Chapter XXVI: 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 furnished;
Therein no nook or corner empty seems;
Here stands the brazen laver burnished,
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 _melancolique_: though it is rather the retrospect of a serious and awakened, but not morbid, conscience. Prudentius views his past years in the light of that new spiritual truth to which he has opened his soul. We gather that he received a liberal education and was called to the bar. We need not misunderstand the allusion to the deceitfulness of the barrister life, seeing that the ordinary arts of rhetoric stand condemned by his recently adopted ethical standard. He held two important judicial posts and was promoted to a high position, probably in the civil service and not outside the limits of his native province, the _provincia Tarraconensis_.

He speaks of himself as having reached the age of fifty-seven, which brings us down to 405, and as intending to consecrate his remaining years to the poetic treatment of religious subjects. When and how he became a Christian we do not know, and it were vain to guess, although the suggestion that he may have owed his conversion to the influence of some Christian family of his acquaintance is at least interesting. It is unlikely that he took up poetry for the first time in his old age. His mastery of all kinds of metre--heroic and lyric--prove the practised hand. The probability is that in the years of repose after a busy career his desire to redeem an unspiritual past suggested for the exercise of his natural gifts a field hitherto unoccupied by any of the writers of his age. Why not consecrate his powers to the task of interesting the literary circles of the Empire in the evangel of Christ? Why not present the truths of Christianity in a poetic guise, wrought into forms of beauty and set forth in the classical metres of Roman literature? This became the passion of his life, and however we may view the results of his toil, the spirit in which he went to work, as described in the touching _Epilogue_, cannot but evoke our profound admiration. He is but a vessel of earth, but whatever the issue may be, it will be a lasting joy to have sounded forth the praise of Christ in song.

This then is how Prudentius becomes the first poet of the Christian Church, or, as Bentley called him, "the Virgil and Horace of the Christians." Doubtless there were other influences at work to determine the sphere to which he was naturally attract. Ambrose, who was Bishop of Milan when Prudentius was twenty-six years of age, had written the first Latin hymns to be sung in church. Augustine in a familiar passage of the _Confessions_ (ix. 7.) describes how "the custom arose of singing hymns and psalms, after the use of the Eastern provinces, to save the people from being utterly worn out by their long and sorrowful vigils." "From that day 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 _detours_ into the picturesque parables and miraculous incidents of the Old Testament, there is method in his digressiveness. He knows that one of the charms of Paganism lies in its rich and variegated mythology. Yet Christianity also can point to an even nobler inheritance of the supernatural and the wonderful in the mysterious evolutions of its history. Hence the stories of the early patriarchs, of the Israelites and Moses, of Daniel and Jonah, are imported by the poet as pictorial illustrations of his theme. If occasionally the details border on the grotesque, he certainly reveals a striking knowledge of the Old Testament.

The New Testament is also adequately represented. In one poem (ix.) the miracles of Christ in His earthly ministry and His descent into Hades are narrated with considerable spirit and eloquence. Besides being a student of the Bible, Prudentius is a theologian. His theology is that of the Nicene Creed. The Fall of man, the personality of the Tempter, the mystery of the Trinity and of the Incarnation, the Virgin-birth, the Death and Resurrection of Christ, the pains of the lost and the bliss of the saints, the resurrection of the Body and the life everlasting--these are the themes of his pen, the themes too of the theology of his age. If the poet's treatment of these truths occasionally appears antiquated and crude to modern ideas, it is at least dignified and intelligent. His mind has absorbed the Christian religion and the Christian theology, and he not unfrequently rises to noble heights in the interpretation of their mysteries. 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[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."

THE PREFACE

In one or two of the MSS. this introductory poem is stated to be a preface of the _Cathemerinon_ only: but the great majority of the codices support the view which is undoubtedly suggested by internal evidence, that the poem is a general introduction to the whole of Prudentius' works. It is inserted together with the _Epilogus_ in this volume, because of the intrinsic interest of both poems.

Line

8 The reference is to the _toga virilis_, the ordinary
white-coloured garb of a Roman citizen who at his sixteenth year
laid aside the purple-edged _toga praetexta_, which was worn
during the days of boyhood.

16 ff. The cities referred to are unknown: but it is probable that
they were two _municipia_ in Northern Spain, and that the office
held by Prudentius was that of duumvir or prefect. Provision was made
by the twenty-fourth clause of the law of Salpensa (a town in the
_provincia Baetica_ of Spain) by which the emperor could be elected
first magistrate of a _municipium_, and could thereupon appoint a
prefect to take his place. This would explain the language of the
text as to the semi-imperial nature of the post. The phrase
_militiae gradus_ need only be taken to indicate advancement in the
_civil_ service. But the words have been interpreted in accordance
with the more familiar and definite meaning of _militia_, and
understood to refer to a purely military post. Dressel thinks that
Prudentius was a _miles Palatinus_, that is, a member of the
best-paid and most highly-privileged 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.

