Book Description

From the book's preface:"Commencing with the Reign of William the Conqueror, I have recorded England's stern resistance to Papal extortions, and arrogant claims to temporal power, down to the birth of the Reformation. But few persons realise how widespread and stern that resistance was, as revealed in the documents I cite. That resistance was almost entirely political until the time of Wycliffe, but from that time onward there was added a stern opposition to many of the doctrines of the Church of Rome. With doctrinal questions, however, I have nothing to do in this book. The number of Acts of Parliament passed before the Reformation, limiting the political power of the Popes, will surprise some of my readers.With the Reformation began a new phase of England's Fight with the Papacy. The most desperate and prolonged efforts were made by Rome to recover lost ground. Her chief reliance was not on controversial arguments, but on political weapons, as has been the case ever since. Her many plots and conspiracies, down to the flight of James II. in 1688, are here recorded. All the Penal Laws passed during that period are discussed in these pages, and the causes which produced them are traced to their sources. In this portion of the book I have made use, so far as possible, of the wealth of material which has come to light during the past half-century. To a very large extent my authorities are Roman Catholic. In the section devoted to the Reign of Charles II., I have made use of my book, The Jesuits in Great Britain, but with omissions and additions. I do not, of course, justify all the Penal Laws which were passed; but, injustice to our forefathers, it must be pointed out that each Act was called for by some fresh aggression of Rome's agents in the political sphere. And all through the period between the Reign of Henry VIII. and the accession of James II., the Court of Rome never made a serious effort for conciliation; but, on the contrary, did everything in its power to exasperate the Government for the time being. If it takes two to make a quarrel, it takes two to make peace. Had the Vatican wished, it had many opportunities of lightening the burden of English Roman Catholics; but it refused them all. A modern Roman Catholic biographer of Edmund Campion, the Jesuit, forcibly remarks: "As affairs were managed, they rendered simply impossible the coexistence of the Government of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth with the obedience of their subjects to the supreme authority of the Pope; and those Princes had no choice but either to abdicate, with the hope of receiving back their Crowns, like King John, from the Papal Legate, or to hold their own in spite of the Popes, and in direct and avowed hostility to them.""I have tried to write with moderation: it is for my readers to decide whether I have succeeded or not. I prefer strong facts to strong adjectives, though there are times when the latter are justifiable. Though I am a Protestant, not ashamed of my colours, I have not, I believe, written anything in these pages to which old-fashioned Roman Catholics, of the Gallican School, would object."