Did holy Paul.
Stillingfleet adduces many arguments in support of this opinion, but they are unconvincing. The latter part of this Sonnet alludes to a favourite notion of Catholic Writers, that Joseph of Arimathea and his Companions brought Christianity into Britain, and built a rude Church at Glastonbury alluded to hereafter in the passage upon the dissolution of the Monasteries.
That hill. whose flowery platform, &c.
This hill at St. Alban's must have been an object of great interest to the imagination of the venerable Bede, who thus describes it with a delicate feeling delightful to meet with in that rude age, traces of which are frequent in his works: "Variis Herbarum floribus depictus sinò usque quaque vestitus in quo nihil repentè arduum nihil præceps, nihil abruptum, quem lateribus longè latèque deductum in modum æquoris natura complanat, dignum videlicet eum pro insita sibi specie venustatis jam olim reddens, qui beati martyris cruore dicaretur."
Nor wants the cause the panic-striking aid
Of hallelujahs.
Alluding to the victory gained under Germanus.--See Bede.
Who feel no care
For other monuments than those of Earth.
The last six lines of this Sonnet are chiefly from the prose of Daniel; and here I will state, (though to the Readers whom this Poem will chiefly interest it is unnecessary,) that my obligations to other Prose Writers are frequent,--obligations, which even if I had not a pleasure in courting, it would have been presumptuous to shun, in treating an historical subject. I must, however, particularize Fuller, to whom I am indebted in the Sonnet upon Wicliffe and in other instances. And upon the Acquittal of the Seven Bishops I have done little more than versify a lively description of that Event in the Memoirs of the first Lord Lonsdale.
Monastery of Old Bangor.
"Ethelforth reached the Convent of Bangor, he perceived the Monks, twelve hundred in number, offering prayers for the success of their Countrymen: 'if they are praying against us,' he exclaimed, ' they are fighting against us;' and he ordered them to be first attacked: they were destroyed; and appalled by their fate, the courage of Brocmail wavered, and he fled from the field in dismay. Thus abandoned by their leader, his army soon gave way, and Ethelforth obtained a decisive conquest. Ancient Bangor itself soon fell into his hands and was demolished; the noble monastery was levelled to the ground; its library, which is mentioned as a large one, the collection of ages, the repository of the most precious monuments of the ancient Britons, was consumed; half-ruined walls, gates, and rubbish, were all that remained of the magnificent edifice."--See Turner's valuable History of the Anglo-Saxons.
The account Bede gives of this remarkable event, suggests a most striking warning against National and Religious prejudices.
Paulinus.
The person of Paulinus is thus described by Bede from the memory of an eye-witness: "Longæ staturæ, paululum incurvus, nigro capillo, facie macilento, naso adunco, pertenui, venerabiliis simul et terribilis aspectu."
Man's life is like a Sparrow.
See the original of this speech in Bede.--The Conversion of Edwin as related by him is highly interesting --and the breaking up of this Council accompanied with an event so striking and characteristic, that I am tempted to give it at length in a translation. "Who, exclaiming the King, when the Council was ended, shall first desecrate the Altars and the Temples? I, answered the Chief Priest, for who more fit than myself, through the wisdom which the true God hath given me to destroy, for the good example of others, what in foolishness I worshipped. Immediately, casting away vain superstition, he besought the King to grant him, what the laws did not allow to a priest, arms and a courser; which mounting, and furnished with a sword and lance, he proceeded to destroy the Idols. The crowd, seeing this, thought him mad--he however halted not, but, approaching, he profaned the Temple, casting against it the lance which he had held in his hand, and, exulting in acknowledgment of the worship of the true God, he ordered his companions to pull down the Temple, with all its enclosures. The place is shown where those idols formerly stood, not far from York at the source of the river Derwent, and is at this day called Gormund Gaham."
Such the inviting voice
Heard near fresh streams.
The early propagators of Christianity were accustomed to preach near rivers for the convenience of baptism.
Primitive Saxon clergy.
Having spoken of the zeal, disinterestedness, and temperance of the clergy of those times, Bede thus proceeds: "Unde et in magna erat veneratione tempore illo religionis habitus, ita ut ubicunque clericus aliquis, aut monachus adveniret, gaudenter ab omnibus tanquam Dei famulus exciperetur. Etiam si in itinere pergens inveniretur, accurrebant, et flexo cervice, vel manu signari, vel ore illius se benedici, gaudebant. Verbis quoque horum exhortatoriis diligenter auditum præbebant." Lib.iii. chap 26.
The people work like congregated bees.
See in Turner's History, vol. iii. p. 528., the account of the creation of Ramsey Monastery. Penances were removable by the performances of acts of charity and benevolence.
Pain narrows not his cares.
Through the whole of his life, Alfred was subject to grievous maladies.
Woe to the Crown that doth the Cowl obey.
The violent measures, carried on under the influence of Dunstan, for strengthening the Benedictine Order, were a leading cause of the second series of Danish Invasions. See Turner.
Here Man more purely lives, &c.
"Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius, surgit velocius, incedit cantius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatur citius, præmiatur copiosius." Bernard. "This sentence," says Dr. Whitaker, "is usually inscribed on some conspicuous part of the Cistercian houses."
Fell obloquy pursues with hideous bark.
