The Patriots Daily Bites of American History,The Protestant Reformation Series 30, Volume 5:History Highlights #24
THE COUNTRY
THE PATRIOT
THE HISTORY
THE HISTORY
PEARL LEONA STURGIS
The Patriots Daily Bites of American History, The Protestant Reformation Series 30, Volume 5
History Highlights:
From John Wycliffe, Morning Star of the Protestant Reformation, who stood up against the Roman Church and fought to translate the Bible into English from original Hebrew and New Testament Greek and place it in the hands of the people, to Christopher Columbus who died not knowing he discovered America in the late 15th century:
His heart’s desire, in his own words were, “to loose the gates fast shut with chains.” to Martin Luther who challenged the Roman Church by nailing 95 questions on the Church Door and stood up against the tyrants to translate the Bible into German for his people in the 1500s... to William Tyndale who suffered in the Tower of London and was burned at the stake because he would not deny his Lord Jesus Christ. He translated the Bible into English. His dying prayer was, “Lord, open the eyes of the King of England that even a plow boy may receive Your Holy Word.”
His prayer was answered when King James 1 came to the Throne and lifted the Ban against the Bible in 1607 (the year of miracles).... to Sir Walter Raleigh, whose heart’s desire, just as Columbus, was to set free the persecuted Pilgrims in the New Heart Land. Just as Columbus never knew he discovered America, Raleigh knew but never set foot on his Heart Land but was unjustly sent to prison through no fault of his own, still, that is where he contributed to the world the “Unfinished History of the World” and for 73 years that followed many reprints were published.
It is very scarce today but he wrote 5 poems. I could only find the “Passionate Man’s Pilgrimage” H.G. Verse > Anthologies > William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. > The Book of Elizabethan Verse PREVIOUSNEXT CONTENTS · GLOSSARY · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD William Stanley Braithwaite, ed.
The Book of Elizabethan Verse. 1907. His Pilgrimage By Sir Walter Raleigh (1554?–1618) GIVE 1 me my scallop-shell 2 of quiet, My staff of faith to walk upon,My scrip of joy, immortal diet, My bottle of salvation,My gown of glory, hope’s true gage; 5 And thus I’ll take my pilgrimage. Blood must be my body’s balmer; No other balm will there be given;Whilst my soul, like quiet palmer, 3 Travelleth towards the land of heaven; 10Over the silver mountains,Where spring the nectar fountains.
There will I kiss The bowl of bliss;And drink mine everlasting fill 15 Upon every milken hill. 4My soul will be a-dry before;But after it will thirst no more. Then by that happy, blissful day, More peaceful pilgrims I shall see, 20 That have cast off their rags of clay, And walk apparelled fresh like me. I’ll take them first To quench their thirst And taste of nectar suckets, 5 25 At those clear wells Where sweetness dwells,Drawn up by saints in crystal buckets. And when our bottles and all we Are filled with immortality, 30 Then the blessèd paths we’ll travel,Strowed with rubies thick as gravel;Ceilings of diamonds, sapphire floors,High walls of coral and pearly bowers,From thence to heaven’s bribeless hall, 35 Where no corrupted voices brawl;No conscience molten into gold,No forged accuser bought or sold,No cause deferred, no vain-spent journey,
For there Christ is the king’s Attorney, 40 Who pleads for all without degrees,And he hath angels, 6 but no fees.And when the grand twelve-million jury Of our sins, with direful fury,Against our souls black verdicts give, 45 Christ pleads his death, and then we live. Be thou my speaker, taintless pleader,Unblotted lawyer, true proceeder!
Thou givest salvation even for alms;Not with a bribèd lawyer’s palms. 50 And this is mine eternal plea To him that made heaven, earth, and sea,That, since my flesh must die so soon,And want a head to dine next noon,Just at the stroke, when my veins start and spread, 55 Set on my soul an everlasting head!Then am I ready, like a palmer fit,To tread those blest paths which before I writ. Of death and judgment, heaven and hell,Who oft doth think, must needs die well.
60 Note 1. It is asserted that Raleigh wrote this poem, and that beginning, Even such is Time, that takes in trust (see Note to No. 487), in the Tower the night before his execution. “We may, perhaps, account,” says Dr. Hannah (Courtly Poets, p. 221), “for the more strange and startling metaphors in this striking poem, by dating it during Raleigh’s interval of suspense in 1603, after his condemnation and before his reprieve, when the smart of Coke’s coarse cross-examination had not passed away.”
Prof. Schelling thinks, “it would be difficult to find a poem more truly representative of the age of Elizabeth, with its poetical fervor, its beauty and vividness of expression, its juggling with words, and its daring mixture of things celestial with things mundane.” (A Book of Elizabethan Lyrics.) [back]Note 2. Scallop-shell: cockle-hat. (See note to No. 629.) [back]Note 3. Palmer: a pilgrim who had returned from the Holy Land, had fulfilled his vow, and brought a palm branch to be deposited on the altar of the parish church. (Century Dictionary.) [back]Note 4. Milken hill: Perhaps hill of plenty, running with milk and honey. (Schelling.) [back]Note 5. Suckets: sweetmeats, delicacies. [back]Note 6. Angels: An Elizabethan pun on the popular name for the angel-nobles, a coin first struck by Edward IV.; its value varies from 6s. 8d. sterling to 10s. [back] He wrote a love poem to his wife.
(to be continued)
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The Great Awakening
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