| 1 | <html>
|
|---|
| 2 |
|
|---|
| 3 | <head>
|
|---|
| 4 | <meta name="content" content="biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892">
|
|---|
| 5 | <meta name="page_topic" content="biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892">
|
|---|
| 6 | <meta name="author" content="Marilee Mongello">
|
|---|
| 7 | <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0">
|
|---|
| 8 | <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
|
|---|
| 9 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
|
|---|
| 10 | <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us">
|
|---|
| 11 | <title>Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892:
|
|---|
| 12 | Chapter VII</title>
|
|---|
| 13 | <style>
|
|---|
| 14 | </style>
|
|---|
| 15 | <style fprolloverstyle>A:hover {color: #0000FF; font-weight: bold}
|
|---|
| 16 | </style>
|
|---|
| 17 | </head>
|
|---|
| 18 |
|
|---|
| 19 | <body link="#0000FF" vlink="#0000FF" alink="#0000FF">
|
|---|
| 20 |
|
|---|
| 21 | <table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="100%" height="667">
|
|---|
| 22 | <tr>
|
|---|
| 23 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
|
|---|
| 24 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="29"> </td>
|
|---|
| 25 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
|
|---|
| 26 | </tr>
|
|---|
| 27 | <tr>
|
|---|
| 28 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
|
|---|
| 29 | <td width="50%" height="3"><font size="3"></font></td>
|
|---|
| 30 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
|
|---|
| 31 | </tr>
|
|---|
| 32 | <tr>
|
|---|
| 33 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
|
|---|
| 34 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
|
|---|
| 35 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">Queen Elizabeth<br></font></b>
|
|---|
| 36 | <font size="4">by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</font></p>
|
|---|
| 37 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 38 | <img border="2" src="eliz1-ermine.jpg" width="400" height="478" alt="'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard"><p align="center">
|
|---|
| 39 | <i><font size="2">'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
|
|---|
| 40 | Hilliard;<br>from the <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html">Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I</a> website</font></i></td>
|
|---|
| 41 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
|
|---|
| 42 | </tr>
|
|---|
| 43 | </table>
|
|---|
| 44 | <blockquote>
|
|---|
| 45 | <blockquote>
|
|---|
| 46 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
|---|
| 47 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman"></font>
|
|---|
| 48 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman"></font>
|
|---|
| 49 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman"></font>
|
|---|
| 50 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman">
|
|---|
| 51 | <div align="left">
|
|---|
| 52 | <b>CHAPTER VII</b><br>
|
|---|
| 53 | <b>THE PAPAL ATTACK: 1570-1583</b></div>
|
|---|
| 54 | <p align="left">SOVEREIGNS and statesmen in the sixteenth century are to be
|
|---|
| 55 | honoured or condemned according to the degree in which they aimed on the one
|
|---|
| 56 | hand at preserving political order, and on the other at allowing freedom of
|
|---|
| 57 | opinion. It was not always easy to reconcile these two aims. The first was a
|
|---|
| 58 | temporary necessity, and yet was the more urgent--as indeed is always the
|
|---|
| 59 | case with the tasks of the--statesman. He is responsible for the present; it
|
|---|
| 60 | is not for him to attempt to provide for a remote future. Political order
|
|---|
| 61 | and the material well-being of nations may be disastrously impaired by the
|
|---|
| 62 | imprudence or weakness of a ruler. Thought, after all, may be trusted to
|
|---|
| 63 | take care of itself in the long-run. </p>
|
|---|
| 64 | <p align="left">To the modern Liberal, with his doctrine of absolute
|
|---|
| 65 | religious equality, toleration seems an insult, and anything short of
|
|---|
| 66 | toleration is regarded as persecution. In the sixteenth century the most
|
|---|
| 67 | advanced statesmen did not see their way to proclaim freedom of public
|
|---|
| 68 | worship and of religious discussion. It was much if they tolerated freedom
|
|---|
| 69 | of opinion, and connived at a quiet, private propagation of other religions
|
|---|
| 70 | than those established by law. It would be wrong to condemn and despise them
|
|---|
| 71 | as actuated by superstition and narrow-minded prejudice. Their motives were
|
|---|
| 72 | mainly political, and it is reasonable to suppose that they knew better than
|
|---|
| 73 | we do whether a larger toleration was compatible with public order. </p>
|
|---|
| 74 | <p align="left">We have seen that under the Act of Supremacy, in the first
|
|---|
| 75 | year of Elizabeth, the oath was only tendered to persons holding office,
|
|---|
| 76 | spiritual or temporal, under the crown, and that the penalty for refusing it
|
|---|
| 77 | was only deprivation. But in her fifth year (1563), it was enacted that the
|
|---|
| 78 | oath might be tendered to members of the House of Commons, schoolmasters,
|
|---|
| 79 | and attorneys, who, if they refused it, might be punished by forfeiture of
|
|---|
| 80 | property and perpetual imprisonment. To those who had held any
|
|---|
| 81 | ecclesiastical office, or who should openly disapprove of the established
|
|---|
| 82 | worship, or celebrate or hear mass, the oath might be tendered a second
|
|---|
| 83 | time, with the penalties of high treason for refusal. </p>
|
|---|
| 84 | <p align="left">That this law authorised an atrocious persecution cannot be
|
|---|
| 85 | disputed, and there is no doubt that many zealous Protestants wished it to
|
|---|
| 86 | be enforced. But the practical question is, Was it enforced? The government
|
|---|
| 87 | wished to be armed with the power of using it, and for the purpose of
|
|---|
| 88 | expelling Catholics from offices it was extensively used. But no one was at
|
|---|
| 89 | this time visited with the severer penalties, the bishops having been
|
|---|
| 90 | privately forbidden to tender the oath a second time to any one without
|
|---|
| 91 | special instructions. </p>
|
|---|
| 92 | <p align="left">The Act of Uniformity, passed in the first year of
|
|---|
| 93 | Elizabeth, prohibited the use of any but the established liturgy, whether in
|
|---|
| 94 | public or private, under pain of perpetual imprisonment for the third
|
|---|
| 95 | offence, and imposed a fine of one shilling on recusants--that is, upon
|
|---|
| 96 | persons who absented themselves from church on Sundays and holidays. To what
|
|---|
| 97 | extent Catholics were interfered with under this Act has been a matter of
|
|---|
| 98 | much dispute. Most of them, during the first eleven years of Elizabeth,
|
|---|
| 99 | either from ignorance or worldliness, treated the Anglican service as
|
|---|
| 100 | equivalent to the Catholic, and made no difficulty about attending church,
|
|---|
| 101 | even after this compliance with the law had been forbidden by Pius IV in the
|
|---|
| 102 | sixth year of Elizabeth. Only the more scrupulous absented themselves, and
|
|---|
| 103 | called in the ministrations of the "old priests," who with more or less
|
|---|
| 104 | secrecy said mass in private houses. Some of these offenders were certainly
|
|---|
| 105 | punished before Elizabeth had been two years on the throne. The enforcement
|
|---|
| 106 | of laws was by no means so uniform in those days as it is now. Much depended
|
|---|
| 107 | on the leanings of the noblemen and justices of the peace in different
|
|---|
| 108 | localities. Both from disposition and policy Elizabeth desired, as a general
|
|---|
| 109 | rule, to connive at Catholic nonconformity when it did not take an
|
|---|
| 110 | aggressive and fanatical form. But she had no scruple about applying the
|
|---|
| 111 | penalties of these Acts to individuals who for any reason, religious or
|
|---|
| 112 | political, were specially obnoxious to her. </p>
|
|---|
| 113 | <p align="left">So things went on till the northern insurrection: the laws
|
|---|
| 114 | authorising a searching and sanguinary persecution; the Government, much to
|
|---|
| 115 | the disgust of zealous Protestants, declining to put those laws in
|
|---|
