Part I

., Wordsworth acknowledges his obligations to Fuller in connection with this Sonnet on Wicliffe.

See Charles Lamb's comment on this passage of Fuller's, Prose Works (1876), vol. iv. p. 277.--ED.

XVIII

CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY

"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, 5 "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 11 Abuse hath cleared from vain imaginings; And taught the general voice to prophesy Of Justice armed, and Pride to be laid low.

XIX

ABUSE OF MONASTIC POWER

And what is Penance with her knotted thong; Mortification with the shirt of hair, Wan cheek, and knees indúrated with prayer, Vigils, and fastings rigorous as long; If cloistered Avarice scruple not to wrong 5 The pious, humble, useful Secular,[160] And rob[161] the people of his daily care, Scorning that world whose blindness makes her strong? Inversion strange! that, unto One who lives[162] For self, and struggles with himself alone, 10 The amplest share of heavenly favour gives; That to a Monk allots, both in the esteem Of God and man, place higher than to him[163] Who on the good of others builds his own!

FOOTNOTES:

[160] The _secular_ clergy are the priests of the Roman church, who belong to no special religious order, but have the charge of parishes, and so live in the world (_seculum_). The _regular_ clergy are the monks belonging to one or other of the monastic orders, and are subject to its rules (_regulæ_).--ED.

[161] 1827.

And robs ... 1822.

[162] 1827.

Scorning their wants because her arm is strong? Inversion strange! that to a Monk, who lives 1822.

[163] 1845.

And hath allotted, in the world's esteem, To such a higher station than to him 1822.

That to a Monk allots, in the esteem Of God and Man, place higher than to him 1827.

XX

MONASTIC VOLUPTUOUSNESS

Yet more,--round many a Convent's blazing fire Unhallowed threads of revelry are spun; There Venus sits disguisèd like a Nun,-- While Bacchus, clothed in semblance of a Friar, Pours out his choicest beverage high and higher 5 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 10 Spreads high conceits to madding Fancy dear,[164] Till the arched roof, with resolute abuse Of its grave echoes, swells a choral strain, Whose votive burthen is--"OUR KINGDOM 'S HERE!"[165]

FOOTNOTES:

[164] 1832.

In every brain Spreads the dominion of the sprightly juice, Through the wide world to madding Fancy dear, 1822.

[165] See Wordsworth's note to the next Sonnet.--ED.

XXI

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, And,'mid their choirs unroofed by selfish rage, The warbling wren shall find a leafy cage; 5 The gadding bramble hang her purple fruit; And the green lizard and the gilded newt Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.[166] The owl of evening and the woodland fox For their abode the shrines of Waltham choose:[167] 10 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.[168]

FOOTNOTES:

[166] 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 is the verse, "Where Venus sits," etc. [W. W. 1822], and the line, "Once ye were holy, ye are holy still," in a subsequent Sonnet.--W. W. 1837.

[167] Waltham Abbey is in Essex, on the Lea.--ED.

[168] Alluding to the Roman legend that Joseph of Arimathea brought Christianity into Britain, and built Glastonbury Church. See