When the truce with Holland expired, in 1621, of course the privileges of the Dutch were withdrawn and, when war with England came in 1624, the Inquisition eagerly assumed the office of purifying Spain from heretical infection. Inquisitor-general Pacheco informed the king that papal permission had been necessary to enable Philip III to enter into the treaty of 1605; now that the peace had been broken and the causes of the papal permission had ceased, he was, as inquisitor-general, obliged in conscience to obviate the evils of Catholic intercourse with such pertinacious and pernicious heretics as the English and Scotch, by not permitting them to remain in his Majesty’s dominions, for otherwise he would be lacking in his duty to the king and to his office. He had therefore ordered an edict to be published that all Englishmen and Scotchmen, who were not Catholics, should leave the king’s dominions within twenty days, notifying them that after that date they would be punished by the Holy Office. As it was a weighty matter, of which the king should be notified, Pacheco added that he had not wished to execute it without informing him and he could issue such orders as he saw fit.[1244] It may be assumed that Philip did not approve of this insolent invasion of the royal power, for it was not till April 22, 1626, that he issued a proclamation forbidding all commercial intercourse with England and ordering the confiscation of all English goods imported in contravention of its commands, when the Inquisition followed by a carta acordada of May 29th, prescribing the prosecution, in the regular way, of all English heretics who had sinned against the faith.[1245]
FOREIGN HERETICS
When peace was restored, in 1630, article 19 of the treaty revived the article of 1604 and Philip, as before, promised to provide that English subjects should not be molested so long as they caused no scandal.[1246] As before, the Suprema followed this, January 28, 1631, with detailed instructions that those who kept house should be treated as Spanish subjects and be subjected to special surveillance.[1247] This unjustifiable distinction between transient and resident foreigners gave ample opportunity for molestation and blackmail. It was construed as applying the Index of prohibited books to residents for, in 1645, we find the Canary tribunal ordering its commissioner at Orotava to search the houses of the English merchants and report whether they found any forbidden books or books that had not passed the censure. The duty was performed and lists were forwarded, not only of books but of pictures and prints and, as nothing objectionable was reported, we may not uncharitably surmise that the commissioner’s labor was not unprofitable.[1248] As the rule had no legal basis, it probably called forth protests for, in 1652, the Suprema submitted the question of its legality to a number of calificadores, who unanimously agreed that it was not in accordance with the treaties, when presumably it was withdrawn.[1249] The espionage to which foreign merchants were exposed is portrayed, in 1648, by Pedro de Villareal, commissioner at Bilbao, who reports that there were sixteen houses in which the English and Dutch traders were lodged; he was confident that nothing heretical could escape his knowledge, for the keepers of the houses were faithful spies and very zealous in matters of religion.[1250]
A treaty of commerce with Denmark, in 1641, placed the Danes on the same footing as the English and, in the treaty of Munster, January 30, 1648, the Dutch obtained the same terms, while a special article placed the Hanse towns on the same footing as Holland.[1251]
Meanwhile, in 1645, the English merchants in Andalusia, by a payment of twenty-five hundred ducats in silver, had secured certain commercial privileges, one of which indicates how grudgingly their treaty rights had been interpreted. A foreign heretic appearing in court, either as party or witness, was asked whether he was a Catholic; if he replied in the negative, his oath was not received. This humiliating and injurious distinction was abrogated, and the Englishman’s oath was declared to be legal and binding, like the Spaniard’s, but it was difficult to make the courts accept the innovation, and the royal order, issued March 19th had to be repeated June 26th and again November 9th. By the Munster treaties this privilege was extended to Holland and the Hanse towns, and it was confirmed by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713.[1252]
FOREIGN HERETICS
