TtfE JESUIT INVASION. 51 Jjouay, for the education of English Catholics. Thus he had a home ready prepared for the exiles to take re- fuge in, and his ranks were daily recruited by priests and scholars,, who preferred their creed to their country. Parsons, whose conscience was elastic, took the oath, but was discovered and expelled with some discredit. The House of Rimmon was the favourite illustration of those who tried to compromise between God and their fellowships, but the Council of Trent and the Pope re- fused to sanction the subterfuge. Campian saw his way less clearly, and his conduct was less open to reproach. He had speculated out the Anglo- Catholic theory for himself, and in 1567 was ordained deacon in the Church of England. ' Extraordinary mental anguish ' followed. He shrunk from being examined by Leicester's com- missioners. The imposition of hands by a heretic bishop he felt as a brand of infamy. He left Oxford and went to Ireland, to reside with Stanihurst the Recorder of Dublin, and the father of one of his pupils. Here he occupied himself in writing a short but valuable history of Ireland valuable especially as containing a lucid account of things which in that curious time he saw there with his own eyes. Afterwards, being for some cause suspected, he came back in disguise, witnessed the trial of Doctor Story in Westminster Hall, and feeling that his own country was no longer a home for him he followed Parsons and joined him and Allen at Douay. The establishment at Douay was broken up, as will be remembered, by Requescens, and the seminary was removed to Rheims ; but its prosperity continued un-
