the commissary
began to question whether he were, after all, so black a heretic as
had been painted, and promised that he should have food sent him,
together with pens and paper, on which he was desired to set forth
a confession of his faith. He was not, however, released from the
stocks until the college was safely shut up for the night, and all
gates closed.

Dalaber wrote his confession of faith with great care and skill;
and he trusted that he had not committed himself to any doctrine
which would arouse the ire of those who would read it. Those very
early reformers (to use the modern term) were in a very difficult
position, in that they had very slight cause of quarrel with the
church of which they called themselves true sons. Modern
Protestants find it hard to believe what men like Wycliffe and
Latimer taught on many cardinal points. To them it would sound like
"rank papacy" now. The split between the two camps in the church
has gradually widened and widened, till there seems no bridging the
gap between Christian and Christian, between churchman and
churchman--all being members of one Catholic Church.

But it was not so in the days of Anthony Dalaber. The thought of
split and schism was pain and grief to most. Luther had foreseen
it, was working for it, and the leaven of his teaching was
permeating this and other lands; but it had taken no great hold as
yet. The church was revered and venerated of her children, and here
in England the abuses rampant in so many lands were far less
flagrant.

England had been kept from much evil by her inherent distrust of
papal supremacy. The nation had more or less combated it in all
centuries. Rome's headship only received a qualified assent.
Sovereigns and people had alike resented the too great exercise of
the papal prerogative; and this had done much for the church in
England. It seemed as though a very little would be enough to serve
the purpose of these early reformers, and in the main they held the
doctrines taught, and were willing and ready to obey most of the
church's injunctions.

A man like Anthony Dalaber, versatile and eager, easily roused to
enthusiasm and passionate revolt, but as easily soothed by
gentleness and kindly argument of a truly Catholic kind, was not a
little perplexed in such a situation as he now found himself. It
seemed to him that he would be in a far more false position as a
branded heretic, debarred from the communion of the church, than as