2S3..1 F2.52 v.ty
fathers of the Church.
2?il F252 v. ^5
fs.thei's of the Church.
D DDD1 D3D71fl3 3
A NEW TRANSLATION
VOLUME 43
A NEW TRANSLATION
Editorial Director
ROY JOSEPH DEFERRARI
The Catholic University of America
EDITORIAL BOARD
MSGR. JAMES A. MAGNER BERNARD M. PEEBLES
The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America
MARTIN R. P. McGuiRE REV. THOMAS HALTON
The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America
ROBERT P. RUSSELL, O.S.A. WILLIAM R. TONGUE
Villanova University The Catholic University of America
HERMIGILD DRESSLER, O.F.M. REV. PETER J. RAHILL
The Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America
UDENTIUS
Translated by
SISTER M. CLEMENT EAGAN, C.C.V.L
Incarnate Word College
San Antonio, Texas
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS
Washington 17, D. C.
1962
NIHIL OBSTAT:
Reverend Henry A. Echle
Censor Librorum
IMPRIMATUR:
>%H Patrick A. O'Boyle, D.D.
Archbishop of Washington
August 29, 1962
The nihil obstat and imprimatur are official declarations that a book or
pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. No implication is contained
therein that those who have granted the nihil obstat and the imprimatur
agree with the content, opinions, or statements expressed.
Copyright 1962 by
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA PRESS, INC.
All rights reserved .
TO
MOTHER M. COLUMKILLE
ON THE OCCASION
OF HER DIAMOND JUBILEE
CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION ix
PREFACE xxix
HYMNS FOR EVERY DAY
1. A Hymn for Cock-Crow 3
2. A Morning Hymn 8
3. A Hymn before the Repast 14
4. A Hymn after the Repast 24
5. A Hymn for the Lighting of the Lamp ... 29
6. A Hymn before Sleep 39
7. A Hymn for the Times of Fasting 45
8. A Hymn after Fasting 56
9. A Hymn for Every Hour 59
10. A Hymn for the Burial of the Dead .... 69
11. A Hymn for Christmas Day 78
12. A Hymn for Epiphany 83
THE MARTYRS' CROWNS
Hymn
1. Hymn in Honor of the Holy Martyrs Emeterius
and Chelidonius of Calahorra 95
2. Hymn in Honor of the Passion of the Blessed
Martyr Lawrence 105
vii
CONTENTS-Confmu<?d
Hymn Page
3. Hymn in Honor of the Passion of the Most Holy
Martyr Eulalia 128
4. Hymn in Honor of the Eighteen Holy Martyrs
of Saragossa 137
5. The Passion of the Holy Martyr Vincent . . .146
6. A Hymn in Honor of the Most Blessed Martyrs
Fructuosus, Bishop of the Church of Tarragona,
and Augurius and Eulogius, Deacons . . . .168
7. Hymn in Honor of the Martyr Quirinus, Bishop
of the Church of Siscia 176
8. On a Spot in Calahorra Where Martyrs Suffered
and Where Now is a Baptistery 180
9. The Passion of St. Cassian of Forum Cornelii . .182
10. Discourse of the Martyr St. Romanus against
the Pagans 190
11. To Bishop Valerian on the Passion of the Most
Blessed Martyr Hippolytus 240
12. The Passion of the Apostles Peter and Paul . .260
13. The Passion of Cyprian 266
14. The Passion of Agnes 274
vm
INTRODUCTION
URELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS, the greatest of the
Latin Christian poets, was born in the year 348
during the consulship of Salia and Philip. 1 The
place of his birth is not known with certainty. Three cities
of Hither Spain are designated by him as his own: Tar-
ragona, Saragossa, and Calahorra. 2 Partisans of each have
claimed him as a native son with convincing arguments.
In the case of all three, the expression 'ours/ used by
Prudentius in referring to them, may indicate only that
they belonged to Spain, or his own section of Spain, the
northeast region lying next to the Mediterranean and
nearest the center of Roman civilization.
The references to Tarragona in Hymn 6 of the Per-
istephanon may be dismissed as inconclusive, since they
probably denote only the importance of that city as capital
of the Province of Hispania Tarraconensis. 3 Moreover,
the use of the second person in the words, 'Sing the praises
of your own Fructuosus/ addressed to the inhabitants of
the city seems to indicate that Prudentius did not claim
1. Praefatio 25.
2. Peristephanon 6.143; 4.141-142; 1.116 and 4.31-32.
3. Ibid. 6.1, 4-6 and 142-147.
ix
X AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Tarragona as his birthplace. 4 If the poet is alluding to his
native city or region when he laments his separation from
Rome by the Vascon Ebro, the Cottian Alps, and the snowy
Pyrenees, 5 he cannot be referring to Tarragona, which
lies on the Mediterranean coast between the Ebro and
Rome.
Until recently biographers have generally been con-
vinced that Prudentius was born at Saragossa. Bergman
and others base their conclusion on the assumption that
the Bishop Valerian, to whom the poet addressed Hymn
1 1 of the Peristephanon, occupied the see of Saragossa at
the time, and that he belonged to the Valerian family
mentioned in the hymn in honor of the martyrs of Sara-
gossa. 6 Bergman cites Gams, who lists in his Series
episcoporum a Bishop Valerius among those attending the
Council of Saragossa in 380. 7
The last word on the question of the birthplace of
Prudentius is found in an article written by the Benedic-
tine, Mateo Alamo, who presents strong arguments in
support of Calahorra. 8 Alamo cites a hitherto unnoticed
manuscript in which the following entry appears: '1.
Valerianus Calagorritane Urbis Episcopus; 2. Prudentius
Caligorritanus, versificator insignis. . . .' He shows that this
Valerian, and not Valerius of Saragossa, is the prelate ad-
dressed by Prudentius in Hymn 11 as his own bishop.
Moreover, he strengthens all the previous arguments in
favor of Calahorra and refutes those of the Saragossan
4. Ibid. 6.150.
5. Ibid. 2.537-540.
6. Ibid.4.W.
7. Bergman, Prolegomena X. See also Allard, 'Prudence historien,'
Revue des questions historiques 35.351.
8. *Un texte du poete Prudence: Ad Valerianum episcopum/
Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique 35.750-756.
INTRODUCTION XI
patriots, leaving little doubt that Calahorra was the birth-
place of Prudentius.
Of the life of Prudentius little is known except what he
himself reveals in his works. He is not mentioned by any
of his contemporaries. The poem that prefaces the collec-
tion of his works published in 405 gives a bare outline of
his life, which is supplemented by meagre revelations and
hints in the works themselves. It is probable that he was
born of noble Christian parents, who were Roman citizens
of culture and fervent in the practice of their religion. 9
His works give evidence of a profound knowledge of
Christian doctrine and a wide acquaintance with patristic
literature as well as with the pagan classics.
In the Preface to his poems Prudentius tells us that as a
boy in the grammar school he wept under the merciless
blows of the teacher's rod, 10 and that later in the school
of rhetoric, he learned the lying conceits of classical litera-
ture, which he was not the only Christian writer of the
period to condemn. 11 Like Cyprian and Augustine he
confesses that his youthful years were stained with wanton
indulgence. 12 At the beginning of his public life his
eloquence and high spirits found ample exercise as well as
frequent failures in the law courts. 13 Twice he governed
important cities of Spain, and finally he was elevated to a
position of trust and dignity close to the emperor himself. 14
What this office was is not known, but it was doubtless con-
ferred by Theodosius and may have been continued under
Honorius and Arcadius. The poet praises these rulers
9. Cf. Allard, op. tit. pp. 347-348; also Ermini, Peristephanon.
Studi Prudenziani 4-6.
10. Praefatio 7-8.
11. Cf. Ambrose, De Abraham 1.2; Jerome, Ad. Rufinum 1.30;
Augustine, Sermon 70.2.
12. Praefatio 11-12.
13. Ibid. 13-15.
14. Ibid. 16-21.
Xll AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
in the Contra Symmachum.^ Some commentators hold
that he was given a high military post, since he shows a
knowledge of the tactics of war in his Psychomachia; but it
is generally agreed that the office was a civil one and may
have been of consular rank. 16 Finally, most probably in
his fiftieth year, he realized the vanity of earthly pursuits
and resolved to dedicate his talents to the service of God. 17
Some editors have suggested that he may have entered a
monastery or attached himself to a group of ascetics living
in the world. 18 In the Preface, doubtless written when the
poems were ready for publication in 405, and not, as he
implies, when he first resolved to consecrate himself to
God, he outlines a program of literary activities, including
the writing of hymns for the hours of prayer night and day
and in praise of the martyrs, and apologetic works in de-
fense of the Catholic Faith. There is no record of the
poet's life after the year 405, and the date of his death is not
certain. According to the Chronicon Dextri, now regarded
as spurious, he died in 424 at Saragossa, 'full of years and of
illustrious works, after having waged many battles with all
the heretics of his time/ 19
Biographical details found in the works of Prudentius
add little to what the Preface reveals. In the Apotheosis he
records his memories of the time of Julian the Apostate,
who became emperor in 361 when Prudentius was a boy of
thirteen. 20 He tells of his visit to Rome, probably between
15. Contra Symmachum 1.1-41 and 524-532; 2.5-11 and 655-665.
16. Cf. Allard, op. dt. pp. 351-353; also Bergman, Prolegomena VI.
Some editors think that the abbreviation V.C. found after the
poet's name in certain manuscripts stands for vir consularis.
The title vir clarissimus consularis was given to Roman provin-
cial governors during the fourth century.
17. Praefatio 28-35.
18. See Cathemerinon 2.45-56.
19. Gf. Bergman, Prologomena VIII, n. 2.
20. Apotheosis 450-502.
INTRODUCTION Xlll
the years 401 and 403; of stopping at Imola in northern
Italy to pray at the shrine of St. Cassian for relief from
some distress; 21 of his pilgrimages to the tombs of the
martyrs of Rome and his participation in the stations on
the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul; 22 of reading the inscrip-
tions in the catacombs and basilicas, including the famous
epigrams of Pope Damasus; 23 and of his happy return to
Spain and reunion with his beloved Father in Christ,
Bishop Valerian. 24 He refers often to his past sinfulness 25
and expresses a humble opinion of his literary merits. 26
The works of Prudentius as he indicated them in the
Praefatio 27 include the Cathemerinon, a book of hymns for
the praise of God; the Apotheosis, the Hamartigenia, and
Psychomachia, apologetic works in defense of Catholic
truth and morals; the two books of the Contra Symmachum
and possibly the tenth hymn of the Peristephanon* 8 in
which he condemns heathen rites and idolatry; and the
Peristephanon^ a book of hymns in praise of the martyrs
and Apostles. The Dittochaeon, or Tituli Historiarum,
consisting of forty-nine hexameter quatrains on Old and
New Testament scenes, does not find a place in the outline
given in the Praefatio> but it is generally attributed to
Prudentius. The quatrains were probably intended as
inscriptions for mosaics or frescoes in some basilica, and
may have been inspired by the epigrams of Pope Damasus
and the verses composed by Paulinus of Nola to accompany
21. Peristephanon 9.3-16 and 100-106.
22. Ibid. 2.529-584; 11.169-246; 12.55-66.
23. Ibid. 11.1-22.
24. Ibid. 11.178-182.
25. Hamartigenia 931-966; Peristephanon 2.573-584; 6.160-162; 10.
1136-1140; 11.243-244; 14.124-133.
26. Contra Symmachum 1.643-657; 2. Pr. 44-46; Peristephanon
10.1-22; Epilogue 11-34.
27. Praefatio 36-45.
28. CL Bergman, Prolegomena XIII.
XIV AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
pictures in churches. 29 Gennadius, writing at the end of
the fifth century, attributes to Prudentius a poem on the
creation of the world, Hexaemeron, but this is not extant.
According to Bergman, Gennadius erroneously referred to
a work of the same title by St. Ambrose. 30
The chronology of the works of Prudentius has been the
subject of much discussion. Some editors think that he may
have written earlier poems, not now extant, on pagan
themes before he turned his efforts to Christian subjects, 31
and that some of the works published in 405 may have
appeared separately before that date. It seems clear, how-
ever, that he published nothing prior to the year 392, since
St. Jerome does not mention him in his De viribus illustri-
bus, a record of all Christian authors known before the
fourteenth year of the reign of Theodosius, that is 392.
Ermini, citing earlier critics, concludes that all the poems
except the Psychomachia, Hamartigenia and Dittochaeon
were written between 400 and 405, and that these were
composed between 405 and 410, the date proposed for the
death of Prudentius. A recent discussion of the chronology
of the works places all of the literary activity of Prudentius
between the years 398 and 405, as the poet seems to suggest
in the opening lines of his Praefatio: The Cathemerinon >
Apotheosis, Hamartigenia, Psychomachia, and Peristepha-
non 1 to 7 between 398 and 400; the Contra Symmachum
1 and 2 and Peristephanon 8 to 10 between 401 and 403
while he was in Rome; and Peristephanon 11 to 14 in 404
after his return to Spain. However, this chronology pre-
sents two difficulties. In Hymn 2 of the Peristephanon
Prudentius seems to indicate that the poem was written
after his return to Spain; 32 and he says definitely at the
29. Cf. Epistle 32, PL 61.330-343.
30. Prolegomena XII.
31. Cathemerinon 3.26-30.
32. Peristephanon 2.529-544.
INTRODUCTION XV
end of Hymn 9 that he has returned home. All the hymns
of the Peristephanon in praise of the Spanish martyrs were
probably composed before the journey to Rome, and those
which were the fruit of his sojourn in that city were either
composed there or after he returned to Spain. 33 The order
of the works in the manuscripts of Class A, which may or
may not be the order in which they were written, is that
suggested by Prudentius himself in the Preface, namely the
Cathemerinon, Apotheosis, Hamartigenia, Psychomachia,
Contra Symmachum 1 and 2, and the Peristephanon. This
order is followed in most of the editions and in all the
translations of the complete works made to date. In the
manuscripts of Class B, the Peristephanon is joined to the
Cathemerinon to form as it were one book of hymns in
two parts. 34 In the present translation this order has been
followed, and of the two books into which the translation
has been divided, the first is devoted to the hymns and
the second to the apologetic and didactic works.
The Liber Cathemerinon } as its name indicates, is a book
of twelve 'hymns for every day/ Of these, six were inspired
by the nocturnal and diurnal services, or times of private
or common prayer observed in the Church from the earliest
times: the 'Hymn for Cock-crow/ Hymnus ad galli cantum;
the 'Morning Hymn/ Hymnus matutinus; the 'Hymn be-
fore the Repast/ Hymnus ante cibum; the 'Hymn after the
Repast/ Hymnus post cibum; the 'Hymn for the Lighting
of the Lamp/ Hymnus ad incensum lucernae; and the
'Hymn before Sleep/ Hymnus ante somnum. To this cycle
are added what might be called the seasonal or occasional
hymns: the 'Hymn for the Times of Fasting/ Hymnus
33. Cf. Ermini, Peristephanon 14-22; Bergman, Prolegomena XIV-
XIX; Isidoro Rodriguez Herrera, Poeta Christianus. Prudentius 9
Auffassung vom Wesen und uon der Aufgabe der christlichen
Dichters (1936) 16-18.
34. Cf. Bergman, Prolegomena XX-XXI.
XVI AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
ieiunantium; the 'Hymn after Fasting/ Hymnus post
ieunium; the 'Hymn for Every Hour/ Hymnus omnis
home; the 'Hymn for the Burial of the Dead/ Hymnus
circa exequias defuncti; the 'Hymn for Christmas Day/
Hymnus 8 Kal. lanuarias; and the 'Hymn for Epiphany/
Hymnus Epifaniae. Even though Prudentius may not have
intended these hymns for liturgical use, but rather as
literary compositions, he was undoubtedly inspired by the
liturgical prayer of his day. Fragments of Hymns 1 and 2
are found today in the Roman Breviary: Ales diet nuntius,
Lux ecce surgit aurea, and Nox et tenebrae> et nubila for
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at Lauds; and from
Hymn 12 are drawn Quicumque Christum quaeritis for
the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, O sola mag-
narum urbium for Epiphany, and Audit tyrranus anxius
and Salvete flores martyrum for Holy Innocents. Other
hymns of the Cathemerinon found their way, in part or as
a whole, into the Mozarabic Breviary. The hymn Inventor
rutilis dux bone luminis for Vespers of the first Sunday
after the Octave of Epiphany is taken from Hymn 5. 35 The
hymn Cultor Dei memento for Compline is taken from
Cathemerinon 6, the hymn before sleep. 38 Hymn 7, for the
times of fasting, is used in its entirety for the Hours of
Terce, Sext, and None during Lent. 37 The hymn Psallat
altitudo coeli for Vespers of the Sunday within the Octave
of Easter consists of twenty-four lines from Cathemerinon
9. 38 The rest of this Hymn in sections is used for Vespers
from Monday to Saturday of Easter week and for the Feast
of the Ascension. 39 The hymn Deus ignee fons animarum
for the Vespers of the Office of the Dead is composed of
35. Cf. PL 86.186.
36. Cf. Ibid. 962.
37. Cf. Ibid. 269-274.
38. Cf. Ibid. 641.
39. Cf. Ibid. 898-900.
INTRODUCTION XV11
forty-four lines from Hymn 10, plus an added stanza not
found in any of the manuscripts and a doxology. 40 Hymns
1 and 2 are written in the Ambrosian iambic dimeter and
the echoes of thought and imagery indicate that Prudentius
was acquainted with the hymns of St. Ambrose. In Hymn 9
he was clearly indebted to St. Hilary's Hymnus de Christo^
written in the same meter, the classical trochaic tetrameter
catalectic associated with the marching of soldiers. The
influence of Vergil, though not as extensive as in the hex-
ameter poems, is evident in all of the hymns, but particu-
larly in the *Hymn for Christmas Day/ 42 The influence
of Horace is shown in the complicated lyrical measures em-
ployed in many of the hymns as well as many evident
borrowings. Echoes of Seneca and Lucan are found,
especially in the 'Hymn for Epiphany/
The Liber Apotheosis, a long apologetic poem of 1084
hexameters in the Vergilian epic manner, is a defense of
Christ's divinity and the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity.
It is preceded by two prefaces, one a 'Hymn on the Trinity'
consisting of twelve hexameter lines, and the other a lyric
poem of fifty-six alternating iambic trimeter and dimeter
verses on the difficulty of keeping the true faith. Though
Prudentius does not mention the Spanish heretic Pris-
cillian, the poem may have been written with the rise of
Priscillianism in mind. He refutes all those who deny the
divinity of Christ, including the Patripassians, 43 the
Sabellians, 44 the Jews, 45 and the Ebionites 46 He concludes
the poem with an attack on the Manichaeans, who by deny-
40. Cf. Ibid. 978.
41. CSEL 65.219.
42. Cathemerinon 11.53-76.
43. Apotheosis 1-177.
44. Ibid. 178-320.
45. Ibid. 321-550.
46. 76^.551-781.
XV111 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
ing Christ's humanity compromise His divinity. 47 It is
probable that the Apotheosis was in part inspired by
Tertullian's Adversus Praxeam, though Prudentius doubt-
less was familiar with later apologetic writings. In style the
poem is a striking example of the blending of pagan form
with Christian thought, with the influence of Vergil pre-
dominant. 48
The Hamartigenia, or 'The Origin of Sin/ is a refutation
of the Gnostic dualism of Marcion. The poet shows that
God is not the Author of evil but that He permits it in
order that fallen man may choose freely between virtue and
vice and thus merit heaven. The poem of 966 hexameters
is preceded by sixty-three iambic dimeters in which the
poet compares the heretic Marcion to the murderer Cain.
Though Prudentius, in this work, adopts the arguments of
Tertullian's Adversus Marcionem his treatment is original.
His dependence on Vergilian phraseology is even greater
than in the Apotheosis, especially in the passages in which
he describes the torments of Hell. 49
The Psychomachia is an allegorical epic of 915 hexam-
eters representing the contest between the virtues and
vices for the possession of man's soul and the triumph of
Christianity over paganism. The preface of sixty-eight
iambic trimeters tells the story of Abraham's victory over
the captors of Lot, symbolic of the victory of the soul in the
spiritual combat. The battle is waged between the allegor-
ical characters in the manner of a martial epic. Faith
overcomes Idolatry, Modesty conquers Voluptuousness,
Patience defeats Anger, Pride is beheaded by Humility,
Sobriety overcomes Sensuality, Mercy conquers Avarice,
and Concord overthrows Heresy. Though the Psychomachia
47. Ibid. 952-1084.
48. See Albertus Mahoney, Vergil in the Works of Prudentius pp.
4-24.
49. Hamartigenia 822-838; 922-930.
INTRODUCTION XIX
is the first purely allegorical poem in Latin literature,
Prudentius found suggestions in previous classical and
Christian writings, notably in the Metamorphoses of
Apuleius and the De spectaculis, De patientia, and De
pudicitia of Tertullian. In the epic speeches and combats
between the virtues and vices he consciously imitates
Vergil's Aeneid. Mahoney calls the Psychomachia the
Christian Aeneid. 50 The poem was one of the most popular
in the Middle Ages and served as an inspiration for
mediaeval literature and art. 51
The Contra Symmachum is a refutation of paganism in
two books, probably written while Prudentius was in
Rome between the years 401 and 403. Twenty years be-
fore, the City Prefect Symmachus had made an eloquent
appeal to Valentinian II for the restoration of the statue
of Victory to the Senate House. The pagan image had
previously been removed by Gratian. In a letter to the
emperor, St. Ambrose refuted the arguments of Symma-
chus and the statue was not restored. Some historians
have thought that Prudentius was inspired to write the
Contra Symmachum by a resurgence of paganism under
Honorius and Arcadius. It is possible, however, that the
poet read the Relatio of Symmachus and the letter of St.
Ambrose and saw the epic possibilities in the triumph of
Christianity. 52 The poem opens with a lyrical preface of
eighty-nine asclepiadean verses in which St. Paul's deliver-
ance from the viper on the island of Malta is a symbol of
the Church's deliverance from persecution. The first book
is an attack against the pagan divinities in the manner of
Tertullian and Minucius Felix. The second book is pref-
50. Cf. op. cit. 47-80.
51. For a detailed discussion of the sources o the Psychomachia
and its influence on mediaeval thought and art, see Lavarenne,
Prudence 3.11-45.
52. Cf. Lavarenne, op. cit. 89-90.
XX AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
aced by sixty-six glyconic lines in which the poet calls on
Christ to assist him in the struggle against Symmachus as
He saved Peter from the stormy waves. He proceeds to
refute the arguments of Symmachus' Relatio point by point
as Ambrose had done in his letter. The poem reveals the
patriotism of Prudentius and his love of Rome, destined
in God's providence to prepare the way for Christianity by
her conquest of the world. The influence of Vergil is clear
in this as in the other works in the epic style, but Ovid
influenced his descriptions of pagan beliefs and practices
and gave him his mythological information. 53
The Peristephanon, 'on the crowns' of the martyrs,
comprises fourteen hymns in honor of the 'witnesses' who
gave their lives for the Faith during the ages of persecu-
tion. Of these, six commemorate Spanish martyrs:
Emeterius and Chelidonius of Calahorra, soldiers who
died rather than offer sacrifice to pagan gods; Eulalia of
Merida, a girl of twelve who gave her life for Christ as did
Agnes of Rome; the eighteen martyrs of Saragossa;
Vincent, the heroic deacon of Saragossa; Bishop Fructuosus
of Tarragona and his deacons Augurius and Eulogius; and
the Martyrs of Calahorra above whose tomb a baptistery-
had been erected. Five hymns celebrate the passions of
Roman martyrs: Lawrence, Cassian of Imola, Hippolytus,
the Apostles Peter and Paul, and the virgin Agnes. The
other three are devoted to Quirinus, Bishop of Siscia (now
Susak in Jugoslavia) ; Romanus, deacon of Caesarea; and
Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage and Doctor of the Church.
For seven of the martyrs the hymns constitute the earliest
extant documents in which the story of their martyrdom
is related, namely the Passions of Sts. Emeterius and
Chelidonius, St. Lawrence, St. Eulalia, the Eighteen
55. For a detailed discussion of the influence of Ovid in the Contra
Symmachum, see Sister Marie Liguori Ewald, Ovid in the contra
orationem Symmachi of Prudentius (Washington 1942).
INTRODUCTION
Martyrs of Saragossa, St. Cassian, St. Romanus, and St.
Hippolytus. 54 In writing his hymns in commemoration of
the martyrs, Prudentius was inspired by the liturgy of
their feasts as celebrated in the churches of the fourth
century; by certain historic documents, both those that are
now extant and others that may have been lost; by popular
tradition; and by his own observations during his pilgrim-
age to Rome. 55 From the sermons of St. Augustine and
other sources we learn that the lections for the offices of
the feast days of the martyrs included accounts of their
passions. 56 Prudentius was undoubtedly influenced by
the epigrams of Pope Damasus, which he read in the
magnificent engraving of Philocalus at the shrines of the
martyrs. Though the poet may not have intended the
hymns of the Peristephanon for liturigical use, four of
them in their entirety found their way into the office of
the feast of the martyr in the Mozarabic Breviary, namely
those in honor of Sts. Emeterius and Chelidonius, St.
Eulalia, St. Fructuosus and St. Agnes. 57 Four others, those
in honor of St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, St. Romanus, and
the eighteen martyrs of Saragossa, were used in part. 58
The Dittochaeon or Tituli Historiarum is the least im-
portant of the works of Prudentius and its authenticity has
been questioned. It is not included in the two oldest manu-
scripts, but it is now generally regarded as genuine. The
forty-nine hexameter quatrains are descriptive of scenes
from the Old and New Testaments and were doubtless
54. Cf. BHL 2532, 4752, 2699, 1502, 1625, 7297 and 3960.
55. Cf. Allard, op. tit. 372-385 and 'L'hagiographie au IV sifccle,'
Revue des questions historiques 37.353-405; also Vives, 'Veracidad
historica de Prudencio/ Analecta sacra Tarraconensia 17 (1944)
199-204.
56. Cf. PL 38.1252-1268.
57. Cf. PL 86.1106-1111; 1274-1278; 1061-1065; 1050-1054.
58. Cf. Ibid. 1179; 901-903 and 1111; 1067-1068 and 1073-1078; 1249.
AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
intended as inscriptions to accompany mosaics in some
church.
In addition to the classic dactyllic hexameter used in
all of the apologetic works, Prudentius employs in the
hymns and prefaces a great variety of lyric metres and
several strophes of his own invention. Hymns 1, 2, 11 and
12 of the Gathemerinon and Hymns 2 and 5 of the
Peristephanon are written in iambic dimeter acatalectic,
the Ambrosian measure widely used in the hymns of the
Church. Cathemerinon 6 is the only hymn written in
iambic dimeter catalectic. Two hymns, Cathemerinon 3
and Peristephanon 3, are composed in dactyllic trimeter
hypercatalectic. The phalaecian hendycasyllabic metre is
employed in Cathemerinon 4 and Peristephanon 6; the
sapphic strophe in Cathemerinon 8 and Peristephanon 4;
the iambic senarius in Cathemerinon 7 and Peristephanon
10; the minor asclepiad is used in Cathemerinon 5, glycon-
ics in Peristephanon 7, the fourth archilochian in Periste-
phanon 13, and the alcaic measure in Peristephanon 14.
Two hymns, Cathemerinon 9 and Peristephanon 1, are
written in trochaic tetrameter catalectic, the metre used by
St. Hilary and later in the Pange lingua of Fortunatus
and also that of St. Thomas. Hymns 8 and 11 of the
Peristephanon are written in elegiac couplets. The ana-
paestic dimeter catalectic, suggestive of the movement
of the funeral procession, is especially suited to Cathemeri-
non 10, the 'Hymn for the Burial of the Dead/ Peristepha-
non 9 is written in distichs composed of a dactyllic hexam-
eter verse followed by an iambic senarius. The distichs
of Peristephanon 12 are made up of a grand archilochian
line and a line of iambic trimeter catalectic. The stanza
of the Praefatio, an original creation of the poet, is com-
posed of three lines: the first a glyconic, the second a
minor asclepiad, and the fourth a major asclepiad. Metres
represented in the lyric prefaces of the hexameter poems
INTRODUCTION XX111
include iambic dimeter, iambic trimeter, and asclepiadean
and glyconic verses.
Any estimate of Prudentius must include a recognition
of certain defects in his works, notably the length and
prolixity of his hymns, the crude realism in his descrip-
tions of the torments of the martyrs, the long declamatory
speeches, the unreality of his allegory, and his excessive
use of alliteration and assonance. Though his writings
as a whole cannot be ranked among those of the greatest
poets, they do not fall far short of great poetry in many
instances. Prudentius has a technical skill surpassing that
of the other Christian Latin poets. He is the creator of
the Christian ode and the Christian allegory. He has
something of the epic power of Virgil and the lyrical
beauty and variety of Horace.
Prudentius has still greater claims to greatness, how-
ever, in the Christian thought and inspiration of his
poetry. A recent critic has declared with truth that Pru-
dentius is 'first a Catholic and only in the second place
a poet/ 59 His faith is that of the Nicene Creed. He pro-
fesses his belief in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker
of heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible;
in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages, God of God, Light of
Light, true God of true God, who came down from heaven
and was born of the Virgin Mary; and in the Holy Ghost,
the Lord and Lifegiver who proceeds from the Father and
the Son. He believes in the fall of man, in original sin, and
in Christ's death for the Redemption of men. He refers
to the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and the Holy
Eucharist, the Sacrifice of the Mass, and the necessity of
penance for sin. He believes in the resurrection of the
59. F. J. E. Raby, A History of Christian Latin Poetry from the
Beginnings to the Close of the Middle Ages (2nd ed., Oxford
1952).
AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
dead and the life of the world to come, in heaven, hell,
and purgatory, in devotion to the saints and the power of
their intercessory prayers. In his poetry, Prudentius cele-
brates the triumph of Christianity over paganism. He
saw the Church emerging from its three-hundred year
struggle against the forces of idolatry and heresy, trium-
phant through its saving doctrine and the blood of its
martyrs. He saw the magnificent basilicas, both in Spain
and in Rome, rising in the place of the pagan temples.
As an historian of Christian thought and culture at the
end of the fourth century, Prudentius cannot be over-
estimated.
The text used in this translation is that of Bergman,
Volume 61, of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum
Latinorum. The complete translations to date, that of
H, J. Thomson in English, of Lavarenne in French, and
Jose Guillen in Spanish, have all been examined and in
many instances have proved helpful. All of the major
translations of individual works and parts of works have
likewise been examined. A word of explanation regard-
ing the use of English verse in this translation is necessary.
It was felt that the spirit of the lyric poetry of Prudentius
might be more faithfully rendered in the English accentual
equivalents of the classical metres used in the hymns. The
hymns and lyrical prefaces have therefore been translated
into unrhymed English verse, following the patterns of
the Latin lyric measures, and the apologetic works in
blank verse, the best English medium for rendering the
Latin dactyllic hexameter. The aim has been to produce
a readable verse translation rather than one suitable for
singing. An effort was made to keep as close as possible
to the original Latin, but in imitating the classical verse
forms the exigencies of metre often demanded greater
freedom than would be necessary in a prose rendering.
Certain of the Latin metres, such as the long archilochian
INTRODUCTION XXV
line, and the major asclepiad are difficult to render in
English verse.
To give a greater unity to each o the two volumes into
which the works of Prudentius have been divided, the
hymns have been presented in the first volume and all the
remaining poems in the second volume.
XXVI AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
Texts:
Arevalus, F. Patrologla Latina 59 and 60 (Paris 1847).
Aurelii Prudentii dementis V. C. opera omnia ex editione Par-
mensi cum notis et interpretations in usum Delphini. Reprinted
from the editio Parmensi (1788) in 4 vols. (London, Valpy
1824).
Bergman, J. Corpus Scnptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 61
(Vienna 1926).
Translations:
Bayo, M. J. Peristephanon de Aurelio Prudencio Clemente
(Madrid 1943).
Guillen, J. Obras Completas de Aurelio Prudencio, with Introduc-
tion and Commentaries by Isidoro Rodriguez Herrera, Biblioteca
de Autores Gristianos, one vol. (Madrid 1950).
Lavarenne, M. Prudence, Socie'te' d'Edition 'Les Belles Lettres,' 4
vols. (Paris 1943-1951).
Marchesi, C. Le Cor one di Prudenzio (Rome 1917).
Planella, S.J., Juan. El Pindaro Cristiano (Buenos Aires 1942).
Pope, R. Martin and R. F. Davis. The Hymns of Prudentius, The
Temple Classics (London 1905).
Smith, E. G. Songs from Prudentius (London 1898).
Stam, J. Prudentius. Hamartigenia (Amsterdam 1940).
Thackeray, F. St. John. Translations from Prudentius (London
1890).
Thomson, H. J. Prudentius, Loeb Classical Library, 2 vols. (New
York 1949-1954).
Secondary Sources:
Allard, Paul. 'Prudence historien,' Revue des questions historiques
35 (1884), 345-385.
X'hagiographie au IVe siecle/ Ibid. 37 (1885), 353-
405.
Ermini, F. Peristephanon. Studi Prudenziani (Rome 1914).
Herrera, L Rodriguez. Poeta Christianus. Prudentius' Auffassung
vom Wesen und von de Aufgabe der christlichen Dichters
(Speyer 1936).
Mahoney, A. Vergil in the Works of Prudentius (Washington 1934).
Schanz, M. Geschichte der romischen Literatur, 4 Teil, 1 Halfte
233-258 (Munich 1914).
VOLUME 1
THE HYMNS
PREFACE
If my memory fails me not,
Through five periods of ten years my life ran its course
And since then seven bright summers have passed, cheering
me with their sun. 1
Life's close draws on apace, and God
To the port of old age steers my declining days. 5
In the time that has passed what have I done worthy of
Heaven's smile?
My first years wept beneath the rod 2
With its merciless blows; soon, in the toga clad,
I was taught to declaim lying conceits, often defiled with
sin. 3
Then an impudent wantoness 4 10
And indulgence perverse tainted my youthful years
With the canker of vice. Shame and remorse rack me to
think of it! 5
1. Cf. Lucan, De bello civili 7.381.
2. Cf. Horace, Epistles 2.1.70; Juvenal, Satires 1.15; Ausonius,
Epistles 22. 24-32.
3. The reference is to the exercises from pagan literature used in
the schools of rhetoric. Cf. Jerome, Adversus Rufinum 1.30;
Augustine, Sermon 70.2; Paulinus of Nola, Poema 10.33-42
(PL 61.553).
4. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.19.3-7.
5. Cf. Hamartigenia 948-951 and Peristephanon 2.573-576.
xxix
XXX AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Next the forum's contention roused
My impetuous spirit, eager for victory, 6
And the obdurate wars waged in the law courts led
to bitter falls. 15
Twice in cities renowned, I held
Reins of government high, ruling with might of laws,
As I rendered to good men their due rights and to the
wicked doom.
Then the Emperor's kind regard
Advanced me to a post, high in its dignity, 20
When he chose me to stand next to himself in the
imperial train. 7
While my life thus engaged flew by,
The gray hairs of old age suddenly stole on me, 8
Urging me not to lose sight of the years Salia ruled in
Rome, 9
When I first saw the light of day; 25
And what winters have passed, what glad springs
have returned,
Bringing roses to meadows when the ice fled, my
white head declares. 10
6. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.9.24.
7. See Introduction, p. xi.
8. Cf, Juvenal, Satires 9.129.
9. Salia was consul with Phillip in 348, the year of Prudentius'
birth.
10. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.13.12.
PREFACE XXXI
What will all these things profit me,
Whether evil or good, after the flesh decays,
When whatever I was, death will efface, blotting out
all my deeds. 30
To me it must one day be said:
Whosoever thou art, earth, which thy soul held dear,
Is no more. Not of God, who is thy Judge, were those
pursuits of thine.
And yet now at the end of life
Let my sinful soul cast off its vanities; 11 35
Let it render to God praise with the voice, even if not
by works.
Let me link day to day with hymns,
And no night be without homage of song to God;
Let me strive against false teachings, defend Catholic
Faith with zeal;
Let me trample on heathen rites, 40
Break thy idols, 6 Rome, ending their evil sway,
Hymns to martyrs devote, lauding their acts, praise to
Apostles give. 12
While these verses I write or sing,
O may I wing my flight, free from the body's chains, 13
To that heavenly sphere, whither my last utterance
shall be borne. 45
11. Cf. Basil, Epistles 223.2.
12. In this and the previous stanza, the poet alludes to his various
works. See Introduction, p. xiii.
13. Cf. Paulinus of Nola, Poema 11.57-60 (PL 61.462).
(LIBER CATHEMERINON)
1. A HYMN FOR COCK-CROW 1
The winged messenger of day
Sings loud, foretelling dawn's approach, 2
And Christ in stirring accents calls
Our slumbering souls to life with Him.
'Away/ He cries, 'with dull repose,
The sleep of death and sinful sloth;
With hearts now sober, just and pure,
Keep watch, for I am very near.' 3
1. Some commentators think that in this Hymn Prudentius refers
to the crowing of the cock shortly before dawn. Isidore of
Seville (Origenes 5.30) defines the time of cock-crow as midnight.
The Hymn undoubtedly has reference to the night office, or
vigils, observed by ascetics and the more fervent of the laity
during the fourth century. The nocturnal vigils, from which
the canonical Hour of Matins later developed, began about
midnight after the first crowing of the cock and terminated at
dawn with the hymni matutini, which Prudentius celebrates in
Hymn 2. Frequent mention of these prayers at midnight and at
dawn, media node et mane, are found in the ecclesiastical writ-
ings of the third and fourth centuries. Cf. Tertullian, De
Oratione 29; Cyprian, De Oratione Dominica 36; Basil, Regulae
fusztts tractatae, 37.5; Jerome, Epistles 130.15; S. Silviae pere-
grinatio 24.1-2 (CSEL 39.71) and 24.8-10 (CSEL 39.73).
2. Cf. Vergil, Moretum 2; Ambrose, Hymn 1.5-6.
3. Cf. Mark 13.35; Rom. 13.11; 1 Thess. 5.6; 1 Peter 5.8.
AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
After the sunlight floods the sky,
It is too late to spurn your bed, 4 10
Unless in watching and in prayer 5
You spend a portion of the night.
The cock's loud voice, which ere the dawn
Awakes the song of noisy birds
That perch beneath the sheltering eaves, 6 15
A symbol is of our high Judge.
As hid in shadows dark we lie,
Deep buried in the shrouds of night,
He bids us leave our dull repose,
For day's first gleam will soon appear, 20
That when the radiant dawn bestrews
The heavens with her shining breath, 7
All men worn out by arduous toil
May find new strength in hope of light. 8
4. Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 9.2.
5. Labori. This is the evident meaning here, as in 11. 23 and 80.
Cf. Jerome, Epistles 107.9: et assuescat exemplo ad orationes et
psalmos node consurgere, mane hymnos canere, tertia, sexta,
nona hora . . . stare in acie . . . sic dies transeat, sic nox inveniat
laborantem; Cassian, De coenobiorum institutis 3.9 (PL 49.145):
post vigiliarum labor em; 5. Silviae peregrinatio 35.1 (CSEL
39.85): Hora prima noctis omnes in ecclesia, quae est in Eleona,
conveniamus, quoniam maximus labor nobis instat hodie node
ista. See also Niceta of Remesiana, De vigiltis servorum Dei 3
(Trans, in Vol. 7 of this series, p. 55).
6. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.456; Ausonius, Ephemeris 1.2.
7. Coruscis flatibus. Though all the MSS read thus, Chamillard
(Delphin ed. 57) thinks that coruscis fletibus, 'shining tears/
should be read. Arevalus (PL 59.778) shows that flatibus is
doubtless the correct reading. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.584-585.
8. Cf. S. Silviae peregrinatio 36.5 (CSEL 39.87): Postmodum (the
previous vigil) autem alloquitur episcopus populum confortans
HYMNS 5
God gives us in the time of sleep 25
An image of eternal death: 9
In night of sin's vile durance held,
We lie and groan for light divine.
But out of Heaven's high citadel
The voice of Christ a warning sounds, 30
That dawn is near to free our souls
From bondage to the sleep of sin,
Lest to the very end of life
This leaden torpor may oppress
Our hearts submerged in depths of crime, 35
Oblivious of the heavenly light.
In night's dark shadows, it is said,
The evil spirits in joy may roam,
But at the crowing of the cock
In sudden fear they take to flight. 40
Hateful to them is the near approach
Of light divine, God's saving grace,
Which, breaking through the murky clouds,
Drives far away night's vassal crew.
Forewarned, the fiends know this to be 45
The symbol of our promised hope,
When free from sleep's enthralling chains
We wait the coming of our God.
eos, quoniam et tota node laboraverint et adhuc laboraturi sint
ipsa die, ut non lassentur, sed habeant spem in Deo, qui els pro
eo lab ore maiorem mercedem redditurus sit.
9. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.522.
AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
The Savior once to Peter showed
What hidden power this bird may have, 50
And warned that ere the cock would crow
Himself three times must be denied. 10
For evil deeds are ever done
Before that herald of the dawn
Enlightens human kind and brings 55
An end to error and to sin. 11
Forthwith he wept his bitter fall 12
Who Christ denied with lying lips,
The while his heart was innocent,
And steadfast faith his soul preserved. 13 60
And never more such word he spoke,
By slip of tongue or conscious fault,
For mindful of the crowing cock,
The just man ceased from ways of sin.
I tence all now hold in firm belief 65
That in the stillness of the night
When loudly crows the joyful cock
Our Lord came back from Hell's dim shore. 14
10. Cf. Matt. 26.34; Mark 74.30; Luke 22.34; John 13.38.
11. Cf. Jerome, In Isaiam 7.21.
12. Cf. Matt. 26.75; Mark 15.72; Luke 22.62.
13. Cf. Luke 22.B2. Prudentius does not minimize Peter's guilt in
the denial of Christ, but he distinguishes between the gravity of
the lie that escaped his lips in a moment of cowardice and a
complete loss of faith. Peter's denial is the subject of frequent
discussion in the writings of the Fathers of the Church. Cf.
Augustine, Contra mendacium 13, and Ambrose, Expositio in
Lucam 10.72-93.
14. Cf. Matt. 28.1; John 20.1.
HYMNS 7
The strength of death was then subdued;
Then Hell's dominion lost its sway; 70
Then day with might more potent far
Compelled the shades of night to flee.
So now let wickedness be still;
Let sin in darkness be at rest;
Let deadly evil languish now, 75
Ensnared within the toils of sleep.
And let the spirit, now awake,
Alert and active vigil keep 15
Through all the hours that still remain
Until the night attains its goal. 80
To Jesus let us lift our souls
In prayers and tears and holy thoughts;
For fervent supplication keeps
The pure of heart from bonds of sleep. 16
Too long has deep forgetfulness 85
Oppressed with overwhelming cares
The soul that roams in empty dreams 17
While limbs lie wrapt in slothful ease.
For vain and fleeting as a dream
Are all the works that we have done 90
For worldly glory and renown:
Awake, my soul, for Truth is here.
15. Stans ac laborans excubet. See n.5 above.
16. Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 2.21.
17. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 10.642.
AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Delights and gold and earthly joy,
The wealth, success, and honors gained,
Whatever evils nourish pride, 95
All vanish with the morning light.
Come Thou, O Christ, and banish sleep; 18
Break Thou the chains that night has forged
And wash away our ancient stain;
Renew Thy light within our souls. 100
18. Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 1.30.
2. A MORNING HYMN 1
Ye shades of night and turbid clouds,
Confusion of the world, depart,
For light pervades the whitening sky,
And Christ, the Sun of Justice, comes.
1. Hymnus matutinus. The morning office celebrated in the
churches and monasteries during the fourth century was often
called hymni matutinL Cf. Cassian, De coenobiorum institutis
3.5; S. Silviae peregrinatio 24.2 (CSEL 39.71) and 24.12 (CSEL
39.74). The present Canonical Hour of Lauds developed from
this service, the term being derived from laudes matutinae, the
name used by authors in the fifth and sixth centuries.
HYMNS 9
Asunder now earth's gloom is rent, 5
Pierced by the sun's transfixing dart; 2
The day-star's shining glance restores
The hues of meadow and of plain. 3
So will our spiritual darkness fade,
When, through the broken clouds of sin, 4 10
The heart will see its guiltiness,
Made clear in God's all-ruling light. 5
In vain shall we then strive to hide
The evil thoughts that cloud the mind,
For inmost secrets of the soul 15
In that new dawn will be revealed. 6
The veil of darkness shrouds the crimes
The thief commits without restraint;
But light, the enemy of guile,
Forbids his cunning to lie hid. 7 20
In murky shades deceit and fraud
Delight to cloak their subtle arts; 8
The paramour embraces night,
Most opportune for shameful deeds. 9
2. Cf. Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.146-149.
3. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.272; Horace, Odes 4.5.4-8.
4. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.199.
5. d. Ibid. 1.604.
6. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 3.325.
7. Cf. Ambrose, De Cain et Abel 2.88.
8. Cf. Horace, Epistles 1.16.62.
9. Cf. Ambrose, Ibid.
10 AURELIUS PRXJDENTIUS CLEMENS
Behold, the fiery sun appears: 10 25
Disgust and shame now fill his heart,
For in the splendor of the day
No man can persevere in sin.
When morning comes, who does not blush
That cups flowed freely in the night? 11 30
Then moderation rules desire,
And revelers taste sobriety.
Now life is earnest and austere
And all forsake frivolity;
Now underneath a serious brow
The jester hides his foolish wit. 35
All set about the tasks they love 12
When morning's golden hour arrives:
The soldier, townsman, mariner,
The craftsman, merchant, husbandman. 40
One seeks the glory of the courts;
Another heeds war's trumpet call;
The tradesman and the countryman
Are eager for their sordid gains.
10. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 4.426.
11. Quis mane sumptis nequiter/non erubesdt poculis . . . ?
Lavarenne (Prudence 1.9) points out that some commentators
are of the opinion that the poet here refers to the violation of a
custom among the ancients of not drinking wine in the morn-
ing. The context seems to indicate that night carousels are
meant. These were common in the decadent society of the
Roman Empire. Cf. Ambrose, De Helta et ieiunio 12.45 and
15.55.
12. An imitation of Horace, Odes 1.2-25 is evident in 11.37-44.
HYMNS 1 1
But, we, O Christ, who know not wealth, 13 45
Nor usury, nor eloquence,
Nor daring in the art of war,
Have learned to love but Thee alone. 14
To Thee, with pure and simple heart,
We raise our voice in holy psalms; 50
On bended knee, we chant Thy praise
And, weeping, cry to Thee for aid. 15
In this blest service we are rich;
By commerce such as this we live,
And from the rising of the sun 55
These exercises fill the hours.
Into our thoughts now turn Thy gaze; 16
Examine every word and deed;
Behold the many stains of sin,
Which Thy pure light alone can cleanse. 60
Oh grant that we may ever keep
Our souls as bright and free from soil,
As when the waters on us flowed
From holy Jordan's cleansing stream. 17
13. Lines 45-56 are among those cited as evidence that Prudentius
at the time of the writing of the Cathemerinon had entered a
monastery or attached himself to one of the many groups of
ascetics that were formed throughout the Christian Roman
Empire during the fourth century. Cf. Jerome, Epistles 127.8;
Augustine, De moribus ecclesia 1.31.67 and 33.70.
14. Te, Christum, solum novimus. Cf. 1 Cor. 2.2.
15. Cf. Joel 2.12; Ps. 38.13; Tertullian, De oratione 23 (Trans, in
Vol. 40, this series, p. 182).
16. Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 7.8.
17. Baptism. Early ecclesiastical writers regarded the crossing of the
Jordan and the entry of the Israelites into the land flowing with
12 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
If by the clouds of earth's black night 65
Our souls since then have been obscured,
Do Thou, O King of the morning star,
Disperse the gloom with Thy bright glance. 18
O Lord divine, as Thou canst change 19
Foul pitch to milky white, and make 70
Of ebony a crystal clear,
So wash away our dark misdeeds. 20
It was beneath night's canopy
That Jacob with the angel fought; 21
In darkness, the unequal strife 75
Continued till the break of day.
But when the morning sun shone clear,
A lameness struck him in the thigh,
And conquered by his frailty,
He lost the strength and power to sin. 80
milk and honey as a figure of baptism. Cf. Origen, Homiliae in
Josue 4. In the baptismal rites, as late as the sixth century, a
drink of milk and honey was given to the newly-baptized after
the reception of the Eucharist. Arevalus (PL 59.792) cites
evidence that the early Christians were actually baptized in the
waters of the Jordan, sanctified by the baptism of Christ. Ac-
cording to Eusebius (De vita Constantini 4.62), Constantine de-
sired to be baptized in the Jordan.
18. Cf. Luke 1.78-79; Ps. 79.4.
19. Cf. Isa., 1.18; Ovid, Ex Ponto 3.3.97.
20. Delicta tergens livida. Several MSS have terge, which Meyer
defends. See 'Zu Prudentius,' Philologus 93 (1939) 398. The
reading terge has been followed in the translation.
21. Cf. Gen. 32.24-32.
HYMNS 13
He tottered from the wounds received
In baser parts of the human frame, 22
Where vile corruption has its seat,
Far from the reason's high abode.
From this example we can learn 85
That man beset by shades of sin 23
Is powerless to renew the fight,
Unless perchance he yields to God.
More blessed he whom daybreak finds
A victor in the stern affray, 90
His stubborn passions mortified 24
And nature overcome by grace.
Let darkness now at length recede,
In which too long our wandering steps
Have led us stumbling on the path 95
Of error and iniquity. 25
Oh, may the light serenely shine
And make us pure as its own rays;
Let no false word defile our lips,
And no dark thought obscure our minds. 100
So let us live the whole day through
That tongue, or hand, or wandering eyes
May never give offense to God,
And that the body know no stain.
22. Cf. Vergil, Ciris 69.
23. Cf. Vergil, Culex 274-275.
24. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.137.
25. Cf. Heb. 12.13.
14 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
A Watcher stands above the skies, 105
Who, from the dawn to evening's fall, 26
Each moment of the passing day,
Beholds us with all-seeing eyes.
Our Witness and our Sovereign Lord,
He keeps creation in His view! 110
He sees the inmost thought of man;
He is the Judge none can deceive.
26. Cf. Minucius Felix, Octavius 32.9 (Trans, in Vol. 10, this series
p. 390).
3. A HYMN BEFORE THE REPAST 1
Crucified Savior, the Author of Light,
Source of all things, Word begotten of God,
Born in the Flesh, of the Virgin unstained,
One with the Father in infinite power,
Prior to creation of earth, sea and sky, 2
1. In order to complete the sevenfold apportionment of the times
for prayer indicated by the psalmist (Ps. 118.164), St. Basil
prescribed in his daily cursus that the mid-day prayer should be
divided, one part being recited before the noon repast and the
other afterwards (Sermo Asceticus 4, trans, in Vol. 9, this series,
p. 212). This hymn and the following seem to indicate that
Prudentius had a similar scheme in mind.
2. Cf. Ausonius, Ephemeris 3.10-12.
HYMNS 15
Hither I pray, turn Thy radiant gaze;
Look upon us with Thy favoring smile,
Bringing salvation to mortals below;
Let the fair light of Thy countenance shine 3
On the repast that we take in Thy name. 4 10
Lord, there is sweetness in nought without Thee; 5
What we partake of delights not the taste
If Thy beneficent gifts do not fill
Platters and cups from Thy bounty, O Christ,
Blessings made holy by faith in Thy care. 15
May the refreshment we take in our need
Savor of God and the mercy of Christ; 6
May our converse, be it serious or gay,
All that we are, every thought, every deed,
By the Triune Love be ruled from on high. 7 20
Spoils from the rose do not garnish my board,
Nor the aroma exhaled from rich balms; s
Heavenly waters from fountains above,
Fragrant with faith, sweet as nectar divine, 9
Flow from the heart of the Father Himself. 25
3. Cf. Ps. 66.2.
4. Cf. 1 Cor. 10.31.
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.882; Claudian, In Rufinum 2.258.
6. Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 7.21.
7. Cf. Ausonius, Domestica 2.29.
8. Cf. Wisd. 2.7-8; Horace, Odes 2.3.13-14; Minucius Felix,
Octavius 12.6 (Trans, in Vol. 10, this series).
9. Cf. Vergil, Georgia 4.415-416.
16 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Scorn the bright leaves of the ivy, my Muse,
That in the past have encircled your brow. 10
Learn now to weave mystic garlands of verse;
Bind your fair tresses with chaplets of song,
Praising in dactyls the goodness of God. 11 30
How can the generous spirit of man,
Offspring of heaven and ethereal light,
Render its maker a homage more true
Than to extol in melodious strains
Favors received from His bountiful love. 35
For, from His Providence, man has received
All that he grasps with imperious hand:
All that the sky and the earth and the sea
Yields from the air and the waves and the fields,
This He subjects to me, me to Himself. 12 40
Birds are entangled in traps or in nets 13
Skillfully made by the cunning of man.
Flocks of winged creatures are caught in the brush
Smeared with the glue that is made from the bark, 14
Never to soar through the heavens again. 45
10. Cf. Vergil, Eclogues 8.12.
11. This stanza has led some critics to believe that Prudentius had
previously written poems on pagan themes. Others, including
Arevalus, think that the reference is to poetry in general, which
Prudentius would devote to religious rather than to profane
subjects. Cf. Glover, Life and Letters in the Fourth Century
268, n.l and PL 59.798.
12. Cf. Ps. 8,7-9.
13. Cf. Vergil, Georgics, 1.307.
[4. Cf./&. 1.139.
HYMNS 17
Lo, through the waters the sinuous nets
Draw in the fish that swim in the sea.
Others are taken with rod and with line;
Trustful, they swallow the coveted bait,
Only to feel the sharp wound of the hook. 15 50
Natural riches pour forth from the fields,
Bountiful harvests of golden-eared corn.
Here where the vines in luxuriance grow,
Lifting their branches and tendrils on high, 16
Thrives, too, the olive, the nursling of peace. 55
Servants of Christ in this opulence find
Nurture sufficient for all of their needs.
Far be from them such craving for food
That they find pleasure in gory repasts,
Gorging themselves on the beasts they have slain. 17 60
Leave to the heathen his barbarous feasts,
Animals slaughtered to satisfy greed; 18
For us green leaves from the garden's rich store,
Pods filled with lentils of various sorts,
Furnish the viands for innocent cheer. 19 65
Foaming milk pails bring us liquor like snow,
Beverage drawn from the udders of goats. 20
Curdled by rennet, the milk becomes firm,
Forming the cheese that is kept for our food,
Pressed down in baskets, of frail wicker made. 70
15. Cf. Ausonius, Mosella 250-252.
16. Cf. Vergil, Culex 74.
17. Cf. Ambrose, De Helia et ieiunio 8.25; Jerome, Epist. 127.4.
18. Cf. Vergil, Georgia 2.537.
19. Cf. Basil, Epist. 2.6; Jerome, Epist. 22.35 and Epist. 43.3.
20. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 3.177, 309.
18 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Honey Cecropian distils from the comb
Nectar ambrosial, fresh from the hives, 21
Made from ethereal dew and the thyme
By bees that labor all day in the fields,
Knowing not wedlock nor carnal delights. 22 75
From the earth, too, come the mellow windfalls, 23
Largess of orchards all laden with fruit;
Trees that are shaken rain down their rich load,
Showering apples like hail to the ground,
Scattering heaps of bright red on the grass. 80
What sounding lyre or great trumpet of old,
Famed for the music of wind or of strings,
Could give fit praise to the works of the Lord,
Who is almighty and rich in the gifts
That He provides for the comfort of man. 24 85
Father, all-gracious, when morning is new, 25
And when the sun has attained its mid goal;
Then as the daylight grows dim in the west,
When comes the hour for partaking of food,
Thee, we extol in harmonious strains. 26 90
21. CLIbid. 4.140,179.
22. CL Ibid. 4.197; St. Ambrose, De Virginibus 1.8.40. See also the
Benedictio cerae or Exsultet ascribed to St. Augustine (PL
72.270 and 365). The passage in praise of bees, evidently
borrowed from the Georgics, has been omitted in this Exsultet
as now used in the Roman Rite. Cf. Jerome, Epist. 18.1 and
Augustine, De dvitate Dei 15.22. For a discussion of the diction
of Prudentius in 1.75 see Meyer, op. cit. 401-402.
23. Cf. Vergil, Eclogues 1.80.
24. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.12.1, 11, 13-15.
25. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.555 and Georges 3.325.
26. Cf. Ps. 54.17-18. Many ascetics of the fourth century took only
one meal toward evening, the rule for fast days during the first
HYMNS 19
For the bright spirit that glows in my breast,
For the blood pulsing unseen in my veins,
For the quick tongue that resounds with the voice
As it vibrates in its hollow recess,
Father above, let me sing Thy due praise. 95
Lord, we were fashioned by Thy holy hand,
Formed to Thy image from slime of the earth,
And to make perfect our body of clay,
Thou didst endow it with spiritual life,
Breath of Thy lips, the immortal soul. 27 100
Then Thou didst give to Thy creature a home,
Leafy retreats in a garden of bliss, 28
Where the aroma of spring without end
Scented the flowering meadows and glades
Watered by floods from a fourfold stream. 29 105
centuries of the Church. In some instances a mid-day meal was
allowed. In listing the hours for the daily sevenfold praise of
God, St. Basil says that the mid-day prayer should be divided,
one part being recited before the noon repast and the other
afterwards. (Sermo asceticus 4, PG 31.878). The reference in
11.86-90 seems to be to the daily ordering of the psalmody
rather than to the hours for meals. The Roman custom, which
was followed by ordinary Christians, included an early breakfast,
a light mid-day lunch, and a sumptuous meal in the late after-
noon. Cf. Tertullian, De ieiunio 10; Pseudo-Athanasius, De
virginitate 12-14; Basil, Regulae fusius tractatae 37.3-4; S.
Silviae peregrinatio 28.3 (CSEL 39.80).
27. Cf. Gen. 2.7. Bergman's text based on the oldest MS is ore
animam dedit ex proprio. For a discussion of the variant read-
ing flav it et indidit ore animam, see his Prolegomena p. XXXI
and note, p. XVI; also J. H. Waszink, Mnemosyne 11 (1943)
75-77.
28. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.638.
29. Cf. Gen. 2.8-10.
20 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'All these delights you may use and enjoy;
All this domain is for you/ said the Lord,
'But I forbid you to pluck the harsh fruit,
From the fair tree of destruction and death,
That in the midst of this paradise grows/ 30 110
Then in the form of a serpent, the Fiend
Tempted the woman, unconscious of guile,
Made her through evil persuasion incite
Adam to eat of the pestilent fruit,
Destined to ruin, herself, by the act. 81 115
When they had eaten, their bodies unclad
Filled them with shame and awareness of sin-
Knowledge contrary to God's holy will:
Garments they made from the leaves of the fig,
Hiding disgrace under modesty's veil. 32 120
Banished by God for the sin they confessed, 33
Trembling, they fled from their holy abode.
Doomed was the woman henceforth to bear
Pains of the marriage yoke, not experienced before,
Ruled by her husband in bonds of wedlock. 34 125
Punishment, too, the vile serpent received:
It was decreed that the woman would crush
Under her heel his triple-tongued head. 35
Thus did the snake dread the woman's foot,
Just as the woman was subject to man. 130
SO. Cf. Ibid. 2.16-17.
31. Cf. Ibid. 3.1-7.
32. CL Ibid. 3.7.
33. Cf. /&&. 3.23.
34. CL Ibid. 3.16.
35. Cf. Ibid. 3.14-15; Vergil, Aeneid 2.264; Horace, Odes 3.11.20.
HYMNS 21
Head these became of a tainted offspring,
Rushing headlong into villainy and crime;
And as posterity mirrored their fall,
Blindly confusing the right with the wrong,
Death was the penalty paid for their sin. 36 135
Lo, there appears a new scion of our race, 37
Sent down from heaven, the Second Man,
Not of the earth, like the first of our line;
God, Himself, our humanity assumes,
Free from its frailties and carnal defects. 38 140
He is the Word of the Father made flesh, 39
Born of the Virgin, immaculate, fair,
Mother by power of the Spirit of God,
Knowing not man, nor the marriage bond
With its delights and allurements to sin. 145
Here is the cause of that primal hate,
Of the dissension and war to the death,
That has been waged between Satan and man: 40
Prone on the ground the serpent now lies
Crushed by the feet of the spotless Maid. 150
She who deserved to be Mother of God,
Virgin most powerful, his venom subdues;
Drawing his length into sinuous coils,
Slowly the serpent his poison expels,
Harmless on grass of like hue to himself. 41 155
36. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 11.444.
37. Cf. Vergil, Eclogues 4.7.
38. Cf. 1 Cor. 15.47.
39. Cf. John 1.1 4.
40. Cf. Gen. 3.15.
41. Lines 149-155 have been cited as evidence of the belief in the
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the
22 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
What hellish fiend does not tremble with fear,
Awed by the whiteness of Christ's shining flock? 42
Sullen, the wolf in the midst of the sheep
Wanders unfeared and forgetful of blood,
Curbing the might of his ravenous jaws. 43 160
Lo, by a marvelous change, the mild lamb
Governs the lion, and the gentle dove,
Soaring down from the celestial heights, 44
Through the storm winds and the wandering clouds,
Drives the fierce eagles in ceaseless pursuit. 165
Thou art my Dove, all-powerful, O Christ,
Dreaded by vultures that feed on our blood.
Thou art the Lamb white as snow that dost keep
Ravening wolves from Thy sheltering fold,
Placing a yoke on the tiger's fierce mouth. 45 170
Grant to Thy servants, O bountiful Lord,
Blessings we ask on this frugal repast,
Sustenance meet for refreshment and strength;
Let no immoderate banquets induce
Dullness and sloth in the body and soul. 46 175
earliest ages of the Church. Cf. A. B. Heider, The Blessed Virgin
Mary in Early Christian Latin Poetry (Washington 1918) 4243.
42. Grege candidulo, the newly baptized, who in the early ages of
the Church were clothed in white robes. On the meaning of
candidulo here, cf. Alexander Souter, A Glossary of Later Latin
(Oxford 1949) 37,
43. Cf. Isa. 11.6; also Vergil, Georgics 3.537 and Horace, Odes
3.18.13.
44. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 5.216 and 6.202.
45. Cf. /&*. 6.80.
46. Cf. Ambrose, De Helia et ieiunio 3.5; Jerome, Epist. 22.17;
Augustine, Sermo 210.8.10
HYMNS 23
Far from us revels that bitterness bring;
May we refrain from forbidden delights,
Handling no deadly or poisonous thing.
Let the enjoyment of food be in bounds,
And may the passions be tranquil and free. 180
Let the death of men's bodies that came
From the nefarious fruit of the tree
Sate the revenge of the powers of hell.
Let it suffice that the creature of God
Dies only once for the primal offense. 47 185
Work of God's mouth, the pure spirit that glows 48
Bright in the being of man cannot die;
Formed by God's breath, and issuing forth
From the Creator's celestial throne, 49
It is endowed with rational powers. 190
Even the flesh that has perished in death,
Takes on anew the life it has lost.
Members resolved into moldering dust,
Rising again from repose in the tomb,
Mingle to form our original frame. 195
Yes, I believe, and my faith is not vain, 50
Bodies live always along with their souls;
For I reflect that from Hades' abyss, 51
Christ in the body came back from the dead,
Mounting with joy to His heavenly throne. 52 200
47. Cf. Ausonius, Ephemeris 3.35-36.
48. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.730.
49. Cf. Tertullian, De anima 4.1 and 24.2.
50. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.12; 1 Cor. 15.17.
51. Cf. Acts 2.24,31.
52. Cf. Mark 16.19; Luke 24.51; Acts 1.11.
24 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Laid up for me is the glorious hope
That the still body consigned to the tomb,
Fragrant with funeral balms, will arise,
Called to empyreal stars by our King,
Christ, who arose from a similar grave. 53 205
53. If this hymn was written after Prudentius visited Rome, the final
stanza may have been inspired by the following epitaph in the
Cemetery of St. Callistus:
Alexander mortuus non est sed vivit
Super astra et corpus in hoc tumulo
Quiescit . . .
See Pope, The Hymns of Prudentius (London 1905) 179.
4. A HYMN AFTER THE REPAST
We have taken this meal by nature sanctioned
For refreshment of bodies faint with hunger;
Let the tongue now give praise to God the Father, 1
To the Father, who from His throne in Heaven 2
Holds sway over the mighty hosts of angels, 5
Cherubim and the Seraphim beneath Him. 3
1. Cf. Hymn 3, notes 1 and 26.
2. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.506.
3. Cf. Ps. 79.2; Isa. 6.2 and 37.16; Dan. 3.55; Jerome, In Isaiam
6.2.
HYMNS 25
Lord and God of Sabaoth, we invoke Him, 4
Being infinite, endless and eternal,
Cause and Maker of earth and every creature, 5
Fount of life from on high serenely flowing, 6 10
Planting virtue, and holy faith supplying,
Mighty Conqueror of Death, salvation's Author.
From Him have we our life and all our being; 7
And the Spirit subsists and reigns forever,
One with Father and Son, from both proceeding. 8 15
Into hearts that are pure the Spirit enters,
And as beautiful temples they are holy 9
When of God and His grace they have drunk deeply.
But if semblance of guilt or dark defilement
Should appear in the heart now consecrated, 20
Forth He flies from this shrine that is polluted.
For when conscience is seared by fires of passion, 10
Murky vapors arise, and black corruption
Forces grace to depart from this dark dwelling.
4. Cf. Jer. 11.20; Rom. 9.29; James 5.4.
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.829.
6. Cf. Ps. 35.10.
7. Cf. Acts 17.28.
8. Prudentius here, as in Hymn 5, 1.160, expresses belief in the
procession of the Holy Ghost from both the Father and the Son,
a doctrine which was maintained by the Fathers of the Church,
though the 'Filioque' was not inserted in the Nicene Creed until
the year 589, by a decree of the Council of Toledo. Cf. Pohle-
Preuss, Dogmatic Theology 2 (St. Louis 1946) 168-189.
9. Cf. 1 Cor. 6.19.
10. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 1.167.
26 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Not by virtue alone and pure intentions 25
May we build up for Christ a lasting temple
In our hearts and the soul's inmost recesses,
But we must be on guard against indulgence,
Lest the bosom where faith preserves its dwelling 11
Be oppressed by the weight of sinful gorging. 30
Hearts set free by sobriety and fasting
Taste the sweetness of God's life-giving presence
As the food of the soul and true refreshment. 12
Loving Father and Guardian, Thou dost strengthen
Soul and body with food divine and earthly, 35
Filling us with Thy grace and holy virtue.
Thus Thy Providence once regaled and rallied,
With a dinner prepared and sent by Heaven,
Him who languished among the roaring lions. 13
When this hero denounced the molten idol 40
And refused to adore the graven image
Made of metal, refined and smoothly polished,
Cruel Babylon's mob and king condemned him
To a harrowing death, the prey of lions,
Ready with their ferocious teeth to rend him. 45
11. Cf. Rom. 10.10.
12. Cf. John 6.56. This is an evident reference to the Holy Eucharist,
though some commentators think that the poet refers to the
indwelling of the Holy Ghost or to God's Providence. Cf.
Arevalus (PL 59.814) and Chamillard (Delphin ed. 1.82).
13. Lines 37-72 are a paraphrase of Daniel 14, of the Septuagint and
Vulgate.
HYMNS 27
Oh, how safe is the soul of faith and piety! 14
Round the hero the savage beasts now gambol,
In their reverence for God's unscathed disciple.
Close beside him they stand with manes thrown backward,
Their voracity tamed and stilled their hunger, 50
As they circle their prey with mouths unbloodied. 15
But when, closely confined and weak from fasting,
He uplifted his suppliant hands to heaven, 16
Begging God's never-failing help and bounty,
Lo, a messenger sent to earth comes flying 55
Swiftly leaping from favoring heights of heaven,
To bring food to that sorely tested servant.
Soon it chanced that the seraph saw below him
Good Habacuc 17 the prophet as he carried
To the reapers a meal unbought and rustic. 18 60
Seizing him by the hair, the angel raised him,
And aloft through the air, he swiftly bore him,
Laden as he was with the heaped-up baskets.
Then the prophet, still carrying the viands,
Glided slowly into the den of lions 65
And delivered to Daniel his burden.
14. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.373.
15. CL Ibid. 9.63.
16. CLIbid. 1.93.
17. Ambacum, the form used in the Septuagint. Several MSS have
Abacuc or Abbacuc. Cf. Jerome Epistles 22.9, and In Abacuc
(PL 25.1273).
18. Dapes inemptas. Cf. Horace, Epodes 2.48; Vergil, Georgics 4.133.
28 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Take this gladly/ he said, 'and eat with joy
These provisions the highest Father sends thee
By the angel of Christ, in this thy peril.'
Strengthened by the repast that he had taken, 70
Daniel lifted his grateful eyes to heaven.
'Alleluia/ he sang and answered 'Amen/ 19
Thus refreshed by Thy gifts, we sing Thy praises,
Gracious Lord and Dispenser of all bounties,
Rendering thanks from our hearts in tuneful
worship. 20 75
Thou dost guard and protect us from the fury,
Of a tyrannous world that holds us captive
Driving from us that hateful foe, the demon,
Who goes roaring around us, raging madly, 21
As he seeks to entrap us and devour us, 80
When, O infinite God, we praise Thee only.
We are vexed and oppressed by tribulations;
Men harass us and hate us and malign us;
Faith is tested by bitter persecution.
In these trials redress is not wanting, 85
For sweet manna is sent to us from heaven,
When the wrath of the lion has abated.
If man wishes to share this food of angels,
Drinking deeply and savoring its sweetness,
As it saturates every part of his being, 90
19. Cf. Deut, 27.15; 1 Cor. 14.16.
20. Cf. Basil, Sermo Asceticus 4; also Hymn 3, n.26.
21. Cf. 1 Peter 5.8.
HYMNS 29
Holy prophets will satisfy his hunger
At the banquet made ready for the just men
Who are reaping the Lord's eternal harvest. 22
Nought is sweeter to taste nor more delightful,
Nothing gives greater joy to man in bondage, 95
Than the sacred precepts of seers and prophets. 23
With this nourishment, though the haughty tyrant
May condemn us to death with cruel judgement,
Though the lions, unfed, may rush upon us,
Ever confessing our faith in God the Father, 100
One in Thee, Christ our Lord, we will proclaim Him,
And will carry Thy cross with love unshaken. 24
22. The Apostles and other laborers in the vineyard of the Lord.
Cf. Matt. 9.37-38.
23. Cf.Ps. 118. 103-104.
24. Cf. Luke 14.27.
5. A HYMN FOR THE LIGHTING
OF THE LAMP 1
O Christ, heavenly King, Author of shining light,
Thou that rulest our days, fixing the seasons due, 2
Dark night steals on the world, gone is the glowing sun;
Give Thy glorious light back to Thy faithful flock. 3
1. Hymnus ad incensum lucernae. Commentators differ on the
30 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
interpretation of this hymn. Some contend that Prudentius had
in mind the daily evening office celebrated in the churches and
monasteries and designated by such names as hora incensi
(Ambrose, De virginibus 3.4.18), sacrificium vespertinum
(Jerome, Epistles 107.9), vespertina sollemnitas (Cassian, De
coenobiorum institutis 2.4), hora lucernarii, lucernarium, hora
lucernae (S. Silvae peregrinatio 27.7, 32.2, 39.4, CSEL 39). Ilde-
fonso Schuster (Liber Sacrament orum, Vol. 2, p. 247, English
trans., London 1925) says that this hymn alone would suffice to
prove that Prudentius intended the hymns of the Cathemerinon
to be used at the daily liturgical prayer of the Church. Arevalus,
who entitles the poem Hymnus de novo lumine paschalis
sabbati, gives lengthy evidence to prove that it commemorates
the Easter vigil, with the blessing of the new fire and the
paschal candle. Cf. PL 59.677-684. Lesleus, in his edition of the
Mozarabic Missal (PL 85.68-69 and 437-446), indicates parallels
between passages in the poem and the rites and prayers for the
Easter vigil, and concludes that Prudentius wrote the hymn in
praise of the paschal candle. The poet in this hymn develops
themes found in the praeconium paschale attributed to St.
Augustine (PL 72.268), for instance the invocation of Christ as
the source of light, the flight of the Israelites from Egypt and
their miraculous passage of the Red Sea, guided by the pillar of
fire, the return of Christ as conqueror from hell to shed His
light on mankind, and the offering of the paschal candle to
God. Nocturnal vigils held on special feasts and anniversaries of
martyrs as well as at Easter began in the evening with the
lucernarium and lasted until Mass the next morning, which was
celebrated before sunrise. Cf. S. Silviae peregrinatio 27.7;
Jerome, Contra Vigilantium 9. Prudentius may have intended
this hymn for the evening office and these special vigils on other
days as well as that of Holy Saturday. Stanzas 1, 7, 35, and 38-41
are used in the Mozarabic Breviary for Vespers of the first Sunday
after the Octave of Epiphany.
2. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 18.2; Cyprian, De oratione Dominica
35. See also the Preface, Ab initio noctis sanctae paschae, of the
Missale Gothicum (PL. 72.268).
3. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.5.5.
HYMNS 31
Though Thou paintest the sky, throne of Thy regal
might, 5
With innumerable stars circling the lunar lamp,
Thou dost teach us to seek light from the solid rock,
Spark that springs from the flint when it is struck by
steel. 4
Lest man ever forget that his one hope of light
On the body of Christ has its foundation sure, 5 10
He desired to be called stone of the Corner firm, 6
Whence we kindle the flame lighting our little fires.
This we nourish in lamps dripping with dewy oil, 7
Or dry torches are lit from the celestial fire; 8
We make candles with wicks dipped in the flowery-
wax, 15
From which honey was pressed, hidden in yellow combs.
Bright the glittering flame, whether a hollow urn
Feeds the oil to the wick thirsting for nutriment,
Or the resin of pine burns on the flaring torch,
Or coarse fiber of flax drinks up the waxen round; 20
Warm nectar from the crown, burning with lively flame,
Tears, sweet-smelling, distils, flowing down drop by drop,
For the force of the heat causes the molten wax
To descend in a shower shed from the taper's point.
4. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.6.
5. In Christi solido corpore conditam.
6. Cf. Isa. 28.16; 1 Cor. 10.4; Eph. 2.20. See also the first collect
for the blessing of the fire on Holy Saturday in the Roman
Missal.
7. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 5.854.
8. CLIbid.1.115.
32 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Now our temples and halls shine with Thy gifts, O
God, 25
Splendid tapers ablaze, praising the Fount of light; 9
Their rays vie with the day gone with the setting sun,
And dark night, in defeat, flees in her tattered robes. 10
Who does not recognize God as the source of light,
Flowing swift from on high, heavenly boon to man? 30
He to Moses appeared, clothed in the form of flame
That burned bright in the bush studded with bristling
thorns. 11
Blest that man who was deemed worthy to see his Lord,
Heaven's Ruler sublime, present in holy brier;
Unshod bidden to walk over the sacred ground, 35
Lest the place be defiled hallowed by Deity. 12
That same pillar of fire guided a noble race,
Long accustomed to live under the tyrant's heel;
Freed, though weak, from its chains, saved by its fathers'
deeds,
It was led by this light shining in desert ways. 13 40
Its beams, bright as the sun, guided the weary steps
Of the journeying tribes, ever awake to foes,
And illumined the dark when in the midst of night
They continued their march, roused from their peaceful
sleep. 14
9. Cf. S. Silviae peregrinatio 24.4 (CSEL 39.72).
10. Cf. Paulinus of Nola, De S. Felice natalitium 3.101-103 (PL
61.467); Eusebius, De vita Constantini 4.22.
11. Cf. Exod. 3.2.
12. Cf. 76^.3.5.
13. Cf. Ibid. 13.20.
14. CLIbid. 13.21.
HYMNS 33
But the king o the lands washed by the River Nile, 15 45
Fired by envy and hate, summons his mighty hosts,
Cohorts swift as the wind, bidding them join in war,
And the blare of the horns sounds in the mail-clad ranks.
Soldiers hasten to arms, girding themselves with swords,
While the trumpet resounds, sadly foretelling doom. 50
Some in javelins trust, others prepare the darts
And the arrows that fly forth from the Cretan bows. 16
Bands of infantry form, drawn up in seried ranks;
Quick the warriors mount chariots with flying wheels, 17
While the horsemen aloft govern their prancing
steeds, 55
And war's banners advance, proud with the dragon's
crest. 18
Freed at last from the chains forged by the cruel king,
The tribes that had long burned under Egyptian suns
Paused to rest in a land, strange and remote from home, 19
On the shores of the Red Sea with its purple waves. 60
The foe gains upon them, led by the treacherous king, 20
And the squadrons attack, strong in battle array. 21
Moses, calm and unmoved, orders his men to march
Forthwith into the sea, fearless of surging tide.
15. Cf. Ibid. 14.8-9.
16. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.15.17.
17. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.433.
18. Cf. Claudian, De quarto cons. Hon. 545. Note the anachronism
in ascribing to the Egyptians the banners of the Roman imperial
armies.
19. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.232.
20. CLIbid.93S.
21. Cf.76R2.50.
34 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Then the waters recede, offering a passage safe 65
To the fugitive race; banks of transparent waves
Stand like ramparts of glass, guarding the sandy path,
While the people of God cross the divided sea. 22
Yea, the enemy, too, maddened by bitter hate,
Swarthy warriors led by their perfidious king 70
And athirst for the blood flowing in Hebrew veins,
Dared to enter the sea, trusting the furrowed waves. 23
Through the midst of the flood rushes the royal host 24
With percipitous haste, like to a hurricane;
But the sundered abyss back on itself now rolls, 75
And impetuous waves join with a mighty roar.
One saw chariots and steeds floating in angry waves,
Shattered weapons of war, princes and peers of rank,
And near, black in the tide, bodies of satellites; 25
Sad that day was the land mourning the tryant's fall. 80
Who, O Christ, has the power rightly to sing Thy praise?
By calamities dire, Thou with avenging hand
Didst force Egypt to yield, humbled beneath Thy rod, 26
To the guardian of right, Moses, Thy servant just.
The impassable deep, fierce in its mighty surge, 85
Thou dost curb and restrain, leading Thy people safe
Through the refluent waves, 27 while the rapacious gulf
Soon the impious foe swallows with rabid greed.
22. Cf. Exod. 14.21,29.
23. Cf. Ovid, Heroides 12.1 18.
24. Cf. Exod. 14,23
25. Cf. Ibid. 14.28.
26. CLIbid. 7.12.
27. Refluo in solo. Several MSS have salo here, a reading which
Meyer defends. Cf. 'Zu Prudentius/ Philologus 93 (1939) 391-
395.
HYMNS 35
For Thee murmuring springs flow from the desert rocks; 28
Streams pour forth from the rift made in a stony
crag 29 90
And give drink to the throngs, thirsty and sore of foot,
As they travel with haste under the burning sky.
Water tasting of gall drawn from the mournful pool
By the grace of the wood like Attic honey grows. 30
On account of a Tree bitter is changed to sweet, 95
For hope fixed on the Cross mounts to the skies above. 31
Then food white as the snow showers on the camp below,
Gliding down from the sky, denser than icy hail; 32
With this sumptuous feast, banquet divine that Christ
Sent from Heaven above, tables are richly spread. 33 100
Winds that blow from the south bring with their rainy
blasts
Flocks of fluttering birds clouding the sky with wings.
Once they glide to the earth, breaking their serried lines,
They are stayed in their flight, never to soar again. 34
Thus the Father benign signally blessed our sires 105
With miraculous gifts sent from His throne on high;
Now His goodness provides food for our famished souls,
Mystic banquet of love, pledge of eternal bliss. 35
28. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.13.15.
29. Cf. Num. 20.11.
30. Cf. Exod. 15.23-25.
31. Cf. Tertullian, Adversus Judaeum 13.
32. Cf. Exod. 16.14-15; Num. 11.9.
33. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 4.378.
34. Cf. Exod. 16.13; Num. 11.31-32.
35. The Holy Eucharist.
36 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Through the sea of the world rent by the raging winds 36
His own faithful He leads, guiding their steps aright, 110
And He summons our souls, tossed on the waves of life, 37
To the heavenly realm where the redeemed abide.
There bright roses exhale fragrance from gardens rare,
And where murmuring springs water the earth around,
Modest violets bloom, 38 crocus and marigold, 115
Lifting radiant flowers, rich in their saffron hues.
There sweet balsams distill perfume from slender trees,
The rare cinnamon breathes spices that fill the air, 39
And the leaf of the nard floats from the hidden spring 40
To the mouth of the stream laving the pleasant
strand. 120
Here the souls of the blest wandering in grassy meads
Blend their voices in song, chanting melodious hymns
That devoutly resound throughout the happy glades,
And with radiant feet they tread the lilies fair.
Even souls of the lost suffering in depths of Hell 125
Have some respite from pain, holding glad holiday
On that night when the Lord came to the world above 41
Up from Acheron's pool, rising to life again,
Not as Lucifer bright, springing from Ocean's bed,
With his glimmering ray tinges the somber night, 130
But more vast than the sun, shedding the light anew
On the world that had grown dark at the Savior's cross.
36. Cf. Ambrose, De virginibus 2.2.17.
37. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.628.
38. CL Ibid. 11. 69.
39. Cf. Martial, Epigrams 4.13.3.
40. Cf. Claudian, In Eutropium 1.226.
41. Cf. Augustine, Enchiridion de fide, spe et caritate 112.
HYMNS 37
Hell's fierce torments subside, bringing surcease from pain
To the spirits that live ever in penal fires;
Calm and joy for a while reign in that prison
house 42 135
And the sulphurous streams burn not with wonted rage.
Festive vigil Thy flock keeps on this holy night
Through the hours till the dawn, chanting the praise of
God,
And on altars upraised offer the Sacrifice,
Glad in hope of the grace granted to fervent souls. 43 140
Ceilings fretted with gold gleam with the brilliant light
Shed from pendulous lamps swaying on supple chains; 44
The flame fed by the oil languidly swims about,
Casting flickering rays through the translucent glass.
You would think that the sky studded with myriad
globes 145
Now bent over our heads, 45 bright with the northern
Bears, 46
And that evening stars sprinkled their roseate light
On the course of the Wain guiding the team of Dawn.
42. Cf. Seneca, Hercules furens 57.
43. The reference in this stanza is without doubt to the Easter vigil
or the vigils of other feasts which lasted throughout the night
and were concluded with the Sacrifice of the Mass at dawn. Cf.
Lactantius, Dwinarum institutionum 7.19; 5. Silviae peregrinatio
27.7 and 38.1-2 (CSEL 39). On the Christian basilicas of the
fourth century see Eusebius, De vita Constantini 3.32.36; Jerome,
In Zachariam 8.6 and Peristephanon 12.45-52.
44. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.726; Paulinus of Nola, De S. Felice natali-
tium 6.35-37 and 9.389-392.
45. Cf. Paulinus of Nola, op. cit. 11.418-20.
46. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.516.
38 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Truly meet is the gift offered at dewy eve 47
By the sheep o Thy fold, Father omnipotent, 150
Light, most excellent boon given by Thee to man,
Light, by which we perceive all Thy remaining gifts.
Thou art light for our eyes, light for our inmost souls,
Thou, our mirror within, mirror also without;
This light deign to receive which, I, Thy servant
bring, 48 155
Light imbued with the oil, chrism of holy peace.
Take it, Father Most High, through Thine Anointed Son,
Christ, Thy Splendor revealed, Lord of the universe,
Sole-begotten by Thee, breathing the Paraclete,
Loving Spirit of Truth, from Thy paternal heart. 160
Through Him glory and laud, honor and wisdom high,
Thy benevolent love, goodness and majesty,
Throned in threefold Godhead, reach out from Heaven
to earth,
Linking age unto age through the eternal years.
47. Cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 815 and Octavia 224.
48. Cf. Benedictio cerae attributed to St. Augustine (PL 72.269):
In huius igitur noctis gratia suscipe, sancte Pater, incensi huius
sacrificium vespertinum, quod tibi in hac cerei oblatione solemni
per ministrorum tuorum manus de operibus apum sacrosancta
reddit Ecclesia. This Exsultet is still sung by the deacon on Holy
Saturday in the Roman rite.
HYMNS 39
6. A HYMN BEFORE SLEEP 1
Be with us, great Creator,
Ne'er seen by eye of mortal, 2
And Christ, Word of the Father,
With Holy Spirit of comfort!
O Trinity supernal, 5
One in Thy might and power, 3
O God from God eternal,
And God from both proceeding! 4
The toil of day is ended,
And now the hour of quiet 10
Brings sleep with sweet caressing
To bodies faint and weary. 5
1. Tertullian (De oratione 25) speaks of morning and night
prayers as obligatory on all Christians. St. Ambrose (De virgini-
bus 3.4.18-19) recommends prayer before sleep for virgins conse-
crated to God. The origin of the Canonical Hour of Compline
has been ascribed to St. Benedict in the sixth century. That
ascetics of the fourth century observed a prayer of rule before
retiring, in addition to Vespers at the ninth or tenth hour, is
evidenced by St. Basil's prescription of prayer at the beginning
of night that sleep might be sinless and untroubled by dreams.
Cf. Regulae Justus tractatae 37.5. Lines 125-152 are used as a
hymn for Compline in the Mozarabic Breviary (PL 86.962).
2. Cf. John 1.1 8.
3. Vis ac potestas una. Several MSS have vis una, lumen unum
here, accepted by Arevalus and others.
4. See Hymn 4, n. 8.
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 2.253.
40 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
The mind by tempests shaken
And racked by cruel anguish 6
Drinks deep the cup of soothing 15
That stills the voice of memory. 7
The Lethean streams now stealing
Through every vein of mortal
Dispel the aching sorrow
In hearts forlorn and grieving. 8 20
This law by God was given
To fragile human bodies
That pleasure, pure and healing,
Might temper labor's harshness.
But while the welcome languor 25
Goes pulsing through our members,
And while the heart is resting,
Bedewed by gentle slumber, 9
The soul set free flies swiftly
Through the limpid air of heaven. 10 30
And sees in divers figures
Things veiled from earthly vision. 11
For freed from care and worry,
The mind, of source celestial
From purest fountain flowing, 35
Is ever alert and active. 12
6. Cf. Ibid. 4.1 and 9.798.
7. CLIbid. 6.715.
8. Cf. Ibid. 6.714 and 2.268.
9. Cf. Ibid. 1.691; Ambrose, De virginibus 3.4.19.
10. Cf. Tertullian, De anima 43.12 (Vol. 10, this series, p. 278);
Ambrose, De Abraham 2.8.58.
11. Cf. Claudian, De raptu Proserpinae 3.124.
12. Cf. Tertullian, op. cit. 45.1; Ambrose, loc. cit.
HYMNS 41
A thousand dreams it fashions
Of its own form and substance,
And through this world it wanders,
Pleased with its empty fancies. 13 40
But in this land fantastic
Oft terror plagues the sleeper.
Sometimes a heavenly splendor
Gives vision of the future. 14
More often dark phantasms 45
Obscure the truth, misleading
Through black and dreary mazes
The souls whom fear has saddened.
To him who stains but rarely
His soul with sin's offenses 50
A light serene and radiant
Reveals celestial secrets. 15
But he who has polluted
His heart by impious vices
Is mocked by many terrors 55
And sees appalling phantoms. 16
Of this our Seer was witness 17
When to the royal servants,
With him in chains of prison,
He showed their dreams' foreboding. 60
13. Cf. Tertullian, op. cit. 43.12.
14. Cf. Cicero, De senectute 22.81; Tertullian, op. cit. 46.
15. Cf. Tertullian, op. cit. 47.2.
16. Cf. Job 7.14. Tertullian, op. cit. 47.1.
17. Cf. Gen. 40-41.
42 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
One to his post returning
Bears cup again to the tyrant;
The other, preying vultures
Devour on a lofty gibbet.
Then that imperious monarch, 65
Perplexed by dubious dreaming,
He warned of coming famine
That harvests might be hoarded.
Soon as a prince and guardian
He ruled throughout the kingdom 70
And shared the royal scepter
In the mighty ruler's palace.
O how profound the secrets
Christ shows to His just servants
When wrapt in peaceful slumber, 18 75
How dazzling and ineffable!
That faithful friend of the Master,
Evangelist of the Highest,
Saw through the clouds receding
Things sealed from mortal vision: 80
The Lamb of God empurpled
With blood of cruel slaying,
Him who alone can open
The book that holds the future. 19
His mighty hand is wielding 85
A flaming two-edged saber
Which like the lightning flashes
Its dreadful double menace. 20
18. C. Tertullian, op. cit. 47.2.
19. Cf. Apoc. 5.6-9.
20. Cf. Ibid. 1.16.
HYMNS 43
He is alone the searcher
Of body and of spirit, 21 90
And the twofold sword, affrighting,
Is death, the first and second. 22
But that benign Avenger,
His holy wrath restraining,
Allows but few of the wicked 95
In lasting death to perish. 23
To Him the eternal Father
Has given the throne of judgment 24
And Name above all others
As heritage forever. 25 100
With Antichrist He battles
In conflict fierce and bloody.
