No, I cannot see that point as others do.

But let that pass.

What I do maintain, and will hold to with certainty, is that in this land the Catholic Church has never forbidden men to read the Scriptures for themselves in any tongue that pleases them.

I have searched statutes and records without end, and held disputations with many learned men, and never have I been proven to be in the wrong." "I trow you are right there, John Clarke," spoke a deep voice from out the shadows of the room at the far end, away from the long, mullioned window.

"I have ever maintained that our Mother the Holy Church is a far more merciful and gentle and tolerant mother than those who seek to uphold her authority, and who use her name as a cloak for much maliciousness and much ignorance." Clarke turned swiftly upon the speaker, whose white head could be plainly distinguished in the shadows of the panelled room.