who were spiteful or cowardly—­or both.  As early as the beginning of August 1572 Fray Gabriel Montoya, Prior of the Augustinian Monastery at Toledo, stated to the Inquisitors at Valladolid that, in his opinion, certain remarks on the Vulgate, made by Luis de Leon in the course of a lecture, were of an heretical savour.[95] The value of this opinion is somewhat diminished by the fact that Montoya had a personal grudge against Luis de Leon who, some four or five years previously, had prevented Montoya’s election as Provincial of the Augustinians in Spain.[96] This check seems to have galled Montoya, who gives the impression of being a rancorous gossip, and, before leaving the court, he repeated a malignant rumour—­derived he knew not whence—­to the effect that Luis de Leon’s father had enjoined his son to be submissive to his superiors and to follow the current opinion in matters intellectual.[97] Luis de Leon indulges in no circuitous phrases when he comes to deal with Montoya, whom he describes as an enemy notorious for his untruthfulness.[98] It would appear that much of Montoya’s second-hand information came from another Augustinian, Francisco de Arboleda,[99] who had once been a student of Luis de Leon’s,[100] and had been entrusted by the prisoner with the delicate mission of collecting from certain theologians in Seville opinions favourable to Luis de Leon’s views upon the Vulgate.[101] This very sensible precaution scandalized Montoya.  It is open to criticism solely on the ground that Luis de Leon chose his agent badly.  To this criticism the real answer is that Luis de Leon had to employ what agents he could, and that nobody but Arboleda, who was not above flattering his old master,[102] was available at the time of his mission to Seville.  Arboleda’s evidence was not damaging; it was ill-intentioned and impertinent, inasmuch as it repeated vague rumours of the Jewish descent of the accused;[103] the gravest fact the witness could allege was Luis de Leon’s view that a friar, despite his vow of poverty, might spend a couple of coppers without mortal sin in buying an Agnus Dei.[104] Arboleda gives the impression of being a dullard, and this is pretty much the description of him by another member of the Augustinian order—­Pedro de Rojas,[105] son of the Marques de Pozas and afterwards Bishop of Astorga and Osuna.  Luis de Leon apparently agreed with Rojas in his estimate of Arboleda’s ability, and this may account for his comparative leniency to the poor numbskull.  More severe treatment is meted out to another Augustinian, Diego de Zuniga, whom Luis de Leon brands as a deliberate perjurer.[106] Who was this Zuniga?  He has generally been identified with the Zuniga who was among the first in Spain to declare in favour of the Copernican theory;[107] this action needed courage and Zuniga has had his reward.  As he is respectfully quoted by Galileo, he has attained something like immortality.[108] There is, however, no conclusive evidence to show that this enlightened writer is the Zuniga who came under Luis de Leon’s lash.  The correctness of the current identification is, at least, doubtful.