And from the raging Monster
Brings back a splendid trophy.
This is the beast stupendous 105
Devouring all the nations,
The whirlpool fell and gory,
Which John declared accursed. 26
That beast, who with proud daring
Assumed the Name all holy, 110
Is by the true Christ vanquished
And sent to deep Gehenna. 27
21. Cf.Heb.4.12.
22. Cf.Apoc. 2.11; 20.6,14.
23. Cf. Arevalus, Prolegomena 175 (PL 59.701).
24. Cf. John 5.22; Acts 17.31.
25. Cf. Phil. 2.9.
26. Cf. Apoc. 13 and 17.8.
27. Cf. 2 Thess. 2.4,8.
44 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
So tranquil was the slumber
Of John, the saintly hero,
That his mind with gift prophetic 115
Through all of Heaven wandered. 28
We merit not such visions,
Whom frequent faults encumber,
Whom base and earthly longings
For things of evil tarnish. 120
Enough if sleep, refreshing,
Renews our weary bodies.
Enough if no dark shadow
Some future evil threatens. 29
O Christian soul, remember 125
Baptism's dewy fountain,
The sacramental laver
And holy oil's anointing.
When at the call of slumber
You seek your bed decorous, 130
Then sign on breast and forehead
The Cross of our Redemption. 30
The Cross dispels all evil,
All darkness flies before it; 31
With such a symbol hallowed, 135
The mind knows peace and stillness.
28. Cf. Lucretius, De rerum natura 1.75.
29. Cf. Ovid, Ex Ponto 2.7.14.
30. Cf. Jerome, Vita Hilarionis 6; Epistles 22.37.
31. Cf. Palladius, Historia Lausica 2 (PL 73.1094).
HYMNS 45
Away, away, vile monsters 32
That haunt the restless sleeper,
Away, hell-born deceiver,
With your infernal malice. 140
O false deluding serpent,
Who in a thousand guises,
With foul and evil promptings,
Disturbs the heart in slumber, 33
Begone, for Christ is present!
Depart, here Christ is dwelling! 34 145
The sign that you acknowledge
Condemns your hateful army.
Although the weary body
A little while lies sleeping,
Our thoughts shall ever follow 150
Christ in these hours of quiet. 35
32. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.258.
33. Cf. Tertullian, op. cit. 47.1.
34. Cf. Ambrose, In Psalmum 118.8.48.
35. Cf. Ambrose, De virginibus 2.2.8; 3.4.19.
7. A HYMN FOR THE TIMES OF FASTING
O Nazarene, the Light of Bethlehem, and Word
Of the eternal Father, born of Virgin's womb,
Be with us in our chaste and holy abstinence
And, gracious King, look now upon this festal day
On which we offer up to Thee our solemn fast. 1 5
1. Cf. Basil, Homilia de ieiunio 1.1 and Ambrose, De Helia et
ieiunio 1.1. In this hymn Prudentius was probably indebted to
46 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Nothing, in truth, is purer than this mystery,
Which cleanses every fiber of the restless heart
And tames the flesh with its unruly appetites,
Lest fumes of gross indulgence rise from heavy meats
And weigh upon the mind with suffocating force. 2 10
This fast subdues licentiousness and gluttony,
Disgraceful sloth that springs from leaden sleep and wine,
Ignoble lust, salacious wit and pleasantry,
These manifold diseases of disordered sense,
All are restrained beneath the rod of abstinence. 15
For if, abandoned to excess in food and drink,
Man does not curb the body by the holy fasts,
The flame of his high spirit burning bright and pure
Will shrink and pine away, all smothered by delights,
And the soul will fall asleep within his sluggish breast. 20
Then let us check desires of flesh with tighter rein,
And keep the light of wisdom bright within our hearts.
And thus the soul with vision keen will pierce the skies,
And breathing unrestricted Heaven's wider air,
Will praise the Maker of all things more perfectly. 25
Ambrose, as Ambrose was to Basil. From the earliest times
Christians fasted on Wednesday and Friday, called 'station'
days. Cf. Didache 8.1; Hennas, Sim. 5.1; Tertullian, De oratione
19; De ieiuniis 2,10,14. The Lenten Fast of forty days was
universally observed in the fourth century. Among ascetics
fasting was rigorous. It often extended throughout the year,
only one meal being taken during the day after None. Cf.
Pseudo-Athanasius, De vlrginitate 8; Ambrose, De virginibus
3.4.15; Jerome, Epistles 22.35; S. Silviae peregrinatio 28.3 (CSEL
39.80-81). Selections from this hymn in its entirety are used in
the Mozarabic Breviary for Terce, Sext, and None on all the
days of Lent.
2. Cf. Pseudo-Athanasius, De virginitate 7; Ambrose, De Helia et
ieiunio 8.22-23.
HYMNS 47
Elias, by observance of a solemn fast,
Increased in grace; he was that priest of old who dwelt
In desert wastes far from the world's inane applause,
And it is said he shunned a multitude of sins
Amid the chaste delights of Syrtian solitude. 3 30
But soon to Heaven he was taken through the air,
Borne up in flaming chariot drawn by fiery steeds,
Lest earth's defiling breath should touch that saintly man
Who through long years had lived a life of peace and
quiet,
Renowned for abstinence that purified his soul. 4 35
And Moses, faithful mediator of God's throne,
The King of the seven-vaulted sky could not behold,
Until the sun in its wide circuit through the stars
Had forty revolutions made, and all these days 5
Had gazed upon the prophet, languishing for bread. 6 40
As he communed with God, his only food was tears;
For through the night, with weeping he bedewed the dust,
As bowing low, he pressed his face against the earth,
Until at length aroused by God's forewarning voice,
He trembled at that fire too bright for mortal eyes. 7 45
In this observance John the Baptist, too, excelled;
Precursor of the everlasting Son of God,
He straightened out the crooked paths and winding ways,
Correcting devious turns and labyrinthine roads,
To make a highway smooth wherein all men might
walk. 8 50
3. Cf. 3 Kings 19.4-9.
4. Cf. 4 Kings 2.11.
5. Cf. Juvencus, Evangelicae historiae 1.392 (PL 19.111).
6. Cf.Exod. 24.1 8; 34.38.
7. Cf. Deut. 5.4; 9.18-19; Heb. 12.18,21,26.
8. Cf. Matt. 3.3.
48 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
As messenger of God, who was about to come,
He faithfully observed this law, constructing well,
That every hill might low become and rough ways plain, 9
Lest when the Truth should glide from Heaven down to
earth
It then would find a barrier to its swift approach. 55
Miraculous was his birth, not in the common way; 10
A late-born child, he swelled his mother's withered breasts
And aged bosom still oblivious of milk; 11
While yet unborn, of woman far advanced in years,
He recognized his God within the Virgin's womb. 12 60
Then later he withdrew into the desert wild,
And clothed himself with shaggy skins of savage beasts,
Or bristling camel's hair and wool austere and coarse, 13
For fear that he might stain and mar his innocence
By taint of cities with their vicious evil ways. 65
A life devoted to strict abstinence that man
Of penance led, with flinty scorn of food and drink
Until the vesper shadows fell upon the earth, 14
And then it was his wont to take a scanty meal
Of locusts and wild honey flowing from the combs. 15 70
9. Cf. Luke 3.4-5.
10. Cf. Horace, Epodes 5.73.
11. Cf. Luke 1.18.
12. Cf. Ibid. 41-44.
13. Cf. Matt. 3.1,4.
14. On days of fast the early Christians and ascetics of the fourth
century took but one meal toward evening after the ninth or
twelfth hour. See n. 1 above,
15. Cf. Matt. 3.4.
HYMNS 49
First preacher he, and teacher o salvation new,
In sacred flood he washed away the penal stains
Of that primeval sin stamped on the hearts of men, 16
But when the tainted flesh with water he had cleansed,
The heavenly Spirit poured His light into the soul. 17 75
From this baptism, freed from guilt's polluting soil,
Men rose reborn, in beauty fair as gold unwrought
Becomes when it is tried again by cleansing fires,
Or as the gleam that shines resplendent from the ore
Of silver purified of dross and burnished bright. 80
Now let me tell the story of an ancient fast 18
Recorded in the pages of the Book of Truth;
How the all-loving Father's wrathful thunderbolt
Was stayed, its fires extinguished by His clemency,
And the people of a city doomed to ruin were spared. 19 85
There was in olden days a nation proud and great,
In which the tide of wickedness flowed deep and strong,
And men gave rein to luxury and wanton vice
Until in stubborn pride and scorn of all restraint,
They ceased to worship Heaven's Lord with homage
due. 90
16. Cf. Luke 3.3.
17. Cf. Ibid. 21.22; Acts 19.4-6. For a discussion of the distinction
between the baptism of Christ and that administered by John
the Baptist, see Pohle-Preuss, Dogmatic Theology 8.230.
18. Referre stemma prisci nunc ieiunii. Meyer (Trudentiana,'
Philologus 87.251) shows that the reading referre prisci stemma
is to be preferred here.
19. Cf. Jona 3.5-10.
50 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Offended Justice, ever patient, is at length
Provoked to righteous anger, and the God of holiness
Now arms His strong right hand with shining sword of fire;
And wielding crashing storms and roaring hurricanes,
He awes them with the flash of thundering lightning
flames. 20 95
But while one little day is given them to repent,
In which they might have willed to tame their sordid lusts
And curb their stubborn follies and their wanton ways,
The awful Judge in mercy stays the threatened blow
And waits awhile to seal the doom He has decreed. 100
The mild Avenger calls that prophet Jonas stern,
And bids him go as herald of the coming woe,
But knowing that the Judge who threatens evils dire
Is prone to pardon rather than to scourge and smite, 21
The seer to Tharsis turns his steps in secret flight. 22 105
At shore he mounts the gangplank of a waiting ship,
And soon the anchor on its sodden rope is raised.
The vessel ploughs the deep; the stormy sea grows rough; 23
And when the lots are cast to find the one to blame
For this sad plight, the number on the fleeing prophet
falls. 110
20. Cf. Ps. 17.15-16; 20.9-10; Exod. 15.6-7; Deut. 32.41; 2 Kings
22.14-16; Vergil, Aeneid 7.141-143.
21. Cf.Ezech. 18.23; 33.11.
22. Cf.Jonal.2.
23. Cf. Seneca, Medea 41 1; Vergil, Aeneid 3.374; 4.310.
HYMNS 51
Alone o all the crew he is condemned to death 24
Whose guilt the shaking of the urn made manifest,
And he is hurled headlong into the ravenous sea. 25
A mighty whale receives him in his massive jaws
And gulps him down alive into his cavernous maw. 115
The victim swiftly passing through the monster's jaws,
Escapes the futile sharpness of the teeth, and flies
Unharmed across the bloodless tongue. The molars moist
Are powerless to hold and crush the trembling frame
That journeys through the mouth below the palate's
roof. 120
While in the course of three long days and nights the seer
Remained engulfed within the belly of the whale,
He wandered through the shadows of that dark recess
And as he blindly threaded labyrinthine ways,
He panted from the heat inside his prison house. 125
But when the third night rolls around, from thence
unharmed
The monster casts him forth with mighty retching throbs;
Where sounding billows break upon the narrow shore 26
And beat against the briny cliffs with whitening spray, 27
Disgorged he stands, astonished at his safety. 130
Thus driven back, he turns quick steps to Ninive,
With mind intent on punishing that evil town,
And sternly chides the people for their shameless crimes.
'The wrath/ he cries, 'of Judge supreme hangs over you,
And soon your city will be burned with fire. Believe!' 28 135
24. Cf. Horace, Epodes 5.91.
25. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.4.65.
26. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.160; 10.291.
27. Cf. Ibid. 3.534.
28. Cf. Jona 3.3-4.
52 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Then to a lofty mountain peak nearby he climbs
To view from thence the gathering clouds of smoke above
The flaming ruins and dire destruction's crumbling mass;
And there a vine with knotty branches spreading wide,
Upspringing suddenly, provides a grateful shade. 29 140
But when the wretched city feels the heavy blow
Of coming grief, it is convulsed with deadly fear: 30
Within the mighty walls the crowds surge to and fro,
The common folk and elders, those of every age,
Youths pale with fright, and women wailing in
despair. 31 145
They set a public fast to make amends to Christ, 32
Whose wrath they would appease; all spurn their wonted
meals.
The matrons lay aside their jeweled necklaces
And garb themselves in black; they take the silks and gems
From loosened braids, besprinkled now with ashen
dust. 150
The elders go in squalid robes, of cincture free; 33
In bristling haircloth clad, the common throng laments;
Fair maids, their tresses all unkempt like shaggy mane,
With sable veils of mourning hide their countenance,
And children roll about upon the dusty sand. 34 155
29. Cf. Ibid. 4.5-6.
30. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.945.
31. Cf. Ibid. 4.667; 9.477.
32. Cf.Jona3.5.
33. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 3,213; Vergil, Aeneid 4.578.
34. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 5.336.
HYMNS 53
The king himself asunder tears the golden clasp
And throws aside his regal robe, aglow with hues
Of Coan purple, 35 precious pearls, and emerald stones;
Then casting from his royal head the jewelled crown,
He soils his hair with ashes, symbol of his shame. 36 160
Of drinking or of eating no one has a thought;
Observant of the fast, youths turn from tables spread;
Nay, even weeping infants are deprived of milk 37
And moisten tiny cradles with their flowing tears,
When self-denying nurses bar them from full breasts. 165
The careful herdsmen shrewdly pen the very flocks
Within enclosures strong, lest cattle ranging wide
Touch with their lips the tender grass with showers
bedewed, 38
Or slake their thirst with water from the gurgling
springs; 39
Complaints resound from stables with their empty
cribs. 170
Appeased by penance such as this, the loving God
Restrains His short-lived ire and tempers His decree;
For in His mercy God is swift to pardon men
And looks with pity on the tears of penitents
Who humbly beg forgiveness for their evil deeds. 175
35. Cf. Jona 3.6; Vergil, Aeneid 4.262.
36. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.611; Ovid, Tristia 1.3.93.
37. Cf. Lucan, De bello tivili 4.314.
38. Cf. Vergil, Eclogues 8.15.
39. Cf. Jona 3.7.
54 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
But why record examples from an ancient race, 40
When lately Jesus, burdened with our mortal flesh,
But pure in heart, abstained and fasted for our sake: 41
That Jesus whom the prophet's voice once proclaimed
'Emmanuel/ that is the very 'God with us/ 42 180
The human body, by its nature soft and weak,
Held captive under winsome pleasure's reinless yoke,
He has set free by virtue's stern restraining law;
Emancipator of the flesh enthralled by sin,
He conquered first the tyranny of carnal lust. 185
For in a lonely desert place He dwelt apart
While eight times five recurring days were gliding by,
And all that time He spurned the pleasant taste of food;
Thus by a salutary fast He fortified
Our mortal clay, too frail for holding heavenly joy. 43 190
The Tempter, marvelling at the hardship and distress
So long endured by creature made of dust,
With shrewd and prying craft invents a subtle scheme
To set at rest his fear that God had come in earthly form;
But foiled and shamed, he fled behind the Savior's
back. 44 195
Let us, O Christ, now follow as our strength permits
The way that Thou, the Teacher of all holy truth,
Didst show to Thy disciples by Thy word and deed,
That when the vice of gluttony is overcome,
The flesh may bow beneath the spirit's triumphant
reign. 200
40. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.284; Ambrose, De Helm et ieiunio 8.22.
41. Cf. Matt. 4.1-2.
42. Cf. Ibid. 1.28; Isa. 7.14; Juvencus, Evangelicae historiae 1.177.
43. Cf. Lavarenne's note (Prudence 1.44).
44. Cf. Matt. 4.2-11.
HYMNS 55
This is the way that our invidious foe abhors,
Which wins the favor of the Lord of earth and sky
And makes acceptable the Altar's Sacrifice; 45
Which stirs up living faith within our slumbering hearts
And purifies our breasts of sin's corroding stains. 46 205
The flowing stream does not more swiftly quench the
flame,
Nor heat of broiling sun more quickly melt the snow,
Than fasting with its cleansing power can purge away
The foulness bred by sin and dark concupiscence,
If joined with kindly alms and Christian charity. 47 210
For these are also virtue's glorious attributes:
To clothe the naked and to feed the hungry man, 48
To give with generous heart to those who suffer want
And look on all alike, the lowly and the great,
As sharers in the lot of all humanity. 215
Blest truly is the man who stretches out his hand 49
In meritorious works, unsparing of his wealth,
And does not let his left hand know his charity; 50
Forthwith eternal treasures shall be his to hold
And fruit a hundredfold will be his rich reward. 220
45. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.764, 9.585; Matt. 5.23-24.
46. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.23.7.
47. Cf. Tob. 4.11, 12.9; Cyprian, De opera et eleemosynis 5.
48. Cf. Matt. 25.35-36; 4 Esdras 2.20; Augustine, Sermon 93.4 (PL
38.575).
49. Cf. Horace, Odes 2.18.14.
50. Cf. Matt. 6.3.
56 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
8. A HYMN AFTER FASTING
Christ, the sovereign master of all Thy faithful,
Thou dost rule and guide us with reins that lightly
Curb our wayward tendencies, round us hedging
Mild regulations.
Though Thou Thyself, laden with mortal body, 5
Didst endure hard labors and racking anguish, 1
Stern example setting, Thy hand is gentle
On Thy dear servants.
Now the ninth hour turns the sun to his setting, 2
Which through scarce three parts of his course has
glided, 10
Leaving yet one fourth of his shining journey
Through the heavens.
Brief the fast we break at this hour appointed,
And our vigil ended, we now enjoy
Bounty spread on tables high to replenish 15
Languishing nature.
Such the gracious love of the eternal Master,
So benign the counsel our kind Teacher gives us,
That observance of His law does not burden
Man's feeble body. 3 20
1. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.437.
2. Cf. Tertullian, De ieiuniis 2,10; Pseudo-Athanasius, De virgini-
tote 8,12.
3. Cf. Matt. 11.29-30; 1 John 5.3.
HYMNS 57
Further, He ordains that none with sordid vesture
Clothe himself, nor his comely brow disfigure,
But fair make his face and his head ennoble
With the hair's glory. 4
'When you fast/ He said, 'Keep the body stainless; 25
Let no sallow hue on your cheeks appearing
Drive away the roses, and let no pallor
Whiten your visage/
It is more just for us to hide with joy
All the good works done for the Father's glory, 30
For God who in secret sees all things hidden
Will recompense us. 5
When one ailing sheep lags behind the others
And loses itself in the silvan mazes,
Tearing its white fleece on the thorns and briers, 35
Sharp in the brambles, 6
Unwearied the Shepherd, that lost one seeking,
Drives away the wolves and on His strong shoulders
Brings it home again to the fold's safekeeping,
Healed and unsullied. 7 40
He brings it back to the green fields and meadows, 8
Where no thorn-bush waves with its cruel prickles,
Where no shaggy thistle arms trembling branches
With its rough briers, 9
4. Cf. Matt. 6.16-17; Jerome, Epistles 22.27.
5. Cf. Matt. 6.18; also Horace, Odes 4.2.20; Vergil, Aeneid 5.361.
6. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 3.444.
7. Cf. Luke 15.4-6; John 10,11-12.
8. Cf. Ps. 22.1-2; Vergil, Georgics 3.13.
9. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 1.151-153.
58 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
But where palm trees grow in the open woodland, 45
Where the lush grass bends its green leaves, and laurels
Shade the glassy streamlet of living water
Ceaselessly flowing. 10
For all Thy gifts, O Shepherd true and faithful,
What service is meet ever to requite Thee? 50
For salvation's cost no devoted worship
Makes due repayment.
Although by refraining from daily nurture
We should gladly weaken the laggard body,
Night and day spend singing Thy holy praises, 55
Scorning all comfort,
This atoning service would not be equal
To the gift bestowed by the Heavenly Father,
And severe austerities would but shatter
Frail earthen vessels. 11 60
Therefore, lest this fragile clay lose its vigor
And grow faint from watery fluids flowing
In the pallid veins, and the sickly body
Perish with weakness, 12
Light and easy is the precept of fasting 65
Laid on all the faithful, and no stern rigor
Impels us; his own capacity urges
Each to observe it.
10. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.759, 2.719.
11. Cf. Hymn 7.19L
12. Cf. Horace, Odes 2.2.15.
HYMNS 59
Enough, if we sanctify all our actions
By invoking first the divine approval, 70
Whether we accept the food that is given
Or shun the table.
God of His great bounty bestows these blessings 13
And with His favoring smile looks upon us,
As we take the bread we have dedicated, 75
Trusting His goodness.
Grant, I humbly pray, that this food be healthful,
And as it spreads throughout all our members/ 4
May we who adore Thee, O Christ, now nourish
Body and spirit. 80
13. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.106, 10.115.
14. Cf. Lucretius, De rerum natura 2.1136.
9. A HYMN FOR EVERY HOUR
Boy bring my quill of ivory, that I may to
sounding lyre
Sing in sweet and tuneful trochees Christ
and His immortal deeds.
Him alone my Muse shall honor, Him
alone my lyre shall praise.
Christ I sing whom king and prophet, crowned
with priestly diadem, 1
Long ago foretold with voice joined to sound
of harp and drum,
Drinking of the Spirit from Heaven flowing
deep into his soul.
1. Cf. Acts 2.30-31.
60 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Tell we now of deeds attested, marvels wrought
by Hand divine;
All the world is faithful witness, earth denies
not what it saw,
God in person come from Heaven, teaching
men His holy way.
Of the Father's love begotten, long before the
world began, 2 10
Alpha and Omega titled, fount and term
of all that is, 3
All that has before existed, all that shall
hereafter be. 4
By His power they were created; at His word
all things were made, 5
Earth and sky and ocean's hollow, threefold
frame of cosmic space,
All that in them live and flourish under
sphere of sun and moon. 6 1 5
He assumed our fragile body, tainted members
doomed to die,
That the race from Adam springing might
not perish in the end,
Though a dreadful sentence plunged it
deep in Hell's profound abyss. 7
2. Cf. John 1.18, 17.5, 24; Hilary, Hymnus de Christo 21-22
(CSEL 65.219).
3. Cf. Apoc. 1.8, 21.6. See also the Mozarabic Breviary (PL
86.177): Benedicat vobis Alpha et Omega cognominatus Omni-
potens Del Patris Unigenitus Filius. The entire hymn is used
in the Mozarabic Breviary for Vespers from Easter to the Sun-
day within the octave, and on The Feast of the Ascension
(PL 86.641, 898-901).
4. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 4.393. 6. Cf. Ps. 145.6.
5. Cf. Ps. 32.9, 148.5. 7. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.65.
HYMNS 61
O how blest that Birth supernal, when the
Virgin Mother bore 8
Him who is the world's salvation, by the Holy
Ghost conceived, 9 20
And the Infant, our Redeemer, showed to us
His Face divine.
Sing His praises heights of heaven, all ye
angels sing His praise,
Let the mighty hosts of Heaven, sing in
joyous praise of God; 10
Let no tongue of man be silent, let all
voices join the hymn.
Lo, He comes of whom the prophets sang in
days of olden time; 11 25
He who in the faithful pages of these
seers was once foretold
Now appears, the long expected; let all
join in praise of Him.
Water poured into the tankards turns
to rich Falernian wine,
And the waiter claims the vintage from the
water-pots was drawn,
While the master with amazement tastes 30
the cups of rosy hue. 12
8. Cf. Hilary, Hymn 1.8 (CSEL 65.209); Hymnus de Christo 13
(76W.2I8).
9. Cf. Luke 1.35; Matt. 1.20.
10. Cf. Ps. 148.2.
11. Cf. Juvencus, Evanglicae historiae 1.157.
12. Cf. John 2.8-9; Hilary, Hymnus de Christo 25-26 (CSEL 65.219).
62 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Members filled with leprous ulcers, flesh
corrupted and decayed,
Go and wash them, I command you';
what He ordered then is done;
Wounds are healed by pious cleansing,
swollen flesh grows smooth again. 13
Now on eyes, by lifelong darkness, shrouded
from the light of day
Thou dost spread a clay of healing, made
with nectar from Thy lips; 35
Soon the blinded orbs are opened and
rejoice in late-found sight. 14
Thou dost chide the angry tempest and
the savage hurricane, 15
Which upheave the tossing billows and
beset the fragile boat; 16
At Thy bidding winds are subject, and
the rolling waves are stilled. 17
Then a woman, weak and timid, touched
His sacred garment's hem: 40
Instant was His blessed healing, and
the pallor left her cheek, 18
As the hemorrhage she had suffered
through so many years was stopped. 19
13. Cf. Matt. 8.3; Hilary, op. cit. 24.
14. Cf. John 9.6-7; Hilary, op. cit. 23.
15. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 10.37.
16. Cf. Ibid. 2.419.
17. Cf. Ibid. 8.86; Matt. 8.26.
18. Cf. Horace, Epodes 7.15; Vergil, Aeneid 4.499.
19. Cf. Matt 9.20-22; Mark 5.27-34; Luke 8.33-44.
HYMNS 63
He beheld the funeral cortege of a youth in
spring of life, 20
Whom his widowed mother, weeping, followed
to his early grave;
'Rise/ He said; then to that mother He
restored her living son. 21 45
Lazarus for four days buried, hidden in
the sunless tomb,
He restores to life and vigor, giving
power to breathe again,
And the soul returning, enters flesh
now crumbling to decay. 22
Lo, He walks upon the waters, treads the
crests of surging waves,
And the deep in ceaseless motion makes
a pathway insecure, 50
But the billows dare not open under-
neath His sacred Feet. 23
Then a man bereft of reason, dwelling in
sepulchral caves,
Bound with cruel and grinding fetters and
with raging frenzy torn,
Rushes forth and kneels in worship, as the
saving Christ draws near. 24
20. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.16.23.
21. Cf. Luke 7.12-15.
22. Cf. John 11.39-44; Hilary, op. cit. 24.
23. Cf. Matt. 14.25; Mark 6.48.
24. Cf. Mark 5.2-6.
64 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Driven forth, the wily demons, legion named
that evil scourge, 25 55
Seize upon the sordid foulness of a herd
of filthy swine
And into the muddy waters plunge themselves
with maddened beasts. 26
'Place/ He said, 'in these twelve baskets
all the fragments that remain';
Thousands at that feast reclining, with abun-
dance had been fed
On the five loaves they had eaten and
two fishes multiplied. 27 60
Thou, our bread, our true refection, never-
failing sweetness art; 28
He can nevermore know hunger, who is
at Thy banquet fed, 29
Nourishing not our fleshly nature, but
imparting lasting life. 30
Deafened ears, of sound unconscious,
every passage blocked and closed,
At the word of Christ responding, open
all the portals wide, 65
Hear with joy friendly voices and
the softly whispered speech. 31
25. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 11.792.
26. Cf. Mark 5. 13.
27. Cf. Matt. 14.17-20; Mark 6.38-41; John 6.9-13; Hilary, op. tit.
27-28.
28. Cf. John 6.56.
29. Cf.7Hd.35.
30. Cf. Ibid. 51-52.
31. Cf. Mark 7.34-35.
HYMNS 65
Every sickness now surrenders, every list-
lessness departs, 32
Tongues long bound by chains of silence are
unloosed and speak aright, 83
While the joyful paralytic bears his pallet
through the streets. 34
That the dead might know salvation, who
in limbo long had dwelt, 70
Into Hell with love He entered; 35 to Him yield
the broken gates,
As the bolts and massive hinges fall
asunder at His word.
Now the door of ready entrance, but forbidding
all return, 36
Outward swings as bars are loosened and
sends forth the prisoned souls,
By reversal of the mandate, treading its
threshold once more. 37 75
But while God with golden splendor
lighted up the halls of Death,
While He shed the dawn's refulgence on the
startled shades of night,
Radiant stars grew pale with sorrow in
the lurid ashen sky, 38
32. Cf. Luke 6.18-19; Hilary, op. cit. 23.
33. Cf. Mark 7.35.
34. Cf. Matt. 9.6-7; John 5.9.
35. Cf. 1 Peter 3.19; 4.6.
36. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.126-129.
37. Cf. Seneca, Hercules furens 55.
38. Cf. Matt. 37.45.
66 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
And the sun took flight from heaven, clad in
dusky mourning robes, 39
Left behind his fiery chariot, hid himself
in anxious grief, 80
While, they say, the whole world shuddered
with the fear of endless night. 40
Lift, my soul, your tuneful voice, let
the tongue be swift to praise,
Tell the victory of the Passion, tell the triumph
of the Cross,
Sing the Sign that gleams refulgent, marked
upon the Christian's brow.
O how wondrous and amazing was the wound
made by the lance! 85
From one side the blood ran downward, from
the other water flowed: 41
Truly cleansing is that water, from the blood
the crown is won.
39. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 1.466; Hilary, De Trinitate 3.10 (PL 10.81).
40. Cf. Seneca, Hercules furens 610, Medea 9; Hilary, op. cit. 43.
41. Cf. John 19.34. Prudentius here, as in Peristephanon 8.15 and
Dittochaeon 165, seems to imply that the lance pierced the body
of the Savior from right to left. Arevalus (PL 59.872) cites
several early writers, including Cyprian, Gregory of Nazianzus
and Leo the Great, who seemed to be of the opinion that
Christ received wounds in both sides, either by separate blows
of the lance or by a single thrust which entered the right side
and passed out through the left
HYMNS 67
Then the Serpent saw the Victim, saw the Sacred
Body slain, 42
Saw, and straightway lost the venom of his
bitter, scorching hate,
As his hissing neck was broken, and
he groaned in frightful pain. 43 90
What avail, infernal Serpent, were the deep-
laid, crafty wiles, 44
By which, in the world's beginning, you
contrived the first man's fall?
Human nature, God receiving, of its ancient
guilt was cleansed. 45
For a while salvation's Leader gave Himself
to realms of Death,
That He might the dead, long buried, guide
in their return to light, 95
When the chains that had been welded by that
primal sin were loosed.
Then, in steps of their Creator, many saints
and patriarchs,
Putting on their fleshly garments and arising
from their tombs,
Followed Him, at length returning on the
third day to the earth. 46
42. Cf.Jer. 11.19; 1 Cor. 5.7.
43. Cf. Vergil, Georges 3.42; Aeneid 5.277.
44. Astutia. On the reading hortamine found in some MSS, see
Meyer, Trudentiana,' Philologus 87 (1932) 340.
45. Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 3.1 1-12 (PL 16.1474).
46. Cf. Matt 27.52-53; 1 Cor. 15.20; Hilary, op. cit. 44.
68 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
You might see the crumbling members
form again from ashes sear, 100
And the frigid dust grow lively as the
blood resumed its flow,
All the marrow, bones and sinews, covered
with the flesh once more. 47
Then when death He has destroyed and
mankind restored to life,
That great Victor mounts triumphant to the
Father's throne above/ 8
And the glory of His Passion bears with
Him to Heaven's height. 105
Hail! Thou King of all the living; hail! Thou
Judge of all the dead; 49
At the right hand of Thy Father, Thou art
throned in highest power, 50
And from thence, just Judge of sinners,
Thou shalt one day come again.
Thee the chorus of the children, Thee the
old men and the youth,
Throngs of matrons and of virgins, maidens
young and innocent, 51 110
Praise with loud concordant voices, all
uniting in the hymn.
47. Cf, Job 19.26; Ezech. 37.6,8; Ambrose, De excessu fratris 2.69
(PL 16.1593).
48. Cf. John 20.17; Acts 1.9.
49. Cf. Acts 10.42.
50. Cf. Mark. 16.19.
51. Cf. Ps. 148.12.
HYMNS 69
Let the streams with running waters, let the
shores of all the seas,
Snow and frost and summer showers,
winds and woodlands, night and day, 52
Join in praising Thee forever, through the
endless ages long.
52. Cf. Ps. 148.8-9; Dan. 3.64-71, 78.
10. A HYMN FOR THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD
O God, of our souls the bright fountain, 1
Who, mingling in one our two natures,
Pure spirit with clay that is mortal,
Mankind, Thou our Father, didst fashion,
Thine they are, Thine, O Lord, both these natures;
In Thee is the bond of their union,
And while living, they flourish together
Both the flesh and the spirit obey Thee. 2
1. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 17.6 (Trans, in Vol. 10, this series, p.
53); Augustine, De quantitate anlmae 1.2; Vergil, Aeneid 6.730-
732.
2. Early Christian philosophers, including St. Augustine, never
satisfactorily answered the question of the nature of the union
of soul and body. Cf. Augustine, De quantitate animae 13.22
and 33.70; De civitate Dei 10.29 and 21.10.
70 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
But when bonds that unite them are severed, 3
Each back to its source is then summoned; 10
The bright soul seeks its heavenly fountain,
And the earth claims the dust of the body.
For all things created are destined
To die and to perish forever,
When their elements, parted and sundered, 15
Revert to their primitive substance.
Thou hast willed, O God, in Thy goodness,
To destroy this death for Thy servants,
And to show them a way, sure and certain,
That leads to the body's resurgence. 20
3. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 48.9. Lines 9-16 vary In the manu-
scripts. Bergman follows the oldest MS A. The text in later
MSS, some of which have both versions or the A version in the
margin, is as follows: rescissa sed ista seorsumf solvunt hominem
perimuntque;/ humus excipit arida corpus,! animae rapit aura
liquorem;/ quia cuncta creata necesse est/ labefacta senescere
tandem,/ campactaque dissociari,/ et dissona texta retexi. This
variant version may be translated thus:
But when these asunder are riven
Dissolution and death are man's portion;
The dry earth claims the dust of the body
And Heaven receives the pure spirit.
For all things created are destined
To grow old and at length and to perish,
What is joined to be parted and sundered
And dissimilar fabrics unravelled.
Thomson (Prudentius, Loeb Classical Library, 1949) thinks
that this is a revision by Prudentius himself and not the work
of an interpolator.
HYMNS 71
So that, while the pure spirit is captive
In the chains of its prison terrestrial, 4
That part of man's being may triumph
Which has its high source in the heavens.
If the will is attached to the earthly 25
And wallows in sordid corruption,
The soul, by this grossness encumbered,
With the body sinks down to its ruin. 5
But if, of its origin mindful,
The spirit avoids sin's contagion, 30
It carries with it back to Heaven
The flesh of its early sojourning*
For the body we see here reposing,
Bereft of its life-giving spirit,
In the sepulcher stays a brief season, 35
Then rejoins its noble companion.
The swift years will soon bring that moment,
When the soul shall revisit these members 6
And cherish its earlier dwelling,
Now glowing with life's glad renewal. 40
The motionless corpse, cold and lifeless,
That long in its grave lay moldering,
Will wing its swift flight to the heavens
With the spirit that, time was, informed it.
4. Cf. Ambrose, De bona mortis 3.9.
5. Cf. Horace, Satires 2.2.77.
6. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.475.
72 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Hence the care we bestow on the sepulcher, 45
Hence the last solemn rites that are offered
For the body, unfeeling and lifeless,
And the pomp of the funeral procession.
Hence with linen resplendent in whiteness
We are wont to array the dead members, 50
And with Sabaean myrrh we embalm them,
From corruption the body preserving. 7
For what, pray, is the hollowed stone coffin, 8
Or the monument rich in its splendor,
Unless we believe the form placed there 55
Is not dead, but is peacefully sleeping?
Enlightened by faith, devout Christians
Thus the dead hold in reverence, believing
That the body enwrapt in cold slumber, 9
With new life will hereafter be quickened. 60
Whoever in loving compassion
Heaps the earth on corpses neglected
Does this dutiful work of mercy
Unto Christ Himself, the Almighty.
7. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 42.7; Augustine, Enarrationes in
psalmis 48.13.
8. Christians of rank in the first centuries followed the ancient
Roman custom of burial in sarcophagi, or stone coffins, which
were deposited in subterranean vaults or in the catacombs.
Above the family vault ornate monuments were often erected.
Cf. Catholic Encyclopedia 3.424; Augustine, Sermon 102.2,
Enarrationes in psalmis 48.15.
9. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.24.5-6.
HYMNS 73
Since to die is the lot of all mortals, 65
The same law of charity bids us
To mourn for the death of a stranger
As the loss of one of our kindred. 10
The father of holy Tobias/ 1
That saintly old man of great courage, 70
Though a festive banquet stood ready, 12
Placed before it the duty of burial.
While his servants around him were waiting,
He forsook the cups and the platters,
And girding himself, he proceeded 75
To inter a sad corpse with much weeping.
His reward comes quickly from Heaven, 13
With rich wages his goodness repaying,
For his eyes that knew not the sun's shining,
With an unction of gall, God enlightens. 80
Thus the Heavenly Father has taught us
How bitter and sharp is the healing
For the soul immersed in sin's darkness,
When with burning new light it is dazzled.
He taught, too, that to none is it given 85
To behold the celestial kingdom,
Until he has borne earth's affliction
With its wounds and its darkness and sorrow.
10. Cf. Lucan, De belli civili 6.563.
11. Cf. Tob. 2.14.
12. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.555.
13. CLTob. 11.13-15.
74 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Hence death is itself truly blessed,
For its agonies open the gateway 90
To the heavenly heights for the faithful,
Who are led by their sufferings to glory. 14
The bodies that suffer such torments
Arise to a better existence, 15
And the frame that regains its lost vigor 95
In the life after death knows no weakness.
The cheeks that disease has now wasted
And darkened with deadly gray pallor 16
Will then, fairer than any bright flower,
With the hue of the roses be tinted. 100
Old age with its envious gnawing
Will not tarnish the brow's gracious beauty,
Nor the fluid in the members diminish
And leave them all shrunken and withered.
Disease 17 with his deadly contagion, 105
Which now ravages men's weary bodies,
Will then suffer his own bitter torments
As he swelters in harrowing bondage.
The flesh from its seat in the heavens,
Victorious now and immortal, 110
Will behold him eternally bewailing
The pains he himself has engendered.
14. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.641.
15. Cf. Ibid. 6.649.
16. Cf. Horace, Epodes 7.15; Vergil, Aeneid 8.197.
17. Morbus is here personified as in Vergil, Aeneid 6.275.
HYMNS 75
Why does the sad throng of survivors
Unite in lament unavailing?
Why does frantic, unreasoning sorrow 115
Reprove laws so benignly established?
Then let plaintive mourners be silent
And sad mothers refrain from their weeping;
Let none loudly lament their lost pledges,
For this death is but life's glad renewal. 120
Thus the seed in the ground lies decaying,
Ere the plant springs up in green beauty,
And restored from the depths of earth's bosom,
Replaces the previous harvests. 18
Receive him, O earth, for safekeeping 125
And to thy soft bosom now fold him; 19
To thy care we confide a man's body;
The remains that we lay here are noble.
This frame was the home of the spirit
That flowed from the Father in Heaven; 20 130
Holy Wisdom once dwelt in these members,
And Christ was their Head and their Ruler.
Do thou shelter the body we place here;
Its Maker and Author will remember
To seek here the form He has given 135
And made to His image and likeness.
18. Cf. John 12.24-25. Tertullian, De resurrectione carnls 12;
Minucius Felix, Octavius 34.11 (Trans, in Vol. 10, this series,
p. 393); Ambrose, De excessu fratris 2.70.
19. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 5.30-31; Ovid, Heroides 17.56.
20. Cui nobilis ex patre -fans est. Bergman here follows MS A and
others. Several MSS have factoris ab ore creatae, 'created by the
breath of God/
76 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Soon the day that God has appointed
Will bring every hope's fulfillment,
And then thou, O grave, must surrender
This frame that to thee is entrusted. 140
Even though the decay of the ages 21
Shall resolve the dry bones into ashes,
And the scanty dust that shall linger,
If measured, would be but a handful, 22
Even though the wandering breezes 145
And the winds every fiber shall carry
With the dust through the empty expanses, 23
Man shall not know eternal extinction.
But until the perishable body
Thou shalt raise up, O God, and refashion, 150
What mansion of rest is made ready
For the soul that is pure and unsullied?
It shall rest in the Patriarch's bosom 24
As did Lazarus, hedged round with flowers,
Whom Dives beheld from a distance 155
While he burned in the fires everlasting.
21. Cf. Ovid, Amores 1.12.29.
22. Cf. Minucius Felix, Octavius 34.10.
23. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.906, Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.718.
24. Abraham. Cf. Luke 16.22. Among the Jews the expression
'the bosom of Abraham' was used to designate the abode of
the just after death. Its origin is uncertain, and in Sacred
Scripture it is found only in the parable of the Rich Man and
Lazarus. It is frequently found in the writings of the Fathers
as a synonym for limbo or for Heaven. Cf. Ambrose, De bono
mortis 12.52 and De excessu fratris 2,101. In the Subvenite of
the present Roman rite for burial, the Church uses the words
'in sinum Abrahae' to indicate heavenly bliss in company with
HYMNS 77
We believe in Thy words, O Redeemer,
Which, when triumphing over death's darkness,
Thou didst speak to Thy robber companion,
Bidding him in Thy footprints to follow. 25 160
Lo, now to the faithful is opened
The bright road to Paradise leading;
Man again is permitted to enter
The garden he lost to the Serpent. 26
To that sacred abode, O great Leader, 165
Take, we pray Thee, the soul of Thy servant;
Let it rest in its native country,
Which it left, as an exile to wander.
The graves of the dead we shall cherish 27
And bedeck them with violets and garlands; 170
On the stones with the title engraven
The sweet fragrance of balm we shall sprinkle. 28
the faithful of the Old and New Law. The expression is found
in the earliest burial rites of the Church, with one of which
Prudentius must have been acquainted. Cf. P.L. 72.566; 78.217,
and 467; 85.1024.
25. Cf. Luke 23.43.
26. The following prayer is found in the Mozarabic Missa pro
defunctorum et pro Episcopo (P.L. 85.1016): Fruatur paradisi
amoenitate quietis opaca: atque amoenis vegetatus in loca
nemoribus laureata.
27. In the Office of the Dead of the Mozarabic Breviary (P.L.
86.979), for which a part of this hymn was adopted, the fol-
lowing stanza is found instead of 11.169-172: animas, non
immemor ob hoc,/ quorum memores sumus ipsi,/ Deus f sorde
rogamus, piatasj Erebi rogis fac alienas, 'Therefore, be not
unmindful, O God, of these souls whose memory we cherish;
grant, we beseech Thee, that they may be cleansed from stain
and preserved from the fires of Hell/ This stanza is apparently
not found in any of the MSS of Prudentius.
28. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.2.5.
78 AURJELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
11. A HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY
What means it that the circling sun 1
Its narrow orbit now forsakes?
Is Christ not born today on earth,
Who widens for us the way of light?
Alas, how fleeting was the smile 5
The hastening day did then bestow!
How dimly glowed her waning torch,
So soon extinguished by the night!
Now let the sky more brightly shine, 10
And joyful earth keep holiday! 2
The radiant sun mounts high again,
Rejoicing in his former course.
Unveil Thy sweetness, Child divine,
The fruit of virgin Motherhood
And chastity inviolate, 15
Our Mediator, God and Man. 3
Though Thou didst come from the Mouth of God, 4
Born as His Word on earth below,
Yet as His Wisdom Thou didst live
Forever in the Father's Heart. 20
L Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.100.
2. Cf. Ps. 95.11.
B. Cf. 1 Tim. 2.5.
4. Cf . Eccli. 24.5.
HYMNS 79
This Wisdom uttered made the sky,
The sky and light and all besides; 5
All by the Word's almighty power
Were fashioned, for the Word was God. 6
But when the universe was formed 25
And ordered by unchanging laws,
The Cause and Architect divine
In the Father's bosom still remained, 7
Until the slow revolving years
In centuries at length had passed, 8 30
And He Himself vouchsafed to come
Down to the world grown old in sin.
For men whom passion had made blind
Were led into idolatry
And put their faith in gods of bronze, 35
Or wood, or cold unfeeling stone, 9
And thus misled by Satan's guile,
They fell beneath his fearful yoke
And plunged their souls, enslaved to sin,
Into the fiery pit of Hell. 40
But such destruction of mankind
The Heart of Christ could not endure;
And lest His Father's handiwork,
Unvindicated, should be lost,
5. Cf. Prov. 8.28-30; Col. 1.16.
6. Cf. John 1.1, 3.
7. Cf.John 1.18.
8. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.748.
9. Cf. Minucius Felix, Octavius 22.34 (Trans, in Vol. 10, this
series, pp. 364-365).
