Page 229 [229]
OCR
PROTESTANT EDUCATION IN SPAIN... cemetery was opened in Malaga with the permission of Ferdinand VII. The colonies with the most foreigners were in Malaga, Cadiz and Sevilla, so they opened the first Protestant churches in these cities.” The Catalan translation of the four Gospels began to spread in 1832, though not in great numbers. The Gospel of Luke is translated into Basque five years later. In 1835 the Englishman George Borrow (1803-1881) and the Methodist Rule began their work as distributors of the Protestant Bible. Borrow published his New Testament in Spanish in 1837. !° Protestant communities sprang up in Barcelona over time. The Catalonian Lutheran Francisco de Paula Ruet (1826-1878) was exiled for preaching, his student Manuel Matamoros Garcia (1834-1866) was also charged; there was an international outcry. The trial took place in Granada, and he was exiled rather than sent to prison. During the 1850’s, more precisely 1854—56, while the so-called progressive government was in power, Protestant activism increased in Madrid. The Comité para el Fomento del Evangelio en Espana [Spanish Committee for the Spread of the Gospel] was born in 1855 and that same year published the Lutheran Bible. Angel Herreros de Mora (1815-1876), Luis Usoz (1805-1865), and the English engineer William Greene (1819-1878) played an important part in the Madrid committee. Greene received both moral and financial support from England." The progressive Liberals had a policy of religious tolerance, and there was greater freedom for a few years after 1854. Protestant books were easier to print. In the 1860s in the outer districts of Madrid, where the Catholic clergy were less active, evangelization began. This happened in the villages near the capital. Itshould be noted that book publication was still officially illegal at this time. The Nevertheless, Protestant communities working in secret in Madrid published Matthew’s Gospel in 4,000 copies. After the failure of the 1854-56 revolution, both Spanish and foreign Protestants were persecuted in Spain and VILAR, Juan Bautista, Intolerancia y libertad en la Espana contemporanea. Los origenes del Protestantismo Espanol actual, Madrid, Istmo, 1994, 12. George Borrow (1803-1881) English novel-, and guidebook-writer. His father was a recruiter, his mother was a farmer’s daughter. Studied at the Royal High School of Edinburgh, the Norwich Grammar School. He studied law, but languages and literature became his main interests. Travelled all around Europe. His most famous book is The Bible in Spain, which has been released six times in London, and twice in the USA. He lived five years in Spain (1835-1840) during the Carlist War, and was imprisoned because of distributing Protestant Bibles on behalf of the Bible Society. http://www.entrelineas.org/leer.asp?a=george-borrow#. Ubr3xuegTSk (accessed: 14 June 2013) Greene was instrumental in exposing the situation of the Protestant communities in Spain. GREENE, William, Manuel Matamoros and Fellow-Prisoners; A Narrative of the Present Persecution of Christians in Spain, London, Morgan & Chase, 1863. e 227 +
