she sent him to the Prime Minister. Canovas said :
" Mr. Fliedner has got the passion of gathering
orphan children ; now his home having become too
small, he builds a new one. Certainly we cannot
hinder that."

" Oh, I would not care for it in any other country ;
but here in Spain it is different, and the building
looks so ecclesiastical."

" Oh, no," said the president of the Ministry ;
" we have obliged him to take away from the plan
the bell and the steeple, and even the clock.'



146 AMONG THE HERETICS

" But there remains still the Gothic window in
the top of the front," persisted the Nuncio.

While this storm was raging, Mr. Fliedner was
absent from Madrid on a pastoral conference in
Lisbon, hoping to go from there to England. His
wife had told him : " God will let you find at the
right time a vessel, because it will do you good to
have some days' rest on the sea."

" The kindness of God did not let me find a
vessel. I had to come back to Madrid, where a
message was awaiting me to come directly to the
Prime Minister. He received me very kindly.

" ' I am sorry to trouble you once more. But I
did not know that there existed really a conspiracy
that you should not build. But I will not have
this ; I have put my foot through it. And, really,
I cannot require more of you ; you have taken away
all that I asked you for, and you are entirely within
the lines of the Constitution. Only, as you have
said that you were willing to take away whatever
I liked, I have mentioned this in order to show
that you are a peaceable man ; and then the Nuncio
said : " Then let him take away the Gothic window."
Now I cannot request that of you ; I ask it only as
a favour.' "

" Mr. President," said Mr. Fhedner, " you fulfil
your promise in helping me to build my school ; I
will fulfil mine, and take away whatever you hke,
changing that Gothic window."



CHECKMATING A NUNCIO i47

"I am very thankful for it," he said ; and then
he continued : " Now the building terminates in
a round. They say it is like the choir of a church.
It is not, I am aware ; but it is round."

By this time Mr. Fliedner had become so tired
over these petty annoyances that he broke out :
" Then I make it square." But scarcely had he
uttered the words than he realised how that would
destroy the architecture of the building, so he
quickly added : " No, that is impossible, but per-
haps we can make it an octagon."

" All right, make it an octagon," said the Prime
Minister, " and as you have yielded now even more
than you were obliged to, you shall be sure that
you shall not be hindered a single day." And thus
both the Pope and his Nuncio were checkmated.



CHAPTER XVIIl

THE LAW OF COMPARISON

Spain, like Russia, is moving toward the con-
summation of religious liberty. Politically, the
country at the time of my visit in December, 1910,
was quiet, and everywhere the opinion was ex-
pressed that the advent of a more liberal regime
had removed the grievances which gave the Repub-
lican party their war-cry. A peaceable national
sentiment is, however, asserting itself in favour of
complete religious liberty, believing that permanent
harmony and progress for the country He in that
direction.

It is by the law of comparison that one best
realises how far Spain has really travelled along
this pathway since the notorious days of the
Inquisition. In 1855 Francisco de Paula Ruet,
the first convert to Protestant Christianity in Spain,
was sentenced by the then Bishop of Barcelona to
be burned ahve. The Bishop, however, had no
power to enforce his verdict ; but Paula Ruet was
subsequently tried for preaching in the civil courts,
and sentenced to banishment for life. He received

the sentence smilingly, whereupon the judge

148



THE LAW OF COMPARISON 149

sternly demanded to know what there was to
laugh at.

" Is it a light thing to be banished for life ? "

" No, Senor," said Paula Ruet ; " but one never
knows. Life is sometimes a long time, and your
Government may not last, and then I shall come
back."

Within thirteen years Queen Isabella had herself
been banished, and Paula Ruet was back again,
openly preaching in Madrid.

The latest phase of the spirit of religious liberty
which is abroad had been initiated by the young
men of Spain a few months before I reached Madrid.
Meetings had been held all over the country in
favour of a petition to Parliament, praying for the
extension of liberty in the matter of religion and
education, and the secularisation of the cemeteries.
These meetings were in most cases very largely
attended, as may be gathered from the fact that
no fewer than 150,000 signatures had been secured
for the petition. None but Spaniards were per-
mitted to sign. As this document promises to be
of historic importance, I give the full, literal, and
somewhat picturesque translation : —

" Address which the lovers of religious liberty
present to the National Parliament, — ^To the
Cortes.

