The Romany Rye: A sequel to "Lavengro"Borrow, George
General
The Romany Rye: A sequel to "Lavengro"
Borrow, George
Adventure stories; England -- Fiction; Romanies -- Fiction
This expressed abhorrence of the author for Rome might be entitled to
little regard, provided it were possible to attribute it to any
self-interested motive. There have been professed enemies of Rome, or of
this or that system; but their professed enmity may frequently be traced
to some cause which does them little credit; but the writer of these
lines has no motive, and can have no motive, for his enmity to Rome, save
the abhorrence of an honest heart for what is false, base and cruel. A
certain clergyman wrote with much heat against the Papists in the time of
— {311a} who was known to favour the Papists, but was not expected to
continue long in office, and whose supposed successor, {311b} the person,
indeed, who did succeed him, was thought to be hostile to the Papists.
This divine, who obtained a rich benefice from the successor of — {311c}
who during —’s {311d} time had always opposed him in everything he
proposed to do, and who, of course, during that time affected to be very
inimical to Popery—this divine might well be suspected of having a motive
equally creditable for writing against the Papists, as that which induced
him to write for them, as soon as his patron, who eventually did
something more for him, {312a} had espoused their cause; but what motive,
save an honest one, can the present writer have, for expressing an
abhorrence of Popery? He is no clergyman, and consequently can expect
neither benefices nor bishoprics, supposing it were the fashion of the
present, or likely to be the fashion of any future administration to
reward clergymen with benefices or bishoprics, who, in the defence of the
religion of their country write, or shall write, against Popery, and not
to reward those who write, or shall write, in favour of it, and all its
nonsense and abominations.
“But if not a clergyman, he is the servant of a certain society which has
the overthrow of Popery in view, and therefore,” etc. This assertion,
which has been frequently made, is incorrect, even as those who have made
it probably knew it to be. He is the servant of no society whatever. He
eats his own bread, {312b} and is one of the very few men in England who
are independent in every sense of the word.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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