The Bishop Orders His Tomb" Robert Browning's "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Cathedral" displays the flagrant corruption and scandal plaguing the sixteenth-century Catholic Church. Browning again presents a dramatic monologue, this time from the voice of a fictional bishop on his deathbed. This approach functions well in the poem -- adding the excitement, intimacy and uncertainty that a simple narrative would lack while sustaining both the details of the subject and the …showed first 75 words of 468 total…

…showed last 75 words of 468 total…exact specifications, again ignoring the finality of death. On his deathbed, the bishop alienates and rejects the only family he has left. Finally, the bishop prepares for death by laying in the position he will have for his tomb. It seems that the he wants absolute assurance that no one else will take his "niche." Browning's bishop illustrates the rivalry, insincerity and fraud characteristic of the Roman Catholic Church of the Italian Renaissance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**