"Tell me, by the Immortal God, what it is that can
snatch you from us so suddenly, after a delay of so many years, and drive
you to Rome? Has our race appeared to you inhospitable, or have we shown
favour to your virtues less than you hoped? You cannot plead that this is
the cause of your departure, upon whom a most kind sovereign has bestowed
such ample gifts and conferred such rich offices." The Archbishop was
questioned by the Bishops of London and Durham, by order of the king, with
regard to his intentions, and commanded to leave the country within twenty
days. He was known to have amassed a large sum of money during his sojourn
in England, and his trunks were seized, and found to contain over L1,600.
De Dominis fled to Brussels, and there wrote his _Consilium Reditus_,
giving his reasons for rejoining the Roman Church, and expecting daily his
promised reward--a cardinal's hat and a rich bishopric. His hopes were
doomed to be disappointed. For a short time he received a pension from
Gregory XV., but this was discontinued by Urban VIII., and our author
became dissatisfied and imprudently talked of again changing his faith. He
was heard to exclaim at supper on one occasion, "That no Catholic had
answered his book, _De Republica Ecclesiastica_, but that he himself was
able to deal with them." The Inquisition seized him, and he was conveyed
to the Castle of St. Angelo, where he soon died, as some writers assert,
by poison.
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