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Table of Contents | |
Section | Page |
Start of eBook | 1 |
Title: The Hymns of Prudentius | 1 |
PREFACE | 2 |
EPILOGUE | 52 |
Author: Aurelius Clemens Prudentius
Release Date: February 7, 2005 [EBook #14959]
Language: Latin and English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** Start of this project gutenberg EBOOK the hymns of prudentius ***
Produced by Ted Garvin, Stephen Hutcheson and the
Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
The hymns of prudentius
Translatedby R. Martin Pope.
MDCCCCV published
by J.M. Dent
and Co: Aldine
house London W C
Cathemerinonliber
of
prudentius
Hymns for the Christian’s day
Newlytranslated into
English verse
Praefatio
Per quinquennia iam decem,
ni fallor, fuimus: septimus insuper
annum cardo rotat, dum fruimur sole volubili.
Instat terminus et diem
vicinum senio iam Deus adplicat.
5
Quid nos utile tanti spatio temporis egimus?
Aetas prima crepantibus
flevit sub ferulis: mox docuit toga
infectum vitiis falsa loqui, non sine crimine.
Tum lasciva protervitas,
10
et luxus petulans (heu pudet ac piget)
foedavit iuvenem nequitiae sordibus ac luto.
Exin iurgia turbidos
armarunt animos et male pertinax
vincendi studium subiacuit casibus asperis.
15
Bis legum moderamine
frenos nobilium reximus urbium,
ius civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos.
Tandem militiae gradu
evectum pietas principis extulit
20
adsumptum propius stare iubens ordine proximo.
Haec dum vita volans agit,
inrepsit subito canities seni
oblitum veteris me Saliae consulis arguens:
ex quo prima dies mihi
25
quam multas hiemes volverit et rosas
pratis post glaciem reddiderit, nix capitis probat.
Numquid talia proderunt
carnis post obitum vel bona vel mala,
cum iam, quidquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit?
30
Dicendum mihi; Quisquis es,
mundum, quem coluit, mens tua perdidit:
non sunt illa Dei, quae studuit, cuius habeberis.
Atqui fine sub ultimo
peccatrix anima stultitiam exuat:
35
saltem voce Deum concelebret, si meritis nequit:
hymnis continuet dies,
nec nox ulla vacet, quin Dominum canat:
pugnet contra hereses, catholicam discutiat fidem,
conculcet sacra gentium,
40
labem, Roma, tuis inferat idolis,
carmen martyribus devoveat, laudet apostolos.
Haec dum scribo vel eloquor,
vinclis o utinam corporis emicem
liber, quo tulerit lingua sono mobilis ultimo.
45
Full fifty years my span of life hath run,
Unless I err, and seven revolving years
Have further sped while I the sun enjoy.
Yet now the end draws nigh, and by God’s will
Old age’s bound is reached: how have I spent
And with what fruit so wide a tract of days?
I wept in boyhood ’neath the sounding rod:
Youth’s toga donned, the rhetorician’s arts
I plied and with deceitful pleadings sinned:
Anon a wanton life and dalliance gross
(Alas! the recollection stings to shame!)
Fouled and polluted manhood’s opening bloom:
And then the forum’s strife my restless wits
Enthralled, and the keen lust of victory
Drove me to many a bitterness and fall.
Twice held I in fair cities of renown
The reins of office, and administered
To good men justice and to guilty doom.
At length the Emperor’s will beneficent
Exalted me to military power
And to the rank that borders on the throne.
The years are speeding onward, and gray hairs
Of old have mantled o’er my brows
And Salia’s consulship from memory dies.
What frost-bound winters since that natal year
Have fled, what vernal suns reclothed
The meads with roses,—this white crown declares.
Yet what avail the prizes or the blows
Of fortune, when the body’s spark is quenched
And death annuls whatever state I held?
This sentence I must hear: “Whate’er thou art,
Thy mind hath lost the world it loved: not God’s
The things thou soughtest, Whose thou now shalt be.”
Yet now, ere hence I pass, my sinning soul
Shall doff its folly and shall praise my Lord
If not by deeds, at least with humble lips.
Let each day link itself with grateful hymns
And every night re-echo songs of God:
Yea, be it mine to fight all heresies,
Unfold the meanings of the Catholic faith,
Trample on Gentile rites, thy gods, O Rome,
Dethrone, the Martyrs laud, th’ Apostles sing.
O while such themes my pen and tongue employ,
May death strike off these fetters of the flesh
And bear me whither my last breath shall rise!
I. HYMNUS ad galli CANTUM
Ales diei nuntius
lucem propinquam praecinit;
nos excitator mentium
iam Christus ad vitam vocat.
Auferte, clamat, lectulos 5
aegros, soporos, desides:
castique recti ac sobrii
vigilate, iam sum proximus.
Post solis ortum fulgidi
serum est cubile spernere, 10
ni parte noctis addita
tempus labori adieceris.
Vox ista, qua strepunt aves
stantes sub ipso culmine
paulo ante quam lux emicet, 15
nostri figura est iudicis.
Tectos tenebris horridis
stratisque opertos segnibus
suadet quietem linquere
iam iamque venturo die. 20
Ut, cum coruscis flatibus
aurora caelum sparserit,
omnes labore exercitos
confirmet ad spem luminis.
Hic somnus ad tempus datus
25
est forma mortis perpetis,
peccata ceu nox horrida
cogunt iacere ac stertere.
Sed vox ab alto culmine
Christi docentis praemonet, 30
adesse iam lucem prope,
ne mens sopori serviat:
Ne somnus usque ad terminos
vitae socordis opprimat
pectus sepultum crimine 35
et lucis oblitum suae.
Ferunt vagantes daemonas
laetos tenebris noctium,
gallo canente exterritos
sparsim timere et cedere. 40
Invisa nam vicinitas
lucis, salutis, numinis
rupto tenebrarum situ
noctis fugat satellites.
Hoc esse signum praescii
45
norunt repromissae spei,
qua nos soporis liberi
speramus adventum Dei.
Quae vis sit huius alitis,
salvator ostendit Petro, 50
ter antequam gallus canat
sese negandum praedicans.
Fit namque peccatum prius,
quam praeco lucis proximae
inlustret humanum genus 55
finemque peccandi ferat.
Flevit negator denique
ex ore prolapsum nefas,
cum mens maneret innocens,
animusque servaret fidem. 60
Nec tale quidquam postea
linguae locutus lubrico est,
cantuque galli cognito
peccare iustus destitit.
Inde est quod omnes credimus,
65
illo quietis tempore
quo gallus exsultans canit
Christum redisse ex inferis.
Tunc mortis oppressus vigor,
tunc lex subacta est tartari, 70
tunc vis diei fortior
noctem coegit cedere.
Iam iam quiescant inproba,
iam culpa furva obdormiat,
iam noxa letalis suum 75
perpessa somnum marceat.
Vigil vicissim spiritus
quodcumque restat temporis,
dum meta noctis clauditur,
stans ac laborans excubet. 80
Iesum ciamus vocibus
flentes, precantes, sobrii:
intenta supplicatio
dormire cor mundum vetat.
Sat convolutis artubus
85
sensum profunda oblivio
pressit, gravavit, obruit
vanis vagantem somniis.
Sunt nempe falsa et frivola,
quae mundiali gloria 90
ceu dormientes egimus:
vigilemus, hic est veritas.
Aurum, voluptas, gaudium,
opes, honores, prospera,
quaecumque nos inflant mala, 95
fit mane, nil sunt omnia.
Tu, Christe, somnum dissice,
tu rumpe noctis vincula,
tu solve peccatum vetus
novumque lumen ingere. 100
I. Hymn at cock-crow
Awake! the shining day is born!
The herald cock proclaims the morn:
And Christ, the soul’s Awakener,
cries,
Bidding us back to life arise.
Away the sluggard’s bed! away
The slumber of the soul’s decay!
Ye chaste and just and temperate,
Watch! I am standing at the gate.
After the sun hath risen red
’Tis late for men to scorn their
bed,
Unless a portion of the night
They seize for labours of the light.
Mark ye, what time the dawn draws nigh,
How ’neath the eaves the swallows
cry?
Know that by true similitude
Their notes our Judge’s voice prelude.
When hid by shades of dark malign
On beds of softness we recline,
They call us forth with music clear
Warning us that the day is near.
When breezes bright of orient morn
With rosy hues the heavens adorn,
They cheer with hope of gladdening light
The hearts that spend in toil their might.
Though sleep be but a passing guest
’Tis type of death’s perpetual
rest:
Our sins are as a ghastly night,
And seal with slumbers deep our sight.
But from the wide roof of the sky
Christ’s voice peals forth with
urgent cry,
Calling our sleep-bound hearts to rise
And greet the dawn with wakeful eyes.
He bids us fear lest sensual ease
Unto life’s end the spirit seize
And in the tomb of shame us bind,
Till we are to the true light blind.
’Tis said that baleful spirits roam
Abroad beneath the dark’s vast dome;
But, when the cock crows, take their flight
Sudden dispersed in sore affright.
For the foul votaries of the night
Abhor the coming of the light,
And shamed before salvation’s grace
The hosts of darkness hide their face.
They know the cock doth prophesy
Of Hope’s long-promised morning
sky,
When comes the Majesty Divine
Upon awakened worlds to shine.
The Lord to Peter once foretold
What meaning that shrill strain should
hold,
How he before cock-crow would lie
And thrice his Master dear deny.
For ’tis a law that sin is done
Before the herald of the sun
To humankind the dawn proclaims
And with his cry the sinner shames.
Then wept he bitter tears aghast
That from his lips the words had passed,
Though guileless he his soul possessed
And faith still reigned within his breast.
Nor ever reckless word he said
Thereafter, by his tongue betrayed,
But at the cock’s familiar cry
Humbled he turned from vanity.
Therefore it is we hold to-day
That, as the world in stillness lay,
What hour the cock doth greet the skies,
Christ from deep Hades did arise.
Lo! then the bands of death were burst,
Shattered the sway of hell accurst:
Then did the Day’s superior might
Swiftly dispel the hosts of Night.
Now let base deeds to silence fall,
Black thoughts be stilled beyond recall:
Now let sin’s opiate spell retire
To that deep sleep it doth inspire.
For all the hours that still remain
Until the dark his goal attain,
Alert for duty’s stern command
Let every soul a sentry stand.
With sober prayer on Jesus call;
Let tears with our strong crying fall;
Sleep cannot on the pure soul steal
That supplicates with fervent zeal.
Too long did dull oblivion cloud
Our motions and our senses shroud:
Lulled by her numbing touch, we stray
In dreamland’s ineffectual way.
Bound by the dazzling world’s soft
chain
’Tis false and fleeting gauds we
gain,
Like those who in deep slumbers lie:—
Let us awake! the truth is nigh.
Gold, honours, pleasure, wealth and ease,
And all the joys that mortals please,
Joys with a fatal glamour fraught—
When morning comes, lo! all are nought.
But thou, O Christ, put sleep to flight
And break the iron bands of night,
Free us from burden of past sin
And shed Thy morning rays within.
II. HYMNUS MATUTINUS
Nox et tenebrae et nubila,
confusa mundi et turbida,
lux intrat, albescit polus,
Christus venit, discedite.
Caligo terrae scinditur 5
percussa solis spiculo,
rebusque iam color redit
vultu nitentis sideris.
Sic nostra mox obscuritas
fraudisque pectus conscium 10
ruptis retectum nubibus
regnante pallescit Deo.
Tunc non licebit claudere
quod quisque fuscum cogitat,
sed mane clarescent novo 15
secreta mentis prodita.
Fur ante lucem squalido
inpune peccat tempore,
sed lux dolis contraria
latere furtum non sinit. 20
Versuta fraus et callida
amat tenebris obtegi,
aptamque noctem turpibus
adulter occultus fovet.
Sol ecce surgit igneus,
25
piget, pudescit, paenitet,
nec teste quisquam lumine
peccare constanter potest.
Quis mane sumptis nequiter
non erubescit poculis, 30
cum fit libido temperans
castumque nugator sapit?
Nunc, nunc severum vivitur,
nunc nemo tentat ludicrum,
inepta nunc omnes sua 35
vultu colorant serio.
Haec hora cunctis utilis,
qua quisque, quod studet, gerat,
miles, togatus, navita,
opifex, arator, institor. 40
Illum forensis gloria,
hunc triste raptat classicum,
mercator hinc ac rusticus
avara suspirant lucra.
At nos lucelli ac faenoris
45
fandique prorsus nescii,
nec arte fortes bellica,
te, Christe, solum novimus.
Te mente pura et simplici,
te voce, te cantu pio 50
rogare curvato genu
flendo et canendo discimus.
His nos lucramur quaestibus,
hac arte tantum vivimus,
haec inchoamus munera, 55
cum sol resurgens emicat.
Intende nostris sensibus,
vitamque totam dispice,
sunt multa fucis inlita,
quae luce purgentur tua. 60
Durare nos tales iube,
quales, remotis sordibus
nitere pridem iusseras,
Iordane tinctos flumine.
Quodcumque nox mundi dehinc
65
infecit atris nubibus,
tu, rex Eoi sideris,
vultu sereno inlumina.
Tu sancte, qui taetram picem
candore tingis lacteo 70
ebenoque crystallum facis,
delicta terge livida.
Sub nocte Iacob caerula
luctator audax angeli,
eo usque dum lux surgeret, 75
sudavit inpar praelium.
Sed cum iubar claresceret,
lapsante claudus poplite
femurque victus debile
culpae vigorem perdidit. 80
Nutabat inguen saucium,
quae corporis pars vilior
longeque sub cordis loco
diram fovet libidinem.
Hae nos docent imagines,
85
hominem tenebris obsitum,
si forte non cedat Deo,
vires rebellis perdere.
Erit tamen beatior,
intemperans membrum cui 90
luctando claudum et tabidum
dies oborta invenerit.
Tandem facessat caecitas,
quae nosmet in praeceps diu
lapsos sinistris gressibus 95
errore traxit devio.
Haec lux serenum conferat
purosque nos praestet sibi:
nihil loquamur subdolum,
volvamus obscurum nihil. 100
Sic tota decurrat dies,
ne lingua mendax, ne manus,
oculive peccent lubrici,
ne noxa corpus inquinet.
Speculator adstat desuper,
105
qui nos diebus omnibus
actusque nostros prospicit
a luce prima in vesperum.
Hic testis, hic est arbiter,
his intuetur quidquid est, 110
humana quod mens concipit;
hunc nemo fallit iudicem.
II. Morning hymn
Ye clouds and darkness, hosts of night
That breed confusion and affright,
Begone! o’erhead the dawn shines clear,
The light breaks in and Christ is here.
Earth’s gloom flees broken and dispersed,
By the sun’s piercing shafts coerced:
The daystar’s eyes rain influence bright
And colours glimmer back to sight.
So shall our guilty midnight fade,
The sin-stained heart’s gross dusky
shade:
So shall the King’s All-radiant
Face
Sudden unveil our deep disgrace.
No longer then may we disguise
Our dark intents from those clear eyes:
Yea, at the dayspring’s advent blest
Our inmost thoughts will stand confest.
The thief his hidden traffic plies
Unmarked before the dawn doth rise:
But light, the foe of guile concealed,
Lets no ill craft lie unrevealed.
Fraud and Deceit love only night,
Their wiles they practise out of sight;
Curtained by dark, Adultery too
Doth his foul treachery pursue,
But slinks abashed and shamed away
Soon as the sun rekindles day,
For none can damning light resist
And ’neath its rays in sin persist.
Who doth not blush o’ertook by morn
And his long night’s carousal scorn?
For day subdues the lustful soul,
And doth all foul desires control.
Now each to earnest life awakes,
Now each his wanton sport forsakes;
Now foolish things are put away
And gravity resumes her sway.
It is the hour for duty’s deeds,
The path to which our labour leads,
Be it the forum, army, sea,
The mart or field or factory.
One seeks the plaudits of the bar,
One the stern trumpet calls to war:
Those bent on trade and husbandry
At greed’s behest for lucre sigh.
Mine is no rhetorician’s fame,
No petty usury I claim;
Nor am I skilled to face the foe:
’Tis Thou, O Christ, alone I know.
Yea, I have learnt to wait on Thee
With heart and lips of purity,
Humbly my knees in prayer to bend,
And tears with songs of praise to blend.
These are the gains I hold in view
And these the arts that I pursue:
These are the offices I ply
When the bright sun mounts up the sky.
Prove Thou my heart, my every thought,
Search into all that I have wrought:
Though I be stained with blots within,
Thy quickening rays shall purge my sin.
O may I ever spotless be
As when my stains were cleansed by Thee,
Who bad’st me ’neath the Jordan’s
wave
Of yore my soiled spirit lave.
If e’er since then the world’s
gross night
Hath cast its curtain o’er my sight,
Dispel the cloud, O King of grace,
Star of the East! with thy pure face.
Since Thou canst change, O holy Light,
The blackest hue to milky white,
Ebon to clearness crystalline,
Wash my foul stains and make me clean.
’Twas ’neath the lonely star-blue
night
That Jacob waged the unequal fight,
Stoutly he wrestled with the Man
In darkness, till the day began.
And when the sun rose in the sky
He halted on his shrivelled thigh:
His natural might had ebbed away,
Vanquished in that tremendous fray.
Not wounded he in nobler part
Nor smitten in life’s fount, the
heart:
But lust was shaken from his throne
And his foul empire overthrown.
Whereby we clearly learn aright
That man is whelmed by deadly night,
Unless he own God conqueror
And strive against His will no more.
Yet happier he whom rising morn
Shall find of nature’s strength
forlorn,
Whose warring flesh hath shrunk away,
Palsied by virtue’s puissant sway.
And then at length let darkness flee,
Which all too long held us in fee,
’Mid wildering shadows made us stray
And led in devious tracks our way.
We pray Thee, Rising Light serene,
E’en as Thyself our hearts make
clean:
Let no deceit our lips defile
Nor let our souls be vexed by guile.
O keep us, as the hours proceed,
From lying word and evil deed,
Our roving eyes from sin set free,
Our body from impurity.
For thou dost from above survey
The converse of each fleeting day:
Thou dost foresee from morning light
Our every deed, until the night.
Justice and judgment dwell with Thee,
Whatever is, Thine eye doth see:
Thou know’st what human hearts conceive
And none Thy wisdom may deceive.
III. HYMNUS ante cibum
O crucifer bone, lucisator,
omniparens, pie, verbigena,
edite corpore virgineo,
sed prius in genitore potens,
astra, solum, mare quam fierent:
5
Huc nitido precor intuitu
flecte salutiferam faciem,
fronte serenus et inradia,
nominis ut sub honore tui
has epulas liceat capere. 10
Te sine dulce nihil, Domine,
nec iuvat ore quid adpetere,
pocula ni prius atque cibos,
Christe, tuus favor inbuerit
omnia sanctificante fide. 15
Fercula nostra Deum sapiant,
Christus et influat in pateras:
seria, ludicra, verba, iocos,
denique quod sumus aut agimus,
trina superne regat pietas. 20
Hic mihi nulla rosae spolia,
nullus aromate fragrat odor,
sed liquor influit ambrosius
nectareamque fidem redolet
fusus ab usque Patris gremio. 25
Sperne camena leves hederas,
cingere tempora quis solita es,
sertaque mystica dactylico
texere docta liga strophio,
laude Dei redimita comas. 30
Quod generosa potest anima,
lucis et aetheris indigena,
solvere dignius obsequium,
quam data munera si recinat
artificem modulata suum? 35
Ipse homini quia cuncta dedit,
quae capimus dominante manu,
quae polus aut humus aut pelagus
aere, gurgite, rure creant,
haec mihi subdidit et sibi me. 40
Callidus inlaqueat volucres
aut pedicis dolus aut maculis,
inlita glutine corticeo
vimina plumigeram seriem
inpediunt et abire vetant. 45
Ecce per aequora fluctivagos
texta greges sinuosa trahunt:
piscis item sequitur calamum
raptus acumine vulnifico
credula saucius ora cibo. 50
Fundit opes ager ingenuas
dives aristiferae segetis:
his ubi vitea pampineo
brachia palmite luxuriant,
pacis alumna ubi baca viret. 55
Haec opulentia Christicolis
servit et omnia suppeditat:
absit enim procul ilia fames,
caedibus ut pecudum libeat
sanguineas lacerare dapes. 60
Sint fera gentibus indomitis
prandia de nece quadrupedum:
nos oleris coma, nos siliqua
feta legumine multimodo
paverit innocuis epulis. 65
Spumea mulctra gerunt niveos
ubere de gemino latices,
perque coagula densa liquor
in solidum coit et fragili
lac tenerum premitur calatho. 70
Mella recens mihi Cecropia
nectare sudat olente favus:
haec opifex apis aerio
rore liquat tenuique thymo,
nexilis inscia connubii. 75
Hinc quoque pomiferi nemoris
munera mitia proveniunt,
arbor onus tremefacta suum
deciduo gravis imbre pluit
puniceosque iacit cumulos. 80
Quae veterum tuba, quaeve
lyra
flatibus inclita vel fidibus
divitis omnipotentis opus,
quaeque fruenda patent homini
laudibus aequiparare queat? 85
Te Pater optime mane novo,
solis et orbita cum media est,
te quoque luce sub occidua
sumere cum monet hora cibum,
nostra Deus canet harmonia. 90
Quod calet halitus interior,
corde quod abdita vena tremit,
pulsat et incita quod resonam
lingua sub ore latens caveam,
laus superi Patris esto mihi. 95
Nos igitur tua sancte manus
caespite conposuit madido
effigiem meditata suam,
utque foret rata materies
flavit et indidit ore animam. 100
Tunc per amoena vireta iubet
frondicomis habitare locis,
ver ubi perpetuum redolet
prataque multicolora latex
quadrifluo celer amne rigat. 105
Haec tibi nunc famulentur,
ait,
usibus omnia dedo tuis:
sed tamen aspera mortifero
stipite carpere poma veto,
qui medio viret in nemore. 110
Hic draco perfidus indocile
virginis inlicit ingenium,
ut socium malesuada virum
mandere cogeret ex vetitis
ipsa pari peritura modo. 115
Corpora mutua—nosse
nefas—
post epulas inoperta vident,
lubricus error et erubuit:
tegmina suta parant foliis,
dedecus ut pudor occuleret. 120
Conscia culpa Deum pavitans
sede pia procul exigitur.
innuba fernina quae fuerat,
coniugis excipit inperium,
foedera tristia iussa pati. 125
Auctor et ipse doli coluber
plectitur inprobus, ut mulier
colla trilinguia calce terat:
sic coluber muliebre solum
suspicit atque virum mulier. 130
His ducibus vitiosa dehinc
posteritas ruit in facinus,
dumque rudes imitatur avos,
fasque nefasque simul glomerans
inpia crimina morte luit. 135
Ecce venit nova progenies,
aethere proditus alter homo,
non luteus, velut ille prior:
sed Deus ipse gerens hominem,
corporeisque carens vitiis. 140
Fit caro vivida sermo Patris,
numine quam rutilante gravis
non thalamo, neque iure tori,
nec genialibus inlecebris
intemerata puella parit. 145
Hoc odium vetus illud erat,
hoc erat aspidis atque hominis
digladiabile discidium,
quod modo cernua femineis
vipera proteritur pedibus. 150
Edere namque Deum merita
omnia virgo venena domat:
tractibus anguis inexplicitis
virus inerme piger revomit,
gramine concolor in viridi. 155
Quae feritas modo non trepidat,
territa de grege candidulo?
inpavidas lupus inter oves
tristis obambulat et rabidum
sanguinis inmemor os cohibet. 160
Agnus enim vice mirifica
ecce leonibus inperitat:
exagitansque truces aquilas
per vaga nubila, perque notos
sidere lapsa columba fugat. 165
Tu mihi Christe columba potens,
sanguine pasta cui cedit avis,
tu niveus per ovile tuum
agnus hiare lupum prohibes,
sub iuga tigridis ora premens. 170
Da locuples Deus hoc famulis
rite precantibus, ut tenui
membra cibo recreata levent,
neu piger inmodicis dapibus
viscera tenta gravet stomachus. 175
Haustus amarus abesto procul,
ne libeat tetigisse manu
exitiale quid aut vetitum:
gustus et ipse modum teneat,
sospitet ut iecur incolume. 180
Sit satis anguibus horrificis,
liba quod inpia corporibus
ah miseram peperere necem,
sufficiat semel ob facinus
plasma Dei potuisse mori. 185
Oris opus, vigor igneolus
non moritur, quia flante Deo
conpositus superoque fluens
de solio Patris artificis
vim liquidae rationis habet. 190
Viscera mortua quin etiam
post obitum reparare datur,
eque suis iterum tumulis
prisca renascitur effigies
pulvereo coeunte situ. 195
Credo equidem, neque vana
fides,
corpora vivere more animae:
nam modo corporeum memini
de Phlegethonte gradu facili
ad superos remeasse Deum. 200
Spes eadem mea membra manet,
quae redolentia funereo
iussa quiescere sarcophago
dux parili redivivus humo
ignea Christus ad astra vocat. 205
III. Hymn before meat
Blest Cross-bearer, Source of good,
Light-creating, Word-begot,
Gracious child of maidenhood,
Bosomed in the Fatherhood,
When earth, sea and stars were not.
