Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/65

 TffE JESUIT INVASION. & men who were strong enough to alter in their own dis- favour the policy of Elizabeth's Government. Sanders, Allen, Harding, Dorman, Phillips, and the other protochampions of Catholic orthodoxy, who estab- lished the celebrated seminaries at Douay and Kheims, had been persons in authority in Oxford in the reign of Queen Mary. They had witnessed the execution of the martyrs. They had shared in the enthusiasm of the re- action and the reconciliation with Rome, and when Mary died childless and Elizabeth succeeded, they fled abroad anticipating a counter-persecution. But Eliza- beth, tolerant towards Catholics everywhere, was espe- cially tolerant at the Universities. Catholic fellows retained their offices unmolested. Catholic students were admitted to degrees without being required to take the oath of supremacy. It was only as the Heads of the Colleges dropped off that care was taken to put Anglicans in the vacant places, that the Universities might be tranquilly metamorphosed without violent change. Cambridge, which had been the nursery of the Reformers, retained their spirit. When Cambridge offended the Government it was by over-sympathy with Cartwright and the Puritans. The genius of Oxford, then, as always, for some singular reason inclined equally to the opposite extreme. While Whitgift could hardly succeed in forcing the scholars of Trinity into surplices, Allen was able to return to Oxford and preach Popery without molestation ; and the professors' lec- ture halls, the College common rooms, and the students' VOL. XI. 4