We have seen how difficult it was to make the Inquisition respect municipal law, and it was not likely to regard international obligations. Excuses could readily be found to bring the hated foreign heretic under its jurisdiction and, in the chronic penury of the time, the opportunity of rich confiscations was not likely to be lost sight of. In 1621 we hear of a number of Englishmen arrested in Málaga, with sequestration of property, and the same occurred in Seville, in 1622.[1253] Of one case we chance to have details—that of George Penn, brother of Admiral—then Captain—Penn, and uncle of William Penn, the Founder of Pennsylvania. He was in no sense a bigoted Protestant, or he would scarce have married a Catholic wife in Flanders. He took her to Seville, where he conducted a prosperous business until 1643, when he was arrested. His account of his sufferings is manifestly exaggerated though we may believe him when he says that he was tortured until he confessed all that was required of him—that he was a heretic who had married a Catholic in Antwerp, intending to take her to England and pervert her and their children from the faith. He was required to abjure in a public auto and ordered to leave Spain within three months, while his wife was taken from him and he says was married to a Spaniard. The property confiscated amounted, according to disinterested appraisers, to £6000 of his own and £6000 belonging to other parties. On his return to England, beggared and broken in health, he sought to obtain redress and, about 1664, Charles II appointed him envoy to Spain, to enable him to urge his claims to advantage, but being then 63 years old he did not venture to go. During the negotiations at Utrecht, William Penn endeavored to obtain consideration of this case, but apparently without success.[1254]
The superb imperturbability of the Inquisition as to international obligations is evinced in a case occurring soon after the treaty of Munster. Paul Jerome Estagema, a citizen of Hoorn, was arrested at Alicante and tried by the Valencia tribunal. Influential people in Holland urged his release, and the Dutch ambassador, Anthony Brun, made forcible representations to the king, who wrote, September 15, 1651, to the Suprema, urging a prompt decision of the case and pointing out that, under the treaty, Estagema, as a citizen of the United Provinces, was not subject to the Inquisition. The royal request was treated with absolute indifference; Ambassador Brun kept urging the matter and, on December 16th, Philip repeated his application to the Suprema, and asserted the necessity of satisfying the Hollanders. Then the Suprema condescended to forward the royal letters to the tribunal, telling it to despatch the case without delay, which could readily be done as the trial had been finished on September 7th, and ordering it to report the sentence when pronounced.[1255]
At this period, political exigencies rendered both France and Spain desirous of an alliance with England. Don Alonso de Cardenas, the Spanish ambassador, endeavored to negotiate a treaty with Cromwell in 1653 and again in 1655, but the Protector insisted on larger toleration. In the draft of the projected treaty, Articles 22 and 35 not only repeated the previous provisions but added that Englishmen conducting business in Spain should be permitted, in their houses and ships, to perform divine service in their own manner, and to use their Bibles and other books, and that they should not be arrested for so doing or their property be sequestrated. When the treaty was submitted to Philip, he sent these articles to the Suprema for its advice, protesting that he was unalterably resolved to risk all his dominions and spill the last drop of his blood, rather than to yield anything that would be to the disservice of God, or prejudice in the least degree the purity of religion. In response to this the Suprema declared that the royal words ought to be recorded in imperishable bronze; it easily proved that by divine, canon and municipal law, a sovereign had no right to permit such toleration; it quoted Gregory XV as ordering, in 1622, all rulers, under heavy penalties, to expel all heretics from their dominions, and it pointed out that heretics employed Catholic servants who would be corrupted, and that all cognizant of heresy incurred mortal sin and excommunication if they did not denounce it. These arguments were as applicable to the treaties of 1605, 1630, and 1648 as to the proposed one, but they sufficed; it was rejected, and Cromwell turned to France.[1256] Doubtless Admiral Penn felt a special personal satisfaction, when he avenged his brother by wresting Jamaica from Spain in 1655.
A secret treaty, in 1656, between the wandering Charles II and Philip, pledged the former to bring about freedom of conscience in England, but was discreetly silent about toleration in Spain. With the Restoration, in 1660, peace ensued and the treaty of 1630 was revived. In 1663, when a new treaty was discussed, England again put forward the stipulations of Cromwell, and Philip again consulted the Suprema with the same result. On Philip’s death, in 1665, the treaty of December 17th continued in force the provisions of 1630 and extended to all Englishmen the privileges granted, in 1645, to those of Andalusia. Then, in 1667, the treaty of May 23d defined more clearly that the pretext of conscience should not be used to inflict injury on Englishmen or raise any dispute so long as no manifest public scandal was caused nor offence committed. In this shape the relations between the kingdoms continued; the treaty of Utrecht in 1713 and those of 1763 and 1783 merely confirmed that of 1667.[1257]