n handed down to memory:
This the discipline of the institution,
That priests pour libations from golden cups.
In silver goblets they say
That the sacred blood smokes;
And that in golden candlestick, at the nightly sacrifices,
There stand fixed waxen candles.
Then is it the chief care of the brethren,
As many-tongued report does testify,
To offer from the sale of estates,
Thousands of pence.
Ancestral property made over
To dishonest auctions,
The disinherited successor groans,
Needy child of holy parents.
These treasures are concealed in secret,
In corners of the churches;
And it is believed the height of piety
To strip your sweet children.
Bring out your treasures,
Which by evil arts of persuasion
You have heaped up and hold,
Which you shut up in darkling cave.
Public utility demands this,
The privy purse demands it, the treasury demands it,
That the soldiers may be paid for their services,
And the commander may benefit thereby.
This is your dogma, then:
Give every man his own.
Now Caesar recognises his own
Image, stamped on the coin.
What you know to be Caesar's, to Caesar
Give; surely what I ask is just.
If I am not mistaken, your Deity
Coins no money,
Nor when he came did he bring
Golden Jacobuses[3] with him;
But he gave his precepts in words,
Empty in point of pocket.
Fulfil the promise of the words
Which you sell the round world over.
Give up your hard cash willingly,
Be rich in words.

(_Prudentius, Hymn on St. Lawrence_).

Whom does this speaker resemble. Against whom does he rage? What
Church is it whose sacred vessels, lamps, and ornaments he is
pillaging, whose ritual he overthrows? Whose golden patens and
silver chalices, sumptuous votive offerings and rich treasure,
does he envy? Why, the man is a Lutheran all over. With what
other cloak did our Nimrods[4] cover their brigandage, when they
embezzled the money of their Churches and wasted the patrimony of
Christ? Take on the contrary Constantine the Great, that scourge
of the persecutors of Christ, to what Church did he restore
tranquillity? To that Church over which Pope Silvester presided,
whom he summoned from his hiding-place on Mount Soracte that by
his ministry he might receive our baptism. Under what auspices
was he victorious? Under the sign of the cross. Of what mother
was he the glorious son? Of Helen.