Note 35 — RELIGIO LAICI.
Reading edition
Perhaps this idea is borrowed from "Hudibras:"
The learned write, an insect breeze Is but a mongrel prince of bees, That falls before a storm on cows, And stings the founders of his house, From whose corrupted flesh, that breed Of vermin did at first proceed. So, ere the storm of war broke out, Religion spawned a various rout Of petulant capricious sects, The maggots of corrupted texts, That first run all religion down, And after every swarm its own. Hudibras, Part III. canto 2.