'Mid reedy fens wide-spread and marshes drear,
Their own creation. Such glad welcomings
As Po was heard to give where Venice rose
Hailed from aloft those Heirs of truth divine 10
Who near his fountains sought obscure repose,
Yet came prepared as glorious lights to shine,
Should that be needed for their sacred Charge;
Blest Prisoners They, whose spirits were at
large!

XIV.

WALDENSES.

THOSE had given earliest notice, as the lark Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate; Or rather rose the day to antedate,

By striking out a solitary spark,

When all the world with midnight gloom was

dark.

5

Then followed the Waldensian bands, whom Hate

1

In vain endeavours to exterminate,
Whom Obloquy pursues with hideous bark:
But they desist not;-and the sacred fire,
Rekindled thus, from dens and savage woods 10
Moves, handed on with never-ceasing care,
Through courts, through camps, o'er limitary
floods;

Nor lacks this sea-girt Isle a timely share
Of the new Flame, not suffered to expire.

XV.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V.

"WHAT beast in wilderness or cultured field The lively beauty of the leopard shows?

1 See Note.

What flower in meadow-ground or garden

grows

That to the towering lily doth not yield?
Let both meet only on thy royal shield!

5

Go forth, great King! claim what thy birth bestows;

Conquer the Gallic lily which thy foes

Dare to usurp ;-thou hast a sword to wield, And Heaven will crown the right."

mitred Sire

The

Thus spake and lo! a Fleet, for Gaul addrest, Ploughs her bold course across the wondering

seas;

For, sooth to say, ambition, in the breast

Of youthful heroes, is no sullen fire,

II

But one that leaps to meet the fanning breeze.

XVI.

WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER.

THUS is the storm abated by the craft
Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect
The Church, whose power hath recently been
checked,

Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the

shaft

Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed 5
In fields that rival Cressy and Poictiers-
Pride to be washed away by bitter tears!
For deep as hell itself the avenging draught
Of civil slaughter. Yet, while temporal power
Is by these shocks exhausted, spiritual truth 10
Maintains the else endangered gift of life;
Proceeds from infancy to lusty youth;
And, under cover of this woeful strife,
Gathers unblighted strength from hour to hour.

XVII.

WICLIFFE.

ONCE more the Church is seized with sudden fear,

And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed:

Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed
And flung into the brook that travels near;
Forthwith that ancient Voice which Streams
can hear

5

Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind,

Though seldom heard by busy human kind)— "As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear Into the Avon, Avon to the tide

Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas,
Into main Ocean they, this deed accurst
An emblem yields to friends and enemies
How the bold Teacher's Doctrine, sanctified
By truth, shall spread, throughout the world
dispersed.'

XVIII.

CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY.

"Woe to you, Prelates! rioting in ease And cumbrous wealth the shame of your

estate;

You, on whose progress dazzling trains await
Of pompous horses; whom vain titles please;
Who will be served by others on their knees, 5
Yet will yourselves to God no service pay;
Pastors who neither take nor point the way
To Heaven; for, either lost in vanities

Ye have no skill to teach,

or if

ye

know

And speak the word

things

"Alas! of fearful

"Tis the most fearful when the people's eye
Abuse hath cleared from vain imaginings;
And taught the general voice to prophesy
Of Justice armed, and Pride to be laid low.

XIX.

ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER.

AND what is Penance with her knotted thong; Mortification with the shirt of hair,

Wan cheek, and knees indúrated with prayer, Vigils, and fastings rigorous as long;

If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong 5 The pious, humble, useful Secular,

And rob the people of his daily care,

Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong?

Inversion strange! that, unto One who lives
For self, and struggles with himself alone,
The amplest share of heavenly favour gives;
That to a Monk allots, both in the esteem
Of God and man, place higher than to him
Who on the good of others builds his own!

XX.

MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS.

YET more,-round many a Convent's blazing fire

Unhallowed threads of revelry are spun;
There Venus sits disguisèd like a Nun,-

While Bacchus, clothed in semblance of a Friar,
Pours out his choicest beverage high and higher

Sparkling, until it cannot choose but run
Over the bowl, whose silver lip hath won
An instant kiss of masterful desire-

6

To stay the precious waste. Through every brain

The domination of the sprightly juice

ΙΟ

Spreads high conceits to madding Fancy dear,
Till the arched roof, with resolute abuse
Of its grave echoes, swells a choral strain
Whose votive burthen is "OUR KINGDOM'S
HERE!"

XXI.

DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES.

THREATS Come which no submission may as

suage,

5

No sacrifice avert, no power dispute;
The tapers shall be quenched, the belfries mute,
And, 'mid their choirs unroofed by selfish rage,
The warbling wren shall find a leafy cage;
The gadding bramble hang her purple fruit;
And the green lizard and the gilded newt
Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.
The owl of evening and the woodland fox
For their abode the shrines of Waltham choose:
Proud Glastonbury can no more refuse
To stoop her head before these desperate
shocks-

She whose high pomp displaced, as story tells, Arimathean Joseph's wattled cells.

XXII.

THE SAME SUBJECT.

THE lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek Through saintly habit than from effort due