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might summon any person who was suspected of recusancy, and require
him to take a special oath of loyalty embodied in the Act. If any
persons not of noble birth refused to take the oath they should be
committed to prison till the next quarter sessions or assizes, and if
in these assemblies they persisted in their refusal they incurred
thereby the penalty of Praemunire.[6]

Both in its substance and particularly in its form the oath of
allegiance was objectionable, and whether or not it was designed with
the intention of dividing the Catholic body, it succeeded in producing
that effect. Many Catholics thought that, as they were called upon to
renounce merely the authority of the Pope to depose princes or to make
war on them, they could take it as a sign of civil allegiance without
abandoning their obedience to the Pope as their spiritual superior.
Others thought differently, however, and as a consequence a violent
controversy broke out which disturbed the England Catholics for close
on a century. The archpriest Blackwell condemned the oath at first,
but in a conference with the clergy held in July 1606 he declared in
its favour. Acting on this opinion the lay peers and many of the
clergy consented to take the oath. The other side appealed to Rome for
a decision, and a brief was issued on the 22nd September 1606, by
which the oath was condemned as unlawful. Blackwell neglected to
publish the brief probably from motives of prudence, though other
grounds were alleged, and in the following year a new condemnation was
forwarded from Rome (Aug. 1607). Meanwhile Blackwell had taken the
oath himself, and had published letters permitting Catholics to act
similarly. As he was unwilling to recede from his position
notwithstanding the appeals of Father Persons and Cardinal Bellarmine,
he was deposed from his office and George Birkhead or Birket was
appointed archpriest (1608). The controversy now became general. James
I. entered the lists with a book entitled /Apologie for the Oath of
Allegiance/, in which he sought to meet the reasons contained in the
papal documents and in the letters of Father Persons and Cardinal
Bellarmine. Both writers replied to the royal challenge, and soon
hosts of others, both Catholic and Protestant hastened to take part in
a wordy war, the only result of which was to disedify the faithful, to
turn away waverers from the Church, and to cause rejoicings to the
enemies of the Catholic cause. Birkhead, who had been empowered to
suspend all priests who did not show some signs of repentance for
having taken the oath, acted with great moderation in the hope of
avoiding a schism, but at last he was obliged to make use of the
powers with which he was entrusted (1611).[7]

The old controversies between the Jesuits and a large section of the
seminary priests were renewed both at home and on the Continent. The
seculars objecting to the control exercised by the Jesuits in England,
in regard to English affairs at Rome, and in the foreign colleges,
continued to petition for the appointment of a bishop. Ugly disputes
ensued and many things were done by both sides during the heat of the
strife that could not be defended. The Holy See found it difficult to
decide between the various plans put forward, but at last in 1623 Dr.
Bishop was appointed Bishop of Calcedon /in partibus infidelium/, and
entrusted with the government of the English mission. During these
years of strife one important work, destined to have a great effect on
the future of Catholicism in England, was accomplished, namely the
re-establishment of the English congregation of the Benedictines. The
Benedictine community had been re-established at Westminster in 1556
with the Abbot Feckenham as superior, but they were expelled three
years later. Of the monks who had belonged to this community only one,
Dom Buckley, was alive in 1607. Before his death he affiliated two
English Benedictines belonging to an Italian house to the English
congregation, and in 1619 the English Benedictines on the Continent
were united with the English congregation by papal authority.[8] The
houses of the English Benedictines on the Continent were situated at
Douay (1605), at Dieulouard (1606), at Paris (1611), Saint-Malo (1611)
and Lambspring in Germany (1643). The members bound themselves by oath
to labour for the re-conversion of their country, and the list of
Benedictine martyrs who died for the faith in England bears testimony
to the fact that their oath was faithfully observed.

While these unfortunate controversies were weakening and disheartening
the Catholics the penal laws were enforced with great severity. One
martyr suffered in 1607, three in 1608, five in 1610, two in 1616, and
five in 1618. Great numbers of priests were confined in prison or