Among these were the two works of Bossuet, the _Exposition of Catholic Doctrine_ and the _History of the Protestant Variations_.

Gibbon says: "I read, I applauded, I believed, and surely I fell by a noble hand.

I have since examined the originals with a more discerning eye, and shall not hesitate to pronounce that Bossuet is indeed a master of all the weapons of controversy.

In the _Exposition_, a specious apology, the orator assumes with consummate art the tone of candour and simplicity, and the ten horned monster is transformed at his magic touch into the milk-white hind, who must be loved as soon as she is seen.

In the _History_, a bold and well-aimed attack, he displays, with a happy mixture of narrative and argument, the faults and follies, the changes and contradictions of our first Reformers, whose variations, as he dexterously contends, are the mark of historical error, while the perpetual unity of the Catholic Church is the sign and test of infallible truth.