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December 16, 2003
No man is an island
A couple of people have asked for the full text of this famous passage by the poet, adventurer and clergyman John Donne. It expresses ideas far in advance of the theology of his time and it is all the more remarkable for the fact that he was born a Roman Catholic and converted to Anglicanism - probably for political reasons - yet managed to meld the best Catholic thought and the best Protestant, bringing into being a range of theological expression and thinking that we are only now beginning to appreciate.
A meditation on the state of man
by
John Donne
Dean of St Paul's Cathedral London c 1621 - 1640
(Originally part of a sermon delivered in the Cathedral)
Perchance he for whom the bell tolls may be so ill that he knows not it tolls for him; and perchance I may think myself so much better than I am, as they who are about me, and see my state, may have caused it to toll for me, and I know not that. The Church is Catholic, universal, so are all her actions; all that she does belongs to all. When she baptises a child, that action concerns me; for that child is thereby connected to the Head which is my Head too, and engrafted into that body, whereof I am a member. And when she buries a man, that action concerns me: All mankind is of one Author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated; God employs several translators; some pieces are translated by age, some by sickness, some by war, some by justice; but God's hand is in every translation; and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again, for that Library where every book shall lie open to one another: As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come; so this bell calls us all....
No man is an island, entire of itself; everyman is a piece of the continent, a part of the man; if a clod be washed away by the sea Europe is the less, as well a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were: Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
c 1623 following the death of a friend.
Just for the record, it was the custom, and still is in some areas, for the Tenor Bell (the heaviest in the ring of bells) to be tolled for a death (though now it is usually for the funeral). A man is marked by the ringing of the Nine Taylors - nine strokes of the bell, a pause, followed by the number of strokes equal to his age. A woman gets seven strokes, pause and her age. For the equality minded it is worth remembering that seven is the "perfect" number in Jewish scatology!
On hearing the tolling bell, it was the custom to send someone to the tower or the church porch to discover the name of the deceased.
"Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Posted by The Gray Monk at December 16, 2003 02:49 PM