The Catholick

________________________________________________
Title:     The Catholick
Author: Anonymous (Poetry's author) [More Titles by Anonymous (Poetry's author)]

[The following ingenious production has been copied literally from a broadside posted against the 'parlour' wall of a country inn in Gloucestershire. The verses are susceptible of two interpretations, being Catholic if read in the columns, but Protestant if read across.]

I HOLD as faith             What ENGLAND'S CHURCH alows
What ROME'S church saith    My conscience disavows
Where the KING'S head       That CHURCH can have no shame
The flocks misled           That holds the POPE supreame.
Where the ALTARS drest      There's service scarce divine
The peoples blest           With table, bread, and wine.
He's but an asse            Who the COMMUNION flies
Who shuns the MASSE         Is CATHOLICK and wise.

London: printed for George Eversden, at the signe of the Maidenhead, in St. Powle's Church-yard, 1655. Cum privilegio.

[The end]
Anonymous's poem: Catholick

________________________________________________



GO TO TOP OF SCREEN