Saint Dominic, the glory of the schools,
Writing, one day, "The Inquisition's" rules,
Stopt, when the evening came, for want of light.
The devils, who below from morn till night,
Well pleased, had seen his work, exclaimed with sorrow,
"Something he will forget before to-morrow!"
One zealous imp flew upward from the place,
And stood before him, with an angel face.
"I come," said he, "sent from God's Realm of Peace,
To light you, lest your holy labors cease."
Well pleased, the saint wrote on with careful pen.
The candle was consumed; the devil then
Lighted his _thumb_; the saint, quite undisturbed,
Finished his treatise to the final word.
Then he looked up, and started with affright;
For lo! the thumb blazed with a lurid light.
"Your thumb is burned!" said he. The child of sin
Changed to his proper form, and with a grin
Said, "I will quench it in the martyrs' blood
Your book will cause to flow--a crimson flood!"
Triumphantly the fiend returned to hell
And told his story. Satan said, "'Tis well!
Your aim was good, but foolish was the deed;
For blood of martyrs is the Church's seed."
--Herder, tr. by James Freeman Clarke.