ordinary for a man of that
description.

"When confessed you last?" asked the Commissioners of Purcas.

"I have not confessed of long time," was the answer, "nor will I; for
priests have no power to remit sin."

"Come you to church, to hear the holy mass?"

"I do not, nor will I; for all that is idolatry."

"Have you never, then, received the blessed Sacrament of the altar?"

"I did receive the Supper of the Lord in King Edward's time, but not
since: nor will I, except it be ministered to me as it was then."

"Do you not worship the sacred host?"

That is, the consecrated bread in the Lord's Supper.

"Those who worship it are idolaters!" said Robert Purcas, without the
least hesitation: "that which there is used is bread and wine only."

"Have him away!" cried Sir John Kingston. "What need to question
further so obstinate a man?"

So they had him away--not being able to answer him--and Agnes Silverside
was called in his stead.

She was very calm, but as determined as Purcas.

"Come hither, Mistress!" said Boswell, roughly. "Why, what have we here
in the charge-sheet? `Agnes Silverside, _alias_ Smith, _alias_ Downes,
_alias_ May!' Hast thou had four husbands, old witch, or how comest by
so many names?"

"Sir," was the quiet answer, "my name is Smith from my father, and I
have been thrice wed."

The Commissioners, having first amused themselves by a little rough
joking at the prisoner's expense, inquired which of her husbands was the
last.

"My present name is Silverside," she replied.

"And what was he, this Silverside?--a tanner or a chimney-sweep?"

"Sir, he was a priest."

The Commissioners--who knew it all beforehand--professed themselves
exceedingly shocked. God never forbade priests to marry under the Old
Testament, nor did He ever command Christian ministers to be unmarried
men: but the Church of Rome has forbidden her priests to have any wives,
as Saint Paul told Timothy would be done by those who departed from the
faith: [see One Timothy four 3.] thus "teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men." [See Matthew fifteen verse 9.]

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

GENTLY HANDLED.

When the Commissioners had tormented the priest's widow as long as they
thought proper, they called on her to answer the charges brought against
her.

"Dost thou believe that in the blessed Sacrament of the altar the bread
and wine becometh the very body and blood of Christ, so soon as the word
of consecrat