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London's Spanish Chapel Before and After The Civil War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2015

Albert J. Loomie, S.J.
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Extract

IN THE mid-seventeenth century the chapel of the Spanish embassy caused considerable concern to the authorities at Whitehall since they were frustrated in preventing scores of Londoners from attending it for masses and other Catholic devotions. This was a distinct issue from the traditional right of a Catholic diplomat in England to provide mass for his household or other compatriots,’ and from the custom of Sephardic Jews to gather in the embassy for Sabbath worship when they desired. While the practice of Londoners to attend mass secretly at the residences of various Catholic diplomats had developed early in the reign of Elizabeth and occasional arrests at their doors had acted as a deterrent, late in the reign of James I sizeable crowds began to frequent the Spanish embassy. John Chamberlain commented in 1621 that Gondomar had ‘almost as many come to his mass’ in the chapel of Ely House as there were attending ‘the sermon at St. Andrewes (Holborn) over against him’. Although Godomar left in 1622 and subsequently the embassy was closed for five years during the Anglo-Spanish War, it was later, from 1630 to 1655, that the Spanish chapel acquired not only a continuous popularity among Catholics of the area but also an unwelcome notoriety in the highest levels of government. This paper will suggest two primary factors which led to that development: the persistent ambition of the resident Spanish diplomats to provide a range of religious services unprecedented in number and character, and their successful adaptation to the hostile political conditions in the capital for a quarter of a century. The continuous Spanish diplomatic presence in London for this long period was in itself both unexpected and unique for it should be recalled that, for various reasons, all the other Catholic ambassadors, whether from France, Venice, Portugal, Savoy or the Empire, had to leave at different times and close their chapels. However, the site of the Spanish residence during these years by no means permanent since, as with other foreign diplomats, a new property was rented by each ambassador on arrival. There is, moreover, a wider significance in this inquiry because of the current evidence that by the eve of the Civil War the king was considered in the House of Commons to have been remiss in guarding his kingdom from a ‘Catholic inspired plot against church and state’, for while it has been well argued that a public disquiet over Henrietta-Maria's chapels at Somerset House and St. James's palace had by 1640 stimulated increasing suspicions of a Popish Plot, there were other protected chapels, particularly the Spanish, where scores of Londoners were seen to attend. Indeed, after the closure of the queen's chapels at Whitehall in 1642, the Spanish remained for the next thirteen years as silent evidence that Catholics seemed to be ‘more numerous’ and were acting ‘more freely than in the past’.

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Articles
Information
British Catholic History , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , October 1987 , pp. 402 - 417
Copyright
© 1986 Trustees of the Catholic Record Society and individual contributors

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References

Notes

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8 E.2574, Philip to Coloma, 10 July 1630: ‘siendo mas possible que hecha la Paz viniesse ese Rey en suspender las leyes penales’.

9 For his diplomatic activity in London see Loomie, A. ‘The Spanish Faction at the Court of Charles I, 1630–8’, Bull Inst. Hist. Research (May 1986) pp. 37–49.Google Scholar

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12 Ibid., ‘ambos son forcosos y tienen gran conocimiento de todos’.

13 E.2562, consulta, 1 April 1632.

14 E.2574, Philip to Necolalde, 8 Sept. 1633: ‘como esto importa tanto y es causa de Dios lo tendre por el primero y mayor servicio que me podeis haçer y assi os lo vuelvo a encargar’.

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17 Ibid., ia halle bien sola porque no oblio a cocurso’.

18 Ibid., ‘los he obligado a ello sea por competir o por lo demas’.

19 C.S.P.D., 1635, p. 21.

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24 From July 1631 to July 1636, Henry Taylor, the resident agent of the Archdukes, rented a house in Holborn. It is not known if he had a chapel but Fr. de Gamache recalled him as a ‘judicious and zealous agent … much engaged for the benefit of Catholics and protection of priests’, Williams, R. F. (ed.) The Court and Times of Charles I (1848) 2, p. 483;Google Scholar Loomie, A. ‘Canon Henry Taylor: Spanish Habsburg Diplomat’, Recusant History, 17, pp. 223–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Iñigo Ladron Vêlez de Guevara y Tassis, 8th count of Oñate and 3rd count of Villa Mediana was ambassador extraordinary from July 1636 to May 1638. At first he lived as a guest of Viscount Monson; his own residence was opened in January 1637.

