A VOICE.
When? When shall this be?
BISHOP.
When the wool of the flock shall be gathered by me. We truly are wolves, yet we're shepherds of sheep, They must feed us, or death is the best they shall reap. His Holiness forbids to marry; This yoke the wisest ne'er could carry— But then! when priests do cross the score, The scandal only swells my store, And makes my train extend the more. Nought I refuse, e'en farthings tell, A monied priest may have a belle. Four florins a-year will wipe it away; Does an infant appear?—again he must pay. On two thousand florins I reckon each year, Were they chaste, I should starve on a pittance I fear.[861] Then hail to the pope; on my knees I adore And swear in his faith to live evermore; His church I'll defend, and till death I avow, He alone is the god before whom I will bow.
THE CARNIVAL AT BERNE.
THE POPE.
The people now at length believe That priests can all their sins reprieve At pleasure—that to them is given Full power to shut or open heaven. Preach loudly, every high decree, Of him, the conclave's majesty. Then, we are kings, the laity slaves: But if the gospel standard waves We're lost; for no where does it say, Make sacrifice, let priests have pay. The gospel course for us would be, To live and die in poverty. Instead of steeds to mark my state, And chariots on my sons to wait, A paltry ass must needs supply[862] A seat for sacred majesty. No, I cannot take such legacy, I'll thunder at such temerity; Let us but will—the world will nod, And nations adore us as God. Slighting their rights I mount my throne, And partition the world among my own; Vile laity must keep far aloof, Nor dare to enter our blest roof, To touch our tribute, or our gold. Holy water e'en let them hold.
We will not continue this literal translation of Manuel's drama. The agony of the clergy on learning the efforts of the Reformers, and their rage against those who threaten to interfere with their irregularities, are painted in lively colours. The dissolute manners of which this piece gave so vivid a representation were too common not to strike the spectator with the truth of the picture. The people were excited. Many jibes were heard as they retired from the play in the street of La Croix; but some who took the matter more seriously, spoke of Christian liberty and papal despotism, and contrasted the simplicity of the gospel with the pomp of Rome. The contempt of the people was soon displayed in the public streets. On Ash Wednesday, the indulgences were promenaded through the town amid satirical songs. In Berne, and throughout Switzerland a severe blow had been given to the ancient edifice of the papacy.
WALTER KLARER. JAMES BURKLI.
Sometime after this representation, another comedy was acted at Berne, but there was no fiction in it. The clergy, council, and corporation had assembled in front of the Upper Gate, waiting for the skull of St. Anne, which the famous knight, Albert of Stein, had gone to fetch from Lyons. At length Stein appeared, holding the holy relic wrapt in a covering of silk. As it passed, the Bishop of Lausanne knelt down before it. This precious skull, the skull of the Virgin's mother, is carried in procession to the church of the Dominicans, and, amid the ringing of bells, enters the church, where it is placed with great solemnity on the altar consecrated to it, behind a splendid grating. But amid all this joy, a letter arrives from the abbot of the convent of Lyon, where the relics of the saint were deposited, intimating that what the monks had sold to the knight was a profane bone taken at random from the burying ground. The trick thus played off on the illustrious city of Berne filled its citizens with deep indignation.