he can only reply "so they were;" but there was this great
difference, that they deeply realised the sacramental system of the
Church, and led people to her, not from her; the preacher was never
allowed to supersede the priest.

But, on the other hand, it may reasonably be objected that Brother
Martin only exhibits one side of the religion of his period; that
there is an unaccountable absence of the popular superstitions of
the age in his teaching; and that, more especially, he does not
invoke the saints as a friar would naturally have done again and
again.

Now, the author does not for a moment deny that Martin must have
shared in the common belief of his time; but such things were not
of the essence of his teaching, only the accidental accompaniments
thereof. The prominent feature of the preaching of the early
Franciscans was, as was that of St. Paul, Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And in a book intended primarily for young readers of
the Church of England, it is perhaps allowable to suppress features
which would perplex youthful minds before they have the power of
discriminating between the chaff and the wheat; while it is not
thereby intended to deny that they really existed. The objectionable
side of the teaching of the medieval Church of England has been
dwelt upon with such little charity, by certain Protestant writers,
that their youthful readers might be led to think that the religion
of their forefathers was but a mass of superstition, devoid of all
spiritual life, and therefore the author feels that it is better
to dwell upon the points of agreement between the fathers and the
children, than to gloat over "corruptions."