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         Title: The Hymns of Prudentius translated by R. Martin Pope
    Creator(s): Aurelius Prudentius (358-413)
                Pope, Ralph Martin (Translator)
   Print Basis: London: J. M. Dent and Co.: Aldine House.
        Rights: Public domain in the United States but possibly not the United
                Kingdom.
    LC Call no: PA6648.P6 A7
   LC Subjects:

                Roman literature

                Individual authors
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   THE HYMNS ^of
   PRUDENTIUS
   TRANSLATED
   ^by R ·
   MARTIN ·
   POPE

   MDCCCCV PUBLISHED BY J.M. DENT
   AND CO: ALDINE HOUSE LONDON W C

                               CATHEMERINON LIBER
                                       OF
                                   PRUDENTIUS

  HYMNS FOR THE CHRISTIAN'S DAY
  NEWLY TRANSLATED INTO
  ENGLISH VERSE
     __________________________________________________________________

  PRAEFATIO


   Per quinquennia iam [1]decem,

   ni fallor, fuimus: septimus insuper

   annum cardo rotat, dum fruimur sole volubili.

   Instat terminus et diem

       5vicinum senio iam Deus adplicat.

   Quid nos utile tanti spatio temporis egimus?

   Aetas prima crepantibus

   levit sub ferulis: mox docuit [2]toga

   infectum vitiis falsa loqui, non sine crimine.

       10Tum lasciva protervitas,

   et luxus petulans (heu pudet ac piget)

   foedavit iuvenem nequitiae sordibus ac luto.

   Exin iurgia turbidos

   armarunt animos et male pertinax

       15vincendi studium subiacuit casibus asperis.

   Bis legum [3]moderamine

   frenos nobilium reximus urbium,

   ius civile bonis reddidimus, terruimus reos.

   Tandem militiae gradu

       20evectum pietas principis extulit

   adsumptum propius stare iubens ordine proximo.

   Haec dum vita volans agit,

   inrepsit subito canities seni

   oblitum veteris me Saliae consulis [4]arguens:

       25ex quo prima dies mihi

   quam multas hiemes volverit et rosas

   pratis post glaciem reddiderit, nix capitis probat.

   Numquid talia proderunt

   carnis post obitum vel bona vel mala,

       30cum iam, quidquid id est, quod fueram, mors aboleverit?

   Dicendum mihi; Quisquis es,

   mundum, quem coluit, mens tua perdidit:

   non sunt illa Dei, quae studuit, cuius habeberis.

   Atqui fine sub ultimo

       35peccatrix anima stultitiam exuat:

   saltem voce Deum concelebret, si meritis nequit:

   hymnis continuet dies,

   nec nox ulla vacet, quin Dominum canat:

   pugnet contra hereses, catholicam discutiat fidem,

       40conculcet sacra gentium,

   labem, Roma, tuis inferat idolis,

   carmen martyribus devoveat, laudet apostolos.

   Haec dum scribo vel eloquor,

   vinclis o utinam corporis emicem

       45liber, quo tulerit lingua sono mobilis ultimo.
     __________________________________________________________________

  PREFACE


   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!
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  I. HYMNUS AD GALLI CANTUM


   Ales diei [5]nuntius

   lucem propinquam [6]praecinit;

   nos excitator mentium

   iam Christus ad vitam vocat.


       5Auferte, clamat, lectulos

   aegros, soporos, desides:

   castique recti ac sobrii

   vigilate, iam sum proximus.


   Post solis ortum fulgidi

       10serum est cubile spernere,

   ni parte noctis addita

   tempus labori adieceris.


   Vox ista, qua strepunt aves

   stantes sub ipso culmine

     15paulo ante quam lux emicet,

   nostri figura est iudicis.


   Tectos tenebris horridis

   stratisque opertos segnibus

   suadet quietem linquere

     20iam iamque venturo die.


   Ut, cum coruscis flatibus

   aurora caelum sparserit,

   omnes labore exercitos

   confirmet ad spem luminis.


     25Hic somnus ad tempus datus

   est forma mortis [7]perpetis,

   peccata ceu nox horrida

   cogunt iacere ac stertere.


   Sed vox ab alto culmine

     30Christi docentis praemonet,

   adesse iam lucem prope,

   ne mens sopori serviat:


   Ne somnus usque ad terminos

   vitae socordis opprimat

     35pectus sepultum crimine

   et lucis oblitum suae.


   Ferunt vagantes daemonas

   laetos tenebris noctium,

   gallo canente exterritos

     40sparsim timere et cedere.


   Invisa nam vicinitas

   lucis, salutis, numinis

   rupto tenebrarum situ

   noctis fugat [8]satellites.


     45Hoc esse signum praescii

   norunt repromissae spei,

   qua nos soporis liberi

   speramus adventum Dei.


   Quae vis sit huius alitis,

     50salvator ostendit Petro,

   ter antequam gallus canat

   sese negandum praedicans.


   Fit namque peccatum prius,

   quam praeco lucis proximae

     55inlustret humanum genus

   finemque peccandi ferat.


   Flevit negator denique

   ex ore prolapsum nefas,

   cum mens maneret [9]innocens,

     60animusque servaret fidem.


   Nec tale quidquam postea

   linguae locutus lubrico est,

   cantuque galli cognito

   peccare iustus destitit.


     65Inde est quod omnes credimus,

   illo quietis tempore

   quo gallus exsultans canit

   Christum redisse ex inferis.


   Tunc mortis oppressus vigor,

     70tunc lex subacta est tartari,

   tunc vis diei fortior

   noctem coegit cedere.


   Iam iam quiescant inproba,

   iam culpa furva obdormiat,

     75iam noxa letalis suum

   perpessa somnum marceat.


   Vigil vicissim spiritus

   quodcumque restat temporis,

   dum meta noctis clauditur,

     80stans ac laborans excubet.


   Iesum ciamus [10]vocibus

   flentes, precantes, sobrii:

   intenta supplicatio

   dormire cor mundum vetat.


     85Sat convolutis artubus

   sensum profunda oblivio

   pressit, gravavit, obruit

   vanis vagantem somniis.


   Sunt nempe falsa et frivola,

     90quae mundiali gloria

   ceu dormientes egimus:

   vigilemus, hic est veritas.


   Aurum, voluptas, gaudium,

   opes, honores, prospera,

     95quaecumque nos inflant mala,

   fit mane, nil sunt omnia.


   Tu, Christe, somnum dissice,

   tu rumpe noctis vincula,

   tu solve peccatum vetus

     100novumque lumen ingere.
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  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.
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  II. HYMNUS MATUTINUS


   Nox et tenebrae et [11]nubila,

   confusa mundi et turbida,

   lux intrat, albescit polus,

   Christus venit, discedite.


     5Caligo terrae scinditur

   percussa solis spiculo,

   rebusque iam color redit

   vultu nitentis sideris.


   Sic nostra mox obscuritas

     10fraudisque pectus conscium

   ruptis retectum nubibus

   regnante pallescit Deo.


   Tunc non licebit claudere

   quod quisque fuscum cogitat,

     15sed mane clarescent novo

   secreta mentis prodita.


   Fur ante lucem [12]squalido

   inpune peccat tempore,

   sed lux dolis contraria

     20latere furtum non sinit.


   Versuta fraus et callida

   amat tenebris obtegi,

   aptamque noctem turpibus

   adulter occultus fovet.


     25Sol ecce surgit igneus,

   piget, pudescit, paenitet,

   nec teste quisquam lumine

   peccare constanter potest.


   Quis mane sumptis nequiter

     30non erubescit poculis,

   cum fit libido temperans

   castumque nugator sapit?


   Nunc, nunc severum vivitur,

   nunc nemo tentat ludicrum,

     35inepta nunc omnes sua

   vultu colorant serio.


   Haec hora cunctis utilis,

   qua quisque, quod studet, gerat,

   miles, togatus, navita,

     40opifex, arator, institor.


   Illum forensis gloria,

   hunc triste raptat classicum,

   mercator hinc ac rusticus

   avara suspirant lucra.


     45At nos lucelli ac faenoris

   fandique prorsus nescii,

   nec arte fortes bellica,

   te, Christe, solum novimus.


   Te mente pura et simplici,

     50te voce, te cantu pio

   rogare curvato [13]genu

   flendo et canendo discimus.


   His nos lucramur quaestibus,

   hac arte tantum vivimus,

     55haec inchoamus munera,

   cum sol resurgens emicat.


   Intende nostris sensibus,

   vitamque totam dispice,

   sunt multa fucis inlita,

     60quae luce purgentur tua.


   Durare nos tales iube,

   quales, remotis sordibus

   nitere pridem [14]iusseras,

   Iordane tinctos flumine.


     65Quodcumque nox mundi dehinc

   infecit atris nubibus,

   tu, rex Eoi [15]sideris,

   vultu sereno inlumina.


   Tu sancte, qui taetram picem

     70candore tingis lacteo

   ebenoque crystallum facis,

   delicta terge livida.


   Sub nocte Iacob caerula

   luctator audax angeli,

     75eo usque dum lux surgeret,

   sudavit inpar praelium.


   Sed cum iubar claresceret,

   lapsante claudus poplite

   femurque victus debile

     80culpae vigorem perdidit.


   Nutabat inguen saucium,

   quae corporis pars vilior

   longeque sub cordis loco

   diram fovet libidinem.


     85Hae nos docent imagines,

   hominem tenebris obsitum,

   si forte non cedat Deo,

   vires rebellis perdere.


   Erit tamen beatior,

     90intemperans membrum cui

   luctando claudum et tabidum

   dies oborta invenerit.


   Tandem facessat caecitas,

   quae nosmet in praeceps diu

     95lapsos sinistris gressibus

   errore traxit devio.


   Haec lux serenum conferat

   purosque nos praestet sibi:

   nihil loquamur subdolum,

     100volvamus obscurum nihil.


   Sic tota decurrat dies,

   ne lingua mendax, ne manus,

   oculive peccent lubrici,

   ne noxa corpus inquinet.


