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had more decided instructions to give, he said he would gladly receive them. There was another class of cases also which there was a difficulty in dealing with. Many of the English who had fallen into heresy had repented and desired to be absolved. But the priests, who could receive them back, were scanty and scattered; and there was extreme danger in resorting to them. In some instances they had been arrested, and under threat of torture had revealed their penitents' names. The Bishop said he had explained to the Catholics generally that allowance was made for violence, but they wished for a general indulgence in place of detailed and special absolution; and although he said that he did not himself consider that this would meet the difficulty, he thought it right to mention their request.1

The question of attendance on the English service was referred to the Inquisition, where the dry truth was expressed more formally and hardly than de Quadra's leniency would have preferred.

'Given a commonwealth in which Catholics were forbidden under pain of death to exercise their religion; where the law required the subject to attend conventicles; where the Psalms were sung and the lessons taken from the Bible were read in the vulgar tongue, and where sermons were preached in defence of heretical opinions, might Catholics comply with that law without peril of damnation to their souls?'

Jesuitism was as yet but half developed. The In

1 De Quadra to Vargas, August 7 :- MS. Simancas.

quisition answered immediately with a distinct negative.

Although the Catholics were not required to communicate with heretics, yet by their presence at their services they would assume and affect to believe with them. Their object in wishing to be present could only be to pass for heretics, to escape the penalties of disobedience; and God had said, 'Whosoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will I be ashamed.' Catholics, and especially Catholics of rank, could not appear in Protestant assemblies without causing scandal to the weaker brethren.

In giving this answer Pope Pius desired to force the Catholics to declare themselves, and precipitate the collision which Philip's timidity had prevented.

On the other point he was more lenient. He empowered de Quadra, as a person not amenable to the English Government, to accept himself the abjuration of heretics willing to forsake their errors, and to empower others at his discretion to do the same whenever and wherever he might think good.1

Before the order of Pius had reached England, the impatience of the Catholics had run over in the abortive conspiracy of the Poles. In itself most trivial, it served as a convenient instrument in the hands of Cecil to irritate the Protestants. The enterprise in France appealed to the loyalty of the people, who flattered themselves with hopes of Calais, and the elections for the Parliament, which was to meet at the spring of the new

1 Pius IV. to de Quadra: MS. Simancas.

year, were carried on under the stimulus of the excitement. The result was the return of a House of Commons violently Puritan; and those who were most anxious to prevent the recognition of the Queen of Scots. found themselves opportunely strengthened by the premature eagerness with which her claims had been pressed. Maitland's intended mission to London had been postponed till the meeting; but meanwhile Sir William Cecil had ominously allowed all correspondence between them to cease; and Randolph, on the 5th of 1563. January, wrote from Edinburgh of the general January. fear and uneasiness that 'things would be wrought in the approaching Parliament which would give little pleasure in Scotland.' Diplomacy however still continued its efforts. Notwithstanding the rupture with the Guises, the admission of Mary Stuart's right was still played off before Elizabeth as a condition on which France might be pacified and Calais restored and there was always a fear that Elizabeth might turn back upon her steps and listen. To end the crisis, Sir Thomas Smith advised her to throw six thousand men, some moonlight night, on the Calais sands. The garrison had been withdrawn after the battle of Dreux to reinforce the Catholic army, and not two hundred men were left to defend the still incomplete fortifications. But Eliza

I Maitland to Cecil, January 3: | Pale. Before the expulsion of the Scotch MSS. Rolls House.

2 Randolph to Cecil: MS. Ibid.
3 Sir T. Smith to Elizabeth,

January 2: FORBES, vol. ii. The
beneficial effects of the French con-
quest had already been felt in the

English it was almost a desert. Sir Thomas Smith held out as an inducement for its recovery, that it had become 'the plentifullest country in all France.'

beth was as incapable as Philip of a sudden movement, and she had no desire to exchange her quarrel with the Guises-which after all might be peaceably composedfor a declared war with a united France. She knew that she had not deserved the confidence of the Huguenots, and she had already reason to fear that they might turn against her.

The day after the battle of Dreux, Throgmorton, unable to rejoin the Admiral, was brought in as a prisoner into the Catholic camp. The Duke of Guise sent for him, and after a long and conciliatory conversation on the state of France, spoke deprecatingly of the injustice of Elizabeth's suspicions of himself and his family, and indicated with some distinctness that if she would withdraw from Havre Calais should be given up to her.1

Elizabeth, catching at an intimation which fell in with her private wishes, replied with a promise that nothing should be done in Parliament to the displeasure of the Queen of Scots.' Mary Stuart had recovered credit by her expedition to the north; and her confidence in Elizabeth's weakness again revived: not indeed that Elizabeth was really either weak or blind, but in constitutional irresolution she was for ever casting her eye over her shoulder, with the singular and happy effect of

'If they cannot accord among | way MSS. themselves, then I perceive they mind to treat with you favourably, and I believe to satisfy your Majesty about Calais, provided that from henceforth you do no more aid the Prince and the rebels.'-Throgmorton to Elizabeth, January 3: Con

'These men have two strings to their bow-to accord with the Prince and to accord with her Majesty also; but not with both at once to both's satisfactions.' - Throgmorton to Cecil, January 3: FORBES, vol. ii.

keeping the Catholics perpetually deluded with false expectations, and of amusing them with hopes of a change which never came.

Her resolution about the Scottish succession promised a stormy and uneasy session; and Cecil before its commencement, still uncertain how far he could depend upon her, made another effort to rid the Court of de Quadra. The Spanish ambassador was suspected without reason of having encouraged the Poles. He was known to have urged Philip to violence, and to be the secret support and stay of the disaffected in England and Ireland. Confident in the expected insurrection of the Low Countries, Cecil was not unwilling to risk an open rupture with Spain, which would force Elizabeth once for all on the Protestant side.

A few days before Parliament was to meet, an Italian Calvinist, in the train of the Vidame of Chartres, was passing Durham Place when a stranger, who was lounging at the gate, drew a pistol and fired at him. The ball passed through the Italian's cap and wounded an Englishman behind him. The assassin darted into the house with a crowd at his heels; and the Bishop, knowing nothing of him, but knowing the Italian to be a heretic, bade his servants open the water gate. The fugitive sprung down the steps, leapt into a boat, and was gone. Being taken afterwards at Gravesend, he confessed under torture that he had been bribed to commit the murder by the Provost of Paris. De Quadra, who had made himself an accomplice after the fact, was required to surrender the keys of his house; and his steward re

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