A Column of Fire
by Ken Follett
(Penguin, 2017)
If you can’t kill a man in front of God’s face you probably shouldn’t kill him at all.
Page 1.
He would not toll her how much he had missed her, for a man should be independent and self-sufficient at the age of eighteen.
Page 5.
As always, the church was a place of business as well as worship.
Page 9.
I will marry a man who is clever and thoughtful and wants his wife to be more than just the most senior of his servants.
Page 19.
To Rollo, the prestige of the Fitzgerald family mattered more than anything except the will of God.
Page 26.
The transition to a new monarch is a time of danger for any country.
Page 28.
Margery could not bear the thought that a person might be denied love.
Page 37.
For Rollo, the essence of religion was submission to authority. That was the trouble with Protestants: they thought they had the right to make up their own minds.
Page 41.
Paris was divided into three parts. The largest section, called the Town, was on the north side of the river Seine, known as the Right Bank. The smaller settlement south of the river, on the Left Bank, was called the University, or sometimes the Latin Quarter because of all the students speaking Latin. The island in the middle was called the City.
Page 63.
Independent craftsmen such as cobblers and weavers seemed especially liable to become Protestants, Their work gave them time alone to think.
Page 66.
Rollo was driven mad by the idea that people - ignorant, uneducated, stupid ordinary people - had the right to make up their own minds about religion. If such a naïve idea ever gained currency, civilization would collapse. People had to be told what to do.
Page 77.
Margery was the only one who came right out and said what she wanted. Women were supposed to be led by men, especially in physical relations, but Margery seemed not to know that.
Page 85.
Spain was the richest country in the world but also the most conservative: there were laws against gaudy clothing. The rich dressed in black while the poor wore washed out browns.
Page 98.
Mass was a useful social event, as well as an opportunity to cleanse the soul. Everyone had to go, especially the leading citizens. It was a chance to speak to people one would not otherwise meet.
Page 108.
“This is bad. … If you start a witch hunt, you have to find some witches.”
Page 110.
“Nothing is permanent, except change.”
Page 138.
Ned liked markets: they were where prosperity came from.
Page 139.
There was no logic to love.
Page 143.
Royal people were not obliged to be consistent, and a summons meant bad news as often as good.
Page 157.
White was the color of mourning in France.
Page 168.
Royal children enjoyed very good things in life, except freedom.
Page 170.
In normal churches she felt like a spectator at a performance, but here she was a participant.
Page 174.
“The only way to keep a secret is eternal silence.”
Page 181.
“When a man is certain that he knows God’s will, and is resolved to do it regardless of the cost, he is the most dangerous man in the world.”
Page 199.
Everyone traveled in groups: a man on his own was in danger of being robbed; a woman on her own was more vulnerable to worse dangers.
Page 201.
Most people bathed twice a year, in spring and autumn, but princesses were fastidious, and Elizbeth bathed more often.
Page 212.
Her ideal of religious tolerance was outrageously radical, of course. Almost the whole world thought that the notion of letting everyone worship as they wished was disgustingly permissive and completely mad.
Page 225.
She saw Protestantism as an arrogant heresy favored by men who imagined they were clever enough to find fault with hundreds of years of church teaching, but she also believed that Christians should not kill one another.
Page 235.
Protestantism was an urban movement; it had never taken hold in the conservative countryside.
Page 240.
Sometimes, Rollo reflected, fate seemed to be on the side of the devil.
Page 243.
Expediency favored Elizabeth.
Page 244.
Elizabeth was Parliament’s choice. … Civil war had ben avoided, there would be no foreign king, the burnings would end.
Page 245.
The simple idea that people should be allowed to worship as they wished caused more suffering than the ten plagues of Egypt.
Page 247.
In the moment of uncertainty that always followed the death of a king, the man with the power was not the new king himself but whoever held him in his hands.
Page 270.
An advantage was no use unless it was seized.
Page 270.
Living most of her life at the French court, she had come to regard marriage the way noblemen did, as a strategic alliance rather than a bond of love.
Page 271.
“When we make an enemy there should be some benefit to us. Otherwise we have harmed only ourselves.”
Page 277.
In the eyes of the church, the Bible was the most dangerous of all banned books - especially translated into French or English, with marginal notes explaining how certain passaged proved the correctness of Protestant teaching. Priests said that ordinary people were unable to rightly interpret God’s word, and needed guidance. Protestants said the Bible opened men’s eyes to the errors of the priesthood. Both sides saw reading the Bible as the central issue of the religious conflict that had swept Europe.
Pages 281-282.
A customer was more likely to buy once he had held the book in his hands.
Page 286.
