BUT what if One, through grove or flowery mead, Indulging thus at will the creeping feet Of a voluptuous indolence, should meet Thy hovering Shade, O venerable Bede! The saint, the scholar, from a circle freed Of toil stupendous, in a hallowed seat
Of learning, where thou heard'st the billows beat On a wild coast, rough monitors to feed Perpetual industry. Sublime Recluse! The recreant soul, that dares to shun the debt Imposed on human kind, must first forget Thy diligence, thy unrelaxing use
Of a long life; and, in the hour of death, The last dear service of thy passing breath? 1
SAXON MONASTERIES, AND LIGHTS AND SHADES OF THE RELIGION.
By such examples moved to unbought pains, The people work like congregated bees; 2 Eager to build the quiet Fortresses Where Piety, as they believe, obtains From Heaven a general blessing; timely rains Or needful sunshine; prosperous enterprise, And peace, and equity.-Bold faith! yet rise The sacred Structures for less doubtful gains. The Sensual think with reverence of the palms Which the chaste Votaries seek, beyond the grave; If penance be redeemable, thence alms
Flow to the Poor, and freedom to the Slave;
And, if full oft the sanctuary save Lives black with guilt, ferocity it calms.
MISSIONS AND TRAVELS.
Nor sedentary all: there are who roam To scatter seeds of Life on barbarous shores; Or quit with zealous step their knee-worn floors To seek the general Mart of Christendom; Whence they, like richly-laden Merchants, come To their beloved Cells:-or shall we say That, like the Red-cross Knight, they urge their way, To lead in memorable triumph home Truth-their immortal Una? Babylon, Learned and wise, hath perished utterly, Nor leaves her Speech one word to aid the sigh That would lament her;-Memphis, Tyre, are gone With all their Arts,--but classic Lore glides on By these Religious saved for all posterity.
BEHOLD a Pupil of the Monkish gown, The pious ALFRED, King to Justice dear; Lord of the harp and liberating spear; Mirror of Princes! Indigent Renown
He expired dictating the last words of a translation of St John's Gospel.
See in Turner's History, vol. iii, p. 528, the account of the erection of Ramsey Monastery. Penances were removable by the performances of acts of charity and benevolence.
Might range the starry ether for a crown Equal to his deserts, who, like the year, Pours forth his bounty, like the day doth cheer, And awes like night with mercy-tempered frown. Ease from this noble Miser of his time
No moment steals; pain narrows not his cares. Though small his kingdom as a spark or gem, Of Alfred boasts remote Jerusalem,
And Christian India, through her wide-spread clime, In sacred converse gifts with Alfred shares.
CAN aught survive to linger in the veins Of kindred bodies-an essential power That may not vanish in one fatal hour, And wholly cast away terrestrial chains? The race of Alfred covets glorious pains When dangers threaten, dangers ever new! Black tempests bursting, blacker still in view! But manly sovereignty its hold retains; The root sincere, the branches bold to strive With the fierce tempest, while, within the round Of their protection, gentle virtues thrive; As oft, 'mid some green plot of open ground, Wide as the oak extends its dewy gloom, The fostered hyacinths spread their purple bloom.
INFLUENCE ABUSED.
URGED by Ambition, who with subtlest skill Changes her meaus, the Enthusiast as a dupe Shall soar, and as a hypocrite can stoop, And turn the instruments of good to ill, Moulding the credulous People to his will. Such DUNSTAN:-from its Benedictine coop Issues the master Mind, at whose fell swoop
The chaste affections tremble to fulfil
Their purposes. Behold, pre-signified,
The Might of spiritual sway! his thoughts, his dreams, Do in the supernatural world abide :
So vaunt a throng of Followers, filled with pride In shows of virtue pushed to its extremes, And sorceries of talent misapplied.
DANISH CONQUESTS.
WOE to the Crown that doth the Cowl obey! Dissension checks the arms that would restrain The incessant Rovers of the Northern Main; And widely spreads once more a Pagan sway: But Gospel-truth is potent to allay Fierceness and rage; and soon the cruel Dane Feels, through the influence of her gentle reign, His native superstitions melt away.
Thus, often, when thick gloom the east o'ershrouds, The full-orbed Moon, slow-climbing, doth appear Silently to consume the heavy clouds; How no one can resolve; but every eye
Through the whole of his life, Alfred was subject to grievous maladies.
The violent measures, carried on under the influence of Daustin, for strengthening the Benedictine Order, were a leading cause of the second series of Danish Invasions.-See Turner,
Around her sees, while air is hushed, a clear And widening circuit of ethereal sky.
A PLEASANT music floats along the Mere, From Monks in Ely chanting service high, Whileas Canute the King is rowing by :
My Oarsmen,» quoth the mighty King, «draw near, That we the sweet song of the Monks may hear!» He listens, (all past conquests and all schemes of future vanishing like empty dreams) Heart-touched, and haply not without a tear. The Royal Minstrel, ere the choir is still,
While his free Barge skims the smooth flood along, Gives to that rapture an accordant Rhyme.
