[47] 'Works,' iii. 357. Browning makes his good old Pope feel, in the later Renaissance, as if Christian heroism had been
'so possible
When in the way stood Nero's cross and stake,
So hard now'—
and, looking back almost regretfully to Nero's time, to ask—
'How could saints and martyrs fail see truth
Streak the night's blackness?'
'The Ring and the Book. The Pope,' line 1827.
[48] 'Works,' vi. 514.
[49] 'The examples of God's children always complaining of their own wretchedness serve for the penitent that they slide not into desperation.'—'Works,' vi. 85.
[50] 'Works,' iii. 386.
[51] 'Works,' vi. 513.
[52] It is of the letter from which the above is taken that Knox in publishing it long after says apologetically, 'If it serve not for this estate of Scotland, yet it will serve a troubled conscience, so long as the Kirk of God remaineth in either realm.'—'Works,' vi. 617.