divinely appointed centre of unity," and he felt the "absolute need of a
Teaching Church to preserve and to interpret the truths of Christianity
to each succeeding generation." Once convinced of this, argument
mattered little. Hugh was entirely fearless, adventurous, and
independent; he had no ambitions in the ordinary sense of the word; that
is to say he made no frontal attack upon promotion or respect. He was
not what is called a "safe" man; he had neither caution or prudence, nor
any regard for average opinion. I do not think he ever gave allegiance
to any personality, nor took any direct influence from anyone. The
various attempts he made to consult people of different schools of
thought, all carefully recorded in his _Confessions_, were made
courteously and deferentially; but it seems to me that any opposition or
argument that he encountered only added fuel to the fire, and aroused
his reason only to combat the suggestions with which he did not
instinctively agree. Indeed I believe that it was his very isolation,
his independence, his lack of any real deference to personal authority,
which carried him into the Church of Rome. One who knew Hugh well and
indeed loved him said to me a little bitterly that he had become a Roman
Catholic not because his faith was strong, but because it was weak.
There was a touch of truth in this. Hugh did with all his heart desire
to base his life upon some impersonal unquestionable certainty; and
where a more submissive mind might have reposed, as a disciple, upon the
strength of a master, Hugh required to repose upon something august,
age-long, overpowering, a great moving force which could not be too
closely or precisely interrogated, but which was a living and breathing
reality, a mass of corporate experience, in spite of the inconsistencies
and irrationalities which must beset any system which has built up a
logical and scientific creed in eras when neither logic nor science were
fully understood.