With Thy cloudless, healing gaze
Shine upon me from above:
Let Thine all-enlightening rays
Bless this meal and quicken praise,
Praise unto Thy name of Love.
Lord, without Thee nought is sweet,
Nought my life can satisfy,
If Thy favour make not meet
What I drink and what I eat;
Let faith all things sanctify!
O’er this bread God’s grace
be poured,
Christ’s sweet fragrance
fill the bowl!
Rule my converse, Triune Lord,
Sober thought and sportive
word,
All my acts and all my soul.
Spoils of rose-trees are not spent,
Nor rich unguents on my board:
But ambrosial sweets are sent,
Of faith’s nectar redolent,
From the bosom of my Lord.
Scorn, my Muse, light ivy-leaves
Wherewith custom wreathed
thy brow:
Love a mystic crown conceives
And a rhythmic garland weaves:
Bind on thee God’s praises now.
What more worthy gift can I,
Child of light and aether,
bring
Than for boons the Maker high
From His bounty doth supply
Lovingly my thanks to sing?
He hath set ’neath our command
All that ever rose to be,
All that sky and sea and land
Breed in air, in glebe and
sand,
Made my slaves, His own made me.
Fowler’s craft with gin and net
Feathered tribes of heaven
ensnares:
Osier twigs with lime o’erset
That their airy flight may
let
His relentless guile prepares.
Lo! with woven mesh the seine
Swimming shoals draws from
the wave:
Nor do fish the bait disdain
Till they feel the barb’s
swift pain,
Captives of the food they crave.
Native wealth that knows no fail,
Golden wheat springs from
the field:
Tendrils lush o’er vineyards trail,
Nursed of Peace the olives
pale
Berries green unbidden yield.
Christ’s grace fills His people’s
need
With these mercies ever fresh:
Far from us be that foul greed,
Gluttony that loves to feed
On slain oxen’s bloodstained flesh.
Leave to the barbarian brood
Banquet of the slaughtered
beast:
Ours the homely, garden food,
Greenstuff manifold and good
And the lentils’ harmless feast.
Foaming milkpails bubble o’er
With the udders’ snowy
stream,
Which in thickening churns we pour
Or in wicker baskets store,
As the cheese is pressed from cream.
Honey’s nectar for our use
From the new-made comb is
shed:
Which the skilful bee imbues
With thyme’s scent and
airy dews,
Plying lonely toils unwed.
Orchard-groves now mellowed o’er
Bounteously their fruitage
shed:
See! like rain on forest floor
Shaken trees their riches
pour,
High-heaped apples, ripe and red.
What great trumpet voice or lyre
Famed of yore could fitly
praise
Gifts of the Almighty Sire,
Blessings that His own require,
Richly lavished through their days?
When morn breaks upon our sight,
Hymns, O Lord, to Thee shall
ring:
Thee, when streams the midday light,
Thee, when shadows of the
night
Bid us sup, our voices sing.
For my body’s vital heat,
For my heart-blood’s
pulsing vein,
For my tongue and speech complete
Unto Thee, Most High, ’tis
meet
That I raise my grateful strain.
’Twas, O Holy One, Thy care
Wrought us from the plastic
clay,
Made us Thine own image bear,
And for our perfection fair
Did Thy Breath to man convey.
On the twain Thou didst bestow
Leafy bowers in pleasaunce
fair:
Where spring’s scents for aye did
blow,
And four stately streams did
flow
O’er meads pied with blossoms rare.
“All this realm ye now shall sway:”
(Saidst Thou) “use it
at your will,
Yet ’tis death your hands to lay
On the Tree, whose verdant
sway
Doth the midmost garden fill.”
Then the Serpent’s guileful hate
Would not innocency spare:
Bade the maiden urge her mate
With the fruit his lips to
sate,
Nor ’scaped she the self-same snare.
Each their nakedness perceives
When the feast they once partook:
Smit with shame their conscience grieves:
Wove they coverings of leaves
Shielding from lascivious look.
Far they both in terror fled
Thrust from dwelling of the
pure:
She who erst had dwelt unwed
Subject to her spouse was
led,
Bidden Hymen’s bonds endure.
On the Serpent, too, His seal
God hath set, Who guile abhorred,
Doomed in triple neck to feel
Impress of the woman’s
heel,
Fearing her, who feared her lord.
Thus sin in our parents sown
Brought forth ruin for the
race;
Good and evil having grown
From that primal root alone,
Nought but death could guilt efface.
But the Second Man behold
Come to re-create our kin:
Not formed after common mould
But our God (O Love untold!)
Made in flesh that knows not sin.
Word of God incarnated,
By His awful power conceived,
Whom a maiden yet unwed,
Innocent of marriage-bed,
In her virgin womb received.
Now we see the Serpent lewd
’Neath the woman’s
heel downtrod:
Whence there sprang the deadly feud,
Strife for ages unsubdued,
’Twixt mankind and foe of God.
Yet God’s mother, Maid adored,
Robbed sin’s poison
of its bane,
And the Snake, his green coils lowered,
Writhing on the sod, outpoured
Harmless now his venom’s stain.
What fierce brute that doth not flee
Lambs of Christ, white-robed
and clean?
’Midst the flock from fear set free,
Slinks the drear wolf sullenly,
Checked his maw and tamed his mien.
Wondrous change! restrained by love
Lions the mild lamb obey:
Eagles wild, before the dove
Fluttering from the stars
above,
Speed o’er cloudy winds away.
Thou, O Christ, my Dove dost reign
Where the vulture gnaws no
more:
Thou dost, snow-white Lamb, enchain
Tigers fierce, and wolves
restrain
Gaping at the sheepfold’s door.
God of Love, Thy servants we
Pray Thee now to grant our
prayer
That our feast may frugal be,
Nor that we dishonour Thee
By coarse surfeit of rich fare.
May we taste no bitter gall
In our cup, nor handle we
Aught of death or harm at all,
Nor intemperately fall
Into gross debauchery.
Be the powers of Hell content
With their primal fraud, whereby
Death into this world was sent,
And that, for sin’s
chastisement,
God’s own creatures once should
die.
But in us God’s Breath of fire
Cannot lose its vital force:
Never can its might expire,
Flowing from the Eternal Sire,
Who of Reason’s strength is source.
Nay, from out death’s chilling tomb
Mortal atoms shall arise:
Man from earth’s vast, hidden womb
Other, yet the same, shall
bloom,
Dust re-made in glorious guise.
’Tis my faith—and faith
not vain—
Bodies live e’en as
the soul:
Since I hold in memory plain
God as man uprose again,
Loosed from Hell, to His true goal.
Whence from Him the hope I reap
That these limbs the same
shall rise,
Which enwrapped in balmy sleep
Christ the Risen safe shall
keep
Till He call me to the skies.
IV. HYMNUS post cibum
Pastis visceribus ciboque
sumpto,
quem lex corporis inbecilla poscit,
laudem lingua Deo patri rependat;
Patri, qui Cherubin sedile
sacrum,
nec non et Seraphin suum supremo
5
subnixus solio tenet regitque.
Hic est, quem Sabaoth Deum
vocamus,
expers principii carensque fine,
rerum conditor et repertor orbis:
fons vitae liquida fluens
ab arce, 10
infusor fidei, sator pudoris,
mortis perdomitor, salutis auctor.
Omnes quod sumus aut vigemus,
inde est:
regnat Spiritus ille sempiternus
a Christo simul et Parente missus.
15
Intrat pectora candidus pudica,
quae templi vice consecrata rident,
postquam conbiberint Deum medullis.
Sed si quid vitii dolive nasci
inter viscera iam dicata sensit,
20
ceu spurcum refugit celer sacellum.
Taetrum flagrat enim vapore
crasso
horror conscius aestuante culpa
offensumque bonum niger repellit.
Nec solus pudor innocensve
votum 25
templum constituunt perenne Christo
in cordis medii sum ac recessu:
sed ne crapula ferveat cavendum
est,
quae sedem fidei cibis refertam
usque ad congeriem coartet intus.
30
Parcis victibus expedita corda
infusum melius Deum receptant.
Hic pastus animae est, saporque verus:
sed nos tu gemino fovens paratu
artus atque animas utroque pastu
35
confirmas Pater ac vigore conples.
Sic olim tua praecluens potestas
inter raucisonos situm leones,
inlapsis dapibus virum refovit.
Illum fusile numen execrantem
40
et curvare caput sub expolita
aeris materia nefas putantem
Plebs dirae Babylonis ac tyrannus
morti subdiderant, feris dicarant
saevis protinus haustibus vorandum.
45
O semper pietas fidesque tuta!
lambunt indomiti virum leones
intactumque Dei tremunt alumnum.
Adstant cominus et iubas reponunt,
mansuescit rabies fameque blanda
50
praedam rictibus ambit incruentis.
Sed cum tenderet ad superna
palmas
expertumque sibi Deum rogaret,
clausus iugiter indigensque victu:
Iussus nuntius advolare terris,
55
qui pastum famulo daret probato,
raptim desilit obsequente mundo.
Cernit forte procul dapes
inemptas,
quas messoribus Abbacuc propheta
agresti bonus exhibebat arte.
60
Huius caesarie manu prehensa
plenis, sicut erat, gravem canistris
suspensum rapit et vehit per auras.
Tum raptus simul ipse prandiumque
sensim labitur in lacum leonum,
65
et, quas tunc epulas gerebat, offert:
Sumas laetus, ait, libensque
carpas,
quae summus Pater, angelusque Christi
mittunt liba tibi sub hoc periclo.
His sumptis Danielus excitavit
70
in caelum faciem ciboque fortis
Amen reddidit, Halleluia dixit.
Sic nos muneribus tuis refecti,
largitor Deus omnium bonorum,
grates reddimus et sacramus hymnos.
75
Tu nos tristifico velut tyranno
mundi scilicet inpotentis actu
conclusos regis et feram repellis,
Quae circumfremit ac vorare
temptat
insanos acuens furore dentes,
80
cur te, summe Deus, precemur unum.
Vexamur, premimur, malis rotamur;
oderunt, lacerant, trahunt, lacessunt,
iuncta est suppliciis fides iniquis.
Nec defit tamen anxiis medela;
85
nam languente trucis leonis ira
inlapsae superingeruntur escae.
Quas si quis sitienter hauriendo
non gustu tenui, sed ore pleno
internis velit inplicare venis,
90
Hic sancto satiatus ex propheta,
iustorum capiet cibos virorum,
qui fructum domino metunt perenni.
Nil est dulcius ac magis saporum,
nil quod plus hominem iuvare possit,
95
quam vatis pia praecinentis orsa.
His sumptis licet insolens
potestas
pravum iudicet, inrogetque mortem,
inpasti licet inruant leones,
nos semper Dominum patrem
fatentes 100
in te, Christe Deus, loquemur unum
constanterque tuam crucem feremus.
IV. Hymn after meat
Refreshed we rise, and for this bread
that feeds,
By law of man’s weak flesh, our
daily needs,
Let every tongue, the Father’s
praises sing;
The Father Who on His exalted throne,
O’er Cherubim and Seraphim, alone
Reigns in His majesty, Eternal
King.
God of Sabaoth is His name: ’tis
He
Who ne’er began and ne’er
shall cease to be,
Builder of worlds created
at His word;
Fountain of Life that flows from out the
sky,
He breathes within us Faith and Purity,
Great Conqueror of Death,
Salvation’s Lord.
From Him each creature life and vigour
gains,
And over all the Eternal Spirit reigns
Who cometh from the Father
and the Son:
When, dovelike, on pure hearts the heavenly
Guest
Descends, they are by God’s own
presence blest,
As temples where His holy
work is done.
But if the taint of vice or guile arise
Within the consecrated shrine, He flies
With speed from out the sin-defiled
cell;
For, driven forth by guilt’s black,
surging tide,
The offended Godhead may not there abide
Where conscious sin and noisome
foulness dwell.
Not chastity nor childlike faith alone
Build up for Christ an everlasting throne
Deep in the inmost heart,
devoid of shame:
But watchful ever must His servants be,
Lest the dark power of sated gluttony
Should bind about the abode
of faith its chain.
Yet simple saints, content with frugal
fare,
More surely find the Spirit present there,
Who is our soul’s true
strength and heavenly food:
Thy love for us a twofold feast supplies,
O Father, whence the soul may strengthened
rise
And eke the body gain new
hardihood.
Thus, fed and sheltered by Thy matchless
might,
The lions’ hideous roar could not
affright
Thy loyal servant in the days
of old:
He boldly cursed the molten deity
And stood with stubborn head uplifted
high
That scorned to bow before
a god of gold.
Then Babylon’s vile mob with fury
glows;
Death is his doom; and straight the tyrant
throws
The youth to be his savage
lions’ prey:
But faith and piety Thou still dost save,
For lo! the untamed brutes no longer rave,
But round God’s unscathed
child they gently play.
Close by his side they stand with drooping
mane,
The grisly, gaping jaws from blood refrain
And with rough tongues their
whilom prey caress:
But when in prayer he raised his hands
to heaven
And called the God, from Whom such help
was given,
Close-prisoned, hungry, and
in sore distress,
A winged messenger to earth He sends,
Who swiftly through the parting clouds
descends
To feed His servant, proven
by the test:
By chance he sees from far the unbought
fare
Which the good seer Habakkuk’s kindly
care
With rustic art had for the
reapers dressed:
Then, grasping in strong hand the prophet’s
hair,
He bears him gently through the rushing
air,
Still burdened with the platter’s
savoury load,
Till o’er the lions’ den at
last they stayed
And straightway to the starving youth
displayed
The food thus brought, by
God’s good grace bestowed.
“Take this with joy,” he said,
“and thankful feed,
The bread that in thy hour of direst need,
By the great Father sent,
Christ’s angel brings.”
Then Daniel lifts his eyes to heaven above
And, strengthened by the wondrous gift
of love,
“Amen!” he cries,
and Alleluia sings.
Thus, therefore, by Thy bounties now restored,
Giver of all things good, Almighty Lord,
We render thanks and sing
glad hymns to Thee:
Though prisoned in an evil world we dwell
Where sin’s grim tyrant rules, Thou
dost repel
With sovran power our mortal
enemy.
He roars around us, and would fain devour,
Grinding his angry teeth when ’gainst
his power
In Thee alone, O God, we still
confide:
By evil things we are beset and vexed,
Tormented, hated, harassed and perplexed,
Our faith by cruel suffering
sorely tried,
Yet help ne’er fails us in our time
of need,
For Thou canst quell the lions’
rage, and feed
Our hungry spirits with celestial
fare:
And if some soul no meagre taste would
gain
Of that repast, but thirstily is fain
Full measure of the heavenly
sweets to share,
He by the holy seers of old is fed,
And shall partake the loyal reapers’
bread
Who labour in the eternal
Master’s field:
For nothing sweeter than the Word can
be
That fell from righteous lips, once touched
by Thee,
And nought can richer grace
to mortals yield.
With this sustained, though vaunting
tyranny
By unjust judgment doom us straight to die,
And starved lions rush these limbs to tear;
Confessing ever Thine Eternal Son,
With Thee, Almighty Father, ever one,
His cross with faith unshaken will we bear.
V. HYMNUS ad incensum LUCERNAE
Inventor rutili, dux bone, luminis,
qui certis vicibus tempora dividis,
merso sole chaos ingruit horridum,
lucem redde tuis Christe fidelibus.
Quamvis innumero sidere regiam 5
lunarique polum lampade pinxeris,
incussu silicis lumina nos tamen
monstras saxigeno semine quaerere:
Ne nesciret homo spem sibi
luminis
in Christi solido corpore conditam,
10
qui dici stabilem se voluit petram,
nostris igniculis unde genus venit.
Pinguis quos olei rore madentibus
lychnis aut facibus pascimus aridis:
quin et fila favis scirpea floreis
15
presso melle prius conlita fingimus.
Vivax flamma viget, seu cava
testula
sucum linteolo suggerit ebrio,
seu pinus piceam fert alimoniam,
seu ceram teretem stuppa calens bibit.
20
Nectar de liquido vertice
fervidum
guttatim lacrimis stillat olentibus,
ambustum quoniam vis facit ignea
imbrem de madido flere cacumine.
Splendent ergo tuis muneribus,
Pater, 25
flammis mobilibus scilicet atria,
absentemque diem lux agit aemula,
quam nox cum lacero victa fugit peplo.
Sed quis non rapidi luminis
arduam
manantemque Deo cernat originem?
30
Moyses nempe Deum spinifera in rubo
vidit conspicuo lumine flammeum.
Felix, qui meruit sentibus
in sacris
caelestis solii visere principem,
iussus nexa pedum vincula solvere,
35
ne sanctum involucris pollueret locum.
Hunc ignem populus sanguinis
incliti
maiorum meritis tutus et inpotens,
suetus sub dominis vivere barbaris,
iam liber sequitur longa per avia:
40
qua gressum tulerant castraque
caerulae
noctis per medium concita moverant,
plebem pervigilem fulgure praevio
ducebat radius sole micantior.
Sed rex Niliaci littoris invido
45
fervens felle iubet praevalidam manum
in bellum rapidis ire cohortibus
ferratasque acies clangere classicum.
Sumunt arma viri seque minacibus
accingunt gladiis, triste canit tuba:
50
hic fidit iaculis, ille volantia
praefigit calamis spicula Gnosiis.
Densetur cuneis turba pedestribus,
currus pars et equos et volucres rotas
conscendunt celeres signaque bellica
55
praetendunt tumidis clara draconibus.
Hic iam servitii nescia pristini
gens Pelusiacis usta vaporibus
tandem purpurei gurgitis hospita
rubris littoribus fessa resederat.
60
Hostis dirus adest cum duce
perfido,
infert et validis praelia viribus:
Moyses porro suos in mare praecipit
constans intrepidis tendere gressibus:
praebent rupta locum stagna
viantibus 65
riparum in faciem pervia, sistitur
circumstans vitreis unda liquoribus,
dum plebs sub bifido permeat aequore.
Pubes quin etiam decolor asperis
inritata odiis rege sub inpio
70
Hebraeum sitiens fundere sanguinem
audet se pelago credere concavo:
ibant praecipiti turbine percita
fluctus per medios agmina regia,
sed confusa dehinc unda revolvitur
75
in semet revolans gurgite confluo.
Currus tunc et equos telaque
naufraga
ipsos et proceres et vaga corpora
nigrorum videas nare satellitum,
arcis iustitium triste tyrannicae.
80
Quae tandem poterit lingua
retexere
laudes Christe tuas? qui domitam Pharon
plagis multimodis cedere praesuli
cogis iustitiae vindice dextera.
Qui pontum rapidis aestibus
invium 85
persultare vetas, ut refluo in salo
securus pateat te duce transitus,
et mox unda rapax devoret inpios.
Cui ieiuna eremi saxa loquacibus
exundant scatebris, et latices novos
90
fundit scissa silex, quae sitientibus
dat potum populis axe sub igneo.
Instar fellis aqua tristifico
in lacu
fit ligni venia mel velut Atticum:
lignum est, quo sapiunt aspera dulcius;
95
uam praefixa cruci spes hominum viget.
Inplet castra cibus tunc quoque
ninguidus,
inlabens gelida grandine densius:
his mensas epulis, hac dape construunt,
quam dat sidereo Christus ab aethere.
100
Nec non imbrifero ventus anhelitu
crassa nube leves invehit alites,
quae conflata in humum, cum semel agmina
fluxerunt, reduci non revolant fuga.
Haec olim patribus praemia
contulit 105
insignis pietas numinis unici,
cuius subsidio nos quoque vescimur
pascentes dapibus pectora mysticis.
Fessos ille vocat per freta
seculi
discissis populum turbinibus regens
110
iactatasque animas mille laboribus
iustorum in patriam scandere praecipit.
Illic purpureis tecta rosariis
omnis fragrat humus calthaque pinguia
et molles violas et tenues crocos
115
fundit fonticulis uda fugacibus.
Illic et gracili balsama surculo
desudata fluunt, raraque cinnama
spirant et folium, fonte quod abdito
praelambens fluvius portat in exitum.
120
Felices animae prata per herbida
concentu parili suave sonantibus
hymnorum modulis dulce canunt melos,
calcant et pedibus lilia candidis.
Sunt et spiritibus saepe nocentibus
125
paenarum celebres sub Styge feriae
illa nocte, sacer qua rediit Deus
stagnis ad superos ex Acheronticis.
Non sicut tenebras de face
fulgida
surgens oceano Lucifer inbuit,
130
sed terris Domini de cruce tristibus
maior sole novum restituens diem.
Marcent suppliciis tartara
mitibus,
exultatque sui carceris otio
functorum populus liber ab ignibus,
135
nec fervent solito flumina sulphure.
Nos festis trahimus per pia
gaudia
noctem conciliis votaque prospera
certatim vigili congerimus prece
extructoque agimus liba sacrario.
140
Pendent mobilibus lumina funibus,
quae suffixa micant per laquearia,
et de languidulis fota natatibus
lucem perspicuo flamma iacit vitro.
Credas stelligeram desuper
aream 145
ornatam geminis stare trionibus,
et qua bosporeum temo regit iugum,
passim purpureos spargier hesperos.
O res digna, Pater, quam tibi
roscidae
noctis principio grex tuus offerat,
150
lucem, qua tribuis nil pretiosius,
lucem, qua reliqua praemia cernimus.
Tu lux vera oculis, lux quoque
sensibus,
intus tu speculum, tu speculum foris,
lumen, quod famulans offero, suscipe,
155
tinctum pacifici chrismatis unguine.
Per Christum genitum, summe
Pater, tuum,
in quo visibilis stat tibi gloria,
qui noster Dominus, qui tuus unicus
spirat de patrio corde paraclitum.
160
Per quem splendor, honos, laus, sapientia,
maiestas, bonitas, et pietas tua
regnum continuat numine triplici
texens perpetuis secula seculis.
V. Hymn for the lighting of the lamps
Blest Lord, Creator of the glowing
light,
At Whose behest the hours successive move,
The sun has set: black darkness broods above:
Christ! light Thy faithful through the coming night.
Thy courts are lit with stars unnumbered,
And in the cloudless vault the pale moon rides;
Yet Thou dost bid us seek the fire that hides
Till swift we strike it from its flinty bed.
So man may learn that in Christ’s
body came
The hidden hope of light to
mortals given:
He is the Rock—’tis
His own word—that riven
Sends forth to all our race the eternal
flame.
From lamps that brim with rich and fragrant
oil,
Or torches dry this heaven-sent
fire we feed;
Or make us rushlights from
the flowering reed
And wax, whereon the bees have spent their
toil.
Bright glows the light, whether the resin
thick
Of pine-brand flares, or waxen
tapers burn
With melting radiance, or
the hollow urn
Yields its stored sweetness to the thirsty
wick.
Beneath the might of fire, in slow decay
The scented tears of glowing
nectar fall;
Lower and lower droops the
candle tall
And ever dwindling weeps itself away.
So by Thy gifts, great Father, hearth
and hall
Are all ablaze with points
of twinkling light
That vie with daylight spent;
and vanquished Night
Rends, as she flies away, her sable pall.
Who knoweth not that from high Heaven
first came
Our light, from God Himself
the rushing fire?
For Moses erst, amid the prickly
brier,
Saw God made manifest in lambent flame.
Ah, happy he! deemed worthy face to face
To see heaven’s Lord
within that sacred brake;
Bidden the sandals from his
feet to take,
Nor with his shoon defile that holy place.
The mighty children of the chosen name,
Saved by the merits of their
sires, and free
After long years of savage
tyranny,
Through the drear desert followed still
that flame.
Striking their camp beneath the silent
night
Where’er they went,
to lead their darkling way,
The cloud of glory lent its
guiding ray
And shone more splendid than the noonday
light.
But, mad with jealous fury, Egypt’s
king
Calls his great host to battle
for their lord:
Swiftly the cohorts gather
at his word,
And down the mail-clad lines the clarions
ring.
Girding their trusty swords the warriors
go
To fill the ranks; hoarse
bugles rend the air;
These seize their massy javelins,
these prepare
The death-winged arrow and the Cretan
bow.
The footmen throng in close battalions
pressed;
The chariots thunder; to the
saddle spring
The riders of the Nile, as
forth they fling
Egypt’s proud banner with the serpent
crest.
And now, forgetful of the bondage past,
Thy children, tortured by
the desert heat,
Drag to the Red Sea’s
brink their weary feet,
And on its sandy margin rest at last.
See! with their forsworn king the savage
foe
Draws nigh: the threatening
squadrons nearer ride;
But ever onward urged the
intrepid guide
And through the waves bade Israel fearless
go.
Before that steadfast march the billows
fall,
Then raise on either hand
their crystal mass,
While through the sundered
deep Thy people pass
And ocean guards them with a liquid wall.
But, mad with baffled rage, the dusky
horde
Of Egypt, by their impious
despot led,
Athirst the hated Hebrews’
blood to shed
Pursued, all reckless of the o’er-arching
flood.
Swift as the wind the royal squadrons
ride,
But swifter yet the crystal
barriers break,
The waves exultantly their
bounds forsake
And roll together in a roaring tide.
’Mid steeds and chariots and drifting
mail
The drowned lords of Egypt
found a grave
With all their swart retainers
’neath the wave;
And in their haughty courts the mourners
wail.
What tongue, O Christ, Thy glories can
unfold?
Thine was the arm, outstretched
in wrath, that made
The stricken land of Pharaoh,
sore afraid,
Bow down before Thy minister of old.
Thy pathless deep did at the voice restrain
Its surging billows, till
with Thee for guide
Thy host passed scathless,
and the refluent tide
Swept down the wicked to the engulfing
main.
At Thy command the desert, parched and
dry,
Breaks into laughing rills,
and water clear
Wells from the smitten rock
Thy flock to cheer
And quench their thirst beneath that brazen
sky.
Then Marah’s bitterness grew passing
sweet,
Touched by the mystic tree;
so by the grace
Of Thine own Tree, O Christ,
our sinful race
Regains its lost hopes at Thy pierced
feet.
Faster than icy hail the manna falls,
Like snow down drifting from
a wintry sky;
The feast is set: they
heap the tables high
With that rich food from Thy celestial
halls.
Fresh blow the breezes from the distant
shore
And bear a fluttering cloud
that hides the light,
Till the frail pinions, faltering
in their flight,
Sink in the wilderness to rise no more.
How great the love of God’s own
Son, that shed
Such wondrous bounty on His
chosen race!
And still to us He proffers
in His grace
The mystic Feast, wherewith our souls
are fed.
Through the world’s raging sea He
bids us come,
And ’twixt the sundered
billows guides our path,
Till, spent and wearied with
the ocean’s wrath,
He calls His storm-tossed saints to Heaven
and home.
There in His paradise red roses blow,
With golden daffodils and
lilies pale
And gentle violets, and down
the vale
The murmuring rivulets for ever flow.
Sweet balsams, welling from the slender
tree,
And precious spices fill the
fragrant air,
And, hiding by the stream,
that blossom rare
Whose leaves the river hurries to the
sea.
There the blest souls with one accord
unite
To hymn in dulcet song their
Saviour’s praise,
And as the chanting quire
their voices raise
They tread with shining feet the lilies
bright.
Yea, e’en the spirits of the lost,
that dwell
Where the black stream of
sullen Acheron flows,
Rest on that holy night when
Christ arose,
And for a while ’tis holiday in
Hell.
No sun from ocean rising drives away
Their darkness, with his flaming
shafts far-hurled,
But from the cross of Christ
o’er that wan world
There streams the radiance of a new-born
day.
The sulphurous floods with lessened fury
glow,
The aching limbs find respite
from their pain,
While, in glad freedom from
the galling chain,
The tortured ghosts a short-lived solace
know.
In holy gladness let this night be sped,
As here we gather, Lord, to
watch and pray;
To Thee with one consent our
vows we pay
And on Thy altar set the sacred Bread.
From pendent chains the lamps of crystal
blaze;
By fragrant oil sustained
the clear flame glows
With strength undimmed, and
through the darkness throws
High o’er the fretted roof a golden
haze,
As ’twere Heaven’s starry
floor our wondering eye
Beheld, wherein the Bears
their light display,
Where Phosphor heralds the
approach of day
And Hesper’s radiance floods the
evening sky.
Meet is the gift we offer here to Thee,
Father of all, as falls the
dewy night;
Thine own most precious gift
we bring—the light
Whereby mankind Thy other bounties see.
Thou art the Light indeed; on our dull
eyes
And on our inmost souls Thy
rays are poured;
To Thee we light our lamps:
receive them, Lord,
Filled with the oil of peace and sacrifice.
O hear us, Father, through Thine only
Son,
Our Lord and Saviour, by Whose
love bequeathed
The Paraclete upon our hearts
has breathed,
With Him and Thee through endless ages
one.
Through Christ Thy Kingdom shall for ever
be,
Thy grace, might, wisdom,
glory ever shine,
As in the Triune majesty benign
He reigns for all eternity with Thee.
VI. HYMNUS ante somnum
Ades Pater supreme,
quem nemo vidit unquam,
Patrisque sermo Christe,
et Spiritus benigne.
O Trinitatis huius
5
vis una, lumen unum,
Deus ex Deo perennis,
Deus ex utroque missus.
Fluxit labor diei,
redit et quietis hora, 10
blandus sopor vicissim
fessos relaxat artus.
Mens aestuans procellis
curisque sauciata
totis bibit medullis 15
obliviale poclum.
Serpit per omne corpus
Lethaea vis, nec ullum
miseris doloris aegri
patitur manere sensum. 20
Lex haec data est caducis
Deo iubente membris,
ut temperet laborem
medicabilis voluptas.
Sed dum pererrat omnes
25
quies amica venas,
pectusque feriatum
placat rigante somno:
Liber vagat per auras
rapido vigore sensus, 30
variasque per figuras,
quae sunt operta, cernit.
Quia mens soluta curis,
cui est origo caelum,
purusque fons ab aethra 35
iners iacere nescit.
Imitata multiformes
facies sibi ipsa fingit,
per quas repente currens
tenui fruatur actu. 40
Sed sensa somniantum
dispar fatigat horror,
nunc splendor intererrat
qui dat futura nosse.
Plerumque dissipatis
45
mendax imago veris
animos pavore maestos
ambage fallit atra.
Quem rara culpa morum
non polluit frequenter, 50
nunc lux serena vibrans
res edocet latentes.
At qui coinquinatum
vitiis cor inpiavit,
lusus pavore multo 55
species videt tremendas.
Hoc patriarcha noster
sub carceris catena
geminis simul ministris
interpres adprobavit. 60
Quorum reversus unus
dat poculum tyranno,
ast alterum rapaces
fixum vorant volucres.
Ipsum deinde regem
65
perplexa somniantem
monuit famem futuram
clausis cavere acervis.
Mox praesul ac tetrarches
regnum per omne iussus 70
sociam tenere virgam
dominae resedit aulae.
O quam profunda iustis
arcana per soporem
aperit tuenda Christus, 75
quam clara! quam tacenda!
Evangelista summi
fidissimus magistri
signata quae latebant
nebulis videt remotis: 80
ipsum tonantis agnum
de caede purpurantem,
qui conscium futuri
librum resignat unus.
Huius manum potentem
85
gladius perarmat anceps
et fulgurans utrimque
duplicem minatur ictum.
Quaesitor ille solus
animaeque corporisque 90
ensisque bis timendus
prima ac secunda mors est.
idem tamen benignus
ultor retundit iram
paucosque non piorum 95
patitur perire in aevum.
Huic inclitus perenne
tribuit Pater tribunal,
hunc obtinere iussit
nomen supra omne nomen. 100
Hic praepotens cruenti
extinctor antichristi,
qui de furente monstro
pulchrum refert tropaeum.
Quam bestiam capacem
105
populosque devorantem,
quam sanguinis charybdem
Ioannis execratur.
Haec nempe, quae sacratum
praeferre nomen ausa est, 110
imam petit gehennam
Christo perempta vero.
Tali sopore iustus
mentem relaxat heros,
ut spiritu sagaci 115
caelum peragret omne.
Nos nil meremur horum,
quos creber inplet error,
concreta quos malarum
vitiat cupido rerum. 120
Sat est quiete dulci
fessum fovere corpus:
sat, si nihil sinistrum
vanae minentur umbrae.
Cultor Dei memento
125
te fontis et lavacri
rorem subisse sanctum,
te chrismate innotatum.
Fac, cum vocante somno
castum petis cubile, 130
frontem locumque cordis
crucis figura signet.
Crux pellit omne crimen,
fugiunt crucem tenebrae:
tali dicata signo 135
mens fluctuare nescit.
Procul, o procul vagantum
portenta somniorum,
procul esto pervicaci
praestigiator astu! 140
O tortuose serpens,
qui mille per Maeandros
fraudesque flexuosas
agitas quieta corda,
Discede, Christus hic est,
145
hic Christus est, liquesce:
signum quod ipse nosti
damnat tuam catervam.
Corpus licet fatiscens
iaceat recline paullum, 150
Christum tamen sub ipso
meditabimur sopore.
VI. Hymn before sleep
Draw near, Almighty Father,
Ne’er seen by mortal
eye;
Come, O Thou Word eternal,
O Spirit blest, be nigh.
One light of threefold Godhead,
One power that all transcends;
God is of God begotten,
And God from both descends.
The hour of rest approaches,
The toils of day are past,
And o’er our tired bodies
Sleep’s gentle charm
is cast.
The mind, by cares tormented
Amid life’s storm and
stress,
Drinks deep the wondrous potion
That brings forgetfulness.
O’er weary, toil-worn mortals
The spells of Lethe steal;
Sad hearts lose all their sorrow,
Nor pain nor anguish feel.
For to His frail creation
God gave this law to keep,
That labour should be lightened
By soft and healing sleep.
But while sweet languor wanders
Through all the pulsing veins,
And, wrapt in dewy slumber,
The heart at rest remains,
The soul, in wakeful vigour,
Aloft in freedom flies,
And sees in many a semblance
The hidden mysteries.
For, freed from care, the spirit
That came from out the sky,
Born of the stainless aether,
Can never idle lie.
A thousand changing phantoms
She fashions through the night,
And ’midst a world of fancy
Pursues her rapid flight.
But divers are the visions
That night to dreamers shows;
Rare gleams of straying splendour
The future may disclose;
More oft the truth is darkened,
And lying fantasy
Deceives the affrighted sleeper
With cunning treachery.
To him whose life is holy
The things that are concealed
Lie open to his spirit
In radiant light revealed;
But he whose heart is blackened,
With many a sin imbued,
Sees phantoms grim and ghastly
That beckon and delude.
So in the Egyptian dungeon
The patriarch of old
Unto the king’s two servants
Their fateful visions told:
And one is brought from prison
The monarch’s wine to
pour,
One, on the gibbet hanging,
Foul birds of prey devour,
He warned the king, distracted
By riddles of the night,
To hoard the plenteous harvests
Against the years of blight.
Soon, lord of half a kingdom,
A mighty potentate,
He shares the royal sceptre
And dwells in princely state.
But ah! how deep the secrets
The holy sleeper sees
To whom Christ shows His highest,
Most sacred mysteries.
For God’s most faithful servant
The clouds were rolled away,
And John beheld the wonders
That sealed from mortals lay.
The Lamb of God, encrimsoned
With sacrificial stains,
Alone the Book can open
That destiny contains.
By His strong hand is wielded
A keen, two-edged brand
That, flashing like the lightning,
Smites swift on either hand.
Before His bar of judgment
Both soul and body lie;
He whom that dread sword smiteth
The second death shall die.
Yet mercy tempers justice,
And few the Avenger sends
(Whose guilt is past all pardon)
To death that never ends.
To Him the Father yieldeth
The judgment-seat of Heaven;
To Him a Name excelling
All other names is given.
For by His strength transcendent
Shall Antichrist be slain,
And from that raging monster
Fair trophies shall He gain:
That all-devouring Dragon,
With blood of martyrs red,
On whose abhorred power
John’s solemn curse
is laid.
And thus the proud usurper
Of His high name is cast
By Him, the true Christ, vanquished
To deepest hell at last.
Upon the saint heroic
Such wondrous slumber falls
That, in the spirit roaming,
He treads heaven’s highest
halls.
We may not, in our weakness,
To dreams like these aspire,
Whose souls are steeped in error
And evil things desire.
Enough, if weary bodies
In peaceful sleep may rest;
Enough, if no dark powers
Our slumbering souls molest.
Christian! the font remember,
The sacramental vow,
The holy water sprinkled,
The oil that marked thy brow!
When at sleep’s call thou seekest
To rest in slumber chaste,
Let first the sacred emblem
On breast and brow be traced.
The Cross dispels all darkness,
All sin before it flies,
And by that sign protected
The mind all fear defies.
Avaunt! ye fleeting phantoms
That mock our midnight hours;
Avaunt! thou great Deceiver
With all thy guileful powers.
Thou Serpent, old and crafty,
Who by a thousand arts
And manifold temptations
Dost vex our sleeping hearts,
Vanish! for Christ is with us;
Away! ’tis Christ the
Lord:
The sign thou must acknowledge
Condemns thy hellish horde.
And, though the weary body
Relaxed in sleep may be,
Our hearts, Lord, e’en in slumber,
Shall meditate on Thee.
VII. HYMNUS IEIUNANTIUM
O Nazarene, lux Bethlem, verbum Patris,
quem partus alvi virginalis protulit,
adesto castis Christe parsimoniis,
festumque nostrum rex serenus adspice,
ieiuniorum dum litamus victimam. 5
Nil hoc profecto purius mysterio,
quo fibra cordis expiatur uvidi,
intemperata quo domantur viscera,
arvina putrem ne resudans crapulam
obstrangulatae mentis ingenium premat. 10
Hinc subiugatur luxus et turpis
gula,
vini atque somni degener socordia,
libido sordens, inverecundus lepos,
variaeque pestes languidorum sensuum
parcam subactae disciplinam sentiunt.
15
Nam si licenter diffluens
potu et cibo
ieiuna rite membra non coerceas,
sequitur frequenti marcida oblectamine
scintilla mentis ut tepescat nobilis,
animusque pigris stertat in praecordiis.
20
Frenentur ergo corporum cupidines,
detersa et intus emicet prudentia:
sic excitato perspicax acumine
liberque flatu laxiore spiritus
rerum parentem rectius precabitur.
25
Elia tali crevit observantia,
vetus sacerdos, ruris hospes aridi:
fragore ab omni quem remotum et segregem
sprevisse tradunt criminum frequentiam,
casto fruentem syrtium silentio.
30
Sed mox in auras igneis iugalibus
curruque raptus evolavit praepete,
ne de propinquo sordium contagio
dirus quietum mundus adflaret virum,
olim probatis inclitum ieiuniis.
35
Non ante caeli principem septemplicis
Moyses tremendi fidus interpres throni
potuit videre, quam decem recursibus
quater volutis sol peragrans sidera
omni carentem cerneret substantia.
40
Victus precanti solus in lacrimis
fuit:
nam flendo pernox inrigatum pulverem
humi madentis ore pressit cernuo,
donec loquentis voce praestrictus Dei
expavit ignem non ferendum visibus.
45
Ioannis huius artis hand minus
potens,
Dei perennis praecucurrit filium,
curvos viarum qui retorsit tramites
et flexuosa conrigens dispendia
dedit sequendam calle recto lineam.
50
Hanc obsequelam praeparabat
nuntius
mox adfuturo construens iter Deo,
clivosa planis, confragosa ut lenibus
converterentur, neve quidquam devium
inlapsa terris inveniret veritas.
55
Non usitatis ortus his natalibus
oblita lactis iam vieto in pectore
matris tetendit serus infans ubera:
nec ante partu de senili effusus est,
quam praedicaret virginem plenam Deo.
60
Post in patentes ille solitudines
amictus hirtis bestiarum pellibus
setisve tectus hispida et lanugine
secessit, horrens inquinari et pollui
contaminatis oppidorum moribus.
65
Illic dicata parcus abstinentia
potum cibumque vir severae industriae
in usque serum respuebat vesperum,
parvum locustis et favorum agrestium
liquore pastum corpori suetus dare.
70
Hortator ille primus et doctor
novae
fuit salutis, nam sacrato in flumine
veterum piatas lavit errorum notas:
sed tincta postquam membra defaecaverat,
caelo refulgens influebat spiritus.
75
Hoc ex lavacro labe dempta
criminum
ibant renati non secus, quam si rudis
auri recocta vena pulchrum splendeat,
micet metalli sive lux argentei,
sudum polito praenitens purgamine.
80
Referre prisci stemma mine
ieiunii
libet fideli proditum volumine,
ut diruendae civitatis incolis
fulmen benigni mansuefactum Patris
pie repressis ignibus pepercerit.
85
Gens insolenti praepotens
iactantia
pollebat olim, quam fluentem nequiter
conrupta vulgo solverat lascivia,
et inde bruto contumax fastidio
cultum superni negligebat numinis.
90
Offensa tandem iugis indulgentiae
censura iustis excitatur motibus,
dextram perarmat rhompheali incendio
nimbos crepantes et fragosos turbines
vibrans tonantum nube flammarum quatit.
