According to one expert on the Inquisition, of the 1,735 cases tried by the Tribunal of Barcelona between 1578 and 1635, nineteen percent were for crimes by the clergy.
In Seville, a priest was prosecuted in 1603 for claiming that sodomy wasn't a sin so long as you paid your partner—something he often did while alone with boys in confession.
In fact, complaints about predatory priests were a major reason for the invention of the confessional as we know it: a box that physically separated priests from penitents.
One noteworthy case involved a monk and the most erotic book in the Bible (which, not coincidentally, is also one of its shortest).
In 1572, an Augustinian was hauled up in Valladolid for having translated The Song of Solomon into Spanish.
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| An auto da fe in front of the Cathedral of Valladolid in the Covent Garden Opera's production of Don Carlo |
Of course, the Church frowned on allowing commoners to interpret the Word of God for themselves, but Fray Luis de León had actually translated the raciest bits into language that any fornicator could understand.
Even some of the translation-happy 'heretics' of Geneva had taken issue with The Song of Solomon and declarations of love such as:
'Your breasts (are) like clusters of fruit… I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.'
Curiously, De León told the Inquisition that he'd translated these fruity passages as a favor for a nun.
However, his cleaner—a fellow monk—found the work in his room and copied it in secret.
The Spanish Song of Solomon soon began circulating as religious samizdat, spreading to Portugal and as far away as Peru.
De León eventually got off with a warning—after five years in jail.
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