O suffering Earth! be thankful; sternest clime And rudest age are subject to the thrill Of heaven-descended Piety and Song.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
Tag woman-hearted Confessor prepares The evanescence of the Saxon line. Hark! 't is the tolling Curfew! the stars shine, But of the lights that cherish household cares And festive gladness, burns not one that dares To twinkle after that dull stroke of thine,
Emblem and instrument, from Thames to Tyne, Of force that daunts, and cunning that ensnares! Yet as the terrors of the lordly bell, That quench, from hut to palace, lamps and fires, Touch not the tapers of the sacred quires, Even so a thraldom studious to expel Old laws and ancient customs to derange, Brings to Religion no injurious change.
The scimitar, that yields not to the charms Of ease, the narrow Bosphorus will disdain; Nor long (that crossed) would Grecian hills detain Their tents, and check the current of their arms. Then blame not those who, by the mightiest lever Known to the moral world, Imagination, Upheave (so seems it) from her natural station All Christendom :-they sweep along-(was never So huge a host!)—to tear from the Unbeliever The precious Tomb, their haven of salvation.
REDOUBTED King, of courage leonine,
I mark thee, Richard! urgent to equip Thy warlike person with the staff and scrip; I watch thee sailing o'er the midland brine; In conquered Cyprus see thy Bride decline Her blushing cheek, love-vows upon her lip, And see love-emblems streaming from thy ship, As thence she holds her way to Palestine. My Song (a fearless Homager) would attend Thy thundering battle-axe as it cleaves the press Of war, but duty summons her away
To tell, how finding in the rash distress
Of those enthusiast powers a constant Friend, Through giddier heights hath clomb the Papal sway.
REALMS quake by turns: proud Arbitress of The Church, by mandate shadowing forth the She arrogates o'er heaven's eternal door, Closes the gates of every sacred place. Straight from the sun and tainted air's embrace All sacred things are covered: cheerful morn Grows sad as night--no seemly garb is worn, Nor is a face allowed to meet a face With natural smile of greeting. Bells are dumb; Ditches are graves-funereal rites denied; And in the Church-yard he must take his Bride Who dares be wedded! Fancies thickly come Into the pensive heart ill fortified, And comfortless despairs the soul benumb.
As with the stream our voyage we pursue, The gross materials of this world present A marvellous study of wild accident; Uncouth proximities of old and new; And bold transfigurations, more untrue (As might be deemed) to disciplined intent Than aught the sky's fantastic element, When most fantastic, offers to the view. Saw we not Henry scourged at Becket's shrine? Lo! John self-stripped of his insignia;-crown, Sceptre and mantle, sword and ring, laid down At a proud Legate's feet! The spears that line Baronial Halls, the opprobrious insult feel; And angry Ocean roars a vain appeal.
BLACK Demons hovering o'er his mitred head, To Cæsar's Successor the Pontiff spake; «Ere I absolve thee, stoop! that on thy neck Levelled with Earth this foot of mine may tread. >> Then, he who to the Altar had been led,
He, whose strong arm the Orient could not check, lle, who had held the Soldan at his beck, Stooped, of all glory disinherited,
And even the common dignity of man! Amazement strikes the crowd;-while many turn Their in others burn eyes away sorrow, With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban From outraged Nature; but the sense of most In abject sympathy with power is lost.
UNLESS to Peter's Chair the viewless wind Must come and ask permission when to blow, What further empire would it have? for now A ghostly Domination, unconfined
As that by dreaming Bards to Love assigned, Sits there in sober truth-to raise the low, Perplex the wise, the strong to overthrow- Through earth and heaven to bind and to unbind! Resist the thunder quails thee!-crouch-rebuff Shall be thy recompense! from land to land The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff For occupation of a magic wand,
And 't is the Pope that wields it,-whether rough Or smooth his front, our world is in his hand!
Who in their private Cells have yet a care Of public quiet; unambitious Men, Counsellors for the world, of piercing ken; Whose fervent exhortations from afar Move Princes to their duty, peace or war; And oft-times in the most forbidding den Of solitude, with love of science strong, How patiently the yoke of thought they bear! How subtly glide its finest threads along! Spirits that crowd the intellectual sphere With mazy boundaries, as the Astronomer With orb and cycle girds the starry throng.
AND not in vain embodied to the sight Religion finds even in the stern Retreat Of feudal Sway her own appropriate Seat; From the Collegiate pomps on Windsor's height, Down to the humble altar, which the Knight And his Retainers of the embattled hall Seek in domestic oratory small,
For prayer in stillness, or the chanted rite; Then chiefly dear, when foes are planted round, Who teach the intrepid guardians of the place, Hourly exposed to death, with famine worn, And suffering under many a perilous wound, How sad would be their durance, if forlorn Of offices dispensing heavenly grace!
AND what melodious sounds at times prevail ! And, ever and anon, how bright a gleam Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream! What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale
TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE That swells the bosom of our passing sail!