" Those who subscribe are Spanish citizens
living in different parts of the Peninsula, in full



150 AMONG THE HERETICS

use of their civil and religious rights, respectful
as it corresponds to men under discipline of the
moral obligation, obedient to civil power, and
loving sincerely constitutional government, the
glory of contemporary Spain. We have the honour
to address the Spanish Cortes with all the respect
that merits the high national representation, the
clamour of whose patriotic voices is inspired by
unquenchable love for the culture and progress of
the nation.

" The most interesting pages of our history are,
in the modest opinion of the petitioners, those in
which is evident respect and mutual tolerance in
the sphere of religious thought, a respect and
tolerance demonstrated in the living together of
races of very distinct confessions.

" The rehgious idea is a sanctuary which the
hand of man ought not to touch, and historic
evidence proclaims that after the violation of
religious conscience invariably has followed the
glorification of a martyr or the moral decapitation
of the people,

" The encounter of the ideas is followed by an
increasing fervour, to make them valuable by
research and study, which are signs of culture and
announce general harmony. To renovate oneself is
to live, and in endless renovation the nations will
have to live which do not resign themselves to
being simply spectators of the most noble of battles.



THE LAW OF COMPARISON 151

Their bloodless strife is for the reign of love, which
is peace and well being.

" The petitioners leave to the illuminated and
elevated judgment of the worthier representatives
in the Cortes the transcendental attainment of a
measure which surely would put our beloved Father-
land on the same religious level as Hve to-day the
nations which have proclaimed religious liberty as
a fundamental dogma of modern democracy.

" An immense campaign recently carried on in
the principal capitals of the kingdom has demon-
strated to the organising evangelical committee the
lively sympathies felt by the Spanish people for all
those measures tending to facilitate the free exercise
of conscience, and whose practical expression com-
prehends the neutrahty of the State in the matter
of religion and education, and in the secularisation
of cemeteries.

" Those who sign in the first instance, evangelical
Spaniards, residing in this capital, have the honour
to submit to you the adjoined sheets containing
more than 100,000 signatures (actually over 150,000)
not only of their fellow-Protestants, but of many
other fellow-countrymen who, without having the
same religious ideas, join them and feel with them
the primary need of the exercise of the spirit of
complete and entire liberty.

" Well worthy of the Fatherland would the
Liberal Parhament be if to the most noble desire



152 AMONG THE HERETICS

of religious liberation, represented in this popular
petition, its worthy representatives would answer
by consummating in the fundamental laws of the
kingdom complete religious Hberty, or by aboHshing
at least those dispositions in force which are opposed
to so holy a principle,

" Which grace your petitioners expect to obtain
through the upright procedure of your highnesses,
for whom we desire continued legal life for the
welfare of the Fatherland, and the direction of the
Almighty in the exercise of your sovereignty."

The first eight signatures are those of Bishop
Juan B. Cabrera, of the Spanish Reformed Church ;
President Cipriano Tornos Blasco, of the Spanish
Evangelical Church ; Francisco Oviedo Jauregui,
Fernando Cabrera y Latorre, Adolf o Araujo, Jose
Martianez, Enrique Vega y Naon, and C. Araujo
Garcia.

The full significance of this petition lies in the
fact that there are only about 12,000 declared
Protestants in Spain. I had the opportunity of
inspecting the petition at the depot of the British
and Foreign Bible Society in Madrid, where it
awaited the pleasure of ParUament for its presenta-
tion. It comprised four bulky volumes, as large as
an encyclopaedia, handsomely bound in scarlet,
with illuminated title-pages, and enclosed in a
cabinet of polished wood.

Here, again, history makes its own interesting



THE LAW OF COMPARISON i53

comparison. The Bible Society's building, which-
temporarily housed this petition, was formerly the
residence of one of the judges of the Inquisition.
About a stone's throw away is a building which
latterly housed the British Embassy, but which was
originally the residence of the chief judge of the
Inquisition. All the other buildings adjacent were
associated with the Inquisition, as the residential
quarters of judges and officers, and they are to this
day connected by underground tunnels. The Bible
depot faces the street along which most of the
victims of the Inquisition passed to trial and torture,
and close by is the Plaza Mayor, the scene of the
diabolical auto-de-fe.

