POLITICAL HISTORY 



thanks the bishop for his great exertions, and hopes to see ' those countries 

 under your charge speedily purged of that dangerous infection of Popery.' 

 The discovery of real or fictitious plots against the queen decided the council 

 upon the severest measures against a religion which exalted allegiance to 

 the pope above that due to the sovereign. Campion was thought to be in 

 hiding in Lancashire. A letter of Sir Francis Walsingham, dated 31 July, 

 1580, refers to the queen's decision ' to proceed roundly with the recusants.'" 

 Campion was arrested and executed in 1581, and in that year Sir John 

 Southworth, and others who were arrested by the inquisition of 1576, were 

 more strictly kept, and the whole machinery, lay and clerical, of the county, 

 was put in motion for the prosecution of the religious campaign.'* The 

 commissioners were to require ' the sheriffs and Justices of the Peace adjoin- 

 ing to their houses to cause the precepts to be duly served and executed 

 upon their peril.' " 



That the task of prosecuting recusancy in a county where Roman 

 Catholicism had such a deep hold was not an easy one appears from the 

 letter of the council to the high sheriff of Lancashire and to the justices, 

 reproaching them that although the queen had signified her pleasure for a 

 general conformity in matters of religion — no properly political disloyalty 

 being alleged — and for all recusants to be proceeded against at the quarter 

 sessions, yet nothing had been done in Lancashire ; and requiring a list of all 

 faulty persons and absent justices." In January, 1582, the lords of the 

 council wrote to the earl of Derby and the bishop of Chester, regretting to 

 hear that ' there is such a number of Recusants in Lancashire,' and referring 

 to the ' slackness and partiality used by some of the Justices.' 



The question soon arose as to how the heavy expenses of the prisoners 

 for religion were to be defrayed. The commissioners decided that a charge 

 of %d. a. week should be laid on every parish to defray the cost.*^ This 

 collection was to be assessed and taken by the justices of the peace, and paid 

 to the keeper of the Fleet Prison, Manchester.'' Some difficulty arose about 

 the collection of money in the parishes, but in December, 1583, the council 

 sent orders it was to be continued, and those who opposed it were to be sent 

 up to London." The earl of Derby was very zealous in the cause of the 

 crown, and the queen caused the council to thank him for his forwardness in 

 the matter.*" His son Ferdinando, Lord Strange, writing to the bishop of 

 Chester, refers to Lancashire as ' this so unbridled and bad an handful of 

 England.' 



While all this prosecution of recusants was going forward, the queen 

 and council were by no means indifferent to the military provision for the 

 county. In March, 1580, the queen's commission for a general muster was 

 sent to the palatinate, under the management of the earl of Huntingdon as 

 lord president of the Northern Council, the earl of Derby as lord-lieutenant, 

 the sheriff, Edmund Trafford, esq., and many others, knights, esquires, and 

 gentlemen of the county.*^ At the same time was sent an order for a 



" Peck, Desiderata Curiosa, \, Lib. iii, No. xviii, 31 July, 1580. " Ibid. No. xxxiv. 



^ Ibid. No. XXXV, 4 July, 1 581. " Ibid. No. xliii. 14 Dec. 1581. 



" Ibid. No. liii, 30 June, 1582. " Ibid. Lib. iv. No. vi. 



" Ibid. No. xxvi, Dec. 1383. 



*" Ibid. No. xxvii. 



*' Shuttle-worth MSS. quoted Lanes. Lieutenancy, pt. 2, p. 104, No. 27. — 1580. 



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