XXVI. DE PASSIONE DOMINI.

ECQUIS

binas columbinas

Alas dabit animæ ?

Ut in almam crucis palmam

Evolet citissime,

In quâ Jesus totus læsus,
Orbis desiderium,

Et immensus est suspensus,

Factus improperium !

Oh cor, scande; Jesu, pande

Caritatis viscera,

Et profunde me reconde

Intra sacra vulnera;

In supernâ me cavernâ

Colloca maceriæ;

Hic viventi, quiescenti

Finis est miseriæ !

10

15

XXVI. [Walraff,] Corolla Hymnorum, p. 16; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol. vol. ii. p. 345.-Of this graceful little poem, which, to judge from internal evidence, is of no great antiquity, I am not able to give any satisfactory account. 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 (=ỏveidíšei) is used by Petronius.

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

Columba mea in foraminibus petræ, in cavernâ maceria: 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.

XXVII. DE RESURRECTIONE DOMINI.

SALVE, festa dies, toto venerabilis ævo,

Quâ Deus infernum vicit, et astra tenet.
Ecce renascentis testatur gratia mundi
Omnia cum Domino dona redisse 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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10

XXVII. Creuzer, Symbolik, vol. iv. p. 742; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol. vol. i. p. 170.

XXVIII. Clichtoveus, Elucidat. Eccles. p. 168; Daniel, Thes. Hymnol. vol. ii. p. 68; Gautier, Adam de S. Victor, vol. i. p. 82. -The thought of the coincidence of the natural and spiritual spring, the falling in of the world's Easter and the Church's, and of the arapxal of both, which is the underlying thought of this and the last poem, comes beautifully out in a noble Easter Sermon by Gregory of Nazianzum, in which he exclaims: Nûv čap κοσμικὸν, ἔαρ πνευματικόν· ἔαρ ψυχαῖς, ἔαρ σώμασιν· ἔαρ δρώμενον, ἔαρ ἀόρατον.

15

20

Cœlum fit serenius,
Et mare tranquillius,
Spirat aura levius,
Vallis nostra floruit;
Revirescunt arida,
Recalescunt frigida,

Quia ver intepuit.

Gelu mortis solvitur,
Princeps mundi tollitur,
Et ejus destruitur
In nobis imperium;
Dum tenere voluit
In quo nihil habuit,
Jus amisit proprium.

Vita mortem superat;
Homo jam recuperat
Quod prius amiserat
Paradisi gaudium.
Viam præbet facilem
Cherubim, versatilem

Amovendo gladium.

23. tollitur] Some MSS. read fallitur. 34. versatilem] Cf. Gen. iii. 24 (Vulg.).