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A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland, Written in 1824-1827
A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland Written in 18241827 Author:William Cobbett General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1899 Original Publisher: Art and book company Subjects: Reformation History / Europe / General History / Europe / Great Britain History / Europe / Ireland Religion / Christianity / Anglican Religion / Christianity / History Religion / Christianity / General R... more »eligion / Christian Church / History Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER II. 37. It was not a " reformation," but a " devastation," of England, which was, at the time when this event took place, the happiest country, perhaps, that the world had ever seen ;1 and it is my chief business to show that this devastation impoverished and degraded the main body of the people. But, in order that you may see this devastation in its true light, and that you may feel a just portion of indignation against the devastators and against their eulogists of the present day, it is necessary, first, that you take a correct view of the things on which their devastating powers were exercised. 38. The far greater part of those books which are called Histories of England are little better than romances. They treat of battles, negociations, intrigues of court, amours of kings, queens, and nobles ; they contain the gossip and scandal of former times, and very little else. There are histories of England, like that of Dr. Goldsmith, for the use of young persons; but no young person who has read them through knows any more of any possible use thanhe or she knows before. The great use of history is to teach us how laws, usages and institutions arose, what were their effects on the people, how they promoted public happiness, or otherwise; and these things are precisely what the greater part of historian...« less