Page:An English Garner Ingatherings from Our History and Literature (Volume 1 1877).pdf/113

 such a tumultuous hurlyburly rising so of nothing heard of before; nor so great a fear where was no cause to fear, nor peril at all: so that if DEMOCRITUS, the merry philosopher, sitting in the top of the church, and seeing all things in such safety as they were, had looked down upon the multitude, and beholden so great a number, some howling and weeping, running up and down, and playing the mad men, now hither, now thither, as being tossed to and fro with waves or tempests; trembling and quaking, raging and faring, without any manifest cause; especially if he had seen those great Rabbins, the Doctors laden with so many badges or cognisances of wisdom, so foolishly and ridicuously seeking holes and corners to hide themselves in; gasping, breathing and sweating, and for very horror being almost beside themselves: I think he would have satisfied himself with this one laughter for all his lifetime; or else rather would have laughed his heart out of his belly, whilst one said that he plainly heard the noise of the fire, another affirmed that he saw it with his eyes, and another sware that he felt the molten lead dropping down upon his head and shoulders. Such is the force of imagination, when it is once grafted in men's hearts through fear.

In all the whole company, there was none that behaved himself more modestly than the heretic that was there to do penance; who, casting his faggot off from his shoulders upon a monk's head that stood by, kept himself quiet, minding to take such part as the others did.

All the others, being careful for themselves, never made an end of running up and down and crying out. None cried out more earnestly than the Doctor that preached (who was, as I said, Dr. SMITH), who, in manner first of all, cried out in the pulpit, saying, "These are the trains and subtleties of the heretics against me: LORD have mercy upon me! LORD have mercy upon me!" But might not GOD, as it had been (to speak with JOB) out of a whirlwind, have answered again unto this preacher thus: "Thou dost now implore my mercy, but thou thyself showest no mercy unto thy fellows and brethren! How doth thy flesh tremble now at the mention of fire! But you think it a sport to burn other simple innocents, neither do ye anything at all regard it. If burning