1554. The re-establishment of the old faith in England was a difficult matter, requiring wisdom and discretion, and Alfonso was sent to be Philip's counsellor, as well as his spiritual director. He was not favourably impressed with the discretion shown by the English bishops in pursuing their ends by severities which alienated popular sympathy. The imperial envoy, Simon Renard, urged greater moderation, but his remonstrances were unheeded. At last Philip was advised, in his own interests, to make it known that he did not favour the policy of persecution. On 9 Feb. 1555 six heretics were burnt in London. On the following day Fray Alfonso publicly preached an eloquent sermon against persecution. ‘He did earnestly inveigh against the bishops for so burning men, saying plainly that they learned it not in the Scripture to burn any man for his conscience; but the contrarie, that they should live and be converted, with many other things more to the same purpose’ (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. 1841, pp. 704–5).
This sermon of Alfonso made a great impression at the time, and no doubt delayed the execution of Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer. But the English bishops resented Spanish interference, and those who were the objects of Alfonso's intercession did not thank him for it. John Bradford (1510?–1555) [q. v.], who was in prison awaiting his death, was told of Alfonso's sermon. ‘Verily,’ he said, ‘I had a book within these two days of his writing, and therein he saith that it is not meet nor convenient that heretics should live’ (Bradford's Works, Parker Society, i. 554). This was the book ‘De justa hæreticorum punitione,’ and Bradford's remark shows how impossible is fairness of mind in times of excitement. Even the modern editor quotes as Bradford's authority Alfonso's position: ‘Teneo justum esse ut hæreticus incorrigibilis occidatur.’ In those days scarcely any one disputed that proposition; but they differed about the meaning of the word ‘heretic,’ and Alfonso's sermon only meant that he took a different view from the English bishops of the meaning of the word ‘incorrigible.’ The ambassador Renard, writing to Charles V at the same time, said that the English bishops were hasty in their punishment, and did not show the moderation which the church had always used in weaning the people from error by teaching and preaching; unless punishment was called for by some scandalous act it ought not to be employed (Papiers d'État du Cardinal Granvelle, iv. 397, 404). There is no good ground for questioning Alfonso's good sense or sincerity.
A few days after his sermon, on 25 Feb., Alfonso visited Bradford in his prison, and tried to convince him of his errors. We have Bradford's own account of the interview (l. c. 530, &c.), and what he tells us is sufficient to show that his calm assumption of superior enlightenment must have sorely tried the temper of a man of Alfonso's learning. ‘He hath a great name for learning,’ says Bradford, ‘but surely he hath little patience;’ he spoke ‘so that the whole house did ring again with an echo.’ Bradford was quite convinced that the controversial triumph was on his own side.
This is all that we hear of Alfonso in England. In May 1556 he was in Antwerp, where he issued a revised and enlarged edition of his work, ‘Adversus Hæreses,’ which had occupied him during his leisure in England, and which he dedicated to Philip. From this time he seems to have stayed in the Netherlands, and at the end of 1557 was appointed archbishop of Compostella. He had not time to enter on his office, but died in Brussels on 11 Feb. 1558, at the age of sixty-three.
The best edition of the works of Alfonso is ‘Alfonsi a Castro Zamorensis Opera Omnia,’ 2 vols. Paris, 1578.
[Most of the information about Alfonso is gleaned from the dedications and prefaces of his works; besides this there are short accounts of him in Antonius's Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, vol. i., and Wadding's Scriptores Ordinis Minorum.]
CASWALL, EDWARD (1814–1878), divine and poet, was son of the Rev. Robert Clarke Caswall, and younger brother of Dr. Henry Caswall, prebendary of Salisbury. He was born on 15 July 1814 at Yateley, Hampshire, where his father was vicar. He was educated at Marlborough and at Brasenose College, Oxford, of which society he was Hulme exhibitioner. He graduated B.A. in 1836 and M.A. in 1838. After ordination he was presented to the perpetual curacy of Stratford-sub-Castle, Wiltshire, in the diocese of his uncle, Dr. Burgess, bishop of Salisbury [q. v.] This living he resigned shortly before his reception into the Roman catholic church in January 1847. Two years later he became a widower, and in March 1850 he joined the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, under Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Newman, whose acquaintance he had made at the house of Lord Shrewsbury, and to whose writings he always attributed his conversion to the catholic faith. In one of his numerous lyrics, beginning, ‘Hail, sacred Force! hail Energy sublime!’ Caswall bore eloquent tribute to the influence exercised over him by Dr. Newman's magic pen. While at Oxford
