{"id":4291,"date":"2010-12-27T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-12-27T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/?p=4291"},"modified":"2022-02-12T14:11:57","modified_gmt":"2022-02-12T21:11:57","slug":"the-vicar-of-bray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/the-vicar-of-bray\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vicar of Bray"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vicar of Bray<\/span><\/b> <\/p>\n

Note: <\/span><\/i><\/b>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!<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
In good King Charles’ golden days, when loyalty no harm meant,<\/span><\/div>\n
A zealous high churchman was I, and so I gained preferment.<\/span><\/div>\n
To teach my flock, I never missed<\/span><\/div>\n
Kings are by God appointed<\/span><\/div>\n
And damned be he who dare resist or touch the Lord’s anointed.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Chorus<\/span><\/b><\/div>\n
And this be law, I shall maintain<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Until my dying day, sir<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
That whatsoever king may reign, <\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
Still I’ll be the Vicar of Bray, sir.<\/span><\/i><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
When royal James usurped the throne, and popery came in fashion,<\/span><\/div>\n
The penal laws I hooted down, and read the Declaration.<\/span><\/div>\n
The Church of Rome, I found, did fit<\/span><\/div>\n
Full well my constitution<\/span><\/div>\n
And I had been a Jesuit, but for the Revolution.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
When William was our King declared, to ease the nation’s grievance,<\/span><\/div>\n
With this new wind about I steered, and swore to him allegiance,<\/span><\/div>\n
Old principles I did revoke<\/span><\/div>\n
Set conscience at a distance,<\/span><\/div>\n
Passive obedience was a joke, a jest was non-resistance.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
When Royal Anne became our queen, the Church of England’s glory,<\/span><\/div>\n
Another face of things was seen, and I became a Tory.<\/span><\/div>\n
Occasional conformists base<\/span><\/div>\n
I blamed their moderation;<\/span><\/div>\n
And thought the Church in danger was from such prevarication.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
When George in pudding time came o’er, and moderate men looked big, sir<\/span><\/div>\n
My principles I changed once more, and I became a Whig, sir.<\/span><\/div>\n
And thus preferment I procured<\/span><\/div>\n
From our new Faith’s Defender,<\/span><\/div>\n
And almost every day abjured the Pope and the Pretender.<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
The illustrious house of Hanover and Protestant succession<\/span><\/div>\n
To these I do allegiance swear—while they can hold possession.<\/span><\/div>\n
For in my faith and loyalty<\/span><\/div>\n
I never more will falter,<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
And George my lawful king shall be—until the times do alter.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Vicar of Bray  Note: This satirical English verse is about a minister who adjusts his faith to ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,25,121],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6210,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4291\/revisions\/6210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianethicstoday.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}