Thus, more by accident perhaps than design,
this petition, which expressed the latest movement
for religious liberty in Spain, was presented to
Parliament from a spot sacred to the memory of
the martyrs of the Inquisition.

In the light of such testimony, can it be doubted
that Spain is moving ?

Six months before my visit a further instal-
ment of religious liberty had been granted through
an edict which gave religious bodies, other than
Roman Catholic, permission to affix their names to
the front of their church or meeting place on
the payment of a certain tax. This tax is a
municipal one, for in Spain, as in most, if not
all, European countries, no opportunity of raising



154 AMONG THE HERETICS

revenue is allowed to pass by the municipal
authorities.

This concession would appear to be a very small
thing to people cradled in the liberty of the Anglo-
Saxon world, but in Spain it meant much more than
the mere right to affix a name to a building used
for religious purposes. It meant the special State
recognition of Protestants, and their right to worship
according to their own faith and practice. It was
further the removal of a ban which had made it
very difficult for Protestant missionaries to make
any headway in the matter of evangelistic work
among Spaniards. Secret discipleship is no longer
imperative, and the effect generally of the edict
has been to put heart into the work of both
missionaries and people.

One incident connected with the granting of this
new measure of liberty is worth recording. One of
the most popular missionaries in Spain is the Rev.
Jan Uhr, of Valencia. He is a Swede, and is sup-
ported by the Swedish Baptist Union. When his
application to place the name of his church on the
building, in accordance with the edict, came before
the Municipal Council, a strong feeling was expressed
that the permission should be granted, and that in
recognition of Mr. Uhr's splendid work in the city,
the tax should be remitted. On a vote, this course
was adopted by 50 to 4, the four dissentients, need-
less to say, being Roman Cathohcs, and fervid




ENTRANCE TO THE REV. J/\N UlU^'S CHURCH,

VALENCIA

Showing the name on the front of the building — a concession only recently granted.



THE LAW OF COMPARISON i55

supporters of the priest party. But the Council
went further, and decided to subsidise Mr. Uhr's
schools, and promised an increase of the amount
during the succeeding year. This, I was given to
understand, is the only Protestant school in all
Spain which is subsidised by a municipal council,
and probably Mr. Uhr's is also the only Protestant
church which has been allowed to have its name
painted over the front of the building without the
payment of the municipal tax. It was a simple
but eloquent tribute to the work of a good man.

I was greatly interested in Mr. Uhr's work. It
was typical of the devotion and singleness of purpose
which characterises the work of all the Protestant
missionaries whom I met in Spain, His parish is
a large one, and includes Valencia and six outlying
villages. A village in Spain is often a place with
a population of as many as 8,000 or 9,000 people.
Mr. Uhr has two helpers, a Spaniard and a Swedish
missionary. A serious obstacle in the work of
evangelising Spain is the prohibition of open-air
preaching and the difficulty of obtaining buildings
suitable for Gospel services. Most of the preaching
is done in hired buildings and secluded places, such
as caves. A notable service was conducted by Mr.
Uhr in a cave some miles from Valencia. A prayer-
meeting followed with the set purpose of praying
for the conversion of everyone present, and the
whole thirteen confessed Christ. The Sunday before



156 AMONG THE HERETICS

I reached Valencia, Mr. Uhr baptised four Spanish
converts in a village pool. The eldest was a woman
8i years of age. On the Sunday that I worshipped
in Valencia at Mr. Uhr's church, a mother and her
four grown-up sons — fine intelligent fellows — ^had
tramped many miles to be present and arrange
with the pastor for their baptism.

Along with the low moral standard of the people,
as the result of centuries of priestcraft, is the diffi-
culty of so few being able to read. As against this
there is the instinctive kindness of the Spanish
people, and their eagerness to be taught when once
they have had their eyes opened to the simphcity
and reality of a gospel that is without financial
burden.

I met an earnest and attractive young Swiss
in one of the great European banks in Valencia
while making some inquiries which necessitated an
interpreter. He spoke French, German, Italian,
Spanish and English, and has served extended
periods in each of the countries named to acquire
the languages to qualify for the position of con-
fidential clerk which he held. That is an illus-
tration of the zeal which is possessing thousands
of young men and women in Europe in their
determination to get on in life. But in nothing
was this young man so zealous as in his desire
to extend the Kingdom of God in Spain.

