“The man that keeps faith sealed upon his soul
Shall through the blood-shedding of Christ be clean.
And in this time of cursing and flawed faith
Have you kept faith unflawed.
Have no fear, therefore, but your sins of life
Shall fall from off you as a vesture changed.
And leave your soul for whiteness as a child's.”
Of course there is a sense in which this may be taken as correct. The man that really keeps his “faith sealed upon his soul” and “unflawed,” acts up to his faith and lives its life. But this is not what Mr. Swinburne means. In several passages he is at pains to show that it is not. His meaning simply is that because Mary held to the profession of the Catholic faith the bishop assured her that her sins would be remitted. That faith alone was sufficient for salvation was the heresy of Luther. We do not know whether those useful little compendiums of Christian doctrine commonly known as catechisms were much in vogue at the time. Had they been, Mary would have found in hers the following question and answer, which would have shamed the Bishop of Ross: “Will faith alone save us?” “No; it will not without good works.”
It must be remembered, however, that Mr. Swinburne, and not the bishop, is the real father confessor to his own penitent, and a very indulgent [pg 352] one he makes. The queen says:
“I would have absolution ere I die,