This collection of some 300 quotations ranges from earliest times to the present day and spans the world. From time immortal the church has evoked every emotion known to man, from love and hate to mockery and suspicion; and Graham Jeffery, himself a country parson, draws upon a rich fund of wonderful material. Henry II complained of his turbulent priest, Dr Johnson found the merriment of parsons mighty offensive and the Emperor Vespasian cried, "Woe is me, I think I am becoming a god". But the Reverend Martin Luther King was more hopeful: "I have a dream that one day this nation wil rse up, live out the true meaning of his creed: we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal".