Offsite Post: ‘Baldwin Bridges and the Death of the Republic’

 

Baldwin Bridges wore the robes of a senator,

Proudly proclaiming the divinity

Of the Republic and her laws –

A man of noble birth, the son of a senator,

And of a mother much distraught

Over a prophecy about her child:

‘He will bring about the end of the Republic.’

Her husband chided her for heeding

The words of a single prophet

(Even though the Spirit bloweth where He listeth);

Baldwin likewise tried to forget them,

Yet they remained present to his mind,

As a grain of sand to a foot in a leather shoe.

 

And, lo, it happened of a day,

As he walked the white stone streets

Lined with oaks with their silver-green leaves,

On his way to the Great Temple

To burn the daily offering of incense

To the Republic, that he heard a venerable bishop

Speaking strange things – of a ‘kingdom not of this world;’

‘Here we have no abiding city;’ ‘Loving God

With all our strength and our neighbor as ourselves

Is the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.’

 

Baldwin was captivated by the teachings

Of the Christians, which savored of living spirit

And not the dead forms he had always known, and soon

He, a highborn official, was sitting at the feet

Of the humble servant of God Bishop Valerian,

Who led Baldwin gradually through all the degrees

Of initiation into the Orthodox Church.

 

Truly then Baldwin’s soul was blazing

With the fiery zeal of Elijah the Prophet,

And he asked the Bishop for his blessing to place

A copy of the Four Gospels

Upon the Tablet of the Law –

The governing charter from the founding days –

Which the Republic holds most sacred,

As a testimony to the citizens

Of the truth of Christ and the Trinity.

The wise elder, knowing of God’s approval,

Assented, and with the sign of the Holy Cross

He blessed him as he left the church.

 

That very night, Baldwin, with Gospel book

In hand, hastened to the Great Temple.

His steps were swift and light inside,

As he made his way toward the canopied shrine,

His feet feeling the thin layer of soft dust

That covered the Temple’s marble floor.

The guards did not hinder him; many indeed

Were glad to see him there again, having grown

Uneasy at his long absence from the rituals.

 

Now he stood before it, the Tablet of the Law.

And now he placed upon it the little book,

The Holy Gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And though it was a massive sheet, and metal,

It broke apart into many jagged pieces

Because of the Grace of God in His holy book,

As the shrine itself collapsed upon it all.

 

Then was there a hue and cry, and much commotion.

 . . .

The rest is at https://www.newenglishreview.org/articles/baldwin-bridges-and-the-death-of-the-republic/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!