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[1]Virgil's Fourth Eclogue known as the "Pollio" has undoubtedly influenced the thought and style of this poem: the more noticeable parallels will be pointed out as they occur. In Milton's ode On the Morning of Christ's Nativity there are several passages which recall Prudentius' treatment of the theme in this and the succeeding hymn; but curiously enough, the Puritan poet in alluding to the season of the Nativity takes an opposite line of thought, and regards the diminished sunshine of winter as a veiling of an inferior flame before the light of "a greater Sun." Prudentius proclaims the increase of the sun's light, which begins after the winter solstice, as symbolic of the ever-widening influence of the True Light. The idea is given in a terse form by St. Peter Chrysologus, Serm. 159: Crescere dies coepit, quia verus dies illuxit. "The day begins to lengthen out, inasmuch as the true Day hath shone forth."
[18]For the somewhat obscure phrase verbo editus, see [note on iii. 2].
[20]For "Sophia" or the Divine Creative Wisdom, see Prov. iii. 19, 20, and especially viii. 27-31, where the language "has been of signal importance in the history of thought, helping, as it does, to make a bridge between Eastern and Greek ideas, and to prepare the way for the Incarnation" (Davison, Wisdom-Literature of the O. T., pp. 5, 6). In Alexandrian theology the conception of God's transcendence gave rise to the doctrine of an intermediate power or logos, by which creation was effected. In the Prologue of the fourth Gospel the idea was set forth in its purely Christian form. See 1, 3, where the Logos or the pre-incarnate Christ is described as the maker of all things--an idea which is also illustrated by the language of St. Paul in such passages as Col. i. 6.
[59]Cf. for the conception of a golden age, Virg., Ecl., iv. 5 et seq.: Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo, etc.
[65]Reminiscences of ancient prophecy appear to be embodied in this and following lines. Cf. Joel iii. 18: "And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down sweet wine and the hills shall flow with milk." Amos ix. 13: "The mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt." But cf. especially Virg., Ecl., iv. 18-30: At tibi prima, puer, nullo munuscula cultu, etc. "Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring, And fragrant herbs (the promises of spring) As her first off'rings to her infant king. * * * * * Unlaboured harvest shall the fields adorn, And clustered grapes shall blush on every thorn; The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep, And through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep." (Dryden's Trans.)
[81]The legend of the ox and ass adoring our Lord arose from an allegorical interpretation of Isa. i. 3: "The ox knoweth his owner, the ass his master's crib." Origen (Homilies on St. Luke xiii.) is the first to allegorise on the passage in Isaiah, where the word for "crib" in the Greek translation of the O. T. is identical with St. Luke's word for "manger" (φατνη). After referring to the circumstances of the Nativity, Origen proceeds to say: "That was what the prophet foretold, saying, 'The ox knoweth,' etc. The Ox is a clean animal: the Ass an unclean one. The Ass knew his master's crib (praesepe domini sui): not the people of Israel, but the unclean animal out of pagan nations knew its master's crib. 'But Israel hath not known me: and my people hath not understood.' Let us understand this and press forward to the crib, recognise the Master and be made worthy of his knowledge." The thought that the Ox = the Jews and the Ass = Pagans, reappears in Gregory Nazianzen, Ambrose and Jerome. See an interesting article by Mr. Austin West (Ox and Ass Legend of the Nativity. Cont. Review, Dec. 1903), who notes the further impetus given to the legend by the Latin rendering of Habb. iii. 2 (LXX.) which in the Vetus Itala version appears as "in medio duorum animalium in notesceris," "in the midst of two animals shalt thou be known" (R.V., in the midst of the years make it known). The legend does not appear in apocryphal Christian literature earlier than in the Pseudo-Matthew Gospel, which belongs to the later fifth century. It is interesting to note that with St. Francis and the Franciscans the ox and the ass are merely animals: the allegorical interpretation of Origen had vanished from Christendom: and in its place we find St. Francis (see Life of St. Francis by St. Bonaventura, "Temple Classics" edition, p. 111) making a presepio at Greccio, to which a living ox and ass are brought, in order that a visible representation of the manger-scene might kindle the devotion of the Brethren and the assembled townsfolk. This act of St. Francis inaugurated the custom, still observed in the Roman Church, of representing by means of waxen images the whole of the Nativity manger-scene, Mother and Child together with the adoring animals.
[97]For the obstetrix, cf. Proto-Evangelium of the Pseudo-James (a Greek romance of the fourth century), § 18 et seq., where Joseph is represented as seeking and finding a Hebrew midwife.
[100]Cf. Milton's Ode on the Nativity, ll. 157-164:-- "With such a horrid clang As on Mount Sinai rang While the red fire and smould'ring clouds outbrake: The aged earth aghast With terror of that blast, Shall from the surface to the centre shake; When at the world's last session The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne."

"Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring,

And fragrant herbs (the promises of spring)

As her first off'rings to her infant king.

* * * * *

Unlaboured harvest shall the fields adorn,

And clustered grapes shall blush on every thorn;

The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep,

And through the matted grass the liquid gold shall creep."

(Dryden's Trans.)

"With such a horrid clang

As on Mount Sinai rang

While the red fire and smould'ring clouds outbrake:

The aged earth aghast

With terror of that blast,

Shall from the surface to the centre shake;

When at the world's last session

The dreadful Judge in middle air shall spread his throne."

[XII]

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[1]This poem has given four hymns to the Roman Breviary:-- (1) For the Feast of the Transfiguration, Vespers and Matins consisting of ll. [1-4], [37-40, 41-44], [85-88]. (2) For the Epiphany at Lauds, beginning O sola magnarum urbium, ll. [77-80], [5-8], [61-72]. (3) For the Feast of Holy Innocents at Matins, beginning Audit tyrannus anxius, ll. [93-100], [133-136]. (4) Also the Feast of Holy Innocents at Lauds, beginning Salvete flores martyrum, [ll. 125-132].
[5]For a curious parallel to these opening lines see Henry Vaughan's Pious Thoughts and Ejaculations (the Nativity):-- "But stay! what light is that doth stream And drop here in a gilded beam? It is Thy star runs Page and brings Thy tributary Eastern kings. Lord! grant some light to us that we May find with them the way to Thee!"
[12]Cf. Ignatius, Ep. ad Ephes. xix.: "All the other stars, together with the Sun and Moon, became a chorus to the Star, which in its light excelled them all."
[15]Prudentius mentions the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor (to which latter the Pole Star belongs) as examples of stars in constant apparition. All the Little Bear stars are within about 24° from the Pole; hence, if viewed from Saragossa, the birthplace of Prudentius, the lowest altitude of any of them would be 18° above the north horizon. The same applies to the majority of the stars in the Great Bear. Some few would sink below the horizon for a brief time in each twenty-four hours; but the greater number, especially the seven principal stars known as the "Plough," would be sufficiently high up at their lowest northern altitudes to be in perpetual apparition. [My friend, Rev. R. Killip, F.R.A.S., has kindly furnished me with these particulars.] Allusions to the Bears are constantly recurring in the classical poets (cf. e.g. Ovid., Met. xiii. 293, immunemque aequoris Arcton, "the Bear that never touches the sea"). The idea that these stars are mostly hidden by clouds, though perpetually in view, is a poetic hyperbole intended to enhance the uniqueness of the Star of Bethlehem.
[49]Jerome (ad Eustoch. Ep. 22) commenting on the passage in Isa. xi. 1, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root" (Vulg.), remarks: "The rod (virga) is the mother of the Lord, simple, pure, sincere ... the flower of the rod is Christ, who saith, 'I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.'"
[69]This symbolism of the gifts of the Magi is also found in Juvencus (I. 250): "Frankincense, gold and myrrh they bring as gifts to a King, a Man and a God," and is again alluded to by Prudentius in Apoth. 631 et seq. The idea is expressed in the hymn of Jacopone da Todi, beginning Verbum caro factum est (Mone, Hymni Latini, Vol. 2): "Gold to the kingly, Incense to the priestly, Myrrh to the mortal:" and it has passed into the Office for Epiphany in the Roman Breviary: "There are three precious gifts which the Magi offered to their Lord that day, and they contain in themselves sacred mysteries: in the gold, that the power of a king may be displayed: in the frankincense, consider the great high priest: in the myrrh, the burial of the Lord" et passim.
[172]The idea that Moses defeated the Amalekites because his arms were outstretched in the form of a cross is found also in one of the hymns (lxi.) of Gregory Nazianzen. The symbol of the Christian religion, the cross, "was fancifully traced by the Fathers throughout the universe: the four points of the compass, the 'height, breadth, length and depth' of the Apostle expressed, or were expressed by, the cross.... The cross explained everything" (Maitland, Church in the Catacombs, p. 202).
[193]The discomfiture of the heathen gods wrought by the Incarnation is elaborated by Milton, whose lines recall this and similar passages in Prudentius:-- "Peor, and Baälim Forsake their temples dim * * * * * And sullen Moloch fled, Hath left in shadows dread, His burning idol all of blackest hue. Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew."

"But stay! what light is that doth stream

And drop here in a gilded beam?

It is Thy star runs Page and brings

Thy tributary Eastern kings.

Lord! grant some light to us that we

May find with them the way to Thee!"

"Gold to the kingly,

Incense to the priestly,

Myrrh to the mortal:"

"Peor, and Baälim

Forsake their temples dim

* * * * *

And sullen Moloch fled,

Hath left in shadows dread,

His burning idol all of blackest hue.

Our Babe, to show his Godhead true,

Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew."

FINIS