XXI. Clichtoveus, Elucidat. Eccles., Paris, 1556, (not in the earlier editions.)–Balde has a series of brief poems on the several instruments of the passion, among which is the following upon the thorn-crown:

Hoc quale vides pressit Regem
Diadema tuum: fulget acutus
Utrinque lapis. Perus in mediis
Sentibus istâs reperit gemmas
Lictor, et alto vulnere fixit.
En ut radiant! rhamnus iaspis,
Paliurus onyx, spina smaragdus
Tanto posthac veriùs omnes,
Homo, divitias regnaque mundi
Opulenta potes dicere Spinas.

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36. Mereamur] It is hardly necessary to observe to any who have the slightest acquaintance with medieval Latin, that mereor in it is continually used in the sense simply of to obtain, without in the least implying any merit as the ground of that obtaining. The implied merit, which of course originally belonged to the word, has fallen quite out of sight.

XXII. (Walraff,] Corolla Hymnorum, p. 16; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol., v. 2, p. 345.- This exceedingly graceful little poem, which, to judge from internal evidence, is of no great antiquity, I am not able to give any satisfactory account of. I have only met it twice, as noted above, and in neither case with any indication of its source or age.

It is certainly of a very rare perfection in its kind.

8. improperium]=convicium, derisio, and probably connected with probrum, is a word peculiar to Church Latin. It occurs several times in the Vulgate, as Rom. xv. 3 ; Heb. xi. 26. The verb improperare =óveldiselv, is used by Petronius.

13, 14. caverna... maceriæ] He alludes to Cant. ii. 14. (Vulg.):

Columba mea in foraminibus petræ, in cavernâ maceriæ : on which words St Bernard writes (In Cant., Serm. 61): Foramina petræ, vulnera Christi. In his passer invenit sibi domum et turtur nidum, ubi reponat pullos suos : in his se columba tutatur, et circumvolitantem intuetur accipitrem.

FORTUNATUS.

XXIII. DE RESURRECTIONE DOMINI.

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ALVE, festa dies, toto venerabilis ævo,

Quâ Deus infernum vicit, et astra tenet. Ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi

Omnia cum Domino dona redîsse suo. Namque triumphanti post tristia tartara Christo

Undique fronde nemus, gramina flore favent. Legibus inferni oppressis super astra meantem

Laudant rite Deum lux, polus, arva, fretum. Qui crucifixus erat, Deus ecce per omnia regnat,

Dantque Creatori cuncta creata precem.

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XXIII. Creuzer, Symbolik, v. 4, p. 742; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol., v. 1, p. 170.