«

194 HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

ciiap. Malignity was concealed under the show of friendship and of— piety. All the saints of the royal household were praying foreach other and backbiting each other from morning to night.Here and there in the throng of hypocrites might be remarked aman too highspirited to dissemble. But such a man, howeveradvantageously he might have made himself known elsewhere,Avas certain to be treated with disdain by the inmates of thatsullen abode.*

Such was the Court of James, as described by a RomanCatholic. Yet, however disagreeable that Court may havebeen to a Roman Catholic, it Avas infinitely more disagreeableto a Protestant. For the Protestant had to endure, in additionto all the dulness of Avhieh the Roman Catholic complained, acroAvd of vexations from Avhieh the Roman Catholic Avas free. Inevery competition between a Protestant and a Roman Catholicthe Roman Catholic Avas-preferred. In eA'ery quarrel between aProtestant and a Roman Catholic the Roman Catholic Avas sup-posed to be in the right. While the ambitious Protestantlooked in vain for promotion, Avhile the dissipated Protestantlooked in vain for amusement, the serious Protestant looked invain for spiritual instruction and consolation. James might,no doubt, easily have obtained permission for those membersof the Church of England AA'ho had sacrificed eA'ery thing in hiscause to meet privately in some modest oratory, and to receivethe eucharistic bread and Avine from the hands of one of theirown. clergy: but he did not Avish his residence to be defiled bysuch impious rites. Doctor Dennis Granville, who had quittedthe richest deanery, the richest archdeaconry and one of therichest livings in England, rather than take the oaths, gavemortal offence by asking leave to read prayers to the exiles ofhis OAAm communion. His request Avas refused; and he Avas sogrossly insulted by his master’s chaplains and their retainers* Hamilton’s Zeneyde.