"The Vicar of Bray" is an eighteenth century satirical song recounting the career of the Vicar of Bray and his contortions of principle to retain his ecclesiastic office despite the changes in the Established Church through the reigns of several English monarchs.Roud # 4998. The song makes many specific allusions to English religious and political doctrines and events.

Origins and cultural influence

The generally known form of the song appears to have been based on an earlier version, "The Religious Turncoat; Or, the Trimming Parson". The text for "The Religious Turncoat" was published in 1706 in a book by the satirical writer Ned Ward. The expression "The Vicar of Bray, will be the Vicar of Bray still" was mentioned in 1662 by the English churchman Thomas Fuller in his book The History of the Worthies of England.

The melody is taken from the 17th-century folk melody "Country Gardens" which in turn was used in The Quaker's Opera, first printed in London in 1728, a three-act farce based on the story of Jack Sheppard which was performed at Bartholomew Fair.

A parody of this parody song, "The American Vicar of Bray", with the same chorus, was published in the 30 June 1779 edition of Rivington's Royal Gazette, mocking the shifting loyalties of some American colonists during the American Revolutionary War.

"The Vicar of Bray" is also referenced in the song "Parlour Songs" in the Stephen Sondheim musical, Sweeney Todd, although the song has been removed from more recent performances of that musical.

Text and melody

In good King Charles's golden days, When Loyalty no harm meant; A Furious High-Church Man I was,1 And so I gain'd Preferment.2 Unto my Flock I daily Preach'd, Kings are by God appointed, And Damn'd are those who dare resist,3 Or touch the Lord's Anointed.4 And this is law,5 I will maintain Unto my Dying Day, Sir. That whatsoever King may reign, I will be the Vicar of Bray, Sir!

When Royal James possest the crown, And popery6 grew in fashion; The Penal Law I shouted down, And read the Declaration:7 The Church of Rome I found would fit Full well my Constitution, And I had been a Jesuit,8 But for the Revolution.9 And this is law, &c.

When William our Deliverer came, To heal the Nation's Grievance, I turn'd the Cat in Pan10 again, And swore to him Allegiance:11 Old Principles I did revoke, Set conscience at a distance, Passive Obedience is a Joke, A Jest is12 non-resistance.13 And this is law, &c.

When Royal Anne became our Queen, Then Church of England's Glory, Another face of things was seen, And I became a Tory:14 Occasional Conformists base I Damn'd, and Moderation, And thought the Church in danger was, From such Prevarication. And this is law, &c.

And Moderate Men looked big, Sir, My Principles I chang'd once more, And so became a Whig, Sir.16 And thus Preferment I , From our Faith's great Defender17 And almost every day abjur'd The Pope, and the Pretender. And this is law, &c.

The Illustrious House of Hanover, And Protestant succession, To these I lustily will swear, Whilst they can keep possession: For in my Faith, and Loyalty, I never once will faulter, But George, my lawful king shall be, Except the Times shou'd alter. And this is law, &c.

Source for the version of the song given here is The British Musical Miscellany, Volume I, 1734, as found in R. S. Crane, A Collection of English Poems 1660–1800, New York: Harper & Row, 1932.

Notes

High Church The division of the English church into "high" and "low" was significant at the time of the Restoration. The High Church resisted the Calvinistic levelling of church hierarchy that had been seen in the Commonwealth. The High Church party supported the divine right of kings, episcopal church government and establishment of the Church of England by the civil government. It was primarily Tory, and was more hierarchical than either the "low" (more Puritan/Presbyterian) or "broad" (latitudinarian or tolerant) churches. High Church in the late 17th century should not be confused with the liturgical changes sought by the Anglo-Catholic–Oxford Movement in the 19th century. Puritans, Presbyterians and Baptists favoured plainer, less sacramental, more scriptural liturgy in every era. Restoration of the Catholic style liturgy (often called 'High Church') in the Church of England is primarily a 19th-century phenomenon. In the 17th century, the High Church was devoted to the King's church, meaning that the King of England was not only the head of the church but that the church's holiness was imbued into the King's person. The King of England was not, in some sense, an ordinary mortal. The Vicar of Bray comically adapts his political and ecclesiastical beliefs to fit the successively ascendant government and church parties of his day.

Preferment Appointment to an ecclesiastical office, or the position itself; in this case the benefice of Bray. A candidate for an ecclesiastical position was "preferred" over other applicants by those with the right of appointment, these could be church superiors or often nobles or institutions such as Oxbridge colleges (through their right to present a new incumbent to a benefice).

Those who dare resist A reference to Oliver Cromwell and the regicides who tried and executed Charles I.

