V "DARKEST ENGLAND" SCHEME 241 



of George Fox, or even than that of the Mormons, 

 in our own time. When I observe the discrep- 

 ancies of the doctrinal foundations from which 

 each of these great movements set out, I find it 

 difficult to suppose that supernatural aid has been 

 given to all of them ; still more, that Mr. Booth's 

 smaller measure of success is evidence that it has 

 been granted to him. 



But what became of the Franciscan experi- 

 ment l ? If there was one rule rather than another 

 on which the founder laid stress, it was that his 

 army of friars should be absolute mendicants, 

 keeping themselves sternly apart from all worldly 

 entanglements. Yet, even before the death of 

 Francis, in 1226, a strong party, headed by Elias 

 of Cortona, the deputy of his own appointment, 

 began to hanker after these very things; and, 

 within thirty years of that time, the Franciscans 

 had become one of the most powerful, wealthy, and 

 worldly corporations in Christendom, with their 

 fingers in every sink of political and social corrup- 

 tion, if so be profit for the order could be fished out 

 of it ; their principal interest being to fight their 

 rivals, the Dominicans, and to persecute such of 

 their own brethren as were honest enough to try 

 to carry out their founder's plainest injunctions. 

 We also know what has become of Loyola's ex- 

 periment. For two centuries the Jesuits have 

 been the hope of the enemies of the Papacy ; 



1 See note pp. 245-47. 

 VOL. IX E 



