cism of 1863, and the revelation of
the unknown which began on a very large scale in 1864.

During four years of transition occupied by this new stage of study, he
abstained from writing books. Whenever some local occasion called upon
him to speak, he spoke of the independence and authority of history. In
cases of collision with the Church, he said that a man should seek the
error in himself; but he spoke of the doctrine of the universal Church,
and it did not appear that he thought of any living voice or present
instructor. He claimed no immunity for philosophy; but history, he
affirmed, left to itself and pursued disinterestedly, will heal the ills
it causes; and it was said of him that he set the university in the
place of the hierarchy. Some of his countrymen were deeply moved by the
measures which were being taken to restore and to confirm the authority
of Rome; and he had impatient colleagues at the university who pressed
him with sharp issues of uncompromising logic. He himself was reluctant
to bring down serene research into troublesome disputation, and wished
to keep history and controversy apart. His hand was forced at last by
his friends abroad. Whilst he pursued his isolating investigations he
remained aloof from a question which in other countries and other days
was a summary and effective test of impassioned controversy. Persecution
was a problem that had never troubled him. It was not a topic with
theoretical Germans; the necessary books were hardly available, and a
man might read all the popular histories and theologies without getting
much further than the Spanish Inquisition. Ranke, averse from what is
unpleasant, gave no details. The gravity of the question had never been
brought home to Doellinger in forty years of public teaching. When he
approached it, as late as 1861, he touched lightly, representing the
intolerance of Protestants to their disadvantage, while that of
Catholics was a bequest of Imperial Rome, taken up in an emergency by
secular powers, in no way involving the true spirit and practice of the
Church. With this light footfall the topic which has so powerful a
leverage slipped into the current of his thought. The view found favour
with Ambrose de Lisle, who, having read the _Letters to a Prebendary_,
was indignant with those who commit the Church to a principle often
resisted or ignored. Newman would admit to no such compromise:

Is not the miraculous infliction of judgments upon bl