| 116 | execution. Judged by modern ideas, the position of the Catholics was
|
|---|
| 117 | intolerable; but if measured by the principles of government then
|
|---|
| 118 | universally accepted, or if compared with the treatment of persons ever so
|
|---|
| 119 | slightly suspected of heresy in countries cursed with the Inquisition, it
|
|---|
| 120 | was not a position of which they had any great reason to complain; nor did
|
|---|
| 121 | the large majority of them complain. </p>
|
|---|
| 122 | <p align="left">Pope Pius IV (1559-1566) was comparatively cautious and
|
|---|
| 123 | circumspect in his attitude towards Elizabeth. But his successor Pius V
|
|---|
| 124 | (1566-1572), having made up his mind that her destruction was the one thing
|
|---|
| 125 | necessary for the defeat of heresy in Europe, strove to stir up against her
|
|---|
| 126 | rebellion at home and invasion from abroad. A bull deposing her, and
|
|---|
| 127 | absolving her subjects from their allegiance, was drawn up. But while Pius,
|
|---|
| 128 | conscious of the offence which it would give to all the sovereigns of
|
|---|
| 129 | Europe, delayed to issue it, the northern rebellion flared up and was
|
|---|
| 130 | trampled out. The absence of such a bull was by many Catholics made an
|
|---|
| 131 | excuse for holding aloof from the rebel earls. When it was too late the bull
|
|---|
| 132 | was issued (February 1570). Philip and Charles IX--sovereigns first and
|
|---|
| 133 | Catholics afterwards--refused to let it be published in their dominions. </p>
|
|---|
| 134 | <p align="left">After the northern insurrection the Queen issued a
|
|---|
| 135 | remarkable appeal to her people, which was ordered to be placarded in every
|
|---|
| 136 | parish, and read in every church. She could point with honest pride to
|
|---|
| 137 | eleven years of such peace abroad and tranquillity at home as no living
|
|---|
| 138 | Englishman could remember. Her economy had enabled her to conduct the
|
|---|
| 139 | government without any of the illegal exactions to which former sovereigns
|
|---|
| 140 | had resorted. "She had never sought the life, the blood, the goods, the
|
|---|
| 141 | houses, estates or lands of any person in her dominions." This happy state
|
|---|
| 142 | of things the rebels had tried to disturb on pretext of religion. They had
|
|---|
| 143 | no real grievance on that score. Attendance at parish church was indeed
|
|---|
| 144 | obligatory by law, though, she might have added, it was very loosely
|
|---|
| 145 | enforced. But she disclaimed any wish to pry into opinions, or to inquire in
|
|---|
| 146 | what sense any one understood rites or ceremonies. In other words, the
|
|---|
| 147 | language of the communion service was not incompatible with the doctrine of
|
|---|
| 148 | transubstantiation, and loyal Catholics were at liberty, were almost
|
|---|
| 149 | invited, to interpret it in that sense if they liked. </p>
|
|---|
| 150 | <p align="left">This compromise between their religious and political
|
|---|
| 151 | obligations had in fact been hitherto adopted by the large majority of
|
|---|
| 152 | English Catholics. But a time was come when it was to be no longer possible
|
|---|
| 153 | for them. They were summoned to make their choice between their duty as
|
|---|
| 154 | citizens and their duty as Catholics. The summons had come, not from the
|
|---|
| 155 | Queen, but from the Pope, and it is not strange that they had thenceforth a
|
|---|
| 156 | harder time of it. Many of them, indignant with the Pope for bringing
|
|---|
| 157 | trouble upon them, gave up the struggle and conformed to the Established
|
|---|
| 158 | Church. The temper of the rest became more bitter and dangerous. The Puritan
|
|---|
| 159 | Parliament of 1571 passed a bill to compel all persons not only to attend
|
|---|
| 160 | church, but to receive the communion twice a year; and another making formal
|
|---|
| 161 | reconciliation to the Church of Rome high treason both for the convert and
|
|---|
| 162 | the priest who should receive him. Here we have the persecuting spirit,
|
|---|
| 163 | which was as inherent in the zealous Protestant as in the zealous Catholic.
|
|---|
| 164 | Attempts to excuse such legislation, as prompted by political reasons, can
|
|---|
| 165 | only move the disgust of every honest-minded man. The first of these bills
|
|---|
| 166 | did not receive the royal assent, though Cecil--just made Lord Burghley--had
|
|---|
| 167 | strenuously pushed it through the Upper House. Elizabeth probably saw that
|
|---|
| 168 | its only effect would be to enable the Protestant zealots in every parish to
|
|---|
| 169 | enjoy the luxury of harassing their quiet Catholic neighbours, who attended
|
|---|
| 170 | church but would scruple to take the sacrament. </p>
|
|---|
| 171 | <p align="left">The Protestant spirit of this House of Commons showed itself
|
|---|
| 172 | not only in laws for strengthening the Government and persecuting the
|
|---|
| 173 | Catholics, but in attempts to puritanise the Prayer-book, which much
|
|---|
| 174 | displeased the Queen. Strickland, one of the Puritan leaders, was forbidden
|
|---|
| 175 | to attend the House. But such was the irritation caused by this invasion of
|
|---|
| 176 | its privileges, that the prohibition was removed after one day. It was in
|
|---|
| 177 | this session of Parliament that the doctrines of the Church of England were
|
|---|
| 178 | finally determined by the imposition on the clergy of the Thirty-nine
|
|---|
| 179 | Articles, which, as every one knows, are much more Protestant than the
|
|---|
| 180 | Prayer-book. Till then they had only had the sanction of Convocation. </p>
|
|---|
| 181 | <p align="left">During the first forty years or so, from the beginning of
|
|---|
| 182 | the Reformation, Protestantism spread in most parts of Europe with great
|
|---|
| 183 | rapidity. It was not merely an intellectual revolt against doctrines no
|
|---|
| 184 | longer credible. The numbers of the reformers were swelled, and their force
|
|---|
| 185 | intensified by the flocking in of pious souls, athirst for personal
|
|---|
| 186 | holiness, and of many others who, without being high-wrought enthusiasts,
|
|---|
| 187 | were by nature disposed to value whatever seemed to make for a purer
|
|---|
| 188 | morality. The religion which had nurtured Bernard and À Kempis was deserted,
|
|---|
| 189 | not merely as being untrue, but as incompatible with the highest spiritual
|
|---|
| 190 | life--nay, as positively corrupting to society. This imagination, of course,
|
|---|
| 191 | had but a short day. The return to the Bible and the doctrines of primitive
|
|---|
| 192 | Christianity, the deliverance from "the Bishop of Rome and his detestable
|
|---|
| 193 | enormities," were not found to be followed by any general improvement of
|
|---|
| 194 | morals in Protestant countries. He that was unjust was unjust still; he that
|
|---|
| 195 | was filthy was filthy still. The repulsive contrast too often seen between
|
|---|
| 196 | sanctimonious professions and unscrupulous conduct contributed to the
|
|---|
| 197 | disenchantment. </p>
|
|---|
| 198 | <p align="left">In the meanwhile a great regeneration was going on within
|
|---|
| 199 | the Catholic Church itself. Signs of this can be detected quite as early as
|
|---|
| 200 | the first rise of Protestantism. It is, therefore, not to be attributed to
|
|---|
| 201 | Protestant teaching and example, though doubtless the rivalry of the younger
|
|---|
| 202 | religion stimulated the best energies of the older. No long time elapsed
|
|---|
| 203 | before this regeneration had worked its way to the highest places in the
|
|---|
| 204 | Church. The Popes by whom Elizabeth was confronted were all men of pure
|
|---|
| 205 | lives and single-hearted devotion to the Catholic cause. </p>
|
|---|
| 206 | <p align="left">The last two years of the Council of Trent (1562-3) were the
|
|---|
| 207 | starting-point of the modern Catholic Church. Many proposals had been made
|
|---|
| 208 | for compromise with Protestantism. But the Fathers of Trent saw that the
|
|---|
| 209 | only chance of survival for a Church claiming to be Catholic was to remain
|
|---|
| 210 | on the old lines. By the canons and decrees of the Council, ratified by Pius
|
|---|
| 211 | IV., the old doctrines and discipline were confirmed and definitely
|
|---|
| 212 | formulated. One branch indeed of the Papal power was irretrievably gone.
