They are eager to purge themselves of the taint of heresy, and to clear themselves in his eyes." "I misdoubt me they will ever succeed there," muttered Dalaber, with a slight smile.

"Thought will not be chained." "No; but men can think in silence and act with prudence," spoke Arthur, with a touch of sharpness in his tone.

"I would that you thinkers, who stand in peril of being excommunicated as heretics, had a little more of the wisdom of the serpent which the Scriptures enjoin upon the devout." "Excommunicated!" exclaimed Dalaber, and said no more.
To a devout young student, who had all his life through regularly attended the office of the Mass, and had communicated frequently, and prepared himself with confession and fasting and prayer, the idea of excommunication was terrible.

That the Mass was overlaid and corrupted in some of its rites and ceremonies Dalaber and others were beginning openly to admit; but that it was based upon the one sacrifice of the atonement, and was showing forth the Lord's death according to His own command, none doubted for a moment; and to be debarred from sharing in that act of worship was not a thought easily to be contemplated.
Arthur saw his advantage and pressed it.
"Yes, my friend--excommunicated.

That is the fate of those who mix themselves up in these matters, and draw down upon their heads the wrath of such men as the cardinal.