It was not long before the end was reached, So far as earth could end his grand career; His body lifeless hung upon the cross; Yet still his deadly foes were at a loss How to annul the doctrines he had preached Lest they forever should torment them here. So they resolved upon a double course-- They would pervert what they could not destroy; Their earthly agents were induced to choose The bloody cross as symbol of their views, Which they proclaimed were Christ's, and were the source Of all their power--His name made a decoy. The banner of the cross they raised aloft, To conquer by this sign of all that's vile; "Christians" they called themselves, and fiends in glee Must have rejoiced their bloody course to see, As with brute force, or threats, or pleadings soft, They coupled hell's dark doings with its guile. To blind belief they added blinder faith, And relegated reason to the shades; Dark superstition ruled the bloody hour, The world bowed down before religion's pow'r, And truthfully the page of history saith Mankind gave up to riots and to raids. It was a very pandemonium here, A hell on earth, a night without a star; Good manners and good morals passed away, Corruption and pollution ruled the day, And Pity left the earth without a tear, While pallid Justice trembling stood afar. Contending sects and creeds each other tore; A word or syllable gave cause for war, And e'en a single letter made men tear Each other and profane the decent air With angry words, and drench their hands in gore, Performing all that Heaven must abhor. Men lost all reason, women lost all shame, And gross indecency ruled day and night; Fortunes were given to the rotten priests, Who rated virtue lower than the beasts; Pollution of the maiden or the dame Alike was holy in the priestly sight. At first, it was a struggle mild between The pagan doctrines and the newer creeds, Whose crazy devotees quite often sought The crown of martyrdom, and therefore wrought Insultingly to taunt and rouse the spleen That oft in furious wrath its victim bleeds. But paganism was a placid rill Beside the roaring torrent of the new And wild religion that its ruin sought; And most of all its cruelty was taught Unto it by the men of bloody will Who did the work of the infernal crew.