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
From these premises it followed that Henry was a traitor, a rebel
against his true superior; and the first section closed with a fine
rhetorical peroration.
[Sidenote: The king is the man of sin and the prince of pride.]
"Oh, Henry!" he exclaimed, "more wicked than Ozias, who was smitten with
leprosy when he despised the warnings of Azariah--more wicked than Saul,
who slew the priests of the Lord--more wicked than Dathan and Abiram,
who rose in rebellion against Aaron--what hast thou done? What! but that
which is written in the Scripture of the prince of pride--'I will climb
up into heaven; I will set my throne above the stars; I will sit me down
on the mount of the covenant; I will make myself even with the Most
High.' . . . He shall send his vengeance upon thee--vengeance sudden,
swift, and terrible. It shall come; nor can I pray that it may longer
tarry. Rather may it come and come quickly, to the glory of his name. I
will say, like Elijah, 'Oh, Lord! they have slain thy prophets with the
edge of the sword; they have thrown down thine altars; and I only am
left, and they seek my life to take it away. Up, Lord, and avenge the
blood of thy holy ones.'"
[Sidenote: The English bishops are the robber Cacus; the Pope is the
sleeping Hercules.]
He now paused for a moment in his denunciation of Henry, and took up his
parable against the English bishops, who had betrayed the flock of
Christ, and driven them into the den of the villain king. "You thought,"
he said to these learned prelates, "that the Roman pontiff slept--that
you might spoil him with impunity, as the robber Cacus spoiled the
sleeping Hercules. Ah! but the Lord of the sheep sees you. He sees you
from his throne in heaven. Not we only who are left yet alive tell, with
our bleating voices, whither you have driven us; but, in louder tones
than ours, the blood of those whom ye have slain, because they would not
hear your hireling voices, cries out of the dust to Christ. Oh,
horrible!--most horrible! No penalty which human justice could devise
can reach your crimes. Men look to see when some unwonted vengeance
shall light upon you, like that which fell on Korah and his company, in
whose footsteps ye now are following. If the earth open her mouth and
swallow you up quick, every Christian man will applaud the righteous
judgment of the Almighty."
[Sidenote: Responsibility of sovereigns to their subjects.]
Again he passed back to the king, assailing him in pages of alternate
argument and reprobation. In most modern language he asserted the
responsibility of sovereigns, calling English history to witness for him
in the just rebellions provoked by tyranny; and Henry, he said, had
broken his coronation oath and forfeited his crown. This and similar
matter occupied the second part. It had been tolerably immoderate even
so far, but the main torrent had yet to flow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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