I concede this second claim as a necessary corollary of the first.

Having lived most of my life among Roman Catholics--two branches of my own family belonging to that religion--I am aware that this control is an essential part of the whole fabric of Roman Catholicism.

Whether the basis of authority upon which that system is founded be in its origin divine or human is beside the point.

If we profess to tolerate the faith and religious system of the majority of our countrymen we must at least concede the conditions essential to the maintenance of both the one and the other, unless our tolerance is to be a sham.
So far all liberal-minded Protestants, who know what Roman Catholicism is, will be with me; and for the main purposes of the argument contained in this chapter it is not necessary to interpret toleration in any wider sense than that which I have indicated.

Many Protestants, among whom I am one, do, it is true, make a further concession to the claim of our Roman Catholic fellow-countrymen.