Brother Nestor’s Heresy

What friend were thee, to pierce me with steel,
Then disjoint mine bones on the arch of the Wheel,
Scorch me with irons, tear me with pliers,
Condemn my Truth as the work of all Liars.

I ne’er denounced Faith, nor belief in Lord God,
And ‘twas always the narrowest of paths that I trod,
Scorning the Devil, in all of his ways,
Preaching that vice and crime never pays.

Yet our Pope took offense at my opinions of Science,
Proclaimed I held God, and His Church, in defiance
Of natural laws governing the known Universe,
Brought afore Inquisition’s court by their edicts terse.

Confined to a mouldering cell within thy darkest fort,
Then humbled in chains at the Cardinal’s court,
Labelled as a heretic and due urged to repent,
Lest my soul cast to Hell, where Eternity’s spent
By those excommunicated and burned at the stake,
No tombstone for them, no last tearful wake.
Yet how could I retract what proven and done,
The fact that our Earth doth orbit the sun.