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 ;
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 !

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

CONTINUED.

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
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.

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.

TRANSUBSTANTIATION.

Furl we the sails, and pass with tardy oars
Through these bright regions, casting many a glance Enough! for see, with dim association
Upon the dream-like issues—the romance

The tapers burn; the odorous incense feeds
Of many-coloured life that Fortune pours A greedy flame; the pompous mass proceeds ;
Round the Crusaders, till on distant shores The Priest bestows the appointed consecration;
Their labours end; or they return to lie,

And, while the Host is raised, its elevation
The vow performed, in cross-legged effigy, An awe and supernatural horror breeds;
Devoutly stretched upon their chancel foors. And all the people bow their heads, like reeds
Am I deceived? Or is their requiem chanted To a soft breeze, in lowly adoration.
By voices never mute when Heaven unties This Valdo brooks not. On the banks of Rhone
Her inmost, softest, tenderest harmonies ; He taught, till persecution chased him thence,
Requiem which Earth takes up with voice undaunted, To adore the Invisible, and Him alone.
When she would tell how Brave, and Good, and Nor are his Followers loth to seek defence,
Wise,

Mid woods and wilds, on Nature's craggy throne,
For their high guerdon not in vain have panted ! From rites that trample upon soul and sense.

1 XII.

XV.

THE VAUDOTS.

ARCHBISHOP CHICHELY TO HENRY V.

But whence came they who for the Saviour Lord “What beast in wilderness or cultured field
Have long borne witness as the Scriptures teach?- “The lively beauty of the leopard shows ?
Ages ere Valdo raised his voice to preach

“What flower in meadow-ground or garden grows In Gallic ears the unadulterate Word,

“That to the towering lily doth not yield ? Their fugitive Progenitors explored

“Let both meet only on thy royal shield ! Subalpine vales, in quest of safe retreats

"Go forth, great King! claim what thy birth bestows; Where that pure Church survives, though summer “Conquer the Gallic lily which thy foes heats

“Dare to usurp ;-thou hast a sword to wield, Open a passage to the Romish sword,

“And Heaven will crown the right.”—The mitred Far as it dares to follow. Herbs self-sown,

Sire And fruitage gathered from the chesnut wood, Thus spake--and lo! a Fleet, for Gaul addrest, Nourish the sufferers then; and mists, that brood Ploughs her bold course across the wondering seas ; O'er chasms with new-fallen obstacles bestrown, For, sooth to say, ambition, in the breast Protect them; and the eternal snow that daunts Of youthful heroes, is no sullen fire, Aliens, is God's good winter for their haunts. But one that leaps to meet the fanning breeze.

WARS OF YORK AND LANCASTER.

PRAISED be the Rivers, from their mountain springs
Shouting to Freedom, “Plant thy banners here !"

Thus is the storm abated by the craft
To harassed Piety, “Dismiss thy fear,

Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect [checked, And in ou caverns smooth thy ruffled wings !”

The Church, whose power hath recently been Nor be unthanked their final lingerings

Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the shaft Silent, but not to high-souled Passion’s ear

Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed 'Mid reedy fens wide-spread and marshes drear,

In fields that rival Cressy and PoictiersTheir own creation. Such glad welcomings

Pride to be washed away by bitter tears ! As Po was heard to give where Venice rose

For deep as hell itself, the avenging draught Hailed from aloft those Heirs of truth divine

Of civil slaughter. Yet, while temporal power Who near his fountains sought obscure repose, Is by these shocks exhausted, spiritual truth Yet came prepared as glorious lights to shine, Maintains the else endangered gift of life ; Should that be needed for their sacred Charge ; Proceeds from infancy to lusty youth; Blest Prisoners They, whose spirits were at large! And, under cover of this woeful strife,

Gathers unblighted strength from hour to hour.

WICLIFFE.

