The Clerical Conspiracy（Live in East Berlin, 1989）-Sabbat

Artist：sabbat Songs Title：the clerical conspiracy I have wealth beyond measure My treasures are words Forged by time in a tale of Such beauty they cry to be heard. Still a young fool was I as My story begins Yet like all fools considered Myself to be wise A match for all things. But the lessons I've learned I will never forget When your teacher is life then Success is survival and Failure is death. From early years I saw the world Through tunnel-vision eyes My cloistered mind philosophized And fossilized Secure in my belief was I Assured throughout my life the Only things that could sustain me Were the words of Jesus Christ. There is no way to fight a foe Who strikes from the inside And once within we can begin to Smite this pagan pride. We shall take their graven images And grind them in the dirt For that men can live in paradise Must be the Devils work. The clerical conspiracy begins We shall wash away your sins We have come to purify To purge you of your liberty Absolve you of all sanity The 'truth' you want to hear We shall provide. How can we hope to save these Heathen when we know not of Their ways One of us must journey southward Infiltrate and then assuage. Only when we have this knowledge Can we finalise our plans Greet them with a velvet glove Then crush them 'neath an iron hand. Christian soldiers armed with virtue Hearts afire with blind obsession Cannot see the difference 'twixt Compassion and oppression These were the days I believed that Salvation was mine When I worshipped apostles Believing their gospels to be divine My life drifted by in a warm summer haze And I thought I would bath in the light Of our lord 'till the end of my days. But destiny mocked me And fate did bequest That the strength of my faith in The Lord God Almighty be put to the test. My son your word is matchless as A scribe you have been blessed Your skill and faith in God doth Qualify you for our quest. You will sail to Southern England And recount their blasphemies, For the first step in their cure Must be to learn of theit disease. For one so young so great an honour To be chosen for this task Have I the stength Would I be worthy? Questions that I dared not ask. Was I to be a missionary searching For lost souls to save Or just another pawn in their Monastic power games? The clerical conspiracy begins We shall wash away your sins We have come to purify To purge you of your liberty Absolve you of all sanity The 'truth' you want to hear We shall provide. How can we hope to save these Heathen when we know not of Their ways You Wat Brand must journey southward Infiltrate and then assuage. Only when we have this knowledge Can we finalise our plans Greet them with a velvet glove Then crush them 'neath an iron hand. Christian soldiers armed with virtue Hearts afire with blind obsession Cannot see the difference 'twixt Compassion and oppression. And so with terror in my heart I learned what had to be That I must tour these foriegn shores My cross for company. Those who had preceded me Of pagan devils warned With fearful tales of christian souls Since martyred on their horns. In my tale I will tell how we All were decieved For in truth I was hunted not Hunter as I had believed. How could I have known that the Guide they'd provide was to Show me far more than I'd ever Imagined I could have desired? So soon would I learn What a fool I had been There is more than one side to a coin Life is not what it seems ... It's no more than a dream.