Coningsby or the New Generation

‘My fathers perilled their blood and fortunes for the cause of the / Sovereignty and Church of England,' said Lyle to Coningsby, as they were / lying stretched out on the sunny turf in the park of Beaumanoir,' and / I inherit their passionate convictions. They were Catholics, as their / descendant. No doubt they would have been glad to see their ancient / faith predominant in their ancient land; but they bowed, as I bow, to an / adverse and apparently irrevocable decree. But if we could not have the / Church of our fathers, we honoured and respected the Church of their / children. It was at least a Church; a ‘Catholic and Apostolic Church,' / as it daily declares itself. Besides, it was our friend. When we were / persecuted by Puritanic Parliaments, it was the Sovereign and the Church / of England that interposed, with the certainty of creating against / themselves odium and mistrust, to shield us from the dark and relentless / bigotry of Calvinism.'

‘I believe,' said Coningsby, ‘that if Charles I. had hanged all the / Catholic priests that Parliament petitioned him to execute, he would / never have lost his crown.'