Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/17

1 569. ] ENGLISH PARTIES. 3 out before her, and its eventual success may be allowed to prove that it was wise. It was neither possible however nor desirable to hold the balance entirely even. The new ideas were growing , the old were waning. There was no anxiety to check the first or save the second. Each was to be allowed and enabled to follow its natural tendency in peace ; and thus the formulas, as has been well said, though patient of a Catholic interpretation, were not ambitious of it ; the Puritans could more easily use the English liturgy than the Catholics could dispense with the mass. The Puritans complained, but for the most part sub- mitted. The Catholics, who conformed widely at first, tempted by the easy administration of the laws, fell away especially in the northern counties reconciled themselves to Rome, and watched and prayed either for a new sovereign, or for the interference of the Great Powers of Europe. At the time at which the history has now arrived, a crisis was visibly approaching. The wisest of the Spanish statesmen had foreseen for years, that unless Elizabeth could be converted, a crusade against her would at last have to be undertaken. The defeat of Orange, the growing exhaustion of Cond everywhere except on the sea, the presence of the Queen of Scots in England, and Elizabeth's evident timidity in dealing with her; the seizure of the Spanish treasure, and the discontent provoked by the suspension of trade, had created at last in the opinions of many of them the op portunity for which they had waited so long.