|
|---|
| 213 | Royal authority had become absolute, and the kings, including Philip II.,
|
|---|
| 214 | refused to tolerate any interference with it. The Papacy had to acquiesce in
|
|---|
| 215 | the loss of its power over sovereigns. But as regards the bishops and
|
|---|
| 216 | clergy, and things strictly appertaining to religion, its spiritual
|
|---|
| 217 | autocracy, which the great councils of the last century had aimed at
|
|---|
| 218 | breaking, was re-established, and has continued. The new situation, though
|
|---|
| 219 | it seemed to place the Popes on a humbler footing than in the days of
|
|---|
| 220 | Gregory VII. or Innocent III., was a healthy one. It confined them to their
|
|---|
| 221 | spiritual domain, and drove them to make the best of it. </p>
|
|---|
| 222 | <p align="left">Until the decrees of the Council of Trent, the split between
|
|---|
| 223 | Protestants and Catholics was not definitely and irrevocably decided. Many
|
|---|
| 224 | on both sides had shrunk from admitting it. The Catholic world might seem to
|
|---|
| 225 | be narrowed by the defection of the Protestant States. But all the more
|
|---|
| 226 | clearly did it appear that a Church claiming to be universal is not
|
|---|
| 227 | concerned with political boundaries. The resistance to the spread of heresy
|
|---|
| 228 | had hitherto consisted of many local struggles, in which the repressive
|
|---|
| 229 | measures had emanated from the orthodox sovereigns, and had therefore been
|
|---|
| 230 | fitful and unconnected. But not long after the Tridentine reorganisation,
|
|---|
| 231 | the Pope appears again as commander-in-chief of the Catholic forces,
|
|---|
| 232 | surveying and directing combined operations from one end of Europe to the
|
|---|
| 233 | other. Pius IV. had been with difficulty prevented by Philip from
|
|---|
| 234 | excommunicating Elizabeth. Pius V had launched his bull, as we have seen, a
|
|---|
| 235 | few months too late (1570); and even then it was not allowed to be published
|
|---|
| 236 | in either Spain or France. The life of that Pope was wasted in earnest
|
|---|
| 237 | remonstrances with the Catholic sovereigns for not executing the sentence of
|
|---|
| 238 | the Church against the heretic Queen. Gregory XIII, who succeeded him just
|
|---|
| 239 | before the Bartholomew Massacre, took the attack into his own hands. He was
|
|---|
| 240 | a warm patron of the Jesuits, who were especially devoted to the
|
|---|
| 241 | centralising system re-established at Trent. He and they had made up their
|
|---|
| 242 | minds that England was the key of the Protestant position; that until
|
|---|
| 243 | Elizabeth was removed no advance was to be hoped for anywhere. </p>
|
|---|
| 244 | <p align="left">The decline of a religion may be accompanied by a positive
|
|---|
| 245 | increase of earnestness and activity on the part of its remaining votaries,
|
|---|
| 246 | deluding them into a belief that they are but passing through, or have
|
|---|
| 247 | successfully passed through, a period of temporary depression and eclipse.
|
|---|
| 248 | Among the Catholics of the latter part of the sixteenth century there was
|
|---|
| 249 | all the enthusiasm of a religious revival. In no place did this show itself
|
|---|
| 250 | more than at Oxford. There the weak points of popular movements have never
|
|---|
| 251 | been allowed to pass without challenge, and what is really valuable or
|
|---|
| 252 | beautiful in time worn faiths has been sure of receiving fair-play and
|
|---|
| 253 | something more. The gloss of the Reformation was already worn off. The
|
|---|
| 254 | worldly and carnal were its supporters and directors. It no longer demanded
|
|---|
| 255 | enthusiasm and sacrifice. It walked in purple and fine linen. Young men of
|
|---|
| 256 | quick intellect and high aspirations who, a generation earlier, would have
|
|---|
| 257 | been captivated by its fair promise and have thrown themselves into its
|
|---|
| 258 | current, yielded now to the eternal spell of the older Church, cleansed as
|
|---|
| 259 | she was of her pollutions, and purged of her dross by the discipline of
|
|---|
| 260 | adversity. </p>
|
|---|
| 261 | <p align="left">The leader of these Oxford enthusiasts was a young fellow of
|
|---|
| 262 | Oriel, William Allen. In the third year of Elizabeth, at the age of
|
|---|
| 263 | twenty-eight, he resigned the Principalship of St. Mary Hall. The next eight
|
|---|
| 264 | years were spent partly abroad, partly in secret missionary work in England,
|
|---|
| 265 | carried on at the peril of his life. The old priests, who with more or less
|
|---|
| 266 | concealment and danger continued to exercise their office among the English
|
|---|
| 267 | Catholics, were gradually dying off. In order to train successors to them,
|
|---|
| 268 | Allen founded an English seminary at Douai (1568). To this important step it
|
|---|
| 269 | was mainly due that the Catholic religion did not become extinct in this
|
|---|
| 270 | country. In the first five years of its existence the college at Douai sent
|
|---|
| 271 | nearly a hundred priests to England. </p>
|
|---|
| 272 | <p align="left">It was the aim of Allen to put an end to the practical
|
|---|
| 273 | toleration allowed to Catholic laymen of the quieter sort. The Catholic who
|
|---|
| 274 | began by putting in the compulsory number of attendances at his parish
|
|---|
| 275 | church was likely to end by giving up his faith altogether. If he did not,
|
|---|
| 276 | his son would. Allen deliberately preferred a sweeping persecution--one that
|
|---|
| 277 | would make the position of Catholics intolerable, and ripen them for
|
|---|
| 278 | rebellion. He wanted martyrs. The ardent young men whom he trained at Douai
|
|---|
| 279 | and (after 1578) at Rheims, went back to their native land with the clear
|
|---|
| 280 | understanding that of all the services they could render to the Church the
|
|---|
| 281 | greatest would be to die under the hangman's knife. </p>
|
|---|
| 282 | <p align="left">Gregory XIII hoped great things from Allen's seminary, and
|
|---|
| 283 | furnished funds for its support. In 1579 Allen went to Rome, and enlisted
|
|---|
| 284 | the support of Mercurian, General of the Jesuits. Two English Jesuits,
|
|---|
| 285 | Robert Parsons and Edward Campion, exfellows of Balliol and St. John's, were
|
|---|
| 286 | selected as missionaries. Campion was eight years younger than Allen. He had
|
|---|
| 287 | had a brilliant career at Oxford, being especially distinguished for his
|
|---|
| 288 | eloquence. He was at that time personally known to both Cecil and the Queen,
|
|---|
| 289 | and enjoyed their favour. He took deacon's orders in 1568, but not long
|
|---|
| 290 | afterwards joined Allen at Douai, and formally abjured the Anglican Church.
