Francesco G. PenSotti (PEnzotti)

Penzotti was born in September 1851 in Chiavenna, Lombardo-Veneto (Provincia di Sondrio), to Giacomo Pensotti and his wife Giuseppa, a traditionally Catholic family. His father died when he was only six, in 1857. In 1864, with two older brothers, he emigrated to Uruguay, leaving behind his mother. He became a carpenter, and married Josefa Joaquina Sagastibelza at 19 or 20 years of age. She was a young immigrant born in Elduayen, Spain, and together they would have seven children (Anderson 1999: 526).

In 1876 the young Francesco (now referred to by his Spanish name as 'Francisco G. Penzotti') met the Scottish born, American-trained Rev. John F. Thompson (1843–1933) in Montevideo. Through Thompson, who was the MEC pastor in Buenos Aires, Penzotti became connected to the ministries of Andrew Murray Milne (American Bible Society Secretary for the Rio de la Plata) and Thomas B. Wood. After reading the New Testament, he was converted, and began work with the ABS.

In 1877, Penzotti toured Córdoba, Tucumán, Salta, Jujuy, La Quiaca, Mojos, Tupiza, Cotagaita, Potosí, Chuquisaca, Sucre, Puno, La Paz and other towns, arriving in Tacna, on the Pacific coast. Though suffering "deprivations and persecutions" he continued on to Chile, returning to his family after eight months of touring. In 1879, he was assigned to the Waldensian colony in Uruguay (1879-1887), in the absence of denominational pastors. The fact that he was a Methodist evangelist did not always result in ready acceptance.

In 1883 Penzotti began touring various countries in South America as a colporteur together with Milne, distributing the Protestant Reina-Valera version of the Bible, the next year starting a second Bolivian tour of thirteen months. In 1885 he embarked for London.

In March 1887 he was appointed pastor in Rosario (Province of Santa Fe), where he settled with his family. Shortly thereafter, however, he was also assigned, on Milne's recommendation, to work with a team in Peru. There was no freedom of religion under the Peruvian Constitution: Catholicism was the state religion and any other public religious faith was prohibited. There had been Protestant missions in Peru since 1822, but all had struggled. The establishment of freedom of religion in Argentina and Uruguay, however, and the expanding influence of American investment in Peru, provided greater resources for expansion. At the same time, The Vatican's 'onslaught against liberalism, Freemasonry and Protestantism, ... reached its peak as of the publication of the encyclical Humanum Genus by Leo XIII in 1884' (Seiguer 2019), forcing political liberals over in support of Protestant values. Penzotti distributed bibles, but also began to preach in Spanish, with some success and so therefore rising opposition. Continual threats forced the place of worship to be changed.

In January 1889 Penzotti was arrested in Arequipa on the orders of the bishop, Juan Ambrosio Huerta, along with two collaborators: his books were confiscated. After 19 days he was released by order of President Cáceres, who had received a complaint from the Italian ambassador. Penzotti returned with his family to Callao, from where he sued to recover the merchandise under the Constitution's terms protecting freedom of expression and commerce.

In 1890, Penzotti and Charles W. Drees founded the Methodist Church in Peru (the Iglesia Metodista Episcopal del Callao), with 31 members and 95 aspirants, and was ordained as pastor (Harmon 1974: 1636), the first permanent evangelical congregation in the country. The congregation grew into the hundreds, and for some time they were permitted to use a empty building established for the English congregation in Callao. They were under rising threat of violence, and preached behind closed doors to parishioners who required a ticket to enter. When it was reported that Catholic activists threatened to blow the building up with dynamite, he and his congregation returned to their original building. His two oldest daughters were sent out of the city to protect them from street attacks. This time, both the Italian and the American ambassador considered that he had transgressed Peruvian laws and refused to act (Armas Asin 1998: 159, 165). Despite this, Penzotti was formally accused by José Manuel Castro of violating of breaching Article 4 of the Constitution (ie. opening of non-Catholic places of worship, publicly preaching non-Catholic doctrine, administering sacraments and using the title of pastor, which in Catholic terms is reserved for the bishop). On 25 July he was arrested again and locked in the Casas Matas prison (Armas Asin 1998: 142, 152-158). His defense mobilized public opinion and was supported by the Masonic lodges. He refused to accept release on the condition of leaving Peru, and used his time in gaol preaching to the other prisoners. The case went to a Superior Court, and then the Supreme Court of Justice, which finally acquitted him completely on 25 March 1891. The case radicalized Peruvian public opinion around freedom of worship (Asin Armas 1998: 158-170).