One sentence of his set me thinking more than



THE LAW OF COMPARISON i57

any other I heard in Spain. It, moreover, revealed
the Christian character of the man as nothing else
could have done.

" Yes," he remarked, in answer to a question,
*' I can speak seven languages fluently ; but I
always pray in EngHsh."

I asked him why, and this was his reply : " The
English language has brought me nearer to Jesus
Christ, to the beauty of His name and character.
There is no equivalent in Spanish or in my own
language for the English word ' Saviour.' In
Spanish the nearest you can get to it is Sefior ;
but every man one meets in Spain is Sefior. Christ
is more to me than that, and I find it all in
' Saviour.' "

Valencia, it should be mentioned, is the most
liberal of the provinces in Spain. " Several large
towns are open to us," one missionary informed me,
but we have not the means to enter in and take
possession. Other provinces are very hard to enter-
The people are greatly prejudiced, and will not,
as yet, allow the Gospel to be preached by Protestant
missionaries in their towns under any circumstances.
Nevertheless, the dawn has come in some parts,
and liberty is enjoyed as it never has been before.
It is Rome which has to fear for the future in Spain,
not Protestantism. Wherever I went I found
Rome's religious houses barred with iron. New
convents, even in Madrid, are so constructed that



158 AMONG THE HERETICS

in case of another revolution and attack the inmates
would have more than one way of escape. In a
comparatively short time the steady pervading
light of religious and political liberty will have
changed the whole aspect of affairs in the land of
the Inquisition.



CHAPTER XIX

PROTESTANT WORK IN SPAIN

The Protestant community in Spain is reckoned
to number from 12,000 to 15,000 souls. There are
about two hundred places where services are held,
but only a few of these are churches. There are
about the same number of day schools. The
Protestant forces are divided into various deno-
minations. The Presbyterians, Congregationalists,
and Lutherans together form what is styled the
Evangelical Church of Spain. This is largely
Presbyterian in polity and doctrine. Then there
is the Reformed Church of Spain under Bishop
Juan B. Cabrera. That is Episcopal in its for-
mation and professes to be an evangelical repro-
duction of the old Mozarabic Church of Spain. Then
there are the Brethren, who are in very strong force ;
and perhaps the strongest evangelical district is
the north-west of Spain, where the Brethren have
been working, and largely because of their efforts.
The Wesleyan Methodists, under their EngUsh
Missionary Society, are found only in Catalonia
and the Balearic Islands. The Baptists, who are
working under the guidance and help of the Swedish

159



i6o AMONG THE HERETICS

Baptist Union, are in Valencia and Catalonia.
The Darbyites are also represented, and the Seventh
Day Adventists, and a number of nondescript
people, who work entirely on their own.

Then there are the Bible Society and the Religious
Tract Society. Both these are in the fullest sym-
pathy with all the denominations, and as far as
possible work through them. In 1910 the Bible
Society had a circulation in Spain alone of over
90,000 copies of the Scriptures. The Religious
Tract Society circulated over 300,000 pubHcations,
but many of these went to Spanish South America.

In the matter of Protestant education, there are
four colleges for secondary instruction — El Port
Venir, conducted by the Brothers Fliedner, where
boys are trained professionally ; another at Puerta
Santa Maria, a town near Cadiz, where young men
are trained as evangelical schoolmasters and pastors ;
the International Institute in Madrid for Spanish
young ladies, to prepare them for professional and
commercial life ; and the International College in
Barcelona, also for Spanish young ladies. The
latter is under the American Board of Foreign
Missions. Both the last-named colleges are under
the direction of Mr. Guhck, a Congregational
minister, hailing from the United States.

The Bible Society has 35 colporteurs engaged in
Spain in circulating the Scriptures. The chief
difficulty in this work is the iUiteracy of the people.



