"I plead for the safety of my country—yea, for the children that are yet unborn. ‘But cannot your country be safe unless the Roman Catholics are persecuted for their religion?’ Hold! Religion is out of the question. But I would not have them persecuted at all; I would only have them hindered from doing hurt. I would not put it in their power (and I do not wish that others should) to cut the throats of their quiet neighbours. ‘But they will give security for their peaceable behaviour.’ They cannot while they continue Roman Catholics; they cannot while they are members of that Church which receives the decrees of the Council of Constance, which maintains the spiritual power of the Bishop of Rome or the doctrine of priestly absolution."