LUIS See also:PONCE DE See also:LEON (1527-1591)
, See also:Spanish poet and mystic, was See also:born at Belmonte de See also:Cuenca, entered the university of See also:Salamanca at the See also:age of fourteen, and in 1544 joined the Augustinian See also:- ORDER
- ORDER (through Fr. ordre, for earlier ordene, from Lat. ordo, ordinis, rank, service, arrangement; the ultimate source is generally taken to be the root seen in Lat. oriri, rise, arise, begin; cf. " origin ")
- ORDER, HOLY
order
.
In 1561 he obtained a theological See also:chair at Salamanca, to which in 1571 was added that of sacred literature
.
He was denounced to the See also:Inquisition for translating the See also:book of See also:Canticles, and for criticizing the See also:text of the See also:Vulgate
.
He was consequently imprisoned at See also:Valladolid from See also:March 1572 till See also:December 1576 ; the charges against him were then abandoned, and he was released with an admonition
.
He returned to Salamanca as See also:professor of Biblical exegesis, and was again reported to the Inquisition in 1582, but without result
.
In 1583—1585 he published the three books of a celebrated mystic See also:treatise, Los Nombres de Cristo, which he had written in See also:prison
.
In 1583 also appeared the most popular of his See also:prose See also:works, a treatise entitled La Perfecta Casada, for the use of a See also:lady newly married
.
Ten days before his See also:death, which occurred at See also:Madrigal on the 23rd of See also:August 1591, he was elected See also:vicar
See also:general of the Augustinian order
.
Luis de See also:Leon is not only the greatest of Spanish mystics; he is among the greatest of Spanish lyrical poets
.
His See also:translations of See also:Euripides, See also:Pindar, See also:Virgil and See also:Horace are singularly happy; his See also:original pieces, whether devout like the See also:ode De la See also:vida del cielo, or See also:secular like the ode A Salinas, are See also:instinct with a serene sublimity unsurpassed in any literature, and their See also:form is impeccable
.
Absorbed by less worldly interests, Fray Luis de Leon refrained from See also:printing his poems, which were not issued till 1631, when Quevedo published them as a counterblast to cislteranismo
.
The best edition of Luis de Leon's works is that of See also:Merino (6 vols., See also:Madrid, 1816) ; the reprint (Madrid, 1885) by C
.
Munoz Saenz is incorrect
.
The text of La Perfecta Casada has been well edited by See also:Miss See also:Elizabeth See also:Wallace (See also:Chicago, 1903)
.
See Coleccion de documentos ineditos See also:Para la historia de Espana, vols. x.-xi.; F
.
H
.
See also:Reusch, Luis de Leon and See also:die spanische Inquisition (See also:Bonn, 1873) ; M
.
Gutierrez, Fray Luis de Leon y la filosofia espannola (Madrid, 1885) ; M
.
Menendez y Pelayo, Estudios de critica literaria (Madrid, 1893), Primera serie, pp
.
1-72
.
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