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II. In Pursuit of Heresy: Spanish Diplomats versus Spanish Heretics in France and England during the Wars of Religion1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 December 2010

Paul J. Hauben
Paul J. Hauben
Affiliation:
Michigan State University
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Abstract

Recently several works have illuminated the important role played by diplomats in the course of the religious wars of the latter half of the sixteenth century. We propose to shed some additional light on this general subject by studying the often curious activities of some Spanish envoys to France and England with respect to Spanish Protestants who had taken refuge in those lands. Through a careful scrutiny of related but seemingly minor matters we can frequently learn more about major ones.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , 1966 , pp. 275 - 285
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1966

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References

2 E.g. Mattingly, Garrett, Renaissance Diplomacy (London, 1955), chs. XX-XXIGoogle Scholar, and The Armada (Boston, 1962, paper ed.), ch. ivGoogle ScholarPubMed; Alvarez, Manuel Fernandez, Tres embajadores de Felipe II en Inglaterra (Madrid, 1951)Google Scholar; Jensen, Delamar, Diplomacy and Dogmatism (Harvard University Press, 1964)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 His ‘Julián Hernández, Protestant Martyr’, Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance, XXII (1960), 90–118Google Scholar, is at once the most recent and relevant. Some useful work was done in the nineteenth century by Eduard Bohmer, Luis Usoz y Rio, and Christiaan Sepp. Cf. Longhurst's notes and note 35 below.

4 This remains a very thorny subject, which lies outside this essay. I discuss it briefly in a forthcoming short notice, ‘A Note on the Spanish Heretic: Cypriano de Valera’, Hispania Sacra, XVIII, fasc. 1 (1965)Google Scholar, and in somewhat greater detail in ‘Reform and Counterreform: The Case of the Spanish Heretics’, to appear in a volume of essays in honour of Professor Harbison probably early in 1967. An excellent starting-point is Bataillon, M., Erasme et l'Espagne (Paris, 1937), pp. 560–87, 749–54.Google Scholar Cf. Castro, A., Aspectos del vivir hispánico (Santiago de Chile, 1949), pp. 21–71Google Scholar, and Asensio, E., ‘El erasmismo y las corrientes espirituales afines’, Revista de la Filología española, XXXVI (1952), 31–99Google Scholar. In English there are some very useful remarks scattered throughout Williams, G. H., The Radical Reformation (Philadelphia, 1962)Google Scholar.

5 A reliable list of known Spanish Calvinist ministers in France is in Schickler, F. de, Les églises du refuge en Angleterre (Paris, 1892), II, 367.Google Scholar

6 This seems to be especially true of Spanish theologians and ministers whom I have studied. Cassiodoro de Reina, of whom a bit more below, went from Calvinism to Lutheranism; Antonio del Corro and Adrian Saravia from the first to Anglicanism. The reasons and circumstances, of course, were not identical. See also below for a more extended discussion of the geographical factors. A biography of Corro will form part of a book I am now preparing on the Spanish Protestants.

7 Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, 1, 425. Note also Philip's warm approval of these and related sentiments, ibid, II, 50. (Hereafter cited as CSP, Sp.)

8 See the Mattingly and Jensen books cited in note 1; the latter is an illuminating mono-graph of Mendoza and the League.

9 Negociaciones con Francia (Madrid, 1950), 1, 223 ff., v, 477.Google Scholar(Hereafter cited as NcF.) This invaluable collection is still going forward from 1559 and has reached 12 volumes to date, covering through 1568.

10 Campistol, J. Regla, Felip II i Catalunya (Barcelona, 1955), pp. 75 ff.Google Scholar This theme is developed extensively in two recent fine general studies: Elliott, J. H., Imperial Spain (New York and London, 1964)Google Scholar and Lynch, J., Spain under the Habsburgs, vol. I (Oxford University-Press, 1964)Google Scholar; see also , Elliott's remarkable monograph, Revolt of the Catalans (Cambridge University Press, 1963)Google Scholar for a very penetrating work on the Catalan situation as a whole. The early chapters are very germane here.

11 Such banditry was at once ‘popular, religious, and anti-clerical’: Regla, op. cit. pp. 85 ff.

12 NcF, I, 229.

13 Discussed in , Regla, op. cit. pp. 71–97Google Scholar; Cirici, E. Serraima, ‘Hugonotes y bandidos en el pirineo Catalán’, Estudios de historia moderna, IV (1954), 205–24Google Scholar; J. H. Elliott, ‘The Catalan Revolution of 1640’, ibid. IV (1954), 273–300, which analyses the lords' role in the next century showing their same attitudes and tactics.

