Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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229

Poisoned Chalice

Scientist and clergyman Temple Chevallier believed that the fast pace of recent discoveries in astronomy risked substituting a new superstition for an old one.

230

Sanctuary!

As late as the fifteenth century, criminals on the run could find refuge in the precincts of England’s great churches.

231

The Shimabara Rebellion

Forty thousand men, women and children, the last survivors of Japans’s persecuted Christian population, took refuge without earthly hope in a seaside castle.

232

The Vast Depths of Infinity

Thomas Wright offers his readers a way of thinking about the enormous distances involved in any description of the solar system.

233

Written in the Skies

Though some other sciences may seem to destroy it, astronomy restores a sense of religious awe.

234

A Surfeit of Lampreys

Augustus, the Roman Emperor, invited himself to dine at the luxury Naples villa of Publius Vedius Pollio, but a broken goblet thoroughly spoilt the evening.