While persecution fell indiscriminately on those who confessed the creed of the Roman Church, it was not to be expected that all should view their troubles alike. The lead given in the speech from the throne was freely followed. It was a Jesuit plot, said the king. It was a Jesuit plot, cried Catholics who were not under the influence of the order. The society has seldom drawn the affection of many outside its own ranks in any age, and in the seventeenth century incurred the hatred of almost all parts of the English Catholic body. Constant intrigues set the secular priests, members of the other orders, and, it can hardly be doubted, a large number of laymen against its restless and selfish policy. The result was plain. For the doings of the society every one had now to suffer. In the midst of fierce trouble it was not against the government but against the Jesuits that Catholic resentment was shewn. Jesuits were everywhere scouted, railed at for their pernicious principles, scarce treated civilly in the company they sought. There was even rejoicing at their downfall. At last old scores would be paid off; at last all the juggles and intrigues at court would find their due reward in public shame. The Jesuit historian sighs with meek grief at the additional burden the society was compelled to bear.[356] It was perhaps not only political intrigues that roused the displeasure of laymen. Though many of the priesthood were men of saintly temper and bore affliction with constancy and admirable effort on behalf of their brethren, there were also black sheep among them. Scandal caused by priests who thronged the court was of long standing. In the opinion of the more discreet their behaviour was such as to cause harm rather than good to the Catholic religion in England.[357] The case of St. Germain was notorious. Great disrepute was brought on the Society of Jesus by the story of Godfrey’s murder: had the real facts been known they would have been more damaging still. Yet more unfortunate, since it brought laughter with it, was the case of Father John Gavan, the famous martyr and Jesuit who was likened to “an angel of God” and his voice in preaching to “a silver trumpet”; for, having done battle in youth with the lust of the flesh, he was seized at the height of his reputation in the stables of the Imperial ambassador, where he was hiding with a woman who passed as his wife and their son.[358]