First Line	Since thine is the only power on earth we know
Author	Elizabeth Chudleigh Hervey Pierrepont
Description	Lyric [Devotional writing, religious belief]. Transcribed from Pierrepont, Elizabeth. "When the Late Duchess of Kingston was at Rome, she being much Distressed in her Mind, is said to have Addressed herself to the then Pope, in the following lines." An asylum for fugitive pieces, in prose and verse... vol. 2, 1786, p. 96. Eighteenth Century Collections Online, GALE\|CW0111828851.
Links	ESTC

Since thine is the only power on earth we know,

Can wash the blackest soul as white as snow;

Dread, Sire, of mercies humbly deign to meet

The first of sinners prostrate at thy feet.

Strange to relate, who once a married maid,

As (now a wife, and widow) claims thy aid;

Spare her confessions, lest it grieve thee sore,

To hear such sins, as priest ne'er heard before.

The easiest way to lump them all at once,

And absolution in a trice pronounce;

Then fix the pennance, let it be for life,

To the true husband, send the spotless wife.

Beinecke Osborn c186

Title	Untitled
Period	1761-1790
Archive	Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

p. 422.

Local title: The Dutchess of Kingston's Petition to his Holiness the Pope.

Attributed author: The Dutchess of Kingston.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a

Folger MS M.a.186

p. 422.

Local title: The Dutchess of Kingston's Petition to his Holiness the Pope.

Attributed author: The Dutchess of Kingston.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: First line: Since thine's the only Power on Earth I know...

Other: n/a

p. 107v inverted.

Local title: To the Pope—Supposed to be wrote by the Dutchess of Kingston.

Attributed author: Dutchess of Kingston.

Adaptation: n/a

Other variants: n/a

Other: n/a