mplicit obedience would at
all times be exacted from him by the Church. He had been shown quite
unmistakably that an inquisitive and determined spirit would not be
tolerated if it led to deductions at variance with accepted tradition.
He might starve mentally, if his prescribed food did not satisfy his
hunger; but he must understand, once for all, that truth had long
since been revealed, and that it was not within his province to
attempt any further additions to the revelation.

Once more, for the sake of his mother, and that he might learn all
that the Church had to teach him, the boy conscientiously tried to
obey. He was reminded again that, though taught to obey, he was being
trained to lead. This in a sense pleased him, as offering surcease
from an erking sense of responsibility. Nevertheless, though he
constantly wavered in decision; though at times the Church won him,
and he yielded temporarily to her abundant charms; the spirit of
protest did wax steadily stronger within him as the years passed. Back
and forth he swung, like a pendulum, now drawn by the power and
influence of the mighty Church; now, as he approached it, repelled by
the things which were revealed as he drew near. In the last two years
of his course his soul-revolt often took the form of open protest to
his preceptors against indulgences and the sacramental graces, against
the arbitrary Index Expurgatorius, and the Church's stubborn
opposition to modern progression. Like Faust, his studies were
convincing him more and more firmly of the emptiness of human
hypotheses and undemonstrable philosophy. The growing conviction that
the Holy Church was more worldly than spiritual filled his shrinking
soul at times with horror. The limiting thought of Rome was often
stifling to him. He had begun to realize that liberty of thought and
conscience were his only as he received it already outlined from the
Church. Even his interpretation of the Bible must come from her. His
very ideas must first receive the ecclesiastical stamp before he might
advance them. His opinions must measure up--or down--to those of his
tutors, ere he might even hold them. In terror he felt that the Church
was absorbing him, heart and mind. His individuality was seeping away.
In time he would become but a link in the great worldly system which
he was being trained to serve.

These convictions did not come to him all at once, nor were they as
yet firmly fixed. They were rather suggestion