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356 YORK.
one suspected to be a Jesuit or a priest, who refused
to give a direct answer when questioned on the
subject, was to be imprisoned without bail until he
made up his mind to make a definite reply.
The persecution—for it deserves no milder appellation—which
the working of these statutes involved,
cannot be characterised as anything but a religious
persecution. The provisions of the act of 1581
make no mention of any treasonable designs against
the queen's person or government. It was their
religion which Elizabeth was determined to root out,
and however little the Puritans loved the book of
Common-prayer, they were ready enough to support
any enactments which tended to obliterate a
form of worship which they hated with yet greater
intensity. Toleration for the Romanist there was
none. There is not a vestige of any recognition of
freedom of thought or liberty of conscience. And
the way in which these penal statutes were carried
out during the remainder of her reign must ever
remain as a stain and a blot upon its history, whatever
extenuation may be alleged in the shape of
political necessity or expediency. The Romanists
estimated the number of those whose hearts were
with the Old Religion throughout the country as
amounting to two-thirds of the population."^ It is
probable that their calculations were not far from the
truth. It is utterly unlikely that all, or even a majority
of these people, had any idea of repudiating Elizabeth
as their sovereign, or refusing their allegiance ; and
'
See Card. Allen's "Answer to the Libel of English
Justice," p. 171.