INSECURITY OF THE CATHOLIC GENTRY.

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Thus, under this woman's disastrous rule, the Catholic gentleman's manor-house or mansion afforded him neither security nor safety. The walls may have been thick, and the moat around them broad and deep. Within, memorials of the past, and of those who had crossed the Dark River, told silently of the peace of the grave. In the courtyard the peacock may have sunned itself undisturbed, or the swans moved gracefully upon the still waters. But the pleasant quiet of the old home was a mockery; while its material stability maybe only reminded its thoughtful owner how insecure was now his own altered lot. Peace was denied him; he experienced no such protection as just and righteous laws in a Christian state should always provide. His house was no longer his castle, as the ancient phrase stood. For the indiscretion of friends, or the ill-will and malice of foes; the dishonesty of tenants or the carelessness of servants; a word uttered by accident; the sight of a rosary or crucifix; might cause the immediate break-up and desolation of his ancient and pleasant home, and bring him face to face with Ruin. In by-ways and retired nooks, under high patronage, the disguised spy constantly skulked or crawled, in order to betray and impoverish the descendants of English gentlemen who, both at home and abroad, had been valorous and valiant in the field, just and honest

in their due positions at home, the stay and strength of England,―hitherto a happy country, where Truth had found a temple and Freedom had been secured and loved.

As for the poorer recusants, who owned consciences, and whose only comfort was their Faith, they were in a like sorry plight. They too were cited, charged, and condemned. But how could any of such miserable creatures, who with the greatest difficulty had kept body and soul together, pay the fines and compositions which had been imposed ?* They could not. For no sheriff's official can draw blood out of a flint stone, nor can any man give what he does not possess. They were sent off to prison therefore; huddled together in rank and filthy dungeons, and fed on black bread and brackish water. On one occasion as many as eighty-two had stood in the dock at Oxford at once. At York two hundred and three were condemned and imprisoned either there, at Beverley, or at Hull, in the course of three days;

* In the course of an inquiry into the existence of bondsmen in England at the time of and after the Reformation, Mr. Furnivall has been shown, by Mr. Selby and Mr. Bond of the Record Office, two grants by Queen Elizabeth in the seventeenth year of her reign (A.D. 1575), to Sir Henry Lee, as a reward for his services, of all the fines and compositions he could extract from three hundred bondsmen and women.

TREATMENT OF THE POORER RECUSANTS.

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Then, after

until at length the various counties petitioned to be relieved of their care and cost. having been stripped to the waist (women as well as men), these prisoners were sometimes tied up to a post, first flogged until the blood streamed down their backs; and then, having had their ears bored with a red-hot iron, were sent off without either money or food, to do as they could or starve. If they were not possessed of twenty marks, they were to quit their native land within three months, and to suffer death, without any fresh trial or further process, if they returned.

One fact at length became clear, viz. that unless some actual and practical means were taken without delay by which to keep alive an interest in the Ancient Faith, and unless authorized officers were appointed to maintain and defend it, it must surely cease to exist, and this in no long period. The priests ordained in Queen Mary's reign were, one after the other, dying out.* Poverty, anxiety, and imprisonment had

* One priest "for avoiding searches he hath been compelled five days and nights to lie in the woods, and other times to walk on hills and forests, and lie in hay-barns. He hath reconciled one hundred and sixty. He hath been driven to sit up four whole nights together to do works of charity, sometimes hearing an hundred several confessions at one time."-" An Ancient Editor's Note-book," MS., Stonyhurst College.

made their hair prematurely grey, and weakened their bodily powers. They had lost their spirits, and their energies had faded and failed. The illegally-deprived bishops were kept in confinement, and consequently could not keep up the supply of clergy. A true vocation for the office, and due preparation, were at least needed. How could the latter be given when persecution was rampant? Who, then, would propose a remedywho supply the want? What could be done?

Dr. William Allen, already referred to, of good and ancient family,* was the patriotic and farsighted person who so charitably and boldly stood forward to give an answer and provide a remedy. From the outset he had clearly enough seen the magnitude of the evil and the true nature of the remedy required. With an intimate knowledge of his contemporaries, and a sincere devotion to the Church of his baptism, he set himself in good earnest to accomplish the task which the religious revolution then effected in his native

* He was a son of Esquire John Allen, of Ross-hall, co. Lancaster. His sister Mary Allen married one of the Worthingtons of Worthington, an ancient Catholic family of rank and lineage. From some MS. Notes by a relation, the author discovers that in 1808 there was a striking portrait of the Cardinal at Kiddington House, Oxfordshire, in which he was represented in rochet, scarlet mozetta, and biretta. It belonged to the late Charles Browne Mostyn, Esq.

DR. ALLEN'S COLLEGE AT DOUAY.

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land made it so essential for him to undertake. He was learned and eloquent, bold and discreet, a good tactician, and patient under difficulties. From the first he had let his fellow-Christians know that Catholic Authority could never tolerate any attendance at the new Zwinglian services. On that point his trumpet had never given any uncertain sound. To him, therefore, many seemed to look up with confidence and trust as to a guide. And they did not look in vain.

He resolved without delay to open a College at Douay in Flanders, for the education of English Catholics for the priesthood, on the model of those valued institutions at Oxford and Cambridge, which were now shut to them at home. Friends and allies who had been consulted on the subject, not only gave their sincere approbation to the scheme, but rendered substantial and efficient help. Men denied themselves sorely in order to aid; contributions came in profusely; more at first than were actually required. When at the inauguration of the college, the Mass of the Holy Ghost was said by Dr. Allen in the private chapel of his new institution, only six companions, five of them being Oxford men, knelt behind him at the Elevation, imploring the Almighty's blessing on their joint labours. So soon as the start had been first made, difficulties seemed to vanish marvellously. Men planted and watered, but God