When royal James obtain’d the crown, And Popery came in fashion, The penal laws I hooted down, And read the Declaration: The Church of Rome I found would fit Full well my constitution; And had become a Jesuit But for the Revolution. And this is law, &c. When William was our king declared, To ease the nation’s grievance, With this new wind about I steer’d, And swore to him allegiance; Old principles I did revoke, Set conscience at a distance; Passive obedience was a joke, A jest was non-resistance. And this is law, &c. When gracious Anne became our Queen, The Church of England’s glory, Another face of things was seen, And I became a Tory: Occasional conformists base, I damned their moderation, Although the Church in danger was By such prevarication. And this is law, &c. When George in pudding-time came o’er, And moderate men look’d big, sir, I turn’d a cat-in-pan once more, And so became a Whig, sir; And thus preferment I procured, From our new faith’s defender; And almost every day abjured, The Pope and the Pretender. And this is law, &c. Th’ illustrious House of Hanover, And Protestant Succession; To these I do allegiance swear―― While they can keep possession: For in my faith and loyalty; I never more will falter, And George my lawful king shall be―― Until the times do alter. And this is law, &c. “The Vicar of Bray, in Berkshire,” says D’Israeli, in his “Curiosities of Literature,” was a Papist under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and a Protestant under Edward the Sixth. He was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When reproached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed with being a turn-coat, and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied: “Not so, neither; for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle, which is to live and die the Vicar of Bray.” In a note in Nichols’ _Select Poems_, 1782, vol. viii., p. 234, it is stated that _The song of the Vicar of Bray_ “is said to have been written by an officer in Colonel Fuller’s regiment, in the reign of King George the First. It is founded on an historical fact; and though it reflects no great honour on the hero of the poem, is humourously expressive of the complexion of the times, in the successive reigns from Charles the Second to George the First.