AND, not in vain embodied to the sight, Religion finds even in the stern retreat Of feudal sway her own appropriate seat; From the collegiate pomps on Windsor's height Down to the humbler altar, which the Knight And his Retainers of the embattled hall Seek in domestic oratory small,
For prayer in stillness, or the chanted rite; Then chiefly dear, when foes are planted round, Who teach the intrepid guardians of the place- Hourly exposed to death, with famine worn, And suffering under many a perilous wound- How sad would be their durance, if forlorn Of offices dispensing heavenly grace!
As faith thus sanctified the warrior's crest While from the Papal Unity there came, What feebler means had fail'd to give, one aim Diffused thro' all the regions of the West; So does her Unity its power attest
By works of Art, that shed, on the outward frame Of worship, glory and grace, which who shall blame That ever looked to heaven for final rest? Hail countless Temples! that so well befit Your ministry; that, as ye rise and take Form spirit and character from holy writ, Give to devotion, wheresoe'er awake, Pinions of high and higher sweep, and make The unconverted soul with awe submit.
AND what melodious sounds at times prevail ! And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream! What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale That swells the bosom of our passing sail! For where, but on this River's margin, blow Those flowers of chivalry, to bind the brow Of hardihood with wreaths that shall not fail?- Fair Court of Edward! wonder of the world! I see a matchless blazonry unfurled Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love; And meekness tempering honourable pride; The lamb is couching by the lion's side, And near the flame-eyed eagle sits the dove.
Where long and deeply hath been fixed the root In the blest soil of gospel truth, the Tree, (Blighted or scathed tho' many branches be, Put forth to wither, many a hopeful shoot) Can never cease to bear celestial fruit. Witness the Church that oft times, with effect Dear to the saints, strives earnestly to eject Her bane, her vital energies recruit. Lamenting, do not hopelessly repine When such good work is doomed to be undone, The conquests lost that were so hardly won:-- All promises vouchsafed by Heaven will shine In light confirmed while years their course shall run, Confirmed alike in progress and decline.
FURL we the sails, and pass with tardy oars Through these bright regions, casting many a glance Upon the dream-like issues-the romance Of many-coloured life that Fortune pours Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores Their labours end; or they return to lie, The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy, Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors. Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chanted By voices never mute when Heaven unties Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies; Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted, When she would tell how Brave, and Good, and Wise,
For their high guerdon not in vain have panted!
ENOUGH! for see, with dim association The tapers burn; the odorous incense feeds A greedy flame; the pompous mass proceeds; The Priest bestows the appointed consecration; And, while the HOST is raised, its elevation An awe and supernatural horror breeds; And all the people bow their heads, like reeds To a soft breeze, in lowly adoration. This Valdo brooks not. On the banks of Rhone He taught, till persecution chased him thence, To adore the Invisible, and Him alone. Nor are his Followers loth to seek defence, Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne, From rites that trample upon soul and sense.
BUT whence came they who for the Saviour Lord Have long borne witness as the Scriptures teach ?— Ages ere Valdo raised his voice to preach In Gallic ears the unadulterate Word, Their fugitive Progenitors explored Subalpine vales, in quest of safe retreats
Where that pure Church survives, though summer heats
Open a passage to the Romish sword, Far as it dares to follow. Herbs self-sown, And fruitage gathered from the chesnut wood, Nourish the sufferers then; and mists, that brood O'er chasms with new-fallen obstacles bestrown, Protect them; and the eternal snow that daunts Aliens, is God's good winter for their haunts.
ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V.
"WHAT beast in wilderness or cultured field "The lively beauty of the leopard shows? "What flower in meadow-ground or garden grows "That to the towering lily doth not yield? "Let both meet only on thy royal shield! "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."-The mitred
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, But one that leaps to meet the fanning breeze.
