BLUFF Latimer, brave, honest and robust,
Who cared not what the Court or courtiers thought,
But had a charge to keep, a sacred trust,
A mission and a work that must be wrought,
A battle with the Arch-fiend to be fought,
And met unblenched great Harry's awful frown--
Those bended brows with deadly purpose fraught--
Looking beyond to a thorn-twisted crown,
When at the stake the cruel flame's mad flight
Wreathed to an aureole round his reverend head,
To Ridley said, "Brother, this candle's light
Will over all the realm of England spread."
Thus persecution's baleful pyre became
Truth's dayspring and a Pentecostal flame.