“In England our party was first seriously alarmed at the Labour Parliament of 1917.  That showed us how deeply Herveism had impregnated the whole social atmosphere.  There had been Socialists before, but none like Gustave Herve in his old age—­at least no one of the same power.  He, perhaps you have read, taught absolute Materialism and Socialism developed to their logical issues.  Patriotism, he said, was a relic of barbarism; and sensual enjoyment was the only certain good.  Of course, every one laughed at him.  It was said that without religion there could be no adequate motive among the masses for even the simplest social order.  But he was right, it seemed.  After the fall of the French Church at the beginning of the century and the massacres of 1914, the bourgeoisie settled down to organise itself; and that extraordinary movement began in earnest, pushed through by the middle classes, with no patriotism, no class distinctions, practically no army.  Of course, Freemasonry directed it all.  This spread to Germany, where the influence of Karl Marx had already—–­”

“Yes, sir,” put in Percy smoothly, “but what of England, if you don’t mind—–­”

“Ah, yes; England.  Well, in 1917 the Labour party gathered up the reins, and Communism really began.  That was long before I can remember, of course, but my father used to date it from then.  The only wonder was that things did not go forward more quickly; but I suppose there was a good deal of Tory leaven left.  Besides, centuries generally run slower than is expected, especially after beginning with an impulse.  But the new order began then; and the Communists have never suffered a serious reverse since, except the little one in ’25.  Blenkin founded ’The New People’ then; and the ‘Times’ dropped out; but it was not, strangely enough, till ’35 that the House of Lords fell for the last time.  The Established Church had gone finally in ’29.”

“And the religious effect of that?” asked Percy swiftly, as the old man paused to cough slightly, lifting his inhaler.  The priest was anxious to keep to the point.

“It was an effect itself,” said the other, “rather than a cause.  You see, the Ritualists, as they used to call them, after a desperate attempt to get into the Labour swim, came into the Church after the Convocation of ’19, when the Nicene Creed dropped out; and there was no real enthusiasm except among them.  But so far as there was an effect from the final Disestablishment, I think it was that what was left of the State Church melted into the Free Church, and the Free Church was, after all, nothing more than a little sentiment.  The Bible was completely given up as an authority after the renewed German attacks in the twenties; and the Divinity of our Lord, some think, had gone all but in name by the beginning of the century.  The Kenotic theory had provided for that.  Then there was that strange little movement among the Free Churchmen even earlier; when ministers