News went from city to city mainly in merchants’ bulletins, which contained mostly commercial information.
Page 300.
The Antwerpers hated nobody, except those who did not pay their debts.
Page 303.
In wartime, ships of one combatant nation could legitimately attack ships of the enemy; and all the major countries were at war as often as they were at peace. In peacetime the same activity was called piracy, but it went on almost as much. Every ship had to be able to defend itself.
Page 309.
The horror the two women had experienced seemed to have weakened the mother and strengthened the daughter.
Page 321.
Most men treated their wives like children, the only difference being that women could work harder.
Page 322.
“The days of men telling me what I can and can’t do are over.”
Page 325.
Sylvie loved Protestant services - although, unlike many of her co-worshippers, she did not despise the Catholic rites: she understood that for many people the whiff incense, the Latin words, and the eerie singing of a choir were part of the spiritual experience. However, she was moved by other things: plain language, logical beliefs, and hymns that she could sing herself.
Page 326.
Why did men so often speak of rape as if it were a joke?
Page 327.
All Scottish noblemen spoke French, but some did so better than others.
Page 356.
The notion of tolerance was abhorrent to ultra-Catholics.
Page 360.
Power was terrifyingly fragile.
Page 376.
In a crisis, frightened people would obey anyone who sounded as if he knew what he was doing.
Page 376.
Slavery was a major industry in West Africa. Since before anyone could remember, the kings and chieftains of the region had sold their fellow men to Arab buyers who took them to the slaves markets of the Middle East. The new European traders horned in on an existing business.
Page 380.
“My father taught us to learn as much as possible of any tongue we came across. He says it’s better than money in the bank.”
Page 393.
Slightly premature shooting was the greatest possible gift to the enemy, allowing him to get close in safety while the gunners were reloading.
Page 403.
A secret was a weapon. But more than that, the possession of knowledge that others did not share always filled Rollo with elation. He could hug it to himself at night and feel powerful.
Page 423.
Men such as Carlos were more interested in making and selling things. The new religion grew.
Page 451.
His mother urged him to keep his doubts to himself, but he could not: he was seventeen and for him right was right and wrong was wrong.
Page 453.
The guests became a little raucous. Children squabbled, adolescent boys tried to woo adolescent girls, and married men flirted with their friends’ wives. Parties were the same everywhere, Ebrima thought: even Africa.
Page 460.
Alison had never imagined, until now, that boredom could drive her to contemplate suicide.
Page 471.
“Only upstarts and merchants are Protestants.”
Page 485.
Elizabeth had no standing army, so the navy was England’s only permanent military force. The country was not wealthy, by European standards, but such prosperity as it had came from overseas trade.
Page 508.
They parted company with little ceremony, in the manner of brothers.
Page 508.
For Ned, a Catholic country that tolerated Protestants was as good as a Protestant country that tolerated Catholics: it was the freedom that counted.
Page 541.
“We believe in people’s right to read God’s word for themselves and make up their own minds about what is the true gospel.”
Page 542.
“This edition is magnificent. It looks like what it is, a volume containing the word of God.”
Page 561.
She and her mother were very close, no doubt because they had been together through danger and destitution.
Page 561.
He did not tie up at the jetty: that would make it too easy for a hostile force to board the ship form the land.
Page 563.
Barney knew, from experience, that the only way to defeat a nighty Spanish galleon was to cripple it before it got close to you.
Page 563.
“A mother is entitled to know all about a young man who becomes friendly with her daughter.”
Page 572.
She was swept by a sensation she had forgotten, the joy of loving someone else’s body. She kept telling herself she would stop in another second.
Page 573.
“There is a price to pay for the obscenely extravagant life led by French royalty.”
Page 585.
Every woman was wearing more jewels than Queen Elizabeth owned.
Page 585.
Pierre liked obsequiousness, but he always pretended not to notice it.
Page 590.
It was better to be feared than to be loved.
Page 591.
A formal inquiry was never a genuine attempt to learn the truth. … The commission was a delaying tactic, intended not to discover the facts but to lower the temperature - which was good.
Page 596.
Guards who owed loyalty to someone else were of highly doubtful value.
Page 597.
“We must do what’s possible, and save as many as we can.”
Page 601.
Once men started to kill it was hard to stop them.
Page 618.
When men started to kill they always raped as well. Lifting one prohibition seemed to lift them all.
Page 627.
At the edge of the river, the militia were getting rid of bodies. The dead, and some of the helpless wounded, were being thrown into the Seine with no more ceremony than would have been used for poisoned rats. Some floated off, but others hardly moved, and the shallow edge of the water was already clogged with corpses. A man with a long pole was trying to push the bodies out into midstream to make room for more, but they seemed sluggish, as if reluctant to leave.
