Hebrew Hermeneutics and Inquisitorial Persecution: The Case of The Hebraist from Salamanca Martín Martínez de Cantalapiedra (XVIth Century)

Abstract

Halfway through the 16th century in Spain the reading and interpretation of the Bible based on its original languages involved a very real danger for humanists who were seeking a better understanding of the Scriptures. The exclusive authority of the Latin Vulgate version declared by the Council of Trent in 1546 hindered the intellectual work of many Biblicists and Theologians, who were subjected to tight ideological control. In this context it must be considered the case of the Hebraist and scholar from the University of Salamanca, Martín Martínez de Cantalapiedra (1518-1579), who was prosecuted by the Inquisition of Valladolid in 1572 along with his colleagues Fray Luis de León and Gaspar de Grajal. All of them were accused of deviating from the genuine sense of the Vulgate in their more literal interpretations of the Masoretic text. The purpose of this article is to provide new evidence for the intellectual biography of Master Martínez de Cantalapiedra as well a to analyze the hermeneutical principles exposed during his inquisitorial in which he defended the Hebrew knowledge as an essential means of interpreting the Old Testament.