José María Blanco White

At the end of the 18th century a man from Seville with Irish ancestry was ordained a priest, leaving the priesthood after only four years. He fled to England during the War of Independence. From there he criticised the backwardness of his country and the Catholic Church in a number of essays and published works, all of which were banned in Spain.

In England he became an Anglican and then a Unitarian. He worked as a translator, writer, university lecturer and pre-Romantic poet. He was openly opposed to classical Spanish poetry, which he labelled “stagnant”. Blanco White died in Liverpool, far from his birthplace of Seville, out of choice. His verses have gone on to form part of the anthologies of English literature. In Spain however, the name José María Crespo ‘Blanco White’ is barely known. Antonio Cascales, a lecturer at the University of Seville and expert on the subject, draws some light on this controversial figure.

Q. What was Blanco White fighting for?

A. For a Christianity without a Church, without bishops or priests or popes. For the cultural restoration of the people. For freedom of opinion and conscience.

Q. Is he a well-known figure in Spain?

A. He was ignored for generations. Then, at the beginning of the seventies, Blanco White became a role model for the generation graduating from university at that time. He stood for quality literature, a sharp critical eye and independent spirit.

Q. How is he best known: as a poet, a theologian or a journalist?

A. In England, as a poet. The sonnet Night and Death was described by Coleridge as “the finest and most grandly conceived sonnet in our language”. As a theologian Blanco White influenced the young John Henry Newman. He was however most famous for his controversial works that criticised Roman Catholicism, such as Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism and The Poor Man’s Preservative against Popery: addressed to the lower classes of Great Britain and Ireland. In Spain, academics have tended to reduce him to little more than author who writes about local customs.

Q. In his work Letters from Spain, he mentions customs which are deeply rooted in Spain, such as bullfighting and Holy Week. Is he proud of them or does he criticise them?

A. Interestingly enough he demonstrates a great deal of knowledge about these holidays and customs. He comes across as a man from Seville who is proud of the cathedral for example, but he is also a harsh critic.

Q. Why did he leave Spain?

A. He couldn’t bear the presence of the French invaders in his country or the arrogance of the friars who encouraged the resistance movement and controlled the political direction in which Spain was heading.

Q. What do you think would have happened to him if he had stayed?

A. He would probably have conspired against the absolutism of Ferdinand VII and would have been executed like so many others.

Q. Was his religion imposed on him by his family or something he chose freely?

A. By choosing to become a priest he did in fact make his mother very happy but is also gave him the opportunity to study humanities. Don Guillermo [his father] instilled medieval Catholicism in him, which involved mortifications and never-ending rituals which he was finally able to abandon.

Q. He criticised the Church on several occasions. But did he renounce it?

A. He needed the Church. He had a solid faith and a strong, unforgiving conscience.

Q. What is the key to understanding Blanco’s changing attitude? He went from being Catholic to Anglican and then Unitarian…

A. His incorruptible freedom of spirit.

Q. In El Español, and before that in El Semanario Patriótico, he criticised the invaders during the war with France, fought for independence and denounced dogmatism in the Church. Are there any accounts about how this was viewed in England and what people thought of him there?

A. He was very much respected by liberal and less conventional figures such as Lord Holland. With time he evolved from being something of a Jacobite to embracing the Tory mentality wholeheartedly in Oxford. In the words of his most famous biographer, Martin Murphy, “Blanco had escaped from the land of Throne and Altar only to find himself in that of Church and King”.

Q. Was the birth of his illegitimate child with Magdalena Eguaya another reason why his work was banned in Spain?

A. I don’t believe so. It was condemned because of its description of the life of cloistered nuns in Cartas de España, and most of all because of Practical and Internal Evidence against Catholicism and The Poor Man’s Preservative against Popery: addressed to the lower classes of Great Britain and Ireland.

Q. What is left of his work in Spain after so much has been banned?

A. In terms of manuscripts, very little. Most are in the Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool, in the British Library in London and in different Oxford Colleges: All Souls, Bodleian, Manchester and Oriel. There is also a very important collection of papers in the la University Library of Princeton. Proof of ethnic purity which was necessary in order to study at the Colegio de Santa María de Jesús is kept in the University Library of Seville.