Quote#Self
It is not insignificant that the Church, in the rare places and times…
Quote byHilaire Belloc · 1870–1953
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Survivals and New Arrivals: The Old and New Enemies of the Catholic Church (1929), Ch. IV The Main Opposition (iii) The "Modern" Mind.
English (original)
It is not insignificant that the Church, in the rare places and times when she had power to do so, did not compel the mind. During all that intense intellectual life of the thirteenth century instruction was by choice: endowed—so that the poorest could reach the highest inspiration, but at the choice of the individual or family will, to be taken or left.
— Hilaire Belloc
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