The Book of the Cardinals

1:3 ¶ And the roll carrieth every man with his calling as it stood at the making: his see, his office, his order; and it inventeth nothing beside the record, neither feast nor tale nor judgement; for a register that addeth to its rows hath begun to forge its own dead.

2:1 ¶ Seven makers made the college in the hundred years, and the roll numbereth them: fifty and four, fifty and six, two and fifty, an hundred forty and three, two hundred thirty and one, ninety, an hundred sixty and three; and the sum is seven hundred eighty and nine, and none of the seven is hid, and none is preferred.

2:2 ¶ For the makers were of differing holiness, as their times were of differing mercy; and the roll doth not sort its dead by the goodness of their maker: it keepeth the man, and the day of his making, and the hand that named him; and the judgment of the hand is not the temple's to render.

3:1 ¶ And the Party asked the roll one question only: what use is a name? And the temple answereth: none that can be weighed; the name is kept because the man was, and the keeping is not for sale, and the register is not a ladder, and the numbers are not weapons.

3:2 ¶ And the counting of the room is public: seven hundred eighty and nine rows, five hundred sixty and nine priests, two hundred nine deacons, eleven bishops; and the counting was verified against the roll's own arithmetic at the building, and the diff returned nothing, or the room had not stood.