Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/411

 1 5 77-] THE SPANISH TREATY. 391 regular authority. It was surrounded with the terrors which superstition and practical fear combined to inspire, and Cay as spoke of it as a mysterious force which it was dangerous even to attempt to meddle with. An Eng- lishman, brought up in the traditions of Henry VIII., felt none of these timidities. The creed might be sacred, but Inquisitors were mere priests, who meddled with the persons and properties of the Queen's subjects. Quiroga, Archbishop of Toledo, was the first subjeq in the Peninsula. Next to the King in his place in council, superior to the King in wielding the irrespon- sible powers of the Holy Office, he was a person before whom princes stood with bated breath, while meaner citizens knelt as he passed along the streets. Smith had more than once applied for an interview with this august personage. Quiroga, who five years before had refused to deliver the message of the council to Cobham lest he should defile himself by speaking to an excommunicated Englishman, sent cold answers that he could not see him. Sir John, who had encountered archbishops in London and had not found them formidable, did not choose to be put off in this way. He went one evening to the palace, brushed past the porter, ascended the stairs, and forced himself into the sacred presence. It was after supper. The Archbishop was in his private room with the Conde de Andrada and two priests. He stared haughtily at the intruder, who pro- ceeded to tell him, with entire coolness, that he con- sidered he had been treated with scanty courtesy. He was the minister of a great Queen, he said, and as such,