But it will be well to observe, further, that the simplicity of a religion can of itself be no test of the probable truth of it.  And in the case of natural religion, what is called simplicity is in general nothing more than vagueness.  If simplicity used in this way be a term of praise, we might praise a landscape as simple because it was half-drowned in mist.  As a matter of fact, however, the religion of the Catholic Church, putting out of the question its theology, is a thing far simpler than the outside world supposes; nor is there a doctrine in it without a direct moral meaning for us, and not tending to have a direct effect on the character.

But the outside world misjudges of all this for various reasons.  In the first place, it can reach it as a rule through explanations only; and the explanation or the account of anything is always far more intricate than the apprehension of the thing itself.  Take, for instance, the practice of the invocation of saints.  This seems to many to complicate the whole relation of the soul to God, to be introducing a number of new and unnecessary go-betweens, and to make us, as it were, communicate with God through a dragoman.  But the case really is very different.  Of course it may be contended that intercessory prayer, or that prayer of any kind, is an absurdity; but for those who do not think this, there can be nothing to object to in the invocation of saints.  It is admitted by such men that we are not wrong in asking the living to pray for us.  Surely, therefore, it is not wrong to make a like request of the dead.  In the same way, to those who believe in purgatory, to pray for the dead is as natural and as rational as to pray for the living.  Next, as to this doctrine of purgatory itself—­which has so long been a stumbling-block to the whole Protestant world—­time goes on, and the view men take of it is changing.  It is becoming fast recognized on all sides that it is the only doctrine that can bring a belief in future rewards and punishments into anything like accordance with our notions of what is just or reasonable.  So far from its being a superfluous superstition, it is seen to be just what is demanded at once by reason and morality; and a belief in it to be not an intellectual assent only, but a partial harmonising of the whole moral ideal.  And the whole Catholic religion, if we only distinguish and apprehend it rightly, will present itself to us in the same light.

But there are other reasons besides those just described, by which outsiders are hindered from arriving at such a right view of the matter.  Not only does the intricacy of Catholicism described, blind them to the simplicity of Catholicism experienced, but they confuse with the points of faith, not only the scientific accounts the theologians give of them, but mere rules of discipline, and pious opinions also.  It is supposed popularly, for instance, to be of Catholic faith that celibacy is essential to the priesthood.