John Knox

John Knox

There needs in every age some sturdy soul

To strike, as with Thor’s hammer, at the head
Of Tyranny; but when the Wrong lies dead
Before Right’s champion, and he sees it roll
Down from the usurp’d eminence, in its stead 5
He should most careful be only to rear
The True and Good and Beautiful, for fear
Some other Wrong supplants the one that’s fled.
Knox’s undaunted valour I admire—
Greatest in his adversity: but he 10
Was narrow in his views; he could not see
Th’ empyrean to which we should aspire.
Scotland he nobly freed from Popery’s chain,
But forged her others, links of which remain.

George Markham Tweddell
p. 130 [in Miscellaneous Sonnets]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Knox