Pope Blames Moral and Aesthetic Degeneracy on Liberal Priests

"Then unbelieving priests reform'd the nation,
And taught more pleasant methods of salvation;
Where Heaven's free subjects might their rights dispute,
Lest God Himself should seem too absolute:
Pulpits their sacred satire learn'd to spare,
And vice admired to find a flatterer there!
Encouraged thus, Wit's Titans braved the skies,
And the press groan'd with licensed blasphemies.
These monsters, critics! with your darts engage,
Here point your thunder, and exhaust your rage!"

-Alexander Pope, from Part II of the Essay on Criticism

In this passage Pope is reminding critics to be unafraid to attack poetry full of monstrous vice. This point is well worth remembering. Criticism of any art cannot limit itself to stylistic analysis, but must also take into account the likely effects on the observer and on society. Art should not be reduced to its barest moral meaning, and criticism therefore must do much illuminate the purely aesthetic, but this can never be separated from concerns about truth and goodness.

What's particularly interesting about this passage is the suggestion that degeneracy in art follows "unbelieving priests" failure to condemn vice out of a desire to make the work of salvation "pleasant" and a fear that "God Himself should seem to absolute." If we want to beautify our civilization we cannot simply love pretty things but must learn not to spare that "sacred satire," and to pray that our priests will not spare it either.