St. Dunstan.

St. Dunstan.

That Dunstan was the fool who could believe

The lies he taught, I doubt, but little care;
But of all such we should be well aware,—
As their sole study is, how to deceive
Their fellow-men, and bear despotic sway 5
O’er mind and body. Human sympathy
Had left his cruel bosom: fitted he
To toil in the smith’s forge alone—not stray
’Mongst decent people; for his heart was black
As his own smithy. How such an imp could be 10
Accounted saintlike is a mystery
To all who know not that Rome does not lack
Long lists of sinners whom the Saints proclaims,
And gulls the world by puffing their vile names.

George Markham Tweddell
p. 5 [in Miscellaneous Sonnets]
Voice of Masonry, Chicago, Illinois, U.S., March, 1887.

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"Dunstan (909 – 19 May 988) was an Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, a Bishop of Worcester, a Bishop of London, and an Archbishop of Canterbury, later canonised as a saint. His work restored monastic life in England and reformed the English Church. His 11th-century biographer, Osbern, himself an artist and scribe, states that Dunstan was skilled in "making a picture and forming letters", as were other clergy of his age who reached senior rank.

Dunstan served as an important minister of state to several English kings. He was the most popular saint in England for nearly two centuries, having gained fame for the many stories of his greatness, not least among which were those concerning his famed cunning in defeating the Devil." Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunstan