History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. IIIFroude, James Anthony
History
History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. III
Froude, James Anthony
Great Britain -- History -- Tudors, 1485-1603
The friar disappears. A neighbour of the new opinions, who has seen him
come and go, takes his place, and then begins an argument. One says "my
father's faith shall be my faith." And the other, hot and foolish,
answers, "Thy father was a liar and is in hell, and so is my father in
hell also. My father never knew Scripture, and now it is come
forth."[281]
[Sidenote: Church windows containing the history of Becket.]
[Sidenote: August 14. Scenes in the parish church at Woodstock.]
The slide again moves. We are in a village church, and there is a window
gorgeously painted, representing the various events in the life and
death of Thomas à Becket. The king sits on his throne, and speaks
fiercely to his four knights. The knights mount their horses and gallop
to Canterbury. The archbishop is at vespers in the quire. The knights
stride in and smite him dead. Then follows the retribution. In the great
central compartment of the window the haughty prince is kneeling naked
before the shrine of the martyr, and the monks stand round him and beat
him with their rods. All over England in such images of luminous beauty
the memory of the great victory[282] of the clergy had been
perpetuated.[283] And now the particular church is Woodstock, the court
is at the park, and day after day, notwithstanding the dangerous
neighbourhood, in the church aisles groups of people assemble to gaze
upon the window, and priests and pardoners expatiate with an obvious
application on the glories of the martyr, the Church's victory, and the
humiliation of the king. Eager ears listen; eager tongues draw
comparisons. A groom from the court is lounging among the crowd, and
interrupts the speakers somewhat disdainfully; he says that he sees no
more reason why Becket was a saint than Robin Hood. No word is mentioned
of the profanity to Henry; but a priest carries the story to Gardiner
and Sir William Paulet. The groom is told that he might as well reason
of the king's title as of St. Thomas's; forthwith he is hurried off
under charge of heresy to the Tower; and, appealing to Cromwell, there
follows a storm at the council table.[284]
[Sidenote: The Lady Chapel at Worcester.]
We are next at Worcester, at the Lady Chapel, on the eve of the
Assumption. There is a famous image of the Virgin there, and to check
the superstition of the people the gorgeous dress has been taken off by
Cromwell's order. A citizen of Worcester approaches the figure: "Ah,
Lady," he cries, "art thou stripped now? I have seen the day that as
clean men had been stripped at a pair of gallows as were they that
stripped them." Then he kisses the image, and turns to the people and
says, "Ye that be disposed to offer, the figure is no worse than it was
before," "having a remorse unto her."[285]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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