cardinal’s triumphs, parades, public Masses and extempore Latin orations. It seems that, once disembarked, he has stood on every high altar in Picardy and granted the worshippers remission of their sins. That’s a few thousand Frenchman free to start all over again." - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
Part 2, Section 2 (p. 98)
“

News comes from France of the cardinal’s triumphs, parades, public Masses and extempore Latin orations. It seems that, once disembarked, he has stood on every high altar in Picardy and granted the worshippers remission of their sins. That’s a few thousand Frenchman free to start all over again.

— Hilary Mantel

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "News comes from France of the cardinal’s triumphs, parades, public Masses and extempore Latin orations. It seems that, once disembarked, he has stood on every high altar in Picardy and granted the worshippers remission of their sins. That’s a few thousand Frenchman free to start all over again." in the context of "Part 2, Section 2 (p. 98)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Hilary Mantel" (Quotes, Wolf Hall (2009): All page numbers from the American trade paperback edition published by Picador in 2010, , 20th printing Won the 2009 Booker Prize and the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction Italics and ellipses as in the book. Bold face added for emphasis. ) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 19, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

Tags

#Hilary Mantel#disembarked#worshippers#cardinals#extempore#remission#frenchman#triumphs#orations#thousand#parades#picardy
Hilary Mantel

About Hilary Mantel

Dame Hilary Mary Mantel DBE FRSL (/mænˈtɛl/ man-TEL; born Thompson; 6 July 1952 – 22 September 2022) was a British writer whose work includes historical fiction, personal memoirs and short stories.