James’ son Charles was on the throne and was married to a Catholic. The Protestant police state of Elizabeth I and James was ended. Eliot’s own poetry was much influenced not only by the seventeenth-century metaphysical poets, but also by that group of Anglican theologians called “The Caroline Divines.” To understand their importance, one needs to position them in the context of their times. Herbert used his own funds to restore Leighton Bromswold church, and to this day the interior of the church serves as an example of the most elegant ecclesiastical design and furnishings of the seventeenth century.įans of T.S.Eliot will notice the name Little Gidding as the title of the fourth of his Four Quartets.

He died at the age of thirty-nine of consumption, having penned what is arguably the finest devotional poetry in the English language.īefore he went to Bemerton, however, Herbert was appointed to the parish of Leighton Bromswold in Cambridgeshire-just two miles from the tiny parish of Little Gidding, where his college friend Nicholas Ferrar had settled and established an informal religious community with his wife, children, and his brother’s family. The young scholar attracted the attention of King James I and served in Parliament, but after the King’s death in 1625, Herbert returned to his first calling, was ordained priest in the Church of England and served as a country priest in the parishes of Fugglestone and Bemerton near Salisbury. He gained a place at Trinity College, Cambridge where he met Nicholas Ferrar. The poet George Herbert was born into an aristocratic family in Wales in 1593-at the end of the reign of Elizabeth Tudor. Eliot’s poem Little Gidding, our pilgrims visited the two tiny country churches of both Little Gidding and Bemerton- Herbert’s parish and burial place. They are George Herbert and his friend Nicholas Ferrar.įollowing a link with T.S. Eliot who also remained in the other flock, but whose hearts (like Eliot’s and Lewis’) belonged to the one flock and the one shepherd. Lewis never managed to make the Tiber Swim Team.

Some of the Catholic literary figures were Anglicans of course: T.S. The focus of the pilgrimage was the English martyrs and Catholic literary figures. On our recent pilgrimage to England, we took the opportunity to visit some important locations that are not on the usual tourist/pilgrimage trail. While their own church and country was torn apart by decades of religious strife, immorality, violence, greed and corruption, they simply got on with living an authentic Christian life. They followed the “Benedict Option,” if you like. Never a healthy man, he died of consumption at the early age of 39.George Herbert and Nicholas Ferrar illustrate the way forward for Christians in troubled times. In 1624 and briefly in 1625 he served in Parliament. He went to university with the intention of becoming a priest, but when eventually he became the University's Public Orator he attracted the attention of King James I and may well have seen himself as a future Secretary of State. Herbert's poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as 'a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skillful and important British devotional lyricist.'īorn into an artistic and wealthy family, Herbert received a good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages, rhetoric and music. I George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet and orator. Herbert's poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognized as 'a pivotal figure: enormously popular, deeply and broadly influential, and arguably the most skillful and important British devotional lyricist.' Born into an artistic and wealthy family, Herbert received a good education that led to his admission in 1609 as a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in languages, rhetoric and music.

George Herbert (1593-1633) was a Welsh-born English poet and orator.

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