he volunteered the admission that he had made such a rendering.[64] At this moment he was apparently unaware that the existence of this rendering had been already brought to the notice of the Inquisition by Medina.[65] Nobody questions Luis de Leon’s good faith.  Nevertheless one gets the impression that he felt this to be a weak point in his case.  It was.  He had committed a serious indiscretion by infringing the general prohibition of vernacular versions of any part of Scripture.  No doubt it might be contended that his rendering of the Song of Solomon, and his commentary on it, were originally meant to be used by only one private person; that the prohibition referred to the circulation of vernacular versions; that this particular version, made for the exclusive use of Dona Isabel Osorio, did not amount to circulation (within the four corners of the general prohibition); and that such circulation as had taken place had occurred against the will of the translator.  This is not mere sophistry.  What seems to have happened was this.  It appears that a lay brother, named Diego de Leon, part of whose business it was to tidy Luis de Leon’s cell, stumbled one day upon the original manuscript of the vernacular version of the Song of Solomon, copied it without leave or licence, and allowed so many transcriptions of his copy to be made that it became absolutely impossible for the translator to control or recall them afterwards.[66] Manifestly Diego de Leon did not venture to remove the original manuscript from its resting-place; it was still in Luis de Leon’s monastery-cell on November 7, 1573.[67] Search being made for it, the version was found, handed over to the Inquisitionary authorities, and retained by them when judgement was pronounced.[68] There is evidence to show that many manuscript copies of the vernacular Song of Solomon stole into existence and were widely distributed.  On March 6, 1572, Luis de Leon, whose references to this matter are tinged with regret, uses words which seem to imply that a copy had reached Portugal; and an inquiry, opened at Cuzco in the autumn of 1575, revealed the fact that a transcription of the Cantares que llaman de fray Luis de Leon had been made by Fray Luis Alvarez and conveyed by him to South America.  This transcription, after being recopied by a Lima graduate, who appears to have left for Spain to continue his studies at the University of Alcala de Henares, was deposited in the public library of Quito which was housed in the Augustinian monastery there.[69] This episode denotes a morbid curiosity which must have been revolting to Luis de Leon’s austere nature.  He candidly avowed doubts as to the prudence of facilitating the reading of the Song of Solomon in Spanish, and would have cancelled all manuscript copies if he could.[70] In this respect, however, he was powerless, and no better remedy occurred to him than to set to work on a Latin version which, when printed, should supplant the Spanish rendering.  This he hoped to be able to disown.  But fate was hostile to his design.  Constant ill-health hindered him from making rapid headway with his projected Latin translation.  He submitted himself to the Court which, naturally enough, vouchsafed no reply to his request for alternative suggestions as to how he could make amends for a preliminary error of judgement.[71]