THE OLD - Old Wirral.com

THE OLD CHURCHES OF WIRRAL
sewiden ye leves of a fige
tre and madin
brechis " ; and also in Caxton's *' Golden
Legend " where the line occurs, " toke
figge leuis and sewed them togyder for to
couere theyre membres in maner of
brechis."
The Genevan Bible was the offspring of
the Marian terror, when many notable
Protestants fled for safety to the continent.
Among the many places there
which offered protection and hospitality to
the English exiles, was the Lutheran city
of Frankfort, but the spirit of intolerance
affected even this stronghold of Protestantism,
and there arose a bitter quarrel
among the fugitives over the matter of
the revised English prayer book of 1552.
The Conforming party were prepared to
abide by the ceremonial requirements of
the book as it then stood, but the Nonconformists,
under the leadership of John
Knox, scented popery and superstition in
every page and declined to accept it.
Finally, in 1555, there occurred an open
rupture, and the Knox faction shook off
the dust of Frankfort from their feet and
betook themselves to the more congenial
atmosphere of Geneva, " The Mecca of
the Reformed Faith." It is to these
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