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 remedy for all its evils rested with England. England must rebel. He
called on it, with solemn earnestness, to consider its position: its
church infected with heresy, its saints slaughtered, its laws uprooted,
its succession shattered; sedition within, and foreign war imminent from
without; and the single cause of these accumulated miseries a licentious
tyrant. "And oh! my country," he exclaimed, "if any memory remains to
you of your antient liberties, remember--remember the time when kings
who ruled over you unjustly were called to account by the authority of
your laws. They tell you that all is the king's. I tell you that all is
the commonwealth's. You, oh! my country, are all. The king is but your
servant and minister. Wipe away your tears, and turn to the Lord your
God."
[Sidenote: He will invite the King of France to depose Henry.]
Of his own conduct he would give Henry fair warning. "I myself," he
said, once more addressing him, "I myself shall approach the throne of
your last ally, the King of France. I shall demand that he assist you no
longer; that, remembering the honour of his father, with his own past
fidelity to the Church of Christ, he will turn against you and strike
you down. And think you that he will refuse my petition? How long dream
you that God will bear with you? Your company shall be broken up. The
scourge shall come down upon you like a wave. The pirates who waste the
shores of the Mediterranean are less the servants of Satan than you. The
pirates murder but the bodies of men. You murder their souls. Satan
alone, of all created beings, may fitly be compared with you."
So far I have endeavoured to condense the voluminous language into a
paraphrase, which but languidly approaches the blaze and fury of the
original. Vituperation, notwithstanding, would have been of trifling
consequence; and the safe exhortations of refugees, inciting domestic
rebellions the dangers of which they have no intention of sharing, are a
form of treason which may usually be despised. But it is otherwise when
the refugee becomes a foreign agent of his faction, and not only
threatens to invite invasion, but converts his menace into act. When the
pages which follow were printed, they seemed of such grave moment that
they were extracted and circulated as a pamphlet in the German States.
The translation, therefore, will now adhere closely to the text.
[Sidenote: The invocation of the Emperor.]
[Sidenote: Who are the true enemies of Christendom?]
[Sidenote: Not Turks, but heretics.]
[Sidenote: Heresy in Germany.]
[Sidenote: Deeper heresy in England,]
[Sidenote: Which will grow inveterate if it be not nipped in the bud.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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