this time the Duke of York "was sensibly touched
in his conscience, and began to think seriously of his salvation."
Accordingly, the historian states, "he sent for one Father Simons, a
Jesuit, who had the reputation of a very learned man, to discourse with
him upon that subject; and when he came, he told him the good intentions
he had of being a catholic, and treated with him concerning his being
reconciled to the church. After much discourse about the matter, the
Jesuit very sincerely told him, that unless he would quit the communion
of the Church of England, he could not be received into the Catholic
Church. The duke then said he thought it might be done by a dispensation
from the pope, alleging the singularity of his case, and the advantage
it might bring to the catholic religion in general, and in particular to
those of it in England, if he might have such dispensation for outwardly
appearing a protestant, at least till he could own himself publicly to
be a catholic, with more security to his own person and advantage to
them. But the father insisted that even the pope himself had not the
power to grant it, for it was an unalterable doctrine of the Catholic
Church, not to do ill that good might follow. What this Jesuit thus said
was afterwards confirmed to the duke by the pope himself, to whom he
wrote upon the same subject. Till this time his royal highness believed
(as it is commonly believed, or at least said by the Church of England
doctors) that dispensations in any such cases are by the pope easily
granted; but Father Simons's words, and the letter of his holiness, made
the duke think it high time to use all the endeavours he could, to be at
liberty to declare himself, and not to live in so unsafe and so uneasy a
condition."

Inasmuch as what immediately followed touches a point of great delicacy
and vast importance, the words of the historian, mainly taken from the
"Stuart Papers," are best given here, "His royal highness well-knowing
that the king was of the same mind, and that his majesty had opened
himself upon it to Lord Arundel of Wardour, Lord Arlington, and Sir
Thomas Clifford, took an occasion to discourse with him upon that
subject about the same time, and found him resolved as to his being
a catholic, and that he intended to have a private meeting with those
persons above named at the duke's closet, to advise with them about the
ways and methods fit to be taken for advancing the catholic religion in