Summoner

“ If one consents to swear that he is not a heretic, I say to him, ‘If you wish to swear so as to escape the stake, one oath will not suffice for me, nor ten, nor a hundred, nor a thousand, because you dispense each other for a certain number of oaths taken under necessity, but I will require a countless number. Moreover, if I have, as I presume, adverse witnesses against you, your oaths will not save you from being burned. You will only stain your conscience without escaping death. ”

“ The pardoner went up to the pulpit and began his sermon, trying to stir up the people, telling them that they shouldn't be without the blessings and the forgiveness that would come to them by buying the indulgences.
When he was into the sermon in full swing, the constable came in the church door, and after praying he got up, and with a loud and steady voice he began to speak very solemnly: "My fellow men, let me say a word; afterward, you can listen to whoever you like. I came here with this swindler who's preaching. ”

“ The man who carries a summons shall cut three notches on the door-post or door ... and put the summons over the lintel. All bœndr shall go to the Thing when the summons comes to their house except single-workers. They shall go only to three Things—a Thing for murder, a Thing for choosing a king, a man-reckoning (census) Thing. During all other Things they shall sit at home.... A widow and a disabled bondi shall not go to the Thing against their will. All other bœndr shall go to the Thing when the summons comes to their house, or pay a Thing-fine” (Earlier Gulathing’s Law, 131) . ”

“ After the preaching of the sermon, a secretary mounts a pulpit and, in a loud voice, reads the customary oath, elaborately pledging all the officials and people present to obedience to the Holy Office, and to the active persecution of heretics and heresy, to which every one responds Amen! If the king is present, the senior inquisitor goes to his balcony and, on the cross and gospels, administers to him an oath to defend the faith, to persecute heretics and to show all necessary favor to the Inquisition. ”

“ So regular and urgent were his inquiries that the house-party could not be ignorant of his preoccupation. And on the afternoon of the Thursday a telegram in its orange envelope was lying upon the hall-table.
"It's for you, Mr. Hillyard," said Lady Splay.
Hillyard held it in his hands. So the summons had come, the summons hoped for, despaired of, made so often into a whip wherewith he lashed his arrogance, the summons to serve.
"I shall have to go up to town this evening," he said.
Anxious faces gathered about him.
"Oh, don't do that!" said Harold Jupp. "We have just got to like you." ”

“ Sumner died.
About twenty-three years ago, a tall, spare looking man crowned with a majestic brow, and presenting the aspects of great natural ability and the highest acquirable attainments, walked into the senate of the United States, possibly to the consternation of many, and after taking the oath of office, sat down in the midst of those he was destined to eclipse both in glory and renown in a few years. ”

“ Eventually, however, the principle became fixed that a man once summoned must be summoned whenever occasion should arise, and that, furthermore, his eldest son after him must be summoned in similar manner. ”

“ I feel as sore and rum as the friar’s bum.
This symbolic application is met with again in the ceremony of absolution for excommunicated persons. The pleader (if a man) , had to present himself before the church door with bared shoulders, and before the bishop or priest who was presiding at the ceremony. Kneeling, and bare headed, he had to humbly beg for the absolution of his sin; and then the priest, having made him swear to obey the commandments of the church, would sit down and, taking a whip or rod, would recite a long psalm and, at each verse, he would strike the petitioner. ”

“ Nor should there be omitted the fact that when the causes above named have conspired to decrease the attendance of men in arms who live far off, and when there grows up the usage of summoning the more important among them, it naturally happens that in course of time the receipt of a summons becomes the authority for attendance, and the absence of a summons becomes equivalent to the absence of a right to attend. ”

“ Vápna-thing, i.e. a Thing to examine if every man possessed the weapons prescribed by law. All members of the Thing according to law had an equal vote.
The summons was by sending out a Thingbod (Thing-summons) , or, in case of murder, an ör (arrow) throughout the whole Thing-district; the summons or arrow was sent from farm to farm, and called upon all Thingmen to meet at the usual Thing-place, generally the fifth day after the issue of the summons.
“Every man who thinks a Thing necessary may have one. Every man shall carry the summons and not drop it. ”

“ And on which side soever of these two a general shall devote himself, together with the army of the enemy, to the Gods below and to Mother Earth, that side shall have the victory." When the Consuls had told their dreams one to the other, they ordered that sacrifices should be offered to avert the wrath of the gods; and that if the soothsayers examining the entrails of the beasts should find the signs therein to agree with the dreams that they had dreamed, one or other of the Consuls should fulfil the decree of fate. ”

“ As the winter wore away, and in turn spring and summer came, military officers in constantly increasing numbers appeared in the congregation. I very distinctly remember General Sumner. Every Sunday night for two or three months, he sat to my right near the pulpit. Being slightly deaf, he got as near as he could to the speaker. He was tall and graceful in form and movement, a man who would attract attention even in a crowd. He was afterwards conspicuous in the great battles of Fair Oaks, Antietam and Fredericksburg. ”

“ I lay that night at the palace of the Inquisition, where every counsellor has a room, and returned next morning the key to the inquisitor, telling him that his order had been punctually complied with. The inquisitor had been already informed of my conduct by the notary, and therefore, upon my delivering the key to him, he said, "You have acted like one who is at least desirous to overcome, with the assistance of grace, the inclinations of nature;" that is, like one who is desirous, by the assistance of grace, to metamorphose himself from a human creature into a brute or a devil. ”

“ Mother of American liberty! a brilliant light you have given to illuminate this world of sin and vice; a true friend of humanity; nobly hast thou repaid us for the blood of Chrispus Attucks, that baptised thy bosom in 1770, by the noble deeds of chaste Charles Sumner, whom we have lost. ”

