The Vicar of Bray
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The Vicar of Bray
Note: This satirical English verse is about a minister who adjusts his faith to political demands. Symon Symonds, the vicar of the English village of Bray, served under Henry VIII, Edward VI, Bloody Mary, and Elizabeth, twice as a Catholic and twice as a Protestant!
In good King Charles’ golden days, when loyalty no harm meant,
A zealous high churchman was I, and so I gained preferment.
To teach my flock, I never missed
Kings are by God appointed
And damned be he who dare resist or touch the Lord’s anointed.
Chorus
And this be law, I shall maintain
Until my dying day, sir
That whatsoever king may reign,
Still I’ll be the Vicar of Bray, sir.
When royal James usurped the throne, and popery came in fashion,
The penal laws I hooted down, and read the Declaration.
The Church of Rome, I found, did fit
Full well my constitution
And I had been a Jesuit, but for the Revolution.
When William was our King declared, to ease the nation’s grievance,
With this new wind about I steered, 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.
When Royal 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 blamed their moderation;
And thought the Church in danger was from such prevarication.
When George in pudding time came o’er, and moderate men looked big, sir
My principles I changed once more, and I 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.
The illustrious house of Hanover and Protestant succession
To these I do allegiance swear—while they can hold possession.
For in my faith and loyalty
I never more will falter,
And George my lawful king shall be—until the times do alter.
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