claim

To live and move exempt from all control Which fellow-feeling doth not mitigate!"

V

MONKS AND SCHOOLMEN

RECORD We too, with just and faithful pen, That many hooded Cenobites there are, 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.

VI

OTHER BENEFITS

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 humbler altar, which the

Knight

And his retainers of the embattled hall
Seek in domestic oratory small,

For prayer in stillness, or the chanted rite;

Pours on the surface of the turbid Stream! What heartfelt fragrance mingles with the gale

That swells the bosom of our passing sail! 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.

VIII

CRUSADERS

FURL we the sails, and pass with tardy oars Through these bright regions, casting many a glance

Upon the dream-like issues-the romance Of many-coloured life that 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 Heaven unties Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies; Requiem which Earth takes up with voice

undaunted,

When she would tell how Brave, and Good, and Wise,

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!

VII

CONTINUED

AND what melodious sounds at times pre

vail !

panted.!

IX

As faith thus sanctified the warrior's crest While from the Papal Unity there came, What feebler means had failed 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.

X

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.
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.

ΧΙ

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 brooks not. On the banks of
Rhone

He taught, till persecution chased him thence,

To adore the Invisible, and Him alone. Nor are his Followers loth to seek defence, 'Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne,

From rites that trample upon soul and sense.

XII

THE VAUDOIS

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 chestnut
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

PRAISED be the Rivers, from their moun. tain springs

Shouting to Freedom, "Plant thy banners here!"

To harassed Piety, "Dismiss thy fear, And in our caverns smooth thy ruffled wings!"

Nor be unthanked their final lingeringsSilent, 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 divine 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!

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 wonder

ing 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.

1 See Note.

XVI

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 PoictiersPride 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.

XVII WICLIFFE

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, sanc

"

tified

"By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed."

XVIII

CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY

"WOE to you, Prelates! rioting in ease 'And cumbrous wealth-the shame of your estate;