Philip II and the Papacy

J. Lynch

doi:10.2307/3678749

Philip II and the Papacy

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009

J. Lynch

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The view that Philip II was the secular arm of the Counter-Reformation still survives. It is based on the assumption that his own words and claims must be taken at their face value, and on the fallacy that because the religious motive was sometimes present in Spanish policy, therefore it was always present and was the most important motive. The popes he had to deal with took a different view. They considered that Philip II, like his predecessors, used his prestige as a Catholic sovereign to pursue objectives that were essentially political. A characteristic summary of the papal view of Philip II's foreign policy was given in 1589 with reference to his ambitions in France: ‘The King of Spain, as a temporal sovereign, is anxious above all to safeguard and to increase his dominions … The preservation of the Catholic religion which is the principal aim of the Pope is only a pretext for His Majesty, whose principal aim is the security and aggrandisement of his dominions’. It is true that Sixtus V had a deep and personal aversion to Spain and a low estimate of its king, but these opinions were not peculiar to one pope. There were conflicts between Philip II and almost every pope with whom he dealt, which makes it impossible to explain those conflicts in terms of personalities and points to some deeper and more permanent cause.

Type: Research Article
Information: Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , Volume 11 , December 1961 , pp. 23 - 42

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/3678749 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1961

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^{page 23 note 1} Instructions addressed to Cardinal Caetani, legate of Sixtus V in France, regarding the settlement of the dynastic question in 1589, in de Boüard, M., La légation du Cardinal Caetani en France, 1589–1590 (Bordeaux, 1932), p. 62Google Scholar. For further evidence of papal suspicion of Philip II, at different times, see von Pastor, L., History of the Popes, Eng. trans. (London, 1894—1953), xxi. 262–73; xxii. 47–64; xxiii. 195 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 24 note 1} See Philippson, M., ‘Felipe II y el Pontificado’, Estudios sobre FelipeII, ed. de Hinojosa, R. (Madrid, 1887), pp. 91–160Google Scholar.

^{page 24 note 2} Boyd, M., Cardinal Quiroga, Inquisitor General of Spain (Dubuque, 1954), pp. 25–26Google Scholar.

^{page 25 note 1} Correspondencia diplomdtka entre Espaha y la Santa Sede durante elPontificado de S. Pio V, ed. L. Serrano (Madrid, 1914), i. 37–38.

^{page 25 note 2} Philippson, op. cit., 151–52.

^{page 26 note 1} Quiroga to Philip II, 16 March 1574, B[ritish] Mfuseum], Egerton MS. 1506, fo. 18^v.

^{page 26 note 2} Melchor Cano to Philip II, B.M., Egerton MS. 444, fos. 19–52.

^{page 26 note 3} See ‘Memoria de las rentas que el Rey de España tiene anualmente sobre los bienes del clero por concesiones apóstdlicas’, Corr. Dip., i. 447–53.

^{page 26 note 4} Pastor, op. cit., xvi. 361.

^{page 27 note 1} Pacheco y de Leiva, E., ‘Relaciones vaticanas de Hacienda espanola del siglo XVI’, Escuela Espanola de Arqueologia e Historia en Roma. Cuadernosde Trabajo, iv (1918), 67.Google Scholar

^{page 27 note 2} ‘Relation por menos de lo que valen en cada un año la alcabala y tercios y otros partidos y la demas hacienda de Su Magestad’, 21 Oct. 1598, Archivo General de Simancas, Consejo y junta de hacienda, leg. 380. See also B.M., Cotton. MS., Vespasian C. vi, fo. 86.

^{page 27 note 3} Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, ed. M. Fernández de Navarrete, etc. (Madrid, 1842–1931), ii. 296.

^{page 27 note 4} Busto de Villegas to Philip II, 1574, B.M., Egerton MS. 444, fos. 53–75.

^{page 28 note 1} Boyd, op. cit., p. 24.

^{page 28 note 2} Ibid., p. 25.

^{page 28 note 3} C[al] S[tate] P[apers], Venetian (London, 1894–97), viii. 165, 339, 410. See also H. C. Lea, History of the Inquisition inSpain (New York, 1906–1907), iv. 494.

^{page 28 note 4} Philippson, op. cit., 129–30.

^{page 29 note 1} Pastor, op. cit., xv. 358; xvi. 364–66.

^{page 29 note 2} Philippson, op. cit., 121–22.

^{page 29 note 3} V. de Lafuente, Historia eclesiástica de España (Madrid, 1879), vii. 80n.

^{page 29 note 4} Pastor, op. cit., xvi. 106–107.

^{page 30 note 1} Requesens to Philip II, 4 July 1566, Corr. Dip., i. 287.

^{page 30 note 2} On the Carranza case see Pelayo, M. Menéndez, Historia de los heterodoxos spañoles (Santander, 1946–48), iv. 7–73;Google Scholar Marañon, G., ‘El proceso del arzobispo Carranza’, Boletin de la Real Academia de Historia, cvxxvii (1950), 135–78.Google Scholar

^{page 30 note 3} Corr. Dip., i. 174, 329, 337.

