"Nancy Kress - And Wild for to Hold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

she seems powerless in local time. Mistress Boleyn was the second wife of
Henry the Eighth of England. In order to marry her, he divorced his first
wife, Katherine of Aragon, and in order to do that, he took all of England
out of the Catholic Church. Protestantism was—"
 "And what again was that?" Her Holiness said, and even Culhane
glanced sideways at Lambert, appalled. The high priest was playing. With
a research director. Lambert hid her smile. Did Culhane know that high
seriousness opened one to the charge of pomposity? Probably not.

"Protestantism was another branch of Christianity,'" the director said
patiently. So far, by refusing to be provoked, he was winning. "It was
warlike, as was Catholicism. In 1642 various branches of Protestantism
were contending for political power within England, as was a Catholic
faction. King Charles was Catholic, in fact. Contention led to civil war.
Thousands of people died fighting, starved to death, were hung as traitors,
were tortured as betrayers…"

Lambert saw Her Holiness wince. She must hear this all the time,
Lambert thought. What else was her office for? Yet the wince looked
genuine.

Brill pressed his point. "Children were reduced to eating rats to survive.
In Cornwall, rebels' hands and feet were cut off, gibbets were erected in
market squares and men hung on them alive, and—"

"Enough," the high priest said. "This is why the Church exists. To
promote the holy hostages that prevent war."

"And that is what we wish to do," Brill said swiftly, "in other time
streams, now that our own has been brought to peace. In Stream Delta,
which has only reached the sixteenth century—Your Holiness knows that
each stream progresses at a different relative rate—"

The high priest made a gesture of impatience.

"—the woman Anne Boleyn is the fulcrum. If she can be taken hostage
after the birth of her daughter Elizabeth, who will act throughout a very
long reign to preserve peace, and before Henry declares the Act of
Supremacy that opens the door to religious divisiveness in England, we
can prevent great loss of life. The Rahvoli equations show a 79.8%
probability that history will be changed in the direction of greater peace,
right up through the following two centuries. Religious wars often—"

"There are other, bloodier religious wars to prevent than the English
civil war."
 "True, Your Holiness," the director said humbly. At least it looked like
humility to Lambert. "But ours is a young science. Identifying other time
streams, focusing on one, identifying historical fulcra—it is such a new
science. We do what we can, in the name of peace."