HOW ENGLAND
WAS REFORMED.
THE readers have been shown in two previous talks how in the fourteenth century the people of England were enabled by the labors of John Wycliffe to know more nearly than they had before how God would have his people live. You were told about King Henry VIII. and his defiance of the pope of Rome in the early part of the sixteenth century, and also how Mr. Tyndale and Mr. Coverdale were the means of giving to the people the blessed word of God, from which, they might learn for themselves the true way to serve him. You were also promised a talk about
"Bloody Queen Mary," and some of the men she was the means of killing, in trying to restore the
Catholic religion.
The first whom she caused to be put to death because of his opposition to the pope and the Catholic religion was John Rogers. This man was born about the year 1500. After receiving a thorough education at the University of Cambridge, and after entering the priesthood there, he went to the city of Antwerp, in Belgium, to serve as chaplain to some Englishmen living there. Here he met Mr. Tyndale and Mr. Coverdale, who were then engaged in making the translation of the Bible, which you were told about several weeks ago. He became convinced by talking with these men, that he was not living out God's will himself nor teaching it correctly to others; and by assisting them in their work of translating, he learned the true teaching of the Scriptures. He then renounced the idolatrous worship of the church of Rome, and went to Wittenberg, Germany. This place was the home of the great reformers, Luther and Melanchthon, whose graves may still be seen there, together with Luther's cell in the convent, and Melanchthon's house. Here Mr. Rogers was given the charge of a congregation of Reformers, which he kept for many years, greatly increasing his learning all the time by diligent study.
In the reign of Edward VI., Mr. Rogers was invited to return to England, and was given an office in St. Paul's cathedral, the second largest church edifice in Europe, the largest being that of St. Peter's, at Rome. He held this office at the time of the accession of Queen Mary, and on the next Sunday after she made her triumphal entry into London, he preached a sermon in which he exhorted the people to adhere to the doctrine taught by himself and others in King Edward's days, and to resist the ceremonies and belief of the Catholic church. But Mary and her ministers were determined to put down the Reformation in England, and so they summoned Mr. Rogers before them to answer for his sermon. But he defended himself so ably that they could find no excuse for punishing him, and he was dismissed. Soon after this, however, the queen issued a proclamation forbidding any one to preach any new doctrine or to read the Scriptures in the churches without her special permission. This action soon gave them an opportunity of again accusing Mr. Rogers, and after an examination he was ordered to remain in his own house.
At this time he could easily have fled to Germany, where he would have found peace, and obtained support for himself and his large family.
Yet for the sake of defending the truth before the English people, he would not depart after being once called to answer in the cause of God, but was willing to hazard his life and the comfort of his family. At the end of six months he was taken to Newgato prison, where he was confined for two years. While here, he passed through three examinations of his belief, in which he defended himself alone against all the bishops who were assembled against him. Yet these men, prompted by hatred and envy, condemned him without any just cause to be burned alive as a heretic. This horrible and wicked sentence was carried out on the fourth of February, 1555. Just before leaving the prison for his execution, he requested the privilege of speaking a few words with his wife before his burning. His inhuman persecutors denied him even this last earthly boon! His wife with her eleven children met him on his way to the stake; but even the sight of his own flesh could not move him to accept the pardon brought to him at the stake if he would renounce his belief; for he answered, "That which I have preached I will seal with my blood." And when taunted with being a heretic, he answered, "That shall be known at the day of Judgment." All the way from the prison to the place of burning he repeated the fifty-first psalm, and at Smithfield, a spot in London since rendered famous by the many martyrs who have there laid down their lives for the truth of God, this man, the first of the Marian martyrs, was burned to ashes.
C. H. G.
EXISTING RELICS OF NORMAN TIMES.
DURING the reign of William, the Norman conqueror of England, there was much done in the
building of cathedrals and churches. Many of these still remain, though to some extent reconstructed and restored.
Ethelbert's St. Paul's church of London being burnt down, William had a cathedral constructed
in its place; this covered three and a half acres of ground. In those early times there seemed to be a great strife as to whose building should be the highest. Henry III. carried the spire of St. Paul's to 493 feet.
In 1666, the year after the plague in London, which carried off sixty-nine thousand of the inhabitants, there was a great fire, which destroyed thirteen thousand two hundred houses, and eighty-six churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral. So the present St. Paul's, though on the same site, is of modern date. The top of the dome is four hundred four feet high. The building was finished in 1710, and cost $3,740,-000. It stands on about the highest ground in London. The entire length of the edifice is five
hundred feet. It is in the form of a Latin cross, and the width at the transepts is two hundred eighty-two feet. Many of the most famous of England's countrymen lie buried in this cathedral; among others, Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.
The western towers are two hundred twenty feet high, and one of them contains the great bell, which is only tolled on the death of a member of the royal family. In this cathedral is a great eight-day clock, with three dials, each fifty-one feet in circumference; and the hammer, which strikes the hours on the bell weighs one hundred forty-five pounds.
One of the great curiosities of this cathedral is the Whispering Gallery. It is the one which
surrounds the concave surface of the interior dome; here a person speaking in a whisper near
the surface of the vault is heard distinctly by a person also near the surface just at the opposite
extremity of a diameter—persons in any other part being unable to hear the sound.
Quite a portion of the Tower of London, especially "the keep" or "white tower," ninety-two feet
in height, was constructed by William. This keep is surrounded by various smaller buildings, the
whole being enclosed by a high wall and surrounded by a moat, now kept dry, the enclosure comprising thirteen acres of ground.
This tower, situated on the north bank of the Thames, was originally used as a fortress. Sometimes it was used as a royal palace. For centuries it was the state prison of the country. It has contained one thousand prisoners at a time.
It is now used as a government store and armory. It is exceedingly interesting to pass through the armory. Here are horses and riders of life size, clothed with the very steel armor, helmets, coats of mail, etc., that were worn by the kings and knights of olden times.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.