95
Sed paenitendi dum datur diecula,
si forte vellent inprobam libidinem
veteresque nugas condomare ac frangere,
suspendit ictum terror exorabilis
paullumque dicta substitit sententia.
100
Ionam prophetam mitis ultor
excitat,
paenae inminentis iret ut praenuntius,
sed nosset ille qui minacem iudicem
servare malle, quam ferire ac plectere,
tectam latenter vertit in Tharsos fugam.
105
Celsam paratis pontibus scandit
ratem,
udo revincta fune puppis solvitur,
itur per altum, fit procellosum mare:
tum causa tanti quaeritur periculi,
sors in fugacem missa vatem decidit.
110
Iussus perire solus e cunctis
reus,
cuius voluta crimen urna expresserat,
praeceps rotatur et profundo inmergitur:
exceptus inde beluinis faucibus
alvi capacis vivus hauritur specu.
115
* * * * *
Intactus exin tertiae noctis
vice
monstri vomentis pellitur singultibus,
qua murmuranti fine fluctus frangitur,
salsosque candens spuma tundit pumices,
ructatus exit seque servatum stupet.
130
In Ninivitas se coactus percito
gressu reflectit, quos ut increpaverat
pudenda censor inputans opprobria;
Inpendet, inquit, ira summi vindicis,
urbemque flamma mox cremabit, credite.
135
Apicem deinceps ardui montis
petit
visurus inde conglobatum turbidae
fumum ruinae cladis et dirae struem,
tectus flagellis multinodis germinis,
nato et repente perfruens umbraculo.
140
Sed maesta postquam civitas
vulnus novi
hausit doloris, heu supremum palpitat:
cursant per ampla congregatim moenia
plebs et senatus, omnis aetas civium,
pallens iuventus, eiulantes feminae.
145
Placet frementem publicis
ieiuniis
placare Christum, mos edendi spernitur,
glaucos amictus induit monilibus
matrona demptis, proque gemma et serico
crinem fluentem sordidus spargit cinis.
150
Squalent recincta veste bullati
patres,
setasque plangens turba sumit textiles,
inpexa villis virgo bestialibus
nigrante vultum contegit velamine,
iacens arenis et puer provolvitur.
155
Rex ipse Coos aestuantem murices
laenam revulsa dissipabat fibula,
gemmas virentes et lapillos sutiles,
insigne frontis exuebat vinculum
turpi capillos inpeditus pulvere.
160
Nullus bibendi, nemo vescendi
memor,
ieiuna mensas pubis omnis liquerat,
quin et negato lacte vagientium
fletu madescunt parvulorum cunulae,
sucum papillae parca nutrix derogat.
165
Greges et ipsos claudit armentalium
sollers virorum cura, ne vagum pecus
contingat ore rorulenta gramina,
potum strepentis neve fontis hauriant,
vacuis querelae personant praesepibus.
170
Mollitus his et talibus brevem
Deus
iram refrenat temperans oraculum
prosper sinistrum, prona nam clementia
haud difficulter supplicem mortalium
solvit reatum fitque fautrix flentium.
175
Sed cur vetustae gentis exemplum
oquor?
pridem caducis cum gravatus artubus
Iesus dicato corde ieiunaverit,
praenuncupatus ore qui prophetico
Emanuel est, sive NOBISCUM Deus.
180
Qui corpus istud molle naturaliter
captumque laxo sub voluptatum iugo
virtutis arta lege fecit liberum:
emancipator servientis plasmatis
regnantis ante victor et cupidinis.
185
Inhospitali namque secretus
loco
quinis diebus octies labentibus
nullam ciborum vindicavit gratiam,
firmans salubri scilicet ieiunio
vas adpetendis inbecillum gaudiis.
190
Miratus hostis posse limum
tabidum
tantum laboris sustinere ac perpeti,
explorat arte sciscitator callida,
Deusne membris sit receptus terreis,
sed increpata fraude post tergum ruit.
195
Hoc nos sequamur quisque nunc
pro viribus,
quod consecrati tu magister dogmatis
tuis dedisti Christe sectatoribus,
ut, cum vorandi vicerit libidinem,
late triumphet inperator spiritus.
200
Hoc est, quod atri livor hostis
invidet,
mundi polique quod gubernator probat,
altaris aram quod facit placabilem,
quod dormientis excitat cordis fidem,
quod limat aegram pectoris rubiginem.
205
Perfusa non sic amne flamma
extinguitur,
nec sic calente sole tabescunt nives,
ut turbidarum scabra culparum seges
vanescit almo trita sub ieiunio,
si blanda semper misceatur largitas.
210
Est quippe et illud grande
virtutis genus
operire nudos, indigentes pascere,
opem benignam ferre supplicantibus,
unam paremque sortis humanae vicem
inter potentes atque egenos ducere.
215
Satis beatus quisque dextram porrigit,
laudis rapacem, prodigam pecuniae,
cuius sinistra dulce factum nesciat:
illum perennes protinus conplent opes,
ditatque fructus faenerantem centuplex. 220
VII. Hymn for those who fast
O Jesus, Light of Bethlehem,
True Son of God, Incarnate Word;
Thou offspring of a Virgin’s womb,
Be present at our frugal board;
Accept our fast, our sacrifice,
And smile upon us, gracious Lord.
For by this holiest mystery
The inward parts are cleansed from stain,
And, taming all the unbridled lusts,
Our sinful flesh we thus restrain,
Lest gluttony and drunkenness
Should choke the soul and cloud the brain.
Hence appetite and luxury
Are forced their empire to
resign;
The wanton sport, the jest obscene,
The ignoble sway of sleep
and wine,
And all the plagues of languid sense
Feel the strict bonds of discipline.
For if, full fed with meat and drink,
The flesh thou ne’er
dost mortify,
The mind, that spark of sacred flame,
By pleasure dulled, must fail
and die,
And pent in its gross prison-house
The soul in shameful torpor
lie.
So be thy carnal lusts controlled,
So be thy judgment clear and
bright;
Then shall thy spirit, swift and free,
Be gifted with a keener sight,
And breathing in an ampler air
To the All-Father pray aright.
Elias by such abstinence,
Seer of the desert, grew in
grace,
Who left the madding haunts of men
And found a peaceful resting-place,
Where, far from sinful crowds, he trod
The pure and silent wilderness.
Till by those fiery coursers drawn
The swift car bore him through
the air,
Lest earth’s defiling touch should
mar
The holiness it might not
share,
Or some polluting breath disturb
The peace attained by fast
and prayer.
Moses, through whom from His dread throne
The will of God to man was
told,
No food might touch till through the sky
The sun full forty times had
rolled,
Ere God before him stood revealed,
Lord of the heavens sevenfold.
Tears were his meat, while bent in prayer
Through the long night he
bowed his head
E’en to the thirsty dust, that drank
The drops in bitter weeping
shed;
Till, at God’s call, he saw the
flame
No eye may bear, and was afraid.
The Baptist, too, was strong in fast—
Forerunner in a later day
Of God’s Eternal Son—who
made
The byepaths plain, the crooked
way
A road direct, wherein His feet
Might travel on without delay.
This was the messenger’s great task
Who for God’s advent
zealously
Prepared the way, the rough made smooth,
The mountain levelled to the
sea;
That, when Truth came from heaven to earth,
All fair and straight His
path should be.
He was not born in common wise,
For dry and wrinkled was the
breast
Of her that bare him late in years,
Nor found she from her labour
rest,
Till she had hailed with lips inspired
The Maid with unborn Godhead
blest.
For him the hairy skins of beasts
Furnished a raiment rude and
wild,
As forth into the lonely waste
He fared, an unbefriended
child,
Who dwelt apart, lest he should be
By evil city-life defiled.
There, vowed to abstinence, he grew
To manhood, and with stern
disdain
He turned from meat and drink, until
He saw night’s shadow
fall again;
And locusts and the wild bees’ store
Sufficed his vigour to sustain.
The first was he to testify
Of that new life which man
might win;
In Jordan’s consecrating stream
He purged the stains of ancient
sin,
And, as he made the body clean,
The radiant Spirit entered
in.
Forth from the holy tide they came
Reborn, from guilt’s
pollution free,
As bright from out the cleansing fire
Flows the rough gold, or as
we see
The glittering silver, purged of dross,
Flash into polished purity.
Now let us tell, from Holy Writ,
Of olden fasts the fairest
crown;
How God in pity stayed His hand,
And spared a doomed and guilty
town,
In clemency the flames withheld
And laid His vengeful lightnings
down.
A mighty race of ancient time
Waxed arrogant in boastful
pride;
Debauched were they, and borne along
On foul corruption’s
loathsome tide,
Till in their stiff-necked self-conceit
They e’en the God of
Heaven denied.
At last Eternal Mercy turns
To righteous judgment, swift
and dire;
He shakes the clouds; the mighty sword
Flames in His hand, and in
His ire
He wields the roaring hurricane
’Mid murky gloom and
flashing fire.
Yet in His clemency He grants
To penitence a brief delay,
That they might burst the bonds of lust
And put their vanities away;
His sentence given, He waits awhile
And stays the hand upraised
to slay.
To warn them of the wrath to come
The Avenger in His mercy sent
Jonah the seer; but,—though
he knew
The threatening Judge would
fain relent
Nor wished to strike,—towards
Tarshish town
The prophet’s furtive
course was bent.
As up the galley’s side he climbed,
They loosed the dripping rope,
and passed
The harbour bar: then on them burst
The sudden fury of the blast;
And when their peril’s cause they
sought,
The lot was on the recreant
cast.
The man whose guilt the urn declares
Alone must die, the rest to
save;
Hurled headlong from the deck, he falls
And sinks beneath the engulfing
wave,
Then, seized by monstrous jaws, is plunged
Into a vast and living grave.
* * * * *
At last the monster hurls him forth,
As the third night had rolled
away;
Before its roar the billows break
And lash the cliffs with briny
spray;
Unhurt the wondering prophet stands
And hails the unexpected day.
Thus turned again to duty’s path
To Nineveh he swiftly came,
Their lusts rebuked and boldly preached
God’s judgment on their
sin and shame;
“Believe!” he cried, “the
Judge draws nigh
Whose wrath shall wrap your
streets in flame.”
Thence to the lofty mount withdrew,
Where he might watch the smoke-cloud
lower
O’er blasted homes and ruined halls,
And rest beneath the shady
bower
Upspringing in swift luxury
Of twining tendril, leaf and
flower.
But when the guilty burghers heard
The impending doom, a dull
despair
Possessed their souls; proud senators,
Poor craftsmen, throng the
highways fair;
Pale youth with tottering age unites,
And women’s wailing
rends the air.
A public fast they now decree,
If they may thus Christ’s
anger stay:
No food they touch: each haughty
dame
Puts silken robes and gems
away,
In sable garbed, and ashes casts
Upon her tresses’ disarray.
In dark and squalid vesture clad
The Fathers go: the mourning
crowd
Dons rough attire: in shaggy skins
Enwrapped, fair maids their
faces shroud
With dusky veils, and boyish heads
E’en to the very dust
are bowed.
The King tears off his jewelled brooch
And rends the robe of Coan
hue;
Bright emeralds and lustrous pearls
Are flung aside, and ashes
strew
The royal head, discrowned and bent,
As low he kneels God’s
grace to sue.
None thought to drink, none thought to
eat;
All from the table turned
aside,
And in their cradles wet with tears
Starved babes in bitter anguish
cried,
For e’en the foster-mother stern
To little lips the breast
denied.
The very flocks are closely penned
By careful hands, lest they
should gain
Sweet water from the babbling stream
Or wandering crop the dewy
plain;
And bleating sheep and lowing kine
Within their barren stalls
complain.
Moved by such penitence, full soon
God’s grace repealed
the stern decree
And curbed His righteous wrath; for aye,
When man repents, His clemency
Is swift to pardon and to hear
His children weeping bitterly.
Yet wherefore of that bygone race
Should we anew the story tell?
For Christ’s pure soul by fasting
long
The clogging bonds of flesh
did quell;
He Whom the prophet’s voice foretold
As god with us,
Emmanuel.
Man’s body—frail by nature’s
law
And bound by pleasure’s
easy chain—
He freed by virtue’s strong restraint,
And gave it liberty again:
He broke the bonds of flesh, and Lust
Was driven from his old domain.
Deep in the inhospitable wild
For forty days He dwelt alone
Nor tasted food, till, thus prepared,
All human weakness overthrown
By fasting’s power, His mortal frame
Rejoiced the spirit’s
sway to own.
The Adversary, marvelling
To see this creature of a
day
Endure such toil, spent all his guile
To learn if God in human clay
Had come indeed; but soon rebuked
Behind His back fled shamed
away.
Therefore let each with all his might
Follow the way the Master
taught,
The law of consecrated life
Which Christ unto His servants
brought;
Till, with the lusts of flesh subdued,
The spirit reigns o’er
act and thought.
’Tis this our jealous foe abhors,
’Tis this the Lord of
earth and sky
Approves; by this the soul is made
Thy holy altar, God Most High:
Faith stirs within the slumbering heart
And sin’s corroding
power must fly.
Swifter than water quenches fire,
Swifter than sunshine melts
the snow,
Crushed out by soul-restoring fast
Vanish the sins that rankly
grow,
If hand in hand with Abstinence
Sweet Charity doth ever go.
This too is Virtue’s noble task,
To clothe the naked, and to
feed
The destitute, with kindly care
To visit sufferers in their
need;
For king and beggar each must bear
The lot by changeless Fate
decreed.
Happy the man whose good right hand
Seeks but God’s praise, and flings his gold
Broadcast, nor lets his left hand know
The gracious deed; for wealth untold
Shall crown him through eternal years
With usury an hundredfold.
VIII. HYMNUS post IEIUNIUM
Christe servorum regimen tuorum,
mollibus qui nos moderans habenis
leniter frenas facilique septos
lege coerces:
ipse cum portans onus inpeditum 5
corporis duros tuleris labores,
maior exemplis famulos remisso
dogmate palpas.
Nona submissum rotat hora solem
partibus vixdum tribus evolutis, 10
quarta devexo superest in axe
portio lucis.
Nos brevis voti dape vindicata
solvimus festum fruimurque mensis
adfatim plenis, quibus inbuatur 15
prona voluptas.
Tantus aeterni favor est magistri,
doctor indulgens ita nos amico
lactat hortatu, levis obsequela ut
mulceat artus. 20
Addit et, ne quis velit invenusto
sordidus cultu lacerare frontem,
sed decus vultus capitisque pexum
comat honorem.
Terge ieiunans, ait, omne corpus, 25
neve subducto faciem rubore
luteus tinguat color aut notetur
pallor in ore.
Rectius laeto tegimus pudore,
quidquid ad cultum Patris exhibemus: 30
cernit occultum Deus et latentem
munere donat.
Ille ovem morbo residem gregique
perditam sano male dissipantem
vellus adfixis vepribus per hirtae 35
devia silvae.
Inpiger pastor revocat lupisque
gestat exclusis humeros gravatus,
inde purgatam revehens aprico
reddit ovili: 40
Reddit et pratis viridique campo,
vibrat inpexis ubi nulla lappis
spina, nec germen sudibus perarmat
carduus horrens:
Sed frequens palmis nemus et reflexa 45
vernat herbarum coma, tum perennis
gurgitem vivis vitreum fluentis
laurus obumbrat.
Hisce pro donis tibi, fide pastor,
servitus quaenam poterit rependi? 50
nulla conpensant pretium salutis
vota precantum.
Quamlibet spreto sine more pastu
sponte confectos tenuemus artus,
teque contemptis epulis rogemus 55
nocte dieque;
Vincitur semper minor obsequentum
cura, nec munus genitoris aequat,
frangit et cratem luteam laboris
grandior usus. 60
Ergo ne limum fragilem solutae
deserant vires et aquosus albis
humor in venis dominetur aegrum
corpus inervans,
Laxus ac liber modus abstinendi 65
ponitur cunctis, neque nos severus
terror inpellit, sua quemque cogit
velle potestas.
Sufficit, quidquid facias, vocato
numinis nutu prius, inchoare, 70
sive tu mensam renuas cibumve
sumere temptes.
Adnuit dexter Deus et secundo
prosperat vultu, velut hoc salubre
fidimus nobis fore, quod dicatas 75
carpimus escas.
Sit bonum, supplex precor et medelam
conferat membris, animumque pascat
sparsus in venas cibus obsecrantum
christicolarum. 80
VIII. Hymn after fasting
O Christ, of all Thy servants Guide,
Mild is the yoke Thou mak’st us bear,
Leading us gently by Thy side
With gracious care.
Thy love took up our life’s
hard load
And spent in grievous toils its might:
Thy bond-slaves tread the easier road
Led by Thy light.
Nine hours have run their course away,
The sun sped three parts of
its race:
And what remains of the short day
Fadeth
apace.
The holy fast hath reached its end;
Our table now Thou loadest,
Lord:
With all Thy gifts true gladness send
To
grace our board.
Such is our Master’s gentle sway,
So kind the teaching in His
school,
That all find rest who will obey
His
easy rule.
Thou would’st not have us scorn
the grace
Of cleanliness and vesture
fair:
Thou lovest not a soiled face
And
unkempt hair.
Let him that fasts, Thou saidst, be clean,
Nor lose health’s fair
and ruddy glow:
Let no wan sallowness be seen
Upon
his brow.
’Tis better in glad modesty
Of our good works to shun
display:
God sees what ’scapes our neighbour’s
eye
And
will repay.
That Shepherd keen seeks one lost sheep
Sickly and weak, strayed from
the fold,
Fleece torn with briers of thickets deep,
Foolishly
bold.
He drives the wolves far from the track:
And found He brings on shoulders
borne
To sunlit pen the wanderer back,
No
more forlorn:
Yea, to the meads and grassy fields
The lamb restores, where no
thorn balks,
No rough burrs tear, no thistle yields
Its
bristling stalks:
But leaves of green herbs brightly glance
And in the grove the palm-trees
dream,
And laurels shade the eddying dance
Of
crystal stream.
For all these gifts, O Shepherd dear,
What service can I render
Thee?
No grateful vows my debt shall clear
For
love so free.
Though by self-chosen fasts severe
Our strength of limb we waste
away:
Though, spurning food, we Thee revere
By night and day:
Yet our works never can o’ertake
Thy love or with Thy gifts
compare:
Our toils this earthen vessel break,
The
more we dare.
Therefore lest failing powers consume
Our fragile life and shrivelled
veins
Pale ’neath the tyranny of rheum
And
weakening pains:
Thou dost not rule perpetual Lent
For man, nor modest fare deny:
Fearless may each unto his bent
His
wants supply.
Enough that all our acts by prayer
Be sanctified unto Thy will,
Whether we fast, or with due care
Our
needs fulfil.
Then shall God bless us for our good
And lead us to our soul’s
true wealth;
For, if but consecrated, food
Shall
bring us health.
O Lord, grant that our feast may
spread
Marrow and strength throughout our flesh:
And may all Christly souls be fed
With vigour fresh.
IX. HYMNUS omnis horae
Da puer plectrum, choreis ut canam
fidelibus
dulce carmen et melodum, gesta Christi insignia:
hunc camena nostra solum pangat, hunc laudet lyra.
Christus est, quem rex sacerdos
adfuturum protinus
infulatus concinebat voce, chorda et tympano,
5
spiritum caelo influentem per medullas hauriens.
Facta nos et iam probata pangimus
miracula,
testis orbis est, nec ipsa terra, quod
vidit, negat,
cominus Deum docendis proditum mortalibus.
Corde natus ex parentis, ante
mundi exordium 10
alpha et O cognominatus, ipse fons
et clausula
omnium, quae sunt, fuerunt quaeque post
futura sunt.
Ipse iussit et creata, dixit
ipse, et facta sunt
terra, caelum, fossa ponti, trina rerum
machina,
quaeque in his vigent sub alto solis et
lunae globo. 15
Corporis formam caduci, membra
morti obnoxia
induit, ne gens periret primoplasti ex
germine,
merserat quam lex profundo noxialis tartaro.
O beatus ortus ille, virgo
cum puerpera
edidit nostram salutem feta sancto spiritu,
20
et puer redemptor orbis os sacratum protulit.
Psallat altitudo caeli, psallite
omnes angeli,
quidquid est virtutis usquam psallat in
laudem Dei:
nulla linguarum silescat, vox et omnis
consonet.
Ecce quem vates vetustis concinebant
seculis, 25
quem prophetarum fideles paginae spoponderant,
emicat promissus olim: cuncta conlaudent
eum.
Cantharis infusa lympha fit
Falernum nobile,
nuntiat vinum minister esse promptum ex
hydria,
ipse rex sapore tinctis obstupescit poculis.
30
Membra morbis ulcerosa, viscerum
putredines
mando, ut abluantur, inquit; fit ratum,
quod iusserat,
turgidam cutem repurgant vulnerum piamina.
Tu perennibus tenebris iam
sepulta lumina
inlinis limo salubri, sacri et oris nectare,
35
mox apertis hac medela lux reducta est
orbibus.
Increpas ventum furentem,
quod procellis tristibus
vertat aequor fundo ab imo, vexet et vagam
ratem:
ille iussis obsecundat, mitis unda sternitur.
Extimum vestis sacratae furtim
mulier attigit, 40
protinus salus secuta est, ora pallor
deserit,
sistitur rivus, cruore qui fluebat perpeti.
Exitu dulcis iuventae raptum
ephebum viderat,
orba quem mater supremis funerabat fletibus:
surge, dixit: ille surgit, matri
et adstans redditur. 45
Sole iam quarto carentem,
iam sepulcro absconditum
Lazarum iubet vigere reddito spiramine:
fetidum iecur reductus rursus intrat halitus.
Ambulat per stagna ponti,
summa calcat fluctuum,
mobilis liquor profundi pendulam praestat
viam, 50
nec fatiscit unda sanctis pressa sub vestigiis.
Suetus antro bustuali sub
catenis frendere,
mentis inpos efferatis percitus furoribus
prosilit ruitque supplex, Christum adesse
ut senserat.
