Manchurian Books

"
Resistance of such a pure and steady character, conducted with meek
fortitude, and supported by unimpeachable wisdom, was too dangerous an
offence to be forgiven. Ejection of the members from the scanty
subsistence which they derived from their collegiate endowments, was the
first punishment. To this, banishment from Oxford was immediately added,
and, in many cases, imprisonment. The obnoxious oaths were tendered to
all the members of the university, and those who refused to compromise
their consciences for bread, were commanded to quit the happy asylum of
their age, or to renounce all their youthful studies and hopes in
twenty-four hours, by beat of drum, on pain of being treated as spies.
Few were found so selfish as to submit to the alternative of perjury;
and thus the venerable sages and generous youth of England went forth
like the confessors of antient times, "of whom the world was not worthy;
afflicted, destitute, tormented, they wandered in deserts, in mountains,
in caves, and dens of the earth.


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364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388