American papers took up the case, carrying copy written by the ABS and the Methodist Episcopal Church unfavorably comparing Peru and Bolivia with Argentina and Chile, where there was “total religious freedom”, and complaining about the slowness of the judicial process, which consigned Penzotti to remain in gaol unnecessarily. In January 1891, the New York Herald published photographs taken by E. E. Olcott, and smuggled out of Peru, of the cell in which Penzotti had been gaoled. The amount of attention given the case (as Seiguer 2019 notes) was remarkable, particularly after the State Department got involved in response the New York Herald's campaign. The story spread around the world, via Bible Society and missionary networks (for example, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The Missionary Herald, and the C&MA's Gospel in Other Lands): the Scottish Bible Society inserted the case in Scottish newspapers, which by March brought the Foreign Office into the picture. The ninth General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance happened to take place in Florence in 1891, and it included as one of its nine resolutions a declaration of support to Penzotti for "his long prison in the name of the Gospel" and a call to Peru to grant religious freedom " as most nations of mankind enjoy today ”(Redford 1891: 314). Penzotti's release was also noised abroad by the press throughout Britain gained another fillip 'months later from the coverage of the annual activities of the Evangelical Alliance'. (Seiguer 2019)

In 1892 and 1896, the American press also carried stories of bible burning and violence against Penzotti and other missionaries of the ABS. By then, he had become a sort of Protestant saint to American audiences, in 1905 appearing in lists of “missionary heroes” of two newspapers, and in 1912 in a list of lives to study as examples of “missionary audacity”. (Seiguer 2019) In Millard and Guinness's important book South America, The Neglected Continent, the Penzotti case played an important role in mobilizing Protestant support for missions in South America. (Millard / Guinness 1894: 93). The 'humble Italian carpenter' who became 'a preacher, an apostle and a hero' (Wood 1908: 150), became the inspiration for others to support the Protestant effort.

In 1892, in recognition of his leadership, Penzotti was promoted to the position of general secretary of the ABS in Central America and Panama. At the time, the Methodist Episcopal Church was agitating for freedom of worship and marriage in the laws of Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia - Penzotti's case was widely used as an example of the retrograde nature of Catholic regimes. For US Protestant causes, Penzotti was a martyr for the cause, and a potential catalyst for mobilizing US diplomatic support. In 1908, he was transferred as general secretary of the ABS in the Rio de la Plata.

In 1913, such was the demand for his story, Penzotti wrote a chapter entitled "Autobiography of Penzotti in South and Central America" ​​for Daniel Hall Llanos. By this time his fame had begun to go before him: churches would fill when it was known that he was visiting to give a lecture. By extension the Casas Matas prison became something of a tourish destination and sacred site for Methodists. When in 1915 religious freedom was established in Peru by law, many authors interpreted this to be a result of the furore around the Penzotti case. Reid would argue (perhaps overstating the case) that the case had

an almost worldwide significance as a test-case in the struggle to ensure a liberal interpretation of the letter of the law in favor of religious freedom in teaching and worship. It was a crucial event, and Penzotti had the spirit of the martyrs (Reid 1895: 391).

In 1916, Penzotti published his autobiographical book, Spiritual Victories in Latin America. In the same year he was included in Margarette Daniels' book Makers of South America. John McLean's The Living Christ for Latin America prominently featured Penzotti, as would later works such as Wade Barclay Crawford's History of Methodist Missions (1957).

On 24 July 1925, Penzotti died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, an event covered widely by 'a multitude of Protestant newspapers'. His name lived on in “Penzotti Leadership Training Institutes”, a "Penzotti newspaper," and a "Penzotti fellowship." A documentary was filmed by Lutheran Emanuel Heuer, of the Canadian Bible Society called Penzotti's Pathways. His name became associated with American Methodist strategy in South America, whereby Methodists sought to push the legal limits and advocate legislative change

Children: Daniel Giuseppe; Alberto Henry, Pablo (Paul) (b. 1877), Maria Ester, Adela, Francisco, Elisa (died young, 1888), Pedro / Peter (d. 1929, Alameda, CA), and Daniel. Paul married Clara Kildare, undertook missionary work in Argentina, and lived for some time in Ann Arbor, MI, USA, with their two of daughters, Miriam (b. San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1907–1960) and Lillian (1909–1981; m Mathew Carl Haddon 1908–1997, 2s. Richard Paul (1936–1996; and Dean Kildare 1941–1959); their older sister, Clara Violeta (b. 1903, Redlands, CA), married in Michigan. Paul died in 1931 in Buenos Aires, and Clara retired to Glendale California.

Sources:

• Anderson, Gerald B., Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999.
• Armas Asin, Fernando, Liberales, protestantes y masones. Modernidad y tolerancia religiosa. Perú, siglo xix. Lima: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, 1998.
• Barclay, Crawford W., History of Methodist Missions, 6 vols. New York: Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, 1957.
• Bruno-Jofré, Rosa del Carmen, Methodist Education in Peru. Social Gospel, Politics, and American Ideological and Economic Penetration, 1888-1930. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1988.
• Harmon, Nolan B. (ed.), Encyclopedia of World Methodism. Nashville: United Methodist Publishing House, 1974.
• Penzotti, Francisco G., Spiritual Victories in Latin America. New York: American Bible Society, 1916.
• Redford, Robert A. (ed.), Christendom from the Viewpoint of Italy: Proceedings of the Ninth General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance held in Florence, 1891. London: Office of the Evangelical Alliance, 1891.
• Reid, John M., Missions and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, vol. 1. New York: Hunt and Eaton, 1895.
• Seiguer, Paula, “Los caminos de Penzotti”. Las misiones protestantes en América del Sur y la construcción de la laicidad", Iberoamericana 19.70 (2019), pp. 157-179.
• Seiguer, Paula, “Laicidad y pluralidad religiosa temprana. Los metodistas y el Esta-do laico en la década de 1880”. Quinto Sol 19.3 (2015), pp. 1-22.