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HISTORY OP ENGLAND.

chap, between vicious theory and vicious practice. It was alleged1 j6S5. that every one of these crimes had been prompted or ap-plauded by Roman Catholic divines. The letters whichEverard Digby wrote in lemon juice from the Tower to hiswife had recently been published, and were often quoted.He was a scholar and a gentleman, upright in all ordinarydealings, and strongly impressed with a sense of duty to God.Yet he had been deeply concerned in the plot for blowing upKing, Lords, and Commons, and had, on the brink of eter-nity, declared that it was incomprehensible to him how anyRoman Catholic should think such a design sinful. The in-ference popularly drawn from these things was that, howeverfair the general character of a Papist might be, there was noexcess of fraud or cruelty of which he was not capable whenthe safety and honour of his Church were at stake.

The extraordinary success of the fables of Oates is«to bechiefly ascribed to the prevalence of this opinion. It was tono purpose that the accused Roman Catholic appealed to theintegrity, humanity, and loyalty which he had shown throughthe whole course of his life. It was to no purpose that hecalled crowds of respectable witnesses, of his own persuasion,to contradict monstrous romances invented by the most in-famous of mankind. It was to no purpose that, with thehalter round his neck, lie invoked on himself the wholevengeance of the God before whom, in a few moments, hemust appear, if he had been guilty of meditating any ill to hisprince or to his Protestant fellow countrymen. The evidencewhich he produced in his favour proved only how little Popishoaths were worth. His very virtues raised a presumption ofhis guilt. That he had before him death and judgment inimmediate prospect only made it more likely that he woulddeny what, without injury to the holiest of causes, he couldnot confess. Among the unhappy men who were convictedof the murder of Godfrey was one Protestant of no high