Antonio del Corro

Antonio del Corro (Corrano, de Corran, Corranus) (Seville, 1527-London, 1591) was a Spanish monk who became a Protestant convert. A noted Calvinist preacher and theologian, he taught at the University of Oxford and wrote the first Spanish grammar in English.

Against the Inquisition

He was a Hieronymite of the Abbey of San Isidro, Seville. Influenced by Cypriano de Valera, he came into contact with the Protestant ideas of Luther, Melanchthon and Bullinger [Christopher Mattinson, "Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford" (1983), p. 111.] .

He left Spain with others in 1557, fearing the Spanish Inquisition [Henry Kamen, "Inquisition and Society in Spain" (1985), p. 73.] [ [http://libro.uca.edu/aristocrats/aristocrats2-2.htm Chapter 2: Aristocrats and Traders ] ] . Scholars now consider that he may be behind the pseudonym Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus (Renaldo Gonzalez Montano), who published in 1567 the account "Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae Artes aliquot detectae ac palam traductae", a major source for subsequent accounts of the Inquisition [ http://www.geocities.com/militantis/inquisition2.htm] [ B. A. Vermaseren, 'Who was Reginaldus Gonsalvius Montanus?' Bibliotheque d'Hiumanisme et Renaissance 47 [1985] , pp. 47-77.] [ [http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0027.html Beyond the Myth of The Inquisition: Ours Is "The Golden Age ] ] [ Peter Brooks, Troubling Confessions: Speaking Guilt in Law and Literature (2000), p. 156, suggests the work was joint with Casiodoro de Reina.] [The survey Kimberly Lynn Hossain (2007) Unraveling the Spanish Inquisition: Inquisitorial Studies in the Twenty-First Century History Compass 5 (4) , 1280–1293.] .

European travels

He travelled to Lausanne and Geneva, but came to quarrel with Jean Calvin.Michael Wyatt, "The Italian Encounter with Tudor England: A Cultural Politics of Translation" (2005), p. 150.] . On Calvin's recommendation, however, he became tutor to Henry of NavarreClare Asquith, "Oxford University and Love's Labours Lost", p. 86, in Dennis Taylor, David N. Beauregard (editors), "Shakespeare and the Culture of Christianity in Early Modern England".] .

In France he used the name Bellerive [http://en.literaturabautista.com/node/2 The Reina-Valera Bible: From Dream to Reality | LiteraturaBautista ] ] , and served as a minister in Béarn [Andrew Pettegree (editor), "The Early Reformation in Europe" (1992), p. 234.] . He was supported by both Jeanne d'Albret and Renée of France; the latter made him her chaplain at Montargis.

He became pastor of the Spanish church in Antwerp [ [http://www.godrules.net/library/mcrie/90mcrie_b7.htm CHAPTER 8 ] ] , but caused offence there too..

In England

He came to England in the period 1567-70, and settled there. Having the influence of William Cecil, he had positions as pastor of the Spanish church in London, 1568-70, and lecturer at the Temple Church, 1571-4 ["Concise Dictionary of National Biography", under "Corro".] . Later Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester was an important patron. In England del Corro moved away from Calvinism to more tolerant and even free-thinking positions, while being a controversialist. It has been suggested that his qualified acceptance stemmed from political expediency. [Simon Adams, "Leicester and the Court: Essays on Elizabethan Politics" (2002), p. 228.]

At the Temple Church he showed the influence of the Lutheran theologian Hemmingius in his preaching. He retreated from the Calvinist view of predestination. This shift brought him under criticism from Richard Alvey, Master of the TemplePhilip Bruce Secor, "Richard Hooker: Prophet of Anglicanism" (1999), p. 95.] .

Controversy over his views followed him to Oxford, where he did tutoring and catechism work (at Hart Hall [Norman Leslie Jones, "The English Reformation: Religion and Cultural Adaptation" (2002), p. 29.] , also at Oriel College and St. John's College), and became reader in theology in 1578. It brought him the opposition of the Puritan John Rainolds, who blocked his degree as Doctor of Divinity in 1576. He persisted in views favouring free will, for example in glossing the "Epistle to the Romans", 5:22 [William Poole, "Milton and the Idea of the Fall", p. 35.] . In Oxford, his pupils included John Donne and Thomas Belson, a Catholic martyr [ [http://www.hadland.me.uk/tvp/tvp10.htm Thomas Belson ] ] .

"The Spanish Grammar" (1590) was an English translation by John Thorius of a grammar written by del Corro to teach Spanish to French speakers, and published in Oxford in 1586 [Sylvain Auroux, "History of the language sciences" (2000), p. 720.] .

References

* William McFadden (1953), "The Life and Works of Antonio del Corro (1527-1591)"
* Edward Peters (1989), "Inquisition"

Notes

External links

* [http://www.theclergydatabase.org.uk/cce/apps/persons/DisplayPerson.jsp?PersonID=25522 CCED page]
*es icon [http://www.protestantes.net/enciclo/Corro.htm Biography]
*es icon [http://www.larramendi.es/Poligrafos/antonio_del_corro.htm Biography]