“ It shall 517go between the winter-houses and not between the sœters. The Thing-summons shall delay nowhere in weather fit for travelling except in night-quarters, and not unless there is necessity. If a man drops the summons he is liable to pay three aurar.... ”

“ Time is precious, an hour's time to hear a sermon is precious. I have sometimes thought thus with myself, Set the case, the Lord should send two or three of his servants, the ministers of the gospel, to hell among the damned, with this commission; Go ye to hell, and preach my grace to those that are there. Let your sermon be an hour long, and hold forth the merits of my Son's birth, righteousness, death, resurrection, ascension, and intercession, with all my love in him, and proffer it to them, telling them that now once more, and but once, do I proffer the means of reconciliation to them. ”

“ And Monsignor, upon whom a cardinal rested, had moments of strange and horrible insecurity—inexplicable in a religion that explained even disbelief in terms of its own faith: if you doubted the devil it was the devil that made you doubt him. Amory had seen Monsignor go to the houses of stolid philistines, read popular novels furiously, saturate himself in routine, to escape from that horror. ”

“ I may be a fool, but I am not a rogue; I would have let him alone had I suspected. Monsignor keeps these secrets to spring them to our torment. Curse him, had I known he was no marquis, de Nançay might have rotted ere I gave him any promises. ”

“ There, each Sabbath, amidst this armament of blood, while the wave comes gently plashing against the frowning sides, from a pulpit supported by a cannon, in repose now, but ready to awake its dormant thunder charged with death, a Christian preacher addresses officers and crew. May his instructions carry strength and succor to their souls! But, in such a place, those highest words of the Master he professes, "Blessed are the peacemakers," "Love your enemies," "Resist not evil," must, like Macbeth's "Amen," stick in the throat. ”

“ There are two kinds of sermons I never want to preach—the one that presents God so kind, so indulgent, so lenient, so imbecile that men may do what they will against Him, and fracture His every law, and put the cry of their impertinence and rebellion under His throne, and while they are spitting in His face and stabbing at His heart, He takes them up in His arms and kisses their infuriated brow and cheek, saying, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven." ”

“ Might not his dislike of that sermon be a snare set by the Devil to induce him to reject the call and stay in Kansas City? No. A fine sermon would do good—the Evil One could not desire that—perhaps even more good than his sin would do harm? Puzzled and incapable of the effort required to solve this fresh problem he went to bed, after praying humbly for guidance and enlightenment. ”

“ The inquisitor will, in such circumstances, inform the secular authorities, that on such a particular day and hour, and in such a particular place, a heretic will be delivered up to them and should provide that notice be given to the public that they will be expected to be present at the ceremony, as the inquisitor will deliver a sermon on the occasion in defence of the true faith, and those who attend will obtain the usual indulgences. ”

“ Instead of going to Church today, where I might have heard something not wholly to my advantage, as the advertisements for lost people say, I have written a sermon. It is not a proper sonnet, but a cross between that and epigram—a kind of bull-terrier, in short, with the size of the one and the prick-ears and docked tail of the other, nor without his special talent for rats. Is there any grip in his jaw or no? He is good-natured and scarce shows his teeth. ”

“ Never you mind about mottoes. Put your question to his worship.
Dusty Lady. Well, me lord, what I wanted to ask was this. I warn a summons against a person—I can't call her a woman—she's nothing more or less than a person—and she's been taking my character away like anything and (banging witness-box with dilapidated hand-bag) I'm going to put a stop to it if I 'ave to go to the 'Ouse of Lords to do it. ”

“ I believe they are a couple of rogues.”
“I should be very sorry to suggest such a thing as that,” I answered, “without some proof. Everybody should give credit for the best of motives.”
“But what are all these summonses you speak of?”
“O, they are summonses in the action. ”

“ And he who summons another shall walk with witnesses to the home of that man, and, if he be not at home, shall bid the wife or any one of the family to make known to him that he has been summoned to court. ”

“ Express Paction is performed either by a formal Promise given to the Devil then present, or by presenting a Supplication to him, or by giving the promise to a Proxie or Commissioner impowered by the Devil for that effect, which is used by some who dare not see himself. ”

“ When I think to find a magistrate who fears God, rightly performs his office, and uses his sword, I verily find, as a general thing, nothing but a winebibbing Lucifer, Antioch, or Nero; for they place themselves in Christ's stead so that their decrees must be respected above the word of God. ”

“ III. Soldiers are accustomed to take the military oath; so ought you to be sworn to your captain. This duty you have once performed in baptism by renouncing the devil and all his works and pomps. But how often have you deserted your colors! Surrender yourself again to your captain, renew your oath, and promise an exact obedience for the future. Banish from your heart whatever you suspect may have treacherously leagued with his and your enemies, and say with the psalmist, "Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord! teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God." ”

“ And the thought, "On trial," was ringing in the young minister's mind as he rose to speak to them. His sermon was a very quiet, practical one; a sermon that sought to bring religion before them as a matter of every-day life. It was altogether different from the torrent of speech that usually flowed from that pulpit. The people grew restless under this spiritual reserve. ”

“ The Advocate, who is not without some spunks of a remainder decency, has wrung your life-safe out of Simon and the Duke. He has refused to put you on your trial, and refused to have you killed; and there is the clue to their ill words together, for Simon and the Duke can keep faith with neither friend nor enemy. ”

“ While I was examining with some interest the hiding-place of these relics, the landlady entered.
"What are these?" I asked.
[Pg 248]
"Oh, signore!" she said, half sobbing as she spoke. "Those are relics of my poor husband. He was an artist like yourself, signore. He was—he was—ill, very ill—and in mind as well as body, signore. May the Blessed Virgin rest his soul! He hated the crucifix, he hated the scapular, he hated the priests. Signore, he—he died without the sacrament, and cursed the holy water. I have never dared to touch those relics, signore. ”