CANTO II.]
HUDIBRAS.
355
For as the Pope, that keeps the gate
Of heaven, wears three crowns of state;[1]
So he that keeps the gate of hell,
Proud Cerb'rus, wears three heads as well:
And, if the world has any troth, 650
Some have been canoniz'd in both.
But that which does them greatest harm,
Their sp'ritual gizzards are too warm,[2]
Which puts the overheated sots
In fevers still, like other goats;[3] 670
For tho' the Whore bends hereticks
With flames of fire, like crooked sticks.[4]
Our schismatics so vastly differ,
Th' hotter they 're they grow the stiffer;
Still setting off their sp'ritual goods, 675
With fierce and pertinacious feuds:
For zeal 's a dreadful termagant,
That teaches saints to tear and rant,
And Independents to profess
The doctrine of Dependences;[5] 680
Turns meek and sneaking Secret ones.[6]
To raw-heads fierce and bloody-bones;
And not content with endless quarrels
Against the wicked, and their morals,
The Gibellines, for want of Guelfs,[7] 685
Divert their rage upon themselves.
Of heaven, wears three crowns of state;[1]
So he that keeps the gate of hell,
Proud Cerb'rus, wears three heads as well:
And, if the world has any troth, 650
Some have been canoniz'd in both.
But that which does them greatest harm,
Their sp'ritual gizzards are too warm,[2]
Which puts the overheated sots
In fevers still, like other goats;[3] 670
For tho' the Whore bends hereticks
With flames of fire, like crooked sticks.[4]
Our schismatics so vastly differ,
Th' hotter they 're they grow the stiffer;
Still setting off their sp'ritual goods, 675
With fierce and pertinacious feuds:
For zeal 's a dreadful termagant,
That teaches saints to tear and rant,
And Independents to profess
The doctrine of Dependences;[5] 680
Turns meek and sneaking Secret ones.[6]
To raw-heads fierce and bloody-bones;
And not content with endless quarrels
Against the wicked, and their morals,
The Gibellines, for want of Guelfs,[7] 685
Divert their rage upon themselves.
- ↑ The pope claims the power of the keys, and the tiara or triple crown is a badge of papal dignity.
- ↑ Persons are said to have a broiling in their gizzards when they stomach anything very much.
- ↑ This was an old medical superstition. Varro, ii. 3, 5, &c.
- ↑ Rome was identified with the whore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelations: and the Romanists are said to have attempted the conversion of infidels by means of fire and faggots, as men made crooked sticks straight by fire and steam.
- ↑ "I am called an Independent," said one, when asked by a Magistrate (before whom he went to make his declarations and obtain his license), "because I depend upon my Bible."
- ↑ The early editions read thus, but Grey reads "secret sneaking ones."
- ↑ These names of distinction were first made use of at Pistoia, where, when the magistrates expelled the Panzatichi, there chanced to be two brothers, Germans, one of whom, named Guelph, was for the pope, the other, Gibel, for the emperor. The spirit of these parties raged with great violence in Italy and Germany during the middle ages. Dr Heylin says some are
