What you plead
Is politic ... but, stay, I rob the Church
Of glory if I think of what is safe;
God can protect His own—the fiercer battle,
The heavenlier triumph. He received your oath,
Not I.
RACHIS.
You are His Pope, you can remit ...
And you would rule in peace.
ZACHARIAS.
How dare you tempt
The Lord your God, upon whose earthly throne
I sit? Get from me! One short month ago
You were yourself blaspheming in the land,
A heretic like Astolph and a slave
To your own lust. Begone! The convent walls
Alone can save you. If you drop away
There is no limit to the punishment
God deals to such backslider; you become
Perjured for all eternity.
RACHIS.
Alas,
Is there no service that will soften God,
Except the cloister?
ZACHARIAS.
Fool and hypocrite,
There is no way to Him except the path
A man’s best moment finds, and you are lost
If you regret your vow—to break from it
Is utterly impossible: a star
Can no more leave the music of its course
Than any mortal break his word to God.
Your soul is bound for ever.
[Enter Carloman and Marcomir with another Cardinal.]