Lelius Socinus, a
nobleman of Sienna, revived and enlarged the doctrine of Arius,
about the latter end of the sixteenth century.
nobleman of Sienna, revived and enlarged the doctrine of Arius,
about the latter end of the sixteenth century.
Dryden - Complete
[133]
Yet wondering how of late she grew estranged,
Her forehead cloudy, and her countenance changed,
She thought this hour the occasion would present,
To learn her secret cause of discontent;
Which well she hoped, might be with ease redressed,}
Considering her a well-bred civil beast, }
And more a gentlewoman than the rest. }
After some common talk what rumours ran,
The lady of the spotted muff began.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 95: The Roman Catholic church. ]
[Footnote 96: Note I. ]
[Footnote 97: The Roman Catholic priests executed in England, at
different times since the Reformation, and regarded as martyrs and
saints by those of their communion. ]
[Footnote 98: The Independents. See Note II. ]
[Footnote 99: The Quakers. See Note III. ]
[Footnote 100: Free-thinkers. See Note IV. ]
[Footnote 101: Anabaptists. See Note V. ]
[Footnote 102: Unitarians. See Note VI. ]
[Footnote 103: See Introductory remarks. ]
[Footnote 104: Note VII. ]
[Footnote 105: _Quasi_ By-land-er, an old word for a boat, used in
coast navigation. ]
[Footnote 106: Note VIII. ]
[Footnote 107: Alluding to the classical ordination, which the
Presbyterian church has adopted, instead of that by Bishops. ]
[Footnote 108: Geneva, the cradle of Calvinism. The territories of the
little republic, _dum Troja fuit_, were bounded by its ramparts and
lake. ]
[Footnote 109: Alluding to the recall of the Edict of Nantz, and
persecution of the Huguenots. See Note IX. ]
[Footnote 110: Which is usually distinguished by an act of grace, or
general pardon. ]
[Footnote 111: Nimrod. ]
[Footnote 112: Jesus Christ. ]
[Footnote 113: King James II. ]
[Footnote 114: Note X. ]
[Footnote 115: Our author recollected his own Philidel in "King Arthur:"
An airy shape, the tenderest of my kind,
The last seduced and least deformed of hell;
Half-white, and shuffled in the crowd I fell,
Desirous to repent and loath to sin,
Awkward in mischief, piteous of mankind;
My name is Philidel, my lot in air,
Where, next beneath the moon, and nearest heaven,
I soar, I have a glimpse to be received.
Vol. VIII. p. 135.
]
[Footnote 116: Henry the Eighth's passion for Anna Bullen led the way
to the Reformation. ]
[Footnote 117: The marriage of the clergy, licensed by the Reformation. ]
[Footnote 118: Worn out, or become hagard. ]
[Footnote 119: A Popish advocate, in the controversy with Tennison,
tells us exultingly, "That Martin Luther himself, Dr T's excellent
instrument, after he had eat a feasting supper, and drank
_lutheranice_, as the German proverb has it, was called into another
world at two o'clock in the night, February 18, 1546. " This was one
of the reasons why his adversaries alleged, that Martin Luther set
sail for hell in the manner described by Sterne, in his tale from
Slawkenbergius. ]
[Footnote 120: The king being owned the head of the church of England,
contrary to the doctrine of the other reformed churches. ]
[Footnote 121: Phylacteries are little scrolls of parchment worn by the
Jews on their foreheads and wrists, inscribed with sentences from the
law. They are supposed, as is expressed by the phrase in the original,
to have the virtue of preserving the wearer from danger and evil. ]
[Footnote 122: The Lutherans adopt the doctrine of consubstantiation;
that is to say, they believe, that, though the elements are not
changed into the body and blood of Christ by consecration, which is
the Roman faith, yet the participants, at the moment of communicating,
do actually receive the real body and blood. The Calvinists utterly
deny the real presence in the eucharist, and affirm, that the words of
Christ were only symbolical. The church of England announces a doctrine
somewhat between these. See Note XI. ]
[Footnote 123: Note XI. ]
[Footnote 124: Note XII. ]
[Footnote 125: Alluding to the fate of the church and monarchy of
England, which fell together in the great rebellion. See Note XI. ]
[Footnote 126: _Resolved_, i. e. dissolved. ]
[Footnote 127: The Wolf, or Presbytery. --See note XIII. ]
[Footnote 128: Note XIV. ]
[Footnote 129: That is, if the church of England would be reconciled
to Rome, she should be gratified with a delegated portion of innate
authority over the rival sectaries; instead of being obliged to depend
upon the civil power for protection. ]
[Footnote 130: Alluding to the exercise of the dispensing power, and
the Declaration of Indulgence. ]
[Footnote 131: The ten-horned monster, in the Revelations, was usually
explained by the reformers as typical of the church of Rome. ]
[Footnote 132: There was a classical superstition, that, if a wolf saw
a man before he saw the wolf, the person lost his voice:
----_voxque Mærin
Jam fugit ipsa: lupi Mærin videre priores. _
Dryden has adopted, in the text, the converse of this superstitious
belief. ]
[Footnote 133: Although the Roman Catholic plot was made the pretence
of persecuting the Papists in the first instance, yet the high-flying
party of the Church of England were also levelled at, and accused of
being Tantivies, Papists in masquerade, &c. &c. ]
NOTES
ON
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER.
PART I.
Note I.
_And doomed to death, though fated not to die. _--P. 119.
The critics fastened on this line with great exultation, concluding,
that doomed and fated mean precisely the same thing. "Faith, Mr Bayes,"
says one of these gentlemen, "if you were _doomed_ to be hanged,
whatever you were _fated_ to 'twould give you but small comfort. "[134]
This criticism is quite erroneous; doom, in its general acceptation,
meaning merely a sentence of any kind, the pronouncing which by no
means necessarily implies its execution. In the criminal courts of
Scotland, the sentence is always concluded with this formula, "and
this I pronounce for doom. " Till of late years, a special officer
recited the sentence after the judge, and was thence called the
_doomster_,[135] an office now performed by the clerk of court. The
criticism is founded on the word _doom_ having been often, and even
generally, used as synonimous to the sentence of heaven, and therefore
inevitable. But in the text, it is obvious that the doom, or sentence,
of an earthly tribunal is placed in opposition to the decree of
Providence.
Note II.
_The bloody Bear, an independent beast,
Unlicked to forms, &c. _--P. 120.
The sect of Independents arose to great eminence in the civil wars,
when the enthusiastic spirits were deemed entitled to preferment upon
earth, in proportion to the extravagance of their religious zeal. Hume
has admirably described their leading tenets, or rather the scorn with
which they discarded the principles of other religious sects; for their
peculiarities consisted much more in their neglect and contempt of all
forms, than in any rules or dogmata of their own.
"The Independents rejected all ecclesiastical establishments, and
would admit of no spiritual courts, no government among pastors,
no interposition of the magistrate in religious concerns, no fixed
encouragement annexed to any system of doctrines or opinions. According
to their principles, each congregation, united voluntarily and by
spiritual ties, composed, within itself, a separate church, and
exercised a jurisdiction, but one destitute of temporal sanctions,
over its own pastor and its own members. The election alone of the
congregation was sufficient to bestow the sacerdotal character; and,
as all essential distinction was denied between the laity and the
clergy, no ceremony, no institution, no vocation, no imposition of
hands, was, as in all other churches, supposed requisite to convey a
right to holy orders. The enthusiasm of the Presbyterians led them
to reject the authority of prelates, to throw off the restraint of
liturgies, to retrench ceremonies, to limit the riches and authority of
the priestly office. The fanaticism of the Independents, exalted to a
higher pitch, abolished ecclesiastical government, disdained creeds and
systems, neglected every ceremony, and confounded all ranks and orders.
The soldier, the merchant, the mechanic, indulging the fervours of
zeal, and guided by the illapses of the spirit, resigned himself to an
inward and superior direction, and was consecrated, in a manner, by an
immediate intercourse and communication with heaven. "
Butler thus describes the Independents:
The Independents, whose first station
Was in the rear of reformation:
A mongrel kind of church dragoons,
That served for horse and foot at once,
And in the saddle of one steed,
The Saracen and Christian rid,
Were free of every spiritual order,
To preach, and fight, and pray, and murder.
It is well known, that these sectaries obtained the final ascendancy in
the civil wars. Cromwell, their chief, was highly gifted as a preacher
as well as a warrior; witness his "learned, devout, and conscientious
exercise, held at Sir Peter Temple's, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, upon
Romans xiii. 1. "
Note III.
_Among the timorous kind, the quaking Hare
Professed neutrality, but would not swear. _--P. 120.
As Mr Hume's account of the rise of this sect (the quakers) is
uncommonly lively, I take the liberty to insert it at length; though,
perhaps, the passage does not call for so prolonged a quotation. After
describing the ascetic solitude of George Fox, their founder, he
proceeds:
"When he had been sufficiently consecrated, in his own imagination, he
felt that the fumes of self-applause soon dissipate, if not continually
supplied by the admiration of others; and he began to seek proselytes.
Proselytes were easily gained, at a time when all men's affections
were turned towards religion, and when extravagant modes of it were
sure to be most popular. All the forms of ceremony, invented by pride
and ostentation, Fox and his disciples, from a superior pride and
ostentation, carefully rejected: Even the ordinary rites of civility
were shunned, as the nourishment of carnal vanity and self-conceit.
They would bestow no titles of distinction: The name of friend was the
only salutation with which they indiscriminately accosted every one. To
no person would they make a bow, or move their hat, or give any signs
of reverence. Instead of that affected adulation introduced into modern
tongues, of speaking to individuals as if they were a multitude, they
returned to the simplicity of ancient languages; and _thou_ and _thee_
were the only expressions which, on any consideration, they would be
brought to employ.
"Dress too, a material circumstance, distinguished the members of this
sect. Every superfluity and ornament was carefully retrenched: No
plaits to their coat, no buttons to their sleeves: No lace, no ruffles,
no embroidery. Even a button to the hat, though sometimes useful, yet
not being always so, was universally rejected by them with horror and
detestation.
"The violent enthusiasm of this sect, like all high passions, being
too strong for the weak nerves to sustain, threw the preachers into
convulsions, and shakings, and distortions in their limbs; and
they thence received the appellation of Quakers. Amidst the great
toleration which was then granted to all sects, and even encouragement
given to all innovations, this sect alone suffered persecution. From
the fervour of their zeal, the quakers broke into churches, disturbed
public worship, and harrassed the minister and audience with railing
and reproaches. When carried before a magistrate, they refused him all
reverence, and treated him with the same familiarity as if he had been
their equal. Sometimes they were thrown into mad-houses, sometimes
into prisons: Sometimes whipped, sometimes pilloried. The patience
and fortitude with which they suffered, begat compassion, admiration,
esteem. A supernatural spirit was believed to support them under those
sufferings, which the ordinary state of humanity, freed from the
illusions of passion, is unable to sustain.
"The quakers creep'd into the army: But, as they preached universal
peace, they seduced the military zealots from their profession, and
would soon, had they been suffered, have put an end, without any defeat
or calamity, to the dominion of the saints. These attempts became a
fresh ground for persecution, and a new reason for their progress among
the people.
"Morals, with this sect, were carried, or affected to be carried, to
the same degree of extravagance as religion. Give a quaker a blow
on one cheek, he held up the other: Ask his cloke, he gave you his
coat also. The greatest interest could not engage him in any court of
judicature, to swear even to the truth. He never asked more for his
wares than the precise sum which he was determined to accept. This last
maxim is laudable, and continues still to be religiously observed by
that sect.