     105Speculator adstat [16]desuper,

   qui nos diebus omnibus

   actusque nostros prospicit

   a luce prima in vesperum.


   Hic testis, hic est arbiter,

     110his intuetur quidquid est,

   humana quod mens concipit;

   hunc nemo fallit iudicem.
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  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 soilëd 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, [17]verbigena,

   edite corpore virgineo,

   sed prius in genitore potens,

     5astra, solum, mare quam fierent:


   Huc nitido precor intuitu

   flecte salutiferam faciem,

   fronte serenus et inradia,

   nominis ut sub honore tui

     10has epulas liceat capere.


   Te sine dulce nihil, [18]Domine,

   nec iuvat ore quid adpetere,

   pocula ni prius atque cibos,

   Christe, tuus favor inbuerit

     15omnia sanctificante fide.


   Fercula nostra Deum sapiant,

   Christus et influat in pateras:

   seria, ludicra, verba, iocos,

   denique quod sumus aut agimus,

     20trina superne regat pietas.


   Hic mihi nulla rosae spolia,

   nullus aromate fragrat odor,

   sed liquor influit ambrosius

   nectareamque fidem redolet

     25fusus ab usque Patris gremio.


   Sperne camena leves hederas,

   cingere tempora quis solita es,

   sertaque mystica [19]dactylico

   texere docta liga strophio,

     30laude Dei redimita comas.


   Quod generosa potest anima,

   lucis et aetheris indigena,

   solvere dignius obsequium,

   quam data munera si recinat

     35artificem modulata suum?


   Ipse homini quia cuncta dedit,

   quae capimus dominante manu,

   quae polus aut humus aut pelagus

   aere, gurgite, rure creant,

     40haec mihi subdidit et sibi me.


   Callidus inlaqueat volucres

   aut pedicis dolus aut maculis,

   inlita glutine corticeo

   vimina plumigeram seriem

     45inpediunt et abire vetant.


   Ecce per aequora fluctivagos

   texta greges sinuosa trahunt:

   piscis item sequitur calamum

   raptus acumine vulnifico

     50credula saucius ora cibo.


   Fundit opes ager ingenuas

   dives aristiferae segetis:

   his ubi vitea pampineo

   brachia palmite luxuriant,

     55pacis alumna ubi baca viret.


   Haec opulentia Christicolis

   servit et omnia suppeditat:

   absit enim procul ilia [20]fames,

   caedibus ut pecudum libeat

     60sanguineas lacerare dapes.


   Sint fera gentibus indomitis

   prandia de nece quadrupedum:

   nos oleris coma, nos siliqua

   feta legumine multimodo

     65paverit innocuis epulis.


   Spumea mulctra gerunt niveos

   ubere de gemino latices,

   perque coagula densa liquor

   in solidum coit et fragili

     70lac tenerum premitur calatho.


   Mella recens mihi Cecropia

   nectare sudat olente favus:

   haec opifex apis aerio

   rore liquat tenuique thymo,

     75nexilis inscia [21]connubii.


   Hinc quoque pomiferi nemoris

   munera mitia proveniunt,

   arbor onus tremefacta suum

   deciduo gravis imbre pluit

     80puniceosque iacit cumulos.


   Quae veterum tuba, quaeve lyra

   flatibus inclita vel fidibus

   divitis omnipotentis opus,

   quaeque fruenda patent homini

     85laudibus aequiparare queat?


   Te Pater optime mane [22]novo,

   solis et orbita cum media est,

   te quoque luce sub occidua

   sumere cum monet hora cibum,

     90nostra Deus canet harmonia.


   Quod calet halitus interior,

   corde quod abdita vena tremit,

   pulsat et incita quod resonam

   lingua sub ore latens caveam,

     95laus superi Patris esto mihi.


   Nos igitur tua sancte manus

   caespite conposuit madido

   effigiem meditata suam,

   utque foret rata materies

     100flavit et indidit ore animam.


   Tunc per amoena vireta iubet

   frondicomis habitare locis,

   ver ubi perpetuum redolet

   prataque multicolora latex

     105quadrifluo celer amne rigat.


   Haec tibi nunc famulentur, ait,

   usibus omnia dedo tuis:

   sed tamen aspera mortifero

   stipite carpere poma veto,

     110qui medio viret in nemore.


   Hic draco perfidus indocile

   virginis inlicit ingenium,

   ut socium malesuada virum

   mandere cogeret ex vetitis

     115ipsa pari peritura modo.


   Corpora mutua--nosse nefas--

   post epulas inoperta vident,

   lubricus error et erubuit:

   tegmina suta parant foliis,

     120dedecus ut pudor occuleret.


   Conscia culpa Deum pavitans

   sede pia procul exigitur.

   innuba fernina quae fuerat,

   coniugis excipit inperium,

     125foedera tristia iussa pati.


   Auctor et ipse doli coluber

   plectitur inprobus, ut [23]mulier

   colla trilinguia calce terat:

   sic coluber muliebre solum

     130suspicit atque virum mulier.


   His ducibus vitiosa dehinc

   posteritas ruit in facinus,

   dumque rudes imitatur avos,

   fasque nefasque simul glomerans

     135inpia crimina morte luit.


   Ecce venit nova progenies,

   aethere proditus alter homo,

   non luteus, velut ille prior:

   sed Deus ipse gerens hominem,

     140corporeisque carens vitiis.


   Fit caro vivida sermo Patris,

   numine quam rutilante gravis

   non thalamo, neque iure tori,

   nec genialibus inlecebris

     145intemerata puella parit.


   Hoc odium vetus illud erat,

   hoc erat aspidis atque hominis

   digladiabile discidium,

   quod modo cernua femineis

     150vipera proteritur pedibus.


   Edere namque Deum merita

   omnia virgo venena domat:

   tractibus anguis inexplicitis

   virus inerme piger revomit,

     155gramine concolor in viridi.


   Quae feritas modo non trepidat,

   territa de grege [24]candidulo?

   inpavidas lupus inter oves

   tristis obambulat et rabidum

     160sanguinis inmemor os cohibet.


   Agnus enim vice mirifica

   ecce leonibus inperitat:

   exagitansque truces aquilas

   per vaga nubila, perque notos

     165sidere lapsa columba fugat.


   Tu mihi Christe columba potens,

   sanguine pasta cui cedit avis,

   tu niveus per ovile tuum

   agnus hiare lupum prohibes,

     170sub iuga tigridis ora premens.


   Da locuples Deus hoc famulis

   rite precantibus, ut tenui

   membra cibo recreata levent,

   neu piger inmodicis dapibus

     175viscera tenta gravet stomachus.


   Haustus amarus abesto procul,

   ne libeat tetigisse manu

   exitiale quid aut vetitum:

   gustus et ipse modum teneat,

     180sospitet ut iecur incolume.


   Sit satis anguibus horrificis,

   liba quod inpia corporibus

   ah miseram peperere necem,

   sufficiat semel ob facinus

     185plasma Dei potuisse mori.


   Oris opus, vigor igneolus

   non moritur, quia flante Deo

   conpositus superoque fluens

   de solio Patris artificis

     190vim liquidae rationis habet.


   Viscera mortua quin etiam

   post obitum reparare datur,

   eque suis iterum tumulis

   prisca renascitur effigies

     195pulvereo coeunte situ.


   Credo equidem, neque vana fides,

   corpora vivere more animae:

   nam modo corporeum memini

   de Phlegethonte gradu [25]facili

     200ad superos remeasse Deum.


   Spes eadem mea membra manet,

   quae redolentia [26]funereo

   iussa quiescere sarcophago

   dux parili redivivus humo

     205ignea Christus ad astra [27]vocat.
     __________________________________________________________________

  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,

     5nec non et Seraphin suum supremo

   subnixus solio tenet regitque.


   Hic est, quem Sabaoth Deum vocamus,

   expers principii carensque fine,

   rerum conditor et repertor orbis:

     10fons vitae liquida fluens ab arce,

   infusor fidei, sator pudoris,

   mortis perdomitor, salutis auctor.


   Omnes quod sumus aut vigemus, inde est:

   regnat Spiritus ille sempiternus

     15a Christo simul et Parente [28]missus.

   Intrat pectora candidus pudica,

   quae templi vice consecrata rident,

   postquam conbiberint Deum medullis.


   Sed si quid vitii dolive nasci

     20inter viscera iam dicata sensit,

   ceu spurcum refugit celer sacellum.

   Taetrum flagrat enim vapore crasso

   horror conscius aestuante culpa

   offensumque bonum niger repellit.


     25Nec solus pudor innocensve votum

   templum constituunt perenne Christo

   in cordis medii sum ac recessu:

   sed ne crapula ferveat cavendum est,

   quae sedem fidei cibis refertam

     30usque ad congeriem coartet intus.


   Parcis victibus expedita corda

   infusum melius Deum receptant.

   Hic pastus animae est, saporque verus:

   sed nos tu gemino fovens paratu

     35artus atque animas utroque pastu

   confirmas Pater ac vigore conples.


   Sic olim tua praecluens potestas

   inter raucisonos situm leones,

   inlapsis dapibus virum refovit.

     40Illum fusile numen execrantem

   et curvare caput sub expolita

   aeris materia nefas putantem


   Plebs dirae Babylonis ac tyrannus

   morti subdiderant, feris dicarant

     45saevis protinus haustibus vorandum.

   O semper pietas fidesque tuta!

   lambunt indomiti virum leones

   intactumque Dei tremunt alumnum.


   Adstant cominus et iubas reponunt,

     50mansuescit rabies fameque blanda

   praedam rictibus ambit incruentis.

   Sed cum tenderet ad superna palmas

   expertumque sibi Deum rogaret,

   clausus iugiter indigensque victu:


     55Iussus nuntius advolare terris,

   qui pastum famulo daret probato,

   raptim desilit obsequente mundo.

   Cernit forte procul dapes inemptas,

   quas messoribus Abbacuc [29]propheta

     60agresti bonus exhibebat arte.


   Huius caesarie manu prehensa

   plenis, sicut erat, gravem canistris

   suspensum rapit et vehit per auras.