Pulsa pestis lubricorum milleformis
daemonum 55
conripit gregis suilli sordida spurcamina,
seque nigris mergit undis et pecus lymphaticum.
Quinque panibus peresis et
gemellis piscibus
adfatim refecta iam sunt adcubantum milia,
fertque qualus ter quaternus ferculorum
fragmina. 60
Tu cibus panisque noster,
tu perennis suavitas;
nescit esurire in aevum, qui tuam sumit
dapem,
nec lacunam ventris inplet, sed fovet
vitalia.
Clausus aurium meatus et sonorum
nescius
purgat ad praecepta Christi crassa quaeque
obstacula, 65
vocibus capax fruendis ac susurris pervius.
Omnis aegritudo cedit, languor
omnis pellitur,
lingua fatur, quam veterna vinxerant silentia,
gestat et suum per urbem laetus aeger
lectulum.
Quin et ipsum, ne salutis
inferi expertes forent, 70
tartarum benignus intrat, fracta cedit
ianua,
vectibus cadit revulsis cardo indissolubilis.
Illa prompta ad inruentes,
ad revertentes tenax,
obice extrorsum repulso porta reddit mortuos:
lege versa et limen atrum iam recalcandum
patet. 75
Sed Deus dum luce fulva mortis
antra inluminat,
dum stupentibus tenebris candidum praestat
diem,
tristia squalentis aethrae palluerunt
sidera.
Sol refugit et lugubri sordidus
ferrugine
igneum reliquit axem seque maerens abdidit:
80
fertur horruisse mundus noctis aeternae
chaos.
Solve vocem mens sonoram,
solve linguam mobilem,
dic tropaeum passionis, dic triumphalem
crucem,
pange vexillum, notatis quod refulget
frontibus.
O novum caede stupenda vulneris
miraculum! 85
hinc cruoris fluxit unda, lympha parte
ex altera:
lympha nempe dat lavacrum, tum corona
ex sanguine est.
Vidit anguis inmolatam corporis
sacri hostiam,
vidit et fellis perusti mox venenum perdidit,
saucius dolore multo colla fractus sibilat.
90
Quid tibi, profane serpens,
profuit, rebus novis
plasma primum perculisse versipelli hortamine?
diluit culpam recepto forma mortalis Deo.
Ad brevem se mortis usum dux
salutis dedidit,
mortuos olim sepultos ut redire insuesceret,
95
dissolutis pristinorum vinculis peccaminum.
Tunc patres sanctique multi
conditorem praevium
iam revertentem secuti tertio demum die
carnis indumenta sumunt, eque bustis prodeunt.
Cerneres coire membra de favillis
aridis, 100
frigidum venis resumptis pulverem tepescere,
ossa, nervos, ac medullas glutino cutis
tegi.
Post, ut occasum resolvit
vitae et hominem reddidit,
arduum tribunal victor adscendit Patris,
inclitam caelo reportans passionis gloriam.
105
Macte index mortuorum, macte
rex viventium,
dexter in parentis arce qui cluis virtutibus
omnium venturus inde iustus ultor criminum.
Te senes et te iuventus, parvulorum
te chorus,
turba matrum virginumque simplices puellulae,
110
voce concordes pudicis perstrepant concentibus.
Fluminum lapsus et undae,
littorum crepidines,
imber, aestus, nix, pruina, silva, et
aura, nox, dies,
omnibus te concelebrent seculorum seculis.
IX. Hymn for all hours
Let me chant in sacred numbers, as I strike
each sounding string,
Chant in sweet, melodious
anthems, glorious deeds of Christ our King;
He, my Muse, shall be thy story; with
His praise my lyre shall ring.
When the king in priestly raiment sang
the Christ that was to be,
Voice and lute and clashing
cymbal joined in joyous harmony,
While the Spirit, heaven-descended, touched
his lips to prophecy.
Sing we now the works sure proven, wrought
of God in mystic wise;
Heaven is witness; earth confesses
how she saw with wondering eyes
God Himself with mortals mingling, man
to teach in human guise.
Of the Father’s heart begotten,
ere the world from chaos rose,
He is Alpha; from that Fountain
all that is and hath been flows;
He is Omega, of all things yet to come
the mystic Close.
By His word was all created; He commands
and lo! ’tis done;
Earth and sky and boundless
ocean, universe of three in one,
All that sees the moon’s soft radiance,
all that breathes beneath the sun.
He assumed this mortal body, frail and
feeble, doomed to die,
That the race from dust created
might not perish utterly,
Which the dreadful Law had sentenced in
the depths of Hell to lie.
O how blest that wondrous birthday, when
the Maid the curse retrieved,
Brought to birth mankind’s
salvation, by the Holy Ghost conceived;
And the sacred Babe, Redeemer of the world,
her arms received.
Sing, ye heights of heaven, His praises;
angels and archangels, sing!
Wheresoe’er ye be, ye
faithful, let your joyous anthems ring,
Every tongue His name confessing, countless
voices answering.
This is He whom seer and sibyl sang in
ages long gone by;
This is He of old revealed
in the page of prophecy;
Lo! He comes, the promised Saviour;
let the world His praises cry!
In the urns the clear, cold water turns
to juice of noblest vine,
And the servant, drawing from
them, starts to see the generous wine,
While the host, its savour tasting, wonders
at the draught divine.
To the leper worn and wasted, white with
many a loathsome sore,
“Be thou cleansed,”
He said; “I bid it!” swift ’tis done,
His words restore;
To the priest the gift he offers, clean
and healthful as of yore.
On the eyes long sealed in darkness, buried
in unbroken night,
Thou didst spread Thy lips’
sweet nectar, mixed with clay: then came the sight,
As Thy gracious touch all-healing brought
to those dark orbs the light.
Thou didst chide the raging tempest, when
the waves with foaming crest
Leaped about the fragile vessel,
buffeted and sore distressed;
Wind and wave, their fury stilling, sank
to calm at Thy behest.
Once a woman’s timid fingers touched
Thy garment’s lowest braid,
And the pallor left her visage,
healing power the touch conveyed,
For the years of pain were ended and the
flow of blood was stayed.
Thou didst see men bear to burial one
struck down in youth’s glad tide,
While a widowed mother followed,
wailing for her boy that died;
“Rise!” Thou saidst, and led
him gently to his weeping mother’s side.
Lazarus, who lay in darkness till three
nights had passed away,
At Thy voice awoke to soundness,
rising to the light of day,
As the breath his frame re-entered touched
already with decay.
See, He walks upon the waters, treads
the billow’s rolling crest;
O’er the shifting depths
of ocean firm and sure His footsteps rest,
And the wave parts not asunder where those
holy feet are pressed.
And the madman, chained and tortured by
dark powers, from whom all fly,
As the tombs, that were his
dwelling, echo to his savage cry,
Rushes forth and falls adoring, when he
sees that Christ is nigh.
Then the legion of foul spirits, driven
from their human prey,
Seize the noisome swine, that
feeding high upon the hillside stray,
And the herd, in sudden frenzy, plunges
in the waters grey.
“Gather in twelve woven baskets
all the fragments that remain:”
He hath fed the weary thousands,
resting o’er the grassy plain,
And His power hath stayed their hunger
with five loaves and fishes twain.
Thine, O Christ, is endless sweetness;
Thou art our celestial Bread:
Nevermore he knoweth hunger,
who upon Thy grace hath fed,
Grace whereby no mortal body but the soul
is nourished.
They that knew not speech nor language,
closed to every sound their ears,
To the Master’s call
responding break the barriers of years;
Now the deaf holds joyous converse and
the lightest whisper hears.
Sickness at His word departed, pain and
pallid languor fled,
Many a tongue, long chained
in silence, words of praise and blessing said;
And the palsied man rejoicing through
the city bore his bed.
Yea, that they might know salvation who
in Hades’ prison were pent,
In His mercy condescending
through Hell’s gloomy gates He went;
Bolt and massy hinge were shattered, adamantine
portals rent.
For the door that all receiveth, but releaseth
nevermore,
Opens now and, slowly turning,
doth the ghosts to light restore,
Who, the eternal laws suspended, tread
again its dusky floor.
But, while God with golden glory floods
the murky realms of night,
And upon the startled shadows
dawns a day serene and bright,
In the darkened vault of heaven stars
forlorn refuse their light.
For the sun in garb of mourning veiled
his radiant orb and passed
From his flaming path in sorrow,
hiding till mankind aghast
Deemed that o’er a world of chaos
Night’s eternal pall was cast.
Now, my soul, in liquid measures let the
sounding numbers flow;
Sing the trophy of His passion,
sing the Cross triumphant now;
Sing the ensign of Christ’s glory,
marked on every faithful brow.
Ah! how wondrous was the fountain flowing
from His pierced side,
Whence the blood and water
mingled in a strange and sacred tide,—
Water, sign of mystic cleansing; blood,
the martyr’s crown of pride.
In that hour the ancient Serpent saw the
holy Victim slain,
Saw, and shed his hate envenomed,
all his malice spent in vain;
See! the hissing neck is broken as he
writhes in sullen pain.
Aye, what boots it, cursed Serpent, that
the man God made from clay,
Victim of thy baleful cunning,
by thy lies was led astray?
God hath ta’en a mortal body and
hath washed the guilt away.
Christ, our Captain, for a season deigned
to dwell in Death’s domain,
That the dead, long time imprisoned,
might return to life again,
Breaking by His great example ancient
sins’ enthralling chain.
Thus, upon the third glad morning, patriarchs
and saints of yore,
As the risen Lord ascended,
followed Him who went before,
From forgotten graves proceeding, habited
in flesh once more.
Limb to limb unites and rises from the
ashes dry and cold,
And the life-blood courses
warmly through the frames long turned to mould,
Skin and flesh, anew created, muscle,
bone and nerve enfold.
Then, mankind to life restoring, Death
downtrodden ’neath His feet,
Lo! the Victor mounts triumphant
to the Father’s judgment-seat,
Bringing back to heaven the glory by His
passion made complete.
Hail! Thou Judge of souls departed:
hail! of all the living King!
On the Father’s right
hand throned, through His courts Thy praises ring,
Till at last for all offences righteous
judgment Thou shalt bring.
Now let old and young uniting chant to
Thee harmonious lays,
Maid and matron hymn Thy glory,
infant lips their anthem raise,
Boys and girls together singing with pure
heart their song of praise.
Let the storm and summer sunshine, gliding
stream and sounding shore,
Sea and forest, frost and
zephyr, day and night their Lord adore;
Let creation join to laud Thee through
the ages evermore.
X. HYMNUS ad EXEQUIAS DEFUNCTI
Deus ignee fons animarum,
duo qui socians elementa
vivum simul ac moribundum
hominem Pater effigiasti:
Tua sunt, tua rector utraque,
5
tibi copula iungitur horum,
tibi, dum vegetata cohaerent,
et spiritus et caro servit.
Rescissa sed ista seorsum
solvunt hominera perimuntque, 10
humus excipit arida corpus,
animae rapit aura liquorem.
Quia cuncta creata necesse
est
labefacta senescere tandem,
conpactaque dissociari, 15
et dissona texta retexi.
Hanc tu, Deus optime, mortem
famulis abolere paratus
iter inviolabile monstras,
quo perdita membra resurgant:
20
Ut, dum generosa caducis
ceu carcere clausa ligantur,
pars illa potentior extet,
quae germen ab aethere traxit.
Si terrea forte voluntas
25
luteum sapit et grave captat,
animus quoque pondere victus
sequitur sua membra deorsum.
At si generis memor ignis
contagia pigra recuset, 30
vehit hospita viscera secum,
pariterque reportat ad astra.
Nam quod requiescere corpus
vacuum sine mente videmus,
spatium breve restat, ut alti 35
repetat conlegia sensus.
Venient cito secula, cum iam
socius calor ossa revisat
animataque sanguine vivo
habitacula pristina gestet. 40
Quae pigra cadavera pridem
tumulis putrefacta iacebant,
volucres rapientur in auras
animas comitata priores.
Hinc maxima cura sepulcris
45
inpenditur: hinc resolutos
honor ultimus accipit artus
et funeris ambitus ornat.
Candore nitentia claro
praetendere lintea mos est, 50
adspersaque myrrha Sabaeo
corpus medicamine servat.
Quidnam sibi saxa cavata,
quid pulchra volunt monumenta,
nisi quod res creditur illis 55
non mortua, sed data somno?
Hoc provida Christicolarum
pietas studet, utpote credens
fore protinus omnia viva,
quae nunc gelidus sopor urget. 60
Qui iacta cadavera passim
miserans tegit aggere terrae,
opus exhibet ille benignum
Christo pius omnipotenti:
Quin lex eadem monet omnes
65
gemitum dare sorte sub una,
cognataque funera nobis
aliena in morte dolere.
Sancti sator ille Tobiae
sacer ac venerabilis heros, 70
dapibus iam rite paratis
ius praetulit exequiarum.
Iam stantibus ille ministris
cyathos et fercula liquit,
studioque accinctus humandi 75
fleto dedit ossa sepulcro.
Veniunt mox praemia caelo
pretiumque rependitur ingens:
nam lumina nescia solis
Deus inlita felle serenat. 80
Iam tunc docuit Pater orbis,
quam sit rationis egenis
mordax et amara medela,
cum lux animum nova vexat.
Docuit quoque non prius ullum
85
caelestia cernere regna,
quam nocte et vulnere tristi
toleraverit aspera mundi.
Mors ipsa beatior inde est,
quod per cruciamina leti 90
via panditur ardua iustis
et ad astra doloribus itur.
Sic corpora mortificata
redeunt melioribus annis,
nec post obitum recalescens 95
conpago fatiscere novit.
Haec, quae modo pallida tabo
color albidus inficit ora,
tunc flore venustior omni
sanguis cute tinget amoena. 100
Iam nulla deinde senectus
frontis decus invida carpet,
macies neque sicca lacertos
suco tenuabit adeso.
Morbus quoque pestifer, artus
105
qui nunc populatur anhelos,
sua tunc tormenta resudans
luet inter vincula mille.
Hunc eminus aere ab alto
victrix caro iamque perennis 110
cernet sine fine gementem
quos moverat ipse dolores.
Quid turba superstes inepta
clangens ululamina miscet,
cur tam bene condita iura 115
luctu dolor arguit amens?
Iam maesta quiesce querela,
lacrimas suspendite matres,
nullus sua pignora plangat,
mors haec reparatio vitae est. 120
Sic semina sicca virescunt
iam mortua iamque sepulta,
quae reddita caespite ab imo
veteres meditantur aristas.
Nunc suscipe terra fovendum,
125
gremioque hunc concipe molli:
hominis tibi membra sequestro
generosa et fragmina credo.
Animae fuit haec domus olim
factoris ab ore creatae, 130
fervens habitavit in istis
sapientia principe Christo.
Tu depositum tege corpus,
non inmemor illa requiret
sua munera fictor et auctor 135
propriique aenigmata vultus.
Veniant modo tempora iusta,
cum spem Deus inpleat omnem;
reddas patefacta necesse est,
qualem tibi trado figuram. 140
Non, si cariosa vetustas
dissolverit ossa favillis,
fueritque cinisculus arens
minimi mensura pugilli.
Nec, si vaga flamina et aurae
145
vacuum per inane volantes
tulerint cum pulvere nervos,
hominem periisse licebit.
Sed dum resolubile corpus
revocas, Deus, atque reformas, 150
quanam regione iubebis
animam requiescere puram?
Gremio senis addita sancti
recubabit, ut est Eleazar,
quem floribus undique septum 155
Dives procul adspicit ardens.
Sequimur tua dicta redemptor,
quibus atra morte triumphans
tua per vestigia mandas
socium crucis ire latronem. 160
Patet ecce fidelibus ampli
via lucida iam paradisi,
licet et nemus illud adire,
homini quod ademerat anguis.
Illic precor, optime ductor,
165
famulam tibi praecipe mentem
genitali in sede sacrari,
quam liquerat exul et errans.
Nos tecta fovebimus ossa
violis et fronde frequenti, 170
titulumque et frigida saxa
liquido spargemus odore.
X. Hymn for the burial of the dead
Fountain of life, supernal Fire,
Who didst unite in wondrous wise
The soul that lives, the clay that dies,
And mad’st them Man: eternal Sire,
Both elements Thy will obey,
Thine is the bond that joins the twain,
And, while united they remain,
Spirit and body own Thy sway.
Yet they must one day disunite,
Sunder in death this mortal
frame;
Dust to the dust from whence
it came,
The spirit to its heavenward flight.
For all created things must wane,
And age must break the bond
at last;
The diverse web that Life
held fast
Death’s fingers shall unweave again.
Yet, gracious God, Thou dost devise
The death of Death for all
Thine own;
The path of safety Thou hast
shown
Whereby the doomed limbs may rise:
So that, while fragile bonds of earth
Man’s noblest essence
still enfold,
That part may yet the sceptre
hold
Which from pure aether hath its birth.
For if the earthy will hold sway,
By gross desires and aims
possessed,
The soul, too, by the weight
oppressed,
Follows the body’s downward way.
But if she scorn the guilt that mars—
Still mindful of her fiery
sphere—
She bears the flesh, her comrade
here,
Back to her home beyond the stars.
The lifeless body we restore
To earth, must slumber free
from pain
A little while, that it may
gain
The spirit’s fellowship once more.
The years will pass with rapid pace
Till through these limbs the
life shall flow,
And the long-parted spirit
go
To seek her olden dwelling-place.
Then shall the body, that hath lain
And turned to dust in slow
decay,
On airy wings be borne away
And join its ancient soul again.
Therefore our tenderest care we spend
Upon the grave: and mourners
go
With solemn dirge and footstep
slow—
Love’s last sad tribute to a friend.
With fair white linen we enfold
The dear dead limbs, and richest
store
Of Eastern unguents duly pour
Upon the body still and cold.
Why hew the rocky tomb so deep,
Why raise the monument so
fair,
Save that the form we cherish
there
Is no dead thing, but laid to sleep?
This is the faithful ministry
Of Christian men, who hold
it true
That all shall one day live
anew
Who now in icy slumber lie.
And he whose pitying hand shall lay
Some friendless outcast ’neath
the sod,
E’en to the almighty
Son of God
Doth that benignant service pay.
For this same law doth bid us mourn
Man’s common fate, when
strangers die,
And pay the tribute of a sigh,
As when our kin to rest are borne.
Of holy Tobit ye have read,
(Grave father of a pious son),
Who, though the feast was
set, would run
To do his duty by the dead.
Though waiting servants stood around,
From meat and drink he turned
away
And girt himself in haste
to lay
The bones with weeping in the ground.
Soon Heaven his righteous zeal repays
With rich reward; the eyes
long blind
In bitter gall strange virtue
find
And open to the sun’s clear rays.
Thus hath our Heavenly Father shown
How sharp and bitter is the
smart
When sudden on the purblind
heart
The Daystar’s healing light is thrown.
He taught us, too, that none may gaze
Upon the heavenly demesne
Ere that in darkness and in
pain
His feet have trod the world’s rough
ways.
So unto death itself is given
Strange bliss, when mortal
agony
Opens the way that leads on
high
And pain is but the path to Heaven.
Thus to a far serener day
Our body from the grave returns;
Eternal life within it burns
That knows nor languor nor decay.
These faces now so pinched and pale,
That marks of lingering sickness
show,
Then fairer than the rose
shall glow
And bloom with youth that ne’er
shall fail.
Ne’er shall crabbed age their beauty
dim
With wrinkled brow and tresses
grey,
Nor arid leanness eat away
The vigour of the rounded limb.
Racked with his own destroying pains
Shall fell Disease, who now
attacks
Our aching frames, his force
relax
Fast fettered in a thousand chains:
While from its far celestial throne
The immortal body, victor
now,
Shall watch its old tormentor
bow
And in eternal tortures groan.
Why do the clamorous mourners wail
In bootless sorrow murmuring?
And why doth grief unreasoning
God’s righteous ordinance assail?
Hushed be your voices, ye that mourn;
Ye weeping mothers, dry the
tear;
Let none lament for children
dear,
For man through Death to Life is born.
So do dry seeds grow green again,
Now dead and buried in the
earth,
And rising to a second birth
Clothe as of old the verdant plain.
Take now, O earth, the load we bear,
And cherish in thy gentle
breast
This mortal frame we lay to
rest,
The poor remains that were so fair.
For they were once the soul’s abode,
That by God’s breath
created came;
And in them, like a living
flame,
Christ’s precious gift of wisdom
glowed.
Guard thou the body we have laid
Within thy care, till He demand
The creature fashioned by
His hand
And after His own image made.
The appointed time soon may we see
When God shall all our hopes
fulfil,
And thou must render to His
will
Unchanged the charge we give to thee.
For though consumed by mould and rust
Man’s body slowly fades
away,
And years of lingering decay
Leave but a handful of dry dust;
Though wandering winds, that idly fly,
Should his disparted ashes
bear
Through all the wide expanse
of air,
Man may not perish utterly.
Yet till Thou dost build up again
This mortal structure by Thy
hand,
In what far world wilt Thou
command
The soul to rest, now free from stain?
In Abraham’s bosom it shall dwell
’Mid verdant bowers,
as Lazarus lies
Whom Dives sees with longing
eyes
From out the far-off fires of hell.
We trust the words our Saviour said
When, victor o’er grim
Death, he cried
To him who suffered at His
side
“In Mine own footsteps shalt thou
tread.”
See, open to the faithful soul,
The shining paths of Paradise;
Now may they to that garden
rise
Which from mankind the Serpent stole.
Guide him, we pray, to that blest bourn,
Who served Thee truly here
below;
May he the bliss of Eden know,
Who strayed in banishment forlorn.
But we will honour our dear dead
With violets and garlands strown,
And o’er the cold and graven stone
Shall fragrant odours still be shed.
XI. HYMNUS viii. KALENDAS IANUARIAS
Quid est, quod artum circulum
sol iam recurrens deserit?
Christusne terris nascitur,
qui lucis auget tramitem?
Heu quam fugacem gratiam 5
festina volvebat dies,
quam pene subductam facem
sensim recisa extinxerat!
Caelum nitescat laetius,
gratetur et gaudens humus, 10
scandit gradatim denuo
iubar priores lineas.
