"Our ancestors within the still domain
Of vast cathedral, or conventual gloom,
Their vigils kept: when tapers day and night
On the dim altar burn'd continually,
In token that the house was evermore
Watching to God. Religious men were they,
Nor would their reason, tutor'd to aspire
Above this transitory world, allow
That there should pass a moment of the year
When in their land the Almighty's service ceased."