He attended mass regularly--in the winter mornings by torch-light--and would as soon have foregone his daily tennis as his religious exercises.

Romanism was the creed of his caste.
It was the religion of princes and gentlemen of high degree.

As for Lutheranism, Zwinglism, Calvinism, and similar systems, they were but the fantastic rites of weavers, brewers, and the like--an ignoble herd whose presumption in entitling themselves Christian, while rejecting the Pope; called for their instant extermination.

His personal habits were extremely temperate.

He was accustomed to say that he ate only to support life; and he rarely finished a dinner without having risen three or four times from table to attend to some public business which, in his opinion, ought not to be deferred.
His previous connections in the Netherlands were of use to him, and he knew how to turn them to immediate account.