The Turks are
quiet. The Church was never stronger or more united. Part of Italy is
under the Catholic King; the rest is in league with his Holiness. The
revolt in the Low Countries is all but crushed. The sea provinces are on
the point of surrendering. If they give up the contest their harbours
will be at our service for the invasion. If not, the way to conquer them
is to conquer England.
'I need not urge how much it imports his Holiness to undertake this
glorious work. He, supremely wise as he is, knows that from this Jezebel
and her supporters come all the perils which disturb the Christian
world. He knows that heretical depravity and all other miseries can only
end when this woman is chastised. Reverence for his Holiness and love
for my afflicted country force me to speak. I submit to his most holy
judgment myself and my advice.'
The most ardent Catholic apologist will hardly maintain, in the face of
this document, that the English Jesuits and seminary priests were the
innocent missionaries of religion which the modern enemies of
Elizabeth's Government describe them. Father Parsons, the writer of it,
was himself the leader and director of the Jesuit invasion, and cannot
be supposed to have misrepresented the purpose for which they had been
sent over.
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