"I have learned no doctrine from you save that the Pope is lord of
all----of things temporal and things spiritual--and that all who
deny this are in peril of hell fire," answered the young man, with
no small bitterness and scorn. "And here, in this realm, those who
hold this to be so are in danger of prison and death. Truly this is
a happy state of things for one such as I. At home a father who
rails upon me night and day for a heretic--albeit I vow I hold not
one single doctrine which I cannot stand to and prove from the Word
of God."

"Which thou hast no call to have in thine hands!" shouted his
father; "a book which, if given to the people, stirs up everywhere
the vilest heresies and most loathsome errors. The Bible is God's
gift to the Church. It is not of private interpretation. It is for
the priests to give of its treasures to the people as they are able
to bear them."

"Ay, verily, and what are the people to do when the priests deny
them their rightful food?" cried Cuthbert, as hotly as his father.
"Listen to me, sir. Yes, this once I wilt speak! In years gone by,
when, however quietly, secretly, and privately, we were visited by
a priest and heard the mass, and received at his hands the Blessed
Sacrament, did I revolt against your wish in matters spiritual? Was
I not ever willing to please you? Did I not love the Church? Was
not I approved of the Father, and taught many things by him,
including those arts of reading and penmanship which many in my
condition of life never attain unto? Did I ever anger you by
disobedience or revolt?"

"What of that, since you are doing so now?" questioned Nicholas in