other attention was shown it, than that Mr. Shelley, " for pre

queen,

by whom it was presented to the "suming," as it was said, "to present an address "to the queen, without the knowledge and con"sent of the lords of the council," was sent to the Marshalsea*, and kept a close prisoner till his death.

Surely, when he peruses this treatment of the catholics, the reader must feel some indignation. But, will not he himself justly excite something of a like indignation, if, after seeing the loyalty of the catholics thus so severely tried, and thus found so eminently pure, he returns to his former prejudices, and allows himself to entertain, even for a moment, a suspicion of their perfect loyalty to their sovereign, throughout the whole of her long, her splendid, but certainly in respect to her catholic subjects, -(and we must repeat that they constituted twothirds of the nation),-her cruel and oppressive reign?

The nature of these pages does not require any particular mention of the events, which attended the Spanish invasion: the same presence of mind

*He was afterwards examined before the lords of the council:-they put down in writing the following position, and ordered him to subscribe it in writing, "Whosoever,

being a born subject of the realm, doth allow, that the pope "hath any authority to deprive queen Elizabeth, that now is, "of her estate and crown, is a traitor."-To this, he answered, "that it was very hard for him to discuss, what authority the

pope hath, and therefore could answer no further."-Upon this he was remanded.-Dr. Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, p. 169. Strype, Ann. vol. iii. p. 298.

and dexterity, the same firm and adventurous courage, which the English had shown on the plains of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt, were displayed by them against the Spanish armada. In one respect their conduct may be considered to be entitled to a larger share of admiration: the French and English soldiers had often been opposed to each other, before they met in the battles we have mentioned, so that the array of each army was fully known to the other: but, in the conflict in the Channel, the lofty masts, the swelling sails, the towering prows of the Spanish galleons, as they are described by the historians of the time, presented, at once, a new and a terrific spectacle; and were, from the very circumstance of their novelty, the more likely to shake the most valiant bosom with alarm. The English, how, ever, surveyed them with intrepid minds; there was no precaution, no art, no manœuvre, which skill or experience could suggest, or reflection combine, which they did not coolly and deliberately use; no advantage presented itself, of which they did not avail themselves with the utmost presence of mind; and when the hour of action came, there was not a danger which they did not brave, or an achievement, within the limits of human skill or human valour, which they did not accomplish*. To find a

*This immortal victory was celebrated by no immortal verse: every classical English scholar of the time must have applied to it, the noble strains by which Eschylus describes, in his Persæ, the glory of the Greeks, and the consternation of the Persians, after the battle of Salamis.

victory, of equal glory and importance to the British nation, we must travel to Waterloo :-catholics too were there.

CHAP. XXXVI.

THE POLITICS OF SOME OF THE ENGLISH CATHOLIC FUGITIVES, IN THE SPANISH DOMINIONS: -PUBLICATIONS OF THEIR SCHOOL: THE QUEEN'S PROCLAMATION, THE REPLY OF FATHER PERSONS:THE PENAL ACT AGAINST THE CATHOLICS OF THE THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR OF HER MAJESTY.

1594.

THE proscription of the catholic religion by queen Elizabeth, her severe laws against such of her subjects as adhered to it, and the increasing rigour by which they were executed, had occasioned a number of them to emigrate to different parts of the continent, particularly Spain and Spanish Flanders. They were favourably received by Philip the second: he professed to treat them with kindness; he employed many in his armies, granted pensions to others, and advanced some to places of rank and honour. His protection of them, his liberality to the catholic colleges, and his avowed zeal for the general welfare and extension of the catholic religion, attached all the fugitives to him still, while Mary the queen of Scots was living, their connection with him was very loose:

but, after her death, many of the fugitives entertained views, and engaged in designs, in his regard, which could not be justified; and which were disapproved by the wiser and better part of them, and by the general body of catholics in England. The abettors of Philip's views became known by the appellation of the Spanish party: we have referred to it in a former volume of this work. I. We shall now attempt to give a fuller account of it: II. Then mention some publications of this party, which made a great sensation at that time: III. Then notice the proceedings of the British government: IV. And father Persons's defence of himself, and of the catholic body in general: V. We shall close the chapter by the mention of two acts which were passed against the catholics in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of her majesty, and completed her penal code.

XXXVI. 1.

The Spanish Party among the English Catholic Fugitives.

FATHER Persons, sir Francis Englefield, and sir William Stanley, were at the head of the Spanish party; Mr. Charles Paget was at the head of a party opposed to them. A letter from sir Henry Neville to Mr. secretary Cecil, published in Winwood's Memorials*, contains a curious account of this circumstance. "I have saught," says the writer, "to "inform myself as much as I might, concerning "the carriage of the English fugitives in former

* Vol. i. p. 51.-It is from Paris, dated the 27th June 1599.

"times, and the cause of their retiring hither*; " and I find that there has grown great dissention "between our papists abroad, and that they have "been divided into two factions, the one depend"ing upon the jesuits, whereof Persons is now the head, whose courses have been violent to seek "and wish the overthrow of the present estate, by conquest or any other means; the other consists

chiefly of the laymen and gentlemen which are abroad, whereof Charles Paget † hath bin the

* Paris.

+ "The strongest opposition which Dr. Allen, Persons, "and their friends, experienced, arose from Mr. Paget, who "has just been mentioned; and I find the original cause of this "gentleman's alienation assigned in a writing of Persons, "which is also confirmed by an ancient Italian мs. now in my possession. Mr. Paget living in Paris, became aç"quainted with Morgan, a native of Wales, who, while he 66 was in the service of the earl of Shrewsbury, had obtained "the confidence of the captive queen of Scotland. They "were both connected in friendship with her two secretaries, "Nau and Curle; and, as Persons says, opposing themselves "secretly against the archbishop of Glasgow, ambassador for "the queen, they broke his credit much with the said queen, "and wrung from him in time the administration of the queen's "dowry in France, which was some thirty thousand crowns

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a year; by which they were able to pleasure much their "friends, and hinder their adversaries: and then joining "themselves with Dr. Lewis in Rome, and falling out with "Dr. Allen and F. Persons, they were the cause of much "division among catholics, which hitherto hath endured. "Now it happened, that, on the return of the jesuit Creighton "from Scotland to Paris, a consultation was held on the concerns of the young king of Scotland, and his captive mother, by the bishop of Bergamo, nuncio at the French "court, the archbishop of Glasgow, the Spanish ambassador

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