R . WILLES ALTAR To the Christian Religion
After Theocritus
Born again in infancy by the holy washing of Baptism , then confirmed in the true Faith by the consecrated hand of a Bishop , I was allotted to God as a boy : in the springtime of my life , over the stormy waters of the Channel and the Brabantine lands , far and wide across Rhine ’ s banks , and among the lofty Alps , the Taurus mountains , the Apennine ridges and the cities of Etruria , I acknowledged the holy and terrible name of the Thunderer in the sky : having professed as a youth amid murders in France the name of Christ , shall I as a man wickedly rush away from the Christian religion ? Shall I in old age abandon it ? I ’ d sooner die by my own hand .
LONDON : 1573
SPA
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