WHERE LONG AND DEEPLY HATH BEEN FIXED. 41

Comp. 1842.

IX.

Pub. 1845.

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.*

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.

* In a letter to Professor Henry Reed, Philadelphia, Sept. 4, 1842, Wordsworth writes: "To the second part of the Series," the Ecclesiastical Sonnets, "I have also added two, in order to do more justice to the Papal Church for the services which she did actually render to Christianity and humanity in the Middle Ages."-ED.

42

TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

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.

XI.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

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 brooks1 not.* On the banks of Rhone

He taught, till persecution chased him thence,

To adore the Invisible, and Him alone.

* Peter Waldo (or Valdo), a rich merchant of Lyons (1160 or 1170), becoming religious, dedicated himself to poverty and almsgiving. Disciples gathered round him; and they were called the poor men of Lyons—a modest, frugal, and industrious order. They were reformers before the Reformation. Peter Waldo exposed the corruption of the clergy, had the four gospels translated for the people, and maintained the rights of the laity to read them to the masses. He was condemned by the Lateran Council in 1179.-ED.

PRAISED BE THE RIVERS.

Nor are1 his Followers loth to seek defence,

Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne,
From rites that trample upon soul and sense.

43

XII.

THE VAUDOIS.

Pub. 1835.

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.

XIII.

Pub. 1835.

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!"

1 1837.

Nor were

1822.

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 divine1
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 !3

XIV.

WALDENSES.*

THOSE had given earliest notice, as the lark
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;

1

1837.

their tardiest lingerings

'Mid reedy fens wide-spread and marshes drear,
Their own creation, till their long career
End in the sea engulphed. Such welcomings
As came from mighty Po when Venice rose,
Greeted those simple Heirs of truth divine

1835.

1835.

* The followers of Peter Waldo became ultimately a separate community, and multiplied in the valleys of Dauphine and Piedmont. They suffered persecutions in 1332, 1400, and 1478, but these persecutions only drove them into fresh districts in Europe. Francis I. of France ordered them to be extirpated from Piedmont in 1541, and many were massacred. In 1560 the Duke of Savoy renewed the persecution at the instance of the Papal See. Charles Emmanuel II., in 1655, continued it.-ED.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V.

45

Or1 rather rose the day to antedate,

By striking out a solitary spark,

When all the world with midnight gloom was dark.-
Then followed the Waldensian bands, whom Hate2

In vain endeavours to exterminate,

Whom Obloquy pursues with hideous bark :*

But they desist not;-and the sacred fire,5
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.

XV.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V.

"WHAT beast in wilderness or cultured field

"The lively beauty of the leopard shows?

1822.

1822.

These Harbingers of good, whom bitter hate
At length come those Waldensian bands, whom Hate 1843.

* The list of foul names bestowed upon those poor creatures is long and curious;—and, as is, alas, too natural, most of the opprobrious appellations are drawn from circumstances into which they were forced by their persecutors, who even consolidated their miseries into one reproachful term, calling them Patarenians, or Paturins, from pati, to suffer.

Dwellers with wolves, she names them, for the pine

And green oak are their covert; as the gloom

Of night oft foils their enemy's design,

She calls them Riders on the flying broom;

Sorcerers, whose frame and aspect have become

One and the same through practices malign.-W. W. 1822.