Cazalla, Augustino

CAZALLA, cɑ̄-thɑ̄l´yɑ̄, AUGUSTINO: Spanish Protestant; b. at Valladolid 1510; executed by the Inquisition there May 21, 1559. He was a scholar of Bartholomé Carranza and studied at Valladolid and Alcala. The influence of his father, the chief officer of the royal finances, opened to him a brilliant career in the Church, and his own ability won him the reputation of being one of the foremost preachers in Spain. In 1545 he became chaplain and almoner to Charles V. and accompanied the emperor to Germany on the outbreak of the Schmalkald war. There he undertook to confute the Lutherans, but ended by accepting their doctrines. Returning to Spain in 1552, he was cautious at first in expressing his opinions, but ultimately his mother's house in Valladolid became the meeting-place of the Protestants of the city and Cazalla himself the head of the congregation. In 1558, with his brothers and sisters and about seventy-five others, he was put into prison. On Mar. 4, 1559, when threatened with torture, he acknowledged that he had accepted Luther's teachings, but denied that he had taught them to others except to those already of like mind; further concessions he steadfastly refused to make. The auto da fé at which he perished was the first of these sad spectacles. Sixteen persons, including a brother and a sister of Cazalla, brought to judgment at the same time, were condemned to imprisonment for life; two, Cazalla's brother Francisco and Antonio Herezuelo, a lawyer of Toro, were burned alive; and twelve others, including Cazalla, were strangled before being burned. At the place of execution he was persuaded to address his fellow prisoners.

(O. Zöckler†.)

Bibliography: T. McCrie, History of the Progress and Suppression of the Reformation in Spain, pp. 226–231, 285–289, Edinburgh 1829; C. A. Wilkens, Geschichte des spanischen Protestantismus, pp. 79 sqq., 224 sqq., 234 sqq., Gütersloh, 1888; H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition in Spain, ii. 318, 512, iii. 201, 430, 431, 438, New York, 1906.