I still don't understand why Tennyson is considered the most important poet of the Victorian era. I think it is Brownings satire on how petty the church can be. I also noticed that Browning draws paralells between Greek Deus and Christian. I think he is insinuating that the Greeks beliefs faded and so does the glory of Christianity. I think the reason he does not care for churches to be elaborately decorrated is because he sees it as a silly notion.
Browning pokes a LOT of fun at the Bishop in the poem.
He makes this man a totally reprehensible character, someone that no one could agree with or respect or venerate. I'm curious to hear what all of you think. Well, considering who their father is, it doesn't seem likely that the sons will eschew self-improvement in order to give him the sendoff he wants. He won't be able to have any power over them once he's dead, and I wouldn't imagine that there was much love lost between them and their father. He was probably too busy chasing skirts to be much of a dad.