despair. They saw the consciences of their flocks benumbed and
their faith growing lukewarm. They stirred up the rebellion of the
North. They persuaded Pius V. to force them to a sense of their duties
by declaring Elizabeth excommunicated. They sent their missionaries
through the English counties to recover sheep that were straying, and
teach the sin of submission to a sovereign whom the Pope had deposed.
Then had followed the Ridolfi plot, deliberately encouraged by the Pope
and Spain, which had compelled the Government to tighten the reins. One
conspiracy had followed another. Any means were held legitimate to rid
the world of an enemy of God. The Queen's character was murdered by the
foulest slanders, and a hundred daggers were sharpened to murder her
person. The King of Spain had not advised the excommunication, because
he knew that he would be expected to execute it, and he had other things
to do. When called on to act, he and Alva said that if the English
Catholics wanted Spanish help they must do something for themselves. To
do the priests justice, they were brave enough. What they did, and how
far they had succeeded in making the country disaffected, Father Parsons
has told you in the paper which I read to you in a former lecture.
Elizabeth refused to take care of herself. She would show no distrust.
She would not dismiss the Catholic ladies and gentlemen from the
household. She would allow no penal laws to be enforced against
Catholics as such. Repeated conspiracies to assassinate her were
detected and exposed, but she would take no warning. She would have no
bodyguard. The utmost that she would do was to allow the Jesuits and
seminary priests, who, by Parsons's own acknowledgment, were sowing
rebellion, to be banished the realm, and if they persisted in remaining
afterwards, to be treated as traitors. When executions are treated as
martyrdoms, candidates will never be wanting for the crown of glory, and
the flame only burnt the hotter. Tyburn and the quartering knife was a
horrid business, and Elizabeth sickened over it. She hated the severity
which she was compelled to exercise. Her name was defiled with the
grossest calumnies. She knew that she might be murdered any day. For
herself she was proudly indifferent; but her death would and must be
followed by a furious civil war. She told the Privy Council one day
after some stormy scene, that she would come back afterwards and amuse
herself with seeing the Queen o