ord of Saint Paul. She has his Epistles right
at her tongue's end. For instance, quoth I,--"Christ said He should
bestow the Holy Spirit, to lead the Church into all truth. How then can
the Church err?"

"What Church?" said she, boldly. "The Church is all righteous men that
hold Christ's words: not the Pope and Cardinals and such like. These
last have no right to hold the first in bondage."

"But," said I, "Father Benedict told me Saint Paul bade the religious to
obey their superiors: how much more all men to obey the Church?"

"I marvel," saith she, "where Father Benedict found that. Never a word
says Paul touching religious persons: there were none in his day."

"No religious in Paul's day!" cried I.

"Never so much as one," saith she: "not a monk, not a nun! Friar
Pareshull himself told me so much; he is a great man among us. Saint
Peter bids the clergy not to dominate over inferiors; Saint Paul says to
the Ephesians that out of themselves (he was speaking to the clergy)
should arise heretics speaking perversely; and Saint John says, `Believe
not every spirit, but prove the spirits if they be of God.' Dear Mother
Annora, we are nowhere bidden in Scripture to obey the Church save only
once, and that concerns the settling of a dispute betwixt two members of
it. Obey the Church! why, we are ourselves the Church. Has not Father
Rolle taught you so much? `Holy Kirk,' quoth he--`that is, ilk
righteous man's soul.' Verily, all Churches be empowered of Christ to
make laws for their own people: but why then must the Church of England
obey laws made by the Bishop of Rome?"

"Therein," said I, "can I fully hold with thee."

"And for all things," she said earnestly, "let us hold to God's law, and
take our interpretation of it not from men, but straight from God
Himself. Lo! here is the promise of the Holy Ghost assured unto the
Church--to you, to me, to each one that followeth Christ. They that
keep His words and are indwelt of His Spirit--these, dear Mother, are
the Church of God, and to them is the truth promised."

I said nought, for I knew not what to answer.

"There is yet another thing," saith Joan, dropping her voice low. "Can
that be God's Church which contradicts God's Word? David saith `Over
all things Thou hast magnified Thy Name' [Note 2]: but I have heard of a
most wise man, that could read ancient volumes and dead tongues, that
Saint Hierome set not down the true words, namely, `Over all T