"No fanatics ever carried farther the hatred to ceremonies, forms,
orders, rites, and positive institutions. Even baptism and the Lord's
supper, by all other sects believed to be interwoven with the very
vitals of Christianity, were disdainfully rejected by them. The very
Sabbath they profaned. The holiness of churches they derided; and they
would give to these sacred edifices no other appellation than that of
shops, or steeple-houses. No priests were admitted in their sects:
Every one had received, from immediate illumination, a character much
superior to the sacerdotal. When they met for divine worship, each rose
up in his place, and delivered the extemporary inspirations of the
Holy Ghost: Women were also admitted to teach the brethren, and were
considered as proper vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit.
Sometimes a great many preachers were moved to speak at once: Sometimes
a total silence prevailed in their congregation.
"Some quakers attempted to fast forty days in imitation of Christ;
and one of them bravely perished in the experiment. A female quaker
came naked into the church where the protector sat; being moved by the
spirit, as she said, to appear as a sign to the people. A number of
them fancied, that the renovation of all things had commenced, and that
clothes were to be rejected, together with other superfluities. --The
sufferings which followed the practice of this doctrine, were a species
of persecution not well calculated for promoting it. "
The quakers were particularly favoured by James II. , owing to the
interest which Penn, the settler of Pennsylvania, had with that
monarch. That person took a lead in the controversy concerning the
Indulgence, by publishing a pamphlet, entitled, "Good Advice to the
Church of England. "
Note IV.
_Next her, the buffoon Ape, as atheists use,
Mimicked all sects, and had his own to chuse;
Still, when the Lion looked, his knees he bent,
And paid at church a courtier's compliment. _--P. 120.
The sect of free-thinkers, who professed a disbelief in revealed
religion, was to be found even among the fanatical ranks of the Long
Parliament. Harvey, Martin, Sidney, and others, were considered as the
chiefs of this little party. After the restoration of Charles II. ,
these loose principles became prevalent among his gay courtiers, and
were supposed to have been privately adopted by the king himself, who
was educated by the sceptic Hobbes. As the free-thinkers taught a total
disbelief of revelation, and indifference for religious forms, they
left their disciples at liberty occasionally to conform to whatever
creed, or form of worship, might appear most conducive to their
temporal interests. Sunderland was supposed to belong to this sect,
for he made his change to Popery, without even the form of previous
instruction or conference; evincing to the whole world, that, being
totally indifferent about all religions, he was ready to embrace any
that would best serve his immediate views. This statesman's character,
as a latitudinarian in religion, is mentioned with great bitterness
by the Princess Anne, afterwards queen, in her private correspondence
with her sister, the Princess of Orange. --See _Dalrymple's Memoirs_,
Vol. II. p. 169. 8vo. edit. Dryden probably intended a sarcasm at
Sunderland, or some such time-serving courtier, for his occasional
conformity with the royal faith, of which there were several instances
at the time. These persons, as they attended James to mass, were
compared to Naaman, who, on adopting the Jewish religion, craved an
indulgence for waiting upon his master to the house of the idol Rimmon.
It is hinted in "The Hind and Panther Transversed," that Dryden's
satire is personal; for he is made to quote the lines, and to add, by
way of commentary, "That galls somewhere! Egad, I cannot leave it off,
though I were cudgelled every day for it. "
The church party, among other pamphlets intended to ridicule the
Declaration of Indulgence, and as a parody of the addresses of
the dissenters on that occasion, published, "To the King's Most
Excellent Majesty, the Humble Address of the Atheists, or the Sect of
Epicureans. " After congratulating the king on having freed his subjects
from the solemn superstition of oaths, they proceed: "Your majesty was
pleased to wish, that all your subjects were of your own religion;
and perhaps every division wishes you were of theirs; but, for our
parts, we freely declare, that if ever we should be obliged to profess
any religion, we would prefer the Church of Rome, which does not much
trouble the world with the affairs of invisible beings, and is very
civil and indulgent to the failings of human nature. That church can
ease us from the grave fatigues of religion, and, for our monies, allow
us proxies, both for piety and penances: We can easily swallow and
digest a wafer deity, and will never cavil at the mass in an unknown
tongue, when the sacrifice itself is so unintelligible. We shall never
scruple the adoration of an image, when the chiefest religion is but
imagination; and we are willing to allow the Pope an absolute power
to dispense with all penal laws, in this world and in another. But
before we return to Rome, the greatest origin of atheism, we wish the
Pope, and all his vassal princes, would free the world from the fear of
hell and devils, the inquisition and dragoons, and that he would take
off the chimney-money of purgatory, and custom and excise of pardons
and indulgencies, which are so much inconsistent with the flourishing
trade and grandeur of the nation. As for the engagements of lives and
fortunes, the common compliment of addressers, we confess we have a
more peculiar tenderness for those most sacred concernments; but yet we
will hazard them in defence of your majesty, with as much constancy and
resolution as your majesty will defend your indulgence; that is, so far
as the adventure will serve our designs and interest.
From the Devil-Tavern, the 5th of }
November, 1688. Presented by }
Justice Baldock, and was graciously }
received. " }
Note V.
_The bristled baptist Boar, impure as he,
But whitened with the foam of sanctity,
With fat pollutions filled the sacred place,
And mountains levelled in his furious race;
So first rebellion founded was in grace.
But since the mighty ravage, which he made
In German forests, had his guilt betrayed,
With broken tusks, and with a borrowed name,
He shunned the vengeance, and concealed the shame. _
P. 120.
The sect of Anabaptists, whose principal tenet is the disallowing
of infant baptism, arose in Germany and the Low Countries about
the year 1521. This new light, for such it was esteemed, happened
unfortunately to appear to some of the most ignorant and ferocious of
the Low German burghers and boors. Thomas Muncer, by birth a Saxon,
was the principal apostle of this sect. He preached both against the
Papists and Luther, recommending the eschewing of open crimes, the
chastening of the body by severities of abstinence, and the wearing
a long beard. With these tenets, he combined that of an immediate
intercourse with God, by demanding of him signs and tokens, which would
be infallibly granted, and that of an universal community of goods.
These two last doctrines, concerning spiritual and temporal matters,
were admirably calculated to turn the heads of his followers. Being
banished from Saxony, he seized upon the monastery of Muhlhans, from
which he expelled the monks; and afterwards made a convert of one
Pfeifer, a daring enthusiast, who, because in a dream he had put to
flight an innumerable number of mice, made no doubt he was destined to
vanquish all principalities and powers. Muncer easily prevailed on this
visionary conqueror to head the miners of the country of Mansfeldt, in
some ferocious inroads into Saxony. The Dukes of Saxony and Brunswick,
the Landgrave of Hesse, and other German princes, marched against these
madmen, whom Muncer stimulated to resistance, by assuring them, that a
rainbow, which happened then to be visible, was an indubitable sign of
victory. The poor deluded wretches accordingly suffered themselves to
be quietly cut to pieces, with their eyes fixed on the heavenly sign,
in expectation of divine assistance. Muncer was made prisoner, and
recanted before his death, only blaming the princes for their cruelty
and oppression to their vassals, which drove them to desperation;--so,
if he lived a false prophet, he died a true preacher. His death, and
that of Pfeifer, with the slaughter made among their followers, did
not extirpate the heresy; and the most dreadful consequences attended,
for some time, the progress of these enthusiastic opinions. A tailor,
called Bockholdt, better known by the name of John of Leyden, with his
associates, Rotman, Matthews, and Cnipperdoling, in 1535, actually
possessed themselves of the city of Munster, expelled the bishop, and
commenced the reign of the saints. Their leader, under the strange and
horrible delusion that he was inspired by the Holy Ghost, played the
most outrageous pranks of lust and cruelty that ever madness dictated:
Yet, amidst their frenzy, the Anabaptists had valour and conduct
sufficient to defend the city for a length of time against the bishop
and his allies; and while the unfortunate inhabitants were in the
utmost misery, the enthusiasts themselves revelled in the indulgence
of every licentious appetite. At length the city was taken, and a
cruel, though deserved punishment, inflicted upon those who had been
the leaders in this holy warfare. John of Leyden himself was torn to
pieces with hot pincers. After this memorable event, those who retained
the principles of this sect were not desirous of being distinguished
by a name which the excesses of these fanatics had rendered an
abomination to all the Christian world. They were generally confounded
with the Independents, with whom they hold many principles in common,
particularly, I believe, the disavowal of any clerical order. Yet if,
for a time, they "lurked in sects unseen," as Dryden assures us, the
sunshine of general toleration soon brought them out under their own
proper appellation. We have, among the addresses of various classes of
dissenters upon the Declaration of Indulgence, that of the Anabaptists
in and about the city of London, who, indeed, were the very first in
expressing their thanks and loyalty. The Anabaptists of Leicestershire,
the Independents and Baptists of Gloucester, the Anabaptists of
Cheshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire, &c. &c. &c. all came forward
with loyal acclamations on the same occasion.
Note VI.
----_With greater guile
False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil;
The graceless beast by Athanasius first
Was chased from Nice, then by Socinus nursed. _--P. 121.
Arius, the propagator of a great heresy in the Christian church,
denied that God the Son was equal to God the Father, or that he was
co-existent with him. See page 16. This doctrine he maintained in the
council at Nice against Athanasius, the champion of orthodoxy; and
although his doctrines were condemned by the general council, and
he himself banished, yet his party was so powerful as to accomplish
his restoration, and the banishment of Athanasius, who fled into the
Thebais, or deserts of Upper Egypt. The schism thus occasioned,
continued long to divide the Christian church.
Lelius Socinus, a
nobleman of Sienna, revived and enlarged the doctrine of Arius,
about the latter end of the sixteenth century. His nephew Faustus
collected, arranged, and published his opinions, which have since had
many followers. The Socinians teach the worship of one God, without
distinction of persons; affirming, that the Holy Ghost is but another
expression for the power of God; and that Jesus Christ is only the
Son of God by adoption. As they deny our Saviour's divinity, they
disavow, of course, the doctrine of redemption, and consider him only
as a prophet, gifted with a more than usual share of inspiration, and
sealing his mission by his blood. This heresy has, at different times,
and under various disguises and modifications, insinuated itself into
the Christian church, forming, as it were, a resting place, though but
a tottering one, between natural and revealed religion. Here, I fear,
the author's lines apply:
To take up half on trust, and half to try,
Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry;
Both knave and fool the merchant we may call,
To pay great sums, and to compound the small;
For who would break with heaven, and would not break for all?
This heretical belief was adopted by the Protestants of Poland and of
Hungary, especially those who were about this time in arms under Count
Teckeli against the emperor. Hence Dryden bids the Fox,
Unkennelled, range in thy Polonian plains.
Note VII.
_Let them declare by what mysterious arts
He shot that body through the opposing might,
Of bolts and bars, impervious to the light,
And stood before his train confessed in open sight. _--P. 122.
"Then the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when
the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the
Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be
unto you. "
Again, "And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and
Thomas with them; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in
the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. "--_The Gospel of St John_,
chap. xx. verses 19. 26.
From these passages of Scripture, Dryden endeavours to confute the
objection to transubstantiation, founded on the host being consecrated
in various places at the same time, in each of which, however, the
body of Christ becomes present, according to the Papist doctrine.
This being predicated of the real body of our Saviour, the Protestants
allege is impossible, as matter can only be in one place at the same
time. Dryden, in answer, assumes, that Christ entered into the meeting
of the disciples, by actually passing through the closed doors of the
apartment; and as, at the moment of such passage, two bodies must have
been in the same place at the same instant, the body of Jesus namely,
and the substance through which he passed, the poet founds on it as an
instance of a transgression of a natural law, proved from Scripture, as
violent as that of one body being in several different places at once.
But the text does not prove the major part of Dryden's proposition; it
is not stated positively by the evangelist, that our Saviour passed
_through_ the doors which were shut, but merely that he _came and stood
among his disciples_ without the doors being opened; which miraculous
appearance might take place many ways besides that on which Dryden has
fixed for the foundation of his argument.
Note VIII.
_More haughty than the rest, the Wolfish race}
Appears with belly gaunt, and famished face; }
Never was so deformed a beast of grace. }
His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,
Close clapped for shame; but his rough crest he rears,
And pricks up his predestinating ears. _--P. 124.
The personal appearance of the Presbyterian clergy was suited by an
affectation of extreme plainness and rigour of appearance. A Geneva
cloak and band, with the hair close cropped, and covered with a sort
of black scull-cap, was the discriminating attire of their teachers.
This last article of dress occasioned an unseemly projection of their
ears, and procured those who affected it the nick-name of prick-eared
fanatics, and the still better known appellation of Round-heads. Our
author proceeds, with great bitterness, to investigate the origin
of Calvinism. His account of the rise and destruction of a sect of
heretics in Cambria may be understood to refer to the ancient British
church, which disowned the supremacy of the see of Rome, refused to
adopt her ritual, and opposed St Augustin's claims to be metropolitan
of Britain, in virtue of Pope Gregory's appointment. They held two
conferences with Augustin; at one of which he pretended to work a
miracle by the cure of a blind man; at the second, seven British
bishops, and a numerous deputation from the monastery of Bangor,
disputed with Augustin, who denounced vengeance against them by the
sword of the Saxons, in case they refused to submit to the see of Rome.
His prophecy, which had as little effect upon the Welch clergy as his
miracle, was shortly afterwards accomplished: For Ethelfred, the Saxon
king of Northumberland, having defeated the British under the walls of
Chester, cut to pieces no fewer than twelve hundred of the monks of
Bangor, who had come to assist their countrymen with their prayers. Our
author alludes to this extermination of the British recusant clergy,
by comparing it to the census, or tribute of wolves-heads, imposed
on the Cambrian kings. It has been surmised by some authors, that
Augustin himself instigated this massacre, and thereby contributed to
the accomplishment of his own prophecy. Other authorities say, that he
died in 604, and that the monks of Bangor were slain in 613. Perhaps,
however, our author did not mean to carry the rise of Presbytery so
far back, but only referred to the doctrines of Wiccliff, who, in the
reign of Edward III. , and his successor Richard II. , taught publicly at
Oxford several doctrines inconsistent with the supremacy of the Pope,
and otherwise repugnant to the doctrines of the Roman church. He was
protected during his lifetime by John of Gaunt; but, forty years after
his death, his bones were dug up and burned for heresy. His followers
were called Lollards, and were persecuted with great severity in the
reign of Henry V. , Lord Cobham and many others being burned to death.
Thinking, perhaps, either of these too honourable and ancient a descent
for the English Presbyterians, our author next refers to Heylin, who
brings them from Geneva,[136] where the reformed doctrine was taught
by the well known Zuinglius, and the still more famous Calvin. The
former began to preach the Reformation at Zurich about 1518, and
disputed publicly with one Sampson, a friar, whom the Pope had sent
thither to distribute indulgences. Zuinglius was persecuted by the
bishop of Constance; but, being protected by the magistrates of Zurich,
he set him at defiance, and in 1523 held an open disputation before
the senate, with such success, that they commanded the traditions of
the church to be thrown aside, and the gospel to be taught through
all their canton. Zuinglius, in some respects, merited the epithet of
_fiery_, which Dryden has given him; he was an ardent lover of liberty,
and dissuaded his countrymen from a league with the French, by which it
must have been endangered; he vindicated, from Scripture, the doctrine
of resisting oppressors and asserting liberty, of which he said God was
the author, and would be the defender;[137] and, finally, he was killed
in battle between the inhabitants of Zurich and those of the five small
cantons. The conquerors, being Catholics, treated his dead body with
the most shameless indignity.
The history of Calvin is too well known to need recital in this place.
He was expelled from France, his native country, on account of his
having adopted the doctrines of the reformers, and, taking refuge in
Geneva, was appointed professor of divinity there in 1536. But being
afterwards obliged to retire from thence, on account of a quarrel about
the administration of the communion to certain individuals, Calvin
taught a French congregation at Strasburgh. He may be considered as the
founder of the Presbyterian doctrine, differing from that of Luther
in denying consubstantiation, and affirming, in a large extent, the
doctrine of predestination, founded upon election to grace. The poet
proceeds to describe the progress of this sect:
With teeth untried, and rudiments of claws,
Your first essay was on your native laws;
Those having torn with ease, and trampled down,}
Your fangs you fastened on the mitred crown, }
And freed from God and monarchy your town. }
What though your native kennel still be small,
Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall;
Yet your victorious colonies are sent
Where the north ocean girds the continent.
Quickened with fire below, your monsters breed
In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed;
And like the first the last affects to be,
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
The citizens of Geneva, before they adopted the reformed religion,
were under the temporal, as well as the ecclesiastical, authority of
a bishop. But, in 1528, when they followed the example of the city of
Berne, in destroying images, and abolishing the Roman ceremonies, the
bishop and his clergy were expelled from the city, which from that
time was considered as the cradle of Presbytery. As they had made
choice of a republican form of government for their little state,
our author infers, that democracy is most congenial to their new
form of religion. It is no doubt true, that the Presbyterian church
government is most purely democratical; which perhaps recommended it
in Holland. It is also true, that the Presbyterian divines have always
preached, and their followers practised, the doctrine of resistance to
oppression, whether affecting civil or religious liberty. But if Dryden
had looked to his own times, he would have seen, that the Scottish
Presbyterians made a very decided stand for monarchy after the death
of Charles I. ; and even such as were engaged in the conspiracy of
Baillie of Jerviswood, which was in some respects the counter-part of
the Ryehouse-plot, refused to take arms, because they suspected that
the intentions of Sidney, and others of the party in England, were to
establish a commonwealth. I may add, that, in latter times, no body of
men have shewn themselves more attached to the king and constitution
than the Presbyterian clergy of Scotland.
There is room for criticism also in the poetry of these lines. I
question whether _fenny Holland_ and _fruitful Tweed_, in other words,
a marsh and a river, could form a favourable medium for communicating
the influence of the _quickening fire below_.
Note IX.
_From Celtic woods is chased the wolfish crew;
But ah! some pity e'en to brutes is due;
Their native walks, methinks, they might enjoy,
Curbed of their native malice to destroy. _--P. 126.
It is remarkable how readily sentiments of toleration occur, even
to the professors of the most intolerant religion, when their minds
have fair play to attend to them. The edict of Nantes, by which
Henry IV. secured to his Huguenot subjects the undisturbed exercise
of their religion, was the recompense of the great obligations he
owed to them, and a sort of compensation for his having preferred
power to conscience; an edict, declared unalterable, and which had
even been sanctioned by Louis XIV. himself, so late as 1680, was,
in 1685, finally abrogated. The violence with which the persecution
of the Protestants was then pushed on, almost exceeds belief. The
principal and least violent mode of conversion, adopted by the king
and his minister Louvois, was by quartering upon those of the reformed
religion large parties of soldiers, who were licenced to commit every
outrage in their habitations short of rape and murder. When, by this
species of persecution, a Huguenot had been once compelled to hear
mass, he was afterwards treated as a relapsed heretic, if he shewed
the slightest disposition to resume the religion in which he had
been brought up. James II. , in two letters to the Prince of Orange,
beseeching toleration for the regular priests in Holland, fails not
to condemn the conduct of Louis towards his Protestant subjects; yet,
with gross inconsistency, or the deepest dissimulation, he was at the
same time congratulating Barillon on his Most Christian Majesty's care
for the conversion of his subjects, and hoping God would grant him the
favour of completing so great a work. [138] And just so our author,
after blaming the persecution of the Huguenots, congratulates Italy and
Spain upon possessing such just and excellent laws, as the rules of the
inquisitorial church courts.
Note X.
_A slimy-born and sun-begotten tribe,
Who far from steeples, and their sacred sound,
In fields their sullen conventicles found. _--P. 129.
The dregs of the fanaticism of the last age fermented, during that
of Charles II. , into various sects of sullen enthusiasts, who
distinguished themselves by the different names of Brownists, Families
of Love, &c. &c. In many cases they rejected all the usual aids of
devotion, and, holding their meetings in the open air, and in solitary
spots, nursed their fanaticism by separating themselves from the more
rational part of mankind. Dryden has elsewhere described them with
equal severity;
A numerous host of dreaming saints succeed,
Of the true old enthusiastic breed;
'Gainst form and order they their powers employ,
Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.
In Scotland, large conventicles were held in the mountains and morasses
by the fiercest of the Covenanters, whom persecution had driven
frantic. These men, known now by the name of Cameronians, considered
popery and prelacy as synonymous terms; and even stigmatized, as
Erastians and self-seekers, the more moderate Presbyterians, who were
contented to exercise their religion as tolerated by the government.
Note XI.
_Her novices are taught, that bread and wine
Are but the visible and outward sign,
Received by those who in communion join;
But the inward grace, or the thing signified,
His blood and body, who to save us died_, &c. --P. 133.
The poet alludes to the doctrine of the church of England concerning
the eucharist, thus expressed in the twenty-eighth article of faith:
"The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians
ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather it is a
sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death; insomuch, that to such
as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which
we break is a partaking of the body of Christ, and likewise the cup of
blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ.
"Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of bread and wine,
in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy writ; but it is
repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a
sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.
"The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the supper only,
after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean, whereby the body
of Christ is received and eaten in the supper, is faith. "
Dryden insists upon a supposed inconsistency in this doctrine; but his
argument recoils upon the creed of his own church. The words of our
Saviour are to be interpreted as they must have been meant when spoken;
a circumstance which excludes the literal interpretation contended
for by the Romanists: For, by the words "_Hoc est corpus meum_," our
Saviour cannot be then supposed to have meant, that the morsel which
he gave to his disciples was transformed into his body, which then
stood before their eyes, and which all but heretics allow to have been
a real, natural, human body, incapable, of course, of being multiplied
into as many bodies as there were persons to partake of the communion,
and of retaining its original and identical form at the same time.
But unless such a multiplied transformation actually took place, our
Saviour's words to his apostles must have been emblematical only. Queen
Elizabeth's homely lines are, after all, an excellent comment on this
point of divinity:
His was the word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;
And what that word did make it,
That I believe, and take it.
Note XII.
_True to her king her principles are found;
Oh that her practice were but half so sound! _--P. 133.
The pretensions of the church of England to loyalty were carried
to a degree of extravagance, which her divines were finally unable
to support, unless they had meant to sign the destruction of their
religion. This was owing to the recollection of the momentous period
which had lately elapsed. The interest of the church had been deeply
interwoven with that of the crown; their struggle, sufferings, and
fall, during the civil wars, had been in common, as well as their
triumphant restoration: the maxim of "no king no bishop," was indelibly
imprinted on the hearts of the clergy; in fine, it seemed impossible
that any thing should cut asunder the ties which combined them. In
sanctioning, therefore, the doctrines of the most passive loyalty,
the English divines probably thought that they were only paying a
tribute to the throne, which was to be returned by the streams of royal
bounty and grace towards the church. Even the religion of James did
not, before his accession, shake their confidence, or excite their
apprehensions. They were far more afraid of the fanatics, under whose
iron yoke they had so lately groaned, than of the Roman Catholics,
who, for three generations, had been a depressed, and therefore a
tractable body, whose ceremonies and church government resembled, in
some respects, their own, and who had sided with them during the civil
wars against the Protestant sectaries. But when the members of the
established church perceived, that the rapid steps which James adopted
would soon place the Catholics in a condition to rival, and perhaps to
overpower her, they were obliged to retract and explain away many of
their former hasty expressions of absolute and unconditional devotion
to the royal pleasure. The king, and his Catholic counsellors, saw
with astonishment and indignation, that professions of the most ample
subjection were now to be understood as limited and restricted by the
interests of the church. In the height of their resentment, even the
church of England's pretensions to a peculiar degree of loyalty were
unthankfully turned into ridicule, in such bitter and sarcastic terms
as the following, which occur in a pamphlet published expressly "with
allowance," _i. e. _ by royal permission.
