Relics etc.

Some of the insights Hilary Mantel shares with respect to the view of the faith during Henry's time.

from Wolf Hall
HIlary Mantel

"They show you a skull, they say it's Becket's, it's smashed up by the knights but it's held together with a silver plate. For ready money, you can kiss it. They have a tray of his finger bones. They have his snotty handerkerchief. And a bit of his boot. And a vial they shake up for you, they say it's his blood."

"At Walsingham, they have a vial of th Virgin's milk."

"C***st, I wonder wonder what it is?" Rafe looks sick. "The blood you can tell it's water with some red soil in it. It floats about in clumps."

"Well pick up that goose quill, plucked from eht pinions of the Angel Gabriel and we will write to Stephen Vaughn. We may have to set him on the road, to bring Thomas Cranmer home."

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