   Tum raptus simul ipse prandiumque

     65sensim labitur in lacum leonum,

   et, quas tunc epulas gerebat, offert:


   Sumas laetus, ait, libensque carpas,

   quae summus Pater, angelusque Christi

   mittunt liba tibi sub hoc periclo.

     70His sumptis Danielus excitavit

   in caelum faciem ciboque fortis

   Amen reddidit, Halleluia dixit.


   Sic nos muneribus tuis refecti,

   largitor Deus omnium bonorum,

     75grates reddimus et sacramus hymnos.

   Tu nos tristifico velut tyranno

   mundi scilicet inpotentis actu

   conclusos regis et feram repellis,


   Quae circumfremit ac vorare temptat

     80insanos acuens furore dentes,

   cur te, summe Deus, precemur unum.

   Vexamur, premimur, malis rotamur;

   oderunt, lacerant, trahunt, lacessunt,

   iuncta est suppliciis fides iniquis.


     85Nec defit tamen anxiis medela;

   nam languente trucis leonis ira

   inlapsae superingeruntur escae.

   Quas si quis sitienter hauriendo

   non gustu tenui, sed ore pleno

     90internis velit inplicare venis,


   Hic sancto satiatus ex propheta,

   iustorum capiet cibos virorum,

   qui fructum domino metunt perenni.

   Nil est dulcius ac magis saporum,

     95nil quod plus hominem iuvare possit,

   quam vatis pia praecinentis orsa.


   His sumptis licet insolens potestas

   pravum iudicet, inrogetque mortem,

   inpasti licet inruant leones,

     100nos semper Dominum patrem fatentes

   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-defilèd 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 wingèd 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 starvèd 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, [30]luminis,

   qui certis vicibus tempora dividis,

   merso sole chaos ingruit horridum,

   lucem redde tuis Christe fidelibus.


     5Quamvis innumero sidere regiam

   lunarique polum lampade pinxeris,

   incussu silicis lumina nos [31]tamen

   monstras saxigeno semine quaerere:


   Ne nesciret homo spem sibi luminis

     10in Christi solido corpore conditam,

   qui dici stabilem se voluit petram,

   nostris igniculis unde genus venit.


   Pinguis quos olei rore madentibus

   lychnis aut facibus pascimus aridis:

     15quin et fila favis scirpea floreis

   presso melle prius conlita fingimus.


   Vivax flamma viget, seu cava testula

   sucum linteolo suggerit ebrio,

   seu pinus piceam fert alimoniam,

     20seu ceram teretem stuppa calens bibit.


   Nectar de liquido vertice [32]fervidum

   guttatim lacrimis stillat olentibus,

   ambustum quoniam vis facit ignea

   imbrem de madido flere cacumine.


     25Splendent ergo tuis muneribus, Pater,

   flammis mobilibus scilicet atria,

   absentemque diem lux agit aemula,

   quam nox cum lacero victa fugit peplo.


   Sed quis non rapidi luminis arduam

     30manantemque Deo cernat originem?

   Moyses nempe Deum spinifera in rubo

   vidit conspicuo lumine flammeum.


   Felix, qui meruit sentibus in sacris

   caelestis solii visere principem,

     35iussus nexa pedum vincula solvere,

   ne sanctum involucris pollueret locum.


   Hunc ignem populus sanguinis incliti

   maiorum meritis tutus et inpotens,

   suetus sub dominis vivere barbaris,

     40iam liber sequitur longa per avia:


   qua gressum tulerant castraque caerulae

   noctis per medium concita moverant,

   plebem pervigilem fulgure praevio

   ducebat radius sole micantior.


     45Sed rex Niliaci littoris invido

   fervens felle iubet praevalidam manum

   in bellum rapidis ire cohortibus

   ferratasque acies clangere classicum.


   Sumunt arma viri seque minacibus

     50accingunt gladiis, triste canit tuba:

   hic fidit iaculis, ille volantia

   praefigit calamis spicula Gnosiis.


   Densetur cuneis turba pedestribus,

   currus pars et equos et volucres rotas

     55conscendunt celeres signaque bellica

   praetendunt tumidis clara draconibus.


   Hic iam servitii nescia pristini

   gens Pelusiacis usta vaporibus

   tandem purpurei gurgitis hospita

     60rubris littoribus fessa resederat.


   Hostis dirus adest cum duce perfido,

   infert et validis praelia viribus:

   Moyses porro suos in mare praecipit

   constans intrepidis tendere gressibus:


     65praebent rupta locum stagna viantibus

   riparum in faciem pervia, sistitur

   circumstans vitreis unda liquoribus,

   dum plebs sub bifido permeat aequore.


   Pubes quin etiam decolor asperis

     70inritata odiis rege sub inpio

   Hebraeum sitiens fundere sanguinem

   audet se pelago credere concavo:


   ibant praecipiti turbine percita

   fluctus per medios agmina regia,

     75sed confusa dehinc unda revolvitur

   in semet revolans gurgite confluo.


   Currus tunc et equos telaque naufraga

   ipsos et proceres et vaga corpora

   nigrorum videas nare satellitum,

     80arcis iustitium triste tyrannicae.


   Quae tandem poterit lingua retexere

   laudes Christe tuas? qui domitam Pharon

   plagis multimodis cedere praesuli

   cogis iustitiae vindice dextera.


     85Qui pontum rapidis aestibus invium

   persultare vetas, ut refluo in salo

   securus pateat te duce transitus,

   et mox unda rapax devoret inpios.


   Cui ieiuna eremi saxa loquacibus

     90exundant scatebris, et latices novos

   fundit scissa silex, quae sitientibus

   dat potum populis axe sub igneo.


   Instar fellis aqua tristifico in lacu

   fit ligni venia mel velut Atticum:

     95lignum est, quo sapiunt aspera dulcius;

   uam praefixa cruci spes hominum viget.


   Inplet castra cibus tunc quoque ninguidus,

   inlabens gelida grandine densius:

   his mensas epulis, hac dape construunt,

     100quam dat sidereo Christus ab aethere.


   Nec non imbrifero ventus anhelitu

   crassa nube leves invehit alites,

   quae conflata in humum, cum semel agmina

   fluxerunt, reduci non revolant fuga.


     105Haec olim patribus praemia contulit

   insignis pietas numinis unici,

   cuius subsidio nos quoque vescimur

   pascentes dapibus pectora mysticis.


   Fessos ille vocat per freta seculi

     110discissis populum turbinibus regens

   iactatasque animas mille laboribus

   iustorum in patriam scandere praecipit.


   Illic purpureis tecta rosariis

   omnis fragrat humus calthaque pinguia

     115et molles violas et tenues crocos

   fundit fonticulis uda fugacibus.


   Illic et gracili balsama surculo

   desudata fluunt, raraque cinnama

   spirant et folium, fonte quod [33]abdito

     120praelambens fluvius portat in exitum.


   Felices animae prata per herbida

   concentu parili suave sonantibus

   hymnorum modulis dulce canunt melos,

   calcant et pedibus lilia candidis.


     125Sunt et spiritibus saepe [34]nocentibus

   paenarum celebres sub Styge feriae

   illa nocte, sacer qua rediit Deus

   stagnis ad superos ex Acheronticis.


   Non sicut tenebras de face fulgida

     130surgens oceano Lucifer inbuit,

   sed terris Domini de cruce tristibus

   maior sole novum restituens diem.


   Marcent suppliciis tartara mitibus,

   exultatque sui carceris otio

     135functorum populus liber ab ignibus,

   nec fervent solito flumina sulphure.


   Nos festis trahimus per pia gaudia

   noctem conciliis votaque prospera

   certatim vigili congerimus prece

     140extructoque agimus liba [35]sacrario.


   Pendent mobilibus lumina [36]funibus,

   quae suffixa micant per laquearia,

   et de languidulis fota natatibus

   lucem perspicuo flamma iacit vitro.


     145Credas stelligeram desuper aream

   ornatam geminis stare trionibus,

   et qua bosporeum temo regit iugum,

   passim purpureos spargier hesperos.


   O res digna, Pater, quam tibi roscidae

     150noctis principio grex tuus offerat,

   lucem, qua tribuis nil pretiosius,

   lucem, qua reliqua praemia cernimus.


   Tu lux vera oculis, lux quoque [37]sensibus,

   intus tu speculum, tu speculum foris,

     155lumen, quod famulans offero, suscipe,

   tinctum pacifici chrismatis unguine.


   Per Christum genitum, summe Pater, tuum,

   in quo visibilis stat tibi gloria,

   qui noster Dominus, qui tuus unicus

     160spirat de patrio corde paraclitum.


   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 unnumberèd,

   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 drownèd 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 piercèd 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 [38]supreme,

   quem nemo vidit unquam,

   Patrisque sermo Christe,

   et Spiritus benigne.


     5O Trinitatis huius

   vis una, lumen unum,

   Deus ex Deo perennis,

   Deus ex utroque missus.


   Fluxit labor diei,

     10redit et quietis hora,

   blandus sopor vicissim

   fessos relaxat artus.


   Mens aestuans procellis

   curisque sauciata

     15totis bibit medullis

   obliviale poclum.


   Serpit per omne corpus

   Lethaea vis, nec ullum

   miseris doloris aegri

     20patitur manere sensum.


   Lex haec data est caducis

   Deo iubente membris,

   ut temperet laborem

   medicabilis voluptas.


     25Sed dum pererrat omnes

   quies amica venas,

   pectusque feriatum

   placat rigante somno:


   Liber vagat per auras

     30rapido vigore sensus,

   variasque per figuras,

   quae sunt operta, cernit.


   Quia mens soluta curis,

   cui est origo caelum,

     35purusque fons ab aethra

   iners iacere nescit.


   Imitata multiformes

   facies sibi ipsa fingit,

   per quas repente currens

     40tenui fruatur actu.


   Sed sensa somniantum

   dispar fatigat horror,

   nunc splendor intererrat

   qui dat futura nosse.


     45Plerumque dissipatis

   mendax imago veris

   animos pavore maestos

   ambage fallit atra.


