Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/232

 218 CHAPTER LIV. EXCOMMUNICATION OF ELIZABETH. THE impunity with which. Elizabeth's Government was able to insult and provoke the Catholic Powers of Europe is the most anomalous phenomenon in modern history. The population of England was less than half the population either of France or Spain. The nation was divided against itself, and three-quarters of the peers and half the gentlemen were disaffected. Yet the in- tricacies of the political situation protected the Queen not only against active resentment from abroad, but from the conspiracies of her own subjects. Every- where indeed there was paradox ; everywhere contra- diction and inconsistency. In the struggle for existence men snatch at the first weapon that comes to hand, and cannot look too nicely at the armoury where it has been forged. Catholics and Protestants where they were a suffering minority clamoured alike for liberty of conscience ; alike where they were in power they proscribed every creed but their own. The obligations of loyalty varied with the creed of the Sovereign.