Providence
and Precious
Metals.

George Herbert
on America

By Dr. Ronald Fritze
November 16, 2007

"For, where God built a church,
there the devil would also build a chapel . . .
In such sort is the devil always God's ape."
— Martin Luther

The European discovery of the Americas resulted in vast changes for both the Eastern and the Western Hemispheres. It was not a quick process either. Working out the consequences of the earth becoming global for its human inhabitants took centuries — and the process is not yet over.

The Americas have meant many things to many people. Some saw it as a forgotten Eden, others saw it as a treasure house. One school of thought viewed the Americas as an innately inferior part of the earth with weakling peoples and animals in an environment that would sap the strength of immigrants from the Old World. An image of the Americas that stands out, however, is of a place of refuge from the strife and wickedness of the Eastern Hemisphere. That is the image of America that the poet George Herbert adopted.

A 'Church Militant' on the Path of the Sun.

George Herbert (1593-1633) was the younger brother of Edward Herbert, the first Baron Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648), a well-known diplomat and man of letters. Some time between 1620 and 1625, Herbert wrote a poem titled "Church Militant." In that poem he lays out a narrative of the history of Christianity from the beginnings of the early Church to Herbert's time. Herbert describes how the Church and true religion expanded ever westward following the path of the Sun. From its Eastern origins it moved into Egypt, then to Greece, on to Rome, up into Germany and over into Spain, and ultimately reaching Britain. The true light of the Gospel follows the Sun.

Unfortunately Sin and false religion are quick to follow the Church and even quicker to corrupt its accomplishments. Paganism, atheistic philosophy, tyrannical emperors, and Muslim infidelity all plague the Church. But the worst and most effective satanic strategy is yet to come. As Herbert describes it:

Sin being not able to extirpate quite
The Churches here, bravely resolv'd one night
To be a Church — man too, and wear a Mitre:
The old debauched ruffian would turn writer.
     (Lines 161-164)
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
And having conquer'd, did so strangely rule,
That the whole world did seem but the Pope's mule.
     (Lines 203-204)

As a result of this new strategy, Sin is even more successful in its efforts to undermine the true Church and Religion with the result:

Thus Sin triumphs in Western Babylon;
Yet not as Sin, but as Religion.      (Lines 211-212)

Sin Triumphs in the New Babylon of the West.

Satan has coopted Christ's Church in the form of the Papacy. While such anti-Catholicism might seem shocking to most of us in a religiously pluralistic United States or Western European nation, it was an article of faith among European Protestants of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their denominational statements of belief labeled the papacy as Anti-Christ. As Herbert looked out at his world, it appeared that Sin was triumphing down in Rome, the new Babylon of the West. It was winning everywhere. What to do? Herbert suggested a solution — America.

Religion stands on tip-toe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.
     (Lines 235-236)

At the point when Sin achieves its inevitable triumph in Europe,

Then shall Religion to America flee:
They have their times of Gospel, ev'n as we.
My God, thou dost prepare for them a way
By carrying first their gold from them away:
Religion always sides with poverty.
We think we rob them, but we think amiss:
We are more poor, and they more rich by this.
Thou wilt revenge their quarrel, making grace
To pay our debts, and leave our ancient place
To go to them, while that which now their nation
But lends to us, shall be our desolation.
     (Lines 247-258)

A Wealth of Riches Becomes a Bad Thing.

For Herbert, the looting of the precious metals of the Americas is actually a good thing for the Native Americans. It frees them from the corruption of riches and makes them better hosts for the true Religion and Church. The acquisition of American wealth is a bad thing for Europe, however, and will only lead to desolation. Herbert undoubtedly meant that desolation would be spiritual, but the fact is, for Spain, the desolation was quite material. The massive influx of American precious metals greatly increased the money supply in Spain and created an unhealthy inflation that left Spain severely damaged economically, a consequence from which Spain has yet to recover.

The flight of true Religion to the Americas does not stop the westward march of Sin. Instead, the struggle continues.

Yet as the Church shall thither westward fly,
So Sin shall trace and dog her instantly.
     (Lines 259-260)

And on this sinful earth, the result will be that:

The Church shall come, and Sin the Church shall smother:
     (Line 266)

There is, however, an end to this cosmic race and struggle between Church and Sin. In circling the globe, Church and Sin will eventually end up where they started.

But as the Sun still goes both west and east;
So also did the Church by going west
Still eastward go; because it drew more near
To time and place, where judgement shall appear.
     (Lines 274-277)

How Near the Church to Judgement Day?

When they reach that point, Apocalypse and the End of the World will begin. The Judgement Day is not imminent, however. It took the Church over fifteen hundred years to reach the Americas. The westward race is no where near to getting back to its starting point in the Middle East.