   Quem rara culpa morum

     50non polluit frequenter,

   nunc lux serena vibrans

   res edocet latentes.


   At qui coinquinatum

   vitiis cor inpiavit,

     55lusus pavore multo

   species videt [39]tremendas.


   Hoc patriarcha noster

   sub carceris catena

   geminis simul ministris

     60interpres adprobavit.


   Quorum reversus unus

   dat poculum tyranno,

   ast alterum rapaces

   fixum vorant volucres.


     65Ipsum deinde regem

   perplexa somniantem

   monuit famem futuram

   clausis cavere acervis.


   Mox praesul ac tetrarches

     70regnum per omne iussus

   sociam tenere virgam

   dominae resedit aulae.


   O quam profunda iustis

   arcana per soporem

     75aperit tuenda Christus,

   quam clara! quam tacenda!


   Evangelista summi

   fidissimus magistri

   signata quae latebant

     80nebulis videt remotis:


   ipsum tonantis agnum

   de caede purpurantem,

   qui conscium futuri

   librum resignat unus.


     85Huius manum potentem

   gladius perarmat anceps

   et fulgurans utrimque

   duplicem minatur ictum.


   Quaesitor ille solus

     90animaeque corporisque

   ensisque bis timendus

   prima ac secunda mors est.


   idem tamen benignus

   ultor retundit iram

     95paucosque non [40]piorum

   patitur perire in aevum.


   Huic inclitus perenne

   tribuit Pater tribunal,

   hunc obtinere iussit

     100nomen supra omne nomen.


   Hic praepotens cruenti

   extinctor antichristi,

   qui de furente monstro

   pulchrum refert tropaeum.


     105Quam bestiam [41]capacem

   populosque devorantem,

   quam sanguinis charybdem

   Ioannis execratur.


   Haec nempe, quae [42]sacratum

     110praeferre nomen ausa est,

   imam petit gehennam

   Christo perempta vero.


   Tali sopore iustus

   mentem relaxat heros,

     115ut spiritu sagaci

   caelum peragret omne.


   Nos nil meremur horum,

   quos creber inplet error,

   concreta quos malarum

     120vitiat cupido rerum.


   Sat est quiete dulci

   fessum fovere corpus:

   sat, si nihil sinistrum

   vanae minentur umbrae.


     125Cultor Dei memento

   te fontis et lavacri

   rorem subisse [43]sanctum,

   te chrismate [44]innotatum.


   Fac, cum vocante somno

     130castum petis cubile,

   frontem locumque cordis

   crucis figura signet.


   Crux pellit omne crimen,

   fugiunt crucem tenebrae:

     135tali dicata signo

   mens fluctuare nescit.


   Procul, o procul vagantum

   portenta somniorum,

   procul esto pervicaci

     140praestigiator astu!


   O tortuose serpens,

   qui mille per Maeandros

   fraudesque flexuosas

   agitas quieta corda,


     145Discede, Christus hic est,

   hic Christus est, liquesce:

   signum quod ipse nosti

   damnat tuam catervam.


   Corpus licet fatiscens

     150iaceat recline paullum,

   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-edgèd 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 abhorrèd 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 [45]Patris,

   quem partus alvi virginalis protulit,

   adesto castis Christe parsimoniis,

   festumque nostrum rex serenus adspice,

     5ieiuniorum dum litamus victimam.


   Nil hoc profecto purius mysterio,

   quo fibra cordis expiatur uvidi,

   intemperata quo domantur viscera,

   arvina putrem ne resudans crapulam

     10obstrangulatae mentis ingenium premat.


   Hinc subiugatur luxus et turpis gula,

   vini atque somni degener socordia,

   libido sordens, inverecundus lepos,

   variaeque pestes languidorum sensuum

     15parcam subactae disciplinam sentiunt.


   Nam si licenter diffluens potu et cibo

   ieiuna rite membra non coerceas,

   sequitur frequenti marcida oblectamine

   scintilla mentis ut tepescat nobilis,

     20animusque pigris stertat in praecordiis.


   Frenentur ergo corporum cupidines,

   detersa et intus emicet prudentia:

   sic excitato perspicax acumine

   liberque flatu laxiore spiritus

     25rerum parentem rectius precabitur.


   Elia tali crevit observantia,

   vetus sacerdos, ruris hospes [46]aridi:

   fragore ab omni quem remotum et segregem

   sprevisse tradunt criminum frequentiam,

     30casto fruentem syrtium silentio.


   Sed mox in auras igneis iugalibus

   curruque raptus evolavit praepete,

   ne de propinquo sordium contagio

   dirus quietum mundus adflaret virum,

     35olim probatis inclitum ieiuniis.


   Non ante caeli principem septemplicis

   Moyses tremendi fidus interpres throni

   potuit videre, quam decem recursibus

   quater volutis sol peragrans sidera

     40omni carentem cerneret substantia.


   Victus precanti solus in lacrimis fuit:

   nam flendo pernox inrigatum pulverem

   humi madentis ore pressit cernuo,

   donec loquentis voce praestrictus Dei

     45expavit ignem non ferendum visibus.


   Ioannis huius artis hand minus potens,

   Dei perennis praecucurrit filium,

   curvos viarum qui retorsit tramites

   et flexuosa conrigens dispendia

     50dedit sequendam calle recto lineam.


   Hanc obsequelam praeparabat nuntius

   mox adfuturo construens iter Deo,

   clivosa planis, confragosa ut lenibus

   converterentur, neve quidquam devium

     55inlapsa terris inveniret veritas.


   Non usitatis ortus his natalibus

   oblita lactis iam vieto in pectore

   matris tetendit serus infans ubera:

   nec ante partu de senili effusus est,

     60quam praedicaret virginem plenam Deo.


   Post in patentes ille solitudines

   amictus hirtis bestiarum pellibus

   setisve tectus hispida et lanugine

   secessit, horrens inquinari et pollui

     65contaminatis oppidorum moribus.


   Illic dicata parcus abstinentia

   potum cibumque vir severae industriae

   in usque serum respuebat vesperum,

   parvum locustis et favorum [47]agrestium

     70liquore pastum corpori suetus dare.


   Hortator ille primus et doctor novae

   fuit salutis, nam sacrato in flumine

   veterum piatas lavit errorum notas:

   sed tincta postquam membra defaecaverat,

     75caelo refulgens influebat spiritus.


   Hoc ex lavacro labe dempta [48]criminum

   ibant renati non secus, quam si rudis

   auri recocta vena pulchrum splendeat,

   micet metalli sive lux argentei,

     80sudum polito praenitens purgamine.


   Referre prisci stemma mine ieiunii

   libet fideli proditum volumine,

   ut diruendae civitatis incolis

   fulmen benigni mansuefactum Patris

     85pie repressis ignibus pepercerit.


   Gens insolenti praepotens iactantia

   pollebat olim, quam fluentem nequiter

   conrupta vulgo solverat lascivia,

   et inde bruto contumax fastidio

     90cultum superni negligebat numinis.


   Offensa tandem iugis indulgentiae

   censura iustis excitatur motibus,

   dextram perarmat rhompheali incendio

   nimbos crepantes et fragosos turbines

     95vibrans tonantum nube flammarum quatit.


   Sed paenitendi dum datur diecula,

   si forte vellent inprobam libidinem

   veteresque nugas condomare ac frangere,

   suspendit ictum terror exorabilis

     100paullumque dicta substitit [49]sententia.


   Ionam prophetam mitis ultor excitat,

   paenae inminentis iret ut praenuntius,

   sed nosset ille qui minacem iudicem

   servare malle, quam ferire ac plectere,

     105tectam latenter vertit in Tharsos fugam.


   Celsam paratis pontibus scandit ratem,

   udo revincta fune puppis solvitur,

   itur per altum, fit procellosum mare:

   tum causa tanti quaeritur periculi,

     110sors in fugacem missa vatem decidit.


   Iussus perire solus e cunctis reus,

   cuius voluta crimen urna expresserat,

   praeceps rotatur et profundo inmergitur:

   exceptus inde beluinis faucibus

     115alvi capacis vivus hauritur [50]specu.

         *       *       *       *       *

   Intactus exin tertiae noctis vice

   monstri vomentis pellitur singultibus,

   qua murmuranti fine fluctus frangitur,

   salsosque candens spuma tundit pumices,

     130ructatus exit seque servatum stupet.


   In Ninivitas se coactus percito

   gressu reflectit, quos ut increpaverat

   pudenda censor inputans opprobria;

   Inpendet, inquit, ira summi vindicis,

     135urbemque flamma mox cremabit, credite.


   Apicem deinceps ardui montis petit

   visurus inde conglobatum turbidae

   fumum ruinae cladis et dirae struem,

   tectus flagellis multinodis germinis,

     140nato et repente perfruens umbraculo.


   Sed maesta postquam civitas vulnus novi

   hausit doloris, heu supremum palpitat:

   cursant per ampla congregatim moenia

   plebs et senatus, omnis aetas civium,

     145pallens iuventus, eiulantes feminae.


   Placet frementem publicis ieiuniis

   placare Christum, mos edendi spernitur,

   glaucos amictus induit monilibus

   matrona demptis, proque gemma et serico

     150crinem fluentem sordidus spargit cinis.


   Squalent recincta veste bullati patres,

   setasque plangens turba sumit textiles,

   inpexa villis virgo bestialibus

   nigrante vultum contegit velamine,

     155iacens arenis et puer provolvitur.


   Rex ipse Coos aestuantem murices

   laenam revulsa dissipabat fibula,

   gemmas virentes et lapillos sutiles,

   insigne frontis exuebat vinculum

     160turpi capillos inpeditus pulvere.


   Nullus bibendi, nemo vescendi memor,

   ieiuna mensas pubis omnis liquerat,

   quin et negato lacte vagientium

   fletu madescunt parvulorum cunulae,

     165sucum papillae parca nutrix derogat.


   Greges et ipsos claudit armentalium

   sollers virorum cura, ne vagum pecus

   contingat ore rorulenta gramina,

   potum strepentis neve fontis hauriant,

     170vacuis querelae personant praesepibus.


