to rescue them from the Spanish army, the
terror-struck rising of the French Huguenots, the growing embarrassments
of Elizabeth both at home and abroad, seemed to offer Rome its
opportunity of delivering a final blow. In February 1569 the Queen was
declared a heretic by a Bull which asserted in their strongest form the
Papal claims to a temporal supremacy over princes. As a heretic and
excommunicate, she was "deprived of her pretended right to the said
kingdom," her subjects were absolved from allegiance to her, commanded
"not to dare to obey her," and anathematized if they did obey. The Bull
was not as yet promulgated, but Dr. Morton was sent into England to
denounce the Queen as fallen from her usurped authority, and to promise
the speedy issue of the sentence of deposition. The religious pressure
was backed by political intrigue. Ridolfi, an Italian merchant settled
in London, who had received full powers and money from Rome, knit the
threads of a Catholic revolt in the north, and drew the Duke of Norfolk
into correspondence with Mary Stuart. The Duke was the son of Lord
Surrey and grandson of the Norfolk who had headed the Conservative party
through the reign of Henry the Eighth. Like the rest of the English
peers, he had acquiesced in the religious compromise of the Queen. It
was as a Protestant that the more Conservative among his fellow-nobles
now supported a project for his union with the Scottish Queen. With an
English and Protestant husband it was thought that Murray and the lords
might safely take back Mary to the Scottish throne, and England again
accept her as the successor to her crown. But Norfolk was not contented
with a single game. From the Pope and Philip he sought aid in his
marriage-plot as a Catholic at heart, whose success would bring about a
restoration of Catholicism throughout the realm. With the Catholic lords
he plotted the overthrow of Cecil and the renewal of friendship with
Spain. To carry out schemes such as these however required a temper of
subtler and bolder stamp than the Duke's: Cecil found it easy by playing
on his greed to part him from his fellow-nobles; his marriage with Mary
as a Protestant was set aside by Murray's refusal to accept her as
Queen; and Norfolk promised to enter into no correspondence with Mary
Stuart but with Elizabeth's sanction.

[Sidenote: The Catholic Earls.]

The hope of a crown, whether in Scotland or at home, proved too great
however for his good faith, a