ABSTRACT
Thomas Scott’s document presents a passionate plea against a ‘mischievous and poysonous peace with Spain’. After two decades of peace, the author describes the Spanish as a treacherous people. Scott uses broad rhetorical strokes and religious invective. He also discounts the justifications for Spanish empire and rejects the authority of the Catholic Church. The preface, reproduced, states the author’s political position. Scott raises the favoured theme of Spanish cruelty, drawing upon the publication of Bartoleme de las Casas. Scott, a highly successful polemicist on behalf of the Protestant cause, previously published Vox Populi, or Newes from Spayne (1620), which purported to present the Spanish ambassador’s reports of his efforts to undermine the English government. It was the first of a series of such polemical publications by Scott. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell’s attack on the Spanish West Indies would prompt the posthumous republication of this anti-Spanish tract.
