History of England From the Fall of Wolsey to the Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Volume 11)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1875. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... and Scotland, at its present rate of progress, would be ready to lend itself to the Duke of Guise, and to open its ports to the armies which were to avenge the wrongs of Mary Stuart. The Irish part of the great Jesuit conspiracy had failed, though at this time had not yet failed obviously, and Munster and Wicklow were still in flames. The Scotch part of it had been absolutely successful. The story must now turn to the third division of the confederates, the soldiers of Christ, whose scene of action was England itself. An account given by one of them of a visit of himself and a companion to the Vatican, will serve as a fit introduction to the invasion of Parsons and Campian. It was towards the close of the Pontificate of Gregory XIII. that two young English Jesuits, Anthony Tyrrell, who tells the story,1 and Foscue or Fortescue, better known as Ballard, and concerned afterwards in the Babington conspiracy, set out upon a journey to Rome on a noticeable errand. Their object was to learn from the lips of the Pope himself whether 'any one who, for the benefit of the Church and the delivery of the Catholics from their afflictions, attempted to destroy the Queen of England, should have for the fact his pardon.' They halted on their way at the Seminary at Eheims, where they found the fraternity occupied with the same subject as themselves. The preacher of the Easter-day sermon, an English convert, called Elizabeth 'the monster of the world, worthy of deposition,' and he said from the pulpit that 'Pity it was there could not be found any of that courage to bereave her of her life.' Father Allen, the principal, spoke afterwards in the same strain, 'inveighing most heinously against the Queen, saying that her law exceeded for cruelty both heathen and Turk, and that she sought...