What though the Jesuitic creed be not
As true and generous a faith as that
Which we profess; what though a bloody blot
Has stained its page of history; the great
And worthy deeds those fathers wrought should raise
A feeling in our hearts of loving praise.
XXVI.
They suffered for their God and for their Pope;
They suffered for their faith, to them as true
And pure as ours to us, and in the hope
That God would bless their labours, and endue
The savage Indians with a softer heart,
And give them with the blessed ones a part.
They merit praise and honour, but the cause
For which they laboured merits none of these;
A cruel creed, with harsh and bloody laws,
The very name of Christ it travesties.
An evil Order, working in the name
Of Christianity dark deeds of shame.
XXVIII.
He whom they call their Master suffered not
His followers to mingle in the strife
Of politics—not such their chosen lot;
Theirs to prepare men for a higher life.
And yet He bade them to their king be true,
And offer unto Cæsar all his due.
XXIX.
But this do not the Jesuits; they fain
Would undermine the power of the land
In which they dwell, and every effort strain
To take the civil sceptre in their hand.
They creep, as serpents, smoothly on their prey,
But subtly spread their poison in the way.