Between the popular preachers and the upper classes, who were indulging in these oppressions, there may have been for the most part a tolerable understanding. The Catholic priests in the better days which were past, as the Protestant clergy in the better days which were coming, had said alike to rich and poor, By your actions you shall be judged. Keep the commandments, do justice and love mercy, or God will damn you. The unfortunate persons, who for the sins of England were its present teachers, said, You cannot keep the commandments—that has been done for you; believe a certain speculative theory, and avoid the errors of Popery. It was a view of things convenient to men who were indulging in avarice and tyranny. The world at all times has liked nothing better than a religion which provides it with a substitute for obedience. But, as there would have been 110 Eeformation at all, had Reformation meant no more than a change from a superstition of ceremonies to a superstition of words and opinions, so those who were sincere and upright among the Reformers—men like Cranmer, Latimer, Becon, Bradford, or Lever, to whom God and duty were of more importance than 'schemes of salvation,'[1] whose
- ↑ For which they were despised or lamented over by the advanced Liberals. 'Cantuarensis,' writes Traheron to Bullinger, 'nescio quomodo ita se gerit ut vulgus nostrum non multum illi tribuat. Latimerus, tametsi non liquide perspiciat, æquior est Luthero vel etiam Bucero; altius enim quam cæteri introspicit, ut est ingenio plane
small regard or coin to give up their leases, that they, taking the ground into their own hands, may turn all into pasture. So now old fathers, poor widows, and young children lie begging in the streets.'—Sermon of Lever, printed in Strype's Memorials.
