Ad Serenissimum Regem (Epigr. XXXIX)
The Blindness of the World
A call to recognize the spiritual confusion and madness affecting those who reject the truth.
Look at these trifles, most learned of kings, which a thoughtless people, battered by their own storms, offer us to drink and swallow; oh, you blind brothers of the soul! What madness is tiring your hearts and blowing thick darkness into your senses?
England’s Sacred Calling
The Church in England is presented as a divinely favored gem, uniquely positioned to offer pure worship.
See how beautifully the Church spreads her wings and reaches the very heavens with her rays; neighboring peoples everywhere marvel at her, and with astonished minds long to learn her rites; the angelic hosts join our assemblies; and Christ Himself, looking down from the heights of heaven and gathering the dwellings of the world in a single glance, says, "England alone shows me full worship." Clearly, when God was founding the world, He set these lands, long divided by the sea, apart for Himself, and enclosed them like a gem in its own case.
The Royal Defender
An exhortation to the King to continue his defense of the faith, grounded in his deep study of scripture and tradition.
O you who are rightly called the most deserving Defender of the Faith, answer to that title forever; and in the same order in which you have happily begun, continue to weave the matter with a similar thread. Overwhelm the fervent enemies by breaking their efforts; and overthrow the mass of heresy, whether it has spread openly or by a hidden path. For what could deceive you? You have tasted all the veins and streams that the sacred page reveals, and you rejoice in many an interpreter; you look into the Synods, the Fathers, and all that ancient history has given—which will not die through you—and you look into the whole of the Schools.
A Shepherd’s Steady Path
The King is encouraged to lead his people safely between extremes, dedicating his life and poetry to divine meditation.
You aren't allowed to pass beyond the point where you pierce the very heart of nature with the sharpness of your mind, and, mingled with all the stars, you seek out heaven most gratefully before your time. Fortified by this help, you face the waves stirred up by the Romanists and the Puritans more securely, and as a shepherd, you lead your own sheep between them, safest in the middle. Go on, glory of Kings; may your praises be as many as the stars, and your years as many as your praises, most August one; may only pure joys dare to knock at your doors, with all sorrows shut out; may whatever the mind's dreams stir up have a certain end in meditation; and may all trivialities—by which a corrupted libido ensnares and drowns countless poets—be set aside, so that your songs alone may sing the name of James.
Read the original Latin
Ecce pererratas, regum doctissime, nugas, Quas gens inconsulta, suis vexata procellis, Libandas nobis absorbendasque propinat; O caecos animi fratres! quis vestra fatigat Corda furor, spissaque afflat caligine sensus? Cernite quam formosa suas Ecclesia pennas Explicat, et radiis ipsum pertingit Olympum; Vicini populi passim mirantur, et aequos Mentibus attonitis cupiunt addiscere ritus; Angelicae turmae nostris se coetibus addunt; Ipse etiam Christus coelo speculatus ab alto, Intuituque uno stringens habitacula mundi, Sola mihi plenos, ait, exhibet Anglia cultus. Scilicet has olim divisas aequore terras Seposuit Divina sibi, cum conderet orbem, Progenies gemmamque sua quasi pyxide clausit. O qui Defensor Fidei meritissimus audis, Responde aeternum titulo; quoque ordine felix Coepisti, pergas simili res texere filo. Obrue ferventes, ruptis conatibus, hostes; Quasque habet aut patulas aut caeco tramite, moles Haeresis, evertas. Quid enim te fallere possit? Tu venas laticesque omnes quos sacra recludit Pagina gustasti, multoque interprete gaudes; Tu Synodosque Patresque et quod dedit alta vetustas Haud per te moritura, Scholamque introspicis omnem.
Nec transire licet quo mentis acumine findis Viscera naturae, commistusque omnibus astris Ante tuum tempus coelum gratissimus ambis. Hac ope munitus securior excipis undas, Quas Latii Catharique movent, atque inter utrasque Pastor agis proprios, medio tutissimus, agnos. Perge, decus Regum; sic, Augustissime, plures Sint tibi vel stellis laudes et laudibus anni; Sic pulsare tuas, exclusis luctibus, ausint Gaudia sola fores; sic quicquid somnia mentis Intus agunt, habeat certum meditatio finem; Sic positis nugis, quibus irretita libido Innumeros mergit vitiata mente poetas, Sola Jacobaeum decantent carmina nomen.
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