Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

searched, and a license was found from the Pope,
authorizing him to preach whatever doctrines he
might judge best fitted to inflame the animosities
and widen the divisions of the Protestants. The men
who stole into England under this disguise found
others, as base as themselves, ready to join their
enterprise, and who, in fact, had retained their
ecclesiastical livings in the hope of overthrowing
one day that Church which ranked them among her
ministers. So far the campaign had proceeded in
silence and secrecy; the first overt act was that
which we have already narrated, the fulmination of
the bull of 1570.
This effectually broke the union and peace
which had so largely prevailed in England during
Elizabeth's reign. The lay Romanists now withdrew
from the churches of an excommunicated worship;
they grew cold towards an excommunicated
sovereign; they kept aloof from their fellowsubjects,
now branded as heretics; and the breach
was widened by the measures the Parliament was
compelled to adopt, to guard the person of the
queen from the murderous attacks to which she
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