Note 234 — Chapter VIII · 1578-1584

Mendoza, writing to Philip on the 1st October, 1581, dwells upon the terrible sufferings of the Catholics, and incidentally reveals how entirely now he had identified himself with those whom the Queen’s Government held to be disaffected. Not even the gifts of friends to the imprisoned Catholics, he says, may be given to the individuals, but are divided amongst all the prisoners. “They are incarcerated with crowds of thieves, and are left to die of hunger amongst them, in order that their torment may be the greater. If any one goes to visit them he is at once arrested, and consequently most of the gifts are sent through me and are distributed by my servants, the Catholics alone receiving them. In like manner I take charge of the money sent by the Catholics who have fled abroad, and of the sums given by others for the Seminaries of Rheims and Rome.”—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii.