Forbidden Goods
La Biblia del Cántaro: The Book That Threatened Catholic Spain and Its Colonies
A Book of Life to Some, A Book of Dread to Many
La Biblia del Cántaro, the first corrected edition of the Biblia del Oso which was translated by Casiodoro de Reina and published in 1569, came to be known as the Biblia Reina-Valera. The edits reflected in this corrected version were realized by Reina’s mentee, Cipriano de Valera, who is believed to have done the bulk of the work while in England, and published it in Amsterdam in 1602.
It is believed that Cipriano de Valera (1531-1602) spent over twenty years mastering the original languages of the Bible, with the objective of providing, not a new translation, but a purified translation. What he provided to the world — what would be considered the standard Spanish Bible for the next two-hundred-and-fifty years — drew the ire of the Roman Catholic Church, and most particulary that of the Spanish Inquisition. What had been hidden in the ivory towers of Catholic scholarship became accessible to every man and woman as the book of life, while striking the papacy and its subjects with dread, for no more could they peddle falsehoods with the truth freely accessible to all.
Who Was Cipriano de Valera?
Valera was born at Fregenal de la Sierra, approximately 100 kms north of Seville, in Spain. He studied Dialectics and Philosophy at the University of Seville, became a monk in the Order of the Hieronymites, and lived at the Monastery of San Isidoro. He, along with many other monks at San Isidoro, received and taught the teachings of the reformation. In anticipation of the Spanish Inquisition’s persecution, Valera fled to Geneva, where he was influenced by John Calvin, even translating his Institutes of the Christian Religion into Spanish. He then moved to England with the accession of Elizabeth I (1559), was named professor of Theology at the University of Cambridge, became a fellow at Magdalene College, and was granted an M.A. by the University of Oxford. In the year 1569, Valera moved to London to take over the church that Reina had started, and it is believed he continued there until his death. There is no available data on when Valera passed away, his publication of La Biblia del Cántaro in 1602 is the last time his name was mentioned in recorded history.
La Biblia del Cántaro
Facsimile Reproduction, Limited Print, trans. C.V., 1602, From the collection of: Cántaro Institute.
Cover Page (Two persons planting and watering a tree with a cántaro) – La palabra de Dios permanece para siempre (The word of God lasts forever), trans. C.V., 1602; First page – Exhortacion (Exhortation), trans. C.V., 1602; First Page of Genesis – Primero Libro de Moysen (First Book of Moses), trans. C.V., 1602; Fol. 4 of Genesis – Confufion de leuguas (Confusion of tongues), trans. C.V., 1602; Fol. 31 of Genesis and Leviticus – El Tercero libro de Moyfen (The Third book of Moses), trans. C.V., 1602, From the collection of: Cántaro Institute.
I de Samvel 11:11 – Saul es elegido por rey (Saul is chosen as king), trans. C.V., 1602; II de Samvuel – Abfalom entra a las concubinas de fu padre (Absalom enters into his father’s concubines), trans. C.V., 1602; Esayas 53:10 (Isaiah), trans. C.V., 1602; Fol. 236 of Ezechiel 8:9 (Ezekiel), trans. C.V., 1602; Fol. 263 of La Profecia de Habacvc (The Prophecy of Habakkuk), trans. C.V., 1602, From the collection of: Cántaro Institute.
Fol. 1 of El Nvevo Testamento qve es, los escriptos evangelicos, y apostolicos (The New Testament which is, the gospel and apostolic writings), trans. C.V., 1602; S. Pablo – Dios caftiga los perfeguidores de los pios (St. Paul [2 Thessalonians 1:3] – God punishes the persecutors of the just), trans. C.V., 1602; Fol. 73 of A Tito 4, Exhortalo a predicar (Titus, Exhorted to preach), trans. C.V., 1602; Fol. 80 of S. Pedro – El juyzio comienca de la cafa de Dios ([1 Peter 4:15] St. Peter – Judgment begins with the house of God], trans. C.V., 1602; Fol. 84 of S. Ioan – Libro fellado con fiete fellos ([Revelation 4:2] St. John – Book sealed with seven seals), trans. C.V., 1602, From the collection of: Cántaro Institute.