26 C.S.P.D., 1637–38, pp. 75, 230, examination of Thomas Hogan O.E.M., alias Juan, de Castro: C.S.P.V, 1636–39, pp. 358–59.Google Scholar

27 Albion, G. Charles I and the Court of Rome (1935) p. 164.Google Scholar

28 P.R.O., 31/9/124, Roman transcripts, Conn to Francesco Barberini, Northampton, 16 Sept. 1636: ‘alcuni Franzesi et altri Spagnuoli’.

29 Albion, pp. 246–47.

30 C.S.P.D., 1637, pp. 491–92; Larkin, J. F. (ed.) Stuart Royal Proclamations, 2 (1983) pp. 580–82;Google Scholar C.S.P. V., 1636–39, p. 416.

31 Knowler, W. (ed.) The Letters of the Earl of Strafford (1739) 2, pp. 164–5,Google Scholar Garrad to Wentworth, 10/20 May 1638.

32 Alonso de Peralta y Chrdenas was resident agent from April 1638 to July 1640, then ambassador to November 1655; for his diplomatic career see Loomie, A. ‘Alonso de Chrdenas and the Long Parliament, 1640–48’, Eng. Hist. Rev., 97 (1982) pp. 289–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

33 E.2564, consulta of 17 July 1638; C.S.P.D., 1638–39, pp. 20, 112–13.

34 P.R.O., 31/9/92, Roman Transcripts, Theodore de Pietate, O.P., to Secretary Francesco Ingoli, London, 10 Dec. 1639. Terence O'Connel, O.P. (in religion Theodore de Pietate) began his studies in 1629 in Lerida, Spain and completed them at S. Maria Minerva in Rome in 1637. Unable to reach Scotland, he became a chaplain to the Spanish embassy in London where he remained until 1655 when it closed. Apparently he stayed in London until 1669. (I am grateful to Fr. Thomas S. Flynn, O.P., of St. Mary's Priory, Tallaght, for this information.)

35 Ibid., ‘inter secretos parietes’. However the memoirs of Fr. de Gamache state that on Sundays and festivals there was a ‘controversial lecture’ and on three days a week ‘Christian doctrine was publicly taught in French and English’, Williams, The Court and Times of Charles I, 2, pp. 314–16.

36 C.S.P.V., 1640–42, pp. 57–58.

37 B.L., Additional Mss. 27962-H, f. 62, Salvetti to Gondi, 11 Dec. 1637, ‘so as not to make myself inferior to the other agents of catholic princes who do the same’.

38 Letter of n. 34: ‘qiua qui tunc sustentabant unum sacerdotem semper domi sua, modo non darent illi, eleemosinam unius missae, quia concurrant ad capellas ubi audiunt missas ad libitum sine expensis.’

39 C.S.P. V., 1640–42, pp. 47, 49; C.S.P.D., 1640, pp. 174, 193; Clifton, R. ‘Fear of Popery’, in Russell, C. (ed.) The Origins of the English Civil War (1973) pp. 158–61.Google Scholar

40 Nalson, J. An Impartial Collection of Great Affairs of State (1682–83) 2, p. 187;Google Scholar S.E.G., 372, f. 200, Ciirdenas to Card. Infante Ferdinand, 10 May 1641.

41 E.2522, consulta July 1641; C.S.P.V., 1640–42, p. 154.

42 Nalson, 2, pp. 373, 394, 468, 476; C.S.P.D., 1641–43, p. 117; C.S.P.V., 1640–42, pp. 189–92, 203.

43 P.R.O., SP 16/485/134; C.S.P.V., 1640–42, pp. 294–95; P.R.O., 31/9/92, Roman Transcripts, Vantelet to Francesco Ingoli, 26 May 1642.

44 C.P.A., 49, f. 121, La Ferte-Imbault to Richelieu, 4 July 1642. He reflected a public sentiment as in the Grand Remonstrance of the House of Commons: ‘The papists of England … ever more addicted to Spain than France …, Rushworth, Historical Collections (1680–1722) 4, p. 439. The only pensions that Chrdenas paid secretly in these years were 1,000 escudos a month (c. £250) to two exiled enemies of Richelieu, the Sieur de Soubise from Feb. 1641 to Sept. 1642 and Bernard de Nogaret de la Valette from Feb. 1641 to Nov. 1642 (E.2532, Gastos secretos of Ciirdenas).

45 E.2059, Cárdenas to Philip, 10 April 1643; E.2576, Philip to Cardenas, 20 Sept. 1643; E.2565, Chrdenas to Philip, 22 Sept. and 30 Oct. 1643.

