A prayer was offered that "for us and all who sail thereon the sea may be calm and quiet," whereupon the doge and the others were solemnly aspersed with holy water, the rest of which was thrown into the sea while the priests chanted "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean."
By insisting upon the restitution of the confiscated church-lands, assuming to regard England as a papal fief, requiring Elizabeth, whose legitimacy he aspersed, to submit her claims to him, he raised insuperable obstacles to the return of England to the Church of Rome.
Its doctrinal thesis (which is supported with great philosophic acumen and rhetorical power) is the divinity and consubstantiality of the Word; incidentally the character of Basil, which Eunomius had aspersed, is vindicated, and the heretic himself is held up to scorn and contempt.