Of men, their hands with bloody slaughter stained,
And, fixed in heaven, now shines among the stars.425
Then lust of war increased, and greed for gold,
Throughout the world; and luxury arose,
That deadliest of evils, luring pest,
To whose fell powers new strength and force were given
By custom long observed, and precedent
Of evil into worser evil led.
This flood of vice, through many ages dammed,430
In ours has burst its bounds and overflowed.