The King's Daughters Part 20

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

GENTLY HANDLED.

When the Commissioners had tormented the priest's widow as long as they thought proper, they called on her to answer the charges brought against her.

"Dost thou believe that in the blessed Sacrament of the altar the bread and wine becometh the very body and blood of Christ, so soon as the word of consecration be p.r.o.nounced?"

"Nay: it is but bread and wine before it is received; and when it is received in faith and ministered by a worthy minister, then it is Christ flesh and blood spiritually, and not otherwise."

"Dost though wors.h.i.+p the blessed Sacrament?"

"Truly, nay: for ye make the Sacrament an idol. It ought not to be wors.h.i.+pped with knocking, kneeling or holding up of hands."

"Wilt thou come to church and hear ma.s.s?"

"That will I not, so long as ye do wors.h.i.+p to other than G.o.d Almighty.

Nothing that is made can be the same thing as he that made it. They must needs be idolators, and of the meanest sort, that wors.h.i.+p the works of their own hands."

"Aroint thee, old witch! Wilt thou go to confession?"

"Neither will I that, for no priest hath power to remit sin that is against G.o.d. To Him surely will I confess: and having so done, I have no need to make confession to men."

"Take the witch away!" cried the chief Commissioner. "She's a froward, obstinate heretic, only fit to make firewood."

The gaoler led her out of the court, and John Johnson was summoned next.

"What is thy name, and how old art thou?"

"My name is John Johnson; I am a labouring man, of the age of four and thirty years."

"Canst read?"

"But a little."

"Then how darest thou set thee up against the holy doctors of the Church, that can read Latin?"

"Cannot a man be saved without he read Latin?"

"Hold thine impudent tongue! It is our business to question, and thine to answer. Where didst learn thy pestilent doctrine?"

"I learned the Gospel of Christ Jesus, if that be what you mean by pestilent doctrine, from Master Trudgeon at the first. He learned me that the Sacrament, as ye minister it, is an idol, and that no priest hath power to remit sin."

"Dost thou account of this Trudgeon as a true prophet?"

"Ay, I do."

"What then sayest thou to our Saviour Christ's word to His Apostles, 'Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them'?"

"Marry, I say nought, without you desire it."

"What meanest by that?"

"Why, you are not apostles, nor yet the priests that be now alive. He said not, 'Whosesoever sins Sir Thomas Tye shall remit, they are remitted unto them.'"

"Thou foolish man, Sir Thomas Tye is successor of the apostles."

"Well, but it sayeth not neither, 'Whosesoever sins ye and your successors do remit.' I'll take the words as they stand, by your leave.

To apostles were they said, and to apostles will I leave them."

"The man hath no reason in him!" said Kingston. "Have him away likewise."

"Please your Wors.h.i.+ps," said the gaoler, "here be all that are indicted.

There is but one left, and she was presented only for not attending at ma.s.s nor confession."

"Bring her up!"

And Elizabeth Foulkes stepped up to the table, and courtesied to the representatives of the Queen.

"What is thy name?"

"Elizabeth Foulkes."

"How old art thou?"

"Twenty years."

"Art thou a wife?"

Girls commonly married then younger than they do now. The usual length of human life was shorter: people who reached sixty were looked upon as we now regard those of eighty, and a man of seventy was considered much as one of ninety or more would be at the present time.

"Nay, I am a maid," said Elizabeth.

The word maid was only just beginning to be used instead of servant; it generally meant an unmarried woman.

"What is thy calling?"

"I am servant to Master Nicholas Clere, clothier, of Balcon Lane."

"Art Colchester-born?"

"I was born at Stoke Nayland, in Suffolk."

"And wherefore dost thou not come to ma.s.s?"

"Because I hold the Sacrament of the altar to be but bread and wine, which may not be wors.h.i.+pped under peril of idolatry."

"Well, and why comest not to confession?"