An
example was given, whenever he held a spiritual conversation with
St Ebba, he was careful to spend the ensuing ours of darkness 'in
prayer, up to his neck in water'. 'Persons who invent such
tales,' wrote one indignant commentator, 'cast very grave and
just suspicions on the purity of their own minds. And young
persons, who talk and think in this way, are in extreme danger of
falling into sinful habits. As to the volumes before us, the
authors have, in their fanatical panegyrics of virginity, made
use of language downright profane.'
One of the disciples at Littlemore was James Anthony Froude, the
younger brother of Hurrell, and it fell to his lot to be
responsible for the biography of St. Neot. While he was composing
it, he began to feel some qualms. Saints who lighted fires with
icicles, changed bandits into wolves, and floated across the
Irish Channel on altar-stones, produced a disturbing effect on
his historical conscience. But he had promised his services to
Newman, and he determined to carry through the work in the spirit
in which he had begun it. He did so; but he thought it proper to
add the following sentence by way of conclusion: 'This is all,
and indeed rather more than all, that is known to men of the
blessed St. Neot; but not more than is known to the angels in
heaven.'
Meanwhile, the English Roman Catholics were growing impatient;
was the great conversion never coming, for which they had prayed
so fervently and so long? Dr.
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