arret and the monk Ferrar have
been the ringleaders in all this trouble, and that, unless they
formally recant and join in this act of open submission, they shall
be dealt with as obstinate heretics, and handed over to the secular
arm, to perish by fire."

Arthur's face grew suddenly pale to the lips.

"They would burn a saint like Clarke! God forgive them even for
such a thought! Truly men may say--"

Dr. Higdon raised his hand to stop Arthur's words, but his face was
full of distress and sympathy.

"We will trust and hope that such a fearful consummation will not
be necessary. The others have submitted; and Clarke is but a shadow
of himself, owing to the unwholesome nature of the place in which
he is confined. I do not despair yet of bringing him to reason and
submission. He is not like Dalaber. There is no stubbornness about
him. He will speak with sweet courtesy, and enter into every
argument with all the reasonableness of a great mind. But he says
that to walk in that procession, to take part in that act of
so-called recantation and reconciliation, would be in itself as a
confession that those things which he had held and taught were
heretical. And no argument will wring that admission from him. He
declares--and truly his arguments are sound and cogent--that he has
never spoken or taught any single doctrine which was not taught by
our Lord and His apostles and is not held by the Catholic Church.
And in vain do I quote to him the mandates of various Popes and
prelates. His answer ever is that, though he gives all reverence to
God's ministers and ordained servants in the church, it must ever
be to the Head that he looks for final judgment on all difficult
points, and he cannot regard any bishop in the church--not even the
Bishop of Rome--as being of greater authority than the Lord.

"It is here that his case is so hopeless. To subvert the authority
of the Pope is to shake the church to her foundations. But nothing
I say can make Clarke understand this. It is the one point upon
which he is obstinately heretical."

"But you still have hopes of inducing him to submit?"

"I shall not cease my efforts, or cease to hope," answered Dr.
Higdon earnestly, "for in truth I know not what will be the end if
he remain obstinate or, rather, I fear too much what that end will
be. If it lay with the cardinal, there would be hope; but the
bishop is obdurate. He is resolved to proceed to the uttermost
lengths. Pray Heaven Cla