Page 629.
It crossed his mind to rape Sylvie himself, but that might diminish his authority in the eyes of his men. Let them do the dirty work.
Page 629.
I had learned, from Quern Elizabeth, that some women could not be ruled by men.
Page 634.
Sylvie felt bothered. She knew Ned had not been a virgin when they married, but actually seeing him smiling fondly at an old flame was a bit hard to take.
Page 644.
Men were not as quick as women to spot resemblances.
Page 647.
There are no saints in politics. But imperfect people can still change the world for the better.
Page 654.
English people were illogical about foreigners, Ned found: they hated Turks, and they believed Jews were evil, but they regarded Africans as harmlessly exotic.
Page 655.
No amount of pleading would make Pierre reverse an act of meanness.
Page 677.
Ned had taught her never to let a spy know that there were other sources of information: that was a cardinal rule of the game.
Page 678.
No one would stop her if she went back to Scotland, or France. But she was a prisoner of hope.
Page 679.
To execute a queen was the next thing to sacrilege.
Page 696.
It was a dangerous business, recruiting men to join a conspiracy to kill the queen.
Page 724.
The business of espionage required a lot of patience.
Page 733.
They were not hardened conspirators but idealistic amateurs embarked on a grand adventure. The supreme confidence of youth and nobility made them careless of their lives.
Page 735.
Londoners were not generally well disposed toward men-at-arms, who were often bullies, especially when drunk; and some bystanders cheered the fugitives.
Page 738.
The very fact that so little was known about someone so important suggested, to Ned, that he was extraordinarily competent and therefore dangerous.
Page 743.
Few sailors lived to be old.
Page 759.
He was no fool: he knew the agony of wounds and he had seen the terrified panic of drowning men as a ship went down. But somehow none of that diminished the thrill he felt going into battle, getting ready to kill or be killed.
Page 762.
The Protestants did not understand people’s need for color and drama in church.
Page 773.
Margery at forty-five no longer believed that Protestantism was evil and Catholicism perfect. For her the important divide was between tyranny and tolerance; between people who tried to force their views on everyone else, and people who respected the faith of those who disagreed with them.
Page 773.
“I’m not as sure as I used to be about whose side God is on.”
Page 775.
The Netherlands people seemed home-centered, and they showed off wealth in a curiously domestic way.
Page 782.
“When priests get to run the government it’s bad for business.”
Page 783.
Sailors had ways of checking where they were.
Page 786.
He was not fearless - men without fear did not live long at sea - but he found that once the fighting started there was so much to do that he did not think about the danger until afterward.
Page 806.
“It’s very difficult to conquer an island. The invader is at a terrible disadvantage. He runs short of supplies, he is vulnerable as he tries to embark and disembark troops, and he loses his way on unfamiliar territory, or in unfamiliar seas. What we did, mainly, was to harry the enemy until the inherent difficulties overwhelmed him.”
Page 809.
James believed in the power of the written word, a useful philosophy for the king of a small, poor country such as Scotland.
Page 836.
The three great women of the sixteenth century were now dead: Elizabeth, Queen Caterina of France, and Margherita of Parma, governor of the Netherlands. They had all tried to stop men killing one another over religion.
Pages 841-842.
In the end Elizabeth had put to death almost as many Catholics as Queen Mary Tudor - “Bloody Mary” - had killed Protestants. Mary had killed them for their beliefs, whereas Elizabeth had killed them for treason, but the line was too often blurred. Elizabeth was a flawed human being, and her reign had been a patchwork. All the same Ned had admired her more than anyone else under heaven.
Page 843.
Rollo was impatient with men who worried about killing. A civil war would be a cleansing. “The Protestants deserve death,” he said. “And the Catholics will go straight to heaven.”
Page 857.
Ned went to Paris in a desperate attempt to find out what was happening in London.
Page 860.
The Church was Catholic, and Ned was \protestant, but he had long believed that God cared little about such distinctions.
Page 861.
The pleasure and fascination of watching children and grandchildren grow and alter was the great joy of being elderly.
Page 863.
A child will always be what he is, she thought, and not what you want him to be.
Page 864.
A lie always came back to you, sooner or later, and now that time had come.
Page 870.
His mind was like a house he had spent his life furnishing. Its tables and beds were the songs he could sing, the plays he had watched, the cathedrals he had seen, and the books he had read in English, French, and Latin. He shared this notional house with his family, alive and dead.
Page 906.
His memory formed the library of the house. He could pick out any volume and instantly be transported to another place and time.
Page 906.