But after all, it must be said that the abbe Boudes and the Canon Docres are exceptions, thank God! and outside of Paris there are veritable saints, especially among the country clergy." "It's a fact that Satanic priests are relatively rare, and the lecheries of the clergy and the knaveries of the episcopate are evidently exaggerated by an ignoble press.

But that isn't what I have against them.

If only they were gamblers and libertines! But they're lukewarm, mediocre, lazy, imbeciles.

That is their sin against the Holy Ghost, the only sin which the All Merciful does not pardon." "They are of their time," said Durtal.

"You wouldn't expect to find the soul of the Middle Ages inculcated by the milk-and-water seminaries." "Then," Carhaix observed, "our friend forgets that there are impeccable monastic orders, the Carthusians, for instance." "Yes, and the Trappists and the Franciscans.