The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (88 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs

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choose

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of two EVILS choose the less
.

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chooser

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BEGGARS can't be choosers
.

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chosen

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MANY are called but few are chosen
.

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Christmas

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the DEVIL makes his Christmas pies of lawyers' tongues and clerks' fingers
;
a GREEN Yule makes a fat churchyard
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The CHURCH is an anvil which has worn out many hammers

The saying originated in the reply of the Calvinist theologian Theodore Beza (1519–1605) to the King of Navarre after the massacre of the Huguenots at Vassy in March 1562. The king had attempted to excuse the massacre on the grounds of the Protestants' having provoked the Duke of Guise and his followers by throwing stones at them.

1853
Hist. Protestants of France
I. II. v. 156 (tr. Beza to King of Navarre, 1562)
It is the peculiarity of the Church of God .. to endure blows, not to give them; but yet you will be pleased to remember, that it is an anvil on which many a hammer has been broken.
1908
Acts of Apostles
I. 136
The Church is an anvil which has worn out many hammers and the story of the first collision is, in essentials, the story of all.
1920
Path of King
vii.
‘From this day I am an exile from France so long as it pleases God to make His Church an anvil for the blows of His enemies.’..‘God's church is now an anvil, but remember .. it is an anvil which has worn out many hammers.’