80 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
He clothed Himself in mortal flesh, 10 45
That by arising from the tomb
He might unlock the chains of death
And bring man to His Father's House.
This is Thy natal day, on which
The high Creator sent Thee forth, 11 50
And gave to Thee a form of clay,
Uniting flesh with His own Word.
Are you aware, O Virgin blest,
As weary months of waiting end,
That your untarnished purity
Shines brighter in your Motherhood?
12
55
Oh what great joys for the world,
Thy bosom chaste within it holds,
Whence issues forth the golden age
Whose light renews the face of earth. 60
Thy Infant's feeble cry proclaimed
The springtime of the universe;
The world reborn then cast aside
The gloom of winter's lethargy.
The earth, I think, with lavish hand 65
Enameled every field with flowers,
And even Syrtis' desert sands
Were sweet with nectar and with nard.
10. Cf. Phil. 2.7.
11. te spiravit, literally 'breathed Thee forth/
12. For a discussion of the influence of the Fourth Eclogue of
Vergil in 11.53-76, see Brother Albertus Mahoney, Vergil in
the Works of Prudentius (Washington 1934) 144-147.
HYMNS 81
At Thy Nativity, O Child,
All hard, unfeeling things were stirred; 70
The unrelenting crags grew kind
And clothed the flinty stones with grass.
Now from the rocks sweet honey flows; 13
Now fragrant liquor is distilled
From shrivelled trunks of aged oaks, 75
And tamarisks yield ambrosial balms.
How holy, O eternal King,
Is this Thy crib, revered by men
In every age, 14 and even by beasts,
Who hover near in silent awe. 15 80
Rude cattle at this crib adore,
An ignorant herd, uncouth indeed;
The dull unfeeling tribe adores 16
Whose strength is found in earthly food.
13. Cf Joel 3.18.
14. For evidences of the veneration of the cave at Bethlehem and
the fact that the place was known from the earliest times, see
Justin, Dialogus cum Tryphone 78; Origen, Contra Celsum 1.51;
Jerome, Epistles 46.10, 58.3, and 108.10. In the year 327 a
magnificent basilica was erected over the spot by Constantine
and his mother, St. Helena.
15. The belief that the birth of Christ in a stable (Luke 2.7) con-
stituted a fulfillment of Isaias 1.3, either figuratively in the
adoration of the shepherds and the Magi, or literally in the
presence of the animals, found expression in the apocryphal
books and in the writings of the Fathers from Origen onwards.
Cf. Pseudo-Matthew 14; Origen, In Lucam 13 (PG 13.1832);
Gregory of Nyssa, In diem natalem Christi (PG 46.1142); Am-
brose, Expositio in Lucam 2.42; Jerome, Epistles 108.10, In
Isaiam 1.3.
16. adorat haec brutum pecus,/ indocta turba scilicet,/ adorat
excors natio . . . For a discussion of obscurity in 11.81-84, see
Lavarenne, Prudence 1.65. Cf. Jerome, In Isaiam 1.3: Sapien-
82 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Though shepherds and four-footed beasts 85
Now hasten in a spirit of faith
To gather round Thy manger bed,
And brutish natures now are wise, 17
Incensed, the sons of the Patriarchs
Deny their God in human form. 18 90
You would believe that they were drugged
With venom or with Furies' wrath.
Why hasten thus to ruin and woe?
If in your darkened minds a spark
Of reason's light still faintly glows, 95
Acknowledge now your King of Kings.
This King, bestowed on all mankind,
Now cradled in a dismal stall,
Weak Babe of Virgin Mother born
With humble midwife's zealous care, 19 100
O unbeliever, you will see
High in the shining clouds of Heaven, 20
As you, an outcast, then bewail
Your guilt with unavailing tears,
tibus quoque saeculi non recipientibus crucem Christi, indocta
nationum turba suscepit.
17. Sapiatque quod brutum fuit. Cf. Sulpicius Severus, Dialogue
1.14: cui sapit omne quod brutum est (Trans, in Vol. 7, this
series, p. 180).
18. Cf. Isa. 1.3.
19. Reference is made in the apocryphal narratives and ecclesiastical
writings (Cf. Clement of Alexandria, Stromatum 7.16) to the
presence of a midwife at the birth of Christ. The assumption
has no foundation in the canonical Scriptures, however, or in
the authentic tradition of the Church. Cf. Jerome, Adversus
Helvidium 8.
20. Cf. Matt. 24.30; Apoc. 1.7.
HYMNS 83
When at the awful trumpet's sound 21 105
The earth will be consumed by fire,
And with a mighty rush the world
Unhinged, will crash in dreadful ruin. 22
Enthroned on high this powerful Judge
Will grant to each his due reward, 110
Perpetual light unto the good,
And to the lost, Gehenna's fire. 23
Then trembling at the flaming Cross, 24
Judea, you will know your God, 25
Whom at your hands Death once devoured 115
But afterwards gave back again.
21. Cf. Matt. 24.31; 1 Cor. 15.52; 1 Thess. 4.16.
22. Cf. 2 Peter 3.10.
23. Cf. Rom. 2.6; Matt. 25.46 and 5.22.
24. Cf. Matt. 24.30. Prudentius, with other Fathers, regards the
'sign of the Son of Man* as the Cross.
25. Qui sit senties. Cf. Exod. 3.14; John 19.37; Apoc. 1.7.
12. A HYMN FOR EPIPHANY
All you who look for Christ to come,
Lift up your eyes to heaven above;
There you will see the glorious sign
Of His eternal majesty.
84 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
A star that, in its brilliant light, 5
Outshines the dazzling orb of day 1
Proclaims that God in human flesh
Has come to dwell with men on earth.
No thrall is this of night's domain,
Nor satellite of monthly moon, 10
But sole possessor of the sky,
It rules the shining course of day.
Although the frigid polar stars
That in their circuit backward wheel
Refuse to set, yet veiled by clouds, 15
They oft are hidden from our gaze.
This is an everlasting star
That never sinks beneath the waves;
No cloud that drifts across its face
Has power to hide its beaming light. 20
Let baleful comets now withdraw,
And meteors lit from Sirius' flame,
Confounded by the star of God,
Fall blazing from the heavens above.
1. Numerous attempts have been made to explain the star of the
Magi as a natural stellar phenomenon. Among the Fathers,
Origen expressed the opinion that it was a comet (Contra
Celsum 1.58). Prudentius follows the generally accepted theory
that the star was miraculous, a theory which accords with the
literal interpretation of the Gospel and the opinions of most
of the Fathers. Cf. Ignatius of Antioch, EpisL ad Ephesios 19;
John Chrysostom, In Matthaeum 6.2,3; Leo, Sermo 33.2.
HYMNS 85
Lo, from the heart of Persian lands, 2 25
The gateway of the rising sun,
The Magi skilled in astral lore
Behold this star of kingly rank. 3
As soon as it began to shine,
The other stars put out their lights, 30
And Lucifer then dared not show
The beauty of his radiant face.
'Who is this King/ the Magi cry,
'Enthroned above the starry hosts,
Whom Heaven holds in reverent awe 35
And whom ethereal light obeys?
'We now behold the glorious sign
Of one who never shall have end,
Most high, sublime, and limitless,
More ancient than the earth or sky. 40
'He is the Gentiles' King and Lord,
And Ruler of the Jewish race, 4
To Father Abraham decreed
And to his seed forevermore.
'Forerunner of all men of faith, 45
Who willed to give his only son
In sacrifice, that sire foresaw
Descendants numerous as the stars. 5
2. Prudentius here follows the most generally accepted tradition
regarding the country of the Magi. Cf. Clement of Alexandria,
Stromatum 1.15; John Chrysostom, op. tit. 6.2; Juvencus,
Evangelicae Historiae 1.276.
3. Cf. Matt. 2.2.
4. CLIbid.
5. Cf. Gen. 22.16-18.
86 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Now blooms the flower of David's race
From root of Jesse springing up, 6 50
And blossoming on the scepter's rod,
It rules on high the universe/ 7
With eager gaze fixed on the sky,
The sages followed where the star
Had furrowed out a shining path 55
To guide their hastening steps aright. 8
But soon above the holy Child
The heavenly ensign took its stand, 9
And bending down, it cast its light
Upon the Infant's sacred Head. 10 60
On seeing Him, these Seers bring forth
Their Eastern stores, and as they bend
The knee in worship, offer Him
Incense and myrrh and kingly gold. 11
O Child, to whom Thy Father gave 65
A threefold dignity sublime,
See in these gifts the mystic signs
Of kingship and unending might.
6. Cf. Isa. 11.1. Bergman has Jessea editus here, based on MS A.
Meyer (*Zu Prudentius,' Pkilologus 93.390) thinks that the read-
ing Jesse aeditus from MS O is to be preferred. Arevalus has
Jesse editus with the authority of several MSS.
7. Cf. Num. 17.8; Heb. 9.4.
8. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 2.695-698; Juvencus, op. cit. 1.279.
9. Cf. Matt. 2.9.
10. Cf. John Chrysostom, op. cit. 7.4.
11. Cf. Matt. 2.11.
HYMNS 87
The gold and Saba's incense sweet 12
Proclaim Thee to be King and God; 70
The bitter dust of myrrh foretells
The tomb of Thy humanity. 13
This is that grave where God allowed
His mortal frame to rest awhile,
And raising it to life again, 75
Broke open Death's dark prison doors.
O Bethlehem, of cities great
Thou are the greatest, for in thee
Salvation's Author from on high,
Incarnate, saw the light of day. 14 80
You nurse the sole-begotten Heir
Of Him who reigns in Heaven above, 15
His Son made man by the Spirit's power,
Yet very God in human flesh.
His Father's will and testament, 85
By Prophets witnessed and endorsed,
Bids Him to enter His new realm
And take possession of His throne,
A kingdom that embraces all, 16
The firmament, the sea, and earth 90
From rising to the setting sun,
The depths of Hell and Heaven above.
12. Cf. Ps. 71.10; Isa. 60.6.
13. Cf. Irenaeus, Contra Haereses 3.9.2; Leo, Sermo SI.2; John
Chrysostom, op. tit. 8.1; Juvencus, op. tit. 1.285; Ambrose, De
fide 1.4.
14. Cf. Mich. 5.2; Matt. 2.6.
15. Cf.Heb. 1.2.
16. Cf. Luke 1.33.
88 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Alarmed, the impious tyrant hears 17
That now the King of Kings has come
To sit on David's royal throne 95
And rule the race of Israel. 18
And maddened by the news, he cries,
'This upstart comes to banish me:
Go warriors, unsheathe your swords,
And stain the infants' cribs with blood. 19 100
'Let all male children be destroyed;
Search out the bosom of each nurse,
And even at the mother's breasts
Let blades be red with infant gore.
1 trust no woman who has borne 105
A son in Bethlehem these days,
For all will strive to steal away
And hide their offspring from your sight/
Then mad with rage, the torturer draws
His cruel sword and thrusts the blade 110
Into the tender infant forms,
Bereaving them of budding life.
The fiendish slayer scarce can find
On little frames sufficient space
To hold the deadly gaping wound: 115
The blade is wider than the throat.
17. Cf. Matt. 2.3.
18. Cf. Luke 1.32.
19. Cf. Matt. 2.16.
HYMNS 89
O barbarous and inhuman sight!
A head is dashed against a stone
And milk-white brains are scattered round,
While at the blow the eyes leap forth. 120
Again, a trembling babe is plunged
Into a deep, swift-flowing stream,
And water mingling with its breath,
It gasps its fragile life away.
All hail, sweet flowers of martyrdom, 125
Cut down in life's bright dawning hour, 20
And shattered by the foe of Christ
As rosebuds by the whirling storm.
First victims offered up to Christ,
A tender flock of spotless lambs, 21 130
Before God's very altar throne,
With martyrs' crowns and palms you play.
Of what avail such wickedness?
What joy in crime does Herod find?
Alone among so many slain, 135
Unharmed and safe, the Christ Child lives.
20. Cf. Lucan, De bello civili 2.106; Seneca, Hercules furens 1132.
>L Grex immaculatorum tener. Several MSS and Arevalus have
immolatorum instead of immaculatorum , which Bergman ac-
cepts from the oldest MS A and others. Meyer ('Prudentiana/
Philologus 87, 255-258) thinks that immolatorum is to be pre-
ferred, since Prudentius knew the teaching on original sin
(Cf. Apoth. 511-514). Though Bergman himself questioned
immaculatorum, it seems to me that this reading can be
defended. Immaculatus, of animals offered in sacrifice, means
'without blemish/ Prudentius here speaks figuratively of the
Innocents as lambs sacrificed to Christ Cf. 1 Peter 1.19.
90 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Amid the streams of blood that flowed
From tender babes of equal age,
Alone, the Virgin's Son escaped
The sword that pierced the mothers' hearts. 140
Thus Moses in a former age
Escaped proud Pharao's foolish law, 22
And as the savior of his race
Prefigured Christ who was to come.
A cruel edict had been passed 145
Forbidding Hebrew mothers all,
When sons were born to them, to rear
These virile pledges of their love. 23
Devoutly scornful of the king,
A zealous midwife found a way 150
To hide her charge and keep him safe
For future glory and renown.
And when the boy to manhood grew,
God chose him as His own high priest,
Through whose pure hands He might transmit 155
His law engraved on slabs of stone. 24
In this great man may we not see
A figure of our Saviour, Christ?
By slaying the Egyptian lord,
That leader lifted Israel's yoke; 25 160
22. Cf. Exod. 1.16-17; 2.2-10.
23. Cf. Exod. 1.16-22.
24. Cf. Exod. 24.12.
25. Cf. Exod. 2.12; Acts 7.24-25.
HYMNS 91
But when beneath the yoke of sin
We bow in ceaseless servitude,
Our Captain wounds the enemy
And frees us from the shades of Death.
And Moses cheers with waters sweet 26 165
His people ransomed in the sea,
When led by him through cleansing floods
And guided by the pillar's light. 27
While Israel's hosts in battle join,
He overwhelms fierce Amalec 170
By lifting up his arms on high, 28
Prefiguring then the cross of Christ.
A truer prototype of Christ
Was Josue, 29 who led his tribes
With untold cost and sacrifice, 175
Victorious, to the promised lands. 30
Also, twelve stones from Jordan's bed,
Left dry when waters backward flowed,
He raised and firmly set in place, 31
The type of Christ's Apostles twelve. 180
26. Cf. Exod. 15.25. Lavarenne (Prudence 1.73) comments on the
obscurity of this and the two following stanzas, and thinks with
Arevalus (PL 59.911) that they refer to Christ, 'our Captain/
1.163, rather than to Moses, 'that leader/ 1.160. That the
reference is to Moses as a type of Christ seems apparent.
27. Cf. Exod. 12.21; 1 Cor. 10.1-2.
28. Cf. Exod. 17.11-13.
29. The text here has Jesus, the "Greek name for Josue found in
the Septuagint. Cf. Eccli. 46.1.
30. Cf. Exod. 13.7.
31. Cf. Jos. 4.4-8; 3.14-17.
92 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Then rightly do the Magi hold
That they have seen Judea's King,
For all the deeds of ancient chiefs
In figure told of Christ the Lord.
Of Judges who in olden times 185
Ruled Jacob's race, He is the King;
King now of Holy Mother Church,
Of both the temples, new and old. 32
The sons of Ephraim worship Him,
With all Manasses' holy house, 190
And tribes sprung from the brothers twelve
All honor Him as Lord and God. 33
Nay, even children of lost tribes,
Who followed false and shameful rites,
And all who shaped in fiery forge 195
The forms of Baal to adore,
Forsake their fathers 5 gloomy gods
Of metal, wood, and senseless stone;
Leave idols, hewn and carved by man,
To worship Christ in spirit and truth. 200
Rejoice, all nations of the earth, 34
Judea, Egypt, Greece and Rome,
With Scythia, Thrace, and Persian realms:
Now over all one King holds sway.
Then praise your Lord, you that rejoice, 205
And all by desolation tried,
In health, affliction or decay:
For none shall taste eternal death.
32. Cf.Heb. 9.9-11.
33. Cf. Apoc. 7.4-7.
34. Cf. Ps. 66.5.
(LIBER PERISTEPHANON)
1. HYMN IN HONOR OF THE HOLY
MARTYRS EMETERIUS AND CHELIDONIUS
OF CALAHORRA 1
Written fair on Heaven's pages are the names of
martyrs twain; 2
Christ Himself in golden letters has engraved them
there on high,
And on earth they are recorded in bright characters
of blood.
1. Little is known of the Spanish martyrs celebrated in this hymn.
The poem is, as far as is known, the earliest extant record of
their martyrdom. Later martyrologies and the Mass in their
honor in the Mozarabic Missal (PL 85.728-733) show indebted-
ness to the hymn, which is used in its entirety for the Vespers
and Matins of the feast in the Mozarabic Breviary (PL 86.1106-
1111). According to tradition the martyrs were the sons of St.
Marcellus and were serving in the Roman army at Leon when
a persecution broke out. They went to Calahorra, where they
suffered martyrdom on March 3, a date attested by the martyr-
ology of St. Jerome and other sources. The year is unknown*
Allard thinks that they probably suffered under Diocletian in
303 (Revue des questlones historiques 39.24). Lesleus (PL
85.729-733) finds reason to think that they were martyred under
Nero and not later than Trajan.
2. Cf. Luke 10.20; Apoc. 3.5; 21.27.
95
96 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Happy Spain this noble garland wears for all the
world to see; 3
In God's eyes that spot seemed worthy to enshrine
the martyrs' bones 5
Which had to their blessed bodies given kindly
sepulture.
This land drank the tide warm flowing from the
twofold martyrdom;
Now the people flock to worship where the sands
with blood were stained, 4
And to offer fervent prayers with their gifts and
holy vows.
Hither comes the foreign pilgrim to invoke these
blessed saints, 10
For to every land the tidings have been borne on
wings of fame 5
That this tomb by throngs surrounded holds the
patrons of the world.
Not in vain has been the pleading of the souls that
here have prayed;
Hence the suppliant turns with joy, as he dries his
anxious tears, 6
Knowing that his just petitions by the martyrs have
been heard, 15
3. Cf. Seneca, De benefidis 5.28.2.
4. C. Vergil, Aeneid 12.340,
5. Cf. Ibid. 4.173.
6. CL Damasus, Epigram 61.34 (Ihm, Damasi Epigrammata p.
627).
HYMNS 97
Such concern for all our perils do these intercessors
show,
That no prayer is ever fruitless that to them is
murmured here, 7
But straightway is surely wafted to the ear of
Heaven's King. 8
Whence from that eternal fountain gifts divine flow
down to earth, 9
Bringing to the humble suppliant healing for his
every ill. 20
To His Martyrs, true and faithful, Christ can never
ought refuse,
Martyrs who through chains and torture and the
threat of cruel death 10
Of the one true God were witness to the shedding of
their blood,
Yea their blood, but life eternal was the guerdon fair
they won.
Thus to die is truly splendid, worthy of heroic
men: 11 25
To the sword to give the body, but a web of fragile
veins
Soon devoured by gnawing illness, and to conquer
thus the foe.
7. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.210.
8. Cf. Ibid. 7.166.
9. Cf. James 1.17.
10. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 10.791.
11. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.2.13.
98 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
What a glorious boon to suffer at the cruel torturer's
blow
Mighty wounds that open Heaven to the martyr saints
of God. 12
Hither from the hearts' deep dwelling leaps the soul
baptized in blood. 30
Called to Christ's eternal service, these brave soldiers
hitherto 13
Had endured the shock of battle and the rigors of the
camp;
Valor tried in mortal combat now makes war for holy
Faith.
They renounce the flag of Caesar for the ensign of the
Cross;
For the banner they once carried, dragon swelled out
by the wind, 14 35
They now choose the Wood as standard, which
subdued the Dragon's might.
Now they think it vile to brandish javelins with
skillful hands,
Or to breach the wall with engines and to ring the
camp with moats,
Or to stain with bloody carnage hands that wield
unholy swords.
12. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.401.
13. Lines 31-59 are similar in thought to Damasus, Epigram 8 (see
Ferrua, Epigrammata Damasiana pp. 103-104).
14. Cf. Claudian, De tertio cons. Hon. 138-141.
HYMNS 99
Then it chanced the impious tyrant, ruler of the
pagan world, 40
To the second race of Israel 15 sent an infamous
command
To adore at heathen altars and deny their faith in
Christ.
Malice armed with lethal weapons now assails
intrepid Faith;
She endures with dauntless courage torments for the
love of Christ:
Flaying hooks and cruel scourging and at last the
headman's ax. 16 45
Pent within the loathsome prisons, Christian necks
submit to chains; 17
Every forum reeks with carnage as the torturer wields
his gear; 18
Truth is judged as vilest treason, Faith's avowal
merits death.
Virtue pierced by ruthless iron falls upon the stony
ground;
Flung amid the blazing fagots, she imbibes the deadly
flames. 50
In the fires the saints find sweetness; sweetness, too, in
piercing steel.
15. Secundos Istrahelis posteros, the Christians, who succeeded the
Jews, the first descendants of Israel.
16. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 12.4; 30.7 (Vol. 10, this series, pp. 41-42,
87).
17. Colla bads inpedit. Arevalus reads boiis, 'collars' instead of
bads (PL 60.284).
18. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.5.49.
100 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Then the hearts of these two brothers, who in loving
fellowship 19
All their days had been united, burn with zeal for
martyrdom,
And they stand prepared to welcome any death
reserved for them,
Whether it might be to offer willing necks to public
ax, 55
After bearing cruel lashes and the fire of searing
grates,
Or to yield their tortured bodies to the leopards and
the lions.
'Shall we stoop to sway of mammon who have been
reborn in Christ? 20
Formed to God's eternal image, shall we serve the
fleeting world?
God forbid that flame celestial should be mingled
with earth's mire. 21 60
'Tis enough that we, enlisted from the days of
early youth
In the ranks of Caesar's armies, our due service
have discharged;
It is now the time to render what is owing unto
God. 22
19. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 11.215-216.
20. Cf. Matt. 6.24.
2L CL 2 Cor. 6.14.
22. Cf. Matt. 22.2. See also Sulpidus Severus, Life of St. Martin
(Vol. 7, this series, p. 109). Prudentius may have read this
work. For its wide diffusion at the end of the fourth century,
see Sulpicius Severus, Dialogue 1.23 (Ibid. pp. 192-193).
HYMNS 101
'Hence, commanders of the ensigns, and tribunes,
depart from us;
Take away the golden collars, prizes for the
wounds received. 65
Henceforth in the splendid armies of the angels
we shall serve.
'Christ of His own white-robed cohorts is the Ruler
and the King.
From His throne in highest Heaven He contemns
your puny gods
And you men who fashion idols, silly monsters to
adore/
At these words the valiant martyrs with a thousand
pains are whelmed. 70
Their two hands are bound with fetters wrought of
galling links of iron,
And their necks bear cruel bruises from the heavy
circling steel.
O oblivion of the ages and the silence and neglect
That to us denies the record of their glorious
martyrdom! 23
Every vestige of the trial by the prefect was
effaced, 24 75
23. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.527.
24. The writings of the Christians were destroyed during the per-
secution of Diocletian. Cf. Jerome, In Zachariam 2.8; Eusebius,
Ecclesiastical History 8.2 (Trans, in Vol. 29, this series).
102 AURELIUS PRUDENTTUS CLEMENS
Lest in books, all time enduring, should be traced
in living words
Order, date, and very manner of the pangs they
underwent,
And on ears of future ages their fair story might
resound.
But the old times keep unbroken silence on these
points alone:
Whether endless days in prison saw their unshorn
hair grow long, 25 80
Or by what inhuman torments their eternal crowns
were won.
Of one marvel we have witness, nor has time
obscured its fame,
That uplifted on the breezes gifts to heaven's
heights were borne,
Token. of the way that opened to a shining Paradise.
On a cloud a ring was wafted, of the faith of one the
sign, 85
And the wind upraised the kerchief of the other as a
pledge;
Caught up by a breath supernal, these memorials
pierced the skies.
In the limpid vault of heaven soon was hid the
gleaming gold,
But the whiteness of the kerchief longer fled the
eager gaze;
Then at last the blessed symbols disappeared among
the stars. 90
25. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.391.
HYMNS 103
Those who gathered round the victims saw this
wondrous miracle;
Saw it, too, the trembling headsman, as he checked
his hand in fear, 26
But the cruel blow descended, lest his vile reward be
lost.
Vascons, once a heathen people, are you not today
convinced
That you stained your hands unwitting in the blood
of martyr saints? 95
Do you not believe these victims now enjoy bliss with
God?
See how many ways fierce demons here are
vanquished openly,
They who wolf-like break and shatter human forms
they have possessed,
And the soul itself they torture as with senses they
unite. 27
Now is brought a raging creature, by his foe in
bondage held, 100
Foaming at the mouth and rolling bloodshot eyes in
his distress, 28
To be cleansed by exorcism of offenses not his own.
26. Cf. Ibid. 12.739.
27. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 22-4 (Vol. 10, this series, p. 69).
28. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.448.
104 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
You may hear his doleful shrieking; yet no torturer
is near;
Now his frame is torn by scourging, but the whip you
cannot see;
Then he hangs in air suspended, lifted up by
hidden chains. 29 105
Thus the virtue of the martyrs persecutes the hellish
thief,
Vexing him with fiery torments, loading him with
heavy chains,
Till the foiled and chastened brigand leaves the heart
he has possessed. 30
Safe and sound he leaves his victim, flees away with
thirsty jaws; 31
He restores him strong and healthy, whole from
crown of head to foot, 110
As he owns himself a dweller in Gehenna's fiery pit.
Why now speak of pallid bodies healed of lingering
disease
As the wan and sickly members tremble with an icy
chill? 32
See a tumor leave this visage, see the glow of health
return.
29. CL Paulinus of Nola, Poema 23.61-69, 86-87 (PL 61.609-610);
Sulpicius Severus, Dialogue 3.6 (Vol. 7, this series, p. 233).
30. Cf. Paulinus of Nola, Poema 14.21-40 (PL 61.465).
31. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 2.358.
32. CLIbid. 3.29.
HYMNS 105
God, Himself, bestowed the blessing which we now
enjoy here, 115
When the bodies of these martyrs He enshrined
within our town,
Making them the faithful guardians of the lands by
Ebro washed.
Join, O mothers, in the vigil, raise glad voices in the
hymns, 33
Giving thanks for cure of husbands and your children
raised to life;
Let us with a holy joy celebrate this festal day. 120
33. State nunc, hymnite, matres. The reference here is to the sta-
tions, or vigils, celebrated at the tombs of the martyrs. For a
discussion of the variant hymnistae found in the Oxford manu-
script, see Ruth E. Messenger, Speculum 29 (1947) 83-84.
2. HYMN IN HONOR OF THE PASSION OF
THE BLESSED MARTYR LAWRENCE 1
Once mother of unholy fanes,
Rome, dedicated now to Christ,
By Lawrence led to victory,
You trample on the heathen rites.
1. According to the traditions of the fourth century, recorded in
authentic sources, St. Lawrence was one of the seven deacons
of Rome, who with Pope Sixtus II suffered martyrdom in the
year 258 during the persecution of Valerian. See Cyprian,
Epistles 82 (PL 4.442); Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum 1.41
and 2.28; also Mommsen, Liber Pontificalis (MGH 1.34-35).
When Prudentius was in Rome, he doubtless took part in the
celebration of the feast of the martyr and visited the basilica
106 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Proud kings have bowed before your sword, 5
And conquered peoples felt your sway;
Now pagan gods are made to pass,
Beneath the yoke of your empire.
Though savage tribes had been subdued,
The city of the toga lacked 10
One glorious title of renown,
The triumph over wanton Jove,
Not by Camillus' stormy might,
Nor Cossus' arms or Caesar's power, 2
But by the bloody combat waged 15
By Lawrence in his martyrdom.
Embattled Faith took up the fight,
Of her own blood most prodigal;
For she destroyed death by death
And lost her life to save her life. 20
The Pontiff Sixtus, from the cross 3
On which he hung, saw at its foot
His deacon Lawrence weeping sore,
And these prophetic words he spoke:
on the Via Tiburtina where Pope Damasus had placed one
of his inscriptions (Ihm, op. cit. n. 2, p. viii and p. 37). St.
Augustine in two of his sermons (302 and 303, PL 38.1388-
1394} mentions contemporary traditions concerning the mar-
tyrdom of St. Lawrence. Several lines of the hymn appear in
the Office of St. Lawrence in the Mozarabic Breviary (PL
86.1179).
2. Roman military leaders. For Cossus and Camillus see Livy
4.19-20 and 6.1-13.
3. Sixtus II, who was Pope from August or September 257 to
August 258, was beheaded. See Cyprian, Epistles 82 and Vol.
15, this series, p. 19. For a discussion of Prudentius* implica-
tion here that the Pope was crucified, see Marchesi, Le Corone
di Prudenzio p. 75.
HYMNS 107
'Let tears of sorrow cease to flow 25
At my departure from this life;
My brother, I but lead the way,
And you will follow in three days.' 4
The holy bishop's dying words
Sure glory for his friend announced, 30
For Lawrence on the day foretold,
Victorious, won the martyr's palm.
What words, what praises can suffice
To celebrate that hero's death?
How sing his passion worthily 35
In measured harmonies of verse?
First of the seven ministers 5
Who nearest to the altar stand,
Levite in holy orders high
And eminent above the rest, 40
He guarded well the sacred rites
And kept in trust with faithful keys
The precious treasure of the Church,
Dispensing riches vowed to God.
The prefect of imperial Rome, 45
The agent of an insane prince, 6
Athirst for money and for blood,
Is driven by his greed for gold
4. Cf. Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum 1.41, Liber Pontificate
(MGH 1.34-35).
5. Cf. Acts 6.1-4.
6. Valerian.
108 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
To wrest from sacred shrines by force
Suspected riches lurking there, 50
The talents gathered in vast sums,
And hidden in their secret vaults.
He summons Lawrence to the court
And questions him on coffers filled
With massive ingots of pure gold 55
And hoarded coins in shining heaps.
'You make complaints/ the prefect said,
'When we give vent to lawful ire
By punishing with torments cruel
The Christians who contemn our gods. 60
'To such atrocious punishments
My wrath does not impel me now;
The mild and peaceful claims I make,
You ought to meet with ready grace.
'In your religious rites, they say, 65
It is the custom of your priests,
Ordained by ceremonial laws,
To offer wine in golden cups.
'They say that silver vessels smoke
With blood of victims sacrificed, 70
And tapers at nocturnal feasts
Are fixed in golden candlesticks. 7
7. Cf, Minucius Felix, Octavius 8.4 and 9.5 (Trans, in Vol. 10,
this series, pp. 335 and 337).
HYMNS 109
'Then rumor says your brotherhood
Devotes to God with noble zeal
Thousands of sesterces derived 75
From sale of lands and other goods. 5
'The sons by holy sires disowned,
In abject poverty lament
The sale of vast ancestral lands
Knocked down by heartless auctioneers. 80
'This wealth is hid in secret crypts
Of churches where the Christians meet,
And to despoil your dear offspring 9
Is deemed the highest piety.
'Bring forth the gold you have amassed 85
By force and evil trickery,
The hoarded treasures you now keep
Enclosed in subterranean vaults.
'The public welfare now demands
That you give up your boundless wealth 90
To fill the coffers of the state
And pay the armies of your prince.
'This is your teaching, so I hear:
"To each man give what is his due."
Look you, great Caesar sees engraved 95
His image on your golden coins.
8. Cf. Acts 4.34-35.
9. Cf. Horace, Epodes 2.40.
110 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'What you perceive to Caesar due,
To Caesar give; 10 my claim is just.
Unless I err, your God stamps not
His image on your precious gold. 100
'When He came down to earth below
No coins of Philip did He bring, 11
But without purse, He preached the word
And gave precepts of poverty.
Tut these precepts in practice now, 105
Which you proclaim throughout the world.
Give willingly your minted gold,
And let Christ's words be all your wealth/
Untroubled, Lawrence made reply
To this perfidious overture, 110
And as if ready to obey,
He gently nodded his assent.
'Our church is very rich,' he said.
'I must confess that it has wealth;
Our treasuries are filled with gold
Not found elsewhere in all the world. 115
'Not even high Augustus holds
Such wealth within his mighty grasp,
Though every silver coin forged
His image and inscription bears. 120
10. Cf. Matt. 22.20-21.
11. Gold coins struck by Philip II of Macedon.
HYMNS 111
'Yet I refuse not to yield up
The riches of our Lord and God;
I shall display for all to see
The treasures that belong to Christ. 12
'However, one request I make: 125
Vouchsafe to me a short delay
That I may carry out my pledge
With greater ease and richer gain.
'I need this time to take account
Of all the goods possessed by Christ, 130
And then to estimate their worth
And reckon up the total sum/
The prefect's heart now swelled with joy
At treasure felt within his grasp;
He reveled in the hoarded gold 135
As though it rested in his vaults.
Three days of grace he freely grants,
And Lawrence is dismissed from court,
The trusted bondsman for himself
And for vast stores of hidden wealth, 140
He hastens through the city streets,
And in three days he gathers up
The poor and sick, a mighty throng
Of all in need of kindly alms, 13
12. Ambrose, op. cit. 2.28; Augustine, Sermon 302.9 (PL 38.1388-
1389) and Sermon 303.1 (PL 38.1393-1394).
13. Ibid.
112 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
There one beheld an aged man 145
Uplifting hollow blinded eyes,
And pressing forward with a staff
To guide his faltering steps aright.
The halt and lame were also there.
With stiffened joints or severed limbs 150
Or legs unequal in their length,
They dragged their limping steps along.
From ulcerated members flowed
The foul corruption of disease;
The hands of some were paralyzed, 155
And tendons of the arms were shrunk.
He sought in every public square
The needy who were wont to be
Fed from the stores of Mother Church,
And he as steward knew them well. 160
Then one by one he counted them,
Wrote down the name of every man,
And ordered them to take their stand
In line before the temple gate.
By now the fated day had come: 165
The cruel judge, insane with greed,
Commanded Lawrence angrily
To bring at once the promised gold.
To him the martyr made reply:
'I pray you come with me and view 170
The wondrous riches of our God
Displayed for you in sacred shrines. 14
14. Ibid.
HYMNS 113
'You will behold the anteroom
With golden vases all aglow,
And through the open colonnades 175
The talents ranged in shining rows/
The prefect deigns to follow him;
The sacred portal soon they reach,
Where stands a ghastly multitude
Of poor drawn up in grim array. 180
The air is rent with cries for alms;
The prefect shudders in dismay,
And turns on Lawrence glaring eyes,
With threats of dreadful punishment.
The saint, undaunted, answers him 185
'Why do you gnash your teeth in rage
At this unwelcome spectacle?
Do you scorn these as foul and mean?
Trom rubble of the earth is born
The shining gold for which you thirst, 190
And penal labor quarries it
From veins of ore in sunless mines,
'Or mountain torrents wash it down,
Commingled with their murky sands;
This earthly dross and sordid ore 195
Must be refined in cleansing fires.
Tor gold, bright innocence is lost;
For gold, integrity is stained,
Peace is destroyed, faith set at naught,
The very laws abjured and scorned. 200
114 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
"Why do you hold in such esteem
This bane of righteousness and truth?
Indeed, the gold that brighter shines
Is light enlightening all mankind. 15
These are the foster-sons of light 205
Whom crippled bodies hedge around,
Lest flesh unscathed should shelter souls
Puffed up with pride and insolence.
'When illness racks the human frame,
The spirit burns more ardently; 210
When members glow with health and strength,
The powers of mind and soul are dulled.
Tor fiery blood to lust inclined
Feeds passion with diminished strength,
When maladies exhaust its flame 215
And curb its deadly virulence.
'If choice were ever given to me,
I would prefer to suffer woe
From members cruelly crushed and maimed,
And fair within always to live. 220
'Consider all the plagues of man
And match them with his heinous sins:
Are not the ulcers of the soul
More hideous than those of flesh?
'These poor of ours are sick and lame, 225
But beautiful and whole within.
They bear with them a spirit fair
And free from taint and misery.
15. Cf. John 1.4,9.
HYMNS 115
Tour followers are strong of frame,
But marred by inward leprosy. 230
Depravity is halt and lame,
And sightless fraud is blind indeed.
Tour princes clad in splendid robes,
Whose shining faces mirror health,
Are more disabled, I will prove, 235
Than any of these poor of mine.
'The lord puffed up in silk attire,
Who proudly in his chariot rides,
Pale dropsy bloats with poisonous fluid
That lurks within his turgid soul. 16 240
'The greedy, like one paralyzed,
Has crippled hands and palms so clenched
With claw-like nails, he has no power
His hardened muscles to unbend.
'Another lured by shameful lust 245
Defiles himself with prostitutes,
And wallowing in this filthy mire,
He begs for foul debaucheries.
'Does not the man athirst for show
And burning with desire for fame, 250
Convulsed with fever, rave and gasp
From fire that rages in his veins?
'The gossip itching to divulge
The secrets he would bring to light
Is irritated by a mange 255
That at his heart and liver gnaws.
16. Cf. Horace, Odes 2.2.13-16.
116 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Why tell of tumors that infest
The scrofulous hearts of envious men?
Why show the livid, festering sores
Of their ill-will and cruelty? 260
'You, ruler of this mighty Rome,
Who scorn the one eternal God
And fallen hordes of hell adore,
Yourself endure the royal plague. 17
'These humble paupers you despise 265
And look upon as vile outcasts,
Their ulcerous limbs will lay aside
And put on bodies incorrupt,
'When freed at last from tainted flesh,
Their souls, from chains of earth released, 270
Will shine resplendent with new life
In their celestial fatherland,
'Not foul and shabby, or infirm,
As now they seem to scornful eyes,
But fair, in radiant vesture clad, 275
With crowns of gold upon their heads.
'I would the power were given to me
To bring before your startled gaze
A vision of the doom that waits
For haughty magnates of this world. 280
'You would behold them clothed in rags,
Their nostrils dripping mucus foul,
Their beards with spittle all defiled,
Their purblind eyes made blear with rheum.
17. M orb o regio, jaundice.
HYMNS 117
'Than sin-stained soul, nought is more vile 285
Nought is so leprous, nought so sear;
The wound of crime is ever raw
And reeks of Hell's ill-smelling cave.
'These souls, of body once so fair,
Who took delight in splendid mien, 290
Their lot reversed, are now immured
In forms repulsive to the sight.
4 See here the gold I promised you,
The coins that no consuming fire
One day to ashes will reduce, 295
Nor thief will ever steal from you. 18
'Lest you may think that Christ is poor,
I add to these the precious gems
With which this temple is adorned,
Gems of resplendent beauty bright. 300
'The holy virgins here you see;
Chaste widows, too, you may admire,
Who of their first mates now bereft,
A second marriage have renounced.
'These form the necklace of the Church, 305
With these fair gems she is bedecked;
Thus dowered, she is dear to Christ,
Thus she adorns her queenly brow. 19
"These riches now are yours; take them
To beautify your lofty Rome, 310
To fill the treasury of your prince,
And your own fortunes to augment/
18. Cf. Luke 12.33.
19. Cf. Apoc. 21.2.
118 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'He makes a laughingstock of us/
The judge cries out in savage rage;
'He mocks us in strange metaphors, 315
And yet the maniac still lives!
'Do you imagine, slippery knave,
That this buffoonery you have staged,
This sanctimonious farce, this hoax,
Will go without due punishment? 320
'Was it a fitting pleasantry
To hold me up to ridicule?
Have I been made the butt of jeers
Like entertainer at a feast?
'Are magistrates no longer grave, 325
Are they no longer obdurate?
Has soft indulgence dulled the edge
Of headsman's ax and torturer's rod?
'You say: "I gladly go to death,
I yearn and sigh for martyrdom"; 330
This folly is, as I have learned
Peculiar to your vain belief. 20
'But I shall see to it forthwith
That you will quit this earthly life,
Not by the short and easy route 335
Of sudden death, as you desire.
'I will prolong and stay your life
In pains and anguish without end,
And death in lingering agony
Will bar a merciful release. 340
20. Minucius Felix, op. cit. 8.5 (Trans, in Vol. 10, this series, p.
335).
HYMNS 119
'Prepare for him a bed of coals,
Lest raging flames that burn too high
May seize too soon the upstart's face
And penetrate his inmost heart.
'Let dying fires exhale dull heat, 345
Diffusing drafts of feverish air
To rack by slow degrees his frame
Already by hot embers seared. 21
'Well that the chief himself has come
Within my grasp, of all the rest. 350
I will of him an instance make
Of pangs the others must endure.
'Ascend the pyre prepared for you,
Lie on the bed that you deserve. 22
Then argue with me, if you can, 355
That this my Vulcan's power is nought/
Thus spoke the prefect. At his nod
Forthwith the executioner
Stripped off the holy martyr's robes
And laid him bound upon the pyre. 360
The martyr's face was luminous,
And round it shone a glorious light;
Such countenance did Moses wear
When he descended from the Mount.
His face the Israelites, defiled 365
By worship of the golden calf,
Turned from in fear and could not bear
To see God's glory thus revealed. 23
21. semustulati corporis. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.578.
22. Cf. Augustine, Sermon 302.9 (PL 38.1388).
23. Cf. Exod. 34.29-30.
120 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
And Stephen, too, a countenance showed
Alight with glory from above, 370
When through the rain of stones he saw
The heavens opened to his gaze. 24
The face of Lawrence from afar
Was seen to shine by brethren cleansed
But lately in baptism's flood 375
And made for Christ a fit abode.
But in their blindness impious men,
As though the veil of night were drawn
Across their eyes to blot it out,
Saw not the splendor of his face, 380
As when the plague on Egypt fell
And doomed to darkness Pharao's race,
While to the Hebrews it was day,
And all appeared in light serene. 25
The very odor given forth 385
By holy Lawrence's burning flesh
Was noxious to the unredeemed
And to the faithful nectar sweet.
The same sensation is transformed
So that the fumes inflict on one 390
A vengeful odor, nauseous,
Or soothe the other with delight.
Thus everlasting fire of God,
For Christ is cleansing fire indeed, 26
Illumines souls of men redeemed 395
And burns the reprobate in hell.
24. Cf.Acts 7,55-59.
25. Cf. Exod. 10.22-23.
26. Cf. Mai. 3.2-3.
HYMNS 121
When slow, consuming heat had seared
The flesh of Lawrence for a space,
He calmly from his gridiron made
This terse proposal to the judge: 400
Tray turn my body, on one side
Already broiled sufficiently,
And see how well your Vulcan's fire 27
Has wrought its cruel punishment.*
The prefect bade him to be turned. 405
Then Lawrence spoke: 'I am well baked,
And whether better cooked or raw,
Make trial by a taste of me/ 28
He said these words in way of jest;
Then raising shining eyes to heaven 29 410
And sighing deeply, thus he prayed
With pity for unholy Rome:
*O Christ, O Name above all names, 30
Of God the Father, Light and Power, 31
O Maker of the earth and sky, 415
And Founder of this city's walls,
'Rome's sceptre Thou didst make supreme,
Subjecting to the conquering arms
Of togaed sons of Quirinus
All nations of the universe, 420
27. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.4.8.
28. Cf. Ambrose, PL 16.92, 17.1255; Augustine, PL 38.1394. See
also Socrates, PG 67.418 and Sozamen, Ibid. 1247.
29. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.195-196.
30. Cf. Phil. 2.9.
31. Cf. Heb. 1.3.
122 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'That one dominion might unite
The races o the world, diverse
In manners and observances,
In tongues and rites and inborn traits.
'Lo, all the human race has bowed 425
Beneath the rod of Remus' sons;
Dissenting tribes one language speak
And live in peace and harmony.
'This sovereignty was foreordained
That all the world with greater ease,
Might by a single bond be linked 430
Beneath the power of Christian law.
'Grant to Thy Roman people, Christ,
That they may wear the Christian name,
For through their city Thou didst give 435
To others one religious faith.
'All members of this realm are joined
In fealty to this saving creed.
The conquered world has civil grown,
And may the head be tamed at last. 440
'Let Rome behold the lands discrete
Made one in Christ's redeeming grace;
Let Romulus embrace the faith,
And even Numa now believe.
'The Trojan error still confounds 445
The scions of Cato's noble halls,
And on their altars they adore
The exiled gods of Phrygia. 32
32. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.11-12, 148-150.
HYMNS 123
'The Senate two-faced Janus lauds 33
And Sterculus I dread to name 450
Our fathers' monstrous deities
And Saturnalian festivals. 34
'Wipe out, O Christ, this infamy;
Send forth Thy angel Gabriel,
That sons of Julus, led astray, 35 455
May learn to worship one true God.
