Apikorsus Poem by gershon hepner

Unthinkable, undoable,
excommunicuable,
undivided villainy,
heretical miscellany
Maimonides condemned, is ap-
ikorsus. Lock all people up
who do not sensibly avoid
the subject, though it is enjoyed
by some if you have failed to scare ’em
by threats of hell, and even herem.

You will not find in YU courses
a subject that’s called apikorsus,
since it’s opposed by Toras Moshe,
and certified as quite unkosher,
despite Conservative reform
that treats it is as a non-treif norm.

Richard Harp, in an article in the TLS on Father Martin Cyril D’Arcy (“A Conjuror at the Xmas Party” December 11,2009) who was a friend of Evelyn Waugh, G.K. Chesterton W. H. Auden and Dorothy L. Sayers, and persuaded Sayers to write this rhyme about heresies:

OF THE CHURCH OF ROME
A Roman
Is a follower of the Scarlet Woman.
He revels in tortures
And the sins of the Borgias.

OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
The Church of England
Is not single and
Undivided villainy,
But a sort of heretical miscellany.

OF THE LUTHERANS
The doctrine of Luther
Is not calculated to act as a soother.
He considered Man so utterly depraved
That he couldn’t please God however well behaved.

12/26/09