EPIGRAM BY ANDREW MELVILLE. 1606
This was is Latin squib composed by Melville after being
present at service in the Royal Chapel on 29th September, 1606. For this he was
brought before the council, found guilty of scandalum tnagnatum, and
committed to the Tower.
The following is an old rendering of "Cur stant
clausi, etc." :
Why stand there on the altar high,
Two closed books,
blind lights, two basins dry?
Doth England hold God’s mind and worship
close,
Blind of her sight, and buried in her dross?
Doth she, with
chapel put in Romish dress,
The purple whore religiously express?