صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[blocks in formation]

how often it is found on lamps, gravestones, gems, and other relics which they have bequeathed us.

30

339

25

[blocks in formation]

37. splendor et figura] These are the words which the Vulgate uses as its Latin equivalents for ἀπαύγασμα and χαρακτήρ, Heb. i. 3; so that it is plain that it is to that setting forth of the dignity of the Son, in the opening of the Hebrews, Hildebert refers. The word άnavyaoμa might either mean effulgence or refulgence; and splendor does not necessarily determine for one meaning or the other. The Church, however, has ever preferred the first meaning, and has made απαύγασμα = φῶς ἐκ φωτός, and so, no doubt, is the splendor intended by the poet here. Thus we have in another hymn: Splendor Paternæ gloriæ, (a fuller translation of the άravyaoμa tñs dóęns,) Qui lumen es e lumine.

In tam novâ ligaturâ

Sic utraque stat natura,
Ut conservet quicquid erat,

Facta quiddam quod non erat.
Noster iste Mediator,

Iste noster legislator,
Circumcisus, baptizatus,

Crucifixus, tumulatus,
Obdormivit et descendit,

Resurrexit et ascendit:

Sic ad coelos elevatus
Judicabit judicatus.

§ ORATIO AD SPIRITUM SANCTUM.

Paraclitus increatus,
Neque factus, neque natus,
Patri consors, Genitoque,
Sic procedit ab utroque
Ne sit minor potestate,
Vel discretus qualitate.
Quanti illi, tantus iste,
Quales illi, talis iste.
Ex quo illi, ex tunc iste;
Quantùm illi, tantùm iste.
Pater alter, sed gignendo;
Natus alter, sed nascendo;
Flamen ab his procedendo;
Tres sunt unum subsistendo.
Quisque trium plenus Deus,
Non tres tamen Dî, sed Deus.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

101-137. The four images of deliverance which run through these lines, will be best understood in their details, by keeping closely in view the incidents of the evangelical history on which they rest, and which lend them severally their language and imagery. In ver. 101-112 the allusion is to Christ's raising of the dead, and mainly to that of Lazarus. The Extra portam jam delatus belongs indeed to the history of the widow's son, (Luke vii. 12;) but all else is to be explained from John xi. 39-44.

Per hoc sacrum cataplasma
Convalescat ægrum plasma.
Extra portam jam delatum,
Jam fœtentem, tumulatum,
Vitta ligat, lapis urget;
Sed si jubes, hic resurget;
Jube, lapis revolvetur,

Jube, vitta dirumpetur :

Exiturus nescit moras,

Postquam clamas: Exi foras.

In hoc salo mea ratis

Infestatur à piratis;

105

110

The second image seems, in a measure, to depart from the miracles of the stilling of the storm, (Matt. viii. 26; cf. xiv. 32,) and to introduce a new feature in the pirate; but on closer inspection it will be seen that in the "pirates" we have only a bold personification of the winds and waves, as hi pirate of ver. 119 plainly proves. In the third (ver. 121-128) he contemplates himself as the barren fig-tree of Luke xiii. 6-9, and as such, in danger of being hewn down. The fourth image (ver. 129-138) rests plainly on the healing of the lunatic child, and especially on the account of it given by St Mark, having traits which belong exclusively to that account, as the Aquis mersat, flammis urit; (Mark ix. 22.) The words Tibi soli sum relictus refer to the failure of the apostles; "I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not." It is as though he would say, "Man's help is vain; thou must heal me, or none.'

[ocr errors]

103. cataplasma] Bernard: Ex Deo et homine factum est cataplasma, quod sanaret omnes infirmitates nostras, Spiritu Sancto tanquam pistillo hasce species suaviter in utero Mariæ commiscente.

113-120. In hoc salo] The following spirited stanzas form part of rather a long hymn, which does not appear in the earlier editions of Clichtoveus, but is found in that of Paris, 1556, p. 222.

« السابقةمتابعة »