"Great men, Israel, have always come from the most unlikely places. The desert and the wilderness, the sheepfolds and threshing floors bred the judges and prophets of Israel. From the despised village of Nazareth came the Christ. From the hot, barren deserts of Arabia, came Mahomet. From the arid plains of Picardy, came Calvin. From the misty, bare mountains of Scotland, came John Knox, and from the fogs and swamps of the Fen country, comes Oliver Cromwell. So it is, and should be. God chooses for great men, not only the time, but the place of their birth. The strength of Cromwell’s character is in its mysticism, and this quality has been fed from its youth up by the monotony of his rural life, by the sombre skies above him, by his very house, which was like a deserted cloister buried in big trees. All those years Cromwell was being forged and welded by spiritual influences into the man of Naseby and Dunbar and Worcester—into the man who stepped grandly to the throne we saw him mount to-day." "One thing is sure: he will set free all godly men in prison for conscience’ sake—unless it be papists and prelatists. Yet ’tis hard to imprison men because they can’t agree about caps and surplices." "Such talk does not go to the root of the matter, Israel. Oliver, and men like him, look on papists and prelatists as Amorites and Amalekites to be rooted out, and as disloyal citizens to be coerced into obedience." "I know papists that believe the Mass to be a holy obligation. They are sincere, Doctor; I know it." "What of that, Israel? A good Puritan cares no more for their sincere opinions than the Jewish prophets cared about the scruples of a conscientious believer in Baal. Why should he?" "Well, then, as to Episcopacy—a great number of Englishmen love it; and you can’t preach nor teach Episcopacy out of them." "Don’t I know it? Popery without the Pope, that is what Englishmen want. They love ceremonies dearly; they love Episcopacy as they love Monarchy. Queen Elizabeth made an ordinance that at the name of Christ every woman should curtsy and every man bare his head. It went straight to the heart of England. Men and women loved Elizabeth for it, and bent their knees all the more willingly to herself. As for Cromwell, his zeal for the Protestant religion will be the key to every act of his reign. Take my word for it." "Reign?" "Yes, reign. He is King, call him what you like." "As ruler—King or Protector—over papists, will it be right to hate them as bitterly as he does?"