24 The consulship of Salia (or Salias) belongs to the year 348, the
date of the birth of Prudentius. An inscription (quoted by Migne from
Muratorius, _Nov. Thes. Inscrip._, i. 379) has been found in the
monastery of St. Paul's outside the city bearing the words

FILIPPO . ET . SALLIA . COSS

I

1 Of this poem lines 1-8, 81-84, 97-100, were included in the Roman
Breviary as a hymn to be sung at Lauds, on Tuesday.

2 The allusions to the cock in this and the following poem (ii. 37-55)
were doubtless inspired by the lines of Ambrose in his morning hymn
beginning _Aeterne rerum conditor_. Cf. ll. 5-8 and 16-24:

_"praeco diei iam sonat
noctis profundae pervigil,
nocturna lux viantibus
a nocte noctem segregans._

* * * * *

_surgamus ergo strenue:
gallus iacentes excitat,
et somnolentos increpat:
gallus negantes arguit._

_gallo canente spes redit,
aegris salus refunditur,
mucro latronis conditur,
lapsis fides revertitur."_

_Translation._

"Dawn's herald now begins to cry,
Lone watcher of the nightly sky:
Light of the dark to pilgrims dear,
Speeding successive midnights drear.

* * * * *

Brisk from our couch let us arise!
Hark to the cock's arousing cries!
He chides the sluggard's slumbrous ease,
And shames his unconvincing pleas.

At cock-crow Hope revives again,
Health banishes the stress of pain,
Sheathed is the nightly robber's sword,
And Faith to fallen hearts restored."

See also Ambrose, _Hexaem._, v. 24, for an eloquent passage in
the same strain. The cock was the familiar Christian symbol of early
rising or vigilance, and numerous representations of it are found in
the Catacombs. Cf. the painting from the Catacomb of St. Priscilla
reproduced in Bottari's folio of 1754, where the Good Shepherd is
depicted as feeding the lambs, with a crowing cock on His right and
left hand. It is also a symbol of the Resurrection, our Lord being
supposed to have risen from the grave at the early cockcrowing: see
l. 65 _et seq._ In l. 16 the first bird-notes are interpreted
by the poet as a summons to the general judgment. Cf. Mark xiii. 35:
"Ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or
at midnight, or _at cockcrowing_, or in the morning." 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.

26 A common idea in all literatures. Cf. Virg., _Aen._, vi. 278
(taken from Homer), _tum consanguineus Leti Sopor_, and Tennyson's
"Sleep, Death's twin-brother" (_In Memoriam_, 68).

44 Cf. Augustine, _Serm._ 103: "These evil spirits seek to seduce
the soul: but when the sun has arisen, they take to flight."

59 The denial of Peter forms a subject of Christian casuistry in
patristic literature, and this passage recalls the famous classical
parallel in Euripides (_Hipp._ 612), "the tongue hath sworn: yet
unsworn is the heart." Cf. Augustine, _cont. mendacium_: "In that
denial he held fast the truth in his heart, while with his lips he
uttered falsehood." For a striking representation of Peter and the
cock, on a sarcophagus discovered in the Catacombs and now deposited
in the Vatican library, see Maitland's _Church in the Catacombs_,
p. 347. The closing words of the passage in Ambrose's _Hexaemeron_,
already referred to under l. 2, may here be quoted: "As the cock
peals forth his notes, the robber leaves his plots: Lucifer himself
awakes and lights up the sky: the distressful sailor lays aside his
gloom, and all the storms and tempests that have risen in fury under
the winds of the evening begin to die down: the soul of the saint
leaps to prayer and renews the study of the written word: and
finally, the very Rock of the Church is cleansed of the stain he had
contracted by his denials before the cock crew."

81 ff. The best commentary on these words is to be found in the
following passage from the second epistle of Basil to Gregory
Nazianzen: "What can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the
angelic host by giving oneself at the peep of dawn to prayer and by
turning at sunrise to work with hymns and songs: yea, all the day
through to make prayer the accompaniment of our toils and to season
them with praise as with salt? For the solace of hymns changes the
soul's sadness into mirth."

II

1 This poem furnishes two hymns to the Roman Breviary, one to be sung
on Wednesday at Lauds, and consisting of ll. 1-8, 48-53 (omitting l.
50), 57, 59, 60, 67 (_tu vera lux caelestium_) and 68: the other
for Thursday at Lauds, consisting of ll. 25 (_lux ecce surgit
aurea_), 93-108.

17 Cf. Ambrose, ii. 8, _de Cain et Abel_: "The thief shuns the day
as the witness of his crime: the adulterer is abashed by the dawn
as the accomplice of his adultery."

51 The practice of praying on bended knees is frequently referred to
in early Christian writers. Cf. Clem., 1 Ad. Cor. cc. xlviii.: "Let
us fall down before the Lord," and Shepherd of Hermas, vis. 1. i.:
"After I had crossed that river I came unto the banks and there
knelt down and began to pray." Dressel quotes from Juvencus (iv.
648), a Spanish poet and Christian contemporary of Prudentius,
_genibus nixi regem dominumque salutant_, "on bended knees they
make obeisance unto their King and Lord."