'Two faithful pledges we possess.
That this our hope will be fulfilled;
Two apostolic princes here 36
Now hold the reins of government. 460
'Apostle of the gentiles one, 37
The other, pontifex supreme,
Unlocks the gates of paradise
Entrusted to his watchful care. 38
'Begone from us, adulterous Jove, 465
Thy sister's vile incestuous mate,
From halls of Rome now take your flight
And set the Christian people free.
Taul drives you hence, a fugitive,
The blood of Peter thrusts you out; 470
The crime of Nero primed by you
Has undermined your baneful power.
33. Cf. Ibid. 12.198.
34. Cf.76zU3.26.
35. Son of Aeneas, from whom the Julii claimed descent. Cf.
Vergil, Aeneid 1.286-288.
36. St. Peter and St. Paul.
37. Cf. 2 Tim. 1.11.
38. Cf. Matt. 16.19. See also Damasus, Epigram 5.3 (Ihm, op. cit.
p. 9).
124 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
1 see in future times a prince, 39
Adorer of the one true God,
Who will not suffer Rome to serve 475
The idols foul of pagan cults.
'The heathen temples he will close,
Wall up their doors of ivory,
And make secure their brazen bolts,
That none may pass their vile thresholds. 480
'Of bloody sacrifices cleansed,
The marble altars then will gleam,
And statues honored now as gods
Will stand, mere harmless blocks of bronze.'
Thus ended Lawrence's fervent prayer, 40 485
Thus ended, too, his earthly life:
With these last words his eager soul
Escaped with joy from carnal chains.
Some noble Romans, who were led
By his amazing fortitude 490
To faith in Christ, then bore away
The hero's body from the scene.
A sudden grace inflamed their hearts
With ardent love of God Most High
And made them loathe the mummeries 495
Of their ancestral heathen rites.
From that day forth the worship paid
To sordid pagan gods grew cold;
The temples unfrequented stood,
While people to Christ's altars thronged. 500
39. Probably Theodosius,
40. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 10.116.
HYMNS 125
Thus Lawrence in that mighty fray
Had at his side no keen-edged sword,
But seized the weapon of his foe
And on him turned the piercing steel.
When Satan joined in mortal bout 505
With God's unyielding warrior,
He fell, transfixed by his own sword,
And lies prostrate forevermore.
That holy martyr's valiant death
Of pagan temples was the end; 510
Then Vesta saw Palladian fires
Untended with impunity.
The Roman people, who were wont
The cup of Numa to adore 41
Christ's sanctuaries now frequent 515
And hymn the ho]y martyr's praise.
Illustrious senators themselves,
Once flamins and lupercal priests,
Now kiss the thresholds of the shrines
Where martyrs and apostles rest. 42 520
We see patrician families,
The parents, both of noble birth,
Their children dedicate to God,
The dearest pledges of their love.
41. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 6.343.
42. Cf. Tibullus 1.2.85; Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.376; Paulimis of
Nola, Poema 18.250 (PL 61.496).
126 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
The pontiff once with chaplet crowned 525
Is signed now with the cross of Christ,
And, Lawrence, to thy temple comes 43
The vestal of the Claudian house. 44
O thrice, nay four and seven times 45
Are Rome's inhabitants now blest, 530
Who on the very spot, where lie
Thy sacred bones, can honor thee,
Who prostrate at thy nearby tomb
May water with their tears the ground,
Press to their hearts the holy soil, 535
And offer up their murmured prayers. 46
Removed from thee by mountain heights
And Vascon Ebro's rolling flood,
We dwell across the Cottian Alps,
Beyond the snowy Pyrenees. 540
Scarce is it known in that far land
How rich is Rome in tombs of saints,
How fruitful is her kindly soil
In consecrated sepulchers.
43. Constantine had erected a basilica near the tomb of St.
Lawrence in the Ager Veranus on the Via Tiburtina. See
Liber Pontificate (UGH 1.63-64).
44. An inscription dedicated to a Vestal Virgin in the year 364,
with the name beginning with the letter C erased, was dis-
covered in 1883. Lanciani (Ancient Rome in the Light of
Recent Excavations, pp. 170-171) thinks that the inscription
may have been that of the Vestal Claudia referred to here,
who had been thus condemned because of her conversion to
Christianity.
45. Ct.Ver&l,Aeneidl.94.
46. Cf. Paulinus of Nola, Poema 18.251-252 (PL 61.496).
HYMNS 127
But we who lack this precious dower 545
And cannot trace with reverent zeal
The bloody footprints of the saints
Can raise our eyes to Heaven above.
So, holy Lawrence, there we seek
Memorial of thy martyrdom, 550
For in two mansions thou dost live,
Thy body here, thy soul on high.
The heavenly city has enrolled
You as its valiant citizen,
And in its everlasting courts 555
You wear the civic diadem.
Your crown, O Saint, so brightly shines
With sparkling gems, it seems to me
Celestial Rome has chosen you
To hold perpetual consulship. 560
The joy shown by suppliants
Whose prayers for help you kindly heed
Attests the power God grants to you
And wondrous gifts you have received.
Whatever they implore of thee 565
Is to a happy issue brought;
They ask, they plead for what they will,
And none go forth with saddened heart, 47
For thou are ever near at hand
To aid thy foster-sons of Rome 570
And give to them a father's love,
And mother's tender nurturing.
47. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 61.34 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 62),
128 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Among these sons, O saint of Christ,
Give audience to a rustic poet
Who humbly bares his sinful heart 575
And owns his guilt and misery.
I am not worthy Christ Himself
Should hear me, this too well I know,
But martyr advocates can win
His salutary grace for me. 580
O kindly hear Prudentius,
A culprit at the bar of Christ,
And from the bondage of the flesh
And earthly fetters set him free.
3. HYMN IN HONOR OF THE PASSION OF THE
MOST HOLY MARTYR EULALIA 1
Noble by birth and far nobler in death,
Sainted Eulalia, virgin unstained,
Graces the city that claims her its own,
Merida, 2 shrine of her holy remains,
Favored by her with compassionate love.
1. This hymn of Prudentius is the earliest extant account of St.
Eulalia of Merida, who is believed to have suffered martyrdom
in the year 304 during the persecution of Diocletian. The fol-
lowing notice appears in the Martyrology of St. Jerome for
December 10: In Hispania, civitate Emerita, passio S. 5.
HYMNS 129
Nigh to the westering sun lies the land
Where the illustrious martyr was born; 3
Mighty and populous the city she blessed,
Drenching the soil with her blood there outpoured,
Hallowing it with her virginal tomb. 10
Nine and three years for the maiden rolled by,
Thrice did four winters pass over her head,
When she embraced the fierce tortures of fire,
Making the stern executioner quake,
As he beheld her in anguish rejoice. 15
Offering her heart to the Father above,
Early she showed that no nuptials of earth
Ever would bind her to temporal joys.
When but a child she despised and ignored
Toys and sports with which girls are amused. 20
Trinkets of amber and gold she disdained;
Perfume of roses for her had no charm. 4
Modest of gait and of countenance grave,
Childlike in ways, even then she possessed
Wisdom that comes with gray hair of old age. 25
Eulaliae virginis. The sermon of St. Augustine for the feast
of the martyr indicates how widespread her cult had become
at the beginning of the fifth century. Cf. Revue Benedictine
9.417-419. The entire hymn of Prudentius is used in the Mozar-
abic Breviary for Vespers of the feast of the saint on December
10. The similarity of the acts of St. Eulalia of Barcelona, hon-
ored on February 12, has led competent authorities to conclude
that there was only one St. Eulalia, the martyr of Merida cele-
brated in this hymn. See Thurston and Attwater, Sutlers
Lives of the Saints 12.121.
2. Emerita in Lusitania, now Merida.
3. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.473.
4. flere rosas. Meyer (Philologus 87.346) thinks that flare found
in one MS is to be preferred.
130 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Dire persecution flared up in the land,
Threatening the servants of God with its wrath.
Followers of Christ were commanded to burn
Incense to idols, and on altars profane
Offer the victims to death-dealing gods, 30
Wroth was Eulalia, soul all afire,
Thirsting to battle the impious foe.
Though a mere girl, she was ready to meet
Weapons of men who were armed against God,
Eager to win her eternal reward. 35
Fearful, her mother with sedulous care 5
Kept the high-spirited maiden at home,
Far from the town in a rural retreat,
Lest her desire for a glorious death
Lead her to purchase the crown with her blood. 40
111 did Eulalia brook this repose,
Holding her back from the coveted prize.
Secretly she in the darkness of night
Forces the bars of the portals made fast,
Freeing herself from imprisoning walls. 45
Thence she pursues a circuitous course;
Over sharp brambles that harrow her feet 6
Onward she goes with angelic escort.
Grirn though the darkness and silence of night,
Heavenly brightness illumines her path. 50
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.646.
6. Cf. Ibid. 6.462.
HYMNS 131
Such was the pillar of light that of old
Guided the valiant Israelite throng,
Piercing the shadowy gloom of the night,
Turning the sinister darkness to day,
Where its clear torch shed its gleam on their road. 7 55
So did the dutiful virgin of Christ
Merit the splendor that lighted her way
Through the dark shades of enveloping night,
Out from the land of Egyptian power
Into the starry abodes of the blest. 60
Many a mile she traversed ere the dawn
Opened the gates of the orient sky.
Scarce had the morning rekindled the earth,
When she appeared at the magistrate's court
Standing among the imperial guards. 65
Boldly she challenged: 'What madness is this
Hurling your souls to destruction and death?
Why do you waste your devotion on gods
Chiselled by you from the indurate crags,
While you deny the Creator of all? 70
'Miserable men, for the Christians you search! 8
Lo, I am one of that odious race,
Foe to your fiendish idolatrous rites.
Witness to Christ with my heart and my lips,
Under my feet I will trample your gods. 75
7. Cf.Exod. 13.21; 14.20.
8. C. Vergil, Aeneid 11.259.
132 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Isis, Apollo and Venus are nought,
Nought is Maximian, 9 lord of the world;
Nought are those deities fashioned by man,
Nought is the man who pays homage to them
Vanity all of these, nothingness all. 80
'Mighty Maximian is but a slave
Subject to meaningless idols of stone.
Though at their altars he humbly adores,
Ready to offer his head to his gods,
Why does he harass the servants of Christ? 85
'Sovereign gracious, and eminent judge,
Grimly he revels in innocent blood,
Gorging himself on the bodies of saints;
Flesh undefiled he joys to rend,
Heaping insults on the Christian faith. 90
'Come then, you butcher, and cut, tear and burn
Members compacted of dust of the earth!
Shattered with ease is the vessel so frail,
But on the spirit that lies deep within,
Never can ax of the torturer fall.' 95
Maddened to fury, the prefect cried out;
'Take her, you lictors, and promptly inflict
Punishments dire on this impudent girl.
Teach her to honor the gods of our land;
Make her respect the imperial power, 100
9. Ruler of the West under Diocletian, with whom he joined in
the persecution of the Christians.
HYMNS 133
'Nevertheless, ere you go to your death,
Would it were possible, obdurate maid,
I might persuade you to rue your rash words.
Think of the happiness life has in store;
Think of the honor your marriage will bring. 1 05
'Weeping, your parents are searching for you,
Hearts filled with anguish at thought of the blow
Destined to wreck their illustrious house
If in the sunshine of youth 10 you now die,
Just as the time of your wedding draws near. 110
'Are you not moved by the splendor and pomp
That will attend your espousals one day,
Nor by the pain your rashness inflicts
On the aged parents deprived of your love?
Then, take a look at these instruments of death: 115
'Here is the sword that will sever your head,
There are the beasts that will mangle your frame,
Here are the torches already aflame
That will reduce you to ashes too soon,
Mourned and lamented by all of your kin. 120
'What must you do to escape from these woes?
If you submit to my orders, my child,
And with the tip of your finger you touch
But a few grains of this salt and incense,
You will avoid the torturer's sword/ 125
10. sole . . . in tenero. Some MSS have flare . . . in tenero. CL
Psychomachia 845.
134 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Answer the martyr made not to these words,
But in her heart she was boiling with rage.
Braving the tyrant, she spat in his face,
Upset the idols, and spurned with her foot
Thuribles filled with incense profane. 11 1 30
Forthwith two slaughterers seize her and rend,
One on each side, her innocent breasts,
Cutting her virginal flesh to the bone
With clawlike instruments, cruelly sharp.
Counting her wounds, thus Eulalia speaks: 135
'Lo, Thou hast written, O Lord, on my flesh
Beautiful letters I joy to read,
Telling Thy triumph, O Christ, to the world.
Streams of red blood that pour forth from my
wounds
Utter Thy holy, all-powerful Name/ 140
Such was the paean of joy she sang,
Bravely, with never a tear or a moan.
Torments insufferable touch not her soul.
Blood warm and fresh from the fount of her
wounds
Stains her fair body with roseate streams. 145
Tortures more fierce she was yet to endure.
Harrowing iron that furrowed her flesh,
Wounding her cruelly, did not suffice.
Now to her bosom and delicate sides
Fiery torches bring anguish anew. 150
11. Cf. Vergil, Georgia 3,256.
HYMNS 135
Ringlets, all fragrant with sweet-smelling balms,
Slipped from their bonds in a beautous shower
Over her shoulders and served as a veil, 12
Hiding the charms of the virtuous maid
From the irreverent gaze of her foe. 155
Fed by her hair, the enveloping flames
Mount to her face, and surrounding her head,
Blaze up above it in vehement rage. 13
Thirsting for heaven, the virgin elect
Drinks in the fire with impetuous lips. 160
Then of a sudden a snowy-white dove
Springs from the mouth of the martyr and flies
Forth to the stars in the sight of the crowd.
It was Eulalia's innocent soul,
Winging its way to celestial heights. 165
Fled is her spirit, and her motionless form
Falls to the earth as the fires die away.
Lifeless, her body at last rests in peace,
While in glad triumph her soul takes its flight,
Seeking ethereal mansions above. 170
Clearly the prefect himself saw the dove
Dart from the mouth of the valiant maid.
Stunned at the vision, he fled from the spot,
Far from the scene of his odious crime.
Even the lictor in terror withdraws. 175
12. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.10.3.
13. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.72-75.
136 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Winter with shivering fingers lets fall 14
Over the forum a mantle of snow,
Covering Eulalia's mortal remains
Lying there under the glacial skies
With a white pall of the crystalline flakes. 180
Let the funereal mourners who stand
Round the sad bier and lament for the dead
Gather not here with their clamorous plaints:
God bids the elements render to thee,
Maiden illustrious, obsequies meet. 185
Merida is where the martyr now rests,
City renowned of Vettonian plain,
Washed by the waters of Ana's green stream
Sweeping along with its turbulent tide
Past the fair walls that encircle the town. 190
Favored indeed is the land that preserves
Safe in its bosom her relics sublime:
There, in a temple agleam with the light
Glancing from marbles of Spain and the world,
Shrined are Eulalia's sacred remains. 195
Overhead shines the glittering dome,
Ruddily gleaming with fretting of gold. 15
Splendid mosaic the pavement adorns,
So that it seems like a meadow in bloom
Teeming with flowers of manifold hues. 200
14. Cf. Ibid. 3.285.
15. CL Ibid. 1.726.
HYMNS 137
Gather the violets purpling the fields,
Pluck the bright crocus that everywhere grows!
Genial winter, relaxing its frost, 16
Thaws out the chill of the nurturing clods,
Heaping our baskets with radiant flowers. 205
Offer, O children, as gifts to our saint,
Garlands and wreaths of these blossoms entwined!
Mine shall be dactyls to sing in the choir:
Feeble and dull, they may limp with old age,
Yet they shall gladden Eulalia's feast. 210
Thus we shall honor her relics enshrined
Here in this altar raised up in her name.
She, at the foot of God's heavenly throne,
Touched by our prayers and melodious hymns,
Graciously smiles on her people below. 215
16. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 1.302.
4. HYMN IN HONOR OF THE EIGHTEEN HOLY
MARTYRS OF SARAGOSSA 1
In one tomb the ashes of eighteen martyrs
My own native country preserves and honors;
Saragossa call we the noble city,
Guarding these treasures.
1. This hymn of Prudentius is the earliest known written account
of the eighteen martyrs of Saragossa. According to the Acts they
138 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Home o this great throng of angelic patrons, 5
It fears not the frangible world's destruction, 2
For it praises Christ with these precious offerings
Hid in its bosom.
When God will appear in the clouds of heaven, 3
With His right hand brandishing fiery lightnings, 4 10
To weigh all the peoples in scales of justice
Equally balanced,
From the farthest corners of earth each city,
Lifting its bright head, will then go to meet Him, 5
Bringing precious relics in golden vessels, 15
Gifts to Him offered.
Afric Carthage proudly will show thy ashes,
O Cyprian, eloquent saint and scholar;
Triple crowns, with Zoilus and Acisclus,
Cordova will bring. 20
To Christ you will offer a precious garland,
Tarragona, mother of holy martyrs;
Fructuosus wove for you this resplendent
Crown with three jewels. 6
suffered martyrdom in that city during the reign of Diocletian
(BHL 1503-1507). To the eighteen martyrs, Prudentius adds
the names of Encratis, or Encratia, Caius and Crementius, who
also suffered at Saragossa, and St. Vincent who was born there.
Portions of the hymn are used in the Mozarabic Breviary for
the feast of St. Engratia and the Eighteen Martyrs on April 16:
In festo Sanctae Engraiiae, vel decem et octo Martyrum (PL
86.901-903; 1111).
2. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.3.7.
3. Cf. Matt. 24.30.
4. Cf. Seneca, Phaedra 161-3; Vergil, Georgics 1.328-329.
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid S.m~UI.
6. Fructuosus and his two deacons Augurius and Eulogius. See
Hymn 6, infra.
HYMNS 139
First o the gems set in your chaplet is he, 25
And near are twin stones that in equal splendor
Send forth double rays in their brilliance flaming
Bright as the lightning.
Small, but rich in relics of saintly martyrs,
Gerona will bring with her pious Felix; 30
Our own Calahorra will bear its heroes
Twain whom we honor. 7
Trusting in great Cucuphas, Barcelona
Will rise to meet Christ, and sunshiny Narbonne
Will present Paul; glorious Aries will have you, 35
Sainted Genesius.
In haste Lusitania's foremost city
Will bring the remains of its hallowed maiden,
Offering them to Christ on the very altar
Where she is honored. 8 40
Bearing in its bosom companion martyrs,
Double gift contained in one reliquary,
Alcala 9 will joyfully bring its treasures,
Justus and Pastor.
Tangier, ancient tomb of the African monarchs, 45
Will present the ashes of holy Cassian,
Who brought the idolatrous pagan peoples
Into Christ's service.
Some cities will offer to Christ one martyr,
Some with two or three will give glory to Him, 50
Others even five will present as pledges,
Victims atoning.
7. Emeterius and Chelidonius. See Hymn 1, supra.
8. St. Eulalia. See Hymn 3, supra.
9. Ancient Complutum.
140 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
But you, Saragossa, devoted city,
Eighteen saints will bring as your holy dower,
Lifting your head crowned with the yellow olive, 55
Symbol of concord.
You alone are ready to meet your Saviour,
Bearing such a numerous host of martyrs;
You alone, lavish in faith and worship,
Merit such graces. 60
Scarcely can the head of the Punic kingdom, 10
Scarce can Rome itself on its throne imperial,
Surpass you, our glorious city, in the 11
Gifts to God offered.
From every portal the blood here poured out 65
Has debarred the envious race of demons
And has banished far from the chastened city
Sinister shadows.
Powers of darkness lurk not within its ramparts,
For the vanquished Serpent avoids this people; 70
Christ now dwells in all of its market places,
Christ everywhere present.
You would think this land whence ascends to heaven
Such a mighty chorus of white-robed martyrs
Had been set apart for the sacred laurels 75
Won by these heroes.
10. Carthage.
11. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.546.
HYMNS 141
It was here, O Vincent, your palm was nurtured,
It was here the priesthood won splendid trophies;
Here was the homeland of the mitred bishops,
Sons of Valerius. 12 80
When of old the tempest of persecution
Swept over the earth in its savage fury,
Its wrath always fell with more terrifying
Rage on that temple.
Nor did the storm ever abate its fury 85
Without bringing fame to our native country
By the noble blood that was always freely
Shed by its martyrs.
Did you not, O Vincent, heroic witness,
Destined to meet death in a strange arena, 90
Presage your ordeal by blood that moistened
Streets of this city? 13
These drops the saint's townsmen preserve and cherish
As though their soil sheltered his very body
And his sacred relics were resting in the 95
Tomb of his fathers.
12. Valerius, Bishop of Saragossa, is mentioned in the Roman
Martyrology for January 28, According to the Acts of St.
Vincent, he was arrested at Saragossa with his deacon Vincent.
See Acta Sanctorum, January, 2.394.
13. Reference is made to this tradition in an epigram of Eugene
II, Archbishop of Toledo (647-657), De basilica sancti Vin-
centii in Caesar augusta, ubi dicitur cruor eius effluxisse (PL
87.361).
142 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Ours he is, although in a foreign city 14
He endured the pangs of his cruel passion,
Favoring with his shrine on the seashore near by
Lofty Saguntum. 15 100
Ours he was, a boy in our palaestra,
Where he, with the chrism of faith anointed,
Learned the art of wrestling with powers of evil
Prompted by Satan.
He knew that in this blessed sanctuary 105
Eighteen famous martyrs had won their trophies,
And stirred by these laurels he soon competed
For the same glory.
Here, Encratia, 16 is preserved the memory
Of the holy virtues that fortified you 110
In scorning this world and its base allurements,
Violent maiden.
To no other martyr, life's breath retaining,
Was to dwell on earth again ever granted.
You alone, your terrible throes surviving, 115
Lived in our country.
You lived and rehearsed step by step your tortures,
And having as token your mangled body,
You told how the blows of the ax and cudgel
Carved bitter furrows. 120
14. Valencia, where Vincent suffered martyrdom.
15. A city about sixteen miles north of Valencia.
16. Encratis is included in the Acts of the Saragossan martyrs,
though it is not known whether she suffered with them during
the persecution of Diocletian.
HYMNS 143
Both your sides the torturer sorely wounded, 17
And the red blood streamed forth from all the gashes.
Heart-deep the blade cut as the breast he severed,
Baring your bosom.
Less the price of dying in midst of torments, 125
For death brings surcease to the bitter anguish
And gives speedy rest to the aching members,
Sleep everlasting.
You, Encratia, your deep wound still bleeding,
Lived on, the sharp pangs in your veins abiding, 18 130
As the fetid humor flowed through your members,
Causing corruption.
Although the fell sword of the persecutor
Stayed the final blow of your immolation,
Yet the martyr's crown you now merit fully, 1 35
Maiden undaunted.
We have seen your flesh torn by cruel pincers,
Lying far off, clutched in the claws of iron.
Pale death had a part of your precious body,
While you were living. 140
Christ Himself has given this newest garland
For the adornment of our Saragossa,
That it be the home of a living martyr,
Her holy temple.
City sanctified by eighteen white togas, 145
By Optatus and Lupercus made famous,
Advance, as you praise with loud hymns of joy
Your chosen senate.
17. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.5.49.
18. Cf. Claudian, 2 In Rufinum 280.
144 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Sing acts of Successus and Martial's glory,
Celebrate the triumph of blessed Urban, 150
Honor Julia and Quintilianus,
Chanting their praises.
Let Publius be extolled by the chorus,
Tell of trophies that were won by Fronto,
What good Felix suffered and what the gallant 155
Cecilianus,
How much blood, Evotius, stained your combats,
And yours, too, belligerent Primitivus;
Let hymns never-ending recount your triumphs,
O Apodemus. 160
It remains for us yet to chant the glories
Of four great heroes, though this line forbids it, 19
Who under the surname of Saturninus
Were once remembered.
Love of the bright names of these holy martyrs 165
Makes light of the laws of poetic numbers,
And the bard is never unskilled or errant
Who sings their praises.
Every measure used by him in reciting
Names written by Christ in the book of heaven 170
That will be unsealed at the day of judgement
Is full of sweetness.
Then before the Father and Son an angel
Will call out the names of the eighteen martyrs
Who by right of sepulture have dominion 175
Over one city.
19. The poet violates the sapphic metre when he begins line 163
with a spondee: Quos Saturninos memorat vacates.
HYMNS 145
To this honored roll will he add a maiden
Who lived after suffering every torture,
And Vincent whose glory had its beginning
In the blood shed here. 180
[You, Gaius, will not be omitted, nor you, 20
O Crementius, (for you both merit mention)
Who brought back with you from a second combat
Laurels unbloody. 21
Both of these confessors of God resisted 185
With undaunted courage the fiendish brigands;
Both tasted lightly of the martyr's torments,
Savored with joy.]
From their place beneath the eternal altar 22
This mighty throng of empurpled heroes, 190
Cherished by our city, now begs forgiveness
For our transgressions.
Grant to me, now bathing these graven marbles
With my pious tears in the hope of mercy,
That I may be loosed from the chains that shackle 195
And hold me captive.
Prostrate yourself here with me, noble city,
At the sacred tombs of your holy martyrs;
Thence you will soon follow them risen once more,
Body and spirit. 200
20. Bergman encloses lines 181-188 in brackets to indicate their
omission in A, the oldest MS of Pmdentius.
21. According to Arevalus, 'second combat' may mean that Caius
and Crementius did not die as martyrs, but suffered torments
as confessors of the faith in a secondary or less glorious ordeal.
The Roman Martyrology for April 16 says that they suffered
a second time and tasted the cup of martyrdom. See Paulinus
of Nola, Poema 21.147-148 (PL 61.573).
22. Cf.Apoc.6.9.
146 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
5, THE PASSION OF THE HOLY MARTYR
VINCENT. 1
O holy martyr Vincent, bless
This your triumphant festal day, 2
On which you purchased with your blood
The glorious crown of victory. 3
The conqueror of a brutal judge,
This day, from earth's dark shadows freed,
To highest heaven you advanced
Rejoicing, to the throne of Christ.
L At the beginning of the fifth century the story of the martyr-
dom of St. Vincent had been transmitted to posterity in three
documents or groups of documents: the Passion, or Acts, this
hymn of Prudentius, and the sermons of St. Augustine. (See
B. de Gaiffier, S.J., 'Sermons latins en honneur de S. Vincent
ante'rieur au X e siecle/ Analecta Bollandiana 67.267). The
Passion as it is known today (BHL 8627-8636) may not have
antedated Prudentius, though St. Augustine mentions in his
sermons on St. Vincent that the Passion of the martyr had just
been read (PL 38.1253, 1254, 1255), and this was probably in
its main outlines the same as the Acts that are now extant.
According to tradition, St. Vincent suffered martyrdom in the
year 303 during the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian.
Lines 1-288 and 537-576 of the hymn are used in the Mozarabic
Breviary for Vespers and Lauds of the feast of the saint (PL
86.1067-1068; 1073-1078). The inlatio of the Mass of St. Vin-
cent in the Mozarabic Missal summarizes the details of the
Passion as related in Prudentius and in the Acts (PL 85.678-
681).
2. Cf. Horace, Epodes 8.12.
3. Cf. Apoc. 7.9; James 1.12; Damasus, Epigram 39.9 (Ferrua, op.
cit. 179).
HYMNS 147
Companion now of angel hosts,
You shine resplendent in the robe 4 1
That you, undaunted martyr, washed
In rosy streams of your own blood,
When, armed with Rome's atrocious laws,
The satellite of idols false
Strove by the force of iron chains 1 5
To make you worship pagan gods.
At first he tried to win the saint
By gush of soft, cajoling words,
As ravening wolf, ere it devours
The trustful calf, disports with it. 20
'The king/ he said, 'of all the world,
Who wields the sceptre of the state, 5
Has now decreed that every man
Observe the cult of ancient gods.
'You stubborn Nazarenes, attend! 25
Renounce your rude, unseemly rites;
These gods of stone our prince adores
Appease with smoke of sacrifice/
In answer Vincent then cries out,
A levite of the sacred tribe, 30
Who at God's altar stands and serves,
One of the seven pillars white: 6
'Let these dark fiends rule over you,
Bow down before your wood and stone;
Be you the lifeless pontifex 35
Of gods as dead as you, yourself.
4. Cf. Apoc. 3.5, 6.11. Also Eccle. 50.11.
5. Cf. Seneca, Troades 771,
6. Cf. Acts 6.3.
148 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'But we, O Dacian, will confess
The Father, Author of all light,
And Jesus Christ, His only Son,
As one true God, and Him adore/ 7 40
Stirred now to wrath the Prefect roared:
'Do you then dare, unhappy wretch, 8
To scorn with vile insulting words
This law of gods and lords of earth,
'A law both civic and divine, 45
Which all the human race obeys?
Does not the peril threatening you
Have power to check your youthful rage?
'Give ear to this fiat of mine:
You must now at this altar pray 50
And offer up incense and turf, 9
Or bloody death will be your lot/
To him the martyr answer made:
'Come then, put forth your utmost strength,
Use every force at your command, 55
And I will still defy your laws.
'Hear you the creed that we profess:
Christ and the Father are one God,
Him we confess, and Him we serve;
Destroy this faith, if you have power. 60
'Your tortures are to Christians sweet,
The iron hooks and prison chains,
The hissing flames and red-hot grates,
And even death, the final doom.
7. Cf. 1 John 1.5,7.
8. Cf. Horace, Epodes 12.25.
9. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.19.13-14; 3.8.2-4.
HYMNS 149
'How senseless are your false beliefs, 65
How stupid Caesar's stern decree!
You order us to worship gods
That match your own intelligence,
'Gods hewn by hand of artisan
And by the hollow bellows forged; 70
They have no power to speak or move
But motionless, are blind and dumb.
Tor these your costly temples rise
Resplendent with their marble walls;
For these the lowing bullocks yield 75
Their necks to sacrificial ax.
'But in them spirits dwell, you say;
Yes, but infernal powers they are,
Restless, ferocious, and unclean,
Who seek your everlasting ruin. 10 80
'They trap you in their hidden snares
And lead you into every vice:
To put just men to cruel death
And pious Christians persecute.
'Well do they know and understand 85
That Christ still lives and reigns on high,
And that His kingdom soon to come
Shall to the wicked terror strike.
10. Cf. Mimicius Felix, Octavius 26.8 (Trans, in Vol. 10, this series,
p. 378).
150 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'They loudly cry as they confess
That by the power and name of Christ 90
They are cast out of men possessed, 11
These demons foul, who are your gods/ 12
No longer could the wicked judge
Endure the martyr's ringing words.
'Silence the wretch/ he madly cries; 95
'Stop his contemptuous blasphemies!
'Come, stifle his malicious words,
And to the lictors give him up,
Those Plutos of condemned outlaws
Who feed on torn and mangled flesh! 100
'Now I shall make this railer feel
The force of our praetorian law;
Due punishment he shall receive
Who mocks and ridicules our gods.
'Do you think, rogue, that you alone 105
May trample on Tarpeian rites,
That you alone may disobey
The Senate, Caesar, mighty Rome?
'Come tie his hands behind his back
And on the rack his body turn, 110
Until you break his tortured limbs
And tear asunder every joint.
'When this is done, flay him alive
With piercing blows that bare the ribs,
So that through deep and gaping wounds 115
The throbbing entrails may be seen/
11. Cf. Matt. 8.28-29.
12. Cf. 1 Cor. 10.20.
HYMNS 151
At these torments God's soldier laughed,
As he rebuked the bloody crew
Because the clawing iron hooks
Did not more deeply pierce his flesh. 120
Meanwhile the executioners
Were wholly spent in rending him,
And breathless labor had worn out
The muscles of their weary arms.
The martyr now in ecstasy, 125
No shadow of his bitter pain
Upon his shining countenance,
In vision, saw Thee near, O Christ.
'O shame! What face the man puts on!'
Cried Dacian in an angry voice. 130
'More ardent than his torturers
He beams with joy and courts their blows!
'None of the blows so often dealt
In punishing these miscreants
Have power to hurt in this combat, 135
And all their lethal strength is foiled.
'But you, brought up in prison keeps,
A pair I've never seen outdone,
Leave off and rest your hands awhile,
That your tired sinews may revive. 140
'Then when his open wounds are dry,
And clotted blood has formed hard scabs,
Your hands may plough them up again
And rend anew his tortured frame/
152 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
To him the levite makes reply: 145
'If now you see that all the strength
Of your vile dogs is giving way,
Come, mighty slaughterer, yourself,
'Come, show them how to cleave my flesh
And my inmost recesses bare; 150
Put in your hands and deeply drink
The warm and ruddy streams of blood.
'You err, unfeeling brute, if you
Imagine that you punish me
When you dismember me and kill 155
A body that is doomed to die.
'There is within my being's depths
Another none can violate, 13
Unfettered, tranquil and unmarred,
Immune from pain and suffering. 160
'This body that you seek to maim
With such a show of frenzied strength
Is but a fragile vase of clay
That must be shattered in some wise. 14
'Nay rather strive to lacerate 165
And smite with cruel stinging lash
The spirit that within me dwells
And tramples on your senseless rage.
'This spirit strike, this spirit crush,
This being free, invincible, 170
And subject to no violent storms,
Subservient to God alone/
13. Cf. 2 Cor. 4.16.
14. Cf. 2 Cor. 4.7.
HYMNS 153
Thus spoke the saint, and once again
The grinding hooks tear at his flesh.
Then serpent-like, with crafty lips, 175
The prefect hisses forth these words:
'If such headstrong perversity
So steels that thick-skinned heart of yours
That you disdain to touch the couch
On which our sacred gods recline, 15 180
'Show us your scriptures and the tomes
That you conceal in secret nooks,
That we may give to vengeful fires
Your creed that sows such evil seeds.'
On hearing this the martyr cries: 185
'You threaten, wicked judge, to burn
Our mystic books, 16 but far more just
Will be the fire prepared for you.
Tor God's avenging sword will smite
The tongue that speaks such baneful words 190
Against our scriptures, heaven-sent,
And sear it with a lightning flash.
'You see the embers that bespeak
Gomorrha's crimes and shameless sins,
And ashes strewn on Sodom's ground 195
Are witness of eternal death. 17
15. In the lectisternium the images of the gods were placed upon
a couch as guests of the feast. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.37.3-4.
16. In 303 Diocletian ordered the sacred books of the Christians
to be burned. See Hymn 1, n. 24, supra.
17. Cf. Gen. 19.24-25.
154 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'This, serpent, shadows forth your doom,
The fumes of sulphur, black and foul,
The mingled pitch and tar that soon
Will wrap you in the depths of hell/ 200
The tyrant, maddened at these words
Turns pale, then red with burning rage;
He rolls his frenzied blood-shot eyes, 18
Foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth.
Then after some delay, he roared: 205
'Let trial by torture now be made,
The crown of all our punishments,
The gridiron, flames, and red-hot plates/
The martyr hurries with swift steps
To undergo these torments fierce; 210
On wings of joy he flies ahead
Of hastening ministers of pain.
They reach the glorious wrestling-ground,
Where faith contends with cruelty,
Where martyr and tormentor join 215
In fearful hand to hand conflict.
A gridiron with its cruel spikes,
Set far apart, a rough bed makes,
And under it the glowing coals
Breathe forth the fumes of torturing heat. 220
No trace of fear upon his brow,
The holy man now mounts this pyre,
As though ascending upon high
To take possession of his crown.
18. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.448-449.
HYMNS 155
Bestrewn with salt, the crackling fire 225
Sends forth bright sparks from underneath
That here and there implant themselves
With sizzling punctures in his flesh.
The wounds made by the blazing darts
Are bathed in fat that oozes forth 230
And slowly covers all his frame
With copious dew of smoking oil.
Unmoved amid these sufferings, 19
As though unconscious of his pain,
The saint to Heaven lifts his eyes, 235
For heavy fetters stay his hands. 20
Then from his fiery bed of pain,
More brave than ever, he is raised
And cast into a dungeon foul
Lest light sustain his lofty spirit. 240
There is within the prison hold,
Deep down, a place of blacker shades,
And here low-hanging stones enclose
A stifling subterranean crypt.
Eternal night lurks in this place 21 245
That never sees the star of day,
And it is said this dungeon holds
A dread inferno of its own.
The angry foe now hurls the saint
Into this pit of deepest woe 250
And thrusts his feet in wooden stocks
With tortured limbs set far apart.
19. Cf. Ibid. 4.449.
20. Cf. Ibid. 2.405-406.
21. Cf. Seneca, Hercules Furens 610.
156 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
The monster skilled in penal art
Then adds a torment new and strange,
To no oppressor known before, 255
Recorded in no previous age.
He orders broken earthenware, 22
Sharp-cornered, jagged, piercing keen,
Spread out upon the dungeon floor
To make for him a painful bed. 260
Fierce torments arm this resting place,
Set everywhere with cruel spikes
That stab his body from below
And render vain all hope of sleep.
The clever tyrant had devised 265
This scheme with diabolic skill,
But Christ frustrates the cunning plan
Concocted by Beelzebub.
The darkness of the prison cell
Now glows with strange refulgent light, 270
The stocks fly open as the bolts
Leap forth from out their double holes.
And then does Vincent recognize
That Christ, the Source of light, has come
To bring the promised recompense 275
For all the pangs he has endured.
He sees the broken earthenware
Now clothe itself with tender flowers
That fill the narrow prison vault
With fragrance like to nectar sweet. 280
22. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 27.5 (Ihm, op. tit. p. 32); also Paulinus
of Nola, Poema 15.185 (PL 61.472) and Epistola 18.7 (PL
61.241).
HYMNS 157
And then around the martyr throngs
A host of angels greeting him,
Of whom one of majestic mien
Accosts the hero in these words:
'Arise, O glorious martyr saint, 285
Arise, set free from all your chains,
Arise, now member of our band,
And join our noble company.
'You have already run your course
Of frightful pain and suffering; 290
Your passion's goal is now attained,
And death now gives you kind release.
'O dauntless soldier, unsubdued,
The bravest of all warriors brave,
Your very torments, fierce and grim 295
Give way before your conquering arm.
'Christ, God, who watched your gallant fight,
Rewards you with eternal life
And crowns you with His own right hand
As sharer of His bitter cross. 300
Torsake this fragile earthly vase,
This mortal fabric shaped from dust
That soon will crumble and decay
And, free at last, mount to the skies/
The angel ceased; the light within 305
Then penetrates the bolted doors,
And through the narrow crevices
Its hidden splendor is revealed.
158 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
The guardian of the dim threshold,
Who had been stationed there to watch 310
The lethal chamber through the night,
Awed at this marvel, stands aghast.
He hears, besides, the tuneful hymn
The martyr in his prison sings,
And echoing from the hollow cell, 315
A voice chanting in response.
Then, trembling, he draws near the door
And plants his eyes against the jamb
That he may through the narrow slit
Explore the room as best he can. 320
He sees the bed of potsherds bloom
With fragrant flowers of many hues,
And, singing as he walks about,
The saint himself with fetters loosed.
The prefect of this wonder hears; 325
Enraged, he weeps at his defeat,
And mulling over his disgrace,
He groans with anger and chagrin.
'Remove him from his cell/ he cries,
'And bathe his wounds with healing balms, 330
That when he is somewhat restored,
He may be food for further pangs/
From all the city you might see
The faithful thronging to the scene
To make for him an easeful bed 335
And wipe the blood from gaping wounds.
HYMNS 159
They kiss the double furrows made
By cruel lacerating claws,
And even lick with pious joy
His body stained with purpling gore. 340
And many moisten linen cloths
With blood that oozes from his wounds
To keep as relics in their homes
For generations yet to come.
The warden of the prison cell 345
And keeper of its bolted doors,
As old tradition witnesses,
Accepted Christ with sudden faith.
He in amazement had beheld
Through doors fast-locked by iron bars 350
The darkness of that dungeon glow
With brightness of unwonted light.
Soon as the holy martyr tastes
The soothing quiet of his couch,
Worn out by tedious delays 355
And burning with a thirst for death
If that should be accounted death
Which sets the fettered spirit free
From its dark prison house of flesh
And gives it back to God, its Source, 360
That spirit purified by blood
And washed in death's baptism clean,
Which gave itself, its very life,
To Christ in willing sacrifice
160 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
The saint now rests his weary head 365
Upon the silken coverlets;
His soul soon quits his mortal frame
And mounts in triumph to the skies.
A way is opened straight for him
That to the Father leads on high, 370
The way which holy Abel trod
When by his brother he was slain. 23
As he ascends, around him throngs
A white-robed company of saints,
And John the Baptist summons him, 375
Like to himself from prison freed. 24
The hater of the Christian name,
His bitter venom foiled at last, 25
Was now consumed with furious ire
That burned within his vengeful heart. 380
As serpent of its fangs bereft
The madman raged in frenzy wild.
'The rebel has evaded me
And carried off the palm/ he cries.
'Though he be dead, I still can wreak 385
One last outrage upon the wretch:
I'll throw his body to the beasts,
Or give it to the dogs to rend.
23. Cf. Gen. 4.8.
24. Cf, Matt. 14.10.
25. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12,857; Damasus Epigram 46.7 (Ihm, op. tit.
p. 49).
HYMNS 161
'His very bones I shall destroy,
Lest in an honored tomb they rest, 390
Where vulgar crowds may worship him
And name of martyr there inscribe/
Thus raved the sacrilegious judge,
And then (O crime unspeakable!) 26
The sacred body he exposed, 395
All naked in a sedgy marsh.
But neither ravening beast nor bird,
In hunger, dared to desecrate
With gnawing teeth and claws unclean 27
The glorious relics of the saint. 400
When at a distance some foul hawk
Flew round about with raucous cries, 28
A savage bird with fierce onslaught
Drove it away in craven flight.
It was a raven, bird once sent 405
To bring Elias food and drink, 29
That did this service to the saint
And stood on guard with tireless zeal
Out of a thickset copse nearby
It drove a huge ferocious wolf, 410
Attacking him with noisy wings
And blinding him with pinions strong. 30
26. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.563.
27. Cf. Ibid. 3,216-218, 262.
28. Cf. Ibid. 3.226, 233.
29. Cf. 3 Kings 17.6.
30. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.876-877,
162 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Which of those butchers would presume
To think that such a ravenous beast,
With power to conquer savage bulls, 415
Would yield before a feather's touch?
The wolf skulked off with sullen growl,
Browbeaten by the swooping wings,
And left his hoped-for prey behind
At threats from that unwarlike guard. 420
What, Dacian, did you feel, when news
Of these great wonders reached your ears? 31
What hidden arrows pierced your heart
And made you groan with bitter rage,
When by the power of a corpse 425
You saw yourself outwitted so,
A match not even for dead bones,
And subject to the lifeless clay?
Will any sign from Heaven sent
Avail, mad tyrant, to arrest 430
That headstrong violence of yours?
Will nothing break your stubborn will?
'No, never will I stay my hand,
For even if the fierce wild beasts
Grow tame, and raven cormorants 435
Become benign and merciful,
Til plunge the body in the sea;
The raging billows never spare
The shipwrecked sailors of the main;
The foaming deep is pitiless. 440
31. Cf. Ibid. 4.408.
HYMNS 163
There drifting ever with the tide,
It will be tossed about by storms,
The plaything o the wandering winds 32
And food for shoals of hungry fish,
'Or underneath the rugged cliffs 445
That rise around a distant bay,
The jagged points of flinty rocks
Will tear and rend his harrowed flesh.
'Is there some man among you here
Who, skilled in piloting a boat 450
With oar and rope and hoisted sail,
Can briskly plow the open sea?
'Go, take the body that now lies
Unharmed among the marshy reeds
And, in a wherry light and swift, 455
Bear it away through surging tides.
'Wrap up the corpse and then enclose
It in a sack of rushes made,
To which a heavy stone is tied,
That it may sink into the deep. 460
Tush out across the ocean waves,
With dripping oar-blades flying swift,
Until the distance hides from view
The shore that you have left behind.'
And then a soldier, moved by hate, 465
Makes haste to carry out the charge,
A fierce, hot-headed ruffian,
Who bore the name Eumorphio.
32. Cf. Lucan, De bello civili 708-710.
164 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Straightway he weaves a net of ropes,
In which he sews the lifeless form; 470
Then to mid-sea he steers his course
And hurls it out into the waves.
O mighty is the power of God,
The power that all things did create,
That calmed the waters of the sea 475
When Christ upon its surface walked, 33
So that in treading on the waves,
He moved dry-shod across the deep,
Nor ever did He wet his soles
As light He skimmed the surging flood. 34 480
That same almighty Power enjoined
The Red Sea once to open wide,
The while the people fearless trod
A pathway dry upon its bed. 35
And now this Power commands the sea 485
To serve the body of the saint
By moving with unruffled tide
Directly toward the curving shore.
