THE ANGLER'S GUIDE. 149 



about religion? Stickings had said that the 

 pope, the cardinals, bishops, monks, and priests 

 were all a set of hypocrites and deceivers 

 together ; that there was no more infaldibility 

 in them and their church than there was in 

 the Black Bear, and all the sots and tipplers 

 who went there ; but for his part he did not 

 rightly know what infaldibility meant, and he 

 did not think that Stickings did. He had said 

 that he would as soon pray to his great 

 grandmother as to the Virgin Mary, for he 

 thought she had just as much power to hear 

 him ; but then, it was only just a matter of 

 opinion after all. He had said that holy 

 water was not a morsel better than any other 

 water ; but if other people thought it was, why, 

 let them think so, and cross their foreheads and 

 touch their breasts with it, and imagine that 

 they were very much the better for it. He 

 had said that he thought it was a very strange 

 piece of conduct for priests and people at 

 high mass all to fall down and worship a 

 little baked flour and water; but Roman 

 Catholics did not think so, for they kept on 

 doing it, whatever other people said or thought 

 about it. 



He had said, that having religious houses 