63 The Jordan is a poetical figure for baptism, suggested doubtless by the baptism of our Lord in that river. Cf. vii. 73-75.

67 Cf. Milton, _Paradise Regained_, i. 293: "So spake our Morning
Star, then in his rise." The figure is suggested by Rev. xxii. 16:
"I am ... the bright, the morning star."

105 The conception of God as _speculator_ may be paralleled by a
passage in the epistle of Polycarp _ad Philipp._ iv., where God is
described as the Arch-critic (_panta momoschopeitai_) and subsequently
(vii.) as _ton pantepopten theon_, "the All-witnessing God." The
last verse contains a distinct echo of the closing words of the
fourth chapter of Polycarp: "None of the reasonings or thoughts,
nor any of the hidden things of the heart escape His notice."

III

2 _Word-begot._ The original _verbigena_, on the analogy of such
words (cf. _terrigena_, _Martigena_, etc.), can only mean "begotten
of the Word." It is evident, therefore, the "Word" in this connection
is not the Johannine Logos or Second Person in the Trinity.
Prudentius cannot be guilty of the error which he expressly
condemns (_Apoth._ 249) as _perquam ridiculum_ and regard the
Logos as begetting Himself. Consequently, both in this passage and
in xi. 18 (_verbo editus_) the "Word" must be taken as approximating
rather to the Alexandrian conception of the Logos as the Divine
Reason. In this way Christ is expressly described as the offspring
of the _Intellectus Dei_, the immanent Intelligence of the Deity.
If this conception is considered to be beyond Prudentius, we can only
suppose that both here and in xi. 18, his language is theologically
loose. Some excuse may be offered for this on the ground that the
Latin language is ill-adapted for expressing metaphysical truths.
The late Bishop Westcott remarked on the inadequacy of the Latin
original of "the Word was made flesh" (_verbum caro factum est_),
both substantive and verb falling short of the richness of their
Greek equivalents. (_Vid._ also note on iv. 15.)

11 Cf. Ambrose, _Hymn_ vii.:--

_"Christusque nobis sit cibus
Potusque noster sit fides;
Laeti bibamus sobriam
Ebrietatem Spiritus."_

_Translation._

"May Christ be now the Bread we eat,
Be simple Faith our potion sweet:
Let our intoxication be
The Spirit's calm sobriety."

The idea is familiar to readers of Herbert and Herrick, though it
is elaborated by them with quaint conceits somewhat foreign to the
Latin poet. Cf. Herbert, _The Banquet_:--

"O what sweetnesse from the bowl
Fills my soul!

* * * * *

Is some starre (fled from the sphere)
Melted there,
As we sugar melt in wine?

* * * * *

Doubtless neither starre nor flower
Hath the power
Such a sweetnesse to impart:
Only God, Who gives perfumes,
Flesh assumes,
And with it perfumed my heart."

Also Herrick, _A Thanksgiving to God_:--

"Lord, I confess too, when I dine,
The pulse is thine.

* * * * *

'Tis thou that crown'st my glittering hearth
With guiltless mirth,
And giv'st me wassail bowls to drink,
Spiced to the brink."

28 The original _dactylico_ refers to the metre of the Latin of this
poem. For a rendering of ll. 1-65 in the metre of the original see
Glover, _Life and Letters in the Fourth Century_, pp. 267-269.

58 This and the following lines should satisfy the most ardent
vegetarian who seeks to uphold his abstinence from animal food by
the customs of the early Church. In Christian circles, however, the
abstinence was practised on personal and spiritual grounds, _e.g._,
Jerome (_de Regul. Monach._, xi.) says, "The eating of flesh is the
seed-plot of lust" (_seminarium libidinis_): so also Augustine (_de
moribus Ecc. Cath._, i. 33), who supports what doubtless was the
view of Prudentius, namely that the avoidance of animal flesh was a
safe-guard but not a binding Christian duty.

75 _Unwed._ Prudentius thus adopts the view of the ancient world on
the question of the generation of bees. Cf. Virgil, _Geo._ iv. 198,
and Pliny, _Nat. Hist._, xi. 16. Dryden's translation of Virgil
(_l.c._) is as follows:--

"But (what's more strange) their modest appetites,
Averse from Venus, fly the nuptial rights;
No lust enervates their heroic mind,
Nor wastes their strength on wanton womankind,
But in their mouths reside their genial powers,
They gather children from the leaves and flowers."

86 Cf. Ps. liv. 18, 19 (Vulg.): _Vespere et mane et meridie narrabo
et annuntiabo et exaudiet vocem meam._ "In the evening and morning
and at noonday will I pray, and that instantly and he shall hear my
voice" (P. B. Version).

127 This is, strictly speaking, an error: it is the woman's seed
which is to bruise the serpent's head. The error was perpetuated
in the Latin Church by the Vulgate of Gen. iii. 15, _ipsa conteret
caput tuum_, where _ipsa_ refers to the woman (= she herself).