Emerge dulcis pusio,
quem mater edit castitas,
parens et expers coniugis, 15
mediator et duplex genus.
Ex ore quamlibet Patris
sis ortus et verbo editus,
tamen paterno in pectore
sophia callebas prius. 20
Quae prompta caelum condidit,
caelum diemque et cetera,
virtute verbi effecta sunt
haec cuncta: nam verbum Deus.
Sed ordinatis seculis,
25
rerumque digesto statu
fundator ipse et artifex
permansit in Patris sinu,
donec rotata annalium
transvolverentur milia, 30
atque ipse peccantem diu
dignatus orbera viseret.
Nam caeca vis mortalium
venerans inanes nenias
vel aera vel saxa algida, 35
vel ligna credebat Deum.
Haec dum sequuntur, perfidi
praedonis in ius venerant,
et mancipatam fumido
vitam barathro inmerserant: 40
Stragem sed istam non tulit
Christus cadentum gentium
inpune ne forsan sui
Patris periret fabrica.
Mortale corpus induit,
45
ut excitato corpore
mortis catenam frangeret
hominemque portaret Patri.
Hic ille natalis dies,
quo te creator arduus 50
spiravit et limo indidit
sermone carnem glutinans.
Sentisne, virgo nobilis,
matura per fastidia
pudoris intactum decus 55
honore partus crescere?
O quanta rerum gaudia
alvus pudica continet,
ex qua novellum seculum
procedit et lux aurea! 60
Vagitus ille exordium
vernantis orbis prodidit,
nam tunc renatus sordidum
mundus veternum depulit.
Sparsisse tellurem reor
65
rus omne densis floribus,
ipsasque arenas syrtium
fragrasse nardo et nectare.
Te cuncta nascentem puer
sensere dura et barbara, 70
victusque saxorum rigor
obduxit herbam cotibus.
Iam mella de scopulis fluunt,
iam stillat ilex arido
sudans amomum stipite, 75
iam sunt myricis balsama.
O sancta praesepis tui,
aeterne rex, cunabula,
populisque per seclum sacra
mutis et ipsis credita. 80
Adorat haec brutum pecus
indocta turba scilicet,
adorat excors natio,
vis cuius in pastu sita est.
Sed cum fideli spiritu
85
concurrat ad praesepia
pagana gens et quadrupes,
sapiatque quod brutum fuit:
Negat patrum prosapia
perosa praesentem Deum: 90
credas venenis ebriam
furiisve lymphatam rapi.
Quid prona per scelus ruis?
agnosce, si quidquam tibi
mentis resedit integrae, 95
ducem tuorum principum.
Hunc, quem latebra et obstetrix,
et virgo feta, et cunulae
et inbecilla infantia
regem dederunt gentibus, 100
peccator intueberis
celsum coruscis nubibus,
deiectus ipse et inritus
plangens reatum fletibus:
Cum vasta signum bucina
105
terris cremandis miserit,
et scissus axis cardinem
mundi ruentis solverit:
Insignis ipse et praeminens
meritis rependet congrua, 110
his lucis usum perpetis,
illis gehennam et tartarum.
Iudaea tunc fulmen crucis
experta, qui sit, senties,
quem te furoris praesule 115
mors hausit et mox reddidit.
XI. Hymn for Christmas-day
Why doth the sun re-orient take
A wider range, his limits break?
Lo! Christ is born, and o’er earth’s night
Shineth from more to more the light!
Too swiftly did the radiant day
Her brief course run and pass away:
She scarce her kindly torch had fired
Ere slowly fading it expired.
Now let the sky more brightly beam,
The earth take up the joyous theme:
The orb a broadening pathway gains
And with its erstwhile splendour reigns.
Sweet babe, of chastity the flower,
A virgin’s blest mysterious dower!
Rise in Thy twofold nature’s might:
Rise, God and man to reunite!
Though by the Father’s will above
Thou wert begot, the Son of Love,
Yet in His bosom Thou didst dwell,
Of Wisdom the eternal Well;
Wisdom, whereby the heavens were made
And light’s foundations first were
laid:
Creative Word! all flows from Thee!
The Word is God eternally.
For though with process of the suns
The ordered whole harmonious runs,
Still the Artificer Divine
Leaves not the Father’s inmost shrine.
The rolling wheels of Time had passed
O’er their millennial journey vast,
Before in judgment clad He came
Unto the world long steeped in shame.
The purblind souls of mortals crass
Had trusted gods of stone and brass,
To things of nought their worship paid
And senseless blocks of wood obeyed.
And thus employed, they fell below
The sway of man’s perfidious foe:
Plunged in the smoky sheer abyss
They sank bereft of their true bliss.
But that sore plight of ruined man
Christ’s pity could not lightly
scan:
Nor let God’s building nobly wrought
Ingloriously be brought to nought.
He wrapped Him in our fleshly guise,
That from the tomb He might arise,
And man released from death’s grim
snare
Home to His Father’s bosom bear.
This is the day of Thy dear birth,
The bridal of the heaven and earth,
When the Creator breathed on Thee
The breath of pure humanity.
Ah! glorious Maid, dost thou not guess
What guerdon thy chaste soul shall bless,
How by thy ripening pangs is bought
An honour greater than all thought?
O what a load of joy untold
Thy womb inviolate doth hold!
Of thee a golden age is born,
The brightness of the earth’s new
morn!
Hearken! doth not the infant’s wail
The universal springtide hail?
For now the world re-born lays by
Its gloomy, frost-bound apathy.
Methinks in all her rustic bowers
The earth is spread with clustering flowers:
Odours of nard and nectar sweet
E’en o’er the sands of Syrtes
fleet.
All places rough and deserts wild
Have felt from far Thy coming, Child:
Rocks to Thy gentle empire bow
And verdure clothes the mountain brow.
Sweet honey from the boulder leaps:
The sere and leafless oak-bough weeps
A strange rich attar: tamarisks too
Of balsam pure distil the dew.
Blessed for ever, cradle dear,
The lowly stall, the cavern drear!
Men to this shrine, Eternal King,
With dumb brutes adoration bring.
The ox and ass in homage low
Obedient to their Maker bow:
Bows too the unlearn’d heartless
crowd
Whose minds the sensual feast doth cloud.
Though, by the faithful Spirit impelled,
Shepherds and brutes, unreasoning held,
Yea, folk that did in darkness dwell
Discern their God in His poor cell:
Yet children of the sacred race
Blindly abhor the Incarnate grace:
By philtres you might deem them lulled
Or by some bacchic phrenzy dulled.
Why headlong thus to ruin stride?
If aught of soundness in you bide,
Behold in Him the Lord divine
Of all your patriarchal line.
Mark you the dim-lit cave, the Maid,
The humble nurse, the cradle laid,
The helpless infancy forlorn:
Yet thus the Gentiles’ King was
born!
Ah sinner, thou shalt one day see
This Child in dreadful majesty,
See Him in glorious clouds descend,
While thou thy guilty heart shalt rend.
Vain all thy tears, when loud shall sound
The trump, when flames shall scorch the
ground,
When from its hinge the cloven world
Is loosed, in horrid tumult hurled.
Then throned on high, the Judge of all
Shall mortals to their reckoning call:
To these shall grant the prize of light,
To those Gehenna’s gloomy night.
Then, Israel, shalt thou learn at length
The Cross hath, as the lightning, strength:
Doomed by thy wrath, He now is Lord,
Whom Death once grasped but soon restored.
XII. HYMNUS EPIPHANIAE
Quicumque Christum quaeritis,
oculos in altum tollite,
illic licebit visere
signum perennis gloriae.
Haec stella, quae solis rotam 5
vincit decore ac lumine,
venisse terris nuntiat
cum carne terrestri Deum.
Non illa servit noctibus
secuta lunam menstruam, 10
sed sola caelum possidens
cursum dierum temperat.
Arctoa quamvis sidera
in se retortis motibus
obire nolint, attamen 15
plerumque sub nimbis latent.
Hoc sidus aeternum manet,
haec stella nunquam mergitur,
nec nubis occursu abdita
obumbrat obductam facem. 20
Tristis cometa intercidat,
et si quod astrum Sirio
fervet vapore, iam Dei
sub luce destructum cadat.
En Persici ex orbis sinu,
25
sol unde sumit ianuam,
cernunt periti interpretes
regale vexillum Magi.
Quod ut refulsit, ceteri
cessere signorum globi, 30
nec pulcher est ausus suam
conferre formam Lucifer.
Quis iste tantus, inquiunt,
regnator astris inperans,
quem sic tremunt caelestia, 35
cui lux et aethra inserviunt.
Inlustre quiddam cernimus,
quod nesciat finem pati,
sublime, celsum, interminum,
antiquius caelo et chao. 40
Hic ille rex est gentium
populique rex Iudaici,
promissus Abrahae patri
eiusque in aevum semini.
Aequanda nam stellis sua
45
cognovit olim germina
primus sator credentium,
nati inmolator unici.
Iam flos subit Davidicus
radice Iesse editus, 50
sceptrique per virgam virens
rerum cacumen occupat.
Exin sequuntur perciti
fixis in altum vultibus,
qua stella sulcum traxerat 55
claramque signabat viam.
Sed verticem pueri supra
signum pependit inminens,
pronaque submissum face
caput sacratum prodidit. 60
Videre quod postquam Magi,
eoa promunt munera,
stratique votis offerunt
tus, myrrham, et aurum regium.
Agnosce clara insignia
65
virtutis ac regni tui,
puer o, cui trinam Pater
praedestinavit indolem.
Regem Deumque adnuntiant
thesaurus et fragrans odor 70
turis Sabaei, ac myrrheus
pulvis sepulcrum praedocet.
Hoc est sepulcrum, quo Deus,
dum corpus extingui sinit
atque id sepultum suscitat, 75
mortis refregit carcerem.
O sola magnarum urbium
maior Bethlem, cui contigit
ducem salutis caelitus
incorporatum gignere. 80
Altrice te summo Patri
haeres creatur unicus,
homo ex tonantis spiritu
idemque sub membris Deus.
Hunc et prophetis testibus
85
isdemque signatoribus,
testator et sator iubet
adire regnum et cernere:
Regnum, quod ambit omnia
diva et marina et terrea 90
a solis ortu ad exitum
et tartara et caelum supra.
Audit tyrannus anxius
adesse regum principem,
qui nomen Israel regat 95
teneatque David regiam.
Exclamat amens nuntio,
successor instat, pellimur;
satelles i, ferrum rape,
perfunde cunas sanguine. 100
Mas omnis infans occidat,
scrutare nutricum sinus,
interque materna ubera
ensem cruentet pusio.
Suspecta per Bethlem mihi
105
puerperarum est omnium
fraus, ne qua furtim subtrahat
prolem virilis indolis.
Transfigit ergo carnifex
mucrone destricto furens 110
effusa nuper corpora,
animasque rimatur novas.
Locum minutis artubus
vix interemptor invenit,
quo plaga descendat patens 115
iuguloque maior pugio est.
O barbarum spectaculum!
inlisa cervix cautibus
spargit cerebrum lacteum
oculosque per vulnus vomit. 120
Aut in profundum palpitans
mersatur infans gurgitem,
cui subter artis faucibus
singultat unda et halitus.
Salvete flores martyrum,
125
quos lucis ipso in limine
Christi insecutor sustulit,
ceu turbo nascentes rosas.
Vos prima Christi victima,
grex inmolatorum tener, 130
aram ante ipsam simplices
palma et coronis luditis.
Quid proficit tantum nefas,
quid crimen Herodem iuvat?
unus tot inter funera 135
inpune Christus tollitur.
Inter coaevi sanguinis
fluenta solus integer
ferrum, quod orbabat nurus,
partus fefellit virginis. 140
Sic stulta Pharaonis mali
edicta quondam fugerat
Christi figuram praeferens
Moyses, receptor civium.
Cautum et statutum ius erat,
145
quo non liceret matribus,
cum pondus alvi absolverent,
puerile pignus tollere.
Mens obstetricis sedulae
pie in tyrannum contumax 150
ad spem potentis gloriae
furata servat parvulum:
Quem mox sacerdotem sibi
adsumpsit orbis conditor,
per quem notatam saxeis 155
legem tabellis traderet.
Licetne Christum noscere
tanti per exemplum viri?
dux ille caeso Aegyptio
absolvit Israel iugo. 160
At nos subactos iugiter
erroris inperio gravi
dux noster hoste saucio
mortis tenebris liberat.
Hic expiatam fluctibus
165
plebem marino in transitu
repurgat undis dulcibus,
lucis columnam praeferens:
Hic praeliante exercitu,
pansis in altum brachiis, 170
sublimis Amalech premit,
crucis quod instar tunc fuit.
Hic nempe Iesus verior,
qui longa post dispendia
victor suis tribulibus 175
promissa solvit iugera.
Qui ter quaternas denique
refluentis amnis alveo
fundavit et fixit petras,
apostolorum stemmata. 180
Iure ergo se Iudae ducem
vidisse testantur Magi,
cum facta priscorum ducum
Christi figuram finxerint.
Hic rex priorum iudicum,
185
rexere qui Iacob genus,
dominaeque rex ecclesiae,
templi et novelli et pristini.
Hunc posteri Efrem colunt,
hunc sancta Manasse domus 190
omnesque suspiciunt tribus
bis sena fratrum semina.
Quin et propago degener
ritum secuta inconditum,
quaecumque dirum fervidis 195
Baal caminis coxerat,
fumosa avorum numina
saxum, metallum, stipitem,
rasum, dolatum, sectile,
in Christi honorem deserit. 200
Gaudete quidquid gentium est,
Iudaea, Roma, et Graecia,
Aegypte, Thrax, Persa, Scytha,
rex unus omnes possidet.
Laudate vestrum principem 205
omnes beati, ac perditi,
vivi, inbecilli ac mortui:
iam nemo posthac mortuus.
XII. Hymn for the Epiphany
Lift up your eyes, whoe’er ye be
That fare the new-born Christ to see:
For yonder is the shining sign
Of grace perennial and divine.
What means this star, whose piercing rays
Outshine the sun’s resplendent blaze?
’Tis token sure that God is come
In mortal flesh to make His home.
No courtier of the realms of night
Nor monthly moon’s bright acolyte,
This star directs the course of day,
Sole sovereign of the heavenly way.
Although the Bears their track retrace,
Nor wholly their clear beams efface,
Yet ofttimes ’neath the dun cloud’s
haze
They hide themselves from mortal gaze.
But yon Star’s glory hath no end,
Nor to the depths can it descend:
It ne’er is whelmed by envious cloud
That seeks its beauty to enshroud.
Now let the baleful comet die,
The brood of blazing Sirius fly:
God’s orb shall quench their sultry
heats
And drive them from their haughty seats.
Lo! from the regions of the morn
Wherein the radiant sun is born,
The Persian sages see on high
God’s ensign shining in the sky.
Soon as its rising beams prevail
The starry hosts in order pale:
E’en Lucifer durst not upraise
The silvery splendours of his face.
Who is this sovereign (they enquire)
That lords it o’er the ethereal
choir?
’Fore whom the heavens bow down
afraid,
Of all the worlds of light obeyed?
Sure ’tis the sign most reverend
Of Being that doth know no end:
Of One in state sublime arrayed
Ere sky and chaos yet were made.
This is the King of Israel,
Of all in Gentile lands that dwell:
The King to Abram and his seed
Throughout all ages erst decreed.
To him ’twas given his progeny
As stars innumerous to see:
First of believers! moved to slay
His only son, so God to obey.
Behold the Flower of David shine,
Of Jesse’s root the Branch benign:
The sceptre spread with blossoms rare
Wields o’er the world its lordship
fair.
Roused by the portent of the sky
The sages fix their gaze on high,
And speed them ’neath the furrowed
way
Marked by the star’s effulgent ray.
At length its flaming steps it stayed
Poised over where the Child was laid:
Straightway with downcast mien it shed
Its splendours on the sacred Head.
Whereat the travellers outpour
Of Eastern gifts their treasure-store,
Myrrh and sweet-smelling frankincense,
Gold meet for regal opulence.
Behold herein the triple sign
Of Thy pure being, King divine:
Seeing the Father willed in Thee
To plant a threefold majesty.
The gift of gold thee King proclaims:
Thee God the fragrant incense names:
The myrrh declares that Death shall thrust
Within the tomb Thy body’s dust.
Ah! that dark sepulchre, whose fold
God’s body quenched in death doth
hold:
Yet shall He from that durance wake
And Death’s strong prison-fetters
break.
O Bethlehem! no longer thou
The least of cities: all shall vow
That thou art greatest on the earth:
For thou man’s King didst bring
to birth.
Yea thou didst on thy bosom bear
The All-loving Father’s only heir:
Man of the Thunderer’s Spirit made
And God in human flesh arrayed.
The prophets witnessed to the bond
Which sealed to Him the realm profound:
The Father’s Kingdom He received
And the vast legacy perceived.
All things are His in sea and sky,
In hell beneath, in heaven on high:
From East to setting sun, in fee
He holds the earth’s immensity.
Distraught, the tyrant base doth hear
That now the King of Kings draws near
To reign in David’s seat of state
And Israel’s empire dominate.
“Betrayed are we,” he maddened
cries,
“Our throne’s usurper doth
arise:
Go, soldiers, go with sword in hand
And slay all babes within my land.
“Spare no male child: each
nurse’s robe
Your scrutinizing steel must probe:
Spare not the suckling infant, though
O’er mother’s breast its life-blood
flow.
“On Bethlehem our suspicion falls,
On every hearth within its walls:
Lest mothers with love’s tender
zeal
Some manly scion may conceal.”
With daggers drawn the infuriate crew
Upon their murderous errand flew:
Each latest offspring of the womb
To bloody death they foully doom.
Ah tiny limbs! ’twas hard to know
How best to strike the fatal blow:
Too wide the sword-blades are to smite
Those throats so silken-fragile, slight.
O horrid sight! the tender bones
Are dashed against the jagged stones:
Sightless and mangled there they lie,
Poor babes! untimely doomed to die.
Perchance the still deep river laves
Their bodies thrust into the waves:
The current with their sighing sighs,
Sobs with their latest, broken cries.
Ye flowers of martyrdom, all hail!
Of rising morn pure blossoms frail!
By Jesu’s foe were ye downcast,
Like budding roses by the blast.
Lambs of the flock too early slain,
Ye first fruits of Christ’s bitter
pain!
Close to His very altar, gay
With palms and crowns, ye now do play.
Of what avail is deed so vile?
Doth Herod gain by murderous guile?
Of all to death so foully done
Escapes triumphant Christ alone.
Amidst that tide of infant gore
Alone He wins the sheltering shore:
The virgin’s Child survives the
stroke,
When every mother’s heart was broke.
Thus Moses ’scaped the mad decree
Of evil Pharaoh and set free
The flock of God, prefiguring so
Christ spared from fate’s malignant
blow.
Vain too the king’s hostility
Who framed the pitiless decree
That Israel’s mothers should not
rear
To manhood’s strength their offspring
dear.
Quickened by love, a woman’s mind
Found means to thwart that law unkind,
And, falsely true, the child concealed
Destined to be his people’s Shield.
On him it was that God did place
The august priesthood’s holy grace,
The law on stony tablets writ
Did to his trembling hands commit.
And may we not with prophet’s eye
In such a hero Christ descry?
The proud Egyptian’s might he broke
And freed his kinsmen from the yoke.
So we by Error’s might hemmed round
Were by our Captain’s strength unbound:
His foe He wounded in the fight
And saved us from Death’s horrid
night.
Cheering by sign of flame their feet,
Moses renewed with waters sweet
His folk, albeit purified
From stain, what time they crossed the
tide.
And he, remote on peaceful height,
Amalek’s banded hosts did smite:
He prayed with arms stretched out above,
Foreshadowing the Cross of Love.
Yet truer Jesus surely he,
Who after many a victory
And labours long the tribes’ renown
With promised heritage did crown;
Who when the waters rose on high
And now the Jordan’s bed was dry,
Set up twelve stones of memory,
Types of apostles yet to be.
Rightly the Wise Men said, I ween,
That they Judaea’s King had seen,
Since noble deeds of other days
Prophetic chant the Saviour’s praise.
Of those old rulers He is King
Who did to Jacob judgment bring,
King of the Mother Church divine,
God’s ancient and God’s present
Shrine.
Of Ephraim’s sons He is adored:
Manasseh’s sacred house as Lord
Reveres Him: to His might the seed
Of brethren twelve their fealty plead.
Nay, each degenerate race hath fled
Its shameful rites and orgies dread:
Grim Baal in glowing furnace cast
Sinks to the earth, forsook at last.
Idols smoke-blackened, wooden-hewn,
Of brass and stone, in dust are strewn:
The chiselled deities downtrod:
For all confess in Christ their God.
Rejoice all peoples, Jewry, Rome,
Fair Hellas, Thrace, Aegyptus’ home:
Persians and Scythian land forlorn,
Rejoice: the world’s great
King is born!
Behold your Chief! His praise forth
tell:
Ye sick, ye hale, all heaven and hell:
Ay, you whose vital spark hath sped:
For lo! in Him e’en Death is dead.
Epilogus
Inmolat Deo Patri
pius, fidelis, innocens, pudicus
dona conscientiae,
quibus beata mens abundat
intus:
alter et pecuniam 5
recidit, unde victitent egeni.
Nos citos iambicos
sacramus et rotatiles trochaeos,
sanctitatis indigi
nec ad levamen pauperum potentes;
10
adprobat tamen Deus
pedestre carmen, et benignus
audit.
Multa divitis domo
sita est per omnes angulos
supellex.
Fulget aureus scyphus, 15
nec aere defit expolita pelvis:
est et olla fictilis,
gravisque et ampla argentea
est parabsis.
Sunt eburna quaepiam,
nonnulla quercu sunt cavata
et ulmo: 20
omne vas fit utile,
quod est ad usum congruens
herilem,
Instruunt enim domum
ut empta magno, sic parata
ligno.
Me paterno in atrio 25
ut obsoletum vasculum caducis
Christus aptat usibus,
sinitque parte in anguli manere.
Munus ecce fictile
inimus intra regiam salutis;
30
attamen vel infimam
Deo obsequelam praestitisse
prodest.
