Heresy Quotes
"In Italy, words and ideas are considered as dangerous as swords and arrows, and that a philosopher or a scientist needs as much courage as a soldier to speak his mind."
"If he could have been proven to have known about or aided the secret arrival of missionary priests from France, he would have been for the scaffold."
"It is not what a man believes that will lead him to the scaffold but what he may do in the name of those beliefs."
"Our nation is young in the new religion, and there are many in France and Spain who seek to kill Her Majesty and replace her with that Devil’s bitch, Mary of Scotland."
"The innocent among them will have nothing to fear."
"In these times, even distributing forbidden books is treason, because anyone who does so, does it with the intent of converting those into whose hands they place them."
"Our future government and clergy, no less, being turned secretly to Rome under our very noses."
"The Church taught, after Aristotle, that the stars were fixed in the eighth sphere beyond the earth, that they were all equidistant and moved together in orbit about the earth, like the sun and the six planets in their respective spheres."
"I will travel at night, I will sing and dance or beg for bread if I have to, and when I have put enough distance between myself and Naples, I will teach for a living."
"The streets of England would run with blood if Mary of Scotland found her way to the throne."
"But we must not stand here gossiping like goodwives—the servant will show you to your room."
"Please, out of charity, I ask that you do not make mention of Thomas Allen."
"Books prohibited to scholars? How then should men of learning sharpen their intellect?"
"For we are all obedient subjects, are we not, gentlemen?"
"It is, and ever was, a woman’s fashion, To love a cross and cross a loving passion."
"Especially not those images derived from the ancient astrology of the Egyptians."
"It was a great pity that he could not in his heart renounce the errors of his old beliefs."
"But no man in Oxford is what he seems, Doctor Bruno, keep that in mind."
"I reject absolutely the notion that the stars are fixed on the tapestry of the heavens!"
"Let our reason no longer be fettered by the eight or nine imaginary spheres."
"I am the wheate or grayne of Christ, I shall be grounde with the teethe of wilde beastes, that I may be found pure bread."
"The stars are no more nor differently fixed in the universe than this star the sun."
"There is much less reason why the sun and the whole universe of innumerable stars should turn around this globe."
"I will see what refreshment I can find for when we next converse, Cobbett."
"I will certainly give a true account of events to the best of my ability, if one is requested."
"We are the greatest nation at everything, my friend."
"A heavy wooden gate like that? I was there, Doctor Coverdale—I went through all the possibilities with the rector."
"I meant only that to devote one's life to the study of Hermetic magic requires enormous sacrifice, and I would not lightly recommend it."
"Then is there no way of learning any magic that might work?"
"Did you never love anyone who could not return your love?"
"I wanted to go on loving her, certainly. I wanted to be able to talk to her, and hold her."
"You have travelled so much, you cannot imagine how envious I am."
"I have also learned that adventure is not always something to seek for its own sake."
"There were beautiful faces, certainly, and many beautiful costumes, but I never found much beauty of mind at court."
"I don’t know that my ideas were of much interest to the ladies at court."
"Better to buy a painting if you just want something beautiful in a corner of your parlour."
"How do you know if you can trust someone, Bruno? I mean, if you must trust them with your life?"
"It is hard to tell, but I think the blood came mostly from the throat wound. If he was not yet dead, he was near it."
"I do not know the contents of their letters, sir. Doctor Mercer only told me news he thought might affect me directly."
"I had wondered if Mercer was killed by a Catholic."
"You may have duped the rector into giving you his trust, Bruno, but I see you for what you are."
"There was a time, I suppose, when I considered her a friend. But I think she regards me rather as she does her dolls."
"Whatever you have heard, it is a lie! She has an affectionate nature, but she is easily deceived."
"If I could get to London and begin a life there—you will tell Sir Philip that? A recommendation from him would ease my path, and I would swear my loyalty to him and the earl for life."
"I glanced up at the small window at the top of the tower and shivered to think of Coverdale’s blood-soaked body still dangling from the sconce."
"The grisly tableau had appeared almost as a practical joke; I had hardly been able to believe him dead until I saw the great wound in his throat."
"He and James detested each other," Godwyn confided, his voice low. "So perhaps, now that James has died so terribly, Walter regrets the words he can never take back."
"I am inclined to believe Sophia has taken it upon herself to go off walking without telling anyone—she complains often of being cooped up here."
"God is punishing us, Bruno. He is heaping burning coals on my head for my sins of omission."
"I had to raise my voice to be heard. Only the night before, Sophia herself had told me she believed she was in danger."
"An odd sort of robbery, then," Norris observed, his words weighted carefully. "To take a man’s life, all for nothing."
"I cannot help noticing that our friend here, Signor Florio, seems surprised to hear me address you so. Perhaps he knows you by a different name?"
"My heart leaped and I almost dropped the lantern with the shock, but managed to reach inside the glass and snuff out the candle."
"A sliver of moonlight penetrated the clouds and in its thin gleam I saw other shadows come to life."
"For a moment there was only silence, but then the door opened a crack and out of the shadows a pale hand beckoned me inside."
"Footsteps creaked on the stairs behind me and I hastened my climb, emerging onto a landing with a low, beamed ceiling and uneven floor."
"I noticed the small windows had been hung with black cloth to prevent the candlelight from showing to the world outside."
"The air in the small room seemed charged, all of us poised there as if on a knife edge, our nerves taut with the danger involved."
"In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen."
"Every sudden unfamiliar noise caused a stiffening among the congregation, an invisible wave of fear that caught and held us for a moment."
"I am not such a fool as to make an enemy of one so close to the queen’s favourites."
"I have only come to return Sophia safely to her family, who are sorely distressed by her absence."
"I have heard the Jesuits deal ruthlessly with those who stand in the way of their mission."
"To kill those who oppose God’s kingdom is not murder."
"What kind of a religion is that, Doctor Bruno, that makes men fall in love with death over life?"
"I hate no one. I want only to be left in peace to understand the mysteries of the universe in my own way."
"I think I shall take a drink in the Mitre Inn on the corner of the High Street."
"For Jerome, yes, but he would not be here to appreciate it, would he?"
"Better she had been quietly murdered, and your reputation survived unblemished?"
"It has never occurred to you that I might rather have rewarded the man who could have spared my family all this?"
"Had I a daughter, I hope I would not wish for her death rather than my own dishonour."