6 1 UNCERTAINTY. IV. DRUIDICAL EXCOMMUNICATION. MERCY and Love have met thee on thy road, From every sympathy that Man bestowed! As to the one sole fount whence wisdom flowed, V. UNCERTAINTY. DARKNESS surrounds us: seeking, we are lost Along the plain of Sarum, by the ghost 2 Of Time and shadows of Tradition, crost; 1827. And yon thick woods maintain the primal truth, 1822. 1822. The reference is to Yorkshire. The Brigantes inhabited England from sea to sea, from Cumberland to Durham, but more especially Yorkshire. See Tacitus, Annals, Book xii. 32; Ptolemy, Geog., 27, 1; Camden, Brit., 556-648.-ED. PERSECUTION. Which yet survive on bleak Iona's coast.* Nor characters of Greek or Roman fame, To an unquestionable Source have led: 7 VI. PERSECUTION. LAMENT for Diocletian's fiery sword. It rages;—some are smitten in the field— Some pierced to the heart through the ineffectual shield2 Of sacred home;-with pomp are others gored And dreadful respite. Thus was Alban tried,‡ 1 1843. fame, 1822. 2 1843. Some pierced beneath the unavailing shield 1822. 1827. Compare the four sonnets on Iona, in the 'Poems composed or suggested during a Tour in the Summer of 1833.'-ED. + See note +, p. 12.-ED. "The first man who laid down his life in Britain for the Christian faith was Saint Alban. . . . During the tenth, and most rigorous of the persecutions, a Christian priest, flying from his persecutors, came to the City of Verulamium, and took shelter in Alban's house: he, not being of the faith himself, concealed him for pure compassion; but when he observed the devotion of his guest, how fervent it was, and how firm, his heart was touched. ... When the persecutors came to search the house, Alban, putting on the hair-cassock of his teacher, delivered himself into their hands, as if he had been the fugitive, and was carried before the heathen governor. . . . Because he refused to betray his guest or offer sacrifices to the Roman gods, he was scourged, and then led to execution upon the spot where the abbey now stands, which in after times was erected to his memory, and still bears his 8 TEMPTATIONS FROM ROMAN REFINEMENTS. England's first Martyr, whom no threats could shake; And for the faith; nor shall his name forsake VII. RECOVERY. As, when a storm hath ceased, the birds regain Their nests, or chant a gratulating hymn That persecution, blind with rage extreme, May not the less, through Heaven's mild countenance, Even in her own despite, both feed and cheer; For all things are less dreadful than they seem. VIII. TEMPTATIONS FROM ROMAN REFINEMENTS. WATCH, and be firm for soul-subduing vice, Heart-killing luxury, on your steps await. name. That spot was then a beautiful meadow upon a little rising ground, 'seeming,' says the venerable Bede, 'a fit theatre for the martyr's triumph.'"-Southey's Book of the Church, Vol. I., p. 14.-—ED. * The hill at St Alban's must have been an object of great interest to the imagination of the venerable Bede, who thus describes it, with a delicate feeling, delightful to meet with in that rude age, traces of which are frequent in his works :-"Variis herbarum floribus depictus, imò usquequaque vestitus, in quo nihil repentè arduum, nihil præceps, nihil DISSENSIONS. Fair houses, baths, and banquets delicate, Their radiance through the woods-may yet suffice Your love of Him upon whose forehead sate The crown of thorns; whose life-blood flowed, the price. Shun the insidious arts Of your redemption. That Rome provides, less dreading from her frown Language, and letters;-these, though fondly viewed And instruments of deadliest servitude! IX. DISSENSIONS. THAT heresies should strike (if truth be scanned Lo! Discord at the altar dares to stand * 1 Uplifting toward 1 high Heaven her fiery brand, 9 abruptum, quem lateribus longè latèque deductum in modum æquoris natura complanat, dignum videlicet eum, pro insitâ sibi specie venustatis, jam olim reddens qui beati martyris cruore dicaretur."-W. W., 1822. Arianism had spread into Britain, and British Bishops were summoned to councils held concerning it, at Sardica, A.D. 347, and at Ariminum, A.D. 360. See Fuller's Church History, p. 25; and Churton's Early English Church, p. 9.-Ed. 10 STRUGGLE OF THE BRITONS. She casts the Britons upon strange Allies, X. STRUGGLE OF THE BRITONS AGAINST THE RISE-they have risen: of brave Aneurin ask * Upon the Patriots, animates their task;1 O'er heaps of slain;-from Cambrian wood and moss Bards, nursed on blue Plinlimmon's still abode,‡ Rush on the fight, to harps preferring swords, And everlasting deeds to burning words! 1 1837. The spirit of Caractacus defends The Patriots, animates their glorious task ; 1822. Aneurin was the bard who-in the poem named the Gododin-celebrated the struggle between the Cymri and the Teutons in the middle of the sixth century, which ended in the great battle of Catterick, or Cattreath, in Yorkshire. Aneurin was himself chieftain as well as bard.-ED. + Urien was chief of the Cymri, and led them in the great conflict of the sixth century against the Angles.—ED. ‡ Such as Aneurin, Taliesin, Llywarch Hen, and Merlin. —ED. |