Posted on Sunday 5 November 2006

The St Dominic represented here, sitting beneath the canopy, was a Spanish saint born in Castile in 1170. At the age of fourteen he was admitted to the University of Valencia and from there he went to the South of France to preach against the Albigensian heresy. The order he founded was militant in combating the enemies of the Church and, as may be seen in Berruguete's pictures among others, played a leading role in the conflict with the Albigensians. [link]

If I had my way with violent men I'd simmer them in oil, I'd fill a pot with bitumen And bring them to the boil. I'd execrate the terrorist And those who harbour him, And if I weren't a moralist I'd tear them limb from limb. Fanatics are an evil breed Whom decent men should shun; I'd like to flog them till they bleed, Yes, every mother's son, I'd like to tie them to a board And let them taste the cat, While giving praise, oh thank the Lord, That I am not like that. For we should love the human kind, As Jesus taught us to, And those who don't should be struck blind And beaten black and blue; I'd like to roast them in a grill And listen to them shriek, Then break them on the wheel until They turned the other cheek. – Roger Woddis Culture Shock, edited by Michael Rosen, Penguin, 1991