e trickery of the pardons, pilgrimages,
indulgences,--double-faced as these inventions are--wearing one meaning in
the apologies of theologians, and quite another to the multitude who live
and suffer under their influence--one plain fact at least is visible. The
people substantially learnt that all evils which could touch either their
spirits or their bodies, might be escaped by means which resolved
themselves, scarcely disguised, into the payment of moneys.

The superstition had lingered long; the time had come when it was to pass
away. Those in whom some craving lingered for a Christian life turned to
the heart of the matter, to the book which told them who Christ was, and
what he was; and finding there that holy example for which they longed,
they flung aside in one noble burst of enthusiastic passion, the disguise
which had concealed it from them. They believed in Christ, not in the
bowing rood, or the pretended wood of the cross on which he suffered; and
when that saintly figure had once been seen--the object of all love, the
pattern of all imitation--thenceforward neither form nor ceremony should
stand between them and their God.

Under much confusion of words and thoughts, confusion pardonable in all
men, and most of all in them, this seems to me to be transparently visible
in the aim of these "Christian Brothers;" a thirst for some fresh and noble
enunciation of the everlasting truth, the one essential thing for all men
to know and believe. And therefore they were strong; and therefore they at
last conquered. Yet if we think of it, no common daring was required in
those who would stand out at such a time in defence of such a cause. The
bishops might seize them on mere suspicion; and the evidence of the most
abandoned villains sufficed for their conviction.[490] By the act of Henry
V., every officer, from the lord chancellor to the parish constable, was
sworn to seek them out and destroy them; and both bishops and officials had
shown no reluctance to execute their duty. Hunted like wild beasts from
hiding-place to hiding-place, decimated by the stake, with the certainty
that however many years they might be reprieved, their own lives would
close at last in the same fiery trial; beset by informers, imprisoned,
racked, and scourged; worst of all, haunted by their own infirmities, the
flesh shrinking before the dread of a death of agony--thus it was that they
struggled on; earning for _themselves_ martyrdom--for _us_