The Two Confessions John Whitbourn (best books for students to read txt) 📖

prayfor all my lost brethren.

I opinion it came from underground, from the olde, lost, StNectan-sub-terra monk-ish hse, at Welcoome, famed in priestly legend, that fellto satan (who full knows his owne) long ago. If such were its riches it shouldbee re-sought, for lately the papist temples here are poor pickings so zealoushave we beene. If His most Holy and Protestant majestie so decree I will searchit out, be it never so forgotten. This one mere token, all I have come acrosst,augers much I saye, and alone, melted and made into honest coin, will funde abattell of soldiers to combat the enemy within and withoute. But I must havemen to do itte for the G*dly are besieged hereabouts. Matthew 9, 37, 'theharvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few'.

Meanwhile, Majestie, I ever remain your strong right arm in y west. Thistwenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, the year of our reformed Salvation 1552.

ThomasPolwerran, Knight.

Restrainingall reaction, Samuel consulted Rawlinson’s more modern commentary at the backof the book.

'... Polwerran, Thomas, Sir, (? - 1553)... a vicious heretic andpersecutor, the methodical despoiler of churches and Holy places throughoutnorth Devon, and held accountable for the entire absence of ancient road-sideshrines and market crosses in the region. He was born in Liverpool....

… a dramatic, indeed Damascene, re-conversion to the true faith onMary's accession failed to convince, and various tales have him torn limb fromlimb in Clovelly or hurled from Hartland Point after appearing in publicadorned with rosary beads. His younger (and estranged) son, Cardinal BedePolwerran, made spectacular amends by....'

He'dhad no time! Chameleon Sir Thomas, that is. They'd got him before he could doanything! Centuries too late Samuel cheered on the angry mob and thanked them.He thanked the remiss Church librarians too. They hadn't thought to purge thevanquished enemy's records. They might clear or hide every referencefrom their own sources, but revulsion had made them slack, their efforts atconcealment incomplete. He'd found a hole in their perfection. Arch-ProtestantPolwerran now had belated revenge for his high jump off the cliffs.

Samuelhad read everything about St Nectan's Abbey; that had been one of his earliestports of calls. There was no mention of an earlier house or precedingfoundation; not the faintest glimmer of anything at Welcombe. Thinking on, herecollected that the early stuff was pretty sketchy: thin almost, though not somuch as to wake suspicion. A lot of Church institutions gave the appearance ofjust always having been there. Until, that is, you had cause to question theirbeginnings….

He'dhad no inkling - nor ever would have if he'd ploughed on in theirfurrow. There was a lesson in that. Yet he had to give Mother Church credit:she was good at teaching things and good at keeping things secret too. Somehowthey'd nigh killed off any local memory of what had been. They'd done athorough job: almost. But he'd had faith as strong as theirs - and so faith wasnot a weakness after all. Far from it. He'd believed. He believed that ifSamuel Trevan looked hard enough there'd be a way though - because that was theway he wanted it to be.

Onceagain he saw that if Samuel Trevan struggled sufficiently, the world - howevermuch it might whine - would eventually go his way.

U[U[U[U[U[U[U

cHAPTER 23

To: The Abbot-Registrar.

 The All-England Register ofLand, Titles and Rights.

  The Monastery of StGeorge-of-the-Mark.

   Gosport.

    Hampshire.

     Wessex.

        England.

The 25th day of March, the year of our Salvation 1995.

'Sirs.

Since it is land belonging only to Almighty G*d and to no other, andwhereof it is bad ground uncropped or brought to benefit mankind since timeimmemorial, I request your lightest terms for the reclamation, draining andmaking sweet of the virgin site detailed hereafter:

Welcombe. Devonshire. England. From St Nectan's Church, west-nor-west,four-fifths of one mile, adjacent to Foxhold; through Knaps Longpeak, Shag Rockand to Newthorne Beach, being one-half of one mile south-sou-west of South Holehamlet, bounded by the climbing slope of Strawberry Water and Watergap, untothe cliff tops, for the distance of 900 yards from the Mary cairn beside TheHermitage cross-roads to 175 yards from....

... yours in faith.

Benjamin Jethro Trevan

From: Trevan Farm.

    Bideford Road.

    Welcombe.

     Devonshire.

      Wessex.

       England.

Samuelfolded the letter and sealed it. As ever, it galled him to appeal to themfor permission for anything, but since the whole earth was the Lord's His solerepresentatives held all the paperwork. They were easy-going landlords forsure, and ready enough to permit improvements or overlook ground-rents in hardtimes, but it did permit them stick their nose in Trevan business onceagain. He'd also seen their more intransigent, obstructive, side in suchmatters, when seeking leave to expand his London workshops outside the citywall. The humiliating rebuff then had been swift and thundering - as all theworldly-wisemen had predicted. For some reason the Church wasn't keen on bigcities and liked to preserve green fields right up to their walls. If thatmeant cramming people in, building upwards and throttling business, then so beit was their attitude. The more go-ahead (quietly) cursed about it, but therewas no point arguing.

Samuelwas optimistic this time round. On the surface - and he chuckled wryly at thepun there - there was no harm proposed; no inconvenience to anyone; only thechance of some good. Every unlikely field wrenched from Nature's moredisobliging moods made winter famine less likely - or shorter and less severe.The Church had even been known to sponsor some of the more up-hill projectswith grants of cash or seed or oxen: witness the implausible bounty wrenchedfrom the edges of Dartmoor. Samuel laughed again. Now, that would befunny, should his proxy-proposal touch Mother Church's heart and cause her tolob funding his way. He'd have to keep out of the way when the help arrived forfear of wetting himself laughing.

Cometo that, he had to keep out of the way full stop. Hence the need for involvinghis beloved cousin. He'd been easily drawn in, on the promise of halfany profits for the mere loan of his name. There was nothing on paper though,so when the time came just let him try to collect....

Thatwas another amusing vision - the evening was turning unexpectedly cheerful.Drinkers in the Forge had never seenSamuel smirk