54 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63. fervour with which, they throw themselves into their work, and the cheerful fortitude with which they accept martyrdom when occasion offers, are entirely admirable. Some have already suffered with the utmost calmness, 1 following- in the steps of the saints who had gone before them. Till lately there were but few priests left in England, and religion was dying out for want of teachers. None called themselves Catholics but the few to whom God had given grace to persevere out of pure zeal for his service. But now, by means of those who have come over, it has pleased God to provide a remedy.' 2 These first comers however were but the rank and file of the converts : mere secular priests who, unless they gave other cause for suspicion, had not as yet drawn on themselves the special animosity of the Go- vernment. But in connection with the great efforts which were being made to overthrow Elizabeth, some- thing was needed more vigorous, more publicly effective. The Church, so Allen deliberately calculated, required martyrs to set off against the victims of Queen Mary. Catholics should show that they could suffer pain as well as inflict it, and if Elizabeth could be forced into a confessed religious persecution, it might rouse the 1 Mendoza perhaps alludes to Cuthbcrt Mayne, who was discover- ed in Cornwall in November, 1578, having about him copies of the Bull of Pope Pius. He was tried for treason and hanged at Launceston. This and similar executions are now held to have been needless cruelties. But were a Brahmin to be found in the quarters of a Sepoy regiment scattering incendiary addresses he would be hanged also. 2 Mendoza to Philip, December 28, 1578 : MSS. Simancas.
