It was certain, therefore, that when the
government became Puritan, its foreign policy would again become that
of Elisabeth. This must have been the case even if Cromwell had not
been there. He saw not only that England must be a partner in the
general protestant interest, but that it fell to England to make the
combination and to lead it. He acted in this with his usual decision.
He placed England in her natural antagonism to Spain; he made peace
with the Dutch; he courted the friendship of the Swiss Cantons, and
the alliance of the Scandinavian and German Princes; and to France,
which had a divided interest, he made advantageous offers provided the
Cardinal would disconnect himself from the ultramontane party.
It was in April 1655, that the Vaudois atrocities suddenly added the
impulse of religious sympathy to the permanent gravitation of the
political forces. In all catholic countries the Jesuits had by this
time made themselves masters of the councils of the princes. The aim
of Jesuit policy in the seventeenth century was nothing less than the
entire extirpation of protestantism and protestants in the countries
which they ruled.
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