REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 41. contrived rather as a test of opinion than of loyalty. At once and without reserve or fear the Catholic Lords spoke out : Northumberland said the heretics might be satisfied with holding other men's bishoprics and benefices without seeking their lives ; when they had killed the clergy they would kill the temporal lords next : the Earl swore that he would speak as his conscience bade him ; he would protest against the law ; and he believed that most of the Lords who heard him were of the same opinion with himself. 1 Montague followed on the same side and at greater length :
- A law was proposed,' he said, 'to compel Papists,
under pain of death, to confess the Protestant doctrine to be true. Such a law was neither necessary nor was it just. The Catholics were living peaceably, neither disputing nor preaching nor troubling the common- wealth in any way. The doctrine of the Protestants, if they had a doctrine, had been established against the consent of the ecclesiastical estate ; and it was absurd, so long as the world was full of disputes and the opinions of those best able to judge were divided, for one set of men to compel another to accept their views as true or to pretend that there was no longer room for doubt. 1 De Quadra to Philip: MS. Simancas. The Supremacy Bill, which ultimately passed, was brought into the House of Lords on the 25th <7f February. De Quadra's letter, describing Northumberland's speech, was written on the 2yth of January, ; and must therefore refer to some other Bill unnoticed in the meagre journals which was thrown out. The ambassador distinctly says that there was a vote ' vinieudo a votard los Senores.'