:

Those had given earliest notice, as the lark
Springs from the ground the morn to gratulate;

Once more the Church is seized with sudden fear, Or rather rose the day to antedate,

And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed: By striking out a solitary spark, [dark.-- Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed When all the world with midnight gloom was

And flung into the brook that travels near ; [hear Then followed the Waldensian bands, whom Hate

Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can In vain endeavours to exterminate,

Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind, Whom Obloquy pursues with hideous bark

Though seldom heard by busy human kind)— But they desist not ;-and the sacred fire,

“ As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear Rekindled thus, from dens and savage woods

“Into the Avon, Avon to the tide Moves, handed on with never-ceasing care,

“Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas, Through courts, through camps,o'er limitary floods ;

“ Into main Ocean they, this deed accurst Nor lacks this sea-girt Isle a timely share

“An emblem yields to friends and enemies Of the new Flame, not suffered to expire.

“How the bold Teacher's Doctrine, sanctified

"By truth, shall spread, throughout the world * See Note.

dispersed.”

Y

XVIII.

XXI.

CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY.

DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERIES.

“Woe 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
'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.

Threats come which no submission may assuage,
No sacrifice avert, no power dispute ;
The tapers shall be quenched, the belfries mute,
And, ʼmid 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 SUBJECT.

ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER.
And what is Penance with her knotted thong ;

The lovely Nun (submissive, but more meek
Mortification with the shirt of hair,

Through saintly habit than from effort due
Wan cheek, and knees indúrated with prayer,

To unrelenting mandates that pursue
Vigils, and fastings rigorous as long ;

With equal wrath the steps of strong and weak)
If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong

Goes forth--unveiling timidly a cheek
The pious, humble, useful Secular,

Suffused with blushes of celestial hue,
And rob the people of his daily care,

While through the Convent's gate to open view
Scorning that world whose blindness makes her Softly she glides, another home to seek.
strong?

Not Iris, issuing from her cloudy shrine,
Inversion strange ! that, unto One who lives

An Apparition more divinely bright !
For self, and struggles with himself alone,

Not more attractive to the dazzled sight
The amplest share of heavenly favour gives ;

Those watery glories, on the stormy brine
That to a Monk allots, both in the esteem

Poured forth, while summer suns at distance shine,
Of God and man, place higher than to him

And the green vales lie hushed in sober light !
Who on the good of others builds his own !

MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS.

3

3

Yet more,-round many a Convent's blazing fire
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 precious 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!"

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 Aly before a chasing hand,

Deep is the lamentation ! Not alone
Angels and Saints, in every hamlet mourned ! From Sages justly honoured by mankind;
Ah ! if the old idolatry be spurned,

But from the ghostly tenants of the wind,
Let not your radiant Shapes desert the Land : Demons and Spirits, many a dolorous groan
Her adoration was not your demand,

Issues for that dominion overthrown:
The fond heart proffered it—the servile heart; Proud Tiber grieves, and far-off Ganges, blind
And therefore are ye summoned to depart, As his own worshippers : and Nile, reclined
Michael, and thou, St. George, whose flaming brand Upon his monstrous urn, the farewell moan
The Dragon quelled ; and valiant Margaret Renews. Through every forest, cave, and den,
Whose rival sword a like Opponent slew :

Where frauds were hatched of old, hath sorrow
And rapt Cecilia, seraph-haunted Queen

pastOf harmony; and weeping Magdalene,

Hangs o'er the Arabian Prophet's native Waste, Who in the penitential desert met

Where once his airy helpers schemed and planned Gales sweet as those that over Eden blew ! Mid spectral lakes bemocking thirsty men,

And stalking pillars built of fiery sand.

THE VIRGIN.

3

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 !

REFLECTIONS.
Grant, that by this unsparing hurricane
Green leaves with yellow mixed are torn away,
And goodly fruitage with the mother spray;
"Twere madness—wished we, therefore, to detain,
With hands stretched forth in mollified disdain,
The trumpery' that ascends in bare display-
Bulls, pardons, relics, cowls black, white, and grey,
Upwhirled, and flying o'er the ethereal plain
Fast bound for Limbo Lake. And yet not choice
But habit rules the unreflecting herd,
And airy bonds are hardest to disown ;
Hence, with the spiritual sovereignty transferred
Unto itself, the Crown assumes a voice
Of reckless mastery, hitherto unknown.

APOLOGY.