PRAISED be the Rivers, from their mountain springs Shouting to Freedom, "Plant thy banners here!" To harassed Piety, "Dismiss thy fear, And in our caverns smooth thy ruffled wings!" Nor be unthanked their final lingerings- Silent, but not to high-souled Passion's ear- '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 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!
WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER.
THUS is the storm abated by the craft
Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect [checked, The Church, whose power hath recently been Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the shaft
Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed 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 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.
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 Then followed the Waldensian bands, whom Hate 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 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.
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 ; [hear Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can 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."
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, "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-
'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.
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
The pious, humble, useful Secular,
And rob the people of his daily care,
DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES. THREATS Come which no submission may assuage, 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.
THE lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek Through saintly habit than from effort due To unrelenting mandates that pursue
With equal wrath the steps of strong and weak) Goes forth-unveiling timidly a cheek
Suffused with blushes of celestial hue,
While through the Convent's gate to open view
Scorning that world whose blindness makes her Softly she glides, another home to seek.
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!
Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine,
An Apparition more divinely bright! Not more attractive to the dazzled sight Those watery glories, on the stormy brine Poured forth, while summer suns at distance shine, And the green vales lie hushed in sober light!
MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS.
YET more,-round many a Convent's blazing fire Unhallowed threads of revelry are spun ; There Venus sits disguised 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-
To stay the precious waste. Through every brain The domination of the sprightly juice 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!"
YET many a Novice of the cloistral shade, And many chained by vows, with eager glee The warrant hail, exulting to be free; Like ships before whose keels, full long embayed In polar ice, propitious winds have made Unlooked-for outlet to an open sea, Their liquid world, for bold discovery, In all her quarters temptingly displayed! Hope guides the young; but when the old must
The threshold, whither shall they turn to find The hospitality-the alms (alas!
Alms may be needed) which that House bestowed? Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind To keep this new and questionable road?
YE, too, must fly before a chasing hand, Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned ! Ah! if the old idolatry be spurned, Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land: Her adoration was not your demand, The fond heart proffered it-the servile heart; And therefore are ye summoned to depart, Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand The Dragon quelled; and valiant Margaret Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew : And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen Of harmony; and weeping Magdalene, Who in the penitential desert met
Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew !
DEEP is the lamentation! Not alone From Sages justly honoured by mankind; But from the ghostly tenants of the wind, Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan Issues for that dominion overthrown: Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind As his own worshippers: and Nile, reclined Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan Renews. Through every forest, cave, and den, Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow past-
Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophet's native Waste, Where once his airy helpers schemed and planned Mid spectral lakes bemocking thirsty men, And stalking pillars built of fiery sand.
MOTHER! Whose virgin bosom was uncrost With the least shade of thought to sin allied; Woman! above all women glorified, Our tainted nature's solitary boast; Purer than foam on central ocean tost; Brighter than eastern skies at daybreak strewn With fancied roses, than the unblemished moon Before her wane begins on heaven's blue coast; Thy Image falls to earth. Yet some, I ween, Not unforgiven the suppliant knee might bend, As to a visible Power, in which did blend All that was mixed and reconciled in Thee Of mother's love with maiden purity, Of high with low, celestial with terrene !
GRANT, that by this unsparing hurricane Green leaves with yellow mixed are torn away, And goodly fruitage with the mother spray; "Twere madness-wished we, therefore, to detain, With hands stretched forth in mollified disdain, The 'trumpery' that ascends in bare display- Bulls, pardons, relics, cowls black, white, and grey— Upwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain Fast bound for Limbo Lake. And yet not choice But habit rules the unreflecting herd, And airy bonds are hardest to disown; Hence, with the spiritual sovereignty transferred Unto itself, the Crown assumes a voice Of reckless mastery, hitherto unknown.
TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE.
BUT, to outweigh all harm, the sacred Book, In dusty sequestration wrapt too long, Assumes the accents of our native tongue; And he who guides the plough, or wields the crook, With understanding spirit now may look Upon her records, listen to her song, And sift her laws-much wondering that the wrong, Which Faith has suffered, Heaven could calmly brook.