CISTERTIAN MONASTERY.
« Here Man more purely lives, less oft doth fall, More promptly rises, walks with nicer heed, More safely rests, dies happier, is freed Earlier from cleansing fires, and gains withal A brighter crown.»-On yon Cistertian wall That confident assurance may be read; And, to like shelter, from the world have fled Increasing multitudes. The potent call Doubtless shall cheat full oft the heart's desires ; Yet, while the rugged age on pliant knee Vows to rapt Fancy humble fealty, A geutler life spreads round the holy spires; Where'er they rise, the sylvan waste retires, And aery harvests crown the fertile lea.
MONKS AND SCHOOLMEN. RECORD We too, with just and faithful pen, That many hooded Cenobites there are,
Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit parius, cadit rarius, surgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securias, moritur felicius, purgatur citius, præmiatur copiosius. Bernard. This sentence," says Dr Whitaker, is usually inscribed on some conspicuous part of the Cistertian houses..
For where, but on this River's margin, blow Those flowers of Chivalry, to bind the brow Of hardihood with wreaths that shall not fail? Fair Court of Edward! wonder of the world! I see a matchless blazonry unfurled Of wisdom, magnanimity, and love; And meekness tempering honourable pride; The Lamb is couching by the Lion's side, And near the flame-eyed Eagle sits the Dove.
NOR can Imagination quit the shores
Of these bright scenes without a farewell glance Given to those dream-like Issues-that Romance Of many-coloured life which Fortune pours Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores Their labours end; or they return to lie, The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy, Devoutly stretched upon their chancel floors. Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chanted By voices never mute when leaven uoties Hler inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies; Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted, When she would tell how Good, and Brave, and Wise, For their high guerdon not in vain have panted!
TRANSUBSTANTIATION.
ENOUGH! for see, with dim association The tapers bura; 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 brooked not. On the banks of Rhone He taught, till persecution chased him thence, fo adore the Invisible, and Him alone. Nor were his Followers loth to seek defence, Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne, From rites that trample upon soul and sense.
WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER. 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.
THESE who gave earliest notice, as the Lark Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate; Who rather rose the day to antedate,
ily striking out a solitary spark,
When all the world with midnight gloom was dark- These Harbingers of good, whom bitter hate
In vain endeavoured to exterminate, Fell Obloquy pursues with hideous bark,' But they desist not; and the sacred fire, 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.
ONCE more the Church is seized with sudden fear, And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed: 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.>>
ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V.
« WHAT Beast in wilderness or cultured field The lively beauty of the Leopard shows? What Flower in meadow-ground or garden grows That to the towering Lily doth not yield? Let both meet only on thy royal shield!
! Go forth, great King! claim what thy birth bestows; Conquer the Gallic Lily which thy foes Dare to usurp;-thou hast a sword to wield, And Heaven will crown the right.»-The mitred Sire Thus spake and lo! a Fleet, for Gaul addrest, Ploughs her bold course across the wondering seas; For, sooth to say, ambition, in the breast Of youthful Heroes, is no sullen fire, But one that leaps to meet the fanning breeze.
CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY.
<< Woɛ to you, Prelates! rioting in ease And cumbrous wealth-the shame of your estate; 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 T is 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 MONASTIC POWER.
AND what is Penance with her knotted thong, Mortification with the shirt of hair, Wan cheek, and knees indurated 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 Cne who lives
For self, and struggles with himself alone,
The amplest share of heavenly favour gives; That to a Monk allots, in the esteem
Of God and Man, place higher than to him Who on the good of others builds his own!
MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS. YET more,-round many a Convent's blazing fire Unhallowed threads of revelry are spun ; There Venus sits disguisèd like a Nun,— While Bacchus, clothed in semblance of a Friar, Pours out his choicest beverage high and higher Sparkling, until it cannot chuse but run Over the bowl, whose silver lip hath won Au instant kiss of masterful desireTo stay the precious waste. In every brain Spreads the dominion of the sprightly juice, Through the wide world, 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!»
DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES. THREATS Come which no submission may assuage; No sacrifice avert, no power dispute; The tapers shall be quenched, the belfries mute, Aud, '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 chuse : 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 SUBJECT.
THE lovely Nun (submissive but more ineek 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 her cheek Suffused with blushes of celestial hue, While through the Convent 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!
YET some, Noviciates of the cloistral shade, Or chained by vows, with undissembled glee
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.
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 knce 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 !
Nor utterly unworthy to endure Was the supremacy of crafty Rome; Age after age to the arch of Christendom Aerial keystone haughtily secure; Supremacy from Heaven transmitted pure As many hold; and, therefore, to the tomb Pass, some through fire-and by the scaffold some— Like saintly Fisher, and unbanding More. «Lightly for both the bosom's lord did sit Upon his throne;» unsoftened, undismayed By aught that mingled with the tragic scene Of pity or fear; and More's gay genius played With the inoffensive sword of native wit, Than the bare axe more luminous and keen.
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