It's common knowledge that the church is nothing more than an invention of the priesthood designed to swindle the ordinary people of the empire out of just about everything they own.

Again, as I had often met it in my own church, I was confronted with the Impurity of Women doctrine that seemed to preoccupy all clergymen.

The clergy [in the 14th century] on the whole were probably no more lecherous or greedy or untrustworthy than other men, but because they were supposed to be better or nearer to God than other men, their failings attracted more attention.

The clergy would have us believe them against our own reason, as the woman would have her husband against his own eyes.

Hood an ass with reverend purple, So you can hide his two ambitious ears, And he shall pass for a cathedral doctor.

I have always considered a clergyman as the father of a larger family than he is able to maintain.

Priests are no more necessary to religion than politicians to patriotism.

In times of death and famine, reason is on the side of the priests-who have their own kind of logic which cries for miracles and, on occasion, invents them.

A broad hat does not always cover a venerable head.

Clergy are men as well as other folks.

The clergyman is expected to be a kind of human Sunday.