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07 - Blessed Edmund Campion by Louise Imogen Guiney · Blessed Edmund Campion

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  Speaker 1: Chapter seven of Blessed Edmund Campion. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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  Speaker 1: information not volunteer, please visit lebrivox dot org. Recording by
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  Speaker 1: Maria Fatima. The Silva Blessed Edmund Campion by Louise Imogen Guinea.
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  Speaker 1: Along March Rome, Geneva, Hens fifteen eighty, from Prague to Munich,
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  Speaker 1: and from Munich to Innsbruck, Campion had the distinguished and
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  Speaker 1: very friendly company of Ferdinand, brother of the reigning Duke
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  Speaker 1: of Bavaria. Afterwards he went on alone on foot, as
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  Speaker 1: he was always glad to do, as far as Padua.
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  Speaker 1: Here he took horse for Rome, which he reached just
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  Speaker 1: before Palm Sunday, April fifth, fifteen eighty, coming in grave
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  Speaker 1: priest's garb, we are told with long hair after the
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  Speaker 1: fashion of Germany. He was informed by the Father General
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  Speaker 1: that he was to start for England nine or ten
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  Speaker 1: days after Easter. Campion begged neither to be superior of
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  Speaker 1: the expedition, nor to have anything to do with the preparations,
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  Speaker 1: and that during the fortnight he might be free from
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  Speaker 1: all except necessary cares, in order to make a more
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  Speaker 1: devotional entrance upon the life ahead of him, and the
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  Speaker 1: like did for their part, and had done all the
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  Speaker 1: lent before those other priests. Also of the English Seminary,
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  Speaker 1: says Parsons, speaking of many seculars afterwards martyrd that were
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  Speaker 1: appointed by their superiors to go with us in this mission.
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  Speaker 1: All these together used such notable and extraordinary diligence for
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  Speaker 1: preparing themselves well in the sight of God, as was
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  Speaker 1: matter of edification to all Rome. Rome was a most
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  Speaker 1: religious place at that time, not only in its enduring associations,
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  Speaker 1: but in the temper of the people. One in large
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  Speaker 1: measure responsible for its spirit of penance and prayer and
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  Speaker 1: loving charity to the poor, was then living at San Girolameau,
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  Speaker 1: opposite the old English hospital, now turned into a college.
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  Speaker 1: This was Saint Philip Nery, the most venerated and enduring
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  Speaker 1: figure in all the great city. He knew the successive
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  Speaker 1: Little English bands. When he passed them in the streets.
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  Speaker 1: Cheerful Saint Philip used to smile tenderly and give what
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  Speaker 1: must have been to them a thrilling greeting hail, Little
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  Speaker 1: Flowers of martyrdom. The opening line of the Bravery hymn
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  Speaker 1: for Holy Innocence Day. Parsons and Campion and the secular
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  Speaker 1: clerics associated with them may have originated the custom of
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  Speaker 1: going over to San Girolimo for a special fatherly blessing
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  Speaker 1: before setting forth to almost certain death. There is a
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  Speaker 1: tradition mentioned by Newman that one of that company did
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  Speaker 1: not care to seek Saint Philip's prayers, and that afterwards
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  Speaker 1: he failed to persevere. This is thought to be the
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  Speaker 1: lay student John Paschal or Pascal, who was apparently of
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  Speaker 1: an unstable disposition, and he is known to have forsworn
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  Speaker 1: the faith when his great chance came to profess it.
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  Speaker 1: The Pope Gregory thirteenth showed untiring and fatherly interest in
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  Speaker 1: all their missionaries, and their traveling funds were his personal gift.
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  Speaker 1: He wept over them in bestowing his parting bednediction. Campion
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  Speaker 1: set out this time with seven English priests, Ralph Sherwin,
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  Speaker 1: a former fellow of Exeter College among them, also with
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  Speaker 1: two lay brothers, and two students joined them from Hans
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  Speaker 1: and Louverin, some of them advanced in years and well known.
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  Speaker 1: The party adopted the novel An almost their devil fashion
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  Speaker 1: of going on foot, but mounted and riding privately in
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  Speaker 1: advance of it word its two eldest members. One was
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  Speaker 1: the holy octogenarian Thomas Goldwell, the Lord Bishop of Saint Assef,
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  Speaker 1: who had been offered by Queen Mary a transfer to
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  Speaker 1: the See of Oxford and refused it. He was destined
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  Speaker 1: to be the last survivor of the deposed and scattered
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  Speaker 1: Catholic hierarchy in England, who had all but one refused
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  Speaker 1: the unheard of oath in fifteen fifty nine, and had
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  Speaker 1: all been deprived of their sees that same year. Bishop Goldwell,
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  Speaker 1: now twenty years afterwards, was one of two who were living,
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  Speaker 1: and his colleague Watson, Bishop of Lincoln, was in prison.
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  Speaker 1: The other senior missionary was his companion, doctor Nicholas Morton Cannon,
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  Speaker 1: Penitentiary of Saint Peter's, who had done something already towards
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  Speaker 1: the making of English history. The first Little Jesuit group
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  Speaker 1: of three was commanded by Father Robert Parsons, a born organizer,
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  Speaker 1: a man of splendid resources, afterwards celebrated and much loved
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  Speaker 1: and hated. For convenience as for safety, they all put
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  Speaker 1: on secular dress. Campion, however, would buy no new clothes,
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  Speaker 1: but arrayed himself in an old buckram suit with a
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  Speaker 1: shabby cloak. When rallied on his highly inelegant appearance, he remarked,
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  Speaker 1: with the gay spirit so like that of another blissful martyr,
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  Speaker 1: Sir Thomas More, that a man going forth to be
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  Speaker 1: hanged need trouble himself little about the fashion. The roads
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  Speaker 1: were bad beyond any modern idea of badness, and it
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  Speaker 1: poured rain for the first nine or ten days. Campion,
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  Speaker 1: the least robust of the party and the most poorly clad,
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  Speaker 1: fell ill under such combined discomforts, and while crossing the Apennines,
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  Speaker 1: had to be lifted into the saddle of one of
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  Speaker 1: the very few horses which had been brought along for
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  Speaker 1: the sake of the infirm. As soon as he was
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  Speaker 1: well enough, he resumed his daily habit of saying Mass
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  Speaker 1: very early, and of walking on in the later morning
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  Speaker 1: hours till he was a mile ahead of the rest,
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  Speaker 1: to make his meditation, read his office, and say the
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  Speaker 1: Litany of the Saints before he should be overtaken. He
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  Speaker 1: and his comrades planned their spiritual life day by day
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  Speaker 1: with the most careful regularity. Their talk was always of souls.
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  Speaker 1: The harvest was their word for England or else the warfare.
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  Speaker 1: In the chilly spring twilights, campion Wood push Shon ahead
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  Speaker 1: again to make his prayers alone and utter his zealous
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  Speaker 1: affections to his savior without being heard or noted. The
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  Speaker 1: route lay through Sienna, Florence, Bologna. In the latter city
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  Speaker 1: there was a week's delay due to an injury to
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  Speaker 1: Father Passer's leg. The band of twelve was entertained by
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  Speaker 1: the Cardinal Archbishop of that Sea, who was the historian
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  Speaker 1: of the Council of Trent, Gabriel Palioto. Like Avulnado, like
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  Speaker 1: many a nother Italian, Palioto loved the English. Were he
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  Speaker 1: a born Englishman, he could not love them more, wrote
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  Speaker 1: a Gazario to Allan, at that time, when the national
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  Speaker 1: temperament was much more expressive and responsive than it is now.