^{page 30 note 4} Requesens to Philip II, 23 February 1566, D.I.E., lxviii. 455–56.

^{page 31 note 1} Corr. Dip., i. 49, 256, 271.

^{page 31 note 2} Requesens to Philip II, 3 May 1566, ibid., i. 224.

^{page 31 note 3} Menéndez Pelayo, op. cit., iv. 62; Lea, op. cit., ii. 79.

^{page 31 note 4} Corr. Dip., i. 298, 330.

^{page 31 note 5} Serrano, ibid., p. lxiii.

^{page 31 note 6} Requesens to Philip II, 27 December 1566, ibid., i. 432.

^{page 32 note 1} Braudel, F., La Mediterranee et le monde mediterraneen a Vipoque dePhilippe II (Paris, 1949), pp. 953 ff., 984 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 1} de Meester, B., Le Saint-Siége et les troubles des Pays-Bas, 1566-1579 (Louvain, 1934), p. 159.Google Scholar

^{page 33 note 2} Pius V to Philip II, 24 February 1566, Corr. Dip., i. 131; Requesens to Philip II, 18 March 1566, ibid., 156–57; Philip II to Requesens, 13 May 1566, ibid., 237–39.

^{page 33 note 3} Pius V to Castagna, 3 August 1566, ibid., 299; Philip II to Requesens, 12 August 1566, ibid., 308–12.

^{page 33 note 4} Philip II to Requesens, 12 August 1566, ibid., 316.

^{page 33 note 5} Philip II to Requesens, 26 November 1566, ibid., 399–403; Requesens to Philip II, 27 December 1566, ibid., 431.

^{page 34 note 1} Meester, , op. cit., 82–85; L. van der Essen, ‘Croisade contre les hérétiques ou guerre contre des rebelles. La psychologie des soldats et des officiers espagnols de l'armée de Flandre au XVI^e siècle’, Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique, li (1956), 55–57.Google Scholar

^{page 34 note 2} van der Essen, L., Alexandre Farnise, prince de Parme, gouverneur generaldes Pays-Bos (Brussels, 1933–39), v. 78.Google Scholar

^{page 35 note 1} Van der Essen, ‘Croisade contre les hérétiques ou guerre contre des rebelles’, op. cit., p. 58.

^{page 35 note 2} Philip II to D'Espés, 30 June 1570, C.S.P. Spanish, Eliz. (London, 1892–99), ii. 254.

^{page 35 note 3} Correspondance de Philippe II sur les affaires des Pays-Bas, ed. L. P. Gachard (Brussels, 1848–79), ii. 63; D.I.E., xc. 186–87; C.S.P. Spanish, ii. 108–109. See also de Törne, P. O., Don Juan d'Autriche et les projets de conquéte de l’Angleterre, 1568–1578 (Helsingfors, 1915–28), i. 42 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 36 note 1} Philip II to Alba, 16 December 1569, D.I.E., xxxviii. 258; Philip II to Alba, 24 December 1569, ibid., p. 273.

^{page 36 note 2} Gachard, op. cit., ii. 70; A. Teulet, Relations politiques de la France et de I’ Espagne avec I’ Ecosse au XVI^e siècle (Paris, 1862), v. 597, 603.

^{page 36 note 3} Philip II to Alba, 14 July 1571, Gachard, op. cit., ii. 185–88. See also Torne, op. cit., i. 112–13.

^{page 37 note 1} J. A. von Hübner, Sixte-Quint (Paris, 1870), i. 329; ii. 500–504.

^{page 37 note 2} Hübner, op. cit., i. 364–71.

^{page 37 note 3} Olivares to Philip II, 4 June 1585, ibid., iii. 4–5.

^{page 37 note 4} Ibid., i. 372; ii. 476, 495.

^{page 37 note 5} Text of the Treaty of 29 July 1587 in Meyer, A. O., England and theCatholic Church under Queen Elizabeth, Eng. trans. (London, 1916), pp. 520–23.Google Scholar

^{page 37 note 6} Hübner, op. cit., i. 392–94.

^{page 37 note 7} Pastor, op. cit., xxi. 269.

^{page 38 note 1} Hübner, op. cit., i. 389–91.

^{page 38 note 2} Ibid., p. 396.

^{page 38 note 3} Olivares to Philip II, 26 September 1588, ibid., iii. 257–61.

^{page 39 note 1} Pastor, op. cit., xxi. 273.

^{page 39 note 2} Hübner, op. cit., ii. 516.

^{page 39 note 3} Ibid., p. 168.

^{page 40 note 1} Hübner, op. cit., ii, pp. 172—76.

^{page 40 note 2} Ibid., pp. 248—49.

^{page 40 note 3} Ibid., p. 248.

^{page 40 note 4} Ibid., p. 288.

^{page 40 note 5} Ibid., p. 298.

^{page 40 note 6} Ibid., p. 307.

^{page 41 note 1} Ibid., ii. 351–52; iii. 477–91.

^{page 41 note 2} Ibid., ii. 304.

^{page 42 note 1} Hübner, op. cit., iii. 451.

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