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A Nun. Ha; what means all this? Will no one think of us? Holy father, have we alone no claim to your paternal favour? I entreat you to let us be taxed also, in order that we may sin in peace.
Pope. Right, my daughter; and you shall not be dealt with more hardly than the priests. Bishop, write down: Absolution for each nun who shall commit carnal sin, be it with whom it may, within or out of the circle of the cloister; with
fall capacity of assuming any conventual dignity when called upon so to do: nine ducats.
Chorus. Absolutio! dispensatio!
A Bishop. Absolution and dispensation to each priest who publicly keeps a mistress: five ducats.
Lucretia then interposed: “Absolution for carnal knowledge, the enormity of which is indicated by fifteen ducats.”
Faustus, whom this scene had horribly mortified, on account of the triumph which it afforded the Devil over him, but who, nevertheless, wished to have a hit at Borgia, exclaimed, with a voice of thunder,
“Absolution to any parricide, matricide, or fratricide, for three ducats.”
Pope. Ho, ho, friend; what are you aiming at now? Will you tax murder lower than fornication?