And the priests looked down into the pit of injustice and they turned their faces away and said, 'Our kingdom is not as the kingdom of this world. Our life on earth is but a pilgrimage. The soul lives on humility and patience, ' at the same time screwing the poor from their last centime. They settled down among their treasures and ate and drank with princes and to the starving they said, 'Suffer. Suffer as he suffered on the cross for it is the will of God.'And anyone believes what they hear over and over again, so the poor instead of bread made do with a picture of the bleeding, scourged, and nailed-up Christ and prayed to that image of their helplessness. And the priests said, 'Raise your hands to heaven and bend your knees and bear your suffering without complaint. Pray for those that torture you, for prayer and blessing are the only stairways which you can climb to paradise.' And so they chained down the poor in their ignorance so that they wouldn't stand up and fight their bosses who ruled in the name of the lie of divine right. .Peter Weiss
About This Quote
A great poet, William Blake, used the word "priest" in this quote to describe the clergy of the Catholic Church. The priests were viewed as the people who had an exclusive knowledge of God's truth and right actions. They were the only source of information about God for people of all religious faiths. They also had a monopoly on religious authority.
Their privileged position was justified by their "divine right", based on their claims to be able to speak for God. Because they had special access to God, they were able to justify their own abuses of power and privilege.
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