Those two majestic relics of the nobility and
clergy, though of very different habits and morals, recognized each other by their generous traits.
Irwine in a general statement concerning the Church
clergy in the surrounding district, whom he described as men given up to the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life; hunting and shooting, and adorning their own houses; asking what shall we eat, and what shall we drink, and wherewithal shall we be clothed?
You might even feel some sympathy for one of the neighboring
clergy, to whom this godless young man has been for years as a thorn in their side.
Five or six of the early Popes--those who reigned about sixteen hundred years ago--held their papal courts and advised with their
clergy in the bowels of the earth.
Much ill-will would also have been required, not to comprehend, through the medium of the poetry of the prologue, that Labor was wedded to Merchandise, and
Clergy to Nobility, and that the two happy couples possessed in common a magnificent golden dolphin, which they desired to adjudge to the fairest only.
He dismissed his curates when they married, having decided views on the celibacy of the unbeneficed
clergy.
The Spaniards, through the Catholic
clergy, offer praise to God for their victory over the French on the fourteenth of June, and the French, also through the Catholic
clergy, offer praise because on that same fourteenth of June they defeated the Spaniards.
We have little patience with those liberal
clergy who dwell on nothing else than the difficulties of faith and the propriety of concession to the opposite force.
His favourite subjects were church discipline, rites and ceremonies, apostolical succession, the duty of reverence and obedience to the
clergy, the atrocious criminality of dissent, the absolute necessity of observing all the forms of godliness, the reprehensible presumption of individuals who attempted to think for themselves in matters connected with religion, or to be guided by their own interpretations of Scripture, and, occasionally (to please his wealthy parishioners) the necessity of deferential obedience from the poor to the rich--supporting his maxims and exhortations throughout with quotations from the Fathers: with whom he appeared to be far better acquainted than with the Apostles and Evangelists, and whose importance he seemed to consider at least equal to theirs.
If it be The Black Wolf," whispered Father Claude to the boy, "no worse fate could befall us for he preys ever upon the
clergy, and when drunk as he now is, he murders his victims.
But although Robin fought against the
clergy, the friars and monks who did wrong, he did not fight against religion.
Much the same was true of the 'secular'
clergy (those not members of monastic orders, corresponding to the entire
clergy of Protestant churches).
