Of Mr. Tilman I can find no trace in printed Oxford or Cambridge
registers. The poem is a strange comment on the seventeenth century's
estimate of the clergy:
Why do they think unfit
That Gentry should joyne families with it?
In his _Life of George Herbert_ Walton tells us of Herbert's
resolution to enter the Church, and the opposition he met with:
'He did, at his return to London, acquaint a Court-friend with his
resolution to enter into _Sacred Orders_, who perswaded him to alter
it, as too mean an employment, and too much below his birth, and the
excellent abilities and endowments of his mind. To whom he replied,
'_It hath been formerly judg'd that the Domestick Servants of the King
of Heaven, should be of the noblest Families on Earth: and, though the
Iniquity of the late Times have made Clergy-men meanly valued, and
the sacred name of Priest contemptible; yet, I will labour to make
it honourable, by consecrating all my learning, and all my poor
abilities, to advance the Glory of that God that gave them._' This
estimate of the clergy must not be overlooked when considering the
struggle that went on in Donne's mind too before he crossed the
Rubicon.
PAGE =352=, l. 43. _As Angels out of clouds, &c._ Walton doubtless
had this line in his mind when he described Donne's own preaching:
'A Preacher in earnest, weeping sometimes for his Auditory, sometimes
with them, alwayes preaching to himselfe, like an Angel from a cloud,
though in none: carrying some (as S. Paul was) to heaven, in holy
raptures; enticing others, by a sacred art and courtship, to
amend their lives; and all this with a most particular grace, and
un-imitable fashion of speaking.'