connection between that enthusiasm and the miracles which attended St.
Thomas' intercession; not because the miracles were fantasies, but because
a popular recognition of deserved sanctity is the later accompaniment and
the recipient of miraculous power.

It is the details of history which require the closest analysis. I have,
therefore, chosen a significant detail with which to exemplify my case.

Just as a man who thoroughly understands the character of the English
squires and of their position in the English countrysides would have to
explain at some length (and with difficulty) to a foreigner how and why the
evils of the English large estates were, though evils, national; just as
a particular landlord case of peculiar complexity or violent might afford
him a special test; so the martyrdom of St. Thomas makes, for the Catholic
who is viewing Europe, a very good example whereby he can show how well
he understands what is to other men not understandable, and how simple is
to him, and how human, a process which, to men not Catholic, can only be
explained by the most grotesque assumptions; as that universal contemporary
testimony must be ignored; that men are ready to die for things in which
they do not believe; that the philosophy of a society does not permeate
that society; or that a popular enthusiasm ubiquitous and unchallenged, is
mechanically produced to the order of some centre of government! All these
absurdities are connoted in the non-Catholic view of the great quarrel, nor
is there any but the Catholic conscience of Europe that explains it.

The Catholic sees that the whole of the à Becket business was like the
struggle of a man who is fighting for his liberty and is compelled to
maintain it (such being the battleground chosen by his opponents) upon
a privilege inherited from the past. The non-Catholic simply cannot
understand it and does not pretend to understand it.