“Do you pray for the dead?”
“No.”
“Do you invocate the blessed Mary and the saints, and trust to their merits and intercession?”
“Never. We worship God, not men.”
At this point Winchester beckoned to Lincoln, and whispered something in his ear.
“I am told,” pursued the latter, addressing Gerhardt, “that you hold the priests of holy Church not to be validly consecrated, and have so said in public. Is it so?”
“It is so. The temporal power of the Pope has deprived the Church of the true consecration. You have only the shadow of sacraments, and the traditions of men.”
“You reject the holy sacraments entirely, then?”
“Not so. We observe the Eucharist at our daily meals. Our Lord bade us ‘as oft as we should drink,’ to take that wine in remembrance of Him. We do His bidding.”
“Ye presume to profane the Eucharist thus!” cried Lichfield in pious horror. “Ye administer to yourselves—”