114 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. &$. professed opinions which, were not those of the Estab- lished Church, but being loyal to her Majesty and ready to resist any foreign force, though sent by the Pope himself, they had not been interfered with. Those only had suffered who had maintained the Bull of Pope Pius, and the libels against the Queen for religious per- secution were therefore false and scandalous. If Popes might absolve subjects from their allegiance, no king- dom could stand but with the Pope's pleasure. The Queen intended to maintain her lawful authority, and England, which had survived the excommunication of Henry VIII., would survive the repetition of it against his daughter. 1 Allen answered Burghley. At the very time when Elizabeth's assassination was advocated publicly in the Rheims pulpits, he ventured to make a distinct denial of the charge of treason. He insisted that his missionaries had been innocent preachers of a religion of peace, and that those who had suffered were martyrs in the holiest sense. The persecution of the Protestants under Mary he defended as agreeable to law, while the punishment of the Jesuits was murder. He declared the Papal su- premacy to be a point of conscience, and he was safe in saying therefore that they had confined themselves to teaching religion. He omitted what alone would have given weight to his argument, a frank confession that Catholics were the subjects of the prince under whom they were born, and that neither Pope nor council Execution of Justice, condensed.
