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Knox: Absolute and Abitofhell
Seven Men, in Views and Learning near ally 'd'
Whom Forms alone and Dogmas did divide,
Their Differences sunk, in Conclave met,
And each his Seal (with Reservations) set:
Each in his Turn subscrib'd the fateful Scroll,
And stamp'd his Nihil Constat on the whole.
Sing, Heavenly MUSE, from high Olympus bowing,
Their Names, their Training, and their Weltanschauung.
Say, why did Magdaia, 1 renown'd in Ships,
Withhold the Tribute of his dauntless Lips,
Who, setting out the Gospel Truths t'explain,
Thought all that was not German, not germane:
Whose queasy Stomach, while it tried in vain
Recorded Miracles to entertain,
Eschewing LUKE, JOHN, MATTIIEW, and the rest,
Read MARK, but could not inwardly digest?
Why did Neapolis, 2 aloof like ASHER,
Withhold—the Name is in the Book of Jasher—
Where, 'mid the Thunders of a boisterous Quad,
He ponders on the Raison d'fitre of God?
Not such the Arms, not such the vain Defence,
That rallied to thy Standard, Common Sense,
First, from the Public Schools—Lernaean Bog—
No paltry Bulwark, stood the Form of OG. 3
A man so broad, to some he seem'd to be
Not one, but all Mankind in Effigy:
Who, brisk in Term, a Whirlwind in the Long,
Did everything by turns, and nothing wrong,
' The Reverend Mr J. M. Thompson, Dean of Divinity at the
College of St Mary Magdalen in Oxford.
' The Reverend Dr Hastings Rashdall, S.T.D., Fellow of the
College of St Mary of Winton, in Oxford.
8 The Reverend Mr William Temple, sometime Head Master of
Repton School; since Incumbent of the Church of St James, Piccadilly,
in Westminster.
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