The Sinecurist's Creed, or Belief
The Sinecurist's Creed, or Belief was one of four liturgical parodies Hone composed and published in very early 1817. Together with The Late John Wilkes's Catechism and The Political Litany, The Sinecurist's Creed was one of the works singled out for prosecution by the Attorney General. (The fourth parody, The Bullet Te Deum, was ignored by the authorities, perhaps because a well-publicized prosecution would likely have served only to increase the pamphlet's public visibility.) Borrowing its form from the Book of Common Prayer's Athanasian Creed, The Sinecurist's Creed is clearly a political attack on three prominent figures in the Tory government: Eldon ("Old Bags"), Castlereagh ("Derry Down Triangle"), and Sidmouth ("the Doctor").
These links lead to the materials making up this short, hypertext edition:
- Facsimile title page from Hone's 1817 edition
- Full text of the parody
- Image of advertisements from end papers
