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The boldness with which Luther attacked the abuses and the authority of the Church of Rome in the 16th century attracted attention throughout Christendom in general and more specifically Spain. As Luther's writings, along with the earlier ones of Erasmus, gained a foothold with a Spanish people hungry for the truth, the forces of the church became anxious to suppress what they dreaded as an immediate danger. Thomas M'Cries's scholarly 1829 examination of the rise and persecution of 16th century Spanish Protestantism was intended by the author as a contribution to the history of that memorable revolution that affected all nations of Europe and indeed the Western World. He draws from, among other sources, the first hand accounts by earlier authorities such as Reynaldo Gonzalez de Montes and Cypriano de Valera, and furnishes the work with interesting details rescued from literary obscurity. His most interesting source is that of Juan Antonio Liorente, Secretary to the Inquisition at Madrid, which brings verification of accounts thought to be trained by preduice. In the end, M'Crie makes a case for a Spain free of the religious errors and coruptions that ultimately dried up the resources and poisoned the fountains of a great empire.
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