|
|---|
| 291 | He had been six years a Jesuit when he was despatched on his dangerous
|
|---|
| 292 | mission to England. </p>
|
|---|
| 293 | <p align="left">Tired of waiting for the initiative of Philip, Gregory XIII.
|
|---|
| 294 | and the Jesuits had planned a threefold attack on Elizabeth in England,
|
|---|
| 295 | Scotland, and Ireland. In England a revivalist movement was to be carried on
|
|---|
| 296 | among the Catholics by the missionaries. Catholic writers have been at great
|
|---|
| 297 | pains to argue that this was a purely religious movement, prosecuted with
|
|---|
| 298 | the single object of saving souls. The Jesuits have always known their men
|
|---|
| 299 | and employed them with discrimination. Saving of souls was very likely the
|
|---|
| 300 | simple object of a man of Campion's saintly and exalted nature. He himself
|
|---|
| 301 | declared that he had been strictly forbidden to meddle with worldly concerns
|
|---|
| 302 | or affairs of State, and nothing inconsistent with this declaration was
|
|---|
| 303 | proved against him at his trial. But without laying any stress on statements
|
|---|
| 304 | extracted from prisoners under torture, we cannot doubt that his employers
|
|---|
| 305 | aimed at re-establishing Catholicism in England by rebellion and foreign
|
|---|
| 306 | invasion. This was thoroughly understood by every missionary who crossed the
|
|---|
| 307 | sea; and if Campion never alluded to it even in his most familiar
|
|---|
| 308 | conversations he must have had an extraordinary control over his tongue. </p>
|
|---|
| 309 | <p align="left">The evidence that the assassination of the Queen was a
|
|---|
| 310 | recognised part of the Jesuit plan, determined by the master spirits and
|
|---|
| 311 | accepted by all the subordinate agents, is perhaps not quite conclusive. If
|
|---|
| 312 | proved, it would only show that they were not more scrupulous than most
|
|---|
| 313 | statesmen and politicians of the time. Lax as sixteenth century notions were
|
|---|
| 314 | about political murder, there were always some consciences more tender than
|
|---|
| 315 | others. It is likely enough that Campion personally disapproved of such
|
|---|
| 316 | projects, and that they were not thrust upon his attention. But he can
|
|---|
| 317 | hardly have avoided being aware that they were contemplated by the less
|
|---|
| 318 | squeamish of his brethren. </p>
|
|---|
| 319 | <p align="left">Campion and Parsons came to England in disguise in the
|
|---|
| 320 | summer of 1580. Their mission was not a success. It only served to show how
|
|---|
| 321 | much more securely Elizabeth was seated on her throne than in the earlier
|
|---|
| 322 | years of her reign. In his letters to Rome, Campion boasts of the welcome he
|
|---|
| 323 | met with everywhere, the crowds that attended his preaching, the ardour of
|
|---|
| 324 | the Catholics, and the disrepute into which Protestantism was falling. He
|
|---|
| 325 | had evidently worked himself up to such a state of ecstasy that he was
|
|---|
| 326 | living in a world of his own imagination, and was no competent witness of
|
|---|
| 327 | facts. He crept about England in various disguises, and when he was in
|
|---|
| 328 | districts where the nobles and gentry favoured the old religion, he preached
|
|---|
| 329 | with a publicity which seems extraordinary to us in these days when the laws
|
|---|
| 330 | are executed with prompt uniformity by means of railways, telegraphs, and a
|
|---|
| 331 | well-organised police. In the sixteenth century England had nothing that can
|
|---|
| 332 | be called an organised machinery for the prevention and detection of crime.
|
|---|
| 333 | If an outbreak occurred the Government collected militia, and trampled it
|
|---|
| 334 | out with an energy that took no account of law and feared no consequences.
|
|---|
| 335 | But in ordinary times it had to depend on the local justices of the peace
|
|---|
| 336 | and parish constables, and if they were remiss the laws were a dead letter.
|
|---|
| 337 | There were no newspapers. The high-roads were few and bad. One parish did
|
|---|
| 338 | not know what was going on in the next. Campion could be passed on from one
|
|---|
| 339 | gentleman's house to another on horses quite as good as any officer of the
|
|---|
| 340 | Government rode, and could travel all over England without ever using a
|
|---|
| 341 | high-road or showing his face in a town. If he preached to a hundred people
|
|---|
| 342 | in some Lancashire village, Lord Derby did not want to know it, and before
|
|---|
| 343 | the news reached Burghley or Walsingham he would be in another county, or
|
|---|
| 344 | perhaps back in London--then, as now, the safest of all hiding-places. Thus,
|
|---|
| 345 | though a warrant was issued for his arrest as soon as he arrived in England,
|
|---|
| 346 | it was not till July in the next year (1581) that he was taken, after an
|
|---|
| 347 | unusually public and pro. tracted appearance in the neighbourhood of Oxford.
|
|---|
| 348 | </p>
|
|---|
| 349 | <p align="left">He had little or nothing to show for his twelve months'
|
|---|
| 350 | tour, and this although the Government had, as Allen hoped, allowed itself
|
|---|
| 351 | to be provoked into an increase of severity which seems to have been quite
|
|---|
| 352 | unnecessary. The large majority of Catholic laymen would evidently have
|
|---|
| 353 | preferred that both Seminarists and Jesuits should keep away. They did not
|
|---|
| 354 | want civil war. They did not want to be persecuted. They were against a
|
|---|
| 355 | foreign invasion, without which they knew very well that Elizabeth could not
|
|---|
| 356 | be deposed. They were even loyal to her. They were content to wait till she
|
|---|
| 357 | should disappear in the course of nature and make room for the Queen of
|
|---|
| 358 | Scots. Mendoza writes to Philip that "they place themselves in the hands of
|
|---|
| 359 | God, and are willing to sacrifice life and all in the service, <i>but
|
|---|
| 360 | scarcely with that burning zeal which they ought to show</i>." </p>
|
|---|
| 361 | <p align="left">By the bull of Pius V, Englishmen were forbidden to
|
|---|
| 362 | acknowledge Elizabeth as their Queen; in other words, they were ordered to
|
|---|
| 363 | expose themselves to the penalties of treason. If the Pope would be
|
|---|
| 364 | satisfied with nothing less than this, it was quite certain that he would
|
|---|
| 365 | alienate most of his followers in England. Gregory XIII therefore had
|
|---|
| 366 | authorised the Jesuits to explain that although the Protestants, by <i>
|
|---|
| 367 | willingly</i> acknowledging the Queen, were incurring the damnation
|
|---|
| 368 | pronounced by the bull, Catholics would be excused for <i>unwillingly</i>
|
|---|
| 369 | acknowledging her until some opportunity arrived for dethroning her.
