There is no leisure to search
afar off, let us examine only neighbouring and domestic history.
The Irish imbibed from Patrick, the Scots from Palladius, the
English from Augustine, men consecrated at Rome, sent from Rome,
venerating Rome, either no faith at all or assuredly our faith,
the Catholic faith. The case is clear. I hurry on.
Witness Universities, witness tables of laws, witness the
domestic habits of men, witness the election and inauguration of
Emperors, witness the coronation rites and anointing of Kings,
witness the Orders of Knighthood and their very mantles, witness
windows, witness coins, witness city gates and city houses,
witness the labours and life of our ancestors, witness all things
great and small, that no religion in the world but ours ever took
deep root there.
These considerations being at hand to me, and so affecting me as
I thought them over that it seemed the part of insolence, nay of
insanity, to renounce all this Christian company and consort
with the most abandoned of men, I confess, I felt animated and
fired to the conflict, a conflict wherein I can never be worsted
until it comes to the Saints being hurled from heaven and the
proud Lucifer recovering heaven.
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