Not utterly unworthy to endure
Was the supremacy of crafty Rome ;
Age after age to the arch of Christendom
Aërial 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 unbending 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.

But, to outweigh all harm, the sacred Book,
In dusty sequestration wrapt too long,
Assumes the accents of our native tongue;
And he who guides the plough, or wields the crook,
With understanding spirit now may look
Upon her records, listen to her song,
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.

THE POINT AT ISSUE.

REVIVAL OF POPERY.
For what contend the wise !—for nothing less

The saintly Youth has ceased to rule, discrowned
Than that the Soul, freed from the bonds of Sense, By unrelenting Death. O People keen
And to her God restored by evidence

For change, to whom the new looks always green! of things not seen, drawn forth from their recess, Their Gods of wood and stone ; and, at the sound

Rejoicing did they cast upon the ground
Root there, and not in forms, her holiness ;-
For Faith, which to the Patriarchs did dispense

Of counter-proclamation, now are seen,
Sure guidance, ere a ceremonial fence

(Proud triumph is it for a sullen Queen!) Was needful round men thirsting to transgress of the Most High. Again do they invoke

Lifting them up, the worship to confound
For Faith, more perfect still, with which the Lord
Of all, himself a Spirit, in the youth

The Creature, to the Creature glory give; of Christian aspiration, deigned to fill

Again with frankincense the altars stoke The temples of their hearts who, with his word

Like those the Heathen served ; and mass is set Informed, were resolute to do his will,

And prayer, man's rational prerogative, And worship him in spirit and in truth.

Runs through blind channels of an unknos tome

XXXIV.
XXXI.

LATIMER AND RIDLEY.
EDWARD vi.

How fast the Marian death-list is unrolled! “SWEET is the holiness of Youth'--so felt

See Latimer and Ridley in the might
Time-honoured Chaucer speaking through that Lay Of Faith stand coupled for a common flight!
By which the Prioress beguiled the way,

One (like those prophets whom God sent of dit
And many a Pilgrim's rugged heart did melt. Transfigured *, from this kindling hath foretak
Hadst thou, loved Bard ! whose spirit often dwelt A torch of inextinguishable light;
In the clear land of vision, but foreseen

The Other gains a confidence as bold ;
King, child, and seraph, blended in the mien And thus they foil their enemy's despite.
Of pious Edward kneeling as he knelt

The penal instruments, the shows of crime, In meek and simple infancy, what joy

Are glorified while this once-mitred pair
For universal Christendom had thrilled

Of saintly Friends the “murtherer's chain persia
Thy heart! what hopes inspired thy genius, skilled Corded, and burning at the social stake:'
(O great Precursor, genuine morning Star) Earth never witnessed object more sublime
The lucid shafts of reason to employ,

In constancy, in fellowship more fair!
Piercing the Papal darkness from afar!

xxxv.

CRANMER.
EDWARD SIGNING THE WARRANT FOR THE

OUTSTRETCHING flame-ward his upbraided bead
(O God of mercy, may no earthly Seat

Of judgment such presumptuous doom repent.) The tears of man in various measure gush

Amid the shuddering throng doth Cranmer star From various sources ; gently overflow

Firm as the stake to which with iron band From blissful transport some—from clefts of woe His frame is tied; firm from the naked feet Some with ungovernable impulse rush ;

To the bare head. The victory is complete; And some, coëval with the earliest blush

The shrouded Body to the Soul's cominand Of infant passion, scarcely dare to show

Answers with more than Indian fortitude,
Their pearly lustre coming but to go ;

Through all her nerves with finer sense endast
And some break forth when others' sorrows crush Till breath departs in blissful aspiration :
The sympathising heart. Nor these, nor yet Then, ’mid the ghastly ruins of the fire,
The noblest drops to admiration known,

Behold the unalterable heart entire,
To gratitude, to injuries forgiven-

Emblem of faith untouched, miraculous sta*
Claim Heaven's regard like waters that have wet
The innocent eyes of youthful Monarchs driven
To pen the mandates, nature doth disown.

XXXII.

EXECUTION OF JOAN OF KENT.