PROTESTANTISM - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

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. (140) 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 [469]
Utrecht, William Penn endeavored to obtain consideration of this case, but apparently without success.
(141)
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. (142)
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 [470] 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