PROTESTANT WORK IN SPAIN i6i

It has been calculated that 60 per cent, of the
people in Spain can neither read nor write. Other
difficulties to be contended with are the opposition
of the Roman Catholic Church to the reading of
the Scriptures and the very powerful social, industrial
and economic influence of the Romanists. Under
different forms the Roman priests control the rail-
ways and tramways, many of the banks, most of
the factories and nunneries, and they have not
hesitated to use their power to coerce and persecute.
This fact explains why most of those attached to
Protestant Christianity in Spain have been poor
people ; very few of them belong to the middle
class or the rich.

There are three evangelical bookshops in Spain.
One is in Madrid, and there are two in Barcelona ;
one carried on by the Fhedner Bros, and the other
conaucted by the Bible Society.

The tyranny of the Roman priest finds special
play in persecuting the colporteurs of the Bible
Society. This is scarcely to be wondered at when
one realises first of all that Rome dreads the light
of the Gospel, and further that the work of the
colporteurs brings them into the closest relation-
ship with the people. Mr. Summers, executive
head of the Bible Society in Spain, told me the
particulars of two severe instances of persecution of
colporteurs, about which, at the time ofmy visit to
Madrid, he was in correspondence with the Minister.



i62 AMONG THE HERETICS

Spain is almost as bad as Russia in the matter
of police registration and supervision. Every adult,
male and female, has to be registered and provided
with a " Cedula Personae," or naturaHsation paper.
This must be always carried about and produced
on demand of the poHce and, moreover, renewed
every year. It is charged for according to your
salary or income, or the amount of rent you pay,
whichever is higher. Without it you cannot make
or sign a contract, or obtain letters from the post
in any town you may be visiting.

The colporteurs of the Bible Society have to
carry these " Cedula Personae " the same as other
people. In addition they have to be provided with
a licence, which costs about thirty shillings a year-
In the cases of the colporteurs cited by Mr. Summers,
these documents had been taken from them by the
police magistrate. That is a serious matter, for
without them the colporteur loses his identity and
becomes an object of suspicion. In both instances
the colporteurs, though they had broken no law
and were regularly licensed, were robbed of their
credentials and cast into prison. In the case of
one, his books were confiscated and destroyed.
After serving terms of imprisonment, they were
released and expelled from the country, and a promise
was forced from them that they would not return.
In no case of persecution of this kind — and it is
repeated year after year — ^has any redress been



PROTESTANT WORK IN SPAIN 163

given. It is the same in every country where Rome
is the power behind the poHce and the Government
— there never is any redress for any wrong or
violence.

Rapidly as Spain has moved in recent years
towards civil and religious liberty, the land is still
dark with tyranny, persecution and superstition.
But it is the darkness which immediately precedes
the dawn. The discouragement, difficulties and
hardships of those who seek to promote New
Testament Christianity are many and severe ; but
there are encouragements, and these are the incentive
to brave men and women to persevere. Among
the encouragements is the growth of evangelical
sentiment amongst the people as a whole, as a
result chiefly of the wholesome work and influence
of the Bible Society. Pohtically, too, the signs
are favourable. A few months before my visit,
the Prime Minister made a Royal decree, giving a
more liberal interpretation to the Eleventh Article
in the Constitution — that which specially relates
to the question of religious liberty. Full religious
liberty cannot be given in Spain without changing
that Eleventh Article, and to do that a Parhament
must be specially elected to do that specific work.
That will follow, but the time is not yet ripe. The
Prime Minister would not have done as much as
he did successfully unless he had behind him the
support, first of all of the King, and then of the



i64 AMONG THE HERETICS

people. Undoubtedly one of the most powerful
factors in liberalising and preparing the people of
Spain for a full measure of religious liberty is the
increasing circulation and reading of the Scriptures,
and it is encouraging to find that the persistent
efforts of the Bible Society are having that benefi-
cent result.

Few men travel more in Spain or know the
country better than Mr. Summers. It is his frequent
experience to meet with professional men. On first
discovering who he is, they generally work off on
him a standard joke. " What," they say, " are
you still pushing that old book ? " But they always
come to the serious point, and their universal
advice and testimony is : " Go on with your good
work ; don't get tired ; for what you are doing is,
more than anything else, preserving what faith
there is among Spaniards in God and His Word."
These people are nominal Roman Catholics, and
they recognise that Rome has no power to meet
infideUty.

Unfortunately, the Repubhcan Party is asso-