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  Speaker 1: At Milan in the early part of May, the future
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  Speaker 1: confessors and martyrs were to find another under great also
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  Speaker 1: much affectioned towards them, who received them most hospitably and
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  Speaker 1: even asked the English College further relays of guests in
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  Speaker 1: the future. This was the great Archbishop Saint charles Borough,
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  Speaker 1: Mayo Bishop Goldwell, who had passed through Milan days before
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  Speaker 1: the walkers reached. It had been in fifteen sixty three
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  Speaker 1: Vicar General to Saint Charles, and would have bespoken his
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  Speaker 1: interest in the little party. The Reverend host complimented Ralph
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  Speaker 1: Sherwin by asking him to deliver a sermon before him,
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  Speaker 1: And as for Campion, he was required to discourse daily
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  Speaker 1: after dinner. Saint Charles himself, all the while, whether vocal
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  Speaker 1: or silent, was acting upon the pilgrims as a susum corder,
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  Speaker 1: without saying a word. He preached to us sufficiently, says
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  Speaker 1: the ever appreciative Parsons, And so we departed from him
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  Speaker 1: greatly edified and exceedingly animated. How charming is the forgotten
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  Speaker 1: news of the last word meaning sold or, as we
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  Speaker 1: still say, heartened is spirited. Such, indeed is the true
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  Speaker 1: function of the Saints. From turing, the little company made
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  Speaker 1: for Mount Sennes, and young, middle aged and old lustily
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  Speaker 1: climbed it, and then among the torrents and boulders of
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  Speaker 1: that glorious scenery they came down into Savoy. At Saint
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  Speaker 1: John Maurienne, they found the roads blocked by the Spanish soldiery,
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  Speaker 1: and that egg bell ran across other disturbances caused by
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  Speaker 1: the wars of religion raging in the Dauphine As there
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  Speaker 1: was nothing to do, but abandoned the direct route, they
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  Speaker 1: turned aside and entered Geneva, the hotbed of Calvinism and
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  Speaker 1: the home of Theodore Beza, the learned apost it who
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  Speaker 1: had succeeded to Calvin's leadership. There was a close community
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  Speaker 1: of spirit between Geneva and the English Reformation. However, Switzerland
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  Speaker 1: then as now had liberal laws, and any traveler Catholic
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  Speaker 1: or prostitut was free to pass and molested, though not unquestioned.
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  Speaker 1: Three days in the city, it looks decidedly like an
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  Speaker 1: alloy of mischief on the part of five of the
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  Speaker 1: English that they went to call in a body on Begza.
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  Speaker 1: They were admitted as far as the court by Claudine,
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  Speaker 1: his stolen wife, whom they had or heard of and
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  Speaker 1: were not ill pleased to see. When the famous Graybeard
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  Speaker 1: came out, they managed, after passing their compliments, to worry
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  Speaker 1: him with some telling controversial shots. Campion knew not how
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  Speaker 1: to be rude, but Chowin found amusement ever afterwards in
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  Speaker 1: remembering how that honest fellow Patrick stood and looked and talked,
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  Speaker 1: cap in hand, facing out his Showin's shockingly boyish language
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  Speaker 1: in a private letter, the old, doting, theoretical fool, the
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  Speaker 1: celebrity so described, behaved rather vaguely, and in the course
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  Speaker 1: of nature, could not have been sorry to see the
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  Speaker 1: last of his besiegures, and of their wits sharpened with
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  Speaker 1: life in the open air. He bowed them out with
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  Speaker 1: less abruptness than might have been expected, indeed with a
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  Speaker 1: certain show of civility, and went back to his books. Later,
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  Speaker 1: showIn and two other youngsters, in a midnight discussion with
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  Speaker 1: some English Protestant students, actually challenged Beza and all Calvindom
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  Speaker 1: to a trial of theologies, with the drastic proviso that
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  Speaker 1: the defeated party should be burnt in the marketplace. Meanwhile, Campion,
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  Speaker 1: in the role of Patrick, did his share of facing
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  Speaker 1: out other worthies in Geneva, besides finding an old university
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  Speaker 1: friend there who used him lovingly, but reported that an
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  Speaker 1: alarm had been raised and encouraged the departure of the paladins.
