The Heretic (novel by Miguel Delibes)

The Heretic is a novel by the writer Miguel Delibes published in 1998.

Through the vital and spiritual adventures of Cipriano Salcedo, Delibes masterfully paints a vivid portrait of Valladolid in the time of Carlos V, its people, its customs and its landscapes. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted his ninety-five theses against indulgences on the door of the Wittenberg church, a fact that would trigger the schism between the Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation. That same day, the son of Don Bernardo Salcedo and Doña Catalina Bustamante, baptized as Cipriano, was born in the town of Valladolid. In times of political and religious convulsions, that coincidence of dates would fatally mark his destiny. Motherless from his birth and lacking the love of his father, Cipriano had, however, the affection of his nurse Minervina, a relationship that would be taken from him and that would haunt him for the rest of his life.. Converted into a prosperous merchant, he came into contact with the Protestant currents that were beginning to enter the Peninsula clandestinely. But the diffusion of this movement was progressively censored by the Holy Office.

El hereje, set in the 16th century, is the longest novel by Miguel Delibes. In this novel, the author "fidelly reconstructs the pulse of daily life in Valladolid and its province during the reign of Carlos V (Delibes dedicates it "a Valladolid, my city")".