Let the Prince of Parma come, and they would all join
him; and together these two classes of Catholics made three-fourths of
the nation.
'The only party,' he says (and this is really noticeable), 'the only
party that would fight to death for the Queen, the only real friends she
had, were the _Puritans_ (it is the first mention of the name which I
have found), the Puritans of London, the Puritans of the sea towns.'
These he admits were dangerous, desperate, determined men. The numbers
of them, however, were providentially small.
The date of this document is, as I said, 1585, and I believe it
generally accurate. The only mistake is that among the Anglican
Catholics there were a few to whom their country was as dear as their
creed--a few who were beginning to see that under the Act of Uniformity
Catholic doctrine might be taught and Catholic ritual practised; who
adhered to the old forms of religion, but did not believe that obedience
to the Pope was a necessary part of them. One of these was Lord Howard
of Effingham, whom the Queen placed in his high command to secure the
wavering fidelity of the peers and country gentlemen. But the force, the
fire, the enthusiasm came (as the Jesuit saw) from the Puritans, from
men of the same convictions as the Calvinists of Holland and Rochelle;
men who, driven from the land, took to the ocean as their natural home,
and nursed the Reformation in an ocean cradle.
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