Robin Tremayne: A Story of the Marian PersecutionHolt, Emily Sarah
History
Robin Tremayne: A Story of the Marian Persecution
Holt, Emily Sarah
Great Britain -- Church history -- 16th century -- Fiction; Historical fiction
On the 3rd of November [see note in Appendix] was born Mr Underhill's
son Edward, at his house in Wood Street. This being no time to search
for sponsors of rank, John Avery stood for the child, at the father's
request, with Mr Ive, and Mrs Elizabeth Lydiatt, Mr Underhill's sister,
who was staying with him at that time. And only a week later they were
all at another christening, of Mr Holland's child, baptised by Mr Rose;
and the sponsors were Lord Strange, his kinsman (by deputy), Mr
Underhill, and Thekla; the child was named after Lord Strange, Henry.
[The sex and name of Roger Holland's child are not recorded.] The
_all_, however, did not include Mrs Rose; for she knew too well, poor
soul! the dread penalty that would ensue if her husband "were taken in
her company."
The year ended better than the Gospellers feared. No harm had come to
the Archbishop and his brother prisoners. Mr Underhill and Mr Rose were
still at liberty. Cardinal Pole had returned to the fatherland whence
he had been banished for many years; but from him they hardly looked for
evil. The Princess Elizabeth was restored to favour. Roger Holland had
left London for his own home in Lancashire, to prevent his child from
being re-baptised after the Roman fashion. He meant to leave it with
his father, and return himself to London. In the Gospellers' houses, Mr
Rose was still preaching: he was to administer the Sacrament on the
night of New Year's Day, at Mr Sheerson's house in Bow Churchyard. And
Philip had been King five months. Surely, the cloud had a silver
lining! surely, they had feared more than there was need! So argued the
more sanguine of the party. But it was only the dusk which hid the
black clouds that had gathered; only the roar of men's work which
drowned the growl of the imminent storm. They were entering--though
they knew it not--on the darkest hour of the night.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1.
"Brief life is here our portion,
Brief sorrow, short-lived care;
The life that knows no ending,
The tearless life is There."
Neale's _Translation_.
Note 2. Boni-Homines--translated into various languages,--was the
ancient title of the Waldensian Church and its offshoots.
Note 3. The best of them, and the only Lutheran--Isabel Queen of
Denmark--died in 1525; but of course the imprisoned mother never knew
it.
Note 4. The letters yet extant in the archives of Simancas, from Denia
and others, give rise to strong suspicion that the story which the world
has believed so long--Juana's insane determination not to bury the
coffin of her husband--was a pure invention of their own, intended to
produce (as it has produced) a general belief in the insanity of the
Queen.
Note 5. This sketch in words, given by Foxe, is one of the most graphic
descriptions ever written.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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