A meeting of Bishops described

"they squawked in very direction. a flock of jackdaws combining together, a rabble of adolescents, a gang of youth, a whirlwind raising dust under the pressure of air currents,

people whom nobody who was mature enough either in the fear of God or in years would pay any attention,

they splutter confused stuff or like wasps rush directly at what is in front of their heads".

Gregory of Nazianzus ( A.D. 329 - 390 )

as quoted in Charles Freeman's "The Closing of the Western Mind" (Knopf 2003)

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(Would also describe many modern Church Committee meetings; the proceedings of the U.K. House of Commons; or the activities of the U.S. Congress - jmp)

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