380 For which cause, driven from the band, he bore
This sacrilegious brood, the dragon’s breath
Engendering it. Blooming in piety
United stood the Church of Rome, compact
By Peter: whose successor, too, himself,
385 And now in the ninth place, Hyginus was,
The burden undertaking of his chair.
After him followed Pius—Hermas his
Own brother was; angelic “Pastor” he,
Because he spake the words delivered him:
390 And Anicetus the allotted post
In pious order undertook. ’Neath whom
Marcion here coming, the new Pontic pest,
(The secret daring deed in his own heart
Not yet disclosed,) went, speaking commonly,
395 In all directions, in his perfidy,
With lurking art. But after he began
His deadly arrows to produce, cast off
Deservedly (as author of a crime
So savage), reprobated by the saints,
400 He burst, a wondrous monster! on our view.