"I have often considered, but could never yet find a convincing reason,
why that part of the nation, (which is commonly called the church of
England) should dare appropriate to themselves alone the principles of
true loyalty; and that no other church or communion on earth can be
consistent with monarchy, or, indeed, with any government.
"This is a presumption of so high a nature, that it renders the church
of England a despicable enemy to the rest of mankind: For, what can be
more ridiculous than to say, that a congregation of people, calling
themselves a church, which cannot pretend to an infallibility even in
matters of faith, having, since their first institution, made several
fundamental changes of religious worship, should, however, assume to
themselves an inerribility in point of civil obedience to the temporal
magistrate? Or, what can be more injurious than to aver, that no other
sect or community on earth, from the rising to the setting sun, can be
capable of this singular gift of loyalty? So that the church of England
alone, (if you have faith enough to believe her own testimony,) is
that beautiful spouse of Christ, holy in her doctrine, and infallible
in her duty to the supreme magistrate, whom (by a revelation peculiar
to herself) she owns both for her temporal and spiritual head. But I
doubt much, whether her _ipsa dixit_ alone will pass current with all
the nations of the universe, without making further search into the
veracity of this bold assertion. "
_A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty. _
Note XIII.
_Or Isgrim's counsel. _--P. 134.
This name for the Wolf is taken from an ancient political satire,
called "Reynard the Fox;" in which an account is given of the intrigues
at the court of the Lion; the impeachment of the Fox; his various
wiles and escapes; finally, his conquering his accuser in single
combat. This ancient apologue was translated from the German by the
venerable Caxton, and published the 6th day of June, 1481. It became
very popular in England; and we derive from it all the names commonly
applied to animals in fable, as Reynard the fox, Tybert the cat, Bruin
the bear, Isgrim the wolf, &c. The original of this piece is still so
highly esteemed in Germany, that it was lately modernized by Goethé,
and is published among his "Neüe Schriften. " It is probable that this
ancient satire might be the original of "Mother Hubbard's Tale," and
that Dryden himself may have had something of its plan in his eye,
when writing "The Hind and Panther. " As it had become merely a popular
story-book, some of his critics did not fail to make merry with his
adopting any thing from such a source. "_Smith. _ I have heard you
quote Reynard the fox. --_Bayes. _ Why, there's it now; take it from me,
Mr Smith, there is as good morality, and as sound precepts, in The
Delectable History of Reynard the Fox, as in any book I know, except
Seneca. Pray, tell me, where, in any other author, could I have found
so pretty a name for a wolf as Isgrim? "[139]
Note XIV.
_The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom she first betrayed;
No help from fathers or tradition's train,
Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain,
And by that Scripture, which she once abused
To reformation, stands herself accused. _--P. 135.
The author here prefers an argument much urged by the Catholic divines
against those of the church of England, and which he afterwards resumes
in the Second Part. The English divines, say they, halt between two
opinions; they will not allow the weight of tradition when they dispute
with the church of Rome, but refer to the scripture, interpreted by
each man's private opinion, as the sole rule of faith; while, on the
other hand, they are obliged to have recourse to tradition in their
disputes with the Presbyterians and dissenters, because, without its
aid, they could not vindicate from scripture alone their hierarchy and
church-government. To this it was answered, by the disputants on the
church of England's side, that they owned no such inconsistent opinion
as was imputed to them; but that they acknowledged, for their rule of
faith, the word of God in general; that by this they understood the
_written word_, or _scripture_, in contradistinction to the Roman rule
of scripture and traditions; and as distinguished, both from the church
of Rome, and from heretics and sectaries, they understood by it more
particularly the written word or scripture, delivering a sense, owned
and declared by the primitive church of Christ in the three creeds,
four first general councils, and harmony of the fathers.
Dryden's argument, however, had been, by the Catholics, thought so
sound, that it is much dwelt upon in a tract, called, "A Remonstrance,
by way of Address to both Houses of Parliament, from the Church of
England," the object of which is to recommend an union between the
churches of England and of Rome. The former is there represented as
holding the following language:
"You cannot be ignorant, that ever since my separation from the church
of Rome, I have been attacked by all sorts of dissenters: So that my
fate, in this encounter, may be compared to that of a city, besieged
by different armies, who fight both against it and one another; where,
if the garrison make a sally to damage one, another presently takes an
advantage to make an attack. Thus, whilst I set myself vigorously to
suppress the papist, the puritan seeks to undermine me; and, whilst I
am busied to oppose the puritan, the papist gains ground upon me. If I
tell the church of Rome, I did not forsake her, but her errors, which
I reformed; my rebellious subjects tell me the same, and that they
must make a thorough reformation; and, let me bring what arguments I
please, to justify my dissent, they still produce the same against me.
If, on the other hand, I plead against the puritan dissenter, and show,
that he ought to stand to church-authority, where he is not infallibly
certain it commands a sin; the papist presently catches at it, and
tells me, I destroy my own grounds of reformation, unless I will
pretend to that infallibility which I condemn in them.
"Matters standing thus betwixt me and them, why would it not be a
point of prudence in me, (as I doubt not but you would esteem it in a
governor of that city I lately mentioned,) to make peace with one of my
adversaries, to the end I may with more ease resist the onsets of the
other? "
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 134: Hind and Panther Transversed. ]
[Footnote 135: This office was usually held by the executioner, who,
to this extent, was a pluralist; and the change was chiefly made,
to prevent the necessity of producing that person in court, to the
aggravation of the criminal's terrors. ]
[Footnote 136: "But separating this obliquity from the main intendment,
the work was vigorously carried on by the king and his counsellors,
as appears clearly by the doctrinals in the Book of Homilies, and by
the practical part of Christian piety, in the first public Liturgy,
confirmed by act of parliament, in the second and third year of the
king; and in that act (and, which is more, by Fox himself) affirmed
to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost. And here the
business might have rested, if Catin's pragmatical spirit had not
interposed. He first began to quarrel at some passages in this sacred
liturgy, and afterwards never left soliciting the Lord Protector,
and practising by his agents on the court, the country, and the
universities, till he had laid the first foundation of the Zuinglian
faction; who laboured nothing more, than innovation both in doctrine
and discipline; to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some
improvident indulgence granted unto John A-Lasco; who, bringing with
him a mixt multitude of Poles and Germans, obtained the privilege of a
church for himself and his, distinct in government and forms of worship
from the church of England.
"This gave powerful animation to the Zuinglian gospellers, (as they
are called by Bishop Hooper, and some other writers) to practise first
upon the church; who being countenanced, if not headed, by the Earl
of Warwick, (who then began to undermine the Lord Protector,) first
quarrelled the episcopal habit, and afterwards inveighed against
caps and surplices, against gowns and tippets, but fell at last upon
the altars, which were left standing in all churches by the rules of
liturgy. The touching on this string made excellent music to most of
the grandees of the court, who had before cast many an envious eye on
those costly hangings, that massy plate, and other rich and precious
utensils, which adorned those altars. And what need all this waste?
said Judas, when one poor chalice only, and perhaps not that, might
have served the turn. Besides, there was no small spoil to be made of
copes, in which the priest officiated at the holy sacrament; some of
them being made of cloth of tissue, of cloth of gold and silver, or
embroidered velvet; the meanest being made of silk, or satin, with
some decent trimming. And might not these be handsomely converted into
private use, to serve as carpets for their tables, coverlids to their
beds, or cushions to their chairs or windows. Thereupon some rude
people are encouraged under-hand to beat down some altars, which makes
way for an order of the council-table, to take down the rest, and set
up tables in their places; followed by a commission, to be executed in
all parts of the kingdom, for seizing on the premises to the use of the
king. "]
[Footnote 137: "_Quo animo ipsum quoque Paulum dicere existimo_,
si potes liber fieri utere potius, _1. Cor. 7. Quod eternum Dei
concilium, patres nostri, fortissimi viri, infracto animo secuti,
miris victoriarum successibus ut Sempachii," &c. _ And again, "_Ipse
Dominus libertatis author exstitit, et honestam libertatem querentibus
adest_. "--Pia et Amica Paranæsis ad Suitensium rempublicam. ]
[Footnote 138: Dalrymple's Memoirs, Vol. II. p. 108. ]
[Footnote 139: The Hind and the Panther Transversed, p. 14. ]
THE
HIND AND THE PANTHER,
A POEM.
PART II.
THE
HIND AND PANTHER.
PART SECOND.
Dame, said the Panther, times are mended well,
Since late among the Philistines you fell. [140]
The toils were pitched, a spacious tract of ground
With expert huntsmen was encompassed round;
The inclosure narrowed; the sagacious power
Of hounds and death drew nearer every hour.
'Tis true, the younger lion[141] 'scaped the snare,
But all your priestly calves lay struggling there,
As sacrifices on their altars laid;[142] }
While you, their careful mother, wisely fled,}
Not trusting destiny to save your head. }
For, whate'er promises you have applied }
To your unfailing church, the surer side}
Is four fair legs in danger to provide; }
And whate'er tales of Peter's chair you tell, }
Yet, saving reverence of the miracle, }
The better luck was yours to 'scape so well. --}
As I remember, said the sober Hind,
Those toils were for your own dear self designed,
As well as me; and with the self-same throw,
To catch the quarry[143] and the vermin too,--
Forgive the slanderous tongues that called you so.
Howe'er you take it now, the common cry
Then ran you down for your rank loyalty,[144]
Besides, in popery they thought you nurst,
As evil tongues will ever speak the worst,
Because some forms, and ceremonies some
You kept, and stood in the main question dumb.
Dumb you were born indeed; but, thinking long,
The test, it seems, at last has loosed your tongue:[145]
And to explain what your forefathers meant,
By real presence in the sacrament,
After long fencing pushed against a wall, }
Your salvo comes, that he's not there at all: }
There changed your faith, and what may change may fall. }
Who can believe what varies every day,
Nor ever was, nor will be at a stay? --
Tortures may force the tongue untruths to tell,
And I ne'er owned myself infallible,
Replied the Panther: grant such presence were,
Yet in your sense I never owned it there.
A real virtue we by faith receive,
And that we in the sacrament believe. --
Then, said the Hind, as you the matter state,
Not only Jesuits can equivocate;
For real, as you now the word expound,
From solid substance dwindles to a sound.
Methinks, an Æsop's fable you repeat;
You know who took the shadow for the meat:
Your church's substance thus you change at will,
And yet retain your former figure still.
I freely grant you spoke to save your life;
For then you lay beneath the butcher's knife.
Long time you fought, redoubled battery bore,
But, after all, against yourself you swore,
Your former self; for every hour your form
Is chopped and changed, like winds before a storm.
Thus fear and interest will prevail with some;
For all have not the gift of martyrdom. --
The Panther grinned at this, and thus replied:
That men may err was never yet denied;
But, if that common principle be true,
The canon, dame, is levelled full at you.
But, shunning long disputes, I fain would see
That wonderous wight, Infallibility.
Is he from heaven, this mighty champion, come?
Or lodged below in subterranean Rome?
First, seat him somewhere, and derive his race,
Or else conclude that nothing has no place. --
Suppose, though I disown it, said the Hind,
The certain mansion were not yet assigned;
The doubtful residence no proof can bring
Against the plain existence of the thing.
