Darnley, though a Catholic, thought it well to go to Knox's preaching; but was so unfortunate as to hear a very long sermon, with allusions not only to "babes and women" as rulers, but to Ahab who did not control his strong-minded wife.
But I was so shrewdly taxed with posing as a strong-minded woman and a philosopher that one fine day I said to myself, ` What, I wonder, is philosophy?'
Hildebrand, now pope as Gregory VII., next summoned him to Rome, and, in a synod held there in 1078, tried once more to obtain a declaration of his orthodoxy by means of a confession of faith drawn up in general terms; but even this strong-minded and strong-willed pontiff was at length forced to yield to the demands of the multitude and its leaders; and in another synod at Rome (1079), finding that he was only endangering his own position and reputation, he turned unexpectedly upon Berengar and commanded him to confess that he had erred in not teaching a change as to substantial reality of the sacramental bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.
No personal wrongs, but the deliberate determination of a strong-minded, capable woman to snatch the reins of government from the hands of a semi-imbecile, was the cause of Peter's overthrow, and his stupendous blunders supplied Catherine with her opportunity.
Stella's mother was living at Moor Park, as servant or dame de compagnie of Temple's strong-minded sister, Lady Giffard.
