CHAPTER X.

ANGLING IN ROMAN WATERS.

ARTHUR on his return from this Episcopal lecture wrote to his sister saying he was leaving his present curacy and would she have him at her house for a visit. Lumley wrote back saying his wife was in Scotland and he was doing the "grass-widower," but would be delighted to put him up if he would come, and that Anna would be back in about a fortnight.

Arthur accepted the invitation, and so once again found himself in London.

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What has become of Lamort ?" he asked, the evening after his arrival.

"Oh, haven't you heard? he is become a Priest, at least, is on the high road; but we Papists don't turn a layman into a Priest in three months like certain friends of mine in the Anglican Church. He will not be ordained for three years yet. Curiously enough I expect him here to-morrow, for his father is dying, and although he has not yet asked to see the boy, George thinks it best to be near in case he gets into a softer frame of mind before saying adieu to this world."

George Lamort arrived in due course, attired as if already priested, namely, in Roman collar, clean shaven, and with long ecclesiastically cut

Arthur found out on inquiry that he had already received minor orders, and that it is the custom for young clerics to assume an ecclesiastical dress so soon as they become ecclesiastics, which they are before becoming priests. We need hardly say that Lamort and Macdonald very soon began to discuss those religious questions, which were of deep interest to both of them. Lamort was being taught in a seminary wherein the notions were very Ultramontane, and indeed, the reaction which converts undergo necessarily makes them extreme at first. And this is not confined to religious changes of belief; any change of belief in politics or social questions always inclines a man to be what many would call bigoted, and what in any case must be allowed to be enthusiastic.

Lamort listened to Macdonald's "tale of woe," and then remarked that he saw nothing to be surprised at in the least, for that the very existence of the Anglican Church was simply as a protest against Rome, and therefore on the question of Rome all Anglicans were united, but that on all other questions there was no unity because there was no head of the Anglican Church, and the mere letter of the law, namely, the Bible, required an interpreter as much as the written law of the land required a judge.

Arthur at once remarked that the Roman Catholic Church had added to the belief of the Ancient Church, and thereby proved that she was not Infallible.

"What!" rejoined Lamort," am I a different person to what I was twenty years ago, because now I am a man, while before I was a boy?"

"You mean," replied Arthur, "that the Church grows as the world grows older, that fixity of belief is not therefore to be sought, but that the Church alters her belief to suit the age."

"Not quite. The Church does not alter her belief, but she enlarges and increases it.”

"Well, it may be so; but the theory seems one thing, the practice another."

"How?" replied Lamort.

"Look at the 'Magna Charta' condemned by the Pope; then 'The Armada,' 'The Huguenots,' and many other historical doings which the Popes had their fingers in, which do not bear daylight.”

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Nonsense, my dear Arthur, I approve of all you have mentioned. The Magna Charta was not condemned because of its contents but because of the way it was brought forward. When it was confirmed in a later reign it did not meet with Papal disapproval. As regards the Armada, I wish it had succeeded, for then England would still be Catholic, whereas now, alas, look at the millions of Englishmen who every year go to hell because they are outside the Church.

So with the Huguenots. They were traitors to their country as well as to their God, and the Popes were quite right to get rid of them." So ran on the convert Lamort, and every word he said made Arthur more and more hate the idea of the Catholic Church being true.

My reader will say this is overdrawn. Not at all. I know men in England now who have said things as absurd, or as wicked, and who have met with no reproof. One gentleman on hearing of the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war rubbed his hands and gleefully exclaimed, "Now for the restoration of the Temporal Power." I asked, why? and was told that he looked forward to a Revolution all over Europe, and then in the confusion and bloodshed the Pope might seize his land again.

Arthur ventured one more remark, which was to the effect that he supposed the Pope was not to be followed in political matters as well as in religious. "Oh, yes," replied Lamort; "even such a moderate as Dr. Newman says so. In his Sermons preached on various Occasions (3rd edition, p. 268), he says, 'Even in secular matters it is ever safe to be on his side, dangerous to be on the side of his enemies.' That is, Dr. Newman could not have opposed the Armada, or the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, had he lived in those times, without feeling it was 'dangerous.""

"I can never," said Arthur, "join such a Church; it is too dreadful!”

"Why, I think it is glorious," replied the cleric; "the Pope represents Christ, and so we must follow him always, and everywhere. A divided allegiance to him is but a half-faith, and no better than Protestantism."

Arthur lay awake in bed that night and thought to himself, "What am I to do? I cannot follow Lamort; and yet the Church of England drives me out."

The next evening Birkbeck joined them at dinner, and the conversation again, after dessert, got on religious questions. Lamort broached his views, on which Birkbeck burst out laughing, as he exclaimed, "Good, good; do you know, George, you are a heretic, and ought to be burnt."

"No," said Lamort; "what have I said?"

"You said, non-Catholics would not be saved." "No more they will," said George.

"Heresy," replied Birkbeck.

"Prove it," replied George.

Oh, easily. The Catholic Church teaches that Conscience is supreme. If a man acts up to his light and sincerely believes that what he holds is true-the Church does not condemn him. The Church only condemns those who, knowing the Catholic Church is the true Church, deny her and ignore her."

Father Clary now entered the room, and smiled as he heard the tail-end of the controversy.