Thus is the storm abated by the craft Of a shrewd Counsellor, eager to protect The Church, whose power hath recently been checked, Whose monstrous riches threatened. So the shaft Of victory mounts high, and blood is quaffed 5 In fields that rival Cressy and Poictiers--[156] Pride to be washed away by bitter tears! For deep as Hell itself, the avenging draught[157] Of civil slaughter. Yet, while temporal power Is by these shocks exhausted, spiritual truth 10 Maintains the else endangered gift of life; Proceeds from infancy to lusty youth; And, under cover of this[158] woeful strife, Gathers unblighted strength from hour to hour. FOOTNOTES: [156] _e.g._ the battles of St. Albans, Wakefield, Mortimer's Cross, Towton, Barnet, Tewkesbury, Bosworth.--ED. [157] 1827. But mark the dire effect in coming years! Deep, deep as hell itself, the future draught 1822. [158] 1827. ... that ... 1822. XVII WICLIFFE Once more the Church is seized with sudden fear, And at her call is Wicliffe disinhumed: Yea, his dry bones to ashes are consumed And flung into the brook that travels near; 4 Forthwith, that ancient Voice which Streams can hear Thus speaks (that Voice which walks upon the wind, Though seldom heard by busy human kind)-- "As thou these ashes, little Brook! wilt bear "Into the Avon, Avon to the tide "Of Severn, Severn to the narrow seas, 10 "Into main Ocean they, this deed accurst "An emblem yields to friends and enemies "How the bold Teacher's Doctrine, sanctified "By truth, shall spread, throughout the world dispersed."[159] FOOTNOTES: [159] The Council of Constance condemned Wicliffe as a heretic, and issued an order that his remains should be exhumed, and burnt. "Accordingly, by order of the Bishop of Lincoln, as Diocesan of Lutterworth, his grave, which was in the chancel of the church, was opened, forty years after his death; the bones were taken out and burnt to ashes, and the ashes thrown into a neighbouring brook called the Swift." (Southey's _Book of the Church_, vol. i. p. 384.) "Thus this brook," says Fuller, "hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wicliffe are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." (_The Church History of Britain from the Birth of Christ until the year MDCXLVIII. endeavoured_, book iv. p. 424.) In the note to the 11th Sonnet of Part I., Wordsworth acknowledges his obligations to Fuller in connection with this Sonnet on Wicliffe. See Charles Lamb's comment on this passage of Fuller's, Prose Works (1876), vol. iv. p. 277.--ED. XVIII CORRUPTIONS OF THE HIGHER CLERGY