But does that make him one of _them_?
No; the raggedest tramp in the pit would smile at the idea.

He couldn't comprehend it; couldn't take it in; couldn't in any remote way conceive of it.

Well, to the king, the nobles, and all the nation, down to the very slaves and tramps, I was just that kind of an elephant, and nothing more.

I was admired, also feared; but it was as an animal is admired and feared.
The animal is not reverenced, neither was I; I was not even respected.

I had no pedigree, no inherited title; so in the king's and nobles' eyes I was mere dirt; the people regarded me with wonder and awe, but there was no reverence mixed with it; through the force of inherited ideas they were not able to conceive of anything being entitled to that except pedigree and lordship.
There you see the hand of that awful power, the Roman Catholic Church.