The heavy millstone swims along
As lightly as the snow-white foam; 490
The bag that holds the sacred pledge
Is borne on top of swelling waves.
33. Cf. Mark 6.48-49.
34. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.810-811.
35. Cf. Exod. 14.21-22; Ps. 77.13.
HYMNS 165
Aghast, the baffled mariners
Behold it floating calmly back
Across the level, shining sea, 495
Sped on by favoring tide and wind. 36
With rapid oars they cleave the main,
As wroth they urge their vessel on,
But far ahead the body flies
Into a quiet, secluded bay. 500
And so at last the peaceful earth
Again receives the sacred form
Before the skiff can touch the shore, 37
Though driven at its utmost speed.
How happy was that friendly beach 505
Which cherished in its mellow sands
The martyr's consecrated flesh,
And gave it place of sepulture,
Until the saints with pious care
Could raise with tears a splendid mound 510
And place the body in a tomb
To wait in peace for future life!
But when the foe at last was quelled,
And peace was granted to the just,
A temple gave the blessed bones 515
The resting-place that was their due.
Within the sanctuary laid
And buried at the altar's foot,
They breathe the sweet incense exhaled
Before the holy sacrifice. 520
36. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 10.687.
37. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 1.303.
166 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Such was the body's destiny,
But in the house of God the soul
Now dwells with brothers Maccabees 38
And near Isaias, sawed apart. 39
But these a single crown obtained 525
For all the pains that they endured,
Because the final blow of death
Released them from their cruel pangs.
Did he who once asunder cut
Isaias' body with a saw 530
Dare throw the segments to wild beasts
Or give them to the ocean's waves?
Or did the tyrant, who plucked out
The Maccabean martyr's tongue
And tore the scalp from off his head, 40 535
These relics fling to cruel birds?
O doubly noble, you alone
Have won a glorious two-fold crown;
Two laurels you alone have twined
As trophies of your victory. 540
A conqueror first in cruel death,
You afterwards like triumph gained
When with your lifeless frame alone
You trampled on the wicked fiend.
Be with us now and hear the prayers 545
We raise with humble voices here;
Ask pardon for our grievous sins,
Our advocate at God's high throne.
38. CL2 Mach. 7.
39. Cf. Tertullian De patientia 14 (Trans, in Vol. 40, this series,
p. 218); also Jerome, Commentaria in Isaiam prophetam 1557.
40. Cf. 2 Mach. 7.4.
HYMNS 167
By your own self, by prison cell
In which your glory was enhanced, 550
By galling chains and fires and hooks,
By shackling stocks that held you fast,
By keen-edged broken earthenware
That made your halo brighter still,
And by the bed that in this age 555
We kiss with reverential awe,
Have pity on our fervent prayers,
That Christ in mercy may incline
His ear to us, his followers,
And charge us not with all our sins. 560
If we with joyful heart and tongue
Observe your feast with solemn rites
And kneel before this holy shrine
Where your exalted relics lie,
Come hither for a little while 565
And win for us the grace of Christ,
That souls oppressed by sin may feel
The solace of His pardoning love.
So may the time be not far off
When your undaunted spirit will wear 570
Its glorious risen flesh once more,
Which equal martyrdom endured;
And as the body shared in pains
And bore in common every storm,
So may it be coheir in bliss 575
While never-ending ages run.
168 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
6. A HYMN IN HONOR OF THE MOST BLESSED
MARTYRS FRUCTUOSUS, BISHOP OF THE
CHURCH OF TARRAGONA, AND
AUGURIUS AND EULOGIUS, DEACONS 1
Tarragona, O Fructuosus, raises
High its fortunate head agleam with splendor
From the fires lit for you and your two deacons.
God regards with benevolence the Spanish,
For the Trinity singularly honors
This Iberian city with three martyrs.
Bright Augurius seeks the highest heavens,
And Eulogius shining not less brightly
Takes his flight to the throne of Christ supernal.
L Both Prudentius and Augustine were evidently acquainted
with the Acts of Fructuosus, which hagiographers agree in
considering authentic (BHL 3196). See J. Serra-Vilaro, Fructuos,
Auguri i Eulogi, Martirs Sants de Tarragona, 35-50 and
Augustine, Sermon 273 (PL 38.1247-1252). All the episodes re-
lated in the Acts are found in this hymn, and St. Augustine in his
sermon for the feast of the martyrs, which followed the reading
of their Passion, quotes directly from the Acts in two instances
(Sermon 273.2-3). According to these Acts St. Fructuosus and
his two deacons suffered martyrdom at Tarragona in the year
259 during the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus. The
entire hymn of Prudentius is used for Matins and Lauds of
their feast in the Mozarabic Breviary (PL 86.1061-1065).
HYMNS 169
Their guide, Master, and teacher, Fructuosus, 10
To the heavenly heights advanced in glory,
Dignified by the holy name of bishop.
Summoned all of a sudden to the forum
By command of the judge, the holy prelate
Had appeared with his levites as companions. 15
As the butcher, who fed on blood, was dragging
These heroes to the galling chains of prison,
Fructuosus ran hence with eager joy.
Lest with fear his companions should be stricken
Their courageous instructor urged them forward, 20
Kindling in them the love of Christ the Savior.
'Stand you firm with me, men. The bloody serpent
Calls the servants of God to cruel sufferings.
Be dauntless in death. The palm awaits you.
Tor Christ's followers prison leads to victory, 25
Prison wafts them up to the heights of heaven,
Prison wins for them God's eternal blessings/
At these words they approached the prison
stronghold,
Where, performing baptism's mystic cleansing, 2
They confounded the darkness with its waters. 30
For six days in this prison they lay hidden;
Then they stood at their cruel foe's tribunal,
And the gridirons shuddered at the trio.
2. According to the Acts Fructuosus baptized a neophyte named
Rogatianus while he was in prison.
170 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
With a menacing look, Aemilianus, 3
The proud, impious prefect, fierce and brutal, 35
Bade them worship at altars of the demons.
'You, false teacher, who sow this modern fiction,
This new doctrine that makes your fickle maidens
Forsake Jupiter's sacred groves and forests,
If you now have good sense you will relinquish 40
This old woman's belief, 4 for Gallienus
Has decreed that all worship as he worships/
At this mandate the gentle prelate answers:
'The eternal monarch of days I worship,
The Creator and Lord of Gallienus, 45
'And Christ, Son of the everlasting Father.
His servant, of His flock I am the shepherd/
The judge smiled on him: 5 'You are that no longer/
Mad with passion, he cannot curb his anger,
And ordains cruel fires for the martyrs. 50
They, rejoicing, restrain the tearful mourners.
Certain ones from the crowd a cup presented
For the bishop to quaff, but he refused it,
Saying, 'I will not drink, for we are fasting.
3. Governor of Spain under Valerian and Gallienus.
4. Cf. Horace, Satires 2.6.77-78.
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.254, See Mahoney, Vergil in the Works of
Prudentius 165.
HYMNS 171
'The ninth hour has not freed us from this duty; 6 55
Never will I transgress this sacred precept,
Nor will death itself slacken my observance. 7
'Thus did Christ in the hour of crucifixion
Spurn the cup that was offered when He thirsted, 8
And refusing to drink, prolonged His anguish/ 60
Now at last they approach the vast arena,
By its circular tiers of seats surrounded,
Where the mobs drunk with blood of wild beasts
gather
And applaud with delight the gory pageants
During which gladiators, held as nothing, 65
Fall beneath the keen thrust of cruel sabers.
Here a swarthy assassin had made ready
For their torture a pyre of blazing fagots,
And was laying the last brands on the altar,
Where their bodies would be consumed by burning, 70
And their souls now aflame with love of Heaven
Would be freed from their shattered carnal prison.
Pious friends now came forward to assist them:
One would take off the sandals of the bishop,
Bending low to untie the throngs that bound them. 75
6. The fast on Wednesday and Fridays ended at the ninth hour,
or about three o'clock in the afternoon. Cf. Tertullian, De
ieiuniis 10.
7. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.27.
8. Cf. Mark 15.23.
172 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
But forbidding him, holy Fructuosus
Said to him, 'Do not show us such compassion;
Leave us now, lest you make our death more painful.
'Behold, I myself will unloose my sandals,
That with feet unimpeded by the latchets 80
I may run with swift steps into the furnace.
'Why this grief and cheeks wet with weeping?
Why implore me to keep you in remembrance?
I shall pray unto Christ for all the faithful/ 9
Scarce these words of assurance had he spoken, 10 85
When the ties of his sandals he unfastened
As did Moses when he approached the thorn-bush. 11
For to tread on that fire was not permitted,
Or to draw near to God there truly present,
Till his footmarks were free of all defilement. 90
As with bare feet the martyr there was standing,
Lo the voice of the Spirit from Heaven sounded,
Uttering words that astonished all the hearers:
'This, believe, is not punishment you witness,
These fierce torments that pass in one brief moment 95
And deprive not of life, but recreate it.
'Blest indeed are these souls to whom is given 12
To mount upwards through fire to heights celestial; 13
Fires eternal shall flee from them hereafter/
9. Cf. Augustine, Sermon 273.2 (PL 38.1249).
10. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 5.693.
11. Cf. Exod. 3.2-6.
12. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.669.
13. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 33.4 (Ferrua, op. tit. p. 168).
HYMNS 173
At these words with quick steps the martyrs enter 100
The hot furnace of flames that crackle round them
And recoil before them, all atremble.
Soon the fetters that bound their hands behind them 14
Were consumed in the blaze and quickly falling,
Left the flesh of the holy ones uninjured. 105
For the penal thongs did not dare to hinder
Palms that they would fain lift up to the Father,
Arms in form of a cross in prayer extended.
You would think that you looked upon the trio
Who in midst of the Babylonian furnace 110
Once astounded the tyrant with their singing. 15
But the reverent flames spared those heroes,
For the era of martyrs was still distant,
Nor had Christ yet revealed that death's rich merit.
While these saints, when the blazing fires retreated, 115
Prayed to God that the flames might rush upon them
And soon bring to an end their dreadful peril.
Sovereign Majesty heard these faithful servants,
And releasing them from their fragile bodies
Bade them come to Himself by death's sure pathway. 120
Then a guard from the palace of the prefect
Saw the heavens stand open for the martyrs,
And the heroes borne through the starry spaces.
14. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 2.57.
15. Cf. Dan. 3.23-24.
174 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Nay, he showed to his master's little daughter
This clear sign of her father's reprobation, 125
That those slain in his forum lived in Heaven.
Thus the maiden was favored with the vision, 16
From her parent enshrouded all in darkness,
That the crime of its lord might warn this household.
Then men sprinkled with wine the sacred relics, 130
And collecting the bones and glowing embers 17
Each one claimed for himself some precious token.
So intent were the brethren in obtaining
For their homes these blest gifts of holy ashes,
Or to bear them as pledges in their bosoms. 135
But lest sacred remains that soon were destined
To arise and to live with God in Heaven
Should in realms far apart be given burial,
Now appeared the three saints in snowy garments, 18
And enjoined that their hallowed dust be gathered 140
And enshrined in a sepulchre of marble.
O distinction threefold, O triple glory
That lifts high the proud head of our fair city,
Far above all Hiberia's cities rising!
Let us honor the names of our three patrons 145
Who now cherish and protect the people dwelling
In the lands of the Pyrenean mountains.
16. videre per sudum. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.529.
17. Cf. Ibid. 6.227-228.
18. ClApoc. 7.9.
HYMNS 175
Let a chorus come forward of both sexes:
Youth and maidens and children, men and women,
Sing the praises of your own Fructuosus! 150
Let a psalm now resound to your Augurius,
And Eulogius be praised in equal measures;
Let us raise hymns alike to both these heroes.
In this city let gilded domes re-echo,
Let melodious song rise from the seashore 155
And the billows unite in festal praises.
On that day when the universe will crumble,
Fructuosus will shield you, Tarragona,
From the fires and the terrors of the judgement.
Then perchance he may deign with Christ's
indulgence 160
To look kindly on me and soothe my torments,
My sweet hendecasyllables recalling. 19
19. The hymn is written in Phalaecian hendecasyllabic verse, or
trochaic pentameter with a cyclic dactyl in the second foot.
The translation is written in the English accentual equivalent
of the classical meter.
176 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
7. HYMN IN HONOR OF THE MARTYR
QUIRINUS, BISHOP OF THE CHURCH
OF SISCIA 1
Siscia's ramparts enshrine a saint
Cherished with a paternal love,
Quirinus, that illustrious hero,
Whom the Father was pleased to grant
As a martyr to bless that town. 5
In the reign of Galerius
Of Illyrian shores the lord, 2
Who held sway with oppressive hand,
He enhanced by his glorious death
The renown of the Catholic faith. 10
1. St. Quirinus, Bishop of Siscia, now Susak in Yugoslavia, suffered
martyrdom under Galerius between the years 305 and 310. The
Acts (BHL 7035-7038), which are regarded as substantially
genuine, were probably compiled after the time of Prudentius.
The poet omits all the details of the arrest, imprisonment and
trial of the martyr and confines his narrative to the final episode
of his death by drowning. St. Jerome (Chron. Eusebii) sum-
marizes in a brief notice for the year 312 all the incidents
related by Prudentius. According to the Acts and Martyrology
of St. Jerome, St. Quirinus was buried in Sab aria in Hungary.
Later the remains were brought to Rome, but the date of the
translation is uncertain. Some think that it occurred during
the pontificate of Pope Damasus, and that Prudentius in the
first stanza of the hymn refers to the tomb of the martyr as
preserved in Rome. See Marchesi, op. cit. 125.
2. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.243.
HYMNS 177
Not by stroke of relentless sword,
iVor by fire or ferocious beast
Did he suffer a cruel death,
But the tide of a surging stream
Laved him clean as it bore him down. 3 15
Little matters it whether blood
Or the waves of a glassy stream
Bathe the martyr in death for Christ;
Equal glory adorns his crown
In whatever flood he is washed. 20
Shepherd he, of a holy flock,
From a bridge he was cast headlong
Straight into the tempestuous tide; 4
By a cable around his neck
Was suspended a heavy stone. 25
But the river received the saint,
As he fell, in a quiet pool,
And it suffered him not to sink,
But miraculously afloat
It upheld the enormous rock. 30
On the ground far above, the crowd
Watched their master with trembling gaze, 5
For the people of Christ had swarmed
On the banks of the winding stream
In a myriad, anxious throng. 35
3. Cf. Ibid. 4.635.
4. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 1.203.
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.168-169.
178 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
But as Quirinus raised his head,
He beheld with regret the fear
Of that timorous multitude,
While amid the encircling flood
He was heedless of threatening doom. 40
He consoles their devoted hearts,
As he begs them in gentle words
By his plight not to be dismayed,
To their faith to be staunch and true,
Nor to think it an ill to die. 45
While he speaks, the meandering stream
Bears him safe on its tranquil breast,
And the depths that beneath him roll
Dare not yawn to engulf the man,
Or the stone and its dangling rope. 50
Then the bishop and martyr felt
That the merited palm of death
Was about to be snatched from him, 6
And that stayed was his upward flight
To the Father's eternal throne. 55
'Jesus, Sovereign Lord/ he cried,
*Not to Thee is this wonder new
Or unwonted to tread the sea,
With its turbulent sounding waves,
Or to curb the impetuous stream. 60
'Well we know Thy disciple true,
Peter, who was afraid to plunge
Mortal feet in the surging tide,
Stood secure on the billows' crest
With the help of Thy strong right hand. 7 65
6. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 13.5 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 20).
7. Cf. Matt. 14.29-51.
HYMNS 179
'We have heard this example too,
Of the Jordan, that vagrant stream,
Which abruptly reversed its course,
As it rapidly flowed along,
And fled back to its source again. 8 70
Thou, O Lord, dost reveal Thy might
In this miracle witnessed now:
Thou hast willed that I keep afloat
On the top of these surging waves, 9
Though a stone from my neck is hung. 75
'Now Thy glory is manifest
And the power of Thy name declared,
While astounded the heathen stand.
Free my soul, O good Lord, I pray
From the bonds that delay its flight, 80
'By upholding this heavy stone
Do these waters display Thy power.
Grant me now this most precious boon
Still remaining to prove Thy love,
That for Thee I may die, O Christ/ 10 85
Thus he prays, and his breathing fails
With his voice and vital warmth;
Then to Heaven his soul ascends
As the weight of the stone bears down,
And the waters receive his form. 90
8. Cf. Jos. 3.13-17.
9. CLVerg
0. Cf. Ps. 115.6.
180 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
8. ON A SPOT IN CALAHORRA WHERE
MARTYRS SUFFERED AND WHERE
NOW IS A BAPTISTERY 1
This is a spot that was chosen by Christ for uplifting
to Heaven
Souls that are tested by blood, souls that are cleansed
in this font.
Here two brave soldiers once gave up their lives for the
name of the Savior,
Winning the martyr's bright crown blazoned with
purpling blood.
Here, too, the mercy of God in a limpid stream
from this fountain 2 5
Flows in a healing flood, washing away
old sins.
1. This hymn is written in the manner of the epigrams of
Damasus and the inscriptions found on baptisteries of the
fourth and fifth centuries. See Schuster, The Sacramentary
1.23-25 and Ihm, op. cit. 101 and 103; also Paulinus of Nola,
Epistles 32 (PL 61.332). The fact that the name of the place
is omitted in some manuscripts has led editors to see in the
hymn a reference to the legend of the baptism of the two
soldiers Processus and Martinian by St. Peter in the Mamartine
Prison at Rome. The general opinion however is that the
martyrs mentioned in lines 3 and 4 are Emeterius and Cheli-
donius of Calahorra, celebrated by Prudentius in Hymn L
2. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 2.200.
HYMNS 181
Let him who fain would mount to the
lasting kingdom of heaven 3
Come in his thirst to this font opening
a luminous way.
Once victorious martyrs to heights celestial
ascended,
Now from baptismal floods souls to heaven
take flight. 4 10
Here the Spirit eternally flowing down on these
waters,
As He once gave the palm, now gives remission
of sin.
Be it water or blood, the earth drinks in
the heavenly shower, 5
Ever bedewed by this stream, which is poured
forth to her God.
He of this place is the Lord from whose wounds
two fountains once issued. 15
Water from one distilled and from the other
blood. 6
You will go hence, as to each is the grace,
through the wounds of the Savior;
One by the way of the sword, one by the water
will rise.
3. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 53.8 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 55); Juvencus,
Evan. Hist. 3.400.
4. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.343.
5. Cf. Ibid. 12.339-340.
6. Cf. John 19.34; also Cathemerinon 9, n. 41.
182 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
9. THE PASSION OF ST. CASSIAN
OF FORUM CORNELII 1
There is a town where Cornelius Sulla 2
established a Forum;
Hence the Italians call it by its founder's name. 3
There, when to thee, O Rome of the world the
mistress, 4 I journeyed,
Hope in my heart was born that Christ
would prosper me.
Prone on the ground I was praying in front of the
tomb of the martyr 5
Cassian, who consecrates that soil by his remains.
1. This hymn of Prudentius is the oldest extant document con-
cerning the martyrdom of St. Cassian (BHL 1625). The Mar-
tyrology of St. Jerome has this entry for August 11, In Nicopoli,
passio multorum martyrum, quorum nomina Deus scit: et
passio 5. Gassianij and it lists the feast of the martyr as occur-
ring on August 13. In lines 17-20 the sacristan tells the poet
that the story of St. Cassian is recorded in ancient writings,
possibly the original acts no longer extant. Hagiographers list
the Passion of Cassian among the Acts possessing some degree
of authenticity. Some think that the saint suffered martyrdom
during the persecutions of Valerian or Diocletian, while others
suggest the time of Julian the Apostate (361-363), who forbade
Christians to teach the classics. See Julian, Epistles 36 (Wright).
2. Roman dictator, 138-78 B.C.
3. A town in north Italy, now Imola.
4. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.602-603.
HYMNS 183
As I was weeping and in my heart I was sadly
reflecting
On all the sins and griefs and labors of my life,
Towards Heaven I lifted my gaze and beheld
there before me
A picture of the martyr painted in bright hues, 10
Bearing a thousand wounds that pierced
every part of his body 5
And showing all the little gashes in his flesh.
Round him a troup of boys (a pitiful scene!) 6
were uniting
To prick and pierce his body with the little styles 7
They were accustomed to use in imprinting
the wax of their tablets 15
As they wrote down the humdrum lessons
of the school.
When I questioned the sacristan, he replied:
'This, O stranger,
Does not depict a foolish woman's empty tale. 8
'Pictured here is a story in ancient writings recorded,
Which manifests the steadfast faith
of olden times. 20
5. CL Claudim, In Rufinum 2.431.
6. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.706; 1.111.
7. Instruments used for writing on tablets of boxwood covered
with wax. One end was pointed and the other was flattened for
erasing what had been inscribed on the wax.
8. Cf. Horace, Satires 2.6.77; also Augustine, De utilitate credendi
1.2 (Trans, in Vol. 2, this series, p. 392).
184 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Cassian conducted a school for boys
and round him had gathered
A throng of pupils whom he taught the learned arts.
'Skillful was he in shorthand, a rapid method of
writing
Dictated words with symbols pricked upon the
wax. 9
'Harsh at times were his rules, and the
wearisome lessons 25
Aroused the dread and anger of the youthful mob.
Tor the teacher is ever abhorred by beginners
in learning,
And discipline is never sweet to any child. 10
'Then came a tempest that lashed at the faith,
a dire persecution
Harassing all the champions of the
Christian name. 30
Trom the midst of his circle of pupils the diligent
master
Was dragged because he spurned the pagan
sacrifice.
'When he who meted out punishments asked
what kind of profession
The rebel of such contumelious spirit pursued,
9. A system of shorthand was invented by Tiro, the secretary of
Cicero.
10. Cf. Ambrose, Hexameron 6.6.38 (PL 14.271).
HYMNS 185
'One responded, "A band of callow boys
he teaches, 11 35
Instructing them in clever signs for writing words."
' "Take him away," cried the judge; "remove him hence
as a culprit
And give him to the children he was wont to flog.
' "Let them make sport of him as they will;
let them torture him freely,
And in their master's blood make red
their truant hands. 40
' "It is a joy to think that the harsh schoolmaster
will furnish
Amusement for the pupils he so often curbed."
'Having stripped him, they tie his hands
securely behind him
And then the youthful band approaches,
armed with styles.
'All the anger that they had harbored
in silent resentment 45
They now are free to vent on him with bitter gall.
'Some at him hurl their tablets; against his face
these are shattered,
And flying wooden splinters penetrate his brow.
'Loudly the wax-covered boxwood breaks
on his cheeks all abloodied,
And from the blow the page is wet
with ruddy dew. 50
11. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 5.548-549.
186 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
1 Others dan at him styles made of iron,
sharp-pointed and cruel,
One end of which they use to carve the words in
wax,
'And the other to blot out the letters engraved
on its surface
And make the furrowed tablet bright and
smooth again.
'Christ's confessor is stabbed with the one
and rent with the other; 55
One end impales the tender flesh, one cleaves
the skin.
'Hands, two hundred, have pierced at one time
all parts of his body,
And blood from every gaping wound at once distils.
'Greater torments that child inflicted who pricked
the skin's surface.
Than he who penetrated deep into the flesh: 60
Tor the former with feeble onsets that are not fatal
Has skill in giving pain by means of puny darts,
'While the latter by piercing the vital organs more
deeply
Gives greater solace, for he hastens death's
approach.
' "Be unflinching" the judge cries; "let your years
be belied by your vigor, 65
And what you lack in age make up in cruelty."
HYMNS 187
'But in their evil emprise the youthful assassins
grow weary;
The torments multiply as energy declines.
1 "Why do you groan" exclaimed one of them;
"you yourself as our master
Have given us this iron and armed
our childish hands. 70
1 "Lo, we give back the thousands of ciphers
you taught us to sculpture,
As we in tears gave heed to your dictated words.
' "You should not be displeased at our marks;
it was you who commanded
That never in our hands we hold an idle style.
' "We do not ask for the holiday now you
so often refused us, 75
O grudging teacher, when you kept us in your
school.
' "We like pricking these signs, entwining furrow
with furrow,
And making chains by interlacing curving strokes.
' "You may look over the long-drawn series of
lines and correct them,
If any hesitating hand perchance has erred. 80
* "Exercise your dominion; 12 you may upbraid us
for blunders
If any pupil makes on you a heedless mark."
12. Cf. Vexgil, Georgics 2.370.
188 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Thus these boys amused themselves on the
body of Cassian,
But lingering anguish did not free their weary
guide.
'Finally Christ from Heaven looks down on his
combat with pity 85
And orders that his soul be loosed from earthly
bonds.
'He cuts short for his spirit the time of dolorous
waiting
And opens wide the narrow lurking-place of life. 13
'From the deep-seated fount of the veins the rosy
blood follows
The pathways opened up and quits the
inmost heart. 90
'Through the myriad outlets made by the wounds
in his body
The vital warmth from every fibre is exhaled.
'Here is depicted in radiant colors this marvelous
story,
Here, stranger, you behold the laurels Cassian won.
'Offer him now your pious prayers and fervent
petitions 95
If any hope or care now burns within your heart. 14
1 3. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.693-695,
14. CLIbid. 11.373-374.
HYMNS 1 89
'You may be sure that the martyr will listen
to every entreaty
And grant all prayers he finds deserving
of God's grace/
I obeyed and embraced the tomb with
disconsolate weeping,
While from my lips and breast the
altar stone grew warm. 100
Then I reflected on all my pent-up worries and
sorrows
And softly whispered all my needs and all my
fears:
Prayers for the home I had left behind in a
difficult crisis 15
And doubtful hope of future bliss and happiness.
I was heard; I arrived at Rome; heaven smiled
on my mission:
At home once more, I sing the praise of Cassian.
15. Cf. Claudian, In Rufinum 2.245.
190 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
10. DISCOURSE OF THE MARTYR
ST. ROMANUS AGAINST THE PAGANS 1
Romanus, champion staunch of Christ's divinity,
Come, make my silent tongue vibrate within my
mouth;
Bestow on me, though mute, the gift of tuneful song
And grant that I may hymn thy glorious miracles,
For thou dost know the dumb are given power
to speak.
1. The fact that this hymn is found either before or after the
other martyr hymns in all the manuscripts has led some editors
to believe that it was written as a separate book and that it is
the work to which Prudentius refers in line 40 of the Preface:
conculcet sacra gentium. See Bergman, Prolegomena, pp. XII
and XIII. The poem appears first as Hymn 10 of the Peris-
tephanon in the edition of Sichard published in 1527, and this
order has been retained by subsequent editors. St. Romanus
was a deacon of Caesarea, who suffered martyrdom at Antioch
during the persecution of Diocletian, probably during the year
304, The earliest extant account of him is found in the Martyrs
of Palestine by Eusebius. Between the years 387 and 398 St.
John Chrysostom preached several panegyrics on the martyrs,
among which are two sermons on St. Romanus (PG 50.605-618).
The details of the passion as recounted by Prudentius are in
the main those related by Eusebius and St. John Chrysostom.
St. Romanus is listed in the Martyrology of St. Jerome on No-
vember 17. The Roman Martyrology mentions him on No-
vember 18 with the boy martyr Barula, who is mentioned, but
not by name, by St. John Chrysostom and Prudentius. The
HYMNS 191
The cruel butcher tore from out thy throat the tongue
That made sweet music on thy palate's sounding
strings,
But could not render mute the lips that praised their
God.
The voice that testifies to truth cannot be stilled,
Though it be forced to gasp through severed
passageways. 2 10
I stammer out my halting words with feeble tongue 3
And strain at measures harsh and unmelodious,
But if thou dew supernal on my heart wilt shed
And inundate my thirsty soul with spiritual milk, 4
My grating voice then will breathe sweet
harmonies. 5 15
These precepts the Messias to his apostles gave,
As written down for us by the Evangelist:
'When driven to declare my sacred mysteries,
Be not solicitous beforehand for your words;
That moment I will give you all that you shall say/ 6 20
Mozarabic Missal contains a Mass for St. Romanus on Novem-
ber 18, in which reference is made to the traditional incidents
of his martyrdom and the boy is honored by the name of
Theodulus (PL 85.914-926). A saint named Theodota is listed
with St. Romanus in the Martyrology of St. Jerome. Twelve
lines from the poem of Prudentius are found in the hymn for
Vespers of the martyr's feast in the Mozarabic Breviary (PL
86.1249).
2. Cf. Lucan, De bello civili 2.181-182.
3. Cf. Ps. 21.16.
4. Cf. 1 Cor. 10.4.
5. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 11.458.
6. Cf. Matt. 10.19.
192 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Of myself I am dumb, but Christ most eloquent
Will use my tongue to speak words full of light and
power.
He will describe the roaring tempests Satan raised
In final throes of rage as he was being quelled,
A scourge in his last frenzy viler than before. 25
Thus does a serpent wounded by a spear
Gnaw at the steel, and made more savage by his pain,
He grips it with his teeth and shakes it back and
forth;
But driven farther in, the lance remains secure,
Unconscious of the futile threats of mordant fangs. 30
Galerius, so it happened, ruled the Roman world,
A tyrant cruel, as the ancient records tell,
Relentless, obdurate, implacable, and vile.
An edict he had sent throughout his wide domain
That any man who wished to live must Christ deny. 35
Then, through the Roman emperor's mouth
that Serpent spoke
Who, coming from the sepulchers, once cried aloud:
'Why comest Thou before the time to end my rule?
Spare me, O Son of God Most High, or give
command
That I possess the bodies of this herd of swine.' 7 40
The prefect Asclepiades with energy
Directed that his minions go and carry off
The people of the Church from holy shrines of prayer
And cast them into prison, bound with heavy chains,
Unless they spurned the doctrines of the Nazarene. 45
7. Cf. 7 WdL 8.28-31.
HYMNS 193
Then he himself, intending to invade the church
And eager to profane the sacred mysteries,
Fiendlike made ready with ungodly armament
To overthrow the altar of the sacrifice
And smash the very doors from off their hinges torn. 50
But learning suddenly of these unholy schemes,
Romanus, hero for his holiness renowned,
Gives warning in advance of the oncoming foe
And urges timorous souls with suasive. words of power
To stand prepared and not to yield before the storm. 55
United in one spirit is the Christian flock,
A company undaunted, bold and resolute,
Of mothers, husbands, little children, virgin maids;
All are resolved with valiant hearts, steadfast and true
To bear firm witness to the faith or for it die. 60
The soldiers, driven back, inform the magistrate
That of the stubborn band Romanus is the chief,
And that all burn with resolution obdurate
To meet the charge unflinchingly with throats laid
bare
And die a glorious death with holy fortitude. 65
Command is given that Romanus now be seized
And brought to trial to answer for that scornful mob,
As firebrand that alone inflamed and led them all.
He goes without resistance, asking to be bound,
And gladly turns his willing hands behind his back. 70
His passion for the crown outruns the lictor's art,
As he without demur presents his naked ribs
To be severely gashed by double iron claws.
He rushes through the high doorway, and after him
He drags the torturer, as ushers stand amazed. 75
194 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
He stands before the tyrant, who upbraids him thus:
Tou vile unruly monster, base and lost to shame,
Disturber of our city, like a raging storm
You sway the fickle minds of this inconstant horde
And urge the ignorant rabble to despise our laws. 80
'The unlettered multitude has been led to believe
A vulgar doctrine, through the hope of glory vain.
They think that immortality awaits all those
Who as the Giants of old make war against the gods,
And overcome, 'neath fiery mountains
are entombed. 8 85
Tou, villain, have prepared this spectacle
Presented by the slaughter of poor citizens,
Who by their sacrilege have stained this age with sin
And for your precepts must be put to cruel death:
You are the author of their death and of their
crimes. 90
'If I mistake not, it is only just and fair
That what you as their guilty head made many bear
Should fall on you, their bloody executioner,
And in the carnage soon to come you should be first
To feel the tortures you persuaded them to seek.' 95
To this tirade Romanus boldly made reply:
'With joy unshrinking I embrace your sentence,
judge,
That for the faithful people I alone shall die,
A victim meet, in my esteem, to suffer all
The torments your inhuman malice may devise. 100
8. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.578-580.
HYMNS 195
'The servants of the devils and the pagan gods
May never enter our salvation's holy house,
Lest that abode of pious prayer should be defiled;
For this I firmly trust the Holy Spirit's might,
That on its blest threshold you never will set foot, 105
'Unless one day converted you may be received
Into our fold, which may the Father bring to pass.'
Beside himself with fury, Asclepiades
Gave orders that the body of the saint be hung
Upon the rack and torn and stretched with hooks
and cords. 110
But his attendants mentioned to the irate chief
That the accused was of a long and noble line
And worthy, as a citizen, of highest praise.
He bade them take away the instrument of death,
Lest he condemn a peer to vulgar punishment. 115
'Let him be flogged with ceaseless blows upon his
back/
He cried, 'and let his shoulders swell with leaden
thrusts.
Each person must receive appropriate penalties,
And whether he be slave or lord is of import;
The prisoner's rank decides the form the tortures
take/ 120
And then the martyr, quivering from the hail of
blows,
Intoned a hymn amid the strokes of leaded thongs,
And afterwards with head erect he thus declaimed:
'Believe not that my parents' blood or curial law 9
Ennoble me; Christ's lofty precepts make men
great. 125
9. Cf. Horace, Odes 2.20.6.
196 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'If by unraveling man's descent and pedigree,
You seek the source and first beginnings o our race, 10
You find that we from God the Father's mouth
came forth. 11
Whoever serves the Father is a nobleman.
He who rebels against Him is degenerate. 130
'And then a new distinction glorifies our line,
A splendid honor like a civil post of rank,
When wounds inflicted by tormenting fire and sword
Sign him who witnesses the Name with dauntless faith
And bring an end to tortures in a glorious death. 135
'Take care lest you mistaken mercy show to me,
And do not spare me with indulgent tenderness.
Torment my flesh, assassin, and ennoble me.
If in this conflict I am rendered glorious,
The birth of father or of mother will be nought. 140
'Why do you set such value on the dignities
You have attained? Will all not quickly pass away,
The rods, the axes, chair of state, and bordered
robe, 12
The lictor, judgement-seat, and badges numberless,
At which you swell with pride and then you are
brought low? 145
10. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.371.
11. Cf. Gen. 2.7.
12. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 10.35.
HYMNS 197
'When you begin the consulship, as slaves are wont,
You feed the sacred chickens, I confess with shame; 13
He who advances with the ivory eagle high 14
Assumes an air of haughtiness and prides himself
On tusk of brute wrought in the shape of bird
of prey. 150
'When you prostrate yourselves before your pagan
shrines,
Inclining at the foot of statues carved from oak,
Than your abasement, what can I esteem more vile?
I know that togaed princes, in the hollow rites 15
Of Idaean Mother, bare their feet before her car. 155
'The sooty image of a woman is encased
In silver and is seated in a chariot
To be devoutly carried to the cleansing pool. ie
With shoes removed you lead the way to Almo's
stream
And bruise your feet upon the hard and stony
ground. 160
'But what about that other shameful pagan rite?
How vile you show yourselves in the Lupercal racel 17
Must I not reckon him the meanest slave of all
Who naked runs through every public thoroughfare,
Belaboring girls in sport with blows of leathern
strap? 165
13. Feeding the sacred chickens was a method of divination used
by Roman magistrates at their inauguration and by military
leaders in the conduct of wars. Cf. Cicero, De Divinatione 2.34.
14. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 10.43.
15. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.619; Ovid, Fasti 4.181-186.
16. Cf. Lucan, De bello civili 1.600.
17. During the Lupercalia, a Roman festival held on February 15,
youths ran naked through, the streets, striking all they met,
198 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Tour cults, your rulers, and your gross observances
Fill me with pity, Rome, thou head of all the world.
Come, prefect, let me bring to light your mysteries.
Now, willing or unwilling, you must hear from me
What base divinities you worship and adore. 170
That frantic rage with which you boil affrights me
not,
That scowling look, that head in air, that angry mien,
With which you threaten me with pains and cruel
death.
Exchange with me the blows of reason, not of rage. 175
'You ask me to renounce the Father and His Christ
And with you to adore a thousand deities,
Females and males, satanic gods and goddesses,
The children, grand and great-grand children born
to them
Of either sex, offspring of base adulteries. 180
'Their maidens wed, and victims often of deceit,
They are seduced by snares that cunning lovers set.
The flames of lust and fornication rage apace;
A husband is unfaithful and his wife abhors
His mistress, while adulterous gods are bound with
chains. 18 185
'Tell me, I pray you, at what altars you require
My turf to smoke in sacrifice of slaughtered ram.
Shall I to Delphi go? The ill repute forbids
Of him who in the flower of youth your god made soft
Through shameful licence in gymnastic exercise. 190
especially women, with strips of goat-skin. Cf. Ovid, Fasti
2.283-284, 425-428.
18. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.171-184.
HYMNS 199
'The lustful god soon mourned his favorite done to
death
By heavy quoit and deified the wanton youth. 19
Employed as the shepherd of a mortal's flock,
He let a robber carry off the sheep and lost
His weapons, too, the lazy fellow that he was. 20 195
'Or shall I go to Cybebe's fair grove of pines?
The lad unmanned because of her foul lust forbids,
Who by a shameful mutilation saved himself
From that immoral goddess* passionate embrace,
A eunuch by the Mother mourned in many rites. 21 200
Terhaps I should elect the shrine of mighty Jove, 22
Who if he were now brought to trial by your laws,
Entangled in the meshes of the Julian code,
Would have to pay the stern Scantinian penalty, 23
And you would judge him worthy of imprisonment. 205
'What? Do you think the founder of the golden age 24
Deserves my adoration? You will not deny
That fearing injury the outcast hid himself;
If Jupiter should hear that he is still alive
He would not fail to punish all who sheltered him. 210
19. CLIbid. 10.162-185.
20. Cf. Ibid. 2.683-688; Horace, Odes 1.10.9-12.
21. Cf. Catullus 63.
22. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.351.
23. The lex lulia and the lex Scantinia were laws enacted by
Augustus against adultery and unnatural vices.
24. Saturn. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.319-320.
200 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'How think you can a witless mortal make a choice
Between the altars of unfriendly deities?
The warlike Mars will be incensed if Lemnius
Is praised, 25 and Juno's wrath will fall on him who
rears
For mighty Hercules a statue or a shrine. 26 215
'You say that these are fictions poets create at will, 27
But of these mystic cults they too are votaries,
And they adore gods they invent. Why do you find
Such pleasure in the reading of these sinful tales
And cheer them when you see them acted on
the stage? 220
'The wanton swan performs his sinful pantomime,
A dancer acts the Thunderer as a horned bull:
You as the high priest sit and watch these evil scenes,
You laugh at them and question not their verity,
Although the name of that great deity is soiled. 28 225
'Why, pontiff, do you split your sides with loud
guffaws,
When Jove the husband of Alcmena feigns to be? 29
And when a harlot mourns Adonis in a scene
Suggestive of a passion frankly dissolute,
Does not this scorn of holy Cypris anger you? 30 230
25. When Vulcan was hurled from heaven by Jupiter, he landed
on the island of Lemnos. Vulcan was the husband of Venus,
whose intrigues with Mars caused the enmity between the two
gods. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.171-189.
26. Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, was hated by Juno
for his mother's sake. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.23.
27. Cf. Lactantius, Institutions divinae 1.11 (PL 6.169-170).
28. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 15.1-3 (Vol. 10, this series, p. 47).
29. Amphitryon. The story is told in Plautus' play of this name.
30. Venus. For the story of Venus and Adonis, see Ovid, Metamor-
phoses 10.525-559 and 708-739.
HYMNS 201
'Is not the truth revealed in statues of these gods
By emblems of wrongdoing graved on them in brass?
What means the image of the bird affixed to Jove?
It is the armor-bearer swift, the panderer
Who to the tyrant brought his youthful favorite. 81 235
'With robe ungirded, Ceres holds a torch outstretched:
Why, if a god did not a maiden carry off,
In seeking whom the sleepless mother spends the
night? 32
We see Tyrinthius revolve a spinning wheel:
Why, if a mistress did not make a fool of him? 33 240
'What? Must I brand those monstrous rural deities, 34
Priapus, Faunus, him who plays upon the pipes, 35
The nymphs who swim about in oceans and in streams
Like frogs, abiding at the bottom of deep pools,
Divinity enthroned amid the vile seaweed. 245
'Are these the gods you call on me to worship,
honored judge?
Can you, if you are sane, regard such myths divine?
When you reflect on these inane absurdities
Are you not moved to laughter at the monstrous
powers
Which old wives, drunk with wine, imagine in their
dreams? 250
31. Ganymede was carried off by the eagle, the armour-bearer of
Jupiter, to be the cup-bearer of the god. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid
5.252-255.
32. Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres was carried off to the under-
world by Pluto. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.391-424; 438-445.
33. Hercules, sold as a slave to Omphale, queen of Lydia, became
so infatuated with her that he wore woman's apparel and spent
his time spinning wool. Cf. Ovid, Heroides 9.53-118.
34. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.59.
35. Pan.
202 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'If every false religious rite we must observe,
Be you the first to lead the way: without demur
Adore all gods held sacred everywhere on earth,
The Latin gods and Egypt's alien gods as well,
Those Rome invokes and those Canopus supplicates. 255
'You pray to Venus; venerate the ape also;
The sacred asp of Aesculapius you bless:
Why not the crocodile, the ibis, and the dog?
Extol the leeks on holy altars raised to them,
Revere the fiery onion and the garlic rank. 36 260
'Are grimy household gods appeased with incense
sweet, 37
And consecrated herbs abjured and set aside?
Why do you deem the hearth of greater majesty
Than plants that in the cultivated gardens spring?
If godhead dwells in pottery, it dwells in leeks also. 265
'But molten images of bronze are beautiful.
What curses shall I wish upon the studios of Greece
That fashioned deities for foolish pagan tribes?
The tongs of Myron and Polyclitean maul 38
Are source and substance of your celestial gods. 270
'Art is an instrument for spreading false beliefs.
When mighty Jupiter's unshaven beard it curls,
When Liber's flowing hair it twines in ringlets soft
And polishes his locks and bunch of purple grapes,
And when it makes Minerva's bosom fierce with
snakes, 39 275
36. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 15.2-11.
37. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.23.3-4.
38. Myron and Polyclites were celebrated Greek sculptors. Cf.
Juvenal, Satires 8.102-103.
39. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.435-438.
HYMNS 203
'It fills men's hearts with deadly fear and cowardice. 40
They shudder at the Thunderer's brazen lightning flash
And at the hissing Gorgon's venom are appalled.
They think the youth just come from Indian
victories 41
Can strike them with his thyrsus in a drunken rage. 280
'And when they see Diana with her robe girt up,
They are affrighted at the huntress-maiden's bow;
Or if from molten metal with its quivering flood
A Hercules with gloomy countenance is cast,
They think he threatens unbelievers with his club. 285
'What terror fills the hearts of trembling worshipers
If Juno's wrath has by the artist been portrayed?
It is as though she looks on them with angry eyes
And turns her face away from victim sacrificed,
When graven stone depicts her with a sullen brow. 290
'I am surprised that Mentor was not deified,
And that no temple has been raised to Phidias, 42
They are the makers and the fathers of the gods,
And if they had not plied their forges with such zeal
No Jupiter would ever have been cast in bronze. 295
'Do you not blush, you shallow-brained idolater,
To think what loss of victuals you always incurred
When you devoted them to these divinities
Made out of worn utensils melted in a forge,
Your broken ladles, cauldrons, bowls, and frying
pans. 43 300
40. CLIbid. 12.335.
41. Bacchus, god of wine.
42. Mentor and Phidias were Greek sculptors. Cf. Juvenal, Satires
8.103-104.
43. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 12.2 (Vol. 10, this series, p. 41).
204 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
1 overlook these vagaries in common folk,
Who take alarm at party-colored wool on stumps 44
And are deceived by every charlatan.
They think all things are holy that the idle talk
Of toothless hags has prompted them to dread and
fear. 305
'I marvel that you erudite and learned men,
Who regulate your lives by well-considered laws,
Know not the power that rules things human and
divine,
How great the majesty of Him who made all things
And governs all creation as its Lord and King. 310
'This power is God, eternal and ineffable,
A being thought or sight can never comprehend,
Surpassing all the reaches of the human spirit.
