Tantum Religio;
or,
SIR BLASIUS.
A mock-heroic Epic in three Cantos, showing forth in choicest doggrel how and by what means Providence protecteth its chosen ministers of grace: and how the Christian dispensation, in beauty, depth and tenderness, immeasurably surpasseth Paganism, Atheism, Scepticism, Humanitarianism, and all other such damnable heresies and superstitions whatsoever.
CANTO I.
To Sondrio, some years ago
(’Twas ’88, if I mistake not),
A worthy pastor, Blasio
Yclept, of Calvinistic fibre
Intrepid, and of faith so too,
So tried and true no rack nor screw
Borrommean could dissolve such a knot,
Could they be now applied, as when
The valley’s patriot, Robustelli,
To fill with blood and brains his belly,
Made of the place a grim Macello;
Marched up the Robustellian Tibur
To take by rant, or storm, or bellow
That miniature of blood-stained Rome,
Marched from his Chiavennian home
With thunderbolts of close-writ parchment
Doctrinal, Popish skulls to enlarge meant;
