There is the slow international fissioning of the Anglican communion, where conservative Africans and Asians have been trying for years to throw out the more liberal churches of North America, with the Church of England caught uneasily between factions. It's difficult to see any compromise there except the peace of exhaustion.

We've come a long way since then. The progeny of that nail have been bent and twisted into what we all know and love as roll overs, kickbacks, and thumper-bumpers.

Certainly, though I dare not antedate the ſorrowes of our Syon, or raiſe a feare or iealouſie without a ground; yet when I doe but ſeriouſly and cordially ſuruay, that intollerable pride; that aboundance of idleneſſe; that fulneſſe of bread; that luſting after ſtrange fleſh (the ſinnes that drew downe fire and brimſtone vpon Sodome long agoe;) thoſe monſtrous habites, faſhions and attires: that exceſſiue vanity, Atheiſme and prophaneneſſe: that execrable and frequent banning, ſwearing, curſing and blaſpheming: that greedie couetouſneſſe, extortion and oppreſſion; that fearefull murther and bloudſhed; that ſcurrility, effæminacie, wantonneſſe, fornication, whoredome, adulterie and vncleaneneſſe: that generall neglect, contempt and hatred of God, of grace, of goodneſſe, and the Goſpell: that ſtupified and ſenceleſſe ſecurity, and hardneſſe of heart, in the middeſt of feares and dangers: that degenerating and growing worſe and worſe, not withſtanding all Gods iudgements, which ſtill encreaſe vpon vs, becauſe our ſinnes encreaſe: that diſſoluteneſſe, that drunkenneſſe, deboiſtneſſe, and exceſſe of Healthes; together with thoſe other troopes of ſundry ſinnes, which walke ſo bold and thick among vs, in deſpite of all thoſe meanes which GOD hath vſed to reclaime vs from them: I cannot but conclude as others doe: that theſe abominations and ſinnes of ours (eſpecially in theſe times of feare and danger, which cry and call for true repentance) prognoſticate no victory, no good, no bleſſing, nor ſucceſſe: but vndoubted ruine and deſtruction to vs, vnleſſe we ſpeedily repent vs of them.

...silent house with its bare rooms and bone-white walls on which the southern windows cast slanted plaques of light that slide, daylong, towards the...