The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mistress Margery, by Emily Sarah Holt

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Title: Mistress Margery

Author: Emily Sarah Holt

Release Date: October 25, 2007 [EBook #23187]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MISTRESS MARGERY ***

Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

Mistress Margery, A Tale of the Lollards, by Emily Sarah Holt.
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This is a short book, but it was quite hard to transcribe on account of
so much of it being in mediaeval English, with its inconsistent and
uncouth spelling.

Margery is a young woman of high birth, who goes one day to hear a
sermon preached by one of the new Lollards, who advise people to read
the Bible as recently translated by Wycliffe, and to believe only what
they find therein. This was directly contrary to the view of the
official church, which had made up all sorts of doctrines that could be
seen to be not at all supported by the words of the Gospel. Margery can
only get hold of a copy of the Gospel according to Saint John.

Margery is very much struck with the words of the Gospel, despite the
hostility of all around her. Everyone was far too afraid of the extreme
punishment meted out by "Holy Church" to those who questioned its
teachings. And Margery ends up by being burnt at the stake for her
belief in the Gospel, as opposed to what was taught by the Church.

But you will learn a lot about upper-class life in the early years of
the fifteenth century, and if you can put up with the forms of speech,
you will gain thereby. Not recommended for audiobook, since a great
deal of editing, such as removal of footnotes, conversion of mediaeval
speech to modern, and so forth.

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MISTRESS MARGERY, A TALE OF THE LOLLARDS, BY EMILY SARAH HOLT.

CHAPTER ONE.

A REGULAR OF OXENFORDE.

"Give me the book, and let me read;
My soul is strangely stirred--
They are such words of love and truth
As ne'er before I heard!"

Mary Howitt.

The sun was shining brightly on the battlements and casements of Lovell
T