Juan de Valdes (c. 1500-1541), was born about 1500 at Cuenca, and probably studied at the university of Alcala. He first appears as the anonymous author of a politico-religious Dialogo de Mercuric y Caron, written and published about 1528. The Dialogo attacked the corruptions of the Roman Church; hence Valdes, in fear of the Spanish Inquisition, left Spain for Naples in 1530. In 1531 he moved to Rome, where his criticisms of papal policy were condoned, since in his Dialogo he had upheld the validity of Henry VIII's marriage with Catherine of Aragon. His house on the Chiaja was the centre of a literary and religious circle; his conversations and writings (circulated in manuscript) stimulated the desire for a spiritual reformation of the church. Valdes died at Naples in May 1541.