The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on HistoryAdams, Brooks
Philosophy
The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History
Adams, Brooks
Civilization -- History; Degeneration; History -- Philosophy
The evidence is conclusive that, from the outset, industry bred
heretics; agriculture, believers. Thorold Rogers has explained that the
east of England, from Kent to the Wash and on to Yorkshire, was the
richest part of the kingdom,[200] and Mr. Blunt, in his _Reformation
of the Church of England_, has published an analysis of the martyrdoms
under Mary. He has shown that out of 277 victims, 234 came from the
district to the east of a line drawn from Boston to Portsmouth.
West of this line Oxford had most burnings; but, by the reign of
Mary, manufactures had spread so far inland that the industries
of Oxfordshire were only surpassed by those of Middlesex.[201] In
Wickliffe’s time Norwich stood next to London, and Norwich was infested
with Lollards, many of whom were executed there.
On the other hand, but two executions are recorded in the six
agricultural counties north of the Humber--counties which were
the poorest and the farthest removed from the lines of trade. Thus
the eastern counties were the hot-bed of Puritanism. There, Kett’s
rebellion broke out under Edward VI.; there, Cromwell recruited his
Ironsides, and throughout this region, before the beginning of the
Reformation, assaults on relics were most frequent and violent. One of
the most famous of these relics was the rood of Dovercourt. Dovercourt
is part of Harwich, on the Essex coast; Dedham lies ten miles inland,
on the border of Suffolk; and the description given by Foxe of the
burning of the image of Dovercourt, is an example of what went on
throughout the southeast just before the time of the divorce:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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