Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/115

 1581.] THE JESUIT INVASION, 99 teaching, they were to serve it now in their deaths. Campian had challenged the Pr.otestant divines to a public discussion. He was indulged in his desire. The Tower chapel was fitted up for the engagement, and the Deans of St Paul's and Windsor, Nowell and Day, were selected to enter the lists with him. A stage was raised for the council and the courtiers ; seats were placed for the Catholic prisoners that they might benefit by the defeat of their chief, and free access was allow- ed to the public. Campian was brought in under a guard. He stood for six hours arguing intricate di- vinity. It was a false issue, and the Government gained nothing by it. He could make a case which to Catholics appeared unanswerable ; but the real question was not a theological one ; it was rather was he or was he not a loyal English subject, was he or was he not engaged in recruiting soldiers for the Pope, ad illud temp us, for the time when the King of Scots should cross the Border ? To permit a controversy was to sanction his own defence that his crime was not treason but religion, and his pale face and tottering limbs showed painfully that his case had been removed already beyond the arguments of the learned deans. Thrice the adversaries engaged ; thrice they failed to work conviction on each other. The appeal was not to reason any more, but to that dread arbiter to which nations refer their differences when reason fails. England had revolted from the Papacy. The Pope had reclaimed his subjects, and the God of battles was to try the issue between them. The discus- sion was found impolitic, and the cause was remitted to