[Intro] Stone gate swallows daylight, warders standing stiff with pikes, Surrey and Shrewsbury march him in, torches throwing spikes, The Lieutenant of the Tower — that's the keeper of this place, Waits to take the bishop's fatherhood, a polite title for his grace. [Chorus] "There lives a soul that aims at higher things Than temporary pleasing earthly kings" — Rochester won't trade his conscience for a crown's applause, Walking toward the warders, calm, without a pause. [Verse 2] The lords lean in with honeyed words, they want his favor back, Urging him to bend a little, mend the broken track, He thanks them for their trouble, says their care is warmly met, But answers with a truth that they will not forget. [Verse 3] "We shall meet one day, though that now we part," he tells the two, Then speaks of what these cold walls teach that courtyards never knew — Alone behind the stone he'll see much further into himself Than roaming free and gathering honors on a shelf. [Chorus] "There lives a soul that aims at higher things Than temporary pleasing earthly kings" — Rochester won't trade his conscience for a crown's applause, Walking toward the warders, calm, without a pause. [Verse 4] He hands himself across, no chains required, no delay, "As ever truant bade the school adieu" — that's how he goes away, A truant's just a pupil slipping out before class ends, But here the pupil's glad to leave, and gladly in he wends. [Verse 5] Before the Tower claimed him, he was tutor, priest, and sage, Erasmus called him brother in the letters of their age, He preached against the king's new vow that split a faith in two, A bishop's robe grew heavier the more his conscience grew. He held to Rome, he held to truth, though kingdoms built their fires, Watching friends and scholars bend beneath the court's desires, But principle's a quiet thing that doesn't shout or shove — It simply stands, immovable, a steady act of love. [Bridge] Fifteen thirty-four, they bolted shut the door, Rome sent a cardinal's hat he'd never wear before, June the twenty-second, thirty-five, the axe came down, Two weeks before More lost his own head and his own crown. [Chorus] "There lives a soul that aims at higher things Than temporary pleasing earthly kings" — Rochester won't trade his conscience for a crown's applause, Walking toward the warders, calm, without a pause. [Outro] "We shall meet one day, though that now we part," A truant's farewell, a scholar's steady heart. [Final Chorus] "There lives a soul that aims at higher things Than temporary pleasing earthly kings" — Rochester won't trade his conscience for a crown's applause, Walking toward the warders, calm, without a pause, Calm, without a pause.
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