Epitaphium Cardinalis Lotharingiae (c.1574)

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.

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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!

Link to an image of this page  [p387]

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!