Lord's Anointed In this case, the King, anointed (by God) in the ceremony of coronation as temporal and spiritual leader of England; it draws from the Judeo-Christian Bible, I Samuel . King Charles I, who had been beheaded during the English Civil War had attempted to introduce the doctrine of Divine Right of Kings to England. After the rule of Oliver Cromwell, Charles II (son of Charles I) was restored to the throne. Charles II was more moderate than his father but the leading political theorist of the absolutist side, Sir Robert Filmer (the target of John Locke's Two Treatises of Government), had argued that the king is appointed directly by God and is, by nature, inherently superior to those he ruled. Therefore, the king is anointed by God from birth (and not by the Archbishop at coronation). Charles II took no consistent position on divine right but those who restored him did and the High Church was ascending.

Law The English Church is an Established Church, the state religion by Parliamentary law; at the time ecclesiastics could be removed for their religious and political opinions. This is the point of the song's satire, the Vicar of Bray accommodated his beliefs to conciliate the current ruler and keep his office. During this period, a difficult question was the degree to which Non-conformist and Non-juror clerics could participate in the Established Church. Non-conformists were those ministers who, though officially ordained and appointed, would not conform to the official liturgical practices. Though usually Puritans, they included many variations in religious practice.

Non-jurors were more threatening to the government, refusing to take the oath to the king as head of the church, as required by Parliament. Some Puritans felt that no man could lead a church, that divine law came from God directly to each believer. Others were of Roman Catholic leanings and did not recognise the English church's right to separate from the rest of the communion. In particular, it would be inconsistent to take the oath under Charles II (the Test Act 1673) and also under William III and Mary II, as these two oaths were contradictory. Refusing the new oaths incurred suspicion of disloyalty, while successively swearing them was derided as spineless. The Vicar of Bray is in the latter camp.

Popery Derogatory term for Roman Catholicism, as personified in the Pope; King James II was the first Catholic monarch of England since Mary I. James's Catholic religion and attempts to revoke legal restrictions against his co-religionists caused an anti-Catholic Parliament to invite King James' daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange to rule England. William invaded England with a large army, while Parliament declared William III and Mary II to be joint King and Queen. After this Glorious Revolution, Parliament made Protestantism a condition for any monarch of Britain or Ireland. Even after the defeat of his armies in Ireland, King James and the House of Stuart still had a large following throughout the British Isles. The new regime never felt entirely safe from civil war seeking to restore the Stuart dynasty. James's son, living abroad, became known as The Old Pretender (see line 41) but his grandson, Charles ("Bonnie Prince Charlie"), The Young Pretender, proved a far more effective military commander and dangerous contender for the throne.

Penal Laws and Declaration of Indulgence The Penal Laws were laws that upheld the establishment of the Church of England against Protestant nonconformists and Catholics. Civil penalties were imposed to those who did not conform. When James II of England and VII of Scotland issued two proclamations in 1687 (12 February in Scotland and 4 April in England), he granted broad religious freedom by suspending the penal laws. There was open resistance from Anglicans and few clergy read out the indulgence in Church. The Vicar of Bray was thus following the King rather than the Church.

Jesuits A Roman Catholic religious order founded by Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the Jesuits were known for the excellence of their academic training, ability to argue against Protestantism using the Bible and personal vow of obedience to the Roman Pontiff. From the reign of Queen Elizabeth I the priests of the Society of Jesus were especially feared and hated by the Protestants of the British Isles. English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh Protestants viewed the Jesuits as terrorists, assassins and spies due to the Jesuit practice of sending missionaries incognito into Britain to minister to Catholics, spread the faith and bring back information. It was alleged (based on hearsay and the convictions of Jesuits for involvement in the Gunpowder Plot (1605) that the order incited revolt.

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution occurred soon after James II's ascension to the throne in 1685. James had only been king for a matter three years before he fled and the Vicar did not have long with his new faith. The Vicar was not alone in converting to open Roman Catholicism. John Dryden became Roman Catholic at this time (and was taunted by a version of the "Vicar of Bray" tale pre-dating this song) but he remained Roman Catholic to his death and defended his conversion publicly.

Turn'd the cat in pan To change sides quickly and effortlessly. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "to reverse the order of things so dexterously as to make them appear the very opposite of what they really are; to turn a thing right about. Obs.". at "Cat" III 12 a.

Allegiance When William and Mary came to the throne, many Anglican clergy felt still bound by their oaths of allegiance to James II. They would accept William and Mary as regents but not as the rightful monarchs so could not swear an oath of allegiance to them. They became known as the nonjurors from the Latin meaning to "swear an oath". The schism slowly declined through the 18th century.

"Jest is" Some versions of the song give this as "a pish on" ("a piss on").

Passive obedience and non-resistance