XXXVI GENERAL VIEW OF THE TROUBLES OF THE REFORMATION AID, glorious Martyrs, from your fields of light, Our mortal ken! Inspire a perfect trust (While we look round) that Heaven's decrees are just : Which few can hold committed to a fight That shows, ev'n on its better side, the might 5 Of proud Self-will, Rapacity, and Lust, 'Mid clouds enveloped of polemic dust, Which showers of blood seem rather to incite Than to allay. Anathemas are hurled From both sides; veteran thunders (the brute test XXXVII ENGLISH REFORMERS IN EXILE * SCATTERING, like birds escaped the fowler's net, *During Mary's reign, fully 800 of the English clergy and laity sought refuge on the Continent, and they were hospitably received in Switzerland, the Low Countries, and along the Rhine. Some of the best known were Coverdale, Sandys, Jewel, Knox, Whittingham, and Foxe. They lived in Basle, Zurich, Geneva, Strasburg, Worms, and Frankfort; and it was in the latter town that the dissensions prevailed, referred to in the sonnet. These were unfolded in a Tract entitled The Troubles of Frankfort. The chief point in dispute was the use of the English Book of Common Prayer. Knox and Whittingham, under the guidance of Calvin, wished a modification of this book. The dispute ended in the Frankfort magistrates requesting Knox to leave the city. He retired to Geneva. On the accession of Elizabeth, the Frankfort exiles returned to England.-ED. ELIZABETH By dauntless Luther freed, could they forget 65 Their Country's woes. But scarcely have they met, 5 Partners in faith, and brothers in distress, Free to pour forth their common thankfulness, Ere hope declines :—their union is beset 9 Whence thickly-sprouting growth of poisonous weeds; Is he who can, by help of grace, enthrone XXXVIII ELIZABETH HAIL, Virgin Queen! o'er many an envious bar 1 By sleepless prudence 2 ruled, glides slowly on; 1827. With prurient speculations 1822. 1822. 5 ΙΟ conspiracies against Elizabeth, the Pope's excommunication, and conSee The White Doe of Rylstone. F Ah! wherefore yields it to a foul constraint * 1 XXXIX EMINENT REFORMERS METHINKS that I could trip o'er heaviest soil, The gift exalting, and with playful smile: † 1845. For, wheresoe'er she moves, the clouds anon 2 1827. could 1822. 1822. 5 * An allusion probably to the Court of High Commission, and perhaps also to the execution of the Scottish Queen.-ED. "On foot they1 went, and took Salisbury in their way, purposely to see the good Bishop, who made Mr. Hooker sit at his own table; which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he saw his mother and friends; and at the Bishop's parting with him, the Bishop gave him good counsel and his benediction, but forgot to give him money; which when the Bishop had considered, he sent a servant in all haste to call Richard back to him, and at Richard's return, the Bishop said to him, 'Richard, I sent for you back to lend you a horse which hath carried me many a mile, and I thank God with much ease,' and presently delivered into his hand a walking-staff, with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany; and he said, Richard, I do not give, but lend you my horse; be sure you be honest, and bring my horse back to me, at your return this way to Oxford. And I do now give you ten groats to bear your charges to Exeter; and here is ten groats more, which I charge you to deliver to your mother, and tell her I send her a Bishop's benediction with it, and beg the continuance of her prayers for me. And if you bring my horse back to me, I will give you ten groats more to carry you on foot to the college; and so God bless you, good Richard.'" (See Walton's Life of Richard Hooker.)-W. W. 1822. 1 i.e. Richard Hooker and a College companion.-ED. EMINENT REFORMERS Tempest, or length of way, or weight of toil ?— A thousand times more exquisitely sweet, In thoughtful moments, wafted by the gales 67 ΙΟ From fields where good men walk, or bowers wherein they rest. XL THE SAME HOLY and heavenly Spirits as they are, * Their Church reformed!1 labouring with earnest care In their afflictions a divine retreat; Source of their liveliest hope, and tenderest prayer!The truth exploring with an equal mind, 5 * The reading, "Their new-born Church," printed in all editions of the poems from 1822 till 1842, had been objected to by several correspondents; and out of deference to their suggestions it was altered to "Their Church reformed"; but Wordsworth wrote to his nephew and biographer, November 12, 1846, "I don't like the term reformed; if taken in its literal sense as a transformation, it is very objectionable" (see Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 113), and in the "postscript" to Yarrow Revisited, etc., he says, "The great Religious Reformation of the sixteenth century did not profess to be a new construction, but a restoration of something fallen into decay, or put out of sight."-ED. In doctrine and communion they have sought 1 To trace right courses for the stubborn blind, 1 ΙΟ XLI DISTRACTIONS MEN, who have ceased to reverence, soon defy 1 1827. In polity and discipline they sought 1822. *The first nonconforming sect in England originated in 1556. It broke off from the Church, on a question of vestments. The chief divisions of English Nonconformity in the latter half of the sixteenth century were (1) the Brunists, or Barronists. The disciples of Brun quarrelled and divided amongst themselves. (2) The Familists, an offshoot of the Dutch Anabaptists, a mystic sect which quarrelled with the Puritans. (3) The Anabaptists, who were not only religious sectaries, but who differed with the Church on sundry social and civil matters. "They denied the sanctity of an oath, the binding power of laws, the right of the magistrate to punish, and the rights of property.' (Perry's History of the English Church, p. 315.) See also Hooker's Preface to his Ecclesiastical Polity, c. viii. 6-12; and the "Life of Sir Matthew Hale," Eccl. Biog. iv. 533, on the "indigested enthusiastical scheme called The Kingdom of Christ, or of his Saints.”—ED. A common device in religious and political conflicts. See Strype, in support of this instance.-W. W. 1822. Probably the reference is to the case of Cussin, a Dominican Friar. He |