Filling and emptying, never pure
From pride, or pomp, or sin:
That, (speak they truth who say they know,)
With all thy scavengers can do,
They cannot keep thee clean.”
The second canto, which consists of 363 stanzas, is devoted to the Church’s “Divine right” to take tithes, and to enact, and to enforce laws, in reference to Easter dues, leases, etc.; to impose creeds; to preach; and to give sacraments. The following are the second and third verses.
“This sprite unseen, whence does it spring?
Is it a beggar or a king?
Or vile hermaphrodite?
To me this seems to be its sex;