Yet wondering how of late she grew estranged,
Her forehead cloudy, and her countenance changed,
She thought this hour the occasion would present,
To learn her secret cause of discontent;
Which well she hoped, might be with ease redressed,}
Considering her a well-bred civil beast, }
And more a gentlewoman than the rest. }
After some common talk what rumours ran,
The lady of the spotted muff began.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 95: The Roman Catholic church. ]
[Footnote 96: Note I. ]
[Footnote 97: The Roman Catholic priests executed in England, at
different times since the Reformation, and regarded as martyrs and
saints by those of their communion. ]
[Footnote 98: The Independents. See Note II. ]
[Footnote 99: The Quakers. See Note III. ]
[Footnote 100: Free-thinkers. See Note IV. ]
[Footnote 101: Anabaptists. See Note V. ]
[Footnote 102: Unitarians. See Note VI. ]
[Footnote 103: See Introductory remarks. ]
[Footnote 104: Note VII. ]
[Footnote 105: _Quasi_ By-land-er, an old word for a boat, used in
coast navigation. ]
[Footnote 106: Note VIII. ]
[Footnote 107: Alluding to the classical ordination, which the
Presbyterian church has adopted, instead of that by Bishops. ]
[Footnote 108: Geneva, the cradle of Calvinism. The territories of the
little republic, _dum Troja fuit_, were bounded by its ramparts and
lake. ]
[Footnote 109: Alluding to the recall of the Edict of Nantz, and
persecution of the Huguenots. See Note IX. ]
[Footnote 110: Which is usually distinguished by an act of grace, or
general pardon. ]
[Footnote 111: Nimrod. ]
[Footnote 112: Jesus Christ. ]
[Footnote 113: King James II. ]
[Footnote 114: Note X. ]
[Footnote 115: Our author recollected his own Philidel in "King Arthur:"
An airy shape, the tenderest of my kind,
The last seduced and least deformed of hell;
Half-white, and shuffled in the crowd I fell,
Desirous to repent and loath to sin,
Awkward in mischief, piteous of mankind;
My name is Philidel, my lot in air,
Where, next beneath the moon, and nearest heaven,
I soar, I have a glimpse to be received.
Vol. VIII. p. 135.
]
[Footnote 116: Henry the Eighth's passion for Anna Bullen led the way
to the Reformation. ]
[Footnote 117: The marriage of the clergy, licensed by the Reformation. ]
[Footnote 118: Worn out, or become hagard. ]
[Footnote 119: A Popish advocate, in the controversy with Tennison,
tells us exultingly, "That Martin Luther himself, Dr T's excellent
instrument, after he had eat a feasting supper, and drank
_lutheranice_, as the German proverb has it, was called into another
world at two o'clock in the night, February 18, 1546. " This was one
of the reasons why his adversaries alleged, that Martin Luther set
sail for hell in the manner described by Sterne, in his tale from
Slawkenbergius. ]
[Footnote 120: The king being owned the head of the church of England,
contrary to the doctrine of the other reformed churches. ]
[Footnote 121: Phylacteries are little scrolls of parchment worn by the
Jews on their foreheads and wrists, inscribed with sentences from the
law. They are supposed, as is expressed by the phrase in the original,
to have the virtue of preserving the wearer from danger and evil. ]
[Footnote 122: The Lutherans adopt the doctrine of consubstantiation;
that is to say, they believe, that, though the elements are not
changed into the body and blood of Christ by consecration, which is
the Roman faith, yet the participants, at the moment of communicating,
do actually receive the real body and blood. The Calvinists utterly
deny the real presence in the eucharist, and affirm, that the words of
Christ were only symbolical. The church of England announces a doctrine
somewhat between these. See Note XI. ]
[Footnote 123: Note XI. ]
[Footnote 124: Note XII. ]
[Footnote 125: Alluding to the fate of the church and monarchy of
England, which fell together in the great rebellion. See Note XI. ]
[Footnote 126: _Resolved_, i. e. dissolved. ]
[Footnote 127: The Wolf, or Presbytery. --See note XIII. ]
[Footnote 128: Note XIV. ]
[Footnote 129: That is, if the church of England would be reconciled
to Rome, she should be gratified with a delegated portion of innate
authority over the rival sectaries; instead of being obliged to depend
upon the civil power for protection. ]
[Footnote 130: Alluding to the exercise of the dispensing power, and
the Declaration of Indulgence. ]
[Footnote 131: The ten-horned monster, in the Revelations, was usually
explained by the reformers as typical of the church of Rome. ]
[Footnote 132: There was a classical superstition, that, if a wolf saw
a man before he saw the wolf, the person lost his voice:
----_voxque Mærin
Jam fugit ipsa: lupi Mærin videre priores. _
Dryden has adopted, in the text, the converse of this superstitious
belief. ]
[Footnote 133: Although the Roman Catholic plot was made the pretence
of persecuting the Papists in the first instance, yet the high-flying
party of the Church of England were also levelled at, and accused of
being Tantivies, Papists in masquerade, &c. &c. ]
NOTES
ON
THE HIND AND THE PANTHER.
PART I.
Note I.
_And doomed to death, though fated not to die. _--P. 119.
The critics fastened on this line with great exultation, concluding,
that doomed and fated mean precisely the same thing. "Faith, Mr Bayes,"
says one of these gentlemen, "if you were _doomed_ to be hanged,
whatever you were _fated_ to 'twould give you but small comfort. "[134]
This criticism is quite erroneous; doom, in its general acceptation,
meaning merely a sentence of any kind, the pronouncing which by no
means necessarily implies its execution. In the criminal courts of
Scotland, the sentence is always concluded with this formula, "and
this I pronounce for doom. " Till of late years, a special officer
recited the sentence after the judge, and was thence called the
_doomster_,[135] an office now performed by the clerk of court. The
criticism is founded on the word _doom_ having been often, and even
generally, used as synonimous to the sentence of heaven, and therefore
inevitable. But in the text, it is obvious that the doom, or sentence,
of an earthly tribunal is placed in opposition to the decree of
Providence.
Note II.
_The bloody Bear, an independent beast,
Unlicked to forms, &c. _--P. 120.
The sect of Independents arose to great eminence in the civil wars,
when the enthusiastic spirits were deemed entitled to preferment upon
earth, in proportion to the extravagance of their religious zeal. Hume
has admirably described their leading tenets, or rather the scorn with
which they discarded the principles of other religious sects; for their
peculiarities consisted much more in their neglect and contempt of all
forms, than in any rules or dogmata of their own.
"The Independents rejected all ecclesiastical establishments, and
would admit of no spiritual courts, no government among pastors,
no interposition of the magistrate in religious concerns, no fixed
encouragement annexed to any system of doctrines or opinions. According
to their principles, each congregation, united voluntarily and by
spiritual ties, composed, within itself, a separate church, and
exercised a jurisdiction, but one destitute of temporal sanctions,
over its own pastor and its own members. The election alone of the
congregation was sufficient to bestow the sacerdotal character; and,
as all essential distinction was denied between the laity and the
clergy, no ceremony, no institution, no vocation, no imposition of
hands, was, as in all other churches, supposed requisite to convey a
right to holy orders. The enthusiasm of the Presbyterians led them
to reject the authority of prelates, to throw off the restraint of
liturgies, to retrench ceremonies, to limit the riches and authority of
the priestly office. The fanaticism of the Independents, exalted to a
higher pitch, abolished ecclesiastical government, disdained creeds and
systems, neglected every ceremony, and confounded all ranks and orders.
The soldier, the merchant, the mechanic, indulging the fervours of
zeal, and guided by the illapses of the spirit, resigned himself to an
inward and superior direction, and was consecrated, in a manner, by an
immediate intercourse and communication with heaven. "
Butler thus describes the Independents:
The Independents, whose first station
Was in the rear of reformation:
A mongrel kind of church dragoons,
That served for horse and foot at once,
And in the saddle of one steed,
The Saracen and Christian rid,
Were free of every spiritual order,
To preach, and fight, and pray, and murder.
It is well known, that these sectaries obtained the final ascendancy in
the civil wars. Cromwell, their chief, was highly gifted as a preacher
as well as a warrior; witness his "learned, devout, and conscientious
exercise, held at Sir Peter Temple's, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, upon
Romans xiii. 1. "
Note III.
_Among the timorous kind, the quaking Hare
Professed neutrality, but would not swear. _--P. 120.
As Mr Hume's account of the rise of this sect (the quakers) is
uncommonly lively, I take the liberty to insert it at length; though,
perhaps, the passage does not call for so prolonged a quotation. After
describing the ascetic solitude of George Fox, their founder, he
proceeds:
"When he had been sufficiently consecrated, in his own imagination, he
felt that the fumes of self-applause soon dissipate, if not continually
supplied by the admiration of others; and he began to seek proselytes.
Proselytes were easily gained, at a time when all men's affections
were turned towards religion, and when extravagant modes of it were
sure to be most popular. All the forms of ceremony, invented by pride
and ostentation, Fox and his disciples, from a superior pride and
ostentation, carefully rejected: Even the ordinary rites of civility
were shunned, as the nourishment of carnal vanity and self-conceit.
They would bestow no titles of distinction: The name of friend was the
only salutation with which they indiscriminately accosted every one. To
no person would they make a bow, or move their hat, or give any signs
of reverence. Instead of that affected adulation introduced into modern
tongues, of speaking to individuals as if they were a multitude, they
returned to the simplicity of ancient languages; and _thou_ and _thee_
were the only expressions which, on any consideration, they would be
brought to employ.
"Dress too, a material circumstance, distinguished the members of this
sect. Every superfluity and ornament was carefully retrenched: No
plaits to their coat, no buttons to their sleeves: No lace, no ruffles,
no embroidery. Even a button to the hat, though sometimes useful, yet
not being always so, was universally rejected by them with horror and
detestation.
"The violent enthusiasm of this sect, like all high passions, being
too strong for the weak nerves to sustain, threw the preachers into
convulsions, and shakings, and distortions in their limbs; and
they thence received the appellation of Quakers. Amidst the great
toleration which was then granted to all sects, and even encouragement
given to all innovations, this sect alone suffered persecution. From
the fervour of their zeal, the quakers broke into churches, disturbed
public worship, and harrassed the minister and audience with railing
and reproaches. When carried before a magistrate, they refused him all
reverence, and treated him with the same familiarity as if he had been
their equal. Sometimes they were thrown into mad-houses, sometimes
into prisons: Sometimes whipped, sometimes pilloried. The patience
and fortitude with which they suffered, begat compassion, admiration,
esteem. A supernatural spirit was believed to support them under those
sufferings, which the ordinary state of humanity, freed from the
illusions of passion, is unable to sustain.
"The quakers creep'd into the army: But, as they preached universal
peace, they seduced the military zealots from their profession, and
would soon, had they been suffered, have put an end, without any defeat
or calamity, to the dominion of the saints. These attempts became a
fresh ground for persecution, and a new reason for their progress among
the people.
"Morals, with this sect, were carried, or affected to be carried, to
the same degree of extravagance as religion. Give a quaker a blow
on one cheek, he held up the other: Ask his cloke, he gave you his
coat also. The greatest interest could not engage him in any court of
judicature, to swear even to the truth. He never asked more for his
wares than the precise sum which he was determined to accept. This last
maxim is laudable, and continues still to be religiously observed by
that sect.
"No fanatics ever carried farther the hatred to ceremonies, forms,
orders, rites, and positive institutions. Even baptism and the Lord's
supper, by all other sects believed to be interwoven with the very
vitals of Christianity, were disdainfully rejected by them. The very
Sabbath they profaned. The holiness of churches they derided; and they
would give to these sacred edifices no other appellation than that of
shops, or steeple-houses. No priests were admitted in their sects:
Every one had received, from immediate illumination, a character much
superior to the sacerdotal. When they met for divine worship, each rose
up in his place, and delivered the extemporary inspirations of the
Holy Ghost: Women were also admitted to teach the brethren, and were
considered as proper vehicles to convey the dictates of the spirit.
