Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/374

354 Between the popular preachers and the upper classes, who were indulging in these oppressions, there may have been for the most part a tolerable understanding. The Catholic priests in the better days which were past, as the Protestant clergy in the better days which were coming, had said alike to rich and poor, By your actions you shall be judged. Keep the commandments, do justice and love mercy, or God will damn you. The unfortunate persons, who for the sins of England were its present teachers, said, You cannot keep the commandments—that has been done for you; believe a certain speculative theory, and avoid the errors of Popery. It was a view of things convenient to men who were indulging in avarice and tyranny. The world at all times has liked nothing better than a religion which provides it with a substitute for obedience. But, as there would have been 110 Eeformation at all, had Reformation meant no more than a change from a superstition of ceremonies to a superstition of words and opinions, so those who were sincere and upright among the Reformers—men like Cranmer, Latimer, Becon, Bradford, or Lever, to whom God and duty were of more importance than 'schemes of salvation,' whose