Not seen by mortal eyes, 45 he fills and penetrates
All things, the heart within and universe without. 315
'Eternally existing ere the first day was,
The state of being and of always having been
Belongs to Him alone. True light and source of light,
Because He was the light, His own light He diffused:
This splendor born of light is His begotten Son. 320
'One in their might are both the Father and the Son,
And that one splendor generated by one light
With all the Godhead's plenitude of brightness
shone.
In God one undivided being operates,
And by one power was created all that is, 325
44. Cf. Ovid, Fasti 2.641-644.
45. Cf. 1 Tim. 6.16.
HYMNS 205
'The sky above, the earth and ocean's mighty depths,
The orbs presiding over day and over night, 46
The winds and tempests, lightnings, showers of rain
and clouds,
The polar stars, the star of evening, heat and snow,
The fountains, hoarfrosts, precious veins of ore and
streams, 330
'The rugged cliffs and level plains and mountain
dells,
Wild beasts, the fowls of air and reptiles, all that
swim,
The beasts of burden, cattle, oxen, mammoth brutes,
The flowers and shrubs, the vines, the herbs and
woodland groves,
All plants that shed their fragrance, plants that
food supply. 335
'All these God made, not by laborious art or skill,
But by His soverign word He ordered them to be; 47
Then was created all that had not been before.
This diverse fabric He created by the Word,
And in the Word the Father's power ever dwelt. 340
'Our God has been revealed to you: learn now
from me
How He must be adored and what His temple is,
What gifts He has commanded us to offer Him,
What prayers He enjoins, what priesthood He
would have,
What nectar He requires there to be sacrificed. 345
46. Cf. Ps. 135.7-9.
47. Cf. Ps. 148.5.
206 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'His temple He has founded in the soul of man, 48
A spiritual temple, living, fair, and sentient,
Not capable of dissolution or of death,
A structure bright and graceful, raised to heights
sublime,
And gilt with ornaments of variegated hues. 350
'A priestess at the consecrated threshold stands,
The virgin Faith, who guards the entrance to that
shrine,
Her queenly head adorned with royal diadem.
She asks that offerings to the Father and to Christ
Be chaste and pure, such as she knows acceptable: 355
'Decorous bearing and an innocence of heart,
Tranquility of peace, a body pure and chaste,
The fear of God, the measure of enlightenment,
Sobriety of fasting and of abstinence,
A hope that never faints, an ever open hand. 360
'From offerings such as these the clouds of incense
rise
Sweeter than the scent of saffron or of balm,
Or breezes redolent of spices from the East.
The fragrant fumes are wafted straight to Heaven's
throne
And giving joy to God, they win His holy grace. 365
'The hostile foe who puts a ban upon this creed
Bans virtuous living and pursuit of sanctity,
Forbids us to uplift our minds to heavenly things,
Inclines the fire of intellect to things of earth,
And does not suffer wisdom's spark to be inflamed. 370
48. Cf. 1 Cor. 3.16, 6.19; 2 Cor. 6.16; Eph. 2,21-22.
HYMNS 207
'How blind and buried in the mire are pagan tribes!
How carnal are the hearts of heathen multitudes!
How dense their ignorance! How darkened is the
race
Devoted to the earth and bodies soon to die,
Regarding always things below, not those above! 375
Is it not height of folly and insanity
To think that creatures born of nuptial ties are gods,
To look for immaterial being in the earth
And mundane things upon the altars consecrate,
That which was once created its creator deem, 49 380
'To pray to trunks of trees that by the ax are hewn,
With blood of filthy swine to sprinkle graven stones,
To offer on your altars scraps of quartered beef,
And when you know that those you deify are men,
To kiss the funeral urns of mortal criminals? 385
'Cease, worldly-minded judge, to force such
wickedness
On men who are courageous, generous and free.
Nought can be higher than the love of truth and
right.
Those who confess the everlasting name of God
Have nothing they should fear, not even death itself/ 390
While thus the martyr reasoned, Asclepiades
Had burned within with sullen rage he scarce could
hide,
And as in silence he had swallowed mounting ire,
His indignation grew deep-buried in his breast;
He now gave vent to all the force of pent-up wrath: 395
49. Cf. Rom. 1.25.
208 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'By Jupiter, what do I hear from this vile wretch?
Amid the altars and the statues of the gods
He stands in open court, while I forced silence keep,
And villain that he is, pours forth a foul tirade,
Defiling all that is divine with impious lips. 400
'Alas for ancient laws and stable usages!
Our age condemns the rites ordained by former
kings,
Such as Pompilius, for the welfare of the state. 50
What modern heresy impels these casuists
To argue that the gods ought not to be adored? 405
'We see today the flowering of the Christian cult,
Now when a thousand consulships have glided by
Since Rome began, not to revert to Nestor's times. 51
This novelty that now springs up was not before.
Ask Pyrrha if you wish to know how things began. 52 410
'Where was that highest God of yours in that far
time
When Romulus, the son of Mars by aid divine,
Was building up the citadel of seven hills? 53
If Rome, divinely founded, now is flourishing,
She owes her power to stayer 54 Jove and other gods. 415
50. Numa Pompilius, according to tradition, the second king of
Rome and founder of Roman religious institutions.
51. Greek hero of the Homeric age.
52. Pyrrha and her husband Deucalian, the only survivors of the
flood, repeopled the earth by throwing stones behind them,
which turned into men and women. Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses
1.350-415.
53. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.777-783.
54. lovi StatorL Cf.Livy 1.12.6.
HYMNS 209
'Since time began this by our fathers was enjoined:
We ought to offer prayers for our prince at shrines
That he may win in battle glorious victories,
And having overcome his foes, he may subject
A peaceful world to law and order as its king. 420
'Prepare, most wicked man, whoever you may be,
To beg the gods with us according to our rites,
To give our emperor long life and happiness,
Or as a common traitor you must shed your blood:
To spurn the temple is to scorn the prince himself/ 425
The saint replied: 'No other favor will I ask
For our great emperor and his intrepid hosts
Than that they may become the soldiers of the faith
And in Christ's waters to the Father may be born,
Receiving from on high the Paraclete himself, 430
'That they may spurn the darkness of idolatry
And see the radiance of everlasting hope
That does not penetrate the lymph of mortal eyes,
Nor through the open windows of the body shine,
But lights up from within the innocent of heart. 435
'The gross eye of the flesh sees only what is gross,
And passing, it perceives that which must pass away;
The spirit is capable of seeing spiritual things;
This glowing principle alone can comprehend
The dazzling strength of brightness in divinity. 440
'I long to have the emperor discern this light,
Your lord and mine, if he is willing to be mine,
For if he stands against the holy Christian name,
My emperor one such as he will never be;
I shall not serve, believe me, one who bids me sin/ 445
210 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'How can you stand there, slaves?' the prefect
loudly cries,
'Do you stand still and hold in check avenging
hands?
Why do you not dismember him and carve his flesh,
Pluck out the spirit that lies hid within the man,
Whence come these impious words against the
emperor?' 450
With cleaving sword the wicked soldiers tear both
sides
Of that undaunted saint as in the air he hangs,
And slowly trace upon his members furrowed
wounds
That cross each other as they pierce his trembling
frame,
Till soon his breast is white where all the bones are
bare. 455
The butchers now are out of breath and drenched
with sweat
While he on whom they vent their rage remains
unmoved.
Romanus in the midst of torture freely speaks:
'If you, O cruel prefect, seek to know the truth,
The wounds that you inflict on me distress me not. 460
'What grieves me is the error seated in your hearts,
Through which you lead with you great numbers
of lost souls.
They run from every side to view this spectacle,
A vulgar heathen throng, lamentable, alas,
Who tremble at the harsh example of my bitter
doom. 465
HYMNS 211
'Hear, all of you. Afar I cry and I proclaim,
From this high gibbet I send forth my flaming word:
The splendor of the Father's glory, 55 Christ, is God,
Creator of all things and sharer of our lot,
Who to the faithful promises eternal life, 470
'Salvation of the soul, the spirit that never dies,
But lives forever in the one or other state;
It either shines in light or in dark night is sunk;
When it has followed Christ, it enters Heaven
above;
Cut off from Christ, it is consigned to lowest Hell. 475
'What should concern me is the kind of recompense
That my immortal soul will merit to receive;
To me it matters little how my body dies,
Since by the law of its own nature it must die.
Let what is doomed to perish crumble into dust. 480
'It does not matter whether fire or chains torment,
Or whether cruel sickness racks the weakened frame,
For grave disease is often armed with greater pangs.
The iron claws that penetrate into the side
Cause not such piercing darts of pain as pleurisy. 485
'The red-hot plates that sear the skin burn not so
deep
As fever that consumes the veins with deadly plague,
Or inflammation from within that chafes the flesh
And breaks out on the body in a violent rash,
More painful, you would feel, than hissing branding
irons. 490
55. Cf. Heb. 1.3; 2 Cor. 4.4.
212 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'You think me wretched that I am suspended here,
With arms behind my back and feet wrenched out of
place,
And that my joints creak as breaking tendons snap;
But those tormented by arthritis or by gout
Cry out in pain as though their bones were rent
apart. 495
'You shudder at the blows of executioners.
But are the hands of doctors more considerate
When they make use of Hippocratic butchery?
The living flesh is cut and blood, fresh-flowing, stains
The scalpels when the tainted members
are removed. 500
'Consider that the surgeons thrust their cruel knives
Into my ribs and that to heal they cut my flesh.
That which restores our health is not injurious:
These butchers seem to rend and tear my putrid
limbs,
But they give healing to the living spirit within. 505
'And yet who does not know how subject to decay
Is mortal flesh, polluted and ephemeral
It is unclean and bloated, rheumy, fetid, sore;
It is puffed up with anger, gives free rein to lust,
And often wears the livid marks that gall effects. 510
'Is not the shining gold amassed but for the flesh?
Embroidered robes and jewels, purple cloth and silks
By myriad wiles are sought to gratify the flesh;
Excess in eating pampers flesh and makes it fat,
And pleasures of the flesh give rise to every
crime. 56 515
56. Cf. Horace, Odes 1.3.26.
HYMNS 213
'I pray you, O assassin, heal these mighty ills,
Cut off and tear asunder that which leads to sin,
Remove the gangrene from the flesh that now decays,
In order that my soul may live secure from pain
And wearing nought by tyrant to be cut away. 520
'Be not affrighted, you that press around me here;
I lose that only which all men must one day lose,
The king with all his subjects, the rich as well as
poor.
The flesh of slaves and senators will waste away
Alike when it is buried in the sepulcher. 525
'A trifling loss or injury distresses us
If we have fear of losing what we must forsake.
Why does the will resist what is inevitable?
Why not transform the natural to a glorious thing?
Let us account as gain the doom by law ordained. 530
'But let us see the recompense the brave receive,
A true and certain recompense that never ends.
The spirit released from earth will fly to heaven
above,
And by the splendid light of God the Father blest,
Will dwell forever in the realm of Christ the King. 535
'One day the heavens will be rolled up as a book, 57
The sun's revolving orb will fall upon the earth,
The sphere that regulates the months will crash in
ruin,
And God alone, together with the souls redeemed
And hosts of everlasting angels, will remain. 540
57. Cf. Isa. 34.4; Apoc. 6.14.
214 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Despise the joys of this life, O prudent man,
The joys that must end, that you must leave behind,
Cast off the body that is destined for the grave,
Direct your course to future glory and to God.
Know what you are and overcome the world
and time.' 545
The fervent martyr scarce had ended this discourse,
When Asclepiades in fury cut him short:
'Come, let the executioner transfer his blows
To this glib ranter's mouth; let him direct all hands
With piercing blade and stinging lash
upon his jaws. 550
'Destroy the organ of his galling verbiage,
Transpierce his bloated cheeks, that his loquacity
May be deprived of wind that gushes forth in speech,
For no restraint avails to stop this flow of sound;
The driveler's very words I charge you to torment/ 555
The impious lictor executes the prefect's words;
He draws deep lines upon both cheeks
with keen-edged hooks,
And traces bleeding furrows on the martyr's face;
He tears in shreds the skin with rough unshaven
beard,
And cleaves his countenance down to the very chin. 560
Amid the flowing blood the martyr calmly speaks:
'Abundant thanks I owe to you, 6 magistrate,
That now through many open mouths
I may preach Christ.
One passage dwarfed the praises of His mighty
name
And was too narrow for the glories of our God. 565
HYMNS 215
'The voice I now send forth finds open crevices,
And flowing from these many lips, produces sounds
More numerous as it proclaims on every side
The lasting glory of the Father and of Christ.
As many mouths now utter praise as I have wounds/ 570
Confounded by such constancy, the angry judge
Commands the punishments to cease, and thus he
speaks:
*I swear by flaming fires enkindled in the sun, 58
Which governs by alternate rounds our passing days,
And whose return brings back again the light
and year, 575
'A blazing funeral pyre shall be prepared for you
On which your body will be burned as it deserves,
For it persists in scorning all our ancient rites,
Nor is it spent or overcome by pain's fierce darts,
But even bolder grows in frightful agonies. 580
'What stoicism prompts this constancy of heart?
Your mind is obstinate, your body steeled to pain,
Such is the folly that inspires this modern creed:
Indeed, this Christ you worship lived not long ago,
And you confess that He was nailed upon a cross/ 585
'It is that cross which brings salvation to us all/
Romanus cried, 'through it all mankind is redeemed.
I know you cannot grasp this doctrine, impious
judge, 59
That you cannot imbibe our sacred mysteries,
For night can never comprehend the light of
day. 60 590
58. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 13.78.
59. Cf. 1 Cor. 2.14.
60. Cf. John 1.5.
216 AURELIUS PRtJDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Yet in this darkness I shall hold a gleaming torch.
The innocent will see, purblind will veil their eyes.
"Remove the light/' the soul beyond recall will say;
"The brightness dazzles one who cannot bear its
gleam/'
Give ear, unholy man, to that which you detest. 595
'The King eternal an eternal King begot,
In Him abiding, and not after Him in time,
For He exists outside of time; Christ is the source
Of all beginnings, of the days and of the years;
Born of the Father, Christ the Son is one with Him. 600
'The Son revealed Himself to eyes of mortal man;
His immortality took on a mortal frame,
That God by putting on a body doomed to die,
Might give our bodies power to rise to Heaven's
height:
As man He died for us, as God He rose again. 605
'With God incarnate, Death engaged in conflict fierce;
It struck our flesh, but yielded to the deity.
All this is foolishness to you, O worldly wise,
Yet did the Father choose the foolish of the earth,
That weak ones of the world might be
the wise of God. 61 610
'You talk about antiquity of Romulus,
The wolf of Mars, the vultures' primal auguries.
If modern times you spurn, nought is more new
than these.
The march of days fills up with scarce a thousand
years.
The epoch since the time our founding augur lived. 615
6L Cf. Matt. 11.25; 1 Cor. 1.27-28.
HYMNS 217
'A thousand kindgoms I could count, if I had time,
That were established in the world and won renown
Long ere the Gnosian she-goat, as the story goes,
Gave suck to Jupiter, 62 the sire of warlike Mars.
But these are gone, and soon this realm
will pass away. 620
'The cross of Christ, which you have said
is something new,
Was shown in figures and set forth in sacred books,
When man was first created in the birth of time.
Christ's coming through a thousand marvels was
foretold
By holy prophets who agreed in all their words. 625
'Kings, prophets, judges, all the rulers of those days
Through their exploits, wars, religious rites, and pen
Continued to portray the figure of the cross.
The cross was heralded, the cross was shadowed
forth,
Those ancient times drank in the image of the cross. 630
At last the words of all the prophets were fulfilled,
A.nd in our age tradition has been verified,
Appearing to us in a shining countenance,
Lest faith should stumble in uncertainty and doubt,
Unless the Truth itself were seen by human eyes. 635
'With steadfast faith we hold the body will not die,
Though it is given to the tomb to be devoured,
For Christ raised up His body, dead upon the cross,
And carried it with Him back to the Father's throne,
Thus opening a way for all to rise again. 640
62. As an infant Jupiter was nursed by the she-goat Amalthaea on
the island of Crete.
218 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'The cross is ours, that gibbet we also ascend; 63
For us Christ died, for us as God Christ rose again;
In dying He is man, His nature is twofold.
He dies and triumphs over all-devouring death,
Then He returns to that existence without end. 645
'Let it suffice that I have spoken these few words
About the mysteries of our faith and way of hope.
I shall be silent now: it is forbidden us
To scatter pearls of Christ among the filthy swine
Lest what is holy they should trample under foot. 64 650
'Since I cannot convince you with deep arguments,
Let us appeal to what is not beyond your reach,
Let us find out the sentiments of one naive,
With understanding simple and without deceit.
Let one be arbiter who has no thought of guile. 655
'Bring me a boy seven years of age, or less,
One free from prejudice and with ill-will toward
none,
Who does not fall into the snares of sophistry.
Let us see what this tender child will have to say,
Let us behold the wisdom of the artless mind/ 660
Accepting readily the holy martyr's word,
The prefect straight directs that from the infant
band 65
One be selected not long weaned and brought to
him. 66
Inquire of him whatever you may wish/ he said;
Then let us follow what this little lad approves.' 665
63. Cf.Gal. 2.19.
64. Cf. Matt 7.6.
65. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1 1.533-535.
66. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.4.15.
HYMNS 219
Romanus, eager that the candor o the child,
A suckling still, should now be tested, said to him:
'My little son, come tell me which is right and just,
To worship Christ and God the Father in His Christ,
Or offer prayers to idols of a thousand shapes?' 670
The boy smiled and instantly he made reply:
'The entity that men call God must needs be one,
And what belongs to that one God is also one.
Since this is true of Christ, He therefore is true God.
Why, even children doubt that many gods exist/ 67 675
The tyrant stood aghast, beside himself with shame;
It was not proper for the law to use its power
Against a little child so young and innocent,
But towering rage forbade the pardon of such words.
'Who taught you, boy, to say such impious
things?* he asked. 680
The child replied: 'My mother, who was taught by
God.
Enlightened by the Spirit, from God Himself she
drew
That which she fed me when I in my cradle lay.
When from the fountains of her breasts the milk I
drank
While yet a babe, I drank belief in Christ also/ 685
'Then go and bring the mother here; let her
approach/
Cried Asclepiades; 'Let the teacher see
The bitter sequel of her godless discipline.
Let her be tortured by this ill-bred infant's death,
Let her bewail the loss of him she has misled. 690
67. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 2.152.
220 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'A good-for-nothing woman shall not tire the arms
Of our assistants. Death will quickly bring relief,
And trifling blows will serve to break the tender
frame,
But at the sight the mother will endure more pain
Than if her flesh were mangled by the
bloody claws/ 695
No sooner had he spoken than he bade his crew
To lift the child on high and spank him lustily,
Then strip him of his clothes and lash him with a rod,
Until his tender back was cut with cruel blows,
And from his many wounds more milk
than blood distilled. 68 700
What adamantine rock could bear this spectacle,
What iron or unfeeling bronze could suffer it?
Each time the willow lashed the body's helpless form,
The dripping withes were reddened with the
drops of blood
That trickled in a livid shower from every wound. 705
They say the floggers' surly cheeks were wet with tears,
And spreading drops fell down unchecked upon the
lips 69
Of those uncouth assassins, grumbling at their task;
That no dry eyes were seen among recording scribes
Or common folk and peers of rank who gathered
round. 70 710
68. CLIbid. 11.68.
69. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 11.90.
70. Isidore Rodriguez sees a parallel between this passage and the
description of the death of Astyanax in Seneca's Troades 11.
1098-1114. (Obras Completas de Aurelio Prudencio p. 698).
HYMNS 221
The mother only gave no sign of plaintive grief;
Her brow alone was luminous with joy serene,
For piety is stronger in the hearts of those,
Who for the love of Christ stand firm in suffering
And steel themselves to sentiments of tenderness. 715
The child cried out, complaining of a burning thirst.
His breath grew hot as agonizing pains increased
And forced him now to call for water's cooling
draught.
Not far away, his mother sadly looked on him
And thus upbraided him in words austere and stern: 720
'My son, I feel that you are moved by childish fears,
And that the dread of torture overpowers you.
I did not promise God the offspring born of me
Would so behave. I bore you in the glorious hope
That you would never bend before the threat
of death. 725
'You ask a drink of water, when within your reach
A living fountain rises that forever flows,
A font unique that waters all who live on earth,
Within, without, the body and the soul alike,
Bestowing everlasting life on all who drink. 71 730
'This fountain ever flowing you will soon attain
If only in your soul and inmost being burns
An ardent longing to see Christ, A single draught
So quenches all the fires enkindled in the breast
That in the life of blessedness no thirst is known. 735
71. Cf. John 4.14.
222 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'This is the chalice that you now must drink, my
son, 72
Of which a thousand babes in Bethlehem once
drank: 73
Their tender years, unmindful of the flowing breasts,
Were fed from bitter cups that soon to nectar
changed,
Partaking of the blood as sweet as honey dew. 740
'Essay to follow that example, valiant child,
The noble scion of your race, your mother's pride. 74
The Father has decreed that every age excel
In deeds of courage and has barred no time of life,
According triumphs even to the crying babe. 745
'You must remember, for I told you many times,
When I amused you with old tales you would repeat
In prattling words, that Isaac was an only child,
Who, when he saw the sword and fire of sacrifice,
Stretched out his neck to meet his aged
father's blow. 75 750
'I told you, too, about that high and glorious strife
In which one mother's seven noble sons engaged, 76
Mere infants in their years, but valiant men in deeds,
And how that mother urged them at its perilous close
To shed their blood and win the crown
of martyrdom. 755
72. Cf. Matt. 20.22.
73. Cf. Matt. 2.16.
74. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.664.
75. C. Gen. 22.6-10.
76. C.2Mach.7.
HYMNS 223
'That mother saw before her eyes the instruments
Prepared to do her sons to death and was unmoved.
With joy she was filled when bath of hissing oil
Had seared and scorched a gallant lad, or fiery touch
Of red-hot metal plates had burned the tender flesh. 760
'The torturer tore off the scalp of one of them, 77
So that the hideous skull, laid bare down to the neck,
Disgraced his noble head; the mother then cried out:
"Endure this shame, for soon a shining crown will
clothe
This head with jewels of a kingly diadem." 765
'The tyrant ordered that the tongue of one brave
youth
Should be cut out, 7S and then the mother calmly
spoke:
"Sufficient glory now is ours, for lo, to God
Our body's noblest organ has been sacrificed;
The faithful tongue has now become a victim meet. 770
' "The soul's interpreter, 79 emotion's oracle,
The servant of the heart, the spirit's messenger,
Be it first offered in the sacred rite of death,
Of all the members first to pay the penalty;
Then their precursor all the rest will follow soon/' 775
'The mother of the Maccabees thus urged her sons
And seven times subdued and overcame the foe,
As many triumphs winning as the sons she bore.
If through one child I shall achieve such great
renown,
It lies this moment in your hands, my dearest life. 780
77. Cf.2 Mach. 7.4.
78. CLIbid.
79. Cf. Lucretius 6.1 149.
224 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'By this repository of my faithful womb,
This shrine which sheltered you for ten laborious
months,
If nectar drawn from my full breasts was sweet to
you, 80
If soft you found my lap and childish toys pleased,
Be firm and praise the Author of these benefits. 785
'I know not how within me you began to live,
Or how from nothingness your body came to be; 81
He only knows who made you and who gave you
breath.
Hold dear your Maker by whose bounty you were
born;
To render to the Giver what He gave is just/ 790
The child, encouraged by his mother's ringing words
Was laughing now at sounding rods and painful
blows.
The cruel magistrate this judgment then
pronounced:
'Confine the boy to a prison cell and wreak
Your vengeance on Romanus, author of his crime/ 795
The butchers plowed anew the paths of recent
wounds,
And where a little while before the fiends had drawn
The piercing steel, they followed in the open tracks
And made the furrowed gashes flow again with
blood.
The victor now upbraids them with their cowardice: 800
80. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 4.316-319; 2 Mach. 7.27.
81. Cf. 2 Mach. 7.22.
HYMNS 225
'How feeble is your strength, how delicate your
hands!
So long you have attempted to destroy this frame,
This poor decaying body, and your blows have failed.
It scarcely hangs together, yet it does not fall;
It thwarts the useless efforts of your sluggish arms. 805
'Dogs are more quick to tear a corpse with gnawing
teeth,
And piercing beaks of vultures have far greater force
When they devour a shapeless mass of carrion flesh.
You are fatigued and faint from hunger
unappeased,
You have the greed of beasts, but laggard appetite/ 810
These words aroused the violent anger of the judge,
And spurred him to pronounce the final penalty;
'If you are irked by these delays, a speedy end
Will now be yours: devouring flames will soon
reduce
Your body to a little heap of ashen dust/ 815
As cruel lictors dragged the martyr from the court,
He looked intently on the judge, and thus he spoke:
'From this brutality of yours, O infidel,
I now appeal to Christ, not that I fear my doom,
But that your judgement may appear
to all as nought/ 820
'Why this delay?' the prefect cried. 'Let both be slain,
The boy and the teacher, partners in this false belief.
Behead the child, who merits not the name of man,
And let avenging flames consume this impious
knave.
Let both now die together, but in different ways/ 825
226 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
The place of execution soon was reached by them,
The mother clasping in her arms her precious child,
Like to the firstling of the flock that once was
brought
By holy Abel as an offering unto God,
One chosen from the fold and whiter than the
rest. 82 830
The executioner then beckoned for the child,
And waiting not for tears, the mother gave him up,
As one last kiss she pressed upon his lips and said:
'Farewell, my dearest! When you enter Christ's
blest realm,
Remember me as advocate and not as son/ 835
She spoke, and as the headsman struck the little neck,
The woman, who had learned the psalmody by heart,
Was heard to chant this hymn from David's holy
book:
'The death of saints is precious in the sight of God;
He is Thy servant and the son of Thy handmaid/ 83 840
As she intoned the verses, she unbound her robe
And stretched her hands out underneath
the bleeding wound
To catch the ruddy stream that flowed from severed
veins , ||Fjj|
And curly head, convulsed in agony of death,
Which she embraced and fondly to her bosom
pressed. 845
82. Cf. Gen. 4.4.
83. Cf. Ps. 115.6-7.
HYMNS 227
A grimy overseer on the other side
Was building up from dry pinewood a massive pyre
And sprinkling with a sable shower of boiling pitch
The brushwood laid beneath and withered heaps of grass
That fed the crackling flames and made them
brightly glow. 84 850
And now Romanus, with his arms bound to the fork,
They brought, and as they placed him on the pyre,
he cried:
'I know that I shall not be burned upon this wood.
This kind of passion is not destined to be mine.
A greater miracle is yet to be performed.' 855
These words of his were followed by a mighty crash
Of stormy clouds, from which the rain in torrents fell
And with a flood of ebon water quenched the fires.
In vain the servants fed the dying brands with oil,
For soaking rains had spoiled the sodden
kindling wood. 860
The grim assassin, trembling at this prodigy,
Kept trying to revive the flames as best he could.
He stirred the firebrands with their embers cold and
dank,
He nursed the living coals with wisps of flaxen tow,
And sought amid the water for the sparks of fire, 85 865
When word of this came to the haughty prefect's ears
It roused in him a fit of bitter, vengeful ire:
'How long,' he roared, 'will this rank sorcerer
Make sport of us with his Thessalian trickery 86
And canny gift of turning punishment to play? 870
84. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 11.203; 6.214-219.
85. CL Ibid. 6.6.
86. Thessaly in Northern Greece was noted for witchcraft.
228 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Perhaps if I give orders that he yield his neck
To meet the keen-edged sword, he will forestall the
blow;
Perhaps the cruel wound that cleaves the neck apart
Will heal, so that the severed parts will join again,
And once more will his head upon
his shoulders stand. 875
'Let us begin, therefore, by cutting off some part
Of his still living body with the penal sword,
That by a single death this wretch of many crimes
May perish not, or fall beneath a single blow:
For every member I would have him die a death. 880
1 would make trial whether he puts forth new
limbs 87
That grow again, as told in Lerna's ancient myth,
Repairing thus the loss his body has sustained.
If so, a mighty Hercules will be at hand
Who is a veteran in burning Hydra's wounds. 88 885
'Bring here a surgeon skilled in use of keen-edged
knives,
Who can invade the narrow confines of the flesh
And sever all the fastenings of the ligaments.
Bring hither one who heals the dislocated bones
And mends and binds together all the
fractured parts. 890
87. Cf. Seneca, Octavia 576.
88. One of the 'Labors' of Hercules was the destruction of the
Hydra which infested the swamps of Lake Lerna in the Pelo-
ponnesus. The monster had many heads which grew again
when cut off, but Hercules finally killed it by burning the
stump with a firebrand.
HYMNS 229
'First let him pull the vicious tongue out by the roots,
Which is by far the body's basest instrument.
With shameless wagging it has scorned our mighty
gods;
It has profaned our holy rites and ancient laws
And has not even spared the emperor himself.' 895
A certain doctor named Aristo now is called.
He comes at once and bids the saint put out his
tongue.
The martyr puts it forth, exposing all his throat.
Aristo feels the palate, finds the vocal cords
With probing fingers as he seeks a place to stab. 900
He grasps the tongue and drawing it far from the
mouth,
He thrusts his scalpel deep into the gaping throat.
As one by one the threads of flesh were cut apart,
The martyr never closed his mouth or clenched his
teeth,
Nor swallowed any of the freely flowing blood. 905
Unmoved he stood with open jaws held wide apart
While streams of blood gushed forth
and ran down, swift and red.
The noble scarlet emblem overspreads his chin,
And he beholds with joy his bosom's glorious stain
Like to the purple that adorns a kingly robe. 910
The prefect, thinking that he now could force the saint
To offer sacrifice, since tongueless he would lack
The words to prate against the worship of the gods,
Then ordered him to be brought back,
now mute and weak,
Who once appalled his hearers by his stormy speech. 915
230 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Again he placed an altar by the judgment seat,
Prepared the incense and the glowing coals of fire,
The entrails of a bull and belly of a sow.
Romanus, coming forward, saw these offerings
And breathed on them as if he saw
demonic powers. 89 920
In better spirits, Asclepiades laughed him to scorn,
Then asked: 'Are you as brazen as you used to be,
Are you as quick to talk? Say all you have to say,
Hold forth at length and let us hear your arguments.
I give you leave to exercise your voice at will/ 925
Romanus, sighing deeply, gave a long-drawn groan
Of sad complaint and thus began in ringing voice:
'A tongue has never failed the man who speaks of
Christ,
Nor need you ask what organ is the source of words,
When He is praised who gave to us the gift of
speech. 930
'He who appointed that the lusty voice of man,
Arising from the lungs and thrust forth by the lips,
Should now reverberate against the palate's roof
And now be tempered by the sounding row of teeth,
Where plays the nimble tongue like quill of ivory, 90 935
89. In addition to words, Christians from the earliest times em-
ployed symbolic actions, such as breathing, or laying on of
hands, or making the sign of the cross, in exorcising evil spirits.
Cf. Justin, 2 Apology 6 and Tertullian, Apology 23:15-16.
90. Cf. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies 1 and 2 on St. Romanus (PG
50.611;615).
HYMNS 231
'If He should bid the throat, like tuneful shepherd
pipes,
To send forth as it breathes a blast of harmonies,
So that the passages themselves would utter words,
Or through the channel of the mouth the lips would
speak
Like cymbals, now together pressed,
now opened wide, 940
'Would you deny that nature's order could be
changed
By Him who at the dawn of time established it?
The great Creator can at His good pleasure change
The laws He has established, make them and
unmake, 91
So that the tongue's support is not required
for speech. 945
'Do you desire to know the power of our God?
He sets His foot upon the waters of the sea: 92
Its limpid restless flood becomes a solid mass,
Contrary to its nature and its basic laws.
It stays up swimmers, now the feet that on it tread. 950
'To this great Deity belongs the certain power,
Which in the Father and in Christ we venerate,
To make the dumb to speak, the lame to walk again,
To grant the boon of hearing to the deafened ear,
And give the blind the unaccustomed light of day. 93 955
91. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.622.
92. Cf. Matt. 14.25. See also Damasus, Epigram 9.1 (Ihm, op. cit.
p. 13).
93. Cf. Matt. 11.5.
232 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'If any dullard thinks these miracles untrue,
Or you yourself have deemed them only idle tales
You may now witness proof of their veracity:
You have just heard him speak whose tongue
you have cut out.
Yield your assent to this unquestioned miracle/ 960
With mortal fear the persecutor now is seized.
Dismay and wrath have so upset his darkened mind
He knows not whether he is dreaming or awake
And wonders, dazed, what kind of portent this
may be.
Dread overcomes him while his anger spurs him on. 965
He cannot check the force of his unbridled will
And knows not where to turn the weapons of his
wrath.
At last he fiercely summoned to the judgement seat
The unoffending doctor, whom he charged with
fraud,
An underhand agreement to outwit the court 970
By doing nought but thrust a useless blunt-edged
knife
Into the martyr's mouth and probe around in vain,
Or making with a certain skill a narrow wound
So that the tongue was injured only in one place,
And all the tendons were not wholly cut apart. 975
It is impossible/ said he, 'for voice to sound
Or words to be expressed in mouth deprived of
tongue,
Which is the instrument of vocal harmonies.
The breath may echo loudly in the empty vault,
But noise only comes therefrom, not human speech/ 980
HYMNS 233
The doctor thus refutes this calumny with truth:
'Examine for yourself the hollows of the throat
And pass your curious thumb around inside the teeth.
Look well and carefully into the open jaws
To find out what remains within to govern breath. 985
'If I had only pricked the tongue with lancet sharp,
Or if I had but grazed it with a petty wound,
Its pulsing would have ceased and speech
would then have failed,
For when the mistress of the voice suffers injury,
The faculty of speech must also be impaired. 990
'If you desire, let us perform a test to see
What kind of growl a beast can make with tongue
removed,
What kind of grunt a pig can make without a tongue;
I shall give proof that beasts with voice harsh and rude
Can make not even guttural sounds
when they are dumb. 995
'I swear, O worthy judge, upon the emperor's head
That I have used the art of surgeon honestly
And faithfully obeyed the orders given me.
This man must know what god is helping him to
speak.
I know not by what means the dumb
can utter words/ 1000
Thus did Aristo plead and try to clear himself,
But on the impious wretch who hounded Christian
souls
The words had no effect, and now his rage increased,
As he demanded whether it was alien blood
That stained the hero's breast, or that from
his own wound. 1005
234 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Romanus answered him: 'Behold me standing here:
The blood you see is truly mine, not that of ox.
Do you not understand, poor pagan, that I mean
The sacred ox in whose red gore you drench
yourselves
When it is slaughtered for your sacrificial rite. 94 1010
'Your high priest verily goes down into a trench,
Dug deep beneath the earth, to there be sanctified,
With strange head band and festal chaplets on his
brow,
His perfumed hair restrained beneath a golden
crown
And Gabine cincture holding up his silken robe. 95 1015
'Above the trench they build a platform made of
planks
Laid side by side, with ample crevices between,
And then by cutting or by boring through the floor
In many places with an auger or a saw,
They make a score of little openings in the wood. 1020
'Then to the place is led a bull of monstrous size,
With shaggy, threatening brow. 96 A flowery garland
forms
A wreath around his shoulders and entwines his
horns.
The victim's mighty head shines bright with
burnished gold,
And glowing metal plates adorn his bushy hair. 1025
94. The pagan rite which Prudentius describes in lines 1011-1050
was called the taurobolium and was associated with the worship
of Cybele. Prudentius is here the principal source for the
details of the rite.
95. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 7.612.
96. Cf. JT&M. 3.636.
HYMNS 235
'Above the trench the beast of sacrifice is placed.
With consecrated spear they open wide his heart,
And from the wound a stream of hot blood gushes
out,
Which falls upon the bridge of wooden planks below
And spreads out over it, a heated billowing flood. 1030
'Then through the many channels of a thousand
chinks
It filters in a gory shower of fetid rain
That falls upon the high priest in the pit below.
He holds his abject head to catch the dripping blood
That stains his robe and all his body with its filth. 1035
'And leaning back, he lifts his cheeks to meet the
spray,
Beneath it holds his ears, his nostrils and his lips,
His very eyes subjecting to the laving stream,
And overlooking not the palate or the tongue,
Until his body wholly drinks the somber gore. 97 1040
'When all the blood is spent, the flamens drag away
The bullock's rigid carcase from the bridge of planks,
And frightful to behold, the pontiff then comes forth,
With dripping head and beard all matted by the clots,
His fillets sodden and his vestments drenched
with blood. 1045
'This man defiled by such impurity and filth,
Bespattered with the gore of recent sacrifice,
The crowd with reverential awe salutes and glorifies,
Because they think a dead ox's blood has hallowed
him
As he was crouching in that dreadful cave below. 1050
97. Cf. Ibid. 11.803-804.
236 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Shall I remind you of that hecatomb of yours,
When by the sword a hundred animals are slain,
And from this carnage blood in such abundance flows
That scarce by swimming can the augurs make their
way
Across the mighty sea of blood in front of them. 1055
'But why do I denounce the rich supply of meat
To feed the gods, or butchers all besmeared with gore
From cutting up the flesh of countless slaughtered
herds?
Some rites there are in which you multilate
yourselves
And maim your bodies in a painful offering. 1060
'A frenzied zealot thrusts a knife into his arms
And gashes them, the Mother goddess to appease.
Wild whirlings are regarded as her mystic rite.
The hand that spares the knife is deemed undutif ul,
And cruel wounds deserving of divine reward. 1065
'Another to the goddess dedicates his sex;
He by the fiendish mutilation of his loins,
Unmans himself and offers her a shameful gift.
For her he cuts away the source of virile seed
And feeds her with the blood that issues
from his veins. 1070
'Both sexes are displeasing to her holiness,
So he preserves the mean between the genders twain.
He ceases to be man, yet woman he is not. 98
The happy Mother of the gods supplies herself
With beardless servants by a polished razor blade. 1075
98. Cf. Lactantius, op. tit. 1.21 (PL 6.234).
HYMNS 237
'Why speak of seals and marks of consecration here?
The pagans thrust fine needles into blazing fire
And when red hot they brand their members
with the darts.
Whatever portion of the body thus is stamped,
This they believe is rendered holy by the mark. 1080
'When from his mortal frame the breath of life
departs,
And to his sepulcher the sad procession moves,
On these same parts thin plates of metal are
impressed.
A sheet of gold all shining overspreads the skin
And hides the portions by the fiery needles burned. 1085
'These sufferings the pagans are compelled to bear,
These rites the gods impose upon idolaters:
Thus Lucifer makes sport of those he has ensnared;
He teaches them to suffer vile indignities
And brand their wretched bodies with
tormenting fires. 1090
'It is your cruelty that makes us shed our blood,
Your impious tyranny that lacerates our flesh
And racks the tender bodies of the innocent.
If you permit, we live in peace without bloodshed;
If we must shed our blood, we win the
martyr's crown. 1095
'No further shall I speak; my destined end is near,
The end of all my woes, a glorious martyrdom.
No longer, wretch, will it be yours as heretofore
To torture me, to rend and tear my mortal flesh;
You must give up the bitter fight and own defeat/ 1100
238 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
indeed, the butcher and the torturer will give up/
The prefect threatened, 'but the hangman's cruel
hand
Will follow after them and quickly strangle you.
The tireless voice in that chattering mouth of yours
Will not be silent till I break the sounding reed/ 1105
He spoke, and ordered that the saint be dragged
from court
And cast into the darkness of a prison foul.
There with a rope an impious lictor broke his neck."
And so the martyr's passion ended, and his soul,
Freed from the chains of earth, took flight
to heaven above. 1110
They say that to the emperor the prefect sent
A record of the acts, set forth in lengthy scrolls
And giving all the details of the tragic case.
The tyrant gladly placed in archives of the realm
The story of the crime on lasting parchment
penned. 1115
But passing time destroys all these documents,
Smoke blackens them and dust envelops them with
grime,
Age feeds on them or buries them beneath the
ruins;
Immortal is the page inscribed by Christ's own hand:
In Heaven's register no letter is erased. 100 1120
99. Cf. Horace, Odes 3.27.58-60.
100. Cf Luke 10.20; 16.17.
HYMNS 239
An angel standing at the foot o God's high throne 101
Wrote all the martyr said and all the pain he bore,
Recording every word of his inspired discourse,
And with his stylus drawing pictures of the wounds
Inflicted on his sides, his face, his breast
and throat. 1125
He noted down the quantity of blood from each,
The kind of furrows made by plowing instruments,
How deep and wide, how shallow and how long or
short,
How violent the pain, how widespread were the
wounds:
No drop of blood escaped his careful scrutiny. 1130
This volume is among celestial registers,
Where records of undying glory are preserved
To be reviewed by Heaven's everlasting judge, 102
When one day in an equal balance He will place
The weight of suffering and the vastness
of reward. 103 1135
It is my wish that He may see me from afar,
When on His left I stand among the flock of goats, 104
And at the martyr's prayer this mighty King may say:
'Romanus prays for him; go bring that goat to me
And let him stand, a fleecy lamb,
on my right hand/ 1 140
101. Cf. Matt. 18.10.
102. Cf. Apoc. 20.12.
103. Cf. 2 Cor. 4.17; Job 31.6.
104. Cf. Matt. 25.33. See also Paulinus of Nola, Poema 14.131-135
(PL 61.468).
240 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
11. TO BISHOP VALERIAN ON THE
PASSION OF THE MOST BLESSED
MARTYR HIPPOLYTUS 1
Tombs of the saints without number I saw
in the city of Romulus,
Holy Valerian, high priest and the servant of
Christ. 2
1. The identity of St. Hippolytus, schismatic bishop at Rome
during the pontificates of Gallistus, Urban, and Pontian, was
established by the discovery in 1851 of the Philosophumena,
a work now universally attributed to him. Legend has con-
fused him with several martyrs of the same name, notably the
soldier who was appointed to guard St. Lawrence and, converted
with his whole household, was dragged to death by wild horses
(BHL 3961-3964). See Allard, X'Hagiographie au IV* siecle/
Revue des questions historiques 37.369-379. Several documents
of the fourth century contain references to the Roman presbyter
celebrated in this hymn of Prudentius. Eusebius (Ecclesiastical
History 6.20 and 22) refers to him as a bishop and mentions
several of his works. St. Jerome (De viris illustribus 61) men-
tions him as the bishop of a church, the name of which he had
not been able to discover, and lists his writings. In his Prologue
to the Commentary on St. Matthew he confesses that he has
read many previous commentaries, including that of the 'martyr
Hippolytus'; and in a letter to Pammachius and Oceanus he
declares that St. Ambrose was indebted to Hippolytus in com-
piling his Hexaemeron. With Pope Pontian, the martyr was
banished to Sardinia and died there, reconciled to the Church,
sometime after the year 235. Pope Fabian brought the bodies
of the two to Rome and interred them with honors, Pontian in
the papal crypt of Callistus and Hippolytus on the Via Tibur-
HYMNS 241
You would know the inscriptions engraved
on the tombstones above them,
Even the name of each one, not in my power to give,
For so vast was the throng of the just
devoured by Rome's fury 5
When she still worshipped the gods
brought from her Trojan home.
Many a sepulcher tells in bright letters
the name of the martyr,
Or an inscription remains, lauding his valiant deeds.
There are marbles, however, enclosing the tombs
with their silence,
Or revealing to us only the number
there shrined. 3 10
You may learn that a number of bodies lie there
together, 4
But the names of the saints do not appear on the
tomb.
tina near the tomb of St. Lawrence. (Cf. Liber Pontificalis,
MGH 1.24). There Prudentius without doubt read the inscrip-
tion which Pope Damasus placed on the tomb of St. Hippolytus.
See Ihm, Epigram 37, op. cit. p. 64 and Ferrua, Epigram 35,
op. cit. pp. 171-173. The hymn for the office of St. Hippolytus
in the Mozarabic Breviary (PL 86.1183-1184) is based on the
Acts of the legendary soldier converted by St. Lawrence.
2. Alamo ('Un texte du poete Prudence: Ad Valerianum episco-
pum/ Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique 35.750-756) finds evidence
that Valerian, addressed in this hymn, was the bishop of Cala-
horra and not one of the Valerii of Saragossa as Allard assumes
('Prudence historien/ Revue de questions historiques 35) and
Bergman repeats in his Prolegomena X.
3. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 42.2 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 46); also Ferrua,
Epigram 42.2, op. cit. p. 184.
4. Cf. Ibid. 12.1-2, p. 18; also Ferrua, Epigram 16.1-2, p. 120.
242 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
I remember finding that under one of the gravestones
Ashes of sixty reposed, buried there deep in the
ground. 5
Only Christ knows surely the names
of these militant heroes 6 15
Who have been joined to the great host
of His intimate friends.
