[211] The college of Douay for English refugee priests was established in 1568 or 1569. Lingard, 374. Strype seems, but I believe through inadvertence, to put this event several years later. _Annals_, ii. 630. It was dissolved by Requesens, while governor of Flanders, but revived at Rheims in 1575, under the protection of the cardinal of Lorrain, and returned to Douay in 1593. Similar colleges were founded at Rome in 1579, at Valladolid in 1589, at St. Omer in 1596, and at Louvain in 1606. [212] 13 Eliz. c. 1. This act was made at first retrospective, so as to affect every one who had at any time denied the queen's title. A member objected to this in debate as "a precedent most perilous." But Sir Francis Knollys, Mr. Norton, and others defended it. D'Ewes, 162. It seems to have been amended by the Lords. So little notion had men of observing the first principles of equity towards their enemies! There is much reason from the debate to suspect that the _ex post facto_ words were levelled at Mary. [213] Strype, ii. 133; D'Ewes, 207. [214] Strype, ii. 135. [215] _Life of Parker_, 354. [216] Strype's _Annals_, ii. 48. [217] Murden's _Papers_, p. 43, contain proofs of the increased discontent among the catholics in consequence of the penal laws. [218] Strype, ii. 330. See too in vol. iii. Appendix 68, a series of petitions intended to be offered to the queen and parliament, about 1583. These came from the puritanical mint, and show the dread that party entertained of Mary's succession, and of a relapse into popery. It is urged in these, that no toleration should be granted to the popish worship in private houses. Nor in fact had they much cause to complain that it was so. Knox's famous intolerance is well known. "One mass," he declared in preaching against Mary's private chapel at Holyrood House, "was more fearful unto him than if ten thousand armed enemies were landed in any part of the realm, on purpose to suppress the whole religion." M'Crie's _Life of Knox_, vol. ii. p. 24. In a conversation with Maitland he asserted most explicitly the duty of putting idolaters to death. _Id._ p. 120. Nothing can be more sanguinary than the reformer's spirit in this remarkable interview. St. Dominic could not have surpassed him. It is strange to see men, professing all the while our modern creed of charity and toleration, extol these sanguinary spirits of the sixteenth century. The English puritans, though I cannot cite any passages so strong as the foregoing, were much the bitterest enemies of the catholics. When we read a letter from any one, such as Mr. Topcliffe, very fierce against the latter, we may expect to find him put in a word in favour of silenced ministers. [219] D'Ewes, 161, 177. [220] Strype's _Life of Parker_, 354. [221] Strype's _Annals_, i. 582. Honest old Strype, who thinks church and state never in the wrong, calls this "a notable piece of favour." [222] _Id._ ii. 110, 408. [223] Strype's _Annals_, iii. 127.