Sometimes a great many preachers were moved to speak at once: Sometimes
a total silence prevailed in their congregation.
"Some quakers attempted to fast forty days in imitation of Christ;
and one of them bravely perished in the experiment. A female quaker
came naked into the church where the protector sat; being moved by the
spirit, as she said, to appear as a sign to the people. A number of
them fancied, that the renovation of all things had commenced, and that
clothes were to be rejected, together with other superfluities. --The
sufferings which followed the practice of this doctrine, were a species
of persecution not well calculated for promoting it. "
The quakers were particularly favoured by James II. , owing to the
interest which Penn, the settler of Pennsylvania, had with that
monarch. That person took a lead in the controversy concerning the
Indulgence, by publishing a pamphlet, entitled, "Good Advice to the
Church of England. "
Note IV.
_Next her, the buffoon Ape, as atheists use,
Mimicked all sects, and had his own to chuse;
Still, when the Lion looked, his knees he bent,
And paid at church a courtier's compliment. _--P. 120.
The sect of free-thinkers, who professed a disbelief in revealed
religion, was to be found even among the fanatical ranks of the Long
Parliament. Harvey, Martin, Sidney, and others, were considered as the
chiefs of this little party. After the restoration of Charles II. ,
these loose principles became prevalent among his gay courtiers, and
were supposed to have been privately adopted by the king himself, who
was educated by the sceptic Hobbes. As the free-thinkers taught a total
disbelief of revelation, and indifference for religious forms, they
left their disciples at liberty occasionally to conform to whatever
creed, or form of worship, might appear most conducive to their
temporal interests. Sunderland was supposed to belong to this sect,
for he made his change to Popery, without even the form of previous
instruction or conference; evincing to the whole world, that, being
totally indifferent about all religions, he was ready to embrace any
that would best serve his immediate views. This statesman's character,
as a latitudinarian in religion, is mentioned with great bitterness
by the Princess Anne, afterwards queen, in her private correspondence
with her sister, the Princess of Orange. --See _Dalrymple's Memoirs_,
Vol. II. p. 169. 8vo. edit. Dryden probably intended a sarcasm at
Sunderland, or some such time-serving courtier, for his occasional
conformity with the royal faith, of which there were several instances
at the time. These persons, as they attended James to mass, were
compared to Naaman, who, on adopting the Jewish religion, craved an
indulgence for waiting upon his master to the house of the idol Rimmon.
It is hinted in "The Hind and Panther Transversed," that Dryden's
satire is personal; for he is made to quote the lines, and to add, by
way of commentary, "That galls somewhere! Egad, I cannot leave it off,
though I were cudgelled every day for it. "
The church party, among other pamphlets intended to ridicule the
Declaration of Indulgence, and as a parody of the addresses of
the dissenters on that occasion, published, "To the King's Most
Excellent Majesty, the Humble Address of the Atheists, or the Sect of
Epicureans. " After congratulating the king on having freed his subjects
from the solemn superstition of oaths, they proceed: "Your majesty was
pleased to wish, that all your subjects were of your own religion;
and perhaps every division wishes you were of theirs; but, for our
parts, we freely declare, that if ever we should be obliged to profess
any religion, we would prefer the Church of Rome, which does not much
trouble the world with the affairs of invisible beings, and is very
civil and indulgent to the failings of human nature. That church can
ease us from the grave fatigues of religion, and, for our monies, allow
us proxies, both for piety and penances: We can easily swallow and
digest a wafer deity, and will never cavil at the mass in an unknown
tongue, when the sacrifice itself is so unintelligible. We shall never
scruple the adoration of an image, when the chiefest religion is but
imagination; and we are willing to allow the Pope an absolute power
to dispense with all penal laws, in this world and in another. But
before we return to Rome, the greatest origin of atheism, we wish the
Pope, and all his vassal princes, would free the world from the fear of
hell and devils, the inquisition and dragoons, and that he would take
off the chimney-money of purgatory, and custom and excise of pardons
and indulgencies, which are so much inconsistent with the flourishing
trade and grandeur of the nation. As for the engagements of lives and
fortunes, the common compliment of addressers, we confess we have a
more peculiar tenderness for those most sacred concernments; but yet we
will hazard them in defence of your majesty, with as much constancy and
resolution as your majesty will defend your indulgence; that is, so far
as the adventure will serve our designs and interest.
From the Devil-Tavern, the 5th of }
November, 1688. Presented by }
Justice Baldock, and was graciously }
received. " }
Note V.
_The bristled baptist Boar, impure as he,
But whitened with the foam of sanctity,
With fat pollutions filled the sacred place,
And mountains levelled in his furious race;
So first rebellion founded was in grace.
But since the mighty ravage, which he made
In German forests, had his guilt betrayed,
With broken tusks, and with a borrowed name,
He shunned the vengeance, and concealed the shame. _
P. 120.
The sect of Anabaptists, whose principal tenet is the disallowing
of infant baptism, arose in Germany and the Low Countries about
the year 1521. This new light, for such it was esteemed, happened
unfortunately to appear to some of the most ignorant and ferocious of
the Low German burghers and boors. Thomas Muncer, by birth a Saxon,
was the principal apostle of this sect. He preached both against the
Papists and Luther, recommending the eschewing of open crimes, the
chastening of the body by severities of abstinence, and the wearing
a long beard. With these tenets, he combined that of an immediate
intercourse with God, by demanding of him signs and tokens, which would
be infallibly granted, and that of an universal community of goods.
These two last doctrines, concerning spiritual and temporal matters,
were admirably calculated to turn the heads of his followers. Being
banished from Saxony, he seized upon the monastery of Muhlhans, from
which he expelled the monks; and afterwards made a convert of one
Pfeifer, a daring enthusiast, who, because in a dream he had put to
flight an innumerable number of mice, made no doubt he was destined to
vanquish all principalities and powers. Muncer easily prevailed on this
visionary conqueror to head the miners of the country of Mansfeldt, in
some ferocious inroads into Saxony. The Dukes of Saxony and Brunswick,
the Landgrave of Hesse, and other German princes, marched against these
madmen, whom Muncer stimulated to resistance, by assuring them, that a
rainbow, which happened then to be visible, was an indubitable sign of
victory. The poor deluded wretches accordingly suffered themselves to
be quietly cut to pieces, with their eyes fixed on the heavenly sign,
in expectation of divine assistance. Muncer was made prisoner, and
recanted before his death, only blaming the princes for their cruelty
and oppression to their vassals, which drove them to desperation;--so,
if he lived a false prophet, he died a true preacher. His death, and
that of Pfeifer, with the slaughter made among their followers, did
not extirpate the heresy; and the most dreadful consequences attended,
for some time, the progress of these enthusiastic opinions. A tailor,
called Bockholdt, better known by the name of John of Leyden, with his
associates, Rotman, Matthews, and Cnipperdoling, in 1535, actually
possessed themselves of the city of Munster, expelled the bishop, and
commenced the reign of the saints. Their leader, under the strange and
horrible delusion that he was inspired by the Holy Ghost, played the
most outrageous pranks of lust and cruelty that ever madness dictated:
Yet, amidst their frenzy, the Anabaptists had valour and conduct
sufficient to defend the city for a length of time against the bishop
and his allies; and while the unfortunate inhabitants were in the
utmost misery, the enthusiasts themselves revelled in the indulgence
of every licentious appetite. At length the city was taken, and a
cruel, though deserved punishment, inflicted upon those who had been
the leaders in this holy warfare. John of Leyden himself was torn to
pieces with hot pincers. After this memorable event, those who retained
the principles of this sect were not desirous of being distinguished
by a name which the excesses of these fanatics had rendered an
abomination to all the Christian world. They were generally confounded
with the Independents, with whom they hold many principles in common,
particularly, I believe, the disavowal of any clerical order. Yet if,
for a time, they "lurked in sects unseen," as Dryden assures us, the
sunshine of general toleration soon brought them out under their own
proper appellation. We have, among the addresses of various classes of
dissenters upon the Declaration of Indulgence, that of the Anabaptists
in and about the city of London, who, indeed, were the very first in
expressing their thanks and loyalty. The Anabaptists of Leicestershire,
the Independents and Baptists of Gloucester, the Anabaptists of
Cheshire, Shropshire, and Staffordshire, &c. &c. &c. all came forward
with loyal acclamations on the same occasion.
Note VI.
----_With greater guile
False Reynard fed on consecrated spoil;
The graceless beast by Athanasius first
Was chased from Nice, then by Socinus nursed. _--P. 121.
Arius, the propagator of a great heresy in the Christian church,
denied that God the Son was equal to God the Father, or that he was
co-existent with him. See page 16. This doctrine he maintained in the
council at Nice against Athanasius, the champion of orthodoxy; and
although his doctrines were condemned by the general council, and
he himself banished, yet his party was so powerful as to accomplish
his restoration, and the banishment of Athanasius, who fled into the
Thebais, or deserts of Upper Egypt. The schism thus occasioned,
continued long to divide the Christian church.
Lelius Socinus, a
nobleman of Sienna, revived and enlarged the doctrine of Arius,
about the latter end of the sixteenth century. His nephew Faustus
collected, arranged, and published his opinions, which have since had
many followers. The Socinians teach the worship of one God, without
distinction of persons; affirming, that the Holy Ghost is but another
expression for the power of God; and that Jesus Christ is only the
Son of God by adoption. As they deny our Saviour's divinity, they
disavow, of course, the doctrine of redemption, and consider him only
as a prophet, gifted with a more than usual share of inspiration, and
sealing his mission by his blood. This heresy has, at different times,
and under various disguises and modifications, insinuated itself into
the Christian church, forming, as it were, a resting place, though but
a tottering one, between natural and revealed religion. Here, I fear,
the author's lines apply:
To take up half on trust, and half to try,
Name it not faith, but bungling bigotry;
Both knave and fool the merchant we may call,
To pay great sums, and to compound the small;
For who would break with heaven, and would not break for all?
This heretical belief was adopted by the Protestants of Poland and of
Hungary, especially those who were about this time in arms under Count
Teckeli against the emperor. Hence Dryden bids the Fox,
Unkennelled, range in thy Polonian plains.
Note VII.
_Let them declare by what mysterious arts
He shot that body through the opposing might,
Of bolts and bars, impervious to the light,
And stood before his train confessed in open sight. _--P. 122.
"Then the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when
the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the
Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be
unto you. "
Again, "And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and
Thomas with them; then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in
the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. "--_The Gospel of St John_,
chap. xx. verses 19. 26.
From these passages of Scripture, Dryden endeavours to confute the
objection to transubstantiation, founded on the host being consecrated
in various places at the same time, in each of which, however, the
body of Christ becomes present, according to the Papist doctrine.
This being predicated of the real body of our Saviour, the Protestants
allege is impossible, as matter can only be in one place at the same
time. Dryden, in answer, assumes, that Christ entered into the meeting
of the disciples, by actually passing through the closed doors of the
apartment; and as, at the moment of such passage, two bodies must have
been in the same place at the same instant, the body of Jesus namely,
and the substance through which he passed, the poet founds on it as an
instance of a transgression of a natural law, proved from Scripture, as
violent as that of one body being in several different places at once.
But the text does not prove the major part of Dryden's proposition; it
is not stated positively by the evangelist, that our Saviour passed
_through_ the doors which were shut, but merely that he _came and stood
among his disciples_ without the doors being opened; which miraculous
appearance might take place many ways besides that on which Dryden has
fixed for the foundation of his argument.
Note VIII.
_More haughty than the rest, the Wolfish race}
Appears with belly gaunt, and famished face; }
Never was so deformed a beast of grace. }
His ragged tail betwixt his legs he wears,
Close clapped for shame; but his rough crest he rears,
And pricks up his predestinating ears. _--P. 124.