As my eyes wandered over the stones in my search
for inscriptions
Telling of time-honored deeds, which had
escaped me before,
One I read of Hippolytus, who as a priest and an
elder
Once to Novatus adhered, claiming our faith to
be false. 7 20
Afterwards he was raised to the hallowed rank of a
martyr,
Winning that glorious meed by an ordeal of blood.
Nor is it strange that the aged man
who was once an apostate
Should be endowed with the rich boon of the
Catholic faith.
5. Cf. Ibid. 43.2, p. 46; also Ferrua, Epigram 43.2, p. 185.
6. Cf. 2 Tim. 2.19.
7. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 37 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 42). If Hippolytus
died shortly after the year 235, he could not have been an
adherent of Novatus, antipope and founder of the Novatian
sect during the pontificate of Cornelius (251-253). Hippolytus
was antipope at the time of Callistus I and his successors (218-
235), and Damasus may have associated the two schismatics,
since both held rigorist views on the pardon of such sins as
adultery and apostasy.
HYMNS 243
When, triumphant and joyful in spirit,
he was being conducted 25
By the unmerciful foe onward to death of
the flesh,
He was attended by loving throngs
of his faithful adherents.
Thus he replied when they asked
whether his doctrine was sound:
'Leave, O unhappy souls, 8 the infernal schism of
Novatus;
Rally again to the true fold
of the Catholic Church. 9 30
'Let the one faith of ancient times in our temples
now flourish,
Doctrines by Paul and the high Chair of Peter
maintained.
'I repent of my teachings and witness as worthy
of reverence
What I once hated and thought alien to worship
of God/
With these words he directed his flock away from
that devious pathway, 35
Bidding them walk in the road beckoning them
to the right. 10
8. Cf, Vergil, Aeneid 3.639.
9. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 37.5-6 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 42; also Ferrua,
op. cit. pp. 171-172).
10. Cf. Claudian, Carmina minora 18.13.
244 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
And by the spurning of error, he who had caused
them to wander
Offered himself as their guide showing the way
to the truth.
Then he was brought before a ruler bereft of all
reason
Who was harassing Christ's heroes by the Tiber's
wide mouth. 11 40
That very day he had left the city of Rome
bent on striking
People who lived on the outskirts with his
dreadful decrees, 12
Not content with bedewing the earth within Rome's
mighty ramparts 13
With the blood of the just slain in this merciless
war.
When he beheld the Janiculum, rostrums, squares
and Subura 45
Drenched now and flooded with red torrents
of Christian blood,
He extended his fury as far as Tyrrhenian beaches 14
And to the regions that lay next to the maritime
port.
With his staff of officials and executioners round him
Proudly he sat there in state, high on his
judgement seat, 50
11. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.13-14.
12. Cf. Horace, Epistles 2.2.84.
13. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.7.
14. Cf. Claudian, De bello Gildonico 482-483.
HYMNS 245
And on fire to wrest the denial of faith from disciples
Who were rebelling against worship of devilish
gods.
Throngs with their hair grown long in the hideous
prisons he summoned
Into the court to be doomed, tortured,
and put to death.
One could hear the creaking of chains and the hiss
of the lashes, 15 55
Or the loud crash of the rods splintered by
deafening blows.
Into the hollow framework of their ribs the claws
were inserted,
Opening cavities deep, tearing their innermost
parts.
When the butchers grew weary, the judge gave way
to his anger,
Driven to fury and rage at his abortive inquest, 60
For not one of the servants of Christ in the midst
of these torments
Was to be found who would dare suffer
the loss of his soul.
Then the prefect cried out in his fury: 'Have done,
you tormentors!
If your fierce blows and the iron hooks are in vain,
let them die.
15. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.557-558.
246 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Cut off the head of this man, let the cross to the sky
lift the other, 16 65
Offering up to the grim vultures his quivering eyes.
'Quickly lay hold of these and cast them into a
furnace
Where the one fire may devour all the culprits
at once.
'These you see here you may place at once on a leaking
old vessel 17
And then put out to the high seas where the waters
are deep. 70
'When the hazardous craft has borne them through
furious billows
And it is ready to sink under the force of the waves,
'Then its framework will part and the rotten hull
will be broken,
So that the water will pour in and engulf
the frail ship.
'Soon a scaly monster will furnish a grave
for the wretches 75
Deep in its cavernous maw, gorged with the
bodies consumed/
As he was haughtily giving these orders,
before his tribunal
All of a sudden an old man was brought forward
in chains,
16. CLIbid. 11.455.
17. Cf. Ibid. 6.413-414.
HYMNS 247
And the throng of young men who crowded around
him were shouting
That the one they accused led the adorers
of Christ: 80
If the head should be promptly destroyed the hearts
of the people
Freely would turn to the gods honored and
worshipped by Rome.
Then they cry out for his death by unwonted
and different torture,
As an example that would frighten and warn
all the rest.
Taking his seat, the prefect threw back his head
and demanded: 85
'What is his name?' They replied, It is Hippolytus.'
'Let him be a Hippolytus, 18 then. Let a team
of wild horses,
Goaded to madness by fright tear his whole
body apart/
Scarcely had he spoken these words, when they forced
two wild coursers
Who till then had never known bridle, to bend
to the yoke. 90
18. A play on the etymology of the word Hippolytus, from the
Greek hippos, horse, and lutos, that may be loosed or dissolved.
In lines 87-136 Prudentius is clearly indebted to Seneca's
Phaedra (11.1000-1114), a tragedy based on the Greek myth
of Hippolytus, son of Theseus and Hippolyte, who was dragged
to death by frightened horses. See Sixt, T)es Prudentius
abhangigkeit von Seneca und Lucan/ Philologus 51.501-506.
248 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
They were unused to the stall or a master's gentle
caressing, 19
And they had never before suffered a rider's
control.
Beasts of the field and untamed, they were from
the drove just impounded,
And a timorous dread quickened their mettlesome
spirits.
Then despite their resistance, the twain they
harnessed together 95
And their belligerent heads joined in an
odious league.
Keeping their bodies apart a rope instead of a timber
Moved to and fro between them, striking the flanks
of the two.
From the yoke extending, it was dragged along far
behind them,
Under their clattering hoofs, trailing in wake
of their tracks. 20 100
At the end of the rope, where the ruts in the
powdery surface
Followed the galloping beasts in their capricious
course,
Was a noose that fastened the legs of the hero
together,
Tying his feet to the cord with a tenacious knot.
19. Cf. Vergil, Georgia 3.184-186.
20. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.392.
HYMNS 249
Now that all was prepared for shedding the blood
of the martyr, 105
Cudgels of leather and ropes, wild and ferocious
steeds,
Forthwith they spurred the animals on with whips
and with shouting, 21
Urging them forward with goads piercing their
quivering flanks.
These were the final words the venerable patriarch
uttered:
'Let these destroy this frame, but, O Christ,
take Thou my soul/ 110
Off go the furious horses, running in every direction,
Blindly led on by the din and by their frenzy and
fear.
They are fired by their fury, impelled by the race
and the noise,
Wholly unconscious of that pitiful burden
they bear. 22
Through the forests they rush, across the streams
and the headlands, 115
Stayed by no river's high bank nor by the torrent's
swift flood. 23
They surmount all the hedges and every barrier
break through;
Over the uplands they go, leaping down crags
and high cliffs.
21. Cf. Ibid. 5.227-228.
22. Cf. Claudian, De consulatu Stilichonis 3.321.
23. Cf. Claudian, De bello Gildonico 472473.
250 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Little by little the martyr's body is broken and
shattered,
Torn by the briers and thorns covering the
rocky terrain. 120
Parts of it hang from the cliffs and others cling
to the bushes,
Some of it reddens the boughs, some of it
moistens the earth.
Painted on a wall is a picture describing this
outrage, 24
Showing in myriad hues all the details of the
crime.
Over the tomb is a vivid scene depicting the martyr 125
Dragged by the steeds with his torn body
all covered with blood.
Rocks that were wet with this gore, I saw,
O Reverend Father,
And the bright roseate stains dyeing the
thorny shrubs.
There a hand that was skilled in painting the green
of the brambles,
Had in vermilion portrayed all the red hues
of the blood. 130
24. Though many commentators have expressed doubts as to the
existence of the fresco described in lines 123-144, recent writers
see no reason to doubt that Prudentius actually saw the picture
he describes. Cf. Allard, 'Rome au IV e sie"cle d'apres les poemes
de Prudence/ Revue des questions historiques 36. 48-61; Ermini,
Peristephanon pp. 78-79; and Vives, 'Veracidad historica en
Prudencio/ Analecta Tarraconensia 17.200-202. There is some
evidence that Damasus may have adorned the shrines of the
martyrs with paintings as well as inscriptions. See Ferrua, op.
cit. pp. 168 and 188.
HYMNS 251
One could see the members, torn asunder and
scattered, 25
Lying about here and there over the devious
route.
Painted there, too, in tears, was the loving flock
of the martyr
Following wherever the ruts showed them
his roundabout way. 26
Dazed by their sorrow, they walked along as they
searched for his relics 135
And in their togas' broad folds gathered his
mangled flesh.
One of them lovingly presses the snowy head to his
bosom,
Fondly caressing the white hair with a reverent
touch.
While another takes up the hands and the arms
and the shoulders,
Also the elbows and knees and the bare fragments
of legs. 140
Even the blood that bespatters the sands they soak up
with their garments,
So that no drop may be left there to discolor the
dust.
And wherever the warm rosy dew besprinkles
the brambles
With a soft sponge they remove it and take it away.
25. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.596-597.
26. CLIbid. 1.418.
252 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Now the thick woodland no longer held any part
of his body, 145
Nor to the sacred remains was fit interment denied.
When they took account of the parts it was found
that the number
Rendered the body complete that had been
mangled and torn.
When they had combed the devious track and the
rocks and the branches
Nothing remained of his flesh left in that pathless
domain. 150
Now a place for his tomb must be found and the port
was abandoned:
Rome alone offered a site meet for the holy
remains.
Near the surrounding belt of gardens, 27 not far
from the ramparts,
Yawns a dark cave that extends deep in the bowels
of the earth. 25
27. pomeria. The pomerium was a line demarcating an augurally
constituted city. The term was later applied to the strip between
the wall and urban property and also to a cultivated belt out-
side the wall.
28. The crypt was discovered by Armellini and Marucchi in 1881
on the Via Tiburtina. Prudentius visited it at the beginning
of the fifth century and saw the tomb with the inscription of
Pope Damasus mentioned in note 7 above. The sanctuary was
destroyed by the Goths in the sixth century, and an inscription
(Ihm, Epigram 83, op. cit. pp. 85-96) records its restoration dur-
ing the pontificate of Vigilius 537-555). Adrian I (772-785)
again restored the cemetery of St. Hippolytus. See Vita Adriani
I, (PL 96.1199): coemeterium beati Hippolyti martyris iuxta
sanctum Laurentium, quae a priscis marcuerant temporibus, a
nova renovavit.
HYMNS 253
Into its shadowy depths a winding stairway leads
downward, 155
And a glimmer of light guides the descending step.
Sunlight that enters the door as far as the top of the
chasm
Only illumines the threshold of the vestibule.
Then as with careful step you descend, it slowly
grows darker, 29
And the dense shadows of night fill the mysterious
cave. 160
Presently openings appear above you, high in the
ceiling,
Shedding down into the crypt radiant beams of
light.
Though here and there narrow chambers are formed
in the murky recesses
That extend back on each side under the somber
arcades,
Many a ray of light finds its way through the holes
in the ceiling 165
Into the cavernous vault piercing the side of the
hill.
Thus one beholds the light of the sun in the
underground hallways
And enjoys the beams shed from its distant orb. 30
29. Lines 159-166 are reminiscent of a passage in Jerome in which
he describes his visits to the catacombs while a student in Rome
about the year 365. See his Commentary on Ezechiel 12.40.
30. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 83.7-8 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 85).
254 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Such is the hidden retreat where Hippolytus' body
is buried
Next to an altar nearby, built for the worship
of God. 170
Table from which the sacrament all holy is given, 31
Close to the martyr it stands, set as a faithful
guard,
Shielding his bones in the tomb to await their eternal
avenger,
Feeding with sacred repast dwellers on Tiber's
broad shores.
Holiness reigns in this place, and the altar is ever
propitious, 175
Giving to suppliant men hope of God's bounty
and grace.
Never was help denied me, one sick in mind and in
body
When at this shrine I prayed, prostrate upon
the ground.
That I was blest with a happy home-coming; that,
Reverend Father,
I have been granted the good fortune to embrace
you again; 180
That I am writing these words: to Hippolytus I owe
all these favors
Who has received from our Lord, power to grant
our requests.
31. The Holy Eucharist.
HYMNS 255
His remains, sloughed off by the soul, now repose
in a chapel
Gleaming with fretwork of pure silver skillfully
wrought.
Plaques that shine like concave mirrors, dazzling
in brightness, 185
In the facade have been set by a generous hand.
Not content with adorning the entrance with Parian
marbles,
He has enriched it with bright panels of silver
and gold.
In the morning men hasten to offer up prayers
to the martyr, 32
Coming and going from dawn, even to set
of the sun. 190
Love of the shrine brings together a motley
concourse of people,
Mingling together as one, Latins and strangers
alike.
Rapturous kisses they imprint on the luminous
metal
Faces all wet with their tears as they bestrew
it with balm. 33
Then when the months have passed, and the year
recommences its cycle, 195
Bringing the day of his birth, 34 feast of his
martyrdom blest,
32. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 2.462.
33. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 6.699.
34. Natalem diem, the anniversary of the death of a martyr, the
day of his entry into heavenly life. Cf. Tertullian, De Corona 3.
256 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
What a multitude flocks to the shrine in zealous
devotion,
What a full chorus of prayer renders due glory
to God! 85
Mighty Rome in a constant stream disgorges her
citizens;
Lords and plebeians unite, urged by the selfsame
resolve, 200
Legions in sundry array advancing shoulder to
shoulder, 36
Every distinction of rank banished by reverent
faith.
Out from the gates of Alba a white-robed army
deploys,
Which in continuous file eagerly marches along.
Shouts of joy resound on the roads in every
direction; 205
Folk of Picenum come, those of Etruria too.
Samnites fierce meet those who dwell in Campanian
Capua,
People of Nola arrive joining the gathering throng.
35. Cf. Jerome, Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians 2 (PL
26.381): Romanae plebis laudatur fides. Ubi alibi tanto studio
et frequentia, ad ecclesias et ad martyrum sepulchra concurritur?
Ubi sic ad similitudinem coelestis tonitrui 'Amen* reboat, et
vacua idolorum templa quatiuntur? Non quod aliam habeant
Romani fidem, nisi hanc quam omnes Christi Ecclesiae; sed
quod devotio in eis major sit, et simplicitas ad credendum.
36. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 2.46; also Claudian, De nuptiis Honorii 200.
HYMNS 257
All in the company of their wives and innocent
children
Joyfully hasten along, eager to reach the spot. 210
Scarce can the broad expanses of prairie hold the
rejoicing cohorts, 37
Packed close together though they are on the
limitless plain.
One can see that the crypt is too small for this
concourse of pilgrims,
Wide though the entrance may be into its
shadowy depths.
Near it, however, stands a temple renowned
for its beauty, 38 215
Where the vast throngs may then go who have
come thither to pray.
Proudly it lifts its magnificent dome, majestic in
splendor,
Gleaming with precious stones generous pilgrims
have brought.
37. Cf. Claudian, De Raptu Proserpinae 1.221; De sexto Cons.
Honor ii 515.
38. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.446-449. Ermini (op. tit p. 252) cites the
opinion of Ruggeri that the temple referred to here was the
basilica of St. Lawrence erected by Constantine on the Via
Tiburtina (Liber Pontificalis MGH 1.63), An epigraph dis-
covered in 1882 records the adornment of the basilica of St.
Hippolytus by Pope Damasus (Ferrua, op. tit. pp. 173-174).
William of Malmsbury includes in his Gesta Regum Anglorum
a seventh century itinerary in which mention is made of the
Church of St. Lawrence and immediately afterwards of the
basilica of St. Hippolytus: Et ibi, non longe, basilica sancti
Ipoliti, ubi ipse cum familia pausat, id est, decem et octo (PL
179.1355). See Vives, op. cit. pp. 203-204,
258 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Columns in double rows, set under the aureate rafters,
Hold up the ceiling above shining with fretwork
o gold. 39 220
Lower of roof, the slender aisles on both sides
of the temple
Stretch the full length of the nave, making more
room within.
But in the center there looms an aisle of broader
dimension
With its bright ceiling above raised to a loftier
height
Facing the entrance, with steps leading up to it,
stands the tribunal 40 225
Raised for the use of the priest offering praises
to God.
Scarce is there room in the church for the turbulent
waves of the faithful,
And at the portal they crowd, surging in
through the doors, 41
As she opens wide her motherly arms to her children,
Tenderly clasping them all close to her life-giving
breast. 230
If I remember, illustrious Rome 42 on the thirteenth
of August
Honors the saint with a feast after the custom
of old.
39. Cf. Claudian, De nuptiis Honorii 88-89.
40. The high altar. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.166; Claudian, In Rufinum
2.382.
41. Cf. Vergil, Georgia 2.461-462.
42. pulcherrima Roma. Cf. Ibid. 2.534.
HYMNS 259
And I wish that you, too, would honor him,
Reverend Bishop,
Counting his feast among those yearly observed
in our land.
Blessings, believe me, he will obtain for all who
invoke him 235
Here at the dawn of his day, meed for their
homage and love.
With the feast of Eulalia, Chelidonius and Cyprian
Let this solemnity come round for you year after
year.
So may Christ, the all-powerful, hear your prayers
for the people
Whose salvation and life have been entrusted
to you; 43 240
So may the ravening wolf from your full sheepfold
be excluded
That not a lamb may be lost, seized by him
from your flock. 44
So may you as a fond shepherd bring me home to
your folding
When, a sick sheep, I am lost deep in the grass
of the field.
Finally, when with milk-white lambs you have filled
all your sheepfolds, 245
May you in Heaven above holy Hippolytus join.
43. Cf. Claudian, Carmina minora 50.3-14. Lines 239-245 are similar
to this passage of Claudian in which sic introduces six successive
couplets.
44. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 9.59; John 10-12.
260 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
12. THE PASSION OF THE APOSTLES
PETER AND PAUL
'More than their wont do the people flock hither
today; my friend pray tell me
Why do they hurry throughout Rome rejoicing?
'Once more has come round the triumphal feast day
of two apostles, 1
By blood of Peter and of Paul made sacred.
'One and the same day with space of a year intervening
was the witness 5
Of laurels won by glorious death in battle. 2
'Well does the Tiberine marsh that is washed by the
river flowing through it
Know that its soil by these twin crowns was
hallowed.
Tor it was witness to victories by cross and by sword,
which twice poured showers
Of crimson rain upon its grassy meadows. 3 10
1. Cf. Augustine, Sermon 298.2 (PL 38.1365). As early as the year
255 the feast of the two Apostles was celebrated on June 29. See
the Martyrology of St. Jerome.
2. Cf. Augustine, Sermon 381 (PL 39.1683).
3. St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom at Rome during the
persecution of Nero (64-69), but the exact dates are not known.
HYMNS 261
'Sentence fell first upon Peter, condemned by the laws
of cruel Nero
To die, upon a lofty tree suspended.
Tearing, however, to rival the glory won by his
Lord and Master
By death upon a towering wooden gibbet,
'He was resolved to be nailed with his feet in the air
and head bent downward 4 15
So that the crown unto the base extended.
'Straightway his hands were then fastened below and
his feet turned toward the summit,
His soul more noble as his frame was humbled.
'Mindful that heaven is wont to be reached from a
lowly place more quickly, 5
He bowed his head in giving up his spirit. 20
'When the bright car of the sun had completed the
journey round its orbit,
And that day dawned again on earth's horizon,
'Nero unleashed all his ire on the neck of the Doctor
of the Gentiles 6
And straightway ordered Paul to be beheaded.
According to well-founded traditions, St. Peter was crucified
at Nero's Circus on the Vatican Hill, and St. Paul was beheaded
on the Ostian Way. See Eusebius. Ecclesiastical History 2.25
and 3.1. (Trans, in Vol. 19, this series, pp. 132 and 138); also
Tertullian, De praescriptione 36 and Liber Pontificalis (MGH
1.4-5).
4. Cf. Eusebius, op. cit. 3.1.
5. Cf. Job 22.29; Luke 18.14.
6. Cf. 2 Tim. 1.11.
262 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'That his release from this life was at hand the Apostle
had predicted: ^ 25
"I long to be with Christ, my course is finished/' 7
'Without delay he was seized and to death by the
sword was rudely sentenced.
The hour and day were those of his foretelling.
'Flowing between the blest tombs of the martyrs, the
Tiber separates them,
Both banks made holy by their sacred ashes. 5 30
'On the right bank in a golden basilica lie the bones
of Peter, 9
Mid olives gray and near a purling fountain.
'Water that trickles from springs on the hilltop
sustains this lively streamlet, 10
Forever fruitful of the holy chrism.
7. Cf. Phil. 1.23; 2 Tim. 4.6.
8. Cf. Eusebius, op. cit. 2.25.
9. This was the basilica erected by Constantine over the tomb of
St. Peter. Cf. Liber Pontificalis (MGH 1.56-57). Excavations
carried out by archeologists at St. Peter's since 1939 tend to
establish the fact that the tomb of the Apostle was actually
located on the spot where the Constantinian basilica was built.
See the official report published by the Pontifical Commission,
Esplorazioni sotto la Confessione di San Pietro in Vaticano
eseguite neglianni 1940-1949, citta del Vaticano, 1951.
10. In lines 33-44 Prudentius describes the aqueduct on Vatican Hill
and the baptistery adjoining the basilica of St. Peter, which were
constructed by Pope Damasus. Two epigrams of Damasus record
these operations. See Ferrua, op. cit. pp. 88-96. The aqueduct
is still in use and is fed by springs about twelve hundred yards
west of St. Peter's.
HYMNS 263
'Now through a channel of marble it rushes and
moistens all the hillside, 35
At last emerging in a verdant basin.
'Down in the lowermost part of the underground
crypt the stream falls loudly
Into a deep and icy pool of water.
'Bright-hued mosaics above are reflected upon its
glassy surface,
The gold is tinged with green from shining
mosses, 40
'While in the shades of the water is mirrored the
overhanging purple;
The ceiling seems to dance upon the billows.
'There the great Shepherd now laves in this icy
cold pool of living waters
The sheep that thirst for Christ's eternal
fountains. 11
'Opposite, near the left bank of the Tiber, 12 the
Ostian Way now treasures 45
The temple that to Paul is dedicated.
11. Cf. Apoc. 21.6; also Damasus, Epigram 1.2 (Ihm, op. cit. p. 1).
The allusion here is without doubt to the font in which the
Popes as shepherds of their flocks baptized the Christian neo-
phytes. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 4 (Ferrua, op. cit. p. 94). Some
commentators have thought that the passage refers to a fresco
of Christ as the Good Shepherd.
12. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.63-64.
264 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Regal in style is this shrine that our dutiful sovereign
has embellished
And poured upon its walls his boundless riches. 13
Tlates of bright gold he affixed to the beams, and the
light within is ruddy
As is the morning sun at its first rising. 50
'Columns of Parian marble upholding the rich
gold-paneled ceiling
Adorn the central aisle in fourfold order.
'Then with mosaics of many bright hues he inlaid
the vaulted arches, 14
Which shine like meadows gay with flowers
in springtime. 15
To, you behold the twin dowers of Faith by the
Heavenly Father given 55
To be revered by togaed Rome forever.
'Mark how the people of Romulus surge through
the streets in both directions,
For two feasts on this day are celebrated. 16
13. The basilica erected by Constantine over the tomb of St. Paul
(Liber Pontificalis, MGH 1.60-61) was rebuilt by the emperors
Theodosius and Honorius toward the end of the fourth century.
14. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 4,334.
15. Cf. Claudian, De consulatu Stilichonis 1.86.
16. In a hymn attributed to St. Ambrose (PL 17.1253), mention is
made of the celebration of the feast of the Apostles at three
stations. According to the Philocalian Calendar and the Martyr-
ology of St. Jerome a third station was celebrated an the
HYMNS 265
'Now with glad steps let us hasten to visit these
holy sanctuaries,
And there let us unite in hymns of joy. 60
'First we shall go by the road that leads over the
mighty bridge o Hadrian,
And later we will seek the stream's left margin.
'After the vigil the Pontiff officiates first across the
Tiber, 17
Then thither hastens to renew the offering. 18
'Let it suffice that at Rome you have learned of these
feasts; in your own country, 65
Remember thus to keep this double feast day/
Appian Way at the Catacomb of St. Sebastian, where according
to an ancient Roman tradition the bodies of St. Peter and St.
Paul were hidden during the persecution of Valerian. An
inscription of Pope Damasus (Ihm, 26; Ferrua, 20) confirms
this tradition. See Ferrua, op. cit. pp. 189-144.
17. Transtiberina prius soluit sacra pervigil sacerdos. The poet here
refers to the nocturnal vigil on the eve of the feast, which was
concluded by the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass at
dawn at St. Peter's and afterwards at St. Paul's.
18. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 8.556.
266 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
13. THE PASSION OF CYPRIAN 1
Punic soil bore the martyr who everywhere
enlightens mankind;
There is the birthplace of Cyprian, glorious guide
of all the nations.
As a martyr his native land claims him, by speech
and love we own him.
Though his blood waters the Libyan shores, in all
realms his tongue is mighty.
Now of his body it only remains, it alone can
never perish,
While Christ suffers the race of mankind to exist
and earth to flourish.
Long as one volume shall last and collections of
sacred books be treasured,
All who love Christ will peruse thee, O Cyprian,
and will learn thy teachings.
1. St. Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus) was bishop of
Carthage from 248 or 249 to 258, when he suffered martyrdom
during the persecution of Valerian and Gallienus. The date and
place of his birth are unknown. He was converted from
paganism a few years before his election to the episcopate and
thereafter led a zealous Christian life as his writings testify.
Prudentius in this hymn and St. Gregory Nazienzen (Oratio
24) have identified him with the legendary Cyprian of Aritioch,
the magician converted by St. Justina (BHL 2047-2051). The
works of St. Cyprian were influential in the development of
Christian thought and were everywhere known and acclaimed
in the third and fourth centuries. The story of his martyrdom is
HYMNS 267
God's Spirit flowing before on the prophets with
holy inspiration 2
Watered thee, too, from the heavenly fountains with
lucid streams of discourse. 10
O how chaste is thy eloquence, purer than snow
and full of sweetness!
Like an ambrosial liquor it softens the heart
and gives joy to the palate,
Piercing the soul and enkindling the spirit as it spreads
through all the members,
Till the indwelling of God is felt in the inmost depths
of our being.
Show us, O Father, the source of this singular boon
to every nation. 15
When there was need for a brilliant expounder of
apostolic writings,
One was chosen, endowed with rare eloquence, to
instruct all mankind,
One who would serve as the faithful polemic of Paul's
surpassing volumes,
Who would whet the dull minds of men with desire
to know more fully
Both the work of God's fear and the mystical depths
of Christ's glad tidings. 3 20
recorded in two early documents; the biography written by
Pontius shortly after his death (Trans, in Vol. 15, this series),
and the Acta Proconsular! a, an official account of the trial
classed among the acts of the martyrs as having a certain degree
of authenticity (PL S.I 557-1 566). St. Augustine in one of his
several sermons on St. Cyprian shows that he was acquainted
with the latter document (Sermon 309, PL 38.1410-1412).
2. Cf.Heb. 1.1.
3. Probably a reference to the Old and New Testaments. Cf.
Lactantius, Div. inst. 5.1.
268 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
'Mongst the youth of that land was one versed in
the ways of evildoing,
Ravishing virtue by artful intrigues and regarding
nothing sacred,
Often in cemeteries resorting to magic incantations
That he might rouse the passions of women and
break the law of wedlock. 4
Christ of a sudden arrested this frenzy of wanton
indulgence, 25
Scattered the darkness within his heart and cast out
its raging madness, 5
Filling it with His love, with faith, and with shame
for past misdoing.
Changed henceforth were his face and the garb
that of yore was so replendent:
Gone was the smooth-shaven look, now transformed
to an air of grave composure;
Long curling ringlets were shorn and his head
was deprived of all its glory. 30
Now he was chaste in his speech and secure in his hope
and rule of living,
Seeking only the justice of Christ and a knowledge
of our doctrine.
Thus by his virtues meriting highest esteem,
this holy Doctor
Soon was advanced to the bishop's throne, where
he held supreme dominion.
Ruling imperial Rome at the time were Valerian
and haughty Gallienus: 35
Jointly they passed a decree, condemning to death
all God's confessors.
4. Cf. Gregory of Nazianzen, Oratio 24.9.
5. Cf . Seneca, Thyestes 899.
HYMNS 269
Thousands of idols born of the earth they commanded
them to worship.
Cyprian with pastoral zeal exhorted the people
to oppose them,
Urging his followers not to forfeit the badge
of lofty courage,
Nor to abandon through fear the promised reward
of all the faithful. 40
'Light are the pangs/ he said, 'when compared with
the everlasting joy,
Recompense God himself has promised to His
intrepid soldiers.
Pain is the price that we pay for hope of the dawn
of life eternal,
And on the fleet wings of time every suffering soon will
pass and vanish.
Nothing is heavy to bear if the end brings us rest
and crowning glory. 45
I will go first in the long procession of glorious
death and bloodshed,
I will surrender my head to the sword as a
sacrificial offering.
Who so aspires to union with Christ, let him follow
in my footsteps/
When by these words he had kindled men's hearts
with sure hope and Christian ardor, 6
Him first of all the raging proconsul condemned
to chains and prison. 50
Hidden away at a distance from Tyrian Carthage
is a dungeon,
Filled with Tartarean gloom and wholly deserted
by the sunlight.
6. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 12.269.
270 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Mured in this cavern, both hands with fetters
encircled, holy Cyprian
Prayed to the Heavenly Father, invoking His name
in humble worship:
'Father of Christ, almighty God and the Author of
creation, 55
Christ, the Redeemer of men, whom Thou lovest
and wiliest not to perish, 7
I am he whom Thou, in Thy goodness and merciful
compassion,
Didst once cleanse from the stains of sin and the
Serpent's deadly venom,
Bidding me, as another Cyprian, to be Thy faithful
servant,
Put on the new man, put off the old, and abjure
my past offenses. 5 60
If by Thy powerful grace Thou didst purge
my foul heart of its uncleanness,
Deign now to visit this prison house and dispel
its gloomy shadows.
Loose my soul from the chains of the flesh,
set it free from earthly bondage. 9
Let me pour out my blood for Thee
as a victim immolated. 10
Suffer no feeling of pity to soften my cruel
persecutor, 65
Nor let the wrath of the tyrant grow cool and so rob
me of my glory.
Grant that none of the flock I have ruled as Thy own
may be inconstant,
7. Cf. Ezech. 18.23; 1 Tim. 2.3-4.
8. Cf. Col 3.9-10; also Cyprian, Epistles 1.3-4.
9. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.54.
10. Cf. Ibid. 12.690-691.
HYMNS 271
That not one of Thy servants may stumble and fall
beneath his burden,
So I may render to Thee the full number and
pay the debt I owe Thee/
By these words he won favor with God; straightway
the Spirit descended 70
On the Christian people of Carthage, inspiring in
them a lofty courage,
So that their hearts, illumed by His grace, might be
filled with burning ardor 11
To attain at the price of their blood the celestial crown
of glory, 12
Urging them not to give way to fear nor to yield
to cruel torments,
But of one mind with Christ to stand fast in the Faith
for love of Heaven. 13 75
History relates 14 that in midst of a field by command
a pit was hollowed
And was filled well nigh to the margin with hot and
seething limestone.
Fire rose up from the heated stones and the snow-white
dust smoked grimly,
Burning all that it touched and dealing quick death
with noisome vapors.
It is said that beside the pit a high altar was erected, 80
Where the Christians were forced to offer a grain of
salt or entrails,
11. Cf. Ibid. 6.101.
12. Cf. Claudian, Carmina minora 11.4.
13. Cf. Horace, Epistles 1.1.36; Phil. 4.1-2.
14. Fama refert. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 40.1 and 52.1 (Ihm, op. cit.
pp. 43 and 54).
272 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Or to leap headforemost into that deep infernal
crater.
Eager for glory, three hundred quickly sprang forward
all together,
And as they sank in the powdery maelstrom,
the arid flood devoured them,
Whelming the daring band that flung itself headlong
to the bottom. 15
Whiteness takes hold of their bodies, whiteness uplifts
their souls to Heaven, 85
And they justly are named the 'White Throng' 16
henceforth for all the ages.
Thascius rejoicing meanwhile at the sight of
the triumph of his people,
Now was summoned before the raging proconsul's
high tribunal.
When he was asked to make known his way,
he replied, 'One God I worship, 90
And I proclaim the holy mysteries revealed by
Christ our Savior.' 17
Thereupon the prefect cried out: 'We have here
sufficient witness.
Thascius himself confesses his crime; he denies
Jove's mighty thunder.
15. CL Vergil, Aeneid 6.581.
16. Candida massa. In his sermon, In natali martyrum Massae
Candidas (PL 38.1400), St. Augustine explains these words
as referring to the large number of these martyrs and the
splendor of their cause, but he does not indicate the manner
of their death. Elsewhere he says that they numbered more
than one hundred and fifty-three (Enarr. in psalm 49), and
that they suffered martyrdom at Utica (Sermon 311.10, PL
38.1417). Prudentius indicates that his account is based on
tradition (fama refert).
17. Cf. Acta Proconsularia 1 (PL 3.1599).
HYMNS 273
Headsmen, draw your steel: let him die by the sword,
who scorns our idols.'
Giving due thanks to the Lord, 18 the martyr intoned
a hymn of triumph. 95
Sorrowful Africa mourned the loss of this hero,
by whose doctrine
She was reformed, by whose words she gloried
in having been enlightened.
Then still weeping she reared a shrine where his blest
remains were hallowed.
Cease to mourn for this saint; in heaven above
he now is reigning,
Yet he still hovers over the world and on earth
is always present, 100
Ever discoursing, exhorting, expounding, instructing,
prophesying.
Nor does he guide the Libyan peoples alone,
but presses onward
To the East and the West, enkindling the faith
of Gauls and Britons,
Guarding Italian lands 19 and making Christ known
on Spain's far borders.
Finally, he is our teacher on earth and a martyr too
in heaven. 105
Here he enlightens mankind; as our advocate
there he grants us blessings.
18. Cf./6M.4(PL3.1563).
19. praesidet Hesperiae. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 1.530-533.
274 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
14. THE PASSION OF AGNES 1
The native home of Romulus now enshrines
The tomb of Agnes, virgin and martyr blest. 2
Reposing there in sight of its lofty towers, 3
The maiden watches over the sons of Rome,
And pilgrims, too, enjoy here protecting care, 5
1. According to the best authorities St. Agnes suffered martyrdom
at Rome about the year 304 during the persecution of Dio-
cletian. The Latin Fathers of the Church in the fourth century
give testimony to the widespread popularity of the cult of the
virgin martyr. St. Jerome mentions her in his letter to Demetrias,
and St. Augustine refers to her in one of his sermons (Sermon
273,6, PL 38.1250). Pope Damasus composed an epigraph in her
honor, which Prudentius probably read during his visit to
Rome (Epigram 40, Ihm, op. cit. p. 44; Epigram 37, Ferrua,
op. cit. pp. 175-178). In his De virginibus (PL 16.200-202) St.
Ambrose gives a brief account of her martyrdom, with which
Prudentius seems to have been acquainted. He also wrote a
hymn in her honor, now recognized as genuine (PL 17.1249) and
made incidental mention of her in his De officiis ministrorum
(PL 16.90). The Acts attributed to St. Ambrose (BHL 156-158)
are now regarded as belonging to the fifth century. St. Agnes is
listed in the Martyrology of St. Jerome on January 21 and
January 28, feasts also observed at present according to the
Roman Martyrology. The entire hymn of Prudentius is used for
the Vespers and Lauds of the feast in the Mozarabic Breviary,
observed in that rite on January 20 (PL 86.1050-1054).
2. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 40.10 (Ihrn, op. cit. p. 44); also Ferrua,
notes 4 and 10, op. cit. p. 178.
3. Constantia, the daughter of Cons tan tine, caused a basilica to be
erected at the tomb of St. Agnes on the Via Nomentana (Liber
HYMNS 275
Who pray to her with pure and believing hearts.
With splendid twofold diadem she is crowned: 4
Virginity unmarred by the stain of sin
And glory won by freely embracing death. 5
That maiden, they relate, who was not yet ripe 10
For marriage vows and still but a child in years, 6
Her soul aflame with rapturous love of Christ,
Withstood the impious edict to sacrifice
To idols and abandon her holy Faith.
Assailed at first by every art and wile, 15
Now by the coaxing words of a fawning judge,
Now by the butcher's sinister threats of doom, 7
Dauntless she stood, nor shrank from her stern
resolve,
Willing to give her body to torments sore,
Nor quailing from the threat of a cruel death. 20
Then spoke the angry tyrant: 8 'If she can face
The thought of grinding torture and woeful pangs, 9
Pontificalis MGH 1.62). Pope Symmachus (498-514) renovated
the church and its apse then falling into ruin (Ibid. 1.125). The
basilica remains today as restored and embellished by Pope
Honorius I between the years 625 and 638 (Ibid. 1.171). For a
discussion of the inscription placed there by Pope Damasus and
the pseudo-Damasian acrostic, Constantino, Deo, see Ihm, op. cit.
pp. 44 and 88, and Ferrua, op. cit. pp. 175-178 and 246-250.
4. Cf. Ambrose, De virginibus 1.2.9; De officiis 41.208.
5. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.14,18.
6. Cf. Ambrose, Hymn 65.6 (PL 17.1249); Jerome, Epistle 120.5.
St. Ambrose (De virginibus 1.2.7) gives the age of Agnes as
twelve, and St. Augustine (Sermon 273.6, PL 38.1251) says that
she was thirteen.
7. Cf. Ambrose, De virginibus 1.2.9.
8. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 40.4 (Ihm, p. 44); Ferrua, Epigram 37,
p. 176 and note, p. 178.
9. Cf. Horace, Odes 2.5.1.
276 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
And sets at naught her life as of little worth,
Her consecrated chastity she holds dear. 10
Into a common den of impurity 25
I am resolved to cast her unless she bows
Before Minerva's altar and begs her grace,
That virgin she, a virgin, has dared despise.
There all the youths in wanton delight will rush, 11
To seek this newest slave of their lustful sport/ 30
Then Agnes answered: 'Never will Christ forget
His own nor let our precious virginity
Be snatched from us. He will not abandon us.
He ever shields the chaste and will not permit
The gift of holy purity to be soiled. 35
My blood may dye your sword, if it is your will,
But never will my body be stained with lust. 5
So spoke the maid; the prefect then gave command
That she should stand exposed in the public square.
As there she stood, the pitying throngs fell back 40
And turned their eyes away in respectful awe,
None daring to regard her with brazen look.
It chanced that one was forward enough to fix
His gaze upon the maiden and did not fear
To look with lustful eye on her sacred form. , 45
But lo, a flame as swift as a lightning flash 12
Quick struck his wanton eyes with its trembling dart.
The youth fell down and, blinded by glaring light,
Lay panting in the dust of the crowded street.
His fellows lifted him from the ground, half-dead, 50
Bewailing him with clamorous words and tears.
10. Cf. Tertullian, Apology 20.12; also Ambrose, De virginibus
2.4.23.
11. Cf . Vergil, Aeneid 2.63-64.
12. Cf. Horace, Odes 4.4.1.
HYMNS 277
The virgin went forth singing a hymn of praise
In thanks to God the Father and Christ, His Son,
That when exposed to peril of vilest stain,
Her chastity had triumphed, and she had found 55
The den of squalid infamy clean and pure.
Some tell that Agnes, asked to implore of Christ
That He restore the sight of the guilty wretch,
Poured forth a fervent prayer, and the prostrate youth
Regained the breath of life and his vision whole. 60
In her ascent to heaven the saint had passed
But the first step; a second was yet to come.
The bloody tryant burned with revengeful ire.
'I am outdone,' he groaned. 'Go, unsheathe your
sword,
You soldier there, and carry into effect 65
The laws our prince and sovereign lord decreed/
When Agnes saw the furious headsman stand
With weapon drawn, in transports of joy she cried:
Tar happier am I that a swordsman comes,
A wild uncouth barbarian, fierce and grim, 70
Than that a languid suitor pays court to me,
A lovesick creature, scented with rare perfumes,
Who would destroy my soul with my chastity. 13
This butcher is the lover who pleases me:
His bold advances I shall go forth to meet 75
And will not try to hinder his ardent suit. 14
I gladly bare my breast to his cruel steel
And deep into my heart I will draw his blade.
Thus as the bride of Christ I shall mount above
The darkness of the world to the realms of light. 80
13. Cf. Lucan, De bello civili 4.231-232.
14. Cf. Juvenal, Satires 14.250; Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.71.
278 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Eternal King, unfasten the gates of heaven
That till of late were closed to the sons of earth,
And call Thy virgin spouse to Thyself, O Christ,
A victim to the Father now sacrificed/
As Agnes spoke these words, she inclined her head 85
In humble prayer to Christ, that her gentle neck
Might readier be to suffer the threatened wound. 15
Thus was her ardent longing fulfilled at last,
For with one blow 16 the soldier struck off her head
And speedy death prevented all sense of pain. 17 90
Then putting off the garment of flesh, her soul
Flies forth and speeds untrammelled into the skies, 18
Her shining path surrounded by angel choirs.
In wonder she looks down on the world below; 19
On high she views the darkness beneath her feet, 95
And at the circling wheel of the sun she laughs 20
As round its orb the heavenly spheres revolve.
She sees the raging whirlwind of human life 21
And all the vanities of the fickle world:
Despots and kings, imperial power and rank, 100
15. Cf. Ambrose, De virginibus 1.2.9: stetit, oravit, cervicem inftexit.
16. Cf. Lucan, op. cit. 6.613.
17. St. Ambrose also implies that Agnes was beheaded (De
virginibus 1.2.7,9). Damasus (Ihm, Epigram 40.5) says that she
was condemned to death by fire. According to the Acts, wrongly
attributed to St. Ambrose, she was decapitated after remaining
untouched by the flames (PL 17.818-819).
18. Cf. Lucan, op. cit. 9.3-4; Damasus, Epigram 11.11-12 (Ferrua,
op. cit. pp. 108-110).
19. Cf. Vergil, Eclogues 5.56-57.
20. Cf. Lucan, op, cit. 9.12-14.
21. Cf. Seneca, Agamemnon 1.198.
HYMNS 279
The pageantry of honor and foolish pride,
The thirst for gold and silver, which all men seek
And gain by every species of wickedness,
The stately palaces with their gilded walls,
The vain display of richly embroidered robes, 22 105
The hatreds, fears, desires and impending woes,
The long enduring griefs and the fleeting joys,
Black envy with its smoking firebrands that blight
The hopes of men and tarnish all human fame,
And last, but worse than every other ill, 110
The sordid clouds and darkness of pagan rites.
All these things Agnes tramples beneath her feet, 23
And with her heel she crushes the dragon's head, 24
That monster vile who poisons all things of time
And plunges them into the infernal pit. 115
But vanquished now and under the virgin's foot
He lies crestfallen, prone in the dust of earth,
His fiery head not daring to lift again. 25
Meanwhile the virgin martyr's unsullied brow
God circles with a glorious twofold crown: 120
One glowing with the rays of eternal light,
A sixty-fold reward, and the other fruit,
Increased a hundred-fold, of celestial grace. 26
O happy virgin, 27 glory but lately dawned,
O noble dweller in the celestial courts, 125
22. Cf. Vergil, Georgics 2.464.
23. Cf. Damasus, Epigram 37.4 (Ferrua, op. cit. pp. 176-178).
24. Cf. Gen. 3.15.
25. Horace, Odes 3.16.19.
26. Cf. Matt 13.8.
27. Cf. Vergil, Aeneid 3.321; Damasus, Epigram 71.14 (Ferrua, op.
cit. p. 248).
280 AURELIUS PRUDENTIUS CLEMENS
Adorned with thy resplendent twin diadem,
Deign now to turn thy face on our miseries.
To thee alone the Father of all has given
Power to make pure the dwelling of sin itself.
I, too, shall be made clean by thy radiant glance 130
If thou wilt fill my heart with its gracious light.
All is pure where thou deignest in love to dwell,
Or where thine own immaculate foot may tread.
128922
