The alternative title, A Priest to the Temple encourages by its sacerdotal language those who would claim Herbert for Anglo-Catholicism (a claim which belongs with many others in the creative but entirely fantastical thought world which denies the Protestantism of the English Reformation), but the fact that Herbert’s thought reflects the mainstream Calvinism of his day is no barrier to his genius, and his reputation as a poet and theologian has never been higher. His reflections on the life of The Country Parson have become part of the canonical legend of Anglicanism. Herbert’s varied life saw him move from academic through court politics to priesthood and pastoral ministry. Fortunately for us, Victorian literary taste is not decisive, and the Church of England rightly celebrates one of its greatest sons on 27th February each year. Among those who are dismissed as less deserving of the accolade, the writer lists ‘the poet of Bemerton’, one George Herbert (1593-1633). The obituary published in The Times of London tackles his reputation head on, and concludes that he should probably be thought of as England’s greatest priest poet. His volume, The Christian Year, received something like ninety printings in his own lifetime. When the great Tractarian leader John Keble died in 1866, he was best known as a poet.
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