   Mollitus his et talibus brevem Deus

   iram refrenat temperans oraculum

   prosper sinistrum, prona nam clementia

   haud difficulter supplicem mortalium

     175solvit reatum fitque fautrix flentium.


   Sed cur vetustae gentis exemplum oquor?

   pridem caducis cum gravatus artubus

   Iesus dicato corde ieiunaverit,

   praenuncupatus ore qui prophetico

     180Emanuel est, sive NOBISCUM DEUS.


   Qui corpus istud molle naturaliter

   captumque laxo sub voluptatum iugo

   virtutis arta lege fecit liberum:

   emancipator servientis plasmatis

     185regnantis ante victor et cupidinis.


   Inhospitali namque secretus loco

   quinis diebus octies labentibus

   nullam ciborum vindicavit gratiam,

   firmans salubri scilicet ieiunio

     190vas adpetendis inbecillum gaudiis.


   Miratus hostis posse limum tabidum

   tantum laboris sustinere ac perpeti,

   explorat arte sciscitator callida,

   Deusne membris sit receptus [51]terreis,

     195sed increpata fraude post tergum ruit.


   Hoc nos sequamur quisque nunc pro viribus,

   quod consecrati tu magister dogmatis

   tuis dedisti Christe sectatoribus,

   ut, cum vorandi vicerit libidinem,

     200late triumphet inperator spiritus.


   Hoc est, quod atri livor hostis invidet,

   mundi polique quod gubernator probat,

   altaris aram quod facit placabilem,

   quod dormientis excitat cordis fidem,

     205quod limat aegram pectoris rubiginem.


   Perfusa non sic amne flamma extinguitur,

   nec sic calente sole tabescunt nives,

   ut turbidarum scabra culparum seges

   vanescit almo trita sub ieiunio,

     210si blanda semper misceatur largitas.


   Est quippe et illud grande virtutis genus

   operire nudos, indigentes pascere,

   opem benignam ferre supplicantibus,

   unam paremque sortis humanae vicem

     215inter potentes atque egenos ducere.


   Satis beatus quisque dextram porrigit,

   laudis rapacem, prodigam pecuniae,

   cuius sinistra dulce factum nesciat:

   illum perennes protinus conplent opes,

     220ditatque fructus faenerantem centuplex.
     __________________________________________________________________

  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:


     5ipse cum portans onus inpeditum

   corporis duros tuleris labores,

   maior exemplis famulos remisso

   dogmate palpas.


   Nona submissum rotat hora [52]solem

     10partibus vixdum tribus evolutis,

   quarta devexo superest in axe

   portio lucis.


   Nos brevis voti dape vindicata

   solvimus festum fruimurque [53]mensis

     15adfatim plenis, quibus inbuatur

   prona voluptas.


   Tantus aeterni favor est magistri,

   doctor indulgens ita nos amico

   lactat hortatu, levis obsequela ut

     20mulceat artus.


   Addit et, ne quis velit invenusto

   sordidus cultu lacerare frontem,

   sed decus vultus capitisque pexum

   comat honorem.


     25Terge ieiunans, ait, omne corpus,

   neve subducto faciem rubore

   luteus tinguat color aut notetur

   pallor in ore.


   Rectius laeto tegimus pudore,

     30quidquid ad cultum Patris exhibemus:

   cernit occultum Deus et latentem

   munere donat.


   Ille ovem morbo residem [54]gregique

   perditam sano male dissipantem

     35vellus adfixis vepribus per hirtae

   devia silvae.


   Inpiger pastor revocat lupisque

   gestat exclusis humeros gravatus,

   inde purgatam revehens aprico

     40reddit ovili:


   Reddit et pratis viridique campo,

   vibrat inpexis ubi nulla lappis

   spina, nec germen sudibus perarmat

   carduus horrens:


     45Sed frequens palmis nemus et reflexa

   vernat herbarum coma, tum perennis

   gurgitem vivis vitreum fluentis

   laurus obumbrat.


   Hisce pro donis tibi, fide pastor,

     50servitus quaenam poterit rependi?

   nulla conpensant pretium salutis

   vota precantum.


   Quamlibet spreto sine more pastu

   sponte confectos tenuemus artus,

     55teque contemptis epulis rogemus

   nocte dieque;


   Vincitur semper minor obsequentum

   cura, nec munus genitoris aequat,

   frangit et cratem luteam laboris

     60grandior usus.


   Ergo ne limum fragilem solutae

   deserant vires et aquosus albis

   humor in venis dominetur aegrum

   corpus inervans,


     65Laxus ac liber modus abstinendi

   ponitur cunctis, neque nos severus

   terror inpellit, sua quemque cogit

   velle potestas.


   Sufficit, quidquid facias, vocato

     70numinis nutu prius, inchoare,

   sive tu mensam renuas cibumve

   sumere temptes.


   Adnuit dexter Deus et secundo

   prosperat vultu, velut hoc salubre

     75fidimus nobis fore, quod dicatas

   carpimus escas.


   Sit bonum, supplex precor et medelam

   conferat membris, animumque pascat

   sparsus in venas cibus obsecrantum

     80christicolarum.
     __________________________________________________________________

  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 soilèd 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 [55]fidelibus

   dulce carmen et melodum, gesta Christi insignia:

   hunc camena nostra solum pangat, hunc laudet lyra.


   Christus est, quem rex sacerdos adfuturum protinus

     5infulatus concinebat voce, chorda et tympano,

   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.


     10Corde natus ex parentis, ante mundi exordium

   alpha et O cognominatus, ipse fons et [56]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,

     15quaeque in his vigent sub alto solis et lunae globo.


   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

     20edidit nostram salutem feta sancto spiritu,

   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.


     25Ecce quem vates vetustis concinebant seculis,

   quem prophetarum fideles paginae spoponderant,

   emicat promissus olim: cuncta conlaudent eum.


   Cantharis infusa lympha fit Falernum nobile,

   nuntiat vinum minister esse promptum ex hydria,

     30ipse rex sapore tinctis obstupescit poculis.


   Membra morbis ulcerosa, viscerum putredines

   mando, ut abluantur, inquit; fit ratum, quod iusserat,

   turgidam cutem repurgant vulnerum [57]piamina.


   Tu perennibus tenebris iam sepulta lumina

     35inlinis limo salubri, sacri et oris nectare,

   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.


     40Extimum vestis sacratae furtim mulier attigit,

   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:

     45surge, dixit: ille surgit, matri et adstans redditur.


   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,

     50mobilis liquor profundi pendulam praestat viam,

   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.


     55Pulsa pestis lubricorum milleformis daemonum

   conripit gregis suilli sordida spurcamina,

   seque nigris mergit undis et pecus lymphaticum.


   Quinque panibus peresis et gemellis piscibus

   adfatim refecta iam sunt adcubantum milia,

     60fertque qualus ter quaternus ferculorum fragmina.


   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

     65purgat ad praecepta Christi crassa quaeque obstacula,

   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.


     70Quin et ipsum, ne salutis inferi expertes forent,

   tartarum benignus intrat, fracta cedit [58]ianua,

   vectibus cadit revulsis cardo indissolubilis.


   Illa prompta ad inruentes, ad revertentes tenax,

   obice extrorsum repulso porta reddit mortuos:

     75lege versa et limen atrum iam recalcandum patet.


   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

     80igneum reliquit axem seque maerens abdidit:

   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.


     85O novum caede stupenda vulneris miraculum!

   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,

     90saucius dolore multo colla fractus sibilat.


   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,

     95mortuos olim sepultos ut redire insuesceret,

   dissolutis pristinorum vinculis peccaminum.


   Tunc patres sanctique multi conditorem praevium

   iam revertentem secuti tertio demum die

   carnis indumenta sumunt, eque bustis prodeunt.


     100Cerneres coire membra de favillis aridis,

   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,

     105inclitam caelo reportans passionis gloriam.


   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,

     110turba matrum virginumque simplices puellulae,

   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 revealèd 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 nourishèd.


   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 piercèd 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, cursèd 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 thronèd, 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 [59]animarum,

   duo qui socians elementa

   vivum simul ac moribundum

   hominem Pater effigiasti:


     5Tua sunt, tua rector utraque,

   tibi copula iungitur horum,

   tibi, dum vegetata cohaerent,

   et spiritus et caro servit.


   Rescissa sed ista seorsum

     10solvunt hominera perimuntque,

   humus excipit arida corpus,

   animae rapit aura liquorem.


   Quia cuncta creata necesse est

   labefacta senescere tandem,

     15conpactaque dissociari,

   et dissona texta retexi.


   Hanc tu, Deus optime, mortem

   famulis abolere paratus

   iter inviolabile monstras,

     20quo perdita membra resurgant:


   Ut, dum generosa caducis

   ceu carcere clausa ligantur,

   pars illa potentior extet,

   quae germen ab aethere traxit.


     25Si terrea forte [60]voluntas

   luteum sapit et grave captat,

   animus quoque pondere victus

   sequitur sua membra deorsum.


   At si generis memor ignis

     30contagia pigra recuset,

   vehit hospita viscera secum,

   pariterque reportat ad astra.


   Nam quod requiescere corpus

   vacuum sine mente videmus,

     35spatium breve restat, ut alti

   repetat conlegia sensus.


   Venient cito secula, cum iam

   socius calor ossa revisat

   animataque sanguine vivo

     40habitacula pristina gestet.


   Quae pigra cadavera pridem

   tumulis putrefacta iacebant,

   volucres rapientur in auras

   animas comitata priores.


     45Hinc maxima cura sepulcris

   inpenditur: hinc resolutos

   honor ultimus accipit artus

   et funeris ambitus ornat.


   Candore nitentia claro

     50praetendere lintea mos est,

   adspersaque myrrha [61]Sabaeo

   corpus medicamine servat.


   Quidnam sibi saxa cavata,

   quid pulchra volunt monumenta,

     55nisi quod res creditur illis

   non mortua, sed data somno?


   Hoc provida [62]Christicolarum

   pietas studet, utpote credens

   fore protinus omnia viva,

     60quae nunc gelidus sopor urget.


