Despite being a devout and believing Roman Catholic priest, Fray Luis was descended from a family of Spanish Jewish Conversos and this, as well as his vocal advocacy for teaching the Hebrew language in Catholic universities and seminaries, drew false accusations from the Dominican Order of the heresies of being both a Marrano and a Judaiser.

Fray Luis was accordingly imprisoned for four years by the Spanish Inquisition before he was ruled to be completely innocent of any wrongdoing and released without charge.

While the conditions of his imprisonment were never harsh and he was allowed complete access to books, according to legend, Fray Luis started his first post-Inquisition University of Salamanca lecture with the words, "As I was saying the other day..."[1] According to Edith Grossman, "Fray Luis is generally considered the leading poet in the far-reaching Christianization of the Renaissance in Spain during the sixteenth-century.

This means that as a consequence of the Counter-Reformation, and especially of the judgments and rulings of the Council of Trent, the secular Italianate forms and themes brought into Spain by Garcilaso were used by subsequent writers to explore moral, spiritual, and religious topics.

In 1571 Dominican professors Bartolomé de Medina and Castro put forth seventeen propositions to the Inquisition documenting Fray Luis' allegedly heretical opinions.

Though he suffered greatly from his isolation and less than desirable conditions, Fray Luis continued to actively write and study during his confinement.

At the end of 1576, the tables turned, and on 11 December Fray Luis was cleared of all charges and released from prison with an admonishment to be more careful and reserved in his publications and speech.

Tradition has it that he began his university lecture on 29 January 1577, his first after returning from four years' imprisonment, with the words Dicebamus hesterna die ("As we were saying yesterday....").

In 1582, he had another Inquisitional run-in, following three disputations held on the subject of the merits of Christ and human predestination, but was not this time imprisoned.

[6] To produce this work, he had performed the task of collating her manuscripts, checking references and notes, and preparing a definitive text (although Teresa and León were both in Salamanca in late 1570, it is not believed they ever met in their lifetimes).

He died at the age of 64 on 23 August 1591, in Madrigal de las Altas Torres, Ávila,[7] and is buried in Salamanca in the Priory of San Agustín.

This was León's first major translation of a biblical text, and was probably inspired by a commentary his contemporary Arias Montano had lent to him when he passed through Salamanca in 1561.

This book is Fray Luis’ interpretation of the Proverbs of Solomon, and was written as a moral exposition to his newly married young niece.

It is written in dialogue form about three friends who discuss fourteen of the Scriptural names of Christ over a period of two days in a country estate.

Fray Luis had come to know her in recent years, both in preparing the first edition of the works of Teresa of Avila, and in defending the privileges of the Discalced Carmelite nuns against proposed changes in the Teresan constitution.

In the poem The Life Removed, of which an excerpt is shown below, Fray Luis, following the beatus ille theme introduced by Horace, expounds upon the notion of choice and its consequences.

He says that those irrational men who aspire to power and wealth and are guided by the talk and opinion of others will not achieve the peace, happiness, and liberty assured to those who travel the hidden path.

The poem continues on to mention a ship in a storm, and how the sailors aboard are motivated only by greed and ambition, and they will not meet the harmonious end of those who travel the hidden path.

How tranquil is the life Of him who, shunning the vain world’s uproar, May follow, free from strife, The hidden path, of yore Trod by the few who conned true wisdom’s lore!

For he with thoughts aloof By proud men’s great estate is not oppressed, Nor marvels at the roof Of gold, built to attest The Moor’s skill and on jasper piles to rest.

Salinas was an organist and composer, who shared Fray Luis's belief that music can make one more religious, and that it inspires man to contemplate spiritual matters.

The ode, an excerpt of which is listed below, includes numerous positive images about music as a means to contemplate the divine and to overcome ignorance and foolishness.

¡Oh, suene de contino, Salinas, vuestro son en mis oídos, por quien al bien divino despiertan los sentidos quedando a lo demás amortecidos!

Glory of Apollo's sacred choir, I call you to this rapture, friends I love above all treasure, for all the rest is but sad plaint.