In his Greensboro address Page had given these men high praise.

But for the assiduous idolaters of stratified dogma he entertained a contempt which he was seldom at pains to conceal.

North Carolina had many clergymen of the more progressive type; these men chuckled at Page's vigorous characterization of the brethren, but those against whom it had been aimed raged with a fervour that was almost unchristian.

This clerical excitement, however, did not greatly disturb the philosophic Page.

The hubbub lasted for several years--for Page's Greensboro speech was only the first of many pronouncements of the same kind--but he never publicly referred to the attacks upon him.
Occasionally in letters to his friends he would good-naturedly discuss them.