46 C.S.P. V., 1643–47, p. 12; J.H.C., 3, pp. 318, 623, 627–28. To protect the English refugees, he refused asylum to two Irishmen who escaped from the Tower of London, for which he was thanked by the House (E.2562, Cárdenas to Philip, 3 Oct. 1544).

47 J.H.L., 7, pp. 466, 469, 470–71, The order of the House of Lords stated that he was liable to death as a priest but ‘as a sign of its good will’ he was being discharged.

48 B.L., Additional Mss. 5461, f. 333v., Melchior de Sabrán to count of Brienne, 24 Aug. 1645; E.2532, Gastos Ordinarios of Cardenas. Brown was said to belong to the regiment of Col. Cook.

49 CP.A., 52 f. 24 Sabrán to Mazarin (May 1646): ‘ayant tousiour retiré chez soy quattres o cinq prestres et en grand soing de I'entretenement de sa chapelle et de [‘administration des sacrementes et de la sécurité dans sa chapelle’. See E. Prestage, Diplomatie Relations of Portugal with France. England and Holland, 1640–48 (1925) pp. 105–08.

50 C.S.P.D., 1648–49, p. 132; Simancas, Embajada de la Haya, 473 (part 1) f. 55, Cárdenas to Brun, 6 Aug. 1649.

51 E.2526, Cárdenas to Philip, 26 Dec. 1649; B.L., Additional Mss. 27962-M, ff. 417v.-18, Salvetti to Gondi, 7 Jan. 1650; C.S.P.D., 1649–59, p. 480; E.2567, Cárdenas to de la Torre, 1 April 1650; John Austin (William Birchley) The Christian Moderator (2nd ed., 1652) p. 84.

52 CPA., 59, f. 349, Croullé to Mazarin, 11 April 1650; Nicholls, J. (ed.) Original Letters and Papers addressed to Oliver Cromwell (1743) p. 43;Google Scholar the Catholic peer Henry Parker. 14th Lord Morley, was not kept under restraint.

53 B.L., Additional Mss. 27962-N, f. 176v., Salvetti to Gondi, 9 June 1651: ‘malissimo sodisfato, no solo de suoi negoziati, ma anche dell’ imprigionmento di un prête Inglese che teneva i casa come suo intimo segretario et che, come tale le governava interamente. II quale essendo stato messo nella prigione de criminali corre pericolo grande della vita.’

54 Lodewijck, Huygens: The English Journal, 1651–52 (ed. & trans. Bachrach, A. G. H. and Collmer, R. G. Leiden, 1982) p. 47,Google Scholar He found Henrietta's chapel ‘entirely changed now, all the paintings which covered the ceiling are painted over blue … ; nowadays soldiers often preach there’ (p. 60).

55 Firth, C. ‘Thomas Scot as Intelligencer during the Commonwealth,’ Eng. Hist. Rev., 12 (1897) p. 116 ff;CrossRefGoogle Scholar P.R.O., 31/9/95, Roman transcripts, Terence O'Connel, O.P. to Dionisio Massari, March 1650.

56 C.S.P.V.. 1653–54, pp. 9–11.

57 J.H.C., 6, p. 244; Steele, Tudor and Stuart Proclamations, 1, no. 2984, 5 Jan. 1653; E.2569, Chrdenas to Philip, 3 Feb. 1653.

58 B.L., Additional Mss. 27962–0, f. 6, Salvetti to Gondi, 7 Feb. 1653; C.S.P. V., 1653–54, p. 179.

59 C.S.P. V., 1655–56, pp. 128–29, 167; P.R.O., 31/9/96, Nuziatura di Fiandra, despatch of 29 Jan. 1656.

60 Berington, J. (ed.) The Memoirs of Gregorio Panzani (1793) pp. 136–37.Google Scholar lindley, K. J. ‘the Lay Catholics of England in the Reign of Charles I,’ Jour. Eccles. Hist, 22 (1971) pp. 199–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 For the attention in other regions to events in London see Malcolm, J. L. Caesar's Due: Loyaltyand King Charles, 1642–46 (1983) pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

62 C.S.P. V., 1653–54, p. 21. For the later permanent locations of the embassies see Holt, T. G. ‘The Embassy Chapels in Eighteenth Century London’, The London Recusant, 2 (1972) pp. 19–37.Google Scholar

63 Bossy, J. The English Catholic Community, 1570–1850 (1916) pp. 127–28.Google Scholar