Note 103 — Chapter IV · 1555-1558

It must be recollected that Philip’s tolerance and moderation with regard to the extreme persecution of heresy in England was purely a matter of policy, as his after life clearly proved. At a later period, moreover, he actually claimed for himself the credit of the religious persecution. Cabrera de Cordoba quotes a letter from him to his sister Juana, in which he says, “I, having diverted the realm [England] from the sects and brought it into obedience to the Church, and having always been in favour of the punishment of the heretics, which is now being carried out so smoothly in England” (Cabrera, “Vida de Felipe II.”).