336
HUDIBRAS.
[PART III.
And then sunk underneath the state, 235
That rode him above horseman's weight.[1]
And now the saints began their reign,
For which they 'd yearn'd so long in vain,[2]
And felt such bowel-hankerings,
To see an empire, all of kings,[3] 240
Deliver'd from th' Egyptian awe
Of justice, government, and law,[4]
And free t' erect what spiritual cantons
Should be reveal'd, or gospel Hans-Towns.[5]
To edify upon the ruins
Of John of Leyden's old out-goings,[6]
Who for a weather-cock hung up
Upon their mother-church's top,
Was made a type, by Providence,
Of all their revelations since, 250
And now fulfill'd by his successors,
Who equally mistook their measures;
For when they came to shape the Model,
Not one could fit another's noddle;
But found their Light and Gifts more wide 255
From fadging, than th' unsanctify'd,
While ev'ry individual brother
Strove hand to fist against another,
That rode him above horseman's weight.[1]
And now the saints began their reign,
For which they 'd yearn'd so long in vain,[2]
And felt such bowel-hankerings,
To see an empire, all of kings,[3] 240
Deliver'd from th' Egyptian awe
Of justice, government, and law,[4]
And free t' erect what spiritual cantons
Should be reveal'd, or gospel Hans-Towns.[5]
To edify upon the ruins
Of John of Leyden's old out-goings,[6]
Who for a weather-cock hung up
Upon their mother-church's top,
Was made a type, by Providence,
Of all their revelations since, 250
And now fulfill'd by his successors,
Who equally mistook their measures;
For when they came to shape the Model,
Not one could fit another's noddle;
But found their Light and Gifts more wide 255
From fadging, than th' unsanctify'd,
While ev'ry individual brother
Strove hand to fist against another,
- ↑ See Part i. Canto i. l. 925, where he rides the state; but here the state rides him.
- ↑ A sneer at the Committee of Safety. See Clarendon, vol. iii. b. xvi. p. 544, and Baxter's Life, p. 74.
- ↑ They founded their hopes on Revelation i. 6, and v. 10.
- ↑ Some sectaries thought that all law proceedings should be abolished, all law books burnt, and that the law of the Lord Jesus should be received alone.
- ↑ Alluding to the republics of Switzerland, and the German Hans-Towns, Hamburgh, Altona, &c.
- ↑ John of Leyden, a tailor, who proclaimed himself a prophet and king of the universe, was the ringleader of the Anabaptists of Munster, where they proclaimed a community both of goods and women. This New Jerusalem, as they had named it, was retaken, after a long siege, by its bishop and sovereign, Count Waldeck; and John of Leyden and two of his associates (Knipperdollinck and Krechting) were enclosed in iron cages and carried throughout Germany for six months, after which they were suspended in an iron cage, and starved to death, on the highest tower of the city. This happened about the year 1536. See Menzel's History of Germany, vol. ii. p. 256.
