His temper was academic, his life solitary; rhetoric left him unmoved, and violence of statement caused him to shiver.

To make the State religious was his dearest wish.

But he did not forget that to accomplish it you must keep the Church reasonable.

A deep, though generally silent enthusiasm for the Anglican _Via Media_ possessed him; and, like the Newman of Oriel, he was inclined to look upon the appearance of Antichrist as coincident with the Council of Trent.

In England it seemed to him that persecution of the Church was gratuitous and inexcusable; for the Church had never wronged the State.