He, whose strong arm the Orient could not check, He who had held the Soldan at his beck, ped, of all glory disinherited, And even the common dignity of man! Aazement strikes the crowd; while many turn eyes away in sorrow, others burn With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban From outraged Nature; but the sense of most li abject sympathy with power is lost. XXXVIII. PAPAL DOMINION. I'L to Peter's chair the viewless wind As that by dreaming Bards to Love assigned, And is the Pope that wields it: - whether rough ECCLESIASTICAL SKETCHES. PART II. TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I. I. 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 "Farter from cleansing fires, and gains withal "A brighter crown.” —On yon Cistertian wall Tat confident assurance may be read; And, to like shelter, from the world have fled ing multitudes. The potent call btless shall cheat full oft the heart's desires; Yet, while the rugged Age on pliant knee To to rapt Fancy humble fealty, A gentler life spreads round the holy spires ; Where'er they rise, the sylvan waste retires, Ainéry harvests crown the fertile lea. Bem est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purins, cadit rarius, *20% velwins incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, tar citie, prematur copiosius." Bernard. "This senDr. Whitaker, "is usually inscribed on some conpart of the Cistertian houses." II. RELAXATIONS OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM. DEPLORABLE his lot who tills the ground, His whole life long tills it, with heartless toil Of villain-service, passing with the soil To each new Master, like a steer or hound, Or like a rooted tree, or stone earth-bound; But, mark how gladly, through their own domains, The Monks relax or break these iron chains; While Mercy, uttering, through their voice, a sound Echoed in Heaven, cries out, "ye Chiefs, abate These legalized oppressions! Man whose name And Nature God disdained not; Man, whose soul Christ died for, cannot forfeit his high claim To live and move exempt from all control Which fellow-feeling doth not mitigate!" III. MONKS AND SCHOOLMEN. RECORD We too, with just and faithful pen, IV. OTHER BENEFITS. AND, not in vain embodied to the sight, V. CONTINUED. AND what melodious sounds at times prevail! VIII THE VAUDOIS. BUT whence came they who for the Saviour Lord heats Open a passage to the Romish sword, Far as it dares to follow. Herbs self-sown, VI. CRUSADERS. NOR can Imagination quit the shores Of these bright scenes without a farewell glance IX. CONTINUED. PRAISED be the Rivers, from their mountain-spring VII. TRANSUBSTANTIATION ENOUGH! for see, with dim association This Valdo brooked not. On the banks of Rhone X. WALDENSES. THESE who gave earliest notice, as the Lark When all the world with midnight gloom was dark *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 int which they were forced by their persecutors, who even conscr dated their miseries into one reproachful term, calling them Pa tarenians or Paturins, from pati, to suffer. Dwellers with wolves, she names them, for the Pine ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V. *WHAT Beast in wilderness or cultured field The lively beauty of the Leopard shows! "Let both meet only on thy royal shield! XIV. CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY. "WOE to you, Prelates! rioting in ease 66 "And cumbrous wealth-the shame of your estate; *Go forth, great King! claim what thy birth bestows; "Who will be served by others on their knees, *Coquer the Gallic Lily which thy foes Dare to usurp; - thou hast a sword to wield, *And Heaven will crown the right." —The mitred Sire Tas spake - and lo! a Fleet, for Gaul addrest, Pohs her bold course across the wondering seas; 7. sooth to say, ambition, in the breast of youthful Heroes, is no sullen fire, But one that leaps to meet the fanning breeze. XII. WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER. Tnts is the storm abated by the craft Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect XV. ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER. AND what is Penance with her knotted thong, The Church, whose power hath recently been checked, Mortification with the shirt of hair, Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the shaft Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed Wan cheek, and knees indurated with prayer, If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong? Of God and Man, place higher than to him XIII. WICLIFFE. O more the Church is seized with sudden fear, Ant at her call is icliffe disinhumed: XVI. MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS. YET more,-round many a Convent's blazing fire There Venus sits disguised like a Nun,- Fitwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can hear, Pours out his choicest beverage high and higher The speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind, L ugh seldom heard by busy human kind,) *See Note 19. Sparkling, until it cannot choose but run To stay the precious waste. Through every brain Spreads high conceits to madding Fancy dear, 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 Alms may be needed) which that house bestowed? XVII. 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, To stoop her head before these desperate shocks- XX. SAINTS. YE, too, must fly before a chasing hand, XXI. THE VIRGIN. MOTHER! whose virgin bosom was uncrost XXII. APOLOGY. Nor utterly unworthy to endure As many bold; and, therefore, to the tomb Upon her records, listen to her song, Pa, some through fire-and by the scaffold some And sift her laws-much wondering that the wrong, Which faith has suffered, Heaven could calmly brook. Transcendent Boon! noblest that earthly King Ever bestowed to equalize and bless Under the weight of mortal wretchedness! But passions spread like plagues, and thousands wild With bigotry shall tread the Offering Beneath their feet-detested and defiled. XXIII. IMAGINATIVE REGRETS. IEP is the lamentation! Not alone From Sages justly honoured by mankind, But from the ghostly Tenants of the wind, Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan Isses for that dominion overthrown: Prood Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind As his own worshippers: -and Nile, reclined Ipanas monstrous urn, the farewell moan Rees-Through every forest, cave, and den, Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow past Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophet's native Waste, Where once his airy helpers schemed and planned, 'Mad phantom lakes bemocking thirsty men, And stalking pillars built of fiery sand. XXVI. THE POINT AT ISSUE. FOR what contend the wise? for nothing less Of things not seen-drawn forth from their recess, Was needful round men thirsting to transgress; The temples of their hearts—who, with his word And worship him in spirit and in truth. XXVII. EDWARD VI. "SWEET is the holiness of Youth” -so felt Time-honoured Chaucer, when he framed the lay By which the Prioress beguiled the way, And many a Pilgrim's rugged heart did melt. Hadst thou, loved Bard! whose spirit often dwelt In the clear land of vision, but foreseen King, Child, and Seraph, blended in the mien Of pious Edward kneeling as he knelt In meek and simple Infancy, what joy For universal Christendom had thrilled Thy heart! what hopes inspired thy genius, skilled (O great Precursor, genuine morning Star) The lucid shafts of reason to employ, Piercing the Papal darkness from afar! XXVIII. EDWARD SIGNING THE WARRANT FOR THE EXECUTION OF JOAN OF KENT. THE tears of man in various measure gush From various sources; gently overflow From blissful transport some from clefts of woe Some with ungovernable impulse rush; And some, coëval with the earliest blush |