Of adverse interests: this, at last, is known,
(Thank Pius for the lesson) that albeit,
Among the Popedom's hundred heads of stone
Which blink down on you from the roof's retreat
In Siena's tiger-striped cathedral, Joan
And Borgia 'mid their fellows you may greet,
A harlot and a devil, you will see
Not a man, still less angel, grandly set
With open soul, to render man more free.
The fishers are still thinking of the net,
And if not thinking of the hook too, we
Are counted somewhat deeply in their debt:
But that's a rare case-so, by hook and crook
They take the advantage, agonizing Christ
By rustier nails than those of Cedron's brook,
I' the people's body very cheaply priced;
Quoting high priesthood out of Holy book,
And buying death-fields with the sacrificed.
XVIII.
Ye take most vainly. Through Heaven's lifted gate
The priestly ephod in sole glory swept,
When Christ ascended, entered in, and sate
With victor face sublimely overwept,
At Deity's right hand, to mediate,
He alone, He for ever. On his breast
The Urim and the Thummim, fed with fire
From the full Godhead, flicker with the unrest
Of human, pitiful heartbeats. Come up higher,
All Christians! Levi's tribe is dispossest!
That solitary alb ye shall admire,
But not cast lots for. The last chrism, poured right,
