He is foreshadowed, no doubt, by a series of those accomplished mundane ecclesiastics whom Browning at all times drew with so keen a zest,--by Ogniben, the bishop in _Pippa Passes_, the bishop of St Praxed's.

But mundane as he is, he bears the mark of that sense of the urgency of the Christian problem which since _Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day_ had so largely and variously coloured Browning's work.

It occurred to none of those worldly bishops to justify their worldliness,--it was far too deeply ingrained for that.

But Blougram's brilliant defence, enormously disproportioned as it is to the insignificance of the attack, marks his tacit recognition of loftier ideals than he professes.

Like Cleon, he bears involuntary witness to what he repudiates.
But there is much more in Blougram than this.