Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/101

 THE JESUIT INVASION. tainted names to their children. 1 They place them- selves in the hands of God, and are willing to sacrifice life and all in the service, but scarcely with that burn- ing zeal which they ought to show. 2 They feel as men the shame of figuring before their descendants as traitors to their Prince ; yet they see also that these unjust and rigorous laws may be the means of extirpating the Catholic religion out of the land, unless in some way the execution of them be prevented. It is to effect this purpose that the heretics have pressed them on the Queen. They have made her believe that the Catholics will not be contented with liberty of worship, but desire a change of sovereigns. They have pretended that her life is in danger, the independence of the country threatened, with other lies and fictions ; and although the Catholics did their utmost to prevent these laws from passing, and offered the Queen at last a hundred and fifty thousand dollars if she would refuse consent, they could not prevail upon her. They address them- 1 This could be said only of con- verts or of chose who chose to en- tertain the Jesuits. The statute touched no one who had been born and bred a Catholic, if he offended in no other way, further than by a fine if he was recusant. 2 The uncertainty of the English Catholics, placed between two duties, was acknowledged by a seminary priest in the Tower. ' For prepar- ation,' he said, ' to be made here before our coming, who were priests sent to win men home again to our society and fellowship, I knew none other but that it was chiefly to be made by our own labours, hoping that if there were any great number of such, when any power were once set on land though how that should be done we likewise knew not they would all join together to make a reformation. And yet, I tell you true, there were more that did doubt here- of than did affirm it, because they thought all generally, of what re- ligion soever they were, would jointly bear arms against a foreigner.' Depositions : MSS. MAKY QUEEN OF SCOTS 1582.