|
|---|
| 370 | Protestant writers have exclaimed against this distinction as treacherous.
|
|---|
| 371 | It was perfectly reasonable. It represents, for instance, the attitude of
|
|---|
| 372 | every Alsatian who accords an unwilling recognition to the German Emperor.
|
|---|
| 373 | But the English Government intolerantly and unwisely made it the occasion
|
|---|
| 374 | for harassing the consciences of men who were most of them guiltless of any
|
|---|
| 375 | intention to rebel. </p>
|
|---|
| 376 | <p align="left">Amongst other persecuting laws passed early in 1581, was one
|
|---|
| 377 | which raised the fine for non-attendance at church to twenty pounds a month.
|
|---|
| 378 | Such a measure was calculated to excite much more wide-spread disaffection
|
|---|
| 379 | than the hanging of a few priests. It was not intended to be a <i>brutum
|
|---|
| 380 | fulmen</i>. The names of all recusants in each parish were returned to the
|
|---|
| 381 | Council. They amounted to about 50,000, and the fines exacted became a not
|
|---|
| 382 | inconsiderable item in the royal revenue. That number certainly formed but a
|
|---|
| 383 | small portion of the Catholic population. But if all the rest had been in
|
|---|
| 384 | the habit of going to church, contrary to the Pope's express injunction,
|
|---|
| 385 | rather than pay a small fine, the Government ought to have seen that they
|
|---|
| 386 | were not the stuff of which rebels are made. </p>
|
|---|
| 387 | <p align="left">Campion, after being compelled by torture to disclose the
|
|---|
| 388 | names of his hosts in different counties, was called on to maintain the
|
|---|
| 389 | Catholic doctrines in a three days' discussion before a large audience
|
|---|
| 390 | against four Protestant divines, who do not seem to have been ashamed of
|
|---|
| 391 | themselves. He was offered pardon if he would attend once in church. As he
|
|---|
| 392 | steadfastly refused, he was racked again till his limbs were dislocated.
|
|---|
| 393 | When he had partially recovered he was put on his trial, along with several
|
|---|
| 394 | of his companions, not under any of the recent anti-catholic laws but under
|
|---|
| 395 | the ordinary statute of Edward III., for "compassing and imagining the
|
|---|
| 396 | Queen's death"--such a horror had the Burghleys and Walsinghams of anything
|
|---|
| 397 | like religious persecution! Being unable to hold up his hand to plead Not
|
|---|
| 398 | Guilty, "two of his companions raised it for him, first kissing the broken
|
|---|
| 399 | joints." According to Mendoza (whom on other occasions we are invited to
|
|---|
| 400 | accept as a witness of truth), his nails had been torn from his fingers.
|
|---|
| 401 | Apart from his religious belief nothing treasonable was proved against him
|
|---|
| 402 | in deed or word. He acknowledged Elizabeth for his rightful sovereign, as
|
|---|
| 403 | the new interpretation of the papal bull permitted him to do, but he
|
|---|
| 404 | declined to give any opinion about the Pope's right to depose princes. This
|
|---|
| 405 | was enough for the judge and jury, and he was found guilty. At the place of
|
|---|
| 406 | execution he was again offered his pardon if he would deny the papal right
|
|---|
| 407 | of deposition, or even hear a Protestant sermon. He wished the Queen a long
|
|---|
| 408 | and quiet reign and all prosperity, but more he would not say. At the
|
|---|
| 409 | quartering "a drop of blood spirted on the clothes of a youth named Henry
|
|---|
| 410 | Walpole, to whom it came as a divine command. Walpole, converted on the
|
|---|
| 411 | spot, became a Jesuit, and soon after met the same fate on the same spot."
|
|---|
| 412 | </p>
|
|---|
| 413 | <p align="left">Mr. Froude's comment is that "if it be lawful in defence of
|
|---|
| 414 | national independence to kill open enemies in war, it is more lawful to
|
|---|
| 415 | execute the secret conspirator who is teaching doctrines in the name of God
|
|---|
| 416 | which are certain to be fatal to it." It would perhaps be enough to remark
|
|---|
| 417 | that this reasoning amply justifies some of the worst atrocities of the
|
|---|
| 418 | French Revolution. Hallam and Macaulay have condemned it by anticipation in
|
|---|
| 419 | language which will commend itself to all who are not swayed by religious,
|
|---|
| 420 | or, what is more offensive, anti-religious bigotry.</p>
|
|---|
| 421 | <p align="left">Cruel as the English criminal law was, and long remained, it
|
|---|
| 422 | never authorised the use of torture to extract confession. The rack in the
|
|---|
| 423 | Tower is said to have made its appearance, with other innovations of
|
|---|
| 424 | absolute government, in the reign of Edward IV But it seems to have been
|
|---|
| 425 | little used before the reign of Elizabeth, under whom it became the ordinary
|
|---|
| 426 | preliminary to a political trial. For this the chief blame must rest
|
|---|
| 427 | personally on Burghley. Opinions may differ as to his rank as a statesman,
|
|---|
| 428 | but no one will contest his eminent talents as a minister of police. In the
|
|---|
| 429 | former capacity he had sufficient sense of shame to publish a Pecksniffian
|
|---|
| 430 | apology for his employment of the rack. "None," he says, "of those who were
|
|---|
| 431 | at any time put to the rack were asked, during their torture, any question
|
|---|
| 432 | as to points of doctrine, but merely concerning their plots and
|
|---|
| 433 | conspiracies, and the persons with whom they had dealings, and <i>what was
|
|---|
| 434 | their own opinion</i> as to the Pope's right to deprive the Queen of her
|
|---|
| 435 | crown." What was this but a point of doctrine? The wretched victim who
|
|---|
| 436 | conscientiously believed it (as all Christendom once did), but wished to
|
|---|
| 437 | save himself by silence, was driven either to tell a lie or to consign
|
|---|
| 438 | himself to rope and knife. "The Queen's servants, the warders, whose office
|
|---|
| 439 | and act it is to handle the rack, were ever, by those that attended the
|
|---|
| 440 | examinations, specially charged to use it in so charitable a manner as such
|
|---|
| 441 | a thing might be." It may be hoped that there are not many who would dissent
|
|---|
| 442 | from Hallam's remark that "such miserable excuses serve only to mingle
|
|---|
| 443 | contempt with our detestation." He adds: "It is due to Elizabeth to observe
|
|---|
| 444 | that she ordered the torture to be disused." I do not know what authority
|
|---|
| 445 | there is for this statement. Three years later the Protestant Archbishop of
|
|---|
