Calle Lista, Sevilla,
Feb. 7th 1870
My Dear Smith,
I am sure you have already forgiven me for my long silence; still it is but right that I should ask you to do so in order that you may be satisfied of my penitence. I have often thought of you during my wanderings and am very efficiently reminded of you by the elegant cicero [sic] which now graces my study table.[2] But hitherto my erratic and distracted life (you can’t believe how I am worried) have [sic] prevented me from writing any letters as well as from reading news papers — so that I am very ignorant of your present devices. “Quae circumvolitas agilis thyma?”[3] And what of your prospects? I can’t remember whether we decided that you or that I should write to Schaarschmidt and Ritschl. At all events I haven’t done it as I have only now got my German dictionary.
I have now got settled down in a temporary sort of way. I am at present living in the institution as I found it easy to get tolerable quarters here and difficult to get them anywhere else — unless I were to take a house of my own — a step from the contemplation of which I shrink in dismay. So here I am, with my books marshalled beside me like soldiers. I haven’t read very much, you may be sure — for many reasons — principally because I hadn’t the books till the end of last week. (A sufficient reason I think?) But I am taking very kindly to Arminius whose little fat volumes alongside Cicero and Tischendorf[4] give permanent respectability to my table.
I have enjoyed my travels very well. I spent 2 days in Paris – 4 in Madrid 2 in Cordoba 3 in Cadiz 2 in Gibraltar 4 in Malaga 7 in Granada – and didn’t weary anywhere except in Malaga which is fearfully relaxing. Granada is one of the finest places I have visited — not certainly so far as the amenities of modern civilization are concerned for the city needs to have the rubbish of 3 centuries and a half cleared away, but in point of scenery and in point of the interest of its historical remains, I thought that Granada alone would repay a man for his trouble in visiting Spain.
About the language — I can read Gil Blas[5] pretty well now. But as for intercourse with the natives — apart from the difficulty of my partial deafness and more than partial dumbness — the language of Andalusia is so inarticulate or at least so far removed from the Castilian – that I don’t feel at all comfortable. I have however conducted prayer once with the students (after careful preparation of course) and also have briefly expounded a chapter in such a manner as enabled them to understand me and I don’t despair of being able to do a good deal of work in another month’s time. There is a great deal of work to be done. I have now had some specimens of the Protestantism in Spain — and I have now seen fulfilled my own prophecy — that it wouldn’t give me unmingled satisfaction. There is not much of it, and of the little that there is a good deal is shallow and some I more than suspect is spurious. They haven’t got a good grip of the idea of the Gottes Reich[6] — and they go in for all kinds of inferior substitutes — in particular they all have a great notion of Republicanism. I can’t blame them for that either — for though I hate republicanism very thoroughly I don’t see anything better to recommend.
But when one turns to the contemplation of Romanism, then one learns to regard Protestantism with hope and enthusiasm. In Germany the Catholicism is a mild affair: but here it drives one almost frantic. Of course all the cathedrals are dedicated to the virgin and where you have a crucifix in Germany you have her effigy in Spain. The only very important duty of indispensable obligation is that of buying yearly (price 5d.) a copy of la Bula de la Santa Cruzada.[7] Their Theologia Moralis is a lark: and the first thing to be predicated of it is its immorality.
A very good “Handbook for Spain” is Juvenal. Be sure to have an un-expurgated edition. They are an obscene lot. They never curse. When a Spaniard wishes to give vent to his displeasure, he doesn’t imprecate anything at all upon you — bad or good — he simply squirts at you some of the obscenity that he is bursting with — a torrent of obscene words. The things that are said and that are written are outmatched in vileness by the things that are done. Before leaving this unsavoury subject, I feel curious to know whether this be quite a separate appearance from that in the days of Juvenal — or whether this be traceable to that as its cause. And then whether Jesuit morals (which are Spanish morals) be the cause or the effect of the immorality of the people?
The minister of the Protestant congregation here — Cabrera — is a very fine fellow whom I esteem very much.[8] If there were many like him it would be well. We are just approaching a very important crisis. The Jesuit church (S Francises de Paula) is as good as bought. Query:– what will happen when it is fitted up and used as a Protestant place of worship? Perhaps the fashion will set in of so appropriating suppressed churches. That would be a great step for Protestantism. Perhaps there will be an outburst of fanaticism — bloodshed? &c. &c. Who knows? Certainly the fanaticism exists. But the laws of fanatismo-statics and of fanatismo-dynamics are not well ascertained yet.
I can assure you that if you have anything encouraging to say to me, you had better say it: for my own faith is being severely tried. I wasn’t prepared for such a shock. I didn’t expect to be compelled utterly to refuse the title of Christian to the Roman Church in Spain. But I am compelled.
The fellows in the Institution here are promising. They don’t know much, it is true, but I think they are sincere, and devout, and capable of knowing. As there is so much that is encouraging about them, and as it is chiefly with them that I have to do, I try to shut my eyes to the darkness around which oppresses me and causes darkness within. Still one can’t help feeling it.
I am very tired. Please excuse this scrawl and all its vagaries — I have said to you what I would not say to everybody (I don’t think suppressio veri is always Jesuitical) — so be discreet.
Believe me, my dear Smith,
Yours very affectly
John S. Black
[1] CUL ADD MSS 7449 B003 MS
[2] The volume of Cicero referred to later in the letter and evidently a gift from WRS.
[3] A tag from Horace (Epistles 1, iii, to Julius Florus) amounting to “What have you been up to?”; lit. “What thyme have you been busily hovering about?”.
[4] Tischendorf, Konstantin von (1815–1874): Protestant theologian and professor of New Testament in Leipzig, most noted for his editing of the newly discovered Codex Sinaiticus.
[5] The popular 18th c. picaresque novel set in Spain, though the author, René Le Sage, had never actually visited the country.
[6] Properly (das) Gottesreich.
[7] Originally a plenary indulgence granted in return for fighting against the infidel in the Crusades but by 1870 simply a debased means of securing donations for the Church.
[8] Senor Juan Cabrera visited the Free Church Assembly in May, 1870, in his capacity as “President of the Consistory of the Reformed Church of Spain” (PFCA, 1870, p.33).