14 Regla, op. cit. pp. 75 ff.

15 E.g. NcF, 1, 79 ff., 86 ff., 108 ff., 124 f.; Regla, op. cit. pp. 81 ff.

16 Serraima, op. cit. pp. 209 ff.; Regla, op. cit. pp. 86, 89, 114 ff., and ‘Los envios de metales preciosos de España a Italia a traves de la corona de Aragón y sus relaciones con el bandolerismo pyrenacio’, Estudios de historia moderna, IV (1954), 189–203Google Scholar, which is especially valuable in this context.

17 His correspondence is scattered throughout NcF, v. It is useful to note here that the Albrets were rightfully fearful of Spain's dynastic claims to their lands, which factor predated the religious one, and so regardless of the latter relations would have been difficult. The termination of Ezcurra's mission in 1564 permanently ended direct contact between Pau and Madrid.

18 NcF, v, 12 f. It should be added that some co-operation was forthcoming on a local basis in areas under Huguenot pressure, e.g. the archbishop of Bordeaux and Parlement of Toulouse in NcF, vii, 312 f., 388 f. and note 14 above.

19 The daughter of Louis XII, widow of the duke of Ferrara as of 1559, this ardent Calvinist was granted Montargis, which rapidly became a refuge for all victims of the religious wars to Renée's death in 1575. Her Calvinism did not interfere with her irenicist and humanitarian attitude toward persecution and related matters. See Rodocanachi, E., Renée de France (Paris, 1896)Google Scholar; a more recent study is clearly in order.

20 NcF, VI, 163.

21 Ibid, VI, VII, X, XI are literally replete with these. A jaundiced but interesting contemporary appraisal of Alava is in Read, Conyers, Mr Secretary Walsingham (Harvard University Press, 1925), 1, 120 f.Google Scholar Longhurst's article cited in note 2 above gives a succinct appraisal of the nature and dangers of this traffic. Still quite useful is Böhmer, E., ‘Protestantische Propaganda in Spanien im Anfänge des 17. Jhrds.’, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, XVII (1897), 373–90.Google Scholar Specially compartmentalized wine caskets were a favoured form of passing such books and pamphlets about in ordinary transactions, both overland and by sea. Frankfurt with its famed fair, Antwerp, and Geneva were the chief starting points for these cargoes; then to Lyons, Toulouse, and Bordeaux usually, and across the Pyrenees into north Spain, usually Aragon and Catalonia; Lyons appears to have been the customary mid-point, the ‘Chicago’ of the system. All of which appears to have increased Spanish apprehensions greatly and led to more frontier and seaport restrictions and interference abroad where possible. Alava was particularly successful, with help from an agent-provocateur planted by the Inquisition, in destroying the effectiveness of one such ring. See NcF, VI, 537 ff., and VII, 74 ff. for the story. One of the more fascinating aspects at Bordeaux and Toulouse was the normally clandestine, occasionally open role of Calvinists and superficial Catholics of Spanish-Portuguese Jewish blood in this traffic. The Bernuy and Lopez de Villeneuve families were notably involved, and it is interesting that Montaigne's mother was a member of the latter clan. The unpublished Ph.D. thesis by Wm. McFadden, ‘Life and Works of Antonio del Corro’, Queen's University of Belfast (1953). pp. 129, 179-80, sheds light on them in this connexion as well as with regard to Corro, which I use in the study of this man cited in note 6.

22 Last references cited in note 20 above show this.

23 E.g. the Enzinas brothers, Juan Diaz, Francisco de San Román. Cf. note 28 below.

24 NcF, 1, 50.

25 See note 32 below.

26 He took the Genevan civic oath on 6 June 1559. See Geisendorf, P., Livre des habitants de Genève (Geneva, 1957), 1, 190 f.Google Scholar

27 Cf. NcF, 1, 174, with I, 123. Apparently it proved impossible to ship him directly to Spain from Paris, and the Low Countries were much closer by any means.

28 Ibid, V, 515.

29 In 1546 the convert Juan Diaz was murdered in Germany either by his priest brother, or at least at the latter's instigation. It created a real stir, especially as the brother was eventually pardoned by Charles V, presumably for his sustaining ‘honour’ as Guzman de Silva and most Spaniards saw it. See most recently Pinette, G., ‘Die Spanier und Spanien im Urteil des deutschen Volkes zur Zeit der Reformation’, Archiv für Reformatumsgeschichte, XLVIII (1957), 182–91.Google Scholar A useful contemporary Protestant version is in Crespin, J., Histoire des martyrs, ed. Benoit, D. (Toulouse, 1885-1889), 1, 468–87Google Scholar, while v. XX of Rio, L. Usoz y, Reformistas españoles antiguos (Madrid-London, 1847-1880)Google Scholar contains a second Protestant ‘life’ written by Claude Senarcleus with Martin Bucer's preface.

30 NcF, VI, 153.

31 Ibid. p. 249.

32 Ibid. p. 277. Cf. note 7 above to re-emphasize the importance attached to cases like this by Philip II and his subjects.

