Stephen Langton (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1872 edition. Excerpt: ... But the English Church has so miserably fallen into contempt that no reverence is shown it, since it is freely trampled on without any reproof to the offenders; and they who are the ministers of this wickedness glory even more in the manifestation of these injuries than in the injuries themselves, as if they were attacking not things or persons, but rather the good name and doctrine of the Church. Ye know, certainly, that our Lord, the King, has no cause whatever against us, who from our youth up have been faithful to him, and who have undertaken the rule of the Church of Canterbury on the command of the Sub-Prior; nay, since this tempest has arisen by occasion of those liberties which were defended by the blood of that glorious martyr, our father, and predecessor, and which have since then been specially cared for as a satisfaction for his death; not we, nay, rather he, is attacked in us; nay, the martyr himself seems more truly to be exiled than we, since the exile of the true pastor is not specially from a place or from possessions or incomes, but from that flock which has been committed to him, and violently separated from him. But that peculiar flock of the Blessed Thomas, that is, the monks of Canterbury, is cruelly separated from him, so that the Blessed Thomas has, no doubt, now been proscribed, not in that way in which he was when alive, but conversely; for then he was driven from the place of his flock, now the flock itself is lamentably driven from its place. in your sufferings, it will at last be necessary that the canonical penalty should be inflicted, and that it should be increased so far as the malice of the sinners should require. This penalty we adjure, entreat, and hope that you will avoid by quick...