The personal appearance of the Presbyterian clergy was suited by an
affectation of extreme plainness and rigour of appearance. A Geneva
cloak and band, with the hair close cropped, and covered with a sort
of black scull-cap, was the discriminating attire of their teachers.
This last article of dress occasioned an unseemly projection of their
ears, and procured those who affected it the nick-name of prick-eared
fanatics, and the still better known appellation of Round-heads. Our
author proceeds, with great bitterness, to investigate the origin
of Calvinism. His account of the rise and destruction of a sect of
heretics in Cambria may be understood to refer to the ancient British
church, which disowned the supremacy of the see of Rome, refused to
adopt her ritual, and opposed St Augustin's claims to be metropolitan
of Britain, in virtue of Pope Gregory's appointment. They held two
conferences with Augustin; at one of which he pretended to work a
miracle by the cure of a blind man; at the second, seven British
bishops, and a numerous deputation from the monastery of Bangor,
disputed with Augustin, who denounced vengeance against them by the
sword of the Saxons, in case they refused to submit to the see of Rome.
His prophecy, which had as little effect upon the Welch clergy as his
miracle, was shortly afterwards accomplished: For Ethelfred, the Saxon
king of Northumberland, having defeated the British under the walls of
Chester, cut to pieces no fewer than twelve hundred of the monks of
Bangor, who had come to assist their countrymen with their prayers. Our
author alludes to this extermination of the British recusant clergy,
by comparing it to the census, or tribute of wolves-heads, imposed
on the Cambrian kings. It has been surmised by some authors, that
Augustin himself instigated this massacre, and thereby contributed to
the accomplishment of his own prophecy. Other authorities say, that he
died in 604, and that the monks of Bangor were slain in 613. Perhaps,
however, our author did not mean to carry the rise of Presbytery so
far back, but only referred to the doctrines of Wiccliff, who, in the
reign of Edward III. , and his successor Richard II. , taught publicly at
Oxford several doctrines inconsistent with the supremacy of the Pope,
and otherwise repugnant to the doctrines of the Roman church. He was
protected during his lifetime by John of Gaunt; but, forty years after
his death, his bones were dug up and burned for heresy. His followers
were called Lollards, and were persecuted with great severity in the
reign of Henry V. , Lord Cobham and many others being burned to death.
Thinking, perhaps, either of these too honourable and ancient a descent
for the English Presbyterians, our author next refers to Heylin, who
brings them from Geneva,[136] where the reformed doctrine was taught
by the well known Zuinglius, and the still more famous Calvin. The
former began to preach the Reformation at Zurich about 1518, and
disputed publicly with one Sampson, a friar, whom the Pope had sent
thither to distribute indulgences. Zuinglius was persecuted by the
bishop of Constance; but, being protected by the magistrates of Zurich,
he set him at defiance, and in 1523 held an open disputation before
the senate, with such success, that they commanded the traditions of
the church to be thrown aside, and the gospel to be taught through
all their canton. Zuinglius, in some respects, merited the epithet of
_fiery_, which Dryden has given him; he was an ardent lover of liberty,
and dissuaded his countrymen from a league with the French, by which it
must have been endangered; he vindicated, from Scripture, the doctrine
of resisting oppressors and asserting liberty, of which he said God was
the author, and would be the defender;[137] and, finally, he was killed
in battle between the inhabitants of Zurich and those of the five small
cantons. The conquerors, being Catholics, treated his dead body with
the most shameless indignity.
The history of Calvin is too well known to need recital in this place.
He was expelled from France, his native country, on account of his
having adopted the doctrines of the reformers, and, taking refuge in
Geneva, was appointed professor of divinity there in 1536. But being
afterwards obliged to retire from thence, on account of a quarrel about
the administration of the communion to certain individuals, Calvin
taught a French congregation at Strasburgh. He may be considered as the
founder of the Presbyterian doctrine, differing from that of Luther
in denying consubstantiation, and affirming, in a large extent, the
doctrine of predestination, founded upon election to grace. The poet
proceeds to describe the progress of this sect:
With teeth untried, and rudiments of claws,
Your first essay was on your native laws;
Those having torn with ease, and trampled down,}
Your fangs you fastened on the mitred crown, }
And freed from God and monarchy your town. }
What though your native kennel still be small,
Bounded betwixt a puddle and a wall;
Yet your victorious colonies are sent
Where the north ocean girds the continent.
Quickened with fire below, your monsters breed
In fenny Holland, and in fruitful Tweed;
And like the first the last affects to be,
Drawn to the dregs of a democracy.
The citizens of Geneva, before they adopted the reformed religion,
were under the temporal, as well as the ecclesiastical, authority of
a bishop. But, in 1528, when they followed the example of the city of
Berne, in destroying images, and abolishing the Roman ceremonies, the
bishop and his clergy were expelled from the city, which from that
time was considered as the cradle of Presbytery. As they had made
choice of a republican form of government for their little state,
our author infers, that democracy is most congenial to their new
form of religion. It is no doubt true, that the Presbyterian church
government is most purely democratical; which perhaps recommended it
in Holland. It is also true, that the Presbyterian divines have always
preached, and their followers practised, the doctrine of resistance to
oppression, whether affecting civil or religious liberty. But if Dryden
had looked to his own times, he would have seen, that the Scottish
Presbyterians made a very decided stand for monarchy after the death
of Charles I. ; and even such as were engaged in the conspiracy of
Baillie of Jerviswood, which was in some respects the counter-part of
the Ryehouse-plot, refused to take arms, because they suspected that
the intentions of Sidney, and others of the party in England, were to
establish a commonwealth. I may add, that, in latter times, no body of
men have shewn themselves more attached to the king and constitution
than the Presbyterian clergy of Scotland.
There is room for criticism also in the poetry of these lines. I
question whether _fenny Holland_ and _fruitful Tweed_, in other words,
a marsh and a river, could form a favourable medium for communicating
the influence of the _quickening fire below_.
Note IX.
_From Celtic woods is chased the wolfish crew;
But ah! some pity e'en to brutes is due;
Their native walks, methinks, they might enjoy,
Curbed of their native malice to destroy. _--P. 126.
It is remarkable how readily sentiments of toleration occur, even
to the professors of the most intolerant religion, when their minds
have fair play to attend to them. The edict of Nantes, by which
Henry IV. secured to his Huguenot subjects the undisturbed exercise
of their religion, was the recompense of the great obligations he
owed to them, and a sort of compensation for his having preferred
power to conscience; an edict, declared unalterable, and which had
even been sanctioned by Louis XIV. himself, so late as 1680, was,
in 1685, finally abrogated. The violence with which the persecution
of the Protestants was then pushed on, almost exceeds belief. The
principal and least violent mode of conversion, adopted by the king
and his minister Louvois, was by quartering upon those of the reformed
religion large parties of soldiers, who were licenced to commit every
outrage in their habitations short of rape and murder. When, by this
species of persecution, a Huguenot had been once compelled to hear
mass, he was afterwards treated as a relapsed heretic, if he shewed
the slightest disposition to resume the religion in which he had
been brought up. James II. , in two letters to the Prince of Orange,
beseeching toleration for the regular priests in Holland, fails not
to condemn the conduct of Louis towards his Protestant subjects; yet,
with gross inconsistency, or the deepest dissimulation, he was at the
same time congratulating Barillon on his Most Christian Majesty's care
for the conversion of his subjects, and hoping God would grant him the
favour of completing so great a work. [138] And just so our author,
after blaming the persecution of the Huguenots, congratulates Italy and
Spain upon possessing such just and excellent laws, as the rules of the
inquisitorial church courts.
Note X.
_A slimy-born and sun-begotten tribe,
Who far from steeples, and their sacred sound,
In fields their sullen conventicles found. _--P. 129.
The dregs of the fanaticism of the last age fermented, during that
of Charles II. , into various sects of sullen enthusiasts, who
distinguished themselves by the different names of Brownists, Families
of Love, &c. &c. In many cases they rejected all the usual aids of
devotion, and, holding their meetings in the open air, and in solitary
spots, nursed their fanaticism by separating themselves from the more
rational part of mankind. Dryden has elsewhere described them with
equal severity;
A numerous host of dreaming saints succeed,
Of the true old enthusiastic breed;
'Gainst form and order they their powers employ,
Nothing to build, and all things to destroy.
In Scotland, large conventicles were held in the mountains and morasses
by the fiercest of the Covenanters, whom persecution had driven
frantic. These men, known now by the name of Cameronians, considered
popery and prelacy as synonymous terms; and even stigmatized, as
Erastians and self-seekers, the more moderate Presbyterians, who were
contented to exercise their religion as tolerated by the government.
Note XI.
_Her novices are taught, that bread and wine
Are but the visible and outward sign,
Received by those who in communion join;
But the inward grace, or the thing signified,
His blood and body, who to save us died_, &c. --P. 133.
The poet alludes to the doctrine of the church of England concerning
the eucharist, thus expressed in the twenty-eighth article of faith:
"The Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians
ought to have among themselves one to another, but rather it is a
sacrament of our redemption by Christ's death; insomuch, that to such
as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which
we break is a partaking of the body of Christ, and likewise the cup of
blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ.
"Transubstantiation, or the change of the substance of bread and wine,
in the Supper of the Lord, cannot be proved by holy writ; but it is
repugnant to the plain words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a
sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.
"The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the supper only,
after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean, whereby the body
of Christ is received and eaten in the supper, is faith. "
Dryden insists upon a supposed inconsistency in this doctrine; but his
argument recoils upon the creed of his own church. The words of our
Saviour are to be interpreted as they must have been meant when spoken;
a circumstance which excludes the literal interpretation contended
for by the Romanists: For, by the words "_Hoc est corpus meum_," our
Saviour cannot be then supposed to have meant, that the morsel which
he gave to his disciples was transformed into his body, which then
stood before their eyes, and which all but heretics allow to have been
a real, natural, human body, incapable, of course, of being multiplied
into as many bodies as there were persons to partake of the communion,
and of retaining its original and identical form at the same time.
But unless such a multiplied transformation actually took place, our
Saviour's words to his apostles must have been emblematical only. Queen
Elizabeth's homely lines are, after all, an excellent comment on this
point of divinity:
His was the word that spake it;
He took the bread and brake it;
And what that word did make it,
That I believe, and take it.
Note XII.
_True to her king her principles are found;
Oh that her practice were but half so sound! _--P. 133.
The pretensions of the church of England to loyalty were carried
to a degree of extravagance, which her divines were finally unable
to support, unless they had meant to sign the destruction of their
religion. This was owing to the recollection of the momentous period
which had lately elapsed. The interest of the church had been deeply
interwoven with that of the crown; their struggle, sufferings, and
fall, during the civil wars, had been in common, as well as their
triumphant restoration: the maxim of "no king no bishop," was indelibly
imprinted on the hearts of the clergy; in fine, it seemed impossible
that any thing should cut asunder the ties which combined them. In
sanctioning, therefore, the doctrines of the most passive loyalty,
the English divines probably thought that they were only paying a
tribute to the throne, which was to be returned by the streams of royal
bounty and grace towards the church. Even the religion of James did
not, before his accession, shake their confidence, or excite their
apprehensions. They were far more afraid of the fanatics, under whose
iron yoke they had so lately groaned, than of the Roman Catholics,
who, for three generations, had been a depressed, and therefore a
tractable body, whose ceremonies and church government resembled, in
some respects, their own, and who had sided with them during the civil
wars against the Protestant sectaries. But when the members of the
established church perceived, that the rapid steps which James adopted
would soon place the Catholics in a condition to rival, and perhaps to
overpower her, they were obliged to retract and explain away many of
their former hasty expressions of absolute and unconditional devotion
to the royal pleasure. The king, and his Catholic counsellors, saw
with astonishment and indignation, that professions of the most ample
subjection were now to be understood as limited and restricted by the
interests of the church. In the height of their resentment, even the
church of England's pretensions to a peculiar degree of loyalty were
unthankfully turned into ridicule, in such bitter and sarcastic terms
as the following, which occur in a pamphlet published expressly "with
allowance," _i. e. _ by royal permission.
