C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Author Unknown
The Vicar of Bray
I
When loyalty no harm meant,
A zealous high-churchman was I,
And so I got preferment.
To teach my flock I never missed:
Kings were by God appointed,
And lost are those who dare resist
Or touch the Lord’s anointed.
And this is law that I’ll maintain
Until my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shall reign,
Still I’ll be Vicar of Bray, sir.
And popery grew 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 I had been a Jesuit
But for the revolution.
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.
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
By such prevarication.
And moderate men looked big, sir,
My principles I changed once more,
And so became a Whig, sir:
And this preferment I procured
From our new faith’s defender;
And almost every day abjured
The Pope and the Pretender.
And Protestant succession,
To these I do allegiance swear—
While they can keep possession;
For in my faith and loyalty
I nevermore will falter,
And George my lawful king shall be—
Until the times do alter.
And this is law that I’ll maintain
Until my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shall reign,
Still I’ll be Vicar of Bray, sir.