Fray Luis de León: Life, Work, and Christian Humanism

Posted on Apr 5, 2025 in Latin

Fray Luis de León (1527-1591)

Life

Born in Belmonte in 1527, Fray Luis de León lived in Madrid from 1533. At 14, he went to Salamanca and entered the Augustinian order, studying at the university. At age 32, he was entrusted with his first chair, and performed later after two. The rivalry between the orders, especially with the Dominicans, whose prominence Fray Luis was challenging, led to an inquisitorial process in 1572. He was accused of defending the Hebrew text of the Old Testament against the Latin versions of the Vulgate and of having made a Castilian version of the Song of Songs, despite the prohibitions of the Council of Trent. The process took almost 5 years, during which he was imprisoned in Valladolid. He was acquitted and returned to his teaching at the university. He died in 1591 in Madrigal de las Altas Torres (Ávila).

Work

Prose

• Translation of the Song of Songs
• The Perfect Wife
• Exposition of the Book of Job
• The Names of Christ

Verse

• Original Poems: 23 Odes, 5 Petrarchan sonnets, and other poems.
• Translations of classics: Virgil and Horace.
• Versions of sacred texts.

Education: Christian Humanism

• A prime example of the synthesis of Renaissance and Christianity, between the influence of classical culture and the biblical tradition.
• He had perfect knowledge of Latin and Greek and was a translator of classical authors. He used Italian meters and stanzas and showed great concern for style.
• He had solid biblical training, reflected in much of his work. His work has an essentially religious and moral content, both prose and verse.

Topics

Two overarching themes:

• Yearning for the quiet life, withdrawal, which contrasts with life in the city.
• Mystical theme, expressing his longing and desire for the life of the sky and desire to contemplate the divine perfection, which contrasts with the transience and vulgarity of earthly life.

Moral Issues, in which he calls to virtue and rejects earthly pleasures and vulgar passions.

National epic theme, as in The Prophecy of the Tagus.

Style

The poetic language of Fray Luis is of extreme simplicity and restraint, achieved thanks to careful preparation and concern for formal perfection. Some salient features are: simplicity in the use of expressive language, lexical precision, condensation of thought, austere syntax, perfect structure of content, rapid and abrupt transitions between verses, generally using the lira and short verse.