"I have often considered, but could never yet find a convincing reason,
why that part of the nation, (which is commonly called the church of
England) should dare appropriate to themselves alone the principles of
true loyalty; and that no other church or communion on earth can be
consistent with monarchy, or, indeed, with any government.
"This is a presumption of so high a nature, that it renders the church
of England a despicable enemy to the rest of mankind: For, what can be
more ridiculous than to say, that a congregation of people, calling
themselves a church, which cannot pretend to an infallibility even in
matters of faith, having, since their first institution, made several
fundamental changes of religious worship, should, however, assume to
themselves an inerribility in point of civil obedience to the temporal
magistrate? Or, what can be more injurious than to aver, that no other
sect or community on earth, from the rising to the setting sun, can be
capable of this singular gift of loyalty? So that the church of England
alone, (if you have faith enough to believe her own testimony,) is
that beautiful spouse of Christ, holy in her doctrine, and infallible
in her duty to the supreme magistrate, whom (by a revelation peculiar
to herself) she owns both for her temporal and spiritual head. But I
doubt much, whether her _ipsa dixit_ alone will pass current with all
the nations of the universe, without making further search into the
veracity of this bold assertion. "
_A New Test of the Church of England's Loyalty. _
Note XIII.
_Or Isgrim's counsel. _--P. 134.
This name for the Wolf is taken from an ancient political satire,
called "Reynard the Fox;" in which an account is given of the intrigues
at the court of the Lion; the impeachment of the Fox; his various
wiles and escapes; finally, his conquering his accuser in single
combat. This ancient apologue was translated from the German by the
venerable Caxton, and published the 6th day of June, 1481. It became
very popular in England; and we derive from it all the names commonly
applied to animals in fable, as Reynard the fox, Tybert the cat, Bruin
the bear, Isgrim the wolf, &c. The original of this piece is still so
highly esteemed in Germany, that it was lately modernized by Goethé,
and is published among his "Neüe Schriften. " It is probable that this
ancient satire might be the original of "Mother Hubbard's Tale," and
that Dryden himself may have had something of its plan in his eye,
when writing "The Hind and Panther. " As it had become merely a popular
story-book, some of his critics did not fail to make merry with his
adopting any thing from such a source. "_Smith. _ I have heard you
quote Reynard the fox. --_Bayes. _ Why, there's it now; take it from me,
Mr Smith, there is as good morality, and as sound precepts, in The
Delectable History of Reynard the Fox, as in any book I know, except
Seneca. Pray, tell me, where, in any other author, could I have found
so pretty a name for a wolf as Isgrim? "[139]
Note XIV.
_The wretched Panther cries aloud for aid
To church and councils, whom she first betrayed;
No help from fathers or tradition's train,
Those ancient guides she taught us to disdain,
And by that Scripture, which she once abused
To reformation, stands herself accused. _--P. 135.
The author here prefers an argument much urged by the Catholic divines
against those of the church of England, and which he afterwards resumes
in the Second Part. The English divines, say they, halt between two
opinions; they will not allow the weight of tradition when they dispute
with the church of Rome, but refer to the scripture, interpreted by
each man's private opinion, as the sole rule of faith; while, on the
other hand, they are obliged to have recourse to tradition in their
disputes with the Presbyterians and dissenters, because, without its
aid, they could not vindicate from scripture alone their hierarchy and
church-government. To this it was answered, by the disputants on the
church of England's side, that they owned no such inconsistent opinion
as was imputed to them; but that they acknowledged, for their rule of
faith, the word of God in general; that by this they understood the
_written word_, or _scripture_, in contradistinction to the Roman rule
of scripture and traditions; and as distinguished, both from the church
of Rome, and from heretics and sectaries, they understood by it more
particularly the written word or scripture, delivering a sense, owned
and declared by the primitive church of Christ in the three creeds,
four first general councils, and harmony of the fathers.
Dryden's argument, however, had been, by the Catholics, thought so
sound, that it is much dwelt upon in a tract, called, "A Remonstrance,
by way of Address to both Houses of Parliament, from the Church of
England," the object of which is to recommend an union between the
churches of England and of Rome. The former is there represented as
holding the following language:
"You cannot be ignorant, that ever since my separation from the church
of Rome, I have been attacked by all sorts of dissenters: So that my
fate, in this encounter, may be compared to that of a city, besieged
by different armies, who fight both against it and one another; where,
if the garrison make a sally to damage one, another presently takes an
advantage to make an attack. Thus, whilst I set myself vigorously to
suppress the papist, the puritan seeks to undermine me; and, whilst I
am busied to oppose the puritan, the papist gains ground upon me. If I
tell the church of Rome, I did not forsake her, but her errors, which
I reformed; my rebellious subjects tell me the same, and that they
must make a thorough reformation; and, let me bring what arguments I
please, to justify my dissent, they still produce the same against me.
If, on the other hand, I plead against the puritan dissenter, and show,
that he ought to stand to church-authority, where he is not infallibly
certain it commands a sin; the papist presently catches at it, and
tells me, I destroy my own grounds of reformation, unless I will
pretend to that infallibility which I condemn in them.
"Matters standing thus betwixt me and them, why would it not be a
point of prudence in me, (as I doubt not but you would esteem it in a
governor of that city I lately mentioned,) to make peace with one of my
adversaries, to the end I may with more ease resist the onsets of the
other? "
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 134: Hind and Panther Transversed. ]
[Footnote 135: This office was usually held by the executioner, who,
to this extent, was a pluralist; and the change was chiefly made,
to prevent the necessity of producing that person in court, to the
aggravation of the criminal's terrors. ]
[Footnote 136: "But separating this obliquity from the main intendment,
the work was vigorously carried on by the king and his counsellors,
as appears clearly by the doctrinals in the Book of Homilies, and by
the practical part of Christian piety, in the first public Liturgy,
confirmed by act of parliament, in the second and third year of the
king; and in that act (and, which is more, by Fox himself) affirmed
to have been done by the especial aid of the Holy Ghost. And here the
business might have rested, if Catin's pragmatical spirit had not
interposed. He first began to quarrel at some passages in this sacred
liturgy, and afterwards never left soliciting the Lord Protector,
and practising by his agents on the court, the country, and the
universities, till he had laid the first foundation of the Zuinglian
faction; who laboured nothing more, than innovation both in doctrine
and discipline; to which they were encouraged by nothing more than some
improvident indulgence granted unto John A-Lasco; who, bringing with
him a mixt multitude of Poles and Germans, obtained the privilege of a
church for himself and his, distinct in government and forms of worship
from the church of England.
"This gave powerful animation to the Zuinglian gospellers, (as they
are called by Bishop Hooper, and some other writers) to practise first
upon the church; who being countenanced, if not headed, by the Earl
of Warwick, (who then began to undermine the Lord Protector,) first
quarrelled the episcopal habit, and afterwards inveighed against
caps and surplices, against gowns and tippets, but fell at last upon
the altars, which were left standing in all churches by the rules of
liturgy. The touching on this string made excellent music to most of
the grandees of the court, who had before cast many an envious eye on
those costly hangings, that massy plate, and other rich and precious
utensils, which adorned those altars. And what need all this waste?
said Judas, when one poor chalice only, and perhaps not that, might
have served the turn. Besides, there was no small spoil to be made of
copes, in which the priest officiated at the holy sacrament; some of
them being made of cloth of tissue, of cloth of gold and silver, or
embroidered velvet; the meanest being made of silk, or satin, with
some decent trimming. And might not these be handsomely converted into
private use, to serve as carpets for their tables, coverlids to their
beds, or cushions to their chairs or windows. Thereupon some rude
people are encouraged under-hand to beat down some altars, which makes
way for an order of the council-table, to take down the rest, and set
up tables in their places; followed by a commission, to be executed in
all parts of the kingdom, for seizing on the premises to the use of the
king. "]
[Footnote 137: "_Quo animo ipsum quoque Paulum dicere existimo_,
si potes liber fieri utere potius, _1. Cor. 7. Quod eternum Dei
concilium, patres nostri, fortissimi viri, infracto animo secuti,
miris victoriarum successibus ut Sempachii," &c. _ And again, "_Ipse
Dominus libertatis author exstitit, et honestam libertatem querentibus
adest_. "--Pia et Amica Paranæsis ad Suitensium rempublicam. ]
[Footnote 138: Dalrymple's Memoirs, Vol. II. p. 108. ]
[Footnote 139: The Hind and the Panther Transversed, p. 14. ]
THE
HIND AND THE PANTHER,
A POEM.
PART II.
THE
HIND AND PANTHER.
PART SECOND.
Dame, said the Panther, times are mended well,
Since late among the Philistines you fell. [140]
The toils were pitched, a spacious tract of ground
With expert huntsmen was encompassed round;
The inclosure narrowed; the sagacious power
Of hounds and death drew nearer every hour.
'Tis true, the younger lion[141] 'scaped the snare,
But all your priestly calves lay struggling there,
As sacrifices on their altars laid;[142] }
While you, their careful mother, wisely fled,}
Not trusting destiny to save your head. }
For, whate'er promises you have applied }
To your unfailing church, the surer side}
Is four fair legs in danger to provide; }
And whate'er tales of Peter's chair you tell, }
Yet, saving reverence of the miracle, }
The better luck was yours to 'scape so well. --}
As I remember, said the sober Hind,
Those toils were for your own dear self designed,
As well as me; and with the self-same throw,
To catch the quarry[143] and the vermin too,--
Forgive the slanderous tongues that called you so.
Howe'er you take it now, the common cry
Then ran you down for your rank loyalty,[144]
Besides, in popery they thought you nurst,
As evil tongues will ever speak the worst,
Because some forms, and ceremonies some
You kept, and stood in the main question dumb.
Dumb you were born indeed; but, thinking long,
The test, it seems, at last has loosed your tongue:[145]
And to explain what your forefathers meant,
By real presence in the sacrament,
After long fencing pushed against a wall, }
Your salvo comes, that he's not there at all: }
There changed your faith, and what may change may fall. }
Who can believe what varies every day,
Nor ever was, nor will be at a stay? --
Tortures may force the tongue untruths to tell,
And I ne'er owned myself infallible,
Replied the Panther: grant such presence were,
Yet in your sense I never owned it there.
A real virtue we by faith receive,
And that we in the sacrament believe. --
Then, said the Hind, as you the matter state,
Not only Jesuits can equivocate;
For real, as you now the word expound,
From solid substance dwindles to a sound.
Methinks, an Æsop's fable you repeat;
You know who took the shadow for the meat:
Your church's substance thus you change at will,
And yet retain your former figure still.
I freely grant you spoke to save your life;
For then you lay beneath the butcher's knife.
Long time you fought, redoubled battery bore,
But, after all, against yourself you swore,
Your former self; for every hour your form
Is chopped and changed, like winds before a storm.
Thus fear and interest will prevail with some;
For all have not the gift of martyrdom. --
The Panther grinned at this, and thus replied:
That men may err was never yet denied;
But, if that common principle be true,
The canon, dame, is levelled full at you.
But, shunning long disputes, I fain would see
That wonderous wight, Infallibility.
Is he from heaven, this mighty champion, come?
Or lodged below in subterranean Rome?
First, seat him somewhere, and derive his race,
Or else conclude that nothing has no place. --
Suppose, though I disown it, said the Hind,
The certain mansion were not yet assigned;
The doubtful residence no proof can bring
Against the plain existence of the thing.