| 446 | Dublin was puzzled how to torture the Catholic Archbishop of Cashel, because
|
|---|
| 447 | there was no "rack or other engine" in Dublin. Walsingham, on being
|
|---|
| 448 | consulted, suggested that his feet might be toasted against the fire, which
|
|---|
| 449 | was accordingly done. Some of the Anglican bishops, as might be expected
|
|---|
| 450 | from fanatics, were forward in recommending torture. But Cecil was no more
|
|---|
| 451 | of a fanatic than his mistress. What both of them cared for was not a
|
|---|
| 452 | particular religious belief--they bad both of them conformed to Popery under
|
|---|
| 453 | Queen Mary--but the sovereign's claim to prescribe religious belief, or
|
|---|
| 454 | rather religious profession, and they were provoked with the missionaries
|
|---|
| 455 | for thwarting them. Provoking it was, no doubt. But everything seems to show
|
|---|
| 456 | that it would have been better to pursue the earlier policy of the reign; to
|
|---|
| 457 | be content with enacting severe laws which practically were not put into
|
|---|
| 458 | execution. </p>
|
|---|
| 459 | <p align="left">The English branch of the Jesuit attack was, for political
|
|---|
| 460 | purposes, a dead failure. A few persons of rank, who at heart were Catholics
|
|---|
| 461 | before, were formally reconciled to the Pope. Mendoza claims that among them
|
|---|
| 462 | were six peers whose names he conceals. These peers, if he is to be
|
|---|
| 463 | believed, were treasonable enough in their designs. But, even by his
|
|---|
| 464 | account, they were determined not to stir unless a foreign army should have
|
|---|
| 465 | first entered England. </p>
|
|---|
| 466 | <p align="left">How far Mendoza's master was from seeing his way to attack
|
|---|
| 467 | England at this time was strikingly shown by his behaviour under the most
|
|---|
| 468 | audacious outrage that Elizabeth had yet inflicted on him. Some twelve
|
|---|
| 469 | months before (October 1580), Drake had returned from his famous voyage
|
|---|
| 470 | round the world. That voyage was nothing else than a piratical expedition,
|
|---|
| 471 | for which it was notorious that the funds had been mainly furnished by
|
|---|
| 472 | Elizabeth and Leicester. On sea and land Drake had robbed Philip of gold,
|
|---|
| 473 | silver, and precious stones to the value of at least £750,000. In vain did
|
|---|
| 474 | Mendoza clamour for restitution and talk about war. Elizabeth kept the
|
|---|
| 475 | booty, knighted Drake, and openly showed him every mark of confidence and
|
|---|
| 476 | favour. When Mendoza told her that as she would not hear words, they must
|
|---|
| 477 | come to cannon and see if she would hear them, she replied ("quietly in her
|
|---|
| 478 | most natural voice") that, if he used threats of that kind, she would throw
|
|---|
| 479 | him into prison. The correspondence between the Spanish ambassador and his
|
|---|
| 480 | master shows that, however big they might talk about cannon, they felt
|
|---|
| 481 | themselves paralysed by Elizabeth's intimate relations with France. She had
|
|---|
| 482 | managed to keep free from any offensive alliance with Henry III. But at the
|
|---|
| 483 | first sound of the Spanish cannon she could have it. She was, therefore,
|
|---|
| 484 | secure. Probably the whole history of diplomacy does not show another
|
|---|
| 485 | instance of such a complicated balance of forces so dexterously manipulated.
|
|---|
| 486 | </p>
|
|---|
| 487 | <p align="left">The Irish branch of the Papal attack, the landing of the
|
|---|
| 488 | legate Sanders, the insurrection of Desmond (1579-1583), the massacre of the
|
|---|
| 489 | Pope's Italian soldiers at Smerwick (1580), must be passed over here. It is
|
|---|
| 490 | enough to say that, in Ireland, too, the Catholics were beaten. We turn now
|
|---|
| 491 | to their attempt to get hold of Scotland (1579-1582). </p>
|
|---|
| 492 | <p align="left">Scotland was in a state of anarchy, from which it could only
|
|---|
| 493 | be rescued by an able and courageous king. The nobles, instead of becoming
|
|---|
| 494 | weaker, as elsewhere, had acquired a strength and independence greater even
|
|---|
| 495 | than their fathers had enjoyed. Thirty years earlier, the Church had
|
|---|
| 496 | possessed quite half the land of the country, and had steadily supported the
|
|---|
| 497 | crown. Almost the whole of this wealth had been seized in one form or
|
|---|
| 498 | another by the nobles. And though, as compared with English noblemen, they
|
|---|
| 499 | were still poor in money, they were much bigger men relatively to their
|
|---|
| 500 | sovereign. The power of the crown was extensive enough in theory. What was
|
|---|
| 501 | wanted was a king who should know how to convert it into a reality. That was
|
|---|
| 502 | more than any regent could do. Even Moray had not succeeded. The house of
|
|---|
| 503 | Douglas was one of the most powerful in Scotland, and Morton, who had been
|
|---|
| 504 | looked on as its head during the minority of the Earl of Angus, was an able
|
|---|
| 505 | and daring man. But he had not the large views, the public spirit, or the
|
|---|
| 506 | integrity of Moray. He was feared by all, hated by many, respected by none.
|
|---|
| 507 | As a mere party chief, no one would have been better able to hold his own.
|
|---|
| 508 | As representing the crown, he had every man's hand against him. To subsidise
|
|---|
| 509 | such a man was perfectly useless. If Elizabeth was to make his cause her
|
|---|
| 510 | own, she might just as well undertake the conquest of Scotland at once. </p>
|
|---|
| 511 | <p align="left">The essence of the good understanding between England and
|
|---|
| 512 | France was that both countries should keep their hands off Scotland.
|
|---|
| 513 | Elizabeth, knowing that if worst came to worst, she could always be
|
|---|
| 514 | beforehand with France in the northern kingdom, could afford to respect this
|
|---|
| 515 | arrangement, and she did mean to respect it, France, on the other hand,
|
|---|
| 516 | being also well aware of the advantage given to England by geographical
|
|---|
| 517 | situation, was always tempted to steal a march on her, and even when most
|
|---|
| 518 | desirous of her alliance, never quite gave up intrigues in Scotland. This
|
|---|
| 519 | was equally the case whatever party was uppermost at the French court,
|
|---|
| 520 | whether its policy was being directed by the King or by the Duke of Guise.
|
|---|
| 521 | </p>
|
|---|
| 522 | <p align="left">The Jesuits looked on Guise as their fighting man, who was
|
|---|
| 523 | to do the work which they could not prevail on crowned heads to undertake.
