Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/398

384 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [cir. 55. that Pope Pius had directed the censures of the Church against Elizabeth ; and after all allowances for the secularity of temporal governments, he could ill brook and he could hardly comprehend this contemptuous dis- regard with which the sentence of the Holy See had been received. Spain was as much interested as Rome in the reconversion of England. He had lectured Philip on his duties, but his admonitions had been as vain as his entreaties. The Catholic King listened, acquiesced, and did nothing ; and the Pope perceived at last, that unless he could himself throw further weight into the scale, the Island of Saints might remain heretic till the day of judgment. Don Juan de Cuniga, the Spanish resident at the Holy See, waited upon Pius at the end of January, with a message from his master, conveyed in the usual tone. The King, he said, was grieved to the soul at the be- haviour of the Queen of England ; he was most anxious to effect a change there; and his Holiness might feel entire confidence that no opportunity would be passed over. The King of Spain had sung the same song for twelve years, and no better opportunity would be likely to occur than one at least which had been allowed to escape. The Pope replied to Don Juan, that the Eng- lish Catholics had heavy grounds of complaint against the Christian Powers. Not only they had received no assistance from them, but his own Bull had been sup- pressed in France, and never been published in Spain or Flanders ; the Queen was encouraged by the respect