Have been as play—could you not parry, feint,
Or bait Egidio until some chance
Or newer turn might save your argument?”
Suarez bowed and answered: “Better far
That we be humbled than a great man fall
To utter shame and ruin! Had I told
Egidio there that in denying thus
My proposition he was challenging
A solemn canon, word for word, prescribed
At Constance by the Universal Church—