Chapter 2

and a flower shall rise up out of his root" (Vulg.), remarks: "The rod (_virga_) is the mother of the Lord, simple, pure, sincere ... the flower of the rod is Christ, who saith, 'I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys.'"

69 This symbolism of the gifts of the Magi is also found in Juvencus (I. 250): "Frankincense, gold and myrrh they bring as gifts to a King, a Man and a God," and is again alluded to by Prudentius in _Apoth._ 631 _et seq._ The idea is expressed in the hymn of Jacopone da Todi, beginning _Verbum caro factum est_ (Mone, _Hymni Latini_, Vol. 2):

"Gold to the kingly, Incense to the priestly, Myrrh to the mortal:"

and it has passed into the Office for Epiphany in the Roman Breviary: "There are three precious gifts which the Magi offered to their Lord that day, and they contain in themselves sacred mysteries: in the gold, that the power of a king may be displayed: in the frankincense, consider the great high priest: in the myrrh, the burial of the Lord" _et passim_.

172 The idea that Moses defeated the Amalekites because his arms were outstretched in the form of a cross is found also in one of the hymns (lxi.) of Gregory Nazianzen. The symbol of the Christian religion, the cross, "was fancifully traced by the Fathers throughout the universe: the four points of the compass, the 'height, breadth, length and depth' of the Apostle expressed, or were expressed by, the cross.... The cross explained everything" (Maitland, _Church in the Catacombs_, p. 202).

193 The discomfiture of the heathen gods wrought by the Incarnation is elaborated by Milton, whose lines recall this and similar passages in Prudentius:--

"Peor, and Baälim Forsake their temples dim

* * * * *

And sullen Moloch fled, Hath left in shadows dread, His burning idol all of blackest hue.

Our Babe, to show his Godhead true, Can in his swaddling bands control the damned crew."

FINIS