THE ECCLESIASTIC IS a definite type of man. The Italian priest has changed his character in three thousand years as little as he has his costume.
Brother Onofrio’s father happened to be a free-thinking Anti-clerical, a pillar of Masonry; otherwise, his son would assuredly have been a bishop. The type is perfectly pagan, whatever the creed; it is robust and subtle, spiritual and sensual, adroit in manipulation of inferiors and superiors alike. It has the courage which vigorous health and the consciousness of its own validity combine to give; and where courage will not serve the turn, astuteness deftly takes its place.
A stupid pedant like Edwin Arthwait is the very feeblest opponent for such a man.
Brother Onofrio, while successfully practising magick, was quite ready at a moment’s notic
