Christ did not say to his first company:
'Go, and preach idle stories to the world';
but he gave them the teaching that is truth,
   and truth alone was sounded when they spoke;
and thus, to battle to enkindle faith,
the Gospels served them as both shield and lance.
   But now men go to preach with jests and jeers,
and just as long as they can raise a laugh,
the cowl puffs up, and nothing more is asked.
   But such a bird nests in that cowl, that if
the people saw it, they would recognize
as lies the pardons in which they confide—
   pardons through which the world's credulity
increases so, that people throng to every
indulgence backed by no authority;
   and this allows the Antonines to fatten
their pigs, and others, too, more piggish still,
who pay with counterfeit, illegal tender.

         —Dante, The Divine Comedy, Paradiso XXIX, 109-126