st disastrous time. He saw
how the Danish inroads had terribly demoralised the English people, and
he spoke out as God's preacher, who comes face to face with wrong, must
speak.

He begins by telling his "beloved men" how evil will go on increasing
till Antichrist's coming; and then will it be awful, and terrible all
through the world. "Too greatly has the devil for many years led this
folk astray, and little faithfulness has there been among men, albeit
they spake well; and wrongs too many have ruled in the land; and not
always were there many who thought earnestly about the remedy as they
should; but day by day they added one evil upon another and they reared
up wrong, and many evil laws all throughout this nation. And therefore
have we suffered many losses and shames: and if we shall await any cure
then must we deserve it from God better than heretofore have we done.
For with great earning have we earned the miseries that oppress us, and
with great earning must we obtain the remedy from God if from henceforth
it is to grow better." He tells them how in heathen lands they dare not
withhold what has been devoted to the worship of idols: "and here we
withhold the rights of God. And everywhere in heathen lands none dare
injure or lessen within or without any of the things offered to idols:
and we have robbed God's houses within and without." And so he goes on
pouring out from his very soul the fiery words that tell of the warning
of God's laws, and the worsening of folk-laws; and how the Sanctuaries
are unprotected, and God's houses are robbed and stripped of their
property, and holy orders are despised, and widows forced wrongfully to
marry, and too many are made poor and humbled, and poor men are sorely
betrayed and cruelly plotted against; and far and wide innocent people
are given into the power of foreigners, and cradle-children made slaves
through cruel evil laws for a little theft: and freeman's right taken
away, and thrall's right narrowed, and alms' right diminished. It goes
on and on, the terrible list of wrongs that have brought God's wrath on
the land. The sermon is not for the building-up of faithful ones, but
for the rousing and stirring up of those whose baptismal vow has been
terribly and shamefully broken, His words are clashed out as he brings
men face to face with their sin.

And then comes the preaching of the true penance. "Let us do what is
needful, bow to the right, and in somewise forsake the wro