Præsepe jam fulget tuum, 25 continually violate the quantity of the Greek words which they use. It needs but to refer to such well-known examples as paraclitus, (παpákλntos,) and paraclisis, (wapákλnois.) See Daniel, v. 1, p. 14. 25. fulget] Thus in the Evangel. Infant., c. 3, some enter the cave where the new-born child is laid, et ecce repleta erat illa luminibus, lucernarum et candelarum fulgoribus excedentibus, et solari luce majoribus. PISTOR. HE only notice which I have of the probable author is Re 198: Auctor ejus fuisse traditur eximius pater Henricus Pistor, doctor theologus Parisiensis, et in religiosâ domo Sti Victoris juxta Parisios monasticam vitam professus, qui etiam Concilio Constantinensi [1414-1418] interfuit, eâque tempestate, doctrinâ et virtute mirificè floruit. ferring to the histories of the Council of Constance, I can find no notice of his having taken any prominent share in its deliberations. Yet the internal evidence of the poem itself, as far as it reaches, is all in favour of this statement. That the writer was an accomplished theologian is plain; and no less so that he was trained in the school and formed upon the model of Adam of St Victor, whom he resembles, and not in his excellencies alone. VI. DE S. JOHANNE BAPTISTA. PRECU RECURSORIS et ECURSORIS et Baptistæ Veneretur laudibus. VI. Clichtoveus, Elucidat. Eccles., p. 198; Rambach, Anthol. Christl. Gesänge, p. 364; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol., v. 2, P. 169. Verioris est perfusus Solis luce typicâ. Prius novit diem verum, Quàm nostrorum sit dierum Hic renascens nondum natus Clausa pandit, ventre clausus; Linguæ gestus obsequuntur; Dum pro linguâ sic loquuntur, Tori fructus matri dantur, Et jam matris excusantur Sterilis opprobria. Ortus tanti præcursoris Multos terret, sed terroris Comes est lætitia. 29. terret] Daniel has here tenet. This is one of the many and often serious misprints with which his book, in many respects so carefully and conscientiously prepared, too much abounds. 38. lucerna] In the words of the Psalmist, Paravi lucernam Christo meo, Ps. cxxxi. 7, (Vulg.) it was very common to find a distinct prophecy of the Baptist. The application was helped on by the reappearance of lucerna in regard of him in the words of our Lord Ille erat lucerna ardens, et lucens (John v. 35, Vulg.) Cf. Augustine, Serm. 293, 4.-40.-lucifer] This title of the light-bringer, the morning star, was a nomen proprium applied to the Baptist. Durandus: Ideò autem Joannes dictus est Lucifer, quia obtulit novum tempus. To remember this, explains St Bernard's bringing in of a comparison between him and that other ❝son of the morning," that other lucifer (Isai. xiv. 12, 13, Vulg.) who sought not to go before the true sun, but to usurp his place. He exclaims: Lucet ergo Johannes, tantò verius quantò minus appetit lucere. Fidelis Lucifer, qui Solis justitiæ non usurpare venerit, sed prænuntiare splendorem. 43-45. sublimatur] Clichtoveus thinks these words to allude to our Lord's declaration concerning John, that he was a prophet, " and more than a prophet;" (Matt.xi. 9 ;) and the words of Gregory the Great (Hom. 6 in Evang., §. 5) are rather in confirmation of this view. Yet we ought not to forget, that it was often brought out as one of the prerogatives of the Baptist, that he was the only prophet who was himself prophesied of before his birth. Thus by Augustine (Serm. 288. 3): Hic propheta, immo amplius quàm propheta, prænuntiari meruit per prophetam. De illo namque dixit Isaias, Vox clamantis in deserto. And I cannot feel sure that this is not the singularis prophetia, which the poet means to say lifted him above all his fellows. 58-60. lavantur] So Marbod, in a leonine couplet : Non eguit tergi, voluit qui flumine mergi : Lotus aquas lavit, baptismaque sanctificavit. |