not have died for us, neither ourselves nor any
other creature could give us true happiness." Fray Pedro does not care for
devotions to Mary or the saints. Our prayers should be modeled on the Lord's
prayer, he says. "In this prayer our Lord Jesus Christ teaches us how we
ought to pray. And by its own example the prayer teaches us that it should be
brief in words, but abundant in content..." Although the Roman Catholic
church teaches that there are seven sacraments, Fray Pedro mentions only the
same two that Protestants accept: baptism and the Lord's supper.
Little wonder that the Dialogue's
printer was examined for heresy. Authorities began an action against Valdés and
his brother, Alfonso, secretary to Emperor Charles V. Meanwhile, Valdés settled
in Naples, Italy, where he wrote more books. Agreeing with the reformers, he
said that we are obliged only to keep the commandments of God, not those of the
church, such as to confess once a year or attend mass every week. He emphasized
faith: "And I think that a man may know when he has inward confidence in
God by what he discovers of his outward reliance upon God." But Valdés also
criticized the reformers for breaking from the Catholic Church. He died in
1541, still a Catholic.
His books attracted many
followers. A Spanish reformation movement appeared, but the inquisition soon
stamped it out. Many other catechisms were written after the Dialogue,
and a few of them imitated it.
Bibliography
"Juan de Valdés," in Oxford
Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Editor in chief Hans J.
Hillerbrand. New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.
Nieto, Jose C. Juan de Valdes and the Origins of the Spanish and Italian
Reformation. Geneva: Librarie Droz, 1970.
Williams, George Huntston, editor. Spiritual and
Anabaptist Writers Volume XXV. London: SCM Press, 1957.
Last updated May,
2007.
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