33 A contemporary Spanish Calvinist named Juan de Luna bears some very striking resemblances to Francisco, but it is impossible to make any sort of judgement on the basis of present evidence available. On Juan see Schickler, op. cit. n, 367; CSP, Elizabeth, Foreign, iv, 63 f., 70. In Epistolario del III Duque de Alba (Madrid, 1952), 1, 512 f.Google Scholar, a letter of 15 July 1559 from Alba to Feria makes note of an appeal from Catherine de Medici and her daughter Elizabeth, Philip IFs new wife, on behalf of Juan de Luna. Broad reference is made to his past services, his present poverty, and returning him to a wife in Aragon, which last might square with Francisco's Zaragozan origin. According to this letter Juan had voluntarily put himself in Alba's hands to be transmitted to the king's justice; exactly for what transgressions are not explicitly said, unfortunately. It is interesting that the aforementioned contemporary remarks on Juan de Luna suggest he had become a Calvinist minister after having been an old warrior for Charles V and Castellan of Milan. Some Lunas, of whatever origin, left seventeenth-century descendants in England (see Lindeboom, J., Austin Friars, trans. Iongh, D. De, The Hague, 1950, p. 98)Google Scholar.

34 It is perhaps worth noting that in May 1567 the French ambassador in Madrid delivered a formal statement to Philip from Charles IX proclaiming that France did not recognize inquisitorial jurisdiction over Frenchmen; however, the qualifying clauses following this bold beginning rendered the statement totally ineffective (see NcF, IX, 312 f.). Hesitant acts such as this must have emboldened Spaniards like Alava in their virtual disregard of French authority in the matters already discussed. McFadden, op. cit. pp. 246 ff., brings to light another case in which Alava was able to bring about the suppression of a Castilian New Testament being clandestinely printed at Paris, and later the arrest of one of the Spanish heretics involved; the man eventually was released under unknown circumstances, however, to Alava's great anger. This business kept Alava busy from 1568–71 intermittently.

35 Vols. VIII and x of the Publications of the Huguenot Society of London, while fragmentary, are the best sources for determining this number. They are respectively Page, W., Letters of Denization and Acts of Naturalization for Aliens in England, 1509-1603 (1893)Google Scholar, and Kirk, R. E. G. and Kirk, E. F., Returns for Aliens in the City and Suburbs of London, 1523-1625 (1900-1908)Google Scholar, 3 vols. (Hereafter cited as HSP, VIII and x, i-iii.)

36 See my article, ‘A Spanish Calvinist Church in Elizabethan London, 1559-65’, Church History, XXXIV (March 1965), 50–6.Google Scholar

37 CSP, Sp. 1, 39, written to Philip.

38 Ibid. 316, 353, for Philip's instructions to Quadra and De Silva in turn.

39 See note 6 above.

40 CSP, Sp. 1, 247; Fernández Alvarez, op. cit. p. 126.

41 CSP, Sp. 1, 316.

42 E.g. ibid, II, 119, 136, IV, 125, for cases in 1568-69 and 1588-89.

43 Lettenhove, Kervyn de, Relations politiques des Pays-Bas et de l'Angleterre sous le règne de Philippe II (Brussels, 1882-1900), 1, 561, dated 12 July 1559.Google Scholar

44 CSP, Sp. 1, 86 ff.

45 Ibid. 94.

46 Lettenhove, op. cit. II, 88.

47 CSP, Sp. 1, 247.

48 These references are in Lettenhove, op. cit. III, 564, 567, 580, 604, 644.

49 Ibid, III, 580. Leicester's patronage of Spanish and other refugees is recently discussed in Hurstfield, J., ‘Some Elizabethans’, History, XLVII (1962), 18–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Rosenberg, E., Leicester, Patron of Letters (New York, 1955)Google Scholar.

50 Scattered references to Ximenez in this capacity are in Conyers Read's volumes on Walsingham, already cited, and his Mr Secretary Cecil and Queen Elizabeth and Lord Burghley and Queen Elizabeth (London, 1955, 1960).Google Scholar

51 HSP, VIII, 257.

52 Lettenhove, op. cit. II, lix. From this account it appears he was also a ship designer and cartographer; in sum a minor uomo universale excellently equipped for his trade.

53 Ibid. IV, 200.

54 CSP, Sp. 1, 684.

55 Ibid. Elizabeth, Foreign, VIII, 382 f., 392 f., 415, 426. Cf. note 48 above.

56 Lettenhove, op. cit. v, 365.

57 The looseness and anglicizing nature of Elizabethan orthography is notorious, and served as protective coloration, and assimilation, for persons like Ximenez. Some other Hispanic examples of the time are ‘Garcia’ into ‘Garse’ and ‘Ferias’ into ‘Ferres’.

58 CSP, Elizabeth, Foreign, XIII, 328.