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  Speaker 1: These halting on a spur of the Jurda before nightfall,
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  Speaker 1: with Lake Lemon spread beneath them. Said till dayem together
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  Speaker 1: that they were safely out of the city. There seems
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  Speaker 1: to have been a good deal of curiosity or bravardo,
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  Speaker 1: mingled with their polemical zeal and campions always tender conscience
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  Speaker 1: would have readily accepted if it did not suggest a
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  Speaker 1: suitable penance for the raid. So off they trudged nine
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  Speaker 1: steep contrite extra miles, extreme troublesome. We are told they
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  Speaker 1: were to the nearest shrine, that of Saint claud over
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  Speaker 1: the French border. They entered Hans the last day of
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  Speaker 1: May fifteen eighty. For in Hans was the soul, if
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  Speaker 1: not the body of the college, now driven partly for convenience,
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  Speaker 1: partly by force of true out of deway. That college
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  Speaker 1: was never reformed, but the scholar exiles lived close together
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  Speaker 1: up and down the streets, still called who dey is
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  Speaker 1: on glair? The travelers were rapturously welcomed by all, especially
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  Speaker 1: by the great Englishman, whom the old narrative quaintly calls
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  Speaker 1: mister doctor Allen. The president. Here At once the venerable
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  Speaker 1: Bishop of Saint Ausoph fell ill of a fever. He
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  Speaker 1: was never again to cross the channel. By the time
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  Speaker 1: he had fairly recovered. Rumors of his movements had naturally
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  Speaker 1: got abroad, and the Pope was unwilling to imperil so
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  Speaker 1: important and precious a person. While still a convalescent Atrance,
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  Speaker 1: Goldwell wrote to His Holiness in person, begging him to
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  Speaker 1: listen to no objections, but to anoint at once three
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  Speaker 1: or four new bishops to shepherd their own needy church.
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  Speaker 1: And he very touchingly assures the Holy Farm, knowing that
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  Speaker 1: the question of a fitting maintenance for them with the
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  Speaker 1: rise that God had so inclined the minds of all
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  Speaker 1: the English priests whom he knew to put up with
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  Speaker 1: their penniless, unhunted daily lives, and the vision of the
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  Speaker 1: gallows always before them, that any of these, once consecrated,
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  Speaker 1: would be entirely contented to go on as poorly as
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  Speaker 1: he had gone. Heretofore, like a bishop of the early Church.
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  Speaker 1: The application failed, etiquette and routine prevailed, says Simpson in
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  Speaker 1: summing up this incident. In truth, it was not that
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  Speaker 1: goodwill was lacking. Nobody on the Catholic side believed that
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  Speaker 1: the new sad order of things in England was going
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  Speaker 1: to last, and consequently waiting and postponing in a matter
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  Speaker 1: of this sort could not seem the disastrous mistake which
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  Speaker 1: it really was. The yip shot, in any case, was
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  Speaker 1: that the good bishop was recalled to Rome died, and
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  Speaker 1: that for thirty weary years the poor flock struggled on
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  Speaker 1: without any qualified prelate to supply their crying spiritual wants
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  Speaker 1: and hold them together. Then the first provisional leader, known
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  Speaker 1: as the archpriest, was appointed, and later came Vickers Abstolic.
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  Speaker 1: When finally the longed for Miters were seen again in
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  Speaker 1: the land they had been absent too long, the nominal
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  Speaker 1: link snapped. The great native tradition was broken. The titles
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  Speaker 1: of the ancient sees, given up as if in sleep,
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  Speaker 1: by their lineal heirs, were never reclaimed so far as
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  Speaker 1: surface connection goes, and it goes far indeed, With people
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  Speaker 1: in general who neither reason nor read, but get all
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  Speaker 1: their ideas from what they see and hear, this was
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  Speaker 1: the most tragic loss which could possibly have befallen the
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  Speaker 1: post Reformation Church. The English Benedictis kept the thread of
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  Speaker 1: their own dynasty in their hands, but this did not
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  Speaker 1: affect the Catholic body and the lay interest the stranger
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  Speaker 1: who could not destroy the life and blessing of the firstborn.
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  Speaker 1: Has had possession for three centuries and a half by
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  Speaker 1: royal grant, of his home and of his very name.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter seven.