When George Herbert wrote "Church Militant," he would have been in his late twenties to his early thirties. He came from a privileged background. His brother Edward was well connected at the court of James I. The poet John Donne was a family friend as well as a chaplain to the king. George showed himself to be a shrewd politician and self-promoter, and in 1619 secured the prestigious position of public orator at Cambridge University, which he held until 1627.

Herbert was a staunch supporter of the High Church, although his initial plan was to purse a secular career. His ambitions depended on the patronage of those above him socially, but 1625 proved to be a bad year when his two most important supporters, the Duke of Richmond and the Marquis of Hamilton, died along with King James I. Herbert opposed the Duke of Buckingham, who was a favorite of newly crowned Charles I. Without significant friends at court, Herbert's political ambitions sank quickly.

Despite Grave Doubts, He Dons the Cloth.

Lacking prospects, he began to consider a career as a parish minister. It was a path his mother had long wanted him to follow. His friend Nicholas Ferrar, the founder of the religions community of Little Gidding, encouraged Herbert to decide in favor of the Church. Still, Herbert struggled with grave doubts about his religious vocation.

He took religious orders from William Laud, then dean of the Chapel Royal and leader of the Arminian party in the Church of England, and soon after was offered the parish of Leighton Ecclesia in 1626. Later he took up duties in 1630 as the minister of the poor and dilapidated chapel of ease at Bemerton in Wiltshire. Herbert spent considerable sums of his own money to repair and restore the church buildings at Bemerton while proving to be a conscientious and compassionate shepherd to his congregation.

Unfortunately he had developed consumption and died on 1 March 1633.

None of Herbert's poetry was published during his lifetime. On his death he left the manuscript of his poems in the hands of his friend Nicholas Ferrar with the choice of either burning it or publishing it. Ferrar chose to publish, but not without difficulty. When Ferrar applied for the license to print the manuscript as The Temple, the vice chancellor of Cambridge University demanded that the removal of couplet:

Religion stands on tip-toe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.
     (Lines 235-236)

A Changing Perspective on Sin.

Things had changed in the ten years or so since Herbert had written "Church Militant." The Pilgrims had founded their Plymouth Colony in New England in 1620. More importantly, disgruntled Puritans in 1630 had established the much larger Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Providence Island Colony. Religion was passing "to the American strand," but it was not the religion of Laud and King Charles I.

Herbert's verse raised an implied question: Were the king and Laud allies of Sin? Ferrar stood his ground and refused to cut the offending lines. His perseverance prevailed and the vice-chancellor relented since he personally knew Herbert and had a good opinion of him.

The Temple was published uncensored in 1634 and went on to great popularity, selling 20,000 copies within a few years and providing great comfort to Charles I during the period of his imprisonment prior to his execution.

Obedience to God and Not to Gold.

For Herbert and many of his contemporaries, America was a place of new beginnings, refuge, and hope. Uniquely, Herbert took a view of American precious metals that was rather different from that of his peers. While most English seamen avidly sought to capture some of the vast stores of gold and silver that Spain was extracting from the Americas, Herbert celebrated its removal as a preparation for the establishment of true religion in the Americas. What counted for Herbert in this early existence of the Americas was obedience to the will of God. As he reminded the readers of "Church Militant" in a series of litanies in the poem,

How dear to me, O God, thy counsels are!
       Who may with thee compare!

 
Excursus:
Concerning the Term "Church Militant"

The term "Church Militant" tends to conjure up images of brave Crusaders slashing their way through hordes of Saracen warriors in a quest to liberate Jerusalem and the Holy Land from infidels. That image, however, is a crude and somewhat inaccurate usage of the term "Church Militant."

The Church Militant refers to the members of the true Church in their earthly existence, which is a state of struggle to remain faithful and to reject evil. In contrast, the Church Triumphant consists of the members of the true Church who have passed from this early life through death to their eternal rest with God in Heaven. For Roman Catholics, there is a third state of the true Church, the Church Suffering, which consists of those members of the true Church who are cleansing themselves of the stain of their sins in Purgatory.

Readers of Herbert's "Church Militant" will notice that there is really nothing militant, or at least nothing militaristic about his true Religion. Instead, true Religion always remains focused on establishing itself ever westward. It does not look back upon Sin pursing it. It does not stand its ground and fight as Sin corrupts the Church. When Sin recruits Roman emperors to persecute with violence the true Religion, these imperial minions are ultimately unsuccessful. Sin's greatest success comes from burrowing into the fabric of true Religion and corrupting it from within. Yes, there is a war between the true Church and Sin, but it is a spiritual war between good and evil, between the godly and the satanic. It is a war that individual Christians have to fight everyday within themselves.

Columbus did not find out America by chance,
but God directed him at that time to discover it:
it was contingent to him, but necessary to God;
he reveals and conceals, to whom and when he will."
— Robert Burton,
Anatomy of Melancholy (1621)