Who nothing mind, I need not tell ye,
Most holy patron, but their belly.
So used, they'll ev'ry soul be dumb,
No _dixit dominus_, but -------- mum."

Not unlike this is what follows:--

"O monachi, vestri stomachi sunt amphora Bacchi,
Vos estis, Deus est testis, teterrima pestis!"

"O monks, ye reverend drones, your guts
Of wine are but so many buts;
You are, God knows (who can abide ye?)
Of plagues the rankest, _bona fide_!"

[Footnote 1: Juvenal.] [[_Satire_ II. 24.]]

[[Footnote 1a: Horace, _Odes_ I.xxxvii.1-4.]]

[[Footnote 1b: Horace, _Odes_ II.xiv.25-28.]]

CHAP. XI.

OF POPES, SAINTS, AND BISHOPS, THAT USED TO GET DRUNK.

After having spoken of the drunkenness of churchmen in general, it will
not, perhaps, be a thing altogether needless, to put the whole in the
clearest light, to confirm what has been said, by the example of Popes,
Saints, and Bishops, who have practised that laudable custom of getting
drunk.

A little song, mentioned by H. Stephens, in his apology for Herodotus,
affords matter of speculation in relation to the sobriety of sovereign
pontiffs.

"Le Pape qui est a Rome,
Boit du vin comme un autre homme
Et de l'Hypocras aussi."

The Pope at Rome, his holiness,
Of wine drinks many a hearty glass,
And pleasant Hypocras also,
As any other man I trow.

If one reads over the popes lives, we shall be fully convinced that
these holy fathers were no enemies to wine. Alexander the Fifth was a
great drinker, and that too of strong wines, says his own historian,
Theoderic de Neim. If one may give any credit to the letters of the king
of Spain's ambassador to his master, Sixtus Quintus was a terrible
drunkard[1].

And Pope Boniface instituted indulgencies for those who should drink a
cup after grace (called since St. Boniface's cup). A plain argument that
his sanctity did not hate wine.

This puts me in my mind of what I have formerly read, though the
author's name is now slipped out of my memory, that when cardinal
Pignatelli, afterwards Innocent the Twelfth, was advanced to the papacy,
his name signifying little pots or mugs, three of which he bore for his
arms; and whose mother was of the house of Caraffa, which signifies a
jug, a Frenchman made these lines:--

"Nous devons tous boire en repos
Sous le regne de ce saint pere
Son nom ses armes sont des pots
Une Caraffe etoit sa mere.
Celebrons