Quidquid illud accidit,
iuvabit ore personasse Christum.
The pure and faithful saint, whose heart
is whole,
To God the Father makes his
sacrifice
From out the treasures of a stainless
soul,
Glad gifts of innocence, beyond
all price:
Another with free hand bestows his gold,
Whereby his needy neighbour
may be fed.
No wealth of holiness my heart doth hold,
No store have I to buy my
brothers bread:
So here I humbly dedicate to Thee
The rolling trochee and iambus
swift;
Thou wilt approve my simple minstrelsy,
Thine ear will listen to Thy
servant’s gift.
The rich man’s halls are nobly furnished;
This edition of the Cathemerinon of Prudentius has been prepared for the Temple Classics by Rev. R. Martin Pope, M.A. (St John’s College, Cambridge, translator of the “Letters of John Hus"), who has done the translation of the Praefatio and Hymns i., ii., iii., viii., xi., xii., with notes thereon and the note on Prudentius. For the rendering of Hymns iv., v., vi., vii., ix., x., and the Epilogus with notes thereon, Mr R.F. Davis, M.A. (St John’s College, Cambridge), is responsible. The text, with some minor alterations in orthography and punctuation, is that of Dressel (Lipsiae, 1860). The frontispiece is due to the kind suggestion of Dr SANDYS, Public Orator of Cambridge University, to whom the thanks of the translators are hereby presented.
TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS (to give his full title) was born, probably at Saragossa (Caesaraugusta), in Spain, in the year of our Lord 348. The fourth century exercised a profound influence alike on the destiny of the Roman Empire and of the Christian Church. After a long discipline, strangely alternating between fiery persecution and contemptuous toleration, the Church entered upon a new era, when in 323 Constantine, the first Christian emperor, became master of the Roman world. Two years later the Council of Nicaea met to utter its verdict on the Arian controversy and to establish the terms of the orthodox symbol. A generation later Julian took up the reins of empire and commenced his quixotic and fruitless attempt to revive the glories of Paganism. Athanasius died in 373: but fourteen years later Augustine, his successor in the championship of the faith, was baptized, and in 395, at the death of Theodosius, when the Empire was divided between Honorius and Arcadius, he became Bishop of Hippo, and was marked out by his saintliness and learning as the leader of the Western Church, which he shaped by his splendid ideal of the Civitas Dei into unity and stability, when the secular empire was falling into decay.
We know little more of the life of Prudentius than he himself has disclosed. The Preface, which stands as an introduction to his poems, is a miniature autobiography of great interest. M. Boissier in his Fin du Paganisme calls it melancolique: though it is rather the retrospect of a serious and awakened, but not morbid, conscience. Prudentius views his past years in the light of that new spiritual truth to which he has opened his soul. We gather that he received a liberal education and was called to the bar. We need not misunderstand the allusion to the deceitfulness of the barrister life, seeing that the ordinary arts of rhetoric stand condemned by his recently adopted ethical standard. He held two important judicial posts and was promoted to a high position, probably in the civil service and not outside the limits of his native province, the provincia Tarraconensis.
He speaks of himself as having reached the age of fifty-seven, which brings us down to 405, and as intending to consecrate his remaining years to the poetic treatment of religious subjects. When and how he became a Christian we do not know, and it were vain to guess, although the suggestion that he may have owed his conversion to the influence of some Christian family of his acquaintance is at least interesting. It is unlikely that he took up poetry for the first time in his old age. His mastery of all kinds of metre—heroic and lyric—prove the practised hand. The probability is that in the years of repose after a busy career his desire to redeem an unspiritual past suggested for the exercise of his natural gifts a field hitherto unoccupied by any of the writers of his age. Why not consecrate his powers to the task of interesting the literary circles of the Empire in the evangel of Christ? Why not present the truths of Christianity in a poetic guise, wrought into forms of beauty and set forth in the classical metres of Roman literature? This became the passion of his life, and however we may view the results of his toil, the spirit in which he went to work, as described in the touching Epilogue, cannot but evoke our profound admiration. He is but a vessel of earth, but whatever the issue may be, it will be a lasting joy to have sounded forth the praise of Christ in song.
This then is how Prudentius becomes the first poet of the Christian Church, or, as Bentley called him, “the Virgil and Horace of the Christians.” Doubtless there were other influences at work to determine the sphere to which he was naturally attract. Ambrose, who was Bishop of Milan when Prudentius was twenty-six years of age, had written the first Latin hymns to be sung in church. Augustine in a familiar passage of the Confessions (ix. 7.) describes how “the custom arose of singing hymns and psalms, after the use of the Eastern provinces, to save the people from being utterly worn out by their long and sorrowful vigils.” “From that day
Seeing that Prudentius must address himself to most English readers through the imperfect medium of a translation, it may be well to remind those who make their first acquaintance with him that a historical imagination is an indispensable condition of interest and sympathy. If Prudentius has a habit of leaving the main issue and making lengthy and tedious detours into the picturesque parables and miraculous incidents of the Old Testament, there is method in his digressiveness. He knows that one of the charms of Paganism lies in its rich and variegated mythology. Yet Christianity also can point to an even nobler inheritance of the supernatural and the wonderful in the mysterious evolutions of its history. Hence the stories of the early patriarchs, of the Israelites and Moses, of Daniel and Jonah, are imported by the poet as pictorial illustrations of his theme. If occasionally the details border on the grotesque, he certainly reveals a striking knowledge of the Old Testament.
The New Testament is also adequately represented. In one poem (ix.) the miracles of Christ in His earthly ministry and His descent into Hades are narrated with considerable spirit and eloquence. Besides being a student of the Bible, Prudentius is a theologian. His theology is that of the Nicene Creed. The Fall of man, the personality of the Tempter, the mystery of the Trinity and of the Incarnation, the Virgin-birth, the Death and Resurrection of Christ, the pains of the lost and the bliss of the saints, the resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting—these are the themes of his pen, the themes too of the theology of his age. If the poet’s treatment of these truths occasionally appears antiquated and crude to modern ideas, it is at least dignified and intelligent. His mind has absorbed the Christian religion and the Christian theology, and he not unfrequently rises to noble heights in the interpretation of their mysteries.
Reference has already been made to the influence of Ambrose of Milan upon the thought and style of Prudentius. But there is a second and even more powerful influence that deserves at least briefly to be noted—namely, the Christian art of the Catacombs. Apart from such definite statements as e.g. are found in Peristephanon xi., it is obvious that Prudentius had a first-hand knowledge of Rome and particularly of the Catacombs. Everywhere in his poems we find evidences of the deep impression made upon his imagination by the paintings and sculptures of subterranean Rome. The now familiar representations which decorate the remains of the Catacombs suggested to him many of the allusions, the picturesque vignettes and glowing descriptions to be found in his poetry. Thus, the story of Jonah—a common theme typifying the Resurrection—the story of Daniel with its obvious consolations for an age of martyrs, the Good Shepherd and the denial of Peter may be mentioned among the numerous subjects which were reproduced in early Christian art and transferred by the poet to his verse. The symbolism of the Cock, the Dove, and the Lamb borne on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd is a perpetually recurring feature in the lyrics and martyr-hymns of Prudentius, who thus becomes one of our most valuable authorities on the Christian art of the fourth century.
The poems, of which a new English rendering is presented in this volume, are acknowledged by most critics to illustrate some of his best qualities, his brightness and dignity, his touches of nature-painting and his capacity for sustained and well-wrought narrative. As we study these lyrics of the early Church, we feel anew the mighty change that Christianity wrought in Roman life by its doctrine of immortality, and we note
[1] Prudentium, unum inter Christianos vere facundum poetam.
NOTES
HYMNS
THE TITLE
The word Cathemerinon is taken from the Greek and is the genitive of chathemerina “daily things”: the whole title Liber Cathemerinon is equivalent to “Book of daily hymns,” and may be rendered “Hymns for the Christian’s day.”
THE PREFACE
In one or two of the MSS. this introductory poem is stated to be a preface of the Cathemerinon only: but the great majority of the codices support the view which is undoubtedly suggested by internal evidence, that the poem is a general introduction to the whole of Prudentius’ works. It is inserted together with the Epilogus in this volume, because of the intrinsic interest of both poems.
Line
8 The reference is to the toga virilis,
the ordinary
white-coloured garb
of a Roman citizen who at his sixteenth year
laid aside the purple-edged
toga praetexta, which was worn
during the days of boyhood.
16 ff. The cities referred to are unknown:
but it is probable that
they were two municipia
in Northern Spain, and that the office
held by Prudentius was
that of duumvir or prefect. Provision was made
by the twenty-fourth
clause of the law of Salpensa (a town in the
provincia Baetica
of Spain) by which the emperor could be elected
first magistrate of
a municipium, and could thereupon appoint a
prefect to take his
place. This would explain the language of the
text as to the semi-imperial
nature of the post. The phrase
militiae gradus
need only be taken to indicate advancement in the
civil service.
But the words have been interpreted in accordance
with the more familiar
and definite meaning of militia, and
understood to refer
to a purely military post. Dressel thinks that
Prudentius was a miles
Palatinus, that is, a member of the
best-paid and most highly-privileged
24 The consulship of Salia (or Salias) belongs
to the year 348, the
date of the birth of
Prudentius. An inscription (quoted by Migne from
Muratorius, Nov.
Thes. Inscrip., i. 379) has been found in
the
monastery of St. Paul’s
outside the city bearing the words
FILIPPO . ET . SALLIA . COSS
I
1 Of this poem lines 1-8, 81-84, 97-100, were
included in the Roman
Breviary as a hymn to
be sung at Lauds, on Tuesday.
2 The allusions to the cock in this and the following
poem (ii. 37-55)
were doubtless inspired
by the lines of Ambrose in his morning hymn
beginning Aeterne
rerum conditor. Cf. ll. 5-8 and 16-24:
"praeco diei iam sonat noctis profundae pervigil, nocturna lux viantibus a nocte noctem segregans.
* * * * *
surgamus ergo strenue: gallus iacentes excitat, et somnolentos increpat: gallus negantes arguit.
gallo canente spes redit, aegris salus refunditur, mucro latronis conditur, lapsis fides revertitur."
Translation.
“Dawn’s herald now begins to cry,
Lone watcher of the nightly sky:
Light of the dark to pilgrims dear,
Speeding successive midnights drear.
* * * * *
Brisk from our couch let us arise!
Hark to the cock’s arousing cries!
He chides the sluggard’s slumbrous ease,
And shames his unconvincing pleas.
At cock-crow Hope revives again,
Health banishes the stress of pain,
Sheathed is the nightly robber’s sword,
And Faith to fallen hearts restored.”
See also Ambrose, Hexaem., v. 24, for an eloquent passage in the same strain. The cock was the familiar Christian symbol of early rising or vigilance, and numerous representations of it are found in the Catacombs. Cf. the painting from the Catacomb of St. Priscilla reproduced in Bottari’s folio of 1754, where the Good Shepherd is depicted as feeding the lambs, with a crowing cock on His right and left hand. It is also a symbol of the Resurrection, our Lord being supposed to have risen from the grave at the early cockcrowing: see l. 65 et seq. In l. 16 the first bird-notes are interpreted by the poet as a summons to the general judgment. Cf. Mark xiii. 35: “Ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning.” ThisPage 59
passage serves as a kind of text for Prudentius’ first two hymns, and perhaps explains why he has one for cockcrowing and another for morning.
26 A common idea in all literatures. Cf.
Virg., Aen., vi. 278
(taken from Homer),
tum consanguineus Leti Sopor, and Tennyson’s
“Sleep, Death’s
twin-brother” (In Memoriam, 68).
44 Cf. Augustine, Serm. 103:
“These evil spirits seek to seduce
the soul: but when
the sun has arisen, they take to flight.”
59 The denial of Peter forms a subject of Christian
casuistry in
patristic literature,
and this passage recalls the famous classical
parallel in Euripides
(Hipp. 612), “the tongue hath sworn:
yet
unsworn is the heart.”
Cf. Augustine, cont. mendacium: “In
that
denial he held fast
the truth in his heart, while with his lips he
uttered falsehood.”
For a striking representation of Peter and the
cock, on a sarcophagus
discovered in the Catacombs and now deposited
in the Vatican library,
see Maitland’s Church in the Catacombs,
p. 347. The closing
words of the passage in Ambrose’s Hexaemeron,
already referred to
under l. 2, may here be quoted: “As the
cock
peals forth his notes,
the robber leaves his plots: Lucifer himself
awakes and lights up
the sky: the distressful sailor lays aside his
gloom, and all the storms
and tempests that have risen in fury under
the winds of the evening
begin to die down: the soul of the saint
leaps to prayer and
renews the study of the written word: and
finally, the very Rock
of the Church is cleansed of the stain he had
contracted by his denials
before the cock crew.”
81 ff. The best commentary on these words
is to be found in the
following passage from
the second epistle of Basil to Gregory
Nazianzen: “What
can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the
angelic host by giving
oneself at the peep of dawn to prayer and by
turning at sunrise to
work with hymns and songs: yea, all the day
through to make prayer
the accompaniment of our toils and to season
them with praise as
with salt? For the solace of hymns changes the
soul’s sadness
into mirth.”
II
1 This poem furnishes two hymns to the Roman Breviary,
one to be sung
on Wednesday at Lauds,
and consisting of ll. 1-8, 48-53 (omitting l.
50), 57, 59, 60, 67
(tu vera lux caelestium) and 68: the other
for Thursday at Lauds,
consisting of ll. 25 (lux ecce surgit
aurea), 93-108.
17 Cf. Ambrose, ii. 8, de Cain et Abel:
“The thief shuns the day
as the witness of his
crime: the adulterer is abashed by the dawn
as the accomplice of
his adultery.”
51 The practice of praying on bended knees is
frequently referred to
in early Christian writers.
Cf. Clem., 1 Ad. Cor. cc. xlviii.: “Let
us fall down before
the Lord,” and Shepherd of Hermas, vis. 1. i.:
“After I had crossed
that river I came unto the banks and there
knelt down and began
to pray.” Dressel quotes from Juvencus (iv.
648), a Spanish poet
and Christian contemporary of Prudentius,
genibus nixi regem
dominumque salutant, “on bended knees they
make obeisance unto
their King and Lord.”
63 The Jordan is a poetical figure for baptism, suggested doubtless by the baptism of our Lord in that river. Cf. vii. 73-75.
67 Cf. Milton, Paradise Regained,
i. 293: “So spake our Morning
Star, then in his rise.”
The figure is suggested by Rev. xxii. 16:
“I am ... the
bright, the morning star.”
105 The conception of God as speculator
may be paralleled by a
passage in the epistle
of Polycarp ad Philipp. iv., where God is
described as the Arch-critic
(panta momoschopeitai) and subsequently
(vii.) as ton pantepopten
theon, “the All-witnessing God.”
The
last verse contains
a distinct echo of the closing words of the
fourth chapter of Polycarp:
“None of the reasonings or thoughts,
nor any of the hidden
things of the heart escape His notice.”
III
2 Word-begot. The original verbigena,
on the analogy of such
words (cf. terrigena,
Martigena, etc.), can only mean “begotten
of the Word.”
It is evident, therefore, the “Word” in
this connection
is not the Johannine
Logos or Second Person in the Trinity.
Prudentius cannot be
guilty of the error which he expressly
condemns (Apoth.
249) as perquam ridiculum and regard the
Logos as begetting Himself.
Consequently, both in this passage and
in xi. 18 (verbo
editus) the “Word” must be taken as
approximating
rather to the Alexandrian
conception of the Logos as the Divine
Reason. In this
way Christ is expressly described as the offspring
of the Intellectus
Dei, the immanent Intelligence of the Deity.
If this conception is
considered to be beyond Prudentius, we can only
suppose that both here
and in xi. 18, his language is theologically
loose. Some excuse
may be offered for this on the ground that the
Latin language is ill-adapted
for expressing metaphysical truths.
The late Bishop Westcott
remarked on the inadequacy of the Latin
original of “the
Word was made flesh” (verbum caro factum est),
both substantive and
verb falling short of the richness of their
Greek equivalents. (Vid.
also note on iv. 15.)
11 Cf. Ambrose, Hymn vii.:—
"Christusque nobis sit cibus Potusque noster sit fides; Laeti bibamus sobriam Ebrietatem Spiritus."
Translation.
“May
Christ be now the Bread we eat,
Be
simple Faith our potion sweet:
Let
our intoxication be
The
Spirit’s calm sobriety.”
The idea is familiar to readers
of Herbert and Herrick, though it
is elaborated by them with quaint conceits somewhat
foreign to the
Latin poet. Cf. Herbert, The Banquet:—
“O what sweetnesse
from the bowl
Fills my soul!
* * * * *
Is some starre (fled from
the sphere)
Melted there,
As we sugar melt in wine?
* * * * *
Doubtless neither starre
nor flower
Hath the power
Such a sweetnesse to impart:
Only God, Who gives perfumes,
Flesh assumes,
And with it perfumed my heart.”
Also Herrick, A Thanksgiving to God:—
“Lord, I confess too,
when I dine,
The pulse is thine.
* * * * *
’Tis thou that crown’st
my glittering hearth
With guiltless mirth,
And giv’st me wassail bowls to drink,
Spiced to the brink.”
28 The original dactylico refers to the
metre of the Latin of this
poem. For a rendering
of ll. 1-65 in the metre of the original see
Glover, Life and
Letters in the Fourth Century, pp. 267-269.
58 This and the following lines should satisfy
the most ardent
vegetarian who seeks
to uphold his abstinence from animal food by
the customs of the early
Church. In Christian circles, however, the
abstinence was practised
on personal and spiritual grounds, e.g.,
Jerome (de Regul.
Monach., xi.) says, “The eating of flesh
is the
seed-plot of lust”
(seminarium libidinis): so also Augustine
(de
moribus Ecc. Cath.,
i. 33), who supports what doubtless was the
view of Prudentius,
namely that the avoidance of animal flesh was a
safe-guard but not a
binding Christian duty.
75 Unwed. Prudentius thus adopts the view
of the ancient world on
the question of the
generation of bees. Cf. Virgil, Geo.
iv. 198,
and Pliny, Nat.
Hist., xi. 16. Dryden’s translation
of Virgil
(l.c.) is as
follows:—
“But
(what’s more strange) their modest appetites,
Averse
from Venus, fly the nuptial rights;
No
lust enervates their heroic mind,
Nor
wastes their strength on wanton womankind,
But
in their mouths reside their genial powers,
They
gather children from the leaves and flowers.”
86 Cf. Ps. liv. 18, 19 (Vulg.): Vespere
et mane et meridie narrabo
et annuntiabo et exaudiet
vocem meam. “In the evening and morning
and at noonday will
I pray, and that instantly and he shall hear my
voice” (P.
B. Version).
127 This is, strictly speaking, an error:
it is the woman’s seed
which is to bruise the
serpent’s head. The error was perpetuated
in the Latin Church
by the Vulgate of Gen. iii. 15, ipsa conteret
caput tuum, where
ipsa refers to the woman (= she herself).
157 The epithet “white-robed” refers
to the newly-baptized converts
who received the white
robe as a symbol of their new nature. Cf.
Perist. i. 67:
Christus illic candidatis praesidet cohortibus,
and Ambrose (de Mysteriis,
vii.): “Thou didst receive (that is,
after baptism) white
garments as a sign that thou hast doffed the
covering of thy sins
and put on the chaste raiment (velamina) of
innocence, whereof the
prophet spake (Ps. li. 7), ’Thou shalt purge
me with hyssop, and
I shall be clean: thou shalt wash me, and I
shall be whiter than
snow’” (Vulg.).
199 Phlegethon (rendered “Hell"), one of
the rivers of the Virgilian
Hades, is used to express
the abode of the lost. Cf. Milton, P.
L.,
ii. 580:—
“...
fierce Phlegethon,
Whose
waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.”
The subject of the descensus ad inferos was evidently a favourite one with Prudentius and his contemporaries. It has been suggested that apart from the scriptural basis of this conception Prudentius was influenced by the so-called Gospel of Nicodemus, which embodies two books, the Acts of Pilate and the Descent into Hell. The latter is assigned by several critics to 400 or thereabouts, and gives a graphic account of Christ’s doings in Hades. Synesius deals with the subject in one of his hymns (ix.), and Mrs Browning’s translation (see the essay on The Greek Christian Poets) of a passage in that poem may be quoted:—
“Down Thou earnest, low as earth,
Bound to those of mortal birth;
Down Thou earnest, low as hell,
Where Shepherd-Death did tend and keep
A thousand nations like to sheep,
While weak with age old Hades fell
Shivering through his dark to view Thee.
* * * * *
So, redeeming from their pain
Chains of disembodied ones,
Thou didst lead whom thou didst gather
Upward in ascent again,
With a great hymn to the Father,
Upward to the pure white thrones!”
For a modern treatment of the
theme see Christ in Hades, by
Stephen Phillips.
202 The words suggest the Catacombs, and perhaps
refer to the custom
of placing in the tomb
a small cup or vase containing spices, of
which myrrh (a symbol
of death, according to Gregory of Nyssa, cf.
xii. 71) was most usually
employed. Or the allusion may be to the
practice of embalming.
205 The concluding line is beautifully illustrated
by the epitaph
on the martyr Alexander,
found over one of the graves in the cemetery
of Callixtus in the
Catacombs:—
ALEXANDER MORTVVS NON EST
SED VIVIT
SVPER ASTRA ET CORPVS IN HOC TVMVLO
QVIESCIT ...
“Alexander is not dead,
but lives above the stars
and his body rests in this tomb.”
IV
15 Prudentius here, as again in v. 160, emphasises
his belief in
the procession of the
Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. The
“filioque”
clause was not actually added to the Nicene Creed till
the Council of Toledo
(589 A.D.), but the doctrine was expressly
maintained by Augustine,
and occurs in a Confession of Faith of an
earlier Synod of Toledo
(447 A.D.?), and in the words of Leo I.
(Ep. ad Turib.,
c. 1), “de utroque processit.” The
addition
was not embodied into
the Creed as used at Rome as late as the
beginning of the ninth
century. (Vid. Harnack, Hist. of Dogma,
iv. 132.) Prudentius
probably followed, as regards the Trinity,
the doctrine generally
held by the Spanish Church of his day; in
many points it is difficult
(cf. note on iii. 2), but appears to be
derived partly from
Tertullian and partly from Marcellus.
