921.73 W589w.pdf - Mesa FamilySearch Library

52 Memoir of
to all violent measures against his sovereign,
and doubtless gave the Lord Protector many
a hard hit with his stern and irrefragable law
and logic. Discussion was not wanting in this
branch of the St. John family, whereby to edu-
cate a l_igh-spirited woman. The mother of
Elizabeth was the daughter of a learned and
eminent doctor of divinity, of Bedfordshire,
whose sympathies were in favor of moderate re-
form. Her uncle was a no less thorough radical
than Cromwell himself. On the mind of a lady
whose house could claim the same ancestry as
that of the Tudors; and embraced in its genea-
logical tree, not only ten of the sovereigns of
Europe, but many of the most renowned no-
bility of ancient England, it would have been
excusable if the influence of family pride and
of historic associations had been strong in favor
of the royal cause. But in the heart of a wo.
man who had the power of comprehending the
principles of religious truth and political sci-
ence; of a high-born lady, who had the good
sense to recognize the trifling value of worldly
distinclions when compared with the higher