   Qui iacta cadavera [63]passim

   miserans tegit aggere terrae,

   opus exhibet ille benignum

   Christo pius omnipotenti:


     65Quin lex eadem monet omnes

   gemitum dare sorte sub una,

   cognataque funera nobis

   aliena in morte dolere.


   Sancti sator ille [64]Tobiae

     70sacer ac venerabilis heros,

   dapibus iam rite paratis

   ius praetulit exequiarum.


   Iam stantibus ille ministris

   cyathos et fercula liquit,

     75studioque accinctus humandi

   fleto dedit ossa sepulcro.


   Veniunt mox praemia caelo

   pretiumque rependitur ingens:

   nam lumina nescia solis

     80Deus inlita felle serenat.


   Iam tunc docuit Pater orbis,

   quam sit rationis egenis

   mordax et amara medela,

   cum lux animum nova vexat.


     85Docuit quoque non prius ullum

   caelestia cernere regna,

   quam nocte et vulnere tristi

   toleraverit aspera mundi.


   Mors ipsa beatior inde est,

     90quod per cruciamina leti

   via panditur ardua iustis

   et ad astra doloribus itur.


   Sic corpora mortificata

   redeunt melioribus annis,

     95nec post obitum recalescens

   conpago fatiscere novit.


   Haec, quae modo pallida tabo

   color albidus inficit ora,

   tunc flore venustior omni

     100sanguis cute tinget amoena.


   Iam nulla deinde senectus

   frontis decus invida carpet,

   macies neque sicca lacertos

   suco tenuabit adeso.


     105Morbus quoque pestifer, artus

   qui nunc populatur anhelos,

   sua tunc tormenta resudans

   luet inter vincula mille.


   Hunc eminus aere ab alto

     110victrix caro iamque perennis

   cernet sine fine gementem

   quos moverat ipse dolores.


   Quid turba superstes [65]inepta

   clangens ululamina miscet,

     115cur tam bene condita iura

   luctu dolor arguit amens?


   Iam maesta quiesce querela,

   lacrimas suspendite matres,

   nullus sua pignora plangat,

     120mors haec reparatio vitae est.


   Sic semina sicca virescunt

   iam mortua iamque sepulta,

   quae reddita caespite ab imo

   veteres meditantur aristas.


     125Nunc suscipe terra fovendum,

   gremioque hunc concipe molli:

   hominis tibi membra sequestro

   generosa et fragmina credo.


   Animae fuit haec domus olim

     130factoris ab ore creatae,

   fervens habitavit in istis

   sapientia principe Christo.


   Tu depositum tege corpus,

   non inmemor illa requiret

     135sua munera fictor et auctor

   propriique aenigmata vultus.


   Veniant modo tempora iusta,

   cum spem Deus inpleat omnem;

   reddas patefacta necesse est,

     140qualem tibi trado figuram.


   Non, si cariosa vetustas

   dissolverit ossa favillis,

   fueritque cinisculus arens

   minimi mensura pugilli.


     145Nec, si vaga flamina et aurae

   vacuum per inane volantes

   tulerint cum pulvere nervos,

   hominem periisse licebit.


   Sed dum resolubile corpus

     150revocas, Deus, atque reformas,

   quanam regione iubebis

   animam requiescere puram?


   Gremio senis addita sancti

   recubabit, ut est Eleazar,

     155quem floribus undique septum

   Dives procul adspicit ardens.


   Sequimur tua dicta redemptor,

   quibus atra morte triumphans

   tua per vestigia mandas

     160socium crucis ire latronem.


   Patet ecce fidelibus ampli

   via lucida iam paradisi,

   licet et nemus illud adire,

   homini quod ademerat anguis.


     165Illic precor, optime ductor,

   famulam tibi praecipe mentem

   genitali in sede sacrari,

   quam liquerat exul et errans.


   Nos tecta fovebimus ossa

     170violis et fronde frequenti,

   titulumque et frigida [66]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 doomèd 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 [67]circulum

   sol iam recurrens deserit?

   Christusne terris nascitur,

   qui lucis auget tramitem?


     5Heu quam fugacem gratiam

   festina volvebat dies,

   quam pene subductam facem

   sensim recisa extinxerat!


   Caelum nitescat laetius,

     10gratetur et gaudens humus,

   scandit gradatim denuo

   iubar priores lineas.


   Emerge dulcis pusio,

   quem mater edit castitas,

     15parens et expers coniugis,

   mediator et duplex genus.


   Ex ore quamlibet Patris

   sis ortus et verbo [68]editus,

   tamen paterno in pectore

     20sophia callebas [69]prius.


   Quae prompta caelum condidit,

   caelum diemque et cetera,

   virtute verbi effecta sunt

   haec cuncta: nam verbum Deus.


     25Sed ordinatis seculis,

   rerumque digesto statu

   fundator ipse et artifex

   permansit in Patris sinu,


   donec rotata annalium

     30transvolverentur milia,

   atque ipse peccantem diu

   dignatus orbera viseret.


   Nam caeca vis mortalium

   venerans inanes nenias

     35vel aera vel saxa algida,

   vel ligna credebat Deum.


   Haec dum sequuntur, perfidi

   praedonis in ius venerant,

   et mancipatam fumido

     40vitam barathro inmerserant:


   Stragem sed istam non tulit

   Christus cadentum gentium

   inpune ne forsan sui

   Patris periret fabrica.


     45Mortale corpus induit,

   ut excitato corpore

   mortis catenam frangeret

   hominemque portaret Patri.


   Hic ille natalis dies,

     50quo te creator arduus

   spiravit et limo indidit

   sermone carnem glutinans.


   Sentisne, virgo nobilis,

   matura per fastidia

     55pudoris intactum decus

   honore partus crescere?


   O quanta rerum gaudia

   alvus pudica continet,

   ex qua novellum [70]seculum

     60procedit et lux aurea!


   Vagitus ille exordium

   vernantis orbis prodidit,

   nam tunc renatus sordidum

   mundus veternum depulit.


     65Sparsisse tellurem [71]reor

   rus omne densis floribus,

   ipsasque arenas syrtium

   fragrasse nardo et nectare.


   Te cuncta nascentem puer

     70sensere dura et barbara,

   victusque saxorum rigor

   obduxit herbam cotibus.


   Iam mella de scopulis fluunt,

   iam stillat ilex arido

     75sudans amomum stipite,

   iam sunt myricis balsama.


   O sancta praesepis tui,

   aeterne rex, cunabula,

   populisque per seclum sacra

     80mutis et ipsis credita.


   Adorat haec brutum [72]pecus

   indocta turba scilicet,

   adorat excors natio,

   vis cuius in pastu sita est.


     85Sed cum fideli spiritu

   concurrat ad praesepia

   pagana gens et quadrupes,

   sapiatque quod brutum fuit:


   Negat patrum prosapia

     90perosa praesentem Deum:

   credas venenis ebriam

   furiisve lymphatam rapi.


   Quid prona per scelus ruis?

   agnosce, si quidquam tibi

     95mentis resedit integrae,

   ducem tuorum principum.


   Hunc, quem latebra et [73]obstetrix,

   et virgo feta, et cunulae

   et inbecilla infantia

     100regem dederunt [74]gentibus,


   peccator intueberis

   celsum coruscis nubibus,

   deiectus ipse et inritus

   plangens reatum fletibus:


     105Cum vasta signum bucina

   terris cremandis miserit,

   et scissus axis cardinem

   mundi ruentis solverit:


   Insignis ipse et praeminens

     110meritis rependet congrua,

   his lucis usum perpetis,

   illis gehennam et tartarum.


   Iudaea tunc fulmen crucis

   experta, qui sit, senties,

     115quem te furoris praesule

   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.


   Blessèd 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 [75]quaeritis,

   oculos in altum tollite,

   illic licebit visere

   signum perennis gloriae.


     5Haec stella, quae solis [76]rotam

   vincit decore ac lumine,

   venisse terris nuntiat

   cum carne terrestri Deum.


   Non illa servit noctibus

     10secuta lunam menstruam,

   sed sola caelum possidens

   cursum dierum [77]temperat.


   Arctoa quamvis sidera

   in se retortis motibus

     15obire nolint, [78]attamen

   plerumque sub nimbis latent.


   Hoc sidus aeternum manet,

   haec stella nunquam mergitur,

   nec nubis occursu abdita

     20obumbrat obductam facem.


   Tristis cometa intercidat,

   et si quod astrum Sirio

   fervet vapore, iam Dei

   sub luce destructum cadat.


     25En Persici ex orbis sinu,

   sol unde sumit ianuam,

   cernunt periti interpretes

   regale vexillum Magi.


   Quod ut refulsit, ceteri

     30cessere signorum globi,

   nec pulcher est ausus suam

   conferre formam Lucifer.


   Quis iste tantus, inquiunt,

   regnator astris inperans,

     35quem sic tremunt caelestia,

   cui lux et aethra inserviunt.


   Inlustre quiddam cernimus,

   quod nesciat finem pati,

   sublime, celsum, interminum,

     40antiquius caelo et chao.


   Hic ille rex est gentium

   populique rex Iudaici,

   promissus Abrahae patri

   eiusque in aevum semini.


     45Aequanda nam stellis sua

   cognovit olim germina

   primus sator credentium,

   nati inmolator unici.


   Iam flos subit [79]Davidicus

     50radice Iesse editus,

   sceptrique per virgam virens

   rerum cacumen occupat.


   Exin sequuntur perciti

   fixis in altum vultibus,

     55qua stella sulcum traxerat

   claramque signabat viam.


   Sed verticem pueri supra

   signum pependit inminens,

   pronaque submissum face

     60caput sacratum prodidit.


   Videre quod postquam Magi,

   eoa promunt munera,

   stratique votis offerunt

   tus, myrrham, et aurum regium.


     65Agnosce clara insignia

   virtutis ac regni tui,

   puer o, cui trinam Pater

   praedestinavit indolem.


