Charles de Guise (1524-1574), Cardinal of Lorraine from 1550, was a major persecutor of French Huguenots in the early wars of religion, and this epitaph captures the hatred that Protestants like Rollock felt for him. Metre: iambic trimeter.
Epitaphium Cardinalis Lotharingiae (c.1574)
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Epitaphium Cardinalis Lotharingiae
Lapis hic sepultam continet belli facem,
qualem cruentae non gerunt Erynnies.
Novam dolosus ne excitet flammam cinis,
sparge, viator, sparge lustrales aquas!
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The epitaph of Cardinal Lorraine
This stone covers the buried face of war, of the sort the bloody Kindly Ones did not bear. Lest the cunning man raises up a new flame from the ashes sprinkle holy water on it, traveller, sprinkle it!
