The Pope's action in the matter of the Sicilian revolution naturally led
the Doctor to the reforms which his Holiness had introduced into his
dominions, and he laughed consumedly over the joke which had not long
since appeared in _Punch_, to the effect that Pio "No, No," should rather
have been named Pio "Yes, Yes," because, as the doctor explained, he
granted everything his subjects asked for. Anything like a pun went
straight to Dr Skinner's heart.
Then he went on to the matter of these reforms themselves. They opened
up a new era in the history of Christendom, and would have such momentous
and far-reaching consequences, that they might even lead to a
reconciliation between the Churches of England and Rome. Dr Skinner had
lately published a pamphlet upon this subject, which had shown great
learning, and had attacked the Church of Rome in a way which did not
promise much hope of reconciliation. He had grounded his attack upon the
letters A.M.D.G., which he had seen outside a Roman Catholic chapel, and
which of course stood for _Ad Mariam Dei Genetricem_. Could anything be
more idolatrous?
I am told, by the way, that I must have let my memory play me one of the
tricks it often does play me, when I said the Doctor proposed _Ad Mariam
Dei Genetricem_ as the full harmonies, so to speak, which should be
constructed upon the bass A.
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