Resumen de Delibes' El hereje, the Historical Novel, Protestantism and the Critique of Spain's Catholic Church

Frieda Hilda Blackwell

• Spanish writers of the democracy utilized historical narratives to react against the Franco regime�s monologic version of history. Miguel Delibes� El hereje (1998), set in sixteenth-century Valladolid, chronicles businessman Cipriano Salcedo�s life which ends with his being burned at the stake by the Inquisition because of his Protestant Christian beliefs. Through the novel�s structure, presentation of theological debates and mixture of historical data with fictional characters, Delibes exposes how the Catholic Church, supported by Phillip II, violently imposed religious hegemony. Implicitly Delibes critiques the Catholic Church�s complicity with the brutal Franco government (1939 � 1975).