Is this some kind of reference to Catholic guilt, or merely a snatch of surreal Milliganesque nonsense?

Anthoid Mollusca are divided into three orders: first, Brachiopods, (from the Greek brachion, arm, and pous, foot,) with a bivalve shell, symmetrical in form; second, Ascidions, which have no hard shells and hence are hardly recognized as fossils; third, Bryozoans (from the Greek bruon, moss, and zoon, animal,) of minute size, sometimes branched like moss.

He caved under pressure.

Very courtly and correctly spoken on all sides, my lord;