The consequence was that they sometimes saw the same event in different points of view.
The best account now extant of the contest which at this time agitated Whitehall is to be found in their despatches.
As each of the two parties at the Court of James had the support of foreign princes, so each had also the support of an ecclesiastical authority to which the King paid great deference.

The Supreme Pontiff was for legal and moderate courses; and his sentiments were expressed by the Nuncio and by the Vicar Apostolic.

[55] On the other side was a body of which the weight balanced even the weight of the Papacy, the mighty Order of Jesus.
That at this conjuncture these two great spiritual powers, once, as it seemed, inseparably allied, should have been opposed to each other, is a most important and remarkable circumstance.

During a period of little less than a thousand years the regular clergy had been the chief support of the Holy See.

By that See they had been protected from episcopal interference; and the protection which they had received had been amply repaid.