the
Pope was "only a foreign bishop", and in order to "stamp out overt
expression of disaffection, he embarked upon a veritable reign of
terror".

In Anglican histories, you are assured that all this was a work of
religious reform, and that after it the Church was the pure vehicle of
God's grace. There were no more "holy idell theves", holding the land
of England and plundering the poor. But get to know the clergy, and
see things from the inside, and you will meet some one like the
Archbishop of Cashell, who wrote to one of his intimates:

I conclude that a good bishop has nothing more to do than to
eat, drink and grow fat, rich and die; which laudable
example _I_ propose for the remainder of my days to follow.

If you say that might be a casual jest, hear what Thackeray reports of
that period, the eighteenth century, which he knew with peculiar
intimacy:

I read that Lady Yarmouth (my most religious and gracious
King's favorite) sold a bishopric to a clergyman for 5600
pounds. (She betted him the 5000 pounds that he would not be
made a bishop, and he lost, and paid her.) Was he the only
prelate of his time led up by such hands for consecration?
As I peep into George II's St. James, I see crowds of
cassocks pushing up the back-stairs of the ladies of the
court; stealthy clergy slipping purses into their laps; that
godless old king yawning under his canopy in his Chapel
Royal, as the chaplain before him is discoursing.
Discoursing about what?--About righteousness and judgment?
Whilst the chaplain is preaching, the king is chattering in
German and almost as loud as the preacher; so loud that the
clergyman actually burst out crying in his pulpit, because
the defender of the faith and the dispenser of bishoprics
would not listen to him!

#Land and Livings#

And how is it in the twentieth century? Have conditions been much
improved? There are great Englishmen who do not think so. I quote
Robert Buchanan, a poet who spoke for the people, and who therefore
has still to be recognized by English critics. He writes of the "New
Rome", by which he means present-day England:

The gods are dead, but in their name
Humanity is sold to shame,
While (then as now!) the tinsel'd priest
Sitteth with robbers at the feast,
Blesses the laden, blood-stained board,
Weaves garlands round the butcher's sword,
And poureth free