Juan de Mariana, a Poem

"Mariana"

To my friends everything, To my enemies the law

Proclaimed the ruler

To my King loyalty, To the Tyrant death

Answered the courageous priest

The school of power gave us dark

The school of spirit gave us light

Silence in the monastery, Studies in the academy

Nurtured his mind

The hills and air of Toledo

His disciplined soul

Alejandro Chafuen

Elora me genuit, Compluti Mystica cepi

Romae et Letetiae dogmata, quae docui

Sed fractus Caelo duro, atque labore, Toletum,

Conscripsi Hesperiae tempora Prisca, redux,

Pondera, de Rege & Scaena, de Morte, Jacobo

Psacha, Egira, Nummis, inque libros Biblicos,

Est Mariana Domus, Jesu inter Vita sodales

Multiplicis Sophiae Cultus, amica Quies,

An dabis exinctus tarda ut post fata quiescam

Octo Novemque Deus quem fere Lustra premunt

Juan de Mariana, verses about himself

Translation appearing in Captain Stevens English version of Juan de Mariana's History of Spain

Elbora gave me birth, Complutum fraught,

My Mind with Sacred Knoweledge, which I taught

At Rome and Paris, till th'inclement Air

And broken Health constrained me to repair

Back to Toledo, where I first Compos'd

Spain's History, from ancient times disclos'd

Weights, Coins, t'Hegira did my Pen engage,

Kings, Death, St. James, the Paschal Feast, the Stage,

And Books of Sacred Writ, my Dwelling wears

The Virgins Holy Name, where free from Cares

Among the Tribe of Jesus, in the Chase

Of various Truths, I pass my quiet Days,

Give me, good God! at length to sleep in Peace,

Whom more than four score Years with weighty Age oppress