Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/75

 1580.] THE JESUIT INVASION. 59 ject of declamation with the English clergy. Carica- tures were sold publicly in London of the Pope, Nero, aiid the Grand Turk, as the three tyrants, and the Queen ought not to be surprised if the Pope used such power as he possessed to restore Ireland and England also to their old condition. She was alarmed, and not without reason. She had just broken with the Duke of Alengon, as Burghley supposed definitively, and had thus affronted France. An uneasy humour was spreading among the English Catholics, and Mendoza represented to Philip thac if he would take advantage of the existing confusion, and send his fleet to the Channel, he would probably find an easy victory. A commission had been sent out to the bishops bidding them look more sharply after the Catholic families. Elizabeth pretended to Mendoza that it had been issued without her consent. She re- called it. She said her bishops were a set of knaves, 1 and she would not have the Catholics ill-used. But her hesitation was ill-timed, and could not be main- tained. Reports of the Jesuit mission came in from Rome with exact information of its nature, and of the new construction of Pope Pius's Bull. Briefs, identical with those dispersed by Sanders in Ireland, declaring the Queen a schismatic, and Queen no longer, were found lying about the streets in London ; and Elizabeth, in spite of herself, had been driven back upon severity. The statutes against the Catholics were put in force, 1 ' Dicicndo por su misma boca que eran unos bellacos.' Don B. de Mendoza al Key, & 23 Marzo, 1580.