Friedrich Engels

[The Vicar of Bray.

From the English by Friedrich Engels.]

In King Charles’s time, when loyalty was still
to be found,
I served the High Church through and through
And thus acquired benefices.
The king is set by God –
So I taught my sheep –
And he who defies him, indeed injures him,
Hell’s punishment shall strike him.
For this holds good, and shall endure,
Till my end it shall be true:
That whosoever be king in the land,
In Bray I will be Vicar.

When James took his place upon the throne,
The papacy came to honour;
Then it was time to turn the baiting of Catholics
Into its opposite.
For me too, I found, Rome’s church and priestly orders already suited;
Had not the Revolution come,
I’d have become a Jesuit.
For this holds good etc.

When King William came, the hero,
And saved freedom,
I shifted my sail
To the newness of this wind.
The slavish obedience of former times
Was now soon settled:
Give resistance to tyranny!
So was now preached.
For this holds good etc.

When Anne became queen,
The established church’s glory,
That had a different sense,
And then I became a Tory.
For our church’s integrity
It was now time to be zealous,
And to revile moderation and laxity as sinful.
For this holds good etc.

When King George brought moderate policies
Into the land, my lord,
I once more turned my coat
And thus became a Whig, my lord.
That was what gave me benefices
And favour with the regent;
And I abjured almost daily
Both pope and pretenders.
For this holds good etc.

Of Hanover’s high dynasty –
Papists excluded –
I swear allegiance, as long as it
Can maintain itself upon the throne.
For my allegiance wavers nevermore –
Change excepted –
And George shall be my prince and lord,
Until other times come.
For this holds good, and shall endure,
Till my end it shall be true:
That whosoever be king in the land,
In Bray I will be Vicar.

The above song is probably the only political folk song that has remained in favour in England for more than a hundred and sixty years. It owes this in large part also to its splendid melody, which is still generally sung today. For the rest, the song is by no means obsolete even in the face of our present-day German conditions. Only that we, as is proper, have made progress in the meantime. The honest original vicar merely had to turn his coat at every change of throne. But we Germans have, above our many political vicars of Bray, a veritable Pope of Bray, who proves his infallibility by thoroughly overturning the entire political doctrine himself at ever shorter intervals. Yesterday free trade, today protective tariffs; yesterday freedom of trade, today compulsory guilds; yesterday Kulturkampf, today marching with flying colours to Canossa – and why not? Omnia in majorem Dei gloriam (all to the greater glory of God), which in German means: All to wring out more taxes and more soldiers. And the poor little vicars have to go along, have again and again, as they themselves call it, ‘to jump over the stick’, and that often enough without reward. With what contempt would our sturdy old vicar look down upon these his puny imitators – he who is still justly proud of the courage with which he maintains his position through all storms!