CORRUPTIONS OF THe higher CLERGY 49 XVII WICLIFFE ONCE more the Church is seized with sudden fear, Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed And flung into the brook that travels near; 4 Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can hear 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 10 "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; * The Council of Constance condemned Wicliffe as a heretic, and issued an order that his remains should be exhumed, and burnt. "Accordingly, by order of the Bishop of Lincoln, as Diocesan of Lutterworth, his grave, which was in the chancel of the church, was opened, forty years after his death; the bones were taken out and burnt to ashes, and the ashes thrown into a neighbouring brook called the Swift." (Southey's Book of the Church, vol. i. p. 384.) "Thus this brook," says Fuller, "hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." (The Church History of Britain from the Birth of Christ until the year MDCXLVIII. endeavoured, book iv. p. 424.) In the note to the 11th Sonnet of Part I., Wordsworth acknowledges his obligations to Fuller in connection with this Sonnet on Wicliffe. See Charles Lamb's comment on this passage of Fuller's, Prose Works (1876), vol. iv. p. 277.-ED. VOL. VII E "You, on whose progress dazzling trains await Alas! of fearful things 5 II XIX ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER AND what is Penance with her knotted thong; If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong The pious, humble, useful Secular,* And rob1 the people of his daily care, 5 Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong? Inversion strange! that, unto One who lives 2 1 1827. And robs 2 1827. 1822. Scorning their wants because her arm is strong? 1822. *The secular clergy are the priests of the Roman church, who belong to no special religious order, but have the charge of parishes, and so live in the world (seculum). The regular clergy are the monks belonging to one or other of the monastic orders, and are subject to its rules (regula).—ED. MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS For self, and struggles with himself alone, XX MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS YET more,—round many a Convent's blazing fire To stay the precious waste. Through every brain The domination of the sprightly juice Spreads high conceits to madding Fancy dear,2 Till the arched roof, with resolute abuse Of its grave echoes, swells a choral strain, Whose votive burthen is—“OUR KINGDOM'S HERE! 1 1845. And hath allotted, in the world's esteem, That to a Monk allots, in the esteem 21832. 1822 1827. In every brain Spreads the dominion of the sprightly juice, * See Wordsworth's note to the next Sonnet.-ED. 1822. 5 ΙΟ XXI DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES THREATS Come which no submission may assuage, The tapers shall be quenched, the belfries mute, For their abode the shrines of Waltham choose: † To stoop her head before these desperate shocks- 5 ΙΟ XXII THE SAME SUBJECT THE lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek * These two lines are adopted from a MS., written about the year 1770, which accidentally fell into my possession. The close of the preceding Sonnet on monastic voluptuousness is taken from the same source, as is the verse, "Where Venus sits," etc. [W. W. 1822], and the line, "Once ye were holy, ye are holy still," in a subsequent Sonnet.-W. W. 1837. Waltham Abbey is in Essex, on the Lea.-ED. Alluding to the Roman legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought Christianity into Britain, and built Glastonbury Church. See Part I. Sonnet 11. (p. 5) and note §.-ED. DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES Goes forth-unveiling timidly a cheek 1 While through the Convent's 2 gate to open view Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine, 53 Poured forth, while summer suns at distance shine, And the green vales lie hushed in sober light! 5 IO XXIII CONTINUED YET many a Novice of the cloistral shade, 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! 5 Hope guides the young; but when the old must pass The threshold, whither shall they turn to find The hospitality—the alms (alas! ΙΟ Alms may be needed) which that House bestowed? Can they, in faith and worship, train the mind To keep this new and questionable road? |