"Suffer not thy sonnes to pass the Alps, for they shall
learn nothing there but pride, blasphemy, and atheism. And if by travel
they get a few broken languages, that shall profit them nothing more
than to have one meat served on divers dishes."[154]
The mother of Francis Bacon affords a good example of the Puritan
distrust of going "beyond seas." She could by no means sympathize with
her son Anthony's determination to become versed in foreign affairs, for
that led him into intimacy with Roman Catholics. All through his
prolonged stay abroad she chafed and fretted, while Anthony perversely
remained in France, gaining that acquaintance with valuable
correspondents, spies, and intelligencers which later made him one of
the greatest authorities in England on continental politics. He had a
confidential servant, a Catholic named Lawson, whom he sent over to
deliver some important secret news to Lord Burghley. Lady Bacon, in her
fear lest Lawson's company should pervert her son's religion and morals,
had the man arrested and detained in England. His anxious master sent
another man to plead with his mother for Lawson's release; but in vain.
The letter of this messenger to Anthony will serve to show the vehemence
of anti-Catholic feelings in a British matron in 1589.
"Upon my arrival at Godombery my Lady used me courteously until such
time I began to move her for Mr Lawson; and, to say the truth, for
yourself; being so much transported with your abode there that she let
not to say that you are a traitor to God and your country; you have
undone her; you seek her death; and when you have that you seek for, you
shall have but a hundred pounds more than you have now.
"She is resolved to procure Her Majesty's letter to force you to return;
and when that should be, if Her Majesty give you your right or desert,
she should clap you up in prison. She cannot abide to hear of you, as
she saith, nor of the other especially, and told me plainly she should
be the worse this month for my coming without you, and axed me why you
could not have come from thence as well as myself.
"She saith you are hated of all the chiefest on that side and cursed of
God in all your actions, since Mr Lawson's being with you....
"When you have received your provision, make your repair home again,
lest you be a means to shorten her days, for she told me the grief of
mind received daily by your stay will be her end; also saith her jewels
be spent for you, and that she borrowed the last money of seven several
persons.
