God averted His eye
As the purpled cardinals
Raised up the lie
Of a guilty Church,
As unctuous Latin psalms
Were chanted,
As Johannus Hus ranted,
As the cardinals swayed And slanted
In mincing lurch,
Jewelled rings extended
To hope, knee bended,
Aspergilla tended,
Censers carrying out the search.
Choirs shrilled their hymns to power,
Holy, holy be its name,
Eternal light and shining tower,
Sword of might and sacred flame.
The Keeners' Manual
`If the future and the past, really, exist, where are they?' St Augustine