er and
thither till the more I read and thought, the greater was the fog. And
this--I know not whether I told it to yonder good and holy doctor, or
whether he knew it, for his eyes seemed to see into me, and he told me
that he had felt and thought much the same. But on that one great
truth, that faith in the Passion is salvation, is the Church built,
though sinful men have hidden it by their errors and lies as befell
before among the Israelites, whose law, like ours, was divine. Whatever
is entrusted to man, he said, will become stained, soiled, and twisted,
though the power of the Holy Spirit will strive to renew it. And such
an outpouring of cleansing and renewing power is, he saith, abroad in
our day. When he was a young man, this good father, so he said, hoped
great things, and did his best to set forth the truth, both at Oxford
and here, as indeed he hath ever done, he and the good Doctor Erasmus,
striving to turn men's eyes back to the simplicity of God's Word rather
than to the arguments and deductions of the schoolmen. And for the
abuses of evil priests that have sprung up, my Lord Cardinal sought the
Legatine Commission from our holy father at Rome to deal with them. But
Dr Colet saith that there are other forces at work, and he doubteth
greatly whether this same cleansing can be done without some great and
terrible rending and upheaving, that may even split the Church as it
were asunder--since judgment surely awaiteth such as will not be
reformed. But, quoth he, `our Mother-Church is God's own Church and I
will abide by her to the end, as the means of oneness with my Lord and
Head, and do thou the same, my son, for thou art like to be more sorely
tried than will a frail old elder like me, who would fain say his _Nunc
Dimittis_, if such be the Lord's will, ere the foundations be cast
down.'"

Ambrose had gone on rehearsing all these words with the absorption of
one to whom they were everything, till it occurred to him to wonder that
Stephen had listened to so much with patience and assent, and then,
looking at the position of head and hands, he perceived that his brother
was asleep, and came to a sudden halt. This roused Stephen to say, "Eh?
What? The Dean, will he do aught for thee?"

"Yea," said Ambrose, recollecting that there was little use in returning
to the perplexities which Stephen could not enter into. "He deemed that
in this mood of mine, yea, and as matters now be at the universities, I