Fontana di dolore, albergo d'ira,
scola d'errori, et templo d'eresia,
già Roma, or Babilonia falsa et ria,
per cui tanto si piange et si sospira;
o fucina d'inganni, o pregion dira,
ove 'l ben more, e 'l mal si nutre et cria,
di vivi inferno, un gran miracol fia
se Cristo teco alfine non s'adira.
Fondata in casta et humil povertate,
contra' tuoi fondatori alzi le corna,
putta sfacciata: et dove ài posto spene?
Ne gli adúlteri tuoi? ne le mal nate
richezze tante? Or Constantin non torna;
ma tolga il mondo tristo che 'l sostene.
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Fountain of sorrows, house of anger,
school of errors, and temple of heresy,
once Rome, now a Babylon of deceit,
from which come so many tears and sighs:
O smithy of deceptions, O prison,
where good dies, and evil is nourished,
a living hell, a miracle indeed if Christ
is not wrathful against you in the end.
Founded in chaste and humble poverty,
impudent whore, you raise your horns
against your founders: where is your hope?
In your adulterers? Or in the evil born
from such riches? Constantine will not return:
but take them to the sad world that creates them.
Note:
The Emperor Constantine the Great (d337AD)
was wrongly thought in the Middle Ages to have granted
the Papacy temporal power in the West, by the document
called the Donation of Constantine.
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