Then, too, began a systematic attempt to stamp out the old religion. The priesthood was proscribed, and priests were hunted down and exiled for offering up the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass; and, during the centuries of persecution, which began with the reign of Queen Elizabeth, hundreds of priests and others were put to death for the sole crime of having said or having been present at the Mass. In the well-known phrase of one of the present English cabinet ministers: "It was the Mass that mattered," and the real struggle was for this all along the line. To the Catholic, who realised all that the Mass meant,--how it was the centre of his religion and the sublime Christian Sacrifice, it was a point of honour and conscience to imperil fortune and even life for so sacred a heritage. To the Protestant in those days the Mass was a fable and dangerous deceit, and with Luther he desired above all things to root out this superstition from the land; and so, as there could be no Mass without a Mass-priest, all the efforts of those in power were directed towards extirpating all those who continued in spite of the laws to exercise their ministry, and to prevent others coming from abroad to continue their work, when they either perished on the scaffold, or worn out by the long continued persecution and constant searches for them, passed away in their hiding places. In England and in Ireland the record of this terrible time makes us wonder how it was possible that any remnant of the old religion could have survived. Cecil, who was the master brain directing the policy of Queen Elizabeth, had counted upon the gradual extinction of the old Marian priesthood and the consequent eradication of the old Faith from the hearts of a people left without priest or teacher or Sacraments. From 1580 the coming of the Jesuits and seminary priests from abroad, to keep the light of the Faith alive if possible, in spite of fines and the rack and gallows, made it clear to the all-powerful minister that he had miscalculated the effect of his repressive policy. From that time the persecution began in earnest.