alter religion;" that "he never had any thought of granting toleration
to the Catholics, and that if he thought that his son would condescend
to any such course, he would wish the kingdom translated to his
daughter;" and lastly, that "he had given them a year of probation, to
conform themselves, which, seeing it had not wrought that effect, he had
fortified all the laws against them, and commanded them to be put in
execution to the uttermost."

Early in 1604, all Jesuits and seminary priests were banished; the
recusancy fines and arrears were soon after stringently exacted, and
many Roman Catholic families almost reduced to beggary. Sudden
domiciliary visits were made in search of concealed priests, usually in
the dead of night: empty beds were examined, walls struck with mallets,
rapiers thrust into the chinks of wainscots. The Jesuit missionaries
were in especial danger; they went about disguised, hid themselves under
secular callings and travelled from one house to another, using a
different name at each, to avoid discovery. One priest, named Moatford,
passed as the footman of Lord Sandys' daughter, wore his livery, and
said mass in secret when it seemed safe to do so. Serious difficulties
were thrown in the way of educating children; if they were sent abroad,
the parents were subject to a fine of 100 pounds; if taught at home by a
recusant tutor, both he and his employer were mulcted in forty shillings
per day.

It was in these circumstances that the Gunpowder Plot originated,--not
from some sudden ebullition of groundless malice: and it was due, not to
the Romanists at large, but to that section of them only which
constituted the Jesuit party.

It is not generally understood that the Roman Church, which boasts so
loudly of her perfect unity, is really divided in two parties, one
siding with, and the other against, that powerful and mysterious body
calling itself the Society of Jesus. It is with this body, "the power
behind the Pope,"--which Popes have ere this striven to put down, and
have only fallen a sacrifice themselves--that political plots have most
commonly originated, and the Gunpowder Plot was no exception to the
general rule. It was entirely got up by the Jesuit faction, the
ordinary Roman Catholics not merely having nothing to do with it, but
placing themselves, when interrogated, in positive opposition to it.

There are certain peculiarities concerning the conspirators which
distinguish this