Background
Baltasar was born in 1601 at Belmonte in Aragon. He was educated in the near-by Jesuit college at Calatayud and entered the order in 1619. He received theological training in Saragossa, where he later taught, and took his final monastic vows in 1635. In 1651 he published the first part of his didactic novel El CriticónCriticon without the approval of the order and was disciplined for it. His request to be released from the order was refused, and he remained under disciplinary action until his death in 1658.