Leon Rosselson 1977
Coppe (1619 – 1672) was one of the English Ranters and a writer of prophetic religious pamphlets. The Ranters rejected all forms of authority, and denied the existence of sin, maybe thinking predestination meant you’re already saved or you aren’t, so you might as well get drunk and sleep around while you’re waiting to find out which. His “Fiery Flying Roll” of 1649, a (highly heretical) tirade against inequality and hypocrisy which vividly evokes the charged and visionary atmosphere that swept over England during this period. Coppe combined an egalitarian social vision with an apocalyptic religious one. Nancy Kerr says he was anti-poverty and pro-pleasure, so everyone hated him basically. Rosselson wrote “The Ranters were the anarcho-hippies of the English Revolution, and this is the true story of the most flamboyant of them.”
Nancy Kerr & James Fagan from Roy Bailey’s Tribute Concert: https://towerseyfestival.bandcamp.com/track/abiezer-coppe
https://towerseyfestival.bandcamp.com/track/abiezer-coppe
Abiezer Coppe did away with sin My body is my church he said, God’s dwelling is within All I do is holy, Abiezer cried Gave his loving freely, A ranter ’til he died Chorus: So drink a loving cup To Abiezer, Abiezer He’s a drinking, dancing, roaring ranterÿ Abiezer Coppe, Abiezer Coppe A pox upon the pious and on what the scriptures preach I’d sooner hear a tinker curse than hear a vicar preach Nameless in his pleasures, he drank and smoked and swore Embracing as his fellow creatures beggar, thief and whore The righteous said the devil will take Coppe and his kind The devil is God’s backside, said Coppe, and hell’s a state of mind Women are the only heaven, marriage is the only hell Abiezer Coppe, knew it very well Through the streets of London , Abiezer came Heard the hungry cries for bread, he was a soul in pain When the nobles in their coaches passed he charged with wild eyes And gnashed his teeth in anger and roared out to the sky; How, how you rich nobles, you will reap soon what you sow For the day of doom is coming that will lay the mighty low And your properties will canker, and your houses will decay And the rust of all your silver will burn your flesh away Community in all things, Abiezer said The naked shall have clothing, the hungry shall have bread The great man jails the compass, the rich man starves the poor Without property, said Abiezer, theft would be no more Accused by church and parliament, attacked on every side They banned his books and burned them, and he was seized and tried The magistrates condemned him for vile blasphemy He pelted them with nutshells crying ‘will you my judges be’ And so to jail they took him, the ranters dream was dead He had no taste for martyrdom, I will repent he said I banish sin and I have learnt it cannot be denied That these are sins; greed, tyranny, hypocrisy and pride Abiezer Coppe, did away with sin,ÿ My body is my church he said, God’s dwelling is within History disowned him, his ghost they cannot kill It haunts the rich and righteous, drunk and dancing still