The list of foul names bestowed upon those poor creatures is long and curious;--and, as it, alas! too natural, most of the opprobrious appellations are drawn from circumstances into which they were forced by their persecutors, who even consolidated their miseries into one reproachful term, calling them Patareniians or Paturins, from pati, to suffer.
Dwellers with wolves she names them, for the Pine
And green Oak are their covert; as the gloom
Of night oft foils their Enemy's design,
She calls them Riders on the flying broom;
Sorcerers, whose frame and aspect have become
One and the same through practices malign.
And the green lizard and the gilded newt
Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.
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 its the verse, "Where Venus sits, &c."
The gift exalting, and with playful smile.
"On foot they went, and took Salisbury in their way, purposely to see the good Bishop, who made Mr. Hooker sit at his own table; which Mr. Hooker boasted of with much joy and gratitude when he saw his mother and friends: and at the Bishop's parting with him, the Bishop gave him good counsel, and his benediction, but forgot to give him money; which when the Bishop had considered, he sent a Servant in all haste to call Richard back to him , and at Richard's return, the Bishop said to him, "Richard, I sent for you back to lend you a horse which hath carried me many a mile, and I thank God with much ease," and presently delivered into his hand a walking-staff with which he professed he had travelled through many parts of Germany; and he said, "Richard, I do not give, but lend you my horse; be sure you be honest, and bring my horse back to me at your return this way to Oxford. And I do now give you ten groats to bear your charges to Exeter; and here is ten groats more, which I charge you to deliver to your mother, and tell her, I send her a Bishop's benediction with it, and beg the continuance of her prayers for me. And if you bring my horse back to me, I will give you ten groats more to carry you on foot to the college; and so God bless you, good Richard." See Walton's Life of Richard Hooker.
Craftily incites
The overweening--personates the mad.
A common device in religious and political conflicts. See Strype in support of this instance.
A genial hearth,--
And a refined rusticity, belong
To the neat Mansion.
Among the benefits arising, as Mr. Coleridge has well observed, from a Church Establishment of endowments corresponding with the wealth of the Country to which it belongs, may be reckoned, as eminently important, the examples of civility and refinement which the Clergy, stationed at intervals afford to the whole people. The established Clergy in many parts of England have long been, as they continue to be, the principal bulwark against barbarism, and the link which unites the sequestered Peasantry with the intellectual advancement of the age. Nor is it below the dignity of the subject to observe that their Taste, as acting upon rural Residences and scenery, often furnishes models which Country Gentlemen, who are more at liberty to follow the caprices of Fashion, might profit by. The precincts of an old residence must be treated by Ecclesiastics with respect, both from prudence and necessity. I remember being much pleased, some years ago, at Rose Castle, the rural Seat of the See of Carlisle, with a style of Garden and Architecture, which, if the Place had belonged to a wealthy Layman, would no doubt have been swept away. A Parsonage-house generally stands not far from the Church; this proximity imposes favourable restraints, and sometimes suggests an affecting union of the accommodations and elegancies of life with the outward signs of piety and mortality. With pleasure I recall to mind a happy instance of this in the Residence of an old an much-valued Friend in Oxfordshire. The House and Church stand parallel to each other, at a small distance; a circular lawn, or rather grass-plot, spreads between them; shrubs and trees curve from each side of the Dwelling, veiling, but not hiding the Church. From the front of this Dwelling, no part of the Burial-ground is seen; but, as you wind by the side of the Shrubs towards the Steeple end of the Church, the eye catches a single, small, low, monumental head-stone, moss-grown, sinking into, and gently inclining towards, the earth. Advance, and the Church-yard, populous and gay with glittering Tombstones, opens upon the view. This humble, and beautiful Parsonage called forth a tribute which will not be out of its place here.
Where holy ground begins--unhallowed ends,
Is marked by no distinguishable line;
The turf unites--the pathways intertwine;
And, wheresoe'er the stealing footstep tends,
Garden, and that Domain where Kindred, Friends,
And Neighbours rest together, here confound
Their several features--mingled like the sound
Of many waters, or as evening blends
With shady night. Soft airs, from shrub and flower,
Waft fragrant greetings to each silent grave;
Meanwhile between those Poplars, as they wave
Their lofty summits, comes and goes a sky
Bright as the glimpses of Eternity,
To Saints accorded in their mortal hour.
Rural Ceremony.
This is still continued in many Churches in Westmoreland. It takes place in the month of July, when the floor of the Stalls is strewn with fresh rushes: and hence it is called the "Rush-bearing."
Teaching us to forget them or forgive.
This is borrowed from an affecting passage in Mr. George Dyer's History of Cambridge.
Had we, like them, endured
Sore stress of apprehension.
See Burnet, who is unusually animated on this subject; the east wind, so anxiously expected and prayed for, was called the "Protestant wind."
Yet will we not conceal the precious Cross,
Like Men ashamed.
The Lutherans have retained the Cross within their Churches; it is to be regretted that we have not done the same.
Or like the Alpine Mount, that takes its name
From roseate hues, &c.
Some say that Monte Rosa takes its name from a belt of rock at its summit--a very unpoetical and scarcely a probably supposition.
Design, coding, and editing: Copyright © 2004 by James M. Garrett. All rights reserved.