“No, not she!”
“Is it....”
“Don’t ask any more.”
“Then I answer, Margaret of Valois.”
“I give no answer at all, but I am not responsible for your life, if you talk out of season! The Bible won’t help you there.”
“It would be a useful reform, if we could cancel the Old Testament as a Jewish book.”
“But we cannot cancel the Psalms of David, which are our only Church canticles. Luther himself has taken his hymns from the Psalter, and ‘Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott’ from the Proverbs of Solomon; he has borrowed the melody from the Graduale Romanum.”
“But we must relegate the law of Moses to the Apocrypha, otherwise we are Pharisees and Jewish Christians. What have we to do with circumcision, the paschal lamb, and levitical marriage? Wait till I am Pope.”
“Must we really wait so long?”
“Hush! The noon-bell is ringing. Do not let us neglect our duties. The flesh must have its due, in order not to burn. Come with me to Westminster; then you can go on to Chelsea afterwards.”