The 400 members all rose,
and knelt on the floor of the House, repeating Hatton's words after him,
sentence by sentence.
Jesuits and seminary priests! Attempts have been made to justify the
conspiracies against Elizabeth from what is called the persecution of
the innocent enthusiasts who came from Rheims to preach the Catholic
faith to the English people. Popular writers and speakers dwell on the
executions of Campian and his friends as worse than the Smithfield
burnings, and amidst general admiration and approval these martyred
saints have been lately canonised. Their mission, it is said, was purely
religious. Was it so? The chief article in the religion which they came
to teach was the duty of obedience to the Pope, who had excommunicated
the Queen, had absolved her subjects from their allegiance, and, by a
relaxation of the Bull, had permitted them to pretend to loyalty _ad
illud tempus_, till a Catholic army of deliverance should arrive. A Pope
had sent a legate to Ireland, and was at that moment stirring up a
bloody insurrection there.
But what these seminary priests were, and what their object was, will
best appear from an account of the condition of England, drawn up for
the use of the Pope and Philip, by Father Parsons, who was himself at
the head of the mission.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136