Note 304 — Chapter X
Reading edition
As to the presence of Roman Catholics in the two armies, the following passages from Baxter and Hallam should be considered:—
Baxter, whose prejudices against the army must be borne in mind when he refers to the subject, only expresses suspicion. "The most among Cromwell's soldiers that ever I could suspect for Papists were but a few that began as strangers among the common soldiers, and by degrees rose up to some inferior offices, and were most conversant with the common soldiers; but none of the superior officers seemed such, though seduced by them."—Life and Times, part i. 78.
Hallam leans to the idea that the common reports had some foundation. He remarks: "It is probable that some foreign Catholics were in the Parliament's service. But Dodds says, with great appearance of truth, that no one English gentleman of that persuasion was in arms on their side.—Church History of England, iii. 28. He reports, as a matter of hearsay, that out of about 500 gentlemen who lost their lives for Charles in the civil war, 194 were Catholics. They were, doubtless, a very powerful faction in the court and army."—Hallam's Const. Hist. i. 587.