The young mail being hid, after some
knavery, behind the arras, in come our quidam and that prelate. The
quidam, surly and Saxon--the guest, smooth and Italian; his words
softer than butter, yet very swords: that this quidam had 'exceeded
the bounds of his commission--launched out into wanton and lawless
cruelty--burnt noble ladies unheard, of whose innocence the Holy See
had proof--defiled the Catholic faith in the eyes of the weaker
sort--and alienated the minds of many nobles and gentlemen'--and
finally, that he who thinketh he standeth, were wise to take heed
lest he fall.
1st Monk. And what said Conrad?
2d Monk. Out upon a man that cannot keep his lips! Who spake of
Conrad? That quidam, however, answered nought, but--how 'to his own
master he stood or fell'--how 'he laboured not for the Pope but for
the Papacy'; and so forth.
1st Monk. Here is awful doctrine! Behold the fruit of your
reformers! This comes of their realised ideas, and centralisations,
and organisations, till a monk cannot wink in chapel without being
blinded with the lantern, or fall sick on Fridays, for fear of the
rod.
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