For the sake of completeness, and for what it's worth:
"...this turbulent priest" gets 22,300 Googlehits
"...this troublesome priest" gets 19,800 Ghits
"...this meddlesome priest" shows a mere 6700 Ghits

I wonder what the "real" quotation is.

The only way I know of to avoid the syllable-count ambiguity is to use a different word. That being said, accepting the three-syllable "several," the verse sparkles!