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George Herbert lived in England during the tempestuous reigns of James I and Charles I that saw the nation racked by conflict among Catholicism, High Churchmen, and Puritans. A member of a politically-active family, Herbert rejected a promising career as a member of Parliamentfor the simple life of a country parson. While buisly involved in his pastoral duties he produced works of poetry and prose that have earned him a long-established place in English literary history. Collected here are two works originally published after Herbert's death at Bemerton in 1633: The Country Parson, a prose treatise on the duties, joys, and hardships of a pastor's life; and The Temple, a collection poems. In them the literary genius of this humble priest whose spirituality was a synthesis of Evangelical and Catholic piety was revealed.
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