26 DANISH CONQUESTS. Shall soar, and as a hypocrite can stoop, 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 what they see of virtues pushed to extremes, XXIX. DANISH CONQUESTS. WOE to the Crown that doth the Cowl obey! † Dunstan was made Abbot of Glastonbury by Eadmund, and there he introduced the Benedictine rule, being the first Benedictine Abbot in England. His aim was a remodelling of the Anglo-Saxon Church, "for which," says Southey, "he was qualified by his rank, his connections, his influence at court, his great and versatile talents, and more than all, it must be added, by his daring ambition, which scrupled at nothing for the further. ance of its purpose."-(Book of the Church, I. 6). "Dunstan stands first in the line of ecclesiastical statesmen, who counted among them Langfranc and Wolsey, and ended in Laud." "Raised to the See of Canterbury, he wielded for sixteen years, as the minister of Eadgar, the secular and ecclesiastical powers of the realm.”—(Green, I. 6.) In the effort to retain the ascendancy he had won, he lent himself, however, to superstition and to fraud, to craft and mean device. He was a type of the ecclesiastical sorcerer.-ED. + 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.-W. W., 1822. CANUTE. The incessant Rovers of the northern main,* Fierceness and rage; and soon the cruel Dane Thus, often, when thick gloom the east o'ershrouds, How no one can resolve; but every eye Around her sees, while air is hushed, a clear And widening circuit of ethereal sky. 27 XXX. CANUTE A PLEASANT music floats along the Mere, "My Oarsmen," quoth the mighty King, "draw near, Of future vanishing like empty dreams) 1 1837. And widely spreads once more a Pagan sway; 1822. * E.g., Anlaef, Haco, Svein.-(See Turner's History, II., 3, 8, 9.)-ED. + A monk of Ely, who wrote a History of the Church (circa 1166), records a fragment of song, said to have been composed by Canute when on his way to a Church festival. He told his rowers to proceed slowly, and near the shore, that he might hear the chanting of the Psalter by the monks, and he then composed a song himself. Merie sangen the Muneches binnen Ely, Tha Cnut ching reu therby : Roweth cnites ner the land And here ye thes Muneches sang.-ED. 28 * THE NORMAN CONQUEST. Heart-touched, and haply not without a tear. The Royal Minstrel, ere the choir is still,1 While his free Barge skims the smooth flood along, Of heaven-descended Piety and Song. XXXI. THE NORMAN CONQUEST. THE Woman-hearted Confessor prepares t That quench, from hut to palace, lamps and fires, ‡ Hark! 'tis the Curfew's knell the stars may shine; Which is still extant.-W. W., 1822. See last note.-ED. 1822. + Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).-"There was something shadowlike in the thin form, the delicate complexion, the transparent womanly hands, that contrasted with the blue eyes and golden hair of his race; and it is almost as a shadow that he glides over the political stage. The work of government was done by sterner hands."-(Green.)—ED. The introduction of the curfew-bell (couvre-feu, cover fire) into England is ascribed to the Conqueror, but the custom was common in Europe long before his time.-ED. COLDLY WE SPAKE. Touch not the tapers of the sacred quires; XXXII. Pub. 1836. COLDLY we spake. The Saxons, overpowered By wrong triumphant through its own excess, From fields laid waste, from house and home devoured By flames, look up to heaven and crave redress Though men be, there are angels that can feel For wounds that death alone has power to heal, And has a Champion risen in arms to try His Country's virtue, fought, and breathes no more; And far above the mine's most precious ore The least small pittance of bare mould they prize Scooped from the sacred earth where his dear relics lie. XXXIII. THE COUNCIL OF CLERMONT. "AND shall," the Pontiff asks, "profaneness flow 1 1837. Brings to Religion no injurious change. 1822. 29 With prayers and blessings we your path will sow; "Like Moses hold our hands erect, till ye And, in awe-stricken 2 Countries far and nigh, XXXIV. CRUSADES. THE turbaned Race are poured in thickening swarms. The scimitar, that yields not to the charms Of ease, the narrow Bosphorus will disdain; Nor long (that crossed) would Grecian hills detain The decision of this Council was believed to be instantly known in remote parts of Europe.-W. W. There were several Councils of Claremont, the chief of them being that of 1095, at which the Crusade was definitely planned. Pope Urban II. addressed the Council in such a way that at the close the whole multitude exclaimed simultaneously Deus Vult; and this phrase became the war-cry of the Crusade. - ED |