"Thank you," said Countess in a tone of some emotion. "They would not own me now." "Dear," whispered Ermine lovingly, "whosoever shall confess Christ before men,--not the creed, nor the Church, but Him whom the Father sent, and the truth to which He bore witness--him will He also confess before our Father which is in Heaven. And I think there are a very few of those whom He will present before the presence of His glory, who shall hear Him say of them those words of highest praise that He ever spoke on earth,--`She hath done what she could.'" CHAPTER THIRTEEN. HISTORICAL APPENDIX. The sorrowful story of Gerhardt's Mission is told by William of Newbury and Ranulph de Diceto. It seems strange that a company of thirty German peasants should have set forth to bring England back to the pure primitive faith; yet not stranger than that four hundred years earlier, Boniface the Englishman should have set out to convert Germany from heathenism. Boniface succeeded; Gerhardt failed. The reason for the failure, no less than for the success, is hidden in the counsels of Him who worketh all things according to His own will. The time was not yet. It was in 1159 that this little company arrived in England, and for seven years they preached without repression. Gerhardt, their leader, was the only educated man amongst them, the rest being described as "rustic and unpolished." Some have termed them Publicani or Paulikians; whether they really belonged to that body is uncertain. William of Newbury says they were a sect which came originally from Gascony, and was scattered over Gaul, Spain, Italy, and Germany. They seem therefore to have been true descendants of the old Gallican Church--the Church of Irenaus and Blandina--which we know retained her early purity far longer than the Church of Rome. Their defence, too, when examined, was that of Blandina--"I am a Christian, and no evil is done amongst us." Their preaching was singularly unsuccessful, if the monkish writers are to be trusted. "They added to their company, during a sojourn of some time in England, only one girl (_muliercula_), who, as report says, was fascinated by magic." Perhaps their work was of more value than appeared on the surface. After seven years of this quiet evangelising, the King and the clergy interfered. Considered as a "foreign sect," they were cited before a council held at Oxford in 1166, the King stating his desire neither to dismiss them as harmless, nor to punish them as guilty, without proper investigation.