“Master Arundel, I am a soldier, and no casuist, and, therefore, hardly so well prepared to answer as good Mr. Eliot, or grave Mr. Wilson; yet do thoughts on such subjects sometimes puzzle the brains of a soldier in a steel helmet, as well as those of a teacher in a Geneva cap; and, sworn brothers as we are, proving our affection by a voluntary community of danger, I will not hesitate to avow my secret reflections, knowing that they are safe in thy keeping.  All Christians must acknowledge Holy Scripture, when properly understood, as the imperative rule of faith, without a belief of which there can be no salvation.  Now, in Scripture I do find the Church likened unto a net let down into the sea, and when drawn up containing within itself a diversity of fishes.  This similitude teaches me that the Blessed Founder of our religion did contemplate variety, and not that strict and tame uniformity which would compel every curve into a straight line, and make the Church more like a platoon of point device Spanish soldiers than reasoning men variously organized.”

“I have heard the text differently explained, to wit:  that the Church is thereby intended to be represented as a receptacle of all men, without distinction of Jew or Gentile—­of color, or of whatever separates man from man.”

“They who interpret it thus, do limit the Word of God, and make vain the text itself.  For, was it not designed that all should be brought within one fold, that there might be one shepherd?  Now, how may this be done, if respect be not had to the prepossessions and prejudices of mankind?  See the infinite differences that prevail all through the world.  These it is the sacred prerogative of the Church to guide and control—­not violently tearing them up by the roots, but making them subservient to her advancement.”

“That, it seems to me, were little better than encouraging heathenism under the forms of Christianity.”

“Nay, it is more like the manoeuvre of a skilful helmsman, who, when a flaw that may not be resisted strikes the sails of his ship, doth not luff, and thereby increase the power of his enemy, and risk destruction, but, by a gentle turn of the rudder, glides by the danger, making its very violence facilitate his advance; or it may be compared to the progress of a wise traveller, who, when he encounters a steep hill, doth not always press straight forward, but, influenced by its shape, sometimes turns aside and encircles its base, thereby diminishing the labor and not increasing the distance.”

“It doth look to me,” said Arundel, “more like the crooked track of the serpent, which cannot advance to its object without twisting its body into contortions.”

“And can anything be more graceful than its lovely curves?  Doth not Scripture in some manner commend the sagacious reptile, holding him up to us as an example, and bidding us be wise even as serpents?  The children of Israel, moreover, when in the wilderness, were cured of their wounds by merely looking at the brazen serpent, thereby typifying the value of wisdom, whereof the snake is an emblem.”