Author Information
Bell Book and Candle
I shall be cast out, with my accomplices and abettors
Denied the precious body and blood of the Lord
And the company of all Christian congregations
Excluded from the holy mother church
In heaven and on earth
I am excommunicate
Anathema
Judged to be damned
With the devil and his angels
And all the reprobate
To eternal fire
Until I shall recover myself
From the toils of the devil
The Bishops all said
“So Be It”
A Bell rang
The holy book was closed
And the candles were snuffed
And thrown to the floor
This, the sentence passed upon me
By Papal Bull
On the twenty seventh day of April 1570,
Three hundred and ninety years before I was born,
And on all who serve the English crown.
It has yet to be repealed.
“God Save the Queen”