|
|---|
| 524 | James, though only thirteen, had been declared of age. It was too late to
|
|---|
| 525 | think of deposing him. If his character was feeble, his understanding and
|
|---|
| 526 | acquirements were much beyond his years, and his preferences were already a
|
|---|
| 527 | force to be reckoned with in Scotch politics. His interests were evidently
|
|---|
| 528 | opposed to those of his mother. But the Jesuits hoped to persuade him that
|
|---|
| 529 | his seat would never be secure unless he came to a compromise with her on
|
|---|
| 530 | the terms that he was to accept the crown as her gift and recognise her
|
|---|
| 531 | joint-sovereignty. This would throw him entirely into the hands of the
|
|---|
| 532 | Catholic nobles, and would be a virtual declaration of war against
|
|---|
| 533 | Elizabeth. He would have to proclaim himself a Catholic, and call in the
|
|---|
| 534 | French. It was hoped that Philip, jealous though he had always been of
|
|---|
| 535 | French interference, would not object to an expedition warranted by the
|
|---|
| 536 | Jesuits and commanded by Guise, who was more and more sinking into a tool of
|
|---|
| 537 | Spain and Rome. A combined army of Scotch and French would pour across the
|
|---|
| 538 | Border. It would be joined by the English Catholics. Elizabeth would be
|
|---|
| 539 | deposed, and Mary set on the throne. </p>
|
|---|
| 540 | <p align="left">It was a pretty scheme on paper, but certain to break down
|
|---|
| 541 | in every stage of its execution. James might chaffer with his mother; but,
|
|---|
| 542 | young as he was, he knew well that she meant to overreach him. He would be
|
|---|
| 543 | glad enough to get rid of Morton, but he did not want to be a puppet in the
|
|---|
| 544 | hands of the Marians. He did not like the Presbyterian preachers; but the
|
|---|
| 545 | young pedant already valued himself on his skill in confuting the apologists
|
|---|
| 546 | of Popery. He resented Elizabeth's lectures; but he knew that his succession
|
|---|
| 547 | to the English crown depended on her good will, and he meant to keep on good
|
|---|
| 548 | terms with her. No approval of the scheme could be obtained from Philip, and
|
|---|
| 549 | if he did not peremptorily forbid the expedition, it was because he did not
|
|---|
| 550 | believe it would come off. If a French army had appeared in Scotland, it
|
|---|
| 551 | would have been treated as all foreigners were in that country. And finally,
|
|---|
| 552 | if, <i>per impossibile</i>, the French and Scotch had entered England, they
|
|---|
| 553 | would have been overwhelmed by such an unanimous uprising of the English
|
|---|
| 554 | people of all parties and creeds as had never been witnessed in our history.
|
|---|
| 555 | </p>
|
|---|
| 556 | <p align="left">Historians, who would have us believe that Elizabeth was
|
|---|
| 557 | constantly bringing England to the verge of ruin by her stinginess and want
|
|---|
| 558 | of spirit, represent this combination as highly formidable. It required
|
|---|
| 559 | careful watching; but the only thing that could make it really dangerous was
|
|---|
| 560 | rash and premature employment of force by England--the course advocated not
|
|---|
| 561 | only by Burghley, but by the whole Council. Elizabeth seems to have stood
|
|---|
| 562 | absolutely alone in her opinion; but here, as always, though she allowed her
|
|---|
| 563 | ministers to speak their minds freely, she did not fear to act on her own
|
|---|
| 564 | judgment against their unanimous advice. </p>
|
|---|
| 565 | <p align="left">To carry out their schemes, Guise and the Jesuits sent to
|
|---|
| 566 | Scotland a nephew of the late Regent Lennox, Esmé Stuart, who had been
|
|---|
| 567 | brought up in France, and bore the title of Count d'Aubigny (September
|
|---|
| 568 | 1579). He speedily won the heart of the King, who created him Earl, and
|
|---|
| 569 | afterwards Duke of Lennox. Elizabeth soon obtained proof of his designs, and
|
|---|
| 570 | urged Morton to resist them by force. But the favourite, professing to be
|
|---|
| 571 | converted to Protestantism, enlisted the preachers on his side, and, by this
|
|---|
| 572 | unnatural coalition, Morton was brought to the scaffold (June 1581). During
|
|---|
| 573 | the interval between his arrest and execution, the English Council were
|
|---|
| 574 | urgent with Elizabeth to invade Scotland, rescue the Anglophile leader, and
|
|---|
| 575 | crush Lennox. She went all lengths in the way of threats. Lord Hunsdon was
|
|---|
| 576 | even ordered to muster an army on the Border. But this last step at once
|
|---|
| 577 | produced an energetic protest from the French ambassador; and in Scotland
|
|---|
| 578 | there was a general rally of all parties against the "auld enemies."
|
|---|
| 579 | Elizabeth had never meant to make her threats good, and Morton was left to
|
|---|
| 580 | his fate. She was quite right not to invade Scotland; but, that being her
|
|---|
| 581 | intention, she should not have tempted Morton to treason by the promise of
|
|---|
| 582 | her protection. No male statesman would have been so insensible to dishonour.
|
|---|
| 583 | </p>
|
|---|
| 584 | <p align="left">The death of the man who, next to Moray, had been the
|
|---|
| 585 | mainstay of the Reformation and the scourge of the Marian party, was
|
|---|
| 586 | received with a shout of exultation from Catholic Europe. Already in their
|
|---|
| 587 | heated imaginations the Jesuits saw the Kirk overthrown and the vantage
|
|---|
| 588 | ground gained for an attack on England. Some modern historians--with less
|
|---|
| 589 | excuse, since they have the sequel before their eyes --make the same
|
|---|
| 590 | blunder. The situation was really unchanged. Morton, who had the true
|
|---|
| 591 | antipathy of a Scottish noble to clerics of all sorts, had plundered the
|
|---|
| 592 | Kirk ministers, and tried to bring them under the episcopal yoke. He had
|
|---|
| 593 | quarrelled with most of his old associates of the Congregation. It was their
|
|---|
| 594 | enmity quite as much as the attack of Lennox that had pulled him down. When
|
|---|
| 595 | he was out of the way they naturally reverted to an Anglophile policy. The
|
|---|
| 596 | weakness of the Catholic party was plainly shown by the fact that Lennox
|
|---|
| 597 | himself, the pupil of the Jesuits, never ventured to throw off the disguise
|
|---|
| 598 | of a heretic. </p>
|
|---|
| 599 | <p align="left">The further development of the Jesuit scheme met with
|
|---|
| 600 | difficulties on all sides. Most even of the Catholic lords were alarmed by
|
|---|
| 601 | the suggestion that James should hold the crown by the gift of his mother,
|
|---|
| 602 | because it would imply that hitherto he had not been lawful King; and this
|
|---|
| 603 | would invalidate their titles to all the lands they had grabbed from Church
|
|---|
| 604 | and crown during the last fourteen years. It would seem therefore that, if
|
|---|
| 605 | they had harassed the Government during all that time, it was from a liking
|
|---|
| 606 | for anarchy rather than from attachment to Mary. Two Jesuits, Crichton and
|
|---|
| 607 | Holt, who were sent in disguise to Scotland, found Lennox desponding. He was
|
|---|
| 608 | obliged to confess that, greatly as he had fascinated the King, he could not
