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and just master. His word will be law, and the whole land will obey and be at peace. If a brief war must be fought to lesson those who will not accept that this is the Divine Will, that one alone should rule, so it must be. Thus, there is only one God, one Holy Father, and there must be one king for each realm." |
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Ian stood up. "God gives man free will." |
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Winchester raised his eyes to Ian's face. "But those who use this free will to transgress are cast into everlasting torment. On earth also. Those who obey will flourish; those who transgress will be cast out." |
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Once more Ian bowed and kissed the bishop's ring. There was no purpose in further talk. He had not had much hope when he came, for he knew that Winchester was an astute man. However, Ian had not wished to ignore the small chance that the bishop had failed to gauge the depth of feeling against him and the strong possibility of a civil war. Even that faint hope was gone. Plainly, Winchester saw the situation quite clearly and was convinced that the rebellion could be put down both quickly and firmly enough to end resistance once and for all. |
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When he came out, Ian's face told the story to Adam and Simon. They hardly had patience to listen to the report Ian gave Geoffrey, crying out that they should go home and stuff and garnish their keeps for war. |
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"No, you will not!" Ian exclaimed. "This is all talk. So far the king has done nothingexcept for the dismissal of Rodunethat is not within his right. That dismissal is a little thing, no cause for war. You must not act in such a way as to give Henry an excuse to punish you. For God's sake, do you want to find yourselves opposed to me on a field of battle?" |
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"This is no time for hasty action of any kind," Geoffrey interposed quickly, seeing that Adam was about to point out that even Henry would not be so foolish as to summon a man to attack his own sons, particularly Ian, who was well known to be a doting |
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