157 The epithet "white-robed" refers to the newly-baptized converts
who received the white robe as a symbol of their new nature. Cf.
_Perist._ i. 67: _Christus illic candidatis praesidet cohortibus_,
and Ambrose (_de Mysteriis_, vii.): "Thou didst receive (that is,
after baptism) white garments as a sign that thou hast doffed the
covering of thy sins and put on the chaste raiment (_velamina_) of
innocence, whereof the prophet spake (Ps. li. 7), 'Thou shalt purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: thou shalt wash me, and I
shall be whiter than snow'" (Vulg.).

199 Phlegethon (rendered "Hell"), one of the rivers of the Virgilian
Hades, is used to express the abode of the lost. Cf. Milton, _P. L._,
ii. 580:--

"... fierce Phlegethon,
Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage."

The subject of the _descensus ad inferos_ was evidently a favourite
one with Prudentius and his contemporaries. It has been suggested
that apart from the scriptural basis of this conception Prudentius
was influenced by the so-called _Gospel of Nicodemus_, which embodies
two books, the _Acts of Pilate_ and the _Descent into Hell_. The
latter is assigned by several critics to 400 or thereabouts, and
gives a graphic account of Christ's doings in Hades. Synesius deals
with the subject in one of his hymns (ix.), and Mrs Browning's
translation (see the essay on _The Greek Christian Poets_) of a
passage in that poem may be quoted:--

"Down Thou earnest, low as earth,
Bound to those of mortal birth;
Down Thou earnest, low as hell,
Where Shepherd-Death did tend and keep
A thousand nations like to sheep,
While weak with age old Hades fell
Shivering through his dark to view Thee.

* * * * *

So, redeeming from their pain
Chains of disembodied ones,
Thou didst lead whom thou didst gather
Upward in ascent again,
With a great hymn to the Father,
Upward to the pure white thrones!"

For a modern treatment of the theme see _Christ in Hades_, by
Stephen Phillips.

202 The words suggest the Catacombs, and perhaps refer to the custom
of placing in the tomb a small cup or vase containing spices, of
which myrrh (a symbol of death, according to Gregory of Nyssa, cf.
xii. 71) was most usually employed. Or the allusion may be to the
practice of embalming. (See 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.

205 The concluding line is beautifully illustrated by the epitaph
on the martyr Alexander, found over one of the graves in the cemetery
of Callixtus in the Catacombs:--

ALEXANDER MORTVVS NON EST SED VIVIT
SVPER ASTRA ET CORPVS IN HOC TVMVLO
QVIESCIT ...

"Alexander is not dead, but lives above the stars
and his body rests in this tomb."

IV

15 Prudentius here, as again in v. 160, emphasises his belief in
the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son. The
"filioque" clause was not actually added to the Nicene Creed till
the Council of Toledo (589 A.D.), but the doctrine was expressly
maintained by Augustine, and occurs in a Confession of Faith of an
earlier Synod of Toledo (447 A.D.?), and in the words of Leo I.
(_Ep. ad Turib._, c. 1), "_de utroque processit._" The addition
was not embodied into the Creed as used at Rome as late as the
beginning of the ninth century. (_Vid._ Harnack, _Hist. of Dogma_,
iv. 132.) Prudentius probably followed, as regards the Trinity,
the doctrine generally held by the Spanish Church of his day; in
many points it is difficult (cf. note on iii. 2), but appears to be
derived partly from Tertullian and partly from Marcellus.

59 The identification of the Habakkuk of this legend (_vid._ the
Apocryphal "Bel and the Dragon") with the O. T. prophet is erroneous.
This version of the story of Daniel is sometimes represented in the
frescoes of the Catacombs, where the subject is a very favourite
one, as is natural in an age when the cry "_Christiani ad leones_"
so often rang through the streets of Rome.

V

1 There has been much doubt as to the title and scope of this hymn.
Some early editors (_e.g._, Fabricius and Arevalus) adopt the title
"_ad incensum cerei Paschalis_," or "_de novo lumine Paschalis
Sabbati_," and confine its object to the ceremonial of Easter Eve,
which is specially alluded to in ll. 125 _et seq._ Others, following
the best MSS., give the simpler title used in this text, and regard
it as a hymn for daily use. This view is supported by the weight
of evidence: the position of the hymn among the first six (none of
which are for special days), and the fact that the Benediction of
the Paschal Candle was 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 fuer 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 1, 7, 35, 38-41.

7 The words _incussu silicis_ are perhaps reminiscent of the Spanish
ceremonial of Easter Eve, when the bishop struck the flint, lighting
from it first a candle, then a lamp, from which the deacons lighted
their candles; these were blessed by the bishop, and the procession
from the _processus_ into the church followed.

21 Cf. Vaughan, _The Lampe_:--

"Then thou dost weepe
Still as thou burn'st, and the warm droppings creepe
To measure out thy length."

119 The _folium_ here is probably the ancient _malobathrum_, generally
identified as the Indian cinnamon. The Arab traders who brought this
valuable product into the Western markets, surrounded its origin with
much mystery.