Transcendent boon! noblest that earthly King Ever bestowed to equalize and bless
Under the weight of mortal wretchedness! But passions spread like plagues, and thousands wild With bigotry shall tread the Offering Beneath their feet, detested and defiled.
FOR what contend the wise?-for nothing less Than that the Soul, freed from the bonds of Sense, And to her God restored by evidence
Of things not seen, drawn forth from their recess, Root there, and not in forms, her holiness ;- For Faith, which to the Patriarchs did dispense Sure guidance, ere a ceremonial fence
Was needful round men thirsting to transgress For Faith, more perfect still, with which the Lord Of all, himself a Spirit, in the youth Of Christian aspiration, deigned to fill
The temples of their hearts who, with his word Informed, were resolute to do his will, And worship him in spirit and in truth.
'SWEET is the holiness of Youth'—so felt
THE saintly Youth has ceased to rule, discrowned By unrelenting Death. O People keen
For change, to whom the new looks always green! Rejoicing did they cast upon the ground Their Gods of wood and stone and, at the sound Of counter-proclamation, now are seen, (Proud triumph is it for a sullen Queen !) Lifting them up, the worship to confound Of the Most High. Again do they invoke The Creature, to the Creature glory give; Again with frankincense the altars smoke Like those the Heathen served; and mass is sung; And prayer, man's rational prerogative,
Runs through blind channels of an unknown tongue.
LATIMER AND RIDLEY.
How fast the Marian death-list is unrolled! See Latimer and Ridley in the might
Time-honoured Chaucer speaking through that Lay Of Faith stand coupled for a common flight!
By which the Prioress beguiled the way, And many a Pilgrim's rugged heart did melt.
Hadst thou, loved Bard! whose spirit often dwelt In the clear land of vision, but foreseen King, child, and seraph, blended in the mien Of pious Edward kneeling as he knelt In meek and simple infancy, what joy For universal Christendom had thrilled
Thy heart! what hopes inspired thy genius, skilled (0 great Precursor, genuine morning Star) The lucid shafts of reason to employ, Piercing the Papal darkness from afar!
One (like those prophets whom God sent of old) Transfigured, from this kindling hath foretold A torch of inextinguishable light;
The Other gains a confidence as bold; And thus they foil their enemy's despite. The penal instruments, the shows of crime, Are glorified while this once-mitred pair Of saintly Friends the 'murtherer's chain partake, Corded, and burning at the social stake:' Earth never witnessed object more sublime In constancy, in fellowship more fair!
EDWARD SIGNING THE WARRANT FOR THE EXECUTION OF JOAN OF KENT.
THE tears of man in various measure gush From various sources; gently overflow From blissful transport some-from clefts of woe Some with ungovernable impulse rush; And some, coeval with the earliest blush Of infant passion, scarcely dare to show Their pearly lustre coming but to go;
And some break forth when others' sorrows crush The sympathising heart. Nor these, nor yet The noblest drops to admiration known, To gratitude, to injuries forgiven—
Claim Heaven's regard like waters that have wet The innocent eyes of youthful Monarchs driven To pen the mandates, nature doth disown.
OUTSTRETCHING flame-ward his upbraided hand (O God of mercy, may no earthly Seat Of judgment such presumptuous doom repeat !) Amid the shuddering throng doth Cranmer stand; Firm as the stake to which with iron band His frame is tied; firm from the naked feet To the bare head. The victory is complete; The shrouded Body to the Soul's command Answers with more than Indian fortitude, Through all her nerves with finer sense endued, Till breath departs in blissful aspiration: Then, 'mid the ghastly ruins of the fire, Behold the unalterable heart entire, [tion!+ Emblem of faith untouched, miraculous attesta- *See Note.
For the belief in this fact, see the contemporary Historians.
« AnteriorContinuar » |