It is observable that Parsons
mentions Leicester and Huntingdon as the only powerful peers on whom the
Queen could rely, and Leicester, otherwise the unfittest man in her
dominions, she chose to command her land army.
The Duke of Alva and his master Philip, both of them distrusted
political priests. Political priests, they said, did not understand the
facts of things. Theological enthusiasm made them credulous of what they
wished. But Father Parsons's estimate is confirmed in all its parts by
the letters of Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in London. Mendoza was
himself a soldier, and his first duty was to learn the real truth. It
may be taken as certain that, with the Queen of Scots still alive to
succeed to the throne, at the time of the scene in the House of Commons,
with which I began this lecture, the great majority of the country party
disliked the Reformers, and were looking forward to the accession of a
Catholic sovereign, and as a consequence to a religious revolution.
It explains the difficulty of Elizabeth's position and the inconsistency
of her political action. Burghley, Walsingham, Mildmay, Knolles, the
elder Bacon, were believing Protestants, and would have had her put
herself openly at the head of a Protestant European league.
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