A Child's History of England.143

Posted 2022-01-15 _

But, these were speedily followed by two much greater victims, Sir Thomas More, and John Fisher, the Bishop of Rochester. The latter, who was a good and amiable old man, had committed no greater offence than believing in Elizabeth Barton, called the Maid of Kent - another of those ridiculous women who pretended to be inspired, and to make all sorts of heavenly revelations [启示], though they indeed uttered nothing but evil nonsense. For this offence - as it was pretended, but really for denying the King to be the supreme Head of the Church - he got into trouble, and was put in prison; but, even then, he might have been suffered to die naturally (short work having been made of executing the Kentish Maid and her principal followers), but that the Pope, to spite [伤害] the King, resolved to make him a cardinal. Upon that the King made a ferocious joke to the effect that the Pope might send Fisher a red hat - which is the way they make a cardinal - but he should have no head on which to wear it; and he was tried with all unfairness and injustice, and sentenced to death. He died like a noble and virtuous old man, and left a worthy name behind him. The King supposed, I dare say, that Sir Thomas More would be frightened by this example; but, as he was not to be easily terrified, and, thoroughly believing in the Pope, had made up his mind that the King was not the rightful Head of the Church, he positively refused to say that he was. For this crime he too was tried and sentenced, after having been in prison a whole year. When he was doomed to death, and came away from his trial with the edge of the executioner\'s axe turned towards him - as was always done in those times when a state prisoner came to that hopeless pass - he bore it quite serenely [very calm or peaceful], and gave his blessing to his son, who pressed through [挤过] the crowd in Westminster Hall and kneeled down to receive it. But, when he got to the Tower Wharf [码头] on his way back to his prison, and his favourite daughter, Margaret Roper, a very good woman, rushed through the guards again and again, to kiss him and to weep upon his neck, he was overcome at last. He soon recovered, and never more showed any feeling but cheerfulness and courage. When he was going up the steps of the scaffold [断头台] to his death, he said jokingly to the Lieutenant of the Tower, observing that they were weak and shook beneath his tread [脚步], \'I pray you, master Lieutenant, see me safe [safely] up; and, for my coming down, I can shift [move] for myself.\' Also he said to the executioner, after he had laid his head upon the block, \'Let me put my beard out of the way; for that, at least, has never committed any treason.\' Then his head was struck off at a blow. These two executions were worthy of King Henry the Eighth. Sir Thomas More was one of the most virtuous men in his dominions, and the Bishop was one of his oldest and truest friends. But to be a friend of that fellow was almost as dangerous as to be his wife.

worthy of - suitable for. 狄大人的意思好像是King Henry is suitable for被砍头。

请看上节，Thomas More的most virtuous可能只是筷子里拔旗杆，但是时代不同，标准也大不一样。

百度百科: 《春秋无义战》出自《孟子》的《尽心章句下》。 春秋时代没有合乎义的战争。孟子曰：“春秋无义战。彼善于此，则有之矣。征者，上伐下也，敌国不相征也。” 相对于孔子的“春秋笔法”（文章用笔曲折而意含褒贬的写作手法）而言，孟子的“春秋无义战”更加客观。周天子之下，各诸侯国纷争，又何来“义”之说？

孔子：公元前551年出生。孟子：公元前372年出生。孔子可能心想: "Easy for you to say."

When the news of these two murders got to Rome, the Pope raged against the murderer more than ever Pope raged since the world began, and prepared a Bull, ordering his subjects to take arms against him and dethrone him. The King took all possible precautions to keep that document out of his dominions, and set to work in return to suppress a great number of the English monasteries and abbeys.

Bull - an official statement from the Pope. 不是shà歃血为盟。

This destruction was begun by a body of commissioners [委员], of whom Cromwell (whom the King had taken into great favour) was the head; and was carried on through some few years to its entire completion. There is no doubt that many of these religious establishments [全体雇员] were religious in nothing but in name, and were crammed with lazy, indolent [懒], and sensual [耽于物质享受] monks. There is no doubt that they imposed upon the people in every possible way; that they had images moved by wires, which they pretended were miraculously moved by Heaven; that they had among them a whole tun [大桶] measure full of teeth, all purporting [伪称] to have come out of the head of one saint, who must indeed have been a very extraordinary person with that enormous allowance of grinders; that they had bits of coal which they said had fried Saint Lawrence, and bits of toe-nails which they said belonged to other famous saints; penknives [small folding knife], and boots, and girdles [腰带], which they said belonged to others; and that all these bits of rubbish were called Relics, and adored by the ignorant people. But, on the other hand, there is no doubt either, that the King\'s officers and men punished the good monks with the bad; did great injustice; demolished many beautiful things and many valuable libraries; destroyed numbers of paintings, stained glass windows, fine pavements, and carvings; and that the whole court were ravenously [very hungry] greedy and rapacious [greedy] for the division of this great spoil among them. The King seems to have grown almost mad in the ardour [热心] of this pursuit; for he declared Thomas à Becket a traitor, though he had been dead so many years, and had his body dug up out of his grave. He must have been as miraculous as the monks pretended, if they had told the truth, for he was found with one head on his shoulders, and they had shown another as his undoubted and genuine head ever since his death; it had brought them vast sums of money, too. The gold and jewels on his shrine [tomb] filled two great chests [大箱子], and eight men tottered [蹒跚 as they carried them away. How rich the monasteries were you may infer from the fact that, when they were all suppressed, one hundred and thirty thousand pounds a year - in those days an immense sum - came to the Crown.

六级/考研单词: bishop, latter, amiable, commit, offend, maid, ridicule, inspire, utter, wicked, nonsense, supreme, jail, execute, headmaster, resolve, cardinal, noble, worthy, dare, fright, thorough, doom, ax, bore, kneel, wharf, haste, weep, lieutenant, tread, pray, fellow, rage, bull, precaution, suppress, secular, cram, miracle, saint, immense, fry, fame, fold, rubbish, relic, adore, ignorant, punish, gorgeous, stain, pave, greed, spoil, pursuit, dig, grave, sincere, infer

Stained glass consists of pieces of glass of different colours which are fixed together to make decorative windows or other objects.