125 The following stanzas, in which Prudentius elaborates the
beautiful fancy that the sufferings of lost spirits are alleviated
at Eastertide, have incurred the severe censure of some of the
earlier editors. Fabricius calls it "a Spanish fabrication," while
others, as Cardinal Bellarmine, declare that the author is speaking
"poetically and not dogmatically." That such a belief, however, was
actually held by some section of the ancient Church is evident from
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."

140 It is somewhat startling to find Prudentius speaking of the Holy
Eucharist in terms which would recall to his contemporary readers
Virgilian phraseology and the honeyed cake (_liba_) used in pagan
sacrifice. It must be remembered, however, that in the early days of
the Church paganism and Christianity flourished side by side for a
considerable period; and we find various pagan practices allowed
to continue, where they were innocent. Thus the bride-cake and the
bridal-veil are of heathen origin; the mirth of the Saturnalia
survives, in a modified form, in some of the rejoicings of Christmas;
and the flowers, which had filled the pagan temples during the
Floralia, were employed to adorn God's House at the Easter festival.

141 The brilliant illumination of churches on Easter Eve is very
ancient. According to Eusebius, Constantine "turned the mystical
vigil into the light of day by means of lamps suspended in every
part, setting up also great waxen tapers, as large as columns,
throughout the city." Gregory of Nyssa also speaks of "the cloud
of fire mingling with the rays of the rising sun, and making the eve
and the festival one continuous day without interval of darkness."

153 Cf. _Paradise Lost_, iii. 51:--

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

VI

The last seven stanzas of this hymn are used in the Moz. Brev. at
Compline on Passion Sunday, and daily until Maundy Thursday.

56 Cf. Job. vii. 14: "Then Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest
me through visions."

95 In the translation of this stanza the explanation of Nebrissensis
is adopted, an early editor of Prudentius (1512) and one of the
leaders of the Renaissance in Spain. He considers that "the few of
the impious who are condemned to eternal death" are the incurable
sinners, _immedicabiles_. Others attempt to reconcile these words
with the general belief of the early Church by maintaining that
_non pii_ is not equivalent to _impii_, but rather refers to the
class that is neither decidedly good nor definitely bad, and that
the mercy of God is extended to the majority of these. A third view
is that the poet is speaking relatively, and means that few are
condemned in proportion to the number that deserve condemnation.
In whatever way the words are explained, it is interesting to find
an advocate of "the larger hope" in the fourth century.

105 Cf. Rev. xvii. 8: "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not;
and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition."

109 Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 4: "The son of perdition, who opposeth and
exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped;
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God."

127 The phrase _rorem subisse sacrum_ would suggest baptism by
sprinkling, except that Prudentius uses the word loosely elsewhere.
Immersion was undoubtedly the general practice of the early Church,
"clinical" baptism being allowed only in cases of necessity.

128 The anointing with oil showed that the catechumen was enrolled
among the spiritual priesthood, and with the unction was joined the
sign of the Cross on the forehead.

VII

1 This entire hymn is used in the Moz. Brev., divided into fifteen
portions for use during Lent.

27 The word _sacerdos_ here, as in ix. 4, is used in the sense of
"prophet"; but in both passages there is some idea of the exercise
of priestly functions. Elijah may be called "priest" from his having
offered sacrifice on Mount Carmel, and David from his wearing the
priestly ephod as he danced before the Ark.

69 The old editors discuss these lines with much gravity, and mostly
come to the conclusion that "locusts" were "a kind of bird, of
the length of a finger, with quick, short flight"; while the "wild
honey" was not actual honey at all, but "the tender leaves of
certain trees, which, when crushed by the fingers, had the pleasant
savour of honey."

76 A gloss on one of the Vat. MSS. adds: "This is not authorised; for
John merely baptized with water, and not in the name of the Father,
Son and Holy Ghost; therefore his baptism was of no avail, save that
it prepared the way for Christ to baptize." Many of the Fathers,
however, while expressly affirming that John's baptism differed
from that of Christ, allowed that the stains of sin were washed
away by the former. St. Chrysostom draws this distinction: "There
was in John's baptism pardon, but not without repentance; remission
of sins, but only attained by grief."

100 The story of Jonah, as a type of the Resurrection, is one of the
most frequent subjects of the frescoes of the Catacombs. In one very
ancient picture, a man in a small boat is depicted in the act of
placing the prophet in the very jaws of the whale.

115 Two stanzas are omitted in the text, which depict the sufferings
of Jonah with a wealth of detail not in accordance with modern
taste. For the sake of giving a complete text, we append them here:--

"_Transmissa raptim praeda cassos dentium
eludit ictus incruentam transvolans
inpune linguam, ne retentam mordicus
offam molares dissecarent uvidi,
os omne transit et palatum praeterit._

_Ternis dierum ac noctium processibus
mansit ferino devoratus gutture,
errabat illic per latebras viscerum,
ventris recessus circumibat tortiles
anhelus extis intus aestuantibus._"

194 Prudentius appears to have believed that the mystery of the
Incarnation was concealed from Satan, and that the Temptation
was an endeavour to ascertain whether Jesus was the Son of God
or no. Cf. Milton, _Par. Reg._ i.:--

"Who this is we must learn, for Man he seems
In all his lineaments, though in his face
The glimpses of his Father's glory shine."

