Required reading
The Protector: A vindication by J. H. Merle D'Aubigne (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read the Introduction.
My summary
This week we begin a new work on the life of Cromwell.
D'Aubigne briefly gives us:
(i) a discussion of how God works in the world;
(ii) the desire of Roman Catholicism to own England in the seventeenth century;
(iii) the religious state of the monarchs of England at the time;
(iv) the rise of Cromwell;
(v) the strengths and weaknesses of other biographies of Cromwell;
(vi) motivations for D'Aubigne's biography.
What grabbed me
I appreciated D'Aubigne's closing paragraph: 'I have no desire to write a literary work, but to perform an act of justice. I do not forget the maxim of pagan antiquity, that we should render to every person his due ; I feel that among all the good things a man may possess, there is one which, according to the saying of the wisest of Eastern kings, surpasses all the rest, a good name is better than precious ointment ; and above all, I remember, that if a Christian ought to confess the Lord upon earth in order that he may be one day confessed before the angels in heaven, it is also his duty to confess the disciples of the Lord, particularly when they are disowned, calumniated, and despised by the multitude. Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. '
A pretty good reason for writing a book.
Next week's reading
Read Chapter 1 (Cromwell's private life).
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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