[Page xxviii.] line 8.
and þes ben uerse of .m. lettre.
The Editor has not been able to find these Verses elsewhere. The Letters of the Alphabet are represented as Collegæ, or Members of a College, all the rest of whom go forth when the Gates are open; one only, viz. m, when they are shut. College is for Collegæ.
[Page xxix.] line 3.
but bi helpe of Poul.
This alludes to the well-known Story, told by a great Number of the Antients, of the Destruction of Simon Magus, by the Prayers of Saints Peter and Paul. Sulpitius Severus[66] relates this Event in the following Words: Etenim tum illustris illa adversus Simonem, Petri ac Pauli congressio fuit. Qui cum magicis artibus, ut se Deum probaret, duobus suffultus dæmoniis evolasset, orationibus Apostolorum fugatis dæmonibus, delapsus in terram, populo inspectante disruptus est. The same Account is given by St. Cyrill of Jerusalem[67]; after stating that Simon had so far succeeded in deceiving the Romans, that the Emperor Claudius had erected a Statue to him with the Inscription ΣΙΜΩΝΙ ΘΕΩ ἉΓΙΩ, he adds[68]: “The Error spreading, that goodly Pair, Peter and Paul, the Rulers of the Church, being present, set Matters right again; and on Simon, the supposed God, attempting a Display, they straightway laid him dead. Simon, that is, promised that he should be raised aloft towards Heaven, and accordingly was borne through the Air on a Chariot of Dæmons; on which, the Servants of God falling on their Knees, gave an Instance of that Agreement, of which Jesus said[69], If two of you shall agree as touching any Thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them: and reaching the Sorcerer with this Unanimity of their Prayer, they precipitated him to the Earth.”
For other Authorities, see the Note of the Benedictine Editor of St. Cyrill, on this Passage,[70] and Tillemont, Memoires pour servir a l’Histoire Ecclesiastique; Saint Pierre, Art. 34.[71]
[Ibid.] line 6.
Crist schal clanse his Chirche.