n
could be theirs, at the undue veneration of which they were the
objects.

On the other hand, Hurrell Froude in his familiar conversations was
always tending to rub the idea out of my mind. In a passage of one of
his letters from abroad, alluding, I suppose, to what I used to say
in opposition to him, he observes: "I think people are injudicious
who talk against the Roman Catholics for worshipping Saints, and
honouring the Virgin and images, etc. These things may perhaps be
idolatrous; I cannot make up my mind about it; but to my mind it
is the Carnival that is real practical idolatry, as it is written,
'the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.'" The
carnival, I observe in passing, is, in fact, one of those very
excesses, to which, for at least three centuries, religious Catholics
have ever opposed themselves, as we see in the life of St. Philip, to
say nothing of the present day; but this he did not know. Moreover,
from Froude I learned to admire the great medieval Pontiffs; and, of
course, when I had come to consider the Council of Trent to be the
turning-point of the history of Christian Rome, I found myself as
free, as I was rejoiced, to speak in their praise. Then, when I was
abroad, the sight of so many great places, venerable shrines, and
noble churches, much impressed my imagination. And my heart was
touched also. Making an expedition on foot across some wild country
in Sicily, at six in the morning I came upon a small church; I heard
voices, and I looked in. It was crowded, and the congregation was
singing. Of course it was the Mass, though I did not know it at the
time. And, in my weary days at Palermo, I was not ungrateful for the
comfort which I had received in frequenting the Churches, nor did I
ever forget it. Then, again, her zealous maintenance of the doctrine
and the rule of celibacy, which I recognised as apostolic, and her
faithful agreement with Antiquity in so many points besides, which
were dear to me, was an argument as well as a plea in favour of the
great Church of Rome. Thus I learned to have tender feelings towards
her; but still my reason was not affected at all. My judgment was
against her, when viewed as an institution, as truly as it ever had
been.

This conflict between reason and affection I expressed in one of the
early Tracts, published July, 1834. "Considering the high gifts and
the strong claims of the Church of Rome and its dependencies on our
admiration, reve