A Public Ban and the Hunt
The Spanish Bible translation, beginning with Reina’s La Biblia del Oso (1569), was banned by the Roman Catholic Church, as was any translation within the borders of religious Romanism. It was the mission of the Spanish Inquisition to not only find, arrest, and execute protestants after their respective trials, but to also find and destroy any protestant writings, most especially the Spanish translation of the Bible. This stretched beyond mainland Europe and into the New World.
“It was informed that the bishop Agustin Davila Padilla (1599, arrived from Mexico to Santo Domingo) took 300 copies of the protestant Bible in 1599 and ordered them burnt in public. The council of Trent forbade the laity from reading the Bible.”
— Cornelius Hegeman, La Reforma en America Latina y el Caribe (Guadalupe, Costa Rica: Editorial CLIR, 2017), 37-38.
Is it of any surprise that the Spanish Inquisition went as far as to burn Cipriano de Valera in effigy on April 26, 1562? In his book Los Dos Tratados del Papa y de la Misa, he called the whole nation of Spain to God and away from the papacy and his subjects:
“Open your eyes, Spain; or, better said, may God open them, and see what esteem the pope has for the sacrament, which he himself sells to you for your money, saying it is your God… Open your eyes, Spain, and look; believe the one who warns you with great love; see if what I say is true or not… Open your eyes, Spain, and now understand who the pope is, whom you work for as God on earth.”
— Cipriano de Valera, “‘Epístola al Christiano Lector”, in Los Dos Tratados del Papa y de la Misa, n.p.
Valera’s words, on their own, while irritable for the Catholic institution, were not the greatest threat to the powerful and tyrannical grip that the papacy had over the people. It was Valera’s translation and editorial work of the Spanish Bible that shook the papacy to its core. The same could be said of the other Bible translations throughout Europe, but the Spanish Bible threatened to destroy the great Spanish stronghold of Catholicism that the papacy depended so much upon. Spain was its champion. Therefore, the greater the threat, the greater the persecution, and the more aggressive its efforts to obscure the truth.
“It was not that God’s truth had been obscured to the extent that it had been hidden completely, for it had been made clearly evident to all by means of God’s creation and His Word… It is rather that Romanism made every effort to blind the people to what is plain and evident to all.”
— Steven R. Martins, Lectures on Reformation and Renewal, Cántaro Institute Archives
(Jordan Station, ON.: Cántaro Publications, 2023), 13.
Smuggling Forbidden Goods
Protestant printers and smugglers at times resorted to altering the appearance of future prints in order to fool Inquisitorial inspectors. In the antiquities collection of the Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, for example, we find such an alteration, dated 1622. The print copy belonged to the Colombian linguist Rufino José Cuervo Urisarri (1844-1911), who received it as a gift after it had been rejected by the Compañía de Jesús (Jesus Company) upon discovery of its protestant contents. In place of the usual cover images of the Oso or the Cántaro, a Pegasus was featured, given that both La Biblia del Oso and Cántaro were on the list of prohibited books.
First Pages – La Biblia del Cántaro, trans. C.V., 1622; From the collection of: Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia.
Sending protestant works to the New World was a perilous task, the Inquisition often screened imported publications and destroyed anything protestant that they could find. And, whenever possible, the sender could also be traced if he had not sufficiently covered his tracks. Nonetheless, protestant communities were willing to run the risk, most especially with the Spanish Bible, an invaluable treasure.
For Further Reading
Credits
Steven R. Martins is the founding director of the Cántaro Institute and founding pastor of Sevilla Chapel in St. Catharines, Ontario. A second-generation Canadian, Steven is of Iberoamerican parentage and has worked in the fields of missional apologetics and church leadership for eight years. He also holds a Master’s degree summa cum laude in Theological Studies from Veritas International University (Santa Ana, CA., USA).
