And prove their doctrine orthodox,
By apostolic blows and knocks.

These lines come from Samuel Butler’s satirical mock-epic poem *Hudibras* (1663–1678), which lampoons Puritan zealotry and sectarian conflict during and after the English Civil Wars. Butler’s protagonist, the Presbyterian knight Sir Hudibras, and his squire Ralpho embody the pedantry and hypocrisy Butler associated with religious extremists. The poem repeatedly jokes that disputants “prove” their theological correctness not by reason or charity but by coercion and violence—reflecting the era’s bitter struggles over church governance, doctrine, and political power. The phrase “apostolic blows and knocks” is part of Butler’s broader critique of sanctimonious brutality carried out under the banner of true religion.

Butler’s couplet is an ironic reversal: “orthodox” doctrine is supposedly established through apostolic authority and spiritual persuasion, yet here it is “proved” by physical force. The adjective “apostolic” (evoking the apostles and the early Church) is deliberately incongruous with “blows and knocks,” exposing how claims of sacred legitimacy can mask ordinary aggression. The lines satirize the tendency of ideological movements to treat violence as a form of argument—turning faith into faction and debate into domination. More broadly, the couplet suggests that when certainty becomes self-righteousness, power replaces truth as the measure of correctness.