VIII

9 The day of twelve hours appears to have been adopted by the
Romans about B.C. 291. Ambrose (_de virginibus_, iii. 4), commenting
on Ps. cxix. and the words "Seven times a day do I praise thee,"
declares that prayers are to be offered up with thanksgiving when
we rise from sleep, when we go forth, when we prepare to take food,
when we have taken it, at the hour of incense, and lastly, when we
retire to rest. He probably alludes to private prayer. The stanza
here indicates that the second hour after midday has arrived, when
the fasting ended and the midday meal was taken.

14 The word _festum_, as in vii. 4, indicates a special fast day.
Until the sixth century, fasting was simply a penitential discipline
and was not used as a particular mode of penance. In the fourth
century it was a fairly common practice as a preparation for Holy
Communion. Fasting before Baptism was a much earlier practice.
The stated fasts of the Western Church were (1) _annual_, that
is, ante-paschal or Lent; (2) _monthly_, or the fasts of the four
seasons in the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th months; (3) _weekly_, on
Wednesday and Friday. There was also the fast of the Rogations and
the Vigils or Eves of holy days. It is doubtful whether all these
were in vogue as early as Prudentius.

33 This passage on the Shepherd reminds us of one of the most common
pictorial representations of the Catacombs. Christian art owed
something to paganism in this matter; ancient sculptures represent
the god Pan with a goat thrown across his shoulders and a Pan's
pipe in his hand; while the poets Calpurnius and Tibullus both
refer to the custom of carrying a stray or neglected lamb on the
shoulders of the shepherd. Going further back, the figure is common
in the O. T. to express God's care over His people. Our Lord
therefore used for His 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

1 This hymn, which first introduced into sacred song the trochaic
metre familiar in Greek Tragedy and the Latin adaptations of it,
supplies the Moz. Brev. with some stanzas for use during Holy Week.
The lines selected are 22-24, 1-21.

11 The use of the symbol _O_, (pronounced here as a single
syllable), appears to indicate that the names Omega and Omikron
came into use at a later date than Prudentius' time. In Rev. i. 8,
the best MSS. read _ego eimi to alpha kai to o_.

33 The words _vulnerum piamina_ are generally supposed to refer to
the "gifts which Moses commanded" to be offered by those healed of
leprosy (Lev. xiv. 2). If so, Prudentius' language may imply that
the cure was not actually complete until the offering of these gifts,
and is at variance with St. Matthew, viii. 43, "and forthwith his
leprosy was cleansed." Probably, however, his idea is rather that
the gifts to the priest formally marked the leper as a clean man.

71 Cf. note on iii. 199.

X

1 Parts of this hymn are used in the Moz. Brev. in the Office of the
Dead, being ll. 1-16, 45-48, 57-68, 157-168.

The burial rites of the primitive Church were simple, and marked by
an absence of the ostentatious expression of grief which the pagan
peoples displayed. The general practice of cremation was rejected,
partly owing to the new belief in the resurrection of the body, and
partly from a desire to imitate the burial of the Lord. At Rome,
during the first three centuries, the dead were laid in the
Catacombs, in which Prudentius took conspicuous interest (see
Translator's Note), but after 338 A.D. this practice became less
frequent, and was completely abandoned after 410 A.D. Elsewhere,
from the earliest times, the Christians purchased special enclosures
(_areae_), which were often attacked and rifled by angry mobs in the
days of persecution. The body was frequently embalmed (_cf._ ll. 51,
52), swathed in white linen (l. 49), and placed in a coffin; vigils
and hymns continued for three or four days, but hired mourners were
forbidden (l. 113), and instead of the 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 (ll. 169, 170). The earliest
inscriptions are often roughly scratched on plaster, and consist
merely of a name and age, or simple words like--

GEMELLA DORMIT IN PACE

but later (cf. l. 171), they were engraved on small marble slabs.

25 In both thought and language this stanza, as vii. 16 _et seq._, is
evidently reminiscent of Horace (_Sat._ 2, ii. 77): _Quin corpus
onustum_, etc.

"The Body, too, with Yesterday's excess
Burthened and tired, shall the pure Soul depress,
Weigh down this Portion of celestial Birth,
This Breath of God, and fix it to the Earth."
(Francis).

51 Boldetti, in his work on the Catacombs (lib. i. cap. 59), says
that on many occasions, when he was present at the opening of a
grave, the assembled company were conscious of a spicy odour
diffusing itself from the tomb. Cf. Tertullian (_Apol._ 42): "The
Arabs and Sabaeans knew well that we consume more of their precious
merchandise for our dead than do the heathen for their gods."