   Regem Deumque [80]adnuntiant

     70thesaurus et fragrans odor

   turis Sabaei, ac myrrheus

   pulvis sepulcrum praedocet.


   Hoc est sepulcrum, quo Deus,

   dum corpus extingui sinit

     75atque id sepultum suscitat,

   mortis refregit carcerem.


   O sola magnarum urbium

   maior Bethlem, cui contigit

   ducem salutis caelitus

     80incorporatum gignere.


   Altrice te summo Patri

   haeres creatur unicus,

   homo ex tonantis spiritu

   idemque sub membris Deus.


     85Hunc et prophetis testibus

   isdemque signatoribus,

   testator et sator iubet

   adire regnum et cernere:


   Regnum, quod ambit omnia

     90diva et marina et terrea

   a solis ortu ad exitum

   et tartara et caelum supra.


   Audit tyrannus anxius

   adesse regum principem,

     95qui nomen Israel regat

   teneatque David regiam.


   Exclamat amens nuntio,

   successor instat, pellimur;

   satelles i, ferrum rape,

     100perfunde cunas sanguine.


   Mas omnis infans occidat,

   scrutare nutricum sinus,

   interque materna ubera

   ensem cruentet pusio.


     105Suspecta per Bethlem mihi

   puerperarum est omnium

   fraus, ne qua furtim subtrahat

   prolem virilis indolis.


   Transfigit ergo carnifex

     110mucrone destricto furens

   effusa nuper corpora,

   animasque rimatur novas.


   Locum minutis artubus

   vix interemptor invenit,

     115quo plaga descendat patens

   iuguloque maior pugio est.


   O barbarum spectaculum!

   inlisa cervix cautibus

   spargit cerebrum lacteum

     120oculosque per vulnus vomit.


   Aut in profundum palpitans

   mersatur infans gurgitem,

   cui subter artis faucibus

   singultat unda et halitus.


     125Salvete flores martyrum,

   quos lucis ipso in limine

   Christi insecutor sustulit,

   ceu turbo nascentes rosas.


   Vos prima Christi victima,

     130grex inmolatorum tener,

   aram ante ipsam simplices

   palma et coronis luditis.


   Quid proficit tantum nefas,

   quid crimen Herodem iuvat?

     135unus tot inter funera

   inpune Christus tollitur.


   Inter coaevi sanguinis

   fluenta solus integer

   ferrum, quod orbabat nurus,

     140partus fefellit virginis.


   Sic stulta Pharaonis mali

   edicta quondam fugerat

   Christi figuram praeferens

   Moyses, receptor civium.


     145Cautum et statutum ius erat,

   quo non liceret matribus,

   cum pondus alvi absolverent,

   puerile pignus tollere.


   Mens obstetricis sedulae

     150pie in tyrannum contumax

   ad spem potentis gloriae

   furata servat parvulum:


   Quem mox sacerdotem sibi

   adsumpsit orbis conditor,

     155per quem notatam saxeis

   legem tabellis traderet.


   Licetne Christum noscere

   tanti per exemplum viri?

   dux ille caeso Aegyptio

     160absolvit Israel iugo.


   At nos subactos iugiter

   erroris inperio gravi

   dux noster hoste saucio

   mortis tenebris liberat.


     165Hic expiatam fluctibus

   plebem marino in transitu

   repurgat undis dulcibus,

   lucis columnam praeferens:


   Hic praeliante exercitu,

     170pansis in altum brachiis,

   sublimis Amalech premit,

   crucis quod instar tunc [81]fuit.


   Hic nempe Iesus verior,

   qui longa post dispendia

     175victor suis tribulibus

   promissa solvit iugera.


   Qui ter quaternas denique

   refluentis amnis alveo

   fundavit et fixit petras,

     180apostolorum stemmata.


   Iure ergo se Iudae ducem

   vidisse testantur Magi,

   cum facta priscorum ducum

   Christi figuram finxerint.


     185Hic rex priorum iudicum,

   rexere qui Iacob genus,

   dominaeque rex ecclesiae,

   templi et novelli et pristini.


   Hunc posteri Efrem colunt,

     190hunc sancta Manasse domus

   omnesque suspiciunt tribus

   bis sena fratrum semina.


   Quin et propago [82]degener

   ritum secuta inconditum,

     195quaecumque dirum fervidis

   Baal caminis coxerat,


   fumosa avorum numina

   saxum, metallum, stipitem,

   rasum, dolatum, sectile,

     200in Christi honorem deserit.


   Gaudete quidquid gentium est,

   Iudaea, Roma, et Graecia,

   Aegypte, Thrax, Persa, Scytha,

   rex unus omnes possidet.


     205Laudate vestrum principem

   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 jaggèd 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:

     5alter et pecuniam

   recidit, unde victitent egeni.

   Nos citos iambicos

   sacramus et rotatiles trochaeos,

   sanctitatis indigi

     10nec ad levamen pauperum potentes;

   adprobat tamen Deus

   pedestre carmen, et benignus audit.

   Multa divitis domo

   sita est per omnes angulos supellex.

     15Fulget aureus scyphus,

   nec aere defit expolita pelvis:

   est et olla fictilis,

   gravisque et ampla argentea est parabsis.

   Sunt eburna quaepiam,

     20nonnulla quercu sunt cavata et ulmo:

   omne vas fit utile,

   quod est ad usum congruens herilem,

   Instruunt enim domum

   ut empta magno, sic parata ligno.

     25Me paterno in atrio

   ut obsoletum vasculum caducis

   Christus aptat usibus,

   sinitque parte in anguli manere.

   Munus ecce fictile

     30inimus intra regiam salutis;

   attamen vel infimam

   Deo obsequelam praestitisse prodest.

   Quidquid illud accidit,

   iuvabit ore personasse Christum.
     __________________________________________________________________

  EPILOGUE


   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 furnishèd;

   Therein no nook or corner empty seems;

   Here stands the brazen laver burnishèd,

   And there the golden goblet brightly gleams;

   Hard by some crock of clumsy earthen ware,

   Massive and ample lies a silver plate;

   And rough-hewn cups of oak or elm are there

   With vases carved of ivory delicate.

   Yet every vessel in its place is good,

   So be it for the Master's service meet;

   The priceless salver and the bowl of wood

   Alike He needs to make His home complete.

   Therefore within His Father's spacious hall

   Christ fits me for the service of a day,

   Mean though I be, a vessel poor and small,--

   And in some lowly corner lets me stay.

   Lo in the palace of the King of Kings

   I play the earthen pitcher's humble part;

   Yet to have done Him meanest service brings

   A thrill of rapture to my thankful heart:

   Whate'er the end, this thought will joy afford,

   My lips have sung the praises of my Lord.
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________

   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 mélancolique: 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 to this," he adds, "it has been retained and, many might
   say, all Thy flocks throughout the rest of the world now follow our
   example." To Ambrose and Augustine the Church of Christ is for ever
   indebted: to the latter for a devotional treatise which is the most
   familiar of all the writings of the fourth century: to the former for
   the hymns of praise which he composed and the practice of singing which
   he thus inaugurated in the worship of the Western Church. But the
   Church owes something also to Prudentius, a much more gifted poet than
   Ambrose. The collection of hymns known as the Cathemerinon or Hymns for
   the day is as little adapted for ecclesiastical worship as Keble's
   Christian Year, although excerpts from these poems have passed into the
   hymnology of the Church, just as portions of Keble's work have passed
   into most hymn books. For example, seven of these excerpts in the form
   of hymns are to be found in the Roman Breviary, and thus for centuries
   the lyrics of Prudentius have been sung in the daily services of the
   Church.

   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 détours 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 ([83]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. His didactic
   poems, the Hamartigenia or the Origin of Evil and the Apotheosis, a
   treatise on the Person of Christ, prove him to be a theologian of no
   mean calibre. He is also an allegorist, as is proved by the
   Psychomachia or the Battle of the Soul, a kind of Holy War which was
   very popular in the Middle Ages. He is a martyrologist: as witness the
   Peristephanon, a series of poems on Christian, principally Spanish,
   martyrs. Moreover, he is an undoubted patriot, and in the Contra
   Symmachum, which he wrote on the famous affair of the Altar of Victory,
   he proves that, while a Christian, he is also civis Romanus, loyal to
   the Empire and the powers that be. He is a skilful versifier, and in
   this connection the quatrains of the Dittochaeon, verses on themes of
   the Old and New Testaments, may be mentioned in order to complete the
   list of his works. His mastery of his very varied metres--hexameter,
   iambic, trochaic and sapphic--is undoubted: everywhere we note the
   influence of Virgil and Horace, even when these poets are not recalled
   by echoes of their diction which are constantly greeting the reader of
   his poems.

   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 the curious fascination which the circumstances of the Nativity
   and especially the Adoration of the Magi had for the Western world.
   Prudentius had a great vogue in the Middle Ages, and the modern renewal
   of interest in mediaevalism invests with fresh dignity a poet whose
   works at the Revival of learning provoked the admiration of
   Erasmus^[84][1] and the researches of numerous scholars and editors.
   But it is undoubtedly to the student of ecclesiastical history and
   dogma and to the lovers of Christian art and antiquities that
   Prudentius most truly appeals. He claims our interest, not merely
   because he reflects the Christian environment of his days, but because
   his poetry represents an attempt to preach Christ to a world still
   fascinated by Paganism, while conscious that the old order was changing
   and yielding place to new.

   ^[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."