|
|---|
| 609 | move him an inch in his religious opinions. On the contrary, James imagined
|
|---|
| 610 | that his controversial skill had converted Lennox, and was extremely proud
|
|---|
| 611 | of the feat. The only course remaining was to seize him, and send him to
|
|---|
| 612 | France or Spain, Lennox in the meantime administering the Government in the
|
|---|
| 613 | name of Mary. But to carry out this stroke, Lennox said he must have a
|
|---|
| 614 | foreign army. In view of the mutual jealousy of France and Spain it was
|
|---|
| 615 | suggested that, if Philip would furnish money underhand, the Pope might send
|
|---|
| 616 | an Italian army direct to Scotland, via the Straits of Gibraltar. Crichton
|
|---|
| 617 | went to Rome to arrange this precious scheme, and Holt was proceeding to
|
|---|
| 618 | Madrid. But Philip forbade him to come. If Lennox could convert James, or
|
|---|
| 619 | send him to Spain, well and good. But until one of these preliminaries was
|
|---|
| 620 | accomplished he was to expect no help from Philip. Nor were prospects more
|
|---|
| 621 | hopeful on the side of France. Mary from her prison implored Guise to
|
|---|
| 622 | undertake the long-planned expedition. But he would not venture it without
|
|---|
| 623 | the assent of his own sovereign and the King of Spain. While he was
|
|---|
| 624 | hesitating, the Anglophiles patched up their differences and got possession
|
|---|
| 625 | of the King's person (Raid of Ruthven, August 1582). His tears were
|
|---|
| 626 | unavailing. "Better bairns greet," said the Master of Glamis, "than bearded
|
|---|
| 627 | men." The favourite fled to France, where he died in the next year. </p>
|
|---|
| 628 | <p align="left">Thus once more had it been clearly shown that if the
|
|---|
| 629 | Anglophiles were left to depend on themselves they would not fail to do all
|
|---|
| 630 | that was necessary to safeguard English interests. "Anglophiles" is a
|
|---|
| 631 | convenient appellation. But, strictly speaking, there was no party in
|
|---|
| 632 | Scotland that loved England. There was a religious party to whom it was of
|
|---|
| 633 | the highest importance that Elizabeth should be safe and powerful. She was
|
|---|
| 634 | therefore certain of its co-operation. This party would not be always
|
|---|
| 635 | uppermost; for Scottish nobles were too selfish, too treacherous, too much
|
|---|
| 636 | interested in disorder to permit any stability. But, whether in power or in
|
|---|
| 637 | opposition, it would be able and it would be obliged to serve English
|
|---|
| 638 | interests. There was only one way in which it could be paralyzed or
|
|---|
| 639 | alienated, and that was by a recurrence on the part of England to the
|
|---|
| 640 | traditions of armed interference inherited by Elizabeth's councillors from
|
|---|
| 641 | Henry VIII, and the Protector Somerset. </p>
|
|---|
| 642 | <p align="left">Such is the plain history of this Jesuit and Papal scheme
|
|---|
| 643 | which we are asked to believe was so dangerous to England and so
|
|---|
| 644 | inadequately handled by Elizabeth. She had not shown much concern for her
|
|---|
| 645 | honour. But her coolness, her intrepidity, her correct estimate of the
|
|---|
| 646 | forces with which she had to deal, her magnificent confidence in her own
|
|---|
| 647 | judgment, saved England from the endless expenditure of blood and treasure
|
|---|
| 648 | into which her advisers would have plunged, and prolonged the formal peace
|
|---|
| 649 | with her three principal neighbours, a peace of already unexampled duration,
|
|---|
| 650 | and of incalculable advantage to her country. </p>
|
|---|
| 651 | <p align="left">The policy which Elizabeth had thus deliberately adopted
|
|---|
| 652 | towards Scotland she persisted in. The successful Anglophiles clamoured for
|
|---|
| 653 | pensions, and her ministers were for gratifying them. She was willing to
|
|---|
| 654 | give a moderate pension to James, but not a penny to the nobles. "Her
|
|---|
| 655 | servants and favourites," she said, "professed to love her for her high
|
|---|
| 656 | qualities, Alençon for her beauty, and the Scots for her crown; but they all
|
|---|
| 657 | wanted the same thing in the end; they wanted nothing but her money, and
|
|---|
| 658 | they should not have it." She had ascertained that James regarded his mother
|
|---|
| 659 | as his rival for the crowns of both kingdoms, and that, whatever he might
|
|---|
| 660 | sometimes pretend, his real wish was that she should be kept under lock and
|
|---|
| 661 | key. She had also satisfied herself that the Scottish noblemen on whom Mary
|
|---|
| 662 | counted would, with very few exceptions, throw every difficulty in the way
|
|---|
| 663 | of her restoration, out of regard for their own private interest--the only
|
|---|
| 664 | <i>datum</i> from which it was safe to calculate in dealing with a Scottish
|
|---|
| 665 | nobleman. She therefore felt herself secure. By communicating her knowledge
|
|---|
| 666 | to Mary she could show her the hopelessness of her intrigues in Scotland;
|
|---|
| 667 | while a resumption of friendly negotiations for her restoration would always
|
|---|
| 668 | be a cheap and effectual way of intimidating James. Thus she could look on
|
|---|
| 669 | with equanimity when his new favourite Stewart, Earl of Arran, again chased
|
|---|
| 670 | the Anglophiles into England ( December 1583). Arran himself urgently
|
|---|
| 671 | entreated her to accept him and his young master as the genuine Anglophiles.
|
|---|
| 672 | Walsingham's voice was still for war. But, with both factions at her feet
|
|---|
| 673 | and suing for her favour, Elizabeth had good reason to be satisfied with her
|
|---|
| 674 | policy of leaving the Scottish nobles to worry it out among themselves.</p>
|
|---|
| 675 | </font>
|
|---|
| 676 | <hr>
|
|---|
| 677 | <p align="left"><font style="font-family: Times New Roman" size="2">From <i>
|
|---|
| 678 | Queen Elizabeth</i> by Edward Spencer Beesly. Published in London by
|
|---|
| 679 | Macmillan and Co., 1892.</font></p>
|
|---|
| 680 | </font>
|
|---|
| 681 | <font face="Times New Roman" size="2">
|
|---|
| 682 | </blockquote>
|
|---|
| 683 | </blockquote>
|
|---|
| 684 |
|
|---|
| 685 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 686 | <a href="beeslychaptereight.html">to Chapter
|
|---|
| 687 | VIII: The Protectorate of the Netherlands: 1584-1586</a></p>
|
|---|
| 688 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 689 | <a href="monarchs/eliz1.html">to the Queen
|
|---|
| 690 | Elizabeth I website</a> /
|
|---|
| 691 | <a href="relative/maryqos.html">to the Mary,
|
|---|
| 692 | queen of Scots website</a></p>
|
|---|
| 693 | <p align="center"><a href="secondary.html">
|
|---|
| 694 | to Secondary Sources</a></p>
|
|---|
| 695 | </font>
|
|---|
| 696 |
|
|---|
| 697 | </body>
|
|---|
| 698 |
|
|---|
| 699 | </html><!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="http://hostingprod.com/js_source/geov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082626" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>
|
|---|
| 700 | <IMG SRC="http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001524&t=1108082626" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>
|
|---|