57 Prudentius' firm faith in the resurrection of the body is also
nobly expressed in the _Apotheosis_ (ll. 1063 _et seq._):--

"_Nosco meum in Christo corpus resurgere; quid me
Desperare iubes? veniam, quibus ille revenit
Calcata de morte viis: quod credimus hoc est._

* * * * *

_Pellite corde metum, mea membra, et credite vosmet
Cum Christo reditura Deo; nam vos gerit ille
Et secum revocat: morbos ridete minaces:
Inflictos casus contemnite; tetra sepulcra
Despuite; exsurgens quo Christus provocat, ite._"

_Translation._

"I know in Christ my body shall arise;
Why bid me, then, despair? for I shall go
By that same path whereby my Lord returned,
Death trodden 'neath His feet: this is my creed.
Banish, my limbs, all terror; and believe
That ye with Christ our God shall yet return;
He beareth you and with Himself recalls.
Laugh at the threats of sickness; scorn the blows
Of fate; despise the horrors of the tomb;
And fare ye where the risen Christ doth call."

61 The poet expresses as a duty owed to Christ Himself the heathen
obligation of casting three handfuls of earth upon a body discovered
dead.

69 For the incident referred to in these lines, see the Apocryphal
book of Tobias, cc. ii. and xi. Tobit, a pious Israelite captive
in Nineveh, was reduced to beggary as the result of his zeal in
burying those of his countrymen who had been killed and exposed by
royal command. He also lost his sight, which was eventually restored
by the application of the gall of a fish which attacked his son
Tobias, and was killed by him. The "fish" of the legend is probably
the crocodile, whose gall was credited with medicinal properties by
various Greek and Latin writers. Cf. Pliny, _N. H._ xxviii. 8: "They
say that nothing avails more against cataract than to anoint the eyes
with its gall mixed with honey."

113 Cf. Cyprian (_De Mortal._ 20): "We must not lament our brethren
whom the Lord's summons has freed from the world, for we know that
they are not lost, but gone before. We may not wear the black robes
of mourning while they have put on the white raiment of joy. Nor
may we grieve for those as lost whom we know to be living with God."

171 Cf. _Perist._ vii.:--

"_Nos pio fletu, date, perluamus
Marmorum sulcos._"

The early Christian epitaphs, of which many thousands exist, are
instinct with a faith which is in striking contrast to the unrelieved
gloom or sullen resignation of paganism. We may compare with the
common

AVE ATQVE VALE

"Hail and farewell"

or inscriptions like

INFANTI DVLCISSIMO QVEM DI IRATI AETERNO SOMNO DEDERUNT

"To a very sweet babe, whom the angry gods gave to unending
sleep."

the Christian

DVLCIS ET INNOCENS HIC DORMIT SEVERIANVS SOMNO PACIS CVIVS
SPIRITVS IN LVCE DOMINI SVSCEPTVS EST (A.D. 393)

"Here slumbers in the sleep of peace the sweet and innocent
Severianus, whose spirit is received in the light of the Lord"

or

NATVS EST LAVRENTIVS IN ETERNVM ANN. XX. DORMIT IN PACE (A.D. 329)

"Laurentius was born into eternity in his twentieth year. He
sleeps in peace."

See also note on iii. 205.

XI

1 Virgil's Fourth Eclogue known as the "Pollio" has undoubtedly
influenced the thought and style of this poem: the more noticeable
parallels will be pointed out as they occur. In Milton's ode _On
the Morning of Christ's Nativity_ there are several passages which
recall Prudentius' treatment of the theme in this and the succeeding
hymn; but curiously enough, the Puritan poet in alluding to the
season of the Nativity takes an opposite line of thought, and
regards the diminished sunshine of winter as a veiling of an inferior
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."

18 For the somewhat obscure phrase _verbo editus_, see note on iii. 2.

20 For "Sophia" or the Divine Creative Wisdom, see Prov. iii. 19, 20,
and especially viii. 27-31, where the language "has been of signal
importance in the history of thought, helping, as it does, to make
a bridge between Eastern and Greek ideas, and to prepare the way
for the Incarnation" (Davison, _Wisdom-Literature of the O. T._, pp.
5, 6). In Alexandrian theology the conception of God's transcendence
gave rise to the doctrine of an intermediate power or _logos_, by
which creation was effected. In the Prologue of the fourth Gospel
the idea was set forth in its purely Christian form. See 1, 3, where
the Logos or the pre-incarnate Christ is described as the maker of
all things--an idea which is also illustrated by the language of St.
Paul in such passages as Col. i. 6.

59 Cf. for the conception of a golden age, Virg., _Ecl._, iv. 5
_et seq._: _Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo_, etc.

65 Reminiscences of ancient prophecy appear to be embodied in this
and following lines. Cf. Joel iii. 18: "And it shall come to pass
in that day that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine and the
hills shall flow with milk." Amos ix. 13: "The mountains shall drop
sweet wine and all the hills shall melt." But cf. especially Virg.,
_Ecl._, iv. 18-30: _At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu_, etc.

"Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring,
And fragrant herbs (the promises of spring)
As her first off'rings to her infant king.

* * * * *

Unlaboured harvest shall the fields adorn,
And clustered grapes shall blush on every thorn;
The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep,
And through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep."
(Dryden's Trans.)

