Besides this lax idea amongst laymen, there is the influence of Jesuitism amongst the clergy. The Jesuits are said to confess the _ésotérisme inévitable_ of a great popular religion so frankly that the modern intellectual man may find complete liberty in the Church of Rome. It appears that by an ingenious manner of presenting them all Roman Catholic doctrines may be made capable of a liberal interpretation in order that the modern thinker may remain within the fold.[44] Even the very spirit of Catholicism is ready to adapt itself to his taste. If he dislikes an intolerant spirit, the Church becomes most tolerant. He is told that all sincere men who endeavour to do right are sure of salvation, whatever may be their religious belief. If it is painful to him to think that the damned are suffering eternal torture, he is soothed by the assurance that the flames of hell are a figure of speech, and that the real punishment of the damned is only regret for their misdeeds, and privation of the sight of God, two evils that all Christians suffer from in this present world without finding it unendurable. [Sidenote: Formalism in Simplicity.] [Sidenote: Liberty in Variety.] [Sidenote: Variety of Roman Vestments.] [Sidenote: Old-fashioned Anglican Formalism.] [Sidenote: Effect of Use and Habit.] The success of what is called “Ritualism” in England has some connection with the increase of formalism, though we ought to remember that the formal spirit attaches itself quite as readily to a plain and simple ceremonial as it does to a splendid and elaborate one. The etiquette about plain black cloth for the masculine evening costume is quite as severe as it would be for coloured velvets and embroidery, whilst the modern white tie is more rigidly formal than the lace cravat of our ancestors; in fact, the simpler the costume the stricter the rule. The dress of French peasants is much more formal, in the sense of being governed by rigid custom, than the far more varied dress of the upper classes. We find formal strictness going with simplicity in the Anglican vestments before the days of ritualism, and extreme liberty of artistic design permitted by the Church of Rome in the ornamentation of mitre, chasuble, and cope. When Leo XIII. received many thousand chasubles as jubilee gifts, it is probable that there were not two of them alike. Again, in matters of usage it is quite as much a form to put incumbent, curate, and clerk in tiers one above another as to assign to them any other places that might be fixed by the ritual. Therefore, between one form and another, one costume and another, there is little difference as to the reality of formalism. The difference is in the degree of attention given to the matter. Just at first, when a more splendid ritual is adopted, as it has been by some Anglican clergymen, the change may be evidence of a formal spirit, but the same splendours would signify little or nothing if they were traditional and familiar.