Numbers of young priests are turned out annually upon humanity with full powers to condemn and anathematise, and an intense itching to do so. They soon find that the 'crude and undigested mass' they have 'intussuscepted' is a burden to themselves and a source of pain to their long-suffering audience. In their eagerness to be subtle they teach rank heresy, trouble timid consciences, and hurt themselves against episcopal authority. Then they abandon study entirely, as useless for their purpose. Mr. Jerome has a caricature somewhere of the newly fledged Anglican curate; the young evangelist stands at a table of cigarettes and brandy and soda, and his books are on sale or exchange, ‘owner no further use for same.’ The skit is wonderfully correct for the average priest.
The canonical age of ordination is twenty-four, and it is, probably, the average age; but this precaution for gravity is nullified by the facility of dispensations. The bishop can dispense at twenty-three, and the Roman authorities readily grant a dispensation once the candidate has reached twenty-two years and two months; most of our friars began to earn their pound per week at the age of twenty-two or three. Under one provincial bishop it is said there was always a brood of half-fledged priests who went by the name of 'Sovereign Pontiffs'; they used to be sent to sing mass on Sundays for priests who were absent or unwell, and the bishop always exacted a 'sovereign' for their services. The usual term of reproach for such
