347. The Council of Clermont.

    ——­’in awe-stricken countries far and nigh ... that voice resounds.
    [Sonnet XXXIII. ll. 13-14.]

The decision of this Council was believed to be instantly known in remote parts of Europe.

* * * * *

PART II.  TO THE CLOSE OF THE TROUBLES IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I.

348. Cistertian Monastery. [Sonnet III.]

‘Here man more purely lives,’ &c.

’Bonum est nos hic esse, quia homo vivit purius, cadit rarius, surgit velocius, incedit cautius, quiescit securius, moritur felicius, purgatur utius, praemiatur copiosius.’—­Bernard.  ‘This sentence,’ says Dr. Whitaker, ’is usually inscribed in some conspicuous part of the Cistertian houses.’

349. Waldenses.

‘Whom obloquy pursues with hideous bark.’ [Sonnet XIV. l. 8.]

The list of foul names bestowed upon those poor creatures is long and curious;—­and, as is, alas! too natural, most of the opprobrious appellations are drawn from circumstances into which they were forced by their persecutors, who even consolidated their miseries into one reproachful term, calling them Patarenians, or Paturins, from pati, to suffer.

    Dwellers with wolves, she names them, for the pine
    And green oak are their covert; as the gloom
    Of night oft foils their enemy’s design,
    She calls them Riders on the flying broom;
    Sorcerers, whose frame and aspect have become
    One and the same through practices malign.

350. Borrowed Lines.

    ’And the green lizard and the gilded newt
    Lead unmolested lives, and die of age.’ [Sonnet XXI. ll. 7-8.]

These two lines are adopted from a MS., written about 1770, which accidentally fell into my possession.  The close of the preceding Sonnet ‘On Monastic Voluptuousness’ is taken from the same source, as is the verse, ‘Where Venus sits,’ &c., and the line, ’Once ye were holy, ye are holy still,’ in a subsequent Sonnet.

851. Transfiguration.

    ’One (like those prophets whom God sent of old)
    Transfigured,’ &c. [Sonnet XXXIV. ll. 4-5.]

’M.  Latimer suffered his keeper very quietly to pull off his hose, and his other array, which to looke unto was very simple:  and being stripped unto his shrowd, he seemed as comely a person to them that were present, as one should lightly see:  and whereas in his clothes hee appeared a withered and crooked sillie (weak) olde man, he now stood bolt upright, as comely a father as one might lightly behold....  Then they brought a faggotte, kindled with fire, and laid the same downe at doctor Ridley’s feete.  To whome M. Latimer spake in this manner, “Bee of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man:  wee shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England, as I trust shall never bee put out."’—­Fox’s Acts, &c.