If

Life of Jesus Christ, of which some may remember a most offensive reproduction a few years since in England. indeed that Psaltery of the Virgin be his, of which happily there are very considerable doubts, it is too plain that he did not merely acquiesce in that amount of worship of the creature which he found, but was also its enthusiastic promoter to a yet higher and wilder pitch than before it had reached. Luther, who calls him, Bonaventura, præstantissimus vir, could scarcely have supposed that it was with any right attributed to him. His Latin poetry is good, but does not call for any especial criticism.

XIX. IN PASSIONE DOMINI.

Q'

UAM despectus, quàm dejectus,
Rex cœlorum est effectus,

Ut salvaret sæculum;

Esurivit et sitivit,

Pauper et egenus ivit

Usque ad patibulum.

Recordare paupertatis,
Et extremæ vilitatis,
Et gravis supplicii.

Si es compos rationis,

Esto memor passionis,

Fellis, et absinthii.

XIX. Bonaventura Opp., Lugduni, 1668, v. 6, p. 423.

35. secum] All are aware that there are, even in the Latin of the best age, some slight anticipations of the breaking down of the distinction between the demonstrative and the reflective pronouns. (Zumpt's Lat. Gramm., § 550.) In medieval Latin they are continually confounded, and the reflective put instead of the demonstrative, as here, and again in the next stanza.

Bone frater, quicquid agas,
Crucifixi vide plagas,
Et sibi compatere;

Omni tempore sint tibi
Quasi spiritales cibi;
His gaudenter fruere.

Crucifixe, fac me fortem,
Ut libenter tuam mortem
Plangam, donec vixero.
Tecum volo vulnerari,
Te libenter amplexari
In cruce desidero.

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45

BONAVENTURA.

XX. DE PASSIONE DOMINI.

Q

UANTUM hamum caritas tibi præsentavit,
Mori cùm pro homine te solicitavit;

Sed et escâ placidâ hamum occupavit,
Cùm lucrari animas te per hoc monstravit.

Te quidem aculeus hami non latebat,
Sed illius punctio te non deterrebat,
Immo hunc impetere tibi complacebat,
Quia desiderium escæ attrahebat.

Ergo pro me misero, quem tu dilexisti,
Mortis in aculeum sciens impegisti,
Cùm te Patri victimam sanctam obtulisti,
Et in tuo sanguine sordidum lavisti.

5

10

Heu! cur beneficia Christi passionis
Penes te memoriter, homo, non reponis?

Per hanc enim rupti sunt laquei prædonis,
Per hanc Christus maximis te ditavit bonis.

15

XX. Bonaventure Opp., v. 6, p. 424; Corner, Prompt. Devot.,

p. 117.

[T. L. P.]

9

Suo quippe corpore languidum te pavit,
Quem in suo sanguine gratis balneavit,
Demum suum dulce cor tibi denudavit,

Ut sic innotesceret quantùm te amavit.

Oh! quàm dulce balneum, esca quàm suävis,
Quæ sumenti dignè fit Paradisi clavis:
Et ei quem reficis nullus labor gravis,
Licet sis fastidio cordibus ignavis."

Cor ignavi siquidem minimè perpendit
Ad quid Christus optimum suum cor ostendit,
Super alas positum crucis, nec attendit
Quod reclinatorii vices hoc prætendit.

Hoc reclinatorium quoties monstratur

Piæ menti, toties ei glutinatur,

Sicut et accipiter totus inescatur

Super carnem rubeam, per quam revocatur.

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