59 The identification of the Habakkuk of this
legend (vid. the
Apocryphal “Bel
and the Dragon”) with the O. T. prophet is erroneous.
This version of the
story of Daniel is sometimes represented in the
frescoes of the Catacombs,
where the subject is a very favourite
one, as is natural in
an age when the cry “Christiani ad leones”
so often rang through
the streets of Rome.
V
1 There has been much doubt as to the title and
scope of this hymn.
Some early editors (e.g.,
Fabricius and Arevalus) adopt the title
“ad incensum
cerei Paschalis,” or “de novo lumine
Paschalis
Sabbati,”
and confine its object to the ceremonial of Easter
Eve,
which is specially alluded
to in ll. 125 et seq. Others, following
the best MSS., give
the simpler title used in this text, and regard
it as a hymn for daily
use. This view is supported by the weight
of evidence: the
position of the hymn among the first six (none of
which are for special
days), and the fact that the Benediction of
the Paschal Candle was
7 The words incussu silicis are perhaps
reminiscent of the Spanish
ceremonial of Easter
Eve, when the bishop struck the flint, lighting
from it first a candle,
then a lamp, from which the deacons lighted
their candles; these
were blessed by the bishop, and the procession
from the processus
into the church followed.
21 Cf. Vaughan, The Lampe:—
“Then
thou dost weepe
Still
as thou burn’st, and the warm droppings creepe
To
measure out thy length.”
119 The folium here is probably the ancient
malobathrum, generally
identified as the Indian
cinnamon. The Arab traders who brought this
valuable product into
the Western markets, surrounded its origin with
much mystery.
125 The following stanzas, in which Prudentius
elaborates the
beautiful fancy that
the sufferings of lost spirits are alleviated
at Eastertide, have
incurred the severe censure of some of the
earlier editors.
Fabricius calls it “a Spanish fabrication,”
while
others, as Cardinal
Bellarmine, declare that the author is speaking
“poetically and
not dogmatically.” That such a belief, however,
was
actually held by some
section of the ancient Church is evident from
140 It is somewhat startling to find Prudentius
speaking of the Holy
Eucharist in terms which
would recall to his contemporary readers
Virgilian phraseology
and the honeyed cake (liba) used in pagan
sacrifice. It must
be remembered, however, that in the early days of
the Church paganism
and Christianity flourished side by side for a
considerable period;
and we find various pagan practices allowed
to continue, where they
were innocent. Thus the bride-cake and the
bridal-veil are of heathen
origin; the mirth of the Saturnalia
survives, in a modified
form, in some of the rejoicings of Christmas;
and the flowers, which
had filled the pagan temples during the
Floralia, were employed
to adorn God’s House at the Easter festival.
141 The brilliant illumination of churches on
Easter Eve is very
ancient. According
to Eusebius, Constantine “turned the mystical
vigil into the light
of day by means of lamps suspended in every
part, setting up also
great waxen tapers, as large as columns,
throughout the city.”
Gregory of Nyssa also speaks of “the cloud
of fire mingling with
the rays of the rising sun, and making the eve
and the festival one
continuous day without interval of darkness.”
153 Cf. Paradise Lost, iii. 51:—
“So much the rather
thou, Celestial Light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her
powers
Irradiate.”
VI
The last seven stanzas of this
hymn are used in the Moz. Brev. at
Compline on Passion Sunday, and daily until Maundy
Thursday.
56 Cf. Job. vii. 14: “Then Thou
scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest
me through visions.”
95 In the translation of this stanza the explanation
of Nebrissensis
is adopted, an early
editor of Prudentius (1512) and one of the
leaders of the Renaissance
in Spain. He considers that “the few of
the impious who are
condemned to eternal death” are the incurable
sinners, immedicabiles.
Others attempt to reconcile these words
with the general belief
of the early Church by maintaining that
non pii is not
equivalent to impii, but rather refers to the
class that is neither
decidedly good nor definitely bad, and that
the mercy of God is
extended to the majority of these. A third view
is that the poet is
speaking relatively, and means that few are
condemned in proportion
to the number that deserve condemnation.
In whatever way the
words are explained, it is interesting to find
an advocate of “the
larger hope” in the fourth century.
105 Cf. Rev. xvii. 8: “The beast
that thou sawest was, and is not;
and is about to come
up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition.”
109 Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 4: “The son of
perdition, who opposeth and
exalteth himself above
all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
so that he as God sitteth
in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God.”
127 The phrase rorem subisse sacrum would
suggest baptism by
sprinkling, except that
Prudentius uses the word loosely elsewhere.
Immersion was undoubtedly
the general practice of the early Church,
“clinical”
baptism being allowed only in cases of necessity.
128 The anointing with oil showed that the catechumen
was enrolled
among the spiritual
priesthood, and with the unction was joined the
sign of the Cross on
the forehead.
VII
1 This entire hymn is used in the Moz. Brev.,
divided into fifteen
portions for use during
Lent.
27 The word sacerdos here, as in ix. 4,
is used in the sense of
“prophet”;
but in both passages there is some idea of the exercise
of priestly functions.
Elijah may be called “priest” from his
having
offered sacrifice on
Mount Carmel, and David from his wearing the
priestly ephod as he
danced before the Ark.
69 The old editors discuss these lines with much
gravity, and mostly
come to the conclusion
that “locusts” were “a kind of bird,
of
the length of a finger,
with quick, short flight”; while the “wild
honey” was not
actual honey at all, but “the tender leaves of
certain trees, which,
when crushed by the fingers, had the pleasant
savour of honey.”
76 A gloss on one of the Vat. MSS. adds:
“This is not authorised; for
John merely baptized
with water, and not in the name of the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost;
therefore his baptism was of no avail, save that
it prepared the way
for Christ to baptize.” Many of the Fathers,
however, while expressly
affirming that John’s baptism differed
from that of Christ,
allowed that the stains of sin were washed
away by the former.
St. Chrysostom draws this distinction: “There
was in John’s
baptism pardon, but not without repentance; remission
of sins, but only attained
by grief.”
100 The story of Jonah, as a type of the Resurrection,
is one of the
most frequent subjects
of the frescoes of the Catacombs. In one very
ancient picture, a man
in a small boat is depicted in the act of
placing the prophet
in the very jaws of the whale.
115 Two stanzas are omitted in the text, which
depict the sufferings
of Jonah with a wealth
of detail not in accordance with modern
taste. For the
sake of giving a complete text, we append them here:—
“Transmissa raptim praeda cassos dentium eludit ictus incruentam transvolans inpune linguam, ne retentam mordicus offam molares dissecarent uvidi, os omne transit et palatum praeterit.
Ternis dierum ac noctium processibus mansit ferino devoratus gutture, errabat illic per latebras viscerum, ventris recessus circumibat tortiles anhelus extis intus aestuantibus.”
194 Prudentius appears to have believed that the
mystery of the
Incarnation was concealed
from Satan, and that the Temptation
was an endeavour to
ascertain whether Jesus was the Son of God
or no. Cf.
Milton, Par. Reg. i.:—
“Who
this is we must learn, for Man he seems
In
all his lineaments, though in his face
The
glimpses of his Father’s glory shine.”
VIII
9 The day of twelve hours appears to have been
adopted by the
Romans about B.C. 291.
Ambrose (de virginibus, iii. 4), commenting
on Ps. cxix. and the
words “Seven times a day do I praise thee,”
declares that prayers
are to be offered up with thanksgiving when
we rise from sleep,
when we go forth, when we prepare to take food,
when we have taken it,
at the hour of incense, and lastly, when we
retire to rest.
He probably alludes to private prayer. The stanza
here indicates that
the second hour after midday has arrived, when
the fasting ended and
the midday meal was taken.
14 The word festum, as in vii. 4, indicates
a special fast day.
Until the sixth century,
fasting was simply a penitential discipline
and was not used as
a particular mode of penance. In the fourth
century it was a fairly
common practice as a preparation for Holy
Communion. Fasting
before Baptism was a much earlier practice.
The stated fasts of
the Western Church were (1) annual, that
is, ante-paschal or
Lent; (2) monthly, or the fasts of the four
seasons in the 1st,
4th, 7th and 10th months; (3) weekly, on
Wednesday and Friday.
There was also the fast of the Rogations and
the Vigils or Eves of
holy days. It is doubtful whether all these
were in vogue as early
as Prudentius.
33 This passage on the Shepherd reminds us of
one of the most common
pictorial representations
of the Catacombs. Christian art owed
something to paganism
in this matter; ancient sculptures represent
the god Pan with a goat
thrown across his shoulders and a Pan’s
pipe in his hand; while
the poets Calpurnius and Tibullus both
refer to the custom
of carrying a stray or neglected lamb on the
shoulders of the shepherd.
Going further back, the figure is common
in the O. T. to express
God’s care over His people. Our Lord
therefore used for His
IX
1 This hymn, which first introduced into sacred
song the trochaic
metre familiar in Greek
Tragedy and the Latin adaptations of it,
supplies the Moz.
Brev. with some stanzas for use during Holy Week.
The lines selected are
22-24, 1-21.
11 The use of the symbol O, (pronounced
here as a single
syllable), appears to
indicate that the names Omega and Omikron
came into use at a later
date than Prudentius’ time. In Rev. i. 8,
the best MSS. read ego
eimi to alpha kai to o.
33 The words vulnerum piamina are generally
supposed to refer to
the “gifts which
Moses commanded” to be offered by those healed
of
leprosy (Lev. xiv. 2).
If so, Prudentius’ language may imply that
the cure was not actually
complete until the offering of these gifts,
and is at variance with
St. Matthew, viii. 43, “and forthwith his
leprosy was cleansed.”
Probably, however, his idea is rather that
the gifts to the priest
formally marked the leper as a clean man.
71 Cf. note on iii. 199.
X
1 Parts of this hymn are used in the Moz.
Brev. in the Office of the
Dead, being ll. 1-16,
45-48, 57-68, 157-168.
The burial rites of the primitive Church were simple, and marked by an absence of the ostentatious expression of grief which the pagan peoples displayed. The general practice of cremation was rejected, partly owing to the new belief in the resurrection of the body, and partly from a desire to imitate the burial of the Lord. At Rome, during the first three centuries, the dead were laid in the Catacombs, in which Prudentius took conspicuous interest (see Translator’s Note), but after 338 A.D. this practice became less frequent, and was completely abandoned after 410 A.D. Elsewhere, from the earliest times, the Christians purchased special enclosures (areae), which were often attacked and rifled by angry mobs in the days of persecution. The body was frequently embalmed (cf. ll. 51, 52), swathed in white linen (l. 49), and placed in a coffin; vigils and hymns continued for three or four days, but hired mourners were forbidden (l. 113), and instead of the dirgesPage 69
of the heathens, chants expressive of triumphant faith were sung as the body was carried to the grave, where a simple service was held, and evergreens and flowers were strewn about the tomb (ll. 169, 170). The earliest inscriptions are often roughly scratched on plaster, and consist merely of a name and age, or simple words like—
GEMELLA DORMIT IN PACE
but later (cf. l. 171), they were engraved on small marble slabs.
25 In both thought and language this stanza, as
vii. 16 et seq., is
evidently reminiscent
of Horace (Sat. 2, ii. 77): Quin corpus
onustum, etc.
“The
Body, too, with Yesterday’s excess
Burthened
and tired, shall the pure Soul depress,
Weigh
down this Portion of celestial Birth,
This
Breath of God, and fix it to the Earth.”
(Francis).
51 Boldetti, in his work on the Catacombs (lib.
i. cap. 59), says
that on many occasions,
when he was present at the opening of a
grave, the assembled
company were conscious of a spicy odour
diffusing itself from
the tomb. Cf. Tertullian (Apol. 42):
“The
Arabs and Sabaeans knew
well that we consume more of their precious
merchandise for our
dead than do the heathen for their gods.”
57 Prudentius’ firm faith in the resurrection
of the body is also
nobly expressed in the
Apotheosis (ll. 1063 et seq.):—
“Nosco meum in Christo
corpus resurgere; quid me
Desperare iubes? veniam, quibus ille revenit
Calcata de morte viis: quod credimus
hoc est.
* * * * *
Pellite corde metum, mea membra, et credite vosmet Cum Christo reditura Deo; nam vos gerit ille Et secum revocat: morbos ridete minaces: Inflictos casus contemnite; tetra sepulcra Despuite; exsurgens quo Christus provocat, ite.”
Translation.
“I know in Christ my body shall arise;
Why bid me, then, despair? for I shall go
By that same path whereby my Lord returned,
Death trodden ’neath His feet: this is my creed.
Banish, my limbs, all terror; and believe
That ye with Christ our God shall yet return;
He beareth you and with Himself recalls.
Laugh at the threats of sickness; scorn the blows
Of fate; despise the horrors of the tomb;
And fare ye where the risen Christ doth call.”
61 The poet expresses as a duty owed to Christ
Himself the heathen
obligation of casting
three handfuls of earth upon a body discovered
dead.
69 For the incident referred to in these lines,
see the Apocryphal
book of Tobias, cc.
ii. and xi. Tobit, a pious Israelite captive
in Nineveh, was reduced
to beggary as the result of his zeal in
burying those of his
countrymen who had been killed and exposed by
royal command.
He also lost his sight, which was eventually restored
by the application of
the gall of a fish which attacked his son
Tobias, and was killed
by him. The “fish” of the legend is
probably
the crocodile, whose
gall was credited with medicinal properties by
various Greek and Latin
writers. Cf. Pliny, N. H. xxviii.
8: “They
say that nothing avails
more against cataract than to anoint the eyes
with its gall mixed
with honey.”
113 Cf. Cyprian (De Mortal. 20):
“We must not lament our brethren
whom the Lord’s
summons has freed from the world, for we know that
they are not lost, but
gone before. We may not wear the black robes
of mourning while they
have put on the white raiment of joy. Nor
may we grieve for those
as lost whom we know to be living with God.”
171 Cf. Perist. vii.:—
“Nos
pio fletu, date, perluamus
Marmorum
sulcos.”
The early Christian epitaphs, of which many thousands exist, are instinct with a faith which is in striking contrast to the unrelieved gloom or sullen resignation of paganism. We may compare with the common
AVE ATQVE VALE
“Hail and farewell”
or inscriptions like
INFANTI DVLCISSIMO QVEM DI IRATI AETERNO SOMNO DEDERUNT
“To a very sweet babe,
whom the angry gods gave to unending
sleep.”
the Christian
DVLCIS ET INNOCENS HIC DORMIT
SEVERIANVS SOMNO PACIS CVIVS
SPIRITVS IN LVCE DOMINI SVSCEPTVS EST (A.D.
393)
“Here slumbers in the
sleep of peace the sweet and innocent
Severianus, whose spirit is received in the
light of the Lord”
or
NATVS EST LAVRENTIVS IN ETERNVM ANN. XX. DORMIT IN PACE (A.D. 329)
“Laurentius was born
into eternity in his twentieth year. He
sleeps in peace.”
See also note on iii. 205.
XI
1 Virgil’s Fourth Eclogue known as the “Pollio”
has undoubtedly
influenced the thought
and style of this poem: the more noticeable
parallels will be pointed
out as they occur. In Milton’s ode On
the Morning of Christ’s
Nativity there are several passages which
recall Prudentius’
treatment of the theme in this and the succeeding
hymn; but curiously
enough, the Puritan poet in alluding to the
season of the Nativity
takes an opposite line of thought, and
regards the diminished
sunshine of winter as a veiling of an inferior
18 For the somewhat obscure phrase verbo editus, see note on iii. 2.
20 For “Sophia” or the Divine Creative
Wisdom, see Prov. iii. 19, 20,
and especially viii.
27-31, where the language “has been of signal
importance in the history
of thought, helping, as it does, to make
a bridge between Eastern
and Greek ideas, and to prepare the way
for the Incarnation”
(Davison, Wisdom-Literature of the O. T., pp.
5, 6). In Alexandrian
theology the conception of God’s transcendence
gave rise to the doctrine
of an intermediate power or logos, by
which creation was effected.
In the Prologue of the fourth Gospel
the idea was set forth
in its purely Christian form. See 1, 3, where
the Logos or the pre-incarnate
Christ is described as the maker of
all things—an
idea which is also illustrated by the language of St.
Paul in such passages
as Col. i. 6.
59 Cf. for the conception of a golden age, Virg.,
Ecl., iv. 5
et seq.:
Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo, etc.
65 Reminiscences of ancient prophecy appear to
be embodied in this
and following lines.
Cf. Joel iii. 18: “And it shall come
to pass
in that day that the
mountains shall drop down sweet wine and the
hills shall flow with
milk.” Amos ix. 13: “The mountains
shall drop
sweet wine and all the
hills shall melt.” But cf. especially Virg.,
Ecl., iv. 18-30:
At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu,
etc.
“Unbidden earth shall
wreathing ivy bring,
And fragrant herbs (the promises of spring)
As her first off’rings to her infant
king.
* * * * *
Unlaboured harvest shall the fields adorn,
And clustered grapes shall blush on every thorn;
The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep,
And through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep.”
(Dryden’s Trans.)
81 The legend of the ox and ass adoring our Lord
arose from an
allegorical interpretation
of Isa. i. 3: “The ox knoweth his owner,
the ass his master’s
crib.” Origen (Homilies on St. Luke
xiii.)
is the first to allegorise
on the passage in Isaiah, where the word
for “crib”
in the Greek translation of the O. T. is identical
97 For the obstetrix, cf. Proto-Evangelium
of the Pseudo-James (a
Greek romance of the
fourth century), Sec. 18 et seq., where Joseph
is represented as seeking
and finding a Hebrew midwife.
100 Cf. Milton’s Ode on the Nativity, ll. 157-164:—
“With such a horrid
clang
As on Mount Sinai rang
While the red fire and smould’ring
clouds outbrake:
The aged earth aghast
With terror of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the centre shake;
When at the world’s last session
The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread
his throne.”
XII
1 This poem has given four hymns to the Roman
Breviary:—
(1) For the Feast of
the Transfiguration, Vespers and Matins
consisting of ll. 1-4,
37-40, 41-44, 85-88.
(2) For the Epiphany
at Lauds, beginning O sola magnarum urbium,
ll. 77-80, 5-8, 61-72.
(3) For the Feast of
Holy Innocents at Matins, beginning Audit
tyrannus anxius,
ll. 93-100, 133-136.
(4) Also the Feast of
Holy Innocents at Lauds, beginning Salvete
flores martyrum,
ll. 125-132.
5 For a curious parallel to these opening lines
see Henry Vaughan’s
Pious Thoughts and
Ejaculations (the Nativity):—
“But
stay! what light is that doth stream
And
drop here in a gilded beam?
It
is Thy star runs Page and brings
Thy
tributary Eastern kings.
Lord!
grant some light to us that we
May
find with them the way to Thee!”
12 Cf. Ignatius, Ep. ad Ephes. xix.:
“All the other stars, together
with the Sun and Moon,
became a chorus to the Star, which in its
light excelled them
all.”
15 Prudentius mentions the constellations of Ursa
Major and Ursa
Minor (to which latter
the Pole Star belongs) as examples of stars
in constant apparition.
All the Little Bear stars are within about
24 deg. from the Pole;
hence, if viewed from Saragossa, the birthplace
of Prudentius, the lowest
altitude of any of them would be 18 deg.
above the north horizon.
The same applies to the majority of the
stars in the Great Bear.
Some few would sink below the horizon
for a brief time in
each twenty-four hours; but the greater number,
especially the seven
principal stars known as the “Plough,”
would
be sufficiently high
up at their lowest northern altitudes to be in
perpetual apparition.
[My friend, Rev. R. Killip, F.R.A.S., has
kindly furnished me
with these particulars.] Allusions to the Bears
are constantly recurring
in the classical poets (cf. e.g. Ovid.,
Met. xiii. 293,
immunemque aequoris Arcton, “the Bear
that never
touches the sea").
The idea that these stars are mostly hidden by
clouds, though perpetually
in view, is a poetic hyperbole intended
to enhance the uniqueness
of the Star of Bethlehem.
49 Jerome (ad Eustoch. Ep. 22) commenting
on the passage in Isa.
xi. 1, “And there
shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse,
and a flower shall rise
up out of his root” (Vulg.), remarks: “The
rod (virga) is
the mother of the Lord, simple, pure, sincere ...
the flower of the rod
is Christ, who saith, ’I am the flower of the
field and the lily of
the valleys.’”
69 This symbolism of the gifts of the Magi is
also found in Juvencus
(I. 250): “Frankincense,
gold and myrrh they bring as gifts to a
King, a Man and a God,”
and is again alluded to by Prudentius in
Apoth. 631 et
seq. The idea is expressed in the hymn of Jacopone
da Todi, beginning Verbum
caro factum est (Mone, Hymni Latini,
Vol. 2):
“Gold
to the kingly,
Incense
to the priestly,
Myrrh
to the mortal:”
and it has passed into the Office for Epiphany in the Roman Breviary: “There are three precious gifts which the Magi offered to their Lord that day, and they contain in themselves sacred mysteries: in the gold, that the power of a king may be displayed: in the frankincense, consider the great high priest: in the myrrh, the burial of the Lord” et passim.
172 The idea that Moses defeated the Amalekites
because his arms were
outstretched in the
form of a cross is found also in one of the hymns
(lxi.) of Gregory Nazianzen.
The symbol of the Christian religion,
the cross, “was
fancifully traced by the Fathers throughout the
universe: the four
points of the compass, the ’height, breadth,
length and depth’
of the Apostle expressed, or were expressed by,
the cross.... The
cross explained everything” (Maitland, Church
in
the Catacombs, p.
202).
193 The discomfiture of the heathen gods wrought
by the Incarnation
is elaborated by Milton,
whose lines recall this and similar passages
in Prudentius:—
“Peor, and Baaelim
Forsake their temples dim
* * * * *
And sullen Moloch fled,
Hath left in shadows dread,
His burning idol all of blackest hue.
Our Babe, to show his Godhead
true,
Can in his swaddling bands control the damned
crew.”
FINIS