Perhaps Sibbes remembered the prophecy of the Bohemian ‘Morning Star of the Reformation’ Jan Hus (the surname means ‘goose’), who, at the stake, warned his executioners, ‘You are now going to burn a goose, but in a century you will have a swan which you can neither roast nor boil’. 102 years later, Martin Luther, whose family seal was a swan, nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Luther’s Reformation in Germany was the firstfruits of the rest of Europe. Perhaps Sibbes remembered the words of the English bishop, Hugh Latimer, spoken to his friend Nicholas Ridley in 1555. The two men were tied to the stake in Oxford’s Broad Street, and as the lighted fagot was laid at Ridley’s feet, Latimer encouraged him: ‘Be of good cheer, Ridley; and play the man. We shall this day, by God’s grace, light up such a candle in England, as I trust, will never be put out.’