A Trembling Upon Rome

God averted His eye

As the purpled cardinals

Raised up the lie

Of a guilty Church,

As unctuous Latin psalms

Were chanted,

As Johannus Hus ranted,

As the cardinals swayed And slanted

In mincing lurch,

Jewelled rings extended

To hope, knee bended,

Aspergilla tended,

Censers carrying out the search.

Choirs shrilled their hymns to power,

Holy, holy be its name,

Eternal light and shining tower,

Sword of might and sacred flame.

The Keeners' Manual

`If the future and the past, really, exist, where are they?' St Augustine