  [85]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
   [86]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.
   [87]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 imperial troops, who
   furnished officers for some of the most lucrative posts in the
   provinces. Though in the translation the usual meaning has been given
   to militia, it must be regarded as uncertain in the absence of more
   definite information regarding the office held by Prudentius.
   [88]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

   Line
   [89]1 Of this poem lines [90]1-8, [91]81-84, [92]97-100, were included
   in the Roman Breviary as a hymn to be sung at Lauds, on Tuesday.
   [93]2 The allusions to the cock in this and the following poem ([94]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
   [95]l. 65 et seq. In [96]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." This 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.
   [97]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).
   [98]44 Cf. Augustine, Serm. 103: "These evil spirits seek to seduce the
   soul: but when the sun has arisen, they take to flight."
   [99]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 [100]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."
   [101]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

Line
[102]1   This poem furnishes two hymns to the Roman Breviary, one to be
         sung on Wednesday at Lauds, and consisting of ll. [103]1-8, [104]48-53
         (omitting l. 50), [105]57, 59, 60, [106]67 (tu vera lux caelestium) and
         68: the other for Thursday at Lauds, consisting of ll. [107]25 (lux
         ecce surgit aurea), [108]93-108.
[109]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."
[110]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."
[111]63  The Jordan is a poetical figure for baptism, suggested
         doubtless by the baptism of our Lord in that river. Cf. [112]vii.
         73-75.
[113]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."
[114]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 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

Line
[115]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 [116]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 [117]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 [118]note on iv. 15.)
[119]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."
[120]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.
[121]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.
[122]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."
[123]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).
[124]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).
[125]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.).
[126]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.
[127]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. (See [128]note on x. 51.) The body was placed not only in
         an actual sarcophagus or stone coffin, as expressly mentioned in the
         text, but in hollow places cut out of rock or earth (loculus). The
         sarcophagus method seems to have been the earlier, but was superseded
         by that of the loculus, except in the case of the very wealthy.
[129]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

 Line
 [130]15 Prudentius here, as again in [131]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. [132]note on
         iii. 2), but appears to be derived partly from Tertullian and partly
         from Marcellus.
 [133]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

Line
[134]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 [135]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 not
         in use, at any rate in Rome, in the pontificate of Zacharias (ob. 752
         A.D.) point in this direction. In the Spanish Church particularly the
         very ancient custom of praying at the hour when the evening lamps were
         lighted had developed into the regular office of the lucernarium, as
         distinct from Vespers. The Mozarabic Breviary (seventh century)
         contains the prayers and responses for this service, and the Rule of
         St. Isidore runs: "In the evening offices, first the lucernarium, then
         two psalms, one responsory and lauds, a hymn and prayer are to be
         said." St. Basil also writes: "It seemed good to our fathers not to
         receive in silence the gift of the evening light, but to give thanks as
         soon as it appeared." It is probable, therefore, that Prudentius
         intended the hymn for daily use, and that after speaking of God as the
         source of light, and His manifestations in the form of fire to Moses
         and the Israelites, his thoughts pass naturally, though somewhat
         abruptly, to the special festival--Easter Eve--on which the sanctuaries
         were most brilliantly illuminated. The question is fully discussed by
         Brockhaus (A. Prudentius Clemens in seiner Bedeutung für die Kirche
         seiner Zeit), and Roesler (Der catholische Dichter A. Prudentius). Part
         of this hymn is used in the Mozarabic Breviary for the First Sunday
         after Epiphany, at Vespers, being stanzas [136]1, [137]7, [138]35,
         [139]38-41.
[140]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.
[141]21  Cf. Vaughan, The Lampe:--


         "Then thou dost weepe

         Still as thou burn'st, and the warm droppings creepe

         To measure out thy length."
[142]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.
[143]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 the words of St.
         Augustine (Encheiridion, c. 112): Paenas damnatorum certis temporum
         intervallis existiment, si hoc eis placet, aliquatenus mitigari,
         dummodo intelligatur in eis manere ira Dei, hoc est ipsa damnatio. "Let
         men believe, if it so please them, that at certain intervals the pains
         of the damned are somewhat alleviated, provided that it be understood
         that the wrath of God, that is damnation itself, abides upon them."
[144]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.
[145]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."
[146]153 Cf. Paradise Lost, iii. 51:--

           "So much the rather thou, Celestial Light,
           Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
           Irradiate."

  VI

Line
         The [147]last seven stanzas of this hymn are used in the Moz. Brev.
         at Compline on Passion Sunday, and daily until Maundy Thursday.
[148]56  Cf. Job. vii. 14: "Then Thou scarest me with dreams, and
         terrifiest me through visions."
[149]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.
[150]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."
[151]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."
[152]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.
[153]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

Line
[154]1   This entire hymn is used in the Moz. Brev., divided into fifteen
         portions for use during Lent.
[155]27  The word sacerdos here, as in [156]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.
[157]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."
[158]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."
[159]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.
[160]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."

[161]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

 Line
 [162]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.
 [163]14 The word festum, as in [164]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.
 [165]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 own purpose and
         transfigured with new meaning a familiar figure. The gradual transition
         from paganism to Christianity is curiously illustrated by the fact that
         in several of the Catacomb bas-reliefs and paintings the Good Shepherd
         holds in His outstretched hand a Pan's pipe. See Maitland's Church in
         the Catacombs, p. 315, for a woodcut of the Good Shepherd with a lamb
         over His shoulders, two sheep at His feet, a palm tree (or poplar) on
         either side, and a Pan's pipe in His right hand; and also the
         frontispiece for a reproduction from the Cemetery of St. Peter and St.
         Marcellinus.

  IX

 Line
 [166]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 [167]22-24, [168]1-21.
 [169]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.
 [170]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.
 [171]71 Cf. [172]note on iii. 199.

  X

Line
[173]1   Parts of this hymn are used in the Moz. Brev. in the Office of
         the Dead, being ll. [174]1-16, [175]45-48, [176]57-68, [177]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. [178]ll. 51, 52), swathed in white linen
         ([179]l. 49), and placed in a coffin; vigils and hymns continued for
         three or four days, but hired mourners were forbidden ([180]l. 113),
         and instead of the dirges 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 ([181]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. [182]l. 171), they were engraved on small marble slabs.
[183]25  In both thought and language this stanza, as [184]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).
[185]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."
[186]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."

[187]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.
[188]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."
[189]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."
[190]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 [191]note on iii. 205.

  XI

Line
[192]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 flame before the light
         of "a greater Sun." Prudentius proclaims the increase of the sun's
         light, which begins after the winter solstice, as symbolic of the
         ever-widening influence of the True Light. The idea is given in a terse
         form by St. Peter Chrysologus, Serm. 159: Crescere dies coepit, quia
         verus dies illuxit. "The day begins to lengthen out, inasmuch as the
         true Day hath shone forth."
[193]18  For the somewhat obscure phrase verbo editus, see [194]note on
         iii. 2.
[195]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.
[196]59  Cf. for the conception of a golden age, Virg., Ecl., iv. 5 et
         seq.: Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo, etc.
[197]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.)
[198]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 with St. Luke's word
         for "manger" (phatne). After referring to the circumstances of the
         Nativity, Origen proceeds to say: "That was what the prophet foretold,
         saying, 'The ox knoweth,' etc. The Ox is a clean animal: the Ass an
         unclean one. The Ass knew his master's crib (praesepe domini sui): not
         the people of Israel, but the unclean animal out of pagan nations knew
         its master's crib. 'But Israel hath not known me: and my people hath
         not understood.' Let us understand this and press forward to the crib,
         recognise the Master and be made worthy of his knowledge." The thought
         that the Ox = the Jews and the Ass = Pagans, reappears in Gregory
         Nazianzen, Ambrose and Jerome. See an interesting article by Mr. Austin
         West (Ox and Ass Legend of the Nativity. Cont. Review, Dec. 1903), who
         notes the further impetus given to the legend by the Latin rendering of
         Habb. iii. 2 (LXX.) which in the Vetus Itala version appears as "in
         medio duorum animalium in notesceris," "in the midst of two animals
         shalt thou be known" (R.V., in the midst of the years make it known).
         The legend does not appear in apocryphal Christian literature earlier
         than in the Pseudo-Matthew Gospel, which belongs to the later fifth
         century. It is interesting to note that with St. Francis and the
         Franciscans the ox and the ass are merely animals: the allegorical
         interpretation of Origen had vanished from Christendom: and in its
         place we find St. Francis (see Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventura,
         "Temple Classics" edition, p. 111) making a presepio at Greccio, to
         which a living ox and ass are brought, in order that a visible
         representation of the manger-scene might kindle the devotion of the
         Brethren and the assembled townsfolk. This act of St. Francis
         inaugurated the custom, still observed in the Roman Church, of
         representing by means of waxen images the whole of the Nativity
         manger-scene, Mother and Child together with the adoring animals.
[199]97  For the obstetrix, cf. Proto-Evangelium of the Pseudo-James (a
         Greek romance of the fourth century), § 18 et seq., where Joseph is
         represented as seeking and finding a Hebrew midwife.
[200]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

Line
[201]1   This poem has given four hymns to the Roman Breviary:--

         (1) For the Feast of the Transfiguration, Vespers and Matins consisting
                of ll. [202]1-4, [203]37-40, 41-44, [204]85-88.

         (2) For the Epiphany at Lauds, beginning O sola magnarum urbium, ll.
                [205]77-80, [206]5-8, [207]61-72.

         (3) For the Feast of Holy Innocents at Matins, beginning Audit tyrannus
                anxius, ll. [208]93-100, [209]133-136.

         (4) Also the Feast of Holy Innocents at Lauds, beginning Salvete flores
                martyrum, [210]ll. 125-132.

[211]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!"
[212]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."
[213]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°
         from the Pole; hence, if viewed from Saragossa, the birthplace of
         Prudentius, the lowest altitude of any of them would be 18° 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.
[214]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.'"
[215]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.
[216]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).
[217]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 Baälim

         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
     __________________________________________________________________

                                    Indexes
     __________________________________________________________________

Index of Scripture References

   Genesis

   [218]3:15

   Leviticus

   [219]14:2

   Job

   [220]7:14

   Psalms

   [221]51:7   [222]54:18-19   [223]119

   Proverbs

   [224]3:19-20

   Isaiah

   [225]1:3   [226]11:1

   Joel

   [227]3:18

   Amos

   [228]9:13

   Mark

   [229]13:35

   Ephesians

   [230]19

   Colossians

   [231]1:6

   2 Thessalonians

   [232]2:4

   Revelation

   [233]1:8   [234]17:8   [235]22:16
     __________________________________________________________________

            This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal
               Library at Calvin College, http://www.ccel.org,
                   generated on demand from ThML source.

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