t
that the Church should be visible? It seemed that even the ministers
allowed that, now. And if so, why then the Catholic's claim that Christ's
intention had never been wholly frustrated, but that a visible unity was
to be found amongst themselves--surely this was easier to believe than
the Protestant theory that the Church which had been visible for fifteen
centuries was not really the Church at all; but that the true Church had
been invisible--in spite of Christ's intention--during all that period,
and was now to be found only in small separated bodies scattered here and
there. How of the prevailing of the gates of hell, if that were allowed
to be true?

* * * *

At two o'clock they reassembled for the afternoon conference; and now
they got even closer to the heart of the matter, for the subject was to
be, whether the Church could err?

Fulke asserted that it could, and did; and made a syllogism:

"Whatsoever error is incident to every member, is incident to the whole.
But it is incident to every member to err; _ergo_, to the whole."

"I deny both _major_ and _minor_," said Campion quietly. "Every man may
err, but not the whole gathered together; for the whole hath a promise,
but so hath not every particular man."

Fulke denied this stoutly, and beat on the table.

"Every member hath the spirit of Christ," he said, "which is the spirit
of truth; and therefore hath the same promise that the whole hath."

"Why, then," said Campion, smiling, "there should be no heretics."

"Yes," answered Fulke, "heretics may be within the Church, but not of the
Church."

And so they found themselves back again where they started from.

Anthony sat back on the oak bench and sighed, and glanced round at the
interested faces of the theologians and the yawns of the amateurs, as the
debate rolled on over the old ground, and touched on free will, and
grace, and infant baptism; until the Lieutenant interposed:

"Master Doctors," he said, with a judicial air, "the question that was
appointed before dinner was, whether the visible Church may err"--to
which Goode retorted that the digressions were all Campion's fault.

Then the debate took the form of contradictions.

"Whatsoever congregation doth err in matters of faith," said Goode, "is
not the true Church; but the Church of Rome erreth in matters of faith;
_ergo_, it is not the true Church."

"I deny your _minor_," said Campion, "