81 The legend of the ox and ass adoring our Lord arose from an
allegorical interpretation of Isa. i. 3: "The ox knoweth his owner,
the ass his master's crib." Origen (_Homilies on St. Luke_ xiii.)
is the first to allegorise on the passage in Isaiah, where the word
for "crib" in the Greek translation of the O. T. is identical 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.

97 For the _obstetrix_, cf. _Proto-Evangelium of the Pseudo-James_ (a
Greek romance of the fourth century), Sec. 18 _et seq._, where Joseph
is represented as seeking and finding a Hebrew midwife.

100 Cf. Milton's _Ode on the Nativity_, ll. 157-164:--

"With such a horrid clang
As on Mount Sinai rang
While the red fire and smould'ring clouds outbrake:
The aged earth aghast
With terror of that blast,
Shall from the surface to the centre shake;
When at the world's last session
The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne."

XII

1 This poem has given four hymns to the Roman Breviary:--
(1) For the Feast of the Transfiguration, Vespers and Matins
consisting of ll. 1-4, 37-40, 41-44, 85-88.
(2) For the Epiphany at Lauds, beginning _O sola magnarum urbium_,
ll. 77-80, 5-8, 61-72.
(3) For the Feast of Holy Innocents at Matins, beginning _Audit
tyrannus anxius_, ll. 93-100, 133-136.
(4) Also the Feast of Holy Innocents at Lauds, beginning _Salvete
flores martyrum_, ll. 125-132.

5 For a curious parallel to these opening lines see Henry Vaughan's
_Pious Thoughts and Ejaculations_ (the Nativity):--

"But stay! what light is that doth stream
And drop here in a gilded beam?
It is Thy star runs Page and brings
Thy tributary Eastern kings.
Lord! grant some light to us that we
May find with them the way to Thee!"

12 Cf. Ignatius, _Ep. ad Ephes. xix._: "All the other stars, together
with the Sun and Moon, became a chorus to the Star, which in its
light excelled them all."

15 Prudentius mentions the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa
Minor (to which latter the Pole Star belongs) as examples of stars
in constant apparition. All the Little Bear stars are within about
24 deg. from the Pole; hence, if viewed from Saragossa, the birthplace
of Prudentius, the lowest altitude of any of them would be 18 deg.
above the north horizon. The same applies to the majority of the
stars in the Great Bear. Some few would sink below the horizon
for a brief time in each twenty-four hours; but the greater number,
especially the seven principal stars known as the "Plough," would
be sufficiently high up at their lowest northern altitudes to be in
perpetual apparition. [My friend, Rev. R. Killip, F.R.A.S., has
kindly furnished me with these particulars.] Allusions to the Bears
are constantly recurring in the classical poets (cf. _e.g._ Ovid.,
_Met._ xiii. 293, _immunemque aequoris Arcton_, "the Bear that never
touches the sea"). The idea that these stars are mostly hidden by
clouds, though perpetually in view, is a poetic hyperbole intended
to enhance the uniqueness of the Star of Bethlehem.

49 Jerome (_ad Eustoch._ Ep. 22) commenting on the passage in Isa.
xi. 1, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse,
and a flower shall rise up out of his root" (Vulg.), remarks: "The
rod (_virga_) is the mother of the Lord, simple, pure, sincere ...
the flower of the rod is Christ, who saith, 'I am the flower of the
field and the lily of the valleys.'"

69 This symbolism of the gifts of the Magi is also found in Juvencus
(I. 250): "Frankincense, gold and myrrh they bring as gifts to a
King, a Man and a God," and is again alluded to by Prudentius in
_Apoth._ 631 _et seq._ The idea is expressed in the hymn of Jacopone
da Todi, beginning _Verbum caro factum est_ (Mone, _Hymni Latini_,
Vol. 2):

"Gold to the kingly,
Incense to the priestly,
Myrrh to the mortal:"

and it has passed into the Office for Epiphany in the Roman Breviary:
"There are three precious gifts which the Magi offered to their Lord
that day, and they contain in themselves sacred mysteries: in the
gold, that the power of a king may be displayed: in the frankincense,
consider the great high priest: in the myrrh, the burial of the Lord"
_et passim_.

172 The idea that Moses defeated the Amalekites because his arms were
outstretched in the form of a cross is found also in one of the hymns
(lxi.) of Gregory Nazianzen. The symbol of the Christian religion,
the cross, "was fancifully traced by the Fathers throughout the
universe: the four points of the compass, the 'height, breadth,
length and depth' of the Apostle expressed, or were expressed by,
the cross.... The cross explained everything" (Maitland, _Church in
the Catacombs_, p. 202).

193 The discomfiture of the heathen gods wrought by the Incarnation
is elaborated by Milton, whose lines recall this and similar passages
in Prudentius:--

"Peor, and Baaelim
Forsake their temples dim

* * * * *

And sullen Moloch fled,
Hath left in shadows dread,
His burning idol all of blackest hue.

Our Babe, to show his Godhead true,
Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew."

FINIS