PROTESTANTISM - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

this was a virtual impossibility, and it doubtless proved to be so for, in 1605, we hear of certain
Englishmen, who had been admitted to penance with the sanbenito and required to live for two years in
certain monasteries for instruction in the faith; they had contrived to escape, but were tracked and
found on board a French ship, without their sanbenitos. As the tribunal did not care to support them,
they were ordered to be distributed separately to monasteries in the mountains, far from the sea, where
they were, for ten years, to perform labor without pay. (126)
When such irrational cruelty was habitual, international comity and commercial interests alike
demanded that a curb should be placed on the irresponsibility of the Inquisition. Accordingly, in the
English treaty of 1604, Article 21 provided that the vassals of King James, coming to or residing in the
Netherlands or Spain, should not be molested or disturbed on account of matters of conscience, so long
as they gave no occasion for scandal, and that corresponding instructions should be issued by the king.
This Philip did, under the same date of June 15, 1605, ordering that English subjects should not be held
accountable for acts prior to their coming to Spain. While in Spain they were not to be compelled to
enter churches but, if entering voluntarily, due respect must be paid to the Venerable Sacrament and, if
it was met on the street, they must kneel, or take another street or enter a house. If any one were
prosecuted for contravention of these rules, only his own property was to be seized, and not a vessel or
cargo, or the goods of others in his charge, and to the observance of all this the king pledged his royal
faith and word. The Suprema had previously, December 11, 1604, issued instructions similar to those of
1597 for the Hansa; on July 14, 1605, it transmitted to the tribunals the articles of the treaty, but it
seems to have objected to the royal declaration, for it delayed until October 8th embodying its
provisions in a carta acordada. (127)
This was too reasonable to be acceptable to Spanish fanaticism. [465] Archbishop Ribera, in 1608,
varied his efforts for Morisco expulsion with an earnest appeal to the king, expressing the grief which
he had never ceased to feel since he heard of the peace with England, fearing, as he did, the offence
given to God which would bring many evils on Spain. His affliction had increased in view of the
excesses committed by the English in Valencia, living publicly in their religion and causing great
scandal and evil example to the faithful and, at much length and with many instances, he proved that
peace with infidels was forbidden by Holy Writ. This memorial was duly considered in the Council of
State, when the Comendador Mayor of Leon reported that the king had ordered the inquisitor-general to
be notified, so that he might instruct the tribunals to exercise great vigilance and to punish all who gave
occasion for scandal. (128)
When, in 1609, the twelve years' truce was concluded with the United Provinces, the Dutch naturally
claimed the same privileges as the English, and these were embodied in Article 7 of the treaty. (129) The
Inquisition did not submit quietly to this restriction on its powers and, in 1612, it issued a carta
acordada, repeated in 1616, asserting that these privileges applied only to transient strangers, and that
those who were resident and kept houses were subject to the tribunals in all matters of faith like any
Spanish subjects; it invoked, moreover, an old regulation of 1581, ordering special watch to be kept on
them, so that what they did in private as well as in public might be known, full reports being sent to the
Suprema. In 1620 it revived another instruction of 1581 forbidding foreigners in the seaports to keep
inns or lodging houses. (130) Whether any trouble arose from these arbitrary [466] constructions of
international compacts does not appear, but at least they manifested a desire to render the position of
foreign heretics as precarious and uncomfortable as possible.
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