The song is particularly interesting because of the number of (rather specific) allusions to English religious and political doctrines and events crammed into it, justifying the close reading and annotation given here.
The generally known form of the song appears to have been based on an earlier version, "The Religious Turncoat; Or, the Trimming Parson".
In good King Charles's golden days, When Loyalty no harm meant; A Zealous High-Church man I was,1 And so I gain'd Preferment.2 Unto my Flock I daily Preach'd, Kings are by God appointed, And Damn'd are those who dare resist,3 Or touch the Lord's Anointed.4 And this is law,5 I will maintain Unto my Dying Day, Sir.
When William our Deliverer came, To heal the Nation's Grievance, I turn'd the Cat in Pan10 again, And swore to him Allegiance:11 Old Principles I did revoke, Set conscience at a distance, Passive Obedience is a Joke, A Jest is12 non-resistance.13 And this is law, &c. When Royal Anne became our Queen, Then Church of England's Glory, Another face of things was seen, And I became a Tory:14 Occasional Conformists base I Damn'd, and Moderation, And thought the Church in danger was, From such Prevarication.
When George in Pudding time came o'er, And Moderate Men looked big, Sir, My Principles I chang'd once more, And so became a Whig, Sir.16 And thus Preferment I procur'd, From our Faith's great Defender17 And almost every day abjur'd The Pope, and the Pretender.
The Illustrious House of Hanover,18 And Protestant succession, To these I lustily will swear, Whilst they can keep possession: For in my Faith, and Loyalty, I never once will faulter, But George, my lawful king shall be, Except the Times shou'd alter.
The Vicar of Bray comically adapts his political and ecclesiastical beliefs to fit the successively ascendant government and church parties of his day.
In this case, the King, anointed (by God) in the ceremony of coronation as temporal and spiritual leader of England; it draws from the Judeo-Christian Bible, I Samuel 24.
Charles II was more moderate than his father, but the leading political theorist of the absolutist side, Sir Robert Filmer (the target of John Locke's Two Treatises of Government), had argued that the king is appointed directly by God and is, by nature, inherently superior to those he ruled.
This is the point of the song's satire: the Vicar of Bray accommodated his beliefs to conciliate the current ruler and keep his office.
During this period, one of the most difficult and fluid questions was the degree to which Non-conformist and Non-juror clerics could participate in the Established Church.
Non-jurors were more threatening to the government, refusing to take the oath to the king as head of the church, as required by Parliament.
Therefore, from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England the priests of Society of Jesus were especially feared and hated by the Protestants of the British Isles.
It was alleged (based on both hearsay and the convictions of Jesuits for involvement in the Gunpowder Plot (1605)) that the order incited revolt.
[2] When William and Mary came to the throne, many Anglican clergy felt still bound by their previous oaths of allegiance to James II.
The term nonresistance was used to refer to the Established Church during the religious troubles in England following the English Civil War and Protestant Succession.
This is notable, because the voices of this Tory administration (including Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift) were adept satirists, and the "Vicar of Bray" was composed, most likely, by a sympathetic wit.
But now the Vicar worries that the Church is under threat, and he is alarmed, specifically, at the 'lies' of those who are occasional conformists (i.e. persons whose obedience is partial and likely nominal, "occasioned" not by true belief but to avoid the civil disabilities of the Penal Laws).
The emergent foreign trade interests were favoured by George I, who himself came from modern-day Germany and tried to distance himself as much as possible from religious matters.
The parish referred to in the song is Bray, Berkshire, which lies in close proximity to several sites of political and religious significance, including Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle.
However the candidate favoured by church historian Thomas Fuller and dramatist Richard Brome was Simon Aleyn, vicar of Bray in 1557–65, during the reigns of Mary I and Elizabeth I.
Carswell "was of like easy conscience"[citation needed] to his antecedents and remained vicar of Bray until his "dying day", through most of the events described, except the accession of the first Hanoverian king George I alluded to in the final verse.
Thomas Barlow has also been suggested as an inspiration for the song, but this may just be because he had a prominent clerical and academic career spanning the vicissitudes alluded to.