The Dean as Priest

In a mind as subtle as Swift’s one does not expect to find a simple form of religious faith. Swift himself supports this view by such remarks as, ‘I am not answerable to God for the doubts that arise in my own breast, since they are the consequence of that reason which he hath planted in me,’ ¹ or his comment on the Nicene Creed: ‘confessio fidei barbaris digna’. ² Swift’s frivolous treatment of several Christian doctrines violates one’s idea of an orthodox priest. A man who writes a comic rhapsody on the number of the Trinity, ³ or who handles the Reformation in terms of Big-Endians and Little-Endians, hardly sounds pious.