THUS is the storm abated by the craft Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect The Church, whose power hath recently been checked,
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.
Wars of York and Lancaster
ONCE more the Church is seized with sudden fear, Wicliffe And at her call is Wicliffe disin humed:
Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed And flung into the brook that travels near; 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 By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed."
Corruptions "Woe to you, Prelates! rioting in ease of the Higher And cumbrous wealth—the shame of your estate; Clergy 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" Alas! of fearful things '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 AND what is Penance with her knotted thong; Monastic Mortification with the shirt of hair,
Power 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,
Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong?
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!
YET more,-round many a Convent's blazing fire Monastic 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 precions 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!
THREATS Come which no submission may assuage, Dissolution of the No sacrifice avert, no power dispute; Monasteries
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 same THE lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek subject 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 Softly she glides, another home to seek. 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!
Continued 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 pass 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 !
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!
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