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The Vicar of Bray is a satirical description of an individual fundamentally changing his principles to remain in ecclesiastical office as external requirements change around him. The religious upheavals in England from 1533 to 1559 (and then from 1633 to 1715) made it impossible for any devout clergyman to comply with all the successive requirements of established church. The original figure was the vicar Simon Aleyn, although clerics who faced vicissitudes resulted in revised versions of the story. A satirical 18th century song, "The Vicar of Bray", recounts the career of a vicar of Bray, Berkshire, towards the end of this period and his contortions of principle in order to retain his ecclesiastic office despite the changes through the course of several monarchs from Charles II to George I. A comic opera covers a later period in 18th century history, while a film set in Bray, County Wicklow, in Ireland, covers Charles I, the English Civil War, the Commonwealth of England, The Protectorate, and restoration of Charles II. ==Historical basis== The figure described was Simon Aleyn between 1540–1588, as such, he preached the Bible and oversaw the baptism, confirmation, marriage and burial of his hundreds of parishioners in the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth as the church minister of the almost wholly agriculturally cultivated parish, today much reduced, see Bray. The main work of Thomas Fuller (d.1661), "Worthies of England", describes this man:〔('Bray, St Michael.' ) A Topographical Dictionary of England. Ed. Samuel Lewis (publisher). London 1848. 350-353. British History Online. Retrieved 3 January 2015.〕 Clerics who took a similar attitude to that of the 16th century Vicar of Bray gave occasion for revised versions of the poems and songs. A variety of other clerics inspired the various re-writes depending on their location and date: * The commonest version summarises the Stuart period. The Bray incumbent, was among very few to minister a parish through its most fraught episodes for clerics across the land: the Civil War and Glorious Revolution: * *Francis Carswell ended his life having been vicar of Bray for 42 years, dying in 1709 in Bray. * Other inspirations for local variants include: *Simon Simonds, who was an Independent Christian minister under Cromwell's the Protectorate, an Anglican cleric under Charles II, a Roman Catholic under James II, and again an Anglican under William and Mary. *Thomas Barlow (1607–1691), bishop of Lincoln; Timothy Bray (1480–1539), abbot of Heath, Derbyshire; and Edmund Waller (1606–1687), poet and politician. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Vicar of Bray」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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