e authority of the
Church. How can I deliver up a faithful and devoted son of the
Church to certain death, when my house is his only refuge and
protection? Yet how may I refuse obedience to my spiritual fathers
and superiors, to whom I owe submission in all things, in right of
their office, albeit as men I know them to be--faulty?".

He paused, as if reluctant to put his thoughts into words even to
his wife. He was going through that mental and spiritual struggle
which was speedily to do so great a work in the world--that
struggle which led to the final fall of the religious houses in
this land. Viewed as a God-appointed ordinance, or at least as a
bulwark and rampart of the Church, it seemed a fearful thing to
hold them in aught but awe and reverence, and to look upon their
sons as saints and godly men, in whom the Spirit of the Lord was
working. But when the corrupt practices within those walls were
known, when men were convinced, sorely against their will, that the
inmates were licentious, depraved, covetous, and tyrannical, then
indeed it became hard to recognize their God-appointed mission.

Sir Oliver was no heretic; he had not even the faint sympathy with
and comprehension of the tenets of the heretics which were creeping
into some enlightened minds. He had imbibed some new and
enlightened views from stanch sons of the Church, who were
themselves preaching the doctrine of internal reform, but he went
no further in these matters than his teachers. The very name of
heresy was odious to him, but none the less did it go sorely
against the grain to be a slave to the haughty Prior of Chadwater,
and at his bidding to violate (as it seemed to him) the sacred laws
of hospitality.

Whilst Julian was gone upon his errand, he paced the floor
restlessly and moodily.

"I would we had got him off before this coil began. But who could
have thought it would come--and Brother Emmanuel so true and
faithful a son of the Church? Knowest thou, wife, that he keeps
vigil three nights in the week in the chantry, watching
sleeplessly, lest the Lord coming suddenly should find the whole
house sleeping? Edred keeps watch one night, and good old Margaret
another. I did but lately know this thing. Brother Emmanuel holds
that the Church should ever be watching and waiting for her Lord,
lest He come as a thief in the night. He would have prayers
ceaselessly ascending before Him. It is his grief and pain that
within the cloister walls, wh