RICHARD I.

Their tents, and check the current of their arms.
Then blame not those who, by the mightiest lever
Known to the moral world, Imagination,
Upheave, so seems it, from her natural station
All Christendom :-they sweep along (was never
So huge a host !) *to tear from the Unbeliever
The precious Tomb, their haven of salvation.

XXXV.

RICHARD I.

REDOUBTED King, of courage leonine,

I mark thee, Richard! urgent to equip
Thy warlike person with the staff and scrip;
I watch thee sailing o'er the midland brine;
In conquered Cyprus see thy Bride decline
Her blushing cheek, love-vows1 upon her lip,
And see love-emblems streaming from thy ship,
As thence she holds her way to Palestine.†
My Song, a fearless homager, would attend
Thy thundering battle-axe as it cleaves the press
Of war, but duty summons her away

To tell-how, finding in the rash distress

Of those Enthusiasts a subservient friend,

To 2 giddier heights hath clomb the Papal sway.

31

1822.

* Ten successive armies, amounting to nearly 950,000 men, took part in the first Crusade. "The most distant islands and savage countries," says William of Malmesbury, "were inspired with this ardent passion.”—ED.

↑ Richard I. (Cœur de Lion), one of the two leaders in the third Crusade, after conquering Cyprus-on his way to Palestine-while in that island married Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre.-ED.

XXXVI.

AN INTERDICT.*

REALMS quake by turns: proud Arbitress of grace,
The Church, by mandate shadowing forth the power
She arrogates o'er heaven's eternal door,

Closes the gates of every sacred place.

Straight from the sun and tainted air's embrace
All sacred things are covered: cheerful morn
Grows sad as night-no seemly garb is worn,
Nor is a face allowed to meet a face

With natural smiles1 of greeting.

Bells are dumb;

Ditches are graves-funereal rites denied;

And in the church-yard he must take his bride
Who dares be wedded! Fancies thickly come
Into the pensive heart ill fortified,

And comfortless despairs the soul benumb.

At the command of Pope Innocent III., the Bishops of London, Ely, and Worcester were charged to lay England under an interdict. They did so, in defiance of King John, and left England. Southey's description of the result may be compared with this sonnet. "All the rites of a Church whose policy it was to blend its institutions with the whole business of private life were suddenly suspended: no bell heard, no taper lighted, no service performed, no church open; only baptism was permitted, and confession and sacrament for the dying. The dead were either interred in unhallowed ground, without the presence of a priest, or any religious ceremony, or they were kept unburied. Some little mitigation was allowed, lest human nature should have rebelled against so intolerable a tyranny. The people, therefore, were called to prayers and sermon on the Sunday, in the churchyards, and marriages were performed at the church door." (Book of the Church, Vol. I., ch. 9, pp. 261-2.)—Ed.

SCENE IN VENICE.

33

XXXVII.

PAPAL ABUSES.

As with the Stream our voyage we pursue,
The gross materials of this world present
A marvellous study of wild accident; *
Uncouth proximities of old and new;
And bold transfigurations, more untrue
(As might be deemed) to disciplined intent
Than aught the sky's fantastic element,
When most fantastic, offers to the view.
Saw we not Henry scourged at Becket's shrine ? †
Lo! John self-stripped of his insignia :-crown,
Sceptre and mantle, sword and ring, laid down
At a proud Legate's feet! The spears that line
Baronial halls, the opprobrious insult feel;
And angry Ocean roars a vain appeal.

XXXVIII

SCENE IN VENICE.

BLACK Demons hovering o'er his mitred head,
To Cæsar's Successor the Pontiff spake; §

* Compare Aubrey de Vere's Thomas à Becket.-ED.

+ After Becket's murder and canonization Henry II., from political motives, did penance publicly at his shrine. Clad in a coarse garment, he walked three miles barefoot to Canterbury, and at the shrine submitted to the discipline of the Church. Four bishops, abbots, and eighty clergy were present, each with a knotted cord, and inflicted 380 lashes. Bleeding he threw sackcloth over his shoulders, and continued till midnight kneeling at prayer, then visited all the altars, and returned fainting to Becket's shrine, where he remained till morning.-ED.

On the festival of the Ascension, John "laid his erown at Pandulph's feet, and signed an instrument by which, for the remission of his sins, and those of his family, he surrendered the kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope, to hold them thenceforth under him, and the Roman see." Pandulph "kept the crown five days before he restored it to John." -Southey (Vol. I., p. 218).-ED.

§ The reference is to the legend of Pope Alexander III. and Frederick Barbarossa. See the Fenwick note prefixed to these sonnets.-ED.

"Ere I absolve thee, stoop! that on thy neck
Levelled with earth this foot of mine may tread.
Then he, who to the altar had been led,

He, whose strong arm the Orient could not check,
He, who had held the Soldan * at his beck,
Stooped, of all glory disinherited,

And even the common dignity of man!—
Amazement strikes the crowd: while many turn.
Their eyes away in sorrow, others burn
With scorn, invoking a vindictive ban

From outraged Nature; but the sense of most
In abject sympathy with power is lost.

XXXIX.

PAPAL DOMINION.

UNLESS to Peter's Chair the viewless wind
Must come and ask permission when to blow,
What further empire would it have? for now
A ghostly Domination, unconfined

As that by dreaming Bards to Love assigned,
Sits there in sober truth-to raise the low,
Perplex the wise, the strong to overthrow;
Through earth and heaven to bind and to unbind !-
Resist the thunder quails thee-crouch-rebuff
Shall be thy recompence! from land to land
The ancient thrones of Christendom are stuff

For occupation of a magic wand,

And 'tis the Pope that wields it :-whether rough
Or smooth his front, our world is in his hand! †

Soldan, or Sultan, "Soldanus quasi solus dominus.”—ED.

+ According to the canons of the Church, the Pope was above all kings, "He was king of kings and lord of lords, although he subscribed himself

FROM FALSE ASSUMPTION ROSE, AND FONDLY HAILED. 35

PART II.

TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.

I.

Pub. 1845.

How soon-alas! did Man, created pure-
By Angels guarded, deviate from the line
Prescribed to duty:-woeful forfeiture
He made by wilful breach of law divine.
With like perverseness did the Church abjure
Obedience to her Lord, and haste to twine,

'Mid Heaven-born flowers that shall for aye endure,
Weeds on whose front the world had fixed her sign.
O Man,-if with thy trials thus it fares,

If good can smooth the way to evil choice,
From all rash censure be the mind kept free;
He only judges right who weighs, compares,
And, in the sternest sentence which his voice
Pronounces, ne'er abandons Charity.

II.

Pub. 1845.

FROM false assumption rose, and fondly hailed
By superstition, spread the Papal power;
Yet do not deem the Autocracy prevailed.
Thus only, even in error's darkest hour.

the servant of servants." He might dethrone kings, and tax nations, or destroy empires, as he pleased. All power had been committed to him, and any secular law that was opposed to a papal decree was, ipso facto, null and void.-ED.