Theobald hated the Church
of Rome, but he hated dissenters too, for he found them as a general rule
troublesome people to deal with; he always found people who did not agree
with him troublesome to deal with: besides, they set up for knowing as
much as he did; nevertheless if he had been let alone he would have
leaned towards them rather than towards the High Church party. The
neighbouring clergy, however, would not let him alone. One by one they
had come under the influence, directly or indirectly, of the Oxford
movement which had begun twenty years earlier. It was surprising how
many practices he now tolerated which in his youth he would have
considered Popish; he knew very well therefore which way things were
going in Church matters, and saw that as usual Ernest was setting himself
the other way. The opportunity for telling his son that he was a fool
was too favourable not to be embraced, and Theobald was not slow to
embrace it. Ernest was annoyed and surprised, for had not his father and
mother been wanting him to be more religious all his life? Now that he
had become so they were still not satisfied. He said to himself that a
prophet was not without honour save in his own country, but he had been
lately--or rather until lately--getting into an odious habit of turning
proverbs upside down, and it occurred to him that a country is sometimes
not without honour save for its own prophet.
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