O, when our clergy, at the Dreadful Day,
Shall make their audit, when the Judge shall say
‘Give your accounts. What have my lambs been fed?
Say, do they all stand sound? Is there none dead
By your defaults? Come, shepherds, bring them forth
That I may crown your labours in their worth.’
O, what an answer will be given by some!
‘We have been silenced: Canons struck us dumb:
The great ones would not let us feed thy flock,
Unless we played the fools and wore a frock:
We were forbid unless we’ld yield to a sign
And cross their brows – they say, a mark of thine.
To say the truth, great Judge, they were not fed,
Lord, here they be; but Lord, they all be dead.’
Francis Quarles (1592-1644), On Those that Deserve It.
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