GK Chesterton's Lepanto, with annotations: Part 2

Continuing with Chesterton's Lepanto, annotated.

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,
It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard,
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips,
For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.
They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,
They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,
And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,
And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross,
The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;
The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;
From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,
And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

the Adriatic: The origins of the name Adriatic are linked to the Etruscan settlement of Adria,
which probably derives its name from the Illyrian adur meaning water or sea. In classical antiquity, the sea was known as Mare Adriaticum, spanning from the Gulf of Venice to the Strait of Otranto.

The Lion of Venice. Wikimedia Commons

the Lion of the Sea: probably a reference to the Lion of Venice. The Lion of Saint Mark, representing the evangelist St Mark, pictured in the form of a winged lion holding a Bible, is the symbol of the city of Venice and formerly of the Venetian Republic. It is also found in the symbol of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria. St Maek's relics were transferred from Alexandria, the scene of his martyrdom, to Venice in 828 AD.

The cold queen of England: Elizabeth I (born 1533, reigned from1558 - 1603). Her admirers still refer to her as 'Good Queen Bess. The bastard  offspring of Henry VIII's adulterous union with Ann Boleyn, her persistence in rejecting the Church and faith of her ancestors and of the majority of her subjects, in favour of the looting operation and power-grab known as the 'reformation', produced a response in 1570, from the Chief Shepherd of that same Church, Saint Pius V:

2. Prohibiting with a strong hand the use of the true religion, which after its earlier overthrow by Henry VIII (a deserter therefrom) Mary, the lawful queen of famous memory, had with the help of this See restored, she has followed and embraced the errors of the heretics. She has removed the royal Council, composed of the nobility of England, and has filled it with obscure men, being heretics; oppressed the followers of the Catholic faith; instituted false preachers and ministers of impiety; abolished the sacrifice of the mass, prayers, fasts, choice of meats, celibacy, and Catholic ceremonies; and has ordered that books of manifestly heretical content be propounded to the whole realm and that impious rites and institutions after the rule of Calvin, entertained and observed by herself, be also observed by her subjects. She has dared to eject bishops, rectors of churches and other Catholic priests from their churches and benefices, to bestow these and other things ecclesiastical upon heretics, and to determine spiritual causes; has forbidden the prelates, clergy and people to acknowledge the Church of Rome or obey its precepts and canonical sanctions; has forced most of them to come to terms with her wicked laws, to abjure the authority and obedience of the pope of Rome, and to accept her, on oath, as their only lady in matters temporal and spiritual; has imposed penalties and punishments on those who would not agree to this and has exacted then of those who persevered in the unity of the faith and the aforesaid obedience; has thrown the Catholic prelates and parsons into prison where many, worn out by long languishing and sorrow, have miserably ended their lives. All these matter and manifest and notorious among all the nations; they are so well proven by the weighty witness of many men that there remains no place for excuse, defense or evasion.

3. We, seeing impieties and crimes multiplied one upon another the persecution of the faithful and afflictions of religion daily growing more severe under the guidance and by the activity of the said Elizabeth -and recognizing that her mind is so fixed and set that she has not only despised the pious prayers and admonitions with which Catholic princes have tried to cure and convert her but has not even permitted the nuncios sent to her in this matter by this See to cross into England, are compelled by necessity to take up against her the weapons of justice, though we cannot forbear to regret that we should be forced to turn, upon one whose ancestors have so well deserved of the Christian community. Therefore, resting upon the authority of Him whose pleasure it was to place us (though unequal to such a burden) upon this supreme justice-seat, we do out of the fullness of our apostolic power declare the foresaid Elizabeth to be a heretic and favourer of heretics, and her adherents in the matters aforesaid to have incurred the sentence of excommunication and to be cut off from the unity of the body of Christ.

4. And moreover (we declare) her to be deprived of her pretended title to the aforesaid crown and of all lordship, dignity and privilege whatsoever.

[Regnans in excelsis. Given in St Peter's, Rome, on the 25th of February 1570]

The shadow of the Valois: Charles IX (1550 – 1574), who  was King of France from 1560
until his death from tuberculosis. He ascended the throne upon the death of his brother Francis II, who had married Mary Queen of Scots in 1558 and reigned from 1559-1560. Charles was of the Royal House of Valois (1328-1589).

The Golden Horn. Click to enlarge.

the Golden Horn: a horn-shaped estuary that joins the Bosphorus Strait where the strait meets the Sea of Marmara, thus forming a peninsula, the site of ancient Byzantium and Constantinople. 'Golden' may refer to the commercial wealth of this city; or the treasures that were tossed into the waters before the arrival of the conquering, Muslim hordes in 1453; or the reflected golden light of the setting sun on the waters.