st
those standing about him for the wicked and pestilent disturbers of
the public peace and the safety of the Church. One or two persons
he called upon by name, and rebuked with some severity for words
reported to have been dropped by them which savoured, if not of
heresy itself, yet of carelessness and irreverence for sacred
things which bordered dangerously on heresy. One after another
these persons came forward trembling, asked pardon, and were
dismissed not unkindly, but with many an admonition for the future.
It was made plain and patent to all that the bishops had absolutely
resolved to stamp out heresy once and for all; and for once the
prior and abbots, the monks and the friars, were in accord and
working hand in hand. It was useless for any to hope to stem such a
tide as that--such was the tenor of the prior's speech--heresy was
to be exterminated. On that point there was no manner of doubt; and
if, knowing this, persons chose deliberately to put themselves
under the ban of the law, well, their blood must be upon their own
head. Neither God nor man would have mercy upon them.

Several of the retainers and a few of the actual household of Chad
had received admonitions of this sort. Sir Oliver looked on
uneasily, catching a subdued look of triumph in the eyes of his
rival and foe. He did not believe his household seriously tainted
with heresy. He knew that certain of them who had been with him in
London had imbibed the teaching of Dean Colet and his pupils, and
he did not know, any more than the dean himself, that the Lollards
secretly encouraged each other to go and hear a man who spoke so
much of the truth they themselves held.

The line where orthodoxy ends and heresy begins has been at all
times hard to define, and perhaps the upholders of the "Church"
knew as little as anybody how hard this definition was becoming.

Several persons had stood forth (invited by the prior to do so) and
confessed to dangerous sentiments which they now saw to be utterly
wrong, and vowed to abjure forever; or had accused other persons of
words which required explanation, or of deeds which suggested a
leaning towards secret meetings where heresy might be discussed.

But the day's proceedings seemed drawing to a close, and nothing of
any great peril to the Lord of Chad had occurred, when just at the
